Murder

Sima Feng arrived in the front hall, and heard Shuanghua talk about the events of that day, without too much delay, he and Chi Yebai immediately took a few people each, and followed Shuanghua to the Jinyan Pond.

In the daytime, the Golden Mist Pond shows some desolation after being sluggish all night. The new lotus on the pool has a few new leaves wrapped in rolls, which looks very weak; The veil heaves and heaves in the wind.At this time, it was already high in the sky, and there was a woman who had just got up leaning on the window sill, with a clean face, her eyes were coldly staring at the few people who were walking into the golden smoke pool.

"The scope of Jinyan Pond starts from the entrance of Zhaojia Alley, and there was no such brand before." Chi Yebai pointed to the big "Golden Smoke Pond" plaque at the entrance of Zhaojia Alley and said, "Three years ago during the Mid-Autumn Festival, Fang Feiji's Chu Lian won the title of Oiran back then, and the richest man in Pengyang City loved Chu Lian very much, so he spent money to put up a plaque. Although the plaque reads "Golden Mist Pond", the inscriptions on the bottom are He Chulian and so on. Fang Feiji has a very long face. But after Chu Lian, the girl from Fangfeiji never won the title of Oiran again. Because everyone is used to the brand of Jinyanchi, even so, no one took it down."

Shuanghua looked at Chi Yebai: "Mr. Chi has never been involved in fireworks, and he even knows about it?"

Sima Feng originally wanted to say, "He doesn't set foot in me, he just knows everything about the places I set foot in", but then he thought of what happened in Jinyan Pond and Shuanghua's mood, and he couldn't keep this sentence in his heart. speak out.

As soon as everyone entered the Golden Smoke Pool, they saw Murong Hai waiting by the pool.Murong Hai still had a few elite Yingbei She under his command, but they never showed their true colors to others, when they saw Chi Yebai approaching, they saluted, then rushed to the house and ran away.

Murong Hai and others have found out the three newly-dead girls in Jinyanchi.

"Two people died in Xiangzhulou. The first one died on the third day of last month. Her name was Rongzhu. She was a newly bought child in Xiangzhulou. She was killed when she went out to pour night incense for the girls in the building that night, but the body was quickly killed. It was cleaned up by the people in Xiangzhulou, and we can't find out more detailed information. The second one is Hongzhu, who died four days ago. She was a young prostitute in Xiangzhulou. The third is Miss Shuanghua's personal servant, Xiaoyan. Like Hongzhu, Xiaoyan died four days ago." Murong Hai led Sima Feng and Chi Yebai away before whispering, "These three When the girl died, she was wearing green lotus-colored embroidered shoes on her feet, and her hair was wrapped in a crimson headband."

Sima Feng nodded: "Is there anything else?"

"Except for Hong Zhu, Rong Zhu and Xiao Yan have never met any guests directly." Murong Hai continued, "The place where the three girls died was all in the alley of Jinyan Pond. The brothels here in Jinyan Pond are not at the same time overnight. Therefore, there are unplanned alleys of different widths between the pavilions. Hongzhu died in her room in the Xiangzhu Building, and both Rongzhu and Xiaoyan died at the end of the alley. The place is an abandoned alley at the farthest corner of Jinyan Pond. Therefore, Rongzhu’s body was not discovered until the smell came out. The alley is now owned by Fangfeiji, but Fangfeiji only uses the alley to pile up sundries , no management. Many people passed by Miss Xiaoyan's place, which happened to be sandwiched between Xiangzhulou and Qinshuangyuan, and the usual things would be cleaned up soon. The day before Xiaoyan was discovered, Qinshuang The madam of Shuangyuan hired people to clear up and sell all the sundries in the alley, so there were empty baskets inside."

He paused.

"The three girls all have signs of being abused, but we don't have the ability to distinguish exactly what happened." He said to Sima Feng, "It would be better to ask Gan Lingshi to come. But Rongzhu's body has already been buried. , if there is an autopsy, we have to search through the mass graves."

Chi Yebai nodded: "Okay. You stay with me first, and go to investigate after Gan is willing to examine the corpse."

The two didn't tell Shuanghua what Murong Hai said, but let Shuanghua take them to the place where Xiaoyan was found first.

The alley was winding and deep, Sima Feng looked down at his feet while walking.There is dense and fluffy moss growing on the green bricks, as long as one is careful, the sound of footsteps will be difficult to detect.In some places, the moss has been wiped off, as if the soles of the shoes were rubbed off while running, but I don't know whose soles it is.There were still those baskets at the end, but they were all lifted.The brick surface had been cleaned, Sima Feng took out gloves and a knife from the leather bag, squatted down and cut the moss at the bottom of the alley carefully.The blood has penetrated deeply into the ground, and the roots of the moss have an abnormal dark red color.

"Shuanghua, what did you hear the night before the accident?" Sima Feng asked.

"That night, several girls from Qinshuangyuan and I were invited to the prince's mansion to cheer for his birthday banquet." Shuanghua said, "Xiaoyan has nothing to do, so I asked her to go to Fangfeiji to find Xuefu to learn the piano." , don’t be in a hurry to come back, you can spend more time with Xuefu there. We didn’t see her after we returned to Qinshuangyuan, so I thought she had been staying in Fangfeiji.”

"What time did you come back?"

"The child's time has passed, and it's almost the ugly time."

Chi Yebai asked: "After midnight, no one can travel except for official horses. How did you come back?"

"The carriage from the Prince's Mansion took us back." Shuanghua explained, "It's really late at night, and the Jinyan Pond is still lively, but there's no one walking outside, they're all inside the house."

Sima Feng put his hands into his suit, and wiped his fingers on Chi Ye's white sleeve.

Chi Yebai: "...?!"

