Chapter 25: Ultimate Deduction, A Stunning Counter-Strategy That Shook Everyone! (6k)

The desolate, silent courtyard remained deathly still as Liu Shuyi’s voice trailed off. Everyone stared at him, their minds still echoing with the powerful words he had just spoken.

To frame Liu Shuyi, Miaoyin’er had meticulously forged footprints, planted medicinal powder, and staged a scene of sexual assault. She had expected to lead him on a wild goose chase, but in the end, each of her deceptive threads had only served to unravel her own facade. The staged assault had revealed the perpetrator was a woman; the footprints had exposed the use of stilts; and the medicinal powder had linked the perpetrator to the Miaoyin Pavilion, inadvertently drawing her directly into Liu Shuyi’s line of sight. Not one of her three false clues had gone to waste—they had simply ended up exposing her completely.

"Brilliant!"

"Absolutely brilliant!"

Had the situation been different, Cheng Yaojin, perched atop the courtyard wall, would have cheered aloud. His rugged face was a mix of astonishment and dawning realization. "Even the grandest plays on stage fall far short of this deduction!" he muttered. "I only came to protect that useless son of mine, but I never expected to witness such a spectacle! This Liu boy is to my taste. I like him!"

He turned to Du Ruhui, who was watching Liu Shuyi with a profound, smiling gaze. "Old Du, tell me the truth—did the Liu boy agree to be your son-in-law or not?"

Du Ruhui’s eyelid twitched violently. His good mood, bolstered by Liu Shuyi’s performance, was instantly dampened. Glancing at the meddlesome "Demon King," he replied coolly, "I’ve already said it’s too late—don’t you understand?" He hadn't explicitly said Liu Shuyi had agreed. If Cheng Yaojin misunderstood, that was on him. As a high-ranking official, Du Ruhui never lied.

Unaware of Du Ruhui’s cunning, Cheng Yaojin sucked his teeth in frustration, shaking his head. "What a pity! It’s all that brat of mine’s fault for not telling me sooner how exceptional Liu Shuyi is. I’ve missed out on a perfect son-in-law! When I get back, I’ll tan his hide!"

***

"Achoo!"

Cheng Chumou sneezed, feeling a sudden, unexplained chill. He hunched his shoulders and said to Liu Shuyi, "So that’s how it was. No wonder you were so suspicious of her—the moment you learned about the stilts, you were the first to ask if she had used them."

Liu Shuyi smiled. "While I had Lady Du secretly investigate the stilts, I also had her quietly ask Xiangxiang why she gave the sachet to Sun Zhouming. My suspicion of Miaoyin’er was just that—a suspicion—and it needed further confirmation."

Cheng Chumou and the others leaned in. "And the result?"

Liu Shuyi looked back at Miaoyin’er, observing her tightly pursed lips. His eyes narrowed. "Xiangxiang said that Miaoyin’er told her she had seen someone fawning over Sun Zhouming, leading her to suspect he was wealthy or powerful, and she urged Xiangxiang to serve him well and win his favor."

"So that’s it..." Cheng Chumou finally understood. "In other words, she hinted to Xiangxiang to offer the sachet, when in reality, it was her own way of planting it on him?"

Liu Shuyi felt a strange sense of fatherly pride, as if seeing his son finally grasp a difficult concept. He nodded. "Exactly." He turned his gaze to Miaoyin’er. "Miaoyin’er, you are indeed clever. Before acting, you accounted for the effects of the weather on the corpses, the traces left by snow, and even the skills of my Ministry of Justice coroner. Your calculations were flawless..."

"But alas, man proposes, Heaven disposes. Fortune didn't favor you; it favored me. I met perhaps the most brilliant female coroner in all of the Great Tang! The moment she stood by my side and was willing to listen to a layman like me and dissect the stomachs of the Zhao mother and son, the tide turned."

He stared directly into her eyes. "Now... do you have anything left to say?"

The cold, detached coroner raised an eyebrow at the mention of being the best in the Tang. It sounded rather pleasant. Du Gou, however, twitched visibly—he wanted to scream that his sister was a physician, a healer who saved lives, not a corpse-dissecting coroner! But given the situation, he couldn't bring himself to object.

As for Miaoyin’er, hearing the mention of Du Ying, her eyes—once filled with soft, autumnal charm—turned icy. She glared at Du Ying’s snow-lily-like elegance and vibrant, bold face. "I thought you were just a pretty vase. I didn't expect you to have actual talent."

