Datang: Hiding private money, exposed by Xiao Sizi

Chapter 701 The cause of the fire has been found!
When everyone heard Shen Lian's words, they couldn't help but show admiration on their faces.

Zhao Yeqin and Han Xun couldn't help but nodded.

They knew that there was nothing wrong with Shen Lian's inference!
In a fire scene where almost all evidence had disappeared, Shen Lian was able to deduce the truth of the matter in such a short time, which made them all have to praise his amazing ability!
……

Du Chuke, on the other hand, had a look of surprise on his face.

The cause of the fire was found, it was the thief who set the fire intentionally, so his responsibility could be reduced a lot.

Du Chuke hurriedly said, "Master Shen, you are amazing!"

"sharp?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Lian shook his head.

He said calmly: "It's not that I'm powerful, but the evidence is too obvious."

"In other words, Zhang Qin had no intention of hiding the evidence of his arson."

"Otherwise, he might not have time to deal with the dripping kerosene, but he could have just brought one of those porcelain bottles."

"But, there are several identical porcelain bottles on his bookshelf. There is no doubt that he left them there on purpose so that you can eventually find out that he was the one who set the fire!"

"This……"

Du Chuke was stunned for a moment.

"He, why would he do this?"

"Why did you leave evidence behind on purpose?"

Du Chuke was a little confused when he heard Shen Lian's words.

He didn't understand what Shen Lian meant.

"Zhang Qin set the fire, why did he leave such decisive evidence?"

"Isn't he afraid that he will eventually be discovered, arrested, and held accountable for this?"

Shen Lian said calmly: "Why should he be afraid of being discovered?"

"what?"

Du Chuke was stunned.

Shen Lian glanced at Zhao Yeqin and Han Xun, and said slowly: "Because, his original plan was to escape from the Ministry of Industry directly after setting the fire."

"From then on, he hid his identity. The sea is wide for fish to leap, and the sky is high for birds to fly. So why should he be afraid of being discovered?"

"Even if we are discovered, what can we do? You want to catch him, but where can you catch him? He may have already left Chang'an City."

"And he deliberately left these porcelain bottles behind. There is no doubt that he was deliberately mocking you. He was mocking you for finding out it was him so late. He was mocking you for finding out what would happen even if you found him. He is still living a carefree life, while you can only jump up and down in the place!"

Du Chuke was completely stunned after listening to Shen Lian's words.

He never thought that the truth of the matter would be like this!
After setting the fire, Zhang Qin actually wanted to escape immediately!
He couldn't help but ask: "Zhang Qin, do you really want to escape?"

Shen Lian nodded slightly: "I have been to Zhang Qin's office, and I found that Zhang Qin did nothing all day today."

"He didn't do any official duties, and he set such a fire at night... He definitely couldn't have imagined what kind of investigation would be launched within the Ministry of Industry after such a fire."

"And he didn't do anything today. This is a very obvious abnormality and will definitely be treated as a major issue. It is very likely that he will be directly suspected."

"But he still did it, so this evidence also corresponds to the evidence from those porcelain bottles."

“They can all be compared to each other.”

"Zhang Qin was planning to escape directly. He never thought of trying to get away with it or disguise himself."

Du Chuke frowned.

He gritted his teeth and said, "This traitor, he set the fire and he still wants to escape!"

"I originally felt a little sorry for his death, but now, I just feel happy!"

"He deserves it!"

"If he hadn't been killed, he would have gone out and enjoyed himself!"

Shen Lian nodded slightly.

He played with the stone tiger sculpture in his hand, gently stroking the tiger's missing ear with his fingertips.

"He was very conceited and deliberately left so many obvious clues to help us find that he was the arsonist."

"He wanted to escape and live freely outside, looking at us from afar. He saw that we were helpless even if we found him."

"It's a pity that he had calculated everything except that he would die in this inconspicuous stone sculpture."

Shen Lian looked at Han Xun and said, "Actually, this tiger's ear wasn't knocked off by Zhao Yeqin a few days ago, right?"

"You must have accidentally knocked off its ear when you attacked Zhang Qin!"

"Also, his special scarlet eyes..."

