The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Chapter 457: An Immature Inference

When they heard this, everyone in the Central Judicial Office had already lowered their faces.

The monks wanted to push off the Fu Shou Festival of the Supreme Emperor, although they had thought on behalf of Master Lechi; more importantly, they were taking the opportunity to vent their dissatisfaction with the Central Judicial Office.

In normal times, they might not be able to achieve their wishes.

But at present, the Supreme Emperor was holding back his evil anger due to ”household matters.” If he took advantage of the situation and reduced his anger, it wouldn’t be a pleasant situation if he were to punish the people in the Criminal Department one by one!

Of course, Sun Shaozong might be an exception; after all, he has just come out of the Crown Prince's Residence, and no matter what, it couldn’t be blamed on him.

But how could Sun Shaozong, as the Chief Official of the Criminal Department, be left out alone at this time?

So without hesitation, he stepped out of the crowd and forced the monks to calm down with a cold and stern gaze. He then said solemnly, "Now, due to the Crown Prince case, Your Majesty and the Supreme Emperor have been restless all night, and the court is in a mess. The Fayuan Temple has always been under the protection of the royal family. Now won’t you think of praying for the Crown Prince, but instead, you want to stir up the Supreme Emperor Fu Shou Festival? What is your intention?”

Originally, the monks wanted to borrow the name of the Supreme Emperor to exert pressure on the Central Judicial Office, but unexpectedly, Sun Shaozong turned the tables.

At present, a monk said angrily, "We naturally don't want to ruin the Fu Shou Festival of the Supreme Emperor. However, after half a month of investigation, more monks have died, but there is no explanation from the Central Judicial Office until now.”

Sun Shaozong snorted and interrupted the person's accusation. His gaze flashed around, and he sneered, "I ordered the temporary detention of five people, including Jie Chen, on that day until the truth about Jie Xian's death is found out.”

“However, I was ordered to go to the Crown Prince's Residence to investigate the imperial case, and you went to the Central Judicial Office to make a fuss and even saved Jie Chen and others, which is why the murderer was able to continue to act aggressively. Now that you are unwilling to reflect on your actions, why do you want to blame me for this crime?”

“Furthermore, I only took over this case again today. What about the previous ”half a month” and what does it have to do with me?”

This statement was not completely irrefutable, but Sun Shaozong's aura was enough to make up for those omissions, making the present monks speechless, and there was no complete response for a while.

“Amitabha Buddha.”

At this moment, Monk Lechi suddenly recited the Buddhist name and raised his head, trembling. His wrinkled eyes drooped, and two tears the size of beans squeezed out. He muttered to himself, "I never thought, I never thought you and I had been apprentices for over thirty years, but today... Sigh”

He looked up with a long sigh and barely straightened up, saying, "Fortunately, Lord Sun has personally come here now. It won't be long before we can find out the truth and uphold justice.”

As he spoke, he clasped his palms and said solemnly, "Your Excellency Sun, everything is up to you.”

The old monk's ”awakening” was just right!

With Sun Shaozong's eyesight, it was also difficult to distinguish whether he had just been dizzy or fake dizzy. Therefore, he could only respond with a courtesy, "Master, there's no need to be too polite. This is my job, and I will do my best to arrest the murderer as soon as possible.”

Upon hearing the words, Lechi repeatedly nodded and ordered all the disciples in the temple to open the convenient door to help Sun Shaozong solve the case as soon as possible so that Jie Nian and others could avenge their grievances.

All the disciples were a bit embarrassed, but it was not easy to report the recent incident, so they had to answer with a muffled head first.

Sun Shaozong, of course, wouldn’t be polite either. On one hand, he ordered someone to temporarily block Gongde Forest and prevent anyone from approaching at will, especially near the crime scene, where people were required to be stationed day and night. On the other hand, he held a chicken feather as an arrow and took this opportunity to conduct a thorough investigation inside the temple.

Of course, in addition to abstaining from contemplating the actions before death, an investigation should also be conducted into the matter of ”Mrs. Fan.”

However, the monks in the temple were very taboo about the matter of ”Mrs. Fan,” and apart from the well-known ”rumors,” nothing new has been discovered.

It was a disciple of Jie Nian who provided an unknown piece of information, whether it was useful or not.

“A letter?”

“Yes, that day it was my turn to pick up bath water for Master. When I arrived at the door, I saw Master looking out in a bit of confusion. I was feeling puzzled when I suddenly realized that there was a letter at the door.”

“After I reminded Master, he seemed very nervous and shaved me outside, then locked the door again.”

“When did this happen?”

“On the ten... Fourteen, that's the evening on which Uncle Jie Ming died.”

That was to say, on the evening of Jie Ming's death, Jie Nian suddenly received a mysterious letter, and he seemed to be a bit wary of the letter and the sender.

As Sun Shaozong pondered the connection between this matter and the entire case, he ordered someone to conduct a carpet-like search in Jie Nian’s room, hoping to uncover the letter and solve the mystery.

However, this hope was dashed.

There were indeed several letters in Jie Nian’s room, but the most recent one was also sent at the end of May, which was unlikely to have anything to do with this case.

Until around five o'clock in the afternoon.

The talents of the Central Judicial Office gathered together again and began to analyze the latest information and clues.

