Datang: Hiding private money, exposed by Xiao Sizi

Chapter 696: Great Opportunity!
The bailiff quickly turned Zhang Qin's body over to face up.

At this moment, Shen Lian saw the back of Zhang Qin's head, which was covered in blood.

The blood dyed the hair red and solidified it together.

The wound on the back of the head is not small. Judging from the wound, it should be fatal.

Apart from this wound, there were no obvious wounds anywhere else, not even the clothes were torn, and there were no obvious sword or knife wounds.

Of course, this was just a simple examination by Shen Lian. As for more specific information, he would have to wait for the coroner to arrive.

Shen Lian stood up and took a look at his surroundings.

The dry well is clearly located in front, with a wall in front and some bamboos on both sides. If you stand in the distance, it is not easy to see here because of the obstruction of the bamboos.

So, this is indeed a good place to commit a crime.

He said, "Who discovered the body first? I have a few questions for you."

Soon, a tall and thin yamen runner came over.

He bowed to Shen Lian and said, "Master Qin, I was the first to discover Master Zhang's body."

Shen Lian looked at the yamen runner and asked, "When you came here, did you find anyone else here?"

The yamen runner shook his head and said, "We haven't found anyone else."

"I was in charge of searching this area. At first, I wondered if Mr. Zhang was in the bamboo forest. We didn't notice him, so I went to the bamboo forest to check, but I didn't find Mr. Zhang."

"I thought that Mr. Zhang might not be here, so I left."

"When I was leaving, I passed by this dry well. At first, I didn't think that Master Zhang would be in the well. I just looked into the well subconsciously."

"Then, I found the body of Master Zhang."

Shen Lian looked at Du Chuke.

Du Chuke nodded and said, "There were three people in charge of this area at the time. Although the other two did not come here in person, they also witnessed his entire operation."

This was Du Chuke making sure that the bailiff was not lying.

Shen Lian nodded slightly.

He said, "When you found the body, did you notice anything unusual around the dry well?"

"Or, have you ever found anything bloody?"

The yamen runner thought for a moment and said, "Nothing was found."

Shen Lian kept his eyes on the yamen runner. Although the runner was a little afraid of him, he did not avoid his gaze, and it seemed that he was not lying.

He nodded: "Okay, I understand."

At this moment, the sound of footsteps suddenly sounded.

Then, Shen Lian saw some people wearing Dali Temple clothes walking towards him.

The leader was none other than the knight-thief Wang Xiaohua.

It seems that Chu Suiliang sent Wang Xiaohua to bring people here.

"Master Shen."

Wang Xiaohua and others bowed to Shen Lian.

Shen Lian nodded slightly and said directly: "Coroner, perform an autopsy."

The coroner did not dare to delay and walked over quickly.

During the autopsy, Shen Lian asked Wang Xiaohua, "Is everything alright in the government office?"

Wang Xiaohua nodded: "Don't worry, sir, everything is fine. With Master Chu here, everything is in order."

Shen Lian nodded slightly.

After he came out at noon to drink with Tianji, he encountered Han Qian's case. Just after solving that case, he came to the Ministry of Industry and encountered a fire and a murder case.

Therefore, he never had the opportunity to return to the Dali Temple.

Wang Xiaohua looked at the body of the deceased and asked in a low voice, "Sir, is this the reason why you came to the Ministry of Industry?"

It seems that Sishe has told Wang Xiaohua about the matter.

Wang Xiaohua coming here should also be Sishe's intention, so that Wang Xiaohua can wait for his orders, so that he will not be without someone he likes by his side.

Shen Lian nodded: "It was him, but he died before I had the chance to see him."

Wang Xiaohua asked, "Is it Beidou who is trying to silence us?"

Shen Lian shook his head: "I don't think it is, but the details will be known after further investigation."

Wang Xiaohua nodded quickly.

……

"Do you need me to do anything?"

Shen Lian shook his head: "Let's take a look at the autopsy results first."

Wang Xiaohua said no more and followed Shen Lian closely.

Not long after, the coroner stood up.

Du Chuke asked hurriedly: "How is it?"

The others also looked at the coroner.

The coroner looked at Shen Lian, and only spoke after seeing Shen Lian nod.

"The deceased has not been dead for long, probably within half an hour."

