The only honor of the water cut off

No.40 Four Sections

"General Pang asked a good question. Sang Yili died in a horrible condition, and it was a secret room. It really took a lot of trouble." Bao Zheng turned to Gongsun Ce and said, "Gongsun, do you still remember the day Sang Yili died? I inserted the silver needle in the wrong place, my hand was swollen, Lao Gao, and then Miss Xiao He came, and you even applied ointment for her burns."

Gongsun Ce said angrily, "That day you were obviously the one who was itching and kept moving around, that's why I pricked the wrong acupuncture point." Gongsun Ce suddenly remembered something, his expression turned serious, and he said, "Wait, what did you do that day? Both Xiaohe and Bao Zheng said it was itchy. Bao Zheng took a bath with the hot spring water brought into the Sang Mansion, while Xiao He was kicked over by Sang Yili, and a bucket of fresh hot spring water was splashed on his arms. Both of them have been exposed to hot spring water."

"So, someone added itching powder to the hot spring water?" Xiaoman said, "But, that's not right! The hot spring is always flowing, so it's impossible for him to add something to the flowing water!"

Bao Zheng gave Xiaoman a thumbs up and said, "Smart, good analysis. But, Xiaoman, you forgot that it was the time when General Pang generously donated money and asked Yuan Zhizhou to hire someone to rebuild the hot spring courtyard."

"Hey, that's it!" Everyone looked at Pang Tong in unison, and Pang Tong rolled his eyes skyward with an expression of caring about me.

"Xiaoman, do you still remember that the day Miss Sang was led up the mountain by a ghost, I fell several times outside the newly renovated hot spring courtyard?"

"Yeah! Remember! You will fall after walking a few steps!"

Bao Zheng was slightly embarrassed, and said, "It's not that I can't stand firmly, it's because there are a few big holes on the ground."

"Big pit?" Several people asked in unison.

"As far as I know, if you want to renovate the hot springs, you have to temporarily divert the spring water so that the workers can work. In the beginning, people from the hot springs often came here to take a bath and recuperate. In order not to divert the dirty water used by others, Sangfu diverted water The opening is connected to a small spring with a small gushing water."

"Later, in Xiubieyuan, in order not to affect the water use, several large pits were dug to temporarily store water. Although the water in the pits will be constantly renewed by the new hot spring water, the water gushing from the small springs is not large. When I started to use water, the amount of overflow was very small. After the renovation of the other courtyard, it was buried again, but the soil quality of the landfill was softer than the surrounding area, and a large pit appeared shallowly. I knocked on the edge of the pit and fell. wrestle."

Bao Zheng took out a small paper bag from his bosom, opened it, there was some white powder mixed with some soil inside, and said: "When I fell down and got up, there was more of this paper bag on the palm of my hand." thing."

After finishing speaking, he handed the paper bag to Gongsun Ce. Gongsun Ce looked at it carefully, shook his head to show that he couldn't see what it was, and said, "Are you sure it's itching powder?"

"Today, I went to a pharmacy outside to check it out. It's true, and it's still the kind that scratches the skin and doesn't stop the itching."

"Hmm." Gongsun Ce frowned and said, "But this doesn't kill Sang Yili."

"Gongsun, come with me, and I'll show you something." Although it was Gongsun Ce who was called, a group of people followed, and Bao Zheng led the big guy to the back of the main hall of the Sang Mansion.

"This is where the men in black under Ding Chou injured us that day." Gongsun Ce murmured, looking around, a tree as tall as a man suddenly came into view, and his heart skipped a beat. Going closer, he said: "This, this, this...how is this possible?" After saying this several times, Gongsun Ce said with an unbelievable expression: "This is the Miaojiang strange poison that sees the blood to seal the throat?"

When everyone heard the blood sealing their throats, they couldn't help being surprised, such an inconspicuous little tree turned out to be the most poisonous thing in the world, Bao Zheng clapped his hands and praised: "It really is Gongsun who is knowledgeable."

"The man in black who was chasing you and me that day had his feet cut off by Mo Xianqiqi, and then he hit the tree. Then his whole body convulsed, he had difficulty breathing, his fingers were scratching at his chest, and his death was miserable. I don't understand why such an arrogant person like Mo Xian would use poison, it turned out that it was because of the poisonous tree that he hit."

Pang Tong was very interested in watching the two solve the mystery and solve the case. Seeing that they mentioned Mo Xian, he said, "Don't think in the same way as Jianghu, I never said that Feiyunqi doesn't need poison."

Gongsun Ce seemed to have never heard of Pang Tong's words, and suddenly said: "Wait, Bao Zheng, I remember you said that the death of this person is very similar to that of Sang Yili!"

