Kaifeng Mansion's Little Boss

There was no place to set foot outside the sedan chair, and the ground was covered with blood.The men in black who were still looking murderous in front of him a moment ago were now all separated, and their heads and bodies were scattered on the ground.

Judge Zhou has lived most of his life, and he has never dreamed of such a brutal and bloody scene in his nightmares.

Judge Zhou calmed down, thinking that he was rescued, he should feel relieved and happy.

He raised the car curtain tremblingly, and called out tentatively: "I wonder which chivalrous man came to help?"

At this time, Su Yuan, who was squatting on the wall, quietly wiped the blood from her face. Looking at the scene on the ground, she felt very embarrassed.

These black men shot fiercely, and their moves were deadly. As soon as they went up, they brought out her spirit of serious fighting.The feeling of killing zombies was awakened, and when Su Yuan came back to his senses, he realized that all he did was beheading because of inertia.

Fortunately, old judge Zhou was not so frightened that he passed out, otherwise, with her current body covered in blood, it would be really hard to come out to rescue her again.

The old judge Zhou yelled a few more times, and found that the surroundings were quiet, and no one paid attention to him at all.

"It seems that the chivalrous man intends to do a good deed without leaving his name. Zhou is very grateful! Zhou will remember the kindness of saving his life today, and if he wants anything in the future, please feel free to come and order Zhou!"

Judge Zhou didn't know if the person who rescued him left or not, but he must say thank you.

After a while, a city patrol officer came in a hurry.

Three escaped bearers found them for help.When the yamen servants heard that it was Judge Zhou who had been robbed and killed, they rushed over frantically to help.

They raised their knives and rushed into the alley, ready to encircle and suppress the man in black.Then they saw the tragic scene scattered all over the ground, and the strong smell of blood stimulated their nasal cavity, making them want to vomit uncontrollably.

"The people who died were all men in black. Where was the judge that week?"

"I'm here."

Judge Zhou's voice was weak, slow, and slightly trembling, and the sound of each word was elongated, which sounded like the voice of a ghost calling for the soul.

The yamen servants were already shocked by the scene of corpses everywhere, but when they heard this horrifying sound, they were all startled.There was a cowardly yamen servant who just sat down on the ground.

It was only later that everyone realized that it was the old judge Zhou who was responding to them, and hurried to the sedan chair to help him out.

It wasn't that they were timid just now, the main reason was that the scene was so scary that anyone who saw it couldn't help feeling scared.

With such a big case, Judge Zhou couldn't go home, so he continued to hold his ground and ordered people to quickly call Su Yuan, Fang Wuzuo and others to investigate the scene and investigate the identities of these men in black .

In the middle of the night, a group of men in black suddenly appeared and hijacked him. They came up and slashed at him without saying a word. This is a deep hatred against him!

After two sticks of incense, Fang Wuzuo hurried over.

At this moment, four more lanterns have been hung in the alley, illuminating the whole scene more clearly than before, and visually more terrifying.

When Fang Wuzuo first saw this scene, he was as shocked as everyone else, and his eyes almost popped out.

"Look, even if you are a Fang Zuo who is in contact with dead bodies every day, it is scary to see this scene. You just sat on the ground in fright, no shame!" A yamen servant comforted the yamen servant who had fallen before.

After Fang Wuzuo heard the words, he coughed lightly and tried his best to remain calm.He raised his foot carefully, walked to one of the corpses, first looked at the cut on the neck of the corpse, and then found the head that had rolled to the wall according to the angle of the cut.Such a one-to-one correspondence is just right.

"My God, is that head from this corpse? It rolled so far away, I thought it was this one." The yamen servant looked at the head closest to the corpse.

From this we can see how messy the distribution of the body and head was at the scene.

"The incision is neat, and the shape is formed with one knife. Looking at the cutting method and strength, it must be an expert."

Fang Wuzuo matched the other six corpses and heads, and found that there were no exceptions. He marveled at the murderer's beheading technique, which seemed to have been tempered.