Shen Lian said calmly: "Same, you didn't do it on purpose, did you?"

"This eye should have been colorless originally, but after killing Zhang Qin, its eyes turned bright red."

"Because when this stone sculpture was made, the eyes were sunken, small and sunken, it was impossible to find a suitable tool to wipe the blood off the eyes in a short time."

"So, you can only lie and say that the eyes of the stone sculpture were painted that way on purpose."

Zhao Yeqin couldn't help swallowing.

Han Xun looked at the stone sculpture in silence without saying anything.

Shen Lian said: "When the coroner performed the autopsy, he found some stone chips near the victim's wound."

"He therefore concluded that the murder weapon might have been a stone."

"But there was no stone-like weapon at the scene."

"It was clear that the murder weapon had been hidden."

"At that time, I was very confused. If it was just an ordinary big rock, there would be no need to hide the murder weapon. After all, it might be hit by someone while hiding the murder weapon."

"But the murderer still hid the murder weapon. So, there is no doubt that this murder weapon is special and it is impossible to throw it away casually. Once it is discovered, the identity of the murderer will be directly guessed."

"At the time, this officer was wondering what kind of murder weapon would be so that if it were discovered, the murderer would be known."

"until……"

Shen Lian looked down at the lifelike stone sculpture in his hand and said calmly, "I found it."

As Shen Lian's voice sounded.

Everyone's eyes were also focused on the stone sculpture of a tiger descending a mountain that he was fiddling with.

I saw that this tiger had lost one of its ears, which looked very strange.

His eyes were sunken and bright red, like blood.

Before Shen Lian explained, although everyone saw the tiger, they did not pay too much attention to it.

But now, following Shen Lian’s explanation, when you look at this stone sculpture again, you will find that there are clues everywhere!
Du Chuke couldn't help but sighed: "Master Shen, you once again made me feel the gap in wisdom!"

"Who would have thought that in just a short while, you could connect all the doubts and clues together to form a perfect logical closed loop."

When Wang Xiaohua heard Du Chuke praising Shen Lian, pride and admiration blossomed in her beautiful eyes.

It was as if praising Shen Lian made her happier than praising her ten thousand times.

Shen Lian shook his head: "This closed loop is actually missing a link."

"Which link is missing?" Du Chuke asked. Shen Lian looked at Han Xun and said, "These can only prove that this stone sculpture is a murder weapon, but it cannot prove who used it."

"It was not until you came into this office that I shifted my suspicion of the suspect to you."

Han Xun couldn't help but frown when he heard this.

Zhao Yeqin was busy looking at Shen Lian.

"Oh, I forgot to mention that."

Shen Lian looked at Zhao Yeqin and said, "You are right. In fact, I suspected you at the beginning."

"I have always suspected that you are the murderer of Zhang Qin."

"It's not that I have any evidence, it's mainly because you act too guilty."

Zhao Yeqin's expression suddenly froze.

"Guilty?"

Shen Lian nodded: "Yes, it's the same expression as you have now."

"Your little actions and many of your details show that you lied to me."

“So, I almost went in the wrong direction because of your lies.”

"But fortunately, Han Xun was afraid that you would make too many mistakes and that I would find crucial evidence, so he had to come in here. This allowed me to remove the suspicion from you."

At this moment, Zhao Yeqin didn't know whether he should be happy or sad.

He said, "Master Han, where did he reveal his flaws? Are you doubting him?"

Shen Lian looked at Han Xun and said calmly, "The biggest flaw he revealed was that he was too eager to take the stone sculpture away."

“Although you acted very calm the whole time, and you didn’t show any panic when you picked up the stone sculpture and put it into the box.”

"But at that time, I had already noticed the problem with the stone sculpture and was almost certain that it was the murder weapon."

"So you packed up the murder weapon at this time and were about to leave. This made me really suspicious of you."

Han Xun was silent for a while, and finally sighed: "So this is where the flaw is?"

Han Xun's words were tantamount to confirming all of Shen Lian's inferences.

Zhao Yeqin was startled and said hurriedly: "Master Han, you..."

