Did the salted fish turn over today?

Three months later.

In the summer of the sixth year of Qinghua, Huizhou City in the southwest of Dachen.

As soon as Fang entered Xia Huizhou, it rained continuously, and the people in the city were panicked, fearing that there would be a flood. Fortunately, they heard an oracle descended from the sky in the capital.Auspiciousness descended from the sky, and people in Huizhou worshiped the sky and prayed for blessings, hoping that God would bless the world and avoid floods in the world.

That day and night, the sound of landslides resounded throughout the city, and the people shouted and rushed to the streets in disheveled clothes, thinking that the dam collapsed and flooded the city, but they ran the mountains and streets but found that the city was safe and sound, so they looked at each other before returning.

The next morning, the city gate opened, and the first group of people who left the city early yawned and chatted about the strange things of last night. After a while, Da Zhuang, who was the first to leave the city, ran back to the city gate screaming, "Dead man! ! Someone died!!!"

It turned out that the dam outside the city did collapse last night. Fortunately, it did not affect the city, but a large number of corpses rushed out of the waterway, and the people went to the outside of the city to watch.There are corpses everywhere, old and young, men and women, and even babies wrapped in swaddling clothes, which have been swollen from blisters. There are at least a hundred or so corpses. I couldn't help but vomited aside.

"It's too long to be around here!" The stern voice made the people turn their heads in surprise. The person who came was a young man in his early twenties with sharp eyebrows and stars. Most people in the city knew him. He was the squire Duan's family. Duan Jiyao, his only son, is also the head catcher of the Huizhou government office. This is the government's visit to check the situation.

Looking at the dead bodies everywhere, Duan Jiyao couldn't help frowning and ordered: "Hurry up and drive everyone away! If these corpses are infected with the plague, the whole city will suffer!"

The policemen began to clean up the people on the scene. Some people didn't want to leave, but they were frightened by the momentum of the policemen drawing their knives, so they had no choice but to leave unwillingly.Duan Jiyao sneered impatiently, and Qi Shuo, who pulled his sleeves to collect the corpse, said, "Go and ask the boy who found the corpse." Qi Shuo looked at him helplessly, and walked to the side trembling strong man.

Duan Jiyao gathered the package on the baby, feeling quite uncomfortable in his heart, and Lao Yang, who was at the side, couldn't help cursing: "What a crime!"

After driving away the people, the police officers returned to the scene. Lao Yang's nephew, Xiao Yang, who was also a police officer, walked up to Duan Jiyao, bumped into Duan Jiyao unhappily, and said, "Boss, you are really partial. Leave it to us, why don't you let Qi Shuo go!"

Duan Jiyao slapped him on the back of the head: "You're the one who talks too much." Xiao Yang smiled, turned around and went to work with the others.

In the beginning, everyone was joking and chatting, but gradually everyone stopped talking and just cleaned up their work in silence.An hour later, seeing nearly [-] naked corpses on the ground, everyone was red-eyed. A policeman who had just become a father walked up to the dead body of the child, and silently took off his underwear for a child. Cover the body.

Duan Jiyao was quiet for a moment and ordered: "After recording the number, surround this place and don't let the people come over."

Over there, Qi Shuo walked over with the trembling man, handed the record in his hand to Duan Jiyao, and said slowly: "He knows, everything is here, here. One, early in the morning, he found out about this, and was frightened." arrive."

Duan Jiyao nodded and said: "You take him back to the county government first, and I will go back soon after Lao Yang checks it out."

Qi Shuo nodded and hummed, then turned his head to look at the corpses all over the place, with a look of unbearable expression on his face.Duan Jiyao opened his palm to cover his eyes, turned his head back and reprimanded lightly: "Hurry up!"

After driving away Qi Shuo, Duan Jiyao began to examine the corpses carefully.Everyone died from knife wounds, and almost every corpse had punctured knife wounds on the back. Obviously, the murderer made a second round of surrender to ensure that no one was alive.Most of the corpses had no clothes. It should be that their clothes had different characteristics, so they were taken off by the murderer.

Duan Jiyao reached out and opened the baby's package, and frowned as he looked at the lining of the quilt.There are dark lines on the white cloth of the lining, and the craftsmanship and characters are familiar, but I can't remember where I saw it for a while.

As the sun rose gradually, the smell of corpses made people's stomachs churn more and more. Duan Jiyao patted the busy Lao Yang and said, "Don't be too busy, leave a few suspicious corpses, and find someone to send the corpses to Burial in the mass grave, I will go back first to report."

Old Yang let out a long sigh, even though he didn't want to, there are so many corpses, even a few more forensic inspections would not be enough, so he had to ask Xiao Yang to find some idlers to carry the corpses.

Huizhou government office.

Li Kainian, governor of Huizhou, looked at the two documents on the table with a solemn expression, one was Qi Shuo's confession, and the other was the details of the corpse in the suburbs.Duan Jiyao stood under the hall and said: "If it wasn't for the heavy rain, these corpses would not have been discovered. So many corpses were left outside the city, and my subordinates ordered them to be buried for fear of causing a plague."

