Aunt Xue's heartfelt words shocked all the men present.
A truly harmonious and loving extended family like this is indeed rare in one's lifetime!
This... this is practically every man's dream in the world!
Xu Jing's eyes blinked slightly, glancing at Aunt Xue, and then slowly scanned the other silent women of the Peng family, seeing clearly that they all wore expressions of acknowledgement.
Unbelievable.
Xu Jing let out a somewhat ironic chuckle, her gaze finally locking on Mrs. Cao, who was looking at her with a complex and gloomy expression, her face pale.
A woman can be magnanimous.
But if a woman truly loves a man, she could never be truly generous.
This Mrs. Cao is far more interesting than she thought.
After that, she said no more, and the others seemed tired too, sitting quietly waiting for time to pass.
Only occasionally did a few government officials look lasciviously and expectantly at the women of the Peng family, their eyes glittering with unspoken thoughts understood by all.
Finally, an hour passed.
The official responsible for keeping time confirmed it using the sundial outside, then ran into the courtroom shouting, "Time's up!"
Just as he finished speaking, Xiao Yi, clad in a purple official robe, entered with two officials, striding in to sit behind the public desk.
After the time started being counted, he had left the courtroom for the backyard, and now he was back precisely on time.
Xu Jing couldn't help but secretly curl her lip.
Let's leave other things aside; he's certainly putting on quite a display.
As Xiao Yi sat down, he noticed that woman not far away with an indifferent look on her face, causing him to pause, his brow furrowing involuntarily.
His feelings toward this woman were very complex at the moment.
He had never taken this ex-wife seriously. When she first schemed against him, he was indeed angry, but later he found that this woman was not only foolish but also capricious, obsessed with trivial thoughts. Having any extra emotion towards her was like casting pearls before swine.
He could only admit defeat. He originally had no intention of marrying, and now it was merely having a woman occupying the wife's position, which had no impact on his life.
The child born later was the first surprise.
The currently drastically changed woman before him was the second surprise.
Previously, the number of times Xiao Yi met with his ex-wife could be counted on one hand. Although he couldn't say he truly understood her, he knew that she was not like this before.
Xiao Yi never liked this kind of feeling out of control, but after seeing this woman today, he was constantly shrouded by this feeling.
He steadied his mind, temporarily suppressing these chaotic thoughts, and said in a deep voice, "Time's up, let's begin."
Xu Jing's temporary assistant immediately responded, came to Peng Shi's body, and wrapped a clean handkerchief around his hand as instructed by Xu Jing. He retrieved the sticky rice ball from Peng Shi's mouth and placed it in a cage with mice.
The mice inside were evidently starving. Upon seeing the food, they immediately scrambled to it, squeaking as they fought to eat.
Everyone couldn't help but hold their breath watching the mice in the cage, only to see that after eating the sticky rice ball, nothing happened to them.
Aunt Xue couldn't help but let out a "ha," but Xu Jing seemed to know what she wanted to say, and without looking at her, calmly said, "Arsenic is not the kind of poison that kills instantly upon contact with blood. When a person ingests a lethal dose of arsenic, the poison can take effect as quickly as fifteen to thirty minutes or sometimes as slowly as two to three hours.
However, given the size of mice compared to humans, we shouldn't have to wait that long."
Xu Jing said, turning her head to Aunt Xue with a cold smile, "Incidentally, a simple silver needle test on the deceased earlier would not have detected any toxins. But it's unlikely that no toxins would be detected considering the short time elapsed since the deceased died. Therefore, I suspect the deceased ate something else after consuming the poisoned food, suppressing the poison.
Therefore, the poison must have taken some time to act on the deceased, and moreover..."
Xu Jing paused, her words full of implication, "The deceased was eating before death, and since the deceased died at midnight yesterday, at such a late hour, the deceased could only have been eating with someone very familiar."
This was practically stating that the person who killed Peng Shi was someone from the Peng family.