Playing bad and eating melons: The whole court is laughing? No, no

Chapter 454: Aconitum Hairpin

Jiang Yueyang looked down at the ground and searched everywhere, but couldn't find any trace of the hairpin.

[Host, please move to the left. If I tell you to stop, you must stop.]

Jiang Yueyang followed the system's instructions and walked upstream to the left, and the others naturally followed her.

Not long after walking, the system stopped.

Jiang Yueyang glanced around, but couldn't find the so-called hairpin. [Little melon, where's the hairpin?]

Right under your feet.

Hearing this, Jiang Yueyang subconsciously raised his foot, and the others also subconsciously looked down.

[Where is it?] Jiang Yueyang didn't see the hairpin under her feet.

[It got stuck in the mud and got out.] The system explained, [It was raining the night Shen Zhiyi dumped the body. When the officials came to investigate the scene, they accidentally stepped on the hairpin and it got stuck in the mud.]

"Luckily, it rained that day, causing the river to flood, and the body was washed ashore the next day. Otherwise, by the time the body floated up, Shen Zhiyi would have already discovered the hairpin was missing and come looking for it," the system continued.

Jiang Yueyang thought for a moment, then looked at Ke Ming and the others in confusion, "Master Ke, there seems to be something under my feet."

"Is there something?" Ke Ming squatted down to check.

Without waiting for him to make any move, Jiang Yueyang squatted down with Guyu's dagger and dug up the soil.

After a few diggings, the hairpin was revealed.

Ke Ming picked up the muddy hairpin without a care in the world. After carefully examining it, he pretended to be puzzled and said, "This hairpin seems to be made of wood, but it also seems not to be..."

"Let me see." Jiang Yueyang stretched out her hand towards him.

Ke Ming subconsciously handed over the hairpin, but when he saw the white fingers, he retracted it.

He took out a handkerchief and wiped the mud off the hairpin before handing it over.

Jiang Yueyang took the hairpin and pretended to look at it, then put her nose close to it and sniffed it.

"This hairpin..." Jiang Yueyang raised her eyes and looked at the few people, "It seems to have a medicinal smell."

Hearing this, Ke Ming pretended to be surprised and took the hairpin from her hand and sniffed it hard.

"It does smell like medicine." Ke Ming secretly winked at Bai Ze, "I wonder what medicine it is?"

Bai Ze's eyes flashed, he reached out to take the hairpin and sniffed it, then said with certainty: "It's Aconitum!"

"Aconitum? Are you sure?" Ke Ming was shocked.

Bai Ze nodded, "This herb was in the medicine I took before. Because Aconitum is highly toxic, the doctor even explained it to me when he prescribed the medicine."

Hearing Bai Ze use Aconitum as medicine, Jiang Yueyang couldn't help but raise an eyebrow slightly, "Little Melon, I remember Aconitum has the effects of dispelling wind and dampness, warming the meridians and relieving pain, and strengthening the vital energy and restoring yang, right?"

Yes, it does have these effects.

"Master Bai, could this medicine be used to..."

The system laughed loudly, but refused to explain to Bai Ze.

Seeing that the system was only laughing, Bai Ze rolled his eyes and said with a smile: "Apart from anything else, this Aconitum is very effective in treating coughs. I took it twice, and my nighttime coughing problem was completely cured."

Ke Ming suppressed a smile and nodded, then said seriously, "Aconitum is rare, so it's definitely unusual for this Aconitum hairpin to appear here."

"Could it be left by the murderer?" asked King Yan.

Jiang Yueyang, who had opened his mouth to say this, slowly closed his mouth after hearing this.

Bai Ze nodded in agreement, "I think it's possible."

"Then the murderer might be a woman." Ke Ming followed up with an analysis.

Jiang Xun also analyzed, "Usually, murderers have the habit of returning to the scene to investigate. Lord Ke, have you spotted any suspicious individuals around here in the past few days?"

