Extranodal branches

The information obtained from a single autopsy is far from enough. I need accurate case records and witness statements. These are all placed in the county office's file room. That room is never locked, but I have always wanted to be discovered. Investigate the case secretly, and only when no one is in the case file room will they go in to find evidence.

Until one time I was too immersed in the case, and after looking through it for a long time, I raised my eyes and saw Qing Ming smoking a cigarette in a daze in my direction from the gap in the bookshelf.

He was so quiet, he didn't know when he came in, there was a lot of case books spread out on the desk, and he didn't turn the pages for a long time.He seemed to be thinking about the connection, his eyes wandered with the smoke, he noticed my gaze, he sighed, and asked me: Are you also looking at this case?

His sigh really seemed to be regretful, it was the embarrassment of having to greet me.Since the last public test on my homework, I have been detoured for a few days, which almost made me doubt again whether he is as secretive as I speculated.But one thing is certain, he must keep a respectful distance from the matter of accepting apprentices. If it wasn't for the letter from his senior brother, he probably wouldn't have even glanced at his "apprentice".

In all fairness, I don't like his way of living. It reminds me of the lazy Yaksha in the murals of the Buddhist hall. It seems that he can't see anything and has nothing to do with him. A dry well that makes noise.

"Just take a look, is there anything Master needs?"

"Look at yours, don't pay attention to me." He lowered his eyes, in my opinion, he was going to change his point of view in a daze.

Thinking that the few case files that I couldn’t find anywhere were in front of him, I subtly hated that kind of attitude that was close to passive sabotage. Since I didn’t need to care about him, I completely treated him as air, thanked Master, and pulled out The corner of the book closest to him on the table brushed against his side face, but the smoker in front of me didn't even bat an eye.

Forget it, I never expected the government to solve the case.

The case file here is much more detailed than the previous ones, and there are even a lot of small pieces of paper summarizing doubtful points, which made my thinking clearer.

In the three flower-picking cases, the victims were all young ladies from rich families. Starting from the Gutao Post Station, the murderer’s destination kept getting closer to Gutao Town. The next two cases all happened in the town, and the third case showed obvious differences. , the testimony of the witnesses changed from a man in black to a man in white, and the murderer's style became even bolder and bolder - night walkers are very common in Xu Hai, a place where warriors gather, but there are not many white clothes, and they are living targets to attract the attention of other knights , if the light work is not fast enough, it is very likely that people will remember their appearance.

It's like changing the person in the middle, or familiarizing with the method of committing the crime, and need to show the real purpose, so the white clothes and the rich and powerful are used to hint and provoke.

But if the purpose was to kill people, why did the murderer kill a farmer who couldn't beat him?If I acted in a high-profile way for a certain purpose, it would be the easiest to kill the big lady who has been violated by the stun, and the disturbance caused by the wealthy businessman and gentry afterwards would be even greater.

Could it be that the farmer saw the murderer's face?

At this time, I noticed that there was a piece of paper under the file that had not been included in this file. The handwriting on the paper was similar to this detailed file, which recorded the farmer's life and some conjectures.

He is not a servant hired by this family. It is rumored secretly in the neighborhood that he is a bachelor who likes to wander around at night and spy on women sleeping.

The red mud in the crevices of the corpse's armor was consistent with the red bricks on the outer wall of the young lady's courtyard. There happened to be a stone table for playing chess next to the wall in the courtyard where the crime happened. A little voice entered, and the reason why he appeared there that night can be imagined.It's just that he accidentally bumped into the murderer and was brutally silenced.

But the murderer has such a deep hatred, can he vent his anger by cutting off his entire neck?

If there was no such farmer, would the murderer not have thought of killing even if he wanted to sing high-profile and put on white clothes?

The analysis in the case file ends here, but the murderer's logic has been grasped under the existing clues. It seems that the yamen is not just for dry food.I closed the book, only to see Qing Ming scribbling boredly in the inkstone with a vermilion pen in his hand. He waited for me to put down the book before taking it over and opening it to continue writing.

