Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Zhou Gen was a live-in son-in-law. His wife passed away early, and he raised two children by himself. After arranging for them to marry and have children, he became an elderly man living alone. Usually, he earned a living by herding cattle for others.

Zhou Gen has a black dog.

In the morning, he was leading the cows through the woods, and the black dog following him suddenly barked wildly at the woods.

After Zhou Gen cursed a few times, he saw that the black dog was still barking crazily, so he led the cow over to kick it. When the black dog saw its owner coming, it quickly ran into the woods and started barking crazily again. Zhou Gen looked in its direction and vaguely saw a white area. He thought it was a beast that was killed by a head-on collision by mistake, so he quickly threw away the cow and rushed over.

When he saw Tao A-mei's body, he was so scared that he cried out twice, then crawled and rolled down the slope. Then he didn't even leave the cow behind and ran quickly to the village.

"Right there," Zhou Gen followed Fu Jiu over and told her how he came across Tao A-mei's body. He then pointed fearfully at a few weeds under the shade of a tree in front of him. "She was right there, her eyes were still open. The stones beside her were all taken out from her stomach. I didn't take them out. Second Master asked Qiangzi and the others to do it. Second Master also asked Qiangzi to call Zhao Shan."

Chen Shao walked up to the weeds.

This was a forest. Although the trees were not dense, there was a thick layer of fallen leaves. Following a few nests of weeds and pulling aside the surrounding dead leaves, patches of blood immediately appeared.

The body is pretty good here too.

He turned over the dead leaves that had been pushed aside, picked out the dead branches and rotten wood among them, and with just one look, Chen Shao came to the conclusion: these dead branches and rotten wood were not of the same species as the dead branches and rotten wood on Tao A-mei's lower body.

This is not the first scene.

The murderer killed Tao A-mei somewhere else and dumped her body here.

Chen Shao quickly glanced around and asked Muramasa, who was standing next to Zhou Gen, or Zhao Tianhai, the second master Zhou Gen called him, "Did anyone ask anyone to look for clothes in the mountains?"

Zhao Tianhai was already over sixty years old, with sharp eyes and ears. Hearing her question, he quickly replied: "We sent several groups of people to look for it, but we couldn't find it."

Chen Shao picked up a stone beside him and asked, "Is this also a stone taken out from her stomach?"

Zhao Tianhai said yes, "These pebbles were taken out from her stomach."

Chen Shao glanced around again, "Are there pebbles on this mountain?"

Zhao Tianhai replied: "Stones like this are only found in Dafeng River."

Chen Shao looked at him, "Where is Dafeng River?"

Zhao Tianhai pointed to the top of the mountain: "It's behind this mountain."

Chen Shao stood up and looked up: "Can we climb over this mountain?"

Zhao Tianhai pointed to the end of the village and said, "There is a road leading up the mountain over there. We can get over there by following that road."

Chen Shao looked at the narrow path in the direction of his finger, and then looked up the mountain. From the thatched cottage to here, it was only about ten feet away, but the road was muddy and difficult to walk on, and it was almost slipping. The higher you go up the mountain, the steeper it gets, and it will be even more difficult to walk. Not to mention that Tao A-mei is nearly five feet tall and weighs about 130 pounds. With these pebbles, she weighs at least 170 pounds. Even if you remove her internal organs, she still weighs about 160 pounds. It is almost impossible for the murderer to carry her over from that side.

Turning around, Chen Shao looked towards the foot of the mountain.

They were standing about two meters away from the foot of the mountain. The slope here was not high or steep, and there was only a small path passing through the foot of the mountain.

A little further away, there is a road about half a meter wide.

The rigor mortis on the body showed no signs of damage to any of the joints, big or small. This indicated that the murderer dumped the body here within an hour after killing the person, before rigor mortis set in.

Minus the time spent on opening the abdomen, removing the internal organs, stuffing stones in, and sewing up, there were only about forty minutes left.

There are only two possibilities for dumping the body here within forty minutes: one is that the murderer is a villager; the other is that the murderer has a means of transportation.

Thinking of this, Chen Shao asked Zhou Gen again, "Do you pass by here every day, or only once in a while?"

"It has been raining heavily recently, so he dares not go far. He goes to the area in front to graze cattle every day." Zhao Tianhai replied quickly.

