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

Chu Yunxi pulled Xiao Mubei back to his study in the Dali Temple. Someone came to clean here every day, so even though it had been a long time, it was still tidy.

Chu Yunxi sat behind the desk, picked up a pen and started drawing. After a while, she drew a roller. She handed it to Xiao Mubei and said, "Here, find someone to make one for me."

"This is..."

"The props for anti-vertigo training should be fixed in the small garden of our Dingbei Palace. I will practice for a while when I am free." Chu Yunxi sat down, stretched, and said, "But this matter is not urgent. The most urgent task is the headless ghost murder case. We must catch the murderer as soon as possible to eliminate the panic."

Think about it, it has been twenty days now, and the death toll keeps increasing. No one knows who will be the next one, and there is pressure from above. There are only ten days left to solve the case, and there is still no clue about the murderer. Currently, only the characteristic analyzed by Chu Yunxi is relatively clear, but there are so many people, and trying to find a person is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Chu Yunxi stood up and said, "My Lord, let's go to the crime scene."

The two then came to the first crime scene, the Zhuangyuan Inn on Youxue Street. Youxue Street is right next to the Gongyuan, and there are more than ten inns on the street, with names such as Zhuangyuan, High School, etc. As expected, when the imperial examination comes, these inns will be full. There are a large number of students who come from other places to take the exam. Those with poorer family conditions will share a room with several people, while those with better family conditions will choose to live in a room by themselves so that they can prepare for the exam quietly.

Zhao Wenxu lived in a room by himself. When Chu Yunxi arrived at the Zhuangyuan Inn, the inn was deserted. The owner was sitting behind the counter with a sad face. There was nothing he could do. A murder had occurred in his inn and no one dared to stay there. Other inns were almost overcrowded, but his inn was deserted.

The shopkeeper's eyes lit up when he saw someone coming, but he took another look and realized that the two people were dressed in luxurious clothes and didn't look like students, so he asked cautiously, "Are you two... staying at the hotel?"

Xiao Mubei took out his badge and said, "The Dali Temple is investigating a case. Boss, we want to go up and take a look at the crime scene."

The shopkeeper suddenly became listless and pointed to the stairs, "Please come in, gentlemen."

Chu Yunxi took two steps, turned back, and asked, "It seems that the shopkeeper does not welcome us?"

The shopkeeper said coldly, "It's been 20 days since the crime happened, and you officials haven't made any progress. You come to the crime scene every few days. Sir, look, is there anyone left in my inn? If you don't solve the case, I think I'll just close it down."

Chu Yunxi smiled and said, "Boss, have you ever heard of the saying, 'Good food is worth waiting for'? Although it may seem like a bad thing now, think about it. Because of this incident, your inn has become famous. Once the case is solved, won't there be a lot of people coming here because of your reputation? So, take a long-term view."

The shopkeeper was stunned by Chu Yunxi's remarks. He felt that they made sense, but also seemed to be a bit wrong. Thinking about it carefully, it was famous, but it was a reputation as a haunted house. The more famous it was, the fewer people would dare to come, right?

Just when he was about to find Chu Yunxi to argue, he saw that the two of them had already gone upstairs, so he had to sit down again feeling depressed.

The third floor has been blocked since a murder occurred twenty days ago, and no one is allowed to go up there, so it remains in the same condition as when it was discovered.

As soon as I went up the stairs, I saw drops of dried blood on the ground. The window was right at the stairs, and the bloodstains extended from the window all the way to the door of a guest room.

Chu Yunxi and Xiao Mubei followed the blood trail all the way to the door of the room of the murdered student Zhao Wenxu. Chu Yunxi looked at the half-open door and asked, "Your Highness, I remember that when the murderer came out, he closed the door, right?"

Xiao Mubei thought about what was written in the file. It should be that the murderer was seen by the students who got up at night when he was closing the door. So he nodded and said, "According to the eyewitness, the headless ghost was indeed closing the door at that time."

"This doesn't make sense. The murderer killed someone and walked out through the door so that people could see him. Rumors spread that a headless ghost was killing people, so why bother closing the door? Was it to delay the crime?" Chu Yunxi felt that things were not that simple.

So she walked to the door and examined it carefully. Suddenly, she found a small symbol under the door, near the threshold. It was a cross drawn by someone with a pen. It was very small. If Chu Yunxi had not squatted down, it would have been difficult to see.

"Your Highness, do you think this is a mark given to the murderer by someone who is an accomplice of the murderer?" Chu Yunxi had previously analyzed that the murderer should have an accomplice among the students. If one follows this logic, this is most likely the way that the accomplice used to notify the murderer.

"We'll find out later if we go to a few other crime scenes." Xiao Mubei felt that Chu Yunxi's analysis was very likely.

The two men pushed open the door and entered the house. Except for the body being moved away, everything else in the room remained the same as it was. A human figure was drawn on the ground with a pen. The room was in a mess, with clothes scattered all over the floor, and pens, ink, paper and inkstones scattered everywhere.

Chu Yunxi frowned, "Did the murderer throw the bag into the sky and scatter it? How could he make the house so messy?"

"They are searching for valuables, right? All the valuables that Zhao Wenxu brought with him are gone." Xiao Mubei also frowned. "To kill someone for a little money, this murderer is really inhumane."

Chu Yunxi always felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She looked at the scattered things on the ground and picked up a broken inkstone. "Your Majesty, this inkstone should be expensive, right? If I take it out and sell it, can it fetch a lot of silver?"

Xiao Mubei took a look and nodded, "Indeed, this inkstone is quite valuable. It must be Zhao Wenxu's favorite thing, otherwise he wouldn't have carried it all the way here."

"Since this inkstone is so valuable, why didn't the murderer take it away, but threw it away casually, causing it to break?"

Xiao Mubei hesitated and asked, "Could it be that the murderer didn't understand and thought it was worthless, so he just threw it away casually?"

Chu Yunxi nodded, "It's possible, but I always feel that this scene seems a bit too deliberate."

"Too deliberate? What does that mean?" Xiao Mubei didn't understand.

Chu Yunxi thought for a moment and said, "It's like they deliberately pretended to search for valuables and kill for money. Your Highness, think about it. If you came for money and killed someone, and then opened the victim's bag, would you at most throw the extra things aside and take the valuables away after you found them? Would you scatter the things in the bag all over the room?"