diskusbooks Chapter 336 Suspect
Chapter 336 Suspect
Normally there were eight servants who followed Sun Shouyi in his tyranny. On the night Sun Shouyi was murdered, there were a total of seventeen servants on duty in the back garden.
Twenty-five people were quickly brought to the pavilion.
Chen Shaoxian asked Jin Zhiyuan: "Do you have a topographic map of this back garden?"
Jin Zhiyuan said: "No, but I can draw it."
After Sun Wangchun brought a pen and paper, and Jin Zhiyuan finished drawing the floor plan of the back garden, Chen Shao counted and found that there were seven doors in and out of the back garden. After marking the seven doors from A to G according to their distance, Chen Shao asked the seventeen people on duty: "Which door were you each guarding on the night when Master Sun got into trouble? Tell us one by one."
After writing down the names of the seventeen people at each door, Chen Shao continued to ask, "Who entered and left the back garden on the night when Master Sun got into trouble? Tell us one by one."
On the night Sun Shouyi was murdered, he invited a group of friends to the back garden to drink and have fun, so there were many people coming in and out, but if you count them one by one, you will find that as many people came as left. And after the fun, there were servants who went into the back garden to clean up, and these servants who were cleaning up can testify that no one was hiding in there.
The servants at the Sun family's gatehouse could also testify that everyone who came that night eventually left.
After asking so many questions, the only gain was to know that at the end of the hour of Hai, Sun Shouyi personally carried a few boxes of wine and food and returned to the back garden through Gate A, which was closest to the pavilion.
Even so, Chen Shao couldn't help showing a little disappointment in his heart.
After asking Jin Zhiyuan to write down the names of the people who went to the Sun family to drink and have fun that night, Chen Shao calmed down and continued to ask the 17 people on duty: "Did you hear any noise on the night when Mr. Sun got into trouble?"
All seventeen people shook their heads.
Chen Shao looked at the two people who were on duty at the door closest to the pavilion that night and asked, "You two didn't hear it either?"
After Sun Shouyi's accident, the two had been asked this question no less than a hundred times. Although the government was just asking routine questions and the Sun family did not blame them, after being asked so many times, the two gradually subconsciously believed that it was their poor supervision that led to Sun Shouyi's death. When they heard this question again, their tense heartstrings could no longer bear it and broke with a bang. The two knelt on the ground in tears and kowtowed, saying, "My Lord, I heard nothing. I really didn't hear anything."
Seeing the two people's panic, Chen Shao vaguely guessed the reason. He softened his voice, asked the two people to stand up, and said in detail: "I know that many people have asked you this question, but this is the process of investigating the case. Even if I already know the answer, I still need to ask you again. You just need to answer truthfully, don't be afraid."
Fu Jiu chimed in, "As long as you didn't kill the person, just answer. What are you afraid of?"
The two men were about to kneel on the ground again, but after being stopped by Chen Shao, they replied timidly: "I didn't hear anything that night."
"Where are the voices?" Chen Shao asked.
The two shook their heads and still said they didn't hear it.
After thinking for a while, Chen Shao asked again, "Master Sun has been in the back garden for a long time and has not come out. Has no one come in to ask about it?"
The seventeen servants on duty nodded repeatedly, and several of them whispered, "The young master has ordered that no matter how long he has fun in the back garden, no one is allowed to come in and disturb him without his order. Moreover, the young master often has fun in the back garden until dawn."
Chen Shao glanced at the ashamed and angry Sun Wangchun, then turned his gaze to Sun Shouyi's eight followers, "Are you all Mr. Sun's followers?"
Eight people said yes.
"Does Mr. Sun always take you with him wherever he goes?" Chen Shao asked again.
Eight people said yes again.
"Were there times when you were not allowed to follow me?" Chen Shao asked.
The eight of them looked at each other, and then secretly glanced at Sun Wangchun and Madam Sun for a long time before someone bravely said, "When we are in the brothel, just let us guard outside the house."
Chen Shao continued to ask: "Besides this, is there any other time?"
Eight people shook their heads.
Chen Shao turned the topic back to the topic, "On the night your young master got into trouble, where did he go after drinking and having fun?"
The eight people said, "We returned to the yard when we were done."
Chen Shao: "After returning to the courtyard, did you meet anyone, or did anyone bring him a message?"
The eight people shook their heads: "No."
Chen Shao: "Think about it carefully. When I say meet someone, I mean anyone other than you eight."
The eight people still shook their heads and said no.
Chen Shao was not disappointed, and continued to ask: "When your master came to the back garden again, did he tell you anything?"
The eight people said: "Just tell us not to follow him, and don't wait for him to come back."
Chen Shao: "Didn't he say what he was going to do or who he was going to meet?"
Eight people shook their heads.
Chen Shao: "You didn't ask either?"
The eight people shook their heads again.
Chen Shao repeated, "In other words, after your master finished drinking and having fun, he returned to his own courtyard, and then at the end of the hour of Hai, he told you not to follow him or wait for him, and then he took the wine and food back to the back garden by himself?"
