Detective in the Red Chamber

Although the heaviest wounds were just the few tooth marks on the shoulders, they couldn't hold back the astonishing number, and the pain was alright, but the itching was really unbearable.

The strangest thing is that even the soles of the feet were broken in some places. I really don't know how Wang Xifeng got them.

It's good that I didn't move around much before, but now I feel uncomfortable in every way from the study to the stable.

On the way, he couldn't bear it any longer, so Sun Shaozong had to take off his boots, crossed his legs and scratched hard.

This person who was so devoted, didn't even know when the carriage was stopped by someone. When he came back to his senses, he was facing Zhao Rongheng who raised the curtain of the car and came in to look around.

Embarrassment, wordless embarrassment.

After a while, Zhao Rongheng retracted his head calmly, and gently lowered the car curtain.

Only then did Sun Shaozong put his shoes and socks back on, rearranged his appearance, and got out of the carriage with a cat waist.

Seeing that Zhao Rongheng was waiting not far away, he hurriedly jumped out of the carriage, cupped his fists and said, "I made Zhao Zongxian laugh, but I don't know that Zhao Zongxian stopped Sun, but it was because of Mr. Lin's case?"

When getting out of the car, Sun Shaozong had already noticed that Zhao Rongheng chose the place where he stopped his carriage very cleverly. Whether he was going to Dali Temple or directly to Lin's house, this place was the only way to pass.

If it is said that this is a coincidence, Sun Shaozong will never believe it.

Zhao Rongheng did not deny it, and nodded solemnly: "That's right, Master Lin and I have been officials in the same government for many years, and now he has just taken office, and he has just been killed, and because of reason, I, Zhao Rongheng, can't just stand by and watch. "

As he said that, he solemnly returned the salute: "If it is useful to Zhao, Mr. Sun, please don't be polite!"

This is indeed a man who knows how to behave.

No wonder he had offended the prince heavily during the 'Longgen case', but now he can smoothly integrate into the core team of the prince.

In comparison, the wrists of King Bei Jing's Shui Rong are much more immature, and there is no trace of the same lineage at all.

So are they genetically related?

But having said that, Sun Shaozong really thought about it yesterday, wanting him to inquire about Lin Qisheng's performance in court and yamen.

Seeing that Zhao Rongheng took the initiative to come to the door at this time, he would not be polite to him, so he found a nearby teahouse and inquired carefully.

…………

At the same time, the backyard of the Sun Mansion.

slap~

Wang Xifeng, who was more handsome than before, slapped a pair of gold-plated scissors on the dressing table heavily, and ordered with a pretty face: "Go! Find your big mouse again, and my aunt will have a good time breaking up with him today." Rip, Rip, Rip!"

Chapter 923 Deliberation [Part [-]]

It is similar to what Sun Shaozong speculated before.

Recently, Lin Qisheng has indeed done amazing things in court.

At the beginning, the people in the Metropolitan Procuratorate thought that Zongxian Lin was eyeing some big fish again, and they were all gearing up, just waiting for the group to 'be awarded first-class merit'.

Unexpectedly, the last thing he waited for was the news of Lin Qisheng's application to become an official.

Although according to Zhao Rongheng, this change in Lin Qisheng started half a year ago, which is not quite the same as what his family said about two years ago.

But this is the only way to prove that the reason why Lin Qisheng resigned was precisely because of problems in emotional control.

He probably suffered from some kind of mental illness two years ago, but these days, there are only a few simple judgments about mental conditions: madman, fool, and normal person.

Although Lin Qicheng's behavior was very outrageous, he obviously didn't belong to the first two situations. In addition, he avoided medical treatment and didn't know how to adjust his mentality, so the symptoms gradually deepened, and finally he began to show restlessness and eccentricity in court.

Lin Qicheng obviously also realized that if he continued like this, waiting for himself would be a disaster, so he took a decisive measure to stop losses—retire from his post and return to his hometown.

With the contacts and prestige he built before he resigned, when he returns to his hometown in Shanxi, he will definitely be like a tyrant. As long as he doesn't run into strong orders like Hai Rui's, there is a high probability that he can go against the law for several years.

It's just that he never expected that even if he voluntarily resigned from office, the catastrophe would still come as expected.

