Chapter 432 - 430: He’s Not Just One Person (Second Update)

Chapter 432: Chapter 430: He’s Not Just One Person (Second Update)

This room is divided into an outer room and an inner room, connected by a door with a gauze curtain. Both rooms are spacious, and the decor is indeed quite luxurious and high-end.

On the way here, Xu Jing had already heard from Governor Zhang that Princess Ling and her two servants were all murdered in the inner room. There were no traces of the murder in the outer room. Just looking at it, no one would think such a bloody and terrifying crime occurred inside.

However, Xu Jing didn’t rush into the inner room. She stood by the main door for a while, then turned to ask Governor Zhang: "Even though the guards weren’t stationed right next to the door, they did patrol. When they passed by this room, didn’t they smell the scent of blood?"

The walls of the inn are not thick, and the soundproofing is poor. If there was an odd smell inside, it should easily spread out.

Not to mention, Princess Ling and her two servants were all decapitated. Just imagining it, one could tell how strong the scent of blood in the room must have been at the time.

Governor Zhang replied helplessly: "Princess Ling was particular about her lifestyle, and even while staying at the inn, she would light incense. Not only Princess Ling, but Prince Ling and they also did the same.

That morning, when the guards opened the door, they said they smelled a stronger scent of incense than usual, almost covering up the smell of blood."

Understood, this must have been the culprit’s doing.

Just to prevent them from discovering Princess Ling and the others were killed so soon.

Xu Jing didn’t say anything more, walked to the table in the middle of the room, and found that besides a complete tea set, there was a teacup that clearly wasn’t part of the set. It must be the Calming Tea brought by Nanny Lu.

Xu Jing gently lifted the lid of the teacup, took a glance inside, and suddenly said: "I remember, at the crime scenes of both the first and second cases, there were tables, and on those tables, there were bloodstains, not like splattered blood but as if something bloody had been placed there.

And those tables were far from where the murders took place."

In the earlier cases, the victims were all servants, and their rooms weren’t as spacious, with no outer or inner rooms.

But what was strange was that the table originally placed in the center of the room had been moved to the side by the door, while the victims were killed by the bed, where most of the blood splatter was.

Where the table was placed, there was the least blood spatter.

Governor Zhang was slightly taken aback, but having thoroughly understood the details of the previous cases, he nodded, frowning slightly: "That’s correct, it is quite strange. The officials in charge of the previous cases said maybe... the victim’s heads were placed on those tables."

In the first case, two maidservants were decapitated; one maidservant’s head was beside her body, while the other maidservant’s head was missing.

The head that was once on that table could only be the missing head of that maidservant.

In the second case, the maidservant killed near the water source’s head was by her body, but the young servant killed in the room had his head missing.

Governor Zhang said, "I don’t quite understand why the culprit would place their heads on the table. Could it be... after killing them, he wanted to remove his traces, so he temporarily placed the heads he planned to take away somewhere a little cleaner?"

After all, according to the case files, the culprit was clearly very cautious, leaving no traces of himself at the crime scenes, not even a footprint.

Additionally, at each crime scene, there was a sheet or blanket stained with blood. When committing the murders, it seemed, he wrapped himself in those sheets and blankets so that the blood wouldn’t get on his clothes.

Even near where the maidservant was killed at the water source, there was such a blanket.

Xu Jingjing was silent for a moment, nodding: "That’s a possibility."

But we can’t rule out other possibilities.

She put the lid back on the teacup and walked behind a screen in the outer room.

There, there was a bathtub filled with water, with three stacked wooden buckets beside it.

The water in the bathtub was somewhat cloudy, and even after a few days, there was still a faint soapy scent, indicating that indeed, Princess Ling had bathed that day.

When the inn’s attendant delivered water, they were still alive, proving the attendant was innocent.

After examining the contents of the outer room, Xu Jing then entered the inner room.

The scent of blood in the inner room was even stronger, and there were bloodstains on the floor, walls, bed, cabinet, almost everywhere, and at this time, the blood had completely dried.

By the bed, it was even more of a mess; the bedding had almost all been pulled to the floor, forming a thick layer, on top of which was a chair, the back facing outwards, and one side was pressed against the bed. Two chair legs close to the bed were each tied with a hemp rope, the other end of the ropes tightly bound to the bedposts on each side.

On the floor beside it, a piece of hemp rope and a large knife, looking extremely sharp, were thrown haphazardly.

All items were covered in unsettling blood.

No matter how many times you see this scene, it sends chills down your spine.

It’s just like a private... execution site.

Governor Zhang walked over to Xu Jing, his face stern, and said, "We speculate that the culprit first knocked the three women unconscious, then moved them here, placing them upside down on the chair, with their chests against the chair back and their necks hanging over, before tying them down with rope and using the large knife... to decapitate them.

Therefore, we can see some knife marks on the back of the chair, probably left accidentally when the culprit was beheading."

As Governor Zhang spoke, he walked to the chair, pointing out some scratches to Xu Jing, and said: "Because the chair and bed were fixed together, even if the culprit used force when beheading, the chair wouldn’t be easily moved, making noise.

This way, it could minimize the noise, and even when the head fell onto the blanket, it wouldn’t make a sound."

Xu Jing couldn’t help but frown slightly while observing all this.

The two maidservants in the first case were also killed in this manner.

In the second case, the young servant was directly held down on the ground and his head chopped off. However, at that time, the soldiers guarding the servants’ quarters were called away by General Han to search the inn, so even if he made noise, no one would notice.

Xu Jing then looked at the large knife on the floor and said: "That large knife couldn’t have been brought in by the culprit."

Governor Zhang agreed, nodding: "That’s right, the guards saw them coming in, and the rope, fine, it can easily be hidden on the body, but a large knife isn’t something you can easily hide.

Therefore, we speculate that the large knife... must have been in the room from the beginning.

The culprit knew that Prince Ling’s party would stay at the Full Moon Building, so he hid a large knife in each guest room in advance."

Governor Zhang paused, his face darkened: "Later, indeed, we found a large knife in several other guest rooms as well.

This was our oversight; we shouldn’t have made such a big move to book out the Full Moon Building in the first place..."

Had it not been for the fact that the people in this building were all suspects in the murder of Princess Ling, and didn’t want to move them before the case was solved,

he would have definitely moved Prince Ling and his party to another inn long ago.

But since the culprit had already targeted them, changing inns wouldn’t make much difference.

"Even if you hadn’t booked out the Full Moon Building, the culprit could have guessed that Prince Ling’s party would stay here."

Xu Jing looked at him and said: "You forgot? As Prince Ling’s party traveled, they stayed at the best inns, and the best inn here is the Full Moon Building.

And this matter also indicates one thing..."

Xu Jing paused, enunciating each word: "The culprit has accomplices; he is not acting alone."