Chapter 176 The truth comes to light

In the past, it was said that the Emperor of Qin had a mirror, which could illuminate people's courage and gain insight into world affairs. Later, it was said that officials were fair and strict, and they could judge cases like gods. This is called a mirror hanging high.

In the lobby of every local government office, there is a picture of the rising sun on the sea behind the official chair to show the uprightness.Gongsun Zhuoyu put on his official uniform and sat in the high hall, with the plaque "Mingjing Hanging High" hanging above his head.

Du Lingchun and the magistrate were listening to the trial and sat aside.One of them was waiting to see what happened, and the other was waiting to grasp the clue. The people outside surrounded the place, craning their necks to see how Gongsun Zhuoyu tried the case.

Dan Qiu and Yu Sheng were both kneeling in the hall, both looking pale.In particular, Gongsun Zhuoyu also ordered people to carry the body up. On a sunny day, it can scare people's souls away alive.

Gongsun Zhuoyu glanced at Du Lingchun's position and nodded slightly: "Sir, I'm going to start the trial."

Du Lingchun always looked like he was too lazy to be beaten. Hearing this, he lifted the lid of the tea cup, and his slender white little finger was slightly raised, showing his femininity.He said in a cool voice: "Master Gongsun is only in charge of the trial. I am only here to observe and will not interfere at will. I expect the same is true for the prefect."

The prefect could only respond and smiled awkwardly.

Gongsun Zhuoyu looked away when he saw this, and smacked the gavel tree in his hand hard. The sound reverberated and shook the ghosts and gods. The officials on both sides hit the ground quickly with water and fire sticks, and shouted "mighty" in unison.

Gongsun Zhuoyu: "The criminals are Dan Qiu and Yu Shengquan. I am charging you two with murdering Lei Quan, the housekeeper of Bieyuan, the prefect. Do you plead guilty or not?"

Danqiu seemed to be frightened by these battles, his face was pale and he was speechless.Yu Shengquan raised his head, but only said eight words: "If you want to accuse me, there is no reason to hesitate."

This is a plan to deny recognition even to the point of death and to resist stubbornly.

Gongsun Zhuoyu didn't care and narrated the case according to the process: "Three days ago, an unknown corpse was found in the ancient well of the prefecture's Bieyuan. When he died, he was wearing a red wedding dress, with a woman's hair in a bun and a gold hairpin.The maid in the mansion identified them and found that they are all the belongings of Dan Qiu, the long-lost maid in the mansion."

After he finished speaking, he deliberately glanced at Dan Qiu, and then continued to add: "Because the body was severely decomposed and the face could not be seen clearly. At first glance, everyone thought it was Dan Qiu's body. But after my official verification,That corpse is Lei Quan, the housekeeper of Bieyuan, the prefect, oh, that is Miss Danqiu’s fiancé.”

As soon as he said this, the crowd immediately exploded. Look at this posture, could it be that the vicious woman teamed up with the adulterer to kill her fiancéed husband?!But the little lady looked soft and weak, and Dr. Yu had always had a good reputation. She didn't look like someone who would do such a thing.

It was probably the foolish magistrate who tried the wrong case, everyone thought.

Gongsun Zhuoyu put his breakthrough point on Danqiu: "Miss Danqiu, did you kill Lei Quan?"

Hearing this, Dan Qiu subconsciously looked at Yu Shengquan, but the latter calmly shook his head at her.Danqiu closed his eyes in pain and bit his lower lip. After a while, he struggled to spit out a few words: "I didn't kill anyone..."

Gongsun Zhuoyu thought how great it would be to admit it openly, but it would take so much effort every time.He simply walked down to the court, put on the cloth gloves handed by his master, and then lifted the white cloth covering the body amidst everyone's exclamations -

The carrion on the corpse had been cleaned, and now only a gloomy white skeleton remained.

