Ming Dynasty Detective 1546

Chapter 6 He must have been wronged!

"Coroner! Coroner! Perform an autopsy immediately!"

"Reporting to Magistrate Shao... they wouldn't let me... take off my clothes... saying that would be desecrating the corpse..."

"what!"

Shao Jing, the magistrate of Qiongzhou government office, soon appeared at the school with a group of fast-paced catchers.

After discovering that the students led by Hai Rui were confronting the guards led by Ruan Zhengyong, he hurriedly asked about the situation and then went to the cell to prepare for the autopsy.

When the hunched coroner stepped forward and whispered his report, Shao Jing's gloomy face finally erupted. He rushed to Ruan Zhengyong and roared, "I told you to stay in the government office, but you insisted on coming to the academy, saying that the Ming soldiers wouldn't bother you with your guard duty? What's the result? What's the result? Now that Envoy Li has been murdered, you still dare to prevent the coroner from performing an autopsy?"

"I will be convicted of dereliction of duty when we return to Annan! And the murder of His Highness was not our fault as a guard. If it were the assassin of the Mo family, our bodies would have fallen before His Highness's death. However, we were caught completely off guard. It was you, the Ming people, who poisoned us!"

Ruan Zhengyong's voice was equally furious: "You Ming people will not be allowed to desecrate His Highness's body. After he is returned to his country for burial, he will be ashamed to face the ancestors of the Li King!"

"You! You guys!"

Shao Jing was furious, but he could do nothing when he saw that these guards refused to budge, some even holding their scabbards and standing in front of the corpse.

This kind of thing is not uncommon. In ancient times, relatives would often not accept the removal of clothes, let alone dissection.

What's worse, when someone dies in a wealthy family, they don't allow coroners to enter to avoid bringing bad luck to the living.

So unless it is a clear homicide case, there is no need for a coroner to be present, but now he has to do it.

Shao Jing looked at the coroner and asked, "Can we find out the cause of death without taking off the clothes?"

The coroner said in a low voice: "I can submit... a brief report..."

"Go!"

The coroner entered the room, circled the heavily guarded corpse, and then returned, slowly saying, "The body was lying on its back, head facing northwest, feet facing southeast. There were no injuries anywhere on the body, no strangulation marks on the neck. The face was blue, bleeding from the mouth and nose, and the lips and nails were purple and black... It must have been poisoned!"

As Shao Jing listened, his brows began to frown.

The prosecutor was in charge of investigating and adjudicating cases and supervising local judicial affairs. Since he took office, there had not been such a vicious murder case in Qionshan. However, he was a responsible person and had read "Xi Yuan Ji Lu" (Washing Away Injustices), so he knew a little about the methods of autopsy.

According to the coroner, the symptoms were obvious and Li Weining had indeed died of poisoning.

But in this case, it is no longer like stabbing with an ordinary weapon.

The fight with sharp weapons was caused by the negligence of Annan's guards, which allowed the assassin to get close to him, and the prince who was being protected met with an unexpected death.

Although death from poisoning was also due to the guard's negligence, everyone who had contact with the person became a suspect.

Could it be that it really has something to do with the students in the academy?
"What were you arguing about before?"

Ruan Zhengyong was waiting for these words: "The perpetrator is Hai Yue from Journey to the West!"

"Haiyue?"

Shao Jing immediately thought of the handsome young man who knew how to correct his mistakes. He didn't believe it, but he also looked at the people waiting outside the room and said, "Let the students from the academy come in!"

Teacher Hu and two instructors led the students in one after another and stood in front of the courtyard where the rooms were located.

Hai Yue and Hai Rui stood in the front row of students. Although their faces were solemn, they did not show any signs of panic.

Seeing this, Shao Jing asked in a deep voice, "What's going on? Tell me one by one!"

Hai Yue said, "Whoever advocates, shall provide evidence. Let the Annan people speak first."

