When Yang Qiuchi asked if there was an old Xiucai named Lu Xueru in their inn who lived in the store, the female shopkeeper didn't need to look through the registration book at all, and immediately nodded, with a face full of disdain: "There is an old Xiucai named Lu Xueru who lives in my store, but he went to take the imperial examination to examine the people,"

Speaking of this, the female shopkeeper spat a mouthful of thick phlegm on the ground and scolded: "Phew, the examiner? As his mother's big dream of the Spring and Autumn Festival, just his poor and sour appearance, a bowl of porridge and a plate of pickles for each meal, still want to lift people? Don't pee on yourself either, hum! ”

It seems that the female shopkeeper has a lot of opinions about Lu Xueru's refusal to spend money on consumption. Yang Qiuchi said: "Shopkeeper, please take us to see where Lu Xueru lives." ”

The female shopkeeper had never seen such a polite official, so she was a little flattered, and hurriedly agreed, and led them to a row of low bungalows in the backyard, opened one of the rooms, and said, "He lives here," hesitated for a moment, and asked cautiously, "Uncle, has this old poor sour done something?" ”

"He's dead!" Hu Jiang said.

"Ah~!" The female shopkeeper was taken aback, "He, how did he die?" Where did you die? ”

"Why do you ask so much? Do you know something? Well? Hu Jiang stared at the female shopkeeper and asked.

The female shopkeeper was startled, took a step back, and said in a loud voice: "The villain doesn't dare, the villain doesn't dare, it's just that this old poor sour still owes me the money for the house." ”

Hu Jiang said with a smile: "Then you should go to the underworld to find him, do you want Lao Tzu to give you a ride?" The officials glared at her, and the female shopkeeper was so frightened that she ran away with her head in her hands, and she didn't dare to say anything again.

Yang Qiuchi walked into the room first. The room was dark and damp, and the ground was wet with melted snow water running through the cracks in the door.

The room is very simple, there is a bed by the wall inside, the futon is very damp to the touch, emitting a musty smell, there is a small package next to the bed, Yang Qiuchi carefully unwrapped the package, there are only a few robes inside, and a string of dozens of copper coins worn with hemp rope.

By the window was a table and a bench with one leg on the verge of falling. On the edge of the table was a worn-out wooden basin, drooping with a black, smelly towel.

There is a porcelain bowl on the table, there is half a bowl of cold water in it, and there is half a steamed bun next to it, I don't know how many days ago, it has been frozen to [***] like a stone, there is still half a bowl of porridge on the table, and there are still two or three pickles left in a broken porcelain plate.

Yang Qiuchi asked the official to call the female shopkeeper outside the door in.

After the female shopkeeper came, Yang Qiuchi pointed to the steamed buns, porridge and pickles on the table and asked, "Does this Lu Xueru eat these at every meal in your inn?" ”

The female shopkeeper nodded: "Yes, he is reluctant to spend a penny to buy anything else, I don't think he has any money at all, this steamed bun was bought when he first came, and he has been gnawing until now." I only drank porridge and ate pickles at every meal, and I didn't want anything else. ”

Will it be food poisoning? Yang Qiuchi stared at the half of the steamed buns, porridge and the two or three pickles, no, if the food is not fresh and spoiled, causing the food source surname disease, this disease is generally just a gastrointestinal disease. However, could someone poison the food?

Yang Qiuchi asked the female shopkeeper to find a duck, broke the half of the steamed bun and poured it into the duck's belly, and poured the remaining little porridge and pickles into the poor duck, making the duck quack. When they fed the duck the water from the porcelain bowl again, the duck ate the half of the dry and hard steamed buns and pickles, and was thirsty, and the bowl of water was drunk without being filled.

After waiting for a long time, the duck still quacked and swayed around the house, and nothing happened. It seems that there is no poison in the food.

Hu Jiang and Yang Qiuchi were a little disappointed, shook their heads and were about to leave the room, but Song Yun'er, who had been staying at the door, suddenly sighed, pointed to the bottom of the bed and shouted, "Look, what is that?" ”

It was already evening, the snow had already stopped, the sun had come out, the sun was shining in obliquely, and the room was much brighter. The sunlight was shining right under the bed, Yang Qiuchi and Hu Jiang looked back in the direction of Song Yun'er's finger, and saw that something was shining under the bed. The sunlight didn't shine into the room, the room was very dim, and this thing was placed on the inside of the bed leg next to the head of the bed, so the two of them didn't notice it.

