Daqing Criminal Division

Time turned and it was three or four years later.

Songjiang Prefecture, Songyang County.

time.

--"jingle".

A rattling old carriage was driving on a dirt path outside the county seat.

In the cloud-blue mist, the carriage with a pair of reins on the front was old and shaking.

It had just rained the night before yesterday, and the dirt road was very slippery. Along the way, you could see that this place is backed by mountains, and the mountains are next to water.

There are lush forests and bamboos in the distant mountains, streams flow down from the bamboo forests, and ditches dug by manpower all the way lead to the underground of the city defenses. It seems to be a small county where groundwater passes through every day.

There is a lot of luggage on the roof.

Like this multi-purpose bag for storing money and things, a cigarette pouch for shredded tobacco, a fan pouch for a fan, and watch handkerchiefs and purses piled up on the roof of the broken carriage.

There were about five or six people who came from various counties with their luggage in the car, because most of these people would continue to go to the south for business, so only the two innermost people came down from Songyang County. one.

As far as I can see, this is a man and a child with a book box covered with a white cloth and a paper umbrella.

Judging by their age and demeanor, they seem to be a father and son.

His complexion was pale, as if he was suffering from some kind of serious illness. He was dressed in a gray suit, which looked like a poor family. What was even more strange was that there was a red scar on his cheek.

That twisted scar like a centipede looked really scary.

It ruined the original appearance of this tall and thin man so that people couldn't bear to look at it. No wonder no one in the whole car dared to talk to him lightly.

As for the child who was only less than seven or eight years old, he just nestled in the man's arms and bowed his head all the way, and his appearance was also very dull and silent.

"This doll is so obedient, she didn't make any noise along the way."

After traveling all over the world for many years, I am used to seeing all kinds of people. This is the first time for a child like this. The coachman sitting on the shaft smiled and said this.

"He has been like this since he was a child. He is very wooden and never likes to talk to strangers."

Duan Xiao, who was resting with his eyes closed by the shaft of the car, also replied when he heard this.

Although he looks ugly, his voice is extremely flat and steady, and his eyes are raised when he raises his eyes. If there is no such ugly scar on the cheekbone, it must not give people such a feeling.

"Where's my mother?"

"No, I raised him alone."

These words also seemed to explain why such a man would lead such a big child.

"Hey, it's not easy for you to raise him as a father. How did you get this face? I'm afraid it's very inconvenient to go out?"

"A few years ago, I was injured a little bit, and I became this ugly ghost, and now I'm applying some trauma medicine, I'm afraid I won't get better in this life."

Speaking of this half of his face, Duan Xiao didn't seem to care about it.

"Then this trip to Songyang is not going to go?"

"Well, a friend I know helped me temporarily find an errand in Songyang Mansion, so I came here. It depends on how I feel if I leave in the future. Maybe I will return to my hometown in two years."

"So that's the case. I said that Songyang is a remote place, so what's there to do?"

The coachman sighed with great understanding.

"The yamen you are going to is at the east end of the county seat. The county magistrate's surname is Ma, and there is a magistrate above him named Jiahui."

"..."

"If we say that there is nothing good about our place, it is that the land is relatively peaceful, and there have been no major incidents throughout the year. If you catch up with the dolls for a stroll around and have a meal, but you are here to Songyang to do work. , why do you have to bring such a big suitcase?"

"Why don't you guess?"

Seeing that the coachman was very talkative, Duan Xiao chatted with him like this.

"Sell calligraphy and paintings?"

"No."

"Eh? The Sishen Soup?"

"Do you believe me when I say that I'm here to work for a dead man, and there are things that were disembowelled and a pile of bones in the box?"

Duan Xiao replied.

But the coachman shook his head in disbelief 1 times.

"I don't believe it, just like you, I'm afraid that you will be afraid of peeing/pants/crotch when you see a corpse, and you are still a dead person."

"..."

"I heard from my neighbor that the dead people in the yamen are so rotten that they can't even recognize their faces. They are all horrifying. Seeing the King of Hades every day is a job that ordinary people don't do. You I don’t even believe it when you say you’ve seen dead people.”

What the coachman said was convincing.

Seeing that he didn't believe it, Duan Xiao didn't say much.

Chatting along the way, the old coachman didn't believe what Duan Xiao said at the beginning to be a dead man's messenger.

A short distance in front of the county seat, the driver found a place to put the father and son down because he still had business to deliver next time.

After getting out of the car, Duan Xiao and Duan Yuanbao thanked them, and then the older one carried the white cloth box on his back, and the younger one carried the red paper umbrella and walked through the city gate.

Because Songyang County is very small, there is a main entrance to the county in front.

There were not many people queuing up at the gate in the early morning to go in one by one, and most of them were woodcutters who went to the mountain to chop some wet firewood in the morning and then went down the mountain early.

It's just that everyone here is queuing up to enter the city.

Suddenly there was a line, about five or six masked men were carrying a tightly covered white cloth stretcher with a strange smell, and hurried past in front of it, causing a group of people to discuss.

"What's the matter? There's such a bad smell under the cloth."

"Don't tell me there's something strange about the stone Bodhisattva temple? By the way, why haven't I seen that five-year-old woman from the Bai family who is crying all day for the past two days? Did something happen to her on the mountain?"

"Don't worry about it, it's better for us people to cause less trouble."

Hearing this, Duan Xiao, who was an outsider, was at the end and didn't make a sound.

Stone Bodhisattva Temple, five women-these two words in the local population are a bit fresh.

Because when the group of people scolded others to get out of the way and walked in front of him, Duan Xiao, who was carrying a box and holding his son, glanced across the white cloth.

