After being demoted, my 300,000-strong army trampled the imperial city!

This murder case had a great impact. It only took Di Renjie a short while to go from recounting the case to targeting the flowers in the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.

However, Hua'er's behavior clearly indicated that she was not the murderer. In Chen Futu's view, the real culprit in this case must be a woman who was bold, meticulous, and had some martial arts skills. After all, after knocking Yue Lian unconscious and putting her in the cabinet, she still had to impersonate Yue Lian. This kind of courage was extraordinary and could not be done by an ordinary woman.

The Imperial Guards just investigated Hua'er. She's just an ordinary person with a clean family background and resume. Furthermore, she has no direct conflict of interest with Yue Lian. Most importantly, she left behind a lot of direct evidence that is detrimental to her, such as the cinnabar and the fact that she paid for Yue Lian to replace her cabinet. Isn't this just adding stains to her own record for nothing?

Liu Longyue pondered for a moment, "If it's not her, then who could it be? In my opinion, the murderer must have a bad relationship with Yuelian. Why not use the process of elimination to filter out all the women who have had disagreements with her in the past, and then verify them one by one?"

Chen Futu laughed and said, "These courtesans must have been jealous and quarrelsome all the time. Even if you use the process of elimination, it will be difficult to find the real culprit."

"What insightful opinion does Your Highness have?"

Liu Longyue was extremely interested in the case, since she rarely had the opportunity to witness government trials, and given her status, she was destined to stay away from murder cases, so she seemed eager to try.

Chen Futu smiled but did not answer. His gaze pierced through the window screen and fell upon the group of women kneeling in the hall. He took in their reactions. Several of them kept their heads down, whether out of fear or because they had something to hide, it was unclear.

Di Renjie stood up and walked down the hall. "I know the murderer is among you. I will recount the events of this case once again."

"Yue Lian was seriously ill and stayed in her room to recuperate. She took her medicine regularly every day, and the medicine took effect. Her health gradually improved, but she was still unable to go out to work. Then the murderer went to her room and, when she wasn't paying attention, broke off a leg of her cabinet. He then told her that she needed to replace the cabinet. Yue Lian then asked the murderer for help, and the murderer agreed on the spot. The next step was to make this known to everyone in Baihua Pavilion, so as to establish an alibi for subsequent actions."

Di Renjie spoke slowly and deliberately, walking beside the girls with his hands behind his back.

The girls kept their heads down and didn't dare to breathe.

The people stopped arguing and listened attentively to the proceedings of the case.

Chen Futu and Liu Longyue exchanged glances. These inferences were plausible, but the target still seemed to be that flower.

Di Renjie continued, "Next, the murderer put a sleeping potion in the daily medicine to knock her unconscious. As for why the murderer did this, there are only two reasons: one is that Yue Lian had enemies outside, or someone offered a high price for her. The other is that putting a sleeping potion in the medicine could mislead the investigators and point the unfavorable evidence at the waiter who delivered the medicine at the regular time every day."

Chen Futu deeply agreed.

This speculation is reasonable.

"Next, the murderer put the unconscious Yue Lian into a cabinet, locked it, and had the brokerage workers carry it away. Because Yue Lian was still sick, and the murderer was about the same size as her, he put on her clothes, combed her hair into a bun, and sat down facing the window to read a book. The room was filled with a strong smell of medicine. People who have been sick for a long time have hoarse voices, so even if they speak, no one will suspect anything."

"Finally, the cabinet was successfully sent out of Baihua Pavilion. However, during this period, the murderer was not in the lobby. This can be used as one of the pieces of evidence to deduce the murderer's identity."

As soon as Di Renjie said this, the girls immediately looked at the other girls around them with searching eyes, all trying their best to recall who was not in the room when the cabinet was sent away.

Unfortunately, they looked at each other for a long time, but no one stepped forward to explain.

Di Renjie said, "The Hundred Flowers Pavilion is a business promoted by the young master. It is usually quite busy. The girls all have their own things to do, so it is impossible for them to know who is where during this time."

Liu Longyue asked Chen Futu, "In this way, wouldn't it be impossible to identify the murderer? This murderer is very cunning."

"Don't rush. Since Elder Di is certain that the case can be solved today, he will definitely find the murderer. Let's continue watching."

At this moment, Di Renjie walked up to the crowd and continued, "Because Yue Lian was sick and had only been at Baihua Pavilion for a short time, and didn't know anyone, usually no one would go to see her except for the people who delivered medicine regularly. So the murderer left Yue Lian's room after the workers left. During this time, if someone came to look for Yue Lian and found that she was not there, it wouldn't cause a commotion, since she could get out of bed, or maybe she went to the toilet."

The people listened and nodded in agreement. The murderer had considered everything very carefully, so the plan was flawless.

"Then came the murder. Yue Lian from the cabinet was taken away and killed, but who took her away and tortured her to death is still in doubt."

"Lord Di, you don't know who killed her?"

"How can we solve cases like this?"

The people raised questions.

Di Renjie said solemnly, "Good question. I also want to know who killed her, but we will have an answer soon. Judging from the time of death, Yue Lian was outside for at least half a day before she was killed, and no one touched her."

So you're saying it's not about lust?

"If it wasn't a sexual assault, then it must be a revenge killing!"

"Yes, who would be so cruel to a weak woman!"

The people were whispering and gossiping among themselves.

Liu Longyue muttered, "It wasn't about sexual assault, it was just about taking people out to torture and kill them. I don't understand..."

So far, there has been no breakthrough in this case, and she is getting a little anxious.

Chen Futu remained calm. He had read more than one of Di Renjie's cases. Di Renjie liked to reveal the answer at the last moment. Now he was telling the story in detail, just waiting for the mystery to be revealed at the last moment.

Sure enough, Di Renjie stroked his beard and turned to look at the girls kneeling on the ground. "After Yue Lian died, her body was placed in a new cabinet and sent back to Baihua Pavilion. Whether Old Zhang, who made the cabinet, knew about this is still unknown."

Just then, Li Yuanfang returned and reported, "Sir, as you predicted, Old Zhang's family was murdered, and their bodies were found in the cowshed."

A single sentence threw the entire government office into chaos.

Chen Futu's brows furrowed deeply.

Di Renjie looked at the workers in the brokerage firm, who hurriedly shook their heads. "Sir, it really wasn't us. When we went to get the cabinet, Old Zhang wasn't there. One of his apprentices was watching the shop and then handed the cabinet over to us."

Do you know that person?

"do not know!"

The workers were terrified. They were just trying to earn a meager living; what had they done to deserve this?

First, they bumped into the real culprit pretending to be the dead person in Yue Lian's room, and then they saw other murderers at Old Zhang's place. It's absolutely incredible!