Detective in the Red Chamber

And when Jie Yi arrived at the gate of Xikuayuan, it was just in time for Jie An to lead his apprentice to unlock the lock, so the three of them walked together—so after Jie Yi found the body and screamed in fright, the master and apprentice Jie An immediately went to the gate. rushed to the scene.

Therefore, Sun Shaozong asked Jie Chen to explain the situation when the corpse was found, which is also a reasonable request.

Just Jie Chen followed into the room with a sullen face, but he heard Sun Shaozong probing around, while asking casually, "According to the information I have, the reason Jie Xiu had a quarrel with the population on July [-]th was because he accidentally collided with someone in the cafeteria. The reason—could it be that he usually has such a temper?"

"This……"

Jiechen hesitated for a moment, shook his head and said, "The poor monk is the head of the Discipline Academy, and he is not very familiar with the situation in the Zhike Academy."

"Then you have been secretly investigating for a long time, have you found any news about Jie Xian's 'forced good for prostitution', who spread it?"

"This……"

Jie Chen was still a little hesitant, and shook his head for a long while and said, "The poor monk didn't find out who spread the news, but roughly found out that the news first came from inside Zhike Yuan."

"The precept who died here, did he ever participate in the 'Sister-in-law Fan'?"

"some!"

This time Jie Chen was finally determined, "It turned out that the poor monk had already found out that the precept holder, at the instigation of Jie Xian, had conspired with a married woman to commit adultery, and was about to try to get the real evidence. Chi Jing died one after another, and this thread is naturally broken."

But then he frowned again and said, "But according to the inside story found by the poor monk, Jie Ming did not participate in this matter, so...then the murderer may not have killed for this matter."

Is this beating around the bush to justify yourself?

Or from the bottom of my heart...

"Besides precepts, how many other people are involved in this matter?"

"There are about four or five people, all of whom have real power in Zhikeyuan—but after Jiexian's accident, they cut off contact with those women, and the poor monk naturally couldn't get any real evidence."

Looks like it's still a case.

But this is also normal. The responsibility of Zhikeyuan is to greet and send off, and it is inseparable from the world of mortals. Therefore, the chances of Zhike monks to fall are naturally higher than other monks.

What's more, the first monk of Jie Nian in Zhikeyuan may not be clean himself. If the upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked, the result can be imagined.

Sun Shaozong was investigating the scene while thinking about the case. The monk Jiechen was questioned, but he couldn't hold back his temper. He said in a deep voice, "Actually, no matter how many questions my lord asks, I'm afraid it will be a waste of effort!"

Sun Shaozong stopped in his tracks, raised his eyebrows in surprise and said, "How do you say that?"

Jie Chen said without hesitation, "From the poor monk's point of view, this case is clearly the result of the lingering spirit of the evildoer, who wants to kill me to vent his anger! Besides, we obviously have circumstantial evidence, and it is impossible to kill the three Jiexians." The real culprit, isn’t it ridiculous that the adults are so obsessed with us?!”

got~

I thought he could say something useful, and feelings are the trick of evildoers harming people!

Sun Shaozong rolled his eyes speechlessly, he was really too lazy to pay any attention to him, so he raised his voice and said, "Zhao Butou, go find Jie Nian, the chief seat of Zhikeyuan, and say that I have some questions and want to ask him."

Seeing that Sun Shaozong was still obsessed with obsession, Jie Chen couldn't help but snorted coldly, and looked out of the window with a dark face, obviously unwilling to spend more time with Sun Shaozong.

But Zhao Wuwei agreed, and was about to call out to his subordinates to invite Monk Jie Nian to come over, when suddenly someone outside shouted in panic, "Master, Lord! It's bad, something is wrong! Uncle Jie Nian was... The wild dog killed it!"

With this sound, there was an uproar inside and outside the meditation room, and Sun Shaozong rushed out a few steps, grabbed the little monk who had tipped off the news, and asked sharply, "Where is Jie Nian now? How do you know he was bitten by a wild dog?" dead?!"

