The group set off from the city police station in sedans and soon arrived at the city hall.
In order to prevent any surprises, the sedan did not go through the front door: the front half of the government office was converted into offices of various departments, and it was full of naturalized cadres and local people who came to do business. Instead, the sedan entered and exited through the back door: for the sake of convenience, A few months earlier, Wang Sangou had opened a back door on the back wall of the Guangzhou government office through which sedans and carriages could pass.
Although it was deserted outside the back door, once inside, it was already heavily guarded. Here is the peripheral security, all replaced by soldiers from the National Army's Ba Dao Team and White Horse Team. Mu Min and others got off the sedan here. Cui Hantang looked at the wall, which was more than two feet high. This height cannot be climbed without the help of equipment.
Wu Mu, director of the Guangzhou branch of the Political Security Bureau, was already waiting for them in the yard. When he saw Cui Hantang arriving, he did not show any surprise - Daoist Dai's secret message had already been sent to his desk before Cui Hantang came out of Lingao.
New Taoism and the Political Security Bureau seem to be incompatible with each other. In fact, New Taoism is actually responsible for the work of the Political Security Bureau's non-governmental religions. The cooperative relationship between the two parties is far deeper than it seems on the surface.
"This is the crime scene." Wu Mu introduced, "Mayor Liu is waiting for us in the conference room..."
"Let me see the potential here first," Cui Hantang said.
Everyone was silent, watching Cui Hantang looking around, secretly doubting in their hearts.
Cui Hantang looked over and saw that this was a side courtyard of Houya. The yard is small, but the house is neat and exquisite. The yard is paved with stone slabs, and two sweet-scented osmanthus trees are planted in the two flower ponds in front of the main house. There are three main rooms, the middle one is Liu Xiang's office, and the two left and right bedrooms are his and Guo Xier's bedrooms: Liu Xiang doesn't sleep well at night and usually sleeps alone.
The wing rooms on the east and west sides of the yard have been converted into offices, confidential rooms and archives rooms according to the signs hanging on them. A special conference room was also set up. Cui Hantang looked at it carefully: the environment was quiet and there was no evil spirit. Not to mention that there were eight veteran personal guards sent by the General Security Bureau standing in the yard at this time. They had two revolvers crisscrossed on their bodies as standard. Some were armed with double-barreled shotguns, while others had double knives on their waists. Every one of them was murderous and armed to the teeth.
"Let's go and see Mayor Liu." Wu Mu said.
Liu Xiang did not come out to greet the elders, because a few days ago Mu Min had issued a death order to the personnel of the General Security Bureau, and he was not allowed to appear in public outdoor places. The security personnel were on guard 24 hours a day. Except for essential personnel, other naturalized citizens No contact with Liu Xiang is allowed without permission.
Although the witchcraft case is still confidential, the news that someone attempted to "assassinate" Liu Xiang has spread like wildfire in the city government. Some people in the city government can't help but feel panic. In order to prevent the news from spreading further, the Political Security Bureau has sealed off the inside and outside of the back office, strictly prohibiting personnel from entering and exiting, and launching an investigation into all personnel entering and exiting.
The naturalized citizens who were stranded in the Houya area were originally a little frightened. Now that they saw many elders gathered in this small courtyard, these naturalized citizens' close friends all secretly exclaimed: This case is really big!
Liu Xiang is currently resting in the conference room with his eyes closed. He has hyperthyroidism and his sleep at night is not good. After this incident, he hardly sleeps at night. When he gets sleepy, he will have nightmares or nightmares. After the torment, I was exhausted and out of shape.
Wu Mu didn't allow him to see people for meetings, and there were many things going on outside, so he had to read documents and write notes to direct the work every day. As a result, he looked increasingly haggard. Guo Xi'er felt sorry for the man, so she asked Han Yue, the newly transferred deputy chief of the General Affairs Section - Wang Sangou had been promoted to full section chief - to temporarily stop sending documents and take it upon himself to prepare some nourishing food. , served him to eat, then asked someone to fetch a screen, and served him to rest on the bamboo couch.
At this moment, Liu Xiang just felt that his mind was confused, he felt like he was sleeping but not sleeping, he felt like he was dreaming but not dreaming, and he just felt restless. Even when I was leaning on the couch, I felt uncomfortable all over. At this time, Hazy was about to fall asleep, when he suddenly woke up with a sudden jolt. But he saw Guo Xier looking down at him. When he woke up, he whispered: "Chief, Chief Mu and the others are here..."
Liu Xiang nodded slightly and said, "Help me up."
Guo Xier quickly stretched out her hand to help him up. Seeing that he looked haggard, he quickly twisted a handful of towels into the basin next to him.
Liu Xiang wiped the towel and felt a little more refreshed. He took another sip of herbal tea before walking out of the screen to greet him.
After being polite, everyone sat down around the conference table. Mu Min introduced: "Old Liu, this is Comrade Cui Hantang from the New Taoism who came to help solve the case. He heard about your case and said that he should come to your place to have a look first to see if there are any problems and let you solve the problem - ―Doctor Liu said you haven’t been sleeping well these days and you often get nightmares.”
