"Can I open it up and take a look?" Xiao Jiading asked.

This was Xiao Jiading's true intention, because his limited forensic knowledge had already made him know one thing, that is, this green-headed fly was a scavenging insect that liked fresh animal carcasses, including human corpses, of course. Their presence in large numbers often indicates the presence of corpses nearby.

When this question was raised, Xiao Jiading observed the reaction of the little nun very carefully, if she was an accomplice, then her expression must be different. However, the little nun just nodded with a red face and said, "There is nothing valuable here, they are all some unused sundries, and they are not locked. ”

Xiao Jiading didn't rush in, he went around the stone house, carefully checked the ground, and found no traces of excavation, nor did there be any hidden passages.

There are no other places in the stone house that have large numbers of green-headed flies, except for the crack in the front door. Of course, the ancient sealing technology is naturally lacking, and it is difficult to completely close the door crack, especially the ice cellar has been abandoned, so there is no better treatment of the seal.

He waved his hand to ward off the flies, and the probe checked, and sure enough, the gap in the stone gate was so large that it could almost fit into one hand, enough for the flies to enter and lay eggs.

Xiao Jiading pushed open the door of the stone house.

The stone door was pushed open, and with a buzz, more green-headed flies flew up, and the whining was very scary, and the little nun's face changed color, and she took several steps backwards. Waving and swatting flies.

Xiao Jiading said: "Please go get a pu fan." ”

The little nun hurriedly ran away. After a while, a pu fan was brought, and Xiao Jiading continued, instigating to drive away the flies, and slowly walked in.

This stone house is the entrance to the ice cellar, so it's not big. There were some miscellaneous items inside, and in the middle, there was a downward staircase, and the staircase was extended, and when it came to the end of the stairs, it was almost as deep as three floors. There is a stone door in Jintou, and inside is the ice cellar.

At the stone gate under the stairs, there were more flies, and they were almost crawling all over the stone gate. Xiao Jiading picked up a long broom that was quietly placed in the corner of the wall to drive away the flies. Only then did I see the heavy bluestone door.

The stone door was open outward, which was very heavy, and when it was opened, there was a walkway inside. The sandwiches on both sides are stuffed with insulating silk cotton. There is also a stone gate in the middle, and this stone door has a gap, which is not big, and it is still crawling with flies.

Xiao Jiading pushed the door hard, but the stone door was tightly closed and did not move. He took a deep breath. I pushed hard, but I still couldn't push.

Xiao Jiading's internal strength is strong, unparalleled in the world, but he can't push open this stone door. It can be seen that the stone door should have been blocked or collapsed from the inside. It's just that the gap on the top of the stone door is also relatively large, enough for flies to enter, and many flies can be seen crawling in and out of the crack in the door. It's disgusting.

Xiao Jiading came out, went outside, and said to the little nun: "Has Wu Jieyu ever been to your temple?" ”

The little nun said, "I've been here." Ten days ago. ”

"Has she ever been to this stone house?"

"Nope. She just prayed with incense in the temple hall. Then I talked to my master in the meditation room for a while, and then left. I've been following her, and I've never seen her here. ”

"And what about her men?"

"I don't know. They came a lot of people, walked around, and I don't know if they came in here or not. ”

Xiao Jiading thought for a while and said, "Thank you, I'll go first." Don't mess around with anything in here. I will be back soon. ”

The little nun hurriedly nodded in agreement.

Xiao Jiading left Qingling Temple and came to the queen's bedroom. Seeing Queen Wang, he said: "I found a large number of green-headed flies in an abandoned stone house in Qingling Temple, this kind of fly likes to appear in places with corpses, so I suspect that there are corpses in the ice cellar of the stone house, of course, I am not sure that it is a human corpse, and I am not sure that it is the missing three palace maids, I want to find a craftsman to open this ice cellar, because the ground is broken in the palace, so please ask the queen to decide." ”

Queen Wang said: "Yes, you can do whatever you need to do, and the palace will let the craftsmen help you." ”

At that moment, the female officials of the queen's dormitory found dozens of craftsmen and followed Xiao Jiading to Qingling Temple.

At this time, the presiding officer of Qingling Temple, Master Fankong, had already been informed, ended the morning class, and waited at the door of the temple. Seeing a large group of people coming, he was a little nervous and hurriedly stepped forward to give a salute.

Xiao Jiading explained his intentions, of course, he only said that in order to investigate the case, he would open the ice cellar of this stone house. Didn't say anything else. Master Fan didn't dare to ask more.

Xiao Jiading took the craftsman to the stone house and said, "This stone door can't be opened, you find a way to enter the stone house, but don't destroy the stone door of the stone house." ”

An old craftsman said: "There is no latch inside the stone door of this ice cave, and it can't be opened now, it is likely that there has been a collapse inside, blocking the stone door from behind, and the best way to get in is to dig a passage from the side, and then chisel the bluestone slab on a wall, and then take off another piece, and you can enter." ”

The other craftsmen nodded in agreement.

