Anecdotes about the Seine

([-]) Investigation

That night, Mo Han studied on a huge map of the capital city for a long time before he finally identified the places Xiaodie mentioned where he might have heard ducks calling and the nearby houses—fifteen houses in total along the curve of the moat.Mo Han took a closer look at the surroundings of the house, and decided to start with the most remote ones, and check them one by one, and there must be something to gain.

The next day, Mo Han started to visit the house.She started from the remote West City. After visiting a grocery store, two pharmacies, a tavern and an inn, she was kicked out by the sixth family.She looked at the next few houses, and sure enough, they were all residents.Residential homes are especially difficult to deal with, so it is better to talk about it than shops.When I visited the No.14 house, I still found nothing—the residents all said that for many years, only their own family lived here. How could there be any little girls, young girls, and any thieves?

It was almost evening at this time, Mo Han dragged his tired body, desperately resisting the frustration and helplessness in his heart, determined to complete the search for the last family within today.That family is not what Mo Han is most concerned about, because it is a beautiful two-story building located in a busy city.Mo Han thought it was unreasonable for the thieves to choose such a place full of people, otherwise it would be too ostentatious, but since there are suspicions, they must be checked, and no one can be let go.Mo Han walked through the bustling streets and stopped before a small bridge at the end.That building is on the other side of the bridge.

She boarded the bridge, secretly thinking about the clues she had obtained, and was hit by a pedestrian in the middle of her body when she didn't pay attention.Mo Han felt that the man was very strong, and he bumped into her shoulder impartially, but his elbow just hit her waist, causing her pain and almost falling.The passerby yelled "Ouch" first, and then held her hand.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." The man apologized again and again, and then looked at her waist: "Oh, sister official, I smashed your waist card, I'm so sorry!"

Mo Han looked down, and sure enough, the plaque on the waist that marked the identity of the police officer had cracked and shattered into three petals, one of which was teetering, and finally couldn't support it, and fell to the ground with a "crack".

Mo Han was shocked, this waist card was uniformly made by the Ministry of Criminal Justice, pure gold inlaid with jade, so strong that it would be smashed by a passer-by?It would be fine if it was the jade part, but there was a big crack in the pure gold part.She was puzzled, and looked up, but in front of her was a young woman of eighteen or nineteen years old.The woman was tall and thin, with a good face, fair skin, and a pair of big eyes that were very agile, but at this moment she looked at her with a sincere look, with an apologetic expression on her face.

Mo Han let go of the opponent's hand calmly, took a step back quietly, and quickly scanned the attire of the woman in front of him.However, the woman's clothes are very ordinary. Although the materials are exquisite, the style is ordinary and the workmanship is rough.Looking at the head again, a simple and fashionable bun is combed, and a wooden hairpin is inserted in it.Mo Han made a preliminary judgment: this person looks like a servant girl of a rich family.

Then it's strange, how can a girl who orders her have such supernatural power?

Before Mo Han had time to think carefully, the girl said again: "Sister official, I really don't have the money to compensate you, otherwise, I'll be your servant for a few days!"

Mo Han was taken aback, and quickly waved his hand to refuse: "Ah, I don't need it, it's okay, you don't have to pay."

But the girl refused to let go: "How can I do that, I broke something, I'm so sorry, I must make it up to you!"

Mo Han was surprised and amused at the same time: "Are you Pengci? How can you send yourself to your door to be a servant?"

The girl pursed her mouth, and suddenly covered her face and burst into tears, which shocked Mo Han into a stunned state.While crying, she said: "Sister Guancha, to tell you the truth, I was kicked out by the master of the house, and I really have nowhere to go, please take me in!"

Mo Han hurriedly hugged her to comfort her, and then took her to a nearby teahouse to order hot tea and snacks, comforting her and saying slowly, don't worry.The girl gradually stopped crying, calmed down, and described her experience in detail.

