Jian Zhaoxing

Chapter 11 The Maid of the Female Competition

Lu Huai naturally saw it as well. He waved towards the door and a man dressed as a guard immediately walked in.

He was holding a teacup in his hand, not the rhinoceros lacquer tea set, but just an ordinary one.

There was a set of saucers under the teacup, but everyone else's attention was on the teacup, only Lin Zhiqing's eyes lingered on the saucer for a while.

When the short maid saw these two things, her pupils constricted and she bit her lips.

Lu Huai took the cup, poured some water into it, and then took out a silver needle from somewhere and inserted it into the cup.

In just a few seconds, the silver needle turned black.

Lu Huai waved the silver needle in front of Lin Zhiqing and raised his chin slightly, as if to say: Look, I found evidence.

Lin Zhiqing was amused by him, while the others gasped.

The short maid's body went limp and she collapsed to the ground powerlessly.

Seeing this, Xiao Cui's back teeth were about to break, and her finger, pointing at the maid, trembled slightly. "It was you! The young lady has always been kind to her servants and never treated them unfairly. Why did you harm her like this?"

"Xiao Cui, you are just a dog of Lin Yangyang. What right do you have to blame me?" The short maid didn't know where she got the strength from, and she waved Xiao Cui's fingers away.

There was full of resentment in her eyes:

"I just touched the red jade gem on her dagger, and she no longer allowed me to serve in the inner courtyard. I was demoted from a first-class maid to a third-class maid, and my monthly silver was reduced by a full ounce!"

"You still think I don't know that the reason Lin Yangyang made up an excuse not to let me enter the inner courtyard is because Lin Zhiqing whispered in my ear that I'm beautiful and she's afraid that Master Shi'an, Master Lu, Master Jiang, and the others will notice me!"

She waved her hands in the air and cursed continuously.

"You" Xiao Cui opened her eyes wide and looked at Lu Huai first, and then at Lin Zhiqing.

The maid's words just now touched upon the young lady's privacy. If a reputation of jealousy were to spread, it would damage the young lady's reputation.

However, Xiao Cui was young and shy, and she didn't know what to say for a moment.

"You little rascal." Aunt Mu rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward, pointing at the maid's head and scolding her: "Don't you see what kind of person you are? How dare you slander the young lady of the Lin family!"

After she finished speaking, she turned to look at Lu Huai: "Mr. Lu, you know my young lady's character. This is pure slander!"

Lu Huai's expression was normal. He just nodded slightly and asked an unexpected question: "The red jade gem is extremely precious. How could the Lin family have such a treasure?"

Xiao Cui pursed her lips and said, "Master Lu, that dagger was left to the young lady by her late mother. No one else was ever allowed to touch it. It's ok that this maid took it out secretly a month ago, but she actually tried to steal the red jade gem on it."

"After a thorough investigation, we discovered that she had stolen many of the room's jewels. The young lady was kind enough to only demote her to a third-class maid and not disclose the theft to anyone. This was already a special favor. Miss Zhiqing was also there that day."

Lu Huai didn't hear what he wanted to hear, so he lost interest and just nodded nonchalantly.

Seeing that he had no change of expression, Xiao Cui wiped away her tears and said, "What slave who commits theft is not sold to a brothel? I never thought she would have no remorse and dare to do such a vicious thing!"

The short maid sneered, the hatred in her eyes not diminishing in the slightest: "You're full of talk about morality and justice, but why do Lin Zhiqing and the others have so many people around them? With a little dressing up, I'm just as pretty as them!"

"I'm just a little bit away from meeting Young Master Shi'an." A glimmer of longing appeared in her eyes, which then turned into hatred: "Lin Zhiqing and Lin Yangyang, those two bitches, ruined everything! I'm dead, but having that hypocritical bitch Lin Yangyang buried with me won't be in vain. Hahahaha..."

There was a madness in her laughter that gave people goosebumps for no reason.

Lin Zhiqing, who had been silent the entire time, couldn't help but frown upon hearing this: "You're wrong. If you were in love with any of them, I wouldn't say a word."

"But just because you stole something, your cousins ​​won't even look at you again. This has nothing to do with your looks, it's a question of your character."

She couldn't stand the maid's attitude of blaming others and changing the subject after doing something wrong, nor did she like her behavior of competing with other women.

After hearing this, Lu Huai looked at Lin Zhiqing with a look of surprise.

The short maid was stunned and couldn't say anything like "bitch".

Lin Zhiqing's face was serious. Seeing that the maid was silent, he only asked one question: "When did you poison it, and how did you move the teacup?"

The maid sniffed, and when she thought of Lin Zhiqing's words, she couldn't help crying:
"Before I flew the kite, I took advantage of the cleaning nanny's inattention and found the old tea sets she had put away. I also ordered a cup of tea and let it cool down before you arrived."

