After that, Han Fei was about to pull her away, but right as they reached the door, Shuzi suddenly stopped.
"Wait a moment."
With that, she pulled over a basin placed nearby and set it in front of them. The basin contained burning charcoal. Shuzi poured a spoonful of vinegar into it, walked around the basin back and forth twice, and then moved on.
Zhang Liang was startled at first, then gave a slight smile. Han Fei, however, looked completely bewildered. "What are you doing?"
"This is the vinegar-fumigation method. It can remove any odors clinging to our clothes."
The steward stepped closer and explained with a smile. "Ah."
Han Fei nodded, then imitated Shuzi's earlier actions, walking in circles around the fire basin twice before heading out. Zhang Liang went last.
Though he was skeptical of this method, he didn't want his clothes smelling bad either, so he followed suit and stepped over the fire basin twice.
On the way to the crime scene, Shuzi first returned to the Princess Mansion to fetch her wheelchair.
Since she was pretending to be ill now, she ought to look the part. Besides, Ji Wuye had eyes and ears everywhere, so it wouldn't do to be discovered.
Looking at Shuzi's invention, Han Fei couldn't help feeling a bit curious.
"Tell me, Qingzhu, this chair of yours is truly quite a marvel. It even has wheels."
Shuzi smiled helplessly and said, "This is called a wheelchair. Even people with bad legs can use it to move around freely."
Han Fei looked at the wheelchair she was sitting in and nodded. Good things like this ought to be made in greater numbers.
Han Fei pushed Shuzi to the official's residence, and led by a servant, the three of them arrived at the study where the crime had taken place.
Although the place had already been cleaned and tidied up, Shuzi could still catch the faint scent of blood. It seemed it truly had been a gruesome scene back then.
Sitting in the wheelchair, Shuzi instinctively looked around the entire room, searching for suspicious clues and traces, while Zhang Liang wandered around the room as well.
Zhang Liang walked over to the desk and looked through things. As he was flipping through the articles and scrolls on the desk, he accidentally noticed a small bamboo tube placed next to the brush holder.
Zhang Liang picked up the bamboo tube and looked at it. Where are the contents inside? Why is there no lid?
Frowning in puzzlement, he looked all around the desk but couldn't find its lid.
Just as he was wondering about it, Shuzi wheeled herself over.
"Did you find something?"
Zhang Liang shook his head and handed her what was in his hand. "I only found this."
Shuzi took the item and examined it. This bamboo tube was only the thickness of a single finger and about a finger-and-a-half long. The opening had traces of ink on it, suggesting it was likely used by the official to transmit secret letters.
"Where was this found?" Shuzi looked up at Zhang Liang and asked.
"Right on the desk, beside the brush holder." Zhang Liang blinked and pointed his finger at the brush holder in front of him.
Shuzi looked at the bamboo tube in her hand, then used her other hand to take out the feather she had found earlier, recalling the shape of the wound on the victim's neck, and smiled. "The murderer who killed this person and the one who stole the military provisions are the same person."
"!"
Hearing her words, both of them were startled once more.
"Are you sure, Qingzhu?"
Hearing this, Han Fei stepped closer to her side and asked.
Shuzi nodded, handed the feather in her hand to Zhang Liang, and said, "Zifang, I must trouble you now to help me reconstruct the events of the crime scene."
Zhang Liang was taken aback, his eyes widening slightly as he pointed at the tip of his nose and asked, "Me?"
Shuzi nodded, pulled his hand over, placed the feather into his palm, and added, "Brother doesn't know martial arts, so I must trouble Zifang to assist me."
With that, Shuzi seated herself in the wooden chair by the desk, took the bamboo tube, and slid a paper scroll inside it. "Now, I am that official, and you are the murderer. Use the feather in your hand and find a way to kill me."
Zhang Liang glanced at the feather in his hand, suddenly realizing what he was supposed to do. He turned and walked outside, closed the door, waited for a moment, and then flung the door open violently.
He walked in radiating killing intent. Whether due to a sudden shift in the weather or something else, a gust of wind blew in the moment he opened the door.
Sitting at the desk, the wisps of hair at Shuzi's temples fluttered slightly against her cheek in the wind.
She raised her head and saw the person standing in the doorway.
"Who are you?"
A look of terror crossed Shuzi's face, but she quickly recovered. Glancing at the secret letter in her hand, she moved to put it away.
Yet she found the lid was missing. Just as she was searching for the lid, a blast of air shot toward her.
To prevent her from getting hurt, Zhang Liang purposely threw the feather-knife a bit off to the side. Although the feather-knife did not harm her, Shuzi cooperatively slumped over the desk, just like the victim murdered on that day.
Only, as she fell forward, Zhang Liang suddenly reached out and caught her, because when the victim was discovered, the body had been hung from the rafters.
Yet this action made Han Fei, who was standing by as a spectator eating melon and watching the show, feel more and more uneasy. He couldn't help interrupting, "What are you two doing?"
Watching his own younger sister being held in Zhang Liang's arms as she played dead, Han Fei couldn't help twitching the corner of his mouth.
Hearing him, Shuzi finally pulled away from Zhang Liang's embrace. "The murderer did the exact same thing—catching the murdered official. We are simply reconstructing and substituting for the scene the servant saw that night."
Zhang Liang paused for a moment, then nodded in agreement. In truth, he didn't even know why he had rushed over to catch her just then.
"Oh, but why would the murderer catch him?"
Hearing Shuzi's explanation, Han Fei grew confused again. Since the killer had committed murder, why avoid leaving it discovered? Why catch the body and hang it from the rafters?
"I suppose it was to keep the contents inside from being discovered."
Shuzi handed the secret letter tube she was holding over to Han Fei.
"I imagine what was originally placed inside here was a secret letter. The contents of the letter should be helpful for this case. The murderer killed the writer precisely because of this letter, not wanting certain people to see it."
Hearing her conjecture, Han Fei nodded. "If that is the case, this letter will surely expose the fox tails of certain people!"
Shuzi nodded, pondered for a moment, and continued, "Since the mastermind behind this is so cunning, we can use the same trick to catch them off guard."
"How so?" Hearing this, Zhang Liang looked at her curiously and asked.
"Hehe! As for that, we'll need Brother's help."
Shuzi curved her lips into a mysterious smile and looked pointedly at Han Fei. "Huh? Me?"
Han Fei was stunned, turning to look at his younger sister. For some reason, he suddenly had a bad premonition.
Before he could speak, Zhang Liang chimed in first. "Does the Princess mean to have Brother Han turn pretense into reality by writing a fake secret letter, and then purposely letting the news leak out so that the mastermind finds out, luring them into stealing it again and exposing their flaws?"
Hearing this, the smile at the corner of Shuzi's lips deepened. As expected, the Sage of Strategy was truly brilliant.
Raising a hand to pat him on the shoulder, Shuzi sat back down in her wheelchair and smiled. "Zifang, you are truly growing smarter and smarter. You guessed it right away. Not bad, not bad. Here, a reward!"
With that, she drew a lollipop out of a hidden pocket at her waist.
Zhang Liang was slightly startled, but then reached out and took it.
Afterwards, she pulled two more out of her pouch, giving one to Han Fei and keeping the other for herself.
"This is?"
"A lollipop. I made it myself. Just peel off the wrapper and you can eat it."
Shuzi explained to him while peeling the candy wrapper. "When your mind gets stuck and you can't turn it, you can eat a little something sweet to nourish yourself."