Innate Case-Solving Sage Physique

After the Magistrate of Chang'an exposed his identity, Li Nuo's subsequent questioning went exceptionally smoothly.

Those twenty-odd officials, regardless of their Official Position or which government office they served in, were all extremely cooperative. Li Nuo asked one question, and they answered ten. Their attitudes were astonishingly good; to accommodate the seated Li Nuo, every one of them replied with a slight bow.

The sight made Pei Zhe green with envy.

As the Magistrate of Chang'an, he often dealt with Chang'an's officials and nobles. Whenever they spoke to him, they practically tilted their noses toward the sky. Yet when questioned by Li Nuo, a man with neither office nor rank, they did not even dare raise their heads.

After questioning the last official, Li Nuo rose and said, "You have all worked hard. You may return now."

"Not hard at all, not hard at all."

"Young Master has worked far harder."

"Young Master has suffered greatly..."

"This humble official takes his leave..."

Within ten seconds of Li Nuo speaking, the officials scrambled to leave, as though taking one step too slowly would condemn them to remain here forever.

Li Nuo was still a little surprised inside. It seemed his father, whom he had never met, held considerable prestige at court. Even those officials treated him with utmost courtesy.

After letting them go, Li Nuo said to the Magistrate of Chang'an, "These court officials had no motive to commit the crime. If they wanted to kill Steward Zheng, there was no need for them to do it themselves..."

Even without Li Nuo's explanation, Pei Zhe knew the killer was not among those officials. He had originally intended to release them first anyway, but after releasing more than twenty people, nearly two hundred still remained. He had no idea what method Li Nuo possessed that would let him find the killer among those two hundred people through questioning alone in less than two hours.

His heart was full of doubts as he silently watched Li Nuo perform.

After releasing the twenty-odd officials, nearly two hundred people remained. Li Nuo naturally could not question them one by one. With his hands behind his back, he strolled past several cells, then pointed at one and said, "Open the Prison Door. The people in this cell may leave."

The chief Jailer glanced at the Magistrate of Chang'an. Pei Zhe nodded and said, "Do as the Young Master says."

Over the course of the morning, he had already learned all the details of the case. There was no point keeping these two hundred people locked up; in the end, they would still have to be released. In his view, this case would most likely end without resolution.

Not every Murder Case could be solved. In fact, eight or nine out of every ten murder cases in Great Xia ultimately yielded no results. Cases where the killer was caught were the rarer kind.

Li Nuo paced to another cell and spoke again. "The people in this cell may leave as well."

After the occupants of two cells were released, two cells remained. One held female relatives: the Maids of the Zheng Residence, Steward Zheng's wives and concubines, and a few female guests. The other held Steward Zheng's friends from the business world.

Li Nuo had the chief Jailer open both cells and said, "All of you may leave."

The Magistrate of Chang'an was stunned. What was this supposed to mean? After all that fuss, he was letting everyone go?

The prisoners did not care about that. Hearing that they could leave, they were overjoyed and surged out of their cells. Just as a handsome Man happily stepped through the cell door, a hand suddenly pressed down on his shoulder. The voice that followed made his body jolt, freezing his heart in an instant.

"They may leave. You stay."

Li Nuo pressed his right hand against the handsome Man's shoulder while gripping a young Woman's wrist with his left. He said flatly, "And you."

The Woman looked utterly confused, while the handsome Man's face turned somewhat pale. He stammered, "M-my lord, why?"

Yes, why?

The Magistrate of Chang'an was thinking the same thing. He could not understand Li Nuo's actions in the slightest. Out of more than two hundred people, Li Nuo had not asked them anything. Why had he singled out these two?

What was different about them?

Li Nuo smiled faintly at the handsome Man. It was an exceedingly amiable smile, yet it made a chill rise from the latter's tailbone, as though every secret he possessed had nowhere to hide before this man.

Li Nuo did not explain. He merely had the chief Jailer imprison the Man and Woman separately, in two cells at the farthest ends of the prison. They could not see each other, much less coordinate their stories.

From beginning to end, the Magistrate of Chang'an, Pei Zhe, had been wrapped in fog.

After Li Nuo had the two imprisoned separately, Pei Zhe could finally no longer hold himself back. "Young Master, why did you specifically keep those two? Is there something wrong with them?"

Li Nuo was searching for questions with the answers already in hand, so naturally he found them every time. But he could not say that outright.

After giving it some thought, he said, "The people confined in the cells just now had no idea what would happen next, so they were fearful and uneasy. Most kept their heads lowered in thought or stood helpless and lost. Their every movement had little pattern to it. Yet during the brief half-hour while I questioned those officials, that Man and Woman in the two cells exchanged secret glances sixty-eight times. If they did not have a guilty conscience, how else could that be explained?"

The Magistrate of Chang'an stared blankly at Li Nuo as though he were looking at a monster.

While questioning those officials, he had actually been able to spare enough attention to observe that, among more than two hundred people in five cells, a Man and a Woman had looked at each other sixty-eight times?

Pei Zhe was a normal person. He could not imagine that this was something a normal person could accomplish.

But when he remembered that Li Nuo was that man's son, it somehow seemed acceptable that he could do this.

Still, if that pair had truly exchanged so many glances, they were definitely suspicious.

Pei Zhe looked toward a constable and ordered, "Investigate those two identities!"

Very soon, the constable returned carrying a case file. Pei Zhe took it, and after merely sweeping his eyes over it, something immediately occurred to him. He muttered, "Could it be..."

