Relief

It seems that both the county supervisor and the county magistrate have sent people to come several times, because they handled the cases separately and gave confusing explanations to the families of the victims, but Xie Zhixu took advantage of the loopholes.

The peasant woman put the two into the courtyard. The door of the house was wide open. The light inside was dim, and the vision was blurred. Only one voice came out viciously—"Stupid women are ignorant, and they lure wolves in!"

Xie Zhixu and Wu Li looked at each other.

As if she had never heard of it, the peasant woman pointed to the side room with the door tightly closed and said to the two: "The corpse is parked in that room, and no one has touched it except those from your county."

The voice in the house shouted again: "Get out! Get out!"

Xie Zhixu arched his hands towards the open door: "Brother, we are from the county to investigate the cause of Lingtang's death..."

That person didn't listen to Xie Zhixu at all, and kept yelling and cursing: "You lose money! You bastard!"

It doesn't sound like scolding the officials from the county.

Xie Zhixuan moved in his heart, and looked at Wu Li, but Wu Li was chatting with the peasant woman.

"Is your husband inconvenient? Why do you only talk in the house and don't go out to see each other?"

The peasant woman sneered: "Being bitten by the lazy bugs on the couch can't get up." After finishing speaking, she pushed the door of the mortuary room impatiently: "You two officials, please hurry up, the corpse has been parked for a long time. I'm not easy to clean up either."

I don't know what that thatched house was used for. There was no light in the house, and it was pitch black. When the door was opened, there was a musty smell of firewood mixed with an indescribable rotten smell.

Wu Li stood at the door for only a second, his face turned pale, he pinched his nose and retched.

Xie Zhixu thoughtfully took out a square scarf from his sleeve and handed it to him.

The peasant woman pushed the door so quickly that Xie Zhixu had time to fold the square scarf in thirds and tie it on his nose.

Wu Li took a step back, looked at his white and clean robes, and retreated: "No, there is no need, little brother, I will wait for you outside..." That's all.

Before he finished speaking, a bean-sized light suddenly lit up in the dark hut. It turned out that the peasant woman had already entered the house of the dead without changing her face, and lit the oil lamp.

"..." Wu Li took the scarf and tied it under his nose, and walked into the dim hut with his chest out, "If it's too late for you, I'll go into battle myself."

It turned out to be a firewood room, with hay and firewood piled up all around, and a space was cleared in the middle, where two tables were put together.A yellowish white cloth covered it from head to toe, with a shape protruding from the bottom.

The peasant woman stood up holding an oil lamp, shining a faint light on the white cloth: "Please."

The three previous corpses were all parked in the yamen's office room, not to mention the bright light, and they were accompanied by officials inside and out.Examining a strange corpse in such a strange atmosphere, Xie Zhixu looked up at the peasant woman and swallowed.

With a blank expression on her face, the peasant woman skillfully lifted the white cloth by a corner.The rancid and sour smell in the firewood room exploded immediately.

She put the oil lamp on the corner of the table, and carefully folded the oil-yellow burial cloth with spots and bruises along the diagonal.

Wu Li trembled against Xie Zhixu's arm.

Xie Zhixu frowned.

The body was lying on the table.

Or rather, stick to the table.

Although the weather is not yet hot, it may have been left for a long time, and the fat has begun to dissolve.There are even mildew spots on the part where the lower side meets the tabletop.

The body of this wrinkled old woman was recorded in the file as dying with bleeding from the seven orifices and foaming at the mouth, but now these signs have been cleaned up, leaving only three black holes still swollen in horror on the face.The mouth that was the size of an adult's fist was filled with blackness, and a few worms came out after a while.

Xie Zhixu heard that Wu Li was retching again, and he asked the peasant woman, "Did the deceased have such long hair and nails before he was alive?"

Hair and nails are the suspects in this case.

I couldn't see clearly in the dim light before, but after careful observation, I found that the dead man was lying on the table, but his hair was hanging down to the ground, and the height of the pile was no higher than the instep.The nails on both hands were also growing crazily, almost as long as the fingers. Because they were too long, the tips curled up and pierced into the flesh backwards.

