If she is missing, that means she has run away. If she has run away, that means she has fled for fear of crime. If she has fled for fear of crime, that means she is the murderer.
If encountered by a gourd official, the truth can really be revealed.
Duan Yelin narrowed his eyes and asked Yuan Ye, “You can also tell me something.”
Yuan Ye opened his little notebook, scribbled a few times, then frowned and said in a very methodical manner, “After I came in, I asked the butler and several servants for their confessions, and it was roughly like this. The last person to enter the room to bring tea to the Governor last night was a maid named Chun Xing. She said that it was 8:30 at night, and Ruan Xiaodie was playing the pipa for the Governor. Later, at 9:30, she wanted to bring calming incense to the Governor, but was stopped by Ruan Xiaodie outside the door, saying that the Governor had already gone to bed and didn’t need it. A servant in the backyard said that when he got up to go to the toilet at night, he heard the sound of Ruan Xiaodie’s pipa in the Governor’s room. It was about 9 o’clock at that time. If you count it this way, the Governor should have had an accident between 9 and 9:30.”
Qiao Song interrupted him: “Forget about the maid, they can see the clock when they pass by the main hall. How can the servants in the backyard know the time so clearly?”
“He said he woke up at this time every day to go to the bathroom, and it was a habit. I asked the people who shared the room with him, and it was true.”
At this time, Duan Yelin had already looked through Wang Ronghuo’s body. He had seen many dead bodies, and although he was not an expert in forensics, but he could still understand a lot.
He put on his gloves, plucked the hairpin off in one go, put it in front of his eyes to examine it carefully, and compared it with his fingers, saying, “This is interesting.”
“What?” Qiao Song didn’t understand, so he leaned over to take a look. Duan Yelin pointed at the part where the gold hairpin was inserted into Wang Ronghuo’s body.
That part is about half the length of one’s little finger.
Yuan Ye squinted his eyes and looked at it, then touched his chin: “It’s so short, it can’t penetrate the heart. And judging from the angle and integrity of this hairpin, it looks like it was inserted after the person fell down.”
Duan Yelin nodded: “If an injury occurs before death, the heart, veins, skin, and flesh will contract, and the blood will coagulate quickly, but this will not happen if an injury occurs after death. So this was stabbed after death. You see, this murderer not only killed people, but they also went out of their way to do this. Isn’t it interesting?”
It’s not just interesting, it’s like a ritual.
At this time, Qiao Song called the maid named Chun Xing over and asked, “Is this your Madam’s hairpin?”
Chun Xing shook her head: “No, I’ve never seen it.”
“Are you sure?”
“I was the one who packed all of the Madam’s jewelry boxes. I’ve never seen this gold hairpin before!”
Duan Yelin saw a faint red mark on the gold hairpin but couldn’t tell what it was. He handed it to Chun Xing and asked her to take a closer look. Chun Xing was a girl after all, so she could tell at a glance, but she was timid, so she said in a low voice, “This looks like Madam’s nail polish…”
So he opened Ruan Xiaodie’s makeup box. All the gold, silver, and jewelry were still there, she didn’t take anything away. In a small drawer there was indeed a bottle of red nail polish. When he compared it together, the color was exactly the same.
The butler pointed and said, “Look! The evidence is irrefutable! She is the murderer! The Commander must bring her back and execute her! My Governor doted on her so much, who knew she was such a vicious woman…”
Although the butler was howling very sadly, but Duan Yelin did not make a sound for a long time. He walked around the room, looked around, and fiddled with Wang Ronghuo’s body.
No valuables were missing from the room, not even the silver dollars and bills on the table. Only the pipa on the stand was missing.
He looked for a long time before he found a clean chair to sit down on. He looked up and met Yuan Ye’s eyes.
Yuan Ye instantly understood Duan Yelin’s point. Closing his notebook, he smiled and said, “It looks like the Commander and I are thinking the same thing.”
“You also think it’s too weird?”
Yuan Ye nodded: “More than that, it can even be said that it is too obvious.”
