Just after dawn, the sound of carriages and horses could be heard outside Qi Mansion.
The one who came was also Xuan Qingwei, who came from Licheng to pull money.
If Shen Hao didn't show up, Wang Jian would naturally take care of everything.
A chair was brought, and Shen Hao sat in the atrium from the main entrance of Qi Mansion. There was a small table next to it, with a teapot and a teacup on it. In front of him was the dismantled Jingguan, neatly placed Sixty-one heads on the ground.
"Suck..." After taking a sip of tea, Shen Hao just sat there without saying a word, seemingly calm.
Near noon, Wang Jian came over to deliver an errand.
"Xiao Qi, the 750,000 taels of silver have been packed and gone, there is nothing wrong. The remaining 250,000 taels have also been put into our own private account. After this matter is settled, we can go back and follow the rules. Distributed to the brothers.”
"Well, has the news from the Yamen come back?"
"I'm back, I was about to tell you."
"Um."
Wang Jian thought about his words for a moment, and then said: "According to the records in the Yamen, there have been two missing cases reported in Wuyang City in the past two months. One of them has been found, and there is no news about the other one."
"Only two?"
"Yes. Every case reported in the Yamen has detailed records. There are indeed only two cases in the past two months."
Shen Hao put down the tea cup. Things were not as he expected, which made him a little confused. After a moment, he then asked: "Where are those portraits of the Qi family?"
"I've got them all. I found three acquaintances who have dealings with the Qi family and cross-described them."
Wang Jian waved, took a thick stack of portraits from the hands of a strong man next to him, and then placed them in front of Shen Hao with both hands.
Shen Hao took the portraits and turned them over one by one, looking at them carefully. Each portrait would be compared with the heads placed not far in front of him.
"Qi Wenzhi, well, that's right... Qi Hengwen, Qi Hengzhi, that's right..."
"Qi Hengbing...none."
"Qi Wenyuan... nothing."
"Xiao Chongliu...none."
Three of the sixty-one portraits had no similar-looking head matches.
In fact, it is not that there is no clue at all. Although these three people, Qi Wenyuan, Qi Hengbing, and Xiao Chongliu, cannot match the heads, it is a coincidence that among the sixty-one heads on the ground, there are also three that are beyond recognition and cannot be distinguished.
"Xiao Qi, these three heads should belong to the three people with the wrong numbers." Wang Jian judged from the side.
But Shen Hao didn't respond, put down the portrait without saying a word, and then picked up another written information about the Qi family and read it carefully.
Qi Wenyuan, sixty-seven years old this year, is the head of the Qi family.
Qi Hengbing, 41 years old, is the only son of Qi Wenyuan and actually manages all the main house's business. He had a son and a daughter, but they both died young.
Xiao Chongliu, the housekeeper of the Qi family, is fifty years old this year. He manages the accounting room and warehouse of the Qi family and is single.
When Wu Zuo called for people to clean up the broken bits and pieces in the Qi Mansion today, he had detailed records of the inspection of all the heads, especially the three heads with no visible appearance. Shen Hao had read the information before. The ages of Qi Wenyuan and the three unrecognizable heads probably matched.
But Shen Hao has his own ideas.
Not being too dirty, he directly picked up the three unrecognizable human heads, held them in front of him and looked at them carefully, and even pried open the mouths of the heads to look at their mouths.
Wang Jian was surprised. He hadn't seen his Xiaoqi take a case so seriously for a long time.
After a long time, Shen Hao placed the three heads on the small table at hand, picked up the teacup, took a sip, and said, "These are not the heads of Qi Wenyuan and the others."
"Ah? No way!" Wang Jian jumped up in shock when he heard it. He didn't understand why these three heads were not those of Qi Wenyuan.
"Look at their teeth." Shen Hao pointed to the three heads on the small table and asked Wang Jian to pry them open to have a look, as if to give Wang Jian some pointers.
When Wang Jian heard this, he quickly came to the table, grabbed a human head, opened its mouth and looked inside.
Shen Hao said from the side: "Look at their teeth, especially the back molars. Are they severely worn?"
"Huh? Yes, it's serious."
"The Qi family is a big family. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are extremely rich. Moreover, it can be traced back more than a hundred years ago. Which of these generations is not rich and well-fed? Even if they are old, they should not have such serious tooth wear. Yes. I don’t know if you have ever seen ordinary old people in the countryside. Their teeth look like this. This is caused by chewing brown rice for a long time."
When Wang Jian heard these words, he verified them one by one in his mind and found that what Shen Hao said was indeed true, but such details could easily be ignored.
"Xiao Qi, you are so awesome. You can think of such details, and I admire you! But... if these three heads are not Qi Wenyuan, then who are they? The real Qi Wenyuan, Qi Hengbing, and Xiao Chongliu Where are they? Are they not dead?"
A series of questions immediately emerged in Wang Jian's mind, causing him some headaches. He had never been very good at dealing with such strange and bizarre cases.
Shen Hao waved his hand and touched the three heads on the small table to the ground. Looking at the melon-like heads, he smiled and said: "Not only that, but you also heard Wu Zuo say last night that there were about three corpses among all the fragments. The time of death was earlier than the other corpses, and these three heads were also parts of those three bodies.
That's why I asked you to arrange for someone to go to the Yamen to check on the recently missing people in Wuyang City. "
"You mean...not only are the three bodies that died first not from the Qi family, but they were also deliberately killed and stuffed into the Qi family?"
"right."
"Yes, but why do you do this? And who did it?"
"I don't know. But it should be related to Qi Wenyuan, the three people who are neither alive nor dead. So next, you need to continue to dig deeper into the details of the Qi family, paying special attention to things related to Qi Wenyuan and the other three. This matter is very important. Trouble, but there are no other clues for the time being, so please don’t be careless after your hard work.”
"Yes, Xiaoqi, I will arrange it right away. Even if I dig three feet into the ground, I will find out the details of the Qi family!" Wang Jian promised, patting his chest.
After Shen Hao finished speaking, he got up from his chair and walked out the door.
"Xiaoqi, where are you going?"
"I don't know. I'm just wandering around and trying to figure out my ideas."
"Want me to accompany you?"
"No, just hurry up and get things done."
...
Shen Hao left Qi Mansion, then randomly chose a direction and wandered slowly along the main street. Whenever the case came to an end, he would walk around and clear his mind. Maybe he would have new ideas in the next second?
Now the clue is broken on the head.
The three unrecognizable people are not from the Qi family, so who are they?
Why would someone kill three unrelated people to make up the number?
Are Qi Wenyuan, Qi Hengbing, and Xiao Chongliu dead?
And why is there so much shortage of human blood that should have been shed all over the place? Where did it go?
Finally, and the most critical question, what are those guys who are hiding in secret and using evil talismans plotting against the Qi family?
