Seeing that his expression had softened, Zhou Yan was overjoyed, thinking that there was room for maneuver.
However, he still underestimated Zhu Huaizhang's character. When he was serving in the south, his colleagues privately called him Zhu Jiaozhen. Now that he has arrived in Qingzhou Prefecture, his temperament has not changed at all.
Zhu Huaizhang's voice was low and serious, "I appreciate Lord Zhou's kindness."
"But with these three lives hanging in the balance, if I could still go back to bed, I might as well take off this official robe right now."
His gaze was piercing, leaving Zhou Yan speechless and only able to stand awkwardly in place.
Zhu Huaizhang's lips curled into a mocking smile. "The case will be heard here. The body will be examined here. If Lord Zhou is tired, he may go back to rest."
He looked at Bai Yunduan and asked, "Young Master Bai, do you recognize these three people?"
Bai Yunduan's face was deathly pale, his eyes darting around. He forced himself to step forward and take a quick glance. The sight of rotten flesh, unrecognizable and hanging on the white bones, made him vomit.
After vomiting for a while, she finally managed to speak, enduring her discomfort, "Judging from her clothes, she should be an embroiderer from Cloud Brocade Workshop, but I don't know exactly who she is."
Li Xiao caught a glimpse of a wooden plaque in the pit out of the corner of his eye. He used his sword to pick it out, and the plaque read "65" on it. Upon seeing this, Zhu Huaizhang asked, "Young Master Bai... what is the meaning of this wooden plaque?"
Bai Yunduan's legs trembled uncontrollably. "It's... it's information about the maids in the embroidery workshop... Lu Shiwu is the sixty-fifth person. Their names and corresponding home addresses can be found in the roster."
" Li Xiao," Zhu Huaizhang ordered coldly, "Take him to find the roster."
Bai Yunduan was terrified and fell to her knees with a thud. " Lord Zhu, I really didn't know there were dead people here, Lord Zhu..."
Without a word, Li Xiao grabbed Bai Yunduan's arm and forcibly lifted her off the ground. "Let's go, let's find the roster first."
After the two left.
Jin Shanyao stepped forward again and tugged at Zhu Huaizhang's sleeve, "One hundred taels..."
Zhu Huaizhang glared at her. "Do you think I'm worth a hundred taels?"
"Hey... why are you so stubborn? Give me a hundred taels, let's close the case quickly, and when we get back to Qingzhou Prefecture, I'll buy a mountain and raise your taxes more, that's better than anything else."
Zhu Huaizhang pushed her aside and began to examine the cause of death.
Jin Shanyao herself, turned and squatted under the eaves, glaring angrily at Zhu Huaizhang. "Isn't it said that a clean prefect earns ten thousand taels of silver in three years?" she thought.
She's already reduced the price from three hundred taels to one hundred taels; Zhu Huaizhang is too stingy.
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci exchanged a glance.
Meng Anzhi spoke first, "Auntie... Lord Zhou wouldn't destroy the body overnight, would he?"
Looking at the boy's bewildered eyes, Meng Anci replied, "No, if I were Lord Zhou, I would release us immediately and then secretly coerce and bribe Lord Zhu, offering him some benefits."
They pushed Jiang Wancheng forward to take the blame for false accusations and selling counterfeit medicine that led to death, and then pinned all three corpses on Bai Yunjin, saying that he had privately tortured and murdered Xiu Niang. Now that the murderer was dead, the case was considered closed.
In this way, sacrificing just Jiang Wancheng would solve everything.
"Ah?" Meng Anzhi exclaimed in surprise, looking at Meng Anci through her aunt, and said in an exaggerated manner, "How come you even thought of the steps? This... Lord Zhou is quite a good official."
Zhou Yan, who was not far away, was filled with shock. He stood stiffly beside the corpse, feeling as if he had a lump in his throat, unable to breathe.
