Out of the small restaurant, the five of them walked slowly down the street according to the route they usually patrolled, and just when they turned a corner, suddenly an old woman rushed out of a house screaming in front of them.

"Come on! Kill, kill! ”

Suddenly, the pedestrians on the street were alarmed, and everyone invariably surrounded the old woman, and Nie Xiaohu and the others took three steps and two steps in front of the old woman.

"Where's the people?!" , Nie Xiaohu asked loudly.

"Inside, inside," the old woman gestured to the building on the side of the street.

Nie Xiaohu rushed in first, Tang Yibin also followed closely behind, and Shi Yuning and the others maintained order at the door.

On the floor of the first floor, lying on the floor down, with a dagger stuck in his back, the deceased's back and the floor were splattered with blood, the blood had not yet coagulated, apparently just after being assassinated.

Nie Xiaohu stepped forward and probed the person's neck, then shook his head slightly, and then surveyed the scene. The first floor is the living room, the interior furnishings are not luxurious, and the living room of ordinary people is the same, the two large windows facing the street are latched, Xiaohu carefully observed, the windows have no traces of being prying; On the floor next to the corpse was a delicate jade vase with several bright flowers inside.

Nie Xiaohu gently picked up the vase and looked at it, and found that there was a small piece of collapse on the edge of the bottle mouth, presumably because the deceased stretched out his hands and pulled it randomly at the moment when he fell to the ground, and removed the vase on the table from the table to the ground.

Nie Xiaohu carefully pulled out the dagger on the deceased's back, only to see the word Tian Gang engraved on the blade.

There are three bedrooms on the second floor, each with a small window, and the windows are latched inside, and the latticework has accumulated a layer of dust, and there is no sign of opening.

After inspecting the inside of the house, Nie Xiaohu came outside the house again and circled around the house. The house faces the street, up and down two floors, the left and right sides are residential, the back of the house is a river, only the second floor has three small windows, the windows are so small that an adult cannot get into it at all, and if you want to enter the house, you can only go through the door.

After looking at the house, Nie Xiaohu asked the old woman, "Old mother, what's your name?" ”

"Back to the official's words, the old body Wang is the neighbor of Mrs. Yan."

"Old Madam Yan?"

"Oh, it's the deceased, named Yan Zhenzhen."

Nie Xiaohu nodded and asked, "Tell me what you saw!" ”

"That's the case, this morning I was sewing clothes at home, and I found that the scissors were missing, and I couldn't find them everywhere, so I thought about borrowing a pair of scissors from Mrs. Yan, where did I think that as soon as I entered the door, I found Mrs. Yan lying on the ground, with a knife stuck in her back, I was frightened for a while, and then I ran to the street and shouted."

"Didn't the door close when you came?"

"No, the door is open."

"Old mother, is there anyone else in this old lady's family?"

"No, Mrs. Yan has no children or daughters, and her wife passed away a few years ago."

"No, I just saw that the three bedrooms on the second floor have traces of people living in them."

"Oh, that's her nephew Yan Tiangang, and the other young man is a guy who works in the same shop as Yan Tiangang, named Chen Zhicheng, and they are temporarily staying at Mrs. Yan's house."

"Yan Tiangang?" , Nie Xiaohu's heart moved, and the dagger used to commit murder was engraved with the word "Tian Gang".

"That's right!" , Wang suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly said: "I heard that Mrs. Yan has an antique jade pendant, which is very valuable, I don't know if the thief is the one who killed in order to grab that jade pendant?" ”

"Jade pendant?" , Nie Xiaohu couldn't help frowning, when he checked the corpse, he didn't find any jade pendants.

"What kind of jade pendant is it?"

"I don't know, I just heard that it is an antique handed down from the ancestors of Mrs. Yan, I have never seen it, everyone just heard that there is such a thing."

Nie Xiaohu pondered for a while, and then asked, "Which store is Yan Tiangang helping in?" ”

"It's not far from here, in the Shaw Kee blacksmith shop."

Two quarters of an hour later, Nie Xiaohu and the five of them came to the door of the Shao Ji blacksmith shop, there was a flagpole erected in front of the door, and the cloth banner of "Shao Ji Tie" was waving in the wind, and the five of them stepped into the shop.

The shop is not big, there is an arms rack on each side, the shelves are full of all kinds of weapons, the walls on both sides are also full of swords, the corner of the wall is a stove, a middle-aged man is shirtless, holding a hammer in one hand, and a pair of fire tongs in the other, the tongs are sandwiched a long strip of red-hot fine iron, the middle-aged man is banging there, next to him is a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy, who is pulling the bellows vigorously, and another teenager is carrying a bucket of water to a large vat.

"It turned out to be Nie Zhutou, why did you have time to come to my shop and buy weapons?" , Seeing Nie Xiaohu and the others, the shirtless middle-aged man put down the work in his hand and greeted him with a smile.

Nie Xiaohu shook his head and said with a serious face: "I'm here to find someone!" ”

After speaking, Nie Xiaohu quickly glanced at the two guys with the corner of his eye, the guy who was pulling the bellows was expressionless, his eyes were fixed on the flames in the furnace, and he was still pulling the bellows with a concentrated expression, while the guy who was pouring water into the water tank was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but look at Nie Xiaohu.

"Oh? I don't know who Nie Zhutou is looking for? I'm just me and these two guys here. ”

"Who is Yan Tiangang?"

"Huh?" The guy who poured the water sighed, "I am." ”

Nie Xiaohu looked the young man up and down, not tall, slightly fat, with a pair of big eyes on his square face, and he was looking at Nie Xiaohu with puzzled eyes.

"You are Yan Tiangang?"

"I am, I don't know what the official is looking for me?"

"Who are you Yan Zhenzhen?" , Nie Xiaohu stared at Yan Tiangang's eyes.

"My aunt, what's wrong?" Yan Tiangang looked dazed.

"Yan Zhenzhen was killed in her home this morning."

"What!" , Yan Tiangang's eyes were dark, his feet staggered, and with a "bang", the bucket in his hand fell to the ground.

"This, how is this possible? She was fine when I left this morning", Yan Tiangang's eyes were glazed, and he muttered to himself.