Twelve Mirrors

This morning, Yuan Ming didn't come, it should be because he fell down yesterday and needed to recuperate.

This precious young master.

Xie Ting felt that the inside of his ears had become quite clean, so he straightened his mind and told Dali Temple Minister Gao Xin about the case.

He just concealed the fact that Lao Zhangtou owed Liubo 800 taels of silver.

Xie Ting came out from the high-tech department and went to Chuzuo Division to find Xu Chuzuo, wanting to see if there were any wounds on the corpse.

Xu Chu said: "Master Xie, I checked yesterday, and each of these four people had marks of being hit on the back of the head, but it was not a fatal blow."

Xie Ting picked up Lao Zhangtou's hand with a small stick, and found that there were traces of being dragged on the side of the hand.

Maybe it was soaked in the water for a long time, so it turned white, Xie Ting went to check the other three people, and found that there were more or less traces of this kind of dragging.

Entering the water after hitting, why on earth is this strange method used.

Wouldn't it be more convenient to just kill and bury him?

Throwing it into the water isn't throwing yourself into a trap?

800 taels of silver is indeed a sum of money that may not be repaid in a lifetime for ordinary people, but what is owed is Taifu Zuo's family.

Taifu Zuo had a solid foundation in the official family during the two dynasties, so he shouldn't have spent all his time killing people for 800 taels of silver to vent his anger.

At this point in the case, we can know that the lives of four members of the old Zhangtou family must be related to Zuo Taifu's second son Zuo Tang, but Xie Ting has made a difficult decision on how to catch Zuo Tang.

In the afternoon, Xie Ting talked to Gao Xin, and then went to the Eastern District of Kyoto.

The door of Lao Zhangtou's house was locked, Xie Ting pushed it twice but failed to open it, and tried to kick it open but he couldn't. Instead, it alarmed the crows on the wall.

When the crow flew away, he squinted at Xie Ting.

Xie Ting looked around and saw that there was no one else around, kicked his feet on the top of the wall and turned over.

Old Zhangtou's home is very neat and tidy, without any signs of being messed up.

The table and utensils used in daily life were covered with a thin layer of ash, and even the soup stewed on the head of the pot was neatly condensed in the pot.

The quilts are all opened, so it can be seen that they left at night.

The family left without premeditation, but they never came back.

"Old Zhangtou became obsessed with gambling at the end of last summer. He was lucky at the beginning, but for some reason he started to lose a lot in winter and owed a lot of money. We persuaded him and he didn't listen. Later, I found a handsome brother, and lent him a lot of money, and he gambled more and more ruthlessly. Then he disappeared.”

The old lady next door took Xie Ting's money and muttered non-stop: "Later I heard that it was found in the river, right? It's really a crime."

Xie Ting nodded and said: "Yes, we found four, but the eldest sister of his family, the one named Cuixiang is missing."

"Cuixiang, Cuixiang was born beautiful. It is said that she was promised to a rich family as a concubine. Why don't you go over there and inquire about it?"

The old lady slowly retreated into the yard, Lisold hung the door, and looked at Xie Ting through the crack of the door.

Xie Ting walked to the wealthy Xu's house that the old lady mentioned, but he didn't expect that just after he said the word Cuixiang, the servant at the door slammed the door, almost smashing the bridge of his nose.

Xie Ting could only touch his nose and sneak to the corner door at the back, looking around.

Investigating a case is like being a thief.

There was a gatekeeper at the corner gate at the back, Xie Ting took some money out of his pocket.

Seeing the money, the drunken mother said: "Cuixiang, the birth is a sign, and it also pleases our third master, and we have settled down with things. Who would have thought that he would go to the Taifu's side again?" , really shameless, made our third master very ill."

Zuo Tang, Cui Xiang, Lao Zhang Tou, the third master of the Xu family.

Xie Ting wrote these names on the bedroom wall, trying to find out the relationship between them.

When he was concentrating on thinking, there was a rustling sound from behind, when Xie Ting looked back, he found that it was Yuan Ming again.

Yuan Ming leaned against the door, came uninvited, and smiled terribly.

It was only then that Xie Ting remembered that he forgot to lock the lock.

Forget it, anyway, he is the only one at home, so it doesn't matter whether he gets locked at night or not.

Xie Ting saluted unhurriedly and said: "I don't know what is the big deal about the Hou Ye's late night visit. Xie's family is poor, so the Hou Ye can find a place to sit and have tea."

There is a white porcelain pot on the table, open a pot of cold white.

No tea.

It was clear that he wanted people to leave.

