Daming's Bizarre Story: Painted Skin

Except for the people from the Meng Mansion, almost everyone was there, from Chief Meng Shan, Meng Chengtian, and the sighing Chief Fan She, with a pale face, and Meng Qingwan who was still wearing a veil.

"Shan Zhang, please sit down." Jiu Ru ordered the servants to bring a chair, and after Meng Shan sat down, Jiu Ru said, "Trouble Shan Zhang and the men and women of the Meng family."

Meng Sanchang was wearing a brown silk robe, his expression was a little haggard, he lacked the style of a scholar in the past, and his posture was a little stiff: "Even the Meng Mansion is also the Meng Mansion of the Book City. Four murders occurred in the city, including My wife, it is reasonable for the entire Meng family to cooperate in the investigation, so why bother?"

Heavy clouds overwhelmed the city, the time of application had not yet arrived, the sky was already dark, there were shadows of people on the steps of the government office, and no one made a sound, so it seemed to be somewhat ghostly.

Meng Chengtian came out more and more, bowed to Jiuru and said, "Sir, we have already arrived at the entire Meng residence, I don't know what sir wants to ask."

He was dressed in a royal blue dress, and was blown by the night wind, and his sleeves fluttered. His tall figure was as slender as a bamboo, and a pair of identical eyes looked like willow leaves on Shen Fangji's face. On the face, the pupils are slightly slanted, like peach blossom eyes, coupled with thin lips and protruding nose, it really looks like a ruthless prodigal son.

Thinking in his heart, Zhao Ran was dissatisfied with Meng Chengtian's eyes on Jiu Ru, and gave him a vicious look back.

"I think the weather is not good today, so we can go back to handle mother's funeral after asking." Meng Qingwan said calmly through the veil, there is no winter in the book city, but her voice was as cold as ice beads.

----

At this moment, the magistrate of the county had already left the city. He sat on the carriage and looked back at the mountain city behind him through the window, and sighed heartbrokenly: "It's a failure, it's a failure! It's just a bad time, how could you encounter such a complicated case!"

The master riding a little donkey glanced at the county magistrate in the carriage: "This case is not complicated."

"What?! Yinniang ordered Mrs. Meng to kill, Mrs. Meng ordered the bookstore shopkeeper to kill, the bookstore shopkeeper killed Nanny Song, and was poisoned to death by Nanny Song's poisoned wine when she went back. It was so seamless. Murder situation, oh just because of missing a pair of shoes, you can say there is another murderer! Where is the evidence?" The magistrate patted the carriageway, "Tell me!"

The master said: "The first loophole in this case is the portrait of Meng Tian that Yinniang found."

The county magistrate's eyes fell down in his sockets, he has been hit two or three times recently, his IQ has been continuously improved, and after thinking hard, he finally figured it out: "Yes, only this portrait can find the illegitimate child! But where is the picture?"

"You should first ask who painted the portrait?"

"Didn't Mrs. Meng paint it?"

"Mrs. Meng burned her lover to death to cover up her adultery, and then painted a picture to tell others that she had an adulterous affair?"

The magistrate thought hard, "Could it be the shopkeeper of the bookstore?"

"The shopkeeper of the bookstore just stayed at the Meng Mansion for one night, so why did he draw Meng Tian's face? Besides, even if he drew a portrait of Meng Tian, ​​why did he show it to Yinniang?"

The magistrate pondered for a while: "Could it be...the head of the mountain..."

The master interrupted his imagination: "This person is not only related to Yinniang, but also met Meng Tian. There are not many people like this in the case."

The magistrate's eyes widened: "Fan, She, Chang!"

"Not bad!"

The county magistrate was excited: "In this way, the motive for the murder is found, and the murderer will not be difficult to find."

The magistrate of the county was eager to solve such a simple case. The master said: "So the first thing they have to do is to use this loophole to prove that Chief Meng's wife cheated and left behind an illegitimate child."

The county lord's hot heart suddenly turned cold.

----

On the steps, Jiuru's voice was calm and authentic: "The question I want to ask will be asked by my student Xianzhao. I hope you don't mind."

Clearly, Jiuru turned around from behind. As the last student recruited by Jiuru, he is still quite well-known in the book city with his image of a small skull. Looking at the short and small boy with two big eyes moving up and down on the steps Obviously, it may be too weird, everyone even forgot to ask questions.

"Bring up the things for Mister." Zhao Ran had already waved his hand, and the yamen servants came out with a pile of books.

Monsanto frowned slightly looking at these books: "What are these?"

"These are some Masha books. We found them from the shopkeeper of the third dead man's bookstore." Zhao Ran looked at the thin and thin Fan She and said, "These books are all owned by Master Fan She. Master Fan She used these In exchange for the worthless Mashaben, the shopkeeper has the Guozijianben in his hands."

Fan Shechang showed arrogance on his thin face, and looked at Zhaoran contemptuously: "These books are indeed owned by the shopkeeper. You, a child, are talking nonsense here, do you think you are a student of the little sage, so you can slander them?" Head of the mountain, slander the Academy!"

"I said that Master Fan's stealing is to slander the head of the mountain and the academy. Do you think you are the face of the academy? Can you be equal to the head of the mountain if you are the head of the house? You are just a big yellow dog who looks after the dormitory. You think you are the big brother of Erlang God Black dog!"

