The First Criminal Judge of the Zhenguan Era

Chapter 218 Interrogation! An Unexpected Clue: The Former Sui Dynasty Post Station!
As the shopkeeper looked for Liu Shuyi, Guan Feng and the others also turned their attention to Liu Shuyi.

Guan Feng, worried that Liu Shuyi might be swayed by the shopkeeper's pitiful appearance, said, "County Commandant Qin, don't believe him. I've seen plenty of people like him. They cry out for justice more loudly than anyone else, as if they are the most wronged people in the world, but in reality, they are treacherous, vicious, and utterly wicked!"

"No! I didn't! I'm just an honest little merchant, I haven't done anything wrong at all, Magistrate Qin, you are right!" The shopkeeper kowtowed to Liu Shuyi repeatedly.

Looking at the shopkeeper's panicked appearance with tears and snot streaming down his face, Liu Shuyi calmly said, "Whether it is true or not, I will make my own judgment... I will ask you questions next, and you must answer truthfully. If you conceal anything, you should know the consequences."

The shopkeeper, as if a drowning man had grasped at a straw, nodded hurriedly: "County Magistrate Qin, please ask whatever you wish, I will tell you everything I know."

Guan Feng frowned upon seeing this, but after thinking for a moment, he did not say anything to stop him.

Liu Shuyi asked, "The first question is, after Cao Rui and the others arrived at the inn, besides questioning me, did they also question the others?"

The shopkeeper nodded and said, "We called one person away from that family of three and several examinees for questioning."

"Were they asked the same question?"

Liu Shuyi recalled why Cao Rui had chosen him and asked, "Did they all come from the direction of Cangzhou?"

"How did County Magistrate Qin know?" The shopkeeper was quite surprised. He said, "That family of three came from Qizhou, and their route here overlaps with that of Cangzhou... while those five examinees came from Dizhou. Dizhou and Cangzhou are adjacent, and most of their routes overlap."

really……

Cao Rui sought him out because he had come from Cangzhou... The others he was looking for had also traveled some distance from Cangzhou to this place...

Therefore, the person he is looking for, or the news he wants to hear, is related to the northeast.

The caravan that Guan Feng and his group were using to conceal their identities came from Zhengzhou, which is the opposite direction from the northeast. Therefore, Cao Rui had no interest in such a large caravan.

"County Commandant Qin, I wonder what Cao Rui said to you when he summoned you here?"

At this moment, Guan Feng asked curiously.

Liu Shuyi did not hide anything and said, "He asked me if I had heard any interesting rumors on my way here."

"Interesting rumors?" Guan Feng frowned. "Do they want to know some information?"

He looked at Liu Shuyi: "What rumors are you referring to?"

Liu Shuyi shrugged: "I'm busy arresting criminals, constantly on the go. I don't have time to listen to other people's rumors."

“That’s true.” Guan Feng nodded. “On the way here with the caravan, I heard a lot of messy rumors. I wonder if any of them are the kind of rumors Cao Rui is looking for.”

"Highly unlikely."

Liu Shuyi said, "Cao Rui only asked people from the northeast, which means that the rumors should only be spread along this route. Otherwise, he would not have let go of the well-informed caravans that travel all over the country."

Guan Feng nodded again, agreeing with Liu Shuyi's words.

Liu Shuyi looked at the innkeeper again and said, "You run an inn here and often receive guests from the northeast. Have you heard them talk about any interesting rumors?"

The innkeeper recalled for a moment, then shook his head and said, "To be honest, County Magistrate Qin, a few months ago, heavy snow blocked the mountains, and the land was covered in ice and snow. There were very few travelers, so the number of guests staying there was extremely limited. There were no guests coming from the direction of Cangzhou."

"Just this month, the ice and snow melted, and a few travelers from Cangzhou came... but they didn't mention any rumors, and they all stayed for one night before leaving in a hurry."

Liu Shuyi gently rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, pondering, "In the past few days, besides us, have there been any other travelers from Cangzhou?"

"This……"

The innkeeper thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "There really was one person. He arrived at the inn a day earlier than you, stayed one night, and then left."

Only one day earlier than us...

Liu Shuyi pondered that Cao Rui's choice to ask them at this moment meant that the rumor he wanted to hear must have only recently emerged.

There's a good chance that he's asking questions here because he followed the direction the rumors were spreading...

So this person who arrived here in the same direction just one day earlier than them...

Liu Shuyi asked the shopkeeper, "Do you remember this person's appearance? Did he say anything unusual to you?"

"Physical features..."

Although the shopkeeper didn't understand why Liu Shuyi would care about an insignificant passerby, he still tried to recall for the sake of his head and said, "This person is about twenty years old, with an ordinary appearance, but he is quite strong. He seems to know some martial arts."

"He was wearing ordinary hemp clothes and had no valuables on him, so he probably wasn't wealthy... Besides that, that's right!"

