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

"What do you mean?"

After hearing what Lin Lezhi said, Cheng Su asked with a serious look in his eyes.

"Zhou Yuanliang said that he witnessed Chang Feizhang Zengsai giving Wu Sanshan several packages of things. I think those packages were for Wu Sanshan's treatment."

"Treatment? Is he ill?"

"The village chief once said that when Wu Sanshan left home, he looked very panicked. Even though the weather was getting colder, he was sweating all over. I guess Wu Sanshan must have been very ill at that time."

After hearing what Lin Lezhi said, Qingchuan's eyes darkened and he thought for a moment before he said, "When I heard Village Chief Wang talk about it, I also thought about it, but... I can't make a hasty judgment without seeing Wu Sanshan himself. If he really often has hot flashes, night sweats, weight loss, fatigue, difficulty breathing, a dark yellow and pale complexion, and coughing, hemoptysis and other symptoms, it is very likely that he has tuberculosis."

When they heard that it was tuberculosis, many people present changed their expressions and looked at Wu Sanshan's body in the corner with some worry and fear on their faces.

"Impossible, Wu Sanshan can't possibly have tuberculosis!"

Zhou Yuanliang said immediately in a decisive tone.

"Why not? Didn't you see Chang Feizhang secretly giving Wu Sanshan a few packages of things? It's very likely that they were medicines."

Meng Dafeng spoke out.

"Everyone knows that tuberculosis is contagious. If...if Wu Sanshan really has tuberculosis, how could County Magistrate Chang come into contact with him without any precautions? Moreover, I have never seen Wu Sanshan coughing up blood, nor have I heard of anyone in Haibei Village being infected!"

This time, Zhou Yuanliang's statement was more reasonable and well-founded, but a few people heard something wrong in Zhou Yuanliang's words. Their eyes narrowed slightly, with a hint of speculation in their eyes.

Qingchuan's eyes became more thoughtful in response to Zhou Yuanliang's words.

"This is what I found in the coffins in the tomb. Almost every coffin has it. Wu Sanshan's lungs also have something like this. Brother Qingchuan is a great doctor. Do you know why this happened?"

As he spoke, Lin Lezhi took out the gray-white pebble-like object he found in the coffin from his sleeve and handed it to Qingchuan.

Knowing that it was something taken out from the tomb, Liu Yunhe shuddered involuntarily, with a slight fear in his eyes, but he couldn't help but be curious about this thing and looked at Lin Lezhi's hand.

Seeing this, Qingchuan took out a piece of white cloth from the medicine box he was carrying, took the thing from Lin Lezhi's hand, and looked at it carefully.

After a while, Qingchuan thought of something and walked straight to Wu Sanshan's body without explaining. Then he squatted down and lifted the upper part of the white cloth covering the body.

The cut stones appeared before Qingchuan's eyes.

Qingchuan did not show any discomfort, his eyes looked straight at the lungs of the corpse. Because it had turned into body parts, the gray-white stone-like objects on the cut surface of the lungs were very obvious.

This can be seen in the lungs on both sides.

Qingchuan placed the thing that Lin Lezhi gave him next to Wu Sanshan's lungs for comparison, and found that it was indeed very similar.

"Well, do you have any conclusion?"

Hearing Cheng Su's deep question, Qingchuan stood up and faced everyone, his eyes showing certainty as he said, "It looks like tuberculosis, but it's not tuberculosis."

"what?"

Not only did Cheng Su's eyes become solemn, but everyone present also showed surprise, as if to say, how is it possible? and puzzled.

"I once saw this kind of symptom in a medical book, called 'stone lungs'. Although this disease is rare, people who suffer from it have a common trait, most of whom make a living by quarrying stones. It is because of the fine dust particles produced by inhaling stone dust for many years, which are deposited in the lungs. Over time, gray-white stones will form in the lungs, hence the name."

"There are no obvious symptoms of stone lung disease at the beginning, but as the disease progresses, more particles are deposited in the lungs, causing the patient to have difficulty breathing and cough constantly. Symptoms similar to tuberculosis appear, but they are not tuberculosis. It is rarely accompanied by hemoptysis. In severe cases, stones may even be coughed out of the mouth when coughing, but..."

A puzzled look appeared in Qingchuan's eyes, and he asked in confusion: "Wu Sanshan is a fisherman, why did he get this disease? And..." Qingchuan's eyes darkened as he said: "When I was treating County Magistrate Chang's leg injury, I saw his complexion, cough, and night sweats, and it seemed that he also had this disease."

After hearing Qingchuan's explanation, Cheng Su and Hong Mingxu's eyes darkened. They looked at each other with serious expressions.

When Deng Yang heard Qingchuan say that Chang Feizhang might also suffer from this disease, a look of fear rose in his eyes, followed by unwillingness to believe it. Zhou Yuanliang looked a little dull in between the two emotions.

His eyes were filled with disbelief, and he kept muttering, "How is it possible... How is it possible..."

Hong Mingxu's eyes turned cold, and his tone was extremely unhappy. He also speculated: "From a while ago, you have been in a different mood, singing against others, and even followed the whereabouts of Wu Sanshan and Chang Feizhang. Could it be that you were also involved in the plan of the lake island incident, and you were afraid that the plan would be leaked, so you killed people to silence them!"

Zhou Yuanliang turned pale after being shocked by Hong Mingxu's words. He quickly shook his head and denied, "I... I didn't do that. I just saw it by chance and... I don't know what happened."

"Did you meet him by chance?" Hong Mingxu asked rhetorically, and then his eyes became even fiercer, and he sneered, "If you hadn't seen him every day, how would you know that Wu Sanshan had never coughed up blood, and that he was so concerned about Chang Feizhang's foot injury, and even insisted on going to the island with him that day!"

