Xinglong Street Heavenly Dog Devouring Heart Incident (Part 2)

A shaggy Heavenly Dog with a mouthful of human teeth—however one imagined it, it seemed rather comical!

Therefore, Jia Yucun couldn't help but blurt out, "So, Vice Minister Ge was murdered, not killed by some Heavenly Dog Devouring Heart?"

"Of course!"

Sun Shaozong scoffed, "Someone killed Vice Minister Ge and then imitated a dog's bark in the room, intending to fake a Heavenly Dog Devouring Heart! Unfortunately, his arrangement was too clumsy; not only did it fail to conceal anything, but it completely exposed his flaws!"

Clumsy?

Apart from Sun Shaozong himself, probably no one present would use the word 'clumsy' to describe these arrangements—in fact, if Sun Shaozong hadn't personally intervened, no one else would have been able to discern any flaws from a pile of minced meat!

But...

"Sun Tongpan."

Ge Xiaorui, the eldest son of Vice Minister Ge, questioned, "You just said that after the murderer killed my father, he hid in the room and barked like a dog? But if that's the case, when we rushed into the courtyard, wouldn't the murderer still be in the study? How did he disappear into thin air later?"

"That's right!"

The second son, Ge Xiaoxian, chimed in, "When we kicked open the door, besides our father's body, there wasn't a person, not even a hair… not even a shadow of a person!"

He originally wanted to say 'not even a hair was seen,' but the words were barely out of his mouth when he suddenly remembered the tuft of dog hair, so he quickly changed the rest of his line.

The remaining third son, Ge Xiaoyi, and fourth son, Ge Xiaowen, also raised their doubts one after another.

Consort Zhang, who was full of mystical nonsense, had been silenced by the earlier setback, but now, seeing Sun Shaozong suddenly become the target of everyone's criticism, she immediately became smug again, screeching, "I told you! It must have been the Heavenly Dog that took the master's life; otherwise, how could it have disappeared without a trace right under our noses?!"

Seeing the 'Heavenly Dog Devouring Heart' theory, which had just been overturned, resurface with a vengeance, even Jia Yucun and the others became suspicious again.

Wanting to eradicate feudal superstition was indeed a long and arduous task!

Sun Shaozong smiled helplessly, pointing to the bedroom and saying, "Actually, disappearing from this bedroom isn't as difficult as you think—if you don't believe me, everyone can come in and take a look, and you'll understand."

Saying that, he called Zhou Da over and whispered a few instructions in his ear, then took the lead and walked into the bedroom.

The others hurriedly followed in single file, and Sun Shaozong pointed to the corpse and the bathtub, saying, "Actually, when I first saw the corpse and the bathtub, I found it a bit strange. Even if you wanted to wash away the clues left on the corpse, there was no need to scoop out an entire tub of water, right?"

"You have to know that no matter how you scoop water out of the tub, it becomes particularly troublesome at the bottom. Logically speaking, the murderer had no need to scoop the water dry—unless he had another purpose!"

"Following these suspicions, I carefully examined the scene and finally discovered that the reason the murderer repeatedly washed the chest with water was not to clear the traces on the corpse, but to achieve two other purposes!"

"Two other purposes?"

"That's right!"

Sun Shaozong held up two fingers and continued to speak eloquently, "First of all, the first purpose was to conceal the fact that he had taken a bath in the tub after killing someone..."

"Wait!"

Before Sun Shaozong could finish speaking, Consort Zhang jumped out again, questioning in a shrill voice, "How do you know the murderer took a bath in the tub?"

"Of course, it's because of the red marks on the inside of this tub!"

Sun Shaozong walked to the tub, pointing to the inside of the tub and saying, "Although the murderer pretended to clean the corpse and splashed all the water in the tub on the ground, the murderer didn't notice that when he was taking a bath, the bloodstains on his body had already stained a circle of light red marks on the inside of the tub!"

Everyone went up to check one by one and indeed found a very inconspicuous light red mark near the top of the inside of the tub!

While others were marveling at Sun Shaozong's insight, Consort Zhang was still unconvinced and questioned, "Then how can you be sure that these marks were stained during the bath, and not accidentally made by the murderer when scooping water?"

This woman is being so unreasonable; could she be hiding something?

Sun Shaozong silently listed her as the prime suspect, then reached into the tub, holding his hand level with the red mark. He nodded his chin towards the corpse on the floor and said, "Given Vice Minister Ge's portly figure, if there was already this much bathwater in the tub, what do you think would happen when he got in?"

"It would overflow!"

Zhao Wuwei was the first to answer, "Even if a small fry like me took a dip, a lot of water would spill out."

"Exactly!"

Sun Shaozong spread his hands and shrugged at Consort Zhang, "Your household servants shouldn't be so negligent, right? So, this mark must have been left by the murderer after soaking in the tub!"

Consort Zhang was finally speechless and could only retreat sullenly behind the others.

Sun Shaozong raised two fingers and said, "Besides covering up the bathing, his other purpose was to make the scene more chaotic and terrifying, so that others would completely overlook his trick!"

"Trick?"

Jia Yucun, as expected, had the highest IQ of everyone present. Hearing this, he immediately pointed out the key to the matter: "Brother, do you mean that the murderer never actually disappeared from the room? But used some method to deceive everyone's eyes?!"

"That's right!"

Sun Shaozong paced back and forth, speaking with certainty, "The murderer first stripped naked and stabbed Vice Minister Ge to death with a sharp weapon, disemboweling him and arranging the scene to look like he was killed by Heavenly Dog Devouring Heart. Then, he washed the blood off his body in the tub, put on his clothes..."

He stopped and suddenly pointed behind the door: "He hid behind the door and imitated a dog's bark. When someone broke in, he quietly mingled among them!"

Before Sun Shaozong finished speaking, there was an uproar in the room!

"This... how is this possible?!"

"Yeah, if someone was really hiding behind the door, how could we not see them?!"

Even Jia Yucun, who had just proposed the hypothesis, was now shaking his head, feeling that Sun Shaozong's words were as absurd and bizarre as a fantasy.

Sigh~

It seems that it's still a bit difficult for a group of people who haven't watched 'Young Justice Bao' to understand the essence of this plan.

Fortunately, he was prepared!

"Everyone!"

Sun Shaozong raised his voice and asked loudly, "Haven't you realized that there is actually someone in the room who shouldn't be here, but sneaked in halfway?"

Everyone was stunned again. They looked at each other, but couldn't see anyone who 'shouldn't be here'.

Finally, a thin servant took the initiative to stand up, approached the Ge Xiaorui brothers, bowed, and said with a smile, "Gentlemen, I am the one who sneaked in halfway—because I wasn't present when the door was smashed open, so I wasn't called over by the officials from Shuntian Prefecture to be questioned."

He pointed to Zhou Da and said, "Just now, this official called me over and asked me to sneak into the room..."

"How is this possible?!"

Before he could finish speaking, the old steward of the Vice Minister's residence shook his head, "Liu Rui, you are the master's personal servant. How could you not be there when the door was smashed?!"

"This..."

As Liu Rui was about to explain, two familiar servants suddenly realized and rushed to say, "Old steward, Brother Liu was really not there at the time! He had a bad stomach in the middle of the night and squatted in the outhouse for a good half an hour, so he missed it!"

Everyone was in an uproar again, finding it incredible, but they had to believe it.

"Everyone should understand now, right?"

Sun Shaozong's eagle-like gaze swept over the Ge residence, and finally, he coldly smiled and said, "The real murderer who killed Vice Minister Ge is among you!"