webnovelfull Chapter 774 The murderer was caught?
Chapter 774 The murderer was caught?
Before Emperor Xiao issued the imperial decree to punish Zhong Xingyun, the news of Zhong Yixiu's marriage proposal had already spread throughout the imperial city.
When Jiang Suining and Wei Yao walked out of the palace together, they heard palace maids in front of them whispering about this matter.
"The Zhong family has experienced a series of misfortunes. It is inevitable that people will talk about them if they suddenly recruit a son-in-law at this time." Wei Yao said after thinking for a while.
She knew why Zhong Yixiu suddenly wanted to find a son-in-law, but most of the palace maids and eunuchs were unaware of the inside story, so it was naturally unpleasant to talk about it.
Some people even said that Zhong Yixiu's sister had just passed away and her father had an accident, and she was in a hurry to get married at this time. She was so eager to get married that she didn't care about her family at all.
Jiang Suining glanced at the palace maids in front of him and thought, "It's not easy to find a son-in-law at this critical moment. Zhong Yixue probably wants to seize the time before Zhong Xingyun completely falls, but this should be impossible."
Although the emperor has not issued an explicit decree yet, memorials impeaching Zhong Xingyun have already been flying onto the dragon desk like snowflakes.
In addition, Zhong Yixiu had personally pointed out in the Golden Palace before that Zhong Xingyun would not be able to keep his official position no matter what.
Wei Yao also nodded and said, "Yes, I heard that two more censors impeached Zhong Xingyun today. Now the emperor is ordering people to investigate whether the impeachment is true or false. Once it is confirmed, he will definitely not let him off easily, and I estimate that it will not take long."
At this point, Wei Yao frowned.
"Sui Ning, do you think Zhong Yixue's plan to find a son-in-law will be successful?"
"That depends on whether Zhong Yixue is ruthless enough. If she just wants a nominal husband to help her better control the Zhong family, then there are naturally many ways to do it."
As the two were talking, they approached the palace gate and saw Yuan Liang waiting there from afar.
Seeing Jiang Suining leaving the palace, Yuan Liang hurried forward: "Madam."
"What happened?" Jiang Suining asked.
"The young master left in a hurry just now and asked me to wait for you here. He said that there was news from the Ministry of Justice that the murderer of the missing woman had been caught."
Jiang Suining and his colleagues have always been very concerned about the woman's missing case. After hearing the news, they rushed to the Ministry of Justice as soon as possible.
After arriving, they successfully saw Pei Zhaozhi and Shen Yanxi, as well as the bodies of two other men.
"Are they the murderers of the missing woman?" Jiang Suining looked at the corpse on the ground.
Pei Zhaozhi's brows were solemn. "There are still some missing women who have not been found completely. The yamen runners have been searching everywhere for a while. Two days ago, they finally found some clues and traced them to a dilapidated temple. They found the remaining missing women in a secret room under the dilapidated temple."
"Are they still alive now?" Jiang Suining asked immediately.
After a moment of silence, Pei Zhaozhi shook his head, "He was still alive, but when they heard the noise from the yamen runners, the two men rushed to kill him to silence him. Later, when they saw that they could not escape and were no match for the yamen runners, they committed suicide."
Pei Zhaozhi's answer left Jiang Suining stunned.
After investigating the missing woman's case for such a long time, the murderer ended up committing suicide so easily?
Many doubts surged in his mind, and Jiang Suining immediately said: "This matter sounds wrong."
"We also found some jewelry belonging to the missing women in the dilapidated temple. We have asked their families to identify them and they are indeed theirs. In addition, before the two men died, they confessed to their crimes..."
Pei Zhaozhi did not continue speaking, but the look in his eyes became even more suspicious.
The disappearance and murder of so many innocent women shows that the murderer is extremely vicious.
He hid for so long without leaving any clues, so his methods must have been extraordinary.
How could he be trapped in the ruined temple so easily? And after finding there was no way to retreat, he admitted his crime of arresting and killing people and immediately committed suicide.
This matter seems wrong no matter how you look at it. These two people are more like scapegoats than murderers.
"Since there are still doubts, we should continue investigating." Wei Yao said.
Pei Zhaozhi pursed his lips.
Shen Yanxi on the side said: "Zhaozhi did want to continue investigating, but the emperor learned that the murderer had been caught, and sent someone to pass on a message, saying that the case of the missing woman had caused an uproar in the imperial city. In order to stabilize the people's hearts, since the murderer has been caught, the case should be closed as soon as possible."
"But if he is not the real murderer, if we close the case now, wouldn't that mean the real murderer will go unpunished!" Wei Yao looked grim, "Does the emperor only consider the people's will and ignore everything else?"
"Ayao, be careful with your words." Jiang Suining shook his head at Wei Yao, then looked at Pei Zhaozhi, "You don't want to close the case like this, do you?"
"Of course I don't want to. This matter is full of doubts. If these two people are really scapegoats pushed by the murderer, once the case is closed, it will be exactly what the murderer wants. But..."
"But the emperor's order is hard to disobey. The emperor has already sent someone to convey his decree, ordering him to close the case immediately tomorrow and post a written notice to inform the people of the imperial city." Shen Yanxi took over Pei Zhaozhi's words and said.
"Then stick it on." Jiang Suining said.
Feeling the gazes of Wei Yao and Pei Zhaozhi, Jiang Suining continued to speak.
"This matter has indeed caused quite a stir. If it continues to drag on like this, the people will be in turmoil every day, which is not conducive to the stability of the imperial city. The emperor's considerations are indeed reasonable."
“But are we just going to let the real murderer go?” Wei Yao asked puzzledly.
"It's just that the case has been closed on the surface, but it may not be impossible to continue investigating privately. There has been no clues for a while, which shows that the real murderer is taking very strict precautions. If these two people are really scapegoats, then it's better to comply with the real murderer's wishes."
"You mean to say that we should pretend to close the case and paralyze the murderer?"
"Yes, and..."
Jiang Suining paused, his eyes deepening.
Shen Yanxi looked at her and said with understanding: "Ningning, do you think the real murderer will continue to stay in this imperial city?"
Jiang Suining nodded. "There were no clues before, so it was difficult to continue the investigation. The murderer could have simply escaped from the imperial city and stayed away from everything. In fact, there is no need to come up with a scapegoat to cover up the matter, unless..."
"Unless the murderer has a reason to stay in the imperial city, this matter needs to be settled as soon as possible." Shen Yanxi said.
"This is just my guess, but I still think that temporarily declaring the case closed at this time may not be a bad thing. And if the murderer really wants the court to close the case by putting forward a scapegoat, then after the case is closed, the murderer will most likely not attack those women again. Otherwise, the scapegoat issue will be in vain."
Therefore, closing the case at this time will not threaten the safety of other women.
only……
Jiang Suining looked at the two corpses on the ground again.