It turned out that she was originally the maid of Li Zhi's family, the richest man in the capital. Her name was Li Xiaoyan. She was an orphan.That Li Zhi was arrogant and irritable, and he often shouted and beat and scolded his servants, he was not treated like a human being at all.That day the concubine in the mansion lost her handkerchief, and the servant insisted that she saw Li Xiaoyan steal it.Then Li Zhiming's servant beat her up and expelled her from Li's residence.She had nowhere to go, pawned the only two earrings on her body, and found a bungalow to live in, but the money on her body was quickly spent.Today, I was just wandering in the street, looking for something to do, full of worries, so I accidentally ran into this official sister.

Mo Han did know anecdotes about this rich businessman Li Zhi - when she first arrived in Dali Temple, she followed her seniors to handle several cases of official corruption. Once she found out about this businessman, she and her colleagues went to Li's mansion to check the accounts .Li Zhi was indeed arrogant and rude, but Mo Han had long been used to this, because this group of businessmen were all like this, they flocked to high officials to flatter them, but treated them like low-level soldiers with cold eyes.In the past few days, she also saw with her own eyes how Li Zhi shouted and shouted at his servants, and even abused him, so she didn't have any doubts about this girl's words.

She rolled up the sleeves of Li Xiaoyan's clothes, and she saw the welt marks all over her arms.The scars were deep and shallow, obviously some were new and some were old.There are also a few shallow scars, which appear to be from childhood.Seeing this, Mo Han couldn't help feeling a little bit of sympathy, but she was still vigilant: she thought, it was definitely not a coincidence that this girl appeared suddenly, but she might as well follow the trend and take her by her side to see her What trick.So he agreed to let Li Xiaoyan stay with her for the time being, and if there is a better place to go in the future, he will make another arrangement.

Then Li Xiaoyan immediately smiled through tears and thanked her repeatedly.Her eyes were crooked when she smiled, her smile was as bright as the sun, and the dimples on her cheeks were faintly visible.For some reason, Mo Han actually felt a little nice.

After eating and drinking enough, the two got up and prepared to leave.Mo Han paid the bill, turned around, saw that Xiaoyan had already packed her bag and sword, and couldn't help but smile secretly: she is quite dedicated.They crossed the bridge and came to the last house.Mo Han stepped forward and knocked lightly on the door.A thin man opened the door with a look of vigilance on his face.

"Who are you looking for?" He asked angrily.

"I'm a police officer from the Ministry of Criminal Justice. In order to investigate a case, I need to ask you a few questions." Mo Han reached out for his pocket card, only to remember that it was broken, and wiped his clothes with his hands in embarrassment. "Excuse me, did you live here two years ago?"

"No, I just moved here in February this year." The man was very impatient.

"Then who lived here before that?" Mo Han asked.

"I don't know! It's okay, I'll close the door if it's okay." The man made a gesture to close the door.But Xiaoyan interrupted suddenly: "You don't know, the landlord must know!"

The man was stunned for a moment, but he had nothing to say, so he stretched out half of his body and pointed to the stairs next to him: "The landlord lives on the second floor, you can ask him yourself!" After finishing speaking, he closed the door with a "slap".

The landlord on the second floor was surprisingly easy to talk to.Mo Han asked him who had rented this house two years ago, and the landlord looked puzzled: "Two years ago, my house was still empty! It was overhauled in May last year, and some furnishings were changed. I rented it to the first person. But that person paid half a year's rent and disappeared after two days of living. I dare not rent it again for fear that she will come back. No, I only rented it to the second person in February this year. Woolen cloth."

"You mean, the first person left after staying for two days and never came back?" Mo Han asked suspiciously.

"Yes! You said that the rent for half a year was wasted."

Before Mo Han had time to think, Xiaoyan asked, "Boss, what does the first person look like?"

"A middle-aged woman about 40 years old, not tall, but pretty." The boss replied.

Mo Han glanced at Xiaoyan unhappily.This girl is still a little out of order, she is here to investigate the case quickly, what's the point!Xiaoyan seemed to see the look in her eyes, stuck out her tongue, and stopped talking.

After obtaining permission from his boss, Mo Han went to the room on the second floor to check.Sure enough, looking through the window, it was the widest part of the moat, where weeds were overgrown by the river, and a group of ducks swam leisurely on the river.Accompanied by the boss, Mo Han went down to the first floor to check the room.Due to the overhaul of the room, it should be difficult to see the traces of the previous residence.But Mo Han still noticed something keenly - on the wall by the window, she saw a small patch of old ink.

