Chu Nian and I looked at each other, but they were not competing, and he helped me downstairs to the scene of the crime.

The screaming woman was so frightened that she spread out not far from the deceased, trembling and shaking into a ball of hugging the pillar, and it seemed that she was not lightly frightened. She is one of the official sons who came to accompany the guests, and she is the dancing girl who leads the dance, and I am very impressed.

After that song ended, she hurried downstairs under the cover of other dancers, as if she was hiding from Jiang Qingping, who had been staring at him with squints.

As for the deceased, he was dressed not like an official, but like a clerical master.

In order to deal with those Licheng officials, I poured a lot of wine today. Standing a little top-heavy and reluctantly, after taking a general look at the scene of the crime, I immediately asked Tang Li to watch the scene and protect the dancing girl, while I walked towards a man-made rockery waterfall not far away, inserted my face in cold water for a while, wiped off the water stains on my face, and suddenly sobered up a lot.

When I came back, the scene had been blocked, and Tang Li didn't dare anyone mess around, not to mention that Chu Nian was secretly staring.

I entered the crowd again and stood beside Chu Nian, and asked in a low voice, "Has anyone gone in?" ”

Chu Nian shook his head, looked at me in surprise and frowned slightly, and whispered, "How did you do this?" ”

"Sobering up? Not thanks to you? Although he was a little sober, he still had some flutter under his feet, and he generously ordered: "You help me over." ”

Chu Nian lowered his head and twitched the corners of his mouth, but he didn't dare to hesitate in action.

This incident must have also alarmed the people upstairs, and the officials who had drunk the five mysteries and three daos, including Jiang Qingping, also arrived one after another.

"Who is this? Come out well and spoil the fun. "Jiang Qingping is the biggest official here, and the people who drink it are a little confused.

I ignored him, just crouched down to check on the deceased.

The deceased was about six feet tall, his body temperature was still there, his blood had not yet clotted, and it was presumed that he had died no more than two quarters of an hour.

There was a visible wound on his chest, a strangulation mark on his neck, and a remnant of silk thread from his clothes.

I took it in my hand and sniffed it, and there was still a faint smell of rouge.

Judging from the texture of the silk thread, it looks like the ribbon that the dancing girl has just danced, and I turned my head to look at the dancing girl who was shaking into a ball, and the dress on her body has not changed, and her body is clean, but there are many blood stains on the edges of the sleeves, and the soles and skirts are also occupied, and there are also in the hands, which looks very embarrassing.

Judging from the degree of fright she was frightened, and the messy footprints stained with blood on the ground, she didn't look like a murderer, but I didn't understand, this place is so secluded and pitch black, what is she doing here as a girl?

I gave Chu Nian a look, Chu Nian just watched coldly and didn't react, he could only squint at him inadvertently when there were many people, and wrapped the clues collected in a white handkerchief.

Then the wound of the deceased was examined, and judging from the amount of bleeding from the wound, it should have been stabbed to death after being restrained, and the hand was steady and ruthless, and the knife was fatal.

Judging from the size of the wound, the murder weapon was a dagger, about four inches long and less than an inch wide, and sharp.

At this time, Chu Nian also squatted down as if he had discovered something, and opened the deceased's clenched left hand, revealing a red rope about three inches long.

He picked up the red rope with a handkerchief and handed it to me, and when he looked closely, he found that the color of the red rope was not red, but pink, and the corners were stained with blood, the blood stains were not dry, and the incision was complete, as if it had been cut by a sharp blade.

"What is this?" I rummaged through the rummags and stumbled upon two of the dancer's companions in the crowd, both of whom had the same style of purse tied around their waists with this string.

He walked over and smiled politely, "Girl, may you let me see your purse?" ”

The two of them looked at their companions worriedly, and Jian I came over to ask for the purse, and handed it to me tremblingly from the knot around my waist.

I compared their purses, the same style, only the smell of spices is different, and the embroidery patterns on the purses are also different, but one thing is certain, this purse is from the same person.

I returned one of them to the other, and the other squeezed it in my hand and said politely, "Girl, who embroidered this purse for you, does everyone have it?" ”

The two of them both nodded, and one of them was a little younger, and replied weakly, "It was Sister Wen Ya who made it, and Mother Liu thought it looked good, so she asked her to make one for us, and the sisters in the garden have it." ”

"Lady Wen Ya is here?"

The little girl looked around the crowd and pointed to the girl who came out of the guest room in the northeast corner downstairs, "That's Sister Wenya." ”

I looked at the girl from afar, her face was not very good, as if she was still sick and was very weakly supported by someone.

I remember, when dancing, no one seemed to be abnormal, how could it be so weak in just a while?

Suppressing his doubts for a while, he showed the three-inch long string to the two girls in front of him, "This is the string tied to your sachet?" ”

The two girls carefully identified each other and nodded affirmatively.

I thanked him, and then looked at Maihime's waist, but there was nothing.

After seeing the pause in my vision, Maihime subconsciously lowered her head to touch her waist, and began to rummage around the cuffs in a panic, her eyes were covered with a layer of fog, and she looked at me helplessly and kept shaking her head, "No, my lord, my, mine is in the resting room, really, it was accidentally broken by me, it's upstairs, adults can go and check." ”

I patted her on the shoulder and gave her a look to Tang Li, who came back after a moment of knowing it, and handed me the purse with the broken rope, "My lord, I found it." ”

I took it and took another comparison in my hand, and found that Maihime's purse exuded the fragrance of medicinal herbs, which was completely different from the fragrance of flowers given to me by her companion, the orchids embroidered on the purse were very chic, and the rope at the sealing place was indeed broken, but it was torn by an external force, and the incision was not neat.

