Chapter 33 Corpse Containing Grievance
This question came suddenly. Zhang Mazi didn’t understand why Song Que asked this, but he still replied: “Sir, Hu Er once made a cabinet for me two years ago. That’s when Hu Er and I met.”
Song Que asked: “I heard that you once invited him to drink. Do you have a good relationship?”
Zhang Mazi opened his mouth, very similar to the way Gao Fenglin hesitated just now, and finally said: “One of us is a thug in a gambling house, and the other is a gambler who owes money. How can we have any friendship?”
Song Que became excited as soon as he heard this rhetorical question and whispered a few words into Gao Fenglin’s ear, and Gao Fenglin asked the guards to retreat.
There were only three people left in the interrogation hall. Zhang Mazi became obviously uncomfortable.
Song Que said: “There are only three of us here. You have to think carefully. All the concealments and lies may make you guilty of murder and you can be beheaded.”
Gao Fenglin asked again: “Do you have any friendship with Hu Er?”
Zhang Mazi was so frightened by the two of them that his heart started pounding. He also thought that there were only the county master and Master Song here. He couldn’t help but said: “Actually, Hu Er and I have a good relationship. The furniture he made was much better than others. I saw that he was an honest person, so I made friends with him, and later I helped him. But later he became addicted to gambling, and he often came to the gambling shop where I worked, sometimes he owed money and couldn’t pay. The steward wanted to send someone to teach him a lesson, so I took the initiative and played tricks with him. If the steward found out about this, I would probably die in the gambling house even if I could get out of prison alive. .”
Gao Fenglin frowned deeply when he heard that there was such a thing. Businesses like gambling houses were backed by someone behind them and had punishment of their own. Gao Fenglin wanted to take care of it, but he was new here and couldn’t really intervene for a while.
Song Que said: “Can anyone prove it?”
Zhang Mazi said: “If anyone could prove it, my little life would have been lost long ago.”
Song Que asked again: “On the day of the incident, were you and Hu Er acting as usual?”
Zhang Mazi said: “The few punches I threw in front of the steward were real, but all of them avoided the vital points. It was just a show after leaving the gambling house.”
Thugs like them have a sense of proportion and know where it will cause pain but not easily lead to death. After all, gambling houses were also afraid of trouble and wanted money rather than life. Not to mention that Zhang Mazi wanted to help Hu Er, he used all his skills to do so.
Song Que said: “Did you know that Hu Er wanted to quit gambling?”
Zhang Mazi nodded. It was risky for him to help Hu Er. After helping him once, he was destined to help again and again. Although Hu Er didn’t seem like the kind of person who would blackmail him in turn, he couldn’t afford to bet on that. He was the happiest person if Hu Er wanted to quit gambling.
“He said that he originally wanted his wife and mother to live a good life. Now that he has sobered up, he has found that not to mention making a fortune, he will even lose his original family fortune. So he plans to stop gambling. He also asked me to beat him to death if he went gambling again. Although he came to the gambling house on the day he died, he was not there to gamble…”
When Zhang Mazi hesitated, Gao Fenglin frowned. Zhang Mazi did not dare to hesitate anymore and immediately said: “He heard about the gambling house cheating from someone, so he came to the steward and wanted to get some money he lost. The steward asked me to kick him out, and also said not to let him talk nonsense.”
No wonder Zhang Mazi didn’t say it at first. If Gao Fenglin became interested in rectifying the gambling house and the steward found out that Zhang Mazi had something to do with this, Zhang Mazi would be finished. Even now, Zhang Mazi wanted to ask Gao Fenglin to pretend not to know. In his opinion, every day people questioned the gambling house’s cheating, and the steward really didn’t want to murder Hu Er.
Zhang Mazi’s side was pretty much straightened out, Song Que asked two final questions.
“You have been in the gambling house for so many years. What kind of gambler do you think Hu Er is?”
Zhang Mazi thought for a while and said: “He is very honest. I have seen many gamblers who after getting addicted to gambling will do anything, even selling their wives and daughters. Although Hu Er can’t get rid of his gambling addiction, he has never taken this step. And he values friendship very much. Over the years, when he won gambling and was willing to leave the table, he would share some with me. If he wants to quit gambling, I don’t think it was impossible.”
Song Que asked again: “Do you know who made Hu Er addicted to gambling?”
Zhang Mazi said a name: “Li Xiaowu.”
Zhang Mazi was escorted back to prison, and the officer brought Li Xiaowu up. When things got to this point, even Gao Fenglin had basically figured it out. Even if there was no guarantee that everyone’s words were the truth, the general direction was already clear. As long as they confront Li Xiaowu, they could get to the bottom of it.
Madam Hu said that Li Xiaowu and Hu Er once learned carpentry together, but Li Xiaowu didn’t have this talent. Instead, he was good at cooking and finally set up a wonton stall. This stall was still made by Hu Er.
There was this relationship between the two of them. That’s why Hu Er was introduced to the gambling house by Li Xiaowu.
Gao Fenglin glanced at Song Que, asking him to tell the autopsy results first. After all, he couldn’t remember the details clearly. Song Que then said: “Li Xiaowu, do you know that there’s a difference between wounds sustained while alive and wounds sustained after death?”
When Li Xiaowu heard this, his face turned pale, but he forced himself to calm down and said, “Why are you telling me this, sir?”
Song Que felt that Li Xiaowu had a good mentality. He could calm down and frame the crime after killing someone.
