Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 193 There is no perfect crime in the world

Xia Lin's words about the hairpin made Dong Niang ponder for a long time, but she still felt it was unlikely, because if it was a woman, it would be impossible for her to have such great power.

There is a term called "dead heaviness". If you want others not to realize that the person is dead, then you need a lot of strength to drag the body upstairs. No matter how strong a woman is, she cannot do this. Moreover, judging from the angle and force of the weapon entering the body, it is not something a woman can do.

Since she is not a woman, wouldn't it seem a bit strange for her to hold two hairpins in her hands?
"What are you thinking about?" Xia Lin walked down and waved his hand in front of her: "Are you still thinking about the murder weapon?"

"I don't think it's a hairpin."

"If it's not a hairpin, then it's chopsticks." Xia Lin sat back in front of Dong Niang. "Iron chopsticks and silver chopsticks are not uncommon. Moreover, many businessmen carry a pair of silver chopsticks with them to avoid... Hmm?"

Xia Lin paused at this point and looked at Dong Niang: "Do you think it was silver chopsticks? The deceased was an envoy of a country, or an envoy in charge of trade. If he was having a meal with the owner or head of a caravan or a business, and they were not able to reach an agreement on the business, then the other party suddenly wanted to kill him?"

As she was speaking, Dong Niang looked at the unfinished dishes on the table and her brows gradually furrowed. At this time, Xia Lin also realized something and looked towards the table. There was a fish on the table. Although it had become fish jelly now, there was something wrong with the missing part on it.

He quickly took a pair of chopsticks and simulated it, and then his scalp relaxed all of a sudden: "Aha! I see. There are three people eating, two of them are sitting on the left and right sides of the messenger! You can see that the fish has traces of being dragged on the plate, which were left when the meat was dragged down towards me."

Dong Niang lowered her eyelids and did not respond immediately. After a moment of silence, she said, "You can assume."

If there were two people, the assassination would be very difficult, but if there were three people, one of them would provide cover to block the victim's sight, and then work with the other person to carry the body upstairs, creating a scene where the victim was killed upstairs, which would be very easy.

"Old Zhang, do it again." Xia Lin rubbed his hands excitedly and glanced at Dong Niang: "You play the role of the deceased."

Dong Niang pretended to lift up her clothes again, but Xia Lin waved his hand quickly: "Okay, okay, Lao Zhang will simulate the dead person."

After Lao Zhang sat down, Xia Lin and Dong Niang began their performance. Dong Niang was responsible for blocking the other diners' view with her body, while Xia Lin was responsible for "killing" Lao Zhang.

After Lao Zhang lay down on the table, Xia Lin patted him on the shoulder and said, "Brother Zhang, you can't handle the alcohol. Come, let me help you back to your room."

At this time, Dong Niang suddenly put her coat on Lao Zhang and said, "Don't get cold."

After saying that, he pulled it to cover the part of his body where the weapon should have been inserted. Then the two of them worked together to help Lao Zhang up the stairs. At this moment, Xia Lin felt that it was not so strenuous, and even a little relaxed. While walking, he even joked: "If Brother Zhang can't drink, you can sit at the same table with the kids in the future."

"Bullshit, I'll drink eight of yours."

"Shut up, corpses shouldn't talk." Xia Lin freed one hand and pinched Lao Zhang's mouth: "Be quiet."

The two men helped Lao Zhang into the room and put him down beside them. Then Xia Lin pulled out the two chopsticks stuck in Lao Zhang's chest, making onomatopoeias: "Puff, puff!"

Even Dong Niang couldn't help laughing when he made that sound. Lao Zhang laughed so hard that he pounded the floor. He turned his head to look at Xia Lin and said, "Are you sick? Why are you making that sound?"

"This is not an attempt to restore the original completely. Stop talking nonsense and lie down."

At this time, Dong Niang restored her expression to her usual dead face, squatted beside Lao Zhang and said, "Based on the amount of blood on the ground, he must have been dead for about 25 minutes. At this moment, the blood vessels have stopped flowing, and no fresh blood will flow out. The blood on the ground is all plasma brought out when the murder weapon was pulled out."

"Two quarters of an hour, that's half an hour... Well, it didn't take us half an hour to get up from downstairs."

"Well, is it possible that they continued to drink a few more glasses after the person died?"

"No." Xia Lin slapped his thigh and said, "I know what we have been neglecting. It is the table of food downstairs! The food has not been taken away, which means that these two people were still sitting there when the officials came!"

Dong Niang and Lao Zhang slapped their thighs when they heard this. Lao Zhang was even more shocked and said, "Who is this person? Why doesn't he run away? Why is he still staying there?"

Xia Lin narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment, then stood up and went to the window: "What if it's a secret conversation? Someone first arranged for the messenger to come down, and then deliberately chose a corner of the inn. Then the messenger quietly came down to discuss something with them, but failed to discuss anything. At this time, they killed the person according to what they had planned long ago, and then helped the person upstairs when no one was paying attention. Then they continued to come down and sit at the table, waiting for the body to be discovered."

"But how will they be discovered? How do they know how long it will take?"

Xia Lin raised his neck and said, "The file says that the president of the Huguang Chamber of Commerce in Yanmen Pass came to look for an envoy to discuss the opening of a new trade route. He knocked on the door but no one answered, so he found the body when he pushed the door open."