Naturally, no one had heard this sentence before, but after a moment's thought, they all understood its meaning and looked at the Annan guard in unison.

Indeed, they heard the news of Li Weining's death early in the morning, and then this group of Annan people rushed over aggressively. If Hai Rui had not stepped forward, there would probably have been an armed conflict. What exactly happened?

Some students heard Ruan Zhengyong's inference of poisoning, but most people are still confused.

"Okay! I'll talk first!"

Ruan Zhengyong was also unequivocal, his sharp eyes sweeping over him: "Last night, His Highness hosted a banquet and invited sixteen students to attend. Is that true or not?"

There were over thirty students in the academy, half of whom had changed expressions. Someone said, "Li Weining invited us, so of course we'll attend the banquet!"

Ruan Zhengyong asked again: "Your Highness is drinking your Qiongshan specialty, 'Shanlan Wine', is that right?"

Another student said, "This was also proposed by Li Weining. He heard that Shanlan wine is not only the finest wine of Qiongshan, but also has a reputation for being one that requires more than three bowls. Ordinary people would pass out after drinking three bowls, and outsiders would be even worse. So, they wanted to compete in drinking capacity..."

"Don't talk about that!"

Ruan Zhengyong shouted angrily, "Everyone present here has toasted His Highness, do you remember?"

More and more people started talking: "Li Weining toasted us too!" "This guy really has a huge appetite, he never refuses anything, he drank over twenty cups, almost five bowls!" "It's common for people to get drunk and let loose, who can remember it so clearly?"

"I remember it clearly!" Ruan Zhengyong shouted. "Although I didn't guard against the Ming people harming Your Highness, I stood outside the house last night, guarding at all times, and I witnessed the entire banquet with my own eyes! Your Highness did drink a lot, but it was all poured from the wine cup. If it was poisonous, he would not be the only one poisoned. Then he took a wine jug and began to pour wine. He never let go of the jug until he helped Haiyue block the wine, and then he handed it to this person. Is that right or not?"

Swish!
Following his pointing, everyone looked at Haiyue.

Some tried hard to recall, some frowned in thought, and some wanted to say something but stopped, but in the end no one said a word.

Not objecting means agreeing.

Hai Rui's heart sank, and he thought to himself, "This guard leader is really powerful!"

The other party's inquiry seemed to be just to reconstruct the situation last night, but in fact it had other intentions.

First, more than half of the students were involved in the murder of Prince Annan, and then the main suspect was locked on Haiyue alone.

As a result, even if the other students present last night felt that Haiyue was not the murderer, in order to avoid being suspected of murder, they would not speak up for him, and might even vaguely exclude him.

Haiyue also immediately felt that there was something wrong with the way his classmates looked at him, but he knew better than to push others into opposition at this moment, so he simply replied with two words: "That's it?"

Ruan Zhengyong was furious and suddenly grasped the hilt of the knife at his waist: "You murderer, how dare you be so arrogant?"

"You are the arrogant one!"

Hai Yue retorted, angrily, "It was clearly your fault for poor protection, yet you're now blaming me to shirk responsibility! Your excuse is ridiculous. I'm the murderer simply because Li Weining passed me the wine jug at the banquet last night? If you remember it so clearly, wouldn't you have seen me poisoning you?"

"How could I possibly see everything?"

Ruan Zhengyong said sternly, "Among these students, you are the only one with martial arts skills who could have found the right moment, hidden from our sight, and secretly poisoned the pot! You don't admit it? Fine! Then tell me, who else here could have poisoned His Highness's food and wine and killed him?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the other students couldn't help but breathe a little faster, especially those who were also attending the banquet, who suddenly became nervous.

Hai Yue didn't hesitate and directly retorted: "As a personal bodyguard, you didn't know when the person you were protecting was poisoned. Now you ask me who poisoned me? It's ridiculous!"

As soon as he finished speaking, his younger brother Hai Rui continued, "There must be a motive for committing a crime. What was my brother's motive for murdering Envoy Li? And how could he have prepared the poison so early?"

