The First Criminal Judge of the Zhenguan Era

Chapter 9: A Shocking Deduction! (Please read on! Two chapters combined!)
Upon hearing Liu Shuyi's words, almost instinctively, everyone turned their attention to him.

Zhao Feng, who had been keeping his head down, suddenly raised his head and looked at Liu Shuyi with barely concealed panic.

"What's wrong?" he asked nervously.

"What are you nervous about?"

Seeing Zhao Feng's nervousness, Liu Shuyi actually tried to reassure him: "As you said, these cases were done by you and me together, so there's no way you couldn't answer my questions. So what are you afraid of?"

"I'm not scared at all!"

Liu Shuyi simply smiled faintly and said, "The second question is very simple... How did we kill the person? And how did we pretend to be a ghost?"

Zhao Feng visibly relaxed upon hearing this question, as if he had already considered it.

This time, he didn't hesitate at all and said directly, "Pretending to be a ghost is very simple. Just take any kite, release it under the cover of night. At night, visibility is poor, and the darkness will hide the kite's string, making people mistake it for a ghost."

"As for how the murder was committed, I have you to thank for that."

"Thank me?" Liu Shuyi raised an eyebrow.

Zhao Feng stared at Liu Shuyi, gently bit his lower lip, took a deep breath, and nodded emphatically: "That's right, I have to thank you. After all, it was you who came up with the method of killing!"

"First, there's Han Du. You told me that Han Du did something wrong and was punished and reprimanded by His Majesty and his colleagues. You also said that Han Du is a kind person and feels very guilty and remorseful about this matter... You said that we could use this to our advantage. We could deliberately have someone speak ill of Han Du to him, saying that Han Du caused the deaths of many innocent people because of his mistakes, and that Han Du deserves to die..."

"In this way, Han Du's kindness, as well as his self-blame and guilt, will consume him and ultimately lead him to suicide!"

"As for the other three, it's even simpler. You said you have a very rare poison that can control the timing of its effects, so all you have to do is poison them, and then at midnight, make it look like they were killed by a ghost."

"That jade pendant that appeared in Zhao Ci's study was the one you dropped when you were poisoning Zhao Ci and almost got caught by him. Zhao Ci picked it up! It's the evidence that you poisoned him!"

Hearing Zhao Feng's words, everyone in the room fell into deep thought.

They were considering whether Zhao Feng's method of murder was feasible and whether it matched the cause of death of Zhao Ci and the other three.

Even Du Gou frowned at this thought.

Because Du Gou actually believed that all of this was feasible.

Not only is it feasible, but it also perfectly matches the cause of death of Han Du and the other three.

Han Du's suicide by hanging, the poisoning deaths of Zhao Ci and the other two, the eerie ghosts... all exactly the same! They correspond perfectly!

The situation of Han Du and the other three is still kept secret, and no one other than those investigating the case knows this specific information.

But Zhao Feng was able to pinpoint all of this precisely...

Zhao Feng isn't an investigator, so the only reason he knows all this is... that he's the perpetrator!
He really is the murderer!?
He also said that all of this was Liu Shuyi's idea...

It also clearly explains why Liu Shuyi's jade pendant appeared in Zhao Ci's room...

Du Gou's heart sank. Even though there were doubts about Zhao Feng's previous words, Zhao Feng's words were enough to confirm his identity as the murderer.

Now he's pointing fingers at Liu Shuyi like this...

boom!
Pei Ji slammed his hand on the table.

"Liu Shuyi! What else do you have to say?!"

His face was icy cold as he said sternly, "You almost tricked me again! You can't prove that Zhao Feng didn't really hide the family heirloom. Everything you said is just the same as what you said last night—still sophistry!"

"I never imagined you could be so insidious and vicious! You drove Han Du to his death and poisoned Zhao Ci and the other two... it was all your doing!"

"No wonder you keep trying to seize the opportunity to investigate the case. You're not really trying to investigate the case; you're clearly trying to destroy the evidence and let you escape the law completely, aren't you?"

"Unfortunately, if you don't want anyone to know, you shouldn't do it in the first place. I've captured Zhao Feng, which will expose you completely!"

