"Boss, why do you guess that it's Uncle Zhou and not his eldest son?" Li Yuansan followed closely behind Xue Mingkai and asked.

When the rest of the people heard this, they all looked at him with curious eyes.

"Didn't I ask you to talk to the treasurer of Fu Ji before? The shopkeeper said that he used to be a shadow puppet puppeteer and had learned ventriloquism, right? Xue Mingkai was equipped with a broad-bladed knife, hanging on his waist but not bulky at all, but a little more powerful, he said with a cold face, "We all miscalculated the time of Zhou Damiang's death, the initial autopsy result was that he died around Hai Shi, and Zhou Dalang's family had already slept, according to them, there was still a lamp in Zhou Da Niang's house when he slept, and Uncle Zhou also had a big quarrel with Zhou Da Niang, so we subconsciously mistook it for Hai Shi death, but Zhou Da Niang's real death time was in Xu Shi, That is, before Uncle Zhou left home, and the sound of Aunt Zhou's quarrel that Zhou Dalang and they heard was actually made by Uncle Zhou. ”

"In that case, Aunt Zhou was already dead at that time?" Li Yuansan frowned and asked.

"No, at that time, Mrs. Zhou was still alive, but she was stunned and put on the bed, and the time was calculated to cut the wick short, and then Uncle Zhou used a paper cut prepared in advance and put it next to the lit lamp oil, so that the shadow cast on the bed looked like a person's shadow reflected on it, and then as long as he left in time, after the shortened wick burned and extinguished by itself, the shadow reflected in the window was gone, and in the eyes of outsiders, it seemed that Mrs. Zhou turned off the lights and rested. After he arranged all this, he used ventriloquism to start pretending to be a quarrel between the two, and it was also at this time that he really committed the murder, and after killing Aunt Zhou, he pretended to be angry and left with his sleeves up. ”

Since Uncle Zhou has been in the troupe, he must have learned to cut paper with both hands, and even he has a grasp of what shape the paper-cut projection will be on the window, and he uses this to show the illusion that after he left, Zhou Da Niang is still sitting by the lamp oil, so that Zhou Dalang and his wife mistakenly think that Zhou Da Niang is still alive.

"Then he is not worried that Zhou Dalang and his wife will go to the house to see Aunt Zhou after he leaves, so as to expose the fact that he committed murder?" Another poor master couldn't help but ask after listening to the explanation.

"Aunt Zhou is very strong at home, every time she is angry with someone outside, Zhou Dalang and his wife dare not come forward, Uncle Zhou also calculated the character of their couple, it is expected that they will not appear when Zhou Da Niang is angry, and when he rushes back the next day, he has an alibi at the scene of the crime." Xue Mingkai said.

Even in order to prove that he had no time to commit the crime, he rushed to Fu Ji early in the morning to buy mung bean cake to clear his suspicions.

"Well, it sounds like there are some possibilities, but boss, how do I feel that you seem to have always known that there is something wrong with this case, so you went to the county master and offered to investigate the case." The catcher looked at him suspiciously.

"I'm just guessing, I'm not sure." Xue Mingkai looked straight ahead, even if he was thinking about other things in his mind, he still walked very steadily, "When I checked the file a few days ago, I found a very similar case, which was the silent death of the deceased in his sleep, this case happened twenty years ago, it happened in Qinghong County, at that time Qinghong County was still Qinghong Town, and it belonged to this county, so the original file record was still left in the county Yamen, and the file was finally reported to be closed as a natural death." ”

At that time, the deceased's mother's family was very strange, their daughter was not sick or sick on weekdays, why was there suddenly no person, they were very puzzled, so they went to the county government to report the case.

The county government sent a quick arrester to investigate, and the conclusion was that it was a natural death, so the case was labeled as non-anomalous, and it has been stored so far, when Xue Mingkai overturned, it was already covered with a thick layer of ash, and some of the handwriting had been damaged, and he still guessed while looking at it to roughly know what was going on.

If this case alone is not enough to explain anything, what makes him keep in his heart is that a similar case happened twelve years ago.

The place where the second case took place was not far from the village where he lived, and he was already a teenager at that time, and he still had some impressions of this case.

The family of the second deceased did not report the case, so they did not arrest and investigate, and the incident was also in a uproar at that time, spreading all over the surrounding villages and towns, but because there was no murderer, it didn't take long to quickly cover it up.

If it weren't for this third case, I'm afraid many people wouldn't remember that the same thing had happened.

Now that such a thing happened in Liansan, the cause of death was not clear, and Xue Mingkai had to have more snacks.

And the county lord because of this matter is too popular, I can't help but worry about whether it will affect his triennial assessment, plus he has no background at all, he is a poor student, and because his literary talent is not good enough, he is not appreciated by the high-ranking people, he was sent to the county to be a county official is already the third term, if you can't climb up, then you can only fall down, after all, a seat can't be filled for more than three terms, so he will never allow a trace of mistakes at this critical juncture.

That's why he nodded and agreed when Xue Mingkai took the initiative to ask.

To be honest, if Xue Mingkai hadn't taken the initiative to ask for it, he would have found someone to see it.

