Three pear trees were planted in the courtyard outside the inner hall of the Tixing Division. It has become warmer these days, and the buds have broken open and bloomed quietly.
Lu Anran felt sleepy after drinking the medicine, so she simply walked around outside. She raised her hand to stir the pear blossom branches, and the white petals flew down.
It's as cold as snow, and the fragrance lingers in your clothes.
A white moiré brocade boot stepped on the fallen pear petals. Yun Qi's voice was a bit fresh: "What? I'm used to touching corpses, and I still have the fun of picking flowers for fun."
Lu Anran glanced sideways: "Snow pear ointment can remove dryness and nourish, it is a good health product."
Yun Qi pretended to be surprised and slightly opened his peach blossom eyes, "You not only cheated on me, but you also didn't let me go."
Lu Anran knew that he could not compare with Mr. Yunshang in terms of speaking skills, so he said helplessly: "Didn't the prince go to ask questions?"
"Speaking of which," Yun Qi pulled out the jade bone fan and opened it, walked to the pear tree, stood opposite Lu Anran, and said, "The man in black who assassinated Wuka was caught. This man was sent by Wuna to Uka’s bodyguard, secretly keeping him safe.”
Lu Anran frowned slightly and asked in confusion: "Yin Subaru has bullied Wuka many times, and the guard didn't know about it?"
Yun Qi whispered softly: "People from the Wu Na sect, who do you think he listens to?"
Lu Anran had a thought in his mind, "Wuna knew the truth, but for the benefit of Lanzhou County, he let Yin Subaru go."
"Exactly." Yun Qi said, "But Wuka killed the man, and there were guards behind him to help with the arrangement."
Things were almost as Xu Shaokai said. Yin Subaru targeted Wuka everywhere, humiliating and abusing him, but Wuka finally couldn't bear it and exploded. That night, he impulsively strangled Yin Subaru to death. In order to get rid of suspicion, he suddenly remembered the serial murder case and imitated cutting off his head.
Wuka has a very good memory. He can memorize most of the articles he read once when he was a child. He happened to have seen the scene where Jun Tao was murdered, and he actually copied it just by relying on the memory in his mind.
As for the guards, Uka told him that if the Yin family knew that the murderer was from Lanzhou County, how would they retaliate against Lanzhou County?
So the guards later chose to help Uka deal with the scene, and the two of them worked together to put on a show to get rid of suspicion.
But things are unpredictable, and Uka died of being too smart.
Lu Anran didn't know how to evaluate such a person, or anyone who had not experienced Wuka's life personally had no right to comment casually.
The truth about the Yin Subaru case was revealed, but Yunqi had no intention of making it public.
Yun Qi used a folding fan to pluck a pear blossom and said with a half-smile, "Why should a wicked person remain innocent?"
Lu Anran looked at his handsome profile and fell silent for a moment. Apart from the fact that the current balance between Mengzhou and the imperial court should not be broken, she could see that Yunqi finally had a trace of pity for Wuka's fate.
Just as she herself couldn't completely ignore it.
"There has been no news from Captain Qi." After the silence, Lu Anran said.
Yun Qi: "Caught a few people and asked Wang Er to identify them. There is no one like you mentioned."
The two were talking, and Su Ji came over, his pale and sickly face full of seriousness, "Your Majesty, I found something."
The Criminal Division was handed over to Yun Qi for only about ten days, and most of the time it was busy with serial cases, so Yun Qi left all the yamen affairs to Su Ji.
Therefore, since Su Ji came here, he has been soaking in a lot of documents and files all day long. It took several days just to file and sort out the important cases over the years.
In the process, he discovered something.
When a businessman fell into a river and died, no identification tag was found on his body, so he was still registered as unknown.
It was nothing at first, but the three words on the identity tag were very sensitive. Su Ji suddenly thought, what if his identity tag was not lost, but was taken by someone?
It is not unreasonable to say that Yun Qi values Su Ji. He is thoughtful and flexible. When he finds something suspicious, he immediately sends someone to take the businessman's portrait to investigate.
After such an investigation, he really found it.
"The businessman's name is Zou Taiyao. He is from Lun County in the west of Yucheng. He does ceramics business and finally settled in Zhenxiang Tower." Su Ji stood on the wind outlet and let the wind blow him. He coughed a few times and then said, "I asked someone to ask Zhenxiang Tower." The Madam of Xianglou kept a girl there and had a fixed room."
"Originally, after the business was completed, Zou Taiyao was supposed to go back with the caravan, but he planned to stay a little longer just because the girl named Zhenxianglou was fascinated by it."
Yun Qi heard Su Ji coughing from time to time and led people inside, "The person is missing. Why didn't Zhenxiang Tower come to the government to report the case?"
Su Ji: "In a place like a brothel, it's normal for guests to come and go. The old madam just thought that Zou Taiyao was tired of the girl and was afraid of being entangled and losing his money, so he ran away secretly. He also scolded the girl for not keeping guests, so I was more impressed by Zou Taiyao."
Otherwise, after so long, who would still remember such a prostitute.
The most important thing is that Su Ji straightened his expression and said: "The name Zou Taiyao did appear after his death."
Yun Qi and Lu Anran looked at each other and were shocked at the same time.
"Someone rented a small room under this name and has not returned the rent yet. I came to ask the prince if he should send someone there now or what?"
Yun Qi made a quick decision and said, "I'll go there myself."