Li Kainian nodded slightly: "I know, you did a good job. Is the identity of these corpses clear?"

Duan Jiyao shook his head: "It can only be seen that there are more elderly and adults in the corpses, I don't know anything else, and those corpses are not covered, and there are no items to check for the time being."

Li Kainian sighed: "I have been stationed in Huizhou for many years, and such a tragedy has never happened. Fortunately, the inspector censor just left a few days ago, otherwise I don't know how to explain to him."

Duan Jiyao bowed his head and remained silent, Li Kainian ordered: "I leave this matter to you, you must find out the source of the corpse and see where the responsibility lies." Duan Jiyao bowed his fists and exited the hall, couldn't help but sneer.

Walking to the front of the government office, Qi Shuo, who had been waiting there all this time, saw Duan Jiyao come out and immediately went up to meet him and asked, "Why, how is it? My lord, what did you say?"

Duan Jiyao reached out and tapped his forehead: "Small stammer." Seeing that Qi Shuo's brows were wrinkled, he stopped joking and said seriously: "My lord said to check the identity of the corpse first. But I want to get rid of the identities of these people." Clearly, we have to go upstream to find it along the river, will you come with me?"

Qi Shuo shook his head and raised his hand to signal him to stop talking. Duan Jiyao knew that he was recalling the map of Huizhou, so he folded his arms and waited. Qi Shuo rolled his eyes and muttered something, and after a while he blurted out: "Up, Up Up Yes, Mangshan Mountain!" Duan Jiyao pinched his face and sighed, "As expected of my family, Ah Shuo! The name of the live map is really not for nothing."

Qi Shuobai glanced at him and asked: "But Mang Mountain is so big, if you want, go, where can you find it?"

Duan Jiyao thought for a while and said to him: "Go to Lao Yang first, I have to get something."

When the two came to Yizhuang in the outskirts of the city, Duan Jiyao asked Lao Yang for the baby's package, removed the cotton and left only the outer skin, and washed it by the river.Qi Shuo squatted on the ground and looked at the small quilt, with a sad expression on his face: "He is still so, so small... There is no blood on the quilt, so he was drowned alive." Duan Jiyao raised his head. The washed cloth was dried, and he comforted: "So we have to find out their identities and seek justice for them."

The two basked in the sun for a long time, and finally waited for the fabric to dry. Qi Shuo looked at the more obvious dark lines on the inner lining and exclaimed: "Really, there is something!"

Duan Jiyao smiled helplessly: "Do you think this pattern is a bit strange?"

Qi Shuo shook his head, Duan Jiyao pulled him and said, "Go back, go to the tailor shop and ask."

It is really specialized in art, the clerk of the tailor shop only took one look, and then told the origin of the dark lines: "No wonder Duan Butou has never seen it before, this is called batik, not our Dachen's craft."

Duan Jiyao said: "Isn't it Dachen's craft?"

The buddy nodded: "Yes, Dachen likes to use embroidery to make dark patterns, and many other tribes in Huizhou like to use batik."

"Then can you tell which tribe's craftsmanship it is?" Duan Jiyao asked.

The little guy scratched his head and smiled awkwardly: "Aren't you embarrassing me, my lord? There are so many tribes in the southwest, and the craftsmanship of batik is not much different. How does this villain know!"

Qi Shuo spread out the white cloth lining, called the waiter to come over and said slowly: "Then, take a look, what is this pattern, can you recognize it?"

The clerk took a white cloth and checked it carefully, then shook his head: "Don't blame me, my lord, I really can't see it!" Qi Shuo stretched out his hand to take back the disappointment in the evidence's eyes, and Duan Jiyao was about to comfort him when the clerk Suddenly he said with an oh: "I remembered, there is a embroidered woman on the next street who came from a tribe in the southwest, sir, should I ask her?"

Following the staff to the embroidery workshop, the embroiderer told them that there are many ethnic groups in the Southwest, and the customs of each ethnic group are different. For example, her ethnic group believes in the frog god, and many of the items of the tribe have the image of the frog god printed on them.

"Then is this the Frog God?" Duan Jiyao asked.

Xiu Niang shook her head: "I've never seen this pattern, but I'm sure it's not from our clan."

The two of them who were full of confidence at first did not expect that the origin of the small pattern was not easy to find out. Seeing that there was no harvest at night, a embroiderer walked out of the house and asked the embroiderer to go to dinner with her. The white cloth on the cloth asked in confusion, "Huh?"

Qi Shuo immediately said vigilantly: "You, have you seen, seen?"

The embroiderer looked at Qi Shuo, who had a face like a crown of jade, and blushed and hummed: "A few days ago, a strangely dressed person brought a bunch of embroidery for sale. I helped the shopkeeper inspect the goods. I have seen this pattern before, but because I have never seen it before, I asked too much."

