Looking at Tai'an from the full moon

After Xiao Zuochen and Chu Yao started chatting, Xiao Zuochen took him back to Yunwang Mansion. After all, it's still more comfortable in the old home~

Chu Yao came to Prince Yun's mansion and was even more unceremonious about food and daily necessities. After all, Prince Yun could afford to support him.

In the past two days, after lunch, Prince Qing, Prince Yun, Liuli, and Zhen Luo would discuss the cases together in Prince Yun's mansion. This time, Chu Yao was also brought along, although he didn't play any role.

The Dali Temple and the Emperor would receive a copied file before every morning court session, and the Emperor was very satisfied with it.

The only ones who were angry were the Zhen family father and son. Zhen Yingqing even told the emperor about Zhen Luo's situation, but the emperor felt that it was an honor for Zhen Luo to contribute to the court. If the world really couldn't understand this contribution, then the emperor could also take Zhen Luo into the harem. For this reason, Zhen Yingqing was much angrier these two days.

In order to avoid going home and hearing her family members talking about her, Zhen Luo simply stayed at Yun Mansion at night. She did not stay at Yun Wang Mansion to avoid suspicion.

So a few people took only two days to review all the cases in detail.

"All six cases have been sorted out, now let's look at the commonalities among several of them."

Liuli stood in the middle of the study. There was a large wooden board on one side of the desk. This was newly made by Liuli with the help of Yunyou and Yun Wei. Then a large piece of rice paper was clamped on it, so that it could be used as a whiteboard for writing.

Prince Qing, Prince Yun and Chu Yao sat in a row opposite the whiteboard. Zhen Luo stood beside Liuli to help her supplement.

"First, based on the time of these cases, we can find a pattern. There is a one-day gap between the first murder and the second murder, three days between the second and the third murder, and so on, five days, seven days, and nine days respectively. This means..."

"What good is this?"

Chu Yao asked the question directly, interrupting Liuli's words.

Liuli glanced at him.

"Next time if you have a question, please raise your hand, like me."

Liuli raised her right hand sideways to demonstrate to them.

"Do you understand? The use of finding a pattern in time is that you can infer when the next crime will be committed."

"That one..."

Just as Chu Yao was about to speak, Liuli and Zhen Luo gave him fierce looks. Chu Yao immediately shut his mouth and raised his right hand obediently.

Liuli took a breath, feeling a little helpless.

"Say!"

"Will there definitely be another crime?"

"Not necessarily. It's possible that the last case was the last one, but there may also be another one. So we still have to prepare and increase vigilance and patrols around that day."

After Liuli finished speaking, she looked at the three people opposite her and saw that they had nothing to say, so she continued speaking.

"Then judging from the final location of the body, the murderer's method of committing the crime, and the deceased, the murderer killed the deceased using the method he used to make a living and dumped the body there. For example, the murderer killed the butcher stall owner using the method of butchering pigs and dumped the body at the butcher stall. The murderer killed the fish stall owner using the method of dissecting fish. Or the murderer drowned the ferry supervisor and dumped the body on the riverside."

At this time, King Qing slowly raised his hand.

"Your Highness Prince Qing."

"But in the third case, the waiter of the restaurant died by hanging, which is different from his means of livelihood. Another one is the sixth case, we have not yet confirmed the identity of the deceased."

"Yes, the method used in the third case is indeed not in line with the rules, and the identity of the deceased in the sixth case will be explained by His Royal Highness Prince Yun later. It may be that the murderer made some mistakes, or we ourselves are wrong. It doesn't matter. When solving a case, we must first guess and then overturn it!"

Liuli looked at the cases written on the whiteboard, then glanced at the meeting procedures written in her hand, and turned to look at King Yun.

"Yun Chen, it's your turn."

Xiao Zuochen stood up and nodded, then took a thin wooden stick handed to him by Liuli, held it in his hand, and while speaking, he imitated Liuli and tapped on the whiteboard.

“Regarding the relationships among the characters in the six cases, judging from the surface, it seems that only the owner of the butcher stall and the owner of the fish stall have some relationship, because they both make a living in the West Market and may know each other. The rest of the people are in different places.

At the beginning, I followed the Liuli method and sent people to visit several relatives and neighbors of the deceased, but I only learned about these people's personalities and some work styles, and did not find any connection between them.

