East City, East City, Tai'an Fang, Zheng Fu's house, outside the house

The snow finally stopped after a long day.

As the sun sets, the stars and the moon appear in the sky early in winter, reflecting the red sun that is about to set. The people in the imperial capital also returned home one after another, relieving the fatigue of the whole day, and their faces were filled with smiles of "I can finally relax".

At this time, perhaps only Xiao Chongguang's face was cold.

He looked at the five corpses that had been moved outside the house, and his mood was extremely bad. It was surrounded by Ti Guards, Jingshi Yamen officials, officials, and onlookers from Tai'an Fang.

The corpses emitted a foul smell, and many of the people present couldn't stand it anymore and vomited on the spot.

"What's going on?" Xiao Chongguang stared at the four guards kneeling in front of him and asked, "A few of you are in charge of the inspection of Tai'an Fang, didn't you tell me yesterday that you have already checked it within a radius of ten miles, and there are no problems?" How can there be five more corpses at once now? ”

Natiwei replied tremblingly: "Xiao Tou'er, we did check it carefully several times, and when we first visited this house, we saw that no one was there, so we went to ask the neighbors around, and they said that Zheng Fu, the head of the Zheng family, said that he had returned to his hometown in Yuzhou for the New Year many times, and he may have left, so he did not check again." It's winter again, not to mention that the corpse has only been left for one day, and even if it is left for seven days, it is difficult to diffuse the smell of the corpse from under the floor. ”

It turned out that at the end of today's unitary period, the king butcher who sold pork collected the stall and went home, and when he passed by the back door of Zheng Fu's house in Tai'an Fang, the big yellow dog Laifu he was carrying with him suddenly barked at the Zheng family's house, and refused to leave with a rope or even kicking it.

At this time, Wang Tu remembered that because he was engaged in the industry of killing pigs and selling meat, all his own dogs were very sensitive to the smell of blood, and something might have happened to this person surnamed Zheng, so he knocked on the back door of his house, and found that there was no lock, and opened it with a few taps, and the back door led directly to the Zheng family hall.

He laid down his burden, cautiously walked into his house, and then asked in a loud voice, "Is there anyone in the house?" but no one answered, when the big yellow dog suddenly ran out of his hand to the corner of the hall and barked at the wooden floor.

Wang Tu stepped forward and found that these wooden planks were hollow, so he found a firewood knife to pry the wooden planks open, and by the afterglow of the setting sun, Wang Tu took a closer look, and sat on the ground in fright, it turned out that there were several rotten and smelly corpses covered in blood!

After getting the news, the Jingshi Yamen felt that it might be related to Liu Yuanzhen's case, so he hurriedly sent someone to inform the Tiwei Mansion.

After investigation, Zheng Kang, his wife Chen, Zheng Kang's parents and his son Zheng Wei's family were all killed.

"You're not as good as a dog!" Xiao Chongguang directly scolded the four guards, and then he looked around: "Hey, why didn't the people from the Spiegel Division come when such a big thing happened?" ”

Zhao Wenxin, the head of the Jingshi Yamen, said: "Lord Xiao, the people from the Spiegel Division came just now, but they just made some on-site records and left. ”

This is a middle-aged man with a long beard of three willows, wearing a blue official uniform, and he is serious. However, it may be the first time he has come into contact with such a tragic murder, and he still has some heart palpitations, and his face looks very pale.

Xiao Chongguang snorted coldly in his heart: "These little guys in the Spiegel Division are really just doing some articles. ”

At this time, the messenger brought Wang Tu and Qian Liu, who reported to the official together.

"The villain meets the adult." The two of them bowed down to Xiao Chongguang.

That Wang Tu was about fifty years old, wearing a simple wool woven robe, a wool square hat with ears, a big round belly, and a greasy face. And Qian Liu is probably only in his thirties, with a mustache, wearing wool shoulders, and a philistine face.

Sogo said: "Butcher Wang, let me ask you, what was the scene when you found the corpse?" ”

Wang Tu said: "My lord, just Zheng Fu's family of five, it is neatly placed under the floor, covered in blood, ouch, the eyes are still round, they don't bat at death, and they don't know which enemy they met, and they actually gave all five members of their family to ······." Speaking of the back, Wang Tu didn't dare to think about it anymore.

Sogo looked at Qian Liu and said, "Qian Liu, tell me about the situation when you saw Wang Tu at that time?" ”

Qian Liudao: "My lord, at that time, Humble Jing took the child to buy lanterns, I cooked at home first, and when I was setting the dishes and chopsticks at the dining table, I heard some noise outside the house, so I was curious to see, and when I opened the window, I saw Wang Tu kicking the blessing, I just said that the dog was ignorant and ignored it and went back to the kitchen." I just finished washing the dishes, ready to pour oil into the pot, suddenly there was a shout of 'killing' outside, I hurriedly went out, and saw Wang Tu rushing out of Lao Zheng's house like a ghost, I inquired and found out that Lao Zheng's family of five was killed, and this was okay, so I led Wang Tu to the Yamen to report to the official. ”

"Do you know what enemies Zheng Fu's family has? Or with whom have you ever been in conflict? Xiao Chongguang continued to ask.

