Chapter 175: 175. Chapter 175: Finding the Culprit

175. Chapter 175: Finding the Culprit

"This matter has nothing to do with my family." Jiang Xiaoxiao said as soon as she opened her mouth.

"I know." Shen Que spat out three words coldly, then turned and entered the courtyard.

It seemed he went through all this trouble just to carry her out of the courtyard...

After a night, the two corpses in the house began to emit a foul, stinking smell.

Early in the morning, there were many people, and everyone rushed to see it, so they didn't feel anything. Now that the county government people came, everyone had to quiet down.

Once people quieted down, they smelled the foul smell.

Everyone felt nauseous one after another and wanted to leave this courtyard, but they were blocked by the county government people and had to be questioned one by one before they could leave.

For a time, everyone was miserable.

Jiang Xiaoxiao looked into the courtyard. Her mother was being focused on and questioned by several yamen runners, and Li Zheng was helping to speak on the side.

"Oh, officials, Xiaoxiao's mother is a great benefactor in our village, with the kindest heart. She often helps people in our village. Even if her family has a conflict with Zhao Wulai's family, it is absolutely impossible to do such a thing..."

"Oh my, Li Zheng, stop speaking for Jiang Shi. Who doesn't know that Zhao Wulai's mother made trouble at the Jiang family's door yesterday and was splashed with a bucket of snakes by Jiang Shi!" Li Dayong's wife's sharp and mean voice sounded, "What kind of good family would raise snakes? Jiang Shi, that widow, looks evil at first glance. Maybe the tragedy at Zhao Wulai's house was done by her!"

"Li Dayong's wife, if you talk nonsense again, I'll tear your mouth!" Zhao Dasao, who was usually silent and gentle, suddenly spoke up.

Her eyes were red, as if she was trying to endure something.

"Yo, I say Zhao Dasao, why are you so excited?" Li Dayong's wife seemed to think the matter wasn't big enough, and mocked: "Speaking of which, you also have a great suspicion. Your man is dead, and you

"Silence!" A yamen runner who had been silently following behind Shen Que suddenly spoke up to scold, "When did it become your turn, a woman, to stand here and make comments on the yamen's official business? If you continue to babble and obstruct the yamen's work, be careful or I will have someone drag you to the yamen to receive a few strokes of the staff!"

Li Dayong's wife trembled in fear, as if she had only just realized that this was not a place where she could stir up trouble at will; several yamen officials were still here, after all. She tremblingly shut her mouth.

Li Dayong, standing to the side, was both shocked and afraid. He gave her a fierce slap across the face, then hurriedly dragged her away, terrified that she might say something else to anger the yamen officials and cause their whole family to suffer along with them.

After the Li Dayong couple left, Zhao Dasao's eyes remained red.

She looked toward the inside of the house from afar, her reddened eyes revealing an indescribable emotion.

At this moment, Qiulian Niang walked over and patted her shoulder in a soothing manner. She didn't say any words of comfort; she just silently patted Zhao Dasao's shoulder.

In fact, everyone present could see that the tragedy at the home of Zhao Wulai had quite a significant impact on Zhao Dasao.

Even if Zhao Dasao detested Zhao Wulai as a man, he was, after all, the biological father of her two daughters... Zhao Dasao had always been kind-hearted; watching a former acquaintance suddenly die like this would make anyone feel terrible.

It was just that Li Dayong's wife was someone who loved to find fault, insisting on saying such nasty things to provoke people.

"That's enough." Shen Que beckoned to the two yamen runners who had been questioning Jiang Wei. "The criminal has already escaped, so continuing the interrogation is useless. You arrange for men to check the nearby mountain paths, and also search the road up the mountain."

Several yamen runners responded and respectfully withdrew, carrying out Shen Que's orders.

"How are you so certain that the killer is no longer in the village?" Master Yuan walked over and asked, puzzled.

"The knife wounds on the deceased are chaotic and irregular, and the wounds are very shallow, which shows that the killer is a woman who rarely uses a kitchen knife." Shen Que's gaze slowly swept over everyone in the courtyard, and he said slowly, "Furthermore, from those chaotic knife wounds, one can also see that the killer was extremely panicked when committing the crime. Although she has escaped, she certainly would not dare to show her face in front of outsiders and will inevitably hide in a secluded, uninhabited place."

Master Yuan listened and nodded thoughtfully, hurriedly ordering the Li Zheng to gather the whole village to see who was missing.

Seeing the Li Zheng hurriedly go to gather the villagers, he couldn't help but glance at Jiang Wei in the distance, who was talking to her daughter with composure. Her lighthearted and calm appearance seemed to be from a different world than the people around her who were all terrified.

Someone had died in this village, and in such a shocking and terrifying manner; how could she, a woman, not be afraid at all?

Instead, she was acting as if nothing had happened...

Master Yuan couldn't help but lower his voice and ask, "My Lord, then how are you so certain that the young Lady Jiang is not..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but Shen Que already understood what he meant.

"Look at her hands." He glanced at Jiang Wei in the distance and said indifferently, "Her wrists are strong and her fingers are nimble, unlike those dull women. If she wanted to kill someone with a knife, a single strike would end a life; she certainly wouldn't hack out those messy, shallow wounds."

"..." Master Yuan fell silent.

This lord was actually praising someone for once; it was truly unprecedented, as if the sun had risen from the west...

Over here, Jiang Xiaoxiao was still telling her mother her own guesses; she believed that this murder case was committed by Widow Xu.

Aside from Widow Xu, she really couldn't think of anyone who would have such great resentment and hatred toward Zhao Wulai and Zhao Wang Shi, not only killing them both but also subjecting them to humiliation and torture before they died.

The amount of blood Zhao Wulai lost from his lower body meant he must have been alive when that thing was cut off, causing the massive hemorrhage...

As for Zhao Wang Shi, she usually beat or scolded Widow Xu and even threatened to sell her into a brothel... It was possible that Widow Xu had decided to fight to the death...

Before long, two yamen runners arrived, dragging a disheveled woman.

"My Lord, the person has been caught!"

Everyone looked up one after another.

Wasn't that woman Widow Xu?

She was seen struggling like a madwoman under the hands of the two yamen runners, roaring incoherently, her voice hoarse and extremely unpleasant.

"... Why are you catching me! I did nothing wrong! Those two animals deserved it! It was that mother and son who forced me! All of this was caused by that animal Zhao Wulai, who made me become like this! I was a pure and innocent person, ruined and threatened by him; I didn't want this either... He not only ruined me, he also had the delusional idea of ruining that widow Jiang Shi. All of this is his own doing; who told him he couldn't control his lower half? So I helped him cut it off! Haha..."

Everyone was thoroughly frightened by her crazy words.

But Widow Xu seemed to have found an outlet, still roaring hoarsely: "And that old whore Zhao Wang Shi is no good either! Didn't she love her son and want to sell me to get him a concubine? Then I let her taste the flavor of her son's parts herself! Hahaha..."