Then I sent people to investigate what they had done in recent years besides their current livelihoods, and I got a very consistent answer - except for the ferry supervisor, the rest of the dead, each of them appeared about ten years ago, some may be slightly earlier, eleven years ago, and some may be later, but it's also ten years."

“It’s like they all appeared at the same time.”

King Qing whispered something below.

"Yes! It's like they appeared in Tai'an City at the same time, but there was no sign of them knowing each other."

Xiao Zuochen added.

"That's really strange. What about the sixth person?"

Chu Yao raised his hand and asked a question.

"The sixth victim has not yet been claimed by his family. He may be a homeless beggar."

After Xiao Zuochen finished speaking, he looked at Liuli, meaning that he had finished speaking. However, Liuli frowned and thought for a while, denying that the sixth person was a homeless person.

"If the previous investigation is correct, then the sixth person should have appeared in Tai'an ten years ago. After so many years, he must have known many people. Even if he is really a beggar, beggars know other beggars. After all, if there is one person missing, someone will notice it."

"So what do you mean?"

"I don't think he is a beggar, but I don't know what his identity is."

"But he was thrown into a dry well. If he was a homeless beggar, it would seem appropriate to be thrown into a dry well."

Chu Yao spoke seriously. After hearing what he said, Liuli forced a smile, nodded, and then turned to speak to others.

"Since the identity of the sixth victim cannot be confirmed for the time being, let's just discuss the first five cases. Zhen Luo, it's your turn."

Liuli gave the middle position to Zhen Luo, and Zhen Luo also picked up the small wooden stick and began her performance.

"As for some details on the bodies, we also discovered them when we were sorting out the case. Although the method of committing the crime was basically the same as the method the deceased used to make a living, we found that the wounds on the bodies of the butcher and fish stall owners were not neat enough. In other words, the murderer's strength and accuracy were not enough, so it was shown that the murderer was not a person of the same profession as them, so the boss's wife and their family members were ruled out.

In the case of the waiter at Wangque Tower, Master Liu and I checked the marks on his neck, and there was indeed only one, but there was dirt on the clothes on both sides of his shoulders, so we suspected that someone first sat on the ground, stepped on his shoulders with his feet, and then strangled his neck with a rope, making sure that the rope and the person were in the same straight line to strangle him to death. "

After Zhen Luo finished speaking, he and Liuli lay on the ground to demonstrate. Liuli lay down first as the dead person, Zhen Luo sat on one side of her head, stepped on her shoulders with his feet, then put the rope around her neck and tightened it gently.

King Qing raised his hand.

"But in this position, the deceased can just use his hands to remove the rope from his neck?"

"So, there is more than one murderer! He also needs an accomplice to help him hold down the deceased!"

Zhen Luo and Liuli both stood up. Zhen Luo helped Liuli pat the shoe prints on her shoulders as he spoke.

"That's how the mud was left. The murderer should have cleaned it up briefly, but some of it would still be left. He then tied a rope to the beams of the restaurant to make it look like the waiter had committed suicide."

Chu Yao raised his hand.

"Why did the murderer disguise it as suicide? The first two cases could only be caused by human factors, so why did the murderer disguise the third case as suicide?"

Eh? Liuli was stunned. This was something she hadn't considered.

"You have a point."

Liuli pondered on the side.

Zhen Luo thought this was very normal.

"The murderer's first two cases have already alerted everyone, so he wants others to think that he didn't commit homicide in the third case~"

"No, it's impossible."

Liuli retorted.

"Why isn't it possible?"

"Since the murderer's first two cases were so high-profile, it is possible that he just wanted others to know that he was killing people, wanted everyone to panic, or wanted others to find him. If he was really such a person, then this murderer would not hide after killing people, but would relive his work in a place close to the body."

As soon as Liuli finished speaking, the three men looked at Zhen Luo. She was the person closest to the corpse.

"What are you thinking about..."

Liuli was also speechless.

"It's not that close! And the third case obviously had a different murderer's mindset, so I don't think the murderer is the same person."

Chu Yao raised his hand again, and Liuli felt that he really had a million questions.

"Since it's not just one person, then it's not a serial murder case. How can everyone kill their own people? How can there be other similarities?"

"What if there is a mastermind behind these cases?"

"Planner?"

