Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

"I didn't kill Huang Zhiyi. It was Wang Yuquan who killed him," Liu Renda defended. "Wang Yuquan was afraid that Huang Zhiyi would report him to the government and make him unable to work in the company. He rushed over and strangled him to death when I hugged Huang Zhiyi's waist. I wanted to report him to the government afterwards, but he begged me and said he would give me ten strings of cash, so I didn't report him."

The fact that the two of them broke into the house and then killed someone was clear. As for who was the principal offender and who was the accomplice, Chen Shao was not in the mood to investigate. Her mind was on Huang Zhiyi's thatched house. Therefore, after hearing him admit that he and Wang Yuquan had killed someone, she sneered and asked, "What's the matter with Huang Zhiyi's thatched house?"

Liu Renda answered instinctively: "Huang Zhiyi's thatched house was built by Huang Daxing, an old widower from Xiaochang Village. After his death, no one lived there, so it has been abandoned..."

Halfway through his words, he suddenly reacted, and hurriedly looked up at Chen Shao and said, "What the lord is checking is..."

Facing Chen Shao's cold gaze, Liu Renda realized that he had overstepped his bounds, and hurriedly lowered his head and answered honestly: "The thatched house where Huang Zhiyi lived was built by the old widower Huang Daxing. After Huang Daxing died, it was abandoned there. Huang Zhiyi had nowhere to go after being driven out of the house by his two brothers, so he lived there."

Seeing that he was still trying to hide it, Chen Shao couldn't help but frown, "What's going on with the blood in the thatched hut!"

"The blood in the thatched hut..." Liu Renda hurriedly explained, fearing that he would be beaten again if he spoke slowly, "Huang Zhiyi said that the blood was left by the murderer."

Chen Shao said coldly: "Tell me more clearly, which murderer left this behind?"

"He is the murderer of the murders that started at the end of the 13th year of Yuanhe." Seeing the Yulin Guards take a step towards him, Liu Renda screamed in fear and begged for mercy, saying, "Huang Zhi saw that I didn't believe him and took me to see the thatched house where he lived. The soil and stones were blood red. He dug them out and piled them outside the house. Later, he used them to build the wall of the yard."

Chen Shao suddenly asked: "Where is the thatched house in Xiaochang Village?"

"It's not in Xiaochang Village," Liu Renda said quickly, "It's on the back of Tangwu Mountain surrounding Xiaochang Village, not far from Dafeng River."

Chen Shao's pupils shrank slightly, and his tone became hurried unconsciously, "Why would Huang Daxing build a thatched hut so far away from Xiaochang Village?"

As Chan Yi had said before, Liu Renda was obviously very familiar with Xiaochang Village or the thatched house. When he heard her question, he answered almost without thinking: "The chickens and ducks raised by Huang Daxing always pecked at the crops of the villagers. After the villagers came to him many times, he simply chased the chickens and ducks to the back of Tangwu Mountain and raised them in the woods. In order to take care of these chickens and ducks, he built a thatched house near the foot of the mountain."

Chen Shao asked: "Since he was raising chickens and ducks, the blood in the thatched house could have been caused by him killing chickens and ducks. Why are you so sure that it was done by a murderer?"

Liu Renda said: "Huang Zhiyi said that Huang Daxing sold all his chickens and ducks in the first month before he died, and then moved back to the village. After Huang Daxing died, he and the villagers went to the thatched house to see it, and there was nothing there at the time."

Chen Shao continued to ask: "When did Huang Daxing die?"

Liu Renda said: "The year before Huang Zhiyi moved to the thatched cottage."

That is, after Huang Daxing died, the murderer set his sights on that thatched cottage. Chen Shao looked at Liu Renda and said, "Tell me, why are you so familiar with Xiaochang Village? Did you intend to kill Huang Zhiyi a long time ago?"

Liu Renda denied, "I lost money gambling and had nowhere to go, so Huang Zhiyi took me in a few times. We got to know each other after a few visits."

Chen Shao questioned: "He has taken you in several times, but you want to frame him as a murderer?"

Liu Renda lowered his head in shame and anger.

He asked a few more details, and after he finished answering, Chen Shao had him thrown into jail.