Chen Shao followed his words and glanced at the grassland in front, then asked, "Are there many people coming here normally?"

Zhao Tianhai said: "Except for the occasional cattle herders, there are no other people here. The land here is poor, not even trees grow, let alone food."

The murderer had an accurate grasp of the movements of the villagers! Chen Shao glanced at Zhao Tianhai and Zhou Gen, then glanced at the direction of the village, then called Ding Lisheng over and said, "Tell me about the case on February 17, the 14th year of Yuanhe."

After asking him just now, Ding Lisheng guessed that she would ask again, and he had already reviewed the information of the previous two cases in his mind. Sure enough, when she asked again, although he was still very nervous, he spoke much more fluently: "The case on February 17, the 14th year of Yuanhe was also in Zhaojia Village. The victim was Zhao Qiang's third child. The third child was only two years old when he died. He was also tied up and his throat was cut to death."

Chen Shao said: "Where was Sanwa's body found?"

Ding Lisheng quickly turned sideways and pointed in the direction of the village head. "It's behind the house at the village head. The child of that family found it while playing behind the house earlier. I will go and invite the child over now."

"Not for now." Chen Shao looked at the village in the direction of her finger. Sanwa's case happened six or seven years ago, while Tao Amei's case just happened. Only by finding as many clues as possible in the existing case can the murderer of Sanwa be caught.

Turning back, Chen Shao asked Xu Guang, "Are there pebbles from the Dafeng River in Hua Erya's belly?"

"It's not just her," Xu Guang picked up a pebble and said carefully, "Sun Mingyue, who was killed on November 27, the 14th year of Yuanhe, also had a pebble like this in her stomach."

Chen Shao ordered Ding Lisheng: "You take people to search Dafeng River immediately. The range... is limited to an hour's journey to Zhaojia Village. Search the villages if there are any, and search the mountains if there are none. It doesn't matter if you spend more time, but you must search thoroughly."

Ding Lisheng answered yes and left in a hurry.

Chen Shao signaled Li Tianliu with his eyes to arrange two Yulin guards to supervise him.

Then, when she glanced around, she accidentally saw the black dog running around behind Zhou Gen. Suddenly, she was moved and asked, "Did this black dog bark last night?"

Zhou Gen kicked the black dog and said, "It was just barking for a while."

Chen Shao asked quickly: "About what time?"

"It's not just this black dog," Zhao Tianhai answered again, "shortly after midnight last night, all the dogs in the village barked for a while."

Chen Shao asked: "Under what circumstances do dogs in the village usually bark like this?"

Zhao Tianhai: "If they screamed like last night, there must be thieves in the village."

Zhou Gen retorted: "I asked earlier, no one's house was burglarized."

Zhao Tianhai asked curiously, "If it's not a thief, then what has come in?"

Zhou Gen secretly looked at the nests of weeds.

Zhao Tianhai was shocked: "So, the dog barked last night because it heard someone trying to kill her?"

As he spoke, he glanced at Zhou several times, intentionally or unintentionally.

Zhou opened her mouth, wanting to say that it had nothing to do with them, but Zhou Gen muttered first: "I didn't kill the person, how would I know?"

"With your guts, you killed someone?" Zhao Tianhai said disdainfully, "More than ten years ago, Liang Zhu asked you to escort a car to Yang'an County, provided you with food and lodging, and gave you an extra five strings of cash. You were afraid of robbers on the road, so you refused to go no matter what. In the end, it was Qiangzi who went. Look at how much money Qiangzi made after he came back from that trip. If you had gone with him then, would Dashan and Xiaoshan have separated from you?"

Zhou Gen argued: "Qiangzi made a lot of money, but what's the use? Sanwa is still..."

Zhao Tianhai snorted coldly: "Sanwa was harmed by that unscrupulous person. What does it have to do with Qiangzi making money?"

Zhou Gen muttered: "Who knows if it was because they were jealous of his money that they harmed Sanwa?"

Chen Shao did not try to stop the two from bickering. She saw a small step ahead that she could step on to climb the mountain, so she planned to go and see if there were any dead branches or rotten wood on the mountain that Tao A-mei had covered herself with. But when she reached the step, she was stopped by Li Tianliu.