The mind-reading coroner drove the court crazy

Lu Qingchen straightened himself and said seriously, "If he had shoes, we could use the dirt on the soles to infer where he had been before his death, and maybe even find some clues."

Qin Miaoxi looked at him with a smile, "Young Marquis, you are good and have potential."

Lu Qingchen's face instantly blossomed, and he said complacently: "This Marquis is indeed a bit better, you don't have to envy me."

Qin Miaoxi rolled her eyes speechlessly. Which eye of his saw that she was envious of him?

"So you found his shoes?"

"No."

Lu Qingchen's face was full of disappointment. He lowered his head and said, "Then there are no clues."

"Young Marquis, there are two possibilities for the deceased not wearing shoes. One is that his shoes fell into the lake, and the other is that he was killed indoors, where he didn't need to be wearing shoes."

Lu Qingchen suddenly realized, "Oh, that's right! Tian Guangyuan was killed in the dormitory."

Qin Miaoxi nodded in agreement. Although the young marquis seemed clueless, he was smart and could understand things quickly.

By this time, she had also arranged the body and looked up at him and said, "Young Marquis, aren't you and Tian Guangyuan related? Why don't you go and ask him where he went last night? Who was he with? Did he say he went to Xiaoxiang Lake?"

"What do you mean?"

The smile on Lu Qingchen's face froze, as if he had thought of something. He said in fear, "Could it be that Tian Guangyuan appeared in the middle of the lake for no reason, just like he did during the day?"

Qin Miaoxi pondered, "Yes, there was nothing on the lake when I arrived, but the situation when the body was found was very strange."

"Strange?" Lu Qingchen was puzzled. The word he used was a bit confusing.

"Yes, according to the old man who found the body, he saw green will-o'-the-wisp fire appearing on the surface of the lake, and then he discovered the body floating in the lake."

"Willow fire?" Lu Qingchen shuddered and shook his head in denial, "Impossible! How could fire burn on the lake?"

He stood up straight, coughed forcefully twice, and made a bold guess: "Did someone take him to the center of the lake? The so-called will-o'-the-wisp is just a lit torch? It's foggy this morning, so it's normal to be dazzled."

Qin Miaoxi firmly denied it, "The old man often fishes by the lake. He was very sure there were no boats on the lake. We also found two people at the scene who had been to Xiaoxiang Lake last night. They said they heard the sound of a woman singing on the lake last night."

"So they saw anyone?"

Qin Miaoxi shook her head. "No, that's why the rumors about Xiaoxiang Lake are getting more and more intense."

The woman sang an opera and died between the curtains. Lu Qingchen seemed to have been enlightened. He patted his chest and said, "Don't worry. I already know where he went before he died."

Without waiting for Qin Miaoxi to ask, Lu Qingchen strode out.

Qin Miaoxi was busy folding gold ingots for people in the paper-making shop for half a day when she saw Lu Qingchen walking in with a dejected look on his face and his head hung.

"Didn't find it?"

He hesitated to speak, and finally nodded.

"Where did you check?"

"Zuihualou."

The rumors surrounding Xiaoxiang Lake all began with the story of a deceased woman. She was a prostitute at Zuihualou, known for her art but not her body. After being raped, she jumped into the lake and committed suicide. She was a renowned opera singer, performing on the first and fifteenth day of every month. Later, people said her voice could be heard at night in Xiaoxiang Lake.

"Did the Tian family tell you?"

"No, I guessed it myself."

Qin Miaoxi was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, not knowing whether to say that he had some ideas or that he had no brains.

"Have you asked the Tian family?"

"I asked, and they said Tian Guangyuan didn't go out at all last night."

Qin Miaoxi immediately put down the gold paper in her hand and asked, "Who said that?"

"The housekeeper of the Tian residence and Tian Guangyuan's servant."

"Shouldn't you ask Mrs. Tian?"

"Tian Guangyuan had some official documents to deal with last night and had been in his study the entire time. The servant outside the study had once delivered ginseng soup in the middle of the night, and Tian Guangyuan was still inside at that time."

"Then how can he be sure that Tian Guangyuan has been in the house?"

"The servant said Tian Guangyuan was restless last night and kept pacing back and forth in the house, so he must have not left."