Jiang Qingping walked over impatiently at this time, snatched away the dancing girl's purse, looked at her condescendingly and said with a wicked smile: "A slut who doesn't know what to do, he actually dares to resist and kill, come and put this slut in a prison and torture her." ”

The dancing girl was so frightened that she couldn't possess her body, and when she heard that Jiang Qingping had charged her without judgment, she crawled over to me for help in a hurry, "My lord, my lord is clear, the slave family did not kill anyone, and the slave family really did not kill anyone." ”

Tang Li appeared in time, and the hero saved the beauty and stopped Jiang Qingping's men.

Seeing that the dancing girl was stopped by Tang Li, the guards looked at Jiang Qingping hesitantly, Jiang Qingping walked over with a shaking look and politely hugged his fists and said: "Lord Chu, don't be deceived by this cheap slave, you look at her skirt and hands, the blood stains are obviously my clerk Jiang Zhong's, it must be Jiang Zhong who took a fancy to her, and she didn't have the intention of killing." If you are tired all the way, you might as well hand her over to the subordinate to deal with it, come on! ”

"Wait! Jiang Shen General, the dancing girl is also a human being, and it is not the way to be an official. I rubbed my temples, only to feel my head buzzing, I glanced at Jiang Qingping's deflated appearance, turned around and smiled, squatted down and said seriously, "Don't you know how to cry, tell me what's going on with the bloodstains?" ”

Mai Ji sobbed and looked at her bloodstained hands, "Great, my lord, slave maid, slave maid went downstairs after dancing, accompanied this sister to buy some spices halfway, and when I came back, my sister lowered my letter, and was asked to come here, but I didn't want to trip over something, and the slave maid knew by the moonlight that she had tripped over someone, and the person was already dead." Everything the slave said was true, and the slave really didn't kill anyone. ”

"Dating you? Who is it? What about faith? ”

Maihime shuddered and took out a letter from her bosom and knelt down to present it to me, "My lord, this is it. ”

I unfolded the letter and then looked at the torch shimmeringly, and the strength of the wine that I had finally suppressed was a little high, and the words were double.

The general content is similar to what Mai Ji said.,It's just that there's a little more care between the lines.,It seems that the relationship is not shallow.,The most important thing is that the handwriting is sonorous and powerful.,It should be a man.。

The dancing girl is a kind of official family, according to the law of Southern Qin, if the woman who is the official family is found to have conclusive evidence of an affair with an ordinary man, then even if the dancing girl does not kill anyone, it will be difficult to escape heavy punishment.

I handed the letter to Tang Li, believed her, and asked, "Since I made an appointment with you, why don't you see him, you are the only one here?" Also, why is he here so late? Who is he, if you let him come out and testify against you, you may be able to clear the suspicion. ”

"He, he didn't wait for me, not here." She glanced at the crowd very uneasily, and immediately lowered her head after seeing Jiang Qingping's vicious gaze, "The slave can't say his identity, and the slave can't hurt him." ”

Her reaction made me have to look back at Jiang Qingping, and when the latter noticed that I suspected him, he immediately explained with a smile: "Master Chu misunderstood, this slut is known to have fornications with others, and the lower officials are also investigating the coward who didn't dare to stand up, but you can also see that she and his concubine killed my paperwork, and actually helped that person hide his identity, which is too much." If the lower officials don't punish them severely, if the cheap maids of Yunjiaofang follow suit, then they can pay it back? ”

I didn't have a good impression of this Jiang Qingping, but now I don't have the slightest morality when I listen to him, and I am even more disgusted from the bottom of my heart, especially now that his exaggerated defense makes me feel that he is despicable, I really can't figure it out, General Fang is brave and brave, how can there be such a subordinate?

"What does it mean according to General Jiang?"

"What the lower official means, my lord might as well hand over this case to the lower official to deal with, this cheap maid has always been disobedient to the control, and now she has killed my paperwork, and it is not a pity to die." Jiang Qingping smiled and leaned over and lowered his voice a little more, "Adults have come to Licheng to do big things, why bother so much about this little thing?" ”

"Human life is a matter of heaven, and General Jiang thinks it is also a trivial matter?"

Jiang Qingping was speechless when I asked, his face was not very good-looking, his emotional control was not very good after drinking too much, and he obviously looked down on me, a hairy boy who had not dried up.

Just when we were at a stalemate, Tang Li called out to me, "My lord, come and take a look!" ”

Tang Li sprinkled a layer of lime around the deceased, and several pairs of identical footprints not far from the front of the deceased, the footprints on the cloister were obviously a man's, that is, the murderer was a man, judging from the size and depth of the footprints, the murderer should be seven feet above and in a very well-proportioned figure.

"Hiss......" In order to make way for me, Chu Nian didn't pay attention to his back when he retreated, and almost folded out of the corridor, and the small porcelain bottle in his hand spilled outside the corridor, behind the corpse.

When a pair of clear footprints appeared in the grass, I realized that he did it on purpose.

He bowed his head and apologized to me casually, but I ignored him, but compared the footprints on the grass, which were actually two small women's footprints, which were about the size of Maihime's feet.

This gave Jiang Qingping the opportunity to make trouble, "Lord Chu clearly understands, this really has an accomplice, and if someone arrests her, she will definitely try her accomplice!" ”