Afterwards, Fang Wuzuo heard from the old judge Zhou that the time it took for the knight to kill the man in black was very short.Fang Yuzuo was even more impressed by the depth and power of this person's kung fu.

"Only this one is different." Fang Yuzuo pointed to the only man in black with a knife wound between his eyebrows, and he was the only one who didn't have a different head.

Judge Zhou recognized at a glance that this man was the man in black who raised his knife to kill him at the beginning.

"That's easy to explain. In order to save Judge Zhou, the chivalrous man hit him on the head with his first knife in a hurry. Wait, I see that the marks of the wound don't look like ordinary shoulder knives."

Fang Wuzuo ordered someone to fetch water to wash off the coagulated blood on the head of the man in black, so that he could see the shape of the wound more clearly.

Elder Judge Zhou looked around at this time, but he didn't find Su Yuan, so he asked the yamen servant wondering, "Why don't you see Miss Su?"

"The subordinate went to call Miss Su, but knocked on the door for a long time, but no one answered. The subordinate asked Miss Sun to help us enter the house to call for someone, but Miss Su was not in the room."

"That's weird. When she sent me away, she obviously went back to the house. How could she not be there?"

Elder Judge Zhou showed doubts on his face, he thought for a moment, then ordered someone to wait at the door of Su Yuan's house.

"If she comes back, bring her here immediately."

"What's the matter?" Su Yuan's voice came suddenly, which saved Old Judge Su from looking for her again.

Elder Judge Zhou immediately turned his head and looked at Su Yuan, who was dressed in a dark blue men's attire, and came in from the alley, holding a bunch of unfinished glutinous rice dumplings in his hand.

"Where have you been?" Old Judge Zhou asked.

"Ouch——" Su Yuan suddenly dropped the string of glutinous rice dumplings in his hand, covered his mouth and turned around for a while, before slowly turning his head to adapt to the scene in the alley.

At this time, a yamen servant explained the process and told Su Yuan Zhou that the old judge was nearly robbed and killed halfway.

"My God, are you alright?" Su Yuan immediately looked up and down the old judge nervously.

"It's okay, you just talk about it for a while, where did you go?" Elder Judge Zhou asked Su Yuan again.

"I'm hungry after patrolling all night, so I'll go to the state bridge to eat something." Su Yuan glanced at the bunch of glutinous rice dumplings she threw on the ground, and then continued, "I was planning to go back, and I saw a lot of yamen servants. I ran to Dongdajie, I was worried about something, so I came to see, but I didn’t expect that it was your old man who was robbed.”

Before Elder Judge Zhou could respond, Su Yuan continued to ask Elder Judge Zhou: "What's going on?"

"I don't know. These men in black suddenly appeared and wanted to kill me. Unfortunately, a bearer was killed by them."

Mentioning this, old judge Zhou became furious.He has always been amiable as an official, and never confronts people head-on.Officials all over the capital knew him, but no one said he had a bad temper.

In another year, he would have reached the age when he should retire and return home.He thought he would be able to finish the official in a safe and sound way, but now he has suffered like this for nothing.Although his life was still alive, he was almost scared to death.Most importantly, another innocent life was lost, which made him very distressed.

"This weapon looks like a square-headed kitchen knife!" Fang Wuzuo suddenly shouted.

Su Yuan was stunned for a moment, then glanced at Fang Wuzuo.

Judge Zhou hurriedly went over to check it out, and expressed his surprise, "It's actually a kitchen knife?"

"That's right, it's actually a kitchen knife." Fang Wu promised, somewhat in disbelief.However, the shape of the wound caused by the square kitchen knife was too obvious, with obvious vertical traces, which basically ruled out the possibility of other murder weapons.

"Maybe it's a special weapon made by some martial arts master." Su Yuan touched his nose and helped to broaden his thinking a little.

Fang Wu thought about it, then nodded, "This possibility is not ruled out."

