The shortcut that Old Li Tou took with them was not the shortcut that Yang Qing had tried at first. This road seemed more remote, and some places seemed to others to be dead ends. Who would have thought that following Old Li Tou and turning left and right, he would turn to the right again. It seems that people who are not familiar with these streets would never know about it. It was this husband who was most familiar with Shaocheng. He also asked the people nearby and found this shortcut.
"County Lieutenant, this is it. Brothers have discovered something here." Old Li Tou led the way and led everyone into a dilapidated house, pointing to the door on the left and saying.
This house was obviously once a residence, but looking at the dust all over the house and the spider webs everywhere, it can be seen that it has long been abandoned and uninhabited. But now there are obvious blood stains on the wall behind the door on the left, which is still relatively intact, and there is a yellow silk sac woven from Shu brocade on the ground.
Yang Qing opened the silk sac and looked inside. It turned out to be some herbs.
"This seems to be a sachet." Li Yu glanced at it and said smoothly.
Yang Qing said: "Yes, this is exactly a sachet. Brother, do you see anything fishy?"
Li Yu smiled and said: "Not yet, but this sachet is made of high-quality materials and exquisitely woven. It should be owned by wealthy families."
"That's it." Yang Qing smiled, but before the smile faded, his face suddenly changed, as if he had thought of something: "Hey, wait a minute. Remember yesterday, I asked Mrs. Xiahou and the people in the Xiahou Mansion about their feelings. When Lan was dressing up, Mulan once said that Xinlan was wearing a silk sac, and this silk sac was woven by the Xiahou family, and the inside of the silk sac had the word Xiahou."
After he finished saying this, Li Yu quickly took the silk bag and turned it over. He suddenly found that one side was embroidered with the word Xiahou. The two looked at each other in unison. After a period of silence, the two Everyone laughed.
Finally finding some trace of Xinlan, Yang Qing suppressed the joy in his heart and said calmly: "It seems that this silk sac belongs to Xinlan, and this is where Xinlan stayed."
"Yes, judging from the height of the bloodstain, Xinlan's body was sitting with her back against the wall. As for no bloodstains found along the way and around it, it must be that the murderer wrapped it with something like cloth so that there was no bloodstain along the way. Blood stains are left, but for some reason there is a little blood stain here." Li Yu also said in agreement.
"As for why there was blood, Qing thought it was probably because the murderer had left Xinlan here for a long time, which caused the blood to seep out." Yang Qing explained, then pointed to the door and the ground: "Brother Ziyu, another The good news is that the murderer’s handprints and footprints were left on the door and on the ground respectively, and I asked my brother to have them copied for future comparison.”
"It should be so." Li Yu winked at the gentleman next to him, continued the order, and then asked Yang Qing: "But there is one thing I don't understand. Why did the murderer or Zhu Ba stay here, if it was just to rest. It may only take a while to avoid a certain passerby, but as you said clearly, Zhu Ba's stay here is not short."
Yang Qing said: "This, Qingyi can't think of a clue for a while. Let's go to Zhu Ba's house from here to see how long it will take. By the way, we will also see the situation over there in Huang County." Not long ago, Huang County Zuo Yi took people to Zhu Ba's house to continue the investigation. Maybe he might have good news there.
However, when they arrived at Zhu Ba's house, Huang County Assistant had no good news to offer him. None of the officials had discovered that anyone had seen Zhu Ba come home last night. Li Yu waved her hand in disappointment and asked him to continue leading the investigation, leaving only Several officials accompanied him and Yang Qing to wait at Zhu Ba's house.
For some reason, Zhu Ba's wife He was no longer afraid of the government officials. She went about her business in the yard as if there was no one around, regardless of Yang Qing and Li Yu sitting aside. Yang Qing felt a little pity for this woman. In fact, in his heart, he was not only 100% sure that Zhu Ba was the culprit of this case, but 80% sure. Once the case was found out, the consequences for Zhu Ba would definitely be different. That's great. When the time comes, only He will be left to live alone. It's really worthy of sympathy, but I wonder if this woman has any relatives to rely on.
Hey, why did he think of this? Yang Qing suddenly interrupted his thoughts that had gone astray. He smiled bitterly in his heart. If he didn't search for clues faster, why would he still have time to feel here? Alas, he was still a kind-hearted person. He stood up and was about to ask He again, but he found her rummaging for something in the hay shed on the left side of the yard.
There was a shelf made of several wooden boards under the hut. There was a pile of sundries on the shelf. He was bending over and rummaging for something. Yang Qing walked to the side and asked, "Is there anything He can't find?"
He replied anxiously: "It's nothing. It's just that the sack usually used to hold rice bran is missing. The slave family is looking for it."
"Is there rice bran in the sack?" Yang Qing wondered if it had been stolen.
"There's only a little left. I'm preparing to refill it. I saw it the day before yesterday, but now I don't know where it is."
Yang Qing said: "How big is this sack? I'll ask the gentleman to look for it for you."
