Early the next morning, Xu Zhen came to the county government office early.
Unexpectedly, he did not see the county magistrate Song Zhili, the head catcher Cheng Xiao and others, but he saw the old county magistrate Chen Houlu, whom he had not seen for a long time.
The county magistrate is equivalent to the deputy county magistrate and the second-in-command of the yamen.
However, this Chen County Magistrate is old and sick and has not been to the county government office for a long time.
In fact, speaking of old age, Chen Houlu was only fifty-eight years old. It was only because he married too many concubines and worked too hard that he became senile, weak and sickly.
Now, Song Zhili invited him here, obviously to let him deal with the villagers' complaints, because Chen Xiancheng's greatest advantage is that he is good at making peace with others.
However, what surprised Xu was that the outside of the Yamen was as clean as usual, with no villagers complaining at all. As a result, the old county magistrate had nothing to do and was strolling around the hall with a large cup of tonic tea.
However, the more this happened, the more Xu Zhen felt bad.
When something goes wrong, there must be a monster.
As expected, it didn't take long for two detectives to come back in a hurry.
Since the county magistrate Song Zhili was away, they reported the situation to the old county magistrate Chen Houlu.
"What a shame, sir," one of the detectives said, "the news that Old Man Li died in the Yamen Prison has spread out!"
oh?
Xu Zhen and Chen Xiancheng expressed surprise at the same time, but Xu Zhen was pretending because he knew this was part of the murderer's plan.
"We went to Old Man Li's house to investigate today," another detective added, "and found that many of the neighbors near Old Man Li's house have traveled far away!
"Later, I found out through some side investigation that they already knew that Old Man Li died in the county prison. They knew that coming to our county government to complain would not work, so... so..."
"So what?" Chen Xiancheng became anxious and urged, "Speak quickly!"
"They..." the police report said, "They should have gone to the county government to file a complaint instead!"
"Ah!? It's broken, it's broken..." Chen Xian Cheng shook his hands like Parkinson's and spilled a lot of tea leaves. He said worriedly, "If the county government is alerted, we will all be implicated!
"Oh," he asked anxiously to the government officials, "where is Magistrate Song? Why isn't he back yet?"
"Sir," someone answered, "Magistrate Song went out early in the morning, and we don't know when he will come back."
Xu Zhen understood that Song Zhili must have gone to question Qiu Batian.
"Then... what about Capt. Cheng?" Chen Xiancheng clapped his hands and said, "We have to think of a way quickly to see if we can stop him!"
"My lord... I'm afraid we can't stop you," the policeman said, "I heard that the news spread last night, and those people left overnight!" 2
"Ah? Alas..." Chen County Cheng sighed and put down the big tonic tea helplessly, "It's over, it's over, this time... it's really going to be a big deal..."
Xu Zhen didn't care how the county magistrate here sighed, quietly turned around and left the inner hall, and went to the south prison of the county government.
In order to block the news, Old Man Li's body is still parked here. Xu Zhen wants to check it in person to see if there are any clues on the body?
However, what he didn't expect was that the head catcher Cheng Xiao was also here and was examining the body with the gangster.
"Yes, it takes several hours after a person dies for these marks to appear." Wu Zuo, an old man with a hunchback, was pressing the body and gesturing to Cheng Xiao. "Look, Captor, there are obvious pinch marks here. !”
Cheng Xiao got closer to the face of the corpse, and sure enough he saw dark red pinch marks on the old man's cheek.
Seeing these pinch marks, Cheng Xiao's frown tightened.
Obviously, the old man was forced to take poison. Someone pinched his mouth and forced him to swallow the poison!
In other words, his previous guess was correct. There must be a ghost in the South Prison!
In the Daxuan Dynasty, the South Prison of the Yamen was nothing more than a detention center, where criminals awaiting trial were held, as well as plaintiffs and defendants in lawsuits.
Once a prisoner is convicted, he will be transferred to the county jail in Daguan City to serve his sentence.
As the saying goes, ordinary people do not dare to go to the Yamen to complain easily, so there are not many prisoners in the South Prison.
What's more coincidental is that there was not a single prisoner yesterday, and there was only Old Man Li in the huge South Prison.
Therefore, the suspect also becomes quite clear...