Many people nodded in response to this question.

Haiyue and Li Weining not only have no grudges against each other, but Li Weining also loves this writer's Journey to the West the most and has become good friends with him. There is absolutely no reason for him to harm her.

But when Ruan Zhengyong spoke, his words were different: "Ever since the prince came to the academy, you pretended to persuade him to leave. Later, you clashed with Zheng Wu. You pretended to be standing up for your classmate, but who knows if you were just testing the guards' strength?"

"You forced His Highness to move to the private room. It seemed to eliminate the risk of living in the same courtyard, but in fact it lowered our defenses!"

"More importantly, you've met with an Annan merchant and learned that war is spreading within our Annan territory. You said this yourself! The Annan merchant who told you this might be a subordinate of the traitor Mo. This person is the mastermind behind you poisoning our envoy to prevent him from seeking aid from the Ming Dynasty. The poison was naturally provided by the Annan merchant!"

"The associations are quite rich..."

After hearing this, Haiyue was speechless.

He did mention to Li Weining what the Annan merchants had said about the situation in the country, but that was to verify whether the historical process in his memory was consistent with what was actually happening. He didn't expect it to be used as evidence.

However, this excuse had a major flaw. His younger brother Hai Rui immediately retorted, "It was a complete surprise that your envoys had traveled across the ocean to Qiongshan. Even if the Annan merchants were traitors, how could they have been prepared and bribed in advance?"

Ruan Zhengyong asked, "Then how do you prove that you haven't had any contact with the bandits since my delegation arrived in Qiongshan?"

It's impossible for someone to have an alibi all day long, and Haiyue wouldn't fall into the trap of blindly proving herself. She immediately said, "Why should I prove it? Now that you've pointed the finger at me as the murderer, you should come up with solid evidence instead of relying solely on speculation!"

Ruan Zhengyong said coldly, "We will certainly catch the thief who provided the poison, and we will also find out how he bribed you to murder the prince of Annan, the envoy who originally wanted to see the emperor of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Bribe me to kill someone with money?"

Hai Yue was amused. "Not to mention my parents were quite wealthy, even the publication of a new edition of Journey to the West would have cost me a fortune. I don't want to make a living selling my writings, and I've rejected numerous offers from booksellers. Now, what do you think? Annan merchants bribed me with money to poison an envoy from a foreign vassal state?"

Everyone showed contempt.

It is really a small vassal state, looking at the world from the bottom of a well. There is no way such a murder could be bribed with money. Brother Yue is definitely not someone who is short of money!
Ruan Zhengyong remained unmoved. "There's a saying: 'The donkey from Guizhou has run out of tricks!' Your new adaptation of Journey to the West ends at chapter 30. How can I tell if you're unwilling to sell your writing cheaply and want to focus on the imperial examinations, as you claimed, or if you simply can't continue?"

Everyone couldn't help but look sideways again.

This Annanite's accusation is really hurtful, and the key is that it is difficult to refute it. After all, I won't write about it later...

"Will you ruin my reputation first and deepen the murderer's impression?"

Hai Yue stared deeply at the guard leader and said, "In Chapter 31, Zhu Bajie inspires the Monkey King with righteousness, and Sun Wukong defeats the monster with his wisdom. But the fool was caught by a group of monkeys. They lifted him up, pulled him, and tore his robes. He kept mumbling..."

As the subsequent story of Baoxiang Kingdom was told in a rhythmic tone, the audience held their breath and fell into complete silence.

During this period, Ruan Zhengyong tried to interrupt several times, but ultimately failed under the sharp gazes of the crowd.

When Tang Sanzang, who had been transformed into a tiger for a full year, finally regained his human form, Instructor Hu's aged and excited voice was the first to utter, "How could Hai Shisanlang commit such a crime? I guarantee that he must have been wrongly accused!"

(End of this chapter)