The shopkeeper seemed to have thought of something and said to Liu Shuyi, "He's missing half an ear."

"Missing half an ear?" Liu Shuyi raised an eyebrow. "Which ear? Was it congenital, or was it injured?"

"His right ear!" the shopkeeper said. "It's from an injury. The lower half of his right ear is missing, and it's still scabbing over. It doesn't look like it's fully healed yet."

It's still scabbing over... which means the injury hasn't been going on for long.

Liu Shuyi stroked his chin: "Do you know why he was injured?"

The shopkeeper smiled wryly and said, "How dare we ask such a sensitive question, sir! We didn't even dare to look at it a second time after we saw it, for fear that you would notice that we were paying attention to his ears and that it would displease him."

Liu Shuyi nodded and continued, "After he left, which direction did he go?"

"They went south and onto a mountain road, but I don't know exactly where they were going."

Liu Shuyi looked at Guan Feng: "County Commandant Guan, you came from Zhengzhou, and your route here passes through the mountains to the south. I wonder if you have encountered such a lone traveler on the way?"

Guan Feng shook his head: "We haven't encountered any pedestrians since we started walking on the mountain road. Although there is only one main road running north to south, there are many side roads and small paths. It's normal that we haven't encountered him if he took a side road."

"Indeed," Liu Shuyi nodded.

He pondered for a moment, then asked the shopkeeper, "What time did Cao Rui and the others arrive?"

"Around 1-3 PM."

Wei Shi (1-3 PM)?

That would be around 1 p.m.

It's still a long time before it gets dark.

Liu Shuyi said, "Are they staying at the hotel so early and not leaving?"

The innkeeper said, "They said they had been traveling for a long time and were very tired. They needed to rest for a few days, so they decided to stay here."

Do I need to rest for a few days?
Liu Shuyi's eyes flickered a few times.

Their continuous journey indicated that they had urgent business to attend to... but upon arriving here, they suddenly said they were tired and needed to rest for several days.

This is clearly contradictory.

Either Cao Rui and his group are lying, or they're not traveling at all and have nothing urgent to do, so staying for a few days is no problem.

Either... Liu Shuyi's gaze was deep and unfathomable, or they had a reason to stay at this inn!
What are they going to do here?

Combined with Cao Rui's questioning of him, and the bizarre circumstances of his murder...

Liu Shuyi felt the second possibility was more likely.

If that's the case, what are they going to do here? And why did they choose this place?

Besides being the only place within a hundred miles where people can stay, what else is special about this inn?

Liu Shuyi asked the innkeeper, "Did you build this inn?"

The shopkeeper blinked, looking somewhat bewildered, completely unprepared for Liu Shuyi to suddenly ask such a question. "No."

The innkeeper shook his head and said, "These houses were originally a post station during the Sui Dynasty. Later, due to the turmoil at the end of the Sui Dynasty, all the staff fled, and the post station was abandoned..."

“Five years ago, I was traveling through this place and found that there was nowhere for travelers to stop within a hundred miles. I thought that opening an inn here would be a good way to make some money, so I repaired this place and opened this inn.”

Former Sui Dynasty post station?

The predecessor had no idea how many post stations there were in the Tang Dynasty, let alone the post stations in the Sui Dynasty, so Liu Shuyi knew nothing about this matter.

He looked at Guan Feng: "Does County Lieutenant Guan know anything about the post station?"

Guan Feng shook his head: "I was not very old at the time of the turmoil at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and my home was not here, so I did not know about this matter."

Liu Shuyi nodded slightly, then asked the innkeeper, "Do you know if anything unusual has happened at this post station before?"

"Something special?" The innkeeper frowned and said, "I don't think so. This is just an ordinary post station. After the fall of the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty did not reuse it. It is located in a remote area and rarely visited by people. Among all the post stations, it is probably the most inconspicuous one."

Is it really that ordinary?

Cao Rui's choice to stop here indicates that there must be something special about this place.

If it's not the inn that's special, then it's the post station that was special before it.

So who exactly is special?
Liu Shuyi's gaze deepened. He suddenly felt that Guan Feng's statement to the innkeeper and others might not be wrong.

These people may not be as simple as they appear on the surface.

interesting……

Liu Shuyi looked again at the innkeeper, who had stopped crying but was still very nervous and fearful, and asked, "Is there anyone on watch at the inn tonight?"

The innkeeper shook his head: "The mountain road is dangerous and difficult to travel. Usually, no pedestrians pass by at night, and no guests come to our inn. So, we don't usually have anyone on night watch. We just wait until it's completely dark and the guests are asleep, then we lock the door with a bolt and go to rest."

"After the incident, did you check the door latch? Was it ever opened?" Liu Shuyi continued to ask.

“Our attention was all on County Commandant Cao, and we didn’t check the door bolt… However, I noticed that when the caravan members left in a panic, they removed the door bolt before pushing the door open to leave.”

