The rain in the sky had stopped, and the coolness that had just drifted with the rain was soon swept away by the sweltering heat of the midsummer night. In the scorching heat of this steamer, the guards felt as cold as winter, and they couldn't help but have their teeth chattering.

Yang Qiuchi hugged his shoulders: "If you come out now and confess honestly, if there are extenuating circumstances, this official can also consider leniency as appropriate." Otherwise, when the official finds you out, you will be severely punished! ”

The twelve guards looked at each other again, all guessing who the murderer was. After waiting for a while, no one came forward.

Yang Qiuchi sneered: "What's the matter? Do you think Master Ben is scaring you? Turning his head to look at Song Yun'er next to him, he saw that she smiled at herself, but she was a little worried in her smile. Reaching out to hold her slender hand, he said confidently: "This person made a hasty murder and left a lot of clues. Look at how your brother and I get him out. ”

Glancing at the guards, Yang Qiuchi said: "The deceased Steward Su was just taken into the prison, and the murderer accurately took advantage of the time when I went to interrogate Lin Xiang for the most tea, and carried out the murder, and accurately avoided the sight of the other brothers in the prison, and shot Steward Su to death from a long distance using a bow and arrow that was not in the prison. This shows that the murderer knows the layout of the prison, the location of the jailers, and the actions of my old man when he was arraigned, so the murderer must be the person in the prison! ”

Song Yun'er listened to Yang Qiuchi's analysis, nodded again and again, a happy smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, and looked at him with eyes that were almost adoring.

Yang Qiuchi pointed to the two or three zhang high wall of the prison next to him, and said: "The deceased was killed by a bow and arrow, so to solve this case, we must first find out how the bow and arrow came from." To tell you the truth, before I became an official, I used to be the supervisor of a county government, and I was in charge of the prison for a long time, and I was very familiar with the yamen cell. ”

Yang Qiuchi not only did not shy away from his glorious experience, but was a little proud, shook his head, and then said: "The Yamen prison is heavily guarded, if you want to enter from the outside, you have to pass through the three thresholds of the Yamen gate, the cell gate, and the gate of the courtyard for repeat offenders, all of which must be strictly checked, and it is impossible for strangers to enter the cell, let alone enter the prison cell, which further proves my inference that the murderer is our people!" ”

"In addition, the murder weapon is a bow and arrow, which cannot be brought into the cell, because the rules of the yamen do not allow the murder weapon to enter, especially to enter the prison gate and the second gate of the felon's prison, and the search is even stricter."

Yang Qiuchi pointed to the waist knives carried by the guards, and said: "Your waist knives are also stored in the prison room, including your entry and exit, they are all to be checked, although you don't need to search your body, you can't carry a murder weapon, let alone bring a bow and arrow in." Am I right? ”

The guards nodded one after another, and the cell head six-fingered Wu even stammered with a smiling face: "The lord is so familiar with the yamen prison, it turns out that the lord has also done our business, so it can be regarded as our fellow brothers......"

As soon as he said this, the six-fingered Wu suddenly felt that something was wrong, this jailer belonged to the untouchables, how could he be called a brother and brother with the lord, even if the lord did it at the beginning, he was also a supervisor, he was in charge of the jail, he was the long-term follower of the county lord, and he was not a pariah, it was really inappropriate to speak by himself, so he quickly slapped himself a few times and said: "The villain is talking nonsense, please forgive me, sir." ”

Yang Qiuchi smiled slightly, waved his hand, and continued: "Since it is impossible for the murder weapon bow and arrow to be brought in from the door of the cell, and Steward Su has just been arrested and locked in the cell by my order, it is impossible to make full preparations for killing people in such a short time, and the murderer must be extinguished as soon as possible, and there is no time for him to find a hidden object to hide the bow and arrow to bring in, so there is only one ...... the most convenient way."

"Throw it in from outside the walls!" Song Yun'er interjected happily.

"That's right!" Yang Qiuchi praised and praised: "The murderer should have thrown the bow and arrow through the high wall.

Song Yun'er said happily: "So just now you were slowly searching along the edge of the wall, I don't know what you are looking for, it turned out that you were looking for the traces of bows and arrows thrown in and falling on the ground!" ”

"Yes, this murderer is a janitor in our cell, so he is very clear about the layout of the yamen and the cell, and knows where to throw it in to avoid the yamen duty and the guards on duty in the cell, so as not to be seen by others. He threw his bow and arrows into the walls of the yamen from the outside, then went into the yamen to find the bows and arrows, then threw them into the walls of the cells, and then came in empty-handed to find the bows and arrows, and then killed people. ”

Yang Qiuchi pointed to the land next to the wall, and then said: "Although the cell is covered with bluestone, the courtyard and the side of the wall are muddy, although it is very smooth, but it has just rained, and although it is a light rain, it is enough to soften the ground one layer. ”

