ladybug

Title: Chu Ming's Death

Summary: The skinny corpse can't speak because of the chopped-up face

On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, Tanggua sticks.It is advisable to sweep the new year in the young year.I spent a hundred cash to send Shen Lian off early in the morning: "Go to the store and buy some tofu, corn, maltose, raw fire, sugar cakes, and oil cakes. Buy the rest of your favorite snacks." He said happily: "Okay, Here we go." He went out.

I stayed at home sweeping the floor, cleaning the tables and chairs, and cleaning the little statues of the Four Gods of Heaven and One.

At noon, the fire, sugar cake, oil cake and tofu soup were served on the kitchen table, and Shen Lian and I shared chopsticks.He put aside the scallions in the tofu soup, and I asked, "You don't eat scallions?" Shen Lian wrinkled her nose, "The scallions are not tasty." I said, "Then why did you drink the scallions soup yesterday?" He said, "I'm afraid you won't eat them." Happy." I said, "I cooked it because I was worried that you would catch cold, and I don't get upset so easily." Someone rushed into the yard in a panic and went straight to the kitchen.

The little Shen Lian glanced at him while dipping the tofu in the seasoning.

I asked: "Brother Chu, you chose a good time. Do you want to eat together?"

He shook his head, his forehead was covered with fine sweat, his eyes were blue and black after a hangover, his lips were pale, and his body smelled heavily of blood.His right leg was wrapped in gauze near the root, and blood was slowly oozing out.

I hurriedly helped him sit down: "Who hurt you like this?"

He didn't answer, instead he was angry: "I thought I could escape by pretending to be deaf and dumb, but now... he really wants to use someone's hand to attack me!"

I was anxious: "No matter who it is, report to the official first."

Didn't he say drunken things yesterday?

He touched the gauze and hissed, "How can the government care about my humble life? Hiss... cheating the world, double-faced bastard! I thought, after so many years, he... hiss..."

He bled profusely.My name is Shen Lian: "Go to the front shop to get my special Jinchuang medicine. From bottom to top, the second medicine drawer from the left in the seventh row." Shen Lian took it back, and I took off the gauze on Chu Ming's leg, After applying Jinchuang medicine to Chu Ming, he found that his leg was wounded by an arrow.I asked Shen Lian: "Is there blood on the ground when he came in?" Then I asked Chu Ming, "Where did you get the arrow wound?" Shen Lian said: "There is one thing, I cleaned it up. I often give it to the young masters in the museum." Take care of the aftermath." Chu Ming replied: "Don't worry about it." I had to say: "Otherwise you will live with me first? I will inform Yan Butou..."

He interrupted with a wry smile: "No need. You are living a good life, why bother to get into this troubled water? I will go home these two days to get some money, and I can always go back to my hometown in Liangzhou. You and I met once, we Come and say goodbye." He limped away.

Shen Lian knelt on the stool and patted my shoulder to comfort me like an adult.

On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, I eat dumplings for dinner, which means "send off the dumplings facing the wind".After the meal, I fry the corn, bind it with maltose, sprinkle some water and put it outside the house.I told Shen Lian: "When it is frozen into a big piece, it will be crispy and sweet to the bite."

I went out to get corn malt, multiple baskets next to it.I took it into the kitchen and opened it.The upper and lower compartments of the basket are filled with steamed buns.The pattern of each flower bun is slightly different, and the kneading hands are very skillful.

Shen Lian held up the basket lid and sniffed: "It smells so good."

I snatched the lid from his hand and drew a handkerchief from the top of the lid.Paxiu orchid has a light fragrance.The girl Sang Lan across the street asked someone to deliver food to me again.

Shen Lian asked: "Why does this flower bun look different from the one in our restaurant?"

I said, "This is made by the girl next door, Sang Lan, and it's different from the ones you buy in the pastry shop. It will be steamed tomorrow morning. The ones on the top will be sacrificed to the gods, and the ones on the bottom will be given away to others." He was sluggish.I had no choice but to say: "How many of the following would you like to eat?" He showed the dimple on his left cheek: "There are snacks to eat."

On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, steaming steamed buns are freshly out of the pan.I put them in front of the four small god statues in my bedroom, and put the rest into food jars for Shen Lian.I said to Shen Lian: "You take a good look at the house, I'll go get the clothes you ordered yesterday." Shen Lian pestered me: "I want to go out with you." I had no choice but to take him with me.He went out with me with a basket.

I went to the tailor shop and got the black clothes and the red clothes for Shen Lian.On Yujie, I met Yan Butou.Shen Lian tiptoed to hand him the steamed bun, and he took it and praised: "Hey, the steamed bun is well done, little brother is good at craftsmanship. Brother Li, Chu bastard hasn't bothered you these days, has he?"

I didn't have time to correct that the flower bun was not made by Shen Lian, so I asked first: "What's wrong?"

