Dingbei Hou's doctor brother

The half-blind old man took a lock from the wooden rack full of iron tools next to him and locked the door quietly.

He turned around and walked through a secret door to the front yard. A group of men were sitting or standing in the middle of the house, drinking tea and talking.

"Damn it, I didn't expect that guy to escape."

"Brother, what should we do now? If we can't get the account book, how are we going to explain this to our superiors?"

"........."

"Don't worry." The half-blind old man suddenly said as he walked to the door, "I've locked him up in the backyard."

Outside Xianglanyuan, the streets have not yet returned to calm.

Xiao Yan and Yang Zhounan walked into the building in confusion and saw several Jinyiwei investigating the scene.

Before he got close, he called out from a distance towards the stairs, "Lang Si!"

A Jinyiwei suddenly turned around.

The man had slightly raised sword-like eyebrows, wore a blue and black Qilin suit, a big hat, and a tooth plate hanging on his waist. He looked very sharp and heroic.

"Qing Jun?" Lang Si walked towards Xiao Yan, "Why are you here?"

Xiao Yan raised his chin towards the corpse and asked, "What happened?"

Lang Si said: "The specific cause is still unclear. Judging from the clothes on the body at the scene, it is likely a gang robbery."

Xiao Yan walked closer and glanced at the ground, his expression gradually showing something was wrong.

"Isn't this... Chu Yi?"

Lang Si asked, "Do you know him?"

"He was once a guard under the Minister of Works Xue Lanqi." Yang Zhounan added.

Lang Si said, "He was dismissed from office a few years ago because the imperial mausoleum collapsed while he was building it. Why were his guards killed here?"

The imperial mausoleum that Xue Lanqi was building was almost completed, but it suddenly collapsed half a month before the final work.

According to his own account, he vaguely heard the sound of gunpowder explosion before the collapse.

He was dismissed from office and returned to his hometown many years ago, but now Chu Yi died in the capital. Is there some hidden story?

Xiao Yan chewed over his thoughts, walked over to the person not far away and squatted down.

The man was lying in a pool of blood, his body covered with knife wounds. There was a large hole in his clothes on one side of his chest, and a little bit of gray and black skin was visible underneath.

He used two fingers to push aside his clothes, and saw a totem of stars forming a square array.

Xiao Yan's brows suddenly furrowed. These people were the ones he had secretly investigated in connection with the bombing of his old father.

But their whereabouts were secretive and we lost track of them half a year ago.

It is unusual that he appeared in a brothel in broad daylight and robbed and killed Chu Yi.

After inspecting the scene, Lang Si ordered people to carry away the body and was about to go out to search when he heard Xiao Yan calling him from behind.

"Wait, did you find anything on these people?"

Lang Si picked up a short dagger in his hand and said, "This was found on that man."

Xiao Yan took it, pulled it out and turned it around to look at it. The totem was also printed on the blade.

"This dagger is finely crafted, and its materials are better than most sold on the market." Lang Si looked at the dagger and said, "I need to check with the weapon shop and the blacksmith shop first."

Xiao Yan put the dagger back in place, "I'll go with you on this matter."

"You are for..." Lang Si paused for a moment, then quickly realized and said "Oh", "Then let's go!"

The Jinyiwei quickly checked along the streets, and passers-by were so frightened that they could not avoid them.

A man with small eyes stood in the corner, glanced at the Jinyiwei, and asked the passers-by nearby.

"What's going on here?"

"There's been a murder at Xianglanyuan, and we're chasing a group of masked killers."

"I don't know what was on that imperial physician's person that caused the assassins and officials to chase him."

"........."

Xiao Yan stepped into the ruined temple, followed by Yang Zhounan. Lang Si looked around, stepped over the rubble and looked around. After taking a few steps, he suddenly felt something soft under his feet.

He took a step forward, revealing a dusty hand, and shouted to the person behind him without turning his head.

"Qingjun, there's a discovery here."

Xiao Yangang walked over and heard Yang Zhounan's voice from the other side.

"There are people under the Buddha statue here too."

Lang Si ordered his men to clear away the rubble and drag out five people. He used his scabbard to pull off the veils of several people.

"These people don't have any knife wounds on their bodies?"

Lang Si squatted down and took a closer look. The faces of several people were covered with thick dust, and there were marks around their noses and cheeks from being hit by heavy objects, and there were also bloodstains.

Then, he casually pinched his mouth open and took a look. His mouth was clean, and there was only some dust at the nose and mouth, but nothing deep inside.

Lang Si was a little suspicious, "He wasn't suffocated to death? Then he was..."

He reached out to wipe the thick dust off someone's face, but his hand was accidentally pricked by something. He immediately pulled it back in pain, and a drop of blood oozed from his fingertips.