"It's...near the Gongde Forest in the back mountain! The little monk saw Master Jie Nian lying motionless on the ground with blood all over his neck, and several wild dogs scrambling around his corpse! Designate...designate It was bitten to death by those wild dogs!"

"Amitabha!"

At this time, Jie Chen also followed, chanting the Buddha's name and saying, "It seems that the poor monk guessed right, this is indeed the evil spirit transformed by the Tengu!"

The devil is causing trouble?

With a cold heart, Sun Shaozong gently pushed the little monk who reported the letter away, and ordered, "Let's go, take me to see what the dog looks like today!"

Chapter 456 The Mysterious Case of Gongdelin

The so-called merit forest is actually not a real forest, but hundreds of merit monuments built against the mountains.

The merit stele records the good deeds done by Fayuan Temple believers over the years - of course, ordinary good deeds can't be listed, at least there are things like building bridges and paving roads, donating porridge on a large scale, or inviting eminent monks to pray for Li Shu.

It took about 370 years before and after to accumulate so much.

Seen from a distance, these hundreds of merit steles are as dense as forests, so the monks in the temple often call them "Gongde Forest"-mainly for the purpose of boasting about the great achievements of Fayuan Temple when explaining to guests. .

Originally, this was considered a scene of Fayuan Temple, and believers often came here to admire the achievements of their predecessors—but recently, affected by the serial murders, relatively remote places like Gongde Forest have naturally become sparsely populated.

If it wasn't for the regular inspection time, even the little monk Xuanci might not have the leisure time to come here.

And it was during the process of inspecting the Gongde Forest that Xuanci heard wild dogs barking wildly. He followed the sound out of curiosity and found Monk Jie Nian lying on the ground with bloody neck and six people around him. Seven wild dogs seem to be competing with each other for this piece of 'fat'.

Xuanci has seen this?

Immediately scared the hell out of him, ran back to the temple in one breath, and was about to report to the prison at this moment, suddenly remembered that the official of Shuntian Mansion seemed to be investigating the case in the temple, so he asked all the way, and found the meditation room .

Fortunately, he didn't report to the prison first, so when Sun Shaozong and others arrived, the site was still well preserved—of course, the so-called good condition did not include the corpse that had been bitten by a dog.

Sure enough, it is the monk of Jie Nian!

Remember when he set fire to the house of imprisonment, how arrogant he was?

But he didn't want his body to be discarded in the open space in the center of the stele after only half a month, and let the wild dogs trample and bite him!

When he was still more than ten steps away from the corpse, Sun Shaozong stopped in his tracks, and when the others saw him stop, they naturally also stood up.

Only the monk Jiean was still striding forward, yelling, "Go away, go away! You bloody demons!"

Those wild dogs are used to bullying the weak and fear the strong. Seeing so many people surrounding them, they had long since retreated and did not run away immediately. It was just because they were reluctant to part with the fat on the ground.

Now listening to Jie Chen yelling loudly, with a menacing appearance, he hurriedly ran away without a trace with his tail between his legs.

Monk Jie'an frightened away those wild dogs, and was about to strode to Jie Nian to check his situation, when he suddenly heard Sun Shaozong say, "Master, stop, the murderer took great pains to make this good show, and you didn't want you to spoil it casually. "

Jie Chen paused, turned his head and frowned, "What do you mean by that, my lord?"

"Are you blind donkey?!"

Before Sun Shaozong could reply, Qiu Yunfei jumped out, stretched out his arms and drew a circle around the corpse, then put his hands on his hips and said, "Look carefully at the footprints on the ground to see if there is anything wrong!"

Jie Chen was scolded by him as a bald donkey, his already ugly face darkened a bit, his throat surged, as if retorting, but in the end he just uttered the Buddha's name, and followed Qiu Yunfei's instructions, poking his head to look at the corpse the surrounding situation.

But at this glance, Jie An's face showed a bit of complacency, and he turned his head and sneered again, "The poor monk said that it was the work of the Tiangou evildoer, isn't this fulfilled now?!"

