Tang riddles

In the early morning of May [-]th, when the servants of the Yuan family in Yongxingfang in the north of the city and the Hu family in Anyifang in the south of the city were carrying water in the morning, they discovered that their old man had died in the large water tank used for water storage at almost the same time. Report the crime.

An hour later, Shen Sui, who had just finished his morning exercise, saw Chu Zhen, a member of the judiciary of the Jingzhao Mansion, who joined the army again after eating two mouthfuls of morning food.She went out in a hurry, and Zhang Ruohan couldn't go with her because she didn't prepare in advance.But the lotus maid seemed to have taken the case to heart and was very concerned about it, so she proposed to go to Shen Sui after she settled down at home.Shen Sui didn't object at all, this time the lotus maid had no way to enter the scene of the crime, and could only wait for her in the carriage, even so, Shen Sui could still pass on the first-hand information to her.

Because of this, Shen Sui didn't ride a horse, but took a carriage deliberately, and invited Chu Zhen into the carriage to discuss the case in detail.

"Did the people sent by the Yuan family and the Hu family to protect them find nothing?" Shen Sui asked as soon as he got into the carriage.

Chu Zhen looked very annoyed, and shook his head discouragedly: "If it is discovered, nothing will happen. The murderer really came and went without a trace, drowning people, and no movement was heard."

Shen Sui pursed his lips, pondered for a moment, and said:

"You did a preliminary survey of the scene, what did you find?"

Chu Zhen shook his head: "Nothing was found, not even a single trace of the murderer left. Fujun is suffering from a terrible headache, and wants me to ask Brother Bo Zhao to go quickly."

Shen Sui probably knew that there was nothing to ask from Chu Zhen, so he folded his arms and fell into deep thought.The first three people used fire, and the second two used water. Could it be... there is really a meaning in it?Moreover, the deceased must be kept at home, why is this?Now, there is another question, what is the murderer's order of killing?Is it just a random choice?But in Shen Sui's view, the murderer clearly chose two special geographical locations, one south and one north, to kill.

The murderer seemed to be very concerned about the moment when the body was discovered. Whether it was the three dead before or the two dead after, they were all discovered at almost the same time and reported to the police at the same time.So, can it be understood that the murderer very much hopes that the two dead in different geographical locations will emerge at the same time.In order to achieve this goal, it even affected the murderer's modus operandi, making him deliberately adopt some cumbersome and very dangerous methods to kill people.

What is this for?Shen Sui frowned deeply and fell into deep thought.

They first arrived at Yongxingfang in the north of the city, because it was not too far from Chongyifang where Shen Sui's family was located.When Shen Sui arrived, Jing Zhaoyin and Li Xian were already waiting here.After Shen Sui got out of the car, he went up to greet him. Li Xian remained reticent as usual. After exchanging pleasantries, he directly invited Shen Sui into the Yuan family's location in Nanqu, Yongxingfang.

The Yuan family was richer than the previous Lu, Zhang, and Wu families. Although the deceased Yuan Kai quit the officialdom early, he had a son who was quite successful. Yongxing Fang Nanqu wished that half of the territory could catch up with the residence of the prince and princess.Today, Yuan Kai's son Yuan Zhi was also there. This Guanglu Temple Prime Minister had a sad face, not like he was grieving after losing his father, but more like he was worried that this matter would affect his official career.

Shen Sui followed Yuan Zhi to the place where the crime occurred, turned back to the customer halfway, and asked Yuan Zhi about the incident:

"Does Yuan Sicheng know the whereabouts of the old man the day before?"

"My father didn't go out for a day yesterday. His legs and feet were bad and he couldn't walk far. He had a stroke the year before last and needed someone to support him when he walked around. I heard from the servant at home that he took a long nap yesterday and used his dinner time It’s still fine, and he ate a lot. He is good at drawing, and every day after dinner, he will draw a picture and then go to bed. No one will disturb him during this time, but there will always be an attendant waiting outside until he calls People put him to bed, and everything was normal. But the next morning, the servants at home found that he..." Yuan Zhi couldn't continue at this point.

