The two main things, one tall and one short, glanced at each other, as if they felt that Fan Ning's words made sense. Originally, they came to the scene of the crime just to make a show, so they didn't get robbed of the credit by Gao Min alone, and they didn't plan to really investigate anything. What's more, the scene of this case is extraordinary, some people are working hard in front, how can they not be happy, so together with Fan Ning and Gao Min, they covered their noses and stood by the road, four people staring at Xue Ne with eight eyes, and the atmosphere was a little embarrassing.

Gao Min was intimately speechless and said: "The two seniors came from afar, but what do they have to say about the case?" Don't hide it from my predecessors, this is the first time I've seen such a scene, and I'm still confused. ”

"What's so confusing about this", the fat chief looked shrewd and capable, stepped forward with his back hand, and said in an official tone, "The murderer is still that Fan Ning, after she killed and robbed in the other courtyard, she fled for her life in a hurry, and met the monk of Famen Temple in this place. As you all know, Famen Temple is the royal temple of my Tang Dynasty, and the monks are full of a sense of justice, and immediately set up the iron cloth shirts of the eighteen Arhats with golden bell covers, wanting to fight for their lives with the thieves. Unexpectedly, this red-clothed yaksha stared at him, attracting the true fire of samadhi and burning these masters alive......"

Fan Ning listened to the front, forcibly endured the green tendons on his forehead, but laughed angrily when he heard the end, Gao Min on the side hurriedly stepped forward half a step forward, blocking her, preventing the two of them from harshly criticizing her for this, and said in a low voice: "This is already his rigorous reasoning, just listen to it, don't pay attention to him, so as not to get ......into trouble."

This Gao Min is a warm-hearted person, Fan Ning nodded, smiled at him, and suddenly heard the thin master applaud, don't see that he was born skinny, but the sound of slapping should not be underestimated, startled, dangling two legs like hemp rods, and said leisurely: "This official adds a few words, the general facts of the case are exactly like this, but there is another detail in the middle, that is, this woman is by no means a passionate murderer, but has been planned for a long time." Her purpose is to kill all the people who have been in and out of the Hongwen Pavilion courtyard that day and witnessed her, she thought that those guards would definitely die in the fire, so she only killed the monk, and then created the illusion that she herself was missing, so that she could successfully clear the suspicion, so that everyone thought that she had also turned into one of the charred corpses, and she would be at large ever since! But she didn't expect that the nearby Wuhou saw Changyan and immediately rushed to put out the fire, which left those guards to testify and let us know the truth of the case! Moreover, the official thinks that Li Chunfeng, the Secret Bureau Pavilion, is estimated to be the accomplice of this woman, and you can see that the two of them are all missing now, which is the best evidence......"

Over the past few days, Fan Ning has been wronged and has become a little numb, but with Li Chunfeng, she is still extremely angry. Fan Ning tried her best, suppressed the urge to kick the two hemp rods, stretched her neck, but couldn't swallow this breath, she knew that she was anxious again, raised her hand to relax her neckline twice, and wanted to hide aside to smooth her breath.

After about a bag of cigarettes, Xue Ne stood up and turned around to talk to Fan Ning, only to find that there were three more people on the side of the road besides Fan Ning, and two of them looked very strange, so frightened that he took half a step back, and after calming his mind slightly, he saw that they were wearing official uniforms from the seventh grade, and guessed that they should be the head of the criminal department.

Gao Min stepped forward and said, "I've seen Xue Yushi." Gao Min, the director of the Criminal Department of Xiaguan, is the full-time director of this case, and these two are the fat director and the Chang director. ”

Xue Ne saw that the two principals were fat and thin, tall and short, and they were like their surnames, so he couldn't help but smile and asked the fat principal: "Your Excellency is the fat chief?" ”

Unexpectedly, the fat man was so angry that he blew his beard and glared, and said angrily: "My surname is Chang!" He's the fat master! As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed to the side of the principal, who was as thin as a bamboo pole.

