Li Ziyu is the patrol officer in charge of film, so he naturally leads the way. Following Wu Xiang's instructions, he first took him to the entrance of East Eighth Alley, and then to West Eleventh Alley, walking along the locations of each crime.
Wu Xiang rarely spoke along the way, only stopping to ask a few questions at certain places. But they didn't talk about anything specifically. Just keep looking at it. It made Li Ziyu feel very mysterious.
They walked and walked like this until they reached the back door of Zhenbo Garden in Dongzhiba Alley, when Wu Xiang suddenly asked, "Where is this?"
Li Ziyu quickly said: "Chief Wu, this is the back door of Shanshan Guild Hall."
"Since it's the back door, why is the lock hanging on the outside?" He pointed to the door.
The door is larger than the average back door, with double-opening door leaves. A rusty cast iron padlock hung from it.
With this question, even Li Zhenguo suddenly realized that he had missed a suspicious point. This is obviously the back door of the guild hall, why is the door locked from the outside?
In the 17th century, the locks commonly used by Chinese people were padlocks. The biggest difference between modern locks such as padlocks and pinball locks is that padlocks can only be opened and locked in one direction. Therefore, there are latches on the inside of building doors. Locks are not needed. Locks are only used to secure the door when no one is at home. Locked.
Li Zhenguo knew that although the back doors and corner doors of government offices, guild halls, and wealthy homes also had latches on the inside, they had to be locked with padlocks at night. As for the back doors that were generally not opened, General Iron had been guarding the door for many years. This kind of locking from the inside is mainly for the purpose of internal security, to prevent people inside the building from communicating with outsiders privately, which may lead to theft and sexual intercourse.
Therefore, it is a bit strange that the back door of the Shanshan Guild Hall is locked from the outside. Because in this way, if people in the Shanshan Guild Hall want to open the back door, they have to come out from the main door and go around in a big circle to get to the back door. Come and unlock. This is too counterintuitive.
Did someone come out of the back door of the Shanshan Guild Hall last night? This question appeared in the minds of both Wu Xiang and Li Zhenguo. As the saying goes: Abnormality is a monster. Li Zhenguo looked at the padlock carefully. The lock was rusty, but the area around the keyhole was shiny. It was obvious that the lock had just been opened recently.
"There's something wrong with this lock!" Li Zhenguo said excitedly, "Someone must have come out of here last night!"
Wu Xiang nodded and said, "I'm not sure whether it happened yesterday, but it is indeed a doubt."
Li Ziyu bravely said: "Chief Wu, Comrade Li, this is not... doubtful..."
"Oh?" Wu Xiang was immediately interested, but the young patrolman immediately raised objections, "Tell me about it."
Seeing that he showed no sign of anger, Li Ziyu said cautiously: "It is true that this is the back door of Shanshan Guild Hall, but it is actually the back door of Zhenbo Garden."
Zhenbo Garden has been reduced to a "haunted house". When Shanshan Guild Hall bought it, it would not be used to house people. Instead, it would be specially used for a "not afraid of ghosts", that is, a temporary coffin.
When merchants do business and scholars travel to study, once they die in another place, the guild hall in their hometown is obliged to take care of their posthumous affairs. So it often makes sense to buy. However, the ancients placed the most emphasis on returning to their roots after their leaves have fallen. Those who died in a foreign land should carry their coffins back to their hometown for burial as long as conditions permitted. Some coffins are temporarily stored in temples and guild halls. Waiting for the permit to be shipped back to my hometown one day. Therefore, larger guild halls often have a separate courtyard in a quiet area at the back for coffins. Although there are not many merchants from Shanxi and Shaanxi in Guangdong, the guild halls also have such facilities.
Since the coffin needs to be stored, it is impossible to enter or exit through the main gate. Firstly, it hinders the feng shui. Secondly, seeing the people coming and going in the guild hall would be depressing, so I always enter and exit through the back door of Zhenbo Garden - you can directly use the one on the river. vessel.
Li Ziyu said that in order to facilitate the entry and exit of the coffin, the padlock was always locked outside. Because of the "fame" of Zhenbo Garden, it is almost completely isolated from Shanshan Guild Hall. Even if people from the guild hall come and go, they are not willing to go to Zhenbo Garden.
"Those who transport coffins always carry them in through the back door and leave through the back door. Even the handyman who takes the key to the back door dare not go back to the hall through Zhenbo Garden. They would rather go through the back door and go in through the main door. So this lock The head is always hung outside the door, not inside."
"It's quite evil." Wu Xiang nodded, feeling that the patrolman had a good grasp of the local situation. He asked again, "Who are the club manager and the doorman? You came to me and I have something to ask."
Li Ziyu said: "I don't know about that. The gate of the guild hall is not in Jianzi Lane..."
It turns out that the gate of Shanshan Guild Hall is opened in the adjacent Xiangyao Lane. According to the principle of dividing the jurisdiction of the street where the gate is opened, the large area in Dongzhiba Lane is not Li Ziyu's jurisdiction. .
After Wu Xiang heard what he said, he immediately asked him to go to the Shanxi Guild Hall in Xiangyao Lane.
The group of people left Nanjianzi Lane and hurried slowly to the gate of Shanshan Guild Hall. When the gatekeeper saw the police coming, he quickly called the person in charge out.