The entire case, all the relatively clear records and analysis, was originally written by him,

But he would rather wait for me who doesn't know when I will put down the case file, than take the initiative to ask me for it.

"Master wrote it very clearly, have you thought of anything else?"

"The police will write like this." He shook his head, "There may be more than one murderer, I'm a little confused."

"Two people?" Thinking of Xue Guike, my heart skipped a beat.

"The first two times," he pointed to the case files on one side, "the victimized women said that they felt extremely cold in the room when they woke up. Caused by something. This kind of vague subjective feeling is not a characteristic. There is no need for the murderer to make a special arrangement, and it is likely that it was left unintentionally. This time, it did not, which means that the person who raped the woman was not the same person as the previous two times. "

After saying such a long paragraph, he stopped to take a puff of cigarette before continuing: "Plus, the murderer is so good at lightness, why didn't he find the farmer across the window, and didn't rush to kill and escape until the assault was over? If it's two people, then there's an explanation."

Indeed, the blue powder left by Xue Guike means that his life can be saved in the face of a strong enemy. If the murderer is found out by him, he must also think that he is a difficult pursuer. The guy controlled by his side to prevent him from slipping away to report, and even at a critical moment, he would be forced to board the same thief ship.If the murderer took him that night and asked him to rape the woman on her behalf, the two would have a dispute, and it was very possible to ignore the farmer outside the window for a while.

But I know about Xue Guike, but he doesn't. How did he figure it out?

"When two people work together, there shouldn't be one more person to let the air go. How could it be discovered? Why did Master say there is an explanation?"

"I went to the scene, half of the bed curtain in the boudoir was torn off, I pulled it, that kind of silk and satin can only be pulled by a woman's strength, and the murderer raped her before, so there is no need to use the bed curtain to restrain her Unless there is another person with equal strength to the murderer, the bed curtain was torn off during the fight between the two. Because of this, the farmer was not found in time."

This clue in the case file was hidden in the description of the interior decoration that was messed up by the victimized woman, so I skipped it without paying attention.

"It is said that the force is equal, but it is not always the case. If it is a stranger, with the murderer's vigilance, he must have killed him early, or the fight will be turned upside down. It is impossible to negotiate like this. One should go first, and the other will leave the aftermath. I don't understand. Why did the murderer find another accomplice to work against him?"

He spoke hoarsely, and subconsciously went to get the teapot, but when he picked it up, he found that it was already empty. I took the teapot from him and said, "I'm going to pour tea."

"Ah! Cough cough cough..."

However, he gasped in surprise, withdrew his hand suddenly as if he had been stabbed by my hand, and put it to his mouth to cough as if to cover up.

"Master, what's wrong?"

"No, it's fine, thank you."

—He seems to be very resistant to physical contact with people.

I remembered that when we first met, he caught me who jumped from the eaves, and he pushed me away quickly; he taught me to play the flute, but I never did it myself, and I used a cigarette stick instead.

Does this habit have anything to do with his visits to the morgue in the middle of the night?

I secretly made a note.

When I came back from making tea, there was an extra policeman in the file room, it seemed that there was a new case, the county magistrate ordered him to lead someone to investigate, and I heard him begging Qingming to take over from afar.

"I haven't been back to my hometown to see my mother for a month. My lord approved the leave at first, but I forgot about the approval when I turned around when there was a case. Do you have anything to do these days? Can you help me go to the scene if you have nothing to do?" Just a walk? Just a walk, I'll be back tomorrow."

"It's okay, you can go back and visit relatives."

"Thank you, thank you!"

Qing Ming's voice was almost hoarse, and his voice was as ugly as sawing wood.I brought in the tea, he took a few sips and then raised the pipe again: "You heard that too, do you want to come with me?"

