The next day, Xiao Yu lured all the other assassins to outside Jiangzhou City as agreed.
Yu Hanjiang laid an ambush beforehand and captured the entire group of assassins.
During the arrest operation, Xiao Yu was "accidentally" wounded by a sword, which struck him squarely in the chest, and he died on the spot.
In fact, Xiao Yu was wearing gold-threaded armor underneath his clothes, which ordinary weapons couldn't pierce. The large amount of blood on his chest was from pre-prepared blood bags—this guy's ability to infiltrate Yan State for four years truly honed his acting skills to an Oscar-worthy level. After all, he had spent time among piles of corpses, so his feigning death was top-notch; not only was blood blooming on his chest, but he was also spitting blood from his mouth.
His acting was so realistic; it must have been difficult for him.
Xiao Lou cooperated by personally examining the body, checking his brother's breath, and shaking his head at Yu Hanjiang, saying, "He's dead."
Yu Hanjiang frowned: "Take all the living ones back to the prefect for questioning, and the dead ones as well..."
Take the body away!
A group of yamen runners quickly escorted the man back to the prefectural government, and also carried Xiao Yu's "corpse" back to the prefectural government.
As expected, Xiao Yu came back to life when all was quiet at night.
Xiao Lou secretly took him to the study and asked him some questions: "On the Prince's birthday, was the person who went to the backyard of the Prince's mansion Snow Goose?"
Xiao Yu said, "It was her. She infiltrated the palace to familiarize herself with the surroundings so she could escape at any time."
In other words, the assassin Qin Rui saw scaling the wall was indeed Snow Goose. However, after Snow Goose arrived in the direction of the Buddhist Hall, she masked her face with a white veil and impersonated the Fourth Miss, thus deceiving Qin Rui.
So, whose bodyguard uniform is Lin Shaobo holding?
Xiao Yu stated that he was unaware of the matter, indicating that he was not significantly involved in the Wangfu case.
Yu Hanjiang opened a back door for him, clearing obstacles in advance so that he could go to Yan State as soon as possible.
Watching his younger brother disappear quickly into the night, Xiao Lou couldn't help but worry: " Won't it be dangerous for him to meet with the Third Prince?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "Don't worry, he has been in Yan State for four years and is highly skilled in martial arts. He has a way to protect himself. His Highness the Crown Prince is ambitious and ruthless. Once he ascends the throne, he will definitely be a tyrant. Our idea of assisting the Third Prince to take the throne should be correct."
Xiao Lou nodded, his brows furrowing slightly: "The mystery of the assassin group has been completely solved; it was formed by that ambitious Crown Prince of Yan State. However, the case of the murder of the eldest daughter of the royal family is still unsolved."
The two began to reanalyze the case.
Xiao Lou carefully organized the timeline of the case—
On the afternoon of the Prince's birthday, around 6 o'clock, one of the assassins, Snow Goose, entered the backyard of the Prince's mansion to investigate. When she used her Lightness Skill to fly over the courtyard wall, she was spotted by Qin Rui, a guard who happened to be passing by. Qin Rui hurriedly chased after her and encountered Third Miss and two maids (eyewitnesses) on the way. Qin Rui eventually chased her to the Buddhist Hall. Snow Goose, with her face covered by a white veil, disguised herself as the Fourth Miss and left with her head down.
At the same time, the Fourth Miss and Lin Shaobo were having a secret rendezvous in the backyard when they were caught by the Eldest Miss. The Third Miss also bumped into the Fourth Miss at the rockery.
After the birthday banquet began, around 7:30 PM, Snow Goose attempted to assassinate the prince but failed and fled. She had scouted the layout of the prince's residence, making her escape relatively easy; the guards couldn't catch her. Meanwhile, Lin Shaobo disappeared under the pretext of "going to the restroom."
At 8 p.m., a maid rushed in to report that she had seen the young lady hanging in the courtyard. After Xiao Lou analyzed the body, it was determined that the young lady had died around 6 p.m., and the hanging was just a staged suicide scene; she had already been poisoned.
A lot happened around 6 o'clock, and the clues were very concentrated.
Following the timeline—the eldest young lady saw her fourth sister and Lin Shaobo on a date in the backyard; feeling guilty, the fourth young lady hurriedly fled, bumping into the third young lady, and using the excuse of being "unwell" to return to Red Plum Garden. Meanwhile, the third young lady saw Qin Rui chasing someone to Buddhist Hall, where Qin Rui saw an assassin disguised as the fourth young lady. Afterwards, Lin Shaobo may have gone to confront the eldest young lady and explain, or perhaps, in a panic, went directly back to the front yard; the eldest young lady witnessed something she shouldn't have known and was silenced.
The young lady's time of death was around 6 p.m., that much is certain.
Lin Shaobo's body was submerged in water overnight. Xiao Lou could only deduce that his time of death was between 7 and 8 pm, because Lin Shaobo was still sitting at the same table with CEO Shao in the front yard watching the performance at 7 pm. He was killed after leaving the banquet in the middle of the event.