"Has anyone seen a suspicious person at home?"

"I haven't had time to ask, but I'm afraid it's hard to say. There are many guests in the house, people come and go, and people with unfamiliar faces often come in. It's okay to say that there are invitations, but there are still many people at my father who never hand in invitations. , came in with someone. My father is good at making friends, he is generous and has many friends. After a stroke, it is difficult to go out to meet friends, so there are more and more visitors at home."

Shen Sui nodded, it seemed to Xin Dao that it was impossible to start from this aspect.

While talking, they came to the kitchen in the backyard. This is the place that takes care of the diet of the entire Yuan Mansion. There is a large well in the courtyard, and the drinking water for the kitchen is taken from this well on weekdays.Along the base of the outer wall of the kitchen, there is a row of large water tanks. The smallest diameter of each tank can be three feet, and the largest is at least five feet or more.

"What do you need so many water tanks for?" Li Xian asked Yuan Zhi, staring at him.He felt very surprised, because most people have at most two water tanks in the back kitchen.

"There are many people in the family and there is a lot of water. It is too annoying to always fetch water, so I add more water tanks and fill them with water at one time, so that it is enough." Yuan Zhi blushed and said embarrassingly.

Li Xian looked at him contemptuously, and then remembered that they had a lot of family members. The Yuan family and their sons were all lustful. Almost one pops up every year.This family felt like pigs to Li Xian, all of them were white and fat, and they were so fertile.

Li Xian glanced at Shen Sui again, remembering that she only had a wife and a daughter, she was so handsome and suave, but she could be so infatuated with one person, and suddenly felt that Shen Sui was like a clean stream, washing his heart.

Shen Sui was checking the water tank, how could he know what Li Xian was thinking.The corpse has obviously been fished out, but it has not been transported away yet, Yuan's residence has set up a special room for storing the corpse.Shen Sui looked at it for a while, then asked:

"In which tank was the old man found?"

"Here..." Yuan Zhi pointed to the large tank with the largest diameter, and said, "my father is relatively fat, so this tank can only fit it."

As soon as Yuan Zhi said this, Shen Sui didn't feel anything wrong, but Li Xian wanted to laugh, his beard trembled twice, and he tried his best to hold back.I couldn't help sweating, my heart was very dangerous, if I laughed out loud, I'm afraid I would have enmity with the Yuan family.

Shen Sui looked around the water tank and saw the water marks on the ground, she asked:

"Is this water spilled when fetching water?"

"I'm... not sure, I'll ask someone." Yuan Zhi called a kitchen servant over and asked the same question.

"The water was caused by accidentally knocking over the bucket in the fright when fetching water this morning. In the past, some water would splash out when fetching water, but skilled water pumpers would not splash so much," the servant said.

"When the old man was found, was there water around the tank?" Shen Sui asked.

The servant recalled it carefully, shook his head and said, "No."

"Is this tank full of water last night?"

"I'm dissatisfied, I've used most of it, and I'm thinking about filling it up with water the next day."

"Are these water tanks what they looked like when you left?"

"Yes, I remember that all the water tanks have been used to the point where only [-]% of the water is left. Now it seems that they have not been touched."

"Is there anyone in the kitchen at night?" Shen Sui asked again.

"No one, this kitchen is the chef of the family. After dinner, it is cleaned up. Generally, no one is here after You hour, and the gate of the courtyard is locked. Each courtyard also has its own small chef. If there is a need at night, The courtyards do it themselves, and they don’t know how to work as chefs.” Yuan Zhi explained.

"That's strange..." Shen Sui said to himself.

"Brother Bo Zhao found something wrong?" Li Xian asked hastily.

"Fu Jun, can I go and see the old man now?" Shen Sui didn't answer directly, but asked instead.

"Of course!"

The group immediately moved to the place where the corpses were temporarily stored.There were two soldiers guarding the door of the room, and there was an attendant inside the room, guarding the couch where the corpse lay, holding a dry handkerchief in his hand, and going to wipe the water on the corpse from time to time.Shen Sui looked at the attendant's complexion turned pale, and his whole body was swaying, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar in the dog days, so he might be frightened.She waved her hand to let the attendant step down, and immediately stepped forward to inspect the corpse.

