Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 262 - 226: A Thin Line Away _1

Chapter 262: Chapter 226: A Thin Line Away _1

When Li Xuan and his partner saw Gongsun Xue in the document room again, her face was devoid of color.

"Did Xiaowei Lei already speak?"

Gongsun Xue slumped in her chair, with a bitter smile atop her distraught face, yet with a touch of relief in her eyes: "Well, well, from the moment the Demon Tower became unstable, I guessed this day would come. My secret with him can’t be hidden forever. At least now, I am more at ease."

Li Xuan’s face was expressionless: "So you are admitting that around the third moment of Xu, Lei Yun was indeed with you? Where did you meet in private, and for how long?"

"For about an hour; I remember he left around the second moment of Hai. We met at the back of the document room."

Gongsun Xue sighed lightly with her eyes half-closed, "During the evening, Xiaowei Lei invited me via letter. I normally wouldn’t have given it any thought. Xiaowei Lei and I do have a private relationship, but it hasn’t progressed to the point that I would ignore my dignity. However, the day of the incident, my husband and I failed to negotiate a separation, my heart was in turmoil, and I wanted someone to talk to, and thus..."

After hearing this, Luo Yan’s impression of this Madam Wang slightly improved. She thought this woman was not as frivolous as many assumed.

She began to believe that Gongsun Xue, on that night, really just had a chat with Lei Yun.

However, Li Xuan’s pupils contracted slightly at this point, "Duwei Gongsun, do you still have the letter Xiaowei Lei used to invite you?"

"Yes." Gongsun Xue had no hesitation, she took out a plain white paper from her sleeve and handed it to Li Xuan: "I wanted to destroy it afterward, but somehow, I kept it."

Li Xuan couldn’t help but think that this woman must have really fallen for Xiaowei Lei.

Peng Fulai and Zhang Yue, standing nearby, looked stunned, and then a sense of admiration for Lei Yun naturally surfaced.

Yue Qianqian, however, looked at Gongsun Xue with an incomprehensible expression. She wondered how this gentle and quiet woman had become entangled with someone as unreliable as Lei Yun.

※※※※

The expected inventory check for the paper, sulfur, and charcoal in the document room was still incomplete.

Therefore, soon after, Li Xuan was again walking along the long corridor on the first floor of the Demon Tower. His next destination was the kitchen within the tower.

All core facilities within the Demon Tower were located on the first floor, including the kitchen. The kitchen was towards the south, and it was extensive, taking up at least a seventh of the level.

This was because not only was it responsible for the three meals of nearly twelve hundred prison guards in the Demon Tower, but also the meals for the five thousand prisoners.

Even the demons occasionally needed to be fed, otherwise, they would die.

"I thought you would go to the overall storeroom first." Luo Yan’s expression was nonchalant, and she stepped along behind Li Xuan: "If someone wanted to transport gunpowder, there’s no better place."

"There would be convenience, but they would only go to the second underground level every afternoon. Xu, the person in charge of this layer, is very meticulous. If the criminal chose to hide the gunpowder in advance on this floor, it would only add risk. As a master in fire, you should know that this kind of temporarily made gunpowder has a certain smell due to its impurities, which can’t be covered by regular illusion techniques. Unless Duwei Xu himself is also a part of this."

As he looked at the letter in his hand, Li Xuan explained, "However, when sending food to the prison guards from the kitchen, although it is usually at the Hour of You, for those prisoners, it’s often postponed until the Hour of Xu. The scent of the food can mask the smell of gunpowder."

During the interrogation of Jiang Hanyun and other Xiaoweis yesterday, Li Xuan had seen with his own eyes that the prisoners on the ninth floor didn’t receive their food until late into the night. Only Jiang Hanyun and Lei Yun were given special treatment.

Those locked up on the ninth floor are strong and suspected of crimes, and they’re not yet convicted. If they were treated like this, what about those in the black prison underground?

Upon arriving at the kitchen, the first thing Li Xuan checked was the food carts. Their structure and function were similar to the ones in modern hotels, except these were made of wood and seemed heavier.

They didn’t use stairs to move up and down but a lift platform instead — with the help of animal power, they could freely move up and down in the tower, achieving a similar function as modern elevators.

With a glance, Li Xuan knew that Duwei Xu was correct. If the gunpowder were hidden in the food carts, they could undoubtedly deliver it unobtrusively to the second underground level.

The wooden barrels on the food carts had a huge carrying capacity. It could easily hold three or five "shi" of gunpowder — provided a little porridge was eliminated.

Li Xuan pondered for a moment: "Taishan, help me go to the second underground level and ask, whether the quantity of food for the prisoners in the black prison was reduced on the night of the incident?"

He then looked to Peng Fulai: "Old Peng, you go to the 56th level -"

But Peng Fulai had already turned and was walking toward the stairs, "You want me to ask, during these few days, was there any meal that was not quite right?"