"Lin Yangyang is impatient. She won't order tea herself if there's ready-made tea to drink."

"After the incident, the yard was in a mess. No one paid any attention to my ordinary teacups. Everyone's attention was on the rhinoceros lacquer tea set."

"I was responsible for helping Madam clean the room, so I was able to hide it from you idiots and easily bring the things out."

"Miss Zhiqing, I know I was wrong. Can you please forgive me? I will work like a slave to repay you."

She knelt on the ground in a panic and grabbed Lin Zhiqing's skirt.

Lin Zhiqing shook his head: "You don't know you're wrong, you know you're going to die."

After saying that, she turned around and didn't want to look anymore. Lu Huai withdrew his inquiring gaze and glanced outside the door. Immediately, a guard came in and took the maid away.

He took a step forward and looked at everyone: "Everyone witnessed what happened today. The murderer has been brought to justice. This matter has nothing to do with Lin Zhiqing."

These words are so powerful that they cannot be refuted.

Xiao Cui pursed her lips, wiped her tears, and looked at Lin Zhiqing with a very complicated look.

Lin Zhiqing did not say anything, and his face did not show the excitement of having his grievances cleared. Instead, he pinched his chin, as if thinking about something.

Lu Huai frowned slightly, but he didn't think much about it. Instead, he asked Lin Zhiqing how he planned to deal with the thieving servant and the short maid.

Lin Zhiqing shook his head slightly: "No rush."

Those who were implicated had already suffered an unexpected disaster, and now seeing that things were dragging on without any result, they couldn't help but feel a little agitated.

Lu Huai didn't know what Lin Zhiqing meant by this, and stared at her with a frown.

Amidst the mixed looks from the crowd, Lin Zhiqing shook his head: "Lu Huai, the murderer is someone else."

As soon as these words were spoken, it was like thunderclap out of the blue, immediately causing an uproar among the crowd.

The first one to react was Lu Huai: "What did you say?"

There was suspicion in his expression, but not a trace of dissatisfaction.

Lin Zhiqing walked around the table and said, "I say, the murderer is still among the people at the scene."

Her tone was indifferent, and everyone except Lu Huai started shouting.

"A young girl who's still wet behind the ears really thinks she's a hot pot?"

"Master Lu is extremely intelligent. Not only did he find the physical evidence, but even the maid has admitted her fault. How could there be another murderer?"

"Lin Zhiqing must be trying to use this opportunity to eliminate dissidents!"

Everyone was talking about it and completely disbelieving Lin Zhiqing's statement.

Lu Huai narrowed his eyes, and a look silenced those people. Then he looked at Lin Zhiqing, his face full of disapproval: "You know we only have three days. The sooner we find the murderer, the sooner you can escape. Why not close the case first and investigate other matters later..."

His tone was serious and contained some warnings. It was obvious that he knew something was amiss but wanted to cut the Gordian knot.

Lin Zhiqing understood what he meant. It was getting late and they only had two days left.

Aunt Mu anxiously tugged at her sleeve and said, "Miss, don't be so stubborn at this time. Save your life first!"

Lin Zhiqing knew that time was urgent, but she didn't want to end this matter hastily because she was sure that she could find the murderer.

Lu Huai was a smart man. Seeing Lin Zhiqing's persistence, he immediately reacted: "Have you found other clues?"

Lin Zhiqing nodded: "In fact, the ordinary teacup that was just found from the maid was not the culprit that caused my cousin to fall into a coma and be poisoned."

Lu Huai hadn't expected such irrefutable evidence to be directly rejected by Lin Zhiqing: "What do you mean?"

Lin Zhiqing's eyes were deep as he looked at the several sets of tea sets on the table. "There are four rhinoceros lacquer teacups in total. Two are on the table, one was stolen by the servant, and the last one is still in this room!"

"How is this possible!" Xiao Cui pursed her lips and said, "Miss Zhiqing, after my young lady got into trouble, the master ordered people to search the entire room, and there was nothing else in the room."

The other servants also echoed. Each of them was a part of this courtyard and was more or less familiar with it.

Lin Zhiqing ignored everyone and squatted down, motioning everyone to look at the tea stains on the ground.

Lu Huai had just mentioned that tea stain, but he didn't look at it carefully.

Lin Zhiqing reached out and touched it. "The color of this lichen is brown, the same color as the tea stain, so it's easy to overlook the tiny traces of stains next to it."

As she spoke, she picked up a glass of water and poured it on the lichen.

Amidst everyone's astonishment, several evenly distributed dark marks soon appeared on the lichen.

Lin Zhiqing pointed forward and said, "Look, here, and here, the gold thread in these places is a little darker in color."

Lu Huai's eyes followed the path of Lin Zhiqing's finger and soon discovered something was wrong.

The tea stains were evenly distributed and were clearly moving in one direction.

That direction is - the antique shelf!

(End of this chapter)