Kaifeng House Small Dining Table

Chunlai was startled when he saw this, his hands trembled, and he almost threw a pot of tofu on the ground.Fortunately, he was born as a guard, had seen some worldly experiences, and had killed people before.However, he was still thinking about delicious tofu balls on his front feet, and his back feet became "human finger tofu", which caused a lot of damage to his strong heart.

"What...how about this?" Chunlai asked Zhao Hanyan hesitantly.

"Go and inform Mr. Gongsun and Zhan Wei."

Chunlai agreed and ran away immediately.

Zhao Hanyan frowned, carefully cleaned up the tofu covering the section of the severed finger with chopsticks, and looked at it.Zhao Hanyan put the chopsticks by the side of the basin, and disposed of the basin in a while.

"The incision is neat, it was made after death." After Gongsun Ce hurriedly looked at the severed finger, he picked up the chopsticks and stirred it in the basin again to confirm that there was only one.

After receiving Chunlai's notice, Zhan Zhao and Zhao Hu went to the tofu shop to arrest people first.

At this moment, everyone in the kitchen is paying attention to the severed finger, and no one is distracted to pay attention to other places.

At this time, there was a knock on the back door, and after the boy opened the door, a woman in her early thirties came to the kitchen.

The woman carried a bucket in her hand, which was covered with a cloth.

"Chunlai, this aunt said she was looking for you."

Chunlai was far away from Mr. Gongsun and the others at the moment, sitting alone under the plane tree in a daze.The whole person is still immersed in the 'surprise' that it seems that he will not be able to eat fried tofu balls happily in the future.

Chunlai suddenly heard the boy talking to him, looked up, and when his eyes touched the woman behind the doorman, he stood up abruptly.

"You you you you..." Chunlai took a few steps back and leaned against the plane tree.

Because he knocked down the stool when he got up and made a loud noise, and then he yelled again, so everyone turned their heads to look at Chunlai at the same time.

Chunlai pointed to the woman behind the doorman and said to Gongsun Ce and the others: "It's her, she is Aunt Li!"

Everyone was shocked, and immediately there was a government officer to take Aunt Li down, and the bucket in her hand was naturally taken over.

Aunt Li looked at the crowd with a pale face, nervously and terrified, and finally trembling her lips, said with difficulty: "I want to see Mr. Bao."

At this time, a yamen servant picked up the cloth on the wooden barrel with the handle of a knife.After seeing the contents of the bucket, he instinctively took a step back in fright.

"It's a human head!" Yacha said in surprise.

Everyone hurried to look, and sure enough, there was a face-up human head upright in the quiver, with disheveled hair, pale complexion, and closed eyes.

After one glance, no one wanted to take a second look. There was a new clerk who had never seen the world, and after seeing it, he couldn't help turning his head and throwing up against the wall.

Gongsun Ce knelt down and checked the incision on the neck of the head, and found that it was also very neat. This head was also chopped off after death.But I don't know if this person was murdered or died naturally, but most likely it was the former, otherwise why bother.

Aunt Li's body trembled more violently, tears flowed down her cheeks, her legs were so weak that she couldn't stand upright by herself.She was able to maintain her half-standing position because two servants supported her.

After Gongsun Ce checked the head, he got up and asked Mrs. Li what she meant.

"I...I want to see Master Bao!" Aunt Li held back her tears and forced a word out of her choked throat.

When Gongsun Ce asked again, Aunt Li stopped talking.

Master Bao is not yet in the mansion, so Gongsun Ce can only ask Aunt Li to be detained for the time being, and discuss it after Master Bao returns.

"How did this happen? It made me never dare to eat fried tofu balls again!" Chunlai shouted unhappily at the back of Aunt Li who was being escorted away, "What did I do to offend you? You want to do this to me?"

Chunlai didn't understand very much, so he cut off his finger tofu and gave him a head.How much does Aunt Li hate him?Besides, she should keep quiet about murder and other things, so why did she take the initiative to deliver it to her door?Or send it to Kaifeng Mansion!

Aunt Li, who was being escorted away and had to cross the road, was even more paralyzed when she heard Chunlai's questioning.

Aunt Li's voice: Tofu is such a delicious thing. I have been making it all my life, and I never dare to waste a piece. Even if I can't sell it, it is a favor.How can there be heads and fingers? I have no choice but to, I really don’t want to, I really don’t want to, I can’t help it...

