CHAPTER XXI

When Wei Guang led people to hurry, it was already nightfall, and at this time, the cold wind was gusting, except for Xiao Qinglang and Xu Chu, everyone in the village hid home early.

"Please summon the village Zhongli and others to wait on the south bank, and let the villagers gather in one place." Xu Chu bit her lip slightly, only feeling that tonight's style was cold, and she was in a trance for a while.

"Okay, this king will send someone to arrange it." Xiao Qinglang nodded, paused for a moment before asking with some concern, "Do you want to rest for a while?" ”

Wei Guang brought more than 100 people, including county officials and local soldiers. Because Xiao Qinglang has a special identity and has the emperor's right to cut first and then play, even if he doesn't have a military talisman, the barracks will give people a favor and find dozens of people to come forward.

At this time, the torches around are shining high, not as good as daytime, but it can be regarded as brightly lit. Xiao Qinglang and Xu Chu were only half a step apart, and between their eyes, they saw the emotions in each other's eyes. One stands like a pine, and the other stands still like a rock.

In the dead and silent night, I could only hear a heavy step to wake up the adults and children in the house, and then escorted a group of trembling people with pale faces and frightened faces to the big ditch at the bottom of the south bank.

When Li Zheng of Liulin Village and the county magistrate of Cangyan County were taken by Wei Guang to the south bank, they were about to pee. But no matter how the two pleaded, they didn't let the cold-faced Wei Guang soften his attitude, and in the end, for the sake of their lives, the two could only support each other in fear and trembling.

The haunting thing on the south bank of Liulin Village, not only the people in the village know, but how many people in the entire county have not heard of it?

So even though the county magistrate wanted to show his face in front of the prince and wanted to be calm, but when the matter really came to him, his little chicken guts, who were only two or two, couldn't hold it anymore.

At this moment, the two of them suddenly felt a gust of wind blowing, and the thin dead leaves around them rubbed against each other, making them unconsciously have goosebumps all over their bodies. However, before the two of them could comfort each other, they saw from afar that on the ghost house in front of them, which had long been deserted, a hazy figure with a faint blue ghost fire walked step by step from far and near.

Now, there was no need for Wei Guang's cold face, the two of them directly screamed and hugged each other tremblingly, and there was a smell of urine mixed with the wind.

Wei Guang frowned in disgust, but because of the orders of the prince and Xu Chu, he still stopped and walked towards the south bank with one hand in hand.

At this time, the surrounding torches were connected, the flames were swaying, and in addition to Xu Chu, who was carrying a ghost fire, there were actually a few sturdy descendants digging something on the ghost house. In an eerie and terrifying atmosphere, everyone looked at each other, even the servants from the yamen were furious, and most of them only dared to hold torches and move away from the strange Miss Xu.

It's not that the girl is from Yinsi, but why can she stand with King Jing'an?

Anyway, no matter how frightened and frightened outsiders were, Xu Chu just listened to the sound of the people digging the ruins.

"Lord Wang, I've dug something." Suddenly, one of them shouted excitedly.

Then on and off someone dug up all sorts of things, from bones to skulls, in a haphazard manner. When it was all put away, a few people felt a little afraid.

The bones were muddy and dirty in the firelight, but there were places where there was a ghostly white glow. Especially at the skulls, the two hollow eye sockets on each head were facing the people, and the people who looked at them were terrified, and the timid ones who had been frightened were scattered and turned their heads and ran away.

However, what was even more terrifying was that the woman who still had the ghost fire on her body now squatted down calmly, reached out and took the skull and held it in front of her eyes to observe.

"The bone wall is thin and smooth, the eyebrow arch is smooth, and the cheekbones are round and smooth, which is a woman's skull. The hyoid bone is broken, the wound is neat, and it is undoubtedly strangulation. Xu Chu looked at the skull and continued after a little thought, "According to the degree of wear and tear of the permanent teeth of the skull and the condition of the skull, it can be concluded that the deceased was about twenty to twenty years old, and the time of death was at least twenty years ago. ”

Next, Xu Chu looked at the remaining skulls, and the rest of the situation was similar except for gender.

As more and more bones were dug up, the speed of Xu Chu's splicing also accelerated. Several of the deceased were of different ages and genders, so it was easier to distinguish them. Between the ups and downs, Xu Chu had already reassembled the skeletons of those gray bones.

"The top of the skull is flat, the forehead is vertical, the arch of the brow protrudes with small holes, and the cheekbones are square...... Gender of the deceased...... He was about twenty-five years old. As he spoke, Xu Chu reversed the skull again, and the white bones flipped from the white and slender palm, giving people an endless visual impact in the dark night. But if it is paired with Xu Chu's solemn look and neat movements, it makes people feel a lot less scared.

Xiao Qinglang suppressed the shock in his heart, and when he looked at Xu Chu, who was focusing on the autopsy with a solemn face, his eyes were unconsciously a little deeper.

Xu Chu didn't care about the eyes and thoughts of others, she only focused on checking the subtleties of the skull, and after flipping it, her eyes suddenly condensed. I saw that she carefully reached out and touched the place where the cervical vertebrae were, the tentacles were flush, but there was an obvious wound, "There are no cracks in the bones, no external injuries, and the thick cervical vertebrae have been cut off by a sharp weapon......"

