AUBTN -Chapter 328 The Murderer Is a Woman

The side hall was deathly silent.

Only Xiao Yunhai’s sobs mourning a single cricket echoed through the room.

The veins at Lu Yan’s temples throbbed violently, clearly showing he had reached the limit of his patience.

As a military commander who led troops into battle, the things he valued most were integrity and backbone. Xiao Zhengnan had at least been a mighty warlord who dominated an entire region—how had he managed to produce these three pathetic excuses for sons?

Meanwhile, Yu Qing was completely dumbfounded.

【Good heavens! This is like an old lady crawling into bed—absolutely cracking me up!】

【How did the family genes mutate this badly? This is practically a cliff-diving decline! The father was a blood-soaked battlefield hero, a majestic national warlord astride his horse, while the sons are all useless wastrels obsessed with drinking, gambling, women, and toys!】

【With these three idiots, even if you handed them a knife, they wouldn’t know where to stab!】

【If Xiao Zhengnan knew what kind of trash these three turned out to be, he’d probably be so furious he’d resurrect on the spot, shove open his own coffin lid, and die all over again!】

Clearly, Lu Yan felt the same way.

His cold gaze swept over the three good-for-nothings.

“Since all of you have alibis, the Embroidered Uniform Guard will naturally verify them. But if even a single word proves false, the branding irons in the imperial prison are waiting for you at any time.”

Lu Yan rose to his feet and looked down at them from above.

“Xiao Zhengnan spent a lifetime building his reputation. How did he end up producing three utterly worthless sons? Get out!”

As if granted a royal pardon, the three brothers scrambled out of the side hall in panic.

“So it looks like these three fools can be ruled out as suspects too.” Yu Qing stood up, dusting pastry crumbs off her hands as she walked over to Lu Yan’s side.

“If it wasn’t a political enemy, and it wasn’t the unfilial sons, then there’s only one final possibility left.”

Lu Yan turned to look at her. A sharp glint flashed through his deep eyes.

“There’s a traitor inside the Xiao Army.”

“But…” Yu Qing frowned and scratched her chin in frustration.

“The Xiao Army is stationed far away on the southern frontier. This time, fewer than a hundred personal guards accompanied the Prince of Zhennan back to the capital. How are we supposed to find the mole who stole the tiger tally among those hundred men?”

Before she could finish speaking, the doors of the side hall were pushed open from outside.

Shen Jue strode in carrying the chill of the night rain with him, while Su Hewan followed calmly behind.

“The traitor within the Xiao Army must be investigated,” Shen Jue said, “but it absolutely cannot be done openly.”

Unhurriedly, he folded the black oil-paper umbrella in his hand. Droplets slid from the umbrella tip onto the green brick floor, spreading into dark wet stains.

“Xiao Zhengnan commands a hundred thousand heavily armed troops in the southern frontier. Now that the commander-in-chief has died suddenly, if news of the missing tiger tally spreads at this moment, it will inevitably trigger military unrest. And if foreign enemies seize the opportunity to invade, the consequences could be disastrous.”

“Exactly.” A trace of agreement flashed across Lu Yan’s stern face.

“This matter concerns the safety of the entire realm. There can be no mistakes. The investigation of the Xiao Army guards will be handled secretly by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.”

Shen Jue gave a slight nod, and the two men’s gazes met in midair.

The next day, after the rain had cleared.

Song Yu of the Court of Judicial Review arrived at the gates of Yu Garden in a rush, sporting two enormous dark circles under his eyes.

“Your Highnesses, Princesses! The results are in!”

Clutching a case file tightly in his hand, Song Yu was panting heavily from running.

The four of them immediately gathered inside the study of Yu Garden.

“This is the report produced by the most experienced coroner in the Ministry of Justice after examining Prince Zhennan’s corpse!” Song Yu spread open the case file and pointed to one particular line.

“Deep beneath the fingernails of Prince Zhennan’s right index and middle fingers, they found an extremely fine foreign object!”

“What object?” Yu Qing immediately leaned in, her eyes widening like copper bells.

