"Young Master Xu and Miss Chen." A group of people approached, clasped their hands and showed apologetic expressions to the two of them, "There have been a lot of things lately, so I delayed my arrival until now. Please forgive me for your understanding, Mr. Xu and Miss Chen." yes."
Xu Zan grinned and smiled cheerfully: "I wonder what all the adults are busy with?"
The adults looked at each other, as if they didn't expect him to ask this question.
There was silence for a long time.
Chai Shiming, the magistrate of Yixing County, had an idea and said: "In the past month or two, ship robberies have continued to occur on the canal, and we are all busy with this matter. I really didn't expect that such an inconspicuous little inn would be involved. There are so many murder cases. I didn't pay attention to it for a while, so I came too late. Please forgive me, Mr. Xu Wu and Miss Chen Er."
As he said that, he bowed his hands to the two of them very respectfully.
After hearing what he said, the others were quietly relieved and at the same time clasped their hands towards the two of them and said, "Please forgive me, Mr. Xu Wu and Miss Chen Er."
"Forgive me, of course I have to forgive you." Xu Zan's smile did not diminish, "I just don't know what you have done after you have been busy for so long."
The adults began to look at each other again.
Xu Zan quietly winked at Chen Anning and then said: "I also ask for your forgiveness, sir. It's not that I want to embarrass you. In fact, before going to Yuhang County, Ah Xun specifically told me that if you, sir, were to investigate and rob a ship, The case came late, so I must not blame you, as long as you can find out the clues."
"this……"
After Chai Shiming took a look at the others, he asked tentatively: "Those gangsters who robbed the ship are very cunning, and it is extremely difficult to find any useful clues in a short time. Mr. Xie will not make trouble because of this, right?"
"It's not easy. It's just that you are all so busy. How can you not find out any clues?" Xu Zan asked.
Chai Shiming laughed sarcastically, "When Mr. Xie comes back, please ask Mr. Xu Wu to say a few more kind words for us."
"I can't do this." Xu Zan waved his hands exaggeratedly and stepped back, "Ah Xun has always acted unruly. Although I always follow him to investigate cases, I can't be sure of his temper. Moreover, the official ship was robbed, and he He was extremely angry, but on the way to investigate, he discovered that such a shocking murder was hidden here... Although he didn't say anything, he must have been furious in his heart. "
"When he is so angry, he is not even afraid of the emperor. I don't want to go forward and die in a daze."
The faces of all the adults changed again and again.
Finally, Zhu Cen, the prefect of Jinling who had been maintaining his airs all the time, could no longer stand. He quickly looked around and asked respectfully: "I don't know what the situation is here. I would like to ask Master Xu for advice."
"I'm afraid I can't explain what's going on here in just a few words. You might as well come with me and have a look," Xu Zan asked Chen Anning to wait, and then led them to the thatched house. "You'll know everything at a glance."
There are twenty-nine adults in total, including the prefect of Jinling County, the magistrates of the four counties under Jinling County and their respective adjutants, the prefect of Wuxing County, the magistrate of Changcheng County under Wuxing County and their respective adjutants. The twenty-nine people were still some distance away from the thatched house. Seeing the large wooden basins placed in front of the thatched house, Zhu Cen casually glanced at the sheep in the sheepfold and asked, "What are those wooden basins filled with?" Sheep for slaughter?”
Xu Zan grinned, "No."
Zhu Cen: "What is that?"
Xu Zan: "Your Excellency, you will know when you get closer."
Zhu Cen didn't ask again.
After getting closer, he looked at the several corpses and individual heads placed behind the wooden basin. His eyes flickered for a few times before he blurted out: "The ones in this wooden basin cannot be these people." Head..."
"Your Excellency is indeed wise." Xu Zan clasped his hands in admiration.
Zhu Cen was so frightened that he took several steps back before regaining his balance. Looking at the bones and pieces of meat in the basin, and then at the heads, he almost couldn't help but rush to the side and vomited wildly.
The rest of the adults are not much better.
Xu Zan had already expected this result, and when Zhu Cen ran out to vomit, he quickly hid aside.
After they all finished vomiting and asked several secret guards to bury their vomit in disgust, they came back and said, "Several adults, please come in."
Zhu Cen timidly glanced inside the thatched house, "Is there anything else in there?"
"No more." Before he could relax, Xu Zan continued, "But these wooden basins were all lifted out of the pit in this house. The original plan was to wait for a few adults to come over and clean them up together. Who I know that you, your lords, have many things to do. It will be too late when Miss Chen Er and I have finished collecting these corpses, human heads, human bones, and human flesh. We have already finished the work, so it is not an exaggeration for you lords to go and take a look at the scene. ?”
Zhu Cen reluctantly said: "It's not an exaggeration, it's not an exaggeration."
After taking a few deep breaths and doing some mental preparation, Zhu Cen bit the bullet and followed him into the thatched house.
Because there is no one to take care of it.
After overnight fermentation.
The maggots that originally only thrived in the ravines have taken over the entire pit.
There are no torches in the pit.
It was so dark that nothing could be seen clearly.
After Chai Shiming, Zhu Cen and others went down, they stepped on maggots and heard a crackling sound, but they didn't know what they were.
Xu Zan deliberately fell in last. He went down a few steps of the escalator and blocked the way up before letting the secret guard pass the torch.
Under the light of the torch, the piles of rolling maggots were so frightened that Zhu Cen and others screamed. What's more, they turned around and climbed up the escalator without caring about their identity. Xu Zan stood at the entrance of the buttress, one person came up and kicked the other, "Can't stand it anymore? Miss Chen Er and I spent the whole night cleaning up here!"
"Young Master Xu, we know we were wrong. Please let us go up. We have something to say." Someone jumped on his feet and begged for mercy.
Xu Zan snorted coldly: "Ah Xun will be back tomorrow at most. If you have anything to say, leave it to him! Who am I? How dare I instruct noble people like you!"
"Young Master Xu, we really know we were wrong." Seeing that everyone's appeals for mercy were in vain, Zhu Cen had to suppress his face and said, "Please let us out, if there is anything you want us to do, you and Miss Chen Er Just ask."
"You can go out if you want." Xu Zan shined the torch deep into the pit, "This is where the old couple who ran the inn kept the diners, and it was also where they killed people. Since we want to find out why they killed people, this place must be You have to search carefully. You have to search each room. Once the search is completed, I will let you out."
"There's no need for that," Zhu Cen complimented, "I believe you and Miss Chen Er have already searched very clearly, so there's no need for us to waste time on trying to fix things up."
"Miss Chen Er and I are just laymen, and what we can do is very limited." Xu Zan did not give in. "My lords, it is different. As a parent, if such a big case occurs, we will definitely not be able to escape responsibility. My lords, too. I don’t want Ah Xun to ask you questions when he comes back, right?”
After a pause, he continued: "I think you all know how Lord Song and Lord Lu ended up in prison. You don't want to follow in their footsteps, right?"
"Fine."
"I have no official position."
"I have no right to disappoint you, my lords."
"If you adults want to come up, please do so."
Xu Zan said and walked out of the pit.
Then he raised the torch to the top of the pit, shined it down and said, "I'm giving the light to all the adults. Come up quickly, all the adults. Be careful when you come up. Don't fall down and end up relying on me."
