Chapter 458: Not Very Mature Inference
However, when everyone in Shuntian Prefecture heard this, their faces fell.
The monks' decision to cancel the retired emperor's birthday party was certainly out of sympathy for Chi, but more importantly, they were taking the opportunity to vent their dissatisfaction with Shuntian Prefecture.
Under normal circumstances, they might not be able to get what they want.
But right now the retired emperor is so angry about "family affairs" that he is filled with rage. If he takes advantage of the situation and unleashes his wrath, everyone in the Criminal Law Department will be in trouble!
Of course, Sun Shaozong might be an exception. After all, he had just come out of the Prince's Mansion, so this matter could not be blamed on him anyway.
But how could Sun Shaozong, as the chief official of the Criminal Law Department, stay out of the matter and keep himself out of it?
So he stepped out of the crowd without hesitation, and used his cold eyes to force the monks to be silent, and then said solemnly: "Now because of the case of the crown prince, your majesty and the emperor are worried day and night, and the government and the country are in turmoil. Fayuan Temple has always been protected by the royal family. Now instead of praying for the crown prince, you want to disrupt the emperor's blessing and longevity ceremony. What is your intention?!"
Originally, the monks wanted to use the title of the retired emperor to put pressure on Shuntian Prefecture, but who would have thought that Sun Shaozong would turn the tables.
At that moment, a monk said indignantly: "We naturally don't want to ruin the emperor's ceremony, but after half a month of investigation, more and more monks have died, and Shuntian Prefecture has not yet an explanation..."
"snort!"
Sun Shaozong snorted, interrupting the man's accusation. He looked around with a lightning-like gaze and sneered, "I ordered that day to temporarily detain Jie Chen and the other five until the truth behind Jie Xian's death is found out!"
"However, just as I was ordered to go to the Crown Prince's Mansion to assist in investigating a major imperial case, you went to Shuntian Mansion to make a scene and bailed out Jie Chen and the others. It was precisely because of this that the murderer was able to continue committing crimes. Now you are not willing to reflect on your actions at all, but instead want to put the blame on me?!"
"Besides, I just took over this case today. What happened in the previous half month has nothing to do with me?!"
It's not that these words are completely irrefutable, but Sun Shaozong's momentum is enough to make up for those omissions, causing the monks present to hesitate and not be able to respond with a complete sentence for a long time.
"Amitabha."
At this moment, the monk Liao Chi suddenly chanted the Buddha's name, raised his head tremblingly, and his wrinkled eyelids drooped, squeezing out two bean-sized tears, muttering to himself: "I can't believe, I can't believe that you and I have been master and disciple for more than 30 years, but today... Alas~!"
He raised his head and sighed, then managed to straighten himself up and said, "Fortunately, Lord Sun is here in person. I believe it won't take long to get to the bottom of this matter and bring justice to Jie Nian."
As he spoke, he put his palms together and bowed, and said solemnly: "Master Sun , everything is up to you!"
This old monk's 'awakening' was just right!
With Sun Shaozong's eyesight, it was difficult to tell whether he was really fainting or pretending, so he could only return the greeting: "Master, there is no need to be polite. This is my job. I will do my best to arrest the murderer as soon as possible!"
Upon hearing this, Liao Chi said "good" several times, and ordered all the disciples in the temple to help Sun Shaozong solve the case as soon as possible and clear the name of Jie Nian and others.
All the disciples felt a little embarrassed, but it was not convenient for them to report what had just happened in person, so they just silently responded.
Sun Shaozong was not polite, and ordered people to temporarily block the Gongde Forest, not allowing anyone to approach at will, especially near the crime scene, and people had to be on guard day and night. At the same time, he took the opportunity to investigate the temple.
Of course, in addition to Jie Nian's behavior before his death, the matter of "Fan Sao" must also be investigated at the same time.
However, regarding the matter of 'Fan Sao', the monks in the temple were extremely taboo, and apart from the well-known 'rumor', nothing new was found out.
However, one of Jie Nian's disciples provided a piece of information that was not sure whether it was useful or not.
"A letter?"
"Yes, that day it was my turn to fetch water for Master to take a bath. When I got to the door, I saw Master looking out in a panic. I was wondering when I suddenly found a letter at the door."
"After I reminded Master, he seemed very nervous. He coaxed me outside and locked the door..."
"When did this happen?"
"Ten... fourteen, that was the evening when Uncle Jie Ming died!"
In other words, on the evening of the day Jie Ming was about to die, Jie Nian suddenly received a mysterious letter, and he seemed to be somewhat afraid of the letter and the sender.
While Sun Shaozong was pondering this matter and its connection to the whole case, he ordered his men to conduct a carpet search in the abstinence room, hoping to find the letter and solve the mystery.
However, this hope was dashed.
There were indeed a few letters in Jie Nian's house, but the most recent one was sent at the end of May, and it is unlikely that they had anything to do with the current case.
Until around 5pm.
The talents of Shuntian Prefecture gathered together again and began to analyze the latest information and clues.