"No," said the peasant woman. "Didn't the people who came before you say that it takes seven or eight years of death to grow?"

There was another yelling and cursing outside, vaguely cursing that the sun is almost setting, and the dead woman is not cooking yet.

The peasant woman left the woodshed without saying a word.

Xie Zhixu felt a little guilty, he didn't dare to glance at the corpse, he stared at the pile of hair under the table and said, "It's strange."

Wu Li covered his mouth, his voice was weak: "What's so strange? How can dead people grow nails and hair?"

"Yes," Xie Zhixu analyzed, "after death, all life activities will stop. It is nonsense for a dead person to grow hair. A living person can't grow so many nails and hair in one day, let alone a dead person? I think , This should be the sudden growth of hair and nails for some reason before the old woman died. And this is probably the cause of her death."

Wu Li: "Well said, what is the reason?"

Xie Zhixu moved the oil lamp to his eyes, and took out the "Tangmen Hundred Poisons Encyclopedia" from his arms: "Let me check the information later."

Wu Li snatched the book over with his hands: "Where to check is not to check! Why are you reading in the morgue! Hurry up and find out about the corpse first, wouldn't it be better to go out and breathe fresh air and flip through the book!"

Xie Zhixu then put on the animal gut gloves, and pulled the messy dry hair from the top of the corpse's head.

Judging from the texture alone, it is scorched gray and white, and it is indeed the hair of a dead body, but if you remove the surface layer, there are relatively fresh and resilient white hairs underneath.

The broken hair on the outside dragged to the ground, but the white hair on the inside was just normal length.

Although the specific direction is unclear, Xie Zhixu knew this was a key point, and raised his head to exchange a look with Wu Li.

There was another loud noise of smashing objects from outside.

"Broom star! Money-losing goods!"

Xie Zhixu felt uncomfortable when he heard it: "There is no one in the world who beats and scolds his wife like this!"

Wu Li snorted coldly: "The young master really doesn't know the sufferings of the world."

Xie Zhixu was a little angry: "Senior brother, you say that, is this normal?"

Wu Li said: "Let me ask you, do you know what is the main taxation in this dynasty?"

Xie Zhixu frowned.

"Taxation is mainly based on household tax, especially for tenants. A family can only cultivate one piece of land for generations. In this case, there are only a very small number of families. Look at this farming family, except for a couple who are nearly fifty years old. husband and wife and a deceased mother-in-law, is there something missing?"

Wu Li sighed: "In a family without offspring, the position of the wife is in jeopardy."

Xie Zhixu hadn't thought of this level yet, he opened his mouth and was speechless.

Wu Li said: "Have you seen it? If you've seen it, go out, it smells really bad."

The hostess was still huddled in the house without a trace, the peasant woman also disappeared, and smoke rose from the back of the hut.

The orange-red sunset slanted into the courtyard, and the compacted soil foundation was barren of grass, and it was brown and black by the soles accumulated over decades.

Wu Li was so irritated by the smoke that he retched while holding the camphor tree in the corner of the courtyard.

Xie Zhixu flipped through his "Compendium of Hundred Poisons" facing Tianguang.

The Tang Sect collected the world's strange poisons and compiled a complete poison book, and all the poisonous species that have been born in the world are recorded in detail in the book.

First, search the catalog for columns that are extremely toxic, see blood seal the throat, and cause extreme pain to the poisoned, and then add a condition-the seven orifices bleed and foam at the mouth.

There are quite a lot of query results.

Wu Li said weakly: "Don't turn it over, I know what it is."

Xie Zhixu followed him along, and said with concern: "Senior brother, you should take a breath first."

Wu Li said: "The old lady has been poisoned by the corpse. The hair on her head that keeps growing wildly is not her own at all. It is the zombie hair that was dug out from the ancient tomb and refined. It is very frightening to plant it in the scalp. The corpse was poisoned to the bone, and died suddenly within three days."

Xie Zhixu's expression froze, the burden that had been hanging on his heart finally fell heavily.

The zombie was found in the results of his search just now, and the inventor's name was also recorded in the encyclopedia.

Wu Li nodded and said: "This is our second brother's unique poison. Congratulations, little brother, you have found the right direction again."

