Chapter 305: Yuan Zhe’s Death
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Frightened, Mu Chenyan broke out in a cold sweat. Her voice trembled when she asked, “Who… Who was murdered?”
Wu Huai looked at Mu Chenyan and lowered his voice significantly, “Eldest Young Master Yuan Zhe, the son of the Yuan Family’s second son!”
Su Qingcheng saw Mu Chenyan’s expression change rapidly. She seemed indifferent toward the victim. Mu Chenyan sighed in relief, but she was still confused.
“Was it an accident?” she asked.
“We don’t know. We’ll only find out once we’re there!”
Wu Huai left with his team members after he spoke. Mu Chenyan and Zhang Xin brought their equipment before they followed him.
*
Yuan Family Mansion…
Mu Chenyan noticed that the periphery of the mansion was already sealed. Wu Huai spoke to the guards at the entrance before he drove inside.
“There are several reporters inside already! Why did you bring more?” The police officers who kept guard questioned Wu Huai while they glanced at Mu Chenyan and Zhang Xin.
“What? There are reporters inside?”
Wu Huai was puzzled. “Wasn’t the information about this supposed to be blocked off? These reporters were specially sent by the news office. How did the other reporters gain access?”
“Oh, those reporters came to interview Yuan Zhe. They were filming a program here before the murder suddenly happened. You’ll understand once you’re inside. It’s strange…”
Mu Chenyan grew more and more confused after hearing this. Her heart was racing.
All of the servants were gathered for an interrogation. Xue Meiwei was sent to the east wing to rest. She had fainted from too much crying.
Yuan Tangzhong was away on a business trip. He knew that this incident had occurred in his home, but he could not rush back in time.
Yuan Xuan had not returned home either. On the other hand, Yan Jun was handling some business nearby, but he was instructed to go to the mansion first.
“Mistress, don’t go inside!” Yan Jun had surveyed the scene. He was worried that it would scare Mu Chenyan.
Yuan Xuan had sent him here to hold Mu Chenyan off.
From the entrance to the hall, Mu Chenyan saw that the servants were huddled together. Their faces were pale as they were terribly frightened.
“Where’s Wen Ya?” Mu Chenyan worried about her the most.
There were two servants who usually worked for Yuan Zhe over here in Peace Mansion. One of them had returned to her hometown several days ago. Little Cui was the only one left. When she heard Mu Chenyan’s question, Little Cui replied softly, “Mistress isn’t at home today. She left early in the morning because she had work to handle in the office!”
“Does she know about this?” asked Wu Huai.
“I’ve called her. She’ll be back immediately!”
Little Cui was too afraid to look at the scene in the hall. Her head was lowered and her voice quivered terribly. “Are they going to arrest us too? But we don’t know anything…”
Wu Huai glared at Little Cui and said, “We want you here because we need to understand what had happened here. We’ll take you and the others to the station to record your statements soon. We’re not going to just arrest people and declare that they’re guilty!”
“Yan Jun, I want to go inside too!” Mu Chenyan wanted to walk inside. When she noticed that Yan Jun was intentionally obstructing her, she quietly said, “Yuan Xuan can’t stop me either!”
Yan Jun finally relented when he saw the determined look in Mu Chenyan’s eyes. He realized that she could not be dissuaded. He trailed behind her and followed her inside.
Mu Chenyan saw Yuan Zhe lying beside the sofa in the hall of the west wing in Peace Mansion. The man who usually possessed an impressive aura was currently reduced to a lifeless blob of twisted flesh.
Wu Huai and the investigator from the forensic department were standing at the crime scene.
The forensic expert was a young woman whom Wu Huai called Chen Hua.
“Preliminary investigations have shown that there are no obvious wounds on his body. He was probably poisoned orally. The victim suffered abdominal pains when the poison was administered. This caused his muscles to spasm, his heart rate to greatly increase, and his pupils to dilate. His immediate cause of death is suffocation resulted from breathing difficulties.”
Chen Hua removed her gloves and mask as she told her Wu Huai her observations.