Hearing this, everyone present subconsciously looked around. At this time, the only people nearby were officials from the Ministry of Justice and a few ordinary people standing in the distance watching the excitement.

Lord Ke thought for a moment and shook his head. "In the past few days since the Ministry of Justice took over the case, their officers have been searching the area for clues but haven't noticed any suspicious individuals. The Qingxi County government hasn't mentioned anything either."

At this time, Jiang Yueyang noticed that there was a person wearing a black veil among the crowd watching the excitement on the other side of the river.

Judging from his clothes, he was a man, but judging from his figure, he seemed too thin.

The system asked: [Host, what are you looking at? ]

[Xiaogua, do you think the person wearing a black veil across from you is a little suspicious?]

Hearing her words, everyone present looked in the direction she was looking without any expression.

There were five people wearing veiled hats in the crowd across the river, three of them were wearing white veiled hats, and they must be women.

Two of them were wearing black veils, both dressed as men, and one of them lifted the veil of his veil.

The system glanced over and said with a slight surprise: [It's Shen Zhiyi.]

"Don't you know who it is because you can't see their face?" Jiang Yueyang questioned as she walked around the riverbank.

Several people hurried to catch up. Ke Ming fell two steps behind and called the nearest officer to his side.

He whispered, "Take your men from the other side and make sure to stop them."

The system proudly said: [The soap gauze is translucent, it can block your sight, but it can't block mine.]

Bai Ze glanced across the river and saw the man leaving the crowd. He asked hurriedly, "Si Zheng, where are you going?"

Jiang Yueyang also saw Shen Zhiyi about to leave, so she quickened her pace and replied quickly, "I think the man wearing a black veil across the river is a little suspicious."

"Which one?"

"The one who left."

Before she finished speaking, Ke Ming walked past her quickly, "Master Xiao Jiang, I'll take someone to take a look."

Perhaps sensing something was wrong, Shen Zhiyi walked faster and faster, and finally started running.

Seeing this, Ke Ming also started running, but when he ran to the other side of the river, he only saw a back figure disappearing in the crowd.

They chased after him and found the discarded veil and clothes in an alley.

Not long after, Jiang Yueyang, King Yan and others came to meet Ke Ming.

Bai Ze and Jiang Xun picked up the clothes and veil respectively to examine them. The clothes were made of ordinary linen and the veil was nothing special.

However, a faint fragrance lingered on the clothes.

Jiang Yueyang asked, "Master Ke, Master Bai, could that man be the murderer?"

"It's possible." They both answered in unison.

Ke Ming was annoyed, "Damn it, I almost caught him."

Jiang Yueyang patted his arm and said, "Don't worry, Master Ke. I have a feeling that we will catch the murderer soon."

"What Si Zheng said is correct." Bai Ze waved the aconite hairpin in his hand towards the others, "Let's go check the various pharmacies first to see if the aconite in this hairpin came from a pharmacy..."

For highly toxic medicinal herbs like Aconitum, each pharmacy keeps records of how much it buys and sells.

Moreover, the aconite hairpin had obviously been processed.

Someone who knows how to prepare medicinal materials is most likely a doctor or a professional herbalist.

"Which pharmacy are you going to start investigating?" King Yan asked the key question.

"Jishidang."

"Baicaotang."

Ke Ming and Bai Ze both said the name of a pharmacy, but they didn't dare to directly mention Huichuntang.

Jiang Yueyang didn't hear the name of Huichuntang, and asked in disappointment, "Can't all the pharmacies be checked at the same time?"

"That would make too much noise and might cause panic among the people," Jiang Xun said.

Jiang Yueyang frowned, "But... what if the murderer is from a certain pharmacy, and sees us investigating the pharmacy and destroys the evidence in advance or runs away?"

Hearing this, everyone looked at Ke Ming. He was in charge of the case, and it was up to him to decide how to investigate it.

"...Then check all the pharmacies together!"