"Oh?" Old Zhang's eyes turned: "So these people are stuck here at this time..."

"Let's go!" Xia Lin stood up: "Let's go find the president of the Huguang Chamber of Commerce."

The three of them quickly came to the Yanmen Pass Chamber of Commerce and met the president in the name of investigating a case. A businessman would definitely cooperate when encountering a serious inspector investigating a case, so he warmly received Xia Lin and his party.

"My Lord, I have said everything I should say. This has nothing to do with me. You can't wrongly accuse a good person."

"That's not what I meant." Xia Lin took a sip of tea and said, "I just want to ask what topic you were going to discuss when you went to find the messenger that day." "This... will this help in investigating the case?"

The president swallowed his saliva, his expression became panicked, and then he said with a wry smile: "This... this is hard to say."

Xia Lin slapped the jade pendant on the table and said, "Weigh it."

There is no need to look at anything else, just looking at the words "Regent" on the jade pendant is scary enough. The appearance of such a person at this critical juncture, there is no need to guess that he must be an imperial envoy sent by the court.

There is nothing wrong in hiding things from local officials, but if you try to play tricks on the imperial envoy of the court, it may be a crime of deceiving the emperor. It is not worth it to sacrifice your whole family for a few dollars.

Well, now that it's like this, just tell the truth.

"Your Excellency, it's not that I don't want to talk about it, but this matter..."

"I was only ordered to investigate the murder case. I have no interest in what happened between you two." Xia Lin took back the jade pendant and said nonchalantly, "Do you understand what I mean?"

"I understand. Thank you for your advice, sir." The president smiled and bowed flatteringly, "This is what happened..."

The president said a lot, but the main idea can be summarized as follows: the country of the previous envoy would export spices to Wei, and they had always cooperated with the Salt Transport Bureau for transportation, but the Salt Transport Bureau's price cuts were too severe, and the profits they were given were very thin. So this time the envoy came to discuss with the Huguang Chamber of Commerce to see if they could take the Huguang trade route.

Most of the trade routes on the Yancao side are through the Wu Yue trade route. The big bosses behind the two sides are different. The Huguang trade route belongs to the Jiangnan Road. Although the Wu Yue trade route nominally belongs to the Yancao Bureau, in fact, the ones who control this trade route are the Twelve Families of Jiangdong, including Gao, Shen, Yang, Liu, Huang, Wan and other big families.

It looks like a business, but in fact it seems like a financial war between regions.

Hearing this information, Xia Lin narrowed his eyes and asked, "Who else knew about your secret conversation with the messenger that day besides you?"

"Not many people know about it, only a few. Apart from the two big shopkeepers under me, the servants of the Chuanshe know about it."

Xia Lin frowned slightly: "Is your chief shopkeeper reliable?"

"Of course they are reliable. One is my younger brother and the other is my eldest son."

Xia Lin slapped the chair and said to Dong Niang, "Let's go and catch him!"

After walking out of the door, Lao Zhang asked, "Who are you arresting?"

"Catch the head and servants of the Chuanshe."

Chuanshe is actually a kind of official guesthouse. In the Warring States Period, it was a place where nobles provided food and lodging for their guests. Guests were divided into upper, middle and lower levels, and the guesthouses were also divided into Chuanshe, Xingshe and Daishe. Chuanshe was the highest level of local guesthouse.

However, it gradually evolved into a place for registration and service for officials and envoys. Accommodation could be provided, but generally speaking, envoys would not live in the inn. After all, it was a public place, and if they were to discuss something, they would be more or less afraid of being eavesdropped.

Xia Lin went to the yamen to check the people and went straight to the inn at Yanmen Pass. After he entered, the people inside were still confused, but they were not given time to react. The officers and soldiers went up and packed up everyone in the inn and took them out.

However, there were not many people in this place. There were only six people in the dormitory, including the dormitory leader, the dormitory soldiers, and the dormitory servants. After they were taken back, they were not given any chance to talk nonsense. They were directly taken to a small dark room in batches and a surprise interrogation was started.

Xia Lin might have to learn other things on the spot, but when it comes to interrogation, he is a professional among professionals. He uses segmented interrogation, false and real tactics, and mental intimidation. Within two hours, even a big yellow dog on the street would confess that it had eaten the small flower cake from the neighbor next door in the morning.

"Since the culprit is you, you probably have some idea in your mind. I won't torture you, but please don't challenge my patience." Xia Lin sat in the dark room, facing the head of the dormitory who was tied to a chair. "I am a scholar and don't like bloody scenes. I hope you understand."

"Sir...please ask..."

Xia Lin sighed. "Don't you know what you did? You still need me to ask? It seems that we don't have a tacit understanding. Let me ask your guys. If they confess, you... Tsk, sorry."

After saying that, Xia Lin made a move to stand up, but the dormitory head suddenly became excited: "Sir, I confess everything! I confess everything! I embezzled 300 taels of silver from the inn, but everyone is greedy, you can't just arrest me, sir..."

Xia Lin scratched his head: "Ah? Um... did you know that the Arab envoy died?"

"I know, but that's none of my business, sir."

"Think about it carefully. Think about everything about this messenger carefully! Don't force me to use torture. I am a scholar, you know that, right?"

(End of this chapter)