Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 81

The dragon boat race ended, and the crowds by the riverbank began to slowly disperse.

“Hmm?” Lu Sheng was absent-minded and didn’t clearly hear what Qi Zhenshu said. “What did you say?”

“The sound you heard just now, did it sound like a heavy object falling into the water?” Qi Zhenshu asked again.

“It certainly sounded somewhat like it,” Lu Sheng thought for a moment and said.

The sound flashed by and was immediately covered by the gongs and drums of the dragon boats afterward. Lu Sheng couldn’t be entirely sure if it was a heavy object falling into the water, but thinking back, it did sound somewhat like it.

“What’s wrong?” Seeing her expression seemed off, Qi Zhenshu quietly asked her, “Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

“No, the room is a bit stuffy, and the smell of this mugwort is too strong,” Lu Sheng looked at her, casually found an excuse, and her expression returned to normal. “Have you already figured out who the murderer is?”

Lu Sheng wasn’t feeling stuffy because of the room; it was seeing Qi Zhenshu and Princess Changning’s unusually tacit understanding that made her feel a bit suffocated inside.

So what if they are the “official pairing,” acting so perfectly in sync!

“I still need to confirm a few more things,” Qi Zhenshu glanced at the censer in the distance, which was still emitting faint white smoke.

She squeezed Lu Sheng’s hand and said gently, “The smell in the room is a bit strong. Go wait for me in the outer room for a moment. I’ll let the Princess know, and we’ll head back soon.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. You go ahead and confirm. I still want to see who the murderer is,” Lu Sheng quickly stopped her. She tiptoed closer to Qi Zhenshu’s ear and quietly guessed, “Was it a conspiracy between the three of them?”

“Probably not.”

“Huh?” Lu Sheng was curious. “Then who is it?”

“Want to know?” Qi Zhenshu curved her lips, deliberately playing a trick on her. “You’ll know later.”

“Hmph.” Lu Sheng glared at her.

Qi Zhenshu’s words only made her more curious.

Seeing her regain her spirits, Qi Zhenshu’s brow relaxed a bit.

“Have you two figured out who the murderer is?” Qin Feiyan walked up to them and asked curiously.

“Still need to confirm.”

After Qi Zhenshu spoke, she turned to look at Princess Changning, only to see the Princess standing with her hands clasped behind her back, lifting her chin towards Qi Zhenshu.

For intelligent people, a single look is enough to understand the meaning in the other’s eyes.

Qi Zhenshu nodded slightly in response. She turned and first carefully looked at Yuedie, then at Xiaohong beside her, and asked, “When you came in to clear the teacups, did you see Old Master Wu still alive?”

Unlike Princess Changning’s inherent authority when speaking, Qi Zhenshu’s tone was calm, without any sense of pressure or interrogation, just like an ordinary conversation.

“Yes, he was alive,” Xiaohong was less tense than before, and spoke more smoothly. “I even heard Old Master Wu snoring then.”

“All the teacups on the ground have been cleared, so why hasn’t the tea water been wiped clean?” Qi Zhenshu asked again.

“I had just finished collecting the teacups when Miss, Miss said she needed to go to the bathroom, so I didn’t clean it up,” Xiaohong glanced at Yuedie as she spoke. Yuedie didn’t say anything, only patted her hand.

“So that is to say, when you and Yuedie returned from the latrine, you entered the room together with Miss Yuedie?” Qi Zhenshu surmised.

“Yes, yes,” Xiaohong nodded somewhat fearfully.

“But you were walking ahead?”

“Yes, yes,” Xiaohong was surprised. “I opened the door, Miss was talking to Ah Hong, so I entered the room first.”

She didn’t know how this person guessed that she entered the room with her mistress and that she entered first.

Princess Changning turned and sat down by a side table, watching Qi Zhenshu question.

After Xiaohong answered, Qi Zhenshu looked at Yuedie, only to see her expression was normal, without any change.

“Tell me, what did you two do after entering the room?” Qi Zhenshu’s tone was still unhurried.

“I walked in front, and Miss walked behind. I wanted to clean up the tea water on the floor, and when I looked up, I saw that Old Master Wu had been murdered,” Xiaohong still looked frightened remembering that scene, her voice trembling. “I, I only looked once and didn’t dare to look again.”

“And then?”

“And then? Then Miss went to check on Old Master Wu, found he was already dead, and then Ah Hong came in,” Xiaohong continued.

“Is what she said true?” Qi Zhenshu then looked at Yuedie and asked.

“It is indeed so,” Yuedie replied softly. “I, too, heard Xiaohong’s scream before I noticed a dagger stuck in Old Master Wu’s chest. I was brave enough to check Old Master Wu’s breath and found he was already dead.”

“And you were the one who knocked over the standing lamp?” Qi Zhenshu frowned and stared at her as she asked.

“I, I was terrified when I found Old Master Wu was dead, and I accidentally knocked over the standing lamp.”

As Yuedie spoke, her body trembled slightly, her fingers tightly twisting the silk handkerchief she held, and her eyes also reddened. She looked utterly pitiful.

“Did you light the candles in this room?” Qi Zhenshu asked again.

Yuedie’s heart skipped a beat, but she maintained her original expression and denied, “No, I did not.”

Qi Zhenshu didn’t question her further and turned once more to Princess Changning. Princess Changning stood up from her seat, walked in front of Yuedie, and looked at her with stern eyes.

“Tell me, why did you kill Old Master Wu?”

As soon as this was said, everyone in the room except Qi Zhenshu was shocked. Ruan Ru, who had been secretly peeking from outside the door, also directly bypassed Ruan Peng and leaned in to look inside.