"Yes, I asked you, but you just said that it's not exactly the same. There are bruises on Sang Yili's body, but the man in black with the broken leg doesn't."

"No, in this way, it's not a bruise, it should be the place where the poison seeped in." Gongsun Ce was just thinking about it, when suddenly a strong dizziness hit him, and his eyes turned black, Gongsun Ce quickly patted it with his hands Head, forced himself to be calm, at first glance, he thought he was just thinking about something with his heart.

After a long pause, Gongsun Ce reluctantly opened his mouth and said: "Sealing the throat with blood is called nine-step fall. If it touches the intact skin, it will be fine. If there is a bleeding wound, even a little bit will kill you. Toxicity mainly causes the muscles of the whole body to relax and weaken, the blood coagulates rapidly, and the heart and lung muscles cannot function normally, so they often suffocate and die.”

Bao Zheng smiled and said: "Gongsun, you are sick most of the time these days, otherwise you must have found out the answer."

Gongsun Ce smiled slightly, Bao Zheng still took care of his emotions so carefully, in fact, he no longer cared about Bao Zheng and him who was smarter and who was better at solving puzzles.Now, all he cares about is the things that used to look so ordinary and simple, everyone can be together safely, everyone is fine, that's fine.But there are all kinds of troubles in this world, and this simplicity seems to be very difficult.

"I asked several gardeners who are now and formerly working in Sang's house today, but none of them knew that there was such a tree in the back hall."

"Then it means that this tree must have been planted here by the Sang family themselves. It may be Master Sang, or it may be..." After finishing speaking, Bao Zheng looked straight at Li Die.

"No, it's not me!" Li Die seemed to use a lot of strength to speak, almost panting: "That's... that's from Yuande."

"Yuan Zhizhou?" Bao Zheng's tone of disbelief, Li Die hastily stated: "Yuan De has always looked down on me, so naturally I also look down on him, often... often... let Ding Chou watch him What are you doing?" Li Die touched her hair with a guilty conscience, and said: "This tree should have been planted here more than a year ago, and Yuan De would occasionally go to water it and take care of it after everyone fell asleep. .”

Bao Zheng thought to himself: This is more accurate.

"Wait, wait, Brother Bao, you said that the spring water is mixed with itching powder, and there are poisonous trees here, but how did he poison Sang Yili?" Xiaoman asked repeatedly, pulling Bao Zheng's sleeve.

"This..." Bao Zheng paused, as if he was thinking about how to express it, but Gongsun Ce suddenly said, "It's so dangerous!"

"It is indeed dangerous enough." Bao Zheng also echoed: "Actually, the poison that sealed the throat with blood has also been mixed in."

"Ah?" Little man and little raccoon Zhan Zhao exclaimed in alarm, "But Brother Bao, you had to take a hot spring bath for an hour every day during that time! Then you can too!"

Gongsun Ce laughed and said, "The danger we are talking about is not actually Bao Zheng, but Miss Xiao He."

Xiao He, who had been silent in the crowd all this time, was suddenly mentioned by Gongsun Ce, she just blushed blindly and couldn't control her heartbeat.

Bao Zheng smiled knowingly at Gongsun Ce, and asked, "Miss Xiao He, Mrs. Sang fasts twice a month and takes a bath at noon, is it something that the whole family knows about?"

Xiao He blushed and said, "Yes, it's like this on the first and fifteenth day of every month."

"Itching powder is not a rare thing, but it is not easy to collect the blood-sealed throat juice, so the person who poisoned must first add a lot of itching powder to the big pit where the water is stored. When Xiaohe started to prepare bath water, The water overflow of the puddle will be greatly reduced, which gives him a signal, and he pours the prepared venom into the water at this time. Then the venom and the itching powder enter the bathing water together, and once the bather soaks in In the water, the itching must be unbearable, once the skin is scratched, the poison will enter the body, and it will die without a cup of tea."

Bao Zheng looked at Xiao He, who still didn't seem to understand, and said, "So, Miss Xiao He, it's a good thing you didn't scratch your skin that day because of your itchy arm, otherwise the first bucket of water you took might be poisonous."

Xiao He said with wide eyes: "Yes, because of the blisters, Master Gongsun said it would leave scars, so I didn't dare to scratch it."

Bao Zheng knew that she still didn't understand. In fact, you don't need to be too smart to be a human being. It's not bad to live a life ignorant and fearless like her. He turned to look at Li Die and said, "So, Mrs. Sang, it seems that your nephew has become a Your scapegoat."

Li Die was startled and shouted suddenly: "Yuande, damn it, wolf ambition!" Thinking about the fact that on the fifteenth day, because of Ding Chou, he would not have time to take a bath in the future, and he didn't know that the basin of bath water had been tampered with like this Big thought.