Han Xun shook his head, stopping Zhao Yeqin from speaking, and said, "There's no need to insist any longer."

"Lord Shen is the smartest man in the Tang Dynasty. He has already said this. If I insist, I will just be like a funny monkey in front of Lord Shen."

Shen Lian looked at him and said, "You can still hold on a little longer."

"Because up to now, I have only been able to prove that the murderer was sitting in your seat, drinking tea with you, and that he used your stone sculpture to kill someone."

"But this officer cannot completely prove that you are the murderer."

"Although you want to take the murder weapon away, you can always find excuses and say that you didn't know it was the murder weapon. As long as you keep denying it, there is no solid evidence."

When Zhao Yeqin heard this, he also hurriedly said, "Yeah, why did you admit it so directly?"

Upon hearing this, Han Xun looked at Shen Lian and asked, "Sir Shen, is there really no hard evidence to prove that the third person sitting here is me?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Lian glanced at Han Xun and then said slowly, "Of course there is."

"But it's not because of any witnesses or physical evidence."

"It's because of your relationship with Zhang Qin."

Hearing Shen Lian's words, Han Xun's pupils trembled slightly.

Wang Xiaohua and others all looked at Han Xun.

Du Chuke asked hurriedly, "Sir Shen, what is the relationship between Han Xun and Zhang Qin?"

He frowned and said, "According to what I understand, Han Xun and Zhang Qin have almost no private interactions other than normal official business."

"Normally in the government office, they are just ordinary colleagues and rarely talk to each other, so what kind of relationship can they have?"

Hearing this, Wang Xiaohua couldn't help but ask, "In other words, on the surface, there's no way to tell the relationship between them?"

Shen Lian listened to what everyone was saying and looked at Han Xun. He said, "Do you want me to say it or do you want me to say it?"

Han Xun sighed and said, "Thank you, Master Shen."

Zhao Yeqin, who was standing aside, had a look of anxiety on his face, but in the end, he could only let out a long sigh.

Shen Lian nodded slightly: "In that case, I will tell you."

Everyone's eyes fell on Shen Lian again.

Shen Lian picked up the teacup and said, "I have just said that Zhang Qin had already decided to escape before setting the fire."

"So, under normal circumstances, he should have left after setting up the ignition device."

"The fire hadn't started at that time, and if he left, no one would have stopped him."

"If we leave now, we will have more time to escape from Chang'an City, a place of trouble."

"But he didn't."

Du Chuke said, "The Ministry of Industry has a lot of tasks today, so I ask everyone to stay and handle official business."

Shen Lian shook his head and said, "Master Du, your order may be useful to others, but it has no effect on someone who has already decided to escape."

"Let me ask you, if Zhang Qin makes an excuse, saying that there is something urgent at home, or that he is not feeling well, or that he has official business to attend to, would you disagree, Lord Du, and insist on letting him stay?"

Du Chuke was stunned for a moment.

Then he shook his head and said, "Of course I won't be so unreasonable."

Shen Lian shrugged: "Look, if Zhang Qin wants to leave, who can stop him?"

Du Chuke was silent for a moment, then asked, "Then why didn't he leave?"

"Yeah, why didn't he leave?"

Shen Lian said: "I was also very curious at first."

"Also, even if Zhang Qin didn't leave in time before the fire, he still didn't leave in time after the fire."

“That’s even more unreasonable.”

"At that time, I was really troubled by this problem."

"According to my speculation, I think the reason why he didn't leave immediately was because he had other things to do that he felt were very important."

"This matter still needs to be done before he leaves."

"But what is this matter? I still haven't guessed it."

"until……"

Shen Lian paused for a moment and said slowly: "I came here and found the first scene where Zhang Qin was killed. Then I realized that for Zhang Qin, the most important thing was to come here to drink tea."

"Come here for tea?"

Wang Xiaohua blinked her eyes: "What's so important about this?"

Shen Lian smiled and said, "Of course, drinking tea itself is not important, but the person you meet while drinking tea is important."

Wang Xiaohua blinked her eyes: "What's so important about this?"

Shen Lian smiled and said, "Of course, drinking tea itself is not important, but the person you meet while drinking tea is important."