February 25, 71st year of the Great Qiankang Dynasty, Xushi, Chang'an City Zhao Wangfu]

The night is dark, the spring is cold, the streets of Chang'an City are already sparsely populated, and there is a tall middle-aged man walking briskly in the dark night. I saw that he was wearing a four-rank official uniform with an indigo dove, and there was only an entourage carrying a lantern next to him. The cold wind blew the fallen leaves, and from time to time they fell above his head, but he didn't realize it. His face was solemn, his brows furrowed, and he was walking briskly, and from his unusually anxious and eager expression it was evident that he must have encountered something extremely difficult......

This person is Zhong Xingming, who is the official worship of the fourth grade Jing Zhaoyin, he is in a hurry at this time, and he is hurrying towards the Zhao Wangfu in Daningfang, northeast of Chang'an City.

Just an hour ago, a subordinate reported that a dead body had been found in Guiyifang, southwest of Chang'an City. It stands to reason that when a homicide is found in Chang'an City, the first person to accept it should be the arrest of the Chang'an County Yazhong, who will report to the county order, and then the county order will investigate the scene, order the person to conduct an autopsy, collect clues, and solve the case as soon as possible.

However, this murder is extraordinary, and the corpse alone is particularly scary to look at. The deceased was a man who, when he was found, was charred and blackened, his body was shriveled and his face was blurred, and it was impossible to distinguish the age and appearance of the deceased.

The deceased was found to be several officials in charge of the night patrol in Chang'an County, at that time, those officials patrolled to the vicinity of Guiyifang, and saw the corpse lying on its back at the corner of the long street, the deceased's eyes were deep-set, his mouth was wide open, his hands and feet were curled up together, and he seemed to have undergone an extremely painful torture before his death, so that the death was extremely terrifying. Among them, there were two young officials who had just entered the industry, and they were frightened on the spot, and their abdomen was overturned, and they almost vomited on the street......

The head catcher who patrolled the night did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly reported the matter to Chang'an County. Zhou Xianling couldn't help but be shocked after seeing the corpse, he didn't dare to make his own decisions, and hurriedly sent someone to report the details of the murder to Jingzhao Mansion as soon as possible.

A few months ago, Yin Zhong Xingming of Jingzhao Mansion angered the emperor in the handling of disaster victims in Chang'an City, and was demoted to Shaoyin of Jingzhao Mansion by decree of the emperor, temporarily taking the position of Jingzhao Yin, and fined him for one year. Fortunately, Zhong Xingming then showed himself quite diligent in disaster relief affairs, he led the officials of Jingzhao Mansion to set up a number of porridge fields in the south of Chang'an City, and he had to visit the scene every day to check in person. His performance was seen by Emperor Li Chongsheng, and the emperor finally nodded in agreement, and also spared him for his previous sin of negligence and dereliction of duty.

Since 22 February, heavy rain has continued to fall in Chang'an City and even in various parts of Daqian, and this great drought that has plagued the world for more than a year has finally passed, and the victims have left Chang'an one after another to return to their hometowns and start this year's spring ploughing. After the drought ended, the emperor read in Zhong Xingming's disaster relief, and he was able to do things solidly, and Zhong Xingming had followed the emperor to make meritorious contributions on the battlefield in the past, so he was reinstated, and he was still appointed as the Jingzhao Mansion Yin of the fourth grade, and the original punishment of the year was also rewarded to him.

After Zhong Xingming was reinstated, he was not happy for a few days when he encountered such a tricky murder case, and he couldn't help but feel uneasy in his heart.

Zhong Xingming and Zhou Beiju have worked together in officialdom for many years, and for him, Zhou Beiju is not only his subordinate, but also a friend of his. He knew that the county magistrate of Zhou had always been old-fashioned and serious, and if he made this county magistrate so attentive, then there must be something unreasonable about this murder case. For the sake of prudence, he rushed to the Chang'an County Ya overnight, and accompanied by Zhou Beiju, he personally examined the body.