Then he raised his head and looked around, and found a pool of blood on the top of the east wall.

These bloodstains were formed by dripping and trampling. Obviously, the knight had stayed here for a short time after killing someone.

"There is no doubt that a chivalrous man is a master. It stands to reason that if the knife is long enough and the strike is fast enough, the master should be able to avoid the splash of blood. However, after this chivalrous man was killed, he was covered with blood. The body is covered with blood, which means that the weapon she holds is relatively short, so she cannot avoid the blood spatter, so the weapon is basically a kitchen knife." Fang Zuo continued to deduce.

Su Yuan: "..."

I've never seen him so smart before!

"The kitchen knife..." Elder Judge Zhou frowned, thinking, "The kitchen knife doesn't look like a serious weapon. Could it be that this chivalrous man was cooking and happened to pass by and saw my death, so he came to help?"

"But I'm cooking, of course I should be in the kitchen, how can I meet by chance?" Su Yuan asked back.

"Maybe it's because the house is short of soy sauce? Are you in a hurry to buy or borrow?" Fang Wuzuo also helped to broaden his mind.

His daughter-in-law once found that there was a lack of seasoning when cooking, and she forgot in a hurry, so she took a kitchen knife to the neighbor's house to borrow it, which almost scared the neighbors.

"This possibility is not ruled out, and Fang Zuo said that killing people with a kitchen knife can't hide the blood splattered all over their bodies. Blood on the wall to trace."

After the old judge Zhou gave his orders, he turned his head and looked at Su Yuan wonderingly.

"When I saw you investigate the case in the past, I always had a lot of ideas. Why is there no movement today?"

"I have never seen so many heads on the ground in the past." Su Yuan acted like he was terrified, and looked at the corpses all over the ground in fear, "Even if we shoot cockroaches in the prison of Kaifeng Mansion, there may not be so many corpses."

"Nonsense, there must be a lot more cockroaches in the prison than here." Judge Zhou corrected.

"That's not true. Where there is food, there are cockroaches. There is no food in prison." Su Yuan also corrected.

Elder Judge Zhou looked at Su Yuan again wonderingly: "You often go to prison? Are you so clear?"

Su Yuan then patiently counted up with old judge Zhou, "I went to Mrs. Xu's case once, once to Lu Yushun's case, to Pang Xian's case once, and to the case of the ineffective doctor two days ago..."

"All right, all right!" Elder Judge Zhou interrupted Su Yuan, telling Su Yuan to move her clever head and think about where the hero who saved him was.

"Why do you keep worrying about this? He didn't show up, so he probably wanted to do good deeds without leaving his name. Why didn't you fulfill his wish?" Su Yuan said helplessly.

"Receive the kindness of others, and the spring will repay it. Besides, if such a master is used by the Kaifeng government, it will be like a tiger with wings." Old Judge Zhou explained.

Su Yuan: "..."

You have already become more powerful.

"Reporting to Magistrate Zhou, we found that the bloodstains disappeared from a family in the east of the alley. The clothes were dried in the yard of that family and confiscated, and two taels of silver were left at the door of the house."

The old judge Zhou hurriedly ran to check, and sure enough, he saw that the situation was as the yamen servant said.After inquiring about this family, a piece of men's clothing was missing on the clothesline, and beside the wellhead in the backyard of this family, there were traces of water, and the soil was still very wet.Smell the wet soil carefully, and there is a faint smell of blood.

"It seems that the knight changed his clothes here and cleaned the blood on his body."

"This chivalrous man is really kind. He even left two taels of silver as compensation. I guess he must be from a wealthy family!" Su Yuan once again helped to broaden his mind.

Elder Judge Zhou gave Su Yuan a sideways look, "Which one from a rich family would bring a kitchen knife when going out? Have you ever seen Bai Yutang bring a kitchen knife?"

"He's different, he has to pretend to be chic." Su Yuan argued.

