The wages of avarice is death.
Indulging in the extravagant and dissolute life, Zhu Afu's desire gradually amplified. He went back and forth to the mountains many times to break red gold stones, and then brought the red gold stones to the black market for trading.
The first people to attract attention were the Hu brothers from the same village. They happened to see Zhu Afu wearing gold and silver going in and out of a luxury restaurant. They took the opportunity to 'question', but Zhu Afu knew the truth and gritted his teeth and refused to say anything.
So, the Hu brothers secretly went to the Zhou family to file a complaint, saying that Zhu Afu's hands and feet were unclean and must have passed the Zhou family's things while working, so the Zhou family caught him and beat him up.
After that, the more the Hu brothers thought about it, the more something was wrong. They worked together on weekdays and didn't see anything valuable. What did Zhu Afu steal to make a fortune?
The Hu brothers kept an eye out, and after Zhu Afu spent all his money, he went into the mountains again. They followed him secretly, and finally discovered the big secret.
There was a gold mine in front of them, and the Hu brothers were almost crazy about it.
When greed arises, all kinds of evil arise.
The Hu brothers wanted to take it for themselves, and they were angry that Zhu Afu acted too openly. As time went by, they might not be able to hide it, so they were so cruel that they killed Zhu Afu and buried his body.
In comparison, the Hu brothers kept a low profile. They neither visited luxury pubs nor went to parties to spend money. They bought jewelry and sold shops, thinking that no one knew about them, but in fact they all fell into the eyes of the Zhou family.
"A poor tenant suddenly became rich overnight?" Zhou Yao laughed mockingly: "It is better to believe that it is raining red from the sky."
It turned out that the Zhou family had beaten Zhu Afu, but it was okay at first. Later, when Zhou Yao found out about this, he became suspicious and asked someone to investigate. The suspicion became even deeper.
Money is not guilty, but the sin is in the human heart.
It was almost effortless for the Zhou family to investigate one or two poor tenants. The Hu brothers did not enjoy it for two days and followed Zhu Afu to the underworld to line up reports.
"A gold mine, a gold mine, who can't be tempted." Zhou Yao's eyes were a little crazy.
Yu Fangjing put one hand on the gavel tree, frowned and said, "Where are the bodies of Zhu Afu and the Hu brothers?"
Zhou Yao: "I don't know about Zhu Afu. Who knows where they are buried. As for the Hu brothers, they were eaten by wolves and their bones were thrown into Shiba Po. They are probably still at the bottom of the lake." He said in a nonchalant tone, showing complete disregard for human life. .
Yun Qi looked up at the sky and counted the time. The bones were more than half a year old, but the bowl of whitebait and tofu soup he ate was more than half a month ago. His heart and lungs suddenly began to feel uncomfortable.
He secretly poked Lu Anran with the jade bone fan. He wanted to make eye contact, but he saw her eyes were slightly lowered and she was looking at the ground, in a rare daze.
Nangong Zhi's voice sounded, "Speaking of Shibabo, I thought of one thing. Among the Yaksha murder cases, there were several cases near Shibabo."
"That's a good reminder, Shaofu." Yu Fangjing opened his mind and hissed: "Yaksha always kills people in the watershed area. I didn't notice anything before, but now it seems a little unusual."
When Yun Qi heard this, he almost immediately said, "You don't have to think about it, Yaksha must have been created by the Zhou family."
In this way, the murder case of Yasha is solved, perfect.
Yu Fangjing twitched the corner of his mouth, "Prince Yun, this... we still have to verify it carefully."
Yun Qi looked disapproving, "Just the fact that there is a Zhou Pei in the Zhou family who drives Yasha crazy, it greatly raises the suspicion."
"Although the watershed is wide, if you draw a circle with the gold mine as the center, all the people who died will be outside the circle." Nangong Zhi agreed with Yun Qi's words, but put forward more reliable evidence and said to the prince: "I have made a wild guess. The Zhou family It was to protect the existence of the gold mine and to fear that another Zhu Afu would discover the gold mine, so we falsely reported that there was a yaksha in the forest."
Yun Qi grabbed the jade bone fan and clapped his hands three times, "Nangong Shaofu said it well, and I quite agree."
Zi Sangjin glanced at him sideways, "Besides this, Prince Yun has nothing else to say?"
"Ah, this." He spread his hands shamelessly, "Nangong Shaofu has already said it for me."
Zi Sangjin smiled angrily at him, then turned coldly to the Zhou family and his son, "I want to ask you, are you deliberately fabricating the murder of Yaksha just to conceal the location of the gold mine?"
Before Zhou Yao could speak, Zhou Hou shook his head at him, clasped his hands on his forehead and kowtowed to the ground, then raised his head and said, "Yes."
Although Zhou Yao wanted to take over the job alone, Zhou Hou knew that Zhou Yao couldn't handle it alone. The only thing he hoped for now was that he would be able to leave a descendant of the Zhou family.
As long as the bloodline continues, the Zhou family will finally have hope.
Yu Fangjing quickly asked: "Is it because Zhou Pei is pretending to be crazy because the Zhou family wants to exaggerate Yaksha?"
Zhou Hou replied: "Yes."
"Why do the Zhou family do so much?"
Zhou Hou was silent for a few breaths, his eyes were not as firm as before, his face was covered with a look of decline, and he exhaled, "As Huang Po said just now, with the gold mine, why should the Zhou family not be able to open up territory in other places and start another business?" A world.”