Yuedie first looked at Princess Changning in disbelief, and instantly tears welled up in her eyes. She fiercely squeezed the embroidered handkerchief in her hand and cried, “I’m wrongly accused, Your Excellency, I’m wrongly accused! I wasn’t in the room when Old Master Wu was killed, how could I have killed him?”

Yuedie began to sob and choke, tears streaming down her cheeks. She wanted to use the embroidered handkerchief to wipe them, but as she raised her hand, she changed to lightly wiping them with her sleeve.

“If you set up a killing mechanism in advance, what’s so difficult about that?” Princess Changning finished speaking and glanced at Qi Zhenshu.

Qi Zhenshu walked to the couch and looked at Yuedie, saying, “You deliberately got Old Master Wu drunk and helped him onto the bed. Then, you only needed to tie a thin hemp rope to the tail end of the dagger beforehand and hang it from the bed frame.”

Qi Zhenshu demonstrated how Yuedie arranged the killing mechanism step by step, explaining as she went, “Next, you tie a stone to one end of the hemp rope, loop it around the bed leg, and then place it outside the window.”

“You deliberately broke the teacups at this spot for Xiaohong to come in and clean up. One reason was to let her hear Old Master Wu snoring, so she would know Old Master Wu was still alive at the time. The second reason is that from the doorway to this spot, Xiaohong wouldn’t be able to see the hemp rope suspending the dagger nor the standing lamp hidden by the side of the bed,” Qi Zhenshu pointed to the tea stains in front of the couch.

“Finally, you just needed to light the candle on the candle holder while Xiaohong was clearing the teacups, and then find an excuse to leave the room with Xiaohong.”

“When the candle burns through the hemp rope, the dagger will fall and pierce Old Master Wu’s chest, which is why you needed to knock over the candlestick.”

(Because she didn’t want people to find the lit candle, she put it out by knocking over the candlestick.)

“Are you joking, Your Excellency? That hemp rope would burn through as soon as it saw fire. I’m afraid the dagger would have dropped before I even left the room,” Yuedie’s eyes were moist, but no more tears fell.

Hearing this, everyone looked at Qi Zhenshu, wanting to hear her explanation.

“That’s not difficult,” Qi Zhenshu said without hesitation: “Simply soak the hemp rope.”

If the hemp rope was wet, it would certainly take longer to burn through.

“Alternatively, the section that needed to burn could be knotted and wound,” Princess Changning added.

A knotted rope is thicker and harder to burn through.

“Miss Yuedie, do you have anything else to say?” Qi Zhenshu asked, looking at Yuedie.

“What Your Excellency says is just conjecture. Does Your Excellency have any evidence?!” Yuedie tightly gripped the embroidered handkerchief and shook her head in denial.

Qi Zhenshu’s eyes narrowed, and she said in a low voice, “The evidence is on you.”

“What?!” Yuedie’s face changed slightly.

“Miss Yuedie, you said you didn’t light the candle in the room, so how did this wax get on your cuff?” Qi Zhenshu asked, pointing to the wax on her left cuff.

“It might have been rubbed off somewhere else,” Yuedie lowered her head to glance at her cuff, her fingers clutching the fabric, and she defended herself.

“That might be plausible,” Qi Zhenshu nodded. She took a step forward, her gaze fixed on the handkerchief in Yuedie’s hand. “Miss Yuedie, please allow me to inspect your embroidered handkerchief.”

Yuedie instinctively clutched the handkerchief tightly.

“You won’t let me see your handkerchief because there’s also wax on it, isn’t that right?” Qi Zhenshu spoke again. “I imagine besides the wax, there should also be burn marks from the fire.”

Someone like Yuedie cares most about her appearance, so when extinguishing the candle, she definitely wouldn’t use her bare hand, but would use the handkerchief in her hand as a buffer.

Because the handkerchief had wax and burn marks, Yuedie had been clutching her handkerchief the whole time, and even when she cried, she only used her sleeve to wipe her eyes, not the handkerchief. Furthermore, she later stopped crying altogether.

“Also, besides the handkerchief, you have another piece of evidence on you.” This time, Qi Zhenshu didn’t wait for Yuedie to speak and continued, “After Xiaohong cried out, you pretended to check Old Master Wu’s breathing, not only to confirm if he was truly dead but also to retrieve the hemp thread tied to the dagger.”

She suspected that if the falling dagger didn’t kill Old Master Wu, Yuedie could use the opportunity of checking on him to stab the dagger deeper, ensuring Old Master Wu was definitely dead.

Qi Zhenshu observed Yuedie’s expression, catching the flash of surprise in her eyes, and said firmly, “That piece of hemp thread is also on you right now. Miss Yuedie, am I wrong?”

At this point, Yuedie had no way to argue. She lowered her head and said dejectedly, “You’re right. I killed him.”

“Miss Yuedie, would you care to say who instructed you to kill Old Master Wu?” Princess Changning asked with a frown.

She had already seen through Yuedie’s method of murder. More than how she killed him, Princess Changning wanted to know why she killed him.

As soon as Princess Changning spoke, Qi Zhenshu understood the hidden meaning in her words.

Qi Zhenshu turned her head to look at Princess Changning, and their eyes met. Princess Changning nodded slightly to her.

Qi Zhenshu understood. Princess Changning probably knew this Old Master Wu, and the reason Yuedie killed him was likely not simple.

The fact that she was asking this in front of Qi Zhenshu meant that she tacitly accepted Qi Zhenshu as one of her own.

Watching their interaction, Lu Sheng couldn’t stand the smell of mugwort in the room anymore, so she turned and left the room.

As soon as Lu Sheng exited, Ruan Ru glanced around and followed her.

“Miss Lu.”

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