ancient criminal minds

If you have studied high school chemistry, you can probably guess that the so-called smell of rotten eggs should be the smell of hydrogen sulfide. Lu Zheng frowned and thought about it, so what exactly has the smell of hydrogen sulfide?Lu Zheng regretted that he studied liberal arts. He only remembered that hydrogen sulfide smelled like rotten eggs, but he couldn't remember the basic characteristics of hydrogen sulfide at all.

He was pacing back and forth when suddenly he had a flash of inspiration: "Oil!"

He remembered that he seemed to have read similar literature before. Crude oil contains substances such as petroleum gas, benzene, aromatic hydrocarbons and hydrogen sulfide, which are toxic to humans and other organisms. When the critical threshold of poisoning is reached, it will cause poisoning to humans and animals. .The two girls probably smelled hydrogen sulfide in crude oil.

Qingluan looked at Lu Zheng suspiciously: "Young Master Lu, what are you talking about? Oil? Could it be the oil produced in the stone?"

"Exactly!" Lu Zheng couldn't restrain his excitement a little bit, "The murderer most likely used oil to set the fire."

"So... where should we go to find this... oil?"

Qingluan's words were like a basin of cold water being poured on Lu Zheng's head. Even if he had no common sense, he knew that oil would not come out of the ground by itself. Usually it was due to geological disasters or other reasons, and a small amount of oil would seep out of the rock. surface.Lu Zheng is neither a geologist nor a chemist, he doesn't know what the oil field looks like, so how to find it?

They said goodbye and left this house, and came to the widow's house again. Perhaps because Dr. Wang was with them this time, the widow let them in.

This is a thatched hut with air leakage, but it is much better than the previous family's thatched hut. Not far from this thatched hut is their house that burned down.

In the small courtyard, a small stove was boiling Chinese medicine, and the only daughter of the widow was lying in the back room, and only one or two coughs could be heard occasionally.

The widow looked distressed, and sighed: "I am a woman, and I usually stay out of the door, so how can I make enemies with anyone?"

Doctor Wang comforted her: "It's good that no one is injured after all, you can take care of her at ease, don't worry."

The widow's daughter started to cough and vomit on the second day after the fire, which was what Dr. Wang saw. At that time, Dr. Wang thought it was because they were not paying attention to using the charcoal basin, but he didn't think about it. When Zheng said that, it was really scary.

Lu Zheng didn't sit on the seat, but walked around to look around, and suddenly asked the widow: "This sister-in-law, is Ling Ai visiting her?"

The widow opened her mouth and said, "Exactly... Exactly, how did you find out about it?"

Lu Zheng actually found out when he saw the widow's clothes hanging in the yard. It was a new peach red skirt. It didn't look like it was worn by the widow herself, but it belonged to her daughter.Lu Zheng knew that for ordinary people, new clothes are generally only made during the Chinese New Year, let alone this kind of widow's house, presumably only the daughter is in her teenage years, and she specially makes new clothes for the sake of looking good.

Lu Zheng couldn't say it directly, so he could only confuse it vaguely, and asked: "Did anything strange happen in the days before and after the fire that day?"

The widow shook her head: "It's nothing strange. I and my daughter have been embroidering at home. Except for some rice noodles from the clan, I haven't seen outsiders."

Lu Zheng nodded, and said again: "I'm sorry for the trouble, sister-in-law. If you have any questions in the future, I hope sister-in-law will not hesitate to let you know."

The widow also knew that he came to solve the case, and she also hated the person who set the fire very much in her heart, so she immediately agreed: "Young master, please rest assured, if you have any questions, I will definitely know everything."

After leaving these two families, Lu Zheng proposed to go to another family. This one is a bit far away, but if he hurry up, he can still come back before sunset.

Without further ado, the three of them immediately walked towards that family. Compared with the previous two households, the condition of this household was obviously much worse.This is a family of four, the head of the family is also surnamed Zhang, Dr. Wang called him Zhang Shitou.

Zhang Shitou had a blind old mother. His wife ran away because she thought life was too hard. Only Zhang Shitou was left to raise a pair of children.The family only had one pair of trousers, because the thatched house they lived in had been burnt out long ago, and they only built a thatched hut for shelter.

Zhang Shitou's family was the first to be burned. Although more than a month has passed, Zhang Shitou's face is still pale and his hands and feet tremble slightly when he recalls it.

When they saw Lu Zheng and they asked, Zhang Shitou immediately shed tears on his face: "This...someone is trying to harm us! Master Qingtian wants to make decisions for the little people!"

The three of them cheered up at the same time. This was the first time someone directly said that the fire was man-made. Lu Zheng quickly asked, "Then have you ever seen the murderer?"

Zhang Shitou shook his head while wiping his tears: "Look... I saw it, but...but I didn't see it clearly..."

Although Lu Zheng was a little disappointed, he quickly lifted his spirits, no matter what, this was a clue, right?He said, "You tell me exactly what happened that night."

Zhang Shitou rubbed his hands awkwardly, then whispered: "That night... I helped my mother wash her feet and poured the water... My mother said she wanted to eat eggs... I... I am incompetent, no more Don't tell me the daughter-in-law, my mother can't eat any eggs, I..."