Every word the siblings said struck him like a sharp arrow, hitting him where it hurt. The key was that this was exactly what he was thinking. Now that his plan had been exposed before it could even be implemented, how could he possibly use it?
At this moment, not only Zhou Yan was shocked, but even Zhu Huaizhang had not expected that the siblings would be so intelligent. No wonder they passed the imperial examination at such a young age.
The coroner arrived quickly, glanced at Zhou Yan, and then went to examine the body. After finishing the examination, he quickly walked up to Zhou Yan and gave his report.
"Sir, the three victims died at different times: five years ago, three years ago, and one and a half months ago."
Two of the bodies were strangled to death with thin objects, their cervical vertebrae were broken, their bones were fractured in multiple places, and all ten fingers were forcibly broken, indicating that they had suffered great torture before their deaths.
The other body died from a fractured skull." Having said this, he stood aside with his hands at his sides, saying no more.
Zhou Yan covered his nose in disgust. "Find a few people to carry him to the mortuary."
The bailiff stepped forward, about to lift the person onto the stretcher, when a clear, crisp female voice rang out.
"Wait..."
Jin Shanyao up and turned to Meng Anzhi, "Let's go... go and see what kind of poison the three dead were given."
Upon hearing this, everyone except Meng Anzhi was startled. She calmly stepped forward, but was stopped by Zhou Yan just as she was about to check. He looked at Jin Shanyao with a sharp gaze.
"You allow your child to repeatedly challenge my bottom line; do you think I can't do anything to you?"
Jin Shanyao her head in confusion, "We kindly helped you find clues, how did it become our fault..." If it weren't for the rare opportunity and the uncommon nature of poison, she would not have let Meng Anzhi brave the stench to step forward.
Just kidding... She's a delicate and sweet little girl...
Meng Anzhi's gaze fell on the three corpses. Just now, she saw the coroner casually break a bone during the autopsy. Ordinary bones would not be so brittle.
She concluded in a moment, " Lord Zhu, of the three corpses, two have bones that are grayish-yellow with some bluish-black areas, which must be the result of long-term consumption of Five Minerals Powder."
Five Minerals Powder is a banned drug in the Sheng Dynasty, and its long-term use can lead to addiction... The embroiderers of Cloud Brocade Workshop were consuming it, so they must be implicated.
Zhu Huaizhang, " Lord Zhou, it seems that simply sealing off the inner quarters is not enough. Why not order the immediate sealing off of Cloud Brocade Workshop and send men to thoroughly search it to see if they have any of the forbidden drugs, such as Five Minerals Powder?"
Zhou Yan was extremely unwilling, but he had to do as he was told to do to stabilize the situation first. He would then have to resort to coercion and bribery when he privately approached Zhu Huaizhang that evening.
Thinking of this, he glanced at Meng Anci and met his big, innocent eyes. Meng Anci even tilted his head at him, looking like an innocent child.
Li Xiao returned with Bai Yunduan. He handed the roster to Zhu Huaizhang, and the page stopped at name sixty-five.
Yao Yuniang entered Cloud Brocade Workshop as a maid in the twenty-third year of the Sheng Dynasty. She was fourteen years old at the time, and according to the year, she is now exactly nineteen years old. However, it is unknown whose wooden plaque it is.
Li Xiao searched the pit again but found no more wooden signs. He figured the murderer must have forgotten to put the signs away when he killed the person, leaving behind evidence.
As evening approached, Zhu Huaizhang had torches lit and summoned all members of the Bai Household together, asking them one by one what they were doing on the day Bai Yunjin died.
After questioning everyone, all of them had alibis, and the case reached a stalemate once again.
At this moment, a servant timidly spoke up, "Sir, I heard that the master didn't die from poison, but was strangled by a vengeful ghost...
As soon as he finished speaking, someone chimed in, "Yes, that night I also heard Yao Yuniang crying and screaming, saying something about paying with her life... It scared me to death."
"I heard that too... Sir, is there something unclean in this yard?"