Although he covered up everywhere, Zuo Zongquan, the servant of the Criminal Department, held a banquet at home, but the unexpected discovery of the corpse still caused a shock in Yecheng, especially the person who found the corpse was Gu Changfeng, the prime minister of the dynasty. The corpses were buried separately, among which the upper limbs were buried in the courtyard, the heads were packed into a clay altar, the talisman paper was buried deep in the corner of the wall, the lower limbs were found in the mud candy in the house, and the feet were hidden in the Buddhist hall in the backyard of the Li family. Right now, a torso is missing.

Except for the head in the clay altar, which is still well preserved, the remaining stumps have turned into white bones, and after a preliminary examination, it was determined that the owner of the stump was a woman. This terrifying case spread, and Yecheng was in an uproar for a while, and Jingzhao Yin Xue Donglai was strictly ordered by his boss to solve the case within a time limit, and the investigation was dizzy.

As the current owner of the courtyard where the remains were found, Zuo Zongquan, the waiter of the Criminal Department, was also invited to ask several times, but he really didn't know anything, and there were no clues to dig up if he asked again. Coupled with the identity of Zuo Zongquan's criminal department, Xue Donglai didn't dare to embarrass him, and the focus of the investigation was all locked on the owner of the business house who was an intermediary, and at the same time sent his subordinates to look for the family of the original owner, Li Hong.

It's okay if you don't check it, but after checking it, Xue Donglai even has the heart to hang himself.

The current owner of this courtyard is the squire of the criminal department that he can't afford to provoke, and the person in charge of supervising the case is the prime minister of the dynasty, and the original owner is a silk merchant named Li Hong, who once owned a number of shops in Yecheng, and is low-key, but his financial resources and connections are extremely deep. Li Hong died of illness a year ago, because he had no children under his knees, the property was divided among many wives and concubines, and this yard was also sold by Li Hong's wife.

originally thought that as long as Li Hong's wife and concubine were found, the matter of hiding the corpse in this courtyard would be clarified, but when the investigation was completed, it was found that Li Hong's wife Xu and two concubines died suddenly in an accident within half a year, and even their relatives and relatives were nowhere to be found. The case is in a dilemma.

Just when Xue Donglai was anxious to hang himself with a rope, Yan Suwen was in a daze in the teahouse opposite. Gu Changfeng sat opposite her, occasionally raised his head, his eyes fell on the broken hair on her forehead, and there was more emotion in his eyes.

Since Li Hong's wife Xu chose to pawn the property, it means that she doesn't want this house, but why should she keep this place? I forgot to sell it in a hurry, or I felt that this small yard was worthless, so I didn't take it to heart at all. ”

Yan Suwen poked somewhere on the drawing: "I have carefully compared, on the original drawings of the Li family, this small garden across the street from the main house of the Li family is also Li Hong's, but the courtyard bought by Lord Zuo does not include this small garden." I always felt like something was wrong here. ”

"Would you like to go here?" Gu Changfeng pressed his index finger to the position of the small garden: "Maybe the torso of the corpse that we didn't find is hidden here." ”

Yan Suwen's eyes lit up, and he looked up at Gu Changfeng and said, "My lord is really wise." ”

"Your Excellency?" Gu Changfeng took a sip of tea: "Shouldn't it be a husband?" ”

"What?"

"I have called you Mrs. in front of others, but you still call me Lord one by one. Yan Su asked, don't you think you're a little excessive? ”

"Excessive? I-" Yan Su asked, pointing to his nose, "You are an adult, of course you can call me at will." But my lord, after all, you and the little woman have not officially married, if the little woman calls you one by one, do you think those people outside will not scold me, and will not throw rotten leaves and rotten eggs at me? ”

"Not randomly." Gu Changfeng put down the teacup: "If you are in a hurry to get married, we can raise the days even further." ”

"I'm not in a hurry to get married, I mean—"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...... Meaning, it is very stressful to be your wife, a person as outstanding, so good, and so good-looking as an adult. So, my lord, could you give me some more time for the little girl to get used to it? That, the matter of getting married, can we postpone it in the future? ”

"How long do you want to postpone it?"

"Two years? A year? Half a year, no less. ”

"Yan Su asked, his true appearance does not do business with others, especially with his wife." Gu Changfeng got up: "Half a month, Benxiang will give you half a month to prepare a dowry." ”

"Half a month! My lord, in half a month, I can't even embroider a handkerchief. ”

"The lady of the original phase doesn't need to know this."

"But shouldn't a woman's marriage be prepared by herself?"

"Will you?" Gu Changfeng asked very seriously.

"No!" Yan Su asked and shook his head: "I really won't!" When I was a child, I also wanted to learn seriously, but I found that it was much more difficult to take an embroidery needle than a silver needle, and it was more painful to embroider a brocade than to prick a needle for the sick. The little girl knew that she didn't have the talent to be a good wife and mother, so she took the initiative to give up. ”

"If you can't, why should you be asked to prepare it yourself."

"The adult is wise, but if the little girl can't get the dowry......"

"The Yan family will prepare it for you." Gu Changfeng walked up to Yan Suwen and said, "The original appearance will also be prepared for you." ”

"What does half a month mean?"