Fang Yuzuo couldn't help laughing, and hurriedly reminded Su Yuan: "Miss Su, you can't say this in front of Fifth Master Bai, be careful!"

"Wait until he can kill me."

Fang Fuzuo didn't take it seriously, he just thought that Su Yuan's intention was that Bai Yutang would take into account the past friendship and not bother with her.

"It seems that he doesn't live nearby, otherwise, how could he go to someone else's house to change clothes and clean the blood?" Elder Judge Zhou speculated.

Su Yuan: "But it's not necessarily true. He may know that he will be tracked, so he purposely went home after washing in someone else's house."

Judge Zhou looked at Su Yuan: "You finally said something reasonable."

Su Professional Disturbing Waters Yuan: "..."

After finding out that the lost clothes were gray-white robes, Judge Zhou ordered the servants to use this as a basis to search for people and witnesses around.

Su Yuan couldn't help but glanced at the brand new dark green brocade robe she was wearing, and sighed that she was smart.Fortunately, after secretly changing clothes here, she went to the tailor shop on the other side of the state bridge to buy a ready-made dress, otherwise it would be really easy to be caught.

"The most important thing for us now is not to find out who the knights who rescued people are, but to focus on investigating the identities of these men in black who committed murder." Su Yuan reminded.

"Everyone is dead, how to check?" Fang Wuzuo said, these men in black were clean, and they were well-trained assassins at first glance.Generally, it is difficult to find clues about their identities in this kind of assassins.

"But I smell something on them?" Su Yuan suddenly recalled something.

Fang Yuzuo was puzzled, did Miss Su get close to the corpse just now?Maybe he got close when he wasn't paying attention?

Fang Wu was busy reviewing the corpses, and sure enough, he could smell sandalwood on the clothes of these assassins, but not on the assassins.

Looking at the black clothes they are wearing now are very brand new, it seems that these clothes were probably stored in sandalwood cabinets or boxes before.This kind of night clothes used for assassins must not be a precious item, but it can be placed in a sandalwood box, which shows that the family who sent the assassins is rich, and everything will be packed in sandalwood.

"Think about it again, what rich people have you offended recently?" Su Yuan asked.

Judge Zhou shook his head, "Not to mention recently, I haven't had any conflicts with anyone in the past three to five years. Mr. Bao was not around during this period, and only tried the case of medical failure. Could it be an accomplice of medical failure? Looking for revenge on me?"

Su Yuan shook his head, thinking it was impossible.

"It was Bai Wuye and I who directly arrested the doctor, and he committed suicide when I interrogated the doctor. If you really want to avenge the doctor, I should be the first to bear the brunt."

Judge Zhou thought it was reasonable, so he didn't understand why an assassin wanted to kill him.

"It must be that you have done something that hurt other people's interests, so you will do this cruelly." Su Yuan told the old judge Zhou not to worry, things will develop smoothly, and there will always be a result.

Su Yuan advised the old man to go back to rest first, because when he is old, he stays up late and is frightened, and if he doesn't rest and recuperate, he will easily get sick.As for the security issue at Judge Zhou's house, the Kaifeng mansion will send people inside and outside to take precautions to ensure safety.

Su Yuan also gave Mr. Zhou two big geese for drug testing.Be cautious about what you ask him to import recently.

Elder Judge Zhou nodded solemnly, and was about to praise Su Yuan for his heart, when Su Yuan added another sentence.

"If the goose is still alive, remember to return it to me. If you eat so much Hesai at your house, you will definitely be fattened up. Whether it's roast goose or stewed goose, it will definitely be delicious."

Judge Zhou: "..."

The situation was finally turned around by Su Yuan alone, and everyone began to pay more attention to the origin of the man in black.

As for the chivalrous man who suddenly fell from the sky and carried a kitchen knife to fight for righteousness, it can only be called a legend in Tokyo.And the one who can compete with this legend is the master of bamboo sticks, who is also an anonymous rescuer. He descended from the sky on the official road of Yanling County, and captured more than a dozen gangsters with the help of bamboo sticks by himself.