He made a gesture of throwing something and explained: "The wall of our cell is very high, and if the murderer throws a hard bow over such a high wall and falls on the ground, he will definitely make marks." In addition, my eyes are more sensitive to all kinds of marks, so it didn't take much effort for me to find the traces of this hard bow. This further confirms my assumptions. ”

Yang Qiuchi pointed to the ground in the corner of the wall behind the felon prison: "That trace is there!" ”

When everyone looked in the direction of Yang Qiuchi's finger, Yang Qiuchi stared at one of the twelve jailers, the man's face was ugly, and there was a trace of fear in his eyes. Yang Qiuchi smiled knowingly when he saw this look.

When the man found that Yang Qiuchi was staring at him, there was no trace of blood on his pale face.

Yang Qiuchi continued: "The murderer threw the hard bow in, which not only left a smash mark on the ground, but also provided me with a clue to find the murderer. ”

Song Yun'er's eyes widened, she looked at the wall, and then at Yang Qiuchi, her eyes clearly asking what clues Yang Qiuchi had found.

Yang Qiuchi looked at Song Yun'er and asked with a smile: "The bow and arrow were thrown in and fell on the muddy ground outside, and the murderer entered the felony prison from the gate in a grand manner, picked up the bow and arrow to commit the murder, because it had just rained lightly, the ground was wet, what would happen if you shot an arrow with this kind of bow and arrow that fell on the wet muddy ground?" ”

He made an archery motion, then raised his left palm and glanced at Song Yun'er.

Song Yun'er was pleasantly surprised: "There will be muddy water sticking to the bow, and holding the bow and arrows in your hand, so there will be mud sticking to your hands!" ”

Yang Qiuchi smiled and nodded, his eyes swept to the guards.

Several guards subconsciously raised their palms to look, and one of the guards flipped his palms hanging on both sides, and subconsciously wiped them on his clothes a few times.

Yang Qiuchi smiled: "Hehe, it's really stupid, if you rub the dirt on your clothes, won't there be dirt left on your clothes?" ”

The janitor hurriedly patted the clothes on his side again, and suddenly realized that he didn't admit himself like this, and in horror, he took a step back slightly.

Song Yun'er and the others heard Yang Qiuchi's words, and they had already followed his gaze to find this jailer with a very abnormal expression. It's just that before Yang Qiuchi didn't say it, he couldn't be sure.

Yang Qiuchi said again: "Actually, you don't have to wipe off the mud on your hands, because I haven't looked at your palms at all just now, so I don't rely on the mud on your hands to determine that you are the murderer, but just use this to test your reaction, so as to confirm my judgment." You're so breathless, I really can't figure out how you could be the killer, it's probably because they didn't have a choice. ”

Yang Qiuchi stared at the colorless janitor, and sneered twice: "Even if you wiped off the dirt marks on your palms and clothes, there is another trace that you didn't notice, so you didn't erase it - it was that trace that told me that you are a criminal!" ”

Song Yun'er listened to Yang Qiuchi's words so magically, staring at the jailer with wide eyes, except for his nervous expression, she didn't find anything wrong.

Yang Qiuchi continued to smile and said to the jailer, "Steward Su was killed by an arrow through his throat, so you must have taken aim. Yang Qiuchi made another gesture of opening the bow and releasing the arrow, and said with a smile: "And when the bow opened the bow and opened the bowstring to aim, didn't you notice?" The bowstring will stick to your lips and chin, so the dirt that falls on the bowstring will stick to your lips and chin as well! ”

The jailer was frightened, and subconsciously raised his hand to wipe his chin again, and when his hand was just raised a little halfway, he realized that this was not possible, and hurriedly put it down again, but his action was too obvious, and everyone's eyes were focused on him.

Yang Qiuchi smiled with satisfaction: "What's the use of wiping now, even if you wipe off the dirt on your hands, clothes, lips and chin, what about the indentations left by the bowstring on your chin?" Your jaw is very hard, and since the time since you committed the crime is too short since you were discovered, this indentation has not had time to subside, so if you look closely, you can also find it. ”

The janitor's hand moved again, as if trying to touch his chin. Yang Qiuchi sighed: "I really don't understand, how can you be an excellent killer if you are so uncalm." To tell you, the indentation left by this tight bowstring on the chin where the skin layer is very thin cannot be erased for a while. With side lighting, it can be spotted relatively easily. ”

The janitor had a look of despair in his eyes, and looked at Yang Qiuchi in horror, as if he saw the call of death.

Nangong Xiong gestured, and the two guards twisted the jailer from behind. The jailer did not resist at all, his whole body trembled, and he wailed: "The old man is going around his life! ”

(To be continued)