There was already a faint light on the horizon.

Chen Shao did not sleep any more. He washed his face with cold water, changed his clothes, and went to Xiaochang Village in a carriage.

Not far from the county town, several yamen runners and two bodyguards from Fenglong Trading Company caught up with them.

The two escorts were not in the county town, and the yamen runners searched for the whole night before they found her. When they heard that she had gone to Xiaochang Village, they did not dare to delay and brought people to chase her.

The two escorts knew very little about Huang Zhiyi and Xiaochang Village. Chen Shao asked several questions in succession. Seeing that their answers were incoherent, he asked the bailiffs to take the person back to the prefectural mansion and keep her under strict supervision, and then interrogate her strictly after she returned from Xiaochang Village.

*

Xiaochang Village is nearly thirteen miles away from the county town.

The journey is more difficult than the one to Zhaojia Village.

After spending more than half an hour to arrive at Xiaochang Village, Chen Shao was not in a hurry to enter the village, nor was he in a hurry to go to Huang Daxing's thatched cottage behind Tang Wushan.

After getting off the carriage at the foot of a low mountain outside the village, Chen Shao slowly climbed to the top of the mountain and looked down at Xiaochang Village.

It's daybreak.

The sun hung above Xiaochang Village like a salted egg yolk.

Xiaochang Village is located in a small basin surrounded by mountains. The houses in the village are concentrated in the middle of the basin. There are two main roads out of the village. One is at the foot of the mountain where she is located, and the other is in the southwest. Judging from the appearance of the houses in the village, Xiaochang Village is about the same dilapidated as Taojiazhuang.

It was only the morning hour.

Many people are already working at the foot of the mountains around the village.

"Chan Yi," Chen Shao whispered after returning to the foot of the mountain, "Go ask the villagers about the hunters Lao Zhou, Huang Daxing, Huang Zhiyi, and Li Bawa's family situation."

After Chan Yi left, Chen Shao got on the carriage again and, under the leadership of Xu Guang, went around the village to the back mountain of Tangwu Mountain.

The road to the back of Tangwu Mountain is very difficult to walk on. The grass is so thick that you can hardly see the road. I walked and explored all the way, and it took me about three quarters of an hour to reach the thatched house.

The thatched hut is not big, only two rooms.

The pillars are made of trees, and the roof and walls are made of weeds and branches.

Outside the thatched house, there is a low courtyard wall built with dark red mud and stones.

After a long time, Chen Shao picked up a piece of mud and twisted it between his fingertips, then put it under his nose and smelled it, but he was not sure it was human blood. But looking at the length and width of the wall, if it was human blood, then it was basically certain that the first scene of the eight murders that occurred in the 13th year of Yuanhe was here.

There were some weeds growing inside the thatched house, and some wild animal feces were scattered among the weeds. Chen Shao took a rough look around the house. Huang Zhiyi had dug the ground very clean, and there was almost no blood or soil. The thatched walls were exposed to the sun and rain, and there were no traces of anything.

Coming out of the thatched hut, Chen Shao stood in the yard and looked towards the Dafeng River at the foot of the mountain.

The thatched hut was only three or four meters away from the Dafeng River.

Because it was flood season and the river was turbulent, Chen Shao was not sure whether there would be sandy beaches and pebbles in this section after the water receded. When he asked Xu Guang, he didn't know either.

"No one lives here. The house is covered with grass inside and outside," Xu Guang said as he walked around the thatched house and used his feet to push aside the grass on their way up the mountain. "But judging from the traces under the grass, there used to be a road here. I just don't know if it was dug by Huang Daxing or Huang Zhiyi."

Chen Shao walked over, looked at the solid road surface under the torn grass, pressed it with his toes, and asked, "Which village is farthest from Xiaochang Village among the eight cases that occurred in the 13th year of Yuanhe?"

Xu Guang lowered his head and silently recited the villages and towns involved in the eight cases one by one in his mind, and replied: "It should be Wan'an Village."

The victim in Wan'an Village was a five-year-old boy named Zhang Guangfu. The crime took place on July 19, the 14th year of Yuanhe, and was the sixth case in the serial murder case.