Li Xuan let out a small laugh, and then proceeded to question the kitchen supervisor.

"On the night of the incident, who delivered the food downstairs?" The Kitchen Supervisor was a chubby middle-aged man, he looked confused: "There were many, I remember there were eight food carts delivered that night, I can’t recall who sent them, I would have to check, those who transported the food were from the Baiyi division, I don’t usually supervise them. However, the rules inside the tower are strict, there’s a record before the food is delivered. Which person, which cart, what was sent, everything is recorded."

Li Xuan knew the term ’Baiyi’ referred to temporary workers in local government offices, similar to contemporary auxiliary police, but of a lower status.

In this era, they were mostly low-born, without any proper organization.

There were over a thousand in the Liudao Division alone.

Soon after, the middle-aged steward not only brought forward the list of employees Li Xuan had requested but also delivered the meal account book.

After looking through it for a while, Li Xuan’s eyebrows rose slightly: "Could I see all the people I’ve circled here?"

Apparently, these were the ones who had delivered meals to the second basement floor on the night of the incident, and those who had been responsible for the meals on the fifty-sixth floor in the last seven days, a total of twenty-five people—the top floor had no detainees, only the evil spirits of The Third Door and numerous demons from The Second Door. Therefore, there were a few more jailers, but only about thirty in total. Every meal of the day only needed a cart.

And not long after Li Xuan had summoned the Baiyi, Zhang Yue and Peng Fulai arrived one after another.

"I asked around. On the night of the incident, only a portion of prisoners in the ninth area had their rice porridge reduced by nearly a third, and that area isn’t far from the staircase to the third floor," recalled Zhang Yue.

Following Zhang Yue, Peng Fulai walked back, frowning: "During lunch before the incident, they seemed to be missing a bowl of vegetarian food. But it happens often, so they didn’t pay much attention."

Li Xuan looked at the ledger and saw that on the day before the incident, the meals for the fifty-sixth floor were delivered by a middle-aged woman named Aunt Lin. Then, he lifted his head to look at some of the Baiyi who were standing in front of him: "Who was responsible for the ninth area when you delivered the meals to the second basement floor on the night of the incident?"

They all looked at each other, then all eyes landed on one young man. He turned pale: "I felt sick that day, so I asked Aunt Lin to take over for me."

Li Xuan squinted, "Where is this Aunt Lin?"

There were two women among the Baiyi, but neither of them was the right age.

"She’s taken leave." The kitchen steward seemed to remember something, deep in thought: "She was frightened by what happened in the tower, so she asked for a few days off."

Li Xuan suppressed the growing anticipation and joy in his heart: "Where does this Aunt Lin live?"

"She lives in the houses behind Zhuque Hall, in the seventh courtyard of Shihu Alley." It was the young man who had been replaced, his face pale: "I can take you there."

Peng Fulai and Zhang Yue, at this point, were both excited, realizing that they were just steps away from the truth.

※※※※

Three Shichen later, Li Xuan and the others stood in a simple stone house, looking at a female corpse hanging from the beam above.

The corpse was tall, almost 1.8 meters, slightly overweight, with neat facial features and some scars from burns on her left cheek—it looked like Aunt Lin.

A breeze blew, making the corpse swing back and forth like a swing, and the friction between the rope and the beam made a ’creak’.

"I knew it!" Peng Fulai couldn’t help but blurt out: "This case isn’t that simple."

Meanwhile, Li Xuan started his forensic examination, untied the corpse from the beam: "She died about three days ago, by poisoning."

Three days ago would be the early morning of the day after the incident in Zhenyao Tower.

Since that event, Li Xuan had spent over two days just watching Shi Xin interrogate the Xiaowei and Duwei.

"Didn’t she hang herself?" Zhang Yue asked weirdly: "She took poison and then hanged herself? Or did someone else hang her up?"

"This woman did commit suicide. The type of poison is still unknown, but one of them is definitely bitter almond. Judging from the traces at the scene and the condition of the corpse, the possibility of her being murdered is small. As for why she hung herself after taking poison? It may be due to the delayed effect of the poison. This woman is a spell cultivator of the third house level, so she has excellent physical quality."

Li Xuan shook his head, having already made use of the red ghost woman’s ability. As there were no lingering obsessions or resentment left at the scene, he was unable to extract the woman’s memories.

"Luo Yan, could you help me look around the house for any clues? Mr. Peng and Taishan, go ask the neighbors about Aunt Lin’s situation, especially any abnormalities in the past month."

The house was kept very clean, pots, bowls, and chopsticks were neatly arranged, and the bedding was tidily folded. There was only a thin layer of dust on the floor.

Nevertheless, Li Xuan still held out hope, hoping to find some evidence that could help him solve the bombing case.

After circling inside and outside the house without finding any clues, he finally made an unexpected discovery in Aunt Lin’s jewelry box.

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