The ice vault of the palace is located in the northwest corner of the backyard, where some bamboo is planted, there is a rockery in the bamboo, and there is a cave in the position where the rockery faces west, and this cave is the entrance to the freezer.

Under the guidance of the housekeeper Ma Yuan, Lin Feng and Zhao Fifteen soon came to the entrance of the ice warehouse.

However, as soon as he arrived here, Lin Feng found that there were two officials guarding the entrance of the ice warehouse.

This made Lin Feng realize that after he gave a hint that Wang Jian's corpse was frozen, Zhou Helin had already found this place in advance.

I don't know if Zhou Helin found anything here, and whether he was the same as himself, making the judgment that this was the scene of the first crime.

"Zhou County's order came here two quarters of an hour ago, and it was also the way led by the villain."

The housekeeper saw that Lin Feng's eyes fell on the official guarding the door, so he quickly spoke and said in a low voice: "However, after the villain opened the door of the ice warehouse, Zhou County Order let the official guard the door and forbade anyone to enter, so the villain didn't know if Zhou County Ling found anything in the ice warehouse." ”

Listening to the housekeeper's words, Lin Feng couldn't help but glance at the housekeeper.

At this moment, he finally completely understood why Ma Yuan would become the housekeeper of the palace, not to mention anything else, this vision and the ability to quickly figure out the thoughts of big people are enough to surpass nine out of nine people.

Without having to speak on his own, the butler knows what he thinks and can respond quickly.

He thought for a moment and said, "Ice is a very valuable thing that is difficult to store, except for winter, so the key to your ice vault should not be available to everyone, right?" ”

The housekeeper nodded hurriedly: "This is natural, every time the door of the ice storage is opened, some heat will enter the ice storage, which will affect the storage of ice, so unless the lord and the lady want to eat ice, we will not open the door of the ice at all, and in order to ensure that there will be no problems with this ice, there are only two keys." ”

He looked at Lin Feng and took the initiative to say, "One of the keys is in the villain's hand, and the other key is in the lady's hand." ”

The reason why the butler is called a butler is to manage all the chores in the house, and it is not surprising that he has the key in his hand, as for Mrs. Wang...... The status of women in the Tang Dynasty was not low, outside the male lead, inside the female lead, and all affairs in the palace were under the control of Mrs. Wang, so it was normal for Mrs. Wang to have a key.

In this way......

Lin Feng touched his chin and pondered in his heart: "If the real murderer wants to bring Wang Jian to the ice vault, he must obtain the key...... So where did his key come from? ”

He looked at the butler and said, "Have you ever lost your key?" ”

Ma Yuan hurriedly shook his head: "No." ”

I saw him put his hand into his arms, and when he took it out again, he held a bunch of keys in his hand, each of which was strung with a rope and tied to a ring, and as Ma Yuan took it out, the keys collided with each other, making a crisp sound of ding dong.

He said: "All the keys managed by the villain are here, because the key is too important, so the villain has always been kept close to him, even if someone wants to use the key to open the door, it is the villain himself, and the key has never been given to anyone during the period." ”

Alert and cautious enough, it is indeed the most ideal choice for housekeepers...... Lin Feng glanced at the dozens of keys in the butler's hand and nodded slightly.

"What about the key in Madame Wang's hand?"

Lin Feng asked, "Has she ever lost her key?" Or have you used it for someone else? ”

"This ......"

The housekeeper shook his head: "The villain doesn't know, the matter of the lady, the villain doesn't dare to ask, but in the villain's impression, the lord and the lady want to eat ice, and the subordinates come directly to the villain to get the ice, and the lady has not directly given anyone the key to let them get the ice." ”

Mrs. Wang did not take the initiative to give the key to anyone else, but it is uncertain whether it was stolen...... Lin Feng understood what the housekeeper meant.

"So, the problem of the key arises with Mrs. Wang?"

He thought for a while, turned to look at Zhao Fifteen, and said, "Fifteen, you go to Madam Wang again, ask her about the key to the ice vault, ask her if the key is still there, and if the key has been lost." ”

Zhao Shifu did not hesitate at all, and nodded directly: "The child understands." ”

With that, he turned and walked away.

