Detective in the Red Chamber

During this delay, two middle-aged Taoist priests, one on the left and one on the right, hugged his arm desperately.

This one shouted: "Young Celestial Master calm down!"

The one shouted: "Master Sun, forgive me, my young celestial master has no intention of offending!"

But it turns out that this yellow mattress is the son of a contemporary celestial master, no wonder Huang Bin looked sincere and fearful just now.

However, Huang Bin is the person he valued after all, and he can still position himself at critical moments, knowing who is his backer.

Sun Shaozong patted her on the shoulder with satisfaction, and ordered calmly: "I am ordered by the imperial court to investigate the case. If anyone dares to obstruct it, they will be severely punished!"

At this time, Huang Bin raised his eyebrows and raised his eyes, not even half flattering. He listened to Sun Shaozong's order, and immediately called the servants in the vicinity to surround him, and confronted the three Taoist priests eyeingly.

Seeing this, the two older Taoist priests became more and more embarrassed, while the young young celestial master gritted his teeth in hatred, but after all, he still didn't dare to speak out.

But Sun Shaozong just pretended that they didn't exist, moved the ladder on his own, climbed up to take a closer look at the condition of the corpse.

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Chapter 840 'Heaven' Master's Mansion [Secondary [-]]

[Recently, I was forced to change the input method, so there are more typos. Please forgive me. 】

The ladder was found by Sun Shaozong behind the gate of the main hall, and there was not only one ladder, it seemed that they were usually piled up here.

According to the above traces, there should be at least two ladders last night, which were used by the murderer, but whether they were used one after another or at the same time, it is still difficult to distinguish clearly.

Sun Shaozong erected one of them under the eaves, and climbed up the steps neatly, and soon climbed to the same height as the corpse.

As mentioned earlier, the corpse is located directly above the gate of the temple, which is where the plaque is hung.

Because the Tianshi Mansion has not yet been fully completed, the plaque in the main hall has not been hung yet, there are only two milk nails responsible for supporting the plaque, pointing to the eaves in a crooked manner.

And the trunk of the corpse is now hanging in the center of these two breast nails.

If you look closely, you can clearly see that there are a total of seven iron nails the size of your little finger nailed on the corpse, three points and one line on the neck, chest, and abdomen, and one each on the wrist and calf.

In addition, Sun Shaozong found obvious strangulation marks on the abdomen of the corpse, and then found traces of ropes wrapped around two breast nails.

It can be preliminarily inferred that the corpse was first tied to these two breast nails, and then the "nailing operation" began. The ropes were untied after the nails driven in were enough to support the weight of the corpse.

Judging from the strains on various parts of the corpse, this person should be young, no more than 30 years old at most, and he seldom engages in heavy physical labor.

His skin is also much fairer than ordinary people, and he should mainly be active indoors.

But that doesn't mean that he is some kind of rich man.

Because Sun Shaozong found many small bumps suspected of eczema on his back shoulder.

This shows that although his clothes are warm, they are not very breathable, and he can only endure the feeling of sweat stains on his body, and cannot increase or decrease clothes arbitrarily.

Is this due to a reserved and shy character, or is it because of restraint and restraint in behavior?

If it is the former, he may be a literati from an average family background, but also a literati who pays great attention to appearance.

If the latter...

A servant from a wealthy family?

A shop assistant who doesn't have to do heavy physical labor?

Or...

Sun Shaozong looked down at the three Taoist priests thoughtfully, and then raised his voice and asked, "Huang Bin, have you ever found this man's head and clothes?"

Huang Bin hurriedly put the knife back into its sheath, cupped his hands and raised his head and said, "My lord, although we have searched the Tianshi's mansion inside and out, we haven't found the dead man's head and clothes!"

In this way, this person is very likely to be a young Taoist priest!

Because the clothes of ordinary people do not directly indicate their identity most of the time, but it is different for monks.

Sun Shaozong pondered for a moment, and then ordered: "Come here and help stabilize the ladder."

When Huang Bin hurriedly greeted another yamen servant, holding the long bamboo ladder left and right, he immediately pressed the corpse's right arm with his hand, and then slowly pulled out the iron nails from the corpse's wrist.

The total length of this iron nail is about seven feet [21.77 centimeters]. The overall shape is flat from thick to thin.

This kind of nails can be drilled by ordinary blacksmiths. It seems that it is not so easy to find out the source.

Sun Shaozong looked at it for a while, then lowered his head and ordered: "Find two hammers, one wooden and one iron, and then go to the street to buy a piece of pork!"

Immediately a yamen servant took orders.

Holding the bloody iron nail in one hand, Sun Shaozong went to check the condition of the corpse with the other, but he suddenly noticed a cold gaze.

Looking along the trend, I saw the young celestial master was holding the sword in both hands, looking at him with a cold face and sideways eyes.

Not to mention, this young man is quite handsome, looking up at the statue at a 45-degree angle, he has the demeanor of a young man of later generations.

With just this pair of eyes, Sun Shaozong knew that this kid hated him.

But this is exactly what Sun Shaozong deliberately created.

Otherwise, with his mental age approaching 40, how could it be so easy to clash with a young man?

In fact, before entering the gate, he had already made up his mind to keep a certain distance from the people in Tianshi Mansion, and it would be better to have some minor conflicts.

That's why he interrupted Huang Bin's introduction unceremoniously, and deliberately praised in front of the three of them.

The purpose of doing this is to make up for the retreat this morning.

Although there was a seemingly reasonable reason at the time, there was no shortage of smart people in the court, and discussions afterwards would definitely see through his intention to protect himself wisely.

It's nothing at all, it can only be said to be human nature, and besides, he was involved for no reason at all.

