Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 386 - 320: The Truth (Request for monthly tickets)_1

Chapter 386: Chapter 320: The Truth (Request for monthly tickets)_1

"Replying to Xiaowei, that day, the Crown Prince and I arrived at Hanyuan Pavilion at the end of the Hour of Chen."

Xi Huaien, the chief eunuch of the East Palace, was not treated as a criminal. He was not in chains and still wore the garments of a chief eunuch, but his face was pale as paper: "The Crown Prince is meticulous, he noticed that the snacks in front of Dr. Fei were gone, and ordered someone to bring another serving to Dr. Fei. I took over the snacks outside Hanyuan Pavilion and personally brought them in."

Upon hearing this, Li Xuan pondered and asked: "So did Fei Yuan only eat these snacks? Or did he eat anything else?"

Xi Huaien thought for a moment, then bowed again: "He also drank tea, but only after the lecture was over."

"So was the tea of the Crown Prince and Dr. Fei switched? Was it also switched by you, Eunuch Xi?" Li Xuan looked at the accumulated snow outside the door, estimating that in this weather, a cup of hot tea would cool down in less than three dimes."

"The person who changed the water was not me, it was Gong An!" seeing the confusion on Li Xuan’s face, Xi Huaien explained: "That is, the deceased eunuch, who was responsible for testing the poison in the tea and snacks of Hanyuan Pavilion. At the same time, he was the Shijian of Hanyuan Pavilion. I saw him change the water twice for the Crown Prince and Dr. Fei,"

Becoming a Shijian was the 8th-rank official position.

Li Xuan then looked at the two young eunuchs behind Xi Huaien: "What about before that?"

He had actually asked once before and knew these two were so-called ’Chenren’, who were usually stationed in Hanyuan Pavilion.

As the name suggests, Chenren refers to the slightly experienced eunuchs. Under one Shijian, there are usually several ’Daiban’, a dozen ’Chenren’, and dozens of apprentices.

One of them immediately responded: "After Dr. Fei ate the snacks, he drank the tea. Gong Shijian might have been busy with something else and forgot to refill the water for Dr. Fei, so Dr. Fei went to get the copper pot to fill up the water himself. So before the arrival of the Crown Prince, Dr. Fei, apart from eating the snacks, also drank two cups of tea."

Li Xuan looked around and saw a large copper pot in the corner. His eyebrows raised slightly as he walked over: "Did he use this copper pot? What was Gong Neishi busy with that he forgot to add water?"

After the arrival of the Crown Prince, this Gong An clearly changed the water very promptly.

Zuo Daoxing and Yu Yunhuang both frowned upon seeing this. The questions Li Xuan was asking seemed unrelated to the case.

The expression on Zhen Chun, the Slay Demons Xiaowei, gradually became serious. The two details Li Xuan had identified so far were things they had previously overlooked.

It was clear that this colleague of his from Zhuque Hall was truly competent and was not merely reputable.

However, there was still a trace of dissatisfaction in Zhen Chun’s eyes. In his view, the main reason was that he himself was not authorized and couldn’t lead the investigation of the case. There were many questions he couldn’t ask, and many things he couldn’t do.

The two young eunuchs looked somewhat embarrassed while Xi Huaien said with a cold expression: "It was my lack of discipline that resulted in neglecting Dr. Fei."

Upon hearing this, Li Xuan understood. It was merely a change of face between the Crown Prince and the scholarly official, Fei Yuan.

He examined the copper pot for a while before turning around and said: "We’re almost done here, could you please lead me to where the bodies are being kept?"

According to Zuo Daoxing, the bodies of the few eunuchs, including Shijian Gong An, the two eunuchs who brought the snacks, and the cook from Renshou Palace who prepared the snacks, were all kept in a small storeroom in the back yard of the East Palace. The bodies are jointly guarded by the inner Jishi Bureau, Xiuyiwei, and staff sent by three law Divisions.

The group walked through the snow and arrived at the morgue after about half a teal’s time. A total of four bodies were laid out on the floor of the storeroom. This place was not only surrounded by a group of the Forbidden Army but was also guarded by three officials who had a 7th-rank official position.

Li Xuan first examined Shijian Gong An. When he used the ’Yuanyi Spell’ on Gong An’s corpse and began to turn him over, the first thing he saw was the blood cherry-shaped livor mortis on Gong An’s body.

He then continued with his meticulous examination, looking carefully at every strand of hair and every inch of skin, meanwhile asking, "Has anyone tampered with these four bodies?"

"Our Lingwu have conducted a preliminary autopsy." Zuo Daoxing replied with a frown: "Earl Jingan may rest assured, the entire autopsy was conducted in public, and no one would dare to play tricks. Our Lingwu checked Gong An’s body and found blood cherry poison, which came from the food in his stomach."

Princess Changning Yu Yunhuang appeared impatient: "Xiaowei Li, the bodies of these few people have been examined by the Lingwu of several families. The key to this case is to investigate the hidden mastermind behind these few people. Xiaowei Li, do you know that the officials and students of Guozi Bureau have been kneeling outside Wu Gate for three days, and people are fainting every moment now?"

Enduring the impatience, Li Xuan continued examining Gong An’s body and asked, "Why did this man die half a Shichen later than Scholar Fei Yuan?"

"That should be because he was less poisoned." Zuo Daoxing was also somewhat impatient: "Gong An only ate six pieces of pastry, far less than Fei Yuan. Our Lingwu detected the Blood Cherry poison in his blood, the toxicity indeed weaker than Gong An’s."

"But it shouldn’t have been delayed this long. Fei Yuan’s Haoqi cultivation has already reached the sixth house level. His resistance to poison should be far stronger than Gong An’s."

