There is a god in the sky

Chapter 217 Ghosts or Monsters 10

"You suspect Li Bing?" Shen Lan sat down opposite Xiao Ji.

She noticed that Xiao Ji had asked Li Bing many questions indirectly, and still considered him a suspect.

“Now everyone in this academy is a suspect, and Li Bing is no exception.”

Xiao Ji poured out the tea he had just brewed, changed the teaware, and started brewing tea again, pouring Shen Lan a cup of plain tea without any additives.

Do you think the killer will continue to commit crimes?

"It depends on his purpose. Logically speaking, he wouldn't dare to make a move with us here."

Xiao Ji nodded to her and said in a low voice, "Let's stay one more day. Tomorrow, regardless of whether we find anything or not, we'll go down the mountain first."

"You want to lure the snake out of its hole?"

Openly withdrawing from the mountain, but actually having people secretly keep an eye on things, is indeed a good method.

"Would Miss Shen be willing to be an eagle catching snakes?"

Shen Lan smelled the aroma of the tea and felt refreshed. Without thinking, she nodded, "Of course I'm willing."

Fu Qingyan walked in mysteriously and told them, "I took a walk outside and listened to all sorts of stories about demons and monsters. Nobody in the academy believes they were killed by humans."

This was expected.

"They also said that you, cousin, are overrated. Why are you still investigating such an obvious case? Why are you guarding the academy and not letting them leave? You're deliberately trying to harm them."

Xiao Ji raised an eyebrow. "Why would I harm them?"

"Hehe, as you know, this academy is full of the children and grandchildren of court officials, and there are always a few families that don't get along with the Xiao family."

This is an accusation that Xiao Ji is using his position to settle personal scores.

Xiao Ji said expressionlessly, "So much free time, it seems your coursework isn't heavy enough."

Shen Lan suppressed a laugh, finished her tea, and stood up. "My lord, Suiying and I will go out and take another look this afternoon."

Fu Qingyan stood up as well, "Cousin, I'll go too. If Miss Shen, a young lady, can help, so can I."

Xiao Ji rolled his eyes at him. "Are you good at literature or martial arts? Are you good at examining corpses or catching thieves?"

Seeing that Shen Lan had already walked out, he said, "I'll go help Miss Shen carry her suitcase!" and ran off.

Xiao Ji shook his head and smiled. What help could this kid be? It would be good enough if he didn't cause trouble. He wondered what his aunt intended to do by sending him up the mountain.

"Sir, someone has come with a clue!" Sui Feng ran in excitedly.

"Oh? Please let him in."

Not long after, a man wearing a cloak sneaked in and closed the door as soon as he entered.

When he revealed his true face, Xiao Ji recognized him as Sun Wei, Qian An's roommate.

Xiao Ji glanced at the sky outside and asked with amusement, "Young Master Sun, you must be even more conspicuous dressed like this in broad daylight, right?"

Sun Wei rubbed his hands together and said with shame, "As adults know, exposing others' misdeeds can easily make people hold a grudge."

"Whose evil deeds are you about to expose?"

"There are two students: Liu Xianyang, a student from Class B, and Wen Yinchao, a student from Class A."

One was the son of the Vice Minister of Revenue, and the other was the son of the Duke of Wen; both were sons of powerful and influential families.

"Please tell me in detail, Young Master Sun."

Sun Wei stammered, "Sir, that...that reward...is it real?"

"As long as the information you provide is relevant to the case and valuable, you will definitely receive the reward."

"Well... actually, the students aren't sure if it's related to the case, but these two people definitely have secrets they're hiding."

He smiled but remained silent.

Everyone has their own little secrets, but if they're not related to the case, he won't bother with them.

"Let's talk about Prince Wen first." Xiao Ji didn't have high expectations.

“Prince Wen is a womanizer. Several times he has brought different women disguised as pageboys and hidden them in his room. I remember Gao Dounan once reported him.”

Such a thing actually happened? But Li Bing didn't mention it at all.

However, since he is Prince Wen's follower, he probably won't take the initiative to expose Prince Wen's evil deeds.

"When did this happen?"

"It was around the end of last year, I think it was around the Laba Festival."

Sun Wei glanced at Xiao Ji secretly and analyzed, "At that time, Prince Wen was very angry and was ordered by the headmaster to go home and reflect on his mistakes for half a month. He threatened to teach Gao Dounan a lesson."

"Has he ever hit Ko To-nam in public?"

“This… I haven’t seen him. He only returned to the academy after the New Year, and Gao Dounan died a few days later.”

"And what about Liu Xianyang?"

Sun Wei moved forward and lowered his voice, saying, "I heard... he likes to abuse his servants."

"There are quite a few masters who have this kind of preference."

Liu Xianyang is not very old, but his hobbies are quite unique.

"The pageboy who followed him was a bit older than him. I heard he was always lying in bed and couldn't get up. Everyone was saying behind his back that Liu Xianyang was fond of men."

"This is irrelevant to this case."

Sun Wei knew this too; he just wanted to gain more benefits for himself.

"But I once saw them, master and servant, sneak out of the academy and climb over the wall. I don't know what they were doing there."

"What day did you go out?"

"About... ten days ago."

Do you know how long they've been gone?

Sun Wei shook his head, "I really don't know, but they were all at the academy the next day, maybe they just went out to play at night."

As for what to play, he felt that Xiao Ji should know perfectly well.

Yishan Academy does not allow maids to serve students, let alone concubines.

Therefore, it wasn't uncommon for academies to treat pageboys as male prostitutes, and it was also not uncommon in wealthy families.

"Any other clues?"

Sun Wei pretended to think about it seriously for a moment, then shook his head and said, "That's all, that's all."

Xiao Ji gave Sui Feng a wink, and the latter saw Sun Wei out and gave him the reward money.

The amount given was small, only five taels, but Sun Wei seemed quite satisfied.

Without Xiao Ji giving any instructions, Sui Feng went and invited Liu Xianyang over on his own.

Liu Xianyang was renowned in the academy and had a wide circle of friends. He was not on the same path as Wen Shizi, and his friends were all wealthy young men with outstanding achievements.

When he was brought before Xiao Ji, he asked innocently, "I wonder why Your Excellency has summoned me here?"

He appeared completely calm and showed no signs of nervousness or fear.

As the son of a high-ranking official, he had nothing to fear from Xiao Ji.

"Young Master Liu, please have a seat. Have you seen the notice posted by the teacher?"

“I saw it, but I spend all my time studying at the academy and haven’t paid attention to the issue of people coming and going without permission.”

"But someone just revealed that you took your pageboy out of the house ten days ago. How do you explain that?" Xiao Ji asked bluntly.

Liu Xianyang's expression changed slightly.

Who betrayed them?

"can not say."

Liu Xianyang coughed once, regained his composure, and said calmly, "That day I was tired of studying and wanted to go out for a walk, but I didn't want to disturb the teacher, so I secretly climbed over the wall and went out."

However, he returned after only half an hour.

"Is there anyone who can testify?"

"My pageboy."

Xiao Ji looked at him with a half-smile, "You should know that a servant's testimony doesn't count."

"No, that's all. I wouldn't know if there were any, since we sneaked out."

Although Xiao Ji didn't believe he had killed the man, he still threatened him, "We suspect that Qian An died ten days ago. Coincidentally, you secretly went out that night. Do you think you can clear your name?"