After cleaning the dust off the man's face, they found a needle stuck in the middle of his eyebrows, most of which was embedded in the flesh.

Immediately, he checked on the others one by one.

Only two of them had needles between their eyebrows, while the other three did not.

Xiao Yan squatted down and moved the heads of the other three people, and found that there were short needles inserted in the sides of their necks.

"These people were all killed by hidden weapons with such precision. This person must have extraordinary skills." Lang Si said.

These words flashed through Xiao Yan's mind, and he immediately remembered the soldier who was killed by the short needle on the way back to Beijing.

I thought to myself, "A needle like this...could it be his?"

There were three people under the Buddha statue, with brains and blood splattered everywhere, and two bloody eyeballs.

Xiao Yan was squatting and distracted when he heard Lang Si talking beside him.

"There are more civilians here than shops. There are a few blacksmith shops, though. Let's go check out the street first."

The Jinyiwei were walking hurriedly on the street, and passers-by around them were avoiding them.

"Everyone, come out, come out, the Jinyiwei has been ordered to investigate the case, everyone must cooperate with the investigation."

"........."

After searching three streets and finding nothing, they stopped at a teahouse stall on one street to rest.

Yang Zhounan poured a cup of tea and handed it to Xiao Yan. "Those people finally showed up now. Could they have lost their clues again?"

Xiao Yan took a sip of tea and looked at the Jinyiwei and panicked people around him.

"They have been hiding in the capital. Now that they have appeared, there is no need to worry about not being found."

Lang Si heard this and sighed before continuing.

"Duke Wei's case has been secretly investigated for all these years, and I haven't been able to help you at all. Really..."

"There's no need to discuss this between you and me." Xiao Yan looked at him. "I've been busy with military duties, fighting bandits all over the place. It's mostly you who's been helping me with my investigations. I should be thanking you."

Lang Si smiled and lowered his head, then corrected himself: "You are saying it the other way around."

A few years ago, Xiao Yan helped Lang Si solve a serial murder case, and the two became friends.

Lang Si was promoted to the rank of Jinyiwei assistant. He was capable and his brothers trusted him very much.

However, he was often deliberately made things difficult for by his superiors, who always gave him trivial cases and kept some major cases on hold.

Whenever he failed to complete the task, they would take the opportunity to cause trouble for him. He had no choice but to ask Xiao Yan and Yang Zhounan for help.

As for Xiao Yan's matter, he naturally felt obliged to do so.

"Hurry up and finish your tea and continue investigating the case." Yang Zhounan said as he put the empty tea bowl on the table.

As he was speaking, there was a noise coming from the shop across the street.

"Oh, sir, I'm already old, please don't pull me."

"Jinyiwei is investigating a case. Stop talking nonsense and come out. Open the small door on the side.

"It's just a warehouse where ironware is stored. There's nothing in it, sir."

"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll take you down."

Xiao Yan drank his tea and said, "Let's go take a look."

Lang Si walked over to look at his subordinate and asked, "What's going on?"

"Master Lang, this old man refuses to cooperate."

Lang Si walked in holding the handle of the knife, picked up the knife on the wooden rack and took a look. The rack was full of ordinary swords and knives, which were not made of good iron.

He looked at the old man expressionlessly, "Open the door."

Xiao Yan stood outside the door, watching the half-blind and hunchbacked old man, who opened the small door with unsteady legs.

"Please look here, my lords. It's really a warehouse full of ironware. There's nothing else inside."

Lang Si frowned, fanned the air with his hands and put it against his nose, then walked in and looked around.

It was dark and windowless inside, with a few piles of unworked iron in the corner, and nothing else.

He had the unprocessed iron brought out and carefully examined, and then showed the dagger to the old man.

"This dagger was made in your shop?"

The half-blind old man took the dagger, pulled it out, looked at it carefully with one eye, and shook his head slightly.

"Sir, this dagger is made of fine iron. The raw materials are expensive to buy. People around here are all poor, so a small shop like ours only sells ordinary materials. Sir, you have also checked it just now."

As he was speaking, a shout was heard outside.

"Boss, I'll take it..."

A thin man just approached the shop and saw several Jinyiwei standing there. He was so nervous that he even spoke in a low voice.

"Get the pot."

"Come get the pot, it's already prepared, I'll take it to you."

The half-blind old man slowly walked into the house, picked up a large iron pot from the corner and handed it to the thin man.

"Here you go, come back next time."

The thin man took the pot and left quickly, saying from a distance, "I gave the money to your son yesterday."

Xiao Yan walked into the house opposite and took a look. The entire iron shop was so small that he didn't find anything.

Lang Si looked at him and said, "Let's go somewhere else."