Lin Feng exhaled lightly, temporarily suppressed the problem of the key, and said to the housekeeper, "Let's go, let's go into the freezer." ”

Lin Feng now had the imperial order, and the officials of Chang'an County naturally did not dare to stop him, so he easily entered the ice warehouse with the housekeeper.

The door of the ice vault is a stone door, the stone door is very thick, and the downward passage is winding, which is enough to effectively resist the heat on the ground, and at the bottom of the stone steps, there is another door, the door is iron, there is no padlock, but it is completely wrapped in a quilt, there is no gap, this quilt, and enough to make the cold in the ice not spread outward, the heat cannot come in, the cold cannot get out, the ice is enough to ensure that the ice inside will not melt even in the hot summer...... It must be said that the ancients were really very wise.

The two of them passed through the iron gate and finally entered the freezer.

As soon as he entered the ice storage, the chill suddenly hit, and the sudden cold temperature made Lin Feng shiver, and he hurriedly tightened his sleeves.

Even though it's late autumn outside, and it's about to be winter, it's still a drop in the bucket compared to the chill of this ice vault.

With the help of the light of the torches, Lin Feng was able to see what the butler called an ice vault with a lot of space.

The ice vault of the palace is really large, and Lin Feng can see that it is more than fifty square meters.

It is by no means an easy task to dig such a large ice warehouse underground, and it takes so much manpower and material resources to store more ice, so it can be seen how much Wang Jian loves to eat ice.

However, Lin Feng can understand very well, in the hot summer, who can refuse any ice products? Not to mention that Datang already has simple cream ice cream.

Seeing that the next cold winter is coming, there is not much ice left in this ice storehouse, only against the innermost wall, there are still some cold ice stacked together.

At this time, in the freezer, in addition to Lin Feng, there were also some officials walking around with torches, as if they were looking for clues, but Zhou Helin, the commander of Chang'an County, was not here, I don't know if he couldn't stand the cold here and went out temporarily, or if he had already preliminarily found clues here and went to other places to find clues.

Lin Feng didn't care about these servants and Zhou Helin, the investigation of the case must not be urgent, nor can it be urgent, it must be done steadily, otherwise it is easy to fall into the trap of subjective assumptions, or make mistakes due to urgency, the more time is pressed, and there are people competing with him, the calmer Lin Feng is.

He retracted his gaze, picked up a torch, and walked towards the cold ice, and as he walked, he said, "Steward Ma, I don't know when was the last time you ate ice in your house?" ”

Ma Yuan recalled for a moment, and then said: "About half a month ago, Zhang Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry came to be a guest, and the master specially ordered to cook the best dishes, and we used cold ice. ”

Zhang Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry...... Is Zhang Liang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry?

Zhang Liang is a third-grade important minister, and it is indeed a grand reception to come to Wang Jian's mansion in the fourth-grade mansion.

Speaking of Zhang Liang, although Lin Feng has not met him, he also indirectly has two things that can be said, one is the small crossbow arrow that Xiao Yu gave him a life-saving artifact, which was made by the Ministry of Industry, this crossbow arrow helped him solve the crisis when he was in the Half Moon Temple, and the life-saving artifact is worthy of its name!

Another thing is that after he was promoted from Dali Temple to Dali Temple, his original position as Dali Temple fell on Zhang Liang's son Zhang Yi.

According to Xiao Yu, this should be the result of a complex factional struggle of interests...... This is exactly the same as what I am facing now, I can only say that this world is a circle, and countless of the same things are constantly repeated.

Of course, these things are not important in this case, the important thing is that Zhang Liang came half a month ago, that is to say, no one from the ice warehouse came back in this half a month.

Judging from the prudence and careful planning of the real murderer, he would never have thought of coming to the ice vault to commit a crime temporarily, so he must have stepped on the ice vault many times in advance.

And after he killed someone, he dug out his heart and pierced Wang Jian's body through a hole...... Anyone who often dismemberes corpses knows that this is by no means an easy task, and it is simply impossible to do it in a short time without the tools at hand and without adequate preparation.

