Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

When we returned to the county town, the city gates were already closed.

After opening the door and coming in, Chen Shao stopped Zhao Qiang who was about to leave alone and said, "I have two things to ask you to do. The first one is to ask someone to go back and tell Daniu's father that A'mei can be buried. The second one is to trouble you to go again and ask the shopkeepers of several businesses to meet me at the prefectural governor's mansion at noon tomorrow. I have something to ask you."

Chan Yi promptly handed over a document, which was printed with the Dali Temple pattern and stamped with Chen Shao's official seal. It was written by Chen Shao on the way back.

Zhao Qiang quickly responded with a "OK", dismounted from his horse, took the document, put it respectfully close to his body, and then left.

Zhang Boshan, Ding Lisheng and other officials of the prefectural government had been waiting in front of the gate of the prefectural government. When they saw Chen Shao's carriage coming, they all came to greet him. However, the carriage did not stop there. It passed them and went straight to the front of the back house gate before stopping.

After returning to Chengfeng Courtyard and resting for most of the day, Zhang Boshan and Ding Lisheng hurried over.

Seeing the fatigue on Chen Shao's face, Zhang Boshan tactfully stopped talking nonsense. He just asked her a few words about her fatigue from the journey, and then quickly asked someone to bring the food. Then he took the case file from Bao Chengle and handed it to her respectfully: "This is the case file of the previous cases. Please check it out. If there are any deficiencies, please correct them."

Fu Jiu took it and handed it to her.

Chen Shao opened one of them, which was the case file of the fifth case.

The fifth case occurred in Xiaochang Village. The victim was a six-year-old boy named Li, the eighth child in the family. His name was Li Ba Wa. Chen Shao looked at the contents of the case file and asked Ding Lisheng, "Have you finished your investigation, too?"

Ding Lisheng quickly bowed and said, "I have only checked half of it. I was afraid that you would ask, so I came back specially."

Chen Shao glanced at him and asked, "What did you find out?"

Ding Lisheng said respectfully, "It has been raining continuously since the end of March this year, and the Dafeng River has been in flood season. It is difficult to find out where the murderer salvaged the stones from."

Chen Shao paused while looking at the case file. "Besides Dafeng River, are there any other places with such stones?"

"Yes." Ding Lisheng said, "Several tributaries of the Dafeng River have them. It's just that during the flood season of the Dafeng River, the water levels of these tributaries are bound to rise as well."

Chen Shao said thoughtfully: "So the murderer had prepared the stones before the flood season."

Ding Lisheng said uncertainly: "It should be like this."

Chen Shao thought for a moment and instructed: "Since the Dafeng River is in flood season, you should focus on searching the mountains and villages, especially searching houses that are uninhabited or far away from the village."

Ding Lisheng should be.

Chen Shao continued, "When searching the mountains or villages, no matter if you are right or wrong, you must not argue with the people."

Ding Lisheng hesitated for a moment before responding.

Chen Shao looked at him, "Any questions?"

Ding Lisheng quickly shook his head, "No."

Chen Shao: "Then go ahead."

After Ding Lisheng left, Chen Shao glanced at Zhang Boshan who was still standing there, "You should go too. We will call some people over for questioning tomorrow. When they arrive, remember to bring them here. Don't make things difficult for them."

Zhang Boshan agreed and then withdrew.

The food had not arrived yet, so Chen Shao simply took out the remaining case files.

Before Tao A-mei, five cases had occurred.

Li Bawa, a six-year-old boy from Xiaochang Village, Feng Yu, a twenty-year-old woman who had been married for only half a year from Daqiao Town, Yu, a sixty-one-year-old woman from Zhougong Village, Gao Xiaosi, a four-year-old boy from Changhe Village, and Xu Xiaomei, a twenty-seven-year-old woman from Yunhe Town.

Including Zhaojia Village where Tao A-mei lives, the six villages and towns involved in this serial murder case, except Daqiao Town, the other five villages and towns have been involved in the case before, among which Yunhe Town and Xiaochang Village have been involved for the third time.

The Daqiao Town where the case was first involved is also located northwest of Hongyuan County.

