Self-help guide for non-professional young masters

"There were no signs of trauma or fighting on the body. It was preliminarily judged to be poisoned or suffocated. The body was naked and wrapped in a thin quilt. Judging from the climate and environment, it should have died for more than a month. There were mud residues between the nails. , the filth can be seen in the rotting wound, it cannot be ruled out that the deceased was buried in the soil. In this way, the time of death is easily confused, and the inference may be inaccurate.”

Jiang Yanqing wrote the results of the autopsy on a piece of paper and handed it to Xiao Beicheng, who read it carefully several times before ordering Shen Ci to report to Wen Chu in the government office.

"Let him investigate the women who disappeared or died abnormally in the previous one to two months, and screen out those who may be the victims."

After giving the order, he felt something was wrong again, and said to Jiang Yanqing, who was ten steps away from him, who was extremely conscious: "Are there any details on the deceased that can identify him?"

"Well...does it count as a burn mark on the inner thigh?"

Steward Liu blushed when he heard this, "How could outsiders know about such a private wound? It's really thanks to you for saying it..."

"So what, I'm a doctor, so it's normal to check my body."

"You... Forget it, my lord, it's getting late, let's go back earlier."

Back at the post house, Xiao Beicheng urged Jiang Yanqing to take a hot bath, and ordered his clothes to be burned, which was very unlucky.

The night in the small town is always extraordinarily quiet, with the evening breeze blowing in late autumn, Xiao Beicheng invited Butler Liu to sit in the courtyard with him, and sipped a cup of Jiangling's unique honey tea.

Steward Liu asked: "This time, my husband is involved in two mysterious cases, what is the prince's plan?"

"Naturally, it is necessary to find the mastermind who caused him to come here. If Ning Yuanbao's death was not the cause of the death, I don't need to do anything extra. Speaking of which, do you think Ning Yuanbao's death was a pure accident, or was he killed by someone?"

"The testimony of several parties is full of loopholes. Even if it is an accident, it must not be innocent."

Xiao Beicheng smiled, draped his outer shirt a little tighter, held a cigarette stick between his teeth, and stared at the jade plate hanging in the night sky in a trance.

"You and this king wanted to go together. It is clear that the three brothers of the Ning family traveled together that day, but Ning Daren and his wife concealed the details of the eldest son traveling together. The boatman's words cannot stand up to scrutiny. He once said The water is shallow, just at the height where a grown man can lift his head out of the water when he stands on tiptoe. He was also taken aback when he fell into the water. It didn’t look like he was lying. This is what puzzled me the most. .”

"Could it be that he pretended to be too similar, which made the prince dispel his doubts about him?"

"No, this king has always felt that the actions of the boatman that day were contrary to harmony, but he didn't think of any clues. What did you find out about Yu Qing?"

Butler Liu shook his head as he recalled the situation that day.

While the two were silent, a loud noise suddenly came from the guest room of the inn, accompanied by the sound of broken porcelain, guessing that the sound came from the room where Jun Ziyou was, Xiao Beicheng immediately went to check the situation.

When he arrived, the ground in the house was already covered with broken porcelain, and Jun Ziyou, whose lower body was still wrapped in a quilt, fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Ziyou! What's the matter?"

He hurriedly went to help Jun Ziyou up, but he saw that the man's eyes were closed tightly, he didn't seem to wake up at all.

But in this case, how to explain the chaos in the room?

Xiao Beicheng frowned and looked at the fragments on the ground. There were cups of porcelain pots that he used to drink tea in the room before, and there were also pottery bowls that he used to feed the man with medicine. The tablecloth was thrown to the ground. It looked like he In order to get up, he accidentally grabbed the tablecloth, but fell to the ground due to unconsciousness again, and overturned the things on the table.

When carrying Junziyou back to the bed, Shen Ci, who had just returned to the post house, was alarmed by the noise, and hurried to see the situation, and when he saw the mess everywhere, he cried again.

"It's over, my lord, it's clean...the clean bottle has been broken!"

Xiao Beicheng was distracted, and he didn't speak in a good mood, "What a clean bottle!"

"It's just pretending to be ashes..."

"Whose ashes are you pretending to be?"

"Of course it belongs to Mr."

"Where is he now!"

"In your arms... that's right, then the ashes in this bottle are not the husband's ashes."

As he spoke, Shen Ci rubbed the dust on the ground with his fingertips, sniffed it, and stuck out his tongue at the person, "Isn't this plant ash, sir, it's not enough to scare me for three years. Surprised me."

"Plant ash, a clean bottle?"

Xiao Beicheng muttered something in a low voice, suddenly remembered something, and held Junziyou's hand.

The man clenched his fist with his right hand, and he was obviously holding something in his palm. He stretched out his five fingers, and it turned out to be a piece of broken porcelain from a clean bottle.

"Is this the clue you want to tell me..."

Jun Ziyou still closed his eyes, motionless as if he had fallen asleep, Xiao Beicheng gently pressed a kiss on his forehead, and ordered people to clean up the debris on the ground.

Butler Liu was not afraid to wince when he said sarcastic remarks, "Fortunately, he didn't stop smoking at that time, otherwise, if he got his revenge, it would really be enough for me to drink a pot when he went back to the capital."

Xiao Beicheng, who noticed Junziyou's reminder, finally relaxed his frowning, holding the tile in his hand, he hooked his fingers and beckoned Steward Liu to come forward.

"Yu Qing, tell me, he wants to express something to the king."

The man pursed his lips and spoke in a strange way, "I don't dare to speculate on our princess's thoughts, please do as you please..."

