Zhang Youli took the cloth ball, held it with bamboo tweezers, and carefully wiped the mouths and noses of the two corpses. The two cloth balls were covered with black soot and charcoal dust.
He asked Sun Ying cautiously: "Sun Wuzuo, from this point of view, is it enough to conclude that these two people were burned to death?"
Sun Ying shook her head slightly: "It's too arbitrary. If you want to judge whether a person was burned to death, it is not accurate to just rely on the soot and charcoal dust on the mouth and nose and the burnt eyelashes. You also need to check whether there are any wounds on the body. , whether there are fatal injuries, it is best to conduct an autopsy if necessary."
"Autopsy!" Zhang Youli exclaimed, "How could the family of the deceased agree to this? If they are angry at the deceased, I'm afraid they will." He hesitated, and he felt that what he said was a bit inappropriate.
"It is the duty of a prisoner to restore the true cause of death of the deceased and to plead grievances for the deceased." Sun Ying looked worried: "How can I be a bad person if I am afraid of being blamed!"
Zhang Youli's heart was trembling, and he hurriedly responded: "You little man, you have learned a lesson."
Sun Ying pursed her lips and carefully inspected the heads, faces, and chests of the two corpses for places that could easily lead to death, and found nothing wrong.
He Denglou said from the side: "After the fire was extinguished, I asked Fang Zheng of Yongchongfang to come and identify them. He recognized these two people as the two young disciples accepted by Ning Shunxiang. The eldest one is called Wang Jin, and the older one is named Wang Jin. Eight years old. The younger one, Song Sheng, is twelve years old. He lives there on weekdays." He stretched out his hand and pointed to the west. There were two mostly collapsed rooms next to the coffin shop: "That's the coffin shop's workshop. They usually live there."
Sun Ying nodded, turned to Zhang Youli and said, "Write it down and record the conditions on the bodies." He paused slightly and said, "There are no wounds on the two bodies."
Zhang Youli hurriedly wrote and wrote.
The group of people then walked inside.
The two courtyards are not large, and can only be regarded as one and a half. The front half is used as a coffin shop and workshop, and the innermost courtyard is occupied by Ning Shunxiang's wife, concubines and children.
The most severely burned area of the entire mansion was the courtyard.
The courtyard walls and the buildings inside were all burned down. Although the fire was extinguished, the smoke still lingered on the ruins for a long time.
The thick smoke made people's breathing suffocate.
Inside the collapsed second door, there were three ragged people huddled in the ruins. One of them had his arm stretched out from the threshold of the second door.
The clothes and hair of the three people were burnt off, their bodies were all black and there was not a single good piece of skin on them. Their facial features, eyes, mouth and nose were all blended together, making it impossible to distinguish their appearance.
Zhang Youli was startled by the ferocious appearance of the corpse. He hesitated for a long time before he endured the fear and stepped forward.
Sun Ying said solemnly: "People who work as gangsters will come across any kind of corpses and cases. If you are afraid, don't do gangwork!"
Hearing this, Zhang Youli straightened his back involuntarily.
Sun Ying said slowly: "The age of a body that was burned beyond recognition can only be judged from his teeth and bones."
Zhang Youli calmed down, listened to Sun Ying's words, and took notes carefully.
Since all the clothes on the body were burned away and the body was burned beyond recognition, there were not many clues left to deliberately identify him.
After Sun Ying carefully examined the three corpses, she said quietly: "The three deceased are all men. The one who is about to crawl out of the second door is about twenty-six to twenty-eight years old, and the one leaning against the wall is about eighteen to twenty-two years old. Twelve years old, the innermost one is about twenty-three to twenty-five years old.”
As she said that, Sun Ying looked at He Denglou.
Water leaked out of the coffin floor last night, and no one in the Ning family, old or young, was spared. In such a serious situation, after the fire was extinguished, He Denggou must have made detailed inquiries and knew the situation of everyone in the Ning family. .