Yang Qiuchi bent down and took a closer look at it first, it seemed to be a small porcelain bottle. Reaching in and taking out the porcelain bottle, he unscrewed the lid and looked inside, and there was a small half-bottle of chocolate-colored semi-solid inside.

When I took it outside, I picked it out a little bit with a small twig, and carefully identified it, and it looked like honey, but the color was too dark. He asked the shopkeeper, "What is this?" ”

The female shopkeeper leaned over to take a look at it and said, "I heard that the old poor sour said that it was honey, I saw him eat it when he came to the inn, and asked him what it was, and he said it was honey, so I don't understand how he has the money to buy honey but has no money to eat better, it is purely a slam on the door." ”

Could it be that there is something wrong with this honey? Since there are no reagents and equipment to test the chemical composition of the poison, only biological tests can be performed. Yang Qiuchi asked the female shopkeeper to find another duck, dug up a lump of honey and handed it to the female shopkeeper, and asked her to pour it into the duck.

In a moment, the poor duck fell to the ground with a twitch and died.

Found the source of the poison! Everyone was very excited. Yang Qiuchi patted Song Yun'er on the shoulder like an elder: "Not bad, little girl, work hard, there will be a future!" ”

Song Yun'er was a little embarrassed when she saw Yang Qiuchi praising her: "I'm just a blind cat and a dead mouse." ”

"That's okay, touch it a few more times, and we'll have something to eat, hahaha!"

Yang Qiuchi judged that there were two possibilities when the honey was poisoned: one was that the honey brought by Lu Xueru had been poisoned when he came from his hometown, and the other possibility was that someone secretly poisoned the honey after arriving at the small inn.

However, according to the proof of the female shopkeeper, Lu Xueru brought this honey when she came to the small inn, and she also saw Lu Xueru eat honey with her own eyes, but Lu Xueru was not poisoned at that time, according to this view, the biggest possibility is that after Lu Xueru ate honey, this honey was poisoned.

So who poisoned it? The people who lived in this small inn were suspicious. Yang Qiuchi asked Hu Jiang to send officials to bring all the people in the small inn to the backyard for interrogation. There are only a dozen or so people, all of whom are peddlers and pawns, and those who will be weak in both legs when they see tolerance, how dare they say half a word.

Yang Qiuchi and Hu Jiang found a clean house, and called these people into the room one by one to ask, including the proprietress and cooks, running the hall, miscellaneous and other shop guys, and asked them one by one, but they didn't find any clues.

After interrogation, it was found that this Lu Xueru in the eyes of everyone was purely a pedantic person, and in the days when he lived in the small inn, he did not go out of the door, except for the time when he went out to take the exam, he shook his head and read in the room all day long. As soon as you go out, you have to lock the door, even when you go to the thatched house.

Yang Qiuchi carefully inspected the room again, and found no signs of outsiders sneaking in, and this Lu Xueru almost never left the room. In this way, it seems that the surname of someone who was poisoned in the inn is very small.

Could it be that before Lu Xueru lived in this small inn, his honey had been poisoned? The female shopkeeper saw Lu Xueru eat honey when he entered the inn, why wasn't he poisoned for several days? Why was he poisoned when he came to Gongyuan later? Is it a slow surname poison? Or is it poisoned after taking it multiple times?

If this is the case, it is likely that this honey has been poisoned before it was given to Lu Xueru, so it is necessary to find out who gave this honey to this old talent Lu Xueru. Common sense speculates that this person is likely to be Lu Xueru's family or someone close to him. To find out this problem, the only way to do this is to go to Lu Xueru's hometown.

Fortunately, Lu Xueru's hometown is in a small mountain village in Chuzhou, not far from Yingtianfu. However, it was already evening, and even if they hurried there, it would probably take two or three hours, and it was already evening.

After Yang Qiuchi told Hu Jiang about this idea, Hu Jiang looked at the sky and proposed to go again the next day, but Yang Qiuchi objected, because this kind of arrest of criminals is a matter of time, once delayed, the criminals will escape, and there will be no regrets at that time.

