Chapter 30: Yu Rong (Part 2)(1)

Two days passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye, the deadline set by Lord Qi Sheng was arrived. Early in the morning that day, Di Renjie wore a light green seventh-grade public uniform, black veil, leather straps, and soap boots, and came to the main hall of the Bianzhou Governor's Mansion with a bright look. Qi Sheng hurriedly greeted: "Huaiying is here. Oh, how is Xu Changshi's case?" Di Renjie bowed to Qi Sheng calmly: "The case has not been clarified yet." "What? You..." Qi Sheng's face darkened. Di Renjie calmly said: "Governor, the official wants to invite the Lord to go to Xu's Mansion to worship Xu Changshi." "Now?" "Yes, it's now."

Qi Sheng rolled his eyes suspiciously and looked at Di Renjie up and down: "Huaiying, the reason why the Changshi died has not been found yet. The real murderer is out of trouble. What are your faces? How should I deal with the questioning of Xu Changshi's family?" Di Renjie smiled: "Don't worry, Lord Qi, today the official asked you to go to Xu's mansion with you, just to make a decision on the spot." "Online case?" Qi Sheng stared at Di Renjie, looking inexplicably surprised: "Huaiying! What are you doing?!" Di Renjie said seriously: "Mr. Qi, based on your understanding of the official, do you think the official will do something that is unsure?" "This..."

Di Renjie bowed to Qi Sheng and said solemnly: "Mr. Qi, Xu Changshi's case is complicated and involves royal relatives. It must be treated with caution, but it cannot delay the delay, so as not to avoid long nights and dreams. After these two days of investigation, the lower official has basically figured out and just wait to confront several key witnesses in the case one by one to lock the original murderer, and the dust settles." Qi Sheng murmured: "Lock the original murderer..." He suddenly raised his eyes and looked at Di Renjie: "You mean Yu Rong is not the murderer?" Di Renjie said: "Mr. Qi, the lower official can only say that the murderer is in the Xu Mansion. Please come with me immediately to Xu Mansion. Please guarantee that the truth of the case will be revealed this morning!"

Qi Sheng was stunned for a while, and sighed, "Huaiying, I believe in your ability and will not embarrass you and me. Well, I will follow you this time today."

The weather in late autumn this year was particularly cold. Large thick clouds were always piled up in the cloudy sky, blocking the thin warmth of the sun. Sometimes a gust of northwest wind blew up all over the ground, and the bleak chill instantly penetrated the robe and invaded the depths of the bone marrow. After the wind, the clouds were blown away, but the sun was still not visible, but the sky became surprisingly high and deep. Although this late autumn was not severe winter, it was even more solemn.

This autumn makes the affectionate people feel more concerned, and also makes the ruthless people feel lost.

Xu Sihan's mansion was completely like a big funeral. The towering black-painted mansion door was covered with snow-white hemp paper from top to bottom, and even the copper door knocker was surrounded by white cloth. The lanterns hanging at the door lintel were covered with white cloth, swaying desperately in a gust of cold wind. From a distance, it looked a bit like Bai Wuchang coming to the world. As soon as Qi Sheng and Di Renjie arrived at the door, Xu Quan, who was dressed in a veil, welcomed the two in.

Unlike when we met last time, Xu Quan kept silent this time and accompanied the two masters to the inner house in silence, which seemed very serious and cautious. The mourning hall was set up in the main hall. Along the door to the main hall, the high-rise spirit shed was covered with white cloth cloud curtains and a spirit niche with simple flower curtains. The family and servants were all wearing mourning clothes, hanging their heads and kneeling in the spirit niche, and howling sounded trembling. Di Renjie and Qi Sheng hurried forward. Although they were in broad daylight, they still felt the coldness and their whole body was cold.

Xu Quan led the two into the mourning hall, with a large nanmu coffin in the middle. Two pairs of white candles on the altar were Xu Sihan's spiritual position. Qi Sheng took the lead in front of the spirit, took the incense from Xu Quan, and muttered it for a while, lifted up the sleeves of the robe to wipe the corners of his eyes before inserting the incense burner. Di Renjie stepped back a little, stood at the door of the mourning hall, and the light of his eyes swept across the entire mourning hall. The one who knelt on the ground in front of the coffin was Xu Sihan's only son Xu Yanping. The clouds on both sides were hanging down, and several snow-white figures were kneeling behind him. The cry of a woman continued to come. Di Renjie understood that it should be Xu Sihan's concubines, Xu Jingzhi, and... Yu Rong, would she be there? What kind of torture and suffering she suffered in the past two days? How are she?