"There was a person who arranged everything. He had the first murderer kill someone at a specified time using a specified method, and then dump the body at a specified location. The subsequent cases were all the same. This explains why these cases have similarities, but were not committed by the same person. Because some murderers may have created a suicide scene in order to escape punishment. And because the murder method must be specified, the murderer does not know how to do it, so he can only imitate it, which will lead to loopholes in strength and accuracy."

The four people nearby were stunned after hearing this.

"What's wrong with your brain? You can even think of this, you're amazing!"

Chu Yao also praised him without hiding his feelings. He couldn't think of such a situation even if he racked his brains. But Liuli still frowned.

"It's just a guess, it's not necessarily true."

At this time, Xiao Zuochen, who had been silent, spoke.

“But this is indeed the closest situation.”

He agreed with Liuli's suggestion to first guess and then refute it. Some of the situations he had thought of before were indeed easily refuted, but the last one could indeed include all the questions raised before. However, the sixth person still could not be counted because his identity was unknown.

"Ah~"

Liuli suddenly sighed.

"what happened?"

Others asked.

"Nothing, just a little tired."

Liuli stretched her shoulders. This was more tiring than attending a meeting. You know, in a meeting, you only need to slack off.

"Then let's discuss this for today."

Xiao Zuochen saw Liuli stretching her arms and legs, and she must be really tired.

"Then, would you like to make a copy of what we discussed today for Father to see?"

Prince Qing asked. In the past few days, he presented the sorted contents to his father.

"The details of the case have been handed over to the emperor. Lord Zhen and the others will discuss it with the emperor. As for how far they have thought about it, I think they are definitely not as fast as us~"

Xiao Zuochen obviously didn't want to get involved in this matter, but it was not that he didn't want to care. It was just that the credit this time must be theirs, so not all the news could be sent to the palace.

"Then shall we discuss this here tomorrow?"

When Zhen Luo asked the question, everyone looked at Xiao Zuochen first. After all, this was Prince Yun's Mansion. However, they only glanced at him and then looked at Liuli. She was the biggest contributor and she had the final say!

Liuli glanced at the clues densely written on the wooden board.

"In fact, we have read everything that can be written so far. The missing parts are what we haven't discovered yet. So it's useless to sit in the mansion and guess blindly. We need more clues!"

"So what else is needed besides the sixth case?"

"Just now he said that four of them seemed to have appeared together ten years ago. Let's go check tomorrow to find the places where they might have appeared ten years ago!"

"Where to check?"

"Ministry of Revenue, bring their portraits tomorrow. It would be best if you could also bring the small items they used ten years ago."

"But the Dali Temple has already confirmed their identities with the Ministry of Revenue, so there's no problem."

Zhen Luo said that before Prince Yun and his men came to investigate, the Dali Temple had already confirmed it with the Ministry of Revenue, and she heard it with her own ears.

"What did the Ministry of Revenue say? Did they say they have been in Tai'an City since they were born, or did they just come here ten years ago?"

"That... they didn't say."

"The Ministry of Revenue only says what is written on the paper. We will go to confirm this matter tomorrow. If they are from other places, it may be more troublesome to investigate."

"What if they have always grown up in Tai'an City?"

"Then this problem is more serious!"

Liuli's expression suddenly became serious.

"why?"

One hundred thousand why questions are raised.

"That means their identities have been forged. Forging so many identities at once must be related to what happened ten years ago. If it involves an old case, it's very serious. If we discover the secret of a high-ranking official, we're all done for~"

"An old case from ten years ago?"

Chu Yao was thoughtful when he heard this.

"Why, do you know something?"

Chu Yao quickly shook his head and waved his hands.

"Ten years ago, I was still a child, and I was from Beiguan. How could I possibly know about the Tai'an City case~"

Originally, Xiao Zuochen didn't think much about it, but when Chu Yao spoke at this time, Xiao Zuochen couldn't help but think more.

More than ten years ago, the imperial court sent people to eradicate the power of Shenyin Pavilion. At that time, it was said that the remnants of Shenyin Pavilion had been completely eliminated, but now Chu Yao is still alive and he has his own subordinates. I guess they didn't completely eliminate it at that time. The people who did it at that time just said it casually to deal with the emperor. Could the old case ten years ago be related to this matter?

"Then let's talk about it tomorrow. Go back and rest early today. See you at the palace gate at 9:00 p.m. tomorrow."

Xiao Zuochen let everyone go first. There were some things he had to investigate himself first.