But it turned out that the mess on the ground was all dog paw marks, but there was only one row of human footprints!

And the footprints extended to Jie Nian's body, but there was no trace of walking out!

It's no wonder that monk Jiechen thought it was the work of a dog demon.

However, the first thing Sun Shaozong thought of was the old routine of stepping on the footsteps and returning the same way that has been used in many mystery novels.

Because stone slabs were laid in the karma forest, with only a layer of floating soil on the surface, the weight of the owner of the footprints cannot be judged from the depth of the footprints.

So Sun Shaozong ordered everyone to stay where they were, and carefully prepared to walk along the footprints by himself, and then try to return by stepping on his own footprints.

But halfway through, he stopped, and at the same time completely denied the possibility of stepping on the footsteps and returning the same way.

Because Sun Shaozong found some slippery footprints, and on both sides of these footprints, there were two unclear palm prints, as well as traces of struggling to get up.

Apparently someone had almost slipped and fell here, but he held it up with his hands in time, and then climbed up.

Normally, if the murderer was walking forward carrying Jie Nian, the hands of this fall would have fallen down long ago.

Taking a step back, assuming the murderer's strength surpassed that of ordinary people, and he tied Jie Nian tightly to his body to ensure that Jie Nian would not fall off, he might still encounter insurmountable obstacles.

Because in the process of climbing forward, there was a mark of about one meter in the middle, which was a trace of sliding backward slightly with the tiptoe touching the ground.

It is simply impossible to imitate such traces in the process of walking backwards. In the process of walking backwards, there is no way to accurately cross the distance of more than one meter before stepping on the ground and slipping. on the shoe print.

So this skid mark has completely vetoed the possibility of stepping on the footprints and coming back!

There is no doubt that this footprint belongs to Jie Xian himself!

How did the murderer kill Jie Nian before leaving without leaving any footprints? !

Could it be that the ropes were used to set up the air passage?

Sun Shaozong looked up at the stone steles on the north and south sides, about 15 meters apart, and raised his voice and said, "Search around the scene carefully to see if there are any other traces on the scene! Especially on these steles of meritorious deeds, don't give a single inch to them." I missed it!"

Following this order, Wei Ruolan, Master Qi, Qiu Yunfei, and Zhao Wuwei were divided into two groups, each led a few yamen servants, and started a carpet search.

however……

Half an hour passed, and the search range expanded to a radius of 50 meters, but no abnormal traces were found!

How can this be? !

Stepping on footprints has been rejected, and the possibility of using tools such as ropes tends to be zero.

And the possibility of attacking with ranged weapons...

When everyone was conducting a carpet search, Sun Shaozong had also carefully confirmed that the fatal injury of Jie Nian was that the throat was cut off by a sharp blade, and then cut repeatedly, creating the illusion of being bitten to death—of course , There are indeed wild dogs in the back that have bitten the corpse.

It is definitely difficult for long-range weapons to repeatedly cut and create illusions.

How did the murderer manage to kill Jie Nian at close range, and then walk away without a trace? !

Chapter 457

Since he failed to see through the mechanism arranged by the murderer, Sun Shaozong searched carefully around the corpse while trying not to damage the scene of the crime.

After confirming that no details were missed, he picked up Jie Nian's body and left the center of the open space following the footsteps he had left when he came.

"grown ups."

As soon as he put the corpse on the door panel that the yamen servants found, Qiu Yunfei immediately leaned forward, and asked bluntly, "How did the murderer kill the man, do you understand?"

Then, he lowered his voice and said, "Isn't he really killed by a wild dog?"

Sun Shaozong glanced at him silently, until Wei Ruolan, Master Qi, and Zhao Wuwei all surrounded him, and then said, "Let's talk about the results of our official inspection first."

"The deceased's name is Jiexian, and he was the head of the Fayuan Temple Zhikeyuan. Judging from the stiffness of the body, the time of death was about [-]:[-] am to [-]:[-] am between Chenzheng and Sizheng."