Zhou Mo nodded emphatically as he listened to Pei Ji's words.

He breathed a sigh of relief. He had really thought that Liu Shuyi had been wronged by Zhao Feng, and that Pei Ji was wrong.

Fortunately, everything is still under control.

This Liu Shuyi is truly cunning!
The atmosphere inside the room became somber once again.

But to everyone's surprise, faced with Pei Ji's cold words and the questioning looks from the crowd, Liu Shuyi not only showed no panic at the discovery of his secret, but instead laughed!

"So that's it! The killer's move was here!"

He looked at Zhao Feng, flames dancing in his pupils, giving Zhao Feng the feeling that those dark eyes had seen through everything.

Liu Shuyi said slowly, "Using part of the truth as evidence, and then mixing in false accusations, how can people who don't know the truth distinguish between the real and the fake?"

"This kind of slander is really quite sophisticated."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Feng's face, covered in wounds, changed expression. He instinctively grabbed the hem of his clothes and said, "You, what nonsense are you talking about? I didn't frame you."

"No false accusation?"

Liu Shuyi looked intently at Zhao Feng and said, "Alright! Then I'll pick one of the things you pointed out and talk about it in detail."

"What is it?" Zhao Feng subconsciously swallowed.

"Are you saying that I used rumors to target Han Du's kindness and guilt, driving him to his death?"

"Yes."

"So, as you said, Han Du did indeed hang himself, and the suicide note he left behind was written by him personally, which can be considered indirect evidence that we forced him to his death?"

Zhao Feng pursed his lips tightly but still nodded: "Yes."

"Alright! As you say, I am indeed very powerful! I can kill people from a distance without even having to lift a finger!"

But then, Liu Shuyi suddenly changed his tone: "But now, what if I said that Han Du did not hang himself, and that Han Du's suicide note was not written by him, but was forged by the murderer?

"what?"

"Forgery?"

Upon hearing this, someone immediately gasped in surprise.

"This...is it true? Chief Steward Liu? Is Han Yuanwailang's will really a forgery?" Zhao Chengyi, the Vice Minister of Revenue who had been standing quietly to the side, finally couldn't help but ask when he heard this.

Tang Jian, the Minister of Revenue, was not in Chang'an due to official business, so he held the highest official position in the entire Ministry of Revenue. However, no matter how high his position was, he was only a fourth-rank Vice Minister, which was completely insignificant compared to Pei Ji and Du Ruhui.

Therefore, he, as the acting head of the Ministry of Revenue, could only be relegated to standing quietly to the sidelines.

"Nonsense!"

Pei Ji immediately retorted coldly, "The handwriting on that suicide note is Han Du's handwriting. How could it be a forgery! Liu Shuyi, don't even think about fooling us again!"

Even Wei Zheng and Cheng Chumo frowned.

Although Pei Ji and Liu Shuyi were at loggerheads, and Pei Ji's tone clearly carried subjective displeasure, Han Du's suicide note was indeed examined by someone after Han Du's suicide was discovered.

Han Du was, after all, a sixth-rank official of the imperial court. Even if he had hanged himself, his death in the yamen would still require careful examination.

Therefore, there is absolutely no problem with the handwriting in that suicide note; it is definitely Han Du's handwriting.

The others nodded in agreement, their expressions towards Liu Shuyi growing increasingly suspicious.

To everyone's surprise, Liu Shuyi said, "I didn't say that the handwriting wasn't Han Du's, did I?"

"what?"

"You admitted it?"

"This……"

Everyone was a little stunned. They thought Liu Shuyi would directly refute them, saying that even if they had examined it, they could not necessarily guarantee that the handwriting was not a forgery.

But what I didn't expect was that Liu Shuyi would admit it so readily.

"Then why do you still say the suicide note was forged?" Pei Ji was also somewhat confused about Liu Shuyi's thinking at this moment.

As a result, Liu Shuyi said calmly, "I'm not wrong. The handwriting is indeed Han Du's, but the suicide note is still a forgery."

"You still insist that you're not just making excuses—"

Pei Ji was about to rebuke him, but Liu Shuyi didn't give him the chance. He looked directly at Zhao Chengyi and said, "Minister Zhao, please bring me Han Yuanwailang's last letter."