Su Ji nodded: "Okay, I'll make arrangements right away."
Yun Qi folded his fan and stroked his palms, "Qi Shang can't be caught even though he's been arrested all over the city. I'm the one who can do it."
Lu Anran was silent and said honestly: "If the Criminal Division handles matters more carefully, this case may not need to be kept until now."
Yun Qi held his forehead. Although it was true, there was no need to say it in front of him, the criminal minister.
—
Tongxiang Lane in the west of the city, to the north are wandering merchants and peddlers, Huajie and Liuxiang, and to the south across Xuanwu Street are mostly wealthy merchants and gentry, or public ministers and viscounts who have private residences.
The same alley connects completely different scenes.
"Several households in this area are engaged in short-term rental business." Su Ji flipped through a blue book with black characters in his hand, pointed to a name on it and said, "Wang Shouren's name appeared here before."
However, we didn’t know the name of the businessman at that time, so no one paid special attention to the name Zou Taiyao, which was a few pages away.
Yunqi opened the small and worn-out wooden door with a fan, "Single room?"
Su Ji said from the side: "Well, short-term rentals are also divided into categories. There are Datong shops and single rooms like this. If you have more money, you can also rent a small courtyard with a single family." Anyway, any kind of needs can be met. .
To everyone's expectation, although the room was dark and narrow, and the furniture was simple, the old quilts on the bed and other items were placed in a very orderly and clean manner.
The door was left wide open, dissipating the stuffy smell inside.
"I've asked other people that the owner of this house lives in a simple way. No one is seen during the day, and no candles are lit at night, so no one has seen him." Su Ji said: "But you can always hear whether someone is there or not. There was no movement, but there hasn’t been a sound in the past two days. I guess I haven’t heard back in a few days.”
The room was just that big, and all the objects could be seen at a glance. Yunqi ignored the tables and chairs that were visible to the naked eye and opened the only cabinet to look at it. There were two or three sets of coarse cloth clothes, which were also neatly stacked.
Lu Anran walked to the east side of the room and stared at a painting on the mottled and peeling wall.
Su Ji opened the mattress and said, "Your Majesty."
Yun Qi walked over, narrowed his peach blossom eyes, and coldly snorted: "It is indeed this boy!"
I saw several pieces of rags spread under the mattress, of different sizes and shapes, some looked like collars, some were sleeves, and they were all cut from fine linen mourning clothes.
"Gather everyone here for interrogation. I will not believe that no one has seen it."
Lu Anran shook her head, "It's no use just seeing him." She and Wang Er had also seen the weird man, but based on the portrait, they still couldn't find him.
Su Ji took out everything inside and said, "He may have learned some disguise skills."
Lu Anran had a flash of inspiration, "Wang Shouren?"
"What?" Su Ji was confused.
Yun Qi suddenly realized, "Wang Shouren died in Jiehai, and appeared in the capital to attack the Lord of Rongan County. The Pojiao merchant and the weirdo in front of Jingzhao Mansion have not been found for a long time... maybe..."
"They are basically the same person!" In the end, the two said in unison.
Su Ji looked at the two of them funny, "Are you playing riddles?"
Lu Anran said: "The murderer knows how to disguise himself and use multiple identities to change at any time, so that we are always one step behind him."
Su Ji was not a dull person, so he understood after this explanation. He pointed at a piece of paper in his hand and asked, "What about this? Can it allow us to ambush one step ahead, or is it another trick of the murderer?"
In addition to the rags, there were also several pieces of paper inside, with a bunch of messy words written on them. It was not difficult to tell that they were related to several deceased people, as well as route maps of different streets and alleys in the royal capital.
"The painting is quite serious." Yun Qi flipped through it and said, "Now it is almost certain that the person living here is the murderer."
"Yeah." Lu Anran focused on the painting again.
Yun Qi noticed it when he raised his head and asked, "Is it so beautiful?"
In the painting, the sunset reflects the mountains, a shepherd boy rides a bull and plays the flute, and smoke curls from behind. The ordinary smoke and smoke of the human world are in sharp contrast to the shabby and deserted room.
Lu Anran put her index finger on the tip of her nose, "There's a smell."
"Yes." Yun Qi came closer, "Judging from the smoke, the rice is almost ready."
Su Ji didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He walked over and said, "It's not like he's a painting fairy. Where can he be... hmm? There really is."
The corner of Yunqi's mouth curled up slightly, and he smiled and said, "You'll know if you take a look." After that, he grabbed the bottom of the scroll and raised his hand.
A small hole was cut into the wall, three wine bowls, and a small incense burner.
However, there was no wine in the bowl and no smoke in the incense burner.
Lu Anran picked up the bowl and looked at it, "He worshiped here. What was originally in the bowl was not wine, but blood." Human blood.
Even if Lu Anran didn't say anything, Yun Qi and Su Ji thought of it through the faint smell of blood left behind.
Yunqi swept across the empty space in the innermost place, wiped the dust next to it with his fingers, and said, "The tablet should be placed here."
After packing up and coming out, Lu Anran said: "What to do next?"
The murderer is like a cunning rabbit with three burrows. He has many identity cards in his hand, and he can change his appearance. He may sneak out of the city.
Yun Qi raised his lips and smiled, showing some confidence in his brows. He flicked the paper in his hand with his index finger, and narrowed his peach blossom eyes with a cunning arc, "Here is the answer."