To be honest, I have no interest in other cases at all, but under the disguise of his apprentice, at least the appearance must be good, not to mention that this is the first time he took me to the scene, if I refuse, I am afraid I will never investigate again Opportunity to get first-hand information on the spot.

"What's the case?"

"There is a family of wolfberry medicine farmers outside Gutao Town. The circled woods seemed to be broken by wild animals last night. He felt something was wrong."

"If there are real beasts, I can help a little bit. Does Master want to bring some more people?"

"No, follow me closely, don't run around." He stepped across the threshold smoking a cigarette, made a light starting posture, then stopped suddenly, and turned to walk through the main entrance.

He remembered that my leg was hurt.

"If the matter is urgent, Master can go first, and there is no need to accommodate me."

He shook his head: "Just follow me closely."

The forest was seriously damaged, like a dozen monkeys ran in, gnawed and bitten and made a big fuss, leaving broken branches and leaves.The fruit is rotten and blended into the soil, and the sight is sparse and luxuriant. The land is crimson, which is a bit scary at first glance.

The Yaonong picked up the wolfberry branches that were still in good condition, and choked up and said: "Just one night, this autumn is all for nothing, how can we live in winter!"

"It's not like the beasts do it."

The master squatted down and pulled the ground goji berries from the mud, and explained: "At this time of year, most of the migratory birds have migrated south, and the ones who stay either don't eat this thing, or are too small to cause such a big damage. They can crawl There are beasts of trees, but they can eat so much in one night, it can only be a group action. The only beasts that Xu Hai moves in groups are wolves and embarrassments, and they don't eat this."

"Yeah, I've been thinking about it the same way. I really can't figure it out. I'm afraid it's some kind of powerful beast I haven't seen before, so I ask you to check it out." Yao Nong said.

While following Yao Nong, he observed the crushed fruits and branches from time to time, and asked for a while, "Generally speaking, the bigger ones are sweeter, right?"

"Of course, if the fruit is big, it will be full of polysaccharides. Birds like to eat the big ones. They are more effective in medicine and are easy to sell."

I understand, since I came here, the forest has been more and more damaged, and there are more and more red spots on the ground, but the strange thing is that among the wolfberries that were destroyed instead of disappearing, the proportion of large ones is increasing high.

This is what people do.

He then asked, "Who else grows goji berries around here?"

"Several families have seen my forest suffer, and they are busy cleaning up the thorns, fences and traps."

"Well, I'll watch over tonight, just keep quiet."

"Thank you sir!"

I guessed that this was mostly caused by the jealousy of other drug farmers. It is not the harvest time, if it is the murderer, there will be extra wolfberries at home.And with this kind of extreme mentality of destroying if you can't get it, you will probably pick and destroy the farmhouses that haven't had time to strengthen their defenses tonight. If you are lucky, you can catch someone's stolen goods and get it.

"Put this on when it's cold." He squatted next to me, and distanced himself from me by taking off his clothes. He put his robe on my shoulders, and the faint smell of cigarettes immediately permeated his body.

I have been lurking with him in the shadowy medlar forest, and we have been waiting for more than two hours since Moonrise, during which time I tested his tolerance for distance from time to time.

But when they got to the distance where they could feel the heat from each other's bodies, he couldn't bear it anymore, and moved his head back a little bit, but the expression didn't look like disgust or anger, but rather, fear?

"Aren't you cold, Master? You have goosebumps all over your arms." I finally saw the right moment, grabbed his wrist, and put half of the coat on him.I was already close to him in physique, and now I used a method of almost embracing him to suddenly shorten the distance.However, the moment his wrist was grasped, his body bounced exaggeratedly, and his legs suddenly knelt down into the soil limply.

A gasp that could not be completely suppressed escaped from his hoarse throat. He quickly shook off my hand, threw away his robe, straightened up and rushed towards the forest.

He caught a furtive figure.

The heat from his wrist still remained on my fingertips, I picked up the robe that was thrown on the ground and walked towards him, and I saw from a distance that the figure was the owner of another medlar grove.

