Xie Hanci leaned forward slightly, and there was a lotus flower in the incense burner. The petals of the lotus flower are flawless, and when you look closely, you have a Buddha nature, and it is hard to imagine that it is from the hand of the woman in front of you.

After everyone had seen it, she lit the incense, and the scent of wisps of herbs overflowed from the incense burner and spread in the Lingxiao Pavilion.

This incense is called Lingxi incense, which is a combination of fragrance, made of diced chicken tongue, sweet pine, spiritual herbs, Huoxiang and other spices, and the aroma is smart and long-lasting. There is also an interesting origin of this incense, a woman misses her deceased husband every day, and finally chooses to commit suicide by throwing herself into the lake. ”

Yi Huan couldn't help but muttered quietly when she heard this: "What? After lighting this incense, can her deceased husband come back? ”

Concubine Bao'er originally stared at the incense burner, and when she heard the words, she slowly raised her head: "Burning incense, naturally it is impossible to bring the dead back to life." It's just that legend has it that this spiritual rhino incense can help people communicate with ghosts and gods. ”

A needle of north wind blew away, blowing away the smoke rising from the incense burner, which inexplicably added a bit of "ghostly energy".

"Wang-"

The sudden barking of a dog startled everyone.

A pitiful skinny hound ran in front of everyone and barked at Yihuan's brother several times.

Yi Huan looked at it and complained, "Brother, did you bring this dog back?" Why is he so skinny? Don't you usually feed it? ”

Li Mingchen said: "It is a fine dog I raised in the Criminal Department, born with such a size, I took him with me when I was handling the case, and I didn't have time to send it back today, so I brought it into the house first." With that, he left his seat, crouched down, and touched the dog's neck. He asked, "Ah Xi, what's wrong?" ”

King Anchang couldn't help but mock when he watched his son talk to the dog.

"Tut, I've been an official for two years, and I don't want to go home to talk to your father, so I live in the bureaucracy and talk to the dog every day. What's wrong with Ah Xi? Do you expect it to stand up and answer you? ”

Ah Xi seemed to want to prove that he really understood, turned his head and ran out of Lingxiao Pavilion, and just when everyone thought that it had gone to play somewhere, he rushed back again, holding an embroidered shoe in his mouth, ran to Li Mingchen's feet, spit out the shoe, and yelled at him twice.

"Wang-"

Li Mingchen pinched the handkerchief and picked up the embroidered shoe, Xie Hanci recognized it at a glance, the style of the shoe was exactly the same as the one that Steward Wang fished out of the pond this morning, except that this was a left foot, and the one that was fished out in the morning was only the right foot.

After circling Li Mingchen twice, Ah Xi ran two steps in the direction of the outside of Lingxiao Pavilion, and when he saw that the master did not follow, he looked back at Li Mingchen who was standing in place.

Now even Xie Hanci, a person who has never had a dog, understands it, this is to let Li Mingchen follow it.

He led them to the deepest part of the garden, where there was a low wall.

It's the season of blooming, and the foliage climbs up the wall and climbs high, the edges of the leaves are jagged, and the delicate flowers are drilled out of these toothed leaves.

Ah Xi shouted at the corner of the wall, pulling the dirt on the ground with his two front paws, Li Mingchen broke a banyan branch, picked up the leaves and branches covering the ground, and immediately smelled a rotten and fishy smell.

The housekeeper hurriedly stopped Li Mingchen, "Childe, this morning, the second lady found a few white-bellied red foreheads by the lake, maybe the servant woman who fished for fish was lazy and buried the dead fish here." Don't get your hands dirty, I'll let the people bring shovels in a while and bury the dead fish again.

Li Mingchen ignored the housekeeper's obstruction, and his hand movements did not stop until he dug more than two feet deep, and a woman's left leg was exposed.

Li Mingchen threw away the branch in his hand, turned around and looked at the housekeeper coldly, "Is this the dead fish you are talking about?" ”

Although Yi Huan had read dozens of books about strange cases in various places, she had never seen a dead body herself, and her face turned white with fright on the spot, Xie Hanci covered her eyes with her hands and asked her to turn her head away from looking.

This is a left leg, her five toenails are dyed red with the juice of impatiens, and it seems that the foot is swollen and almost transparent, and the body of the corpse is still in the soil, and the ground around it is soft, and it must have been buried in it for a short time.

Li Mingchen beckoned Steward Wang to get a shovel, but Steward Wang looked embarrassed.

"Let's let the old slave go to report to the county king and the county princess first."

Li Mingchen was furious, grabbed the butler's collar, and said sharply: "I don't care how ridiculous my father usually is, and how much filth is hidden in the mansion, but this is a human life!" If you don't take it, I'll look for it myself, and if I can't find it, I'll dig it with my hands. ”

Steward Wang had no choice but to answer and trot to get the tools.

Xie Hanci squatted on the ground and looked at the shoes of the female corpse, this is a dark red embroidered shoe, which is embroidered with a pattern of Pisces playing with beads with bright yellow threads, this pattern and embroidery can only be barely counted in Shudi, it is estimated that it is just an ordinary thing near the capital, and it is impossible to prove the identity of the deceased.