Not to mention that after digging out his heart, he also thoughtfully sewed up the wound and glued it with hot things, which required tools.

And this kind of tool is by no means a simple dagger or something that can be easily hidden, or even if it is seen, it will not arouse suspicion...... So with this kind of tool, the real culprit will definitely hide in an absolutely safe place where no one will find out.

There is no doubt that this is the safest place to kill, and it is also a place where you can use it directly, and the real murderer does not have to risk moving the tool twice.

Therefore, there is a high probability that the tools used to kill people and dig out their hearts were hidden here in advance by the real murderer.

And half a month ago, someone came to fetch ice and didn't find anything abnormal, which means ...... The real culprit was in the past half a month that tools and other things were sent here one after another.

In other words, half a month is a very important time node!

If it was done by someone outside the palace, then he would definitely not have come only two days after the crime, but must have been here again in the past half a month.

If it was done by the people in the palace, in order to transport these tools, they would definitely have the opportunity to enter and leave the palace many times in the past half a month.

Screening with this condition will inevitably screen out a lot of people, and then quickly reduce the number of suspects!

Lin Feng slowly exhaled a breath of turbidity, it can be regarded as a way for him to narrow down the scope of the suspect!

If he can narrow down the scope of suspects, he will be able to investigate more targeted.

Of course, the premise of all this is that this is really the scene of the first crime, and it is really the place where Wang Jian was killed.

While his brain was spinning wildly, Lin Feng had already come to the only remaining cold ice in front of him.

The ice of the palace was stacked on top of each other about three inches long and one foot wide, and the bottom of the ice was flat and smooth marble, and the top was stacked one by one.

Between each ice cube, a thin wooden board is divided, which should be used to facilitate separation.

Otherwise, the ice cubes will easily freeze together, and it will be very difficult to separate them.

Lin Feng's gaze swept over these ice cubes, his fingertips gently swiped on them, and said, "Every time you use ice cubes, do you cut them here, or take them out to cut?" ”

The housekeeper hurriedly said: "Naturally, it is cut here, otherwise once it is taken out, it will not be able to be finalized." ”

Lin Feng bowed slightly, he brought the torch close to these ice cubes, and under the light of the fire, these crystal clear ice cubes all shone brightly.

He swept his gaze over the ice cubes one by one, and at this time, he seemed to find something, and said, "When you use ice cubes, do you run out of one piece and use the next one, or do you cut it casually, there are no rules?" ”

"Of course there are rules."

The housekeeper said: "These ice are not easy to store, and the use of every piece of ice cannot be wasted, so when we cut ice and use ice, we have requirements, and we must use ice piece by piece of ice, and we must not cut it indiscriminately." ”

"You can't cut it indiscriminately...... Lin Feng narrowed his eyes and said, "Now it's November, and the cold winter is coming, what will you do with the ice cubes in here at that time?" ”

"A new one, of course."

"When the temperature drops low enough for the ice to freeze, we take the unused ice out and throw it away and replace it with a new one, so that the ice is fresh," said the steward. ”

Lin Feng nodded, the corners of his mouth slowly hooked, and there was a look of clarity in his eyes: "I see...... No wonder they chose to do it here. ”

"What? Do it? ”

Listening to Lin Feng's words, the housekeeper couldn't help blinking his eyes blankly, and he was puzzled: "Lin Sizheng, you and Zhou County Ling have come to this ice warehouse to inspect, and why did you choose to do it here, I don't know what is wrong with this ice warehouse?" ”

Lin Feng glanced at the housekeeper and immediately smiled: "It's not a secret......

As he spoke, he took a step forward and came to the front of a few pieces of ice, then stretched out his torch above the ice, illuminated the ice, and said, "Steward Ma, take a closer look at these ice cubes and see if there is any difference between them and other ice cubes." ”

"The difference?"

The housekeeper Ma Yuan was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously stretched his neck to look.

