The government and the Niu family have their own reasons, but they are in dispute because of the lack of evidence, and the Niu family is even more insistent that he is wronged. Xing Ruyi pondered for a while, asked Chang Tai to go down, temporarily retreated, and then led a group of officials to set up a grass hut in the open space in front of the government office, put firewood around it, and after lighting the fire, he ordered people to throw in two little pigs.

These two little pigs, one alive and the other dead. When the ember shed was destroyed, Chang Tai ordered Xiao Shengzi to lead people to pull out the two pigs, put them directly in front of Niu's, and broke the pig's mouth for her to watch.

Everyone was puzzled, and they all came up. I saw that the mouth of the live pig was full of ashes when it died, but the mouth of the dead pig was clean. Among the onlookers, there were smart ones who immediately understood Chang Tai's intentions, and then shouted: "Niu Fugui is exactly the same as this dead pig, and his mouth is clean." ”

Chang Tai nodded, and asked Xiao Shengzi to carry Niu Fugui's body over, pry open his chin, and let everyone and the Niu family watch, Niu Fugui's mouth was indeed clean. Seeing this, Niu immediately collapsed on the ground and confessed that he had murdered her husband and then went into the firewood room to destroy the body.

As for the reason for Niu's murder of her husband, it was actually because of a painting.

"A painting?" Xing Ruyi and Chang Tai glanced at each other, and Chang Tai immediately asked, "What kind of painting?" ”

"A painting of a woman, Fugui said it was a picture of a beauty, and he held it almost all day long." Niu lowered his eyelids: "I heard a long time ago that this Xie family's old mansion is a ghost house, let alone live in it, even if you just pass by its door, you will encounter misfortune." But Fugui is a gambler, and he lost all the things in the family, and even the house where he barely lived was taken as collateral. I had no choice but to take my daughter to live with him in Xie's house.

On the first night of my stay, I felt that something was wrong, as if there was a pair of eyes staring at you all the time, making people feel cold in their limbs and scratching in their hearts. I checked it several times, inside and out, but I never found anything. I suspect that I have heard too many haunted remarks, so I feel panicked, so I coaxed my daughter to sleep.

When I woke up in the middle of the night, the room was pitch black. But I remember that my lamp was burning out of fear. I was afraid that there would be wind in the middle of the night and blew out the lamp and candle, so I specially sewed a white gauze lampshade and covered it. I got up and lit the lamp, but I saw a man standing outside the window. ”

"Your bull is rich?"

Niu Shi nodded first, and then shook his head with puzzled eyes.

"At first, I thought it was wealth, but by the light, I looked at the past, and it was a little different. It was a woman's figure. I remembered the rumors that the Xie family's old house was haunted, and I was really scared, but my daughter was beside me at the time, no matter how scared I was, I always had to pretend to be bolder. So, I took the lamp and candle, put it in front of me, and shouted the name of the rich to the window. I deliberately let myself shout too loudly, but I couldn't hide some tremors in my voice, and I think she must have heard it, so she let out a sneer. Yes, that's right, it's that kind of sneer. My heart trembled, and I subconsciously hugged my daughter tightly. But I waited for a long time, and she just stood at the window and didn't move.

I don't know how long it took, but I just felt stiff all over my body, and the flame of the lamp and candle was getting weaker and weaker. Just when I was about to lose my life, I heard a beating outside the door. When I plucked up the courage to shine the light at the window, I found that she was gone. After a few more moments, there was a knock on the door. I was scared and shrunk into bed with my daughter in my arms. But then he heard the voice of the rich, and went and opened the door. He was wet and didn't know where he had gone. When I came back, I had the scroll in my hand.

When he saw me, he didn't speak as rudely as he used to, but grabbed the lamp and candle, spread the scroll on the table, and looked at it carefully. I was standing behind Fugui and glanced at the table. I saw that it was a woman with long hair, and it was difficult to see her face. ”

"How can you not see your face clearly? Is it because of the light of the candle? ”

"It's not! I remember very clearly, although the lights and candles that night were not bright, but I could see the women's hands and feet, and even the patterns on her clothes clearly, only her face, as if covered with a cloud of mist, I couldn't see it clearly. I originally thought that the portrait was also because of the water, which would cause the face of the woman in the painting to be unclear, but after that night, Fugui was like a demon, day and night, constantly looking, and I actually felt more and more that the woman in the painting was very much like the female ghost standing in my window at night. ”

"Female ghosts?" Xing Ruyi thought of the woman who was lying on Chang Tai's back before, she was also wet, she was also slender, her hair was very long, and she couldn't see her face clearly. "And after that?"

"The second night, because my daughter was noisy during the day, I went to bed very early. The night was peaceful, but I felt that the night was very cold, as if I was spending winter. When I fell asleep, Fugui was still there, so he sat in the room, staring at the portrait in a daze, and when I woke up, it was already dawn, and Fugui seemed to have sat all night, and his face was very ugly. I boiled the porridge and brought it to him, originally wanting him to eat something, but I accidentally touched his painting and was pushed to the ground by him. He beat me a lot, so I got used to it, and I didn't take it to heart at the time. In hindsight, I always felt that his eyes were very abnormal at that time. Niu Shi thought about it carefully, and added, "His eyes at that time were like a madman I met a few years ago. It's just that the madman's eyes are cloudy, but his eyes are full of ruthlessness. I don't know why, but a thought suddenly popped into my mind, if Fugui didn't die, my daughter and I would be killed by him sooner or later.