The deceased, Yuan Kai, was indeed a rather obese man. His beard and hair were greying, because he had soaked in the water tank overnight, and his body was swollen. The smell of water is terrible.

Shen Sui opened the leather pouch at his waist, and took out a delicate tool bag from it.Untie the rope of the tool bag, spread out the bundle, and saw that there were all kinds of long metal tools inside. Li Xian only recognized tweezers and picks, and he had never seen other strange things.Shen Sui took a pair of tweezers and a bronze mirror, moved closer to the corpse, inserted the tweezers into the nostrils of the corpse, stretched the nostrils wide, then shone the light with the bronze mirror, and looked inside carefully.Not long after, she seemed to have discovered something, and took out a small piece of yellow paper from her nostril with tweezers.

She opened the dead man's mouth and inspected it carefully. After the inspection, she leaned on the chest of the dead body and tapped the dead man's chest to listen to the sound.Then she examined the dead man's hands, paying particular attention to the nails.Then he got up, and while washing his tools and hands in the basin brought by the attendant, he said:

"The deceased was not drowned. There was no fungus-like foam in the mouth and nose, no sand residue in the nostrils, and no water swelling in the chest and lungs. Instead, a piece of yellow paper was found in the nostrils. It is speculated that the deceased should have been smothered to death."

"How did you smother him to death? Could it be with paper?" Li Xian was puzzled.

"Wet the paper with water, stick it tightly on the person's mouth and nose, and lay it layer by layer. It will not take long for the person to suffocate to death. If the person can be stunned in advance, then this person will not even Think about it, if the murderer really wanted to drown the dead, why didn’t water splash out around the water tank? The kitchen attendant said that when they found the body in the morning, the ground around the water tank was dry, which means There was no water splashing out at all last night. It is so humid and hot this day. The water that was spilled by our house last night was not dry until morning. And the tanks were not full at that time. It is necessary to press the head of such a fat person in the tank to drown , the water was too shallow to do it, even though some water tanks were indeed full at the time, the deceased was not dumb, he could struggle and shout, even if the murderer could control him, there was no trace of struggle on the deceased's body. The nails are clean and intact, which is what a pampered noble man should look like. It means that he didn't struggle at all before he died." While speaking, Shen Sui had already cleaned the tools and put them away.

Li Xian had never heard of this kind of murder method, so he was a little surprised.

"This method can kill people quietly without anyone noticing. There are so many attendants in Yuan Kai's dormitory, and he finally appeared in the back kitchen, but no one was alarmed, which shows that the murderer used a The dead are killed in an extremely quiet way. If you suffocate a person to death, they will struggle and will inevitably make noise, but first stun the dead, and then use the method I just mentioned to block the breathing of the dead bit by bit, and you can kill Yu Silent, the deceased did not struggle at all. He quietly carried the deceased out, carried it to the back kitchen, and put it into a large vat. The remaining water in the large vat overflowed and probably covered the neck of the deceased. A little water over the head of the dead can create the illusion that the dead is drowned."

Li Xian suddenly realized: "So it turns out that this murderer's way of thinking is really different from ordinary people. What is he going to all this trouble for?"

"He did this because he was trying to express to us some kind of his intention to commit the crime." Shen Sui looked at Li Xian and sighed, "The five elements have passed fire and water, and there is still gold, wood and earth left. Mr. Li, he still Will commit crimes again, and who will die next, none of us can guess."

The author has something to say: use wet paper to cover the mouth and nose layer by layer to suffocate. Legend has it that the torture was invented by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and his name is Tiejiaguan.According to legend, when the fifth piece of paper is used, most people will pass.Because this article is the background of the story of the Tang Dynasty, Li Xian has never heard of it, and I did not directly write the name of this method of killing.

Mushroom, xun four-tone, spore-like fungus plant, mushroom-like foam is a very professional forensic vocabulary, specifically referring to the white foam that appears in the mouth and nose of a drowned person.