Seeing that Xue Ne stepped on the thunder, Fan Ning hurriedly changed the topic and said, "Oops, hey, that ...... What did the chief official find, are these monks the group of people who learned scriptures from Famen Temple? ”

"At present, it seems that it should be correct, there is a Sanskrit copy of the Lotus Sutra in the car, stamped with the seal of the Hongbunkan annex," Xue Ne cited evidence, "The number of people in the clothes is correct, but there are still many irrationalities." ”

The chubby Chang sneered and said: "What's so unreasonable about this, haven't the officials already said it, it's the red-clothed yaksha who called Fan Ning who murdered people, and the other courtyard has found a lot of physical evidence." ”

Xue Ne put one hand behind his back, pointed to the scene of the crime with the other, tightened his always gentle face, and retorted coldly: "Although these masters who have passed away cannot speak, the evidence at the scene will not deceive people. This place is far away from the annex of Hongwen Pavilion, dare to ask Chang the master, if the murderer is really Fan Ning, why did she take the extra step to kill these masters after she had already fled the scene? ”

Fan Ning and Xue Ne have known each other for more than ten years, and the first time she saw him refute others in public, it was on such an occasion, or something related to her, which made her dumbfounded and almost shocked off her donkey's skin chin.

"You've only sentenced a few cases, so you're here to arrange us, aren't you? Don't think that if you are sent by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, you can reverse black and white and argue for the fierce! The thin fat master pointed to Xue Ne's nose and said angrily.

"Very simple evidence, the two of them only need to look at the ruts under the carriage, they will find that some blood stains seep into the rut marks and are covered twice, obviously this car has been passive, and the time of the death of these masters is also difficult to infer Qing, these are all murderers in the old cloth maze, wanting to splash dirty water on Fan Ning. On that day, it was only half an hour from the time the Hongwen Pavilion caught fire to the time when Lord Shiro of the Criminal Department ordered the blockade of the entire Zhongnan Mountain. Before coming here, Xue had checked the records of Wuhou searching the mountain that day, although they did not find this place, but within a moment, they came to patrol this area. Dare to ask that Fan Ning has three heads and six arms, can kill people and burn corpses in such a short period of time, block the smoke from being detected by the Wuhous, and where did he drive the carriage back again, and then fled from Zhongnan Mountain under the blockade of Wuhou? ”

Xue Ne's words were logical and loud, if it weren't for such a rigorous occasion, Fan Ning would have wanted to applaud on the spot. But how could the two main things be refuted like this, and he replied with a stiff neck: "How can you find out what is the reason for the bloodstains alone, in case it is the Red Yaksha's old cloth maze......"

"Everything must be measured accurately in order to deduce the truth", Xue Ne said as he gestured to lift the carriage, "If you don't believe Xue's judgment, let's take a look for yourself." ”

The charred and rotten corpses on the carriage rolled over with Xue Ne's action of carrying the cart, and the eyes that were burned to only two holes looked at the two principals, so frightened that they almost hugged each other, where did they still have the courage to look at any ruts, they all deduced that there was something wrong with the yamen, and ordered Gao Min to stay here to help Xue Ne collect evidence, and he fled in the carriage.

Xue Ne raised his hand to wipe his sweat, breathed a sigh of relief, and smiled at Fan Ning. Fan Ning understood that Xue Ne didn't need to argue with the two of them, but it was just for his own sake that he argued with reason, and he was moved in his heart, feeling that Xue Ne was very righteous enough, but he didn't say anything, he just quickly stuck out his tongue and said in a low voice: "The way you look today is not like your name." Should I inform the Lantian County Government that I should ride my horse? ”

Xue Ne knew that Fan Ning was afraid, so she responded and sent her to do this job away from the scene of the crime, while she squatted down and used a brush to collect evidence little by little and keep it properly.

Gao Min suffered the anger of those two old men in the Criminal Department, and he was not overwhelmed by them for a moment, and the dirty work of moving the corpse and cleaning up the scene always fell on him. Seeing that Xue Ne had refuted them speechless, Gao Min couldn't help but rush up and kiss Xue Ne twice: "Xue Yushi is so decisive!" Gao admires! ”

Xue Ne fell into deep thought again, and couldn't hear Gao Min's praise at all. Gao Min saw that Xue Ne was extremely focused, as if he was deaf, so he hurriedly silenced him and stopped bothering him, and he began to collect evidence at the scene.