In the middle of speaking, a bright light flashed in front of his eyes, causing discomfort, Liu Butler stopped talking, and quietly watched Xiao Beicheng play with the hard-won treasure.

"This net bottle is an ice-cracked porcelain made by Jingdezhen in the early years with a special process that is almost lost. Although it is fired with sand, it has the unique transparent luster of jade, and the cracked and continuous lines are only in the net. The surface and the inside of the bottle are still full of lustrous enamel. It was originally used by the royal family. It was given to the mother by the first emperor, and then it was passed down to this king. Later..."

"Things are good things, but I still don't understand what the gentleman wants to remind you when he smashed his own ashes urn."

"Yu Qing, take a closer look."

As Xiao Beicheng said, he moved the candlestick in front of him, and used the tiles to reflect the light of the fire, hitting the wall, forming a mottled light and shadow.

"This is……"

The cracks on the porcelain are neither deep nor shallow, and the reflected color happens to be transparent, just like the sparkling waves of the lake under the sunlight. In addition, the candlelight and the setting sun are both soft red, which looks like the scene on the lake in the setting sun that day.

"Doctor Jiang once said that the medicine taken by the victims will make their bodies relax, their reactions will become sluggish, and they will fall into a state of tortoise breath, as if they were dead. If Ning Yuanbao also took this medicine on the day of falling into the water, his body was weak Difficult to grasp the balance, and the sunlight refracted to the lake stimulated the eyesight, and it was difficult to struggle when falling into the water. From the eyes of others, it seemed that an accident happened because of a sudden emergency.”

"In this way, the doubts can be explained. In addition, we need to further investigate the reason for the depth of Xieyang Lake."

"Order, order Wenchu ​​to bring a few boatmen who have been active in Xieyang Lake all year round for questioning, and let Ning's eldest son and second son come to see this king early tomorrow morning."

After a few hours, all the people who were looking for arrived at the post house.

Wen Chu couldn't figure out what kind of tricks this volatile King Jin was up to. He only knew that the orders from above had come down, and those who were subordinates could only follow them, and didn't dare to ask a word.

He said that Xiao Beicheng had a strange temperament, and he really gave people face. He summoned some boatmen, and before they saw them, he asked Wen Chu to distribute paper and pens to them.

The boatman was puzzled, and Wen Chu was also confused. Shen Ci pouted, rubbed his sleepy eyes, and yawned, "Didn't the lord want you to write a statement? Your own captain knows what he looks like, right?" ?”

The boatmen looked at each other and nodded blankly.

"If you know what it looks like, just draw it. If there are a few boats, draw a few boats. If you draw well, you will be rewarded."

As soon as they heard that there was money to be made, the boatmen put in all their energy. Although Dou Da couldn't read a few words and the painters were not very good, they tried their best to draw the general appearance.

While talking, Shen Ci asked in a normal way: "Speaking of which, Xieyang Lake seems to be getting deeper these days, does anyone know the reason?"

The boatmen didn’t take it seriously, “Master Guan, you’re not from our place, so it’s normal if you don’t know. Someone dug river sand here earlier and sold it, which destroyed the surrounding environment and caused all the fish in the lake to go to the lake. The downstream ran away. Those of us who rely on water for food were forced to have no way to survive, so we had to block the waterway leading to the downstream. Only when the water level rose, we would release the water when we had to. , the lake water is getting deeper and deeper.”

"When did it start?"

"It seems... three years ago."

Wen Chu looked at the drawing paper they handed over, and found that these boatmen had at least two boats in their hands, and probably understood the mystery.

These drawing papers as evidence were sent to Xiao Beicheng who was eating. He took a piece of crispy lotus root and put it in his mouth, and drank some porridge with a moderate temperature. Butler Liu.

"Yu Qing, see what's wrong."

Having worked in the palace for many years, Steward Liu can be said to have read all the rare calligraphy and paintings, his eyes are very pretentious, and he feels disdain just by glancing at the figures made up of those blown-out lines.

"Is this kind of thing worthy of being called a painting?"

"Who asked you this. If the painting is about a boat, have you found any details?"

Steward Liu spread out a few pieces of paper on the table, his expression was distorted, and the corners of his mouth twitched. It took all his imagination to see the abstract stick figure as a boat. Click the doorway.

"If this curved curve represents a boat, then the lines behind the boat hanging on both sides should refer to oars, right?"

"That's right, the other boat they drew didn't have oars, but a long pole propped up the boat to glide. Observe carefully, the hull of the boat that is moved by the oars is generally wider and shorter, with pointed ends. However, the boat propped by the boat pole is thin and long, and only the bow side is trimmed into a pointed shape, which conforms to the law of wind motion. That is to say, the boatman needs to change the boat according to the position he reaches before going out of the water. of ships of different shapes."

"Indeed, boats with oars are suitable for swimming in deep water, and it is easier to control the speed, while boats propped up by poles are suitable for shallow water, and have high requirements for wind direction."

"Do you still remember what kind of boat the boatman drove when we arrived at Xieyang Lake?"

"I remember it was equipped with oars. At that time, the prince threw the pole into the water in a rage and swam to the shore by himself. Later, the boatman took me and Mr. Wen back by oar... Hiss, that's not right, Why should he bother with a long pole when he has oars for power?"

Xiao Beicheng swallowed the last mouthful of porridge unhurriedly, put his chopsticks on the side of the bowl, rinsed his mouth, and took a leisurely sip of tea.

"Isn't the motive simple?"

Naturally, it was to deceive him, an untouchable official who seemed to know nothing about folk experience.