Da Li Temple - Chapter 30.1

Chapter 30.1
Stalking

Pedestrians and rows of stores were crowding Sheng City’s West Market. It was the most lively time of the day. A white, slender hand stretched out from the window of the private room on the second floor, lifting the bamboo curtains that sheltered from the rain above.
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“Why hasn’t she come out yet,” Lin Wanqing muttered with furrowed brows, stretching her snow-white, revealing the graceful curves on her side neck.
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Su Moyi’s eyes froze before hurriedly lowering his head to drink tea.
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To hide her identity, Lin Wanqing dressed up as a pretty maid beside her lord, Su Moyi, who dressed in civilian clothes, and went to the Song Residence.
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The two of them followed that limp maidservant to the West Market early in the morning and originally wanted to invite the person in for questioning, but due to the large number of pedestrians on the road, Su Moyi was afraid of alerting the enemy, so he decided to follow her first, and then capture the person for questioning when he found the right time to do so.
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“Lord,” Lin Wanqing couldn’t get a response, so she turned to look at Su Moyi and complained: “This person has gone in for almost half an hour. Did she know we were following her and run away?”
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Su Moyi glanced out along with Lin Wanqing’s hand and said flatly, “No. There is only one entrance to the West Market, and both entering and exiting need to pass through this place. Unless she digs a tunnel or jumps over the wall.”
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“Oh,” Lin Wanqing nodded and said, “That’s true.”
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Su Moyi saw her distracted looks, so he brought teacups, filled them with tea, dipped his finger in it, and made strokes: “What are the doubts of Wang Hu’s case now?”
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As expected, Lin Wanqing’s attention got diverted, so she walked over and split her fingers while saying, “First, the short knife at the crime scene. We analyzed it before. Wang Hu couldn’t bring it himself, so then it must be the murderer who forgot at the scene. But as a professional assassin, it’s strange that he would make such a mistake.”
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“Hmm.” Su Moyi responded, writing the word ‘knife’ on the table.

“Second, why didn’t the murderer make Wang Hu’s murder a suicide for fear of punishment instead of slaughtering the entire Capital Government Prison? That is like telling others that Wang Hu was not the murderer of Concubine Zhao.”
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“Hmm.” Su Moyi nodded, paused, and asked, “Then is it possible that the murderer exposed his identity when he broke into the prison, so he had to kill to silence him?”
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Lin Wanqing shook her head, “But the current suspect is Song Zhengxing. If he wanted to kill Wang Hu, why would he make it so obvious? All he had to do was to send someone to tamper with the meals when Wang Hu stayed at the Ministry of Criminal Affairs, and he could make this case never see the light.”
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“Hmm,” Su Moyi pondered, “Indeed, he is not a person who does things ostentatiously.”
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The discussion reached an impasse, and the two became silent.
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Lin Wanqing suddenly thought of something, sat up straight, and asked, “Does Lord remember the report record of that knife?”
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“No blood grooves on the surface, but on the right side and handle.”
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As soon as the words left his mouth, a ‘clang’ of teacup rang in his ears.
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Lin Wanqing, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, suddenly agitatedly said, “Could that knife be a clue left to us by the deceased?”
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“How so?” Su Moyi was puzzled.
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“Think about it, my Lord!” Lin Wanqing leaned over and dabbed some of the tea, writing as she said, “That knife has no blood groove, so when one stabs it into a person, it will be sucked in tightly due to the pressure, making it hard to pull out. It will be too laborious to use it to kill someone. Therefore, the murderer must not have used such a knife to commit the crime.”
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“Well, indeed.” Su Moyi nodded, unnoticeably moving back to keep her beautiful face away from himself.
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However, Lin Wanqing, who focused on analyzing the case, didn’t notice it at all and continued to come closer and said, “Moreover, even if the murderer wasn’t aware of this and casually chose such a murder weapon, this knife ……”
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Lin Wanqing spoke while forming her hand into a knife and poking Su Moyi’s chest, “When a blade stabbed into the body, blood will stain both sides, and this knife only has one side stained blood. What does this mean?”

“…… ” Being poked in his little heart, Lord Su’s head went blank for a while. Too late to answer the question, he panicked, covered his chest, and stood up. However, he felt his sleeves tightened, and a fascinated certain someone yanked him —
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“This suggests that the knife was taken by the victim and kept by their side after the murderer left! That’s why blood stained the handle and one side of the knife!”
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“it would be strange for anything to appear at the crime scene except for the murder weapon. The victim probably feared that someone would return to the scene to check it out, so she didn’t choose to write or leave anything else behind. She must want to tell us something through this knife!” Lin Wanqing, who made an emotional analysis, clapped her hands and looked up at Su Moyi with crystal-clear eyes.
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The atmosphere froze instantly. It was at this time that Lin Wanqing realized that she had pulled the lifeless Lord Su to a distance of less than a palm away from her. When the two of them looked at each other, they were so close that they could feel each other breaths.
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Moreover, the way Lord Su looked at her was strange, with a hint of laughter mixed with shyness.
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It looks weirdly perverted —
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Lin Wanqing’s back went cold. She hurriedly released his ripped sleeve and smoothed out her torn and wrinkled clothes. When the sound of a door opening came from a store across the street, Su Moyi pushed Lin Wanqing away and bolted to the window.
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“She’s coming out,” with a lift of the train of his robe, he turned around and rushed out of the private room, “Follow me.”