The victims of the six cases were: one woman aged between 50 and 65; three women aged between 20 and 35; and two boys aged between 2 and 7.

The direction of the crime, the choice of targets, and the methods of committing the crime are very similar to those in the sixth year of Yuanhe and the thirteenth year of Yuanhe. It can be confirmed that it was done by the same murderer.

After taking out the summaries of the first two cases he had written and adding the new information, Chen Shao said, "Tomorrow... the day after tomorrow, we will start investigating Xiaochang Village."

Fu Jiu came in with the food and heard this, and asked, "Sir, don't you want to rest for two days before going?"

Chan Yi came over to set the table and said, "Yes, young master, you should take a good rest for a few days. Your health is not good, and if you keep running around like this, it will inevitably arouse suspicion."

"I can't care about that. Our visit to Hongyuan County is quite a big deal. If the murderer could kill someone that night, he must be either crazy or deliberately provoking us." Chen Shao stood up, washed his hands, and sat down at the table. "I want to take a break, for fear that he will go crazy and continue to kill people."

At this point, Chen Shao suddenly remembered something and quickly instructed Fu Jiu, "Go tell Lord Zhang to immediately arrange for the yamen runners to go out and try to have one yamen runner in each village in the northwest. Also, have the yamen runners who go to these villages tell the village chief to arrange more patrols in the village, especially around dusk every day. If there is any situation, immediately protect the scene and notify me."

Fu Jiu heard her serious words and went there quickly.

Chen Shao thought for a moment, and after making sure that nothing was missing, he picked up his chopsticks and said, "You should sit down and eat too. You've been busy these past few days and you're exhausted. It's better to finish eating earlier so that you can rest earlier."

Chan Yi agreed, sat down beside her and ate with her.

Another good night of sleep without talking.

When I woke up the next day, the sunlight was already shining through the window pane onto the bed.

Two quarters of an hour had passed since the morning.

Chan Yi heard the noise and hurried into the room. While helping her get dressed, she said, "Since the young master was sleeping soundly, I didn't want to wake him up. I just asked them to wait a little longer."

Chen Shao was a forensic doctor in her previous life, and forensic doctors pay the most attention to timeliness. During the fifteen years she came here to study medicine with Huiyin, Huiyin also taught her that human life is of paramount importance and should not be taken lightly. Therefore, in both lives, she has no habit of making people wait too long. After quickly getting dressed and washing up, she said, "Go and ask them to come over."

Chan Yi knew she couldn't persuade her, so she quickly put the meal on the table and went to the door to call Fu Jiu.

Fu Jiu was practicing sword in the yard. When she heard her voice, she quickly put away her sword and came over: "Master, are you awake?"

"Awake." Chan Yi glanced into the room and said loudly, "Young Master asked me to get someone. Go quickly."

While Fu Jiu leaned over to look, she lowered her voice and said quickly, "Please come back slowly. The young master has just started eating."

Fu Jiu said "I know" silently and went outside.

The shopkeeper of Fulai Commercial Bank is named Xu, the shopkeeper of Rongfa Commercial Bank is named Tian, ​​and the shopkeeper of Fenglong Commercial Bank is named Shen. Zhao Qiang is tight-lipped. After hearing his notice last night, the three shopkeepers could not get any information. They tossed and turned all night, and at dawn today, they hurried to the prefectural government. The three of them have a big business, and they have to deal with the government on a regular basis. Even in front of Zhang Boshan, they are still people who can have a say. The three of them came here early just to take advantage of this opportunity to find out what Chen Shao wants to see them about.

Whether it's for money or something else, let them be prepared.

It just so happened that Zhang Boshan had received instructions to pick them up at Chengfeng Courtyard last night, and he was anxious to know what was going on. He had just slept for less than half an hour until dawn, when he suddenly heard the three of them coming. He got up in shock and asked them what was going on.

The three shopkeepers were disheartened by his question.

After a while, Shopkeeper Shen held on to a glimmer of hope and asked, "Sir, do you know why Young Master Chen Liu called us here?"

Zhang Boshan was angry. "She called you, but you didn't know... You don't know why she called you here?"

The three shopkeepers all shook their heads with gloomy faces.