He Denggou quickly took out the book, pointed to the people above and said: "Ning Shunxiang's eldest son is twenty-eight years old, his second son is twenty-five years old, and his youngest son is seventeen years old. The family's coachman is twenty-six years old, and Ning Shunxiang's second son is twenty-eight years old." The boy next to him is twenty years old, the boy next to the youngest son is nineteen years old, there is a nephew living at home who is twenty-two years old, the cook is twenty years old, and the other men are not very suitable for their age. superior."
Sun Ying knew that such an unrecognizable body could not be identified simply based on age. Some other means were needed, but now was not the time.
He nodded slightly and ordered Zhang Youli to record: "There is soot and charcoal dust in the mouth and nose of the three people, the eyelashes are incomplete, and there is no external injury on the body. Other conditions need to be investigated."
Several people walked all the way deep into the mansion, walked over the ruins, and roughly inspected all the corpses. Everyone felt heavy.
Although the identity of each corpse cannot be clearly identified for the time being, the number of corpses, including the number of men and women, corresponds to the number of Ning family members.
In other words, there were more than thirty people in the Ning family, ranging from elders in their sixties to children as young as two or three years old. It is possible that they all fell in the ruins.
It is said that water and fire are merciless, and wherever they go they will be filled with sorrow.
But with so many families being wiped out at every turn, and not even a single family member left behind, who would cry for their death?
In just one night, more than a hundred people died in Xiupingfang and Yongchongfang.
Such a crazy method is simply not something that ordinary criminals can do.
He Denggou can be sure that these murderers are just trying to silence themselves and cover up the murder case in the deserted house.
His face was gloomy and his voice was difficult: "Sun Wuzuo, these dead people need to be carefully inspected to identify their identities, right?"
Sun Ying nodded: "Yes, so why bother arresting the head? Find a few people to help send these corpses to the Internal Security Department."
He Denglou was naturally unfazed.
Sun Ying mentally estimated the time required for the autopsy and said slowly: "I can sort out the results of the autopsy this afternoon."
He Dengglou's face was full of sorrow, and he sighed longly: "Such a tragic case, so many people died in one fell swoop. It's really hard for me, a small catcher, to make a decision. I have already ordered someone to send a letter to Mr. Shaoyin." ”
Sun Ying also sighed along with her. The Fu Yin and Shaoyin of Jingzhao Mansion had just left, and such a big thing happened in Jing. It was difficult enough to climb the stairs.
Sun Ying took a look at the dark sky: "After dawn, will Captain He want to search the ruins again?"
He Denglu nodded: "Of course I want it."
Sun Ying thought to himself: "In that case, why has the head search been carried out? If you find anything difficult to identify, you can come to me at the Internal Security Department."
He Denglou was overjoyed and hurriedly saluted and thanked: "Well, thank you Sun Wu for your work."
Sun Ying waved her hand heavily: "No need to be polite, it's all for errands."
Just like that, several government officials pulled a cart and dragged the body, followed Sun Ying out of the ruins and rushed to the Internal Security Bureau.
Sun Ying turned around and saw Zhang Youli standing on the edge of the ruins. He pursed his lips and shouted expressionlessly: "Zhang Youli, if you don't leave, who will record the prosecution booklet for me?"
Zhang Youli almost jumped up with joy, responded, and hurriedly chased after him.
He Denglu smiled and shook his head. If Zhang Youli could learn a few tricks from Sun Ying, it would be easier for Jingzhao Mansion to handle cases in the future.
He then thought about the two difficult cases in front of him, and his heart suddenly became heavy.
He didn't do anything evil or evil, so why did God torture him like this?
It seems that he is going to burn incense and worship Buddha.
The sky was extremely dark, and the rolling mountains and forests turned into silhouettes, passing by quickly.
Yao Yao faced the heavy darkness of night, galloping without stopping, and finally arrived at Yuhua Mountain before dawn.
