During the Lantern Festival, a murder occurred in Chenzhou, and Chen Hu, the second son of the local family of Chen Yuanwai, was killed in the room. The place of the crime is located in the bedroom of Chen Long, the eldest son of the Chen family-

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a murder in Chenzhou, eastern Henan, where Chen Hu, the second son of a large local family, was killed in his room. Lord Zhang, the county commander, led the officials to rush over.

The scene of the crime was located in the bedroom of Chen Long, the eldest son of the Chen family, the house was turned upside down, there were many blood stains on the ground, there was a rather fierce fight, and the deceased was stabbed several times with a dagger and died. The Chen family is all around, Chen Yuanwai is already in his old age, his health is very bad, he is supported by servants, the younger son Chen Sheng is also on the side, but the eldest son Chen Long is nowhere to be seen.

Last night was the Lantern Festival, and the people in the house went out to enjoy the lanterns and didn't come back until late. This morning, the buddy Li San came to find Chen Long, because according to the plan, Chen Long was going to go to the field to buy goods today, and Li San, who was traveling with him, couldn't wait for anyone, so he came to the room to check, and found that the door was closed, Li San called the door to not be, and felt bad, so he forcibly knocked the door open, but found that the second son, Chen Hu, died tragically in the room.

After on-site inspection, the time of the crime was around midnight last night, and the property in the house was also looted, including the silver taels that the eldest son originally used to purchase goods. Mr. Zhang carefully observed the scene of the crime, especially the doors and windows, and found that there were slight scratches on the edge of the door, which should be the traces left by the murderer when he locked the door from the outside.

The Chen family has a total of three brothers, Chen Long and Chen Hu are all helping in the store, especially the boss, who is now the leader of the Chen Mansion. The third Chen Sheng is seventeen this year and is still studying, Chen Yuanwai obviously hopes that his family can produce a jinshi, so he is very strict with the third child. Chen Long lived in the east wing, Chen Hu lived in the west wing, and Chen Sheng and Chen Yuanwai lived in the main courtyard. Since the murder occurred in the East Wing, and Chen Long's whereabouts were unknown, Master Zhang sent someone to find Chen Long's whereabouts first.

Chen Sheng approached Lord Zhang and said: "Lord County Order, this should be a thief robbery and murder, a few days ago the second brother Chen Hu's room was patronized by thieves, lost a lot of property, Xu is a thief tasted the sweetness, last night when there was no one in the house, came to steal again, but was bumped into by the second brother, the thief killed the second brother during the fight, and then fled." ”

Master Zhang looked at Chen Sheng, and saw that although he was not very old, there was an arrogance between his eyebrows, and the inference just now was quite reasonable. Mr. Zhang inquired in detail about the theft.

A few days ago, Chen Hu came back from the shop and found that the door was open, the house was turned into a mess, and the forty taels of silver he had just taken from the account room were gone. The family searched everywhere but found no useful clues. Since the lost silver was not too much, Chen Yuanwai only ordered the family members to step up patrols afterwards and did not report to the official.

Last night was the Lantern Festival, and most of the people went to play in the streets, and the house was very empty, so it was not uncommon for the thieves to visit it for the second time. Lord Zhang instructed the officials to search carefully inside and outside the Chen Mansion, because judging from the scene of the crime, the deceased had a fierce fight with the murderer before his death, and the murderer was very likely to be injured and fled.

Master Zhang was also considering whether the murderer would be someone else, and after investigation, it was found that Chen Yuanwai had rested very early due to his poor health, and he had no motive for committing the crime, and his body did not have the conditions to commit the crime. Chen Sheng had been fighting against several literary friends last night, and did not return until about a quarter of the hour, during which he never left, and dozens of literati who were present at the same time testified. According to Chen Sheng, after he came back, he went directly back to his room to rest, and found no abnormalities. The guys in the house are also not qualified to commit crimes.

Since Chen Long and the escaped thieves were not found, the case was put on hold for the time being. But Master Zhang has never been able to let go of this matter, how are the Chen brothers usually becoming, do they have enemies? The interpersonal relationships in these big families are very complicated, and there may be some secrets hidden in them, so Master Zhang decided to find out.

Master Zhang came to the Chen Mansion alone, saw Chen Yuanwai, and asked him about some things, especially the inheritance of the Chen family's family property. According to Chen Yuanwai, the boss Chen Long is relatively honest and very good at managing the store, so in the future, the Chen family's family business will be handed over to him to take care of, in fact, Chen Long is already a manager now. The second brother Chen Hu is a little clever and relatively slippery, but there is no major problem, and the relationship between the two brothers is neither good nor bad. As for the third child, Chen Sheng, he has been smart and clever since he was a child, and he is very talented in reading, so Chen Yuanwai is bent on letting him take the road of the imperial examination, not allowing him to participate in business affairs, and looking forward to one day being able to glorify his ancestors.