“When you stabbed Hu Er in the back, the wound shrunk and the bones were visible, which is characteristic of an injury before death. However, the wound stabbed with Zhang Mazi’s knife was neatly cut and the bones were not visible, which is characteristic of injuries after death. In other words, the stabbing you made was the last injury Hu Er suffered during his lifetime.”
Li Xiaowu was shocked, his body was shaking like a sieve, he held on without saying a word, and finally said: “Sir, if you convict me for something unheard of, there is no way of proving it”
This was what Gao Fenglin was worried about. Although he believes in Song Que’s intelligence, many of his methods were not well known and were not convincing as evidence.
Song Que smiled and said: “The truth actually exists and can be reproduced. If someone doesn’t believe it, just prove it to him. If there are no accidents, this phenomenon can be reproduced a hundred times after a hundred experiments.”
The vocabulary used by Song Que was a bit unfamiliar to them, but it was not difficult to understand. After hearing this, Gao Fenglin couldn’t help but glance at Song Que. It was easy for you to say, how could you really try this on a corpse? Harming a corpse is a serious offense!
Song Que pretended not to feel Gao Fenglin’s glare and looked at Li Xiaowu calmly, smiling slightly.
Li Xiaowu tried his best to come up with that answer. At this moment, he naturally couldn’t think of what Gao Fenglin thought of, nor could he guess that Song Que was lying to him. He was obviously a little shaken and not as firm as at the beginning.
Seeing him like this, Song Que knew it was a good time and kept saying: “Li Xiaowu, you and Hu Er met when both of you were studying carpentry. You are not as talented as Hu Er, but you have other strengths. You opened a wonton stall, and Hu Er made the table. Although you were a little jealous of his talent, you also appreciated his friendship. You were a little smart, and more importantly, you had self-control. You would occasionally go to the gambling house to play. Once, you took Hu Er with you. Who would have thought that he would win a big one in one go? Such good luck makes it difficult for you to calm down. But at that time, Hu Er did something that moved you again. He lent a large sum of money to you to solve your urgent need and allowed your business to be fully launched. It was said that he was lending you money, but it was no different from giving it to you. He has never asked for it from you in these years. But a few days ago, Hu Er decided to quit gambling and start carpentry again. Because of gambling, his family was empty, and he needed some money to start from scratch, so he thought of you. And you had long forgotten the money you borrow.”
Li Xiaowu looked at Song Que in panic as if he didn’t know how the other party knew these details.
Song Que smiled slightly, knowing that he was mostly right, so he struck while the iron was hot: “Hu Er came to you to ask for money, and you were naturally unwilling to give it. You told him that the gambling house was cheating, so he went there stupidly, hoping to get his money back. Unfortunately, he got nothing and didn’t get his money back, so he naturally went back to find you. He came to find you, and you invited him to the kitchen and gave him a bowl of wontons, trying to make friends to get over the matter. But Hu Er is very resolute this time and has a clear attitude. He did not ask you to pay it back all at once, but you must pay it back. You were already dissatisfied with him. When you were apprentices together, he was more talented than you and was more relied upon by the master. He even had better luck than you when it came to gambling. You had tolerated these dissatisfactions because he was kind to you, but now you couldn’t stand it at all. When Hu Er’s back was turned to you, you stabbed him hard. Hu Er was taller than you. He struggled, turned around, and ran. Originally, Hu Er was injured and couldn’t run away from you, but when he ran out he bumped into your neighbor, you were afraid of being seen, so you didn’t chase him immediately. After a while, you ran out to chase him. When you chased him, it was just instinct, and you didn’t know what you were going to do after you caught up. By the time you saw Hu Er, he had already fallen to the ground with no breath. The only wound was the wound on the back. You killed someone. The knife was a boning knife with a special shape. You quickly thought that you would be exposed and decided to frame Zhang. Mazi. You grabbed Hu Er’s feet and dragged his body to the woods near Zhang Mazi’s home. You also went to Zhang Mazi’s house to steal his knife. After stabbing Hu Er’s chest hard. You threw the bloody knife back into Zhang Mazi’s house.”
When Song Que said this, Li Xiaowu was scared out of his wits and said tremblingly: “You saw it all, right? There was someone! There was someone that night!”
Song Que’s description was like recreating the scene. Even though Li Xiaowu had excellent psychological qualities, he couldn’t help but feel horrified at this moment, as if there were a pair of eyes watching him closely on the night he killed someone and dumped the body.
Song Que went through the questions and personalities of each person and worked it out several times before he came up with a satisfactory version. The description of some details in it was a guess, and he was not completely sure. I was just a mean to strengthen his fight against Li. Xiaowu. Sure enough, after he told many details, Li Xiaowu’s psychological defense collapsed, and what he said in panic was no different from a confession.
Gao Fenglin was stunned as he watched on the sidelines. At this moment, he calmed down and quickly asked Li Xiaowu to sign a confession.
The case that had troubled Gao Fenglin for a long time was solved like this. Li Xiaowu was guilty of murder, and Zhang Mazi was convicted of assault. One was imprisoned to await execution, and the other was released after being punished.
Gao Fenglin was a little hesitant about whether to visited Hu Er’s house or not, Song Que said, “Just go. If you don’t go, you may not be able to sleep at night.”
Gao Fenglin thought about it and asked, “You won’t go?”
Song Qing shook his head, looking a little upset.
