Ji Yunshu continued to hold Yuchi Lin’s head as she coldly interrogated Su Ziluo. “Why?”
“Why what? I’m not sure I understand you.”
“No need to quibble with me. You already knew everything from the start.”
Su Ziluo maintained a poker face. “What are you talking about?”
Ji Yunshu bluntly showed him the corpse’s neck and spoke with confidence, “There are two wounds on General Yuchi’s neck.”
“Oh?”
“Before he was decapitated, he received another wound at the same place which was made by a small curved knife or something similar. Since he received both wounds in the short time frame of less than the burning of an incense stick, the neck appeared as if there was only one wound. However, after 24 hours, since the two wounds were made from different weapons, through the exposure to ambient conditions and the progression of the post-mortem process, the differences due to the sizes of the incisions, which were of different depths, and the clotting formation ensuing from it made it more evident it was two distinct wounds. In simple terms, the neck showed two layers of incisions.” She pointed at the incisions on Yuchi Lin’s head to give a better visual of her explanations.
There were indeed two different cuts revealed after the dermal generation when looking up close around the area of the Adam’s apple.
Su Ziluo calmly listened to her. He had no intention of interrupting her, instead showing much interest in her words.
Immediately after, she took out her painting and smudged the white paper with her dirty hands, leaving behind five lustrous fingerprints smeared with curdled bodily fluids. “This footprint was compared with everyone’s in the relay station. However, I now realize that I was wrong because this footprint belongs to a woman.”
One of Su Ziluo’s eyebrows rose as he faintly asked, “Then, do you know whose footprint that might be?”
“Kong Yu!” She spoke with confidence.
After hearing the name, Su Ziluo smiled. “Why?”
“On the day of the banquet, I saw her shoes when she walked through the venue. When I began my investigation, I was far from associating her to this case, but after I realized this could be the footprint of a woman, I recalled her shoes. I have a strong suspicion that this footprint was left behind by Kong Yu, and that she was present at the crime scene that night.”
“Did Teacher Ji forget? This place is surrounded by soldiers, and no one apart from Ji Li entered the relay station that night.”
“That’s because you told them beforehand, so no one dared say otherwise.”
“Oh? Why would I want to do that?”
“Do you really want me to lay everything out from top to bottom?” Ji Yunshu became emotional and tears threatened to flow from her eyes.
She put the head back to its place and faced Su Ziluo. She took a deep breath before talking in a grave tone. “Since you don’t want to confess, I will say it instead. On that day, Kong Yu left the palace to come here. At that time, Ji Li was already intoxicated by the alcohol and may have been oblivious to the conversation between Kong Yu and General Yuchi. I have deduced that she spoke about her unwillingness to go to Qujiang and wed their monarch, hoping that General Yuchi could present a memorial to the Emperor for the selection of another bride. This plan would not implicate Jing Rong and also free her from this unwanted marriage. She came in with a die-hard determination but encountered General Yuchi’s refusal. In her impatience, she caught him off-guard with a curved dagger to the neck, which infuriated him. He expulsed her from his room. When she left, she accidentally dropped her handkerchief on the floor and stepped on it, leaving half of her footprint on her handkerchief and the other half on the dusty floor.”
Su Ziluo then asked, “At that time, why did she leave? And where is the handkerchief?”
“It’s because of you!”