Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

She is not Chen Zhao, nor is she the Sixth Young Master of the Duke of Chen's Mansion.

She is Chen Shao, the seventh daughter of the third branch of the Duke of Chen's mansion who is unknown to outsiders. She is a twin boy and girl with the sixth son.

Their father, Chen Zhiyuan, was the third son of Duke Chen and also a general guarding the border.

Eighteen years ago, Chen Zhiyuan died in the battlefield. While carrying the coffin back to Beijing, the pregnant Mrs. Chen San was robbed and killed, which caused her miscarriage, and she gave birth to her and Chen Zhao prematurely.

Because she was born prematurely, she was born weak.

Because of the constant robberies and killings, she was unable to take care of herself fully, and her breath gradually faded.

When she was on the verge of death, an old monk who was traveling passed by and asserted that she had a short life and must be fostered in a temple as a man for at least fifteen years to avoid disaster.

Although Mrs. Chen San was reluctant to part with her, she could not bear to watch her die, so she could only entrust her to the old monk with some doubts.

The old monk took her to a dilapidated temple deep in the Qinling Mountains and handed her over to Huiyin who was hiding there, asking her to educate her well.

Huiyin's identity was unknown, but she not only took care of her body, but also taught her martial arts and medical skills.

Two years ago, on the day she came of age, a letter suddenly came from the capital saying that Chen Zhao had been poisoned by a villain and was in danger of death.

Without having time to think about it, she said goodbye to Huiyin and rushed back to Beijing.

I originally planned to cure him and then return to Qinling Mountains to continue to be with Huiyin.

But Chen Zhao had been poisoned for ten years, and the poison had penetrated into his lungs, so it would take time to recover. After she used all her knowledge to save him, he liked her the first time he saw her, and then he asked her to pretend to be him, saying that she could not bear the responsibility of being the Minister of the Dali Temple and had to go out to hone her skills, in order to secretly investigate the treacherous officials who were planning a rebellion!

Without allowing her to refuse, he told her that their father was besieged and killed by the enemy because his marching battle plan was stolen. He also told her that her mother was killed on her way back to the capital by treacherous officials and rebels, whose purpose was to prevent their mother from continuing to lead the army.

Only then did she know that their mother was actually a female general.

After that, without waiting for her to react, she was told that Huiyin was the former head of Yaowang Valley, and was slaughtered by treacherous officials and rebels because she led her disciples to the army to rescue the Chen family army led by their parents. All the disciples died, and she was the only one who escaped with serious injuries.

Two gave birth to her, and one raised her.

She couldn't refuse the favor from either one, let alone both of them combined.

So, she spent two years learning his every word and action and understanding every aspect of his life from childhood to adulthood.

Afterwards, she received the emperor's edict appointing Chen Zhao as the Minister of Dali Temple, and came here in his capacity.

However, what no one knows is that she is not actually from this world.

She is a forensic doctor at the Physical Evidence Identification Center of the Criminal Police Corps of the Public Security Department of Nanhe Province.

He died suddenly in front of the autopsy table because he was busy with two serial murder cases at the same time.

When she woke up again, she had turned into a newborn baby.

"Sir, the case file has been brought." Chan Yi's crisp voice brought Chen Zhao back to his thoughts. No, it should be Chen Shao's wandering thoughts.

After taking the case files and waiting for Fu Jiu to pull the rope, Chen Shao hung up the case files one by one, then stepped back and looked at the cases one by one. With a heavy heart, he walked to the first case in July of the sixth year of Yuanhe and read it carefully again.

She had specially searched out these case files from the Dali Temple's database before leaving Beijing.

When the cases occurred in the sixth and thirteenth years of Yuanhe, Li Baozhong was the governor of Hongyuan County. Although Li Baozhong failed to find the murderer, he kept a very detailed record of each case.

"Grind the ink." After reading the case file from beginning to end, Chen Shao ordered.

Chan Yi ground the ink, spread out the paper, picked up the pen, dipped it in ink, and handed it to her.

Chen Shao picked up the pen and wrote quickly:

There were a total of 17 victims of the serial murders in the 6th and 13th years of Genhe, including 6 women aged 50 to 65, 6 women aged 20 to 35, and 5 boys aged 2 to 7.

Although the two serial murders occurred six years apart, there was no obvious change in the targets of the crimes. The modus operandi gradually developed from cutting the neck to torturing the corpses, showing a certain regularity. Therefore, the murderer is the same person or the same group of people, and the cases can be investigated together.

There are a total of eleven villages and towns involved in the case: Daye Village, Zhougong Village, Yunhe Town, Changhe Village, Xiaochang Village, Wan'an Village, Lijiagou, Wenhai Township, Xiaotian Village, Zhaojia Village, and Pinggao Township.

Yunhe Town, Xiaochang Village, Lijiagou, Wan'an Village, Wenhai Township, and Daye Village all committed crimes twice. Are there any special reasons?

The eleven villages and towns involved in the case are all located in the northwest of Hongyuan County.

Except for Xiaotian Village, which was under the jurisdiction of Hanyuan County under Hongyuan County, the other ten villages and towns were directly under the jurisdiction of Hongyuan County. Among them, Xiaotian Village was only 20 miles away from Yunhe Town.

The murderer chose this direction to commit crimes and repeatedly escaped capture, which proved that he was familiar with these villages and most likely lived in this direction. The investigation plan could be to find people who frequently traveled to these eleven villages and towns.

All the victims, regardless of their age, had their hands tied behind their backs, which shows that the murderer was not strong or was not confident in his own strength.

Chen Shao stopped writing, took two steps back, thought for a moment, and added after the investigation of the case: old women, women, boys, the targets were fixed, the methods became increasingly cruel... the murderer was venting his hatred.

Where does the hatred come from?

Was the place where the body was found the primary crime scene?

Figuring out these two things may be the key to solving the case.

"Master, Lord Zhang is here to send the banquet." Fu Jiu poked his head in from outside the door, his voice sounding muffled with the sound of rain.

"Can't you see that the Master is busy?" Chan Yi cursed as she walked over. After taking a look outside the door, she said unhappily, "Didn't the Master say that he didn't want a banquet?"

Fu Jiu lowered her voice and said, "There are also porridge and side dishes. They said they knew that the young master had just recovered from a long illness, so they had someone prepare it early in the morning."

Chan Yi said with a snort: "He didn't even know that the young master was coming to Hongyuan County, so how could he have someone do it so early in the morning?"

Fu Jiu shrugged, indicating that he didn't know.

Chen Shao put down his pen and said, "Send the porridge and side dishes in, and the banquet... send it to the Yulin Guards."

Fu Jiu said "OK" and went out. After a moment, he brought in the porridge and side dishes.

The sound of rain had not stopped yet, hitting the cannas in the yard, making crackling sounds.

Chen Shao washed his hands with the copper basin brought by Chan Yi, walked to the table and sat down. He took the spoon and was about to scoop up the porridge when he suddenly stopped and said, "Go and inform Lord Zhang to invite everyone who has touched the porridge and side dishes to come over, and also dispatch a few Yulin guards to guard the porridge kitchen."

Chan Yi took two quick steps forward, took off the silver hairpin from her hair, stirred the porridge, and then turned over the dishes. She looked at the blackened tip of the hairpin and her pretty face immediately darkened. "It's arsenic! How dare you!"

When Fu Jiu heard this, she didn't even bother to hold an umbrella and rushed into the rain.