boyutpedia Chapter 121 Murder Case 4
Chapter 121 Murder Case 4
"You should go and bring Chen Lan over first," Xiao Qinian said, still intending to ask Chen Lan first.
"I am an adult."
Chen Lan arrived shortly afterward.
"Chen Lan, I ask you, you have always said that your mother-in-law was murdered, so do you have any suspects?" Xiao Qinian did not directly say that He Lan also had a motive to kill.
"I...I don't know either," he said, his eyes flickering.
After seeing this, Xiao Qinian asked again, "Then do you think there's a possibility between your father-in-law and husband?"
“How could that be? They wouldn’t do that.” He Lan denied it directly, but her eyes darted away for a moment.
"Oh? You're so sure? We know that your relationship with your in-laws isn't good."
“My relationship with my in-laws is indeed not very good, but my father-in-law would not go so far as to harm my mother-in-law.”
"Oh, and what about you? It seems your relationship with your mother-in-law isn't very good either," Xiao Qinian said meaningfully.
"Does Your Excellency suspect me? My relationship with my mother-in-law is not good, but I have always respected her. How could I harm her? Besides, if I really harmed her, why would I report it to the authorities?" He Lan was very agitated, and her tone of voice unconsciously rose.
"Yes, then why did you report it to the authorities?" Xiao Qinian was somewhat suspicious. Wouldn't it be better if Old Lady Zhu died after treating her like this? Then there would be no mother-in-law to beat and scold her anymore.
"Although my mother-in-law wasn't good to me, death is inevitable, and I didn't want her to die so mysteriously," He Lan said sadly.
"After your mother-in-law left, did you ever leave the house?" Xiao Qinian still had some doubts, after all, Chen Lan was the most likely to have a motive.
“I did not leave. After my mother-in-law went out, I went to the kitchen to tidy up and then stayed in the room. My husband can testify to this.”
"Did your father-in-law and husband leave?" Xiao Qinian continued to ask.
“My husband doesn’t have it, and as for my father-in-law, I don’t know either,” Chen Lan said.
"Alright, you can go back now. Have Zhu Chong come over."
"Yes, sir." He Lan wiped away her tears and went back.
"What do you all think?" Xiao Qinian asked the others after He Lan left.
“What He Lan said makes sense. Although He Lan has a motive, if she really harmed Old Lady Zhu, why would she report it to the authorities? Isn’t she afraid?” the clerk said.
"Yes, sir."
"Let's see what Zhu Chong has to say?"
Zhu Chong came over, his face full of impatience, but looking at these officials, he couldn't show it.
"Zhu Chong, do you have any suspects regarding the murderer who killed your mother?"
"My lord, I don't know either! You must find the murderer and bring justice to my mother!"
Zhu Chong spoke for a long time but didn't get any useful information, so Xiao Qinian had no choice but to let him leave.
“Go back and have your father come over; we still need to ask him.”
“My lord, my father is still bedridden and cannot come,” Zhu Chong immediately refused.
“In that case, we can go there.” Xiao Qinian said, getting up and heading straight for the Zhu family.
Upon arriving at the Zhu family home, they went directly to Old Man Zhu's room.
Old Man Zhu was lying diagonally on the bed, with his back to the door.
"Old Man Zhu," Xiao Qinian called out, and Old Man Zhu immediately sat up.
Xiao Siyue finally got a clear look at Old Man Zhu's appearance. Because he was sitting on the bed, she couldn't see his exact height yet, but Old Man Zhu's appearance was indeed not very handsome. By Xiao Siyue's standards of beauty, he could only be described as ugly, with a pointed mouth, monkey-like cheeks, and dark skin.
However, he doesn't look sick; it seems he's faking it.
"Old Master Zhu, what's going on?" Xiao Qinian naturally noticed as well.
"Greetings, sir. I'm not feeling well enough to perform the proper greetings," Old Man Zhu said politely.
"No need to be polite, we'll just ask you a few questions and then leave." Xiao Qinian sat down on a stool in the room.
"Yes, yes, thank you, sir." Old Man Zhu's tone of voice was completely different from his appearance; when he spoke, he gave the impression of a very simple and honest man.
"What are your thoughts on your wife's death?" Xiao Qinian stopped being polite and asked directly.
"My wife died so tragically, you must find the murderer who killed her," Old Man Zhu said, crying as he began to speak.
"Of course we will, don't worry about that. Now I'll ask you a few more questions," Xiao Qinian said, sounding a bit annoyed.
"Sir, please ask, and I will answer truthfully."
Did Old Lady Zhu say anything to you when she left?
"No, she left after eating, and I didn't ask."
"After Old Lady Zhu left, have any of your family members gone out?"
"No, after my wife went out, we stayed at home until my daughter-in-law said that my wife hadn't come back, so we went out together to look for her."
In fact, Xiao Siyue felt that asking these questions was not very rigorous. After all, if it was really because of pastry poisoning, it didn't necessarily mean that the pastries were given in the back mountain. They could have been given them in advance and eaten them when they got to the back mountain.
However, there are no other breakthroughs at the moment, so we can only ask first.
Perhaps we can find a breakthrough.
"Okay, then do you think it's possible that the murderer is your daughter-in-law?"
"How could that be? Xiaolan has a very good temper and is timid. It couldn't be hers," Old Man Zhu immediately denied.
"Alright, you can rest now." After asking, Xiao Qinian left the room.
"Did you notice anything?" Xiao Qinian asked immediately after they went outside.
“Old Man Zhu is obviously faking his illness,” the advisor said.
"Yes, but why would he pretend to be sick? Could it be that he really killed Old Lady Zhu?"
There's no evidence for that.
"The pastries we found earlier have been recovered,"
"We've found out; it doesn't contain any poison," the coroner said from the side.
"Hmm? No? Then can you find out what kind of poison Old Lady Zhu was poisoned with?" Xiao Qinian was somewhat disappointed; there were no clues again.
"This hasn't been determined yet," the coroner said.
This makes it difficult to investigate. If we can't find out what kind of poison it is, we have no way of knowing where to start.
“Dad, we can look into the pastries,” Xiao Siyue said from the side.
“But the pastries weren’t poisonous,” the coroner said.
“Just because this piece isn’t poisonous doesn’t mean the piece Old Lady Zhu ate wasn’t poisonous,” Xiao Siyue said. What if the poison was only put on the piece Old Lady Zhu ate? Although this was just a guess, it was indeed too much of a coincidence that a piece of pastry appeared on Old Lady Zhu’s plate. Jujube paste cake was a rare treat these days, and no one would throw it away without eating it.
“Indeed, you should go and check if the Zhu family makes jujube paste cakes.” Xiao Qinian also felt that Xiao Siyue was right.
A short while later, the constable returned.
"Reporting to Your Excellency, the Zhu family did not make jujube paste cake." Actually, this is quite normal, as jujubes are quite expensive, and most people wouldn't be willing to use them to make pastries.
"Dad, we can go to the pastry shop in town and ask."
"Yes, Yue'er is right. You two go and ask her."