The two men went around the small scene and nearly collided several times. Gao Min is very clever as his name suggests, and can always help Xue Ne in a timely manner. Xue Ne saw that although this person was also the head of the Criminal Department, he was not as stupid as his two predecessors, one fat and one thin, and the investigation of the scene was quite organized, so he couldn't help but change his opinion greatly. After the two of them had collected about the same, Wuhou from the Yalai of Lantian County also rushed to pull away all the corpses, Xue Ne got up and turned to Gao Min and said, "Dare to ask Your Excellency?" ”

"Gao Min, the director of the Criminal Department", Gao Min patiently introduced himself to Xue Ne, raised his eyes, and his gaze was much calmer, "It's not early, Gao wants to invite Xue Yushi to return to Chang'an by car, I don't know what Xue Yushi wants?" ”

Xue Ne was unsociable and wanted to politely refuse, but Fan Ning, who rushed back, accepted Xue Ne with a full mouth, pushed Xue Ne into the carriage, and rode around on horseback.

The space on the carriage was small, and sitting face-to-face like this, Xue Ne was even more embarrassed, and moved to the side, but Gao Min also moved, and sat closer to Xue Ne. Xue Ne sweated on his forehead, and asked, "Dare to ask Brother Taigui...... Gui Geng? Invite me to go along, do you have something important to discuss? ”

Gao Min couldn't help but smile and said: "Xia Guan is two years older than Xue Yushi, I have heard Xue Yushi for a long time, and when I saw it today, it really deserves its reputation." I heard that Xue Yushi solved the Yongle Fang dry well case committed by the young eunuch of the East Palace in the year of the general horn, and I have always been convinced, but I have no chance to get acquainted, and I have the opportunity to meet today, how can Gao let go of this opportunity? ”

Xue Ne was extremely uncomfortable with Gao Min's fierce praise, smiled shyly, and replied: "Oh...... That case was a bit strange and terrifying, so it spread to the community, but for Xue, it was just a coincidence. ”

"Xue Yushi doesn't want to be humble, I heard that the murderer actually killed three or five people and buried them in his own living well, but is it true?"

"Yes, at first I thought it was just a servant committing suicide...... At that time, I was ransomed for my father under Li Jucheng's door, and one day I broke the armillary sphere, and Li Jucheng said that I should do some work as a punishment. It happened that a servant of the young eunuch's family in the East Palace jumped into a well and died, and the young eunuch was afraid that the newly built house would be polluted, so he specially sent someone to ask Li Jucheng to do something in the past, and I went with Li Jucheng to do it. ”

"That young eunuch is serving His Royal Highness the Crown Prince closely, Xue Yushi should be quite difficult, right?"

"At that time, I was young and didn't understand these things, I just wanted to finish my work early and have a full meal. If it weren't for His Royal Highness the Prince's trust, it would be difficult for the case to come to light", Xue Ne talked about the events of the year, raised his hand to support his head, and fell into memory, "Xue still remembers that it was the next day of Qingming Festival, and soon after Li Jucheng and I arrived, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince also came. The first time I met His Highness, although he was not yet ten years old, he spoke and acted with a clear eye and a great demeanor. But when he left everyone's eyes, he was a playful child, and at that time, I was the only one in the family who was about the same age as him, and he began to play with me. Li Jucheng found a place to take a nap under the pretext of wanting to enter the Tianyan Eye, and His Royal Highness saw that what I was doing was novel, so he kept following me and asked questions. I didn't like to talk, and it was very difficult to deal with him, but seeing that he seriously wanted to know the secret, I chatted with him for a long time, and after a long time, I became acquainted with him. At that time, I was young, and I always peeked at some unsolved stories, and over time I also had some skills in solving cases, so whenever I followed Li Jucheng to do things, I relied on myself as a child and had freedom of movement, and I couldn't help but look around the corpse, and this time I found that the corpse was a little abnormal, not like it was drowned, but like it was thrown into the well after death. ”

"Is it because there are no algae in the nasal cavity?"