Because of the comparison, the discussions between the two legends became more and more heated in Beijing, and both sides even had their own fans.Each side believes that the master they support is the strongest, and they often fight for this.

To say that the ones who feel the most intuitive about these two masters are the government servants of Kaifeng Mansion.They have direct access to the case and are well aware of the wonderful and bizarre situation at the scene of the crime, so they have different admiration for these two masters.

They are also the most enthusiastic part of the discussion among the people in Tokyo, and they often get red-faced in private.

One day, when Su Yuan came to the classroom to deliver a message, he encountered two gangs of yamen servants arguing.

"A master of bamboo sticks, just because he used such a long bamboo stick to easily kill more than a dozen gangsters, his martial arts are naturally better."

"No, how is the kung fu of those thieves better than that of a well-trained black-clothed assassin? The kitchen knife knight, with that long, rectangular, ordinary kitchen knife, made seven black-clothed assassins win in the blink of an eye. The master's head fell to the ground, and that technique was as fast as lightning! Why can't you compare with the bamboo stick master?"

Su Yuan didn't care about these, knocked on the door, passed the word on and left.

The two gangs of yamen servants who had been arguing equally felt that it would be fruitless to continue the quarrel like this, but neither of them wanted to take the initiative to end it.Whoever takes the initiative to end it, doesn't it mean who was cowarded first?This is not allowed!

So the two sides agreed to ask Su Yuan what he meant, which side Su Yuan would choose, and which side would win first tentatively today.

Then, Su Yuan, who had already walked out of the door, was blocked by the servants.

"Ask Miss Su to do us a favor, just answer one of our questions according to your own ideas. Miss Su thinks it's better to be a master of bamboo sticks, or a knight of kitchen knives?"

All the yamen servants quieted down, looked at Su Yuan eagerly, stared at her mouth, and waited for her answer.

Su Yuan: "..."

Can I compare myself to myself?

"That question is too difficult to answer."

"Yes, yes, it's hard to answer." The yamen servants agreed, but they still asked Su Yuan to choose one.

"Comparisons are boring, so it's better to compare them with others. For example, is the bamboo stick master stronger, or Bai Wuye? Is the kitchen knife knight stronger, or the Zhan master?"

All the yamen servants looked at each other, with embarrassed but impolite smiles on their faces.No matter what they think in their hearts, the answer on their lips must be that Bai Wuye is more powerful, and Zhanye is even more powerful.After all, these two belong to my family, who can derogate them?Especially Bai Wuye, who holds grudges the most, whoever dares to say that he can't do it will court death.

"It's not that simple. Whether it's a bamboo stick master or a kitchen knife knight, they can't compare with Zhan Ye and Bai Wuye. Then why are they discussing? What you should discuss is who is better Zhan Ye or Bai Wuye Great, isn't it?" Su Yuan asked with a smile.

All the yamen servants didn't react for a while, and they all nodded in agreement.

"Okay, let's discuss and see, who is more powerful between the two of them?" Su Yuan folded his arms and looked at the excitement from the sidelines.

It was only now that the yamen servants came to their senses, how could they discuss these two?At the beginning, Bai Wuye made a big fuss over the matter of calling him mouse and cat.Everyone in Kaifeng Mansion knows, "Who is more powerful than a mouse or a cat?" This is a taboo that cannot be discussed in Kaifeng Mansion. Whoever talks about it will die.

Everyone scratched their heads, hesitated, hummed, some suddenly said that their stomach hurts, and some suddenly thought that there was still something to do.Suddenly, like a flock of birds being bombarded, they scattered quickly.

Su Yuan chuckled twice, and then left at a leisurely pace.

Judge Zhou and Jiang Shilang from the Ministry of Rites happened to see this scene and couldn't help laughing.

"That must be Mr. Gongsun's apprentice? It's really unusual, smart and intelligent." Jiang Shilang praised.