"It's about three feet high and one foot wide." He said and gestured, and then said softly: "It's just a worthless thing, so I won't bother the officials."
Seeing her refusal, Yang Qing didn't force himself. He returned to Li Yu and gestured to him, inviting him to talk outside. The two came to the locust tree more than ten steps away from Zhu Ba's house. Yang Qing said, "Brother, He just told her that a sack was lost at her house. I thought that Zhu Ba might have taken the sack away."
Li Yu asked in shock: "You mean, in order to hide the truth from others, Zhu Ba secretly went home to take away the sack, and then returned to the broken house where Xinlan was hidden to put it in a sack?" Before Yang could wait, After Qing answered, he added: "Yes, that must be the case. It makes sense that Xinlan stayed there for a long time."
Yang Qing smiled and praised: "Brother's reaction is really quick. Brother Yu thinks so too. I just don't know where Zhu Ba hid Xinlan."
Li Yu also felt that this was a key point, and was about to chime in when he saw Huang Xianzuo trotting over with an old man.
"County Lieutenant, good news, good news, this old man saw Zhu Ba the night before yesterday." Huang County Zuo said excitedly.
Li Yu said anxiously: "Old man, where did you see Zhu Ba?"
The old man replied: "The little old man went home alone after drinking at a friend's house the night before yesterday. I was already a little drunk at the time. When I passed by Zhu Ba's house, I wanted to take a rest and sober up, so I leaned on the I sat under the wall of his house." When the old man said this, he pointed to the rammed-earth wall of Zhu Ba's family not far away, and said: "After a while, I heard a noise in the yard of Zhu Ba's family, and I He stood up curiously, stood on tiptoe and looked in, and saw Zhu Ba sitting by the well in his house, washing his hoe."
Wash the hoe? Could it be the one standing in the corner of his house? No wonder it was so clean. At that time, he felt curious and never thought that Zhu Ba had washed it late at night. Yang Qing then asked: "Old man, are you sure that is Zhu Ba?"
The old man said with a serious face: "The little old man is also from here, and he usually knows Zhu Ba. Although he was a little drunk the night before, he will never admit his mistake."
"I wonder if the old man still remembers when he saw Zhu Ba the night before?" Li Yu asked.
"I remember that the child's hour is about to end, and the ugly hour is coming soon."
"That's it. Huang County Assistant, please take this old man down." Li Yu gestured for the two of them to leave first, and then said to Yang Qing: "Mingzhi, this..."
Yang Qing made a gesture to stop Li Yu's words. It was better not to draw conclusions at this time. When I returned to Zhu Ba's house, I looked at the well on the right side of the door. Next to the well were two ridges of vegetable fields, which were still growing vegetables. When Yang Qing came to inspect yesterday, he had already discovered that some areas of the vegetable field had been renovated. At that time, he thought it was normal plowing and didn't pay attention. Now, according to what the old man just said, is Zhu Ba still farming late at night?
He walked to the well, opened the wooden manhole cover, squatted down and looked into the well, observing carefully. Seeing Yang Qing's behavior, Li Yu stepped forward and whispered: "Mingzhi, could it be Zhu Bajiang Xinlan..."
Yang Qing shook his head gently and said, "It's hard to say. We have to ask Mr. He before we can judge." Seeing this, he couldn't figure out the reason. He was about to get up when he suddenly felt something on the sole of his foot and moved his foot away. Look, it turned out to be just two withered chrysanthemums. I don’t know who picked them and threw them here.
In the main room, Mrs. He saw Li Yu and Yang Qing surrounding their well and vegetable patch. Curious, she came over and asked, "Two officials, is there anything wrong with the well and vegetable patch in my house?" Yang Qing said: "Nothing, I'm just taking a look. By the way, Mr. He, how deep is your well?"
He said: "About two people tall."
Yang Qing nodded, walked to the vegetable field again, and asked casually: "The vegetables are growing quite happily. Do you plow this field often?"
"So that the officials know that this vegetable field needs to be worked on diligently. It has only been plowed a few days ago."
"Have you done anything in the past few days?"
"The slave's house has not been turned over in the past few days. Hey, the slave's house has not been touched in the past two days?" Mr. He also noticed that the vegetable field had been turned over.
Yang Qing continued to ask: "Could it be that Zhu Ba turned it over?"
He said: "It seems like he did it in his spare time, but my husband rarely does these farm things. Really, it's just digging the soil on the vegetable ridges, why not even the soil in the aisles?" Turned it over."
When He was answering, Yang Qing paid attention to her expression and saw that her face was calm and did not seem to be hypocritical. He thought that these words were not lies. Just wait a moment. What He just said meant that the aisle between the two ridges of vegetable fields does not need to be plowed. Yang Qing suddenly discovered the problem and was surprised. Could it be that reason.
He hurriedly said to Li Yu: "Brother, I have understood the truth of this case. I also ask my brother to order the Wang family and his son, Wu Erzhuba, Mrs. Xiahou and others to be summoned here."
