It is not easy to investigate old cases without files. The only way to do this is to divide the troops into two groups, visit the villagers together to see if we can get some useful information from them, and investigate the death of the acting county magistrate. Set out to find out the cause of death and find out who is hiding behind the scenes.
Zhou Yuan originally planned to ask Shen Chongming to visit the villagers, but the man remained motionless and had no intention of running errands at all. In desperation, he had no choice but to let Shen Chongming do it for him.
The man holding the sword was Shen Chongming's subordinate, who was somewhat reluctant to be commanded by Zhou Yu'an, but his master glanced over and left in a hurry.
The body of the acting county magistrate was placed in the Tutu Temple. The Qingyang County Government sent two government servants to guard it. They were said to be guards, but they only lived in the farmhouse closest to the Tutu Temple and went to the Tutu Temple from time to time. One lap.
There is a half-person-high wooden door in Tutu Temple, which is usually open. After placing the body of the acting magistrate, it was locked, and there was a government seal affixed to the lock.
The broken seal whistled in the wind, and the door lock swayed. Seeing Zhou Yu'an bending down to check, the Yamen who followed quickly said: "This earth temple is built on the wind vent, and the windows in the temple are not even covered. , this seal may have been blown by the wind. Don't worry, girl, there is only one lock on this door, the key is in my hands, the county magistrate's body is safe and sound."
Zhou Yu'an signaled the yamen servant to unlock the door, and the yamen servant quickly took out the key and stepped forward.
The Tu Tu Temple is not big. Apart from the statue of Tu Tu Gong, it can only accommodate an offering table and one person kneeling in front of the offering table. When I entered the temple, I had already seen the offering table. It had been moved to the corner together with the futon, and was replaced by a bamboo bed, with the corpse of the county magistrate placed on the bamboo bed.
There was a circle of dried herbs placed next to the body. Zhou Yuan took a closer look and saw that they were used to repel insects and rats.
The body of the acting magistrate was covered with a white cloth, and there were cat scratch marks on the white cloth. It seemed that the earth temple had been visited by wild cats.
"My lord, please forgive me, but we didn't expect a cat to come in." Upon seeing this, the two government officials who were responsible for guarding the Tutu Temple immediately knelt down on the ground. Shen Chongming glanced at them lightly and said nothing. The two government officials knelt down and remained motionless.
Zhou Yu'an also ignored it and lifted up the white cloth.
Different from the imagined acting magistrate, he looks extremely simple and honest. If he changes his clothes, he will be no different from the villagers of Xiaoyang Village. To put it bluntly, there is no official air in this person.
He was a fat and tall man, wearing a middle coat that was half open. There was a lot of algae inside, so that the whole clothes showed a strange dark green color. He was wearing a pair of pajamas, which were also stained with algae. The boots were worn on the feet, and the soles of the boots were dry. This reminded Zhou Yu'an of the book boy's words, that the county magistrate stood upside down in the well.
Zhou Yu'an broke off the corpse's fingers and took a look at his hands. There were only calluses on his hands and no wounds. The place where the calluses fell was where he usually held his pen. It was obvious that the county magistrate was very diligent.
"He was killed before going to sleep." Zhou Yu'an said: "He took off his coat, changed into pajamas, and planned to go to bed, but he went out again. Under what circumstances would a county magistrate go out disheveled? And you’re still in a strange village?”
"Someone called him, or he saw something particularly urgent."
"Would Mr. Shen go out with only his outer clothes in an emergency?" Zhou Yu'an looked at Shen Chongming: "If it were Mr. Shen, he would definitely go out with his outer clothes, right? Even if it was an emergency, he would put on his outer clothes on the way. . The magistrate is a scholar, and the etiquette engraved in his bones should not change."
Zhou Yu'an leaned over and looked through the county magistrate's inner clothes. Due to the long soaking time in the water and the delay in Zhou Yuan's arrival from Suizhou, the evidence originally left on the county magistrate's clothes disappeared. Zhou Yuan could only go through some minor and inconspicuous details. Make judgments.
"There are large injuries on both shoulders and the outside of the upper arm. These injuries are very deep and are not caused by a simple bump." Zhou Yu'an pointed to the county magistrate's shoulders to show Shen Chongming.
"Master Shen, do you know how these injuries were caused?"
"Pressed to the ground, the murderer pinned his arms and shoulders with his legs. He didn't resist, or he didn't have time to resist."
"Master Shen is so smart. These scars are red, indicating that they were left before death." Zhou Yu'an continued: "Someone attacked him when he was not prepared, and the person who attacked him was an acquaintance of his. Back to what we said earlier The question is, under what circumstances would a county magistrate go out disheveled, without even a coat. There is only one reason, that is someone he knows, and he thinks that he will not walk out of that yard. "
"When the county magistrate entered Xiaoyang Village, he only brought a bookboy and two followers."
"Only the bookboy and the county magistrate live in that courtyard." Zhou Yu'an blinked: "That courtyard is the best courtyard in the entire Xiaoyang Village, but it only has one bedroom and one guest room, and the guest room is full of miscellaneous things. On the night of the incident, the magistrate lived in the bedroom, the book boy lived in the guest room, and the two attendants and the magistrate's carriage were in another house. The attendant came out to look for it after hearing the book boy's cry. What happened that night? What, only the county magistrate and the book boy know."
"I asked Zhi Jian to check this book boy. He was an orphan and was brought back by the county magistrate when he was begging on the street. Why would a person who was kind to him kill him?" Shen Chongming approached Zhou Yu'an: " What else did the county magistrate’s corpse say?”
“There were strangulation marks on the neck, which went downwards and intersected behind the deceased’s ears. The murderer put a rope around his neck with a heavy object attached to the rope, which kept him hanging downward. "
"This weight alone can make a person stand upside down in the well water."
"Not only that, his ankles were also tied with ropes." Zhou Yu'an took off the county magistrate's shoes. There were no traces of ropes on his socks and ankles. However, Zhou Yu'an took out a ball of cotton wool from his socks: "The murderer is very smart. , to prevent being discovered, he stuffed a circle of cotton wool into the county magistrate’s socks. In addition, he also tied another thing in the rope. "
"What?" Shen Chongming looked at the ball of cotton wool and a scene emerged in his mind.
At midnight, the book boy stuffed a ball of cotton wool into the county magistrate's socks. Where does cotton wool come from? Local materials were taken from villagers' quilts, because this ball of cotton wool looked like old cotton wool that had been refurbished many times.
Shen Chongming was lost in thought when Zhou Yuan suddenly handed a few pieces of snake lin in front of him. Shen Chongming frowned and asked, "What does this mean?"
"It was on the boots, and it was stained on the inside of the boots. I guessed that the book boy tied the snake and the rope to the ankle of the county magistrate, and then suspended the magistrate into the water. The snake cannot sit still and wait for death. When he broke free from the rope, the rope tied to the county magistrate's feet fell off. When the villagers found the magistrate, he was in a state of rigor mortis, so he looked like what the villagers saw. Of course, it is not ruled out that there is another mechanism underground. , I think we can drain the well and take a look."
