There is only one person who can make Sun Erkou willing to stay on the Jiehe Bridge and wait in such a hurry:
Drug store man!
Gu Zhengchen's eyes were slightly cold. Except for the people in the medicine shop, there was no one else!
Even if Dr. Guo Ning showed up, Sun Erkou would not sit on the bridge and wait. Guo Ning would not have any reason to stop Sun Erkou. Even if it was a misdiagnosis or wrong prescription, Sun Erkou would not Probably stay on the bridge.
Gu Zhengchen looked at a pile of Chinese medicine and fell into deep thought.
If he was from the medicine shop, the reason why he left Sun Erkou behind was probably: he was missing a medicine when he was getting the medicine, and now that he had it, he waited a while and then went to pick it up and deliver it.
Sun Erkou believed it and waited on the Jiehe Bridge, looking north from time to time and sitting down.
This also explains why Sun Erkou's traditional Chinese medicine bag appears on the north side of the bridge instead of the south side. The act of stacking Chinese medicine packets meant that Sun Erkou had to wait a little long, so he used this to pass the time.
At some point, someone shows up.
Sun Erkou stood up eagerly, without even bothering to pick up the Chinese medicine bag and went over to greet him. Afterwards, he was taken away and has been missing ever since.
The person who appeared outside the bridge must be the person who kidnapped Sun Er's family. Gu Zhengchen didn't know who this person was, but one thing was certain. The people in the medicine shop must have known something and participated in this action to some extent!
However, Gu Zhengchen had no evidence. Even if the messenger card was used to lure the clerks and shopkeepers of Hezhuang Pharmacy, they would not admit that Sun Erkou's disappearance was related to him, or even admit that they sent people to look for Sun Erkou.
As for the lack of a medicine in the traditional Chinese medicine package, they can simply say that they forgot to grab it due to negligence, or it is a common thing that the rural medicine shop is short of medicine.
After careful consideration, Gu Zhengchen decided to leave the people in the medicine shop alone for the time being. Instead of alerting others, it would be better to wait and see. Sooner or later, these people would bump into a pillar if they let down their vigilance.
In the afternoon, Yang Liang, Yao Zhen and others returned from Hezhuang. Yang Liang reported: "I have asked the servants of the Guo Liang family, but Guo Liang did not order anyone to throw away Sun's hammer and iron drill."
Gu Zhengchen chuckled: "So, Guo Liang lied. Have you found the thing?"
Yang Liang shook his head: "The strange thing is here, Sun's hammer and iron drill are missing."
"Gone?"
Gu Zhengchen stared at Yao Zhen.
Yao Zhen nodded slightly and said: "There is a servant in Guoliang's family named He Jiu. According to what he said, something happened to Sun Yiyi. When Sun Wuliang and Sun Hao went to Guo Liang's house to pay their wages, they specifically looked for Sun Yiyi's. The hammer and drill were not found, and He Jiu helped search for them, but they were not found either."
Gu Zhengchen was playing with a copper coin in his hand and pacing back and forth in the hall. After a long time, he held the copper coin and asked, "Guo Liang knows that a dead thing is unlucky and bad luck. Will you be taken away by others?"
Yang Liang shook his head: "Your Majesty, the people of Jurong are quite taboo about these things. They think that the resentment of people who die in misfortune will be entangled in the objects they used during their lifetime. Ordinary people usually don't take things from someone who has died, let alone a tragic death." It’s a rare thing.”
Gu Zhengchen nodded slightly and then asked: "If that's the case, then why do Sun Wuliang and Sun Hao want to take back Sun Yiyi's hammer and iron drill?"
Yang Liang thought for a while: "Maybe I want to take it back and return it to the Sun family."
Gu Zhengchen moved his fingers, put the coins in his palm, and said calmly, "It makes sense, Yang Liang, please go down and rest."
Yang Liang saluted and left.
Seeing that there was no one else, Yao Zhen walked up to Gu Zhengchen and asked, "Mr. Gu, is this case difficult?"
Gu Zhengchen sat down and yawned tiredly: "There are indeed many doubts. The person buried in the stone grave is obviously not Sun Yiyi, so who is this person and why was he hit on the head so hard during his lifetime? He was also pinned under a stone, which was the first suspicion."
"Second, the deceased was wearing Sun Yiyi's clothes. Judging from the distribution of blood stains on the blood-stained clothes, this clothes was worn by the murderer, not the deceased. The question arises, who is the murderer, Sun Yiyi or someone else? There is someone! Also, the clothes of the deceased belonged to Sun Yiyi. After killing someone, why did they disguise the deceased as Sun Yiyi? Why did they use this method to make the world believe that Sun Yiyi was dead!"
Yao Zhen frowned and asked doubtfully: "Yes, why do they do this? Isn't it very troublesome to do this?"
Gu Zhengchen picked up the tea bowl and blew a breath of hot air: "It is indeed very troublesome. Changing clothes for the dead body covered in blood and carrying big rocks are not things that one person can easily do. There must have been many people in the ravine that night. , at least six people.”
Yao Zhen was puzzled: "What are they planning?"
Gu Zhengchen looked at the tea soup and said slowly, "What are you trying to do? Of course it's Tu Sunkou."
"ah?"
Yao Zhen's eyes widened, full of shock.
Gu Zhengchen chuckled: "After using so many methods, I naturally want to make Sun Kou disappear completely and disappear without any future troubles."
Yao Zhen didn't understand what Gu Zhengchen meant.
Gu Zhengchen put down his tea bowl and his expression became solemn: "If my guess is correct, the disappearance of Sun Yi and Sun Er will definitely not be just an isolated case. I hope my guess is wrong."