This aspect is Qiu Yunfei's weak point. He looked at the tens of thousands of words of confessions and testimonies on the table and said with a sad face: "The confessions of so many people are all trivial matters. They are messy and there is no order. When will we be able to sort out the clues?"
Although Wei Ruolan and Master Qi did not complain, they looked solemn.
At this time, Sun Shaozong said: "Actually, after reading these confessions, I have an immature speculation."
Everyone's spirits were lifted, and Master Qi immediately bowed and asked Sun Shaozong to give his opinion.
"First, Jie Ming."
"Jiexian, Jiezhi and Jienian are all related to the matter of 'Brahma Sister', but Jieming is not involved."
"And his death was the strangest of the four victims."
"That's why Jie Chen insisted that it was a demon that was causing trouble and was preparing to take revenge on the five monks who had been to the detention center that day."
"This is, of course, pure nonsense."
"but……"
"Could the murderer have killed Jie Ming for some other reason? For example, maybe he threatened the murderer!"
"Threatened the murderer?"
Upon hearing this, Master Qi frowned and said thoughtfully, "Does your Excellency think that he may have discovered the true identity of the murderer?"
"No!"
Sun Shaozong shook his head decisively and said, "I suspect that Jie Ming is actually an accomplice of the murderer!"
"What?!"
Everyone was stunned and said in astonishment: "How is this possible? If he was an accomplice of the murderer, how could he be nailed to death at the gate of Fayuan Temple?!"
Master Qi further questioned, "What is the basis for your inference? You can't just come up with it out of thin air, right?"
"Based on..."
Sun Shaozong spread his hands and said, "I actually just made a choice between two options. If the murderer is between the remaining Jie Chen and Jie Xiu, I am more inclined to believe that Jie Xiu is the murderer."
"After all, from all the information we have collected, the relationship between Jie Chen and Jie Nian can only be described as sinister - if Jie Chen invited us privately, given Jie Nian's cautious character, he would not easily take risks alone."
"On the other hand, if it was Jie Xiu who had been 'cleared of suspicion', Jie Nian would not be so wary of him - as long as Jie Xiu had the right bait, he should be able to lure him into the Forest of Merit to commit the crime."
"And if Jie Xiu was the murderer, then Jie Chi's death would be hard to explain. After all, he was being guarded by three monks at the time and had no chance to commit the crime."
"But what if he is not the only murderer?"
"What if he has another accomplice?!"
"Jie Xiu and Jie Ming have been friends since childhood and have been ordained monks together in Fayuan Temple for more than ten years. Their relationship is certainly not comparable to that of ordinary people. If Jie Xiu is the main culprit, Jie Ming is the best choice if they want to find an accomplice!"
"After I made the above inference, I focused on questioning these two people about their daily temperaments."
"Jie Xiu is the best at adapting to changing circumstances, but he also likes to dwell on trivial matters, and he is usually quite jealous of evil."
"Jie Ming has a relatively simple mind and acts impulsively without considering the consequences. However, he often feels remorseful afterwards and makes the opposite choice to what he made at the time."
"When the two of them were together, Jie Xiu was always the priority, and Jie Ming obeyed his orders."
"Based on the temperament, character, and relationship of the two people, I made the following inferences."
"First, for some unknown reason, Monk Jie Xiu - whether it was to enforce justice or to clear his own house - had the intention to kill Jie Xian and the others, and he also dragged Jie Ming into the water."
"On the day of the solar eclipse, he may have already made a plan to kill Jiexian with the help of Jieming."
"Who knew that plans could not keep up with changes? There was a solar eclipse in the middle of the journey. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so Jie Xiu simply killed Jie Xian in the dark."
"After that, he deliberately quarreled with others and violated the precept of anger, in order to create an alibi and let Jie Ming kill Jie Chi."
"Continuing with this logic, the next step is for Jie Ming to create an alibi, and then for Jie Chi to kill Jie Nian."
"However, Jie Ming's old problem came back at this time. He regretted participating in this killing game and wanted to quit. He might even want to surrender himself!"
"Unfortunately, Jie Xiu was already in a difficult situation at this time. He was always a stubborn person, so he decided to go all out and tricked Jie Ming out of the temple, and took the opportunity to kill him!"
"Perhaps Jie Ming didn't expect Jie Xiu to attack him, and was stunned for a moment - or for other reasons, so he didn't have time to resist."
"As for why Jie Xiu went to such great lengths to nail Jie Ming to the ground with an iron rod, I still haven't figured it out yet."
"In short, Jie Chi used some tricks today to trick Jie Nian into coming to the Forest of Merit, and then killed him in some way, intending to create the illusion that the dog demon killed someone."
After listening to Sun Shaozong's long speech, everyone was silent for a long time, and Master Qi was the first to nod and said, "Master Sun's inference does make sense, but..."
He hesitated when he said this, as if he was embarrassed to point out Sun Shaozong's omission.
Sun Shaozong immediately took the initiative to interject, and said with a wry smile: "It's just an inference after all, and it's also missing the most important key evidence - so no matter how logical it is, it's difficult to convict based on this!"