Gongsun Zhuoyu picked up the corpse's head and showed the crack on the back of the head to Dan Qiu: "Lei Quan was hit on the back of the head with a heavy object and his body was thrown into the well after death. By coincidence, when I was searching everywhere,The murder weapon was found.”

As he spoke, he ordered someone to bring the pebble up: "Miss Danqiu, there is a bamboo bush in the courtyard where you live. This is where I found this stone. It is still stained with Lei Quan's blood.Do you want to take a closer look?"

As Gongsun Zhuoyu said this, he handed the stone forward, and Dan Qiu immediately turned pale with fright.Du Lingchun took a sip of tea and thought that Gongsun Zhuoyu was also a narrow-minded person.

Danqiu didn't dare to look at the corpse, let alone the stone. He covered his face with a handkerchief, turned sideways and shook his head in horror: "No...I...I didn't...why should I kill him..."

Gongsun Zhuoyu: "Because you already have a sweetheart and don't want to marry Lei Quan."

He said and took out another sweat towel: "This is a men's sweat towel found in the drawer of your room. It has the word 'Quan' embroidered on it. At first, I thought it was Lei Quan's 'Quan', butLater I found out that it was Yu Shengquan's 'Quan'."

All the clues connected in series are actually enough to deduce the entire case.

Gongsun Zhuoyu shook his sleeves and paced back and forth in front of Danqiu: "I once found a love handkerchief under the pillow in your room. It was stained with tears. It is really heartbreaking, but you are about to marry your fiancé Lei.We are all married, so why are you crying? Because you already have someone in your heart,"

As Gongsun Zhuoyu spoke, he walked up to Yu Shengquan, remembering what happened in the brothel last time, and kicked him hard without saying a word: "And this person is Yu Shengquan, the doctor at Jishengtang!"

Yu Sheng was in pain and groaned, but he dared not speak out in anger.

The people watching from behind were eating melon crazily.

Gongsun Zhuoyu kept staring at Danqiu: "But you are a slave born in the prefecture's Bieyuan. You do not have the contract of sale, and you have no control over your marriage. You have no choice but to marry the housekeeper Lei Quan."

When Dan Qiu heard this, he remembered some painful memories, his eye circles were faintly red, and his whole body was shaking.

Gongsun Zhuoyu seemed to have witnessed it with his own eyes, and his voice was gentle, but piercing his heart like a needle: "So you conspired with Yu Shengquan to kill Lei Quan."

Danqiu suddenly panicked: "No! We didn't! We didn't kill anyone!"

Gongsun Zhuoyu weighed the bloody pebbles in his hands. It was very heavy and Dan Qiu could not move it: "Yu Shengquan attacked Lei Quan from behind with a stone, causing him to die on the spot. You were afraid of being discovered, so you wanted to throw the body into the well. But even ifLei Quan is dead, and Danqiu is still a slave, unable to escape the official investigation and escape from the city, so you came up with a plan."

Next to them, there were government servants presenting evidence, including the bloody wedding dress and the fallen gold hairpin.

Gongsun Zhuoyu also compared Danqiu's bun and found that it was roughly the same as that on the corpse: "You put Lei Quan in women's clothes, and the accessories are all Danqiu's common items, in order to ensure that if the corpse isWhen people found it, they could tell at a glance that it was the body of 'Dan Qiu'. And it happened that Lei Quan went back to his hometown to visit relatives during those few days and was not in the house for a few days, so no one noticed it."

No matter what, Danqiu couldn't escape the blame. She was discovered by the Yamen in Yusheng's family in full view of the public. Even if she had a hundred mouths, she couldn't defend herself. She gritted her teeth and took the blame herself: "That's right.I killed Lei Quan!"

She was obviously a weak woman, but when she said these words, in addition to tears, there was also a frightening cruelty in her eyes, which caused an uproar around her.