At first, his face was full of confusion, and he didn't know what these cold and identical ice cubes were so good, but after Lin Feng helped him lower the torches, illuminated these ice cubes more clearly, and deliberately moved the torches to let him see clearly the light of these ice cubes reflecting the light of the torches, Ma Yuan's eyes suddenly widened, and he finally understood what Lin Feng meant.

"These ice cubes...... Their surface has been cut through! ”

Because the ice cubes are transparent and the light is not good, at first glance, there is no problem at all.

But when Lin Feng moved the torch and deliberately made the ice cube reflect the flame, then he could see the problem on the surface of the ice cube!

The surface of these ice cubes is not the same thickness at all, and many of them are uneven, and they are clearly cut by someone.

"How could someone have cut it...... butler frowned: "Every time I come to fetch ice, I keep an eye on it, they all cut it piece by piece, and they don't cut these ice cubes at all...... So, how did these ice cubes come to be like this? ”

Lin Feng listened to the housekeeper's words, and the essence in his eyes became stronger and stronger.

If it was speculation before, now ...... It's completely certain!

"That's how it should be......" Lin Feng said slowly.

"What?"

Listening to Lin Feng's words, the housekeeper couldn't help but look at Lin Feng and said, "Lin Sizheng, this ...... What's going on here? ”

Lin Feng didn't go to see the housekeeper, but took a torch and moved back and forth around these ice blocks, he rummaged east and west, as if he was looking for something.

The housekeeper couldn't help but say, "Lin Sizheng, what are you looking for?" Need help from the villain? ”

"Found it!"

As soon as the housekeeper's voice fell, he heard Lin Feng's voice sound.

Then the housekeeper saw that Lin Feng was squatting between the two rows of ice cubes, looking inside.

Under the light of the fire, Lin Feng's dark eyes were beating, he suddenly turned his head to look at the housekeeper, at this moment, Lin Feng's face was red by the flames, and the whole person seemed to be in the only light, in this dark and cold freezer, it actually gave the housekeeper a sense of dizziness facing the sun.

"Lin Sizheng, you ......" The housekeeper looked at Lin Feng in a daze.

"Come and see!"

Before the housekeeper finished speaking, he saw Lin Feng beckoning to him.

Only then did the housekeeper react, and hurriedly ran over, and immediately squatted down and looked in the direction that Lin Feng's finger was pointing.

"Did you find out?" Lin Feng asked.

"What?" The butler looked inside through the gap in the ice, but there was nothing in it, except ice.

"Where do you look? Look down, look at the ground! ”

"Ground?"

The housekeeper was stunned for a moment, and quickly moved his gaze downwards and followed Lin Feng's prompts.

And then......

"What? Red...... Something that seems to be red? ”

The butler subconsciously moved his body forward, only to hear a bang, and his big face hit the ice cube directly, which made him take a breath of cold air.

Lin Feng glanced at the housekeeper whose brain was spinning very fast, but his body couldn't react, and said, "It's a red thing, can you recognize what it is?" ”

When the housekeeper heard this, he didn't have time to rub his aching face, his eyes looked again, and then, as if he realized something, his face finally changed.

He couldn't help but look at Lin Feng, swallowed and spit, and said nervously: "It seems to be ...... It seems to be bloodstains. ”

Facing the housekeeper's nervous gaze, Lin Feng knew that this quick-headed housekeeper had already understood everything.

He nodded lightly: "That's right, it's blood!" Your lord's bloodstains! ”

Even if the housekeeper had already guessed, after receiving Lin Feng's confirmation, he still couldn't help but shrink his pupils violently, and he couldn't control his emotional vibration at all.

Lin Feng looked at these ice cubes and said slowly: "Wang Shaoqing's corpse in the bedroom has no traces of blood, which shows that the real murderer must have killed him elsewhere. ”

"So, where did the real culprit do all this?"