"The fatal wound was on the neck of the deceased. It was a horizontal wound about two and a half inches from left to right. Judging from the cross-section of the wound and the damage to the cervical spine, the murder weapon seemed to be a hatchet or the like, which was good for chopping. A one-handed weapon for chopping."

"After the deceased died, the murderer tried to create the illusion of being bitten to death by wild dogs on the wound of the deceased."

"The posture of the five fingers on the deceased's right hand is very uncoordinated. It is very likely that after death, someone forcibly opened the deceased's fingers and took something away."

"On the inner lining of the sleeve of the deceased's right arm, there was a not-so-obvious fresh scratch, which seemed to be caused by some kind of sharp object, but the force and speed were not very fast, and it should have been taken out of the sleeve pocket. Marks left by accident when using a sharp object."

"Except for the deceased's own footprints, no other person's footprints were found at the scene, and because the deceased had fallen halfway, there was a fault about four feet in the middle of the footprints, so the deceased was transported to the scene to commit the crime, and then It is impossible to step on the footsteps and go backwards."

"And on the stone tablets on both sides, there are no traces of ropes being set up."

Summing up to this point, Sun Shaozong stopped, silently waiting for everyone to digest the information, or to ask his own questions.

But Wei Ruolan listened, just frowned and muttered aside, but Master Qi and Qiu Yunfei stepped forward almost at the same time, and inspected Jie Nian's body.

It's not that Sun Shaozong can't be trusted, but some details are still believing after all.

After all, he often went to Lao Xu's place to steal his lessons. Qiu Yunfei was more proficient in autopsy methods than Master Qi. He quickly finished examining the fatal wound on his neck, and began to look at the gestures of his right hand and the scratches on the sleeve.

"It seems like..."

He muttered to himself, bent down and pulled out a dagger with a cat's eye from his boot, gestured back and forth in Jie Nian's hand a few times, and said firmly, "If I guess right, he was holding a dagger in his hand. It should be a dagger!"

"Tsk tsk tsk!"

Qiu Yunfei said exaggeratedly, "It seems that this monk has no good intentions. It's a pity that he was a step slower than others when he did it. Otherwise, the one lying here might be the murderer."

Master Qi also echoed, "Judging from the angle and length of the scratch on the sleeve, and the arc drawn by his little finger and ring finger, it really looks like a dagger."

However, he then said, "It's just that it's not yet clear whether he took out the dagger after the other party showed malicious intent, or whether he held the dagger in his hand early in the morning - so whether he has malicious intent or not, I'm afraid it still needs deliberation. "

Wei Ruolan frowned at the side and said, "Then why did the murderer take away Jie Nian's dagger?"

"Naturally, it is also to create the illusion that wild dogs are hurting people."

Sun Shaozong explained, "Otherwise, Jie Nian is holding a dagger in his hand, but there is no sign of fighting a wild dog at all, wouldn't it seem abrupt?"

After a pause, seeing that the crowd had no other questions, he raised his voice and called Jie Chen and Jie Xiu over, asking when was the last time they saw the monk Jie Nian.

Jie Xiu answered honestly, saying that he met Jie Nian in the Daxiong Palace during the morning class, but it was just a hasty greeting, and he didn't stop to talk in detail.

When Jie Chen heard Sun Shaozong's question, Que seemed a little impatient. He first muttered a set of theories about "monsters harming people", and finally, under Qiu Yunfei's repeated questioning, he reluctantly said, "I see, but I see you. But Brother Jie Nian has always suspected that the poor monk is the real culprit behind the scenes, so he avoided it from a long distance."

Hearing this, Sun Shaozong asked Jie Xiu again with a serious face, "Master Jie Xiu, did Jie Nian really avoid him deliberately like what Master Jie Chen said during his lifetime?"

"This……"

Jiexiu hesitated for a while, and shook his head apologetically after a long while, "Because of the accidental death of Junior Brother Jie Nian, the young monk was depressed, and rarely asked about trivial matters in the temple, so..."

Jie An impatiently interjected, "If you don't believe me, just ask other monks in the monastery, or simply ask your teacher!"