Outside the yamen, some people cried heartbreakingly.

From a distance, there was a stretcher at the door, and a child was lying on the shelf. Two women and children knelt in front of a stretcher, while another middle-aged man carried a lantern with an anxious face.

The middle-aged man saw Lin Boqin, and hurriedly took a few steps forward, sweating profusely: "Lord Lin! Lord Lin! There are monsters in our county! ”

Lin Boqin frowned slightly and said, "Don't talk nonsense." ”

"Lord Lin, what the grass people said is true!" He moved the lantern to the stretcher, and then bent down to "brush" to uncover the white cloth—

Gu Jingtong couldn't hold back, turned his head and retched.

The scene in front of him was shocking, a seven or eight-year-old child was cut open for a long time, the wound was blurred with flesh and blood, and it was faintly seen from the deflated chest cavity that some internal organs were missing. Not only that, but the child's hands seemed to have been gnawed off by something, and the white wrist bones were exposed with blood.

Everyone was shocked.

Lin Boqin subconsciously glanced at Chu Cheng who was standing opposite, Chu Cheng came back to his senses, and saw that Gu Jing and Yang La were both retching, would it be bad if he didn't have an expression, so he also turned his head and pretended that he couldn't stand it.

Although the scene was bloody, for Chu Hui, who was accustomed to seeing strong winds and waves since childhood, it was barely an acceptable range.

Lin Boqin's face has never been so solemn, the deceased is a child in his prime, and he died so strangely.

He asked Hu Yu to call Xue Yao for an autopsy, raised his eyes to look at the middle-aged man, and asked, "What is the identity of the deceased and you?" ”

The middle-aged man said: "Below is the deceased's uncle, named Xu Changqi, who lives in the south wall and runs a straw paper shop. He raised his hand and pointed at the other two women who were crying, "It's my inner son in the blue robe, Jiang." Dressed in brown was my sister, the mother of the deceased, Hui Shi Yue'e. ”

"When and where was the body found?"

Xu Changqi replied: "Just half an hour ago, in the bushes of the southern city wall. He went out to buy sandbags in the afternoon to play, and there were still people to see him when Shen Shi, and when he had dinner in the evening, Xu couldn't find him, so he asked me to look for him, and found it in the bushes, and the result was ...... The result is now a tragic picture. ”

After speaking, Xu Changqi let out a long sigh.

At this moment, Xue Yao hurriedly came over with a small bag, he saw Lin Boqin and Gu Jingtong, and began to conduct an autopsy.

Half a quarter of an hour later, he stood up, wiped his hands with a cloth, and looked incredulous: "About two hours after I died, I was cut into my abdomen by a sharp weapon one foot long, and my lungs were lost in my cavity." His hands were gnawed off by an unknown animal, and the injuries were uneven. ”

Lin Boqin lowered his voice and ordered: "The corpse grid is written, bring it to me to see." ”

Xue Yao nodded and turned around to do it.

Xu Changqi couldn't help but tremble when he heard this: "When we found the body, we also found a leprosy dog in the grass at the root of the south wall, and there was a lot of blood on the dog's mouth...... If you don't catch it, it will run away and disappear. ”

Gu Jingtong had vomited enough at this time, he turned around and asked with a pale face, "What's wrong?" Did you find anyone suspicious? ”

Xu Changqi thought for a moment and shook his head: "No." ”

Lin Boqin and Gu Jingtong discussed for a while, asked Xu Changqi to take the body back for burial, and asked Yang Lahuyu to lead people to catch the leprosy dog in the county overnight, and he couldn't let go of any of them.

Chu Ji saw that everyone was gone after a while, and she was in a daze, but Gu Jingtong happened to notice her.

He came over and asked, "Aren't you afraid of ghosts, it's getting dark, find a servant to send you back." ”

Chu Ji didn't look at him, and looked at Lin Boqin with blank eyes: "You're not going back home tonight?" ”

Lin Boqin was stunned for a moment, shouted his head, and his face was heavy: "You also saw it just now, if this case is not investigated as soon as possible, I am afraid that the people of the entire county will be panicked." Chu Cheng knew his virtue, so he didn't dwell on it, waved his hand, and turned around to leave.

Gu Jingtong frowned, feeling that it was not good for her to go back alone as a woman, and said, "Now that there is a case of the lung-eating dog, aren't you afraid?" ”

Chu Cheng glanced back at him and said, "Thank you for your kindness, I'm really afraid of ghosts, I'm afraid of that kind of ghosts floating around." The lung-eating dog is not a ghost, so why am I afraid? After saying that, he hummed a song and left.

Gu Jing was speechless for a while.

Lin Boqin was a little helpless when he heard her words.

Yang Lahu Yu was not there, and the others were not at ease, he looked at Gu Jingtong on his side, and then frowned and said: "Sheng Feng, you go to the third hall first and wait, I suddenly remembered that there is a very important book in the study of Lin Mansion." ”

Gu Jingtong nodded slightly, and his eyes were a little complicated.

Chu Ji was bouncing in front of her, and suddenly heard footsteps behind her, she was shocked, and thought it was some kind of villain. But after a while, she heard who the owner of the footsteps was, and couldn't help but smile at the corners of her mouth.

"Oops!"

Chu Cheng deliberately pretended to be a stumbling foot and screamed.

Lin Boqin was startled, stepped forward quickly, held her arm, and scolded: "Just walk well, you have to jump around." ”

Chu Cheng turned his head to look at him, with a look of surprise on his face: "Why are you here?" ”

Lin Boqin hesitated for a while before he said, "I forgot to take something at home, so I'll go back by the way." ”

Chu Cheng snorted, thinking, is it difficult to admit that it is difficult to worry that she is not safe to go home alone?