Zhong Xingming only glanced at the corpse, and then gasped, he had served as the magistrate of Chang'an City for many years, and he had handled countless murders, but he had never seen a person with such a terrible death.

After exiting the morgue, Zhong Xingming's heart fell into contradictions and hesitations, on the one hand, such a strange murder case, he should have a fold and ask the Son of Heaven to decide; on the other hand, Chang'an City is the capital of the Great Qian, but at the foot of the Son of Heaven, such a terrifying strange case occurred, if the news came out, it caused the government and the opposition to discuss everywhere, and the people's feelings were boiling and shouting endlessly, and then the Son of Heaven was angry, and he could not afford to bear the guilt.

After all, Zhong Xingming's position as a fourth-grade official has just been regained, and he doesn't want to lose his position again by accident. Zhou Beiju, the commander of Chang'an County next to him, seemed to see through Zhong Xingming's thoughts, so he stepped forward and proposed, I heard that Lord Zhong and Zhao Wangye have some personal relations, so it is better to show this strange case to King Zhao overnight, and see how Zhao Wangye will deal with it.

When Zhong Xingming heard this, he immediately applauded, and at that moment, he didn't dare to delay, so he hurriedly left the Chang'an County Ya and went straight to Zhao Wangfu......

In fact, the so-called "personal relationship" between him and Prince Zhao is nothing more than that he followed the emperor to conquer the battlefield, and the third prince King Zhao also went out with his father, and the two of them had several encounters in the battle array. Just because of these few faces, in Zhong Xingming's mind, he has already seen that King Zhao is completely different from other princes, he is a person with a frank temperament and frank behavior.

At this time, Zhong Xingming couldn't take care of a lot, he thought to himself, you Zhao Wang Ye is the deputy pavilion master of the Shenwang Pavilion, and he is also the personal disciple of the Bai Lao Pavilion Lord, I have heard for a long time that you are invincible in the world with your martial arts, and you are not a problem with the magic of Taoism, if you don't hand over such a murder to you, who else can you hand it over in this Chang'an City? !

......

When he walked to the gate of Zhao Wangfu, Zhong Xingming stepped forward and knocked lightly, and it was Ma Yun, the housekeeper of Zhao Wangfu, who opened the door.

"Steward Ma, if you are tired of talking to Lord Zhao, you will say that Jingzhao Yin Zhong Xingming has something important to see!" Zhong Xingming said with a smile, he said as he took out a few taels of silver from his sleeve and wanted to hand them over to Ma Yun.

Ma Yun pushed Zhong Xingming's hand holding the broken silver away, and said indifferently: "Lord Zhong don't wait, I'll report it!"

Zhong Xingming smiled awkwardly, put the piece of broken silver back into his sleeve, and only a moment later, Steward Ma had already turned around and said, Lord Wang, please!

Zhong Xingming asked his entourage to wait outside the door, he followed Ma Yun into the gate of King Zhao's mansion, only to see that in this mansion, the rooms are scarce, the corridors are narrow, and it looks unusually simple, if he didn't see it with his own eyes, he really couldn't believe it, this prince of Qizhu in the dynasty, the deputy pavilion master of the world-famous Shenwang Pavilion, the mansion of Li Yi, the king of Zhao, is usually like a few ordinary people's mansions, I am afraid, there are many rich businessmen in Chang'an City, and the mansions are much more magnificent than here.

The two walked through the two courtyards in the palace, and Ma Yun took Zhong Xingming to the study of King Zhao's mansion. At this time, Li Yi, the king of Zhao, was buried in front of the table, staring intently at an ancient book......

After Zhong Xingming walked into the study, Ma Yun closed the door and quietly retreated.

Zhong Xingming hurriedly stepped forward, knelt down to Li Yi and fell to the ground, and shouted respectfully: "Humble Jingzhao Yin Zhong Xingming, see His Royal Highness King Zhao!"