I saw that these five or six masked men were mostly yamen bunts with official boots on their feet.

Although the white cloth was tightly covered, there was still a black, moss-stained mark like wet soil leaking from the boots underneath.

It has moss and dirt marks on it, and it smells dry for at least three days.

The color is livid black with hints of velvety dark brown.

Although the pattern of cloth shoes exposed under the white cloth is common, it is not something that ordinary traffickers can wear. At least a boy or a scholar can cut such clothes so that they can usually go out and socialize with people.

"father."

As if he had discovered something, Duan Yuanbao yelled when he saw that Duan Xiao was silent.

"It's okay, let's go into the city."

Duan Xiao also suppressed the words from the kid's mouth.

However, the whispering local woodcutters lowered their voices and then stopped talking, which only made people feel more thoughtful.

It was also at this time that two other people came down the mountain twisting a woman in white clothed in sackcloth and filial piety.

The woman with a braided hair, no hairpins, and an old green cloth gown under a plain mourning dress had red eye circles.

She stepped on a pair of silk flower white cloth shoes covered with mud spots.

His hands trembled, as if he was shocked and frightened because of something he saw, and he was so frightened that he buried his head and couldn't speak.

There was some half-dried soil between her jade-colored nails.

Seeing her appear, the surrounding discussions started again, and some pointed at her background from time to time, so that the woman called Wubunv was taken away in public all the way covering her face and crying, let alone lift her head up.

But although the father and son witnessed everything, they didn't say a word.

On the contrary, the two people were more indifferent and indifferent than the average people in the crowd, and they passed the level without saying a word, as if they hadn't seen anything, and watched the group of people leave behind.

When they finally entered the city gate, it was dawn.

Only then did the one big and one small get out of the crowd, and started walking around the small county again.

There are mainly groceries on the street, silk forging shops, pastry shops are endless, there is a river in the city beside it, and there is the sound of rowing in the distance.

Because there is Songjiang Mansion above Songyang, and Songjiang Mansion is adjacent to the sea, so there are many aquatic products on the streets, and dried shrimp roe and squid are sold by vendors.

Although they may not have so much money to buy, it also made Duan Yuanbao, a kid who had never seen outside every day, finally a little curious.

"Father, what's that?"

It was the first time he came to such a far place when he grew up so big, and he rarely said anything along the way, Duan Yuanbao, who only spoke when he saw people passing by on the street, asked in a low voice.

"That's Yangchun noodles, why, are you hungry?"

Looking at the rain that had stopped above his head, he took the umbrella in his hand again, and Duan Xiao, who remembered that he had just eaten a piece of pancake in his bundle in the morning, also replied in the same way.

"No, just ask, I've never seen it before."

Duan Yuanbao said.

"Don't worry, wait for the old man in Yanzhou Mansion to find the coffin shop he mentioned and deliver the goods, and then go to the Yamen to deliver the evidence and report the report. I will take you to buy paper and rice, and you can also buy a bowl of noodles."

Duan Xiao returned.

"Well, good, Dad."

The conversation between the two fathers and sons ends here.

Duan Yuanbao looked like a little adult when he spoke sternly, and Duan Xiao, who was being raised as a father, basically raised him as a half-adult.

This is the normal state of the Duan family's father and son getting along.

Regardless of gossip, don't gossip, it can be regarded as a tacit understanding between father and son.

Others find it strange when they see it, but they have been used to it for so many years.

This trip, just like what I said to the coachman in the carriage before, the two of them came from the Yamen of Yanzhou Prefecture with an umbrella and some simple bags.

These four or five days' journey were all spent in this broken and wobbly carriage.

The reason why he came to Songyang County was because he happened to have a serious business.

It is necessary to go to the county government office to send a piece of physical evidence that is useful to others, and then Duan Xiao will handle the registered report.

The second reason is that Duan Xiao has a friend who met in Yanzhou Mansion, an old man who has quit their business, and when he heard that he was coming to Songyang, he asked him to help him come here to give something to a place.

After entering the city gate, it was almost half an hour.

He took his son for a walk and couldn't find it. When he took the map from the street and asked people, even the local people in Songyang were puzzled when they saw this weird map, and they still looked at it for a long time. It was only when I slapped my head that I said,

"Well, I can't understand the mess of squares and circles here. Why don't you search around."

"...However, if you are looking for the coffin shop next to the brothel, let me show you the way. There used to be a coffin shop in that place, but it has been closed for a long time now. It has changed to another business. The door downstairs is closed all year round. , but in fact the door lock opens as soon as you push it.”

"You don't need to call the door before you go in. There must be someone in the house. You just need to be careful not to be accidentally injured by some strange things. There is also a strange man who has disappeared for three days living upstairs. Even if it is the person you are looking for place."

Hearing this, I also felt that this was probably the place the old man in Yanzhou Mansion was looking for, but I didn't expect that after many years, he was no longer there, but after hearing the second half of the sentence, Duan Xiao still couldn't help asking.

"Weird? What does that place do now?"

"Hehe, it's related to other people's livelihood. I can't talk nonsense. I can only say that it's also a place where people do dead work. I can't say more about the rest. You will understand when you go."

This is half incomprehensible.

Duan Xiao didn't ask any more questions after that, just relying on the words of this Songyang County passer-by, he continued to search around the corner of the street.

Relying on the broken map in his hand and asking for directions, he came to a door where he could vaguely see a coffin shop.

In broad daylight, there was not even a living person in front of this clean door.

There are two dusty lanterns hanging on the roof, and the door is locked, but it can be opened by pushing the door just as the spectator said, and there is a crumbling black signboard hanging on the door, with a few large characters written on it. .

——The Great Detective Fucha Erji Investigative Affairs Office.