Jian Zhaoxing

Chapter 12 A Woman Plays with Two Men
At the same moment when Lu Huai's eyes met the antique display case, Lin Zhiqing stood up and started moving towards it.

The antique display cabinet was so exquisite and outstanding that it quickly attracted everyone's attention.

Xiao Cui also followed, but she was puzzled: "Miss Zhiqing, is there something wrong with this antique shelf?"

"There's a problem." It was Lu Huai who spoke. He didn't know what he saw, but his eyes were very solemn.

Lin Zhiqing raised his hand and touched the antique shelf: "Xiao Cui, the last teacup in this room is right here."

Xiao Cui looked puzzled and even shook her hand: "Miss Zhiqing, this antique shelf usually only holds ornamental items, never teacups..."

Wait… Xiao Cui said this and suddenly raised her hand and knocked her head: "No! There is indeed a teacup on this antique shelf."

Memories moved away like a tide. Xiao Cui felt pain and cried out "Ouch". She rubbed her head and looked at the top of the antique shelf.

A small teacup lay there quietly, as if looking at everyone and laughing at their ignorance.

"Miss Zhiqing, the teacup has been on this antique shelf since it came to our yard." Xiao Cui blushed and said softly.

It was because she was too accustomed to it that she didn't think of it at the first time.

"However, this teacup is placed here only for viewing and is never taken down on weekdays." Xiao Cui really couldn't connect this teacup with the physical evidence of conspiracy to murder her lady.

Lin Zhiqing raised his chin towards Lu Huai. Lu Huai understood and jumped lightly, trying to grab the cup.

However, when his hand touched the cup, his expression was a little strange.

Lu Huai didn't take the cup down with him. Instead, he looked at Lin Zhiqing motionlessly: "How did you know there were four rhinoceros lacquer teacups?"

Lin Zhiqing knew very well that it was not that Lu Huai could not take the teacup, but that he could not destroy the evidence at the scene.

Just from this one action, Lin Zhiqing concluded that Lu Huai had figured out the key points.

As expected of the son of a great scholar... Lin Zhiqing nodded silently: "Take another look and see if there's anything wrong with the teacup we just found in the maid's room."

Facing everyone's puzzled gazes, Lu Huai moved to the table, picked up the poisoned teacup and observed it.

After looking for a while, he realized something was wrong and turned his gaze to the inconspicuous tea saucer.

In an instant, his brows relaxed and he exchanged a look with Lin Zhiqing: "So that's how it is!"

"Mr. Lu, what is going on here?" Xiao Cui looked at the two people in front of her playing guessing games and felt that her IQ was not up to par.

Lu Huai's Adam's apple moved, and he picked up the saucer and faced everyone: "Don't you think this saucer looks very familiar?"

Everyone looked at each other, unable to discern any clues from the worn-out saucer.

Of course, some people have more unique focuses.

"Do you think Mr. Lu and Miss Zhiqing have a good understanding and look like a good match?" A maid's eyes flashed with gossip.

Where there's a Crouching Dragon, there's a Phoenix Chick. Another maidservant lowered her voice, "Aren't they a perfect match? Add in Prince Jiang, and the story of a woman teasing a man must be quite exciting!"

"Hey, why do I feel a chill on my back?"

"Me too!"

The two maids turned around at the same time, and then they saw a familiar face: "Prince Jiang Jiang Jiang Jiang, why are you here?"

"Can't I come?" Jiang Liuyun scratched his head, looking puzzled.

However, Lin Shian, who was following behind Jiang Liuyun, had a long face and glared at the two maids.

Lu Nanyue's mouth was about to burst out, she coughed lightly and walked into the room first: "Xiao Huai, isn't this the rhinoceros leather lacquer tea saucer?"

As she spoke, she quietly pulled her silly brother aside.

Jiang Liuyun didn't notice anything wrong when he walked in. He took the rhinoceros skin lacquer tea saucer from Lu Huai and examined it carefully.

Seeing this, Lu Nanyue couldn't help but roll her eyes. It seemed that all her efforts were in vain. This guy had no sense of crisis at all.

Lu Huai noticed his sister's actions and his ears started burning again.