Zhao Chengyi was taken aback for a moment. Seeing that everyone was looking at him, he quickly nodded and said, "I'll go get it right away."

Not long after, he returned and handed the paper package containing the suicide note to Liu Shuyi.

Liu Shuyi took the paper package and immediately turned it upside down, dumping all the fragments of the suicide note inside onto the table.

He spread the scraps of paper out and said, “Please look at this so-called suicide note. There are two unusual things about it.”

"abnormal?"

"Still two o'clock?"

The officials from the Ministry of Revenue standing at the entrance exchanged bewildered glances. Let alone two.

They've been looking for over ten days, and haven't found even one.

Liu Shuyi didn't keep them in suspense and said, "First, it was torn into too many pieces!"

"This suicide note contains 113 words and has over 100 fragments. Moreover, almost every word on each fragment is intact; not a single word was torn in the middle."

Upon hearing this, everyone quickly looked closely.

“Oh, it’s true!”

“Indeed, every word is on the fragment, not torn apart.”

Pei Ji coldly replied, "What does that prove?"

"What does it mean?"

Liu Shuyi smiled, picked up a piece of paper from the table, glanced at it, and then handed it to Pei Ji, saying, "There are eighty-nine characters on this paper. Please tear it into eighty-nine pieces, and make sure that each character is on a piece and that the characters are not torn apart."

"What's so difficult about this?"

Pei Ji didn't understand what Liu Shuyi was trying to do, but he knew that as long as he could do it, he could shatter Liu Shuyi's sophistry.

He immediately picked up the paper and started tearing it.

But as he continued his actions, the expression on his face began to change.

The initial ease and disdain gradually turned into solemnity.

In the end, there was a tearing sound, and his face turned extremely ugly.

Even with his utmost care, some words were still torn open.

It's too difficult to make each character complete, occupying its own fragment.

Seeing Pei Ji's unpleasant expression, Liu Shuyi asked with concern, "Does Minister Pei still find it difficult?"

Pei Ji remained silent, his face cold.

Silence means consent.

Liu Shuyi smiled and said, "As you all have seen, even when Pei Sikong was in a normal emotional state, he couldn't tear it into eighty-nine pieces. But what about Han Yuanwailang at that time?"

Suddenly, his voice turned somber, giving everyone the feeling of being struck from the clouds into the abyss, instantly making everyone's hearts tremble.

Then Liu Shuyi slowly said, "According to the suicide note, Han Yuanwailang was in great pain and self-blame because I had tricked him. He was on the verge of a mental breakdown... Under such circumstances, do you all think he could have torn the suicide note into the way it is now? Could he have ensured that every word was intact on the fragments?"

"This……"

At this moment, everyone fell silent.

If it weren't for Pei Ji's previous demonstration, they wouldn't have thought much of these fragments. But now, seeing that Pei Ji was deliberately going against Liu Shuyi and still couldn't do what he was doing, if Han Du really had a mental breakdown and wanted to commit suicide back then... could he really have torn them up like this?
has a problem!
There is definitely a big problem!

Seeing that Pei Ji was no longer causing trouble, Du Ruhui spoke directly: "Since he couldn't do it, why did the will become like this?"

"It's easy!"

Seeing that Du Ruhui had asked a question, Liu Shuyi stopped being coy and said directly, "Because only by turning the will into these fragments can we deceive everyone! This is the second issue I want to address regarding the will..."

As he spoke, he reached out and picked up two pieces of paper, then handed them to Du Ruhui, saying, "Minister Du, please look at the characters on these two fragments. Both characters are the character '吾' (wú). Judging from the pressure of the strokes and the horizontal and vertical lines, they follow the same style. It is obvious that the characters were indeed written by Han Yuanwailang, but the ink color..."

Liu Shuyi paused deliberately and said, "Isn't something a little off?"

Ink-colored?

As Du Ruhui listened to Liu Shuyi's prompting, he suddenly felt closer to the text.

His deep eyes scanned the words on the two pieces of paper, and suddenly...

"There is definitely a difference! Although it's subtle, it's definitely different!"