"Boss, has the wall of the window been painted?" Mo Han asked.

"No." The boss replied: "The color of the wall is quite good. I thought it would not look old, so I didn't move it."

"Then how many years was the house empty before the overhaul?" Mo Han continued to ask.

"It's been a long time, it must have been five or six years." The boss said: "The original owner passed away, and the will was not clear. The children fought a lawsuit for a long time, and then sold it to me, converted it into cash and distributed it to them. .”

Mo Han knew it well.It is very possible that this room is the place where the Golden Swallow imprisoned Xiaodie.She clearly remembered that it was exactly five years from the first Golden Swallow case to No. 13.The female thief must have seen that this place was vacant, so she used it as a den of thieves and committed many crimes. I am afraid that the stolen goods will be piled up here before they are sold.But the thief was also cunning, and before leaving, he almost cleaned up the traces.So the case fell into a dead end again: what to do next?

On the way back home, Mo Han remained silent, thinking hard about the clues in front of him, but couldn't think of a reason.Seeing that her brows were tightly furrowed, Xiaoyan asked naively, "Sister Guancha, what case are you investigating?"

"Don't call me an official." Mo Han said helplessly, "You can just call me Mo Han." She then told Xiaoyan the general situation of the Golden Swallow case, but deliberately concealed the identity of the deceased as an envoy from the Ryukyu. It is said that Jin Yanzi, the famous thief in the capital, has come out of the mountain again.

Xiaoyan was surprised and said: "I've heard the story of the Golden Swallow! At that time, the master was still terrified. He was afraid of stealing from himself, so he hired many people to be guards." She rolled her eyes and asked again : "Sister Mo,"—she changed her address—"How do you know that the one who committed the crime this time was the former Golden Swallow?"

"Of course it's because of the iconic dart." Mo Han replied without thinking.

"However, darts can also be forged." Xiaoyan tilted her head and thought for a while, she seemed to find it difficult to think, so she shook her head. "Forget it, forget it, I don't understand." After finishing speaking, his attention was attracted by the dandelions on the side of the road, and he bounced over to grab one and started playing with it in his hands.

She may have said it casually, but Mo Han's heart moved.That's right, if one can determine one's identity with just a single dart, then it would be too easy to set the blame on.She has seen the darts in this case, but she has never seen the previous ones.Why not check it out?If this time it is a fake, then this case will be more interesting.

That night, after she placed Xiaoyan in the mansion, she came to the file room of the Ministry of Criminal Justice alone.Since he had already greeted Uncle Fan in advance, the clerk in the dossier room had already found out all the materials she needed and put them neatly on the table, waiting for her to come and check them.She spent the whole evening there—reviewing the files, examining the evidence.She carefully compared the 14 Golden Swallow darts back and forth, and when the sky was slightly bright, she finally found that the No. [-] dart was indeed different from the others!

The first thirteen golden darts were carved with two parallel scratches on the right side of the swallow's head with some kind of tool, just like the swallow's ears.The scratches were so thin that it would be impossible to find them without careful inspection.However, although No.14 is almost the same as the first thirteen on the surface, it does not have these two scratches at all.It seems that the real Golden Swallow is also smart, and knows how to "anti-counterfeit" his logo.

From this point of view, the new Golden Swallow case may indeed be a forgery.Mo Han thought to himself.In this way, it is better to start with this fake Golden Swallow Dart. If we can find out where it came from and who made it, we will surely make progress.

The files and evidence of the Ministry of Punishment could not be taken away, but Mo Han quietly hid the fake golden swallow dart on his body from the little official's eyes.

Mo Han dragged his exhausted body back home and saw Xiaoyan still sound asleep in her room.Looking at her defenseless sleeping face, she felt a little funny in her heart.Still looks like a child.she thought to herself.Will there be secrets in this child?Maybe not, it's just my own overthinking.

She put away her belongings, washed up briefly, then lay down on the rattan chair with all her clothes, and fell into a deep sleep after a while.