Youth Tour

Chapter 3: The Case of the Headless Corpse in the Chamber of Secrets

Another new day.

Zhan Zhao and Qin Huai were walking in the Willow Alley of Xiqiao in the East City. The willow trees planted around them had tender green buds sprouting from the branches, which were printed with a layer of pale gold in the morning light.

Those who came out early in the morning to sell breakfast had already set up a stall. The aroma of the hot buns and soy milk mixed with the unique fragrance of the morning made Qin Huai unable to look back.

Zhan Zhao couldn't help but said, "If you're too hungry, just buy it and eat, and if you don't look back, be careful not to fall."

"After walking for so many years, I can't even close my eyes." Qin Huai muttered in a low voice, and finally turned around and sighed: "Why do you say we have to finish our morning patrol before letting us have breakfast? If something unexpected happens If you don’t have enough food, you won’t have the strength to deal with the incident.”

Almost as soon as the words were finished, an exclamation came from not far in front, and then someone shouted: "Catch the thief, he stole my purse!"

Qin Huai almost reflexively raised his foot to rush over, but before he took a step, the people around him rushed out like arrows, so fast that he couldn't even see the figure clearly.

Qin Huai halted his pace resentfully, hearing the pain and Zhan Zhao's faint voice coming from ahead, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh, and trotted towards the past.

When Qin Huai arrived, the whole process of catching the thief was coming to an end.

Zhan Zhao tugged at the thief, listening to the gratitude of the person whose purse was stolen, with a calm expression on his face, he just said flatly, "You're welcome, it's just a matter of little effort."

The corners of Qin Huai's mouth twitched when he heard this, and he thought to himself that this is not an effort of your hands, but an effort of your feet.It runs so fast, no wonder it was named "Royal Cat" by the emperor.

Zhan Zhao heard Qin Huai's footsteps, turned around and frowned at her, "Why are you so slow?"

Qin Huai walked over slowly, raised his head to look at him slowly, and said slowly, "You are always running so fast, why am I still working so hard? Are you full?" Then he didn't care Zhan Zhao shot at him sharply, and said to the unlucky ghost who lost the money bag: "There is not much money."

"No, no, thank you, sir, thank you, sir." The man was so excited that he was incoherent, and he seemed to be still immersed in the shock of Zhan Zhao falling from the sky and saving him from bankruptcy.

Qin Huai waved his hand: "Then you can go."

Zhan Zhao grabbed the thief and asked, "What should he do?"

Qin Huai glanced at the thief, and said coldly, "I told you, don't let me catch you."

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao looked down, no, this person was Quan Wanjin who was picked out by Qin Huai yesterday.Just as he was thinking about it, Qin Huai muttered, "I really didn't catch you." The corners of his brows twitched, "Qin Huai, can you tell me the main point?"

Qin Huai sighed: "Quan Wanjin, you committed the crime knowingly. I just reminded you yesterday. You should wait for two days at least."

Zhan Zhao was helpless, and whispered to Qin Huai, "Is it appropriate for you to say that?"

Qin Huai laughed and said, "I was just joking. Quan Wanjin, don't be sour. You will have to stay here for a few months anyway. It's useless to be sour."

Quan Wanjin lowered his head and remained silent.

Qin Huai said to Zhan Zhao: "Send him back to the government office and let Lao Huang deal with it. Lao Huang is in charge of cases like theft."

Coming out of the government office, Qin Huai stretched fiercely and said, "Are you going to patrol the streets first, or go somewhere with me?"

"Where?" Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows and asked.

Qin Huai yawned again, and said slowly, "Medical Center."

"Medical clinic?" Zhan Zhao wondered, "What are you doing in the medical clinic?" He looked Qin Huai up and down, "Uncomfortable?"

Qin Huai shook his head and said: "That Quanwanjin, his wife is sick and has been short of money. The people around him are not willing to lend him money because he is not doing his job properly. I reckon he stole it because he was in a hurry. thing."

Zhan Zhao paused, and said, "Then why don't you tell Bantou Huang?"

"Why are you telling him?" Qin Huai also stopped, and looked back at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao said seriously: "Although Quan Wanjin stole things, he did it to show filial piety to his mother, shouldn't he be punished lightly?"