Li Nuo asked, "Has Lord Pei noticed something?"

Pei Zhe handed the case file to Li Nuo, then remembered that Li Nuo could not recognize many characters. He said, "That Man is Cui Ze, a newly risen wealthy merchant in Chang'an. That Woman is Zhang Xiaoyun, the eighth concubine Steward Zheng took half a year ago... Cui Ze bore no grudge against Steward Zheng and had no motive for murder. But if he had an affair with Steward Zheng's concubine, then everything makes sense."

Crimes of passion and revenge killings accounted for the greatest share of murder cases. Steward Zheng had been kind to others and had no enemies, so a crime of passion was highly likely. He was already past fifty, no longer in the prime of dragon and tiger vigor, yet his household was crowded with wives and concubines. He would surely struggle to satisfy them all.

And that eighth concubine was in the bloom of youth, at an age that needed rain and dew to nourish her. Cui Ze was young and dashing. When young men and women accidentally set thunder to stir fire, it was only natural.

There was a ninety percent chance that this case had already been solved.

Pei Zhe had observed carefully earlier. When the two were separated, Cui Ze could not help looking at Zhang Xiaoyun. Panic was in his eyes. Although it was natural to panic when everyone else had been released while only they were left behind, Pei Zhe had seen too many criminals. He still keenly detected something unusual within Cui Ze's panicked gaze.

However, none of that was important to Pei Zhe right now.

No case could compare to the shock Li Nuo had brought him.

What was an Innate Case-Solving Sage Physique?

This was it.

Without visiting the crime scene or understanding how the case unfolded, without knowing anything at all, he could find the killer among more than two hundred suspects with only a pair of eyes. What heaven-defying ability was this?

Had he been born three hundred years earlier, the Legalist school might have gained another sage.

Unfortunately, this was no longer the chaotic age of the Warring States. The various schools had successively faded away, and the Legalist school had withered as well. Even with an Innate Case-Solving Sage Physique, he could not travel far down the Legalist school's path. The court's dukes and ministers would never permit the emergence of a Legalist sage. What a pity, what a pity.

After sighing inwardly, he looked to Li Nuo again and asked, "Young Master, what should we do next?"

Without realizing it, he had already come to regard Li Nuo as his pillar.

Chang'an County Office.

Prison.

Cui Ze leaned against the icy wall of his cell, his face deathly pale and his heart gripped by boundless terror.

How could this be? How could this be? They had done everything seamlessly. Not even the servants of the Zheng Residence had noticed anything. The Magistrate of Chang'an had investigated all morning without suspecting them. How did that person know?

Thinking of that gaze which seemed to see through everything, he completely panicked.

If he had not known they were the killers, there was no reason for him to release everyone else while keeping only the two of them behind.

More strangely still, he had been locked up for nearly an hour, yet no one had come to interrogate him. Only heaven knew how agonizing that hour had been.

Footsteps sounded at the cell entrance. A Jailer had brought food.

He had gone nearly four hours without a drop of water or grain of rice since morning, and he was long past hungry. The prison meal provided by the Chang'an County Office was merely ordinary cabbage and tofu with rice, carrying a faint sour smell. Who knew how long it had been sitting there?

Cui Ze was himself rich and powerful, dining on delicacies from land and sea every day. Faced with this bowl of spoiled food, he truly found it hard to swallow.

Just then, an intense aroma of food suddenly drifted beneath his nose.

Cui Ze knew that scent all too well.

"Roast chicken, steamed fish, braised pork, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, and that fragrance of rice... This is Northeast China's finest fragrant rice!"

Though disaster hung over his head, indignation still rose in Cui Ze's heart. They were all prisoners, so why was he being fed spoiled cabbage and tofu over rice while someone else got food this good?

Two Jailers carrying delicious dishes passed Cui Ze's cell, seemingly chatting casually.

"That Woman is really about to confess?"

"Isn't she? Otherwise, why would the lord spend so much? If it were me, I'd confess too. Confessing later means only a dead end. The first to confess may not escape exile, but at least there is still a thread of hope for survival..."

What!

The Jailers' words rang through Cui Ze's mind like thunder.

She confessed? The first to confess could escape death? Why had nobody told him that!

Damn it, that bitch was the one who seduced him first. It was her idea to kill Steward Zheng, then seize his fortune. Yet in the end, he was the one who would die. How the hell was he supposed to endure that?

The two Jailers had already gone far away. Cui Ze gripped the bars of his cell and roared at the top of his lungs, "My lord, I'll confess! I'll confess everything!"

At the same time.

On the other side of the prison.

"That Man is really about to confess?"

"Isn't he? Otherwise, why would the lord spend so much? If it were me, I'd confess too. Confessing later means only a dead end. The first to confess may not escape exile, but at least there is still a thread of hope for survival..."

In a cell in the corner, the young Woman listened to the seemingly casual words of the two Jailers, then looked at the delicious food they carried. She said nothing, but could not hide her disappointed sigh.

She naturally could not confess, but based on her understanding of Cui Ze, his mind could not withstand such an obvious scheme to drive a wedge between them.

Sure enough, the next moment, she vaguely heard Cui Ze shouting.

The prison was large, and they were at opposite ends, but it still could not completely block the full-throated shouts of an adult Man.

Beyond disappointment, a deeper fear lay hidden in her eyes, along with relief.