The tall and majestic mountain gate is hidden in the night. The gold paintings on it can't be seen clearly, and only a large suffocating shadow can be seen.
Dozens of Beiya Imperial Guards camped at the foot of the mountain and took turns on duty.
From a distance, I saw someone approaching on horseback. Two Ban Jianmo of the Forbidden Army who were on duty in front of the mountain gate swung their swords in front of them and shouted: "Who is this person!"
The voice was extremely ferocious and rough, and it was cold and awe-inspiring in the night.
"In the name of the Chief Envoy of the Department of Internal Security, I came to Yuhua Mountain to set up defenses first." Yao Yao quickly dismounted and handed the waistband of the Department of Internal Security and Han Changmu's handwriting to the younger Imperial Guard.
The young forbidden soldier with thick eyebrows and big eyes was the one who blocked Yao Yao with a loud voice just now.
He glanced down, exchanged the two things to Yao Yao as if it was hot, and said with a smile: "It turns out he is a brother from the Internal Security Department. Come in quickly."
The slightly older Imperial Guard next to him poked him and joked with a smile: "Brother, you are obviously a girl, you are blind."
The young imperial guard glanced at Yao Yao one more time, and suddenly realized, his face suddenly turned red, and he quickly accused him: "My eyes are clumsy, my eyes are clumsy, girl, don't blame me."
Yao Yao smiled broadly: "It doesn't matter."
The older imperial guard also laughed: "Girl, you came here all night long. It's a lot of hard work. Hurry up to the mountain and take a rest. There's still work ahead."
As he said that, he and the young imperial guard moved aside to make a way, and added: "The brothers of the Internal Security Department are stationed in the courtyard halfway up the mountain." He raised his hand and pointed: "Girl, follow this mountain road. Go up there and you'll be able to see it in about two seconds."
Yao Yaoqing thanked her loudly, got on her horse, and walked into the mountain gate. She took off a sachet and threw it over with her backhand. She smiled and said, "Brothers, you have worked hard on duty all night. I will give you some tea money."
The two Imperial Guards laughed together: "The girl is too polite."
Seeing Yao Yao walking away, the young imperial guard who had mistaken Yao Yao for a man weighed his bag and laughed: "This inner guard is not as scary as the legend says, he is quite generous."
The elderly forbidden soldier next to him quickly made a gesture of silence: "You haven't seen her killing people. It's very scary."
The young imperial guard said in surprise: "Have you seen it?"
The elder forbidden soldier shook his head: "I haven't seen it."
"Then how do you know that the way she kills people is so scary?"
"My guess."
"You are awesome. How did you guess it? Teach me."
"Didn't you see the knife on her waist? The smell of blood is very strong."
"Does she have a knife on her? Why didn't I see it?"
The elder forbidden soldier was speechless: "..."
After entering the mountain gate of Yuhua Mountain, there are three mountain roads. The middle mountain road is the most spacious and neat, which can accommodate the passage of Emperor Yong'an's chariots and leads directly to the palace on the top of the mountain.
This palace occupies a large area from the top of the mountain to the mountainside, and is extremely magnificent. During the months of summer vacation on Yuhua Mountain, in addition to Emperor Yong'an and his relatives, envoys from various countries lived in the palace. Emperor Yong'an would also move the palace to Some of the courtyards here were given to important officials to live in as a sign of favor.
The two mountains on the left and right are slightly narrower and lead to other courtyards scattered throughout Yuhua Mountain.
Most of these villas are located below the mountainside of Yuhua Mountain. They vary in size and have different scenery. Some are villas for courtiers, and some are royal villas.
There are no villas on Yuhua Mountain, but those who are qualified to accompany them can stay in these royal villas.
The location, size, and condition of the assigned royal villa are determined according to the grade of the person staying there.
