The Han family's house is not as big as expected, and it is different from ordinary houses. It is not square, but rectangular.
The front section is the shop, the middle section is the residence of the Han family and his wife, and the back section is Han Xiang's boudoir and the warehouse where leather goods are stored. There is a back door, which is connected to the corridor, and the corridor and the warehouse are integrated. The back door is locked and the key is in Mrs. Han's hand. It will only be opened at the end of the year when a large amount of goods are shipped. When the door is opened, only the Han family's clerks can enter and exit, and all the merchants are waiting outside.
Miss Han's mourning hall is located in the boudoir. The person has not yet been placed in the coffin. It is placed on a wooden bed, which is covered with the mattress she used during her lifetime.
The head has been sutured, and the threads on the neck are densely packed, which makes people feel extremely uncomfortable.
"Who sewed this thread?"
"Girl, I sewed it."
A maid came out from the corner. She was in her early twenties, wearing linen clothes. Under the linen clothes was a patched dress. Except for the first glance at each other, her head was always leaning against him, looking very frightened and embarrassed. The back of the hand is rough, and the fingertips are injured. The wounds are not large, as if they were repeatedly pricked by needles. The feet are big, the shoes are old, and there are hairs on the uppers, which must have fallen when the leather goods were trimmed.
"May I have your name?"
"Girl, I'll call my brother." The maid whispered back timidly.
"Did you sew Miss Han's neck?"
Laidi nodded and explained uneasily: "The lady's head fell off, and no one in the house dared to sew it up. I was helping in the warehouse, and my daily job was to sew. My wife asked me to sew the lady's head, and I tried my best. But it still can’t be sewn well.”
"I don't blame you. Sewing leather and sewing human heads are two different things." Zhou Yu'an looked at the messy needlework again: "Let me ask you, when you were sewing the lady's head, was there any blood?"
Laidi thought about it carefully and told Zhou Yu'an that when he first saw Han Xiang's head, the blood was solidified and there was blood flowing out when the needle was inserted. If Mrs. Han hadn't sent someone to keep an eye on her, she probably wouldn't have had the guts to sew the entire head back together.
Today is the second day after Han Xiang's death. The spots on his body began to precipitate and spread, and the skin of his limbs turned cold gray-white. The neck was a shocking purple color because it had been sutured, and when he got closer, there was an unpleasant smell that belonged to the deceased. Zhou Yu'an signaled everyone to retreat, covered their mouths and noses, and then removed the sutures that had been sutured by his brother.
Upon seeing this, Mrs. Han wanted to stop Zhou Yu'an, but was stopped by Shopkeeper Han who was standing next to her. He couldn't bear to look at his daughter and helped the Han family member into the inner room.
Through the messy threads, you could see how nervous she was while suturing them. After cutting them all, she carefully inspected the section of the head: "Han Xiang's head was cut off after his death. The murderer was very calm. He used a sword and cut almost in one stroke without any hesitation. This was not the first time the murderer killed someone, let alone the first time he chopped off someone's head."
"What's the matter with the blood? Even if the head is cut off after death, there should be a lot of blood at the scene."
"Liao Wenbin said that Han Xiang's head was wrapped in cotton clothes, and Xiao Cui also confirmed this."
Zhou Yu'an continued to examine the head and heard Shen Chongming ask Liao Wenbin.
"Does the cotton coat used to wrap the head belong to Miss Han?"
"It's not Han Xiang's. Han Xiang brought some winter clothes, but those winter clothes were placed in the corner and had never been opened." Liao Wenbin glanced in the direction of the inner room and whispered: "It's wrapped around her head. It was a beggar's clothes, and there were fleas on the clothes. Han Xiang loves cleanliness the most, so I threw the clothes aside."
"A beggar's clothes?" Zhou Yu'an frowned and asked Li Zheng: "Did you get the clothes back? That is very important physical evidence."
"Burn, burn." Li Zheng stammered: "The clothes were full of blood. I was afraid of causing panic, so I burned them. In the brazier of the City God, in front of the City God."
"You are really... forget it." Zhou Yu'an picked something out of the wound. Seeing this, Shen Chongming immediately handed over the handkerchief.
"What's this?"
"It looks like a dead leech." Zhou Yu'an turned it over with tweezers: "How come there are leeches in this City God's Temple? And this leech even crawled into Miss Han's neck."
"Maybe it got stained on the beggar's cotton-padded clothes. Beggars lie down wherever they go, so it's not surprising that it got stained with this thing."
"No, these leeches are different from ants. They only live in paddy fields, rivers, rice fields, lakes, ditches, shallow water and dirty ponds. The beggar is a bit dirty, but he is not crazy or stupid. He will not go to such a place, even if Even if you accidentally fall into a ditch, you won’t be walking around with a living leech.”
Zhou Yu'an pinched the leech and said, "This leech died after sucking blood, and it was crushed to death by someone. Who would crush a leech to death?"
"You mean the murderer?" Their eyes met, Shen Chongming asked Li Zheng: "Is there shallow water and dirty water in this City God's Temple?"
"There is an culvert under the City God's Temple. The culvert leads to the Yongding River outside the town. There are leeches in the Yongding River." Li Zheng licked his dry lips: "To tell you the truth, I also discovered it when I was cleaning my cotton clothes. Leech. Like the one in the girl's hand, it was also dead. It was sealed in the interlayer of the cotton-padded clothes. The interlayer was damaged and the leech fell out and mixed with the blood on the cotton-padded clothes. If you don't look carefully, you can't tell. Burn The cotton-padded clothes are for fear of causing panic, but there is also a leech thing here. I always feel that this thing is a bit scary. If the girl hadn't discovered the leech, I wouldn't want to say anything."
There are leeches in the beggar's cotton-padded clothes, and the leeches are sewn into the clothes. This shows that someone is targeting the beggar and wants his life. The head was wrapped in a beggar’s cotton coat. Where did the beggar go?
If the beggar hadn't been in the City God's Temple when the crime occurred, if Xiaocui hadn't seen Liao Wenbin holding Han Xiang's head, if the Han family hadn't insisted that Liao Wenbin was the murderer, and if the beggar's bowl in the City God's Temple hadn't been dry, Li Zheng would have suspected that the beggar was the murderer.
According to Li Zheng's description, the beggar was Po Jiaohan, who suddenly appeared in Liulin Town. He lived by begging during the day and stayed at the City God's Temple at night. Someone had seen his face. The right side of his face was intact, but the left side was covered with scars. This man was wearing military boots. He was probably a wounded soldier who was abandoned by the court after being injured.
The matter of the beggar was remembered by Zhou Yu'an. Shen Chongming was more direct. He asked Zhi Jian to find the beggar. He wanted to see the person in life and the corpse in death. His consciousness told him that the beggar was related to Changming Mountain and the Beidi people's raid on Shuozhou. As for the murderer, he most likely came for the beggar, and killing Han Xiang was not part of his plan.
The murderer was not found, and a beggar with a strange identity appeared. Zhou Yu'an could only hold his breath and find more clues from the dead Han Xiang.
After brushing the hair aside, it was confirmed that there were indeed two wounds on the scalp, one of which was caused by repeated impacts. Combined with the marks on the mud table, it can be concluded that it was caused by the murderer.
Another spot formed earlier. When I pressed it with my hand, I found congestion under the skin, which was quite strange. Based on the time of death of the deceased, this wound should have been left on the day before Han Xiang's death. At that time, she was still locked up at home by her parents.