Xue Ne said: "In the wells of Chang'an City and the water drawn from each square, there is a kind of local aquatic grass, especially in the well, if you drown in the well, there will definitely be some residue between the mouth and nose, but there is nothing in the mouth and nose of that person." However, the big families are particular about it, and they can't use this as a basis, so I secretly informed His Highness, and he proposed to let me go down to the well to see if there was any moss in the water. ”

"I can't imagine that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Xue Yushi are so bold, the body of the drowned person is often very thick, even if it is an experienced person, it will be a little frightened, you two children are not shy about it, and you have to go down the well......"

"Ah, I haven't been afraid of these since I was a child, and Your Highness is even more jealous and hateful. But when I went down the well, I encountered some accidents, we tried it on the well, His Royal Highness could pull me, I just went down the well, I didn't want to go into the water after the body became very heavy, panicked I don't know what mechanism I touched, the well actually opened a notch, and a dead man's head popped out of it, I couldn't care so much, so I pulled the man out, who knew that there was a behind, a total of three or five bodies were pulled, and I swam against the notch where the corpse floated out, and I swam out of the kitchen sink......"

"If you listen to it, I think it's quite scary, it's hard for Xue Yushi to suffer such a big crime at such a young age."

"Even more terrible, in the back, I cut the rope and swam out of the kitchen sink, there was a dead chicken on the ground, but the blood all over the ground did not look like chicken blood, and I remembered that there were knives on the corpses that came out of the well, and I guess they were killed in this kitchen and thrown into the sink. In such a mansion, it is absolutely impossible to set up such a battle to kill so many people, if the young eunuch does not know. I made a bold guess that the man who was going to be buried today helped the young eunuch kill these people, buried them in the kitchen sink, and went down into the well. In order to extinguish the mouth, the young eunuch strangled the man to death, and then threw him into the well, making the illusion of drowning. I was worried that His Highness would turn to the young eunuch for help in order to save me, but something would happen to him, so I hurried back. Fortunately, His Royal Highness was able to hold his breath, and he also felt that this matter was strange and had not been reckless, I told His Highness that it was the young eunuch who killed the murderer, and His Royal Highness refused to believe it at first, after all, the young eunuch was born under His Royal Highness, and he was waiting on his side, and he was His Highness's right-hand man. But although His Highness was heartbroken, he still wanted to seek the truth. He offered to visit the garden, and led the young eunuch away, while I pretended to have fallen into the lake and was taken by the housekeeper to change my clothes. The housekeeper was not young, and he was very respectful to Li Jucheng before, and I guessed that he was a devout Taoist, so he said that there was a tricky water shadow in the house, and asked him if he had any missing family members recently. The old butler told me that there were several people running away from the bookkeeper, and I didn't know anything about them at the time, but I thought that their deaths might have something to do with money, and then I ran back to the abandoned kitchen, and dug out some unburned ledgers from the stove. Although I couldn't understand it, I felt that it should be important evidence, so I hurriedly ran out, but I didn't know that I collided with the young eunuch who was lying in ambush there......"

"This person was greedy for the money of the East Palace, and he killed his own account?"

"Yes, I thought I was cornered, and I was almost killed by his sword. Fortunately, His Royal Highness brought someone to arrive, and I threw the account book directly over in a hurry, and the man flew to grab it and was intercepted by Zhang Shun. Who knew that he was so mad that he kidnapped His Royal Highness the Prince. ”

"I heard that Xue Yushi saved the driver, and he was praised by the emperor and queen......"

