Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

"That makes sense." This was a thought that Chen Shao had not thought of before. He walked around the desk and took the reputation papers of several victims from him. He then asked, "But you said the murderer only dared to attack them. What do you think, Sister Tao?"

Tao A-mei's two brothers and sister-in-law all said that she was very strong.

Once the mind is opened, there are endless possibilities. Li Tianliu followed his own thoughts and said with a smile: "I remember you said in the haunted house that the murderer had drugged Tao A-mei."

Chan Yi said quickly, "Since the murderer could drug Tao A-mei, he could also drug Li Bawa's grandparents and the others."

Li Tianliu glanced at her and said, "How do you know that the murderer didn't drug them, but just failed? Although Li Ba Wa's grandparents and others are hateful, they are not necessarily stupid."

"You do have a point." Chan Yi couldn't think of any rebuttal, so she looked at Chen Shao, "Then should we check on Li Bawa's grandparents?"

"No need." Chen Shao walked to the rope hanging the case file, "What he said makes sense, but he overlooked a key point."

"What's the key?" Chan Yi followed Li Tianliu and walked over.

Chen Shao said: "From the sixth year of Yuanhe to now, the murderer has killed three types of people: old women, young women, and boys. If it is said that only Li Ba Wa's grandparents did not fall for it, it is understandable, but it is unreasonable to say that all the worse people around these victims did not fall for it."

Li Tianliu crossed his arms and said, "They killed all three types of people, which only means that the murderer had a grudge against these three types of people."

Chan Yi asked him, "Why does he have grudges against these three types of people?"

Li Tianliu shrugged his shoulders. "Isn't this the question your young master is investigating?"

Chen Shao seemed to have a flash of inspiration in her mind, but it was so fast that she couldn't catch it. Looking at the case file, she tried her best to sort it out: "The murderer had a grudge against these three types of people. Let's temporarily understand that these three types of people had offended him. But even if these three types of people had offended him, he would have killed one or two people, why did he kill so many people, and there was a gap of so many years in between."

Li Tianliu stopped talking.

Chan Yi couldn't explain it either.

Chen Shao tilted his head slightly and took back the paper with the village written on it from Li Tianliu's hand. After looking at it for a while, he said, "The murderer is so persistent in targeting these three types of people. He must have a grudge against them. But we have to continue investigating what the grudge is. In addition, since people who can tie the 8-type knot are not limited to herbalists, hunters, and martial artists, the scope of the investigation will be expanded."

After a pause, he continued, "Let's first check the herbalists, hunters, and martial artists according to our previous judgment. If there is no result, then check the rest."

After that, he looked at the paper with the names of several villages written on it, and continued, "If the murderer can learn the same trick from others, then he can also learn about the news of each village from others. As for the channel of understanding, the reason why Wang Yuquan and Liu Renda knew that the thatched house where Huang Zhiyi lived was the murder scene was because Huang Zhiyi spread the news during the gambling. Similarly, if the murderer has friends who know the situation of the villages involved, he can also learn about the people and things in these villages through his friends."

Chan Yi nodded.

Li Tianliu said: "Then you have to investigate more people."

Chen Shao said 'hmm'.

If such a major case happened in modern times, it would definitely bring together many national-level criminal investigation technicians to form a special task force, and thousands of criminal police and civilian police would form the search team. In addition, with the assistance of Sky Eye and various high-tech detection instruments, as long as there is a small clue, the murderer will almost have nowhere to escape.

But this is ancient times.

The only thing she's good at is examining corpses.

She is still alone.

If you want to catch the murderer, you can only use the stupid method of eliminating one by one.

Back at his desk, Chen Shao picked up his pen, thought again and again, and sorted out the clues he had found:

In the sixth year of Yuanhe, the thirteenth year of Yuanhe, and the twenty-first year of Yuanhe, the first scenes of the three serial murders have been found (tentatively there are only three).

The murderer's fingerprints and footprints have also been found (height is between 5 feet and 5 feet 3, weight is between 120 and 150 pounds, foot length is about 7.8 inches, and there is a scar on the thumb of his right hand that crosses the fingerprint).

The murder weapon was a butcher knife.

Several children in Wenhai Township had seen the murderer driving a horse-drawn carriage (the possibility of a donkey cart or a mule was not ruled out).

Judging from the process of Tao A-mei's murder, the murderer acted cautiously. After tricking the victim into getting on the carriage, he continued to coax the victim into eating rice cakes containing drugs. Then, while the victim was unconscious, he tied the victim's hands with an 8-knot, making her unable to resist.

But...the murderer did not cover the victim's mouth.

After putting an emphasis on this sentence, Chen Shao immediately wrote down his speculation: the murderer might not be successful in real life, so he enjoyed the pleasure of controlling the life and death of others when the victim begged for mercy.

He then wrote: The location where Tao A'mei got on the murderer's carriage should be about a mile after leaving Taojiazhuang, so we can search the surrounding area carefully.

The murderer was very familiar with the village where the victim lived, and was also very familiar with the victim. The reason why he was so familiar with the victim remains to be determined.

The victims' disappearances almost always occurred around dusk.

After writing this, Chen Shao put down his pen, looked at it quietly for a while, then took out another piece of paper and continued writing:

Current speculation about the murderer:

8. If you can tie the -knot, for now, focus on hunters, herbalists, and the adulterers of Tang Yuelan and Feng Yu;

Second, judging from the blood footprint patterns left in the haunted house, there is a certain economic basis;

3. The murderer had a grudge against the old woman, the young woman and the boy.

Holding the pen, Chen Shao took two steps back, read the whole thing from beginning to end, and then wrote:

The current focus of the investigation is: the motive for the murder.

The motive is unclear, and trying to catch the murderer is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Putting down his pen, Chen Shao asked, "Is Fu Jiu not back yet?"

Chan Yi glanced outside and said, "No."

Chen Shao said: "Wait for him to come back and ask him to get ready. Then we will go to Taojiazhuang and Wenhai Township."

After noon, Fu Jiu came back with Zhao Qiang. He was carrying a sack of shoes in his hand. He threw them on the floor after entering the house, then went to the table and gulped down a few glasses of water. Then he said, "There are 23 stores in the county town that sell shoes like this. I bought them all."

Chan Yi took out all the shoes and placed them on the ground.

Chen Shao came over and asked her to put the soles of the shoes up, then examined them one by one, and soon she picked out four pairs of shoes. The stitches and patterns on the soles of the four pairs of shoes were difficult to distinguish. Zhao Qiang was asked to drag one of the bloody footprints on the straw mat under the coffee table over, and after comparing the four pairs of shoes one by one, it was still difficult to distinguish which one was more similar.

"Which store are these four pairs of shoes from?" Chen Shao asked.

Zhao Qiang came over, took a quick look and said, "This pair is from Su Ji Shoe Store, this pair is from Chang Shun Shoe Store, this pair is from Lao He Shoe Store, and this pair is from Xing Long Shoe Store."

Chen Shao: "Do they still remember who bought these shoes?"