In this regard, it was Qiu Yunfei's weakness. He looked at the tens of thousands of words of confession and testimony on the table and said with a worried expression, "These people's confessions are all trivial matters that are not to be mentioned, and there is no order in the mess. When will we be able to sort them out?”

Although Wei Ruolan and Private Advisor Qi didn’t complain, their faces remained solemn.

At this moment, they heard Sun Shaozong say, "Actually, after reading these confessions, I have an immature speculation.”

Everyone's spirit was boosted, and Private Advisor Qi quickly arched his hand and asked Sun Shaozong to quickly express his high opinion.

“Firstly, Jie Ming.”

“The three individuals, Jie Nian, Jie Xian, and Jie Chi, are all related to the matter of ”Mrs. Fan,” but Jie Ming is not involved in it.”

“And his death was the strangest of the four deceased.”

“It is precisely because of this that Jie Chen insisted on believing that it was caused by demons and prepared to retaliate against the five monks who had been under house arrest that day.”

“Of course, this is pure nonsense.”

“But…”

“Can the murderer kill Jie Ming for another reason? For example, he threatened the murderer?”

“Threatened the killer?”

Upon hearing this, Private Advisor Qi furrowed his brows and said thoughtfully, "Your Excellency, do you think that he may have detected the true identity of the murderer?”

“No.”

Sun Shaozong decisively shook his head and said, "I suspect that Jie Ming is an accomplice of the murderer.”

“What?”

Everyone was stunned and said in amazement, "How could this be possible? If he were an accomplice of the murderer, how could he be nailed to death at the entrance of Fayuan Temple?”

Private Advisor Qi further questioned, "What is the basis for your inference? It can't be imagined out of thin air, can it?”

“Based on…”

Sun Shaozong spread his hands and said, "I was just choosing between two. If the culprit is between the only remaining Jie Chen and Jie Xiu, I would prefer that Jie Xiu is the culprit.”

“After all, from all the collected data, it seems that the relationship between Jie Chen and Jie Nian can only be described as dangerous or evil. If Jie Chen invites in a person and Jie Nian is always cautious, he may not easily take risks alone.”

“On the contrary, if it is Jie Xiu who has already ”cleared the suspicion,” the cautiousness of Jie Nian towards it will not be so heavy. As long as Jie Xiu has an appropriate bait, he should be able to deceive him into committing crimes in the Gongde Forest.”

“If Jie Xiu were the murderer, it would be difficult to explain Jie Shi's death; after all, he was being guarded by three monks at the time and had no opportunity to commit the crime.”

“But what if he's not the only culprit?”

“What if he has another accomplice?”

“Jie Xiu and Jie Ming, as close friends, have been monks in the Fayuan Temple for over ten years together. Their relationship is not ordinary, and if Jie Xiu is the main culprit, and if he wants to find someone to conspire with, Jie Ming is naturally the best choice.”

“After making the above inference, I focused on questioning the temperament of these two people normally.”

“Jie Xiu is the best at adapting to circumstances, but he also likes to dig into the corners of an ox, and he is often a bit jealous and holds a grudge.”

“Jie Ming has a relatively simple mind. When impulsive, he disregards the consequences, but later on, it often leads to regret and makes the opposite choice as at the time.”

“When the two of them get along, he always prioritizes being absolutely obedient.”

“Based on their temperament and relationship, I have made the following inference.”

“First of all, Monk Jiexiu doesn't know why, whether it's acting on behalf of heaven or trying to clean up the door; in short, he has developed a killing intention towards Jiexian and others and even dragged Jieming into the water.”

“On the day of the solar eclipse, he may have already set a plan to, with the assistance of Jie Ming, take the opportunity to kill Jie Xian.”

“Unexpectedly, the plan could not keep up with the changes, and a solar eclipse occurred midway. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so Jie Xiu simply killed Jie Xian in the darkness.”

“Afterward, he deliberately violated the rules by having a verbal fight to create an alibi and have Jie Ming kill Jie Chi.”

“Following this logic, we should continue to infer that the next step is for Jie Ming to create an alibi and then get Jie Chi to kill Jie Nian.”

“However, at this moment, the old habit of Jie Ming has been committed. He regrets participating in this killing game and wants to quit, and may even want to surrender.”

“Unfortunately, at this point, Jie Xiu was already in a position where he couldn’t turn back. He has always been a master who loves to take unnecessary pains to study an insignificant problem. Thus, he simply fooled Jie Ming out of the temple and took the opportunity to kill him.”

“Jie Ming may not have expected to take action against him during the martial arts recess. He was momentarily stunned, or for other reasons, he didn’t have time to resist.”

“As for why Jie Chi made a troublesome scene of Jie Ming’s murder, I haven't figured it out yet, using an iron chisel to nail him to the ground.”

“In short, Jie Chi used some trick again today to deceive Jie Nian into the Gongde Forest and then killed him in some way, intending to fabricate the illusion of a demon dog killing people.”

After listening to Sun Shaozong's lengthy and extensive discourse, everyone remained silent for a long time before Private Advisor Qi nodded first and said, "Your Excellency Sun's inference can indeed make sense, but...”

He hesitated at this point and seemed embarrassed to point out Sun Shaozong's omissions.

Sun Shaozong immediately took the initiative to intervene and said with a bitter smile, "After all, the inference can only remain as an inference, and the most important key evidence is missing. Therefore, even if the logic is reasonable, it is difficult to convict based on this.”