Seeing that Zhang Shitou was about to cry as he spoke, Lu Zheng couldn't help asking: "What happened next?"

Zhang Shitou wiped his tears, sniffed his nose again, and then continued: "Later... Later, I rubbed an egg with mud for my mother to touch, and lied to my mother that I could eat it the next morning...my mother Believe it, I... I took the child to sleep... My mother is blind but has good ears. In the middle of the night, she suddenly pushed me and said, "The egg is cooked, let me go and see... I opened the door in a daze, I saw a shadow lying on the haystack in our house... I... I thought it was a wolf, and I was trembling with fright, then... that person jumped off the haystack, and then...then threw a wolf into our yard Put the fire on... I..."

Although Zhang Shitou spoke intermittently and confusedly, but Lu Zheng and the others still understood, Qingluan quickly asked: "Did you smell anything?"

Zhang Shitou touched his head blankly: "No...no..."

"Is there nothing?" Qingluan asked forcefully, "For example, what smells like rotten eggs?"

Zhang Shitou shook his head again and again: "No, nothing."

Qingluan seemed a little disappointed, but Lu Zheng felt it made sense.In fact, for serial murderers, their psychology will gradually transition from fear and nervousness at the beginning to excitement, and in the process, their modus operandi is also constantly escalating, such as the first time Lu Zheng met here. In one case, the prisoner Zhang Hu was also constantly upgrading his modus operandi, from skinning after death at the beginning to skinning while alive, and even later he even tidied up the clothes of the deceased They were stacked neatly aside, which also showed that his mentality had become one of enjoyment.

For arsonists, compared to killing people directly, arson is actually a relatively easier method of committing crimes, so the general profile of arsonists is that they are introverted, timid and mentally retarded. With physical defects, they vent their dissatisfaction with life on crimes against innocent people to balance their inner anger and jealousy.

As with any serial case, the first case is of great value.So Lu Zheng asked Zhang Shitou: "Who did you have a grudge against?"

Zhang Shitou was in a daze for a long time before he could hold back a sentence: "Tian Fugui, he... is the one who abducted my wife..."

Lu Zheng looked at Dr. Wang suspiciously, and Dr. Wang sighed, "This Tian Fugui was originally a young man in the village. He disappeared with Zhang Shitou's family a few years ago. It is said that these two eloped..."

"It's not elopement! It was Tian Fugui who abducted my wife!" Zhang Shitou stood up excitedly and said while gesturing, "My wife is a good woman, she will not elope...she was abducted..."

Afterwards, Zhang Shitou kept repeating this sentence in a murmur, and did not come up with any useful clues. Lu Zheng sighed, and asked Doctor Wang, "Where is Tian Fugui's home?" Although he felt that Zhang Shitou's words were nothing Useful, but it is also a clue anyway.

Doctor Wang said: "It's not far, go from here and we'll be there in a while."

On the way, Dr. Wang was telling Lu Zheng about the Tian family: "The Tian family moved into our village later, not many, only seven or eight households, but the girls in the village are not willing to marry them, so they either come from Waicun promised to marry each other, or several brothers share a wife."

Lu Zheng opened his eyes wide: "What's the point?!"

Doctor Wang sighed: "Young master, you have also seen this place in our place. There are many men and few women. If you want to marry a wife, even if it is a surplus family, most of your property will be emptied. If the girl is more beautiful, then I would rather marry you." They want to marry into the county. Let’s talk about the family of Wang Li we went to earlier. His daughter was originally going to marry the son of a shopkeeper in the county, but now their house is completely burned down, not to mention it’s a dowry. , Even the dowry is gone, the shopkeeper's family backed out, saying that they would not marry, and asked them to pay, but that's it, as long as the girl nods, there are many people who want to marry with money." He paused , carefully glanced at Qingluan on the side, and said, "We're okay, if we go further north, the girls will all marry soldiers of the Northern Xinjiang Army, and it will be even more difficult to marry a wife."

Qingluan glared: "What nonsense are you talking about! It seems that our northern Xinjiang army made them unable to marry a wife. If they have the ability, there will naturally be girls who are willing to marry. If you don't have the ability to blame others, what is this? reason!"

In fact, what Dr. Wang said is not bad. The Great Xia Dynasty is not stingy with its own soldiers, not to mention that there are many elite soldiers among the elite soldiers of the Northern Border Army, compared with the farmers who face the loess and their backs to the sky. The girl is willing to marry a soldier.

It's just that Dr. Wang thought about these words in his heart, and he still smiled and agreed: "This little brother is right." Then he said, "Look at me, where did this go, oh... say Tian Fugui has three sons in his family, and none of them are married yet. Tian Fugui has a crooked mind. In the early years in the village, he liked to spy on girls and daughters-in-law taking a bath. Later, he somehow got hooked up with Zhang Shitou's family... ...Oh, look, that's Tian Fugui's family."

Lu Zheng and Qingluan looked over following Doctor Wang's instructions, and saw a row of messy fences, and behind the fence was a burned house.