"The deceased had some scratches and collision wounds on his body, but these wounds were consistent with falling into a well, so they were not caused by the murderer."

"The actual fatal injury to the deceased was the wound on the back of the head."

"The back of his head must have been hit by a sharp object, and someone hit him from behind, causing him to die on the spot."

Shen Lian nodded, which was similar to his guess.

but……

The time of death is within half an hour.

He looked at Du Chuke, who understood what Shen Lian meant and said, "It started after the fire broke out but before it was completely extinguished, which is two quarters of an hour before Lord Qin arrived, until now."

Since the fire, till now...

This time period...

Shen Lian narrowed his eyes.

Two situations are included.

One is the chaotic state after the fire.

The other thing is... I'm already here!
Because of the chaos caused by the fire, someone took the opportunity to kill Zhang Qin.

Or, did he kill Zhang Qin because I came?
These two situations represent two completely different results.

If Zhang Qin was killed because the murderer wanted to take advantage of the fire and the chaos, then it means that the murderer might have wanted to do so on impulse.

The fact that he suddenly decided to take advantage of the chaos to get rid of Zhang Qin meant that there might have been some temporary conflicts between him and Zhang Qin, or that there was deep-seated resentment between them, and today Zhang Qin had some conflicts with him again, which completely aroused the murderous intent in his heart.

Then, he took advantage of the chaos in the government office, got hot-headed and started killing people!
But if it is another situation.

It was because of my arrival that Zhang Qin was killed.

Then these cases may very likely overturn Shen Lian’s previous inferences.

Shen Lian previously deduced that Zhang Qin’s murder was most likely unrelated to the Beidou Society.

But if Zhang Qin was silenced because of my arrival, then it is very likely related to the Beidou Society.

After all, Beidou would be the one who knew his abilities best.

Zhang Qin had just set the fire and had no time to escape when he arrived.

This would most likely lead to Zhang Qin being exposed.

Therefore, in order to avoid Zhang Qin being caught by himself and being asked about the secrets of Beidou Society, he simply killed other people hidden in Beidou Society to silence them.

This completely cut off the clue of Zhang Qin.

If it is really because of me, then this is very likely.

Therefore, the next key point in solving the case is to determine whether he is related to Zhang Qin’s murder.

If he could further narrow down the time of Zhang Qin's death and determine whether Zhang Qin died before or after his arrival, then this difficulty might be solved.

Thinking of this, Shen Lian looked at Du Chuke and said, "Master Du, please ask the people in the Ministry of Works to find out who has seen Zhang Qin within the past half hour, and then confirm the last time they saw Zhang Qin."

"I want to see if I can shorten Zhang Qin's death range."

When Du Chuke heard this, he naturally did not hesitate.

Now, he can't wait for Shen Lian to solve the case quickly.

Otherwise, if the government office caught fire and the minister was killed, I would be scolded to death once I went to see His Majesty. But if I went with the result of solving the case, I would still be scolded, but at least the degree would not be too serious.

"Okay, I'll go ask them now."

Having said that, Du Chuke left immediately.

At this time, Shen Lian saw the coroner looking around.

Wang Xiaohua asked curiously: "What are you looking at?"

The coroner frowned and said, "I'm looking for the murder weapon."

"The murder weapon?"

Wang Xiaohua said: "Is it the heavy object that hit the deceased?"

The coroner nodded: "The murder weapon must still be stained with blood, it shouldn't be difficult to find."

“But there is none here.”

Wang Xiaohua speculated: "Could the murderer have hidden it?"

The coroner shook his head and said, "That's not necessary."

"There are some broken stone chips on the deceased's wounds, so if nothing unexpected happens, the deceased should have been killed by a rock."

"And the stones can be found everywhere. They must have been picked up by the murderer from the ground."

"So, this kind of murder weapon will not reveal the murderer's identity at all, and the murderer has no reason to hide it."

"If we really hide it, we will be exposed once we are discovered."

Wang Xiaohua suddenly realized.

At this time, Shen Lian suddenly said: "Besides the fact that the murder weapon is not here, did you notice that there is no obvious radioactive blood on the ground?"

The coroner was stunned for a moment.

Then he seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly raised his head, looked at Shen Lian, and said: "Master Shen means, could it be?"