Yuan Ming was holding a fan late at night, his eyes were so affectionate that they seemed to be dripping water.He tapped his head, looked at the writing on Xie Ting's wall and said, "That's right, that's right, I'm just absent for a day, you can find out so many things."

Xie Ting said: "Master Hou is absurd. I just have a few things I want to ask Master Hou."

Yuan Ming twitched and said, "I only have you in my heart."

Xie Ting couldn't help rolling his eyes: "Old Zhangtou wasn't addicted to gambling at first, but he became addicted to gambling at the end of summer. Cuixiang was promised to be a concubine by the rich family Xu's family, but then why did she climb up to Mrs. Zuo again?" Home. You said that Cuixiang is beautiful, but she is not as good as me. You must have seen her before. When you wear this thread, young master, I think you need to explain to me."

The young master still had a smile on his face, his face looked a little scary under the dim vegetable oil lamp, just like a paper figure painted with heavy ink and color, a pair of dark pupils stared at Xie Ting, making Xie Ting feel a little creepy.

"What explanation do you want me to give you?" Yuan Ming waved his fan unhurriedly, and then said in a slippery tone: "I gave you an explanation, and you follow me back to the garden. have a good time and be happy"

Xie Ting said: "Master Hou is not willing to say it, and I can't help it. I have to make more detours to investigate."

After speaking, he opened the door and made a gesture of seeing off the guests.

"Then Zuo Tang fell in love with Cuixiang, and wanted to buy her into the mansion to be a maid. He never thought that Cuixiang had betrothed to Xu's family long ago, and the old man straightened his neck and refused to agree to return the marriage of Xu's family. That's why, that's why we I just came up with a plan to lure old Zhangtou into gambling addiction, owe money, and then force him." Yuan Ming sat by the table and spoke, in a nonchalant tone with red mouth and white teeth, he actually thought of a way to design old Zhangtou The life of a family.

"Then what happened next?" Xie Ting asked while holding back his anger.

Yuan Ming said with a bit of shyness on his face: "I didn't know later. I went to chase someone and jumped the moat. My mother didn't let me go out for several months. It made me want to die. , who knows what happened afterwards."

"Who cares about flowers, they are fragrant."

"It's a pity that the child just didn't let me succeed."

Where exactly is Cuixiang now, and what happened on the day that the four members of Lao Zhangtou's family died, all became a mess.

Seeing Xie Ting standing there stunned, Yuan Ming tried to persuade him: "Forget it, you just treat them as evading gambling debts, and accidentally fell into the river without food and clothing in the ice and snow. If you continue to investigate, it's not very good."

"But, that's four human lives." Hearing this, Xie Ting retorted, "And why did the dead man fall into the river, why don't young masters put on a show?"

"It's just four low lives." Yuan Ming sneered and said, "There are not many people in this capital who have died. Go and see how many people have no lives in the hands of the principal houses of those big families."

Xie Ting said: "In this capital, those who have no power or power deserve to die? You are really decent in what you said."

Yuan Ming was speechless, his eyes were a little erratic.

"Since we disagree, then I won't waste the time of the young master. You should go to the Chrysanthemum Pavilion and have fun." Xie Ting grabbed Yuan Ming's collar, stretched out his right foot, and kicked Yuan Ming kicked it out.

Even though Yuan Ming shouted and kicked the door outside, he didn't open it for him.

In the next few days, there was still no progress in the case, Xie Ting was very depressed, so he wanted to go out for a walk while he was resting.

It was the market day, Xie Ting was bumped into several times while walking on the street, when he touched his sleeve in a quiet place, he found a hairpin inside.

The hairpin is carved from peach wood, with a pair of parallel lotuses on it.The hairpin is extremely thick, but it is light in the hand.

Xie Ting straightened his sleeves, hid the hairpin in the sleeves, and continued to act as before. He ate a bowl of plain noodles at the door and added an egg for himself.

Osmanthus cake, sugar painting, candied haws, chicken legs...

Xie Ting didn't stop talking all the way down.

After eating a lot of miscellaneous things, he suddenly felt a cramping pain in his stomach, and ran into the toilet with lightning speed.Undressed and squatted down, there was the sound of small footsteps outside, and he stood outside, after a quarter of an hour, he might really not be able to bear the smell, turned and left.

Xie Ting opened the hairpin in the stinking latrine, and there was indeed a thin roll of paper hidden inside, with only two lines of crooked words on it.

Please see your lord, the address is in the house behind the Taiping Temple, and the time is from noon to Xu time five days later.

The inscription on the back is: Cuixiang.

Just as Xie Ting thought, someone knew that he was investigating this case.