The person in charge is an "Old Xi'er" who has been doing business in Guangzhou for more than 30 years. He can be considered a half-native. However, he never speaks Cantonese very well. Hearing that Wu Xiang speaks "Newspeak", I feel relieved - Compared with Guangzhou Mandarin, this Newspeak is easier to communicate with.
I heard that the police wanted to ask about Zhenbo Garden, and the manager was a little surprised. This is a well-known "haunted house" in the city. Even the people from the Shanshan Guild Hall will not go in if they have nothing to do in broad daylight. What's more, the coffins inside are all temporary residences, and ordinary people avoid them. What's there to see?
He said that Zhenbo Garden was indeed the property of Shanshan Guild Hall, but few people went in. Even he himself rarely goes in once or twice. To talk about the specific situation inside, you have to ask the handyman in the guild hall.
So I called Lao Qi. What Lao Qi said was the same as what Li Ziyu said. For the convenience of entering and exiting the coffin, he indeed entered and exited the Zhenbo Garden from outside. After finishing the matter, he locked it and walked back to the guild hall from the outside. Wu Xiang asked him why he didn't enter and exit from the guild hall? Is there no door between the guild hall and Zhenbo Garden?
"My Lord, of course there is a door, and the small one also has a key. But the place is so gloomy that even in broad daylight, it feels very ghostly inside..."
You can enter Zhenbo Garden by opening the door of Shanshan Hall. But on weekdays, even in broad daylight, I would not dare to walk this road alone. He would rather go a long way to find peace of mind.
"Do you have the key to the gate?" Wu Xiang asked.
"Of course," Lao Qi said, "this key is hanging in the concierge where the little one lives. To be honest, the little one gets scared when he looks at it. If he can't use it, he won't use it."
"Is the key still there?"
"Yes, yes, no one stole this thing. I saw it this morning."
"Who else has it but you?"
"The steward has a handful."
"Where's the key to the back door?"
"It's the same thing. The younger one will take one, and the master in charge will prepare one."
But the steward said, "I don't have one." He added, "The one you used is mine."
Seeing the policeman's doubts, he explained that the old man had only come last year. The original handyman had died during the plague last spring. The disease was very severe at that time, and many people in the club fell ill. Those who were not infected hurriedly hid. I went outside the city to avoid the plague. There was so much chaos that I couldn't take care of it for a while. When I came back, I found that the handyman had died of illness and was sent to the cemetery for burial by the charity. Even the few keys he brought with him were missing - one of them was the key to the back door of Zhenbo Garden.
Li Zhenguo suddenly said: "Is this handyman stationed in Nanjianzi Lane, and his wife's name is Wang Xiuzhu?!"
The steward blinked his eyes and said: "It's true that he lives in Nanjianzi Lane. I don't know if his wife's name is Wang Xiuzhu, but her surname is indeed Wang - she often comes to the guild hall to mend men, and people call her Auntie Wang... …”
Li Ziyu almost screamed: Widow Wang's deceased husband was a doorman and died during the plague last spring. So, Widow Wang's deceased husband was a handyman at the Shanshan Guild Hall!
In this way, Widow Wang's murder was somewhat connected with the Shanshan Guild Hall. He remembered that Gao Chongjiu had said that the murderer seemed to be looking for something at Widow Wang's house. Could it be the key to the back door? !
The murderer will not look for the key for no reason. He must want the key to achieve some purpose... Could it be...
Wu Xiang and Li Zhenguo looked at each other, and Li Zhenguo said, "We want to go to Zhenbo Garden to have a look."
The manager was a little embarrassed and said: "It's nothing, it's just...it's just...it's getting late..."
Wu Xiang took out his pocket watch from his pocket. It was already five o'clock, but the day was getting longer, so the sun still looked bright. He said: "It doesn't matter, it's not dark yet. Let's go in and have a look. If nothing happens, we'll come out in a minute."
The manager had no choice but to ask Lao Qi to open the door and take them into Zhenbo Garden.
Lao Qi was a hundred reluctant, but since the person in charge had given orders, he did not dare to disobey. Seeing that there were several policemen here, I thought that since they were policemen from the Song Dynasty and had imperial weapons, they had strong evil spirits and could probably suppress evil spirits.
In order to save time, Wu Xiang asked Lao Qi to open the back door and enter the garden from the guild hall. Lao Qi had no choice but to take the key and lead the way.
The old man took them all the way to the back road. I saw a small black door at the bottom of the passage. The paint was peeling off. The door was bolted and hung with a large lock. It was already rusty. There seemed to be vague Taoist talismans on it. There are only big trees on the wall, providing shade like a canopy.
"On the other side of this wall is the Zhenbo Garden." Lao Qi said, inserting the key into the keyhole and about to turn it, when suddenly he trembled and exclaimed: "God!"
Several policemen were startled. Li Zhenguo looked closely and saw half a blur of black footprints next to the lintel of the small door!
Wu Xiang hurriedly went up and took a look. The footprints were very blurry, but judging from the size and shape, they should be those of a man. The footprints were very new and had obviously not been left there for a long time. Judging from the traces of moisture, it might have happened last night and this morning! (To be continued.)