This is what was wrong with what Zhou Yuanliang said just now.

"I……"

Zhou Yuanliang was stunned by Hong Mingxu's words, and for a moment, the words were stuck in his throat.

Seeing the suspicious looks from others, Zhou Yuanliang became even more flustered, and said incoherently: "It's really...it's not me. I didn't kill anyone. I didn't...please believe me, I...I...I care about County Magistrate Chang because...because..."

Zhou Yuanliang's disabled leg trembled uncontrollably and he looked helpless and collapsed, as if he had some unspeakable secret that was causing him pain and he couldn't continue speaking.

"I don't think you can make any excuses. Tell me! How much did you participate in the island's affairs? Tell me the truth!"

Hearing this, Zhou Yuanliang's spirit collapsed further and further. He was so tense that he could hardly control himself. He looked at his trembling left leg. As if he was eager to prove something, but also desperate, he pointed at his left leg and shouted hysterically: "My... my left leg is disabled. Who would want a disabled person like me!"

But Hong Mingxu didn't believe it. He looked at her with a scrutinizing look and said, "Just because you are disabled doesn't rule out the possibility that you didn't commit the crime. Even if you didn't participate in the murder, how can you prove that you didn't participate in the planning?"

"I……"

"If you can't tell, then you are a suspect..."

After hearing this, Zhou Yuanliang could no longer stand up and fell to the ground. He seemed to have lost all his strength in an instant and sat on the ground in a daze and despair.

"I believe it was not Zhou Yuanliang's doing."

When everyone thought that Zhou Yuanliang stopped defending himself because he could not bear the pressure, Lin Lezhi spoke up.

Lin Lezhi's words made the dazed Zhou Yuanliang's eyes froze, and a glimmer of hope appeared in his eyes.

Lin Lezhi stood up and spoke at this time, no doubt when the final verdict was about to be made. He overturned all of Hong Mingxu's conclusions in public, which made Hong Mingxu very embarrassed. His eyes were fierce and he gritted his teeth and said, "How can you prove it!"

"The night before, Zhou Yuanliang had been with Brother He, Brother Meng, and Brother Deng. When the water ghost appeared, Zhou Yuanliang was also with us. He had no time to commit the crime. And if he had known about it, he would have known that there would be chaos at the hour of Mao on that day. Why would he let his family go to the lake to watch the ceremony, causing my father to lose his life?"

Upon hearing about his father's death, Zhou Yuanliang's eyes showed great sorrow.

Lin Lezhi met Hong Mingxu's unhappy look, paused and then said, "There is one more thing. If it is really as Captain Hong inferred, then he is not worried about being exposed and coming out to oppose it. It is unnecessary."

"why?"

Hong Mingxu's eyes became even more angry.

"Because if no one suspected him, he could just keep silent and clear himself from the matter. Why would he do something abnormal and bring trouble upon himself?"

Lin Lezhi's words were firm and his expression was resolute, which made Hong Mingxu speechless. He could only glare at Lin Lezhi with a frustrated and angry expression.

Lin Lezhi walked up to Zhou Yuanliang, helped the distraught Zhou Yuanliang up, and said with sharp eyes and a hint of warning: "From the entire case to the reasonable inference so far, there is indeed no connection between this case and you, but if you don't tell us what you have concealed, you will not be able to clear yourself of suspicion."

"I……"

Zhou Yuanliang looked at Lin Lezhi with a shaken look in his eyes. After a struggle between his conscience and his mind, he clenched his fists at his sides, and with guilt and grief in his eyes, he told Lin Lezhi everything he had concealed.

When I was young, I was still young and didn't know much. I just thought it was fun, so I made a bet that whoever lifted the old man Wu's hat would give the candy in his hand.

At that time, he thought it was no big deal to just lift a hat.

It was not until I broke my leg while climbing for a bet and became a lame person that I realized how painful it was to be looked at and spoken to strangely by others.

Therefore, despite his extraordinary knowledge, he lost the opportunity to go to school and even lost the qualification to take part in the imperial examinations.

Wu Sanshan's appearance was exposed, and he was accompanied by a foolish man. Few people in the town would buy his fish because they thought it was unlucky.

Even though his fish is cheaper than others.

So, whenever he saw Wu Sanshan setting up his stall and had some extra money, he would buy one.

Every time he bought fish, Wu Sanshan would thank him gratefully, but he always felt a little lucky that Wu Sanshan didn't remember him, and he could never say sorry.

I often feel guilty and blame myself because of this little bit of luck.

It was also because he would subconsciously pay attention to Wu Sanshan's movements that he witnessed with his own eyes the county magistrate stuffing something into Wu Sanshan's hands.

but……

He could never have imagined that Wu Sanshan, who had been missing for more than two months, would become like this when he saw him again.

Now my father has died innocently because of the chaos, and I still need my brother's protection and concealment before I can leave safely.

"I want to go to the island to investigate the case. I want to find out who killed my father and give Wu Sanshan justice, but...but..."

But now, Zhou Yuanliang didn’t know what to do.

Because if we were to infer, the culprit who caused his father's innocent suffering was Wu Sanshan, and he had also hurt Wu Sanshan, he really didn't know what to do.

I feel like I am the culprit of all this and it is retribution.

If he had not made a bet to hurt Wu Sanshan, or had not made a bet to climb higher, or if he had expressed his guilt and apology to Wu Sanshan afterwards, would his legs not have been disabled and his father would not have suffered innocently.

Will…?

The man's back gradually bent, and tears burst out of his eyes and fell to the ground.

Why does his remorse always come so late...