After Qi Sheng's worship, Di Renjie also sautified incense. Xu Yanping knelt down to the two of them as usual, and had finished bowing to them, so he stood up, tears on his face had not dried up, and he stared at his blood-covered eyes and said, "Two sirs! My father suddenly suffered a disaster and passed away unjustly. As the parents and officials of the people of Bianzhou, you are also my father's colleagues and friends, you must make an explanation? It's not enough to just come and bow to him. Yanping is really embarrassed!"

Qi Sheng glanced at Di Renjie and responded with a gritty bullet: "Mr. Xu, the Japanese official and Master Cao Di are here together, just to take this opportunity to find out the truth in the Xu Mansion to comfort Xu Changshi's spirit in heaven. Therefore... I also asked Mr. Xu to arrange a secluded place, and we will make the case on site here." "Step the case on site?" Xu Yanping frowned, and his tone was both resentful and doubtful, but he still said with a calm face: "Since that's the case, please ask the two to go to the flower hall in the backyard. Xu Quan! Take the two of them over." He gave an order, and Di Renjie stepped forward and said, "Mr. Xu, please all those related to this case are here. Including all wives, Miss Xu, Miss Yu Rong, the maid who is vigilant, and Mr. Xu yourself."

The flower hall in the backyard of Xu Mansion faces a small lotus pond. The broken branches and leaves of the lotus are standing in the pond. The autumn wind ripples, and the yellow leaves are rotating and falling on the water, drawing the most desolate autumn scenery together with the withered lotus. The flower hall is open to the door of the lotus pond, and everyone sits on their own. Qi Sheng and Di Renjie, one on the left and one on the right, facing south and north, sitting side by side on the main seat. Two rows of chairs are placed below, and Xu Yanping, Xu Jingzhi and Yu Rong are sitting in sequence on the three chairs on the east side; Xu Sihan's three concubines sit opposite to the right. On the ground, two maids watching the night are standing next to them, and Xu Quan is waiting beside them. Outside the door is guarded by several yamen runners of the government.

Seeing everyone sitting down, Qi Sheng whispered: "Huaiying, let's see you now." Di Renjie squirmed his lips gently: "Please rest assured, Lord Qi." He raised his head and looked calmly. He saw that everyone was wearing linen mourning clothes and wearing huge white mourning hats on his head, and his face was almost impossible. Di Renjie's eyes quietly passed by Yu Rong who was sitting near the door. The figure wearing mourning looked even weaker and helpless, adorable... He quickly calmed his mind, took a deep breath, and said aloud: "Xu Changshi died suddenly, and the cause of his death is quite strange. I was ordered to investigate the case, and I had already looked at him within two days. Today, I invite you to confront each other one and decide on the spot." Speaking of this, he deliberately stopped. Sure enough, everyone in the seat looked up at him, with suspicion, panic, expectation, and fear in his eyes.

"Mr. Xu." Di Renjie nodded to Xu Yanping and said, "Two days ago, I heard that Xu Changshi died suddenly. At that time, Mr. Xu said with confidence that Xu Changshi was poisoned by the arsenic that Miss Yu Rong had in the porridge. Is that true?" "Yes." Xu Yanping said coldly: "The bowl with the leftover porridge was also taken away by Lord Fa Cao. Why? Didn't Lord Fa Cao check it?" "It has been checked, the porridge does contain highly poisonous arsenic." "Oh?" Xu Yanping glanced at the two young girls beside him. Xu Jingzhi frowned and bit her lips constantly. Yu Rong kept burying her head, and her filial hat covered her face tightly, and she couldn't see her expression.

Di Renjie continued calmly, "So, this arises two questions. First, whether the arsenic in the porridge was given by Miss Yu Rong; second, whether Xu Changshi was indeed poisoned by arsenic. Assuming that, I mean, these two points are facts, then we have two other questions: First, where did Miss Yu Rong get the arsenic from; second, why did she poison Xu Changshi?" After a pause, Di Renjie looked around and said, "Since there are no other clues to overturn the first two assumptions, I began to investigate from the two questions in the latter."