I don't know if he's trying to hide from me, or if he really can do two things at once, he's really amazing.

"Congratulations, master, for catching the prisoner. Were you feeling unwell just now?"

He grabbed the prisoner by the back of the collar, seemingly unable to control his own strength for a moment, and almost lifted the little Yao Nong into the air. Hearing this, he returned to his senses, loosened Yao Nong's collar, shook his head at me, and asked the Yao Nong again: "Take us to your house."

That night, we found extra fresh goji berries in the cellar of that family, which belonged to the part that had disappeared from the previously reported drug farms and forests. We returned the stolen goods to the original owners overnight and escorted the prisoner back to the county government.

Unexpectedly, when I woke up the next day, I realized that there was another rape case in the city, and this time the victim was killed.

In order to preserve the reputation, the victim's family wanted to bury the woman's body as a cover-up, but the murderer deliberately hung her blood-stained clothes on the top of the city gate, showing off too much.No matter how hard the wealthy businessman's family tried to seal their mouths, they couldn't stop the fear that spread like a flood. Everyone was afraid that their own family members would be the next to suffer.

Amid such panic, rumors spread for some reason: "The flower picker in the serial case is a man in white with gray hair."

Near Gutao, Qingming is the only young man with gray hair and grayish black from a distance.

In the suspicious eyes of everyone in the yamen, fortunately, Yao Nong, who was involved in the previous case, came.

In order to discuss the matter of compensation and thank him for solving the case efficiently, he went to the Yamen, but he couldn't find Qing Ming, so he talked to other police officers about what happened the night before.

"Your Excellency won't let me speak out, for fear of scaring the snake, but now that the guy who stole my goji berries has been caught, I should be able to speak. Although the Lord is afraid that there are real beasts, I'd better stay at home, but I still can't help being curious. , secretly followed the lord to watch in the middle of the night, and his apprentice was there at that time, well, the little brothers over there can testify that the lord was outside Gutao Town last night."

I walked towards the crowd: "Master didn't delay all the way, and directly took the suspect back to the Yamen, and everyone knows what happened after that."

"Speaking of which, what about my lord? This fruit cake is a little handicraft of the little old man. I really want to deliver it to him personally." Holding a small burlap bag, he stooped and smiled and asked, "Little brother, can you take me to Where is Master Qingming?"

"follow me."

The spectators in the yamen dispersed quickly, and I saw that the dark thread of Feisheng Pavilion was also among them, so at the end of the evening at the most, the limelight of the rumors would change.

I led him to the file room, and sure enough, a new rape case came out, and Qing Ming was smoking inside again, filling the room with smoke.

Knowing Yao Nong's reason for coming, he said: "According to the current law, this case can't be shut down. After he confesses, he can only hit a dozen boards and throw it out. If you want to find him to recover the loss, you have to take advantage of it before the sentence." To force him to make written evidence, it is best to take the land deed or house deed as collateral, lest he default on the debt."

Yao Nong replied: "Hey, your lord is right, I will listen to you."

Qingming arranged the matter of Yao Nong, and when he returned, his face was obviously tired, his eyes were bloodshot, I suspect that he hasn't slept since he came back last night.

But he always looked sleepy, and this kind of thing is probably commonplace.

He sat back on the chair, took out a piece of fruit cake from Yaonong, and pushed the burlap bag towards me: "I haven't eaten since last night, are you hungry?"

"Thank you, Master. But why didn't you go to the scene of the case today?"

"Serial murders? They suspected that I did it, so they wouldn't let me go." He gnawed on the fruit cake, and answered me in a hoarse and ambiguous voice, "When others went to the scene, there were no records. here."

"But that's not what you did, I trust you."

"Whatever." He was not interested in my loyalty, and the ink pen kept on writing on the case book, "The murderer has another feature, a young man with gray hair and white clothes, who kills people with guns and a machete, with light skills extraordinary."