Anyway, at most, it is to conclude that there is a natural death, as long as it can calm the emotions of the people and make them stop talking about it again and again to expand the impact of the situation.

"I see." After listening to the explanation, the catchers all nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

"Boss, do you suspect there's something wrong here?" Li Yuansan and Xue Mingkai walked in the front, he quietly leaned his head and whispered to Xue Mingkai, afraid that he would be heard by the people behind.

"When there was no autopsy for Aunt Zhou, I just doubted that now ...... I probably know that in my heart. ”

Li Yuansan blinked his eyes and looked at him as if he didn't understand.

What does it mean to have a lot in mind?

Xue Mingkai quieted down after saying these few words, and went straight to Xinghua Village without saying a word, and several people around him looked at his back without hesitation, and they didn't continue to ask, followed his footsteps, and went to Xinghua Village together.

***

"A-Niang, what's wrong with you?" Gu Changning came back with the clothes, and just about to take the clothes to Yang Huiyun's house to fold, he saw that she looked uneasy, and couldn't help asking.

"It's nothing, I just think of Aunt Zhou, and it's always a little unsteady." Yang Huiyun asked with a frown.

"What's wrong with Aunt Zhou? Mother is talking about her sudden death? Didn't she walk in her sleep? ”

"You don't know, something similar happened twelve years ago, but the family didn't take it seriously at that time, so they didn't report it to the official, and now that I think about it, I always feel that something is wrong."

"Twelve years ago?" It was the first time Gu Changning heard about it, and he was slightly surprised, "Is it also from our village?" ”

"That's not it, it happened in Xiangshui Village, which is three or four villages away from our village."

"That means that there have been two cases of death in their sleep in twelve years, in different places?" Gu Changning pressed his chin and thought seriously.

Yang Huiyun reacted at this time, and hurriedly waved her hand to catch her: "Okay, you should go and get busy with you, this kind of thing is not something that you should pay attention to as a child, don't mention this matter again in the future, you know?" ”

How could any girl's family show interest in this kind of thing, and if she was known, she didn't know how much criticism it would cause, so she naturally didn't want Gu Changning to pay more attention.

"I know, I know, Ah Niang don't urge me." Gu Changning wrinkled his nose and left the house with a dissatisfied expression.

There is a twenty-year-old soul living in the body, and he has to be treated as a child, and his mood is not beautiful, and he is not beautiful.

Gu Changning sighed like a little old man, put on her bamboo basket, and was ready to stand at the door and wait for Chen Shuang and them.

As soon as the door opened, I saw Chen Shuangxing'er and their figures coming towards her from a distance, but they didn't have to wait, they just felt that the expressions on their faces were not quite right, as if they were surprised by something.

"What's wrong?" Gu Changning waited for them to come to him before asking.

"Ning Ning, something is wrong!" Xing'er grabbed her and said in a very excited tone: "Do you know, something big is wrong!" ”

Gu Changning glanced at her, rescued his arm from her hand, and threw up a soulless fake smile at her, "Then you said it!" ”

"I'll tell you!" Xing'er gasped for an exaggerated breath, and was just about to speak, when she suddenly looked around, although she didn't see anyone else, she still lowered her voice and whispered, "When I just came over, I saw a group of catchers going to Uncle Zhou's house!" ”

Hearing this, Gu Changning suddenly remembered what A-Niang had just said, and said as if he was aware: "But is it because of Aunt Zhou?" ”

"That's right!" Xing'er nodded her little head and said, "When the group of officials passed, there were a lot of onlookers in an instant, but it took us a lot of effort to squeeze in/before we heard an ear." ”

At this time, it was the time when the adults were ready to go to work in the fields, and when they saw someone coming from the yamen, they naturally squeezed all of them up.

"And what did you hear?" Gu Changning said as he walked with them, and the five of them walked towards the place where the pigweed was cut.

"The group of catchers said that there were some things that they wanted to invite Uncle Zhou to the yamen to explain clearly, and then I saw Uncle Zhou's expression 'swish' turn white, and he was trembling all over, how strange it looked!"

"Uncle Zhou?" Gu Changning frowned slightly and muttered and repeated.

She guessed that there might be something hidden in Aunt Zhou's matter, but she didn't think about it to the Zhou family, because Uncle Zhou and Zhou Dalang didn't feel like people who could do such things.

Uncle Zhou is honest and responsible, and his personality is easy-going, and he is not easy to make enemies with others.

Not to mention Zhou Dalang, he has a weak personality, he listens to Aunt Zhou no matter what, and never dares to resist.

Uncle Zhou's brother is very dissatisfied with this, shouting every day what to marry a wife and marry a virtuous, in his opinion, Zhou Dalang's current temperament is all caused by Zhou Da Niang, otherwise how can he be a brother of the same mother, Zhou Dalang is so cowardly, but Zhou Erlang is bold and decisive.

"Did you call Uncle Zhou or did you call Zhou Dalang as well?" Gu Changning hurriedly asked after thinking of this stubble.

"Hmm...... It seems that Zhou Dalang was also called, what's wrong, is there any difference? Apricot asked, tilting her head.