Now that he knew about Lin Qisheng's situation in the court, and after he separated from Zhao Rongheng, Sun Shaozong naturally didn't go to the Yamen, but rushed to the Lin Mansion.

Speechless all the way.

After arriving at Lin's house, the first thing that was presented to him was two floor plans of Lin's mansion in addition to the confession record of the interrogation of the servants of Lin's mansion last night.

One of them is very plain, with only a few symbols marked on the inner courtyard; while the other one is densely covered with various marks and notes.

Before Sun Shaozong left yesterday, he specially ordered Huang Bin to draw this.

According to the confession of the government, after Lin Qicheng dismissed most of his servants, he became more and more independent, and even refused the personal service of the servants and maids.

When he first heard the news, Sun Shaozong had deduced based on it that Lin Qisheng was most likely replaced by an impostor half a month ago.

But when the concubines were questioned later, three of them said that they had spent the night with Lin Qicheng one after another—even if they could be fooled by their appearance and voice, their body and certain abilities were not easy to fake.

Therefore, the time when Lin Qisheng could be replaced was narrowed down to five days - because six nights ago, he favored a certain concubine for the last time.

On the densely packed sketches, what was marked was the behavior of Lin Qisheng and the rest of the Lin family in the past five days.

On the plain one, it is the place and time when the two sides met.

Study room, flower hall, three-door corridor, garden pavilion.

Sun Shaozong looked at it for a long time, and finally his eyes fell on the sign of "Three gates between the roads".

This was the last time Lin Qisheng appeared in front of people, and it was also the one with the most witnesses, and it was the only time that he approached the passage between the front yard and the back yard.

Obviously, the murderer did this deliberately to conceal the time of Lin Qisheng's death.

Then what is his purpose?

To make an alibi?

He ordered people to bring pens, inks, papers and inkstones, and after careful comparison, Sun Shaozong transcribed them one by one on paper for those who did not have an alibi when Lin Qicheng appeared.

Since there are two roles to be played, it is naturally impossible for the murderer to appear in different places at the same time.

However, after finishing writing, Sun Shaozong's head became even bigger.

Because most of the servants had been dismissed, the mansion in Nuo Da was empty, so no matter the master or servant, at least half of them were alone.

Even if the screening condition of alibi was added, more than one-third of the people were included in this list.

Among them, Lin Qicheng's concubines accounted for nearly half.

It seems that until more information is discovered, it is difficult to use the method of elimination to determine the real culprit-of course, targeted investigations still need to be carried out continuously.

So after handing over the investigation list to Tang Weishan for disposal, Sun Shaozong changed another piece of paper and began to list other entry points of the case.

The first is the burial place.

Referring to the surface condition of the corpse and the degree of decay, the place where the corpse was hidden must be indoors, dry, constant temperature, and full of floating dust.

Not to mention the former and the latter, the middle condition excludes the vast majority of vacant houses.

Because the temperature has continued to drop since mid-November, if there are no human beings or other heat sources moving inside, the room temperature of a house with an ordinary structure will drop below zero at night.

If this is the case, the corpse should have left traces of repeated freezing and melting, but when checking yesterday, no such signs were found.

This proves that the corpse should have been in a constant temperature above zero for a long time.

The Lin Mansion does not keep any livestock in captivity, and the place where the temperature can be kept above zero for a long time is basically a place where people often move around.

Considering the smell of the corpse, it should have been brewing for more than a day before the corpse was discovered. If it was hidden in a place where people came and went, it would definitely be noticed—after all, the corpse itself is not Signs of being sealed, covered up.

Or, someone endured the smell of the corpse and hid Lin Qicheng's corpse by his side.

But this kind of behavior has great risks, especially the smell of corpses is not so easy to dissipate. If someone really dared to hide the corpse by his side, he should have noticed it when the whole house was searched yesterday.

or...

It is hidden in a relatively sealed room with a constant temperature.

Thinking of this, Sun Shaozong first added the word "secret room" after the word "place for storing corpses", and then added the word "underground" after thinking about it.

After all, if it is just an ordinary secret room, it may not be able to maintain a constant temperature all the time.

On the contrary, if it is underground, it is very simple to maintain a constant temperature above zero.

After adding the remarks, Sun Shaozong then ordered: "Chen Jingde, you can go to the Lin family and ask if there is any place in this house that may hide a secret room-by the way, in recent years, this The mansion has been remodeled."