"Fortunately, arsenic is highly toxic. There are only two pharmacies that can sell arsenic in Bianzhou City: Tongdetang in the east of the city and Jirentang in the north of the city. Yesterday, Japanese officials sent people to visit one by one. It happened that there were not many customers who bought arsenic in recent months. Except for the shop owners who knew him and had a good name, only Tongdetang received a mysterious female customer a month ago. She wore a veil when she bought arsenic, and was sneaky and had no name left... So, we first thought that this female customer was Miss Yu Rong. She started planning to poison Xu Changshi more than a month ago and prepared for this."

As soon as Di Renjie finished speaking, Xu Jingzhi said anxiously: "Master Fa Cao!" Di Renjie made a gesture to her, and Xu Jingzhi reluctantly sat down, and then he heard Di Renjie speak calmly again: "Then let's solve the second question just now: Why did Yu Rong kill Xu Changshi? In the past two days, this official has learned a little about Yu Rong's background in this case, so he learned that although Xu Changshi had nurturing Yu Rong, he also regarded Yu Rong as a toy. Miss Yu Rong was alone and thus had a hatred for Xu Changshi, which was reasonable. She bought arsenic anonymously a month ago, which further showed that she had a desire to kill her early."

After a moment of pause, Di Renjie asked, "Miss Yu Rong, have you confessed?" "No." The answer was very firm and surprisingly calm. Di Renjie glanced at Yu Rong and saw that she was still sitting down with her head down, not moving at all. Di Renjie sighed in his heart, this is such a strange woman.

"Okay, Miss Yu Rong denies the crime." Di Renjie ignored the commotion in the seat and continued to say calmly: "So let's think about the assumption just now. Is there anything wrong with it? Sure enough, a problem arises. Since Yu Rong has long wanted to kill Xu Changshi and even bought arsenic, why didn't she early or late, but chose to commit a crime two days ago? We all know that Xu Changshi's diet has always been prepared by Yu Rong. If she wants to poison, she has enough opportunities and can do it very secretly, but she chose the morning two days before the crime is most likely to be found. Why is this?... Of course, murder is a huge thing. Maybe Miss Yu Rong has been hesitating after buying the poison and cannot make up her mind. Then a major change happened! Half a month ago, at the farewell banquet for the tutor and demotion, Yu Rong lost her behavior.

Du Shou Xu Changshi was very angry, and he was beaten and bedridden. Maybe it was this incident that made Yu Rong finally make up his mind?" As he said that, he shook his head as if he was talking to himself: "But it still doesn't make sense. Because after Xu Changshi fell ill, Miss Jingzhi personally took care of her father's diet, and Yu Rong just suddenly replaced Miss Jingzhi two days ago. Even if she wanted to hate Lord Changshi, it would be too obvious to choose to commit the crime at this time? It would be like openly claiming that she had poisoned Xu Changshi. Is she really not afraid of killing someone to pay for her life? Moreover, as far as I know, Xu Changshi was in a very dangerous condition this time, and even the doctor said that Xu Changshi was afraid that he would not escape this disaster. Why didn't Yu Rong wait? Maybe in a few days, Xu Changshi herself would be sick and sad. Why should she take the risk of killing someone?! It was still under the eyes of everyone, killing so poorly!"

This time when Di Renjie stopped, there was no sound in the flower hall. Everyone listened with breath and concentration, waiting for Di Renjie's following. Di Renjie's eyes were shining, but his face remained calm on his usual occasions. He continued: "I thought about it over and over again, and I always felt that the assumption that Yu Rong poisoned Xu Changshi in the porridge seemed impeccable on the surface, but carefully analyzed it but suspected that he was reborn. Therefore, I decided to change the angle and rethink the whole case... So, I retreated back to the original assumption, that is, the assumption that Xu Changshi was poisoned by arsenic in the porridge. I thought, in fact, the basis for this assumption was insufficient."

"Everyone in Xu's mansion can prove that Xu Changshi only used the porridge cooked by Miss Yu Rong himself that morning, but what if there was no arsenic in the porridge when he used porridge? It was not impossible, because many people entered Xu Changshi's bedroom that morning, and it was completely possible to put arsenic into the porridge bowl. However, in this case, we must answer another question, why did Xu Changshi die of poison? Will he be poisoned before eating porridge? But just when taking porridge

It just happened that poison was killed?... This possibility also exists, because many poisons do not occur immediately, and there is a period of time from taking to poison. Even arsenic, if the amount is taken, it will recur at a time, and the symptoms are more like ordinary dysplasia, and it does not necessarily mean to kill people on the spot. Due to the above analysis, this official decided to take into account the diet the night before Xu Changshi's death. Because these few hours at night are exactly the period when most poisons usually occur."
Chapter completed!