Qin Huai suppressed his smile and said, "Lord Zhan, do you think that my mother's illness is the reason for stealing alone? This precedent cannot be set."

Zhan Zhao frowned and thought for a while, "You're right."

Qin Huai laughed again, and just as he was about to say something, he saw a small guard running towards this side in a hurry, and shouted from afar: "Chief Qin, brother Chao asked you to go to Shenji cloth village in the west city, and you will die. Already!"

Zhao Hengchao is a short, lean young man in his thirties.

At this moment, he was frowning at a main room in the backyard of Shen Ji Buzhuang. The guards in the yard were coming and going, carefully inspecting the yard, looking for clues.

Qin Huai dragged Zhan Zhao across the yard, looked around and finally came to Zhao Hengchao.

Zhao Hengchao raised his head, glanced at them, pointed to the house, and said, "The doors and windows are locked from the inside, and the people inside are already dead. I thought you had to take a look first, so I didn't let them in. Hurry up." Yes, this corpse will stink again."

"Thank you, old brother." Qin Huai smiled and made a bow to Zhao Hengchao, causing Zhao Hengchao to wave his hands in disgust.

Qin Huai was no stranger to Zhao Hengchao's cold face, so he ran to the house and began to check.He looked at the doors and windows first, then circled around the house a few times, and even lay down on the ground from time to time.

Zhan Zhao couldn't help asking Qin Huai: "What are you doing? Lie down on the ground."

Qin Huai just stood up from the ground, patted the dirt, and said, "This is called investigation, you should learn." Zhan Zhao was speechless, only to hear Zhao Hengchao say from the side, "Qin Huai is just like this, you don't need to worry about him."

Qin Huai curled his lips, and took out a slender iron wire from his bosom, poked it in along the crack of the door, turned it lightly a few times, and the lock inside the door fell to the ground with a "click".

Qin Huai put away the wire, turned around and saw Zhan Zhao looking at him in surprise, shrugged: "This is also one of the necessary skills for criminal investigation."

There was a strong smell of blood in the door, mixed with the indescribable stench of decaying corpses.

Zhan Zhao frowned before he entered the door. He was no stranger to the smell of blood, but this was the first time he smelled of corpses. He only felt that the smell was so strong that it made people dizzy for a while.

Qin Huai had already gone in first, and as soon as she entered the door, she looked around, glanced at the corpse, and didn't stay longer.Then he lay on the ground again, looking for something like before.

Zhan Zhao followed in, followed by Zhao Hengchao.

After Zhao Hengchao went in, he checked the corpse first, then walked to the bed carefully, and looked through the bedding.

Then Qin Huai said in a muffled voice: "Brother Chao, your shoes should be repaired, such a big hole."

Zhao Hengchao didn't turn his head back: "Talk to your sister-in-law."

Zhan Zhao listened to the jokes between the two, his discomfort gradually dissipated, and he also began to look at this small secret room.

The room is not big and the lighting is not good.In the middle is a table, and the corpse is lying on the table, the head has been chopped off.The fracture is uneven, the murder weapon should not be sharp, and the murderer does not know martial arts.The windows and doors do lock from the inside.There is a large box in the corner of the room, which should be used for storing clothes.Next to the box is the bed with tall shelves.Next to it is the dresser.When I heard that something happened to the head of the Shen family, Mrs. Shen and Li just returned to her mother's house.

Zhan Zhao looked up at the roof again, his eyes suddenly stopped.

Just above the roof, a few bricks don't seem quite right.

Zhan Zhao squinted his eyes to look at it, then lowered his head to look at Qin Huai.Seeing that Qin Huai was also looking up at the roof, seeing Zhan Zhao looking at her, Qin Huai smiled: "Take the body out later, let's take a closer look. Maybe we can break this secret room." "

Zhao Hengchao had already yelled outside: "San Yazi, you guys send the body to Lao Xu."

Several servants entered the room in response, one of them drew the outline of the corpse with a Chinese ink brush, and several of them carefully carried the corpse out.

