Daqing Criminal Division

Afterwards, when the three of them came to the door from Songyang just like this.

As the party who obviously knew more about the case, the local police chief Sima Zhun also told them exactly what happened in Jiangning Mansion in the past few days.

Among the three people facing him, only Zha Keshan was an official.

Other than that, the remaining two people seem to have too much personality.

At first glance, Duan Xiao seems to be fine, but such a red scar on his face is a bit scary to look at, and Fucha Erji looks like an idle person all day long, no matter what, this behavior is not very good It's hard to believe him.

The two of them are like this, in the eyes of ordinary people, they must feel a little unreliable for the three people who came to visit suddenly.

So Zakshan, a person who is as worried as the parents of these two people, is also a little nervous for no reason, so he can only think of reminding them that this is the famous Jiangning Mansion, no matter how capable we are, we should keep a low profile Wear some.

And, not only that, when he came in just now, he had already seen something about Sima Zhun's case.

Because the weapons that the Jinling policeman was carrying were not ordinary sabers, but two iron rulers.

The iron ruler is not something that can be used by ordinary Yamen police officers. It needs to be carried by police officers who often have serious cases and need to go out to perform some dangerous official duties.

This iron ruler is often inlaid with four copper stars, and there are also copper ornaments on the shield.

Because there are usually two, when arresting a murderer, it can not only stun the criminal alive, but also use the handle of this iron ruler to acupoint the person at that time, which makes people feel numb and fall to the ground. It is also called acupoint ruler.

So Sima Zhun was not only a high-level policeman, but also a rare real martial arts officer in the yamen.

Zha Keshan saw this, so he, who had always been just a street patrolman, was surprised, and gave Sima Zhun a more respectful look.

But Sima Zhun was indeed a Jinling police officer who was used to the storm, so he didn't think too much about it, but continued what he said just now.

"The three of you have come from afar, and you must know that the "Surfing the River during the Qingming Festival" in Jiangning was painted in the first year of this dynasty, and the city defense pictured on it is Jiangning four or five years ago. Times have changed, and the layout of Jinling city defenses has changed a lot, but everything in this painting imitates the architectural landscape of previous dynasties, and it can still be viewed as the most complete general map of Jinling city in the world."

Hearing this, Duan Xiao, who was sitting in this inner hall, already felt that this case might be really unusual.

It was the season of early autumn, but judging from the fact that herbal tea was sold everywhere at the city gate, the weather in Jinling was very hot these two days.

As a police chief, he doesn't have to go out to patrol the streets every day because of his official position.

But looking at the back of Sima Zhun's neck and face, his skin tone was uneven. It should be because he had some difficult cases in hand in the past two days, so he often ran out to get a tan.

Duan Xiao has always been very accurate in seeing people, and he has always been cautious in his actions, such as the words and deeds of other people, he can actually see some general trajectories.

Then look up and meet the Jiangning police officer Sima Zhun, who is sitting in front of him, about 34 years old.

His face is straight, his eyebrows are slightly protruding, and his thick eyebrows are somewhat upright. He is still young, and he can still achieve this position in Jinling. In fact, it also proves that this ability should be good in the first place.

When the three of them came in from the outside, they could tell by their attire that they were not big shots with specific backgrounds, but as soon as Sima Zhun heard that he had something important to tell, he received it seriously without asking any further questions.

When the impatient Zakshan spoke to him about Liu Cen, the surprised Sima Zhun looked cautious at first, but after looking at the three of them one by one, he chose to tell the truth.

Such people tend to have a high vision and are restrained.

Especially for the initial investigation of the case, they also had to extract as many useful clues as possible from the mouths of the first contact person, so after that, Duan Xiao, who was not in a hurry to interrupt, did not say much, and only gave The Sima detective tried his best to explain the ins and outs of the matter as clearly as possible.

In this regard, Fucharzi, who seemed to be listening indifferently, had the same opinion as him.

Just now, Zha Keshan and Duan Xiao came in from the outside together, but at the first glance, they had already caught a glimpse of a dozen messy red case files on this person's desk.

Seeing an outsider visiting at that time, the Jiangning police officer named Sima Zhun subconsciously closed the pile of files.

But judging from the messiness of the official case, the time at the top should be the filing of the theft of famous paintings at the yamen in the past few days. Rubbings of portraits, so this person should really be anxious to find out about the theft of the Qingming Shanghe map.

——Jiangning Mansion seems to have some unusual and major cases under close investigation.

At this moment, this thought filled the hearts of the two of them.

What happened next also verified the speculation in Fuchaerzi's and Duan Xiao's minds.

Because Sima Zhun was a police officer who specialized in investigating serious and major cases, things like the loss of famous paintings would not have happened to him who was usually busy with his duties.

However, the case of this famous painting is only one of the three cases that have occurred in Jiang Ning in the past few days, and it is unbelievable that the other two cases occurred together.