Duan Yelin supported the table with one hand: “Yes, all the evidence clearly points to Ruan Xiaodie, but there are a few things that don’t make sense. First, no matter how pampered the Governor was, he had used weapons before. How could Ruan Xiaodie, a weak woman, kill him? Second, there was no sign of a fight in the room except blood, which means that the Governor was killed without any ability to fight back, and no one in the Governor’s mansion heard the noise. How did she do that? And—”
He pointed his chin in the direction of the bed, motioning for people to look at the body. “The Governor’s arteries and meridians had been severed in multiple places, each wound inflicted with a single precise cut, causing him to bleed to death. Such expert technique hardly seems like the work of hands accustomed only to playing the pipa.”
The butler wiped his tears and was horrified: “So, so there is an accomplice?!”
At this time, a soldier who was patrolling in the Governor’s Mansion ran in, panting and shouting: “Commander! There’s a discovery in the backyard! The back door has been pried open!”
Everyone was suddenly startled and left the scene to others to guard, and a large group of people went to the back door.
The back door of the Governor’s Mansion was typically kept closed and locked from the outside with a tiger-head lock. The door itself appeared clean, and craftsmen were routinely hired to maintain it, but the lock had never been replaced, and the copper had now rusted and become slightly tarnished.
Duan Yelin stood in front of the door and looked carefully. The lock was pried open by force. The keyhole had not been used for a long time and was badly rusted. When he knocked on it, black powder fell out of the keyhole. When he twisted it with his fingers, it was very slippery and dirty.
“This lock is positioned strangely. It’s not on the inside of the door, but on the outside. Is it meant for someone to pick?”
The butler came up and explained, “Commander, you don’t know. The Feng Shui master warned that this door was very unlucky, likely to bring bloodshed, and should never be opened. As a result, the Governor had a heavy lock made and fastened it from the outside, then burned the key. Over time, the lock was exposed to the elements and rusted from the inside. Even if a key existed, it would be hard to open, so no one paid it any mind.”
This door is very unlucky, and it seems the prophecy has come true. Once it’s opened, the King of Hell will appear.
Yuan Ye’s attention was not paid to the lock but to the edge of the door beside the lock. There was a fingernail-sized amount of paint peeling off the edge of the door. “There seems to be a knife mark on the door?”
Qiao Song leaned closer and saw that the small area had obvious scratches. “This door appears to have been recently painted and is unlikely to come off easily. It seems as though it was deliberately scratched.”
Duan Yelin said, “The door had been freshly painted, but the lock was old. Someone used graphite to lubricate the keyhole, making it easier to pick the lock. However, after picking it, their hands got coated with graphite, leaving marks on the door. Likely fingerprints, which they then wiped away.”
“En, that makes sense.”
“If this assumption is true, then Ruan Xiaodie is even more innocent.”
Qiao Song also nodded: “The door was locked from the outside, so of course there must be an accomplice to meet her!”
Duan Yelin frowned and said in a low voice, “Not only that, think about it. In the dead of night, a murderer intent on killing someone would be careful enough to wipe away even the smallest traces of graphite on the door before leaving. How, then, could they be so reckless as to leave such glaring traces of nail polish on the golden hairpin? This is a really smart and thoughtful person.”
“In other words, he is also guiding us to identify Ruan Xiaodie as the murderer? Then, then who should we arrest first ah?”
“Of course we have to arrest Ruan Xiaodie. No matter what, she must have participated.”
Qiao Song stood up straight immediately: “I understand, I will immediately have people search the city and then go to the train station and the dock to check!”
Yuan Ye added, “Also, immediately contact the train stations in other cities and send police officers to arrest the person. A young and beautiful woman with a pipa should be quite eye-catching.”
Qiao Song received the order and was about to leave in a hurry, but Duan Yelin stopped him, pulled him aside, and whispered, “If you really catch her, bring her back to Xiaotong Guan quietly. I just want to know the real culprit, and I won’t let her pay for her life with that old ghost.”
“I understand.” So Qiao Song put on his military cap and went out.
Duan Yelin took off his dirty gloves and threw them aside. Today’s sky was gray, and the air was a little humid, which made him feel uncomfortable. Although half of the soldiers in Hezhou City had been dispatched, but he had a feeling that this matter was not simple.
He closed his eyes and sorted out his thoughts, then called Yuan Ye.
“Let’s go and see what the forensic doctor has found.”