A long time ago, the Zhou family knew that the trafficking of women and children would be a hidden danger sooner or later. Later, the profiteering became a problem. They were forced to cooperate with Xue Tai due to threats, but most of the profits were actually taken by Xue Tai. .
Especially a few years ago, the Zhou family had a vague feeling that someone in the government was investigating their family. As long as the evil they had done could not be completely eradicated, although Xue Tai was here, he might be able to protect the Zhou family through interest negotiations.
But what if someone more powerful than Xue Tai appears?
And will the Zhou family always have to be controlled by others and waste their efforts to make money to support others?
So, when Zhou Yao discovered the gold mine through the Hu brothers, they planned the case.
First, Zhou Hou deliberately kicked Zhou Yao out of the house in person. In fact, Zhou Yao secretly made arrangements, including murdering the owner of the incense and candle shop.
He hid in an incense shop and used folklore to spread the news about the appearance of Yaksha in the watershed, so that most people did not dare to approach. He also brutally killed those who did not believe in evil and trapped wild wolves to eat the corpses.
"It's best to fool the stupid people. Just kill a few people, and they will spontaneously help you spread the word about Yasha killing people." Zhou Yao said, with a little pride.
The most difficult part was how to find more than a hundred corpses and disguise them as Zhou family members.
In the end, Zhou Yao focused on Shangsi Village.
Yu Fangjing asked him why.
Zhou Yaodao: "It's very simple. Firstly, how can I determine whether Zhu Afu and the Hu brothers have revealed anything to the villagers unintentionally? Secondly, three people have already 'disappeared'. Wouldn't it be more logical if something happened again?"
Yu Fangjing's anger was obvious. He tried his best to suppress it and gritted his teeth and said, "This is more than a hundred lives!"
How cruel, how heartless.
"The rest of the Zhou family don't know. I only told them that the government noticed the interest-raising thing and they need to hide in the mountains for a few days." Zhou Hou said.
Yu Fangjing said coldly: "How can I believe this?"
Zhou Hou had already prepared his words, "Because there are one hundred and fifty members of the Zhou family, many of them are here. It is inevitable that the rest of the Zhou family found that there were fewer maids and servants around them, so they found one hundred and forty-nine corpses." Disguise." Otherwise, there are only members of the Zhou family, no more than twenty or thirty people.
"I can't believe how you can shamelessly say such conscience-killing words." Yu Fangjingwo has been in Mengdu for more than ten years, and the most evil people he has tried are not even one ten thousandth as good as the Zhou family.
Zhou Hou asked instead: "As the head of a family, what's wrong with protecting your family?"
Yu Fangjing was so angry that he threw away the gavel in his hand, and it hit the bluestone floor hard, making a small crater. "Then you are going to kill more than a hundred innocent lives?" He was shocked and sad, "One More than a hundred people! All of them are lives!"
The more than 100 people who died in vain became a number and were mentioned repeatedly by those present. However, when they were alive, they were all living lives. Now they have disappeared between heaven and earth, extinguished in the fire.
The people in the county hall felt heavy, as if the gavel fell not on the ground but in their hearts.
Qian Liang's face turned pale, his legs and feet were paralyzed, and he finished thinking silently in his mind. It was really over this time. Such a tragic case happened in his jurisdiction. The best outcome now is to be stripped of his official title.
Yun Qi secretly paid attention to Lu Anran. She had lowered her head from the beginning, as if everything that happened in the hall had nothing to do with her, which was unusually powerful.
The subsequent interrogation was more detailed, and Zhou Hou and his son also explained everything, but they always insisted that the rest of the Zhou family were innocent and unaware.
Yu Fangjing once told Lu Yun that a group of strong men raised by the Zhou family when they abducted women and children were actually the heads of Panlong Village and Jinshemen. They conspired with the Zhou family to commit a series of cases, and later the business was forced to end. , but how can the Zhou family rest assured.
The dozens of burly men found in the barren mountain pool were the heads of Panlong Village and Golden Snake Gate. It was a pity that the government had lost the clues at that time and did not examine the bones carefully, otherwise it would have been found that these people died of poisoning.
In addition, Zhou Hou naturally did not destroy all the profit-making books as he said, which implicated a group of people.
The case was not heard until it was almost dark, and everyone dispersed. Zi Sangjin asked the escort to temporarily detain the Zhou family in the county prison cell until the trial begins again tomorrow.
Lu Anran and Yun Qi took the carriage back to Yunfu Courtyard, and they were silent all the way.
Entering the courtyard, Yun Qi grabbed Lu Anran, who was walking in intently, and pretended to be relaxed, saying, "Yu Fangjing has done a good thing. The Yaksha case will be solved without any effort from my son."
Lu Anran did not turn around, but turned his head, his dark eyes as dull as the abyss, "Is this the end of more than a hundred lives?"
Yun Qi let go of his hand and took two steps forward to face her. He felt something in his heart and said, "You are blaming yourself."
No doubt, see it through at a glance.
Lu Anran lowered his eyes, feeling a little disgusted with the little tacit understanding he had with Yun Qi at this time, and he didn't know how to resolve the guilt of running rampant.
As a widower, she failed to do even the most basic task of determining the identity of the deceased!
"Zhou Hou interfered with you. No one will doubt the words of the 'housekeeper' in the victim's house." Yun Qi softened his voice and comforted: "If you really want to discuss it in detail, the problem is mine. As the person responsible for the case, Mr. Xing Sicheng actually let go of such a big doubt."
After a long silence, Lu Anran asked in a calm and questioning tone: "Yunqi, am I really suitable to be a gangster?"