It turned out that Sima Zhun was not only investigating the case at the moment, but the Jiangning government had also noticed that Liu Cen's person disappeared together with the painting.

As Sima Zhun said earlier, this month is the seventeenth.

That is, five days before Duan Xiao and the others came to Jinling, and three days before the letter mentioned, the Inspectorate, which had been guarded by the soldiers from the military defense battalion in the past, was mysteriously stolen.

After that, the yamen steward notified Sima Zhun.

He was also ordered to search the inspectorate overnight with heavy troops, only to find that the locks inside and outside the door were good, only the painting disappeared.

——Theoretically, the secret room is the first element for the occurrence of most impossible crimes.

If the perpetrator did not have the key to the inner hall of the inspectorate in advance, ordinary people would steal this huge portrait mounted in mid-air, which should not have happened at all.

After that, Sima Zhun sent people to search many places of Jiang Ning, but no one knew where Liu Cen went that night.

Even the official residence where he originally stayed had only a set of official uniforms and a saber on the bed in the house, which seemed to be a temporary change that night.

His token, ultimatum, and horses left in the stable proved that he had not left Jinling City at all.

"If it is really just lost as property, we don't need to be so concerned about it, but the bad thing is that no one knows what the person who stole the Jinling map in the dark wanted to do, which is why this case is now in the public eye." That’s why I started the investigation.”

"I have been a police officer for many years, and I understand that sometimes, not knowing what a murderer wants to do is the most frightening part of a case, because the conspiracy hidden in the dark is the most terrifying. "

In front of him, Sima Zhun's words revealed the hidden truth in this case.

But first, the painting disappeared in the locked room of the Inspectorate, and second, Liu Cen's whereabouts became a mystery. a suspect.

But if Sima Zhun was an ordinary person, he would have listened to this statement and let the Jiangning Mansion wantonly arrest and arrest the suspect Liu Cen.

But in his opinion, the case itself has many incomprehensible things, because in the subsequent investigation of Jiangning Mansion, Liu Cen himself had no motive to steal the painting at all.

He usually has no bad habits, and he is not troubled by the urgent need for money.

If he really took the painting, why are the ultimatum and the horse still on his body? After all, a person who wants to steal the painting must be eager to escape. If he didn't run away, then what is the use of taking the painting away? .

In particular, although Sima Zhun didn't know about it, Zakshan, Fucha Erji and Duan Xiao knew very well that he still held a strange distress letter in his hand.

Combining what Sima Zhun said now, and recalling the second thing Liu Cen mentioned in his letter, it seems that before Liu Cen disappeared, he seemed to have known that the painting would definitely disappear.

But why he knew in advance that the painting would be lost, and what made him say the thesis of self-stealing, is a bit puzzling.

This speculation filled the minds of those who had heard the matter for a while.

Just as he was talking about this, Sima Zhun also revealed the second thing he couldn't figure out about this case.

Because, just when the loss of the famous painting that night has become an unsolved case, at the same time, a strange and unsolved murder case happened in the whole city——

"Watermelon with a human head?"

When they heard about this case, Fuchaerzi and Duan Xiao, who looked at each other calmly, also remembered the weird talk they heard from the tea drinkers at the city gate on the road.

"That's right, it's the watermelon head case that's making a lot of noise in the city."

Sima Zhun replied in the same way.

It turned out that in the middle of the night the lazy man carried the watermelon he picked up and went home, only to find out later that there was a bloody frozen human head hidden in the sack.

Mix one of the seven melons.

That bloody head was thrown outside the city in the middle of the night like this. If it wasn't for some deep hatred, it would be hard to imagine why a living person's head would be chopped off.

Moreover, at present, the exact location of the body of this head has not been found yet.

Because the murder case first happened in Mancheng, the officers and soldiers under Sima Zhun went over to identify the corpse before dawn. His first reaction at the time was to think that the head might be Liu Cen who had already suffered an accident.

But when he went there, he ordered people to bring the head back from the home of the people who found it, but Sima Zhun found that it was not Liu Cen.

Afterwards, the yamen servants of the Jiangning Mansion thawed the surface, stopped touching the hard-faced people, and went door-to-door around the city to ask them all. They searched around and found out who the victim was. up.

Because of this watermelon head that was left on the side of the road in the middle of the night and picked up by someone.

It actually came from an ordinary inn waiter, a native of Jinling County named Zhang Santong, and the inn he was in before his death was the one that was mentioned for the second time——

Meixiang Inn.

……

On this day, the Songyang Trio, who had just arrived for the first time, stayed in the Jiangning Mansion first.

Because they were originally looking for Liu Cen's whereabouts, Sima Zhun, who had informed them of the case, told them to let the four of them live in the Jinling mansion together with Duan Yuanbao.

But when it was time to make a decision, Duan Xiao flatly rejected the Jinling policeman's offer.

Zha Keshan didn't understand this at first.