Shen Lian narrowed his eyes and said, "I just checked the wound of the deceased. There is a lot of blood on the surface of the wound."

"Based on the wounds, it can be inferred that blood must have spurted out of the victim when the murderer committed the crime."

"However, there were only a few drops of blood by the well, but no obvious, radiating bloodstains."

"This can only mean that..."

Wang Xiao hurriedly asked: "What does it mean?"

Shen Lian's eyes were deep and his tone was steady as he said, "This is not the first crime scene!"

"Not the first crime scene?"

Wang Xiaohua's eyes widened, and she looked at Shen Lian with her watery eyes, and asked in surprise: "Since this is not the first crime scene, then where is the crime scene?"

Shen Lian pondered for a moment and said, "We need to find it."

He found a yamen runner and said, "I want to check where Zhang Qin usually works."

The yamen runner hurriedly said, "Master Shen, please come this way."

Soon, the bailiff brought Shen Lian and others to Zhang Qin's office.

As the Minister of Works, Zhang Qin is the third in command of the Ministry of Works.

Given his status and position, his office is naturally a separate room.

Pushing open the door, the bailiff said, "This is it."

Shen Lian nodded slightly.

He stood at the door and looked inside.

I saw that the office area was not too large.

There is a table, a few chairs and a row of bookshelves next to it.

There were pens, inkstones, paper and some notebooks on the table, and some books on the bookshelf.

Very neat and simple.

"When you checked this door before, was it open or closed?"

Shen Lian asked the bailiff.

The bailiff said, "It is open."

Open?

Shen Lian narrowed his eyes.

The door was open and standing outside, one could see at a glance that the office was clean.

That means there is no one inside.

Not afraid of anyone checking.

It seems that this is most likely not the first crime scene.

Otherwise, the murderer would never leave the door open while cleaning the scene, wiping the blood, and disposing of the murder weapon.

After all, anyone walking outside can find anything unusual with just a glance.

Of course, this does not rule out the possibility that the murderer opened the door after cleaning the scene.

Shen Lian further confirmed with the yamen runners, "Before I asked you to look for Zhang Qin, did anyone notice whether his office was open or closed?"

The yamen runner thought for a moment and said, "Lord Du asked before that there is a well not far from this office. When the fire was being put out, many people passed by here to fetch water. They said that when they passed by here, the door was always open and never closed."

Shen Lian nodded slightly.

This is completely confirmed.

This wouldn't be the first crime scene.

However, even if it is not the first crime scene, there may be some important clues.

Shen Lian entered the office.

He came to the table and sat down.

Look at the things on the table.

The papers were spread out on the table in a somewhat messy manner, the brushes were hanging on the pen holder, and the inkstone was completely dry.

Shen Lian wiped the inkstone with his finger, but there was no trace of ink.

This indicates that the inkstone has not been used for some time.

He looked at the book beside him and casually opened it, only to see some documents from the Ministry of Industry that applied for review.

And this document needs to be approved by Zhang Qin.

Shen Lian glanced at the date. These were all delivered today.

However, all the booklets were piled together, but none of them had been approved.

This shows that he has no intention of doing anything during the day.

Han Qian was found in trouble in the morning.

Does this prove that Zhang Qin had already realized that something was wrong when Han Qian did not come to the yamen?

Then he burned down the archives room and got rid of Han Qian's tail.

But, if he does nothing all day, doesn’t he worry about being suspected?

The burning of files is a matter of concern to everyone.

At this time, Zhang Qin had done nothing all day. This was so abnormal that he would definitely attract attention.

As a spy of the Beidou Society, how dare he attract so much attention?

unless……

Shen Lian narrowed his eyes.

His fingertips tapped lightly on the table.

Unless, Zhang Qin is not worried at all that his abnormality will be discovered!
Because, he doesn't care.

If he discovers something, he discovers it. If he doubts something, he doubts it. It has no effect on him.

Because, he has left!
A gleam of light suddenly flashed in Shen Lian's eyes.

"After setting the fire, Zhang Qin actually planned to flee directly and leave the Ministry of Industry completely!"

"He knows that if something happens to Han Qian, he might be implicated, so he wants to withdraw!"

"Setting fire to the files was what he did before he left to cover up all clues."

"Setting fire to the files was what he did before he left to cover up all clues."