Eight people said yes.
Chen Shao asked: "At the end of the hour of Hai, who prepared the wine and food for your young master to return to the back garden?"
The eight people answered: "It's what was left over from before."
Chen Shao asked again: "When did the previous drinking and merrymaking begin and when did it end?"
The eight people answered: "It starts at the hour of Shen and ends at the hour of Hai."
Chen Shao asked again: "When do you usually start and end drinking and having fun?"
The eight people answered, "It usually starts at 5 p.m. and ends after 12 p.m., but there is no fixed time."
Chen Shao: "In other words, it rarely ends before midnight?"
The eight people said, "Except for the day when the young master got into trouble, there has been almost no such thing."
Chen Shao asked, "Why did your master end the day of the accident early? Did he tell me?"
The eight people said, "They said they were tired, so let's go."
Chen Shao: "No one refutes?"
"Yes," the eight people answered, "but the young master said that he would book a brothel the next day to make amends for them, so no one said anything."
End the drinking and partying early.
After it was over, no outsiders were seen.
No one delivered any message.
Carrying wine and food, he returned to the back garden alone.
So the murderer is...
Chen Shao took out the list of people who had been drinking and having fun that night that Jin Zhiyuan had written down, and scanned the names of the fourteen people one by one.
If the murderer had agreed with Sun Shouyi to meet that night, he would have prepared wine and food in advance even if Sun Shouyi had driven away the people who were drinking and having fun with him.
But Sun Shouyi did not prepare any wine or food in advance.
What is this indicating?
This means that the murderer is among those fourteen people drinking and having fun!
The eight followers, the servants guarding the doors at the back garden, and the doorman all saw the fourteen people leave, so how did the murderer return without alerting anyone?
Even if the murderer knows martial arts, he still needs to avoid being seen.
Thinking of this, Chen Shao asked Sun Wangchun: "The layout of the Sun family, that is, where are all the doors inside and outside, and in which direction, you know it, right?"
Sun Wangchun looked at the steward beside him uncertainly. The steward took two steps forward and said politely, "I will remember."
Chen Shao motioned to Chan Yi to hand him a pen and paper: "Then please draw the exact layout of the Sun family."
The steward was indeed a good and dedicated steward. In less than a cup of tea, he had drawn the floor plan of the Sun family on paper.
Although the Sun family's house was large and luxuriously built, it did not break away from its traditional form. Chen Shao took the layout map and quickly found two ways, one far and one near, from the outer wall of the Sun family's house to the back garden without being seen.
Chen Shao chose to look at the closer one first.
The closest way is to go out from the low wall between Gate A and Gate B, and under the cover of trees, avoid the servants' residences, and then climb over the wall through the grove next to the back door to leave the Sun family.
Gate A and Gate B are forty zhang apart. Although the wall is short, it is still more than half a zhang high.
The murderer's bloody footprints disappeared two meters away from the pavilion, but on the low wall about sixteen or seventeen meters away from Gate B, there was not only a small wipe-like bloodstain, but also a bloody handprint on the top of the low wall.
If you look closely, you can see a faint footprint two feet above the ground on the low wall.
In other words, the murderer was here, stepping on the wall and climbing out of the back garden. When leaving, the blood-stained hem of his clothes accidentally left a small piece of blood on the wall.
Chen Shao asked Fu Jiu to simulate the murderer's action of climbing over the wall and leaving.
Fu Jiu stood in front of the low wall, tapped her toes, and flew out lightly. After a while, she flew back in lightly: "I can get out without climbing over the wall."
Gu Feiyan was amused and laughed out loud.
Chen Shao shook his head speechlessly, turned back and motioned to Jin Zhiyuan: "Show us how the murderer climbed over the wall."
Jin Zhiyuan took a few steps forward, stepped lightly on the wall, climbed onto the top of the wall with his hands, and jumped lightly to go out.
After Chen Shao said "follow me", he went out from Gate B, looked at the place where Jin Zhiyuan came out, and then followed the route all the way to the grove next to the back door.
The outer wall of the Sun family is a full ten feet high.
Three meters away from the back door, there was an old tree, many of whose branches went over the outer wall. On the trunk and one of the branches that went over the outer wall, Chen Shao found several bloody handprints without any surprise.
"The murderer who killed my son escaped from here..." Mrs. Sun looked at the bloody handprint on the tree, tears just rolled down her cheeks, and she fainted.
Sun Wangchun quickly called for someone to come and help her back.
Chan Yi hurried over to take a few looks, and after making sure that she was just too sad, she came back.
Coming out of the Sun family's house, there was a small alley. After looking at both ends of the alley and the surroundings, Chen Shao instructed Magistrate Jin: "Bring the fourteen people who were drinking and having fun in the back garden on the night when Master Sun was murdered to the county government office. I will inquire about them after I return from the embroidery pavilion."
Magistrate Jin answered yes and left in a hurry.
Chen Shao did not delay and asked Jin Zhiyuan to lead the way, and soon arrived at Jinsefang.