The latter question reminded me of my own tunnel.

Wait for Chen Jingde to take the order.

Sun Shaozong added the four characters of "impostor" on the paper again.

Although Lin Qicheng had five long beards and usually wore a pair of thick-rimmed glasses, it made it easier to impersonate him.

But if you want to hide it from others, the necessary makeup skills are always indispensable.

Then there is the familiarity with Lin Qicheng's daily life - even though Lin Qicheng lives in a simple place, has a bad temper and no one dares to approach him, he is not a stranger, and he can pretend casually.

The most suspicious person here is obviously the servant who takes care of his daily life.

But the problem is that before the incident, most of the servants around him were dismissed, and the rest were all driven to the front yard by him.

Speaking of...

Why did Lin Qicheng suddenly drive all the servants out?

Obviously, this manic symptom has lasted for more than two years. It is said that the boys around him should have passed the break-in period long ago.

If he has become so irritable recently that he can't keep people around, then why didn't any problems arise when he doted on three concubines successively?

Could it be...

What secret did Lin Qicheng drive away the servants around him to cover up?

What is the secret?

You must know that before Lin Qicheng was alive, he almost blatantly slept with the wife of a certain manager, and he didn't deliberately cover up anything at all.

Could this secret be more serious to him than adultery?

Chapter 924 Deliberation [Part [-]]

However, it was said that Sun Shaozong was sketching on paper to deliberate on the case, when he suddenly heard a report from outside, saying that Lin Xiuyuan, the uncle of the Lin family, had come and said that he wanted to discuss something important with Sun Shaozong.

This is someone else's territory, why would Sun Shaozong not see it?

Immediately, he went out in person and welcomed Lin Xiuyuan into the living room.

After the two were seated as guests and hosts, Lin Xiuyuan immediately explained the purpose of their visit: "Master Sun, my father's body should have been inspected last night, right? I wonder if we can set up an order hall and offer incense to pay homage to?"

This Sun Shaozong has no reason to object.

Just as he was about to respond smoothly, his heart suddenly moved again, and he quickly changed his words: "Since we are going to set up a spiritual sacrifice, can we call back the servants who have been dismissed from the house? One can enter into the friendship of master and servant. , and secondly, we may be able to get some other clues from them."

In fact, Sun Shaozong thought about calling the servants who had been dismissed from the Lin family back together for interrogation early in the morning.

However, Dali Temple's manpower is not very sufficient. Before the Lin Fu thoroughly investigated, they really couldn't find the manpower to search for two hundred people in and out of the city.

Lin Xiuyuan hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded and said: "Then Lin will let people out later, saying that my father left a will when he died, and that he will give the whole family a month's allowance. Anyone who comes to sacrifice The old servant who worshiped has a share."

This Lin family uncle is really a knowledgeable and interesting master, and he has some skills. With his full support, it is really much easier for the people of Dali Temple to investigate the case.

Of course, the premise is that he himself is not the murderer!

Since Lin Xiuyuan took the initiative to find it, Sun Shaozong naturally would not miss this opportunity, so he took the opportunity to ask if there is any place in this mansion that seems to hide a secret room.

Immediately afterwards, he inquired about the reason why Lin Qicheng insisted on dismissing the valet.

However, Lin Qicheng couldn't say why, regardless of the secret room or something, although he was under one person in this mansion, compared with his father's authority, he still seemed too insignificant.

But for Lin Qicheng's arbitrary matters, as a son, he can only take orders, so how dare he pursue them to get to the bottom of it?

But it's not all for nothing.

At least when Sun Shaozong asked about the reconstruction, Lin Xiuyuan said that about three years ago, the mansion did undergo a renovation.

three years?

This time point was somewhat beyond Sun Shaozong's expectations.

He originally thought that if the secret room hadn't existed from the beginning, it was probably created after Lin Qicheng's temperament changed drastically.

But why is it three years ago?

Forget it, let's ignore other things, and follow this clue to find out if we can find some clues.

After receiving Sun Shaozong's entrustment, Lin Xiuyuan was still very cooperative, and immediately ordered someone to find the official's house and asked about the dental clinic that was built back then.

However, the dental firm is only an intermediary, and the connection with both parties is relatively loose. Now, after three years, no one dares to guarantee whether the artisans of the past can be found.