Chapter 182: Dozens of Small Holes

From the stairs on the side of the hall, you could clearly see the street behind the Restaurant. A moment later, Mo Xiaobai stepped into a bedroom on the third floor. As soon as he entered, he knew he wouldn’t find anything here.

Because the whole room had been cleaned thoroughly, and Mo Xiaobai asked himself if he wasn’t that eternal elementary school student who watched one episode and got one person killed, he found no clues in a room with no obvious traces in front of him.

Since he couldn’t find anything, Mo Xiaobai decided not to waste effort. He sat casually on the bed and asked, “Does the County Magistrate often come here to drink alone?”

“No, the County Magistrate rarely comes. Every time he comes, he is with his brother, and he never enters through the front door.”

“Brother?”

Mo Xiaobai raised an eyebrow and looked at the young Miss speaking, squinting his eyes as he opened his mouth: “Tell me everything you know. From the moment the County Magistrate stepped into your place until the last time you saw him, tell me everything that happened.”

“Yes, My Lord.”

As the young Miss spoke slowly, Mo Xiaobai gained one more piece of information.

The County Magistrate did not actually come often; the one who really came was the County Magistrate’s cousin, Zhou Ding, a famous wealthy merchant in the county. Every time the two brothers had something to discuss, they chose not to go to the Government Office or to the Zhou Family house; they would always choose this Restaurant.

Two days ago, the two brothers came again, and some dispute happened between them.

Afterward, they both drank a lot. Because he was drunk, Zhou Ding was carried back home by his servants directly. The County Magistrate, however, did not leave. Instead, he ordered more food to be brought in. After he sent away the Miss who served him, while he was eating, he was… killed.

During the whole time, there was no struggle, no screaming. It was a quiet arrival and a quiet departure.

Within this “Restaurant”, the only person who had met the County Magistrate several times was the Miss who spoke. But Mo Xiaobai could not see any way she had the power to kill, although she had a pair of slender and delicate jade arms.

The other party, the County Magistrate’s cousin Zhou Ding, had already left before the County Magistrate died, so he didn’t have the chance to kill anyone.

This matter was very strange!

Although it wasn’t as surprising as a locked-room murder, there was not even a single bit of evidence pointing to the murderer now. Solving a case with no witnesses was another difficult problem in the detective world.

When they left the Restaurant, Guo Jia was also looking down, thinking deeply. After thinking it over and over, he still had no leads, so he could only say: “My Lord, should we go to the Zhou Residence?”

“What good would it do to go to the Zhou Residence? We have no evidence to point the finger at Zhou Ding. He could simply hide everything behind being drunk.” Mo Xiaobai shook his head, flipped onto his horse, and said: “Let’s go. First, we will return to the Government Office.”

When Mo Xiaobai and his group returned to the Government Office, besides Dong Zhen, there was no one else in the main hall.

“My Lord, did you find any clues?”

“I didn’t find any useful clues. We wasted a trip.”

Mo Xiaobai patted his butt, then waved to a clerk to come in. “Let me ask you. After the County Magistrate’s body was found that day, did the autopsy surgeon examine the body?”

“Reporting to My Lord, yes, he did.”

“Where is the autopsy surgeon? Go and find him for me.”

With his mind full of thinking about similar case-solving patterns, Mo Xiaobai was just following a set pattern like copying from a melon.

The clerk left as ordered. Not long after, he brought back a thin old man.

Looking at the thin old man, Mo Xiaobai focused and asked: “Are you the county’s autopsy surgeon? How many years have you been doing this job?”

“Reporting to My Lord, my family has eaten from this bowl for generations since I was small. I have grown up looking at dead bodies. If we count carefully, I am now over the age of fifty, perhaps even fifty years.”

An autopsy surgeon from a Noble Family?

Mo Xiaobai raised an eyebrow and continued to ask: “How did you determine that County Magistrate Zhou died during the Chou Hour? What proof do you have?”

“He~ I have examined countless bodies. My Lord, are you still afraid I might misjudge?”

The little old man seemed a bit dissatisfied, and his tone became rough: “I carefully examined the County Magistrate’s body. I don’t know which enemy did this, but their hands were extremely ruthless. I have not seen many tragic scenes, but to see the County Magistrate, with dozens of small holes pierced on his face and belly, and intestines covered with wood shavings flowing out, I have never seen such a thing in dozens of years.”

While speaking, the little old man made gestures with his hands. Just by listening to him, Mo Xiaobai felt terribly disgusted. Dong Zhen, sitting next to him, frowned frequently, and almost stood up to leave several times.

“Alright, alright. Just tell me about the proof.”

“The proof is that I arrived early to examine the body, but I saw rice grains in County Magistrate Zhou’s stomach. Based on my experience, those rice grains were likely eaten around the Chou Hour. If the meal had been before the Zi Hour, there would likely be no rice grains left in the stomach.”

Rice grains?

Does this mean the stomach hadn’t fully digested yet?

Mo Xiaobai didn’t know much about this, so he nodded ambiguously and told the little old man autopsy surgeon to leave. He had learned what he needed to know. If he kept standing there, he might say something even more disgusting.

“According to what the autopsy surgeon said, there is no problem with County Magistrate Zhou Yi dying during the Chou Hour.”

After the autopsy surgeon left, Mo Xiaobai looked at Guo Jia and Li Guang and whispered: “But the news we got from the Restaurant side is that when the Zhou brothers separated, the night watchman happened to pass by near the Restaurant. Many people heard the drum strike for the third watch, which is midnight during the Zi Hour. The Zhou brothers ate before the Zi Hour, then drank a lot of wine. The County Magistrate had a slightly better tolerance for alcohol. After his cousin left, he ordered more food to be sent in again.”

“Who could have attacked? How could they escape the eyes of so many people in the Restaurant? Did someone fly in from the window on the other side of the third-floor room, kill him, and then fly out again? Is that possible? This isn’t a wuxia movie!”

Throwing these unrealistic ideas out of his mind, Mo Xiaobai scratched his head in some distress. He really had no Talent to be a detective. At this moment, Mo Xiaobai really wanted to go back to the moment of summoning in Lingyan Pavilion and swap Li Ji for Di Renjie!

With the famous legendary detective, Di Renjie, the task for this time would surely be much easier.

Alas, being reborn once was already winning the lottery. Did he want to do it again?

It was simply a dream!

Mo Xiaobai felt helpless. Guo Jia had no ideas either. Li Guang thought for a long time on the side, and suddenly blurted out half a sentence: “This subordinate has thought about it for a long time and still can’t figure out what kind of weapon the murderer used. How could one make dozens of holes in the belly? Such a weapon must be quite rare.”

Weapon?

Hearing what Li Guang said, Mo Xiaobai twisted his mouth slightly, while Guo Jia shook his head and smiled.

Seeing the strange expressions of the two, Li Guang immediately asked: “My Lord, Military Advisor, what does this mean? Do you already know what the weapon was?”

“Fengxiao, you tell him.”

“Yes, My Lord.”

Guo Jia nodded slightly, then took off his hairpin: “Flying General, do you know this object?”

“Of course, I know it.”

“Earlier, the woman in the Restaurant said that each hole was about the size of a wooden chopstick. Just now, the autopsy surgeon also said that there were wood shavings on the intestines. The weapon is already clearly revealed. Even if it wasn’t a wooden hairpin, it was a thin and sharp wooden stick.”