Thinking of this, she had a bad idea of teasing, covering her ankle that was not injured, and Chu Chu was pitiful: "My foot hurts so much, I can't walk anymore." ”

"I'll hire you a car." Lin Boqin said that he was about to leave, but Chu Cheng was willing to let it go.

She tugged at his sleeve: "No, it's so late, where is the carriage?" There are a lot of cows, but don't you know how much time it takes to go back and forth? When you get back, maybe it'll be dawn. ”

Lin Boqin frowned and asked, "Is it really impossible to leave at all?" ”

"Can't go." Chu Hui's eyes rolled, looking at him with a cunning gaze, "It's better to ...... You're carrying me? ”

"Don't think about it."

"Don't think about it, you've hugged it, and it's okay to carry it." Chu Ji was embarrassed anyway to Lin Boqin, Lin Boqin was even more embarrassed, compared with the two, it was more interesting to see the latter make a fool of himself.

Lin Boqin was unexpectedly surprised to hear this, and his cheeks burned slightly.

He lowered his face and said coldly: "A woman, how can she speak so shamelessly. ”

"I'm not ashamed, you didn't know it now." Chu Cheng grimaced at him, "There are even more shameless ones, do you want to listen?" ”

“……”

Lin Boqin was afraid that she would really have no face and no skin, and according to her character, she would really do it, so she kept silent.

Chu Ji saw him standing stupidly, and suddenly felt bored.

With a wave of his hand, he stood up: "Let's go." ”

Lin Boqin came back to his senses and found that she was pretending, his face suddenly became even more gloomy, and he was about to teach a lesson, but a wild dog suddenly jumped out in front of him, and the wild dog ran out and ran away, but in the blink of an eye.

The sky was dark, and Lin Boqin didn't see it clearly, and he couldn't help but think of the previous lung-eating dog case.

Chu Ji took advantage of his distraction and quietly walked behind him, smiling teasingly.

Suddenly, she screamed "Wang", raised her hand and scratched Lin Boqin's arm: "The lung-eating dog is coming!" ”

Lin Boqin, a big man, was stunned by her, he was angry and annoyed, and grabbed Chu Cheng's hand with his backhand: "Don't mess around!" ”

"Haha, I'm scared! I thought you weren't afraid of anything! Chu Cheng laughed and fell, and after laughing for a long time, he found that the back of his hand was held by Lin Boqin, and he couldn't help but fall on the hands of the two.

Lin Boqin also seemed to come back to his senses, only to feel that the soft wattle in his hand was smooth and soft, and it was so hot that people didn't dare to hold it anymore.

As if he had been electrocuted, he hurriedly let go and turned around.

Chu Shen touched her hand, pursed her lips and smiled, and quickly followed: "Speaking of this lung-eating dog case, what do you think?" Could there really be a youkai? ”

"It's all people pretending to be ghosts behind their backs."

Lin Boqin apparently scoffed at this.

Chu Cheng sighed "hmm", thinking that so many haunted rumors in the palace before were all the concubine's means of competing for favor, and nodded with deep understanding: "Yes, what is more terrible than ghosts and gods is the human heart." ”

She thought for a moment, and then asked, "But if it's really man-made, who is so mad that even an eight-year-old child can bear to kill?" Still using such cruel methods? ”

Lin Boqin frowned and didn't understand: "Killing people is either for love, or for revenge, for fame, or for profit." An eight-year-old child doesn't have any of these four points, and I haven't figured out why for the time being. Chu Cheng was quite confident in him, and said, "No matter how difficult the case is, I think you will definitely be able to solve it." ”

"You're overestimating me."

"Perhaps."

Chu Cheng laughed, remembered something, and asked, "By the way, if you want to go back to Lin Mansion to get something, what are you taking?" ”

Lin Boqin frowned and replied, "It's a book." ”

Chu Cheng was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect that he was really trying to get something, and thought that he was making a special trip to find an excuse to send him. Suddenly, she was a little unhappy in her heart, her mouth was pursed and she didn't show it, and asked with a lack of interest: "What book?" ”

"Wangzhou Miscellaneous."

Lin Boqin also explained carefully: "The rumor of the lung-eating dog first appeared in this "Wangzhou Miscellaneous". I revisited the story and tried to find clues that would be useful in solving the case. ”

Chu Cheng felt that this hope was quite slim, but she didn't pour cold water on it.

When the two returned home, the first thing they did was to go to the study to find the book.

There were too many books in Lin Boqin's study, and Chu Cheng and Lin Boqin were too busy, so they asked Mao Bixi to come and find them. After a while, Mabi raised a yellowed book in her hand and shouted, "Found it!" ”

Lin Boqin took it and flipped it over, and said, "This is it." ”

He turned to the account of the lung-eating dog, and found that the content was not much different from the rumors. The dog-faced snake is a monster with wings, loves to eat children's hearts, lungs and hands, and whoever has a child who cries at night will be found and eaten by the lung-eating dog.

Chu Ji also rummaged through it, but didn't find anything useful.

It's just that the back of this book says that it was written on March 7, the 29th year of Anye, so it was more than 80 years ago.

She saw that there were a few unintelligible texts at the back of the book, so she pointed to it and asked, "What does this mean?" ”

Lin Boqin pondered for a moment and replied: "This "Wangzhou Miscellaneous" was written by a monk from Youfang, and I am afraid that these essays are his name. ”

Chu Cheng nodded, and wrote it down.