The coroner and the concubine doctor pursue the murderer in the Dali Temple

At night, Ah Cheng came and knocked on the door as expected. Xiao Mubei opened the door for him and let him in. He sat in front of Xiao Mubei and Chu Yunxi somewhat stiffly.

Chu Yunxi smiled and said, "Ah Cheng, I heard my mother-in-law call you that. Can I call you that?"

Ah Cheng nodded quickly, "Of course, what do you want me to do?"

Chu Yunxi said: "I don't have any instructions, I just want to ask you something. If what you say is useful, this ingot of silver will also be yours."

Chu Yunxi took out another ingot of twenty taels of silver and placed it on the table. When she saw Ah Cheng holding the silver just now, his eyes were shining, and it was obvious that he was in great need of silver, so she took out another ingot of silver, hoping that he would cooperate more.

Unexpectedly, Ah Cheng shook his head this time and said seriously: "The money you gave me in the evening is enough. If you have anything to ask, you don't need to give me more money."

After he said this, Chu Yunxi immediately looked at him with a higher opinion. He was not greedy for money, knew when to advance and retreat, and knew when to stop. He was a good person.

She smiled and didn't bother him about the money anymore, so she asked, "In the past year, have there been any outsiders living in the village?"

Now knowing nothing about the murderer, and also not knowing what principles he used to choose his targets, Chu Yunxi could only eliminate them one by one and assume that the murderer was not from Longshou Village.

Ah Cheng thought about it and shook his head, "No, there are only so many families in the village, and the village is not rich. How could any outsider be willing to live here permanently?"

"Then have you discovered which family has been taking in outsiders frequently this year?"

"This has happened before. There aren't many outsiders in the village on weekdays, but sometimes there are pilgrims who are lost and look like distinguished guests. Whoever they go to will take them in. No one rejects them because pilgrims usually pay money if they stay."

This is the truth. Who wouldn’t want to make money?

"But is there anyone who had guests come to their house but never saw them leave?"

Ah Cheng was a little confused, "Dear guest, is there something wrong in our village?"

Chu Yunxi said: "You'd better not ask this. I can only tell you that we are from the government, so you just need to answer us truthfully. If the clues you provide are useful, the government will reward you."

"Really?" Ah Cheng thought for a moment, "I don't know whether the guests have left or not, because we usually go to Guanyin Temple very early in the morning, and we need to go there in advance to reserve a seat. If we go late, the good seats will be gone. But there is one thing I have never told anyone. Since the two distinguished guests are government officials, then I will tell you."

"What's the matter?" Chu Yunxi and Xiao Mubei's curiosity was quickly aroused, and they couldn't help but focus.

Ah Cheng licked his lips and then said, "About half a year ago, I was not feeling well, so I did not go to Guanyin Temple and stayed at home to rest. It happened that there was no firewood at home that day, and I wanted my mother to rest. Although I was sick, I still went to the woods in front to collect firewood. But who knew, I saw a young master leading a young couple to the woods. The wife was pregnant with a big belly and a heavy body. It looked like she was seven or eight months pregnant. I was still wondering at the time, why did she climb up the mountain when she was so heavy? Why did she go to the ridge? Oh, the other side of the woods is the ridge of Longyu Mountain. In addition to the ridge, there is a mountain crack that is bottomless and there is nothing else. I don’t know why the young master took them there. I vaguely heard that the young master seemed to say something about a divine monk or something to resolve bad luck, but I didn’t hear it clearly and didn’t care at the time."

"Then do you feel something is wrong?" Chu Yunxi asked when she saw Ah Cheng stopped.

"Well," Ah Cheng nodded, "There are two things wrong. First, I'm often near Guanyin Temple, and I know almost all the young masters who come in and out, but I've never seen this young master. Second, I spent more than an hour collecting firewood there, and I ran into that young master again, but this time, he came down alone, and I didn't see the young couple coming down."

"You mean, the couple didn't come down from the ridge?" Chu Yunxi felt that something was indeed wrong.

Ah Cheng thought for a moment and said, "Anyway, when I saw it, only the young master came down. I didn't see the young couple. As for whether they came down after I left, I don't know."

Chu Yunxi intuitively felt that the couple must not have come down, but then the question arose. Only the body of a man was found under the narrow gap, but not the body of a woman. Where did the pregnant woman go?

"Are you sure there are only trees and mountain cracks on the other side of the ridge?" Chu Yunxi suspected that the woman was hidden.

Ah Cheng nodded with certainty this time, "There is nothing else over there. We have all lived in this mountain for decades and are very familiar with it."

That's really strange. A living person can't disappear for no reason. Could it be that the woman went down the mountain alone again?

Chu Yunxi felt that this was unlikely, unless this incident had nothing to do with the corpse under the narrow passage. If the corpse was indeed that of the husband that Ah Cheng saw, the possibility that his wife had also been killed was at least more than 90%.

There must be something missing. Chu Yunxi couldn't figure it out for a moment. She looked at Xiao Mubei, and he shook his head. So Chu Yunxi had to say, "Okay, Ah Cheng, we'll learn this much tonight. Don't tell anyone about this matter, including the questions we ask you tonight. You have to keep your mouth shut. If the bad guys know about it, it will alert them. Do you understand?"

Although Chu Yunxi and Xiao Mubei did not say what happened, Ah Cheng was not stupid. He knew very well that something must have happened near the village. Since it was so close to the village, it meant that the village was no longer safe, and he became uneasy.

"My two distinguished guests, there won't be any danger in our village, right?" He was a little worried. Usually his mother was alone at home, and if there was any danger, his mother would definitely not be able to escape.

Chu Yunxi smiled and said, "Don't worry, your village is fine."

The oldest corpse has been there for more than a year. If something was going to happen, it should have happened long ago. Since Longshou Village has been safe and sound for such a long time, it means that the murderer did not intend to do this.

After hearing what Chu Yunxi said, Ah Cheng felt relieved. Chu Yunxi offered him the silver again, but he refused to take it. He just said that although he didn't know what had happened, if the two of them could solve the problem, the whole village would have to thank them, and he couldn't take their silver. After saying that, he left, which made Chu Yunxi feel helpless.