The little raccoon said: "Brother Bao, you also bathed in that water, why are you all right?"

Bao Zheng laughed and said: "Of course the poisoner only wants to poison the person he wants to kill. He only needs to make the water that Xiao He received at noon poisonous. And the time for me to take a bath is when Gongsun Ce comes back from the Yamen At that time, after two hours, the poisonous spring water had already flowed into the mountain stream, but the water at that time dissolved the itching powder that had not completely melted and precipitated, so the itching was not very severe. .”

The little raccoon said: "Ah, the rest of the itch powder can be so itchy, isn't that Sang Yili so itchy that he wants to gouge the flesh off!"

Bao Zheng nodded and said: "Therefore, there is no doubt that he must die!"

"There is still one mystery left, that is, how did the murder chamber work?" Pang Tong, who had been a bystander all along, suddenly asked.

Gongsun Ce said: "If Yuan De did it to seal the throat with blood, then everything is easy to explain."

"Yes, from noon to night, there is a lot of time to set up the scene, and then you only need to be the first person to enter the crime scene, gently lock the windows, and that will be a secret room."

"When I entered the room, I found two unusual things. One was that the bolt on the door was unusually thick, and the other was that Yuande, a fourth-rank Zhizhou, didn't know how to protect the scene of the crime. Less footprints."

"If the murderer is really Yuan De, he pretends to be a ghost on the balcony to scare the servants, and the servants rush to report the news. According to the time I just tested, even if he comes out of his yard at the first time, he will have half a cup of tea. With a thick deadbolt, the door is not so easy to break open, to ensure that he is the first person to enter the scene of the crime, and then he locks the east window in the middle of the chaos, and is not even afraid of leaving footprints."

Pang Tong said: "So, do you think Yuan De is the murderer?"

"This..." Bao Zheng chuckled, and said, "Yuan De is very smart, he didn't leave any direct evidence, but in fact everything points to him, even poisoning him is convenient, Yuan De was very afraid of General Pang's might, so he personally supervised the renovation of the hot spring courtyard, and the workers rested at noon, and he was still patrolling around."

"Hum..." Pang Tong looked at Bao Zheng and sneered, then turned his head to see Gongsun Ce looking at him, smiling at him, again looking calm and composed.

"There is one last doubt, Sang Yili's death condition. Bai Ling wrapped around his neck, and the tiger's mouth was strangled by Bai Ling because he grabbed Bai Ling hard. The bruise on the back of his neck can also explain this. point." Gongsun Ce paused and said: "These are scars caused during life, and it is impossible to arrange them after death."

"The man in black who bumped into the blood-sealed throat scratched his neck and chest with both hands because of the feeling of suffocation, but Sang Yili's chest was not scratched, it must be because he grabbed Bai Ling. Although the white silk is light and thin, it is tough, especially after it has been coiled several times and kneaded into a ball, the dying person does not understand where the suffocation comes from. He thinks it is Bai Ling strangling his neck, and he can only pull instinctively, so he will feel the suffocation in the future. There were bruises on the neck."

Bao Zheng nodded and said: "The suspicious point here is that there is not enough time. It takes more than half an hour from the hot spring house to Sang Mansion, and after Yuan De was poisoned, including the time to prepare for bathing, he was too late to catch up with Sang Yili Wrap the white silk around his neck before he dies, besides, the person he wants to kill is not actually Sang Yili, and it will take time to find out that he was wrong."

"Then we can make two bold assumptions, one is that there are accomplices, and the other is..."

Li Die listened attentively to the conversations of several people, only felt that there was a lot of danger. He had been frightened a lot recently, and he was already like a frightened bird. At that time, when he occasionally looked up, he saw a white shadow appearing on the dim night sky, approaching instantly It was almost close to her nose, she screamed: "Ah! Miss Sang! Don't kill me!"

Sang Ying's sudden appearance surprised everyone. She seemed to be only thinking about going to Li Die's place, and didn't care about the fact that several masters were present.Pang Tongdong also didn't move, watching with great interest what she wanted to do, Xiaoli felt pitiful when he saw this girl and didn't do anything, and the remaining young hero Zhan Zhao stood next to Li Die, if Sang Ying easily caught her Where should I put this face, I didn't want to hurt her, so I just waved my sword to block it casually.

Sang Ying was stopped, she didn't force her attack and didn't stop, she turned around and used her strength to spin and flew away.

Li Die had already curled up on the ground, knelt down at Gongsun Ce's feet, and shouted: "My lord, save me! My lord, save me! That Sang Ying must be an accomplice."

------------

The author has something to say:

In the above two chapters, the heart, liver, spleen and lungs were written together.