The autumn hall was cold, Xiaoshuang knelt on the bluestone ground in the court, shrunk and stroked his arm, and replied: "Yes, the slave maid is the domestic slave and maid in Jiang Shilang's mansion, and she has been serving by the master's side since she was a child, and so is Hanjiang." The two of us accompanied the master into the palace together. ”

Jiang Shilang's wife Zheng, who had just woken up, heard Xiaoshuang talk about her daughter's old affairs, and burst out into a burst of grief-stricken crying, even if she hid her face, she could make everyone feel that kind of tragic and irrepressible emotion.

"So, you must be very familiar with the people around Lan Guiren?" Ji Erlan glanced at the emperor's expression and Han Jiang, who was almost collapsed, and asked, "What kind of person is Han Jiang?" Have you ever had a conflict with the Lan Guiren? ”

Xiaoshuang glanced at Han Jiang beside her worriedly, and said: "The slave maid thinks that Han Jiang will not be a murderer, she is very timid on weekdays, she is honest, and there is nothing to conflict with her master." The master treats us very well, after all, it is the affection that has grown up with us since childhood. ”

Ji Erlan looked at the other palace maids and attendants, and they all nodded again and again, a younger palace maid seemed to have a good relationship with Han Jiang, and said: "Yes, Sister Han Jiang has a good temper, and she is usually very down-to-earth, and she has never had a quarrel with anyone in Yunhua Palace." ”

Jiang Shilang and his wife listened from the sidelines, and there was no doubt, indicating that what Xiaoshuang said was indeed true.

Everyone was silent, what good is it for a servant girl to kill her master without injustice or hatred? It is not impossible for the emperor to let them be buried with him when he is angry, it is really harmful and not beneficial.

Ji Erlan looked at the emperor and was relieved to see that he had finally taken his resentful gaze away from Han Jiang. If the emperor disposes of Hanjiang in a fit of anger at this time, the subsequent investigation will be much more troublesome. She said in a timely manner: "Your Majesty, the Queen Mother, these palace maids and maids can't prove that they are related to the death of Lan Guiren for a while, so it is better to find a place to detain them first, and then interrogate them one by one if there is any doubt." ”

The emperor turned sideways slightly, glanced at the corpse of the Lan nobles in the hall, frowned and moved away, waved his hand silently, and approved Ji Erlan's suggestion. His close chamberlain, Gonggong Li, immediately ordered someone to bring the palace people down.

Xiaoshuang was still holding on to Hanjiang, and the two of them walked with difficulty, and their backs were thin. Hanjiang was still barefoot, and his white cloth socks were stained with a lot of dust. Ji Erlan looked at her, and inadvertently saw Xiaoshuang beside her on his heels slightly raised, and he seemed to be walking a little strangely. Then he called out: "Xiaoshuang, what's wrong with your feet?" ”

Xiaoshuang paused, looked back at Ji Erlan, but was pulled by the cold river who continued to walk forward beside her, and almost fell, she whispered 'oops', and then Fu Shen confessed, and then said: "At that time, when I went to the banquet to report the news, I ran in a hurry, and my feet were probably worn out, and there was some pain, so I was a little uncomfortable walking." ”

Ji Erlan nodded and motioned for them to leave.

The people of Dali Temple also came at this time. Not surprisingly, Ji Chenglin is also among them as Dali Temple. However, except for the imperial physician and the prince, foreign men were not allowed to enter the harem for nothing, so without the emperor to speak, everyone did not dare to move without permission, so they could only stand quietly and wait for instructions. He glanced at Ji Erlan and asked, but he couldn't communicate for a while.

He explained to Ji Erlan in detail the places that needed to be checked, and gave Ji Erlan several things, including silver needles for poison testing, thin-skinned gauntlets for autopsy, etc. He said: "Miss Ji try not to let the blood of the corpse get on the skin, if you accidentally get wet, you must wash it immediately, otherwise, if the corpse is poisoned and the silver needle cannot be detected, you will suffer." ”

"Well, I see, thank you."

In the strange eyes of everyone, Ji Erlan took the moon breath and two people into the inner hall under the 'accompaniment' of Gonggong Li, the head of the inner chamberlain.

It had been more than an hour since Lan Guiren was killed, and the blood flowing on the ground around her had turned black and coagulated.

And her death was so hideous that even a person like Gonggong Li, who was used to seeing all kinds of dead bodies in the palace, couldn't help but hesitate for a long time before stepping forward.

The murder weapon, still in a pool of blood, was a sharp dagger encrusted with gemstones. It was blocked by Lan Guiren's dress before, so I didn't see it. Ji Erlan picked it up and looked at it carefully. Wrap it in a white cloth and prepare it to be handed over to the people of Dali Temple to inquire about the origin.

She first took the blood and tried it with a silver needle, and then observed Lan Guiren's face, ears, nose, throat, mouth, eyes and other positions, and found that Lan Guiren was not poisoned. And the wound on the abdomen is much easier to recognize for people like Ji Erlan and Yuexi, who often use swords.

