In the fifth year of Taihe, October is the third quarter.

Chang'an, Xuanyangfang, Wannian County.

After the county ordered Lu Xing to leave, Zhang Yijun gave up his redundant words and asked the county chief directly, "Where is the suspect in the previous Pingkangfang murder case?" ”

"Hiss......" the master bookkeeper snapped his fingers and thought for a moment, "that man seems to be ...... Yesterday, he hanged himself in prison. ”

"Self-destruction?!"

Zhang Yijun exclaimed in surprise, he was unprepared for this sudden change. A death row prisoner who has been sentenced to death by Yushitai and is on death row in Wannian County, and who is about to be executed today, hanged himself the day before the execution? Moreover, death row prisoners should be shackled as a rule, with three twisted snake locks, and their hands and feet are bound, how is hanging done? Are the cell heads and sections on death row just decorations?

Zhang Yijun felt that there were too many things inside, and hurriedly asked the master bookkeeper, "May I ask where the corpse is?" ”

"Shhh...... Please go to the mortuary with the little elder,......" the master raised his hand and sang, and drove forward to lead the way.

The mortuary house in Wannian County is a little lower than the rest of the buildings in the county government, and because of the obscurity, it is far away from the rest of the Cao Mansion. The walls of the mortuary are made of bricks and stones, without tiles, and instead covered with three layers of thick thatch, some of which have become black due to age.

The county master explained the reason to the section level guarding the door of the mortuary, and the section level hurriedly swept his eyes on Zhang Yijun, he was also afraid that he would be contaminated with bad luck after being on duty here for a long time, and when he saw that he finally had a reason to leave temporarily, he happily took the key.

The lock was sonorous, and with a "squeak", the door of the mortuary was opened. Candles are easy to summon spirits, so there are never candlesticks in the mortuary. The chief bookkeeper asked for a pine torch from the county soldiers, and after lighting it with a candle, the section level led the county soldiers to another place temporarily.

The floor of the mortuary is paved with bluestone, and the few pieces in front of the door are polished to a smooth finish. The prefectural treasurer held the torch aloft, and several corpse shelves made of elm slats were covered with white cloths, covering a faint human figure. Zhang Yijun's brows furrowed involuntarily, after he followed the county master into the mortuary, he smelled a strong corpse smell, choking his stomach bag for a while, I don't know which corpse was rotten and left in the mortuary and not dealt with in time.

Zhang Yijun took out a handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose, but the county master didn't seem to care about the smell, and led Zhang Yijun all the way to the innermost part of the mortuary with a calm expression. Along the way, I didn't forget to point at a few corpses and introduce them.

"Shhh...... This is a thief who failed to rob money ten days ago and was killed by the travelers...... Lying here is a woman who was killed by her husband, hehe, the death is a bit miserable...... The one in front of him is the Hu man who fell from a horse and broke his neck, and he has been lying here for almost a month and no one has claimed it, I am afraid that it is all rotten, and the smell is from him. ”

The master book is very familiar with this mortuary, and the introduction is "like a number of treasures", and the expression is like an idiot, obviously for this person, there is no difference between a brief description of the corpse and a collection of treasures to introduce the ink treasures hanging in the house......

Zhang Yijun followed closely behind the main book, and there was a porch in the deepest part of the mortuary—it was said to be a porch, but in fact there was no door, but it was a passage made of bricks and stones—leading directly to a small room, in which several long elm cases were also displayed, but only one had a corpse lying on it, all covered with white linen.

The master bookkeeper inserted the pine torch in his hand into the pillar in the center of the small room, and the rancid smell here had subsided a little, and Zhang Yijun was finally able to take off the handkerchief. This small room is a little heavier than the yin qi of the mortuary outside, and although there is a pine torch reflecting, Zhang Yijun still feels a chill all over his body.

Zhang Yijun stared at the upper end of the white linen cloth for a long time, where the bulging nose just appeared, "He is the suspect in the Qingfeng Pavilion case in Pingkangfang?" ”

The main bookkeeper stood on the left side of the corpse, leaned over slightly to confirm the font size marked on the long case of the lower elm, and confirmed to Zhang Yijun, who walked to the opposite side, "Hiss...... That's right, it's him, everyone who died in the past three days should be lying in this small room, can't be wrong......"

Zhang Yijun lifted the white linen cloth on his side gently, but his movements stiffened, and his pupils shrank sharply.