Chief Fan She had always been used to being arrogant towards his students, and he might not even look down on Jiuru on weekdays. Now that he was robbed of his position, he was worried that he would offend the head of the mountain. Like a stained palette, he pointed clearly: "You, you..."

Zhao Ran didn't bother to pay attention to him, and continued: "That's right, these books belong to the shopkeeper. Someone took the Masha edition from the bookstore and gave it to you, and then you ordered a batch of Imperial College editions with the same list. You exchanged the Masha edition for the Guozijian edition and returned it to the bookstore."

Fan Shechang blushed on his thin face: "You, what do you want to say, all these Masha books have the seal of the bookstore!"

"Because these books have the seal of the bookstore, so you are confident, and the shopkeeper is dumb and eats Huanglian." Zhao Ran flipped through the Masha book in his hand and said, "A book of the Imperial College can be sold for one tael to five taels of silver. , if it is an orphan copy, it is even more priceless. Who is this person who helped you change the copy?"

Zhao Ran shook the book in his hand and thought for a while, "Actually, it's not someone else, but the shopkeeper himself."

The word Chuan in Meng Shan's long eyebrows wrinkled even deeper: "It doesn't make sense for the shopkeeper of the bookstore to supervise and steal himself."

Chief Fan She also sneered and said, "That's right! Could it be that the manager of the bookstore is an idiot?"

Zhao Ran spread his hands and said: "Because you have always been the source of information for the shopkeeper of the bookstore, about a month ago, you found the shopkeeper of the bookstore and wanted to sell him a piece of news from the Mengfu, the amount you proposed The amount is very large, and the shopkeeper of the bookstore has been supporting his wife and children who killed his friends for him for more than ten years, and he doesn’t have much money left. Therefore, he proposed to mortgage his collection of Imperial College books to you first.”

"But when you knew the list of those collections, you became greedy. You asked the shopkeeper to send you another batch of Masha books with the same name on the grounds that you were afraid that the shopkeeper would turn his face and ask for the books, and refused to pay the final payment, and then deliberately made The illusion of buying books and returning them. When the shopkeeper really came to redeem the books in your own collection, you deliberately refused to accept the account, which is the source of your dispute."

"Slander, it's all slander!" Fan Shechang blushed and said thickly.

"You mean the boss sells Masha to you, in order to blackmail the Imperial College's books in your hands?"

"exactly!"

"Do you dare to repeat the sentence that he is trying to lie to my Tibetan book three times?"

Fan She's face turned red and he said: "He's trying to lie to my collection! He's trying to lie to my collection! He's trying to lie to my collection!" He said three times in one breath and stared at Zhao Ran, "Enough is enough ?”

Zhaoran took out a booklet and opened it, "This is the account book in the store, and the books on it are all copied by the shopkeeper himself, that is to say, which books have both the Masha version and the Guozijian version, except for the shopkeeper himself. Other than that, no one actually knows."

Fan She said: "Of course only I know about my own collection, what's so strange about it?"

Zhao Ran raised his head and said: "You're right, only you know your own books, and how did the shopkeeper know Fan Shechang's book collection list, so he pretended to sell the Masha book to you, and then came to blackmail the head of the house, your Guozijian What about the Tibetan version?"

Fan Shechang was tongue-tied for a moment, and said clearly: "Do you know why I asked you to repeat the lie three times just now?"

He explained seriously: "Because the brain is repeatedly exposed to lies in a short period of time, it will store them as truth. That is to say too much lies, and the first person to be deceived is himself. Once it is deceived, it will There would be an error, and that would be a logic error."

The red on Fan Shechang's face faded to a pale white, the whispers that drifted below faded from time to time, and even Meng Chengtian seemed to have finally started to look at it clearly.

Zhao Ran closed the account book: "Master Fan She now has a motive to kill, one is because of the Imperial College's collection, and the other is because you are afraid that the shopkeeper will leak the news that you secretly sold him the news of the Meng Mansion."

"I didn't kill it, I really didn't kill the shopkeeper of the bookstore!" Fan She had a thin face as if mourning.

----

"I don't know if Chief Fan She has recruited now?" the county magistrate looked behind him anxiously and murmured.

The master said: "Fan Shechang is a man who loves money like his life, and has a high self-esteem. In fact, he is timid and mediocre. It is not difficult to break him."

"Then Master Fan She dares to tell about Mrs. Meng's affair?"

"Killing is a matter of killing one's life, Chief Fan She doesn't have the guts to do it all."

"Then if he reveals about Mrs. Meng, what will that little skeleton do?" The county magistrate couldn't help wondering curiously.

"After Chief Fan She confessed, Zhaoxian has two options to choose from, either along Mrs. Meng's affair and having a child or another loophole."

"What loophole."

The master said: "Have you ever thought about where the painting of Meng Tian in Master Fan She's hand came from?"

The magistrate frowned and said, "Isn't this painting drawn by Mr. Fan She?"

"Meng Tian has been dead for 20 years. I'm afraid even his original partner may not be able to remember what he looks like. How can Chief Fan She paint Meng Tian so vividly?" said the master.

The county magistrate suddenly said, "So this painting should have come from 20 years ago."