Yao Zhen was still thinking about talking. At this time, Zhang Pei walked in carrying a backpack of more than 40 kilograms and said eagerly to Gu Zhengchen: "Your Majesty, I have found five areas for improvement. Can you arrange for Sun Niang to sew?" Have you made a tactical backpack?"
Gu Zhengchen moved his shoulders and stood up: "Let's go see Sun Niang."
Official house.
When Sun Niang saw Gu Zhengchen coming, she quickly knelt down and thanked him.
Gu Zhengchen stepped forward to help Sun Niang up and said: "In the end, you did not make a big mistake. Now that the case has been found out, it is my duty to return you to freedom."
Sun Niang just stood up and knelt down again: "The county magistrate is kind to the Sun family, but the common people lied about something in court and asked the county magistrate to punish him."
Gu Zhengchen helped Sun Niang up again: "You should be in court. You haven't reported this to the official, right?"
Sun Niang looked at Gu Zhengchen in surprise: "How does the county magistrate know?"
Gu Zhengchen smiled faintly and sat down: "That day you were evasive, and the county magistrate Liu Boqin secretly threatened you. You lied to protect yourself, for fear that the county magistrate would control the prison cell and humiliate you. I can understand."
Sun Niang lowered her head guiltily and gritted her teeth: "County Master, since my son disappeared in March, I have filed eight lawsuits against the government, hoping that the Yamen will come forward to help find him. But when the papers were delivered, they were all torn up, and I was not allowed to file a lawsuit. Not only I, a fellow Jurong villager, dare not go to the county government office if something happens, because it happened here."
"Oh, carefully."
Gu Zhengchen was secretly surprised.
Sun Niang said sadly: "To be honest with the county magistrate, over the years in Jurong, people who have complained to the county government have met with tragic consequences. Whether it was their fields being taken over, being beaten, or even their houses being robbed by wealthy families, their wives A woman is insulted and interrogated over and over again, but in the end it becomes the people’s fault.”
"The fields were occupied, and the land of the people of the county government was in the wrong place. They were beaten, and the people of the county government were seriously injured. They wanted to arrest the people and exile them for three thousand miles. They forced the people to redeem their sentences. If they had no money to redeem their sentences, they were exiled. The house He was robbed, and the county government residence was originally owned by someone else. He even took out the deed, and his wife and daughter were humiliated and seduced. They were also sentenced to be called unchaste sluts and committed suicide!"
"Over time, the people in Jurong are afraid of the county government. There is a saying in the countryside, which is: a smiling tiger and leopard eats the government. If they are not forced to do anything, no one will be willing to come to the county government to file a complaint, even if they are wronged. At most, families will be destroyed, but if it falls into the hands of the county government, people will die!"
Gu Zhengchen slapped the table and became angry: "This is unreasonable! Jurong County Government is so miserable?!"
Sun Niang looked at Gu Zhengchen with gratitude in her eyes: "Now that the county magistrate is here, the people of Jurong finally have hope."
Gu Zhengchen finally understood why for so long, the people hadn't handed a single petition to the county government. Emotionally, they had been completely disappointed in the county government and completely distrusted it.
"On that day, when I went to Zhishui, the villagers all evaded me when I saw them. Is that the same reason?"
Gu Zhengchen asked with a cold face.
Sun Niang lowered her head: "In the eyes of the people, there are no good people in the county government... The common people are not the county magistrate..."
Looking at Sun Niang who was hurriedly explaining, Gu Zhengchen waved his hand: "Smiling tiger and leopard, please accept Yamen! What the people say must be right. It seems that I need to go among the people and take a look."
Sun Niang didn’t answer.
Gu Zhengchen was a little depressed. He looked through the files over the years and found nothing wrong.
I still underestimated some of the tricks. Even the dossier was written flawlessly, without any flaws, and came with all kinds of personal and physical evidence!
"The backlogged cases will be re-examined by this officer. The more important thing now is to prepare a tactical backpack. If you are not in a hurry to return to Zhishui, you can stay in the county office temporarily. However, it is inconvenient to live in an official residence. Now the Dianshi residence is empty. , you can live in temporarily, and the new Dianshi arranged by the court will not be able to take office in a short time."
Gu Zhengchen to Sun Niang.
Sun Niang shook her head: "County Master, I would like to stay and sew the backpack. I am the only one at home, and it doesn't matter whether I go back or not. Besides, if I stay here, the Yamen will know the news about the first and second people earlier."
Gu Zhengchen nodded slightly and looked at Zhang Pei: "Tell her the problems you found. If you fix them early, you can go back to work early."
Zhang Pei seriously explained the problem to Sun Niang.
Gu Zhengchen listened on the sidelines and was very satisfied with Zhang Pei's findings, especially the rainproof issue mentioned by Zhang Pei, which should be considered.
This is not difficult. Apply tung oil on the linen cloth to form an oil coat. You don't need to apply it entirely. You only need to cover the upper part with an oil coat cloth.
If the wooden mat rubs against the skin, consider filling it with some cotton. The straps are not strong enough and some stitching needs to be done densely...
After it was basically settled, Zhang Pei helped Sun Niang move to Ling Shi's residence temporarily.
Gu Zhengchen was a little tired. He really didn't have a good rest last night in order to deal with the subordinate officials and government servants. He forced himself to look through the court examination files despite being sleepy. When he saw "Qingzhen Temple, Geshan people", he moved the corner of his mouth slightly and whispered. He murmured: "Geshan people, you are everywhere. That so-called stone tomb of Sun Yiyi, I don't think it looks like a chosen place, but more like a man-chosen place - a place of suppression!"