It's not an ordinary sharp weapon, and there are no wavy traces, so it's not a saw or something, I'm afraid it's the result of a guillotine or a knife and axe hand......

Several skeletons were quietly placed aside, and when the sky was about to dawn, Xu Chu finally examined all the corpses. She remained unmoved for a long time, until the sound of galloping horses' hooves broke the silence of the dawn.

But I saw a black-clothed guard coming in a hurry, and two disheveled people were helping behind him. After looking at it, I saw clearly that the two were Rong Niang and Master Sun in Li Jin's mansion.

"Lord Wang, when my subordinates took people to the Wu family, the Wu family was already empty." The black-clothed guard stepped forward and knelt down on one knee and replied, "However, my subordinates checked the Wu family according to the instructions of the prince, and found that there were indeed traces of Wu Song's life." ”

Hearing this, Xiao Qinglang nodded, looking at Xu Chu with a vague smile on his lips, and his eyes were surging with gloomy. Sure enough, it was as she expected.

Xu Chu understood what Xiao Qinglang meant, such a shocking thing is rare in the world. Under the rule of the Great Zhou Dynasty, even if the world could not be clear and clear, such a tragic case would not occur.

And their so-called case is by no means the so-called murder case of the Five Elements Evil Spirit.

She nodded slightly with a solemn but resolute expression, and the broken hair that fell from her forehead became more and more messy against the cold wind blowing from dawn. But her steps and posture were not chaotic at all.

"Liu Lizheng, fellow villagers, today I will unravel the reason for the 20-year haunted rumors on the south bank of Liulin Village, as well as the truth that has been hidden for 20 years." As she spoke, she swept her gaze over the villagers who were standing on the side surrounded by officers and soldiers, and saw that some of them had already lowered their heads to avoid her gaze, and she couldn't help but feel relieved.

And the people who came with Wei Guang were stunned at the moment. It's said to be haunted, what truth can there be? Isn't this girl really a yin person, who can control ghosts?

"This matter starts with Lord Sun, who was the county magistrate of Changping County twenty years ago." Xu Chu's voice was cold, his eyes were cold and he looked at the prefect Sun Xing, who was paralyzed on the ground, and sneered lightly, "Lord Sun, twenty years ago, there were evil bandits in Changping County, killing people and robbing property, involving hundreds of thousands of taels of silver...... Do you remember that? ”

Let's say that Sun Xing was frightened in the house after beating himself, and he was already panicked. Now that he has been tied all the way to Liulin Village, how can he not know that it was the East Window Incident? He was pale, and sat slumped on the ground, staring blankly and not saying a word.

However, Xu Chu didn't expect him to confess, so he simply put aside his gaze and continued to raise his voice: "The bandits killed several jailers and wandered through the countryside, and the government issued a sea arrest document to arrest those people in the whole city and county. In the end, the bandit leader was besieged and killed by the Zhang, Li, Wu, Liu and others in Liulin Village, and then the bandits were sent to the yamen. Then, Lord Sun reported to the imperial court and beheaded the traitors...... In the assessment of the Ministry of Officials that year, Lord Sun was promoted several levels because of this case, and since then, his official fortune has been prosperous, and he has reached the post of prefect of Yunzhou City. ”

"Yes, this king also had doubts about this case, but when this king was young, he only heard a few words but did not know the details. But since then, this king has been quite curious about Lord Sun. ”

Seeing that Xiao Qinglang confirmed his words, Xu Chucai took a deep breath, then took a few steps forward, frowned, and said: "And twenty years later, the Zhang family, the Li family, the Wu family, and the Liu family were killed by the so-called evil ghosts one after another, can Lord Sun know which evil ghost is asking for his life?" ”

Sun Xing was named again, and he was trembling again. And under the staring eyes of King Jing'an and the guards, he didn't dare to be presumptuous.

"This official ...... The official didn't know ...... "It was about his official life, and Sun Xing, who had come back to his senses a little, could only hang his head and grit his teeth to speak."

"Heh......" Xu Chu snorted coldly, squinting slightly and said disdainfully, "Then let's not talk about that incident for the time being, let's get down to business and talk about the haunting of the south bank first." ”

"The ancients once recorded in the book: When he was more than ten years old, he saw a lot of ghost fires in the suburbs, and the branches of wheat seedlings and rice ears often burst into flames, and the color was green, and Russia was gone. Gai is not in the army for a long time, and the so-called human blood is phosphorus, and it is not in vain. Now it will never be seen again, and those who see it will think it is strange. ”

"The so-called ghost fire is actually just a phenomenon formed by the calcification of bones after the decomposition of the corpse buried in the ground after death. The reason why there is a ghost fire on the south bank is simply because there are several corpses buried in this ruin. With that, Xu Chu reflexively returned to the side of the bones, and then pointed to one of them and said, "If I guessed correctly, these should be the corpses of the Li family." The Li family's family of four, young and old, was all killed by him, and Li Jin was even cut off by Qi and beheaded. I don't know who Lord Sun gave the reward back then! ”

"This ...... You don't have to be unscrupulous, but all vicious cases must be reported to the Criminal Department, or under the instructions of the Three Law Divisions, and the official will naturally have a basis for issuing rewards. "Sun Xing is already transparent to Lord Sun at this time, but he can only hold on for his life, he really doesn't believe that just Xu Chu's words can convict King Jing'an.

"But what if I have a witness?"