Dreaming back to the Tang Dynasty, I was working as a detective in Chang'an

Fatty and I made an appointment to go to the prison to chat with Liang Qi in the evening, so we arrived at the cell after dark.

When they arrived at the county prison, the prison boss and his slave were drinking. On the table were a roast goose, a plate of pork head, a plate of peanuts, and a pot of shochu.

When the prison boss saw us coming, he quickly stood up to greet us. The cell leader, who is now 50 years old, has been watching prisoners in prison for almost 30 years. He smiled and said, "Why are you two here? Come on, come on, have a drink. It's been quite cold these days. Take a few sips of rice wine to warm yourself up."

There have never been any prisoners in the county government office. Those who watch prisoners usually spend their nights drinking or gambling. The county boss turns a blind eye and doesn't bother to care, and the people below him can't say anything.

I said: "Drink less, don't miss anything."

The prison boss smiled hurriedly and said: "That's natural, that's natural. This is rice wine. It's not strong. It won't cause trouble. Don't worry." We took out the tokens given by the county magistrate and asked to see Xia Liang. Qi. When he saw the token, he hurriedly took out the key from his waist and took us to the cell where Liang Qi was detained.

Liang Qi was eating at this time and found a beautiful brocade box containing several exquisite side dishes and a bowl of japonica rice. Wearing handcuffs and shackles, he struggled to hold the food with his hands, knelt on the ground, and put it into his mouth one bite at a time. When he saw us coming in, he knelt down on the ground and kowtowed.

The fat man said: "The food is good. Is prison food so high-end now?"

Liang Qi said: "The villain's mother was afraid that I wouldn't be able to bear it, so she asked someone to give me some food."

I helped him up and said, "Oh, poor parents in the world. I am afraid that only mothers in the world truly care about their children. For the sake of your mother's heart, you should also tell the truth and don't let the old man mess with you." I'm always worried about you. Don't be afraid. We are just here to talk to you. Tell us any hidden secrets to see if there is anything we can do to help you, so that you can meet your mother as soon as possible." After that, I The officer who was ordered to watch the prison opened the handcuffs for Liang Qi.

When Liang Qi heard this, he couldn't help but burst into tears. He said, "The villain is indeed being wronged. Please make the decision for the villain!"

"If you want to redress your injustice, you must tell us the truth. Did anything unusual happen that day when you asked Miss Dong to elope?"

Ranqi thought for a long time and said: "It's nothing special. I arrived outside the Dong Mansion at the fourth watch, but I still didn't see Miss Dong come out at the fifth watch. It was about to get dark, so I thought Miss Dong might not be there yet. I thought about it, so I went home and thought of other options. By the way, I was very depressed when I came back. When I was about to arrive at the door of my house, I accidentally bumped into an old man who was doing his shift and was scolded a few times by him. , he can prove that I returned home alone."

"This doesn't prove anything. Others will think that you are coveting Miss Dong's money, and it's not necessarily murderous, right?"

Liang Qi cried again: "Although my family background is not prominent, I have abundant wealth and my ancestors left a lot of property. How could I want to kill someone for a small amount of silver? Besides, she is pregnant with my child. As the saying goes A tiger's poison cannot eat its seeds."

"I believe you, but there is still something unclear. I heard your mother say that you originally liked men, but why did you suddenly fall in love with Miss Dong?" I asked.

Liang Qi dipped her hands into the vegetable soup and wrote three words on the ground: Happy Forest!

Then, he suddenly seemed crazy, knocked the food to the ground, and shouted: "Get out, get out, you devils, I will go to the Jade Emperor to sue you, and let you go to the eighteenth level of hell!" After that! He hit his head against the wall and knocked himself unconscious.

Fatty and I were also confused. Why did we suddenly go crazy? So he quickly ordered someone to help Liang Qi up. When he saw that his face was covered in blood, he said nothing and quickly asked the county doctor to bandage him. The prison boss said that Liang Qi has always been crazy these days, sometimes talking nonsense, sometimes laughing wildly, so we should not take it to heart.

Fatty and I returned, deeply feeling that the case was getting more complicated. Liang Qi is not really crazy, he is pretending to be crazy because he feels scared. He wrote the words "Happy Forest" to give us a hint. What is he afraid of? And if Liang Qi hadn't abducted Miss Dong, then where is she now? I could not understand.

I was speechless all night, and early the next morning I was woken up by several government officials, saying that Liang Qi had hanged herself with a belt at night!

Liang Qi is dead? How could this be? When we saw him last night, he was still fine. How could he suddenly be unable to think about hanging? I quickly came to the county government office and went to the dungeon. At this time, the fat man was already there, spinning around in front of Liang Qi who was hanging in the air, holding his cheek in deep thought.

Seeing me coming, he just nodded. He ordered someone to put down Liang Qi's body, looked at his neck carefully, and said, "He did not commit suicide, but was strangled to death."

I asked, "How do you know he was strangled?"

The fat man pulled the belt hanging around Liang Qi's neck aside and said to me:

"Look, there are two strangulation marks here. The thick strangulation mark is from the hanging belt, and there is a thin strangulation mark. This thin strangulation mark goes deep into the skin. There are blood marks, and the color is darker. The thick strangulation mark is The mark was relatively light in color, so he was strangled to death first and then hung up. Because this thin mark was very thin, most people would not notice it."

"Can you tell what caused these thin marks?"

The fat man shook his head. He still didn't know clearly. It felt like something soft, but very resilient. What was strange was that Liang Qi showed no signs of struggle. He seemed to be strangled to death.

Who has the guts to kill someone in a county jail? Who did this? Was he silenced? What does the Happy Forest that Liang Qi wrote about last night mean? I feel more and more that there are too many secrets here.

We immediately called the cell leader on duty that night to inquire about the situation. The cell leader said that he didn’t hear anything. He and another slave drank a little wine that night and felt too sleepy, so they went to bed. They slept until the morning and found Liang Liang. Qi is dead.

When asked again, they shook their heads and had no idea what to say, so they were detained for further interrogation.

I asked the fat man: "Is the cell leader suspicious?"

The fat man said: "They were drugged with sweat-inducing drugs in their wine. It should have nothing to do with them."

"How do you know they were drugged?"

"I raised a litter of rats at home, and sometimes I do experiments on them. I just fed them, and they all fell to the ground immediately and fell asleep. There was also sweat medicine in the rice that Liang Qi didn't finish!"

I'll go. If I see a mouse, I'll definitely jump three feet high. This guy actually raises mice at home. It's really impressive.

We asked the cell leader again who brought these meals. The prison boss said that the Liang family's maid gave them food and some money to treat Liang Qi better.

The meal was delivered by Liang Qi's mother. Is there really such a vicious mother who would kill her own child?

We reported the truth to the county magistrate, and he ordered us to bring Liang Qi’s mother to the court for questioning.