“I’ll have to return and do an autopsy to determine the specific details.”
Poisoned?
Wu Huai noticed that the other two reporters were still at the crime scene. The situation was more complicated than he had expected. Those two reporters had seen Yuan Zhe dying with their own eyes.
Nie Chao’s case had painted Yuan Zhe in a bad light. Yuan Tangzhong had arranged an interview to improve Yuan Zhe’s public image. This program’s attraction was that they would doc.u.ment a politician’s personal and working life for one whole day.
The previous scenes were shot while Yuan Zhe was working. Those scenes were already filmed several days ago, and the reporters had arrived to doc.u.ment his daily life at home today.
They had never expected to witness an entire murder case during this doc.u.mentation process.
Wu Huai briefly read up about the two individuals who came to interview Yuan Zhe and did not have anything to comment. Then, he went to the crime scene to survey the area personally.
There was a tea set on the tea table in the hall. As there were three cups there, he could tell that Yuan Zhe, the reporter, and the videographer were drinking tea and chatting at that time.
“Tell me the sequence of events!” Wu Huai’s deep voice echoed once he had had a look around.
The reporter and videographer who came to interview Yuan Zhe were terribly afraid. Both of them spoke without coherence when Wu Huai interrogated him.
Annoyed, Wu Huai waved a dismissive hand. “It’s the duty of the public to cooperate with police investigations. Both of you are elites in the field of journalism. Why are you so afraid?”
The reporter’s name was Ma Liping. She gathered her composure after hearing Wu Huai’s words and said, “Captain Wu, it happened like this. Mr. Yuan agreed to be interviewed at 9:00 a.m. We filmed in the garden and in the living room. We left the garden and went inside because the weather was rather hot today. Mr. Yuan said that he wanted to make us some coffee after that.”
“Did he make the drinks on his own?” Wu Huai interrupted her and asked.
“Yes! He wanted to improve the public’s perception of himself. The servants never appeared throughout the entire process. We had even filmed him making the coffee.”
Ma Liping glanced at the videographer, Zhou Nan. He turned the camera on so that Wu Huai could watch the recorded footage.
Yuan Zhe was dressed in a casual white tracksuit. His sleeves were rolled up and his wrists were exposed. Both Yuan Xuan and Yuan Zhe had high standards set for the quality of lives. Instead of using a coffee machine, he grounded the coffee beans skillfully on his own.
The grounded coffee beans were placed in a little crystal pot that was specifically used to make coffee.
That little coffee pot was still on the table now. Mu Chenyan noticed that the little crystal container was still half filled with unfinished coffee.
“He poured it in three cups, one for each of us, once the coffee was done.”
Ma Liping shot a fearful glance at Zhou Nan.
“Are you saying that all three of you drank it?” asked Wu Huai.
Ma Liping nodded. “Yes, we all drank it!”
Wu Huai looked at the three coffee cups on the table and said, “Bring the cups here. Did Yuan Zhe give them out randomly?”
“Yes, Mr. Yuan had even washed the cups in the sink first. He took one randomly after pouring the coffee.”
s.h.i.+vers ran down Ma Liping’s spine. Although they drank from the same pot of coffee, she realized that Yuan Zhe was the only one who was poisoned. The coffee was randomly poured into three cups, but the other two parties were unharmed.
“Captain Wu, could we have been poisoned too?”
Zhou Nan could not stop himself any longer and sneaked a glance at the corpse on the ground. His face turned pale from fright.
Wu Huai could not waste another second. He turned to Little Jiang, the police officer, and ordered, “Take these pieces of evidence back to be examined and bring these two people with you to have their statements recorded. Everyone else should follow him as well!”
Mu Chenyan and Zhang Xin trailed behind the photographer from the forensic department. They took a few photos and recorded the details of the case.
Mu Chenyan’s heart felt hollow for some reason.
This was the second murder case that had involved the Yuan Family!
It was unlike the previous case with “Qinger” because her position and ident.i.ty were different now…