Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

It is located behind the first house at the entrance of the village.

The family lived next to a road that was about half a zhang wide. They also raised cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and other animals behind their house. The corpse was about half a zhang away from the chickens and ducks.

"When Sanwa had the accident, his family didn't have these yet. This place was still a forest at that time." Seeing her looking around, Zhao Qiang explained.

Chen Shao pointed to a small path leading to the farmland and asked, "Did this path exist before, or was it newly built after these were raised?"

Zhao Qiang replied: "It existed before, but it only reached the edge of the land and never came here."

Chen Shao walked along the path into the farmland, where rapeseed was planted. Most of the rapeseed had been harvested, but there were still a few short stubbles blooming on the stalks that had not been removed. After walking about a hundred feet on the path in the field, the path slowly turned toward the main road.

Sanwa was only two years old, and the villagers probably looked for him in the toilet, firewood pile, well, pond and other places. After searching this area once or twice, no one would come again. If the murderer was familiar with the people in the village, he could have quietly dumped the body into the woods along this path.

After roughly understanding what was going on, Chen Shao saw Chan Yi yawning and said, "Go back and rest first, we'll continue tomorrow."

Zhao Tianhai's three sons, daughters-in-law, grandsons and grandsons' wives gave up their bedrooms.

The quilts and sheets were also replaced with new ones.

Chen Shao was not polite.

Chan Yi, Fu Jiu and Li Tianliu all declined.

Chan Yi shared a bed with her, while Fu Jiu and Li Tianliu each took two stools and put them together to guard outside her room.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with Zhao Tianhai's family and returning to their rooms, Chan Yi immediately changed her tired demeanor and said in a low voice, "Sanwa's disappearance is not as simple as Zhao Qiang said."

Chen Shao looked at her eyes, which were full of light, and said with a smile, "Are you not sleepy anymore?"

"Sir, please stop making fun of me. If I hadn't acted like that, who knows how long you would have endured?" Chan Yi wrung out a towel to wipe her face while saying, "Sir, you haven't had a good rest all the way to Hongyuan County. After arriving yesterday, you were busy for most of the night. If you keep busy like this, I think you will collapse before the murderer is found."

After Chen Shao wiped her face, he returned the towel to her and scolded her with a smile: "You are the only one who has so many tricks up your sleeve."

Chan Yi wrung out the towel and wiped her own face, then she came over with a smile and lowered her voice, "I will serve you tonight, you must not let me down tomorrow."

Unlike Fu Jiu, who was originally Chen Zhao's bodyguard, Chan Yi was an abandoned baby picked up by the maid who took care of Hui Yin's daily life. She was two years younger than her and grew up with her. When she returned to the capital, Hui Yin was worried about her and asked her to come with her.

When she decided to replace her brother as the Minister of Dali Temple, she was originally going to be sent back, but she took the initiative to stay so that they could accompany her.

In terms of status, she was her maid, but in terms of affection, Chen Shao always treated her as a sister.

Hearing her teasing words, Chen Shao couldn't help but tease: "The one who gossiped with you was Mr. Chen Liu, what does it have to do with me, Miss Chen Qi?"

Chan Yi blushed and pouted at the person beside her, "If you continue to make fun of me like this, I'm going to leave."

"Okay, no more teasing." Chen Shao joked and asked, "Why did Sanwa disappear?"

Chan Yi sat down and said slowly, word by word, "That Sanwa doesn't just bully his older brothers and sisters, he also bullies any other child in the village. I heard that the child is best at making false accusations. In the years when he was born, his family was the richest in the village except for Zhao Liangzhu, and their food and clothing were much better than other families, but Sanwa liked to steal other people's things. If people didn't let him steal, he would lie on the ground and cry loudly, and even falsely accuse others of pushing him or hitting him. His grandmother and mother knew that he was making false accusations, but they still caught the child and scolded him. People in the village said that if Zhao Qiang hadn't been a reasonable person, his family would probably not be much better than Daniu's."

Chen Shao asked seriously: "Where did you hear this?"

Chan Yi said proudly, "On the way to Hongyuan County, the young master read those case files all day long. Although I didn't take notes on purpose, I read a lot and I would always remember some things. Coincidentally, when I was inquiring about Daniu's mother in the village, Sanwa's mother came to me crying when she learned that I was the young master's maid. When I heard what she cried, I immediately remembered the record about Sanwa in the case files. I thought, the young master might ask me to inquire about him again, so why don't I inquire together?"

Chen Shao praised: "Well done."

Chan Yi talked about Tao A'mei again, "The situation in Daniu's family is similar to what Second Master said in the main hall earlier. People in the village who knew that she was throwing a tantrum to prevent Zhou from sending grain to Daniu's grandparents said that she shouldn't have married here. People in the village who didn't know the reason said unpleasant things, but a few of them pulled me aside privately and said that she shouldn't have married here, and that if she hadn't married here, Daniu's father would have died long ago."

Chen Shao listened to these words, and the doubts that had been gathering in his heart for a long time slowly dissipated: Sanwa was spoiled by his family and became lawless. Although he was only two years old, he was already a naughty child; Tao A'mei also acted like a shrew for a few grains of food.

Both of them have a bad reputation among others.

Could it be that the murderer killed them to 'eliminate harm to the people'?

"Young Master, please go to sleep first," Chan Yi advised her, fearing that she would have to think for a long time. "It's past midnight again. If you don't go to sleep now, you may have to get up in less than two hours."

Chen Shao nodded: Whether it is to eliminate harm for the people or not, we will know if we check one by one.

There are many chickens and ducks in the village.

The crowing and cawing sounds came one after another and hardly stopped all night.

But Chen Shao was really too tired. As soon as she lay down on the bed, sleepiness came over her like a tide. In a short moment, she fell into a deep sleep.

She is like this, Chan Yi is like this too, and although Fu Jiu and Li Tianliu are better than them, they are not much better.

After a good night's sleep, everyone felt refreshed when they woke up in the morning.

The sky has completely cleared up.

The bright sunshine poured down unscrupulously, dyeing the village golden.

The sky is blue, without a single cloud.

Zhao Tianhai's daughter-in-law, granddaughter-in-law and others have already prepared breakfast.

Zhang Boshan also had people send dried fruit snacks, fruits, side dishes, etc. to fill the table.

After Chen Shao shared the food with everyone, he squinted at the sky and went back to the place where Tao A-mei's body was found.

The sun had illuminated the area brightly enough, and Chen Shao searched carefully, but found nothing new. He squinted his eyes and looked up the mountain. The Yulin Guards had searched the mountain for most of the night yesterday, but did not find Tao A-mei's clothes or internal organs, but found a few dead branches and rotten wood like the ones on her body.

Although the sky cleared up, the ground did not dry up so quickly.

The hills are still slippery.

Li Tianliu did not stop her. He and Fu Jiu followed closely behind her. Under the guidance of the Yulin Guards, they checked the locations of several trees in just one hour.

None of them apply.

After coming down from the mountain, Chen Shao went to Tao A-mei's house again and performed another autopsy on her.

No new findings were found on the body.

After leaving her house, Chen Shao went to several households at the head of the village without stopping. After confirming that the dogs of their households were the first to bark on the night of Tao A-mei's accident, she returned to Zhao Tianhai's house.

It was already noon, and the sun was very bright. Chen Shao sat down to rest for a while, and sorted out all the clues she had found since the crime occurred. After making sure that there were no omissions, she drank another bowl of tea and instructed Fu Jiu, who was playing with the dog at the door, "Go and invite Zhao Shan and his mother, as well as his grandparents, uncles, and aunts over."