As if thinking of something, Qin Huai shouted at the few people lying at the door and rushed away: "Tell Lao Xu to let him put other work on hand first, and it's best to give me the results at night."

Several servants responded and hurried to Yizhuang.

Qin Huai turned around, Zhao Hengchao was looking at the bed frame.Qin Huai also raised his head and said, "It's the bed frame first, and then the beams. This height is okay, why don't I go find a ladder?"

Zhao Hengchao was speechless, and turned to look at Zhan Zhao.Zhan Zhao smiled knowingly: "There is no need for a ladder." He jumped up to the beam of the house.

Qin Huai blinked, supported his neck and looked up to Zhan Zhao on the beam, "Did you find anything?"

"Footprints, not very clear." Zhan Zhao frowned.

Qin Huai asked anxiously, "What kind of footprints?"

Zhan Zhao looked at it, and honestly said: "I don't know." After a pause, he said: "You should see for yourself." After speaking, he jumped down, hugged Qin Huai, turned around and jumped onto the beam.

Qin Huai was caught off guard, and was so frightened that he grabbed Zhan Zhao's sleeve: "Be careful, don't fall!"

"It won't fall," Zhan Zhao said helplessly, "You should open your eyes."

Qin Huai raised his eyelids, loosened Zhan Zhao tremblingly, glanced at the footprints, and said to Zhao Hengchao, "50 years old, about six feet tall, and relatively thin." After speaking, he held Zhan Zhao tightly, and paused for a while Cai whispered to him: "Can you lift me higher, I want to see the roof again."

Zhan Zhao felt it was funny, and lifted Qin Huai as he said. Qin Huai carefully knocked on the bricks, pressed them again, and then stretched out his hand to support them.

The entire roof was actually supported by her.

Qin Huaichang heaved a sigh of relief, moved the trap away, poked his head out carefully, then stretched out his hands to support the roof, turned over and got out of the hole.

Zhan Zhao was afraid that she would fall, so he hurriedly followed her.

The tiles on the roof are very neat, only one is scattered.Qin Huai stood on the roof, hunched over, and walked along cautiously.Zhan Zhao followed her, seeing her frightened appearance, inexplicably felt funny in his heart.

This trace leads all the way to the wall, beside which is the kennel.

Qin Huai jumped from the roof to the wall again, and was about to slip down the wall when he heard a dog barking.Qin Huai didn't stand firmly at first, he stumbled and fell down when he was startled.

Zhan Zhao had been following her all along, but he was relieved when he saw her climb up the fence, and jumped off the roof.As soon as his feet hit the ground, he heard a dog barking, followed by Qin Huai's exclamation.

Several yamen servants in the courtyard were also startled by the sudden barking of the dog, and then they saw a flash of a figure, Qin Huai, who was supposed to fall firmly, had been caught by Zhan Zhao firmly.

After that, there were new legends about how high Zhanwei Qinggong was.But this is something to say, don't press it.

In the room, Qin Huai still had an uncomfortable expression on his face, feeling deeply ashamed just now.Zhan Zhao sat in front of the table, using the tea lid to defuse the tea froth.

Zhao Hengchao coughed lightly, breaking the silence: "This is the situation. Mrs. Shen and Li went back to her mother's house yesterday, and the yamen servants sent out for verification came back in about a while. Wang Dali, who reported the case next door, wanted to return the grate he picked up a few days ago. Seeing that no one responded for a long time, I felt that there was something wrong with the smell, so I thought there was something bad in the room, so I looked through the crack of the door." He looked at Qin Huai, "Do you still want to see those people?"

Qin Huai nodded, and let out a listless "Yes".

Zhan Zhao said, "Let's go together."

Qin Huai was even more lethargic, got up slowly, followed Zhao Hengchao to the next room, and shrank into a corner as soon as they entered the room.

Inside the room were Mrs. Shen Li and several wives who accompanied her.Lishi Shen kept her head down and wiped her tears, and when she saw Zhao Hengchao and others coming in, she cried even harder.