When Yao Yao rushed to the courtyard where the Internal Security Department was stationed, she saw a dark figure standing in the night. She turned over and dismounted, threw the reins to the man with familiarity, and said: "Quick, get me some water. I'm thirsty." died."
Gu Chen tied the horse, shook his head helplessly and smiled: "You will command me as soon as you come."
Yao Yao stopped and rolled his eyes: "Heartless, I'm here to help you. I almost fell off my horse when I ran. I'm still injured."
Gu Chen sneered: "Don't be ridiculous, does your injury count as injury to you? Others don't know you, but I don't know you?"
Yao Yao smiled noncommittally.
There was already a guard in the house who heard the commotion and quickly poured a cup of tea, let it cool and handed it to Yao Yao.
Yao Yao thanked Gu Chen and asked Gu Chen in a low voice, "How are you? Have you received the letter from Fei Nu? Do you have any clues?"
Gu Chen considered and said: "There are not many cooks on Yuhua Mountain now. His Majesty has his own royal cook, and the concubines, princes and princesses also brought cooks. It is estimated that other noble families also brought useful cooks to the mountain. The only ones who need cooks are the Imperial Guards and the Internal Guard, as well as the chamberlains and maids in the palace. These cooks are already on the mountain, and there are twenty-four of them in total."
"That's not much!" Yao Yao made a "puff" sound and squirted out a sip of tea. His almond-shaped eyes were round and bright, and his face was full of anger: "This isn't much, so why do you call it too much!"
Gu Chen hid: "Don't get excited, why, you want to eat people!"
Yao Yao raised his hand: "I still want to hit someone!"
Gu Chen quickly held Yao Yao's hand: "Okay, okay, you are awesome. It's still six hours before Li Sheng arrives at Yuhua Mountain. These twenty-four people can be said to be more or less. You can tell me, How can we find those two people out as quickly as possible?"
Yao Yao had been thinking about it all the way when she came, and she had an invisible plan in her mind. She thought for a moment, squinted her eyes and asked, "Where are they now?"
Gu Chen pursed his lips towards the back: "The back is a large kitchen specially used for cooking for the Beiya Imperial Guards. I brought them all there, and there are internal guards guarding the outside." He paused slightly: "After receiving the letter from Fei Nu, I asked the inner guard to carefully check the calluses on their hands, and there was nothing wrong with them. They should all be old cooks." He looked at Yao Yao and said, "A Yao, could you have made a wrong judgment? "
Yao Yao pursed his lips: "Lao Gu, do you know that the calluses on your hands can also be faked?"
"...What do you mean?" Gu Chen said blankly: "Can the calluses on your hands be fake? You can make one for me to see!"
Yao Yao snorted and rolled his eyes at Gu Chen: "Don't believe me, but it's unreliable to judge whether they are real cooks or fake cooks based on the calluses on their hands, so I'd better think of some other way to identify them. "
"Other ways." Gu Chen murmured: "As a cook, the best thing you can do is your knife skills and cooking skills. If you are a killer, your knife skills will definitely be good, but your cooking skills may not be the same."
Hearing this, Yao Yao felt like he was enlightened and slapped the desk hard: "Lao Gu, I'm hungry. Can you ask one of them to make me a midnight snack?"
Gu Chen glared and said, "One person at a time, you're not afraid of dying!"
Yao Yao smiled nonchalantly: "Have all the meat and vegetables been delivered to the mountain?"
Gu Chen nodded: "It was delivered here at night. It's still fresh. What do you want to eat?"
Yao Yao counted his fingers for a moment and smiled slyly: "Do you have paper and pen?"
The inner guard quickly took a pen and paper, sharpened the ink, and placed it on the desk.
Yao Yao wrote twelve dishes on the paper in a eloquent manner, even the requirements were written in extra detail. He slowly dried the ink and handed it to Gu Chen: "Aren't they twenty-four people? You can have these twelve Make two lots for each dish. Remember to write down the requirements clearly, and then let them draw lots and cook the dishes according to the above requirements. Remember to arrange for the inner guards to watch them and tell them that the saint wants to choose a few cooks. Whether you can be favored by the saint depends on this dish."
