Murder

Gui Nu asked curiously: "How can we deduce the age of this person and whether he is rich or not?"

"Age is easy to push." ​​Chi Yebai added aloud, "He can subdue such a little girl and has the strength to break her hands and feet. His age will never be too young. But it can't be too old. Pengyang is over 60 years old. There are not many of them. Given that the life expectancy of the population in my dynasty is generally around [-] years old, and those over [-] years old have weakened strength and slow movements, the possibility of carrying out this kind of behavior is not high. But this is only a possible inference, not a conclusion. This age range may change in subsequent investigations as evidence emerges."

Gui Nu nodded with a half understanding.

"As for whether it is rich or not, then we have to talk about why the method of torture and killing is used." Sima Feng walked in front of the two, and at this moment his pace slowed down, and he looked back at the turtle slave, "Torturing is a way for the weak to mutilate the weaker. means. The weak cannot resist the strong, but wants to show his own strength, he has no choice but to get pleasure by attacking those who are weaker than himself."

Guinu asked: "But those dignitaries will use similar methods to torture and kill... For example, the Hongzhu in Xiangzhu Tower a few days ago was taken by guests..."

Sima Feng shook his head: "It's not the same. The guests who came to the brothel to find pleasure came for the word 'Huan'. I heard that Hong Zhu was beaten to death, and that person stopped after he died. But you just saw Xiao Is there any wound on Yan’s abdomen? Four cuts, even a knife can be fatal. What this murderer enjoys is not joy, but the satisfaction of revenge. What he wants from Xiaoyan is not happiness, but the feeling of being in charge of human life.”

He turned his head sideways: "This is the thinking of this type of murderer. Most of them fail in everything, their relatives are separated, and they are homeless, but by insulting the weaker, they can obtain this vain happiness, as if You can really dominate everything.”

"The kapok man incident two years ago was like this," said Chi Yebai.

Gui Nu quickly asked again: "What's the matter with the kapok man?"

The kapok man incident happened two years ago, and was accidentally discovered by a small policeman in Qing'an City.

It was the end of the year at that time, because the weak little catcher was squeezed out by his peers, he had to be reduced to sorting out the materials of the year with his master, and he couldn't even go to the street.He discovered eight murders that occurred in seven small towns around Qing'an City that year from the case of the old and dazed master.

Qing'an City is an important city on the Yulan River. The Xinjiabao, a well-known rivers and lakes gang outside the city back then, has not yet fallen.However, due to the complex surrounding terrain, scattered villages and towns, and complicated personnel exchanges, the city is safe, but there are bandits outside the city from time to time.Those eight murders were also committed by the county magistrate as thieves, and did not receive special attention.The deceased were all sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls who hadn't left the court. Their families were poor, and their parents and relatives could just cry a lot. They probably thought they were unlucky.

But the little policeman found that the eight girls had been to the market before they were killed, and they all sold kapok.

There are many kapok trees growing on the hills around Qing'an City, which bloom fiery big flowers in spring and bear heavy cotton seeds in summer.The flowers, seeds, and bark of kapok can be used as medicine, and the cotton wool can be used to make pillows and bedding for children. Girls in many surrounding villages collect flowers, peel off the bark, or collect fruits to extract cotton wool during slack. Sell ​​it at the market for some money.

Qing'an is a big city, and there are many drug dealers coming and going, and most of them have special places to collect medicines.These herbal medicines in remote villages could not be directly obtained from drug dealers, so a new profession emerged between drug dealers and drug collectors: drug collectors.

The drug collector buys and sells and earns the difference. It is a job suitable for a strong and articulate person.

The little catcher looked more and more frightened: the bandits took people, they took them captive, they killed them, but they didn't break the girl's hands and feet, and stabbed her body with sharp knives.He felt that it was unusual, so he told the master what he thought in detail.The master's old eyes were dim, but his head was not, so he immediately reported the matter layer by layer.After a few days, when everyone collected similar incidents, they all gasped: within a year and a half, as many as 11 girls were killed by this method around Qing'an City.

"The murderer is the drug collector who bought kapok." Chi Yebai recalled, "When we caught him, he was making dolls in his house."

The room was small and dark, and the kapok man was short and strong, sitting by the window and watching the policemen and others rushing into the room.In the end, the police found eleven and a half feet tall dolls from his house, all made of kapok, thick and heavy.The puppet has no eyes or mouth, only a huge kapok flower stuck in its head.The oldest kapok has air-dried and turned gray-brown, while the new one is still fresh and tender, with warped and stretched petals, which is very beautiful.

"The kapok man said that those eleven were all his concubines." Sima Feng sneered, "He named those eleven puppets, and caressed them day and night, really treating them as women."

Turtle slave felt that he had seen a lot, and he couldn't help but feel horrified when he heard it.There were guests coming and going in the Golden Mist Pond, and naturally there were quite a few people with strange shapes and faces. He couldn't help shivering when he thought that there might be one or two "Kapok people" inside.

Chi Yebai was thinking about one thing all the way up.The method of mutilating the dead in the kapok incident was too similar to this one.But the kapok man is dead, and he has no relatives. Will this person be related to him now?

