The moon hung high, and a dilapidated carriage sped forward in the dark night.

The two people sat opposite each other in the car, one was a young girl, only seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a plain coarse linen skirt, and her long black hair was simply coiled up with only a wooden hairpin. Ordinary people wear such clothes, even if they are born, no matter how beautiful they are, they will be greatly reduced. However, when it came to this girl, this common sense seemed to be reversed, perhaps her temperament was too dusty, so that people couldn't help but wonder if the clothes she was wearing were not coarse cloth hairpins, but made of some rare materials, otherwise how could she be worthy of such a figure.

She looked relaxed, leaning against the wall of the carriage with her eyes closed. Sitting opposite her was a middle-aged man, wearing a seven-grade official uniform, and he was obviously much more nervous than the girl, frequently wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

The carriage suddenly stopped, and the driver shouted outside, "My lord, we have arrived at the place." ”

"Hey!" Qi Hong responded and whispered to the young girl who was traveling with him, "Miss Pei, please." ”

Pei Xia opened his eyes, his starry eyes flowed, and he showed a very shallow smile to Qi Hong: "Lord Qi said that he was laughing, please first." ”

"Ouch, I'm confused!" Qi Hong patted his head, he straightened out his not messy dress, took a deep breath, lifted the curtain, and got out of the car with the help of the driver, Pei Xia followed closely with his toolbox on his back.

In front of them was an inn, although it was late at night, the inn was still brightly lit, there were two guards guarding outside the inn, and through the door of the inn, it was vaguely visible that there were many people standing inside.

"Xiaguan see Lord Wang." Entering the door, Qi Hong saw that Wang Yunsheng, the prefect of Qiuzhou, was present, and hurriedly bowed. ”

"How are you?" Li Shoufu saw Qi Hong's face change, and then reprimanded his subordinates: "Didn't you ask you to invite Master Zhang from Liuhe County?" ”

The officials who came first pushed each other a few times, and sent one person to reply: "My lord, the bridge to Liuhe County is broken, and we can't find a boat for a while this night, so we can't get through." ”

"How can a bridge at the good end be broken?"

"This ...... I don't know if it's small, maybe it's the heavy rain during the day, and it's been a period of high water recently......"

"Bastard!" Li Shoufu wanted to say more, Wang Yunsheng waved his hand impatiently, and said to Qi Hong, who was standing awkwardly awkwardly: "Since you have already come, then the test is enough." Lord Qi, please. ”

Being named, Qi Hong glanced at Pei Xia, who was standing behind him. Pei Xia walked forward with the toolbox on his back and saluted the officials present, and then asked, "Where is the body?" ”

Wang Yunsheng didn't answer immediately, but looked her up and down for a long time, not only him, but everyone's eyes in the inn lobby were now focused on Pei Xia.

"Who are you?" Wang Yunsheng frowned.

Qi Hong hurriedly replied for Pei Xia: "This is Pei Xia Pei girl, who was invited by the lower officials to conduct an autopsy." ”

"Master Qi, what do you mean by this?" Li Shoufu had a dark face, his eyes turned back and forth on Pei Xia and Qi Hong several times, and then asked: "A big case where human life is at stake, you just find one, one," he was about to talk about the village girl, but Pei Xia's temperament The evaluation of this "village girl" was really indescribable, and he stammered for a long time, and then pulled out a non-praise reference: "A woman is here to fool!" ”

"There's really no way around it." Qi Hong said with a smile, although nominally he and Li Shoufu are both magistrates, but Linci County is a middle county, and his Daomi County is a lower county.

"Hmph, it's just that there's no serious work, not even the county clerk, the chief bookkeeper, and the county lieutenant?" Wang Yunsheng asked unhappily.

When asked about this, Qi Hong replied in a low voice: "When the subordinate official arrived, he wrote an excerpt to apply to the imperial court, but he has not sent anyone to come so far. The big and small jobs in the county are all done by the lower officials, and if they really don't know, they have to ask for a helper. “

"Helper?" The person beside Wang Yunsheng sneered contemptuously, turned to the corner and said, "Your Highness has changed your mind now?" Would you rather hand over such an important case to this little woman of unknown origin than hand it over to our Prison Division? ”

After such a reminder, Qi Hong noticed the person sitting in the shadow in the corner. I saw that the person was noble, handsome and abnormal, and his facial features were just right, and no matter how delicate he was, he showed femininity, and no matter how rough he was, he lost his handsomeness. If it weren't for some sick appearances that made the eyes not very attentive, I am afraid that the gods would be less than that.

It's a pity, it's a pity! It is strange to say that when the prince was still in Beijing, the doctors in Beijing were so busy that their feet did not touch the ground, in addition to normal consultation, there were also many official eunuchs who were to marry girls to teach medical skills, just to be able to get close to him by borrowing a reason to see a doctor.

