After getting off the horse, you walked through the front yard and saw a small courtyard. There was a water well at the door and an osmanthus tree beside the well.
He pointed at the small courtyard with his sword and said: "Miss Zhou, please!"
"I know the way. Is Shen Chongming inside? Is the county magistrate here?" Zhou Yu'an hurried inside, and just after passing the courtyard gate, he heard the cry of a baby.
"It's Su Niang's child. I recognize his cry." When he opened the door, he saw Shen Chongming holding the child stiffly. He didn't know how to coax, and his brows were furrowed, but he didn't show any impatience.
"He's hungry!" Zhou Yu'an took the baby and said, "Please hold the sword and go to see if there is goat milk nearby."
“Does it have to be goat’s milk?”
"Milk is fine. It would be better if you can find a woman who has just given birth." Zhou Yu'an patted it gently, perhaps smelling a familiar smell. The little guy stopped crying and opened his eyes to look at her.
"I know you're hungry, just bear with it a little longer." Zhou Yu'an touched the child's face lightly: "Be good, you can eat after you sleep."
The little guy curled his lips aggrievedly and actually fell asleep.
Shen Chongming felt it was magical and stood beside Zhou Yu'an until she put the child down, then he said, "Are you good at coaxing children?"'
"I'm a doctor, and doctors are all good at coaxing children." Zhou Yu'an walked up to Su Niang: "What did you say?"
"Su Niang must have been awakened from her sleep. She didn't wear shoes when she got out of bed. Zuo found a tea bag in the tea cup. Judging from the color, it must have been from a few days ago."
Shen Chongming handed over the tea bag.
"This is not a tea bag but a medicine bag." Zhou Yu'an sniffed it and said: "This is valerian, which has a calming and soothing effect. The caretaker of Yizhuang is named Li Jinzhong, and he suffers from heart disease. This medicine bag should be used by him."
"Is this Li Jinzhong's room?"
Shen Chongming looked around and understood where the awkward feeling came from. The things in this room are too old, too new, too messy, and too neat.
The old, messy part belongs to Li Jinzhong, and the new, neat part belongs to Su Niang.
"I told you about Su Niang. I asked her and her children to live here temporarily. I originally thought that I would find a suitable place for her to go after her health recovered, but I didn't expect... "
"It's not your fault!" Shen Chongming said, "You don't need to blame yourself for what happened to others."
"It's not that I blame myself, it's that I feel uncomfortable." Zhou Yu'an glanced at the sleeping child: "Do you think he will blame me when he grows up? If it weren't for my meddling, he would be with his mother. No need for Su Niang. If he dies again, he will not become a child without a mother."
"Su Niang's death has nothing to do with you, he will not blame you." Shen Chongming comforted: "The most important thing right now is to find out the cause of Su Niang's death."
Su Niang was strangled by a straw rope and hung from the beam, but the straw rope was loosely woven and did not look like it could strangle someone.
There were no external injuries, and there were no signs of struggle or fight at the scene. His clothes were intact, with only scattered grass juice and grass blades on his clothes. The shape of the grass blades is consistent with the leaves on the grass rope that strangled Su Niang.
Shen Chongming said as he handed Zhou Yu'an a handful of hay, which was collected by the government officials from the mass grave.
"I have asked villagers in nearby villages to identify it. It is this kind of grass that strangled Su Niang to death. This grass is called crabgrass, and its branches are tough when they are green. Although it can be made into straw ropes, no one will use it to tie them up. To put it more clearly, this grass is used by children to play with."
"Dried crabgrass has no toughness." Zhou Yu'an folded it casually: "The murderer strangled Su Niang with grass that cannot strangle people, and also hung her from the beam?"
"Not only that, but the crabgrass was growing in the deceased's neck."
Judging from the appearance alone, the crab grass has indeed grown into Su Niang’s neck. When he opened the wound, there were indeed some white things inside, similar to rattan wires or roots, but those things were not connected to the meridians of the deceased.
The reason why Wu Zuo said that was because he didn't observe carefully.
"These white things are mycelium, they are completely different from crabgrass." Zhou Yu'an showed Shen Chongming what he picked out from Su Niang's wound.
"Mycelium? Is this fungus a mushroom?"
"Mycelium is not a mushroom." Zhou Yuan explained: "But like mushrooms, it exists in soil and wood."
"I have never seen anything like this." Shen Chongming looked at the white mycelium: "There is no such thing in wood."
"Of course it's not found in good wood. You have to look for damp, rotten dead wood." Zhou Yu'an picked some mycelium and put it on the handkerchief: "Black and gray are common, and this white is the first time I've seen it. , maybe poisonous.”
"You still touch it when it's poisonous!"
Shen Chongming was nervous but didn't show it. He wrapped the hyphae tightly with his handkerchief without leaving any trace.
"I have to know why the murderer did this." Zhou Yu'an inspected Su Niang's wound: "I sewed the wound on her neck. The stitches are intact and should not have been touched. This powder... is not for stopping bleeding."
Zhou Yuan rubbed the powder on his fingertips.
"This powder has been mixed with a very small amount of arsenic."
"Arsenic?" Wuzuo was stunned: "This Su Niang has no signs of poisoning! People who eat arsenic will suffer from nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, limb spasms, general weakness, etc., and will bleed from all the orifices after death. Although the old man is not good at learning, But I have also seen a few people who died of arsenic poisoning, and none of them fit this Su Niang's case. The girl is young, but she made a mistake?"
"Old man, please tell me if this is arsenic?" Zhou Yu'an picked some powder into the hand of the workman: "The hemostatic medicine I gave to Su Niang was prepared by myself. It has a strong smell and is not ground so finely. Arsenic is colorless and odorless. When it comes into contact with water, it will have a faint smell of bitter almonds. Do you smell the blood-stained medicinal powder? Does it smell like bitter almonds?"
Wu Zuo lowered his head and smelled it carefully: "Do you have the girl's hemostatic medicine with you?"
"Yes!" Zhou Yu'an handed over a packet of medicine powder: "Su Niang should have some left over here. You can put the two packets of medicine together to compare."
"No need, the old man's nose is just fine. The girl has this kind of medicinal smell on her body." Wu Zuo returned the powder to Zhou Yu'an: "I don't understand, if this Su Niang died of arsenic poisoning, why didn't she show the symptoms of a poisoner? If If he didn't die from poisoning, how can we explain the arsenic?"
"Su Niang's death was an accident. She was not the one the murderer wanted to kill." Zhou Yu'an looked at the traces in the house: "Did you notice that window?"
"The windows have been repaired, the window paper is new, and there are traces of crabgrass on it."
"The murderer deliberately placed crabgrass on the window and used the sound of the friction between crabgrass and window paper to attract Su Niang here." Zhou Yu'an stood in front of the window: "Su Niang grew up in the countryside. She must recognize crabgrass and be curious. How could this thing grow on the window? Once people become curious about something, they will ignore other things around them, such as the murderer hiding outside."