Elder Judge Zhou nodded in deep agreement, couldn't help but praise Su Yuan a few more words, and then asked Jiang Shilang why he came here.

"There is something important to tell Judge Zhou."

After Jiang Shilang followed the old judge Zhou to the side hall, he confessed the reason.

"In the early morning of the Xiantian Festival, I listened to Brother Zhou's advice, and when I checked the lanterns used that day again, I found that there were blood worms from Miaojiang hidden in the big lanterns of Taoist gods. These blood worms were sealed with wax, like a bird's nest. It is placed at the head of the lantern. Brother Zhou should also know that once these lanterns are lit, the inside will be hot. After a long time, the wax will melt and the blood worms will be released. In the case, did you happen to encounter a flesh worm?"

"There is such a thing, why did you say it after three days?" Elder Judge Zhou asked anxiously.

"Well, this is a decision I made after discussing with the Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Du Xiang. One is to let the Innate Festival pass peacefully, to please the Queen Mother and His Majesty, and to avoid causing panic among the people. The second is that we want to pretend that we don't know it and take this opportunity The culprit showed up. But we investigated behind closed doors in the past two days, except for the three small officials involved, there was no clue.

Today, I want to thank Brother Zhou, thank you for reminding me earlier, which made me pay extra attention to check the condition of those lanterns.The second is to make amends to Brother Zhou. This matter was concealed from Brother Zhou, and he was not informed until today. "

In fact, there was another reason Jiang Shilang didn't tell old judge Zhou immediately after the incident. He knew that his old friend was attacked on the night of the Innate Festival, and he was overly frightened. He only felt better after resting at home for two days.Now the Kaifeng mansion is entirely managed by him alone, he is afraid that if the news is announced too early, the old judge Zhou will overthink and hurt his body.

"That's it."

Judge Zhou could more or less guess Jiang Shilang's intentions, after all, they have been best friends for more than ten years.

"How did the trial of the three petty officials go?"

Jiang Shilang smiled wryly and shook his head, indicating that the three petty officials were all dead.

"How could it be?" Judge Zhou was surprised.

"The three of them have all been infected by Gu. They confessed that, on the day before the Innate Festival, the three of them went out to eat and were threatened by a woman who laid a Gu on them. It was the woman who instructed them to hide flesh and blood worms in the lantern. All three said that if ten If you don't take the antidote after two hours, you will die from Gu poison.

We asked the doctor to take the pulse of the three of them first, to see what kind of Gu poison they got, and whether there is a solution.However, there are too many types of Gu poison, and sometimes the pulse condition alone may not be able to detect the symptoms before the Gu poisoning occurs.The pulse of the three of them could not be found out, so they had no clue.At night, the three of them suddenly died of Gu poison, leaving behind the portrait of the woman. "

Jiang Shilang handed over the portrait to Judge Zhou for inspection.

Judge Zhou took a closer look at the woman in the painting, she was average in appearance but plump.If you only rely on this portrait to find someone, it is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.

"This is difficult." Old Judge Zhou sighed.

"Your Kaifeng mansion specializes in solving cases. What difficult and miscellaneous cases are not easily solved in your hands? I heard that Master Bao and the others may be back soon in a few days. You can help me with a good word, please Bao Your Excellency must help, and solve the case of our Ministry of Rites as soon as possible." Jiang Shilang begged.

"When the case happened, you didn't look for us. Instead, you looked for the Ministry of Criminal Justice and Du Xiang. Now that they are not doing well, they come to seek refuge with us again? No way, just go and stay where it's cool." The old judge Zhou dismissed him and chased him away. humane.

"Didn't I see that your Kaifeng Mansion has too many things to take care of during the Xiantian Festival, so I don't want to bother you?"

Jiang Shilang said two more soft words.

"There are many capable people in your Kaifeng mansion. There was Yumao Zhanzhao before, Chinchilla Baiyutang after, and now there is another one...By the way, what was the name of that little girl just now?"