Master Zhang came to the Chen family's shop again, and the words of the guy were roughly the same as those of Chen Yuanwai, saying that Chen Long was loyal, Chen Hu was clever, and occasionally did some immoral deeds. Master Zhang saw that Li San, the guy who first discovered the murder, was also there, and he seemed to have something to say. Master Zhang called him aside, and Li San whispered, "Last night, the second prince rewarded me with a few taels of silver and let me go out and have a good time." So I went to Lichun Temple, trying to find a girl to play with, but I didn't get up until three o'clock the next morning. I suddenly remembered that I was going to accompany the eldest prince to the field today, and the eldest prince must be in a hurry, so I hurried back, but I couldn't find the eldest son. In desperation, I went to his bedroom, knocked on the door, and in a hurry, broke down the door, only to see a dead body lying on the ground. ”

Master Zhang asked: "Why did the second son give you money, is he usually very generous?" ”

Li San shook his head and said, "No, the second son is usually picky." Maybe he wants to shut me up, because I have seen the second son take the little son to visit the brothel several times, and the old man and the eldest son will definitely punish him if they know about it. Everyone in the house knows that the little prince is going to be the champion in the future, and when I found the body in the morning, I thought it was the eldest son. At that time, I was frightened, because I was the eldest son's henchman, and I knew that the second son usually spent money lavishly, which caused the dissatisfaction of the eldest son, and the two had quarrels many times. I thought that the second son broke me away to take the opportunity to murder the eldest son, but it was the second son who was killed by the burglars who broke into the house, which is really strange. ”

According to them, although Chen Sheng was quite literate, he didn't care about the imperial examination, he liked fireworks and willow lane, and had fun in time, and even had a good woman. Originally, Chen Sheng did not participate in the party on the night of the Lantern Festival, but he decided to participate temporarily. However, Chen Sheng was indeed with everyone that night and never left halfway.

Three days after the incident, the search of the whole city finally paid off, and in a deserted house not far from Chen's mansion, Chen Long's body was found, which was bleeding profusely and died of injuries. This mansion should have been abandoned for a few months, and the original owner went to other places to beg for a living.

Chen Long's time of death was around the ugly hour after Chen Hu's death, and he found his lost belongings in the house, and there were several stab wounds on his body that were exposed and bleeding all over the ground. It seems that there were no thieves who killed anyone, but Chen Long killed his younger brother Chen Hu and fled here, only to die of his injuries. But what was the motive for the killing? If it is to fight for family property, it should be Chen Hu who killed Chen Long.

Master Zhang is a spirit, yes, Chen Hu died in Chen Long's room. Maybe it was Chen Hu who went to murder his brother Chen Long, but he didn't expect to be unfavorable and was killed. If this is the case, Chen Long is killing people in self-defense, why did he run away? How did you escape to the deserted house? Master Zhang sent someone to find the previous owner of this deserted mansion, and the news he got surprised him, the former hostess of this deserted mansion was a woman from a good family who had been ** by Chen Sheng, and later Chen Long was in charge, and he lost a lot of money before reaching a settlement, and the family also moved to other places. Chen Sheng? Master Zhang suddenly thought that the two elder brothers were dead, so the Chen family's huge family business would be his. Master Zhang called him to make a mistake and asked him to carefully examine Long Chen's body and not let go of any clues.

The wounds on Chen Long's body were all exposed, not bandaged, and no relevant drugs were applied. After Chen Long killed Chen Hu, since he was able to come here alone, it means that his injuries were not particularly serious, and it was only half a burnt incense from Chen's mansion to the deserted mansion, and the death time of the two brothers was at least an hour and a half, which means that Chen Long lived for at least an hour after coming to the deserted mansion, so why didn't he treat his wounds?

At this time, the post-mortem report was sent, and the residue of ** was found from the stomach of the deceased. This explains why Chen Long did not bandage his wounds, because he was drugged and died of excessive blood loss in his sleep.

Master Zhang called all the officials and asked them to go to the major pharmacies again to see who had bought ** recently, and the news they got was as expected, Chen Sheng had bought ** not long ago. Master Zhang ordered someone to quickly bring Chen Sheng to the Yamen.

Faced with the accusation of murder, Chen Sheng originally planned to resist stubbornly, but the testimony of the pharmacy owner and Chen Long's autopsy report made him quickly defeated.

Chen Sheng and his second brother Chen Hu are good friends, and the two smell the same, and often go together to look for flowers and willows. Chen Sheng knew that Chen Hu had always been dissatisfied with Chen Long, so he asked him to kill Chen Long, so that the family business would be Chen Hu's. The two discussed, on the night of the Lantern Festival, when there were few people in the house, Chen Hu killed people, and then disguised the scene as a thief to rob and kill, and the theft case a few days ago was the foreshadowing for today's murder that they directed and acted themselves. And Chen Sheng is responsible for giving Chen Hu an alibi. After Chen Long's death, as long as Chen Sheng insisted that the two had been together at the time of the crime, he refused the invitation of his literary friends to enjoy the moon together that night.

But Chen Sheng also has his own considerations, so he doesn't want to watch the family business fall into Chen Hu's hands. So that night, he went to admire the moon with his literary friends on time and recited poems, so that Chen Hu's alibi was gone. When he arrived, he estimated that Chen Hu had already succeeded at this time, so he returned to the mansion, only to find Chen Long with blood stains, and Chen Hu fell to the ground, already dead.

Chen Sheng immediately understood what was going on, it must have been Chen Hu who had missed and was killed by Chen Long. He pretended to comfort Chen Long and asked him to hide outside for a few days, although he didn't have to pay for his life to kill in self-defense, but Chen Yuanwai knew that his son was killing each other, and he must not be able to stand such a blow. In addition, he will arrange the scene as a robbery and murder, anyway, the house was robbed a few days ago, Chen Hu fought with the thief and died, and his reputation is better. Chen Long has always been filial, so he hid in a deserted house not far away.

Chen Sheng finished arranging