After only a glance, Qi Hong immediately bowed his head and knelt down: "The lower official didn't see His Highness here, please forgive Your Highness." ”

"It doesn't matter." Mu Changan raised his hand to signal Qi Hong to be exempt, and then looked at Du Xiao: "What did Lord Du say, this king just hopes that you will act in accordance with the laws of this dynasty, and the law stipulates that if the suspect has doubts about the results of the autopsy in the jurisdiction of the case, he can apply for a re-examination by a prosecutor sent by Linxian County, and if the re-examination result is different from the initial test and cannot be determined right or wrong, the criminal prison department of this state can send someone to re-examine." ”

Because of his illness, his voice sounded a little lacking in breath, but the timbre was very warm, and with his gentle tone, it looked like a very soft persimmon.

No matter how soft a persimmon is, he is also the sixth prince, and the king of Suiyuan, who was personally crowned by the emperor, has a precedent to follow, so even if Du Xiao is reluctant, he has to retreat, and said to Pei Xia with a cold face: "Since His Royal Highness insists on doing so, the lower officials have nothing to say." Miss Pei, please, I want to see what Lord Qi's helpers are capable of. ”

After Du Xiao stepped back, he revealed the table behind him, which was made up of three pieces of paper, on which was a futon, on which lay a female corpse.

Pei Xia stepped forward and glanced at it roughly, and did not rush to start the autopsy, but asked the people around him, "Does anyone know the identity of the deceased?" ”

"It's the Silver Girl from Pomegranate Lane." The answer to her was the work of Linci County.

Pei Xia nodded and asked, "Then her mother invited her over?" ”

He was secretly surprised in his heart, he was deliberately vague, wanting to bully Pei Xia for not being a local and making Pei Xia ugly, but he didn't expect Pei Xia to know that Pomegranate Lane was a secret prostitution alley in Linci County.

Under this startle, Fang Cun was confused, and his momentum was shortened in an instant, and he replied: "I have been arrested, and I am temporarily locked up in the upstairs room." ”

"In that case, I bother you to invite her down, I have something to ask her." Pei Xia's voice was not too loud, but his tone was calm and calm, revealing a magic that could not be ignored, as soon as the words fell, he consciously went upstairs and led people down, until he was glared at by his own commander before he reacted, didn't he want to make Pei Xia stumble, why did he obediently listen to others and help others do things?

Pei Xia looked at the mother-in-law who had been brought down by her husband, and saw that the clothes she was wearing were more colorful than ordinary women, and she also had heavy makeup on her face, but she was wiped with tears and a handkerchief, which looked strange and scary.

The woman stood tremblingly in the middle of the hall and was about to kneel, Pei Xia stretched out her hand to stop her and said, "Don't panic, I just want to know about the situation of Miss Yinchuan, and please tell me about it carefully." ”

The mother-in-law said "yes" repeatedly, and then told her what she knew, she was emotional, and what she said was a little upside down, but fortunately, Pei Xia basically understood.

This mother-in-law's surname is Chen, and Yinchuan was bought by her from a tooth dealer when she was ten years old, and after a few years of training, she began to pick up customers, and now she is nineteen years old. Yesterday Shenshi, she and Yin Chuan quarreled over a trivial matter, Yin Chuan went out angrily, and never came back since, until this afternoon, before the official sent her here, she did not see Yin Chuan again.

After asking Mrs. Chen, Pei Xia continued to ask the people around her: "Who was the first to find the deceased?" ”

"It's the king." Mu Changan coughed with his left hand clenched his fist in front of his lips, and a waiter next to him handed him tea, he waved his hand, and continued to answer with a pale face: "Since this king was sealed to Qiuzhou, every year at this time, this king will go to Qingyan Temple to pray for his father and mother, the distance between the palace and Qingyan Temple is far, and this king is not feeling well, so he often rests in this inn for a day or two before leaving." Last night the king slept very deeply, and when he awoke he saw the girl hanging herself in the king's room. ”

Mu Changan's words seemed casual, but in fact revealed two key messages: first, his itinerary was not a secret; Second, it seems that someone did something to him last night to make him unconscious. Of course, the first one is easy to verify, and the second one is true or false is worth scrutinizing.

Pei Xia sighed and asked, "...... the rope that hanged Miss Yinchuan?"

"Let's do an autopsy, let's ask so much, what are you doing? Don't you have this ability? Du Xiao interrupted Pei Xia's words and mocked.

"For an autopsy, we should first understand the identity of the deceased and the course of the incident, so as not to miss important information. Besides, since it is hanging, the hanging rope is an important material evidence to judge whether it is suicide or murder, how can it be regarded as having it? Pei Xia replied neither humbly nor arrogantly.

It's just that a prince uses the law to pressure him, and a village girl also talks about the program, which is simply slapping him in the face. He just casually mocked, but he was speechless by this girl's words. Besides, with Mu Changan, the king of Suiyuan, staring at him, he couldn't forcibly justify it on such an obvious matter, reversing black and white.

Du Xiao's face turned blue and white for a while, and he said angrily to the errand officer of Linci County: "Don't show it to her yet!" ”