"That's not it," Xue Ne replied truthfully, "It wasn't me who saved His Highness, no one expected that Li Jucheng was lying on the roof of the kitchen and opened his eyes, he quietly jumped down and pulled out his peachwood sword, and knocked the young eunuch unconscious with a single blow." I didn't make a move, Your Highness was not saved by me, it should be a misinformation. ”

The two gossiped, the mountain road was not difficult, and they soon arrived outside the yamen of the Imperial City Criminal Department. Xue Ne and Gao Min examined the evidence together, and when they left the yamen again, the sky was getting dark, Gao Min invited: "It's really Gao's luck to be able to work with Xue Yushi this time, I paid money today, can I invite Xue Yushi and Brother Ning to have a drink?" ”

"No", Xue Ne saw that Fan Ning had been guarding outside the yamen of the Criminal Department, although he had made a disguise, he was still a little worried, and he refused, "I saw the murder of the master of Famen Temple today, and my heart was a little uneasy, and Xue asked Director Gao to talk about it another day." ”

Gao Min bowed, and took two steps forward to say goodbye to Fan Ning. Fan Ning seemed to like his temperament, and joked with him word by word, which provoked Xue Ne to say aside: "Brother Ning, it's time to go......

Fan Ning said goodbye to Gao Min at this time, took two steps and turned back to wave to him. Xue Ne felt unspeakably uncomfortable in his heart, and asked, "Why did you let me ride with him......

"What?" Fan Ning didn't expect Xue Ne to ask this, and paused for a moment before replying, "You are stupid, he is the head of the Criminal Department, and he is in charge of this case, why don't you hurry up and talk about it, and see where they are going to arrest me next?" ”

"It's impossible to catch my house horizontally", Xue Ne's heart settled for two points, led the horse, and walked towards Chongrenfang with Fan Ning, hearing her stomach growling, Xue Ne proposed, "It's still early before the curfew, let's go to the West Market to eat some flax cakes and rice?" Don't you like to eat those? ”

"Don't eat it, those things are black, like the heads of those monks today, I look scared."

"In the past, Master Li said that you were more courageous than a wild donkey, why are you so scared today?"

"Don't talk nonsense", Fan Ning felt that his heroic image had been questioned, and he blushed a little, but fortunately he had a donkey skin on his face, and Xue Ne couldn't see it really, "Isn't today the day you get paid?" Please let me go to Donglin Pavilion for a drink. ”

After speaking, Fan Ning pushed Xue Ne and left. Xue Ne was reluctant on his lips, but he was happy in his heart. Who knew that when he arrived at the entrance of Fangshi, suddenly a girl poked her head out of the beautifully carved carriage and called: "Xue Lang! ”

Hearing this voice, Fan Ning only felt that his eyes were dark, and he almost drew his sword instinctively. In the blink of an eye, a slender and petite girl ran over and wrapped her arms around Xue Ne's arm, who was Li Yuanxi: "Why are you here?" I went to your house in the afternoon to look for you, and the steward said you weren't there. ”

Li Yuanyan arched Fan Ning to the side as she spoke, although she didn't know this person, but seeing this person pulling and pulling with Xue Ne, she immediately became vigilant, and with the heart of cutting chaos with a quick knife, she strictly prevented these men with two points of appearance from colluding with Xue Ne, and what to do to divide Tao Longyang and break his sleeves.

Xue Ne was tightly wrapped around her arms by Li Yuanxi, wanting to pull away, but she almost touched her chest, and she was so frightened that she didn't dare to move: "I went to Lantian to investigate the case, what are you looking for me?" ”

"Do you still have the heart to investigate the case? This afternoon, the Marquis of the street surrounded your house, saying that someone accused you of harboring the fugitive Fan Ning, and the evidence has been found in your room, and if you don't go back, the city will also post your wanted notice! ”

As soon as Xue Ne heard this, he turned around and was about to run home, but after a while, he stopped Fan Ning beside him, took out the money bag in his arms and put it in her hand, and said pointedly: "You go to eat first, you don't have to wait for me...... You can also go back to the East Palace directly to restore your life, and hold the waist card, don't lose it! ”

Before Fan Ning could respond, Xue Ne had already run away quickly, and soon disappeared into the busy street market of Chang'an City. Fan Ning was anxious and self-blaming in her heart, looking at the crowd of people passing by, she suddenly felt that she was so small and helpless, if it really affected Xue Ne and the entire Pingyang County Mansion, she really couldn't redeem it, but what can she do now to help him get out of danger?