"No," Qian Liu shook his head, "Lao Zheng's family treats people kindly and doesn't even blush with anyone. ”

Sogo looked around and asked, "Recently, especially a few days before the fifth day of the lunar month, have any suspicious outsiders been here?" ”

Qian Liu thought for a while, shook his head and said, "No." However, many neighbors have left, and we have a lot of outsiders, and they all want to go back to their hometowns for the New Year. The Lao Wu family on the edge of Lao Zheng's house just left a few days ago. ”

Xiao Chongguang nodded when he heard this, then waved his hand and asked someone to take them down. Then squatted down to examine the corpse, and found that the five members of the Zheng family were all stabbed in the throat, and the knife was extremely fast, quickly cutting their major arteries and vocal cords, so that they didn't even have a chance to scream, and the technique was very professional, and it was likely to be the same person as the person who stabbed Liu.

According to the results of the autopsy, these five people were killed at the hour before Liu Yuanzhen's assassination, that is, at the right time on the fifth day of the lunar month. It was snowing heavily that night, and if the Assassin were to assassinate, he would have ambushed him early, but the weather was so cold that it was necessary to find a place to shelter from the wind and snow first, otherwise his body would be frozen and numb before he could do anything.

Where is the best place to hide? Obviously, Tai'anfang, a place with a large foreign population, is the best place to stay, because many people are going back to their hometowns, and there will be a large number of uninhabited vacant houses, which is of course the most suitable. And Zheng Fu's family was killed, it is very likely that the assassin entered the wrong house in a hurry, and was discovered by Zheng Fu and his family, and killed people in desperation.

According to Qian Liu, there have been no suspicious people in and out of the neighborhood recently, and he has asked other residents before, and he also answered the same way. However, the streets of all the fang markets are connected to each other, every household seems to be next to each other, the residents are in the shape of **, the fish and dragons are mixed, which places are moved by outsiders, and what is the terrain in the fang? Only people who have lived here for at least ten years will know the shape.

I did an investigation before, and no one went out in the middle of the night that night, which ruled out the suspicion of the residents of Tai'an Fang, that is, an assassin who was familiar with the terrain and household registration of Tai'an Fang went to assassinate Liu Yuanzhen.

Who will this be?

I'm afraid it can only be someone from the official government of the capital.

Could it be the Tobe?

If it is the household department, then the prince's suspicion is a little bigger. In the officialdom, no one knows that Liu Yahui, the head of the household department, is the prince's confidant.

But if it's the Jingshi Yamen, the Spiegel Division, and their own Tiwei Mansion, then it's a big trouble.

In addition to the household department, these three major government offices also hold these important documents. The scary thing is that all three of them were involved in the assassination investigation, especially inside the Tiwei Mansion, and their every move was exposed to them.

Xiao Chongguang was frightened by his own idea, because in the imperial capital, only these four mansions would have access to the household registration of the twelve squares of the eastern capital and the maps of each square of the eastern capital.

He couldn't help but glance back at his brother Tiwei and the people from the Jingshi Yamen.

This assassin may be hiding among them.

At this moment, a guard hurriedly rushed to Sogo and said, "Xiao Tou'er, Lu Tou'er is now in Cuitingzhai and said that you should invite him to drink." ”

"Drinking?" Xiao Chongguang raised his right eyebrow.

Natiwei said: "Yes. Lu Touer said, tomorrow's meal is estimated that you won't be able to cash it out, so it's better to settle it today. ”

"I remember," Sogo tapped his head with a smirk, "I just said that at noon today." You go back and ask him to wait in Cuiting Zhai, and I'll go back to the mansion to get something before I go." ”

"Whoa."

Tiwei received the order and galloped away.

At this time, Director Zhao stepped forward and said, "Lord Xiao, what do you think this case should do?" ”

"The bodies of Zheng Fu's family of five will be brought back to your yamen first, so that you can check it carefully, and after it is verified, you will send someone to write the record into an excerpt and send it to my Tiwei Mansion." Xiao Chongguang said.

"Whoa."

Dongshi, the eastern capital, Cuitingzhai, the end of Hai

Located in the southernmost part of the East Market, Cuitingzhai is an independent hall outside the 12 squares and occupies a large area. There are 5 floors of 60 meters high, there are five such high-rise buildings, there is a very wide courtyard in the center, a lake is dug in the courtyard, many cherry trees, pines and cypresses and various flowers are planted, and many rockeries are built, it can be said that the prosperity of the imperial capital and the beautiful scenery of the mountains and rivers are in one, so it attracts the gentry and nobles from all over the Chu country to come here, and even the people of the royal family sometimes linger here.

Although the women of the theater will accompany customers to drink, they have always been acting and not selling themselves. Even so, many of the famous Oiran of the Akikan are hard to find.

A health chief like Lu Yunsheng who eats with the official mansion can't afford it, just to drink and enjoy the beautiful scenery here. This is what attracts him the most, and every time he chooses the white locust room on the second floor near the lake.

"I'm sorry Yunsheng, I'm late again."

As soon as Xiao Chongguang pushed open the door, he immediately apologized.

Lu Yunsheng sat down and said with a smile: "What is the reason this time?" ”

Xiao Chongguang waved the document in his hand with a serious expression: "Review the Tiwei Mansion." ”