Sima Feng looked calm: "Si, why is Gan Lele still not here? Are you sober?"

Ah Si hurriedly straightened up: "Gan Lingshi didn't drink a drop of wine today! I went to find him before we left, and the master is taking Song Beiyan to talk to him."

Sima Feng and Murong Hai couldn't hide the subtle excitement on their faces: "Song Beiyan really wants to learn from Gan Yue?"

Ah Si: "Eight or nine is inseparable from ten."

Murong Hai: "Oh, that's great." He patted his chest, looking relieved.

Before Sima Liangren brought Song Beiyan to Gan Lele, he enthusiastically exaggerated the greatness of his work to him.

Song Beiyan felt uncomfortable when he heard that heart, liver, intestines and lungs, and waved his hands again and again: "I...I might as well run errands with Brother Ah Si."

"Don't be nervous, don't be afraid." Sima Liangren grabbed his elbow and walked all the way to the depths of the backyard, "Although Gan Lele is called a gangster by us, he is not an official family member. Of course he used to be, but later he disliked officials." The family salary is too little, and he is looked down upon everywhere, so he quit. But he has real skills, do you know what he used to call this job?"

Song Beiyan: "I don't know!"

He had faintly smelled the strange smell of boiling various medicinal herbs coming from the depths of the backyard.

"It's called 'Ling Shi'." Sima Liangren said with a slight smile on his lips, "Gan is willing to be called 'Ghost Ling Shi', precisely because of his testing skills, even gods and ghosts are convinced. Gan Lele is the most suitable and the best teacher in the world to learn this craft."

Song Beiyan yelled: "I didn't say I want to learn!"

"Kids, don't be so duplicity." Sima Liangren said, he led him into a small courtyard in the backyard.

In the yard, a person who was lying on the chopping board and pounding his bones raised his head, frowning tightly.

"Yes, I'll bring you an apprentice." Sima Liangren pushed Song Beiyan in front of him.

The disheveled man lowered his head again: "No."

Song Beiyan was overjoyed, and heard Sima Liangren say, "But he wants to learn from you, so we won't listen to you no matter how much we persuade you." I couldn't make a sound, and I was so anxious that I was sweating profusely.

Gan Lele didn't stop, and continued to talk: "The ones I brought last time said the same thing. In the end, I ran away crying after three days of learning, but it seemed that I was harsh. Anyway, you know, the apprentice I fancy It's Chi Yebai, I'm only willing to teach him, but he can't. You get him here."

"That won't work." Sima Liangren said, "Mu Ya is the leader of a gang after all, how can he learn a craft from you here?"

"Then why did he follow your son to investigate the case?" Gan Yue snorted, "You are just afraid that your son will be unhappy."

As he spoke, he threw the beaten bone into the bubbling boiling liquid in front of him, and took it out for a closer look after a while.The bones that were originally white and miserable were turned into a strange crimson color after being boiled like this.

"It really is sage poisoning*." Gan Le turned around and showed a row of white teeth at Sima Liangren, "You can tell the government that the eldest son of Ma Yuanwai was the murderer of his father."

Sima Liang was overjoyed: "Have you finally thought of a way to test it?"

As soon as he let go, Song Beiyan coughed twice, and couldn't help but say, "Sage is poisoned, the bones should be blue-purple, not scarlet."

"I only know one thing but not the other." Gan Le snorted, "Ma Yuanwai died 11 years ago, and what I have in my hand is his upper arm bone. The bone was indeed blue and purple after being poisoned by sage grass, but after three years the poison Naturally infiltrated into the bone, no color will appear. I use rootless grass, Duyue, Su Mudan, Tiantianxiang, and seven-inch iron milled powder to boil for ten hours, then soak the sage in the boiling liquid, just to detect the age Did the old corpse die due to sage poisoning? Tiantianxiang and Su Mudan are poisonous with sage, which can force the sage toxin out of the bones. Seven-inch iron combines with sage toxin and blends into the toxin. Exactly pink."

He paused after he finished speaking, a pair of eyes gleamed from the shaggy hair.

"Child! Do you understand poison?"

Sima Liangren quickly pinched the trembling tendon in the back of Song Beiyan's neck again: "Not only that, he studied medicine and is a pharmacist. He also knows how to distinguish fragrances, and his nose is very good."

Song Beiyan was overwhelmed with grief and indignation, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Ah Si passing by outside the courtyard, unable to call for help, even more desperate.

Gan happily scratched his hair: "I want it, I want it."

Song Beiyan was thrown in Gan Ley's yard by Sima Liangren.He was indeed dependent on others, so he had to bow his head and give in. He thought that he would cut up the corpse with a knife at first, but now it seems that this is not the case, and his heart is much more settled.Ah Si came to report something happened to Jinyan Pond, Gan Le went back to the house to pack himself, and went out with his small suitcase.After he tidied up his clothes and hair, Song Beiyan found that he was actually a pretty young and good-looking person.

"Let's go." Gan Lele was obviously in a good mood, "Go to Jinyan Pond, Chi Yebai is there too."

"Where is the Golden Mist Pond?" Song Beiyan asked.

"It's a good place." Gan Lexi walked quickly, "It's said that I smelled a strange smell there on the third day of last month, and only then did I know that a little girl died. It was very miserable, and I even gave it a test."

-

*Sage grass: An extremely slender poisonous weed that mostly grows in Huainan, Jiangnan and other places. The whole plant is poisonous, and humans and animals die within three days of ingestion.But because it is very slender, Sima Feng, who has never seen it, always thinks that this kind of grass does not exist.Gan Le collected a lot of sage grass and wanted to give him a taste, but was discovered by Sima Liangren and beat him up. (From "Gan Le's Herbal Notes" and "Gan Le's Life Notes", author: Gan Le)