The peasant woman wiped her hands with the corner of her skirt, walked into the front yard, and looked a little surprised to see them still there.Probably the previous few groups of official messengers came and went freely, and never greeted the host.

In fact, Xie Zhixu didn't want to say hello, and if the victim's family wanted an explanation, he hadn't figured out how to make it up.

But Wu Li still has something to ask.

"Can you tell us what happened before and after the incident? Did anything unusual happen, or did anyone else come in or out of the house?"

Wu Li is not like Xie Zhixu, who has a tender face and looks small. He is handsome with sword-shaped eyebrows, and he likes to wear white clothes from time to time.

Generally speaking, when Wu Li smiled at fellow women, he would speak well.But the peasant woman only said coldly: "You have asked many times, and I have said many times. Only one person came to ask for directions a few days ago, and nothing else."

Wu Li asked: "Do you still remember what the person who asked the way looked like?"

Before the peasant woman could answer, the eavesdropper in the house suddenly cursed loudly: "You are the broom star who led the wolf into the house!"

There is still a distance between the front yard and the house, and I don't know how that lazy person who can't get up on the couch can have such sharp ears.

The peasant woman said: "There are two people asking for directions, a young man in a two-wheeled cart, and a little girl in green clothes pushing the cart for him. I can't remember what she looks like." The peasant woman frowned: "You always ask How did my mother-in-law die after so many days without giving us a single explanation?"

The explanations given to the family members and the county government in the three previous cases were repeated in Xie Zhixuan's mind. He was about to speak when Wu Li waved his hands behind his back.

Wu Li said: "Ma'am, have you ever heard of the Corpse Club in Fengzhou in the northwest? It is a martial arts sect that lives in ancient tombs and specializes in refining various corpse poisons. According to our opinion, the poison in your mother-in-law is It is the corpse poison of Fengzhou Corpse Society."

The peasant woman has dealt with the fields all her life, and she may have seen a few heroes in the green forest, but she has never been connected with the martial arts. She heard in a cloud, and probably heard that the martial arts sects often commit murder. She said in horror: "Our family is far from the northwest. There is no grudge in the day, no hatred in the near future..."

Wu Li's voice was a little louder, and his words were very clear.

"In the Corpse Society, there is a senior who travels all over the world, known as the poisonous old monster. Because his own daughter was bullied by her husband's family after marrying a woman, and passed away at a young age, he especially dislikes the world's husband's family who treats his daughter-in-law harshly. He met him, and he must be punished. This case looks very similar to the handiwork of the poisonous old monster, but the truth cannot be concluded. In short, the two of you should be careful in the near future, so as not to touch his taboo."

The peasant woman opened her mouth slightly and looked at Wu Li.

Xie Zhixu also looked at Wu Li.

There was no sound in the house.

The peasant woman sent the two of them out of the courtyard, clutching the skirts with her fingers, her attitude improved a lot, but she still looked a little worried: "Is what you just said true? Northwest martial arts or something..."

Wu Li said: "Don't worry, people in martial arts never kill at will, even if it is a cult, they will not do it for no reason. It must be that some people have committed a taboo. And if you commit a crime, you should run away. The murderer will never stay here. The two of us brothers are going to catch the criminal."

When he was in the teacher's school, Xie Zhixu admired the eloquence of his third senior brother who can speak nonsense and return it.

The peasant woman wiped the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand, and her voice changed slightly: "I really didn't expect that there are still people doing such a thing in the world."

Xie Zhixu saw his senior brother clenched his fist behind his back.

Can't get off the stage, people really believe it.

Wu Li bluntly changed the subject: "By the way, Madam, let me ask you, is your mother-in-law a native of Yi County? Have you ever stayed in other places before?"

The peasant woman shook her head: "Our family is all sharecroppers. We haven't left the leased land for decades, and we rarely even go to the county town."

After she finished speaking, she thought about it again, probably because the memory was too far away, it took some time to recall, but she finally remembered something: "That's right! When I got married, my mother-in-law just came back from Suzhou. I heard that she used to live in Suzhou. A rich family gets a lot of money as a servant, why don't they get the money to marry a daughter-in-law?"