The coachman took the reins outside, and as soon as Xie Yu heard that the car stopped, he hurriedly went down to meet the two Buddhas below.

Cui Yun got out of the car first, and said seriously when he passed Xie Yu: "I know why you are so thin and small, and you are so gentle when you drink a cup of tea, I am afraid that even if you eat, you will eat rice and chickens, and you won't be able to eat three points full." ”

Xie Yu didn't expect Cui Yun to observe her all the way and come to such a conclusion.

She laughed a few times and echoed Cui Yun, "The villain was adopted when he was young, and his father-in-law's family was not wealthy, so over time, he developed such a habit. ”

Cui Yun was even more energetic when he heard this, he stopped and looked sideways at Xie Yu, looked at her for a moment and said with some pity: "I heard Jingzhi say that your family is wealthy, if you weren't separated from the people in your family, you wouldn't be in this situation today." The Governor of Lingnan and I still have some friendship, and after this case is solved, I will write a letter and ask him to assist you in finding your biological parents. ”

Cui Yun's words are also a reward for Xie Yu, so that she can solve the case as soon as possible.

Now that nine people have died in the city one after another, if it weren't for Pei Heng recommending Xie Yu, he would have heard that this little radish had also solved some cases in Kangping County, and he really didn't want to use his father's favor.

He felt that Xie Yu should be grateful to Dade.

Xie Yu also understood the meaning of Cui Yun's words, so even if she was reluctant to let the governor of Lingnan intervene in this matter, her face still looked extremely excited, and she hugged her fist with Cui Yun and saluted, "Your subordinates have thanked Master Cui." ”

Xujia Liquor Factory has a large peony flower field, and now it is about to bloom, and the peony of the national color is rare to bloom, and the aroma of different shades is pleasant. The peony brew of the Xu family is famous far and wide, so people from all over the world come here every day to buy.

The steward of the winery saw a horse-drawn carriage coming from a distance, and thought it was a merchant who bought wine, so he greeted him early and waited at the door. I never thought that as soon as people walked in, they saw the appearance of the people who came.

Cui Yun is a parent official in Luoyang City, and he is a filial piety to the government of the Xu Family Wine Workshop. Although he had never spoken to Cui Yun, he still recognized Cui Yun at a glance and hurriedly bowed to the ground.

"Master Cui is really unusual, our family has just made a batch of high-quality goods, can you taste it?"

Cui Yun doesn't like wine very much, and every time the Xu family sends a peony brew, he mostly rewards it to Master Liu, and he waved his hand.

The steward saw that Cui Yun was not very interested, so he stopped mentioning it again. Thinking of the nine cases in Luoyang City in recent days, I felt a sigh in my heart, and secretly said that my own wine shop had something to do with the case.

Tentatively asked, "Is there something important for me to come today?" ”

Cui Yun glanced at Xie Yu and motioned for her to inquire.

Xie Yu stepped forward and exchanged a salute with the steward, "Yesterday Zhou 8 came here to sell wine?" ”

The steward is in charge of winemaking in the suburbs all the year round, and where do you know what Zhou Ba.

Hearing this, he was stunned, "Dare to ask who you are talking about this week?" ”

"The ninth deceased to be burned to death in his home this month."

As soon as he heard this, the steward's heart sank, and the secret way was really related to the recent case.

He snorted, trying to peek out something from the expression on Xie Yu's face.

"There are not hundreds of individual customers who come to us every day to sell wine, but there are dozens, and the small ones really don't remember." At the end, he added: "The adults will rest here for a while, and the villains will inquire now to see who gave Zhou Bagu the wine yesterday." ”

As soon as the steward left, someone stepped forward to welcome Xie Yu and the others in.

Looking at the figure of the steward in the distance, Xie Yu took out a map of the surroundings of Luoyang from her bosom and spread it on the table. She used a pen to outline the location of this place and Zhou Ba's house, connecting the two places with the Yilou into a line, so that Zhou Ba's route yesterday jumped on the paper.

Yilou is located in the east of Luoyang City, originally Zhou Ba only needed to go out of the city from the east gate, all the way home. But according to the route of yesterday's week, he should have left the city from the south gate, and on the way back, he passed through the Xujia Wine Shop located in the southeast of the suburbs of the city, and went home after selling two jars of wine.

Unless he went to the southern outskirts of the city first, Xie Yu really couldn't think of any reason why Zhou Ba could come here so reluctantly.

She had to find the person who gave Zhou Ba a drink yesterday to see what clues she could get from him, and at least she could guess the approximate extent of the place he had gone before from the time Zhou Ba arrived here.

Fortunately, the person in charge hurriedly returned with a person after a while, and said when he saw it: "This person is the one who gave Zhou Bagu wine yesterday, named Chen Zhong." ”

Chen Zhong looked at his young age, and before he came, the steward had already told him about the matter, which also made him break out in a cold sweat.

It is said that Zhou Ba still has some personal enmity with him, Chen Zhong's family and Zhou Ba are neighboring villages, Chen Zhong is the youngest son in the family, and there are five sisters on it. Six children have six mouths, just how to make ends meet with the thin land at home, it is Chen Zhong's family who moved the idea of selling their daughter.

originally planned to sell the fifth sister Chen Yao into a large family in Luoyang City as a slave, and said that she had signed a living deed that could redeem herself, but Chen Yao's whereabouts were lost for several years. After inquiring, I found out that Zhou Ba had played tricks in the contract this week, and changed the said living contract to a death contract regardless of life and death.

