Zhao Han then began questioning him. "Zhang Si, tell me, where did you hide the murder weapon?"
Zhang Si stammered incoherently, "Reporting to Your Honor, I threw the weapon away."
"What was the weapon? Where did you throw it?" Seeing that the man had been beaten senseless, Zhao Han repeated the question.
"A Pig Slaughtering Knife. I... I threw it beneath the stove in my house."
"Hurry to Zhang Si's house and retrieve it," Jia Baoyu ordered an express constable.
The express constable immediately left the County Yamen, mounted a fast horse, and went to fetch it.
"Where is the victim's head?"
"The head is in the iron pot in my house."
The crowd broke out in cold sweats at once.
"How brutal!"
"Utterly unforgivable!"
"How vicious! Is that any way to treat your own brother?"
Zhao Han immediately said to those beside her, "Go retrieve it as well."
Half an hour later.
The murder weapon and the victim's head were both found by the express constable who had gone first.
The constable was sharp-witted. The moment he entered Zhang Si's home, he caught the smell of blood.
Following the scent, he found the weapon. When he lifted the pot lid, he nearly died on the spot! Even now, the constable was rubbing his chest and glaring viciously at Zhang Si.
Who in their right mind would dare do such a thing? "Your Honor, the head has been identified. It belonged to the deceased Zhang Er," the coroner said.
"Very well. I pronounce judgment: Zhang Si's crimes are heinous. He murdered for wealth, disregarded the bond between brothers, and outraged both men and gods. He shall be executed after the autumn assizes. The case shall be submitted to the Ministry of Justice for verification and presented to the Son of