County government hall.
There were only four people in the hall, two county magistrates, Cheng Xiao and Xu Zhen.
"Xu Zhen," Song Zhili said while still standing, frowning, "There are no outsiders here. You can tell me, who killed Old Man Li?"
"Actually, the answer couldn't be simpler," Xu Zhen shrugged and finally said, "The murderer is Old Man Li himself!"
"What? You..." The two county officials frowned, and Chen Houlu couldn't help but ask, "Are you saying this too lightly? Suicide? How could that happen?"
Tsk tsk...
Song Zhili smacked his lips repeatedly and glanced at Cheng Xiao unconsciously, because the two of them had also thought about whether Old Man Li would commit suicide?
But... it doesn't make sense at all. Old Man Li was suing his daughter. How could he commit suicide at such an important moment?
However, he soon discovered that Cheng Xiao was thinking seriously, and it seemed that Xu Zhen's words made him realize something.
Could it be...
"My lords," Xu Zhen said his speculation slowly, "if there really is such a murderer, unless he can become invisible, there is no way he could kill Old Man Li in this way."
"But...suicide..." Chen Houlu tugged at his beard and asked, "Why?"
"It's not complicated at all," Xu Zhen said. "Old man Li was probably coerced and forced to take the poison. It's possible that the murderer threatened him with his daughter's life. If he refused to do it, he would be killed. Killed his daughter!"
"Ah?" Chen Houlu felt a little messy, and quickly stroked his beard and combed it carefully.
"You mean," Song Zhili said, "that Old Man Li knew from the beginning that it was not Qiu Batian who raped her daughter and abandoned her naked in the market?"
"Perhaps, he only abandoned the market naked and was not raped." Xu Zhen said, "I even suspect that his daughter Ailian was also involved.
"Because we have confirmed that Qiu Batian himself did molest Ailian at Yong'an Market, so Ailian cannot admit the wrong person!"
"Oh my God," Chen Houlu shook his head repeatedly, "Are these father and daughter suffering from mental illness? Are they ruining themselves like this?"
"Perhaps they were all forced," Xu Zhen said. "Unfortunately, their father and daughter were selected by that group of people and used as tools to deal with Qiu Batian."
"..." Song Zhili said nothing, obviously thinking about Xu Zhen's inference.
"Xu Zhen!" However, Cheng Xiao shouted, pointed at his neck and said, "Then how do you explain the pinch marks on Old Man Li's neck?"
"You can pinch it yourself and see if you can," Xu Zhen didn't offend him and just answered casually, "See if you can pinch out the same traces!"
"You..." Cheng Xiao stared. He was quite depressed. He felt that Xu Zhen was contradicting him all the time, but he couldn't do anything about it.
But the more this happened, the more displeased he became with Xu Zhen.
"A group of people..." Song Zhili spread his hands and murmured, "Select Old Man Li and his daughter, first abandon Old Man Li's daughter naked in the market, and let her frame Qiu Batian.
"Then, he asked Old Man Li to come to the Yamen to complain...
"They calculated early in the morning that Old Man Li would be imprisoned in the South Prison as a plaintiff, so they forced Old Man Li to commit suicide by taking poison in the cell, in order to frame us and create the illusion that we were complicit with Qiu Batian..."
As he spoke, Song Zhili's fists were clenched and trembling with anger and fear...
"So..." Chen Houlu thought of something and said, "The body in Old Man Li's house is not his daughter Ailian. Does this mean that the murderer fulfilled his promise and spared Ailian's life?"
"Old Man Li..." Song Zhili continued his analysis, "When he was imprisoned, he took poison with him. When the time came, he overturned the table, pinched his neck, and finally committed suicide by swallowing the medicine. In this way, , we are even more convinced of this scapegoat...
"Vicious, really vicious!"
Song Zhili's face was livid, and he was obviously holding in a bad breath.
He didn't care about the life and death of Old Man Li and his daughter, but he felt really angry about being framed in this way.
It was obvious that he had completely believed Xu Zhen's speculation.
"Sir," however, the alert Cheng Xiao reminded, "I think this is all Xu Zhen's speculation, and there is no solid evidence!"