"The surname is Su, and there is a single word for a garden, a garden of 'planting trees is called a garden'." Old Judge Zhou explained.

"What a good name. "Shuowen" says 'garden, so the fruit is also'. As soon as you hear the name, you know that the case will be settled in her hands." Jiang Shilang, seeing that the old judge admired the child, hurriedly Follow up with more boasting.

Elder Judge Zhou snorted, "Don't even mention it, she might really have to rely on her to solve this case. Do you know why I reminded you to check the lights before the Innate Festival?"

Jiang Shilang was stunned, "Could it be her?"

Judge Zhou nodded.

Jiang Shilang now realizes how powerful Su Yuan is.

"After what brother Zhou said, I can't find anyone else. I have to ask you Kaifeng Mansion for help. You are a gathering of capable people, so please be sure to ask the capable ones to work harder. Help me, poor little man." Jiang Shilang After finishing speaking, he bowed to the old judge Zhou again and again.

Judge Zhou told him to get the hell out of here in disgust.

Jiang Shilang knew that Judge Zhou was just joking with him, so he thanked him again before leaving.

Looking at the portrait of the woman left on the table, Judge Zhou frowned deeper and deeper.This case is not simple, if it is related to other cases, it will be even more difficult, it can be called weird.

Judge Zhou ordered the painter in the mansion to draw a few more portraits of this woman. After the paintings were completed, they would be posted up like the portraits of the eight men in black.

There is a huge crowd, but there is only one way to find people. I hope that someone in Tokyo will recognize them.

……

In the early morning of the next day, Kaifeng Mansion received a report from a man, saying that thieves broke into his house at night and killed his wife.

Su Yuan immediately went to the crime scene.

As soon as she arrived in the courtyard, she heard a dog barking and saw a dog jump out of the house, grinning at her and the yamen servants.Fortunately, Qi Xinghua, the reporter, hugged the dog in time, so that the dog did not rush to Su Yuan.

Su Yuan couldn't help but feel lucky for the dog, it really took a dog's life.

In the east corner of the courtyard, there were three boys huddled there, with tears on their faces.The older boy was about ten years old, and they were holding a six-year-old boy and a four-year-old boy by the hand. They were both the sons of the informant Qi Xinghua.

The yamen servant who initially inspected the scene first informed Su Yuan of the basic situation he learned.

"Yesterday, the three children were taken to the house of their uncle and aunt by their mother, Zheng, and stayed there overnight. Qi Xinghua went to pick up the children this morning. After entering the hospital, he found that the door of the house was open. As soon as he entered the house, he saw His wife, Mrs. Zheng, was lying motionless in the middle of the house. Mrs. Zheng had obvious pinch marks on her neck, and the house was turned into a mess, and all valuables in the family were gone.”

"Recently, the alleys near here have been frequently attacked by thieves. The thieves pick people to steal when they are not at home. Yesterday Qi Xinghua's wife, Mrs. Zheng, was planning to take the children to live with her natal brother, but suddenly remembered that there was another horse. The cloth is not finished, but the work has to be handed in tomorrow, so I decided to come back alone."

"Qi Xinghua is a famous carpenter. Yesterday he was working at his employer's house, and he didn't come back to live at night. The thief thought that there was no one in the house, so he came to steal at night, but he found that Mrs. Zheng was at home, so he succumbed to the pain." Killer."

The autopsy confirmed that Zheng died of neck suffocation. The bruises on his neck extended obliquely to the back of the ears. The bruises were uniform in thickness.It can be seen from this that the murderer attacked Zheng from behind with a rope and strangled him to death.

"When you came back this morning, did you just let the dog loose like this?" Su Yuan asked Qi Xinghua.

Qi Xinghua agreed.

Su Yuan ordered the servants to ask if the neighbors heard the dog barking last night.