Zhan Zhao saw Zhao Hengchao standing with a blank face, and Qin Huai kept shrunk towards the corner of the wall when he talked too much, so he had to bite the bullet and say, "Shen Li, can you describe what happened yesterday again? "

Li Shi Shen choked up and said: "The concubine went back to her mother's house yesterday, who knew that when she came back, he would be the head of the house, just..." Before he finished speaking, he was already sobbing.

Zhan Zhao looked at Qin Huai, and the latter raised his head, but he still didn't intend to speak.Zhan Zhao could only continue to ask, "Why did you go back to your mother's house yesterday?"

Shen Li sobbed and said: "Just because I borrowed my sister-in-law's show model half a month ago, I thought about returning it yesterday. Unexpectedly, something like this happened."

As I said before, Zhan Zhao sighed in his heart, and asked again: "Do you know who your husband's family has any enemies? Or who have you had grudges with in the past few days?"

Shen Li shook his head.

Zhan Zhao really couldn't find anything to ask, so he said, "Madam Shen's condolences." Then he left the room with Zhao Hengchao and Qin Huai.

Reporter Wang Dali's questioning was basically the same as what he said before. Wang Dali still had lingering fear on his face, claiming that he was almost scared out of his wits when he saw the headless corpse.Zhan Zhao also asked him if he heard any unusual movements last night, Wang Dali said that he didn't hear anything last night, even the mad dog of the Shen family that kept barking all night was quiet.

Before I knew it, it was already dark.Zhao Hengchao said that he still had things to do, so he bid farewell to Zhan Zhao and his wife.

After leaving Shenji Buzhuang, Zhan Zhao took a deep breath and asked Qin Huai who was beside him, "What shall we do next?"

Qin Huai seemed to have finally got rid of the previous shadow, and said: "You go with me to meet some people first."

So the two turned left and right along the small road in the west of the city, and came to a Town God's Temple.Qin Huai raised his hand and knocked on the door five times, three long and two short.The door opened quickly, and a tattered, seven or eight-year-old boy poked his head out. Seeing that it was Qin Huai, he grinned, turned back and shouted, "Brothers, come alive!"

Qin Huai took out a few broken pieces of silver and said, "Find someone for me. Youbang is about forty years old, thin, about six feet tall, with a tattoo on his left arm, which is a tiger's head. He is often seen in Huajie Liuxiang Haunted, with a lame left foot. No need to find anyone, just figure out his whereabouts these days."

The big boy took the silver, weighed it, and said with a smile, "Please be all right." After speaking, he called a few boys and disappeared into the corner of the street together.

Qin Huai exhaled, leaned back, and leaned against the dirt wall.

Zhan Zhao looked at Qin Huai and laughed, "Why did you find this person?"

Qin Huai shook his head, thought for a while, and then asked Zhan Zhao, "What do you think about this case?"

Zhan Zhao raised three fingers: "Three questions."

Qin Huai raised his eyebrows: "Tell me about it."

"First," Zhan Zhao stretched out a finger, "the corpse has no head."

"Ha." Qin Huai's eyes lit up, "What do you think?"

Zhan Zhao replied: "There are probably two possibilities for cutting off the head. One is that there are traces left on the face of the deceased, which will expose the murderer's identity; People mistakenly thought he was the one who died, so they had to cut off his head."

"Yes." Qin Huai laughed, "Continue."

"Second, Shen Li's words. If shopkeeper Shen didn't die, she might have lied. She probably knew about it and participated in it.

"Thirdly, the dog barked. Just after you jumped onto the wall, the dog barked so loudly. If the murderer came down from the room, how could the dog not bark."

Qin Huai nodded and sighed: "That Shen Li didn't say a word of the truth. You can see that she keeps touching her ears and her eyes are always looking up to the left, which means that she doesn't even believe her words, and she is trying to comfort herself. .”

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows: "This can also be seen."

Qin Huai closed his eyes: "I'll teach you later when I have time, brother Chao will do it too, but he can't get a fart with three sticks, and I can't even find someone to talk to."

Zhan Zhao laughed.Under the last ray of afterglow, Qin Huai's face looked extraordinarily childish, and the deep and capable day was swept away.

Zhan Zhao suddenly remembered Qin Huai's appearance when he was in his arms.

The author has something to say: Regarding the unit of length, the conversion is based on the city ruler.