Both men died alone, with no eyewitnesses.
Snow Goose was evading Qin Rui's pursuit, so she definitely wasn't the one who killed the eldest young lady. The fourth young lady hurriedly fled back to Red Plum Garden, so she couldn't be the murderer either. Third Miss was merely a witness who saw the fourth sister and Qin Rui appear; she had no motive whatsoever.
Judging from the fragments of the guard's clothing in Lin Shaobo's possession, the person who killed the young lady and Lin Shaobo must have been someone else—this person was in the backyard of the palace between 6 pm and 8 pm, and was either disguised as a guard or wearing clothes made of the same material as the guard.
Who could remain hidden in the Prince's mansion for so long without being discovered?
Xiao Lou frowned and pondered for a moment before saying, "This person must first be someone the young lady knows, because the young lady was poisoned and did not struggle before she died. This person could make the young lady eat poisoned food without any precautions. If a strange guard appeared in the backyard, the young lady would definitely be surprised and might even shout to attract attention."
Yu Hanjiang agreed: "She didn't struggle or scream, so she must be very familiar with this person. Moreover, this person knows the layout of the Prince's Mansion and even the guards' uniforms like the back of his hand. He appeared in the backyard of the Prince's Mansion wearing a guard's uniform and was not seen by any of the ladies or maids. This shows that he deliberately chose blind spots to act. He is as familiar with the backyard of the Prince's Mansion as if he were in his own home."
At home?
Yu Hanjiang paused abruptly, looking at Xiao Lou, whose eyes were also shining as he looked at him.
The two simultaneously uttered the same name: " Qi Fenghua?!"
They actually thought of the same thing!
Xiao Lou suddenly felt a sense of clarity and analyzed earnestly, "Knowing the young lady, being familiar with the layout of the Prince's mansion's backyard and even the guards' uniforms, being able to disguise himself as a guard and sneak into the backyard for a long time without being discovered, and having an unparalleled understanding of the Prince's mansion—the only person who meets all these conditions is the eldest young master of the Prince's mansion, Qi Fenghua, whom we have overlooked!"
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "If he is the murderer, then Qi Yiyao will definitely not be on guard when she sees her brother. She might just ask him in confusion, 'Why did you suddenly come back, brother, and why are you dressed like this?' I guess Qi Fenghua will use 'giving Father a birthday surprise' as an excuse to brush it off, and then take his sister to a secluded place, under the pretext of reminiscing, to poison her."
Xiao Lou followed up on the other person's words and analyzed: "Poisoning the young and old."
Afterwards, he first hid the body, and then, taking advantage of the start of the banquet and the absence of the backyard, used white silk to hang his sister from a tree, making it appear as a suicide. Around 7:30 PM, Lin Shaobo left the banquet and went to the backyard, presumably to explain to the young lady. He may have witnessed Qi Fenghua hanging his sister from the tree, only to be silenced by Qi Fenghua.
Xiao Lou paused, flipped through his recent notes, and said with a puzzled look, "But there's something wrong with one of the testimonies. I remember the two maids saying that they passed by the pond in the afternoon and heard something fall into the water. They then saw Guard Qin chasing someone. It must have been 6 o'clock. Young Master Lin wasn't dead yet, because he had attended the Prince's banquet and left around 7 o'clock. How do you explain the sound of something falling into the water?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "What the maid heard was the sound of something falling into the pond, not Young Master Lin's body. In broad daylight, a body falling into a pond would definitely make a lot of noise... Perhaps, Qi Fenghua accidentally knocked over a stone or something while he was acting, causing it to fall into the pond and make a sound. The young lady heard the sound and rushed over, only to see her brother, who shouldn't have been in the palace, which led to her death."
Xiao Lou suddenly realized: "That makes sense!"
Qi Fenghua was on the front lines and hadn't returned to the Prince's residence for three years, but suddenly returned on the Prince's birthday. This was definitely not right.
My sister saw him at the wrong time and in the wrong place. If the prince finds out about this, he will definitely start an investigation and find out that Qi Fenghua may have been involved in the rebellion.
It is unclear what he did upon returning to the Prince's residence, but his return must absolutely not be known to anyone.
Therefore, Qi Fenghua cruelly killed his sister to silence her.
Lin Shaobo suddenly left during the banquet, probably to explain to the young lady. However, he witnessed Qi Fenghua hanging the young lady from a tree. Lin Shaobo was terrified and turned to run. Qi Fenghua, who was highly skilled in martial arts, immediately flew behind him and grabbed Lin Shaobo by the neck. Young Master Lin struggled frantically and tore off a piece of cloth from his sleeve, which he threw into the pond.
It was already dark, and everyone was so engrossed in the scene where the young lady had hanged herself that no one noticed—under the cold moonlight, in the pond not far away, there was a male corpse that had been strangled to death, slowly floating to the surface.