He glanced at Lin Zhiqing and spoke first: "Sister, you are back at the right time. Zhiqing has found the real murderer."

After saying that, he took a step back. Lin Zhiqing didn't know what was going on between them, but she could tell that Lu Huai was giving her the right to explain so that she could better clear her suspicion in front of Lin Shian.

Not only him, Lu Nanyue and Jiang Liuyun also took a few steps back. Now Biluo's affairs were no longer important.

Lin Zhiqing didn't refuse. He picked up the saucer and nodded. "This is indeed a rhinoceros lacquer tea saucer. However, rhinoceros lacquer is precious, and the craftsmanship on the teacup is more complicated, so it's not so obvious on the saucer."

"That's why I was able to deduce from this tea saucer that there was another rhinoceros-hide lacquer tea set, and that rhinoceros-hide lacquer tea set was the culprit that caused my cousin's poisoning!"

Lin Shian stepped forward and took a look at the tea saucer, and his suspicion of Lin Zhiqing was much less.

When he came here, he had already heard the people here talk about what happened before.

If the murderer was really Lin Zhiqing, she would not have jumped out when there was already a "real murderer".

This is why things are even more difficult.

Lin Shian looked around at everyone in the room with a serious expression, and motioned Lin Zhiqing to continue.

Lin Zhiqing cleared his throat and said, "The most important evidence that my cousin was poisoned is the rhinoceros-skin lacquer teacup on the antique shelf."

"Miss Zhiqing, this isn't right," Xiao Cui said, a little suspicious. "When the incident happened between you and Miss, no one entered the room. If that teacup is really evidence, then does it have legs? How did it get from the table to the antique shelf?"

Not only her, but everyone present had this question in their minds to some extent.

"That's very simple." Lin Zhiqing squatted down and gestured to Lin Shian to look at the tea stains on the lichen.
"The traces of tea stains become fewer the closer you get to the display case, indicating that there was residual tea in the cup when it was dragged."

"If there was some kind of string under the teacup that my cousin and I didn't notice, then after we both fainted, the murderer could have used the string to pull the evidence to the display case without entering the room."

As he spoke, Lin Zhiqing ordered someone to take a thin thread and pass it through the small hole at the bottom of the teacup.

Then, she put some clean water in it, stood next to the display case and gently pulled the thin string.

The teacup was pulled and quickly fell off the table to the ground, with a large amount of water in the cup flowing out quickly.

Then, only a few drops of water remained, leaking out as they moved.

The tea stains left on the lichen are almost the same in direction except for the size.

Lin Zhiqing took back the teacup used for demonstration and signaled Lin Shian to take down the rhinoceros skin lacquer teacup from the antique display cabinet.

After Lin Shian did as he was told, he found himself encountering some obstacles when trying to get the teacup.

He weighed the pros and cons and, like Lu Huai, did not take the teacup away.

Lin Zhiqing moved a stool by himself, reached the cup, and lifted it up.

Sure enough! She felt a slight resistance.

After trying it out for a while, she faced everyone and slowly picked up the teacup.

Then, everyone saw that there was indeed a thin transparent thread underneath the exquisite rhinoceros-skin lacquer teacup.

Because of Lin Zhiqing's pulling, the thin line was stretched tightly, but it never broke.

"This, this is..." Xiao Cui covered her mouth, looking incredulous.

Lin Zhiqing remained calm and said, "There's a hole in the middle of the antique shelf, so it's no problem to put down such a long line."

"Could it be that someone is pulling a string behind the antique display cabinet? If there is no pulling force, the teacup will not be pulled up at all!" Someone pointed out the problem.

Lin Zhiqing slowly handed the physical evidence, the rhinoceros-skin lacquer teacup she had taken from the antique shelf, to Lin Shian.

Then she walked to the window coffin next to the antique display cabinet.

"No one can hide in this antique display cabinet. The reason why the teacup is moving is of course because someone is pulling it." Lin Zhiqing opened the window frame and pointed to the small hole on it.

After making sure everyone saw her, she glanced out the window at the small garden.

After a while, she turned her head slightly and looked at the maids flying kites:
"Tell me, who used the kite-flying method to destroy the evidence?"

(End of this chapter)