But when investigating the case this afternoon, if he gets along with the people in Tianshi Mansion again, the taste will be completely different.

If one is not done well, the big hat of colluding with alchemists and cholera court leaders can be strictly buckled!

So Sun Shaozong had to express his position.

Looking at it now, the effect is better than expected - offending a young celestial master is more important than offending three ordinary Taoists.

As for this young celestial master, will he secretly give himself eye drops and wear small shoes...

Ha ha!

Who in the palace doesn't have a helping hand?

Less gossip.

But after a while, the two hammers and the pork were brought to Sun Shaozong. Without saying a word, Sun Shaozong picked up the hammer and nailed the pork to the wall first.

After finishing the work, he ordered again: "Go and ask the gatekeeper outside, have you ever heard the knocking sound!"

One of the yamen servants took the order, and Huang Bin asked from below: "My lord, do you want to invite the official from the Ministry of Industry who was on duty last night for questioning?"

"Don't rush."

As Sun Shaozong said this, seeing that the yamen servant who had passed the message had already crossed the threshold, he immediately unwrapped the iron nail and struck again with a wooden hammer.

Not long after, the yamen servant rushed back and reported, "My lord, just now they heard a few faint movements, but they couldn't hear them very clearly."

"Then when you were outside the door, did you hear anything?"

"This……"

The yamen servant was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head hesitantly and said, "I don't seem to have heard anything."

At least iron can be ruled out - the guards can hear it during the day, let alone at night.

As for stone tools...

Sun Shaozong observed carefully just now, and the nail caps were not contaminated with gravel dust. Given the hardness of the wood on the wall, the possibility of stone tools can basically be ruled out.

At first, he also suspected that the murderer used the handle of a knife to drive the iron nail in, but after trying twice, he vetoed this speculation.

After all, this is a key project funded by the royal family, and the wood used is extremely hard.

If you want to use the handle of a knife to knock in, I'm afraid you have to have at least half of Sun Shaozong's strength, and the requirements for the material of the handle are far beyond the normal range.

After all, the handle of the knife is not easy to exert force on the one hand, and on the other hand it is hollow [need to clamp the tail of the knife].

Although there is no shortage of powerful warriors in the world, the chances of being willing to smash nails with such precious swords and being bumped by Sun Shaozong should not be too high.

"Is there any wood piled nearby?"

"This……"

Huang Bin met eyes with a dozen of his subordinates, and then shook their heads one by one.

In this way, the murderer was either a tool found from afar, or a weapon he had prepared himself.

But no matter what it is, it further proves that the murderer must have planned carefully before committing the crime, rather than a temporary idea.

It was even very possible that he had already surveyed the scene before committing the crime!

"Come on!"

Thinking of this, Sun Shaozong ordered decisively: "Pull this corpse from above, and bring all the officials who were on duty last night and the night watchmen."

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Chapter 841 'Heaven' Master's Mansion [Part [-]]

[I've been in a bad state recently, allow me to adjust, starting from tomorrow with [-] characters - um, try to hold on for a few more days...]

"Except for the few ladders in the main hall, there is nothing else to steal. It's easier to check at night..."

"My lord, it's not that I want to shirk my responsibilities. It's really difficult to handle this job. It's a cold winter, and there are not enough people at night. There are only three people keeping watch at night. This is huge..."

"Yes, yes, the humble job understands, the humble job understands! Talk about business, talk about business!"

"Right now, the side halls on the east and west sides are being repaired. The main entrance is locked, and no one usually enters or exits, so it wasn't until after the time of day that a few Liba came to move the ladder, only to find a headless corpse hanging on it. "

"Then they called Beizhi over. Seeing that there was a serious murder case, Beizhi immediately had someone notify the superior, and then sent someone to Shuntian Mansion to report the case."

"Shuntian Mansion is procrastinating. It's almost noon when we arrived here. But before we could start the investigation, we heard that the case was transferred to Dali Temple. Now..."

"Ah? Timber? Of course there is wood! It's piled up in the backyard. They are all high-quality materials, so the night watchmen rest near there at night."

"Has it been touched? This... I have to ask the person on duty last night."

——Feng Yinglong, head of the Department of Construction and Repairs of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

…………

"The villain was on duty last night."

"No, no, no, the villain just has a name in the household department, so... he can't be regarded as an official."

"Yesterday... Yesterday we mainly turned around the backyard and the east and west sides, because there is really nothing to steal here, so we left [la] behind."

"My lord, it's not like the villain does this alone. When others are on duty..."

"Wood? No one has touched it, right? When we watch the night, there is always someone in the house. It stands to reason..."

"You can't hide anything from your lord. It was the villain who stayed behind in the backyard yesterday."

"No, no, there is a dog in that courtyard. Even if the villain is blind and deaf, the dog will not react at all..."

"Eh?! It seemed to be called a few times, but I went out and looked around, but I didn't see anyone. Besides, after a while, the two night watchmen came back."

"When the dog barked? It should be the third watch... The third watch has just passed a quarter of an hour, right? The villain really can't remember exactly."

——Lin Baotian, a small foreman attached to the Ministry of Industry.

…………

"Master Mingjian, how do we know where we should patrol or not? The gentlemen told us to go there, so why don't we just go there?"

"I didn't hear anything wrong last night. Who would have thought that this would kill someone!"

— the night watchman.

…………

"The main hall was completed almost two months ago."

"Those ladders were brought up when the palace sent people to inspect and accept them last time. They must have been here for six or seven days."

"The side hall was built a few days ago, and a few ladders are enough. From now on, we are going to build the corridor. The more ladders, the better."

"I haven't seen any strangers coming these days..."