Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Back at Chengfeng Courtyard, Chen Shao sorted out the gains from today's trip, while Chan Yi and Fu Jiu carried the snacks sent by Manager Zhou.

"Young Master, look at these snacks," Chen Shao was holding a pen and was about to write down his harvest when he heard Chan Yi's voice and couldn't help but look back. There were no snacks in the food box on the table, but ingots of silver. Chan Yi took out an ingot and said with a click of the tongue, "No wonder I felt the weight was wrong when I moved it just now. It turns out that this snack is not that snack. I didn't expect that this Shopkeeper Zhou is not only a genius in business, but also so thoughtful when giving gifts."

Fu Jiu took out all the silver ingots and placed them on the table. Each ingot was worth ten taels, for a total of fifty ingots. He glanced at the box of silver ingots on the ground, then at the silver ingots in the food box, and exclaimed, "It's so easy to make money!"

There is no such thing as a free lunch in the world.

Similarly, there is no easy money to be made.

After putting away all the cicada shells, Chen Shao continued to write about today’s harvest: there were more than one hundred and sixty people who could tie the Type 8 knot.

Together with the more than two hundred people provided by Lao Zhou, there are almost four hundred people.

Xu Guang has not come back yet, and the store has not yet counted the goods.

When the final count is taken, the number will probably be no less than five or six hundred.

It is extremely difficult to find the murderer from among five or six hundred people.

Fortunately, the screening of the murderer does not rely solely on this one condition.

Chen Shao pinched her brows. Seeing that it was getting dark outside, she put down her pen and walked to the window to get some fresh air. Just as she was about to turn around, Fu Jiu called out from the yard, "Master, Sun Qi is back."

Chen Shao glanced towards the door and said, "Bring him in."

Sun Qi followed Fu Jiu into the hall. Without even bothering to bow, he said excitedly, "We found it, sir. We found it. We found the place where the murderer killed people!"

Chen Shao stood up suddenly, "Where are you? Lead the way!"

"In Pinggao Township!" Sun Qi followed her footsteps and said excitedly, "It's on the hillside of Shishu Mountain, about half a mile away from Pinggao Township. The villagers call it the haunted house. The haunted house was where Grandma Sun from the village lived in the early years. Grandma Sun lost her husband and son at an early age, and her mental state was not normal. She always talked nonsense. Later, Grandma Sun was suddenly hanged in the haunted house due to some unknown stimulation. Many people in the village were vying for the haunted house, but no one could stay in it for a whole night. I heard from people who have lived there that they could hear Grandma Sun crying and laughing every night. Over time, the haunted house became empty."

Chen Shao got on the carriage.

Sun Qi also got on his horse.

Because he had to continue reporting to Chen Shao, Li Tianliu made an exception and let him walk beside the carriage. But even so, Chan Yi still stood in front of Chen Shao, using himself to separate him from the possibility of directly harming Chen Shao.

Sun Qi didn't notice the subtlety. He rode his horse to follow the carriage and continued excitedly: "This afternoon, when we finished searching the village and were about to search Shishu Mountain, we suddenly smelled a foul odor. We followed the odor and found the haunted house. When we were searching the haunted house, the villagers tried to stop us. Fortunately, we insisted on not listening to them, otherwise we would have missed it."

Chen Shao calmly guided him, "What's in that haunted house?"

"The haunted house has a lot of pebbles, and..." Sun Qi paused at this point. He pounded his chest with his fist to suppress the nausea, and then continued, "There are also dense maggots. And this hemp rope. The hemp rope was placed on the pebbles, and I broke off a branch to hook it out. This is a piece of the hemp rope I cut off before returning to the county town."

Sun Qi said, taking out a piece of hemp rope from the cloth bag hanging on his waist and handing it over, "This is the kind of hemp rope."

Chan Yi took the hemp rope and said, "It's the same hemp rope that's tied around Tao A-mei's wrist."

Chen Shao looked at the hemp rope in his hand, motioning him to continue, thinking to himself, this kind of hemp rope is too common, and several businesses also use this kind of hemp rope for packaging. But if it were in modern times, by testing the cross section, it would be easy to detect whether the hemp rope in the haunted house and the hemp rope used to tie up Tao A-mei came from the same bundle.

The carriage was moving very fast. When it was about to leave the city gate, it ran into Xu Guang who was about to return to the prefect's mansion. Hearing that the murderer had been found, he got on the carriage without saying a word and sat next to Fu Jiu who was driving the carriage. After asking Sun Qi about how the haunted house was found, he took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and handed it to Fu Jiu, "This is the person I found today who can tie the murderer's knot."

Fu Jiu took a quick glance and threw it to Chan Yi.

Xu Guang found a total of fourteen people who could tie the Type 8 knot. They were all odd jobs for a living. Three of them were hunters, who were on the list provided by Lao Zhou.

Xu Guang said: "We have only checked four streets today. It will take another three or four days to check the remaining streets."

As he said this, he took out a visiting card and said, "This is what Master Cai from the Imperial College asked me to pass on to you when I was searching Sishui Street. Master Cai used to be my neighbor. A few years ago, my mother was seriously ill, and he helped me with a few taels of silver to treat my mother's illness. It's hard for me to refuse such a favor, so I have to accept it."

He did not hand the visiting card to Chen Shao, as he knew that Chen Shao's top priority must be to investigate the case.

Chen Shao didn't ask him for a visiting card either.

On the day she arrived in Hongyuan County, she said that she came to Hongyuan County to investigate a case. If she really wanted to participate in any activities, it must be after the case was settled.

The haunted house has been surrounded by the yamen runners and five people from Sun Qi's group.

When the villagers heard that the haunted house was a murder scene, they were no longer afraid. They gathered together not far away, watching the excitement in whispers.

The carriage stopped in front of the haunted house.

Chen Shao got off the carriage under the illumination of the torch held by Fu Jiu and looked towards the haunted house.

The haunted house is not big, with three small thatched houses surrounded by a collapsed hedge.

The hedges were covered with luxuriant vines of morning glory.

It is the season when morning glories bloom, and the purple morning glories are connected into a cluster like stars.

Behind the hedge, weeds nearly as tall as a person grew densely into a forest, and a crooked path led through the weeds to the thatched house.

Green weeds also grow tenaciously on the outer walls and roof of the thatched house.

If it weren't called a haunted house and the stench that blew in with the night wind, this pristine yard would definitely be considered beautiful.

After looking at the haunted house, Chen Shao looked away and looked around. The haunted house was separated from the village by a large mountain bend. On the other side of the mountain bend, there were terraced fields, but on this side, there were only a few scattered plots of land with strange rocks. The few plots of land were now abandoned. It was unknown whether they were cultivated by Grandma Sun or abandoned by the villagers.

On the other side of the haunted house, there is also a mountain bend. Apart from the noisy discussions, you can hear the sound of flowing water.

Chen Shao asked Sun Qi: "Is that the Dafeng River over there?"

Sun Qi nodded repeatedly and pointed to the hillside behind the haunted house, which was the road they took when they came here, and said, "Yes, walk about a hundred or eighty feet from that road and you will reach the Dafeng River."

Dafeng River, an uninhabited haunted house away from the village.

It fits the setting of a haunted house very well.

Taking the torch from Fu Jiu, Chen Shao walked towards the haunted house.