Hu Jiang was moved by Yang Qiuchi's professionalism, and one of the people who helped was so enthusiastic, and he couldn't say anything if he was in charge, so he agreed to rush to Lu Xueru's hometown overnight to investigate the case.

After the opinions were unified, Yang Qiuchi first returned to Madu to briefly explain the situation, and then took Song Yun'er and fifteen guards to catch Hu Jiang and several yamen quickly, and the group rode straight to Lu Xueru's hometown of Chuzhou Beishao Village.

Chuzhou is in the northwest of Yingtianfu, which is the north gate of Yingtianfu, and this village is also called the north post, which should be the sentry post in the north of Chuzhou. The village is located on the main road to the north of Chuzhou, in a valley, surrounded by dangerous terrain, which is quite in line with the name of this outpost.

When Yang Qiuchi and the others arrived at Beishao Village, it was already the second watch. Seeing the living people entering the village, the barking of dogs in the village became a loud sound.

Hu Jiang had been to a small village before, so they found the village Lizheng very smoothly, here is surnamed Mi, an old man in his sixties, when he saw that it was someone from the Yamen of Yingtianfu, he was busy bringing everyone into the courtyard, and he was going to let it into the house, but with his two adobe houses, how could there be so many people. I had to talk in the yard.

Hu Jiang briefly told Mi Li Zheng about the case, and asked Li Zheng to take them to Lu Xueru's family for investigation. When Miri heard that Lu Xueru was dead, he muttered to himself in surprise and muttered, "It's really spiritual!" ”

Yang Qiuchi didn't hear his words clearly, and asked, "What did you say?" What spirit? ”

"Nothing." Miri said with a smile, and then took them to Lu to learn Confucianism.

On the way, here is the introduction: "Lu Xueru is in our village, everyone calls him Old Master Lu, he is kind, he still has some money in his family when he is young, and he can be regarded as a rich man in the village." not only married his wife Fan, but also accepted a concubine Shen. But then his wife had a serious illness and was dying. The old master was kind-hearted, and sold almost all of his property to his wife for treatment, and finally he was cured, and his family was almost ruined. ”

While talking, he came to Lu Xueru's house. His house is on the edge of the village, with a few simple wooden houses and a small courtyard.

The windows of the house were dark and dark, and there was no light in the winter, and it seemed that the people inside were already asleep. In the countryside there was nothing to do at night, and they all went to bed early. Yang Qiuchi's guards automatically searched the surroundings of the house without orders, and then each of them guarded one side, and at first glance they were well-trained. Yang Qiuchi was very satisfied. With these people with me, I feel much safer.

Miri was knocking on the door, and after a while, an old woman's voice asked, "Who?" ”

"Fan, I'm Mi Lizheng, several officials and masters in the capital are here, I have something to do with you, you can get up and open the door quickly." It's all from the villagers, and this Miri is speaking very politely.

"Oh, wait, the old man will open the door right away."

After a few moments, the lights came on, and then the door creaked open. An old lady with white hair poked her head out and looked at them, then opened the door and said with her back tilted: "Mirizheng, you uncles come into the house quickly, the snow is cold outside." ”

Yang Qiuchi, Song Yun'er and Hu Jiang entered the room. Nangong Xiong, the leader of the guards, also entered the house and protected Yang Qiuchi with him. The room was too small and everyone else had to stay in the yard and wait.

After sitting down, Miri was asking, "What about your aunt?" ”

Fan glanced into the room: "I'm still asleep." ”

"Tell her to get up, the official will ask you for questions."

Fan agreed, got up and walked into the back room, whispered to the people inside, and heard a woman muttering something about it. Fan came out and smiled apologetically: "She came out right away." ”

After a while, a young woman came out of the back room, in her early thirties, to the point of a little more beautiful, but with a tired expression, yawning against the doorrail, and lazily asked, "What is the matter?" ”

Mi Li Zheng said: "Shen Shi, you sit down quickly, the official from Tianfu has something to ask you." ”

Shen muttered a few words impatiently, sat down with a tilted body, and looked at Yang Qiuchi and them.

Yang Qiuchi said: "Are you both Lu Xueru's ladies?" ”

The two nodded. Miri was pointing to the white-haired old lady who opened the door and added, "This is the original Fan's." He pointed to the young woman in her thirties: "This is the concubine Shen." ”

(To be continued)