"You want an adaptation period. Half a month later, Benxiang wants to hear that you are called Benxiang's husband. ”

Hehe, Yan Suwen has a little headache.

The Li family's small garden seems to have been abandoned for a long time, and even the copper lock hanging on the door has rusted into a ball. Without Gu Changfeng's orders, Gu Yunfei directly cut the copper lock with his sword, and then kicked the door open. As far as the eye can see, it is a desolation that fills the garden.

"Is it appropriate for us to just go in like this? Is this considered a trespass? Yan Su asked Gu Changfeng's sleeve and shook it gently: "If someone sees your dignified prime minister kicking someone else's door, will you be impeached and criticized?" ”

"He's the one who kicked the door." Gu Changfeng stretched out his hand and pointed at Gu Yunfei: "True appearance, I am here to investigate the case." ”

Gu Yunfei, who was accused of kicking the door, smiled, "The subordinates were also ordered to investigate the case." ”

When I entered the gate, I saw the whole picture of the garden. The mottled white walls, the broken whitewashed eaves, and the walls are crawling with the stumps and dead stems of the crazy creeper and the wild rose. In the middle of the garden, the outline of a curved flower garden can be faintly seen, but there are no flowers in the garden for a long time, only vines and weeds remain, and they are scorched and yellow.

"This is dendrobium, this should be mint, this is perilla, this is thyme." Yan Suwen walked around the garden as if he had found a treasure, then raised his face and said to Gu Changfeng: "Except for my family, it is the first time I have seen someone grow these Chinese herbs in their own garden. Although it's not a precious thing, I feel a lot better when I look at it. ”

"These are all Chinese herbs?"

"Well, both. Not only here, but there. In such a large garden, there are more herbs than flowers. Yan Suwen stretched out his finger and pointed: "The more this is the case, the more strange I feel." ”

"What's strange?"

"I've read the information Yunfei gave me, as well as the ones that Master Zuo found. This Li Hong was a silk merchant and had no interest in Chinese herbal medicine, and there is no record in the information that he had a habit of growing Chinese herbal medicine. Li Hong's wife, Xu, like Li Hong, was born as a businessman, and although she did not go out often, the available evidence showed that this Xu had a tyrannical personality and often beat the maidservants around her. A woman of this temperament would not play with these things. Although there are not many records of his two concubines, there is no record of this. So who planted all the Chinese herbs in this garden? ”

As he was talking, a voice suddenly came from the door, with doubts in his voice and a hint of anger.

"Who are you? How did you casually break into someone else's home! ”

The questioner was a young woman, in her mid-twenties-fifteen, dressed in an extremely ordinary coarse garment, and carrying a bamboo basket containing freshly purchased vegetables. The vegetables are also extremely common and common kinds of green leafy vegetables, but the sharp-eyed Yan Suwen still found some differences in them. Some of these vegetables are suitable for medicinal diets.

"Who are you?" Gu Yunfei pressed a long sword against the man's throat.

"My husband's surname is Yu, you can call me Yu Niang. Who are you? ”

"People from the official family." Gu Yunfei said, flashed the identity tag, and the woman's face changed instantly.

Yan Suwen quietly walked to Gu Changfeng's side and asked softly: "What is Yunfei's identity, what grade, why has that woman's face changed." ”

"Zheng Sipin."

"It's the fourth grade, and the official doesn't seem to be very big." Yan Suwen was talking to himself, but he heard Gu Changfeng next to him say, "That's because you've seen a bigger official than him." ”

Yan Su asked and smiled, and hurriedly took half a step back: "What the adult said is that you are at least a genuine product." ”

"Are you scared?"

"Are you afraid of your rank, or are you afraid of you?"

"Listen to you ask, and you know that you are not afraid. But she's not you, she's just an ordinary person, and the officials I see every day are either riding horses or sitting in sedan chairs. In front of him, there was a person standing in front of him with a long sword to his throat, and he was still a general of the fourth rank of the imperial court, do you think she would not be afraid? She can still stand now, and she can still talk to Yunfei calmly, which shows that although she is afraid of being an official, she is not the kind of person who has not seen the world. This Yu Niang knows the inside story. ”

"Yu Niang has seen adults, I don't know what adults and these two are doing in this abandoned garden?"

"What do you have to do with this garden?"

"Yu Niang has nothing to do with this garden, but she was entrusted by someone to take care of it on her behalf."

"Entrusted? By whom? ”

"Mrs. Lee."

"Li Hong's wife, Xu?"

The woman nodded: "It's Mrs. Li!" ”

"Why did the Xu family hand over this garden to you to take care of?"

"Back to the adult, Yu Niang used to be the cook of the Li family, and before she got married, she had been helping in the kitchen of the Li Mansion. Because Yu Niang's father is a herb planter, Yu Niang has been familiar with these since she was a child. After becoming a cook, in order to please the master's family, she tried to mix medicinal herbs into her meals to nourish her stomach and body with medicine.

Master Li was busy with business and rarely took care of himself, and his wife felt sorry for him, so he often asked Yu Niang to make her some medicinal food for conditioning. This small garden was handed over to Yu Niang to take care of by Mrs. Yu at that time, and the herbs in the garden were also planted by Yu Niang herself. Later, the old man fell ill and died, the Li family was scattered, and the garden was abandoned. ”