Xie Hanci stood up and said to Yihuan: "I can't see anything in these embroidered shoes, it seems that I can only wait for Steward Wang to dig up the body." ”

Li Mingchen leaned over and picked up the embroidered shoe, he didn't take out the handkerchief again this time, but went straight to the hand, groped the upper inch by inch with his fingers, and finally pulled out the insole, and a small blade one finger long immediately fell to the ground.

"How could she have a blade hidden in her shoe?" Yi Huan pointed to the blade on the ground, frowned and asked, "Could she be an assassin?" ”

Although Xie Hanci didn't know why she hid the blade in her shoes, she was afraid that such a "murder weapon" would be difficult to protect herself, how could she use it to assassinate?

Li Mingchen looked at the blade, it was only as thick as a fingernail, and he wouldn't feel much when he stepped on it.

"I once heard a colleague mention of a kidnapping case, several scholars entered Beijing for scientific research, the capital is expensive, and the money in my pocket is quickly spent. Unfortunately, several people are still famous in Sun Shan, and they don't even have the money to go home. ”

Yi Huan interjected when he heard this: "I know, they must be pretending to be kidnapped with their families, so that the family will not only send money, but also not count the fact that they have not been admitted to the fame, after all, compared with their lives, whether they can be officials is a trivial matter." ”

Li Mingchen shook his head: "If this is the case, this matter will not be reported to the Criminal Department." ”

Xie Hanci spoke: "They called the Qinglou woman to come out to accompany her, but they stunned the person and sold it to the man." Because there are often scholars who celebrate after the release of the list, it does not arouse suspicion. ”

Li Mingchen looked at Xie Hanci and was a little surprised, "How do you know?" The woman had a special identity, and she was not looking for anyone at that time. ”

Xie Hanci shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly: "Because those scholars are from Shudi." This scandal was reported back to the family, and was taken out by the gentlemen of Shuzhou City for three years, so that the scholars who later went to Beijing were stuffed with enough money at home, and they were afraid that their sons and daughters would study hard for so many years, and finally go astray for the cost of returning to their hometowns. ”

Yi Huan didn't care about the scholars, she asked rhetorically: "No, brother, although the woman in the Qinglou is a lowly person, she can also put up a list to find someone, the previous famous prostitute Chen Mingming disappeared, didn't she post a notice, and offered a reward of 1,000 taels." ”

Li Mingchen sighed and said: "That's what I said, but they are immersed in the Fengyue Field all year round, and it is not uncommon for someone to elope or escape, the old bustard doesn't want to cause trouble, and most of them will not report to the official family if they find that the person is gone...... Scholars will not be found out. ”

Li Mingchen glanced at Xie Hanci, after all, those scholars were born in Shu and were considered to be Xie Hanci's fellow villagers, he thought about it, and still tried his best to consider his words.

Xie Hanci didn't care, there are good people and bad people everywhere, and if these people do something wrong, it doesn't mean that all people from Shu will act like them, "The sky has eyes, this woman escaped and brought those fanatics to justice." But what does this matter have to do with this female corpse? ”

Li Mingchen pinched the small piece of blade and explained: "My colleague later recorded in the case file that the woman hid a small piece of blade in the insole, and she relied on this small piece of blade to cut the hemp rope that tied her hands and feet, jumped out of the carriage of the man, and escaped. ”

Xie Hanci pondered for a moment: "It's not common to hide a blade in the insole, do the Qinglou women in the capital generally have this habit?" ”

Although Yi Huan is curious, she often asks questions, but in the end, she is the daughter of the boudoir, where do you know this. had to move his gaze to his brother, Li Mingchen's face immediately turned red, and he squeezed out a sentence for a long time: "As far as I know...... Combine...... And there is no such habit. ”

Yi Huan listened to his words, and let out a meaningful "oh", pulling a long tail note.

Li Mingchen hurriedly interrupted, "Miss Xie's analysis is very correct, this habit is not common, I will repair a book, and ask my colleagues to copy the name and appearance characteristics of the prostitute who reported to the official at that time from the file, and compare it with this corpse, maybe it is this woman." ”

Yi Huan looked at the back of his brother leaving in a hurry, and glanced at Xie Han.

"How do I think he was found by the two of us to always visit the flower building and find an excuse to escape. Also, my father looks like that, the upper beam is not right, can you still expect the lower beam to not be crooked? Usually just shopping, and I didn't take them home one by one, so I was a decent man and a gentleman compared to my brother. My man, hey! ”

Yi Huan pinched his waist and looked like he hated iron but not steel, and Steward Wang took the shovel and led the princess of the county to rush over.

"Dust?" Seeing that he was not there, the princess hurriedly asked.

Xie Hanci is a little strange, after all, the princess of the county is not Li Mingchen's biological mother, is it a little too intimate to call it so. As a stepmother, you only need to call "Brother Ming".

"My brother said he was going to write a letter to his colleagues."

The princess of the county was a little short of breath because she was walking too quickly, she breathed a sigh of relief, and said to the steward Wang: "Then let it go like this for now, and then make a decision when the prince of the county is sober." ”