As Li Xuan said this, he found a wound about half an inch long on Gong An’s fingertip. It seemed to have been cut by some sharp object.

Li Xuan immediately asked Xi Huaien: "Do you know how Gong An got this wound on his finger, Eunuch Xi? The wound looks fresh, it should have been inflicted not long before he died."

After a moment’s thought, Xi Huaien replied, "It should have been when he was cutting paper for the Crown Prince. When Dr. Fei was lecturing, he asked the Crown Prince to write down the essence of "Book of Rites: the Great Biography," and Gong An cut two sheets of paper for His Highness. I heard him cry out slightly in pain. I was angry with him for a while then. Being an experienced man, how could he lose his composure in front of the Crown Prince?"

Li Xuan stared, then proceeded with the examination, continuing all the way to Gong An’s feet.

He found nothing unusual, so he turned to Gong An’s chest.

Unlike Fei Yuan, whose body was intact, Gong An’s chest had been opened, and his stomach was cut open.

Li Xuan first tested for poison. He stirred the food in Gong An’s stomach with the ’Whale Needle’ and then dipped it into a special solution. Indeed, the end of the Whale Needle turned purple-black.

"Done yet?" Yu Yunhuang snorted coldly, "Even the old Lingwu in the palace can’t be worse than you, Li Xuan."

She initially addressed him as Earl Jingan, then Xiaowei Li, but now she was addressing him by his full name.

Zuo Daoxing also thought Li Xuan would stop here, but then he saw him sifting through the food again. He tirelessly searched through every bit.

This step was also taken by Li Xuan when he inspected Fei Yuan’s body. But at this moment, Zuo Daoxing became impatient, "Xiaowei Li, the Emperor has already sent someone to ask a while ago."

Li Xuan turned a deaf ear, then took a knife from his toolbox, opened up Gong An’s esophagus and throat, and examined them carefully.

He found small clots of blood in Gong An’s stomach and esophagus.

He frowned and turned to Xi Huaien, "Did Gong An lick his finger after he got hurt?"

At this moment, Xiaowei Zhen Chun, who had been watching on the sidelines, seemed to have thought of something. His pupils suddenly contracted, flashing with surprise.

"Yes! More than once." Xi Huaien recalled, "I saw it happen three times. I didn’t know he had cut his finger at the time, so I found it strange."

Li Xuan couldn’t help but fall into deep thought, he still found it strange, Gong An ate pastries before Fei Yuan did, theoretically, his time of death should also be before Fei Yuan’s. But Gong An’s time of death was half an hour later than Fei Yuan’s. What caused this? Could it be that he was poisoned later than Fei Yuan?

At this moment, he thought of the yellow powder under Fei Yuan’s fingernails, the bronze pot that they both touched, and the bloodstain on Gong An’s hand.

Li Xuan’s face darkened immediately, "Xi eunuch, were the pastries served to Fei Yuan prepared separately or from the same batch?"

"They should be from the same batch," Xi Huaien answered, "The palace pastries are usually prepared early in the morning by the food room and then provided for the whole day. After I called someone to take them, the pastries arrived within half an hour."

At this moment, Li Xuan was already hurrying towards Hanyuan Pavilion.

The few people trailing behind, excluding Xiaowei Zhen Chun, exchanged puzzled looks before hurriedly following him.

Luo Yan walked straight to Li Xuan’s side, curiously asking, "Li Xuan, have you found something? What has happened?"

"I have found some clues. There are some tiny blotches of blood in the deceased’s stomach and esophagus, but there are no wounds in his digestive tract."

Li Xuan’s eyes glinted, "I need to conduct an experiment now. If my guess is confirmed, then we’re not far from solving this case."

This time, he even used a spell to dash into Hanyuan Pavilion. He then took out a brush from his toolbox and continued scraping Fei Yuan’s fingertips.

Since he had already cleaned Fei Yuan’s fingernails, he tried hard for a while but only managed to collect a small amount of yellow dust.

Next, he took two mung bean cakes from the pastries that had been tipped onto the ground. Although the cakes were originally non-toxic, Li Xuan still carefully used a handkerchief to pick them up, "Fetch me a bowl of water, quickly."

Zuo Daoxing, the commander of Xiuyiwei, and Commandery Princess Yunhuang looked thoughtfully at the objects Li Xuan was holding. The former suddenly waved his sleeve, "Didn’t you hear? Go get a bowl of water quickly!"

At this point, the gaze of the Dudu Tongzhi contained a certain degree of admiration. Zuo Daoxing was not foolish, on the contrary, he was extremely smart. By now, he had already noticed some clues.

A bowl of water was quickly brought to Li Xuan. He crushed the mung bean cakes in his hand into the bowl. Next, Li Xuan sprinkled the yellow powder he had collected into the water.

After roughly twenty breaths, he stirred the mixture with the Whale Needle.

Later, when Li Xuan took the needle out and dipped it into the special solution, the end of the needle immediately turned purple-black.

At that moment, there was a sudden silence in Hanyuan Pavilion. Including Xiaowei Zhen Chun, who had already guessed, everyone present showed surprise.

Li Xuan lifted his head and looked at everyone present, "As I suspected, it’s mixed poison. The powder under Fei Yuan’s nails, combined with these seemingly non-toxic pastries, becomes highly toxic. They used this method to get the poison to the Crown Prince. As for Wujing Boshi Fei Yuan, if someone didn’t put the unknown powder under his nails, the only explanation is suicide."

The problem is, even if Fei Yuan committed suicide, and even if he killed Gong An intentionally or unintentionally, how did the cook and the two eunuchs who delivered the items die?

Since the food came from Renshou Palace, could it be a plot by the East Palace faction, or self-directed and self-performed by Empress Sun?

But more specific details have to be investigated further.