After all, if he lived in the mansion, it would be more convenient for Duan Xiao to go to the autopsy afterwards, but after he and the other two came out of the yamen, he realized what these two guys who always liked to sing and harmonize wanted to do this time.

"Ah? So what you two mean now is that this time the three of us will not live in the official residence, but go directly to live in the Meixiang Inn where the little girl died?"

"If you want to find out more about the dead Zhang Santong, you must ask the people who had contact with him in the Meixiang Inn. Sima Zhun's dictation was also heard from other people, especially the person who died under his head. The body hasn't been found yet."

Seeing that he was puzzled, Fucharzi, who had been quiet in the yamen just now, also opened his eyes, walked forward, pinched the back of his neck and replied.

"...Moreover, Liu Cen's previous letter mentioned that Meixiang Inn's water is deep', and the matter of that mistress also appeared in the letter. We still live in the official residence, so how can we find out where the other person is?"

"I just don't live in the official residence, so I'm afraid I'll have to spend my own money. Tsk, come to think of it, will Ma County Magistrate reimburse us this time? This is saving lives. We can't work for nothing, right?"

As soon as a certain person opened his mouth, he was worried about the reimbursement issue with a philistine expression, and he didn't want to think about Liu Cen's relationship with him at all.

Duan Xiao, who was still thinking about what happened in the yamen just now, was silent because he took care of his personal cultivation, but Zha Keshan was a little helpless when he heard it, so he could only touch the back of his head and replied.

"Well, I also know that this public-funded hotel may not be reported, Duan Xiao, then how do we live today, the four of us can't live in one room, why don't I go with Yuan Bao, you and Fu——

Fucharzi: "No, I will never live with this person."

Duan Xiao: "I won't live with him."

Zakshan: "..."

Before he finished speaking, two people beside him who were very vigilant to each other spoke in unison again.

Touching his nose, Zha Keshan consciously came up with a "bad idea" and was not embarrassed to be caught in the middle, but seeing the two people's extremely firm attitudes, he only made this tall and burly policeman go out of his way, and he didn't dare Besides, let them live together.

After discussing like this, they still took Duan Yuanbao with them and went to the Meixiang Inn in the Jiangning Mansion first.

That evening, when the three of them brought Duan Yuanbao outside the inn, it was almost dark.

Businessmen often come to Jinling City, but fortunately this is not a central area, but it is not because they came late that there is no room left.

As Liu Cen said in his letter, the outside looks like it has been around for some years. The inn with a signboard at the door is on the bank of the Qinhuai River, and there are a few tables and chairs for people to eat underneath.

But it was already past meal time, and no one was eating. After entering, Zakshan went up to ask for two rooms from the shopkeeper, got a small black wooden sign and went upstairs to stay by himself.

Walking at the back, Duan Xiao, who looked around the circle, sat aside, and saw that the shopkeeper looked old, he was a stooped old shopkeeper with gray eyebrows and beard.

Apart from the old shopkeeper, there was only a pockmarked young man sitting on the threshold and playing with his fingers, looking quite funny.

This pockmarked waiter is probably the only waiter in the inn besides Zhang Santong.

Regarding the unexplained death of Zhang Santong, another waiter in the inn, it was impossible for the few of them to ask the owner of the inn and other people rashly when they first arrived.

But then, the three of them went in to pack their luggage, and went upstairs to check in. When they were in the inn, a man dressed as a cook carrying a basket of eggs, two taels of pork, and two handfuls of cress just stepped outside the threshold walked in.

The cook was tall and stocky, with sparse eyebrows, a mottled face, and spoke Huaiyang dialect. Fuchaerji and Duan Xiao happened to see him when he came in.

"Ah Kuan, have you bought some food and wine for San Tongtou Qi Lu?"

Even though the old shopkeeper was weak, he raised his eyelids and asked a question while playing with his abacus.

"I bought it, old man, and I also cut off two taels of pork, cooked it with fennel and aniseed ingredients, and after a while, I will light incense for Santong and send it to you.

The fat cook named Ah Kuan also answered.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work. We have a few guests today, so we will keep the eggs instead of cooking them for this dead man. I'm afraid we can cook two bowls of eggs for the guests at night."

These were common chatters, and the old shopkeeper probably thought they couldn't understand the dialect, so he simply had something to say to his cooks.

Duan Xiao thought to himself, this inn is so dilapidated, it is rare for the old shopkeeper to still think about roasting pork for the dead man, but in the next sentence, he heard such an important sentence.

"I just hope that the roasted pork will be sent to the ground. Zhang Santong, a dead ghost whose head has been lost and half of his body has to come back in the middle of the night, please let our little inn go, and don't come to the door again. Let's wait for innocent people to take their lives."

The author has something to say: Chirp Mi.Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated the nutrient solution~

Thanks to the little angels who voted [Line mines]: Xiaoxun fufu and Xia Motian one;

Thanks to the little angel who irrigated [nutrient solution]:

10 bottles of old time color retention; 2 bottles of Xiaoxun fufu;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!