Judging from the fact that the eight killers disappeared after committing the murder on the Jin family, they had a secret location in Chang'an.
This place of residence was probably not far from the Zhou family's village, so they could hide it from others and sneak into the villa where the wife of the third wife of the Zhou family was marrying before dawn.
After the killers failed to kidnap or silence people in other villages, the escaped people quickly ran out, and the escape route happened to be in the direction of Haijiao. And within five miles before he arrived at the villa, he didn't encounter anyone acting suspiciously. It was freezing cold and it was the farm break, so everyone who was fine stayed indoors to keep warm and would not run out. Hai Jiao therefore guessed that the eighth killer was not waiting for response in that area.
There is a high probability that this person is still staying in their group's secret location.
Hai Jiao did not participate in the action of escorting the murderers to the prefect's Yamen, but he knew that the old military advisor tied these people tightly, gagged them, threw them into the carriage, sealed them tightly before setting off on the road, and also reminded the other villagers. The people in charge, as well as the veterans responsible for escorting him, should not tell this matter to anyone else, lest the news leak out and the eighth man escapes.
Under such circumstances, among the seven arrested killers, six killers who were detained in the government prison were still able to be silenced. Someone must have known that they were arrested and was afraid that they would reveal themselves, so they carried out the murder.
Before the murder of the prisoner in the government prison shocked Chang'an officialdom, how many people knew about the arrest of this group of killers?
The killer died in a heavy prison, which was tightly guarded. How many people could get past the heavy guards and reach this place?
In fact, if the person behind the scenes is Mr. Sun Ge's minions in Beijing, as long as he is not caught committing crimes, there is nothing to be afraid of, right? Even if the Zhou family knew that the Sun family had killed people in Chang'an, what could they do to them? And the crime of buying a murderer in the suburbs of Chang'an does not seem to be more serious than killing someone in the government prison, right?
Hai Jiao believes that the so-called person behind the scenes may not be the mastermind of the murder of the Jin family, but must have led the actions of the killer. There is a high probability that he is not an important relative or powerful ally around Mr. Sun Ge. He also has property in Chang'an where the killer can hide. He may be a local official or a wealthy family in Chang'an.
If the deceased Jin Sen and Jin Juren were indeed Xu Xianfei's ex-husband, and Xu Xianfei had always been hostile to the Sun family and Sun Guifei in her previous life, and claimed that the death of her ex-husband's own children was related to them, then the eight killers who killed her should have been sent to Chang'an by the Sun family. The killer will hide in the mysterious man's property while he is in Chang'an. This man is definitely a trustworthy ally of the Sun family. What are the Sun family's intentions in making such an ally in Chang'an, where the Zhou family has settled for generations?
If Mr. Sun Ge didn't use his allies to stab the Zhou family in the back, wouldn't even a fool believe it?
This mysterious man has probably made a lot of arrangements in Chang'an, and is just waiting to give the Zhou family a fatal blow.
He knew that once the Zhou family found out that he had done something bad, they would never let him go lightly, and the Sun family couldn't save him, so he would risk going to the government prison to silence him.
And that he can reach into the government prison also proves that his influence in the local area cannot be underestimated.
The Zhou family may not know his existence.
In the previous life, the Zhou family lost high-ranking family members one after another in the next few years. Was it because they ignored this person?
Hai Jiao analyzed it for a long time and then said to Haitang: "The theory is such a theory, but what results will be found out by the government office? I have no way to intervene. I can only find a way to get it from my grandfather, cousin, or grandfather Zhuang." I have been inquiring about the news. But I can still go and inquire about Biezhuang. Jin Jiashu was recuperating in Biezhuang. How did the news leak out? How did the killers get into his yard? Is it possible that even the Zhou family's Zhuangli , do you also have the eyes and ears of that Sun family ally? This matter cannot be taken lightly, I have to find out more about it."
Haitang approved his plan and added: "Zhoujiazhuangzi has a large population. It's hard to say whether anyone among them has leaked the news, but it should be fine here in Biezhuang. If the killers can find out from the people in Biezhuang, Jin Jiashu’s residence, after they sneaked into the village overnight, there was no need to wait until dawn to find the correct location. They probably had to go from house to house all night to search for him, which would delay them until dawn. "
Hai Jiao nodded and sighed: "It would be great if Jin Jiashu could be more frank with me. He is obviously an outsider, but in front of the old military advisor and cousin Xie, why does he act so well-behaved and obedient, and is wary of me alone?" Youjia, why don't you say a word more? Didn't I do anything to him at the beginning? I just exposed the secret hidden in his robe. If we hadn't exposed this at the beginning, he would have continued to hide it from everyone, showing that My uncle would not have called the old military advisor from nearby Zhuangzi, and the old military advisor would not have sent someone to protect him. Then when the killer came to kill him, how could he escape? He should be grateful to me! I saved him. A life, and yesterday he helped catch the person who wanted to kill him!"
Haitang couldn't help but feel funny when she saw Hai Jiao's depressed look: "Brother, when he comes to Jin Jiashu, speak in a nice manner and don't push him too hard. If he has already relaxed in front of his cousin and the Zhou family, he won't Tell us outsiders, it is human nature. The key is to let him understand how dangerous his situation is, and stop pushing people who can help him. If he is really as smart as his brother said, he should be able to distinguish Come out and find out who is worthy of his trust. We are not trying to pry into his privacy, we just want to know some necessary information."
Hai Jiao nodded repeatedly: "That's right, that's it."
After clearing his mind, Haijiao took action.
He ran to other villages almost every day. He only said that he was visiting Jin Jiashu, but in fact he only spent a third of his time pestering him to get information from him. He spent the remaining two-thirds of his time chatting with people from other villages and nearby Zhoujiazhuangzi.
Aunt Ma's husband Ma Li and her son Ma Changnian probably knew that their family would be transferred to their concubine Ma by their mistress, so they also helped Hai Jiao a lot.
In less than two days, Haijiao knew it. Zhuangzi, where veterans of the Zhou family live nearby, still maintains the military style and has strict internal controls. When something happened to the Jin family that day, the veterans searched for the killer everywhere under the command of the old military attachés. They also kept their mouths shut in private and did not reveal the current residence of the survivors of the Jin family. Even where the Jin family's gold and silver belongings scattered at the murder scene were temporarily kept, no one outside knew.
It's been cold these days, and it's not the New Year's Day, so no one in the family members of the veterans on the village has visited their relatives.
But some people went to visit relatives in Zhoujiazhuangzi.
Among them, there was a half-year-old boy who became curious about the phenomenon of people frequently going to Zhou Ma's Villa in Zhoujiazhuang, and asked around. However, the person who was asked only said that he was visiting relatives and did not reveal Jin Jiashu's name. There were already many veterans of the Zhou family's three-room residence living in Zhou Ma's Villa. There was always close contact between the two villages, so there was nothing surprising about this.
So this half-grown boy followed his new friends at Zhoujiazhuangzi and went to Zhouma's Villa to play. The village's control over the villagers was relatively loose. Someone probably mentioned the concubine's family who came to stay the night before, as well as the young man who was rescued by his aunt and his young cousin.
This happened on the day the Hai family left Villa.
Ma Li asked all the veterans he knew from the Zhou family's village. Ma Changnian also asked at another nearby village - the village where Zhuang Tongpan's old friend lived. No one knew whose family this half-grown boy belonged to. relative. Some people thought they knew his identity, but when they checked with each other, they discovered that it was all a misunderstanding.
So who is this half-grown boy?
(End of chapter)
