When the book-traveling little detective meets the two-faced prince

Upon hearing this, everyone was shocked and looked incredulous. Even Xiao Xu, who was always calm and composed, showed a look of surprise.

"How is that possible? He is Li Weisheng. We have all seen him."

"There aren't many people in our village, and we're all familiar with each other. If it was someone else, we wouldn't have missed it."

Village chief Ji looked at Li Weisheng's face, as if he wanted to poke a hole in his face.

Village Chief Ji was puzzled and said, "Mr. Jiang, when Yuqing rescued Li Weisheng from here that day, Li Weisheng fell into a coma due to drowning. Yuqing's strength was limited, so she called on several men in the village to rescue Li Weisheng. In order to save Li Weisheng, everyone in the village contributed more or less. Because Li Weisheng's parents had passed away and he needed to recuperate, he stayed in our village."

Village Chief Ji's brows were full of confusion, and he continued, "From the time he rescued Li Weisheng to the time he left for the exam, he stayed with the people in our village almost every day. There is no reason why he is not Li Weisheng."

"This is exactly the answer you told me, Village Chief."

"Ah, me?" Village Chief Ji looked even more puzzled. "Mr. Jiang, stop joking. When did I tell you that?"

"Just now."

"just?"

Lin Lezhi looked up at the hundred-foot-high waterfall and said, "Village Chief Ji, you said that if you fall from this waterfall, you will be disabled if not killed."

"Yes."

"Everyone in the village knows how dangerous the waterfall is, and no one dares to get close to the waterfall, so the most likely person to accidentally fall into the water upstream of the waterfall is a foreigner."

Lin Lezhi shifted his gaze to Yulongtan and continued, "It's hard to say whether the Yulongtan is deep or shallow. Even if the villagers knew its depth, they would not walk into the Yulongtan for no reason. How could an adult with complete knowledge risk his life and walk into the Yulongtan whose depth is unknown?"

Lin Lezhi raised his hand and said, there were still scratches on his hand from struggling in the water that night.

"When people are facing death, survival is an instinct. They will continue to struggle and try to grab everything around them, leaving tiny wounds on their bodies."

Xiao Xu looked at the scratch on Lin Lezhi's wrist, his eyes changed slightly, as if he was recalling something.

After saying that, Lin Lezhi walked up to Li Weisheng and said, "Let's put aside the scratches, how is County Magistrate Li standing here intact?"

Li Weisheng glanced at Lin Lezhi without saying anything, his eyes turned cold.

"If he is not Li Weisheng, then where is the real Li Weisheng?"

Lin Lezhi lowered his eyes and said, "The real Li Weisheng is right in front of us."

As soon as the words were spoken, the villagers looked at each man around them.

"No need to look for him. The real Li Weisheng died thirteen years ago. Now, he has turned into a pile of bones." Lin Lezhi pointed to the only skeleton on the ground without clothes and said, "That skeleton is the real Li Weisheng."

"This... the corpse has turned into bones. How can we say that these bones are Li Weisheng?" a man nearby asked.

"There are three reasons." Lin Lezhi walked up to the corpse and said, "First, no matter if the person drowned accidentally or was forced to drown, even if they turned into bones, the clothes on their bodies would not disappear. But this corpse seemed to want to hide its identity deliberately. There was not a single piece of clothing beside it."

"Secondly." Lin Lezhi pulled up the right hand bone of the corpse. The first joint of the ring finger of the right hand was a little more protruding than the other joints. "In order to pass the imperial examination, scholars spend the most time in their rooms reading and writing. Holding a pen for a long time will cause the finger bones to deform."

The villagers looked at their hand bones to check whether they were deformed.

Lin Lezhi stretched out his palm and said, "The murderer would have scars and calluses on his palms because he often went into the cave to check if the corpse had been discovered."

That day, when Li Weisheng took the blow from the stick for Sun Wan'er, Lin Lezhi discovered that there were other scars on the palm of Li Weisheng's hand.

But he clearly only hit his wrist with the copper basin, so how could the palm of his hand be injured?

Li Weisheng, who was standing aside, clenched his hands.

"And the most important point is that the real Li Weisheng did not die of drowning, but was murdered. Look here." Lin Lezhi lifted the corpse up and pointed his slender finger at the neck bone. "There is a scratch here, which is obviously caused by a sharp weapon. It was fatal."

Lin Lezhi pointed at the broken bones on the corpse and said, "There are blood stains on the broken bones, which are obviously caused before death. But how can someone get two fatal injuries at the same time?"

"I think it was raining heavily that day, and the murderer chased the deceased to the riverside, and then the body of the deceased fell into the river. People would not go out on rainy days, and the river water would be particularly turbulent. The deceased fell from the Yulong Waterfall and broke his bones. Because he had just died, blood was oozing from the broken bones."

"But there is no body. What should we do?" Lin Lezhi put down the body, stood up, looked at Li Weisheng and said, "I think the murderer discovered the secret behind the Jade Dragon Waterfall at that time, and then put on Li Weisheng's clothes and lived as Li Weisheng, and then pretended to be drowned and rescued by He Yuqing. Am I right, Lord Li, the county magistrate?"

After a long while, Li Weisheng lowered his head and sneered, then loosened his palm, which was covered with scars. He looked at Lin Lezhi and said with a smile: "I just want to pass the imperial examination. What's wrong with me? Just because I am a refugee, am I not worthy of realizing my ambitions?"

"So you chose to attack Li Weisheng, who lost both his parents."

"So what? What else can I do? I can't prove my identity, and I don't have the money to get connections."

"Even if that's the case, why did you kill He Yuqing's family? They helped you, took you in, and gave you money to help you pass the exams you wanted, but you killed them. You even came back every year to pay homage to He Yuqing, pretending to be affectionate, but you only came to hide the bodies and cover up your evidence."

"What can I do? When I pass the imperial examination, the court will inevitably investigate my background. Of course, the fewer people in this world who know about me, the better, including that group of robbers. But these ignorant villagers actually think that the river god is getting married. This is simply too funny."

Li Weisheng's words successfully angered the villagers present.

"We saved you, how could you do this!"

Li Weisheng shouted at them, "Aren't you stupid? You were worried about being retaliated by Yuqing's parents, so you sacrificed the life of an innocent girl to cover up the truth. Your ignorance has caused this tragedy to continue for twelve years."

The villagers fell silent for a moment.

They could not refute this.

Li Weisheng laughed hysterically, even a little crazy. Looking at the body of He Yuqing lying quietly on the ground, a mist rose in Li Weisheng's eyes, blurring his vision.

"But I didn't expect that the stupid woman didn't die in the robbers' house, but chose to jump off the cliff, and left evidence to identify me, which made me fail."

"It wasn't He Yuqing that caused you to fail, but your greedy heart!"