It was so that he sold Chen Yao to a wealthy merchant in another county as a concubine, and he was taken away five years ago, and there was no news at all.

Zhou Ba is a person in the Yilou, and he has been detained in black and white, even if he goes to the palace, he is helpless. Within a few months, Zhou Ba sent some silver taels to the Chen family, saying that it was brought by Chen Yao, saying that it was the Chen family who had pawned her all these years, and now she was a concubine in the rich family, and these silver money could be regarded as buying out the kindness of flesh and blood.

It was Zhou Ba who came to sell wine yesterday, and Chen Zhong recognized Zhou Ba at a glance. In order to vent his personal anger, he put some croton powder in Zhou Ba's wine, and never thought that he would learn that Zhou Ba died at home today.

Now that he heard that the government came to investigate in person, how could Chen Zhong not panic.

As soon as he saw Xie Yu, he hurriedly confessed, "The villain really just put some croton powder in his wine, which is nothing more than making him diarrhea for one night, and his death really has nothing to do with the villain." ”

Xie Yu was stunned for a moment, she really didn't expect there to be such a show.

Ordering Chen Zhong to explain the cause and effect of this matter clearly, Xie Yu asked him, "Hasn't Chen Yao contacted you until now?" ”

Chen Zhong shook his head, and said firmly: "Others don't know, but I know, back then, the family was poor and difficult to make a living, and the fifth sister volunteered to replace the other sisters. ”

"Then according to what you mean, your fifth sister didn't marry any rich businessman as a concubine at all?"

I didn't think that Chen Zhong nodded seriously and said: "It must be yes, the fifth sister told me before leaving, she will come back when she has saved enough money to redeem herself." Even if she really sells herself as a concubine with others, she will never cut off contact with her family, so it must be Zhou Ba who got a ghost out of it. ”

Xie Yu slowly analyzed the meaning of the heavy words, and asked, "Do you suspect that your fifth sister was sold by Zhou Ba to the side?" After a pause, she asked tentatively, "Yilou?" ”

"I also had such suspicions, but I asked someone to inquire about the Yilou for a long time, but no one has seen my fifth sister." At the end, Chen Zhong unconsciously clenched his hands, "I'm worried that my fifth sister has already encountered an accident." ”

Her eyes moved, but Xie Yu said that Chen Yao should still be alive.

She analyzed Chen Zhong one by one, "Zhou Ba can play tricks in the deed and trick you into changing the living deed to the dead deed." This deed is clearly written in black and white, regardless of life and death, it all depends on the master. If your fifth sister loses her life, as long as he is willing, the government is helpless to do anything about it, so why take the money to deceive you. ”

Having said that, Xie Yu can also vaguely smell a trace of strangeness from this incident.

As Zhou Ba, it is the most convenient move to bring a woman into the Yilou, but the Chen family has not found any trace of Chen Yao in the Yilou over the years, which can only show that Chen Yao is really not in the Yilou.

But if Chen Yao was not a concubine and was not in Yilou, if she was still alive, then where did Zhou Ba sell her?

Xie Yu sighed with a sigh in her eyes, and decided to investigate Zhou Ba's affairs first.

"That is to say, yesterday you saw Zhou Ba come to sell wine, because of the matter of the pioneer Chen Yao, you borrowed him to come to sell wine, and put strong croton powder into his two jars of wine in retaliation?"

Thinking of this, Xie Yu's brows couldn't help frowning.

Zhou Ba drank almost two full jars of peony brew, so Chen Zhong's croton powder was enough to torture him and keep him awake all night. In such a situation, how did the murderer sneak into Zhou Ba's house and complete the arson without him sleeping.

Xie Yu thought about it for a long time these days, and found that there were no traces of malicious arson left in all the deceased's homes, and it can only be said that the murderer most likely used the belongings of the deceased's home itself to complete the murder. However, these deceased people all had traces of activity before they died, indicating that these people were indeed burned alive, rather than dying unconscious.

Xie Yu really couldn't figure it out.

Unexpectedly, Chen Zhong followed closely and said something that made her even more stunned, "Lord Hui, Zhou Ba only sold a jar of wine at the villain's place." ”

A jar of wine!

Xie Yu stepped over and glanced at Pei Heng and Cui Yun, Master Liu said very clearly to them, yesterday everyone watched Zhou Ba return home with two jars of wine, but Chen Zhong said that Zhou Ba only sold one jar of wine here.

Where did that jar of wine come from?

Xie Yu's eyes were full of suspicions, and she couldn't figure it out.

The clues on Master Liu's side will definitely not be wrong, if Chen Zhong did not lie, then it can only be said that Zhou Ba already had a jar of wine before he came to Xujiagu Peony again.

In this way, Zhou Ba really went to other places.

Xie Yu looked at Chen Zhong and asked the most important question, "Do you remember what time Zhou Ba came?" ”

Chen Zhong also seemed to be aware of the problem, and only then did he carefully meditate and recall, and then replied cautiously: "It's about five o'clock...... That's right, it's five quarters of the unitary hour. I remember that when he came, just as I was about to go down on duty, it was because I saw him that I personally went up to him and sold him a jar of wine. ”

Xie Yu's fingertips swiped along the map one by one, guessing the direction according to the hour Chen Zhong said. The wine recipe on the outskirts of the Xu family covers a wide area, and for a long time, Xie Yu's fingertips stopped in one of the most likely ranges - the Longmen Grottoes.