The cold, beautiful forensic expert raised a brow. "You flatter me."

"Hmph!" Miaoyin’er sneered, took a deep breath, and turned her gaze back to Liu Shuyi. Looking at the handsome face that had made her linger in the Miaoyin Pavilion, she suddenly grew calm. "A brilliant deduction. Even I feel like applauding."

"But... none of your deductions provide real, convicting evidence, do they? Yes, I let Xiangxiang give the sachet, but I *did* see someone fawning over him. You can’t convict me just because I was the only one who saw it, can you?" Her voice dropped to a low, dangerous register. "Bring out something substantial, Officer Liu, or I won't go down without a fight."

She had dropped the act, but she was still pressuring him. Liu Shuyi, with his keen insight, understood her perfectly. She wanted to know if he had genuine proof or if he was simply tracking her based on intuition. If he had no hard evidence, she would never confess. As a courtesan, she couldn't possibly be the true mastermind behind Zhao Chengyi; she had people behind her. If he arrested her without ironclad proof, he would face political backlash. This was both a challenge and a threat.

"To think," Liu Shuyi mused, "the killer who sent me a severed head and a blood-written letter to taunt me would still have the nerve to threaten me even now."

Miaoyin’er blinked her beautiful eyes. "I don't understand, Officer Liu. You keep calling me the killer. Is it a crime for me to ask for real evidence?"

"Of course not," Liu Shuyi replied, shaking his head. Seeing her expectant look, he continued without delay. "Actually, my previous deduction wasn't the whole story. There is one more important detail regarding the Zhao woman that I haven't mentioned yet."

"Not the whole story?" The Golden Guards looked at one another in confusion. To them, Liu Shuyi had already analyzed every clue. What could possibly be missing?

Du Gou’s eyes flickered. "The wounds on the Zhao woman?"

Liu Shuyi nodded. "Exactly. Lady Du told me there were twenty-eight distinct wounds on her body. If it were merely a staged assault, a few injuries would have sufficed. But twenty-eight? These were severe, bruised, deliberate beatings. Why would you inflict such cruelty on someone you were about to kill? If not for the sake of the disguise, why beat her so viciously?"

The guards murmured, glancing at Miaoyin’er with newfound suspicion.

"Officer Liu, what do you think the reason is?" she asked, her expression unreadable.

Liu Shuyi ignored her question and asked another. "Did anyone notice that something which *should* have been there was missing?"

"Something missing?" The guards were baffled. Cheng Chumou racked his brain until his eyes lit up. "The murder weapon?"

"The weapon was taken, yes, but that’s not what I mean," Liu Shuyi said.

"A hairpin," the cold coroner spoke up suddenly. "The Zhao woman’s hair was loose. There was no hairpin or clasp to hold it in place. Is that what you mean?"

"Precisely," Liu Shuyi confirmed. "Think back. When we recovered the head, her hair was loose. When we found the temple, there were no hairpins anywhere. If the killer were greedy, they would have taken the valuable jade bracelets she wore. If it were lost during transport, the child’s hair, which was tied up in a rush, would have been disheveled—yet it remained intact. So, why would a common hairpin vanish?"

He looked at them. "There is only one conclusion. The hairpin was special to the killer, and it *had* to be removed."

He turned to Cheng Chumou. "Do you remember what happened when I first arrived at the Miaoyin Pavilion? She tried to get close to me, and I pushed her away. She winced in pain. At the time, I thought she was acting, but now I realize—her shoulder was injured! She used that heavy, cloying perfume to mask the scent of medicinal ointment, because she didn't want us to know she was hurt."

Liu Shuyi locked eyes with Miaoyin’er. "When you attacked the Zhao woman, she pulled out her hairpin and stabbed your shoulder in self-defense. Because the pin was stained with your blood—or perhaps even broken—you had to take it with you. That is why you beat her so cruelly; her resistance was an unexpected variable that sent you into a rage!"

He stepped forward to the spot where Miaoyin’er had been crouching. He moved a rock to reveal a broken jade hairpin, its tip stained dark.

"I didn't arrest you earlier because I was waiting for you to lead me to this—the only piece of ironclad evidence that could link you to the crime. You thought you were clever, but you were merely leading me to your own undoing."

He picked up the broken jade pieces. "Now, I have the evidence I need."