The setting sun slanted low.
The shifting light and shadows cast through the window lattice, which had never ceased their advance, finally crept slowly yet resolutely onto Sun Shaozong's head, casting his tightly furrowed brow in mottled patches.
After nearly four hours of exhaustive searching, the final result was still nothing—never mind a Secret Passage or Secret Chamber, they had not even found a decent hidden compartment.
The questions in Sun Shaozong's mind had not only gone unanswered; they had instead become ever more obscure and perplexing.
Could it be that his deduction had been flawed from the very beginning?
Perhaps Lin Qisheng's corpse had not been hidden in some Secret Chamber at all, but quietly transported elsewhere and concealed?
If that were true, Lin Xiuyuan's suspicion would increase considerably. After all, secretly moving a corpse out of Lin Mansion without anyone noticing was no small feat.
But...
If Lin Xiuyuan had truly murdered his father, he could simply have hidden the body, used the Substituting the Plum for the Peach scheme to establish an alibi, and then claimed that his father had suddenly left home and vanished.
Would that not have been more prudent than taking the risk of carrying a decomposing corpse back into the estate?
It made no sense. It simply made no sense!
"My lord."
Just as his thoughts inevitably fell into a dead end, a clerk suddenly entered and reported cautiously, "Head Constable Huang has returned."
Sun Shaozong immediately perked up. He had sent Huang Bin to the brokers' guild to find the craftsmen responsible for the renovations three years ago. Since Huang Bin had been delayed so long, he must have found something.
Or perhaps the information he brought back could help him sort out his thoughts anew!
He promptly gave the order. The