I saw that there were several bloody passages cut out with a knife on the inside of this person's right arm, all of which were several inches long. The wound was very new, as if it had been cut by the man after he had lost his breath. Some of the blood channels also came out of the flesh, and there were several maggots on them. Looking closely, there are still some dark cyan marks left on the intact skin in the middle of the blood channel, like tattoos.

'This person's right arm was also tattooed with a fire totem?!' ’

Obviously, these blood marks were scratched to cover up this tattoo, which made Zhang Yijun frightened, pointed to the person's right arm, and hurriedly asked the master bookkeeper, "How did you get this injury?" When does it appear? ”

The master bookkeeper leaned his neck to his side, squinted his eyes and said slowly, "Oh...... That was the case when the corpse was delivered. The other little ones really don't know ......."

"Has this person ever been out of the Wannian County Office?"

The main book frowned as if he had been greatly insulted, and his white eyebrows "hissed...... This is a death row inmate, and there is no official referral document, how can he be released from death row? ”

Could it be that there is someone in the Wannian County Yazhong who is in the know?

Zhang Yijun asked again: "What is this person's surname, and who is it?" ”

"Hiss......" The folds on the face of the main bookkeeper twitched, he snapped his fingers, and his eyes turned around, "I still need to check the book, if you don't dislike it, please wait a moment here, and the little old man will go and call the Yanai to come over......" After the master book finished speaking, he didn't wait for Zhang Yijun to say something, but turned his hand and retreated, and went straight out of the small room.

Zhang Yijun felt strange, he vaguely remembered that Lu Xing had mentioned that this person was also in charge when he introduced the county master book, why did he go out of his way to find the yaman? And with this master's understanding of the corpse in this mortuary room, who would stump him when he asked what the name of this corpse was?

The sound of the main door of the mortuary closing in the distance came, and Zhang Yijun put this question aside first. He grabbed the corner of the end of the white linen cloth and slowly lifted it. A long, stiff and pale face with deep-set eyes, prominent cheekbones, tightly clasped eyes, and crooked lips. And there was a deep bruise and blood mark on this person's neck, which seemed to imply that the cause of his death was indeed suicide by hanging.

But......

Zhang Yijun took out Fang Cai's handkerchief again, and stretched the person's eyelids hard through the cloth. Both eyes are bloodshot, which is indeed consistent with the death of hanging. But the master bookkeeper just said that this person committed suicide last night, and this morning he found that it stands to reason that after a few hours, this person's eyelids should have stiffened and died, so why were the eyes of this corpse closed?

And that's not all......

Zhang Yijun's attention finally fell on the person's towering nose bridge and brown beard on both cheeks, no matter how you look at it, this person does not look like a person from the Central Plains, and is far from the appearance of the suspect who was arrested at the scene of Qingfeng Pavilion.

The thatch on the roof of this room is very thin, and from time to time sunlight pours down through the cracks. As soon as the cold wind blew, the Songming torch swayed. The light and shadow changed, and the face of the corpse was very hideous, like an evil ghost.

"Huh?"

Zhang Yijun's gaze returned to the person's right arm, and he suddenly noticed that in the middle of the blood channels, there was a very thin wound similar to the eye of a needle, and the wound was not scabbed, which seemed to have been suffered by the person before he died. He was about to fade the white linen cloth down even more, but he heard the main door of the mortuary creak open, and it took a long time for him to close it heavily. Then there was a rush of footsteps, heading straight for the room.

Zhang Yijun hurriedly turned around and walked quickly to the porch of the small room, but was blocked by several county soldiers armed with swords.

With an order from a section level, the county soldiers who were lined up quickly moved out of the way, while Lu Xing took his hands on his side and slowly walked to a position ten steps away from Zhang Yijun and stood still.

Zhang Yijun looked around at the dozen or so county soldiers gathered at the entrance of the mortuary, his fingers tightened suddenly, and he asked sharply, "Lu County Order, what does this mean?" ”

Lu Xing stood with his hands down, he raised his chin with a short beard, and said loudly, "Er Nai's hand blade is a violent accomplice to the daughter of the Kangliang family, and she broke into the county government privately, hiding a sharp blade, and plotting against her, fortunately the county noticed it!" ”

Zhang Yijun's eyes widened in shock, and he didn't wait for him to open his mouth to argue. Lu Xing had already raised his finger and gave a loud order, "All county soldiers, take this person down to this county!" If you resist, kill immediately! ”

The county soldiers all shouted in response, "Whoa! ”

Then the mortuary sounded the sound of drawing swords and drawing swords.

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