"Do you have to chisel bluestone?"

"Yes, these bluestones are stacked with bonding, and they are very heavy, not chiseled, and they can't be taken off at all, but this kind of bluestone is relatively easy to chisel powder stone, and it doesn't take a lot of effort.

"Understood." Xiao Jiading said: "Just do what you think." Be quick! ”

"Don't worry!"

Dozens of craftsmen immediately began work.

Xiao Jiading entered the stairs again and inspected the stone gate, which was tightly inlaid with large bluestone slabs around the stairs and stone gates, and there was no trace of prying and destruction around them.

While the craftsmen began to dig the tunnel, Xiao Jiading repeatedly searched the entire cellar. However, nothing useful was found.

The excavation progress was relatively fast, but it was still in the evening that the excavation was completed. Because the walls of the ice cave on all four sides have a mezzanine, and the mezzanine is slowly covered with silk, which should be used to absorb heat. In this way, there are actually two layers of bluestone slabs. After chiseling a large bluestone respectively, the other two pieces were removed, and the silk cotton of the interlayer was removed, and the passage was completed.

Xiao Jiading went down and looked inside, and the black rumbled.

A craftsman said, "Do you want to catch a chicken, tie it with a bamboo pole and send it in to see?" ”

The host on it, Master Fankong, said: "No, this ice cave used to have an open door, and we also put some things inside, and we often go in, and there is no miasma." ”

"Be careful."

At this time, a few flies flew out of the passage, and Xiao Jiading smiled: "Flies can live, of course people can, which means that there is indeed no miasma in it." Fetch the lanterns! ”

Soon, Master Fankong asked someone to bring a lantern, and Xiao Jiading climbed in first.

Immediately, he felt a chill to his bones, and he came in under the scorching sun outside, as if he had entered an air-conditioned room, and the heat disappeared.

Then he heard the sound of buzzing flies, and at the same time, he smelled a foul stench he had never smelled before, much stronger than anything he had ever smelled before. almost fainted him, and quickly covered his mouth and nose with the hem of his clothes. When I took the lantern and took it, I was startled.

I saw that on the ground of the bluestone slab of a huge cellar, there were four corpses, highly decomposed, wearing skirts, with long hair that was scattered, and judging from the clothes, they were four palace maids.

Xiao Jiading understood that what he smelled just now was the smell of corpses, this smell was only very bad and disgusting when he heard it in class, and he couldn't imagine that it smelled worse than he imagined. It seems that forensics is a really fucking challenging profession that requires strong nerves.

Xiao Jiading didn't go in to investigate, he climbed out very cautiously, and said to the presiding officer Fan Kongshitai: "There are four corpses inside, immediately send someone to report to Queen Wang and Wu Jieyu, and ask if you need to notify Qi Zuo to come for an autopsy." ”

The cases in the palace are no better than those outside, and the practices of the outside cannot be copied, and everything must be consulted.

Master Fan Kong was so frightened that he hurriedly ran to ask for instructions in person.

After a while, Queen Wang came to Qingling Temple, although Wu Zetian did not come, but sent her female official Chun Yi and two palace maids.

Xiao Jiading hurriedly stepped forward to report the incident to Queen Wang. Queen Wang nodded with a gloomy face and said, "Xiao Zhiyi, you take two servants in to inspect the situation." ”

Xiao Jiading hurriedly agreed, and climbed into the stone house with the two servants. He told the two servants to stand still and inspect the situation himself. He carried the lantern and went to the corpse to observe first.

The four corpses all showed the appearance of corrupt giants, their faces were swollen and very terrifying, and white maggots had appeared in their eyes, mouth, nose and other places. There were flies flying all over the body and the house.

Judging by the fact that the degree of decay is basically the same, the time of death of the four bodies should be roughly the same. However, Xiao Jiading's forensic knowledge did not allow him to accurately determine the exact time of death. According to Wu Zetian, these four people disappeared a month ago, but now is summer, in a very hot summer, is the body of a month only in the stage of a highly corrupted giant? Xiao Jiading was not sure. But I feel that this seems to be different from my memory.

I remember that the forensic teacher said that the corpse exposed to the air, in the hot summer, the decay is very rapid, generally speaking, a month, it is enough to decompose, dissolve and ossify. However, the four corpses were located in the ice cellar in the basement, which was not the same as the outside, far less hot than outside, and Xiao Jiading was not sure how many degrees of temperature was such a cool temperature? He didn't have a thermometer to measure accurately, and he didn't know how long it would take for a corpse to reach a high level of decomposition at such temperatures.

Xiao Jiading checked the corpse and found that the corpse's clothes and skirts were torn, one by one, there were some removed hairs on the ground, and at the same time, there were more flies in some places on the ground. (To be continued......)