According to the official system of the Great Cadre, seeing the etiquette of the deputy head of the Shenwang Pavilion is like seeing the prince. At this moment, Li Yiwu was holding the ancient book in his hand, and he didn't raise his head, but said lightly:

"Get up, Lord Zhong, what's the point of coming late at night?"

After Zhong Xingming got up, he hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, the humiliation of the late night is for a strange case. The humble duty has just been rewarded, and a dead body was found in Guiyifang in Chang'an City, the deceased was a middle-aged man, the death was miserable, the cause of death was very strange, it seemed that it was not the work of mortals......"

So, Zhong Xingming reported the strange case he had just learned about to Li Yiyu and roughly reported it.

Li Yi was slightly stunned when he heard this, he put the scroll in his hand on the desk, and a pair of black eyes that were as quiet as autumn water, stared straight at Zhong Xingming, and asked:

"You said that the cause of death of the deceased was strange, not like the work of mortals, how can you see it?"

Zhong Xingming didn't dare to face Li Yi's direct gaze, hurriedly lowered his head, and said:

"Back to Your Highness, just half an hour ago, the humble official had just examined the body, and the deceased had obviously just been killed, but the corpse seemed to have been sealed in the dust for decades, and it looked like a ...... Like a dried corpse!"

"Like a dried corpse?" Li Yi asked, "Since the deceased looks like a dried corpse, how can you conclude that he has just been killed?"

Zhong Xingming said: "Don't hide it from Your Highness, when I first saw that dead corpse, I thought he was a dry corpse. At that time, it was speculated that he might be an unlucky ghost in some tomb, and it is unknown that the tomb thieves had dug it out of the grave and discarded it by the roadside. Unexpectedly, he reached out to probe the body temperature of the deceased, but saw that his body was still a little warm, and his whole body was still charred, and he really did not look like a dry corpse that had been dead for many years. I dare to conclude that the hour of that man's death will not exceed twelve hours!"

"Oh......" Li Yi suddenly became interested, he got up from the bookcase, walked to Zhong Xingming's approach, and asked:

"You say that the deceased's body is still warm and black?"

"It's true, I don't dare to say half a lie!" Zhong Xingming immediately replied.

"Let's go, take me to see!" As soon as Li Yi finished speaking, he walked quickly to the door.

......

......

Only about a quarter of an hour later, Li Yi and Zhong Xingming had already appeared in the morgue in the Chang'an County Ya, accompanied by Chang'an County Commander Zhou Beiju and several officials and servants.

Li Yi stared at the dead body quietly for a long time, only to see that the deceased's mouth was wide open, his face was distorted, his skin was shriveled and shrunken, and his whole body was charred black, as if he had just been burned by the fire.

Li Yi stretched out his hand and slowly touched the deceased's chest and arms, and sure enough, the deceased's body was still slightly warm, and his skin was still a little soft, he really didn't look like a person who had been dead for many years.

"Excuse me, the deceased's skin is blackened, is it caused by the fire?" Li Yi asked, he touched the skin of the corpse, only to feel that the whole body was intact, although it was scorched black, but there were no signs of burning.

The servant of Chang'an County was a white-bearded old man who was over sixty years old, and he heard the inquiry of Prince Zhao, and hurriedly bowed down and replied: "Back to Your Highness, according to the experience of the deceased for decades, there is no sign of burning on the deceased's body!"

"Hmm......" After Li Yi carefully examined the corpse, he thought for a moment before walking out of the door of the morgue.

He instructed Zhong Xingming, who was behind him: "This case will be handed over to this king! You should not make a noise, take good care of the corpse, carefully find out the identity of the deceased, and send more people to patrol the night at night, and report to this king immediately if you see suspicious people and suspicious things......

"Yes! Obey orders!" Zhong Xingming hurriedly nodded in response, he was secretly happy in his heart, and said in his heart that King Zhao would take over, and I could finally rest assured!

......