“Gold thread.” Song Yu swallowed hard.

“The Ministry of Justice invited the best embroiderers in the capital to inspect it. This is a special embroidery thread used for Quejin Qiu, and it’s most commonly found on women’s clothing or delicate embroidered sachets!”

The moment those words fell, everyone was stunned.

“Damn! Gold thread? Women’s clothing? Don’t tell me this is some crime of passion?”

Yu Qing looked like a melon-eating bystander who had just caught the scent of a massive scandal.

“Embroidery thread from a woman’s clothes…” Su Hewan frowned slightly and stepped forward, carefully examining the strand of gold thread sealed inside a transparent glass box that Song Yu handed over.

The thread was as thin as silk. Without close inspection, it would have been impossible to notice.

“When a person faces a fatal attack like a throat-slashing, instinct makes them claw at the attacker,” Su Hewan analyzed calmly, her reasoning precise and organized. “This gold thread was most likely scratched off the killer’s clothing while Prince Zhennan struggled.”

“In that case, the person who entered the sealed room and committed the murder was very likely a woman?”

“No way!”

Yu Qing immediately jumped out to refute the idea. She made an exaggerated throat-cutting gesture with both hands.

“Hewan, think about it! Who was Xiao Zhengnan? That man was a war hero who shook nations! Even if he drank a little last night and let his guard down, to slit his throat with one perfectly accurate strike—without even giving him a chance to cry for help—how much explosive strength and precision would that take?”

The more Yu Qing spoke, the more animated she became, practically possessed by her inner drama queen as she paced circles around the study.

“An ordinary weak woman would struggle just to kill a chicken, let alone a battle-hardened general! Unless this woman was some hidden martial arts master or born with monstrous strength, this simply doesn’t make sense!”

“It’s like asking Lin Daiyu to tear Lu Zhishen apart with her bare hands. Is that remotely scientific?”

Listening to her inner rant, Lu Yan finally couldn’t suppress the smile tugging at his lips.

He casually pushed a plate of freshly baked chestnut cakes toward Yu Qing.

“Eat something first while you talk.” Lu Yan looked at her helplessly.

Who would’ve thought she’d be this interested in solving cases?

Yu Qing grabbed a piece of pastry and stuffed it into her mouth, mumbling indistinctly, “Thanks… Hewan, do you think my analysis makes sense?”

Su Hewan walked to the desk, her slender fingers lightly tapping against the tabletop.

“What Qingqing said is reasonable. From a purely physical standpoint, it would indeed be difficult for a woman to deliver such a clean and decisive strike. However—”

Her tone suddenly shifted as she looked at everyone with burning eyes.

“What if this woman was someone Xiao Zhengnan completely trusted? What if she attacked while the two of them were in an extremely intimate situation, when Xiao Zhengnan had fully let down his guard? At that kind of distance, as long as the blade was sharp enough and she accurately targeted the carotid artery, a fatal strike wouldn’t be impossible.”

As Shen Jue listened to Su Hewan’s deduction, his long fingers lightly tapped his folded fan against his palm.

It wasn’t entirely unreasonable.

Then he picked up the freshly brewed Junshan Yinzhen tea beside him and placed it near Su Hewan’s hand.

“My lady has spoken so much. Wet your throat a little,” Shen Jue reminded gently, tilting his head slightly.

The atmosphere in the study instantly became rather peculiar.

Su Hewan and Yu Qing enthusiastically bounced ideas back and forth, discussing everything from the murder method to the possible length of the weapon.

Meanwhile, the two powerful statesmen looked exactly like ordinary husbands spoiling their wives, silently listening at the side while occasionally handing over snacks or refilling tea. Strangely enough, they seemed to genuinely enjoy this harmonious husband-and-wife detective atmosphere.

Poor Lord Song Yu, stuck in the middle, glanced left and right and felt as though the entire room was overflowing with pink romantic bubbles that were about to suffocate a lonely old bachelor like him.

And yet, somehow, both princess consorts’ arguments sounded completely reasonable to him!