He vaguely sensed Sima Feng's eyes and looked up at him: "What's wrong?"

"You really don't remember what happened at that time?" Sima Feng asked him, "It's a pity that I still remember it all the time, and I can't bear to forget it."

Chi Yebai still hadn't recovered from the matter of the kapok man, he didn't expect Sima Feng to leave so quickly, he was a little dazed for a while: "What?"

"It will be fine when you kiss me again." Sima Feng whispered while hooking his sleeve.

Chi Yebai: "..."

His face flushed immediately, out of the corner of his eye he saw Gui Nu following the two of them, he didn't hear Sima Feng's words, he felt a little relieved.

"It was just an accident." He gritted his teeth, "Let go!"

"Hey, Xiaobai..." Sima Feng didn't let go, his fingers tangle around the hem of his wide sleeve.

Chi Yebai was also straightforward, stretched out his fingers to pick up the piece of cloth, and tore it off with all his internal strength.

"If you like it so much, take it yourself."

Sima Feng smiled silently, folded the piece of fabric very carefully and put it next to his body, and then patted and stroked it: "It's sticking to my belly."

Chi Yebai: "..."

It seems that going back is going to fight.He was so angry that the roots of his hair were standing on end, he took two deep breaths before pushing open the door of Shuanghua's room.

The door is newly replaced, it was broken by him last time.Most of the people inside the door were unknown to him: red and green girls were talking in disorder in the room, and there stood a Shuanghua and a policeman in the room, the young policeman was sweating profusely, Quite embarrassing.

Seeing someone coming in, the room was quiet for a moment.

Gui Nu hurriedly introduced each other: "This is the lord who is patrolling the frontier, and this is Sima Feng, Young Master Sima from the Sima family, here to assist you in investigating the case."

The young police officer repeatedly waved his hands and said, "Don't call me my lord." When he heard that Sima Feng was here to help, he frowned: "Who are you, and why are you here to help?"

Sima Feng: "I am Sima Feng."

Bian Jiang: "I haven't heard of it. Anyone who has nothing to do with it, please leave immediately and don't harass the officials."

As soon as he finished speaking, the women beside him shouted loudly: "When Mr. Sima started investigating the case, you didn't know where to feed yourself!" "You were the one who investigated the case where your whole family died! How ungrateful are you! "You don't want to obstruct Sima Company's handling of the case!"

Some people speak politely, while others swear without profanity.Bian Jiang's face flushed red, he was really angry.

Only Gui Nu's voice was mixed with the shrill voices of the women, very weak: "...this is Mr. Chi Ye Bai Chi, the master of Ying Bei She."

Bian Jiang suddenly turned his head, with surprise on his face, and grabbed Chi Yebai's hand: "Chi Shaoxia! I have long admired my name!"

Chi Yebai was confused: "???"

Bian Jiang: "I heard that you have great supernatural powers, with one eye and ten lines, even the emperor and queen praised you!"

Chi Yebai: "...I have never seen these two before."

When Sima Feng saw him grabbing him, he grabbed him, and he was drooling, quite annoyed: "Speak as you speak, don't stick so close."

Bian Jiang was stunned for a moment, realizing that he was a little out of character, he let go of his hand in embarrassment to wipe the possible saliva on Chi Yebai's skirt.Chi Yebai blocked it: "Hi Patrolman, did you ask anything?"

Frontier is even more awkward.

He was the only one here, and he was a police officer who just took office a few days ago. He has no experience or prestige, and he doesn't know how to communicate with the girls in front of him.The girls really don't want to communicate with him.They wandered around the place of fireworks, all of them had poisonous eyes, and at a glance they saw that the frontier was a hairless chicken that couldn't shake anything, so they clamored for him to go back and get some experienced patrols to investigate.

Sima Feng told everyone to be quiet, and Bian Jiang stood aside awkwardly, looking eagerly at Chi Yebai from the corner of his eyes from time to time.

Sima Feng couldn't understand, how could his reputation in Jianghu be lower than that of Chi Yebai?

The girls in front of them all quieted down. Sima Feng briefly told everyone about the results of Gan Yue's autopsy.

"We're here to ask, what did Rongzhu and Xiaoyan do before the accident, who did they meet, and where did they go?" Sima Feng said slowly, "Or whether anything happened in Jinyanchi after the accident. Something strange? Anything, maybe, will help us find the killer."

"Rongzhu went out to pour Yexiang, and then something happened." Minzhu, whose eyes were swollen from crying, whispered, "Who did it? Will we be okay?"

Shuanghua raised her head at this moment: "Speaking of strange things, there is one thing."

She stroked her hair: "Xiaoyan's hair was cut off."

Sima Feng was taken aback: "I didn't find it during the autopsy just now."

"The bottom part has been cut off." Shuanghua said, "We wiped her body and cleaned up the broken hair. The girls in Qinshuangyuan have hair length requirements. A few days before the accident, Chuntong She also came over and cut our hair. She helped Xiaoyan cut it, and she remembers it most clearly."

The women looked at each other, Shuanghua took a few glances, then stood up suddenly.

"Where is Chuntong?!" She said anxiously, "Xuefu, where is Chuntong!"