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Chapter 88: Fragments of Clothes
No one could answer Zhuang Zhi's question except himself.

But as soon as he expressed his doubts, Lord Wu, the Jingzhao Yin, felt relieved.

Although there is still no answer to who the real murderer is, at least Zhuang Zhi's attitude is equivalent to letting go. He no longer insists that Cao Chenfeng is the one who killed Zhuang Lanlan, which makes people feel relieved.

Cao Chenfeng's expression was a little hard to describe. What he was most worried about before was that he would not be able to get rid of the charge of murder, so he could not think about anything else.

Now that he saw the truth of the matter seemed to be becoming clearer little by little, he felt a little more at ease and had the mind to think about other things.

Now, when he saw that there was a secret compartment in the room, which was large enough for someone to hide, and recalled what the thief said, that someone else turned off the lights and slipped out shortly after he left, he immediately realized that while he and Zhuang Lanlan were being affectionate, there was someone else hiding in the room, and his face suddenly became even more distorted.

"Who are the servants in your family who stayed here to serve Zhuang Lanlan?" Zhu Yu reminded Zhuang Zhi. "After Zhuang Lanlan's accident, did anyone find an excuse to hide, or suddenly develop some 'serious illness'?"

Zhuang Zhi thought about it carefully with a painful look on his face, then shook his head. "There aren't many people here. There are only three maids, a cook, two or three servants, and a servant who does rough work. He's usually responsible for chopping firewood and also acts as a guard."

When he mentioned the cook, it suddenly reminded Zhu Yu of something she had forgotten: "When Boss Zhuang came here on the morning he found out his daughter had been murdered, was the cook in the embroidery building cooking?"

"They probably did. They were all busy downstairs when I came. But when I went upstairs and found that something happened to my Lanlan, no one else cared about anything else. They were all scared and lost their minds. No one cared about whether to eat or not." Zhuang Zhi answered uncertainly.

Zhu Yu quickly signaled to the two yamen runners who had just found the secret compartment: "Hurry up and go to the small kitchen downstairs and search the stove carefully to see if you can find anything that was not completely burned!"

The two yamen runners clasped their fists at her and hurried downstairs. After a while, they came back again. Both of them had their hands covered with ash and their faces were also stained with a lot, looking dirty, but one of them was holding a piece of black rag in his hand.

"Found it! Found it!" The leading yamen runner placed the items in his hand in front of Zhu Yu and Jingzhao Yin like a treasure. "We found the unburned clothes in the very back of the kitchen!"

The Jingzhao Yin was delighted to see that he had found something, but when he saw that the rags that the yamen runners had found were covered in dirty ash, he couldn't bring himself to take them.

He can't reach out, but someone else can.

Zhu Yu took the pieces of cloth from the two yamen runners with a calm face, and held them in his hands one by one to examine them carefully under the light. The first few pieces of cloth were covered with dust, but when he held them up to the light, he could see that the light could pass through the texture more or less evenly.

Zhu Yu looked through the scraps of cloth one by one but found nothing. He began to feel suspicious, worried that his speculation might be wrong.

She just thought that the secret compartment was located in the open space inside the bed in the bedroom. It was very hidden and not easy for outsiders to find it, let alone sneak into the bedroom and hide in it quietly.

So if there was someone hiding there that night, it must be someone who was quite familiar with the embroidery building and Zhuang Lanlan's daily routine, a servant who usually came in and out of the embroidery building.

The thief said that after he saw Cao Chenfeng leave, a man in dark clothes blew out the candles and left quietly. After leaving the embroidery building, he sneaked into the woods on the shore.

After discovering that his daughter had been murdered, Zhuang Zhi reported the matter to the authorities. The authorities sealed off the embroidery building and asked Zhuang Zhi to take the maids and servants who had originally lived there back home.

So if a servant in the house is missing, Zhuang Zhi will be able to notice something unusual at the first time.

The fact that he didn't notice anything at all means that everyone is there and no one is missing.

This suggests that the man simply hid in the woods for some reason that night, then sneaked back to the embroidery building, pretending nothing had happened. If someone had stabbed someone to death and left, it would have been possible to leave no trace. However, when the thief saw Zhuang Lanlan's body, there was no knife on her body. Later, he heard the sound of the murderer throwing the knife into the river.

For the knife wound to the chest, whether before or after falling to the ground, the moment the knife was pulled out, blood would inevitably splatter on the murderer's clothes.

So no matter how calm and bold the murderer was, and no matter how he sneaked back to the embroidery building and pretended nothing happened, the blood-stained clothes still had to be dealt with.

Compared to throwing it into the river, it is obviously safer to stuff it into the stove and burn it clean.

Just when she couldn't help but wonder if she had guessed wrong, the next piece of cloth made her eyes light up.

Or to be more precise, it should be said that there was a darkness before the eyes.

Unlike the previous pieces of cloth that were covered in dust but translucent, this piece of cloth hardly let any light through. The rough texture of the cloth was filled with stains that were almost dark brown. It felt much stiffer and rougher to the touch than the previous pieces.

Zhu Yu put this piece of cloth aside and checked the remaining pieces one by one. He found that among all the pieces of cloth, big and small, there were about three pieces like this.

She asked the yamen runner to bring the bowl of water that Lu Qing had just used, took one of the pieces of cloth, shook it gently, blew on it, tried to remove some of the ash on it, and then dipped it into the bowl.

At first, only a little dust floated on the surface of the water in the bowl.

After a moment, a faint blood color appeared on the originally colorless bottom of the bowl. After another moment, a dark red color that became increasingly darker gathered in the water at the bottom of the bowl.

Zhu Yu nodded, very satisfied with the result.

At this time, a yamen runner ran up from downstairs, panting, holding a wide-bladed knife about a foot long in his hand. The handle of the knife was tied with an old cloth strip, which was now wet from water and exuded a stench of mud from the river.

Zhu Yu took one look and quickly reached over to measure the width of the blade. He nodded, signaling the yamen runner to put the knife and the other pieces of cloth away. He then respectfully bowed to the Jingzhao Yin and said, "Sir, bring back the servants from the Zhuang family who were originally serving in the embroidery building. Have them identify whose clothes this piece of cloth belonged to. The owner of that piece of cloth will be the real murderer of Zhuang Lanlan."

She spoke with great conviction. When Cao Chenfeng heard this, he immediately collapsed to the ground, as if he had been in a state of tension for a long time and suddenly felt relieved, and could no longer hold on.

Cao Tianbao also looked at her immediately. Seeing that Zhu Yu did not show any hesitation or delay, his frown finally relaxed a little.

But he was much calmer than Cao Chenfeng after all. He remained calm before everything was settled and did not reveal all his emotions.

Zhuang Zhi seemed quite nervous as well, and he knelt before the Jingzhao Yin, saying, "Sir, I am willing to bring all the servants who used to serve in the Embroidery Tower with me to find the murderer who killed my daughter and give her justice!"

Jingzhao Yin also felt that this was necessary and was about to give the order when he looked up and saw Zhu Yu waving at him.

"There's no need to go through so much trouble." Zhu Yu shook his head and pointed. "Just ask that person and you'll know who the murderer is!"

(End of this chapter)