The housekeeper's face turned pale, and he couldn't help but say, "Could it be ...... Is it here? ”

Lin Feng's gaze swept over the ice storage and said, "At present, there is definite evidence to prove that your master's body has been frozen and kept fresh in this ice storage. ”

"But that only proves that his body was once here, and it is uncertain whether he was killed and dug out here...... However, with this bloodstain, with these ice cubes that have been cut, it is different. ”

The housekeeper hurriedly looked at Lin Feng, and listened to Lin Feng's words: "There is no blood on his corpse, and there is no blood on his clothes, but the real murderer has done something to dig out his heart, and it is impossible for no blood to flow out, so ...... Where did his blood go? ”

"And your master has only appeared in three places in the past few days, the room where he lives alone, the bedroom between him and Mrs. Wang, and here!"

"But there is no blood in those two rooms, only here ......"

Lin Feng pointed to the bloodstains on the ground below the ice crevasse and said, "Only here, the existence of bloodstains was found. ”

The housekeeper understood what Lin Feng meant, and he said, "But there is only so little blood here, the master's heart is gone, and the blood shed must be more than that." ”

"yes, there's definitely more to it, so ......"

Lin Feng stood up, looked at the ice cubes on the top, and said with a smile: "These ice cubes will be cut by someone when you don't use them at all." ”

Brush it up!

The butler's eyes widened violently, and the whole person was like a thunderbolt, and he instantly froze in place.

He opened his mouth, pointed at the ice cubes, and couldn't help but exclaim, "So...... So the parts of the ice that are cut, yes, the parts that are stained with blood? ”

Lin Feng raised his finger and gently rubbed the surface of these ice cubes, and said, "I don't know if the housekeeper has ever seen a phenomenon, that is, if you put two pieces of ice close together, you only need to sprinkle water on their gaps, and the two pieces of ice will be incomparably tightly connected together, and if you pour water again, the water will only stay on it, and it will eventually be frozen, and it will not flow to the ground below the ice cubes." ”

"It's the same with blood, as long as these ice are connected in turn and laid out into a base, then when the blood flows out, as long as the initial amount is controlled, the ice next to each other will be directly glued together, and when more blood flows out, because these ice cubes are stuck together, the blood will not flow to the ground."

"At the same time, it will be cold, and it will soon freeze the blood, and if you want to get rid of it, you only need to cut the part that has the blood."

"Cut up the frozen blood, take it outside and dig a pit and throw it in, the frozen blood will quickly melt and then melt into the soil, who can see it?"

"As for these cut ice ......"

Lin Feng put away his frozen red fingers, looked at the pale housekeeper, and said slowly: "Just put it back into the distance, when the light is unknown, who can find out that they have been cut...... Not to mention, seeing that a new winter is coming, when the ice is thrown away, who will care if the ice is flat and less? ”

Listening to Lin Feng's words, the housekeeper only felt that his hands and feet were cold, not cold from being frozen, but cold from the terrifying facts revealed by Lin Feng.

He can completely judge that what Lin Feng said will definitely come true, after all, he presides over it every year when he throws ice.

No one cares about these discarded ice.

Even when transporting, there will be bumps, and it will be broken directly.

And if it really comes to that moment, it will be really, there will be no evidence at all......

"The calculation of the real murderer is not exquisite, he has completely calculated everything, but it is a pity that ......"

At this time, Lin Feng's voice sounded again, and the housekeeper subconsciously looked at Lin Feng, and saw Lin Feng hook the corners of his mouth, and said calmly: "It's a pity that blood will not only flow out, but sometimes it will sputter out." ”

"And the light in this ice vault is dim, and it is very difficult to find all the blood stains that have been splattered, so he can get rid of all the blood stains he finds, but after all, he will ...... There are still places that he overlooks. ”

"Of course, he probably thinks that we won't be able to find the freezer here at all! Or maybe he thinks it's so dimly lit that no one who is so cautious about it can see it, and we can't find it. ”

"But it's a pity ......"

Under the light of the fire, Lin Feng seemed to be glowing all over his body: "What I am best at is finding this kind of detail that is most easily overlooked and forgotten. ”

"So, I found it, and I have the basis for all my inferences."

"If this is not a place to kill, it must be a place to dig out the heart! And the core digging and subsequent disposal require special tools. ”

Therefore...... Half a month this node ......"

Lin Feng smiled: "You can use it!" ”

(End of chapter)