On the third night, Fugui was even more abnormal, and he actually put on my clothes and walked like a woman in the room. There was a hint of fear in Niu's eyes, she covered her eyes with her hands, and her lips trembled slightly: "He walks very strangely, not like he walks straight, but like when we were children, we teased ants." ”

"It's just catching a little ant, putting it in an obstacle, and watching it run around, but it can't get out?" Niu's words also reminded Xing Ruyi of the days when he was a child in his hometown in the countryside. At that time, there were not many things to play with, and ants were the easiest to find. As long as you use some branches and leaves to circle the little ants, the little ants will circle inside, and they will have to turn around a few times before they can find a way to escape again. This kind of game is very simple and fun, and even sometimes, you don't even need auxiliary tools, just use your fingers, draw a circle on the land, and catch a small ant and put it in. Niu had apparently played the same game, so before she could find a more appropriate adjective, she thought of that.

In Xing Ruyi's mind, a scene seemed to appear. Niu Fugui, dressed in women's clothes, kept spinning in circles like an ant in the house. To outsiders, his behavior may be very strange, but if it is placed at night and outdoors, when you see this kind of scene, you will think of another word, that is, "ghost hitting the wall!" ”

Ghost hitting the wall, also known as ghost blinding. Legend has it that because he offended the imp, was teased by the ghost, and covered his eyes, he couldn't get out of the way when he went around in one place. Ghosts hit the wall, depending on the energy of the imp, it can be big or small. If you are a powerful demon, you can be enclosed on a mountain and let you run to death and die of exhaustion. If the energy is small, it will trap you in one place and let you spin in place without listening, and this latter situation is very similar to that of Niu Fugui.

But these are just speculations, if the female ghost is the same as the one lying on Chang Tai's back, you can also rule out the factor of the ghost hitting the wall, and simply understand that the ghost is possessed, or the ghost is on the body. Niu Fugui is dead, what is the specific reason, Xing Ruyi is too lazy to investigate. In short, there are himself and the fox, and the thing hidden in the Xie family's old mansion can't run.

Exhaled lightly, Xing Ruyi originally wanted Chang Tai to take Niu down. She has already admitted the charge of murdering her husband, and the rest of the matter only needs to wait until Xie Xuan takes office tomorrow and hand it over to him to deal with. Chang Tai is just arresting quickly, and arresting people is his responsibility, and this interrogation is not within his responsibility. If it was in the past, there was no need to say that Chang Tai would have acted according to the rules, but today, he was a little abnormal, and he insisted on hearing all the facts of the case.

Seeing that the crime had been decided, Niu had no intention of manipulating, so Chang Tai asked whatever she asked, and she answered. The events of the night of the crime are also described in great detail.

The cause of Niu's murder is related to both the painting and a dream she had that night.

Although Niu Fugui was crazy, he didn't do anything out of the ordinary. After Niu put his daughter to sleep, he stayed up and watched Niu Fugui for a while, and unconsciously, he was also sleepy.

In her dream, there was a flash of lightning and thunder, and after the lightning, she seemed to hear a burst of rain

Niu got up from the bed and looked outside, and the huge courtyard was really full of water. Next to his ears, there seemed to be two men talking. One of them said, "It's so late, will you come?" Another said, "I asked, and I'll come." Niu is wondering, how come there are two more men in the family, could it be that they are from the gambling house to ask for debts?

She subconsciously went to find Niu Fugui, but found that her room had changed. Although it is still the same pattern, there are many more decorations, and all the furnishings look like new. In the bed, there was a bed of aqua blue brocade quilt, and what she was covered with was a rose-red quilt, which was also a good joke. Niu pinched his face, although he felt something, it didn't hurt. At that moment, she realized that she was in a dream. But whose dream is it? She thought of the woman standing at the window, and also of the woman in the scroll that Niu Fugui was holding.

Niu was a little flustered, but he didn't know what to do.

At this moment, she heard footsteps for a while, but from near and far, and the two men who were still talking just now also stopped their voices at this time.

The night was quiet, except for the sound of rain and the occasional flash of lightning in mid-air.

After a long time, the door that had been closed opened. A man in black clothes, black pants and black shoes walked in, it was an old lady with a face covered with folds and a gloomy look in her eyes. Her hair was almost all white, and there were no extra ornaments on her bun. In her right hand, she was on the kind of dragon head crutch that only the storyteller had in his mouth, but in her left hand she was holding a blue jar.

Niu Shi looked at the old lady in a daze, until she walked up to her, lowered her head, and stared at herself with those dark gray eyes, that she felt a chill in hindsight. She opened her mouth, but found that her mouth was cold, and her tongue seemed to be frozen, and she couldn't speak at all.

(Education 123 Literature Network)