"different!?"

Upon hearing this, Wei Zheng seemed to understand something. A look of surprise appeared on his usually serious face. He picked up a few pieces of paper from the table and looked up...

"They really are different!"

Du Gou and Cheng Chumo exchanged a glance and then stepped forward.

Cheng Chumo looked left and right, then scratched his head: "Are they different?"

Du Gou frowned: "There are only subtle differences; you wouldn't notice them at all without careful comparison!"

"And this subtle difference can represent a whole thing!"

Cheng Chumo asked instinctively, "What is it?"

Du Gou took a deep breath, looked up at Liu Shuyi who already understood everything, and said, "These words were not written at the same time! There are at least a few days' difference!"

"what?"

"Not written at the same time?"

Cheng Chumo's eyes widened: "So, these words..."

Du Gou nodded emphatically: "That's right, these words were not written by Han Yuanwailang before his death, but were pieced together by someone cutting them from other papers!"

"No wonder they forged the suicide note like this, no wonder they made us think it was torn like this!"

"Only in this way could the murderer make Han Yuanwailang's suicide note look real enough, and the handwriting be able to withstand scrutiny!"

Cheng Chumo gasped as he listened to Du Gou's words.

His large, bell-like eyes were fixed on the scraps of paper on the table. He couldn't help but say, "This murderer is too insidious! Who would have thought that he forged a suicide note not by forging the handwriting, but by piecing together Han Du's handwriting!"

"Who the hell could possibly guess that!"

"No, Manager Liu already guessed it!"

"And I remember, Manager Liu only glanced at it briefly, and then..."

Cheng Chumo's voice grew softer and softer, and everyone's hearts were suddenly jolted by his words.

At this moment, they finally realized what it meant that Liu Shuyi was able to discover the problem with the suicide note.

Zhou Mo's eyes widened, and the confident expression on his face finally cracked completely.

Pei Ji's expression as he looked at Liu Shuyi was filled with disbelief, gloom, and solemnity. He never expected that Liu Shuyi would actually have such abilities.

Now that Liu Shuyi has proven the suicide note was forged, doesn't that mean...?

Pei Ji suddenly flew into a rage. He stood up abruptly and kicked Zhao Feng, who was kneeling on the ground, to the ground: "You brat! How dare you lie to me!"

Zhao Feng's face was deathly pale. He curled up, his whole body trembling, and cold sweat pouring down his face.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, he didn't utter another word.

Looking at Zhao Feng's miserable state, Liu Shuyi narrowed his eyes and slowly said, "In order to make you frame me, the murderer told you the complete truth about his methods of committing crimes against Zhao Ci and the other two. The only thing he lied to you about was Han Du's death! Do you know why?"

Zhao Feng subconsciously raised his head, his pale face looking at Liu Shuyi.

"Why...why?" he couldn't help but ask.

Looking down at Zhao Feng, who lay on the ground like an ant, Liu Shuyi shook his head and said, "Because of Zhao Ci and the other two, he can kill people with poison from a distance!"

"But Han Du, if he wants to fake Han Du's suicide, he has to do it himself."

"In other words, if there is any case that points directly to him, it is only Han Du's case."

"Han Du was killed by him in the Ministry of Revenue. As an important place of the court, the Ministry of Revenue is guarded by guards day and night, and it is impossible for outsiders to sneak in."

"So... he didn't tell you the truth, trying to hide this only method of murder! It's just because..."

Everyone instinctively held their breath and looked at Liu Shuyi with tension.

Then Liu Shuyi said calmly, "He knows that once his methods are discovered, his identity... will be immediately identified!"

"Being targeted..."

Du Gou suddenly remembered Liu Shuyi's previous request for the list at the Ministry of Revenue, and quickly looked at Liu Shuyi: "You mean?"

Liu Shuyi nodded and said, "That's right, the murderer is one of the fifteen people who stayed at the Ministry of Revenue with Han Du that night!"

"he……"

Liu Shuyi looked around at everyone present, then at the Ministry of Revenue officials gathered at the door, and said, "Right here!"

"And right now, they're watching us with cold indifference!"

(End of this chapter)