Seeking Truth with a Sword

Chapter 450 - 401 Suspicion

[Su Xinghuo’s statement: I was on the island all day yesterday. At 7 p.m., I was notified by a crew member in the street area and returned to the SS Sea Charm.

Originally, I wanted to go directly to the Heir Prince. However, I saw Miss Shi Yajing visiting him, so I stayed in my room reading a book.

Around 7:30 p.m., I went to Room 9. The Heir Prince seemed to have been drinking; an empty bottle of Drunk Red Dust and two cups were on the table.

He looked in a bad mood. He first apologized that the Drunk Red Dust was finished and then made to get more wine from the cabinet. I was worried about his health and asked him not to drink anymore.

At that moment, an Alarm Talisman in the room began to emit cricket-like vibrating sounds—this wasn’t because the talisman detected any Alien presence, but because its talisman power was nearly depleted.

Yuan Jia took a stack of new talismans from a desk drawer, replaced the old ones, and stuck them on the door, windows, and by the bedside.

Seeing he had been drinking, I asked if he wanted to go ashore to sleep, since the wind and waves at night would cause the ship to rock, which might disrupt his sleep.

I offered either to stay in the room to watch over him or to have his two guards come over.

He refused. He said he still bore a curse and couldn’t go ashore on the island. He also didn’t want to involve me and mentioned that he didn’t quite trust those guards...

He always felt that his elder brother’s fall from the horse was too much of a coincidence.

Oh, right. He also told me not to worry about him, saying that half a bottle of Drunk Red Dust wouldn’t make him lose consciousness.

I stayed in Room 9 until around 10 p.m. (Hai Zheng), then returned to my own cabin.]

[Sikong Ji and Sikong Qiu’s statements: Yesterday, during the day, we didn’t go ashore for recreation and remained at the end of the hallway, near the reception desk.

At 5 p.m., we saw the Heir Prince coming out of his room, and we followed him to the deck.

At 6:15 p.m., we heard him discussing the construction of a railway in Zhao Jun with Wu Yunjun.

At 6:45 p.m., we followed the Heir Prince back to his room, preparing to do a routine check—which involved inspecting the doors and windows for any damage or signs of Alien encroachment.

During this process, Dai Xu, a Talisman Master from your ship who is of the Cloud Patrol Realm, brought a stack of newly drawn talismans.

He was a Talisman Master of the Cloud Patrol Realm, and the Alarm Talismans he drew could last for seven days. After seven days, when the talisman power faded, they needed to be replaced.

We had initially intended to replace the talismans for the Heir Prince but were rejected. He said he would change them himself and asked us to leave, so we had no choice but to comply and left the room before 7 p.m.]

[Dai Xu’s statement: I was on the island during the day and returned to the SS Sea Charm at 5 p.m., drawing talismans in my own room. There are several Talisman Masters on the SS Sea Charm. I am usually responsible for the VIP area. After finishing the talismans, I delivered them to various rooms according to the list.

For example, the VIP in Room 1 ordered more Liliang Talismans, and the VIPs in Room 5 ordered two Water Travel Talismans and a Shark-Repelling Talisman—they are a couple who can’t swim but want to try diving.

Oh, they also asked me to write one more insect repellent charm. They said they heard rustling noises inside the cabin’s wooden panels when they spontaneously returned to the ship for their drawing board and papers in the afternoon and suspected that insects had gotten onboard.

I handled these trivial tasks, and by around 7:00 PM, I reached Room 9, where the Heir Prince was staying, and delivered the talismans to him.

He was the last one on my delivery list. I returned to my own room after taking care of it.]

When it was Li Ang’s turn to be questioned, he candidly recounted his day’s activities: he visited the island during the day and returned to his cabin to sleep at night. He hadn’t had any contact with Xia Yuanjia, nor had he entered Room 9, making him the one with the least involvement in the case.

After the interrogation ended, the autopsy results were also out.

The captain gathered everyone involved in the case in Room 10 to present the autopsy report.

The captain solemnly said, "The autopsy shows that the Heir Prince’s cause of death was a sharp weapon cutting his neck, resulting in his immediate demise."

"Based on the level of digestion of the contents found in his stomach, his exact time of death was at 2 a.m., consistent with the time on the clock in the room."

Su Xinghuo pursed his lips and said, "There are no needle marks on his body, the contents of his stomach were not poisonous, and that bottle of Drunk Red Dust was also non-toxic."

Hearing that the wine he had given was not the problem, the Zhou Kingdom merchant Wu Yunjun breathed a sigh of relief but quickly realized he should look sad at this moment and hastily turned his relief into a cough.

No one paid attention to Wu Yunjun’s change in mood.

Guard Sikong Qiu frowned and asked, "How do you know that the bottle of wine and the contents of the Heir Prince’s stomach were non-toxic?"

"I poured clean water into the wine bottle to get a diluted solution and fed it to several ship cats to observe their behavior. I also fed the digestive remains from the Heir Prince’s stomach to pigs raised by island residents; no signs of poisoning were found."

Su Xinghuo ignored the changing expressions on everyone’s faces and continued, "If we were on land, there would be more varied methods of testing, but under the circumstances, we have to keep it simple. In short, the wine was non-toxic. It also didn’t have the capability to induce hallucinations—for example, making Yuan Jia feel as though he was trapped in a great and inescapable terror, leading him to take his own life with a knife while under the illusion."

Su Xinghuo tilted his head towards Singer Shi Yajing. "Additionally, I used steam produced by heating iodine crystals to fumigate the wine cups, and only found the fingerprints of Yuan Jia and Miss Shi Yajing. There were no residues of poison in the wine cups either."

The technique of using iodine crystal steam to reveal fingerprints was originally invented by Li Ang.

He lightly quirked his lips, somewhat moved by the coincidences of the world.

"So, our suspicions have been cleared?"

The Zhou Kingdom merchant Wu Yunjun hesitated. "The wine I provided wasn’t poisoned."

"The current issue isn’t about who is under suspicion, since most of us have been in Yuan Jia’s Room 9," Su Xinghuo said. "The issue lies in how the murderer killed Yuan Jia in a locked room and how they then left that locked room."

Su Xinghuo exited Room 10, opened the door to Room 9, and said solemnly, "Please observe the scene. This door was specially custom-made by Yuan Jia. It is remarkably thick and has three locks that require three keys to open. Yuan Jia told me that he normally carries these three keys with him and places them under his pillow while sleeping."

He cautiously lifted the pillow, and indeed, there were three heavy copper keys underneath.

"Receptionist," Su Xinghuo said, turning his head. "The spare keys for Room 9 should still be with you, right?"

"Yes." The receptionist quickly lifted the clinking key disk at his waist and took out three identical keys. Perhaps worried about being suspected, he quickly added, "I didn’t let these keys out of my sight all day yesterday, nor did I lend them to anyone."

Singer Shi Yajing asked softly, "Could it be that someone stole the spare keys for Room 9 earlier and made copies?"

"Unlikely." Su Xinghuo shook his head. "Look at the door frame, where half of an Alarm Talisman is stuck. Yuan Jia was always worried that someone would copy his room keys, so before leaving, he would use adhesive to stick an Alarm Talisman on the door frame. That way, if someone broke in, he would know."