Yan Butou said: "On the 21st of the twelfth lunar month, someone saw Chu Ming fighting with others in Fengle Building. When I rushed over, he ran away and disappeared. The people present said that he owed gambling debts, and the creditors caught him. The debt was paid off, and the fight started. The bastard's flesh and blood injuries are inevitable." He added, "He didn't report the injury in the fight, we can't control it."

He came to Hemu Medical Center yesterday, that is, on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, and the wound on his leg was obviously an arrow wound, not a fight wound.I said: "On the 22nd of the twelfth lunar month, he invited me as a host in Fengle Building. He was fine at that time, and the injury from the fight on the 21st of the twelfth lunar month should not be serious."

"He can do things, the fight is not serious." Yan Butou persuaded me, "You are a kind person, and you usually associate with him. But this bastard is not doing business all day long, and I have detained him several times for fighting. You Stay out of trouble."

I hesitated to tell Butou Yan: "Yesterday he said that an old acquaintance wanted to kill him."

Yan San was surprised: "Do you believe him? He never said a word of honesty. He was afraid he was hiding from his creditors. You know that he is very clever in beating young people, and everyone in Caoshi town knows him well. Even Mr. Yang praised him in person when he was in Yi school. But it’s a pity that I only attended it for one year, and I stopped reading it when I was 11. Later, I don’t know where he learned some prescriptions for treating diseases of flowers and willows, but he became a doctor.”

I replied cautiously: "But he didn't look like a fake yesterday?"

Yan Butou said: "You are soft-hearted. Forget it. I have been looking for a lost child in Chang'an these days, and I have no clue. I went to his home and asked him. I have a problem with you. I have my own way to tell him to tell the truth. .”

Yan San had no choice but to tell Chu Ming to tell the truth.

Because a skinny corpse with a chopped-up face couldn't open its mouth.

On the afternoon of the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, I took Shen Lian and followed Yan Butou to Chu Ming's house.His home is behind the meat market, next to Liu Wu's.

When we went, Liu Wu's tall and powerful lady was going out with a package on her back.Yan Butou asked him, "Have you seen Chu Ming?"

Mrs. Liu Wu hurriedly said, "No, no."

Yan Butou knocked on Chu Ming's courtyard door, but no one answered.Yan Bu kicked his head away.

I greeted Mrs. Liu Wu: "Where are you going with such a big package?"

Mrs. Liu Wu said, "I'm going back to my mother's house in Liangzhou."

I said, "Liangzhou is far away, so you should bring more money."

Mrs. Liu Wu didn't seem to want to chat with me: "I know." She hurried out the door.I go into the yard.Chu Ming's thin body was lying in the middle of the yard, his face was chopped to pieces, and the ground was covered with blood.

Yan San clenched his hands into fists beside his corpse, his eyes were about to burst, and the bluestone under his feet was cracked into several pieces.

I hurriedly covered Shen Lian's eyes.Yan San frowned and said something.The first time I saw the unrecognizable corpse, I was dizzy and couldn't hear clearly.Yan San suddenly stretched out his fingers and pressed my three acupoints, and I could hear the sound again.He said: "I'm going to call Wu Zuo, and you stay here for a while." After half an hour, Yan San came quickly with Wu Zuo and two other arresters.The man rolled his sleeves to inspect the corpse, and said to Yan San, "Take the corpse back to the Yamen first." Yan San said to the other two policemen, "Bring it back." Those two men lifted the corpse, and Yan San said to me again. Said: "You and I go back to the Yamen."

I took Shen Lian and Yan San back to the yamen and stopped at the yamen gate.At the gate of the yamen, six arresters came out one after another.Captain Yan came out after a while and told the fast catchers: "Brothers, call people around Chu Ming's family to come to the Yamen, I want to question you."

Yan San said: "Don't make noise! ​​Answer one by one. Do you see anything unusual?"

Some people are confused: "How can people die inexplicably in Caoshi Town?"

Someone was impatient: "Chu Ming's house is behind the meat market, and there is a lot of noise every day. How can I hear anything?"

Mrs. Yeyan said: "I live in the opposite corner of Chu Ming's house. Things are not the same these days. Liu Wu quarrels with his wife every night. When Chu Ming comes back drunk, the courtyard door slams loudly. The Chu family listened really well." bother."

After asking around, Yan San asked me again: "Apart from what you told me before, that Chu Ming's old acquaintance wanted to kill him, what else do you know?" I shook my head.Yan San sighed: "I didn't find out much from this trip. But I will find out."

Sihu joined the army and Lin Lin ran over and called him, "The man in charge of the meat market, Lizheng, is also asking why someone died, so go and tell him yourself." The head catcher Yan had to go with Lin Lin.

Shen Lian and I went back to Hemu Medical Center first.

When I entered the bedroom, there was a man in black sitting on a bench with his back straight.It seems to have been sitting for a long time, and it seems that it will continue to sit.

If it weren't for the light reflected by the pear-shaped silver nails on the left shoulder blade, his whole body would have melted into the night.

Remarks: Remarks: The pronunciation of Yuanjia is Li.