Done. Time to eat.
No wonder they said it was an emergency. Something big had happened again!
Not long after noon, Dali Temple suddenly received a report that Lin Qisheng, the recently retired Left Censor-in-chief, had died of poisoning in his own study.
In principle, Dali Temple did not accept reports directly. It was responsible for handling difficult and miscellaneous cases submitted by local authorities, or special cases assigned by the imperial court.
But the deceased had been a dignified second-rank official, as well as the leader of the censorial officials!
No matter how improper it was, how could anyone at Dali Temple dare refuse?
Thus, after receiving the report, Temple Assistant Yang Zhiming hurriedly gathered his men and rushed to Lin Mansion to investigate.
Just as the person who reported the case had claimed, Lin Qisheng had indeed died when poison took effect, on the Soft Couch in the inner room of his study—but strangely, his corpse had already begun to rot and decay!
At first, Yang Zhiming assumed it was due to the poison's effects. But after two coroners repeatedly examined the body, they concluded that Lin Qisheng had been dead for at least three days.
Yang Zhiming then decided that someone at Lin Mansion had deliberately concealed the truth and had only sent word to the authorities long after Lin Qisheng's death.
And the person most determined to cover it up was very likely the murderer!
However, that line of reasoning was quickly overturned.
At least a dozen people in Lin Mansion could testify that Lin Qisheng had been perfectly fine these past few days. He had only been found dead in his study at noon today.
The case thus became baffling.
Yang Zhiming was somewhat dumbfounded as well. He hastily came up with several possibilities, but