"Yes," Chen Houlu also thought of this question, and immediately turned to Xu Zhen and asked, "Xu Zhen, do you have any evidence?"
"No," Xu Zhen answered very simply, "If we can find evidence, how can their conspiracy succeed?"
"This..." Song Zhili suddenly hesitated. If he could not confirm this matter, it might affect his subsequent countermeasures.
At such a critical moment, he couldn't make a wrong move.
"Sir," Xu Zhen reminded, "recall now that when you announced that Old Man Li would be imprisoned, was Old Man Li's reaction... normal?"
oh?
Song Zhili hurriedly tried to recall it, but he couldn't remember it.
However, when I heard what Xu Zhen said, I felt that there was something wrong with Old Man Li's reaction at that time.
Xu Zhen remembered clearly that at that time, Old Man Li's eyebrows were tightened, his eyes were red, he was breathing very hard, and he was always slow to respond to other people's words. He was obviously very worried.
At first, Xu Zhen only thought that he was worried about whether he could win the lawsuit, but later he recalled carefully and found that Old Man Li's language was inconsistent with his body, and he would unconsciously touch his neck when speaking, which is a typical manifestation of lying.
If you really came to complain with all your heart, why would you lie?
Therefore, Xu Zhen had already thought that he might have committed suicide as early as the day of Old Man Li's death.
However, he naturally couldn't explain these modern micro-expression mind-reading techniques to Song Zhili. He could only open them in the ancient way:
"The old man Li's eyes are black, his eyes are red, his expression is weak and his body is weak, and he has three of the five major evil aspects. He has obviously made plans to die!"
"Huh? You..." Chen Houlu was about to retort, but suddenly remembered Xu Zhen's performance at Wei Yulang's house and had to stop speaking.
"Remember it carefully," Xu Zhen reminded again, "When you said that you wanted to arrange for Old Man Li to write the petition on your behalf, was he surprised first, and then thanked you and said that you belonged to Master Qingtian? "
"This..." This time, Song Zhili finally remembered and immediately nodded meaningfully, confirming that Old Man Li was indeed abnormal at that time.
"Although he is just a commoner," Xu Zhen continued, "how could he not know what the consequences would be if he sued Qiu Batian? But he still came. Isn't this a problem?"
Unexpectedly, before Xu Zhen finished speaking, Cheng Xiao suddenly got angry, grabbed Xu Zhen by the collar, forcibly lifted Xu Zhen up, and shouted angrily:
"Xu Zhen, since you already knew that Old Man Li committed suicide, but you still asked me to interrogate those two jailers, what the hell are you thinking about? Do you think we are all fools?"
this……
The two county magistrates looked at each other, but did not stop Cheng Xiao.
Because they felt that Cheng Xiao's words did make sense, and it seemed that they were suspected of being fooled by Xu Zhen.
Xu Zhen didn't expect that Cheng Xiao would suddenly get angry. He immediately suppressed his face and struggled to explain: "Without a trial, how can we know that there is really no problem between them? Besides, these are all speculations, and I have no evidence..."
Dangdangdang...
Unexpectedly, at such a critical moment, someone suddenly knocked on the door hurriedly.
Then came the voice of a certain government official:
"Sir, a letter has arrived..."
After Song Zhili heard this, he had no choice but to wave his hand at Cheng Xiao, and then Cheng Xiao let go of his hand.
The fierce force immediately caused Xu Zhen to cough violently.
Cheng Xiao glared at Xu Zhen fiercely, then opened the door, took in the letter from the Yamen servant's hand, turned around and handed it to Song Zhili.
When Song Zhili saw the envelope, he immediately opened it eagerly and took out the letter paper.
Although the distance was far away, Xu Zhen could still tell at a glance that the content on the letter was very short, and seemed to only contain a few words.
However, after Song Zhili saw these words clearly, his face instantly became solemn, and his eyes almost became a blur.
Next, he rolled his eyes and thought seriously for a long time. Then he put the letter away and Cheng Xiao said:
"Captain Cheng, gather everyone together immediately. Tonight... we will arrest - Qiu Batian!!!"
…