Previously, I always thought that the reason why the murderer stopped heading northwest from Gutao Station to Gutao Town was because Xue Guike was a burden, but today's rumors made me find a new way of thinking.

His destination is Gutao Town, and all the characteristics left on purpose - "white clothes", "woman from a rich family" and "gray hair" are all to suggest or demonstrate to someone.

However, after committing three cases, "someone" still didn't give the response he wanted. He became anxious, and then he got a clearer indication-the rumor that "the prisoner's hair is gray".

Could it be that his real purpose is Qing Ming?

For the next few days, Qing Ming spent the whole day in the file room, going through the newly recorded case over and over many times.I guess he should and has understood that he is the real target of the murderer, but maybe it has something to do with his lost memory, and everything is still at a loss.

He used to put the remaining fruit cakes in the kitchen for people in the yamen to take at will, but it was too unpalatable. I only took a bite in front of him that day, it was no less than swallowing gravel, and I never tasted it again. Touched, regardless of others.I just took a piece from the dog son raised by the fat cook, probably the same piece I saw next to the toilet in the backyard.

Then those fruit cakes disappeared, and I thought the cook threw them away.

Unexpectedly, he took it back again.

While he was eating, he looked at the time of the crime listed. The name of the victim and Xu Haitu were in a daze. Standing beside him, I could almost hear the rough sound of his teeth rubbing against the cake crumbs. Finally, I couldn’t help pouring tea Put it in front of him: "Is Master thirsty?"

I don't understand how he swallowed those rough fruit cakes without changing his face. He looked no different from his usual meals, as if he had ordinary snacks in his mouth, which he used to fill his stomach no matter what the taste.

He patted the cake crumbs off his hands, and said in a hoarse voice: "You don't have to, these days you just follow me to run the yamen, did you miss the practice, you can do yours."

"Yes, Master."

"You can do whatever you want. Don't wait on me. If you need practice time and guidance, just ask me directly. Senior brother entrusted you to me, not a maid for me."

"I've finished reading "Caiyu", Master."

"Take this one." He took out a new volume of "Drinking Flowers" from the cabinet and drove me out of the file room.

When I went to the study again in the evening, he was gone, and there was only half a pot of tea left. A new explanation was added to the case book on the table, and several circles were drawn, which finally pointed to Yu's house in the north of Zhenbei.

What did he remember, did he understand the message left by the murderer?

Did he know who the murderer was, so he sent me away on purpose?

The county government and Yu's house are one north and one south, and I didn't arrive until it was completely dark. My lightness kung fu can no longer be used, but my concealment ability has not been lost. I walked around Yu's house, and I saw Qing Ming hiding in the courtyard. In the shadow of the glazed unicorn.

It is not necessarily true that he is hiding, he is wearing the uniform of Yihua disciples, leaning against the glass statue to smoke, still dazzlingly white in the shadows.

It was the first time I saw him dressed so neatly, the rumored jade flute named "Qing Ming" was worn on his waist, the blue color was like ink, if it wasn't for the background of his smoky white silk clothes, he would almost blend into the deep night.He changed his posture, as if he had activated his internal energy, and the hem of his clothes moved automatically without any wind. His raised right hand was slightly jade-white in the night, and a water-blue flower that seemed real or unreal bloomed in the palm of his hand.

It is the unique skill of Yihua Palace - Zuixinhua.

The person in front of him is completely different from the Qing Ming in the usual yamen. His straight figure is tightly sewn into the chic robes, and the sloppy and lazy clothes are swept away, as if he is a young and carefree person in this attire in the past. It's just his expression - he is still smoking a cigarette, staring at Zui Xinhua with his lowered and narrow eyebrows in a daze, but his eyes are full of the trance and mourning that can only be found in sad memories.

The light blue flower shadow was dispersed by the smoke, and slowly condensed again.

There was an extra breath in the courtyard.