Gu Chen understood Yao Yao's intention in an instant, raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "If you are greedy, just say it, you are falsely preaching the imperial edict, and you will lose your head."
Yao Yao smiled nonchalantly. She had done so many things to lose her head that she didn't care about this one more thing. She smiled and said, "You're afraid of losing your head, so don't eat it for a while."
Gu Chen snorted: "If I don't eat, I still lose my head with you, wouldn't it be a great loss for me?"
Gu Chen did not leave this matter to others, but made twenty-four lots himself, took them to the backyard, stared at the twenty-four cooks, drew the lots, and lined them up in front of the stove.
The one at the back is the public cook who cooks for the Beiya Imperial Guards. A large kitchen room occupies most of the yard, and there are more than thirty stoves in it, which is enough for these people to show off their skills.
The sound of washing vegetables and chopping vegetables resounded halfway up the mountain for a while. The kitchen was in full swing, the pale smoke rose into the air, and the steam filled the yard.
He Zhenfu opened the door curtain of the house and saw Yao Yao sitting there drinking tea. He smiled: "I saw smoke coming from the yard behind from a distance. I thought someone had set the house on fire. It turns out that It's you who's here."
Yao Yao smiled: "That's what I said, I came here specially to buy some houses."
He Zhenfu smiled heartily: "Tell me, what dirty trick did you do again?"
Yao Yao snorted: "I made some late-night snacks for everyone. I'll serve them later. If you can, don't eat them."
He Zhenfu's face almost burst into laughter: "I know you have a lot of damaging moves. Mr. Gu and I were worried just now. You will have a solution as soon as you come here."
There was no look of relief on Yao Yao's face, and he shook his head: "That's not necessarily the case. Since they have the guts, they must have made complete preparations. The people sent here are probably people with advanced cooking skills. This The method may not work.”
He Zhenfu was very optimistic. He slapped his thigh and said with a relaxed smile: "It doesn't matter. If you can have a good meal, you will make a profit." He took a sip of tea and said: "You don't know, I rushed to Yuhua Mountain in one go yesterday and even had a meal." I didn't bother to eat, so I started working. I originally wanted to have a good night's sleep tonight, but then I received a letter from my lord, it's really not an easy time."
Since leaving Beijing, Yao Yao has always felt a little uneasy. He always felt as if something was going to happen, so he couldn't help but said: "I don't know what's going on in Beijing."
He Zhenfu said: "In Beijing, anything can happen in Beijing, it's okay. Whatever happens now is nothing bigger than what happens on Yuhua Mountain."
The two people looked at each other, cheered up and said, "Let's go and see how those people are doing with their late night snacks."
The kitchen was filled with large expanse of white heat, like a sea of clouds rolling in, escaping outside the door.
With such huge smoke, it's no wonder He Zhenfu thought the yard was on fire.
Walking into the big kitchen, I took a quick look and saw that the twenty-four people were all dressed up. Even the grease stains on the aprons tied around their waists seemed to be slapping Yao Yao in the face, saying that they were real cooks.
From their regular and orderly movements, it was indeed difficult to tell who was the real cook and who was the fake cook.
Some people have quick hands and have already put the vegetables in the pot, while some people have slow hands and are still struggling to chop the vegetables.
Yao Yao's heart sank, feeling that things were getting more and more difficult, but she didn't show any clues on her face. She walked slowly behind everyone with He Zhenfu and He Zhenfu, stopping from time to time to take a look and smell. Taste, praise.
The two of them looked relaxed, but in fact they were tense and didn't even dare to blink, not letting go of any clues.