Yuexi said: "The murderer seems to hate Lan Guiren very much, and frantically stabbed her with a dagger more than ten times in the abdomen, and then slashed open the abdomen with force, picking out the baby. But ......" she hesitated for a moment and said, "With such a drastic technique, why didn't Lan Guiren call for help?" On the contrary, it was only after Han Jiang screamed that it attracted people to check? ”

Ji Erlan moved her body, half-knelt on the upper half of Lan Guiren, gently lifted her head, and found that there was a very swollen wound on the back of her head, she asked Yue Xi to look at it, and guessed: "I think the injury here is also one of the reasons why Lan Guiren died." The murderer first knocked Lan Guiren unconscious with a heavy object, and then immediately raised a knife to commit murder and disembowelment to take the child. So Lan Guiren was stabbed in a coma. ”

Yuexi was puzzled: "However, since you want to kill someone, why don't you just kill it neatly, and ...... Such? ”

"It must be because of hatred." Gonggong Li interjected: "The murderer had the opportunity to kill Lan Guiren with a knife, but he didn't do it, but killed him by such cruel means, obviously with the intention of venting his anger. ”

Ji Erlan nodded in agreement and said, "Not only that, but there is also a very strange point. You look at the wound here, judging from the traces of the skin being broken, the dagger should have been pierced from the bottom up, so the murderer was neither on the side nor on the back, but after Lan Guiren fell, he squatted on her head to commit the murder. ”

Gonggong Li on the side was puzzled: "This ...... Isn't that too weird? ”

Ji Erlan frowned and thought about it, but he didn't have a clue. Then she looked at the baby on the ground, who had already taken shape, and after a little discernment, she said, "It's a baby boy." ”

Yuexi heard that it was a baby boy, and she had a little guess in her heart, but it was not good to say it in front of Gonggong Li, so as not to be self-defeating. So he got up and looked at the blood on the ground. said: "Lan Guiren seems to have fallen here at the beginning, and he didn't struggle too much, only the surrounding area was gradually reduced to scattered blood spots, and there was nothing unusual in the rest of the house. ”

Ji Erlan covered Lan Guiren's eyes with her hand and tried to close her eyelids, but it didn't work after two attempts. Ji Erlan sighed and stopped trying, but suddenly saw a piece of ash on her left cheek, and after a closer look, there were still a few patterns: "What is this?" ”

Yuexi hurriedly came over to check, and Gonggong Li also bent down and stretched his neck to look at Lan Guiren's cheek, and said, "This ...... It seems to be a sole print? ”

"Father-in-law may be able to see the history from this sole imprint?"

Gonggong Li said: "The clothes and shoes of all the palace maids in the palace are uniformly distributed, and the imprint on the sole of the shoe is naturally the same, and the difference is only the size, but this mark is too subtle and narrow, and our family really can't distinguish the ......."

Ji Erlan nodded, looking at the two shoes that Han Jiang had run away in a panic.

The shoe was an indigo cloth soft-soled shoe, one fell on the threshold, and the other fell near Lan Guiren, and the side of the shoe was stained with some blood. Gonggong Li frowned and said, "Could it be that the murderer is Hanjiang?" She was pretending to be delirious? ”

Yuexi was also puzzled: "Yes, even if you panic, you won't run away from both shoes?" Could it be that it was stained with blood, and she was afraid that others would suspect her, so she deliberately got rid of it? ”

Ji Erlan asked rhetorically: "But, in this way, wouldn't her suspicion be even heavier?" Think about it, at the time of the incident, she was the only one guarding this hall, and when something happened, the first thing everyone suspected was her, could she get rid of her by throwing off her shoes? Obviously, it can't, but it makes it even more difficult for her to explain. So, there must be other reasons for this. ”

The three of them went out of the inner sanctum and explained the details to everyone one by one. The emperor was speechless, and the queen mother gave an order: "Since the maid came to report immediately after the incident, in such a short period of time, the murderer must still be in the palace, the front division of the palace must not be relaxed, and all the people in and out of the palace must be strictly investigated!" ”

On the palace banquet near the lake, the ministers and their families were inexplicably hung for more than an hour, and when they saw that there were suddenly more guards in the palace, it was inevitable that there would be a lot of discussions. It was almost the middle of the moon, and Ji Erlan followed the Queen Mother and the Emperor back to everyone.

The county lord of Yuanyang and Cheng Xiaoxiao immediately pounced in front of Ji Erlan and asked, "Why have you been there for so long?" What happened to Lan Guiren? ”

Ji Erlan shook her head and motioned for them not to ask any more questions yet. The two glanced at each other, looked at the place where the emperor was sitting, and saw that his face was extremely bad and his face was depressed, so he eliminated the idea of inquiring and sat back in his place honestly.

Ji Erlan glanced at his father and saw him standing behind Shaoqing Xie Tang of Dali Temple with his head down, both of them were silent, as if they were trying their best to reduce their sense of existence. However, the emperor still said: "Xie Tangqian! I'll give you three days! Be sure to get to the bottom of it! ”

Xie Tangqian bowed down with a bitter face and said: "Your Majesty, the ministers didn't even see the corpse capital......

The emperor frowned, glanced at Ji Erlan, and said to her: "I have authorized you to participate in this case, and you can enter the palace at any time to assist Dali Temple in clarifying the matter." ”

Ji Erlan stepped forward in an uproar and responded, "Yes, the courtiers will do their best." ”