At the beginning of the day, two county magistrates took Mr. Shen to arrest the monk and went to identify the monk.
Xu Zhen did not follow him. Instead, he found the housekeeper Lao Wang and asked in detail how the young master and young lady of the Song family were kidnapped.
"The problem lies in that hotel!" Butler Wang said excitedly, "I have already told the adults that I will send Chief Cheng and others to arrest the owner and clerk for interrogation, but I am afraid... I am afraid that they will have run away long ago. …”
It turned out that Mrs. Song and her party had left her sister's home in Daguan City three days ago and returned to Yanping County.
As before, they chose to set off early in the morning, so that after a day's journey, they could return to the county government office before the sun set.
At noon that day, they passed by a small town called Thin Willows, where they found a restaurant and ordered a few bowls of noodles and some side dishes.
But after they had eaten enough, not long after they left the town, they all felt inexplicably dizzy, and then they all fell unconscious!
When they woke up again, they found that they were tied up in an abandoned temple, unable to move, and their mouths were blocked, making them almost speechless.
According to the housekeeper, there was a stone platform in the center of the ruined temple, and the men and women were tied to both sides of the stone platform, so they didn't know if anyone was missing at that time.
They struggled there for two days and two nights, before finally a strong servant broke free from the rope and rescued everyone.
As a result, after checking the number of people, they discovered that the young master and the young lady were missing. Mrs. Song was frightened on the spot, not caring about the cold, hunger and thirst, and hurriedly asked everyone to search around.
Everyone soon discovered that their carriage, luggage and belongings were all there, but there were three extra pieces of parchment with blood written on them!
Although what was written on the parchment was not a blackmail letter, Butler Wang still realized that the young master and the young lady might have been kidnapped.
So, he quickly returned to the county government with the blood letter to report, while Mrs. Song continued to search the nearby area with other maids and servants.
In the end, they did not find the whereabouts of the young master and the young lady. Mrs. Song had to give up the search and returned without success...
"There is no doubt," Butler Wang said, "They must have poisoned the noodle soup, because all of us ate the noodles there, but only Mrs. Song and the others were eating the food."
it's useless.
Xu Zhen said in his heart that it must have nothing to do with the hotel, because they couldn't possibly know which restaurant Mrs. Song and her party were going to eat.
What if they carry dry food with them and don’t eat in the town at all?
Therefore, the kidnappers must have followed them long ago, saw them eating in the restaurant, and then secretly drugged them.
"Steward Wang," Xu Zhen asked, "How many people are there in Mrs. Song's party?"
"Nine people," the steward replied, "Mrs. Song, the young master, the young lady, two maids, a coachman, and then me and two servants."
"How many carriages and horses?" Xu Zhen asked again.
"A carriage with four horses," the steward replied. "The carriage has two horses. The driver and I are sitting together. In the carriage are the female family members and Young Master Song. The two servants each ride one horse."
oh……
Xu Zhen secretly analyzed that the number of kidnappers would not be too many, maybe two people could complete the task.
The means of transportation that transported the nine unconscious people to the ruined temple should be Mrs. Song's own carriage and horses.
"Then..." Xu Zhen said, "The ruined temple is not too far away from where you were unconscious, right?"
"Yes," Butler Wang nodded, "it's less than a mile away from the main road. It's a wild forest with no one at all."
"One last thing," Xu Zhen said, "who was the servant who broke the rope?"
"Xiaohu." The butler replied.
"Okay," Xu Zhen signaled, "I have no problem."
"Huh?" Butler Wang wondered, "Is this the end? You...don't you send someone to arrest the person in the hotel?"
"I am only responsible for the investigation," Xu Zhen said, "but I have no right to order..."
"No, you have the right!"
Unexpectedly, Song Zhili's voice suddenly came from outside the door. He looked back and saw that the two county officials and Mr. Shen, the police chief, had returned.
Xu Zhen quickly stepped forward to say hello.
"Xu Zhen," Chen Houlu said, "Old arrester Shen has confirmed that the monk is Qi Erlang Qi Yunzheng! The whole case is exactly what we thought."
"Oh..." Xu Zhen understood.
"Xu Zhen," Song Zhili came to Xu Zhen and said, "I'm afraid it's hard for Chief Cheng to do the job now. I've decided to leave this case to you to handle it with full authority! You Wen and You Rong, but I leave everything to you..."
When speaking, Song Zhili almost cried, which was touching.
"This..." Xu Zhen quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind, and then said, "Master Song, just do your best in your humble position!"
"Okay," Song Zhili said excitedly, "As long as you can help me rescue You Wen Yourong, from now on, I, Song Zhili, will do whatever you want..."
"Sir, your words are serious, your words are serious..." Xu Zhen quickly became polite again, but felt inexplicably ironic in his heart, because he thought of the Dongyou Sanren who came to assassinate him.
Next, several people sat down in the inner hall again and began to discuss countermeasures.
The world is mysterious.
For some reason, even though he hated Xu Zhen deeply before, when Xu Zhen joined, Song Zhili felt an unprecedented sense of security.
Sure enough, Xu Zhen had careful thinking and clear logic. He quickly simplified complex events and divided them into several tasks for everyone to take responsibility for.
First of all, the most important point is to do our best to find the whereabouts of the young master and young lady. We must send people to conduct secret searches and inquire in many ways. We must not relax for a moment.
Secondly, Song Zhili must stabilize Sima Xin and Cai Jin, continue to handle Qiu Batian's case, and conclude the case as soon as possible. These two people must not know about the Ghost Faced Killer, otherwise once they intervene, they will definitely disrupt the plan and cause more harm than good.
Then, Chen Houlu was responsible for the confidentiality work. From now on, he summoned all the people in the county government and asked them not to mention anything about the ghost-faced killer and to keep it absolutely confidential.
And the last item is to focus on finding the monk’s accomplices and investigating the truth behind the ghost-faced murder case...
In this way, the entire yamen was finally mobilized. First, Chen Houlu held a confidentiality meeting for all staff.
Then Song Zhili announced in public that Xu Zhen would temporarily take over the arrest house instead of Cheng Xiao and have full command of the case, requiring everyone to obey Xu Zhen's command, and violators would be severely punished.
Once the news was announced, all the detectives were dumbfounded, except Shen Yu, the tiger girl, who clapped her hands excitedly.
After the meeting, all the detectives returned to the arresting room to assemble, and Xu Zhen began to assign tasks.
Song Zhili was worried that the police would not buy Xu Zhen's account, so he came to listen.
As a result, none of the detectives dared to neglect, they all stood at attention and happily accepted various tasks.
Xu Zhen was well prepared, and the tasks were assigned in an orderly and clear manner. He had to convince the other agents. Song Zhili also nodded repeatedly after hearing this.
After the assignment was completed, all the agents immediately got busy.
Xu Zhen only kept two people by his side, one was the tiger girl Shen Yu, and the other was the young catcher Fu Bin.
Shen Yu is one of her own, although Fu Bin is not, but he can make up for some of Hu Niu's shortcomings.
After the detectives' meeting ended, Xu Zhen was about to take Shen Yu and Fu Bin to check the files, but was suddenly pulled aside by Mr. Shen, the police chief.
broken!
Seeing the gloomy and majestic face of Mr. Shen, Xu Zhen seemed to have a premonition that what he was going to talk to him about next might have nothing to do with the case...
…