"Come here," Cheng Xiao shouted to his men, "take down the two jailers who were on duty last night and prepare them for severe punishment!"
"No, Chief Cheng, Chief Cheng..." Two jailers were nearby. Hearing this, they quickly bowed to Cheng Xiao. One of them defended, "Really, you really don't care about our business, we...we really You didn’t touch that old man!”
"Yes," said the other, "the old man was the only one in prison last night. How could we dare to kill him in prison if we hadn't gone insane?"
"Hmph, you're talking lightly," Cheng Xiao stood up and said to the two jailers, "This man was obviously forced to take poison. If it weren't for you, wouldn't this South Prison be a ghost?"
While speaking, Cheng Xiao had already seen Xu Zhen and glanced at Xu Zhen angrily.
"Captain Cheng, listen to me," a jailer swallowed and said, "This old man is just a accuser, not a prisoner, so... we didn't watch each other very closely yesterday. We were all outside in the hall for eating and other things. , if someone went in, maybe... maybe they didn't see it either..."
"Yes, yes," the other one quickly agreed, "I went to the toilet once, and the door was open. It should be... someone should have gone in and killed someone while we were not paying attention. Mr. Cheng, you must be aware of it... …”
"Alas," Cheng Xiao sighed and said, "We are all colleagues. I didn't mean to embarrass you, but are your words convincing? The old man is locked in the cell. If there is no key, who can let him Did he forcefully take poison?"
"This..." The two of them were dumbfounded and didn't know how to explain.
"So, I advise you," Cheng Xiao said coldly, "tell everything you know to avoid suffering."
After speaking, he winked at his men, who immediately took down the two jailers.
The two jailers were shocked and fell to their knees, pleading and proving their innocence.
But at this moment, Xu Zhen had already squeezed in front of the corpse and inspected the corpse with the man.
He even raised the old man's arm and got closer to smell the smell...
Cheng Xiao narrowed his eyes when he saw this, as if he thought of something, he went straight outside the cell.
"Xu Zhen," he stood outside the cell and shouted to Xu Zhen through the wooden prison bars, "come here!"
Um?
Xu Zhen didn't know why, but when he saw Cheng Xiao's cold eyes, he knew that there was nothing good going on.
He had no choice but to listen to the arrester's words. He could only slowly walk to the prison fence and look at Cheng Xiao across the fence.
"Go a little further!" Cheng Xiao waved to Xu Zhen.
As a result, as soon as Xu Zhen leaned in front of the prison pillar, Cheng Xiao's left hand suddenly reached into the gap in the prison bar and pinched Xu Zhen's throat fiercely!
Cheng Xiao's hand was so strong that he choked Xu Zhen until he couldn't breathe.
"You guys said..." Cheng Xiao pinched Xu Zhen hard, but said to his colleagues as if nothing had happened, "If someone like me, across the cell, could he forcibly take poison for that old man?"
After saying that, he also extended his right hand into the gap, pretending to force Xu Zhen to take medicine, and stretched it viciously towards Xu Zhen's mouth.
At this time, Xu Zhen was out of breath and his face was red from holding back. He tried to pry Cheng Xiao's wrist with both hands, but he couldn't do it at all.
Cheng Xiao has kung fu and his claws are like iron pliers.
He was obviously deliberately causing trouble. If the facts of the case were really restored, he should have pinched Xu Zhen's cheek instead of directly strangling his neck.
As a result, Xu Zhen couldn't open his mouth at all, and Cheng Xiao stretched his right hand evilly towards Xu Zhen's mouth, obviously wanting to humiliate Xu Zhen.
Xu Zhen was angry and immediately used the tricks he had learned in the police force. He suddenly grabbed two of Cheng Xiao's fingers, and then pinched them outwards with force!
"Oh ah……"
Cheng Xiao was in pain and immediately lost his strength and let go of his hand.
Xu Zhen quickly broke away and took two steps back. He was being merciful. If he had been harsher just now, two of Cheng Xiao's fingers would have been broken.
"you!?"
Cheng Xiao was about to explode, but Xu Zhen suppressed the momentum first and said to him:
"Captain Cheng, I don't think there's any need to try. It's absolutely impossible for the murderer to force the old man to take poison in this way. He has to open the lock and enter the cell!"
…