Speaking of which, the embroiderer seemed to have thought of something bad, she curled her lips and snorted displeasedly: "That man is a rascal! His mouth is dirty."

Duan Jiyao asked: "Then did he say where all these things come from?"

The embroidered lady thought for a while: "He said what kind of tribe, what kind of snake tribe, or python tribe, and said that they are tribes offering sacrifices, and these embroidery products are all offering sacrifices to the python god. The products are really exquisite, so the shopkeeper took them away."

Qi Shuo urged her to think again, saying that this matter is very important, Xiao Xiu Niang blushed and nodded, and after a while she said, "It seems, it seems to be such a clan, I have never heard of the name." Niang took the conversation and asked, "Is it the Nakang tribe? They are the only ones who believe in snake gods."

The little xiuniang nodded again and again to indicate that this was the case. Qi Shuo's mind turned quickly, and then he turned to Duan Jiyao and said, "Nakang, the Nakang family is located in the depths of Mangshan Mountain!"

On the second day, Duan Jiyao and Qi Shuo took orders from the government office and went to investigate the Nakang people in the depths of Mang Mountain.

Duan Jiyao was silent along the way, Qi Shuo asked slowly, "What, what's wrong?"

"I always feel that something is wrong." Duan Jiyao frowned, "Yesterday I reported the dark pattern... Forget it, maybe I was thinking too much."

Qi Shuo said in relief, "Come on, such a big thing happened, don't worry too much."

After walking along the winding mountain road for a long time, crossing the dense bamboo forest, they saw the shadow of the village when they were surrounded by a group of young people in different clothes, armed with weapons.Duan Jiyao jumped off his horse, raised the document in his hand and said in a loud voice: "I'm the servant of Huizhou government office. I'm ordered to come to investigate the case. Please let us in. I need to see your chieftain for some things."

That group of people didn't seem to understand the official language. Duan Jiyao was about to speak, when an old voice came from behind them: "There is no case in our clan, please go back, sir."

Qi Shuo jumped off his horse, took out the white cloth from his bosom and handed it over, "This, this, is from your clan, right?"

The young man in front of him stepped aside, and an old man with a cane came out, looked at the thing in Qi Shuo's hand and frowned, "Although Nakang has an order not to make friends with foreigners in private, it is inevitable that some people will go out, this thing is not Strange."

Duan Jiyao said seriously: "Then what if this thing appeared on the corpse? Isn't it surprising?"

The old man was startled, and after a moment of silence, he let out a long sigh and waved his hand to let him go.

The two followed the old man and approached the village. The old man took them to a courtyard and told them that this was the chieftain's residence. Then he staggered and turned around, and said in a leisurely voice: "There will always be outsiders disturbing, disaster is coming!"

The two looked at each other strangely, and they walked into the chieftain's house under the guidance of the servants and walked to the main hall. Only then did they understand the meaning of the old man's words.

Above the main seat in the hall sits Chieftain Nakang, and on the seat under his left hand sits a young gentleman in brocade clothes. The young gentleman seems to be only in his prime, and behind him stands a young attendant with a long knife at his waist. The appearance is a little younger, and they don't look more than [-] years old. The appearance and dress of these two people are obviously not from the southwestern tribe. No wonder the old man said that.

Seeing the two of them coming in, Nakang Chieftain looked a little impatient, the young man nodded at them with a smile on his face, Duan Jiyao nodded out of politeness, Nakang Chieftain asked them what was the matter in a bad tone, Duan Jiyao After telling about the corpse outside the city of Huizhou, the chieftain frowned and asked, "What does this have to do with us?"

Qi Shuo handed over the white cloth, and Duan Jiyao said, "This thing was found on those corpses. It's the lining of a baby's parcel. Do you still think it has nothing to do with you?"

The young gentleman at the side suddenly said: "Since this is the case now, will Mr. Chieftain still insist?"

Duan Jiyao and the two were stunned, and saw chieftain Nakang frowning, hesitating for a moment and then said dejectedly: "Forget it, you can check if you want, there is only one thing, don't disturb my people." The young man smiled slightly: "This is nature."

Fang Cai was still extremely vigilant but suddenly let go at this time, which made Duan Qi and the two puzzled, but at least they were allowed to investigate the case, which was a good start.

The two visited around and found out that the Nakang people live in different tribes. Because they believe in the snake god, each tribe is named after a different snake. Nakang does not intermarry with other tribes, but each tribe intermarries with each other. , they are in charge of all the sacrificial matters of the Nakang people. In order to ensure the purity of divinity, they do not intermarry with outsiders.Qi Shuo inquired with a girl that the dark lines on the white cloth were the unique patterns of the anaconda, which was intended to protect the health and safety of the newborn child. Thinking that the child it had wrapped was already a corpse, Qi Shuo felt sore.

At the end of the day's visit, they lived in the house arranged by the chieftain. There was a special person on duty here, and it seemed that they were still on guard against outsiders.After sorting out the clues they collected all day, they decided to wait until tomorrow and go to the anaconda department, which is well known in the clan population, to check it out.