"So when did they realize they were missing?"

"Someone told us that Tian Guangyuan had drowned that morning. The housekeeper went to the study and found that no one was there. It was as if Tian Guangyuan had vanished into thin air."

Qin Miaoxi sneered and said, "People don't disappear out of thin air."

"But the servant has been guarding outside the door all night and hasn't slept. If Tian Guangyuan goes out, he will definitely see him."

Qin Miaoxi stood up and said, "Let's go to the Tian family again."

In the Tian family's study, articles written by Tian Guangyuan were placed on the table, a thin quilt was neatly placed on the couch by the window, and a burnt candle was placed on the round table in the middle.

Qin Miaoxi picked up the candle and examined it. "Is the candle new?"

The servant replied, "Yes, the master just changed it yesterday."

"This is a tallow candle. One candle can burn for seven hours, but now the candle has completely burned out. It is impossible to do this in a room without any draft."

After saying that, she looked around. The doors and windows were closed, and there was only a skylight the size of a head on the beam.

Lu Qingchen followed her gaze and said, "You don't think Tian Guangyuan got out from there, do you? The hole is so small that even a child can't fit through it."

Qin Miaoxi found some dust on the ground, gathered under the skylight.

"Did anything special happen last night?"

The servant thought for a moment and said, "No, everything is fine. It's just that the wild cat in the mansion is meowing non-stop, which is a bit noisy."

"cat?"

Qin Miaoxi murmured, walked to the window and pushed it open, but was almost hit by the wooden bolt.

The wooden latch was so loose that it would fall down by itself as long as the window was closed hard.

She suddenly stepped lightly and landed lightly on the beam. When she saw the long and thin mark on the beam, her eyes lit up.

"Go prepare some fish and bring them over."

The servant and the housekeeper looked at each other in bewilderment. Lu Qingchen shouted, "What are you still standing there for? Go!"

Soon, they brought over five fish. Qin Miaoxi put the fish on the ground and fanned them continuously with a fan.

Lu Qingchen squatted beside her, "What are you doing?"

"Looking for witnesses."

No one knows what she is up to.

After a while, wild cats came running from all directions.

The servant screamed, "Why are there so many?"

Lu Qingchen was slightly stunned when he looked at the cats. The cats were not afraid of people at all. Instead, they quickly pounced on the fish and started eating them with relish.

He couldn't help but ask, "Do you often feed these cats in your house?"

The butler nodded and said, "The young master is kind-hearted. If he hears cats meowing, he will feed them with fish."

Just as she finished speaking, two wild cats came running over from a distance. Qin Miaoxi looked at one of them and said with a smile, "The witness is here."

She walked up to the kitten, stroked it gently, and soon took off a piece of cowhide and a tangled string from the cat.

"That's how Tian Guangyuan disappeared from the house."

"A piece of rope and a piece of leather?"

Qin Miaoxi raised the corners of her lips. "Yes, do you know shadow puppetry? Tian Guangyuan uses light and shadow to place a human-shaped cowhide in front of a candle to show what he looks like in his study."

Lu Qingchen asked in surprise: "That's not right! That figure is moving!"

The servant replied, "Yes, the young master has been walking around the room."

Qin Miaoxi smiled mysteriously, "Then we have to rely on a wild cat. Tie a thin rope to the wild cat, let the cat leave the skylight and pull the rope tight, and the human figure will stand up. As long as the rope moves, the human figure will move with it, so what you see is the shadow on the window, not the person."

The housekeeper didn't understand. "But cats can run around! They can't stay in one place all the time."

"If I'm guessing correctly, there should be some leftover fish bones behind the study!"

The housekeeper immediately went to look for it and said, "It really is there."

"That's the mechanism that holds the cat in place. When the cat finishes eating the fish, it will take the hide and rope with it when it leaves, just like the secret room has disappeared."

Everyone suddenly realized what was going on. Lu Qingchen said admiringly, "Tian Guangyuan must have sneaked out on his own, so he was killed between midnight and a certain time."

"Correct."

"But I asked the brothels in the city, and no one has ever seen Tian Guangyuan."

Qin Miaoxi pondered for a moment, "Butler, does Tian Guangyuan have a mistress?"