Liu Shuyi recalled something: those who were about to leave returned after discovering the bridge was broken, and they were tidying up their wet clothes at the entrance. The ground in front of the inn was covered with wet rainwater.

The ground from the doorway towards the stairs was spotless, without any water stains or mud... It had started raining heavily when they were resting last night, so the roads outside must have been muddy.

So if someone were to enter the inn from outside while they were resting, even if they took off their shoes and stepped on the clean floor, they would inevitably leave water stains...

In that case, the innkeeper's words are correct; no one opened the door bolt or went in or out of the inn last night.

Therefore, the other five missing constables would not have been taken out of the building by the murderer...

That is to say...

Liu Shuyi squinted; they were still inside the building!
They may have been tied up and hidden, or they may have already been murdered!
Judging from the bloodstains on the floor of their room, they were most likely murdered.

Liu Shuyi asked, "Besides the rooms where we guests are staying, is there anywhere else in this building where people can hide?"

"A Tibetan?" The shopkeeper was taken aback.

Guan Feng's eyes flickered slightly, and he said, "You mean... Cao Rui's men?"

Liu Shuyi nodded: "Five living people, and so far, we haven't found a single hair on their heads... They can't just vanish into thin air, can they?"

The innkeeper understood Liu Shuyi's meaning and quickly said, "These are the only rooms in the inn that can accommodate five men."

"Besides the rooms that are occupied, only the four rooms on the west side of the second floor are empty tonight..."

Liu Shuyi looked directly at Lu Yangyuan, and without Liu Shuyi giving any orders, Lu Yangyuan said, "This subordinate will lead men to search!"

"It's not just those four rooms."

Liu Shuyi said, "Search everyone's rooms!"

He was curious as to why the murderer had hidden the five people.

The murderer has already killed Cao Rui in full view of everyone, so even if others discover the bodies of the other five people, it will not have any impact on him.

After all, killing one person is killing, so what's wrong with killing a few more?

But the murderer spared only Cao Rui, hiding the other five...

Is there any purpose in doing this?

Or perhaps the other five people hold clues to the killer's identity?
Could it be... that the murderer is connected to one of these five people? Or perhaps even hiding among them?
Liu Shuyi's eyes flickered, and numerous conjectures kept popping up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

But he quickly suppressed these seemingly unfounded speculations.

Before having any concrete clues, it is not advisable to speculate too much, so as not to make subjective assumptions and affect subsequent judgments.

Whether any of these five people have problems or not, once they are found, everything will be settled.

Lu Yangyuan naturally had no objection to Liu Shuyi's words, and he replied directly, "This subordinate understands!"

After saying this, he exchanged a glance with Cheng Chumo, handed over the task of protecting Liu Shuyi to Cheng Chumo, and then quickly left with several Imperial Guards.

Liu Shuyi withdrew his gaze, thought for a moment, and said to the shopkeeper, "One last question."

The shopkeeper hurriedly looked at Liu Shuyi, who then asked, "When you were delivering food to Cao Rui and the others, did you encounter any other people along the way? Or did anyone know that you were cooking for Cao Rui and the others?"

"This……"

The innkeeper frowned, thought for a moment, then turned to the waiter and the cook, and said, "You heard the question from County Magistrate Qin. You prepared and delivered the food, so you can answer it."

The cook hurriedly replied, "I've been cooking in the back kitchen all day... County Magistrate Cao and his men ate once when they arrived at noon and once in the evening. Both meals were prepared by Zhao Er. I don't know if anyone else knows that I'm cooking for County Magistrate Cao and his men."

The waiter, Zhao Er, hurriedly replied, "I was just following the orders of County Magistrate Cao and his men to serve the dishes. Only County Magistrate Cao and his men checked in around noon; there was no one else there..."

"In the evening, all the other guests arrived except for County Commandant Qin and you. County Commandant Cao and his group were very loud and their voices were not low, so everyone heard what County Commandant Cao and his group wanted to eat and knew that the kitchen was about to cook for them."

"As for whether you encountered any other people while delivering the food..."

The waiter thought for a moment and said, "I did encounter other people, I remember..."

"There was the husband of that family of three, the tallest of the five scholars... and..."

He looked at Guan Feng and said, "And one of your constables."

“I encountered all three of them on the way up the stairs, and I even stopped to let them pass.”

Three people... Liu Shuyi seemed to be deep in thought.

The killer must have drugged the food before doing so.

The only opportunities to handle food are when cooking and serving it...

As he pondered, he glanced at Guan Feng out of the corner of his eye and saw that Guan Feng's expression was very displeased when the waiter mentioned his men.

He was clearly very unhappy that Xiao Er had caused his subordinates to be suspected.

Liu Shuyi pondered for a moment and said, "Bring the husband of that family of three, as well as the tallest examinee, here separately. I want to question them individually."

(End of this chapter)