With a "sizzling" sound, the fresh meat was put into the pot, splashing a little bit of oily smell, and landed on the back of one of the people's hands. The man's face did not change, as if he didn't know, and he didn't even stop to move the fresh meat out. It fell into the pot without any trace, and the mellow aroma overflowed.
He Zhenfu's eyes fell on the hands of the person next to him, looked at them a few more times, and then walked forward.
Yuhua Mountain is much cooler than the capital city, but it is extremely hot in the kitchen. Ordinary people will be so hot and sweaty if they stand there for a while, not to mention these people have to stand close to the stove and be burned by it. The flames were scorching, and the clothes had already been soaked with sweat.
The smell of food was mixed with the smell of oil and sweat. The smell in the kitchen was really not that pleasant.
Yao Yao carefully examined everyone's expressions.
Most people frowned and seemed particularly nervous.
Several people looked relaxed and seemed confident.
There were also a few people who were a little far away from the stove. They didn't know whether they disliked the smell or were afraid of the smelly oil splashing out and scalding their hands.
Yao Yao looked at these people a few more times and wrote down their appearance.
After walking out of the kitchen, Gu Chen came up to him and asked, "How are you doing? What did you see?"
Yao Yao asked those people: "What are those people called?"
Gu Chen and He Zhenfu flipped through the roster and circled it.
Gu Chen said: "I just ordered you to prepare the dishes and put your name on the plate for identification."
It seemed like there was nothing to do now, so the three of them went back to the front yard together and talked about what happened on Yuhua Mountain.
He Zhenfu had just inspected Yuhua Mountain and said in a deep voice: "This mountain is too big, and the imperial army cannot set up defenses everywhere. They can only guard tightly around the palace. There are inevitably loopholes in the mountains. When you are summer vacation, Hunting is a common thing, if the saint wants to hunt in person this time, I'm afraid," He didn't finish his words, but everyone knew what he meant.
Yao Yao and Gu Chen looked at each other.
This was not the first time for both of them to go to Yuhua Mountain. They were quite familiar with the situation here and knew that He Zhenfu was telling the truth.
Gu Chen concentrated and said: "It can only be that the saint follows more forbidden troops on the day of hunting."
Yao Yao vaguely felt that the situation was critical. Although the hunting area had been delineated in advance, the Forbidden Army would conduct a careful survey first. There would also be a large number of Forbidden Army patrolling the mountains on the day of the hunt. But if there is a problem in the Forbidden Army, such a large mountain range can cause people to be caught off guard and suffer hidden losses.
She didn't dare to think about the consequences of Emperor Yong'an's secret loss. Just thinking about it made her feel that Xiang Shang's head was in danger.
Emperor Yong'an was a man who was determined to retaliate, and what he was best at was expressing his anger. If he suffered a secret loss, I'm afraid that both the Forbidden Army and the Internal Security Department would be in trouble.
Those who bear the brunt of the misfortune are those who have no official position or background and are working as errands.
Yao Yao was at a loss and said: "It's easy to hide from open spears and hard to defend against hidden arrows. If you rely solely on the Forbidden Army to protect you, there will inevitably be oversights. You can't just rely on the Forbidden Army."
He Zhenfu said: "Well, there are only so many people in the Internal Security Department. If you don't count on the Forbidden Army, who can you count on?" He looked at Yao Yao: "What other ideas does Yao have?"
Yao Yao smiled with self-knowledge: "How can I do it? I don't have such an easy-to-use brain. For other methods, I'd better let Sir Shi use his brain."
Gu Chen and He Zhenfu chuckled and looked at each other with a smile.
I’ve never seen such a person who doesn’t strive for advancement!
While he was talking, the inner guard came over to report that the twenty-four cooks had already prepared the supper.
Gu Chen was overjoyed and hurriedly ordered: "Let them bring the dishes in one by one!"
The inner guard responded, and not long after, there was a bustling sound outside.
Gu Chen and the other three smelled the aroma of the dishes, eager to prepare their food, and their mouths were watering.