Dan Qiu closed his eyes: "I am a son of the family, and my marriage can only be arranged by my master. Lei Quan knew that I had someone he liked, but he still went to the prefect to ask for me..."

When she said this, she choked for a moment before continuing: "I went to beg him to redeem my deed of betrayal, but he wouldn't give it. I had no choice but to ask Brother Shengquan to take me away with him."

Yu Shengquan was kneeling beside him, worried and looking ugly.

"That day Lei Quan went home to visit relatives. I thought it was a good time, so I packed up my belongings and wanted to escape. But who would have thought that Lei Quan didn't take Lu Yin with him, so he turned back halfway and found that Brother Shengquan and I were planning to elope. TheyThe two fought directly..."

Yu Shengquan was so nervous that cold sweat broke out on his back. He wanted to say something but couldn't. It wasn't until Dan Qiu said the next words that he breathed a sigh of relief.

Dan Qiu: "I was afraid that Brother Quan would be injured, so I moved a rock to hit Lei Quan. Who would have thought that I would accidentally kill him. I simply put him in his own clothes, put a bun on his hair and pretended to be a woman, and pushed him inIn the well, he escaped from the house and hid in Brother Shengquan's house."

She actually took the blame on her own body. I don't know if it was because of the broken jar, but she didn't cry anymore, she just closed her eyes and waited for death.

When Yu Shengquan heard this, a flash of guilt flashed across his face, but he didn't say anything to explain. He actually acquiesced.

Gongsun Zhuoyu laughed: "The girl is actually a lover, but it's a pity that she entrusted her to the wrong person."

That day he also saw Yu Shengquan visiting a brothel and drinking tea with an oiran girl.

Someone originally confessed, but Gongsun Zhuoyu was too lazy to continue the investigation. It was his style to close the case as soon as possible.It's just that Yu Shengquan is too hateful. It would be a pity to let him go like this.

Gongsun Zhuoyu said to Danqiu: "There is a very strong scent of incense in your room, because it was the scene where Lei Quan died first. In order to cover up the smell of blood, you lit a heavy incense, right?"

Danqiu nodded: "Yes..."

Gongsun Zhuoyu said silently: "In this case, it means that Lei Quan did not die at the well. But you are weak and sick, and you lack strength. Lei Quan is eight feet tall. How did you lift a heavy stone and smash him to death?How did you drag him all the way from his residence to the well and dump his body?"

This is a very real problem, because Dan Qiu can't lift the stone at all, nor can he drag Lei Quan.

After he finished speaking, he placed the stone on the ground with a clang. The sound was dull, which showed its weight.

Dan Qiu realized that he had made a mistake, and his face turned pale. Yu Shengquan beside him fell to the ground helplessly as if his soul had been taken away.

Gongsun Zhuoyu made a conclusion and pointed at the two of them: "Yu Sheng killed all of them, and Miss Danqiu you are an accomplice."

Neither of them refuted, looking defeated.

The people outside immediately exploded. They did not expect that Yu Shengquan was actually the murderer. Some were in disbelief, some were scornful, and most of them were amazed at Gongsun Zhuoyu's ability to solve the case.

Du Lingchun raised his head and lowered his eyes upon seeing this. Although he said nothing, it was not difficult to see the look of satisfaction on his face.

The magistrate was full of resentment and did not want Gongsun Zhuoyu to steal the limelight. After thinking about it, he suddenly found a doubt and asked: "How do I remember that Lord Gongsun once said that the body had been dead for more than fifteen days?", if this body is really Lei Quan, why did it decompose so quickly in just a few days?"

Gongsun Zhuoyu also thought that the degree of decomposition of a corpse is largely determined by surrounding environmental factors.At first, he thought it was caused by the water in the well, so he hung a dead mouse down, and found that the decomposition rate was normal. It was not until later that he discovered the clues.

Gongsun Zhuoyu smiled half-heartedly and pointed at Yu Shengquan: "As for this question, the magistrate would like to ask him."