Liu Xiang nodded and said, "Doctor Liu is right, I haven't been able to sleep well these past few nights."
Cui Hantang looked at Liu Xiang without saying a word. After looking at each other for a long time, he actually stretched out his hand to grab Liu Xiang's eyes. Liu Xiang was already dizzy at the sight of him. He quickly reached out and slapped his fat hand away, and said angrily: "What are you doing?"
"What are you doing? Hehe, hehehe..." Cui Hantang smiled evilly in a vulgar voice that was not suitable for his figure, and said a familiar line of a charlatan, which made everyone shocked: "This layman , I see your hall is dim and your eyelids are black, something will happen to you sooner or later!"
Liu Xiang's face turned dark when he heard this. He was already upset and felt that he had made a fool of himself, which greatly affected his reputation. Although Cui Hantang was not a close acquaintance, we had dinner and drinks together in Lingao and Qiongshan, exchanged experiences on the use of life secretaries, and scolded the executive committee. Unexpectedly, he came up with such an unlucky set of Jianghu tactics. He pointed his hand with a face: "Fat Cui, we are talking about business here, please be more serious!!!"
Cui Hantang wasn't angry either. He chuckled and said, "Hey, don't worry, I'm just talking to you about business." Then he coughed twice, straightened his face, and said to Liu Xiang, "Stand still, stand still, let me turn over." Open your eyelids and take a look. I suspect you have been poisoned!"
"Ah?" Liu Xiang was so shocked that he couldn't change his mind and quickly asked, "Damn fat man, don't lie to me. Is this really true?"
"Calm down, calm down, it's just a bug. At worst, the skin all over my body may ulcerate, or there may be a swollen belly that makes me fatter than me, or there may be parasites crawling all over my body." Cui Hantang said calmly.
Next to him, Lin Baiguang saw that Liu Xiang's face turned green, and quickly smoothed things over: "Okay, okay, Taoist Cui! We don't engage in feudal superstition. It's not like everyone doubts your ability, so stop pretending and tell us what's going on. Bar!"
Only then did Cui Hantang put away his lazy look: "Of course, but I can't tell for a while now. Let's go to the scene and find out why Mayor Liu was recruited, right? You must be Mu Bureau." Have you already explored the scene?"
Although the Political Security Bureau is responsible for the investigation work, Wu Mu has no experience in criminal investigation, so the on-site investigation work in this area is actually handled together with the police station.
"Yes, but I only found some strange things, which is of limited help in solving the case."
As she spoke, she took out a tray from the next room with a glass test tube in the middle and a small piece of tissue paper stuffed inside: "This is the stain extracted from Mayor Liu's window. There are flies gathering there. It should be Bloodstains, excrement, or decayed matter from some kind of animal - the details will not be known until Lingao's analysis is done; in addition, there is a very small scratch on the rear window sill, a little smaller than an ordinary cat's claw. , but it doesn’t look like a cat, it looks like..." At this point, Mu Min stopped talking, as if he was hesitant to speak.
"Like a baby's footprints, right?" Cui Hantang sneered.
Mu Min stopped talking immediately, and Liu Xiang's face turned a little pale again.
"To be honest, I don't believe in these things." Mu Min said, "I probably heard Liu San and a few old government officials say that this thing might be a 'little devil'. Things left at the scene indicate that these people are They are harvesting souls and refining ghosts. But these are all deceptive tricks. There can be no real 'little ghost' in the world..."
Cui Hantang shook his head and said: "Director Mu, of course what you said makes sense to us, but you also have to think about it: the source of the witchcraft of collecting souls is said to have existed in the Han Dynasty, and the witchcraft of the Han Dynasty It is possible that the magic was introduced from the Western Regions and the Mongolian Plateau. These evil magic can be passed down for thousands of years, until the twenty-first century... Ahem, it is still passed down to this day, how can it be a simple deception with no effect at all? "
"You mean..." Mu Min tried to figure out what he meant, "There is indeed a 'little devil'?"
"Indeed," Cui Hantang nodded vigorously, "Not only yes, Mayor Liu may have been poisoned."
All the elders present except Liu Xiang looked at him with crazy expressions, but Lin Baiguang was able to keep his composure and said, "What do you mean?"
"Let's go to the scene and have a look, so that I can make a more accurate judgment."
The scene was in Liu Xiang's bedroom in the yard, just a few steps away from the conference room in the east wing.
Liu Xiang's bedroom is the east room of the main house. It is a very common architectural form in the local area. There is an open eaves in front, and rolled bamboo curtains hang on the eaves. The paper on the windows has been replaced with glass, and curtains are hung inside.
Mu Min pointed to the window and door and said, "That's where the blood stains were found. You can see there's still some left on them."
Cui Hantang looked up and saw that the doors and windows were inlaid with glass, with some stains on it. He walked over slowly, raised his hand and carefully dipped a little, brought it to his nose and sniffed, hehe sneered and said: " Little trick." Then he asked: "Where is the paw print?" (To be continued.)