Elderly people live in two nearby families, and all said they did not hear the dog barking last night.By the way, they told the servants that Mrs. Zheng loved dogs, and usually kept dogs in the house at night. In the past, they usually didn't hear dogs barking at night.

Su Yuan then learned that when the three children were at their uncle and aunt's house, they lived in the same room with their uncle and aunt.While Qi Xinghua was at his employer's house, he lived alone in a hut.

"This case is too simple."

After Su Yuan finished speaking, he asked the government servants to arrest Qi Xinghua directly in the name of a murderer.

Seeing this, the three children burst into tears, not understanding why the yamen guards took their father away.The third child hugged Su Yuan's leg excitedly, begging her to let him go.

Su Yuan didn't know how to tell the three young children that it was their father who killed their mother.

When Su Yuan was hesitant, Du Yi walked over from the crowd of people watching. He knelt down and called the children to come over. He gently wiped their tears with a handkerchief and explained softly to them.

"Everyone makes mistakes, you have too, right?"

The three children nodded.

"It's like you have done something wrong, and you have to explain to your parents. Your father's wrong thing this time is more serious, and you have to go to the government office to explain to the officials." Du Yi then asked the yamen servant to take three Send the child to his uncle and aunt, and trouble them to make follow-up arrangements.

"Father killed mother, lost their parents all at once, the life of these three children is really hard." A yamen servant said with emotion.

But even the yamen servants didn't understand why Miss Su judged that Qi Xinghua was the murderer so quickly.

"But because of the dog barking?" Du Yi asked.

Su Yuan nodded, and added: "There is also the method of killing people from behind. Since there are thieves around here, and Mrs. Zheng is alone at home, if he is not a trusted person, how can he face each other with his back?"

The yamen servants still didn't know much about dog barking. Seeing that Miss Su didn't mean to explain, and seeing that the young son of the prime minister's family was gentle and easy-going, they hurriedly asked Du Yi for clarification.

Du Yi: "That dog is very protective of its owner. It only barks when it sees a stranger. If it wasn't for an acquaintance who did the murder last night, how could the dog not protect Mrs. Zheng? There are elderly people living in the neighbors on both sides. The elderly are the most restless and easy to wake up at night. If a dog barks last night You must be able to hear it. So last night, it must be an acquaintance who committed the crime, and the most suspicious person can only be Qi Xinghua."

Later, when he went back to Kaifeng Mansion for interrogation, Qi Xinghua really confessed.He raised an outer room and wanted to take a concubine in, but Mrs. Zheng refused.Qi Xinghua became murderous because he heard that there were always bandits near his home.

In fact, Mrs. Zheng planned to leave the child at her mother's brother-in-law's house yesterday, and go home to weave alone.Before going out in the morning, Qi Xinghua specially asked Mrs. Zheng not to tell her brother and sister-in-law that she had planned it long ago, so as not to make her brother and sister-in-law unhappy, and asked her to pretend to think about it.

……

In the evening, the small officials of Kaifeng Mansion were on duty, and they left together in twos and threes, discussing today's case by the way.

"I heard that Qi Xinghua's case was because the concubine was pregnant, and he was anxious after forcing him several times."

The little official who was with her immediately responded: "Yes, if it wasn't for the jealousy of Mrs. Zheng, if she was willing to let people in, how could she end up dead, so there would be no murders."

Su Yuan happened to pass by at this time, and stopped after hearing the words.

At this time, a yamen servant hurried over with a stack of portraits. After he greeted Su Yuan with a smile, he was about to go to the gate of the city to put up the portraits.

"Stop." Su Yuan stared at the portrait in his hand, and asked the yamen servant where the portrait came from.

"Judge Zhou's order is related to the case of the Ministry of Rites, and this woman is an important suspect." The yamen servant explained.

Su Yuan begged for the portrait, so that the yamen servant didn't have to post it.

"Why?" The yamen servant was puzzled.

"I know the woman in this portrait, Su Xi, the eldest daughter of Su Jinjing."