Because Aunt Li was too far away, Zhao Hanyan couldn't hear Aunt Li's voice.This inner voice is just like a normal person speaking, and if you are far away from Zhao Hanyan, you can't hear it.So Zhao Hanyan simply followed the yamen, but there was nothing to follow up. It was Aunt Li crying in her heart, a very painful cry, which sounded helpless and helpless.

Zhao Hanyan followed to the door of the cell and stopped.

Zhan Zhao just came back on horseback. He wanted to ask Mrs. Li about her situation, but when she saw Zhao Hanyan there, she came over and asked her, "I heard that someone delivered it to the door by himself, with a human head in his hand?"

"Yes." Zhao Hanyan asked Zhan Zhao what he gained from going to the tofu shop.

"No one. I asked a few neighbors, and they said that her husband, He Gang, left yesterday with his two daughters. Zhao Hu has already found out where he might go, and went to find them. I will come back and report. Aunt Li can explain Is there any situation? Why did you send off your severed fingers and severed your head?"

"No, I only said one word for a long time, I want to see Mrs. Bao." Zhao Hanyan's brows were hard to relax, "I think she might have been threatened, even if a normal person is a murderer, she would not be stupid enough to do such a thing. She came here Sometimes he looked flustered and looked terribly frightened, but he was very persistent and forbearing."

After Zhan Zhao heard this, his face became even more serious, and he asked Zhao Hanyan, "Then what do you think she was threatened by?"

"Women are weak, but mothers are strong." Zhao Hanyan guessed, "This kind of thing is not an ordinary threat to make people submit. Although there is not much evidence, I think it should be related to her child. Yesterday I said that his husband Take two daughters and leave, so the husband and wife only have two daughters?"

Zhan Zhao immediately denied: "No, there are two sons, the youngest fell into the water half a month ago and died, and the other is said to be studying in Qingshan Academy."

After Zhan Zhao reacted, he immediately sent someone to check on her son's situation.

"First, in the name of the government, conduct secret investigations and try not to attract attention. I am worried that if the threat person really kidnaps her son, there may be some demands. Let's not startle the snake for the time being." Zhao Hanyan suggested.

Zhan Zhao nodded in agreement.

After Bao Zheng got the news, he rushed back from the Ministry of Punishment and immediately interrogated Aunt Li.

Aunt Li kowtowed to Bao Zheng and pleaded guilty, telling how she had received money when she was a midwife and killed Zhang Yuanwai's wife who had just given birth to a son.

The reason was that the main wife of this family was competing for favor with the concubine. Aunt Li was a well-known midwife in the county at that time. Under the instigation of Zhang Yuanwai's concubine, Tong Shi, she stuffed a piece of glutinous rice cake in the mouth of the newborn child, waiting for the child to suffocate. After death, it is said that it is caused by innate insufficiency.After Aunt Li took the money from her concubine, she left that place and came to Tokyo City. With the money, she opened a tofu shop and provided medicine for his sick man. Later, when her man died, she remarried. For He Yun, he also had four children.

After Bao Zheng heard about it, he naturally condemned Aunt Li's actions at the beginning, but he was even more puzzled about why Aunt Li surrendered herself, and why she sent her severed finger and head to Kaifeng Mansion.

"The woman doesn't know, someone threatened the woman to do this. But the woman didn't know that the tofu had severed fingers, and she didn't know that there was a human head in the bucket I was carrying. The woman just obeyed his orders and carried things. Come here. He said that as long as the woman did what she did and confessed what happened back then, he would release the woman's son." Aunt Li said tremblingly, then kowtowed frantically to Bao Zheng, begging him to save him Her own son, she had only one son left.She had already lost a son half a month ago, there must be nothing wrong with this.

"Half a month ago?" Bao Zheng asked what happened, and when he learned that her previous son fell into the moat while playing and drowned, he felt that it was a bit of a coincidence and strange.

Zhan Zhao then asked Aunt Li where her husband went with his two daughters.

"The only inn in Qingshan County. The person who threatened me said that after I confessed, he would send my son back to that inn."

"How does that person threaten you? What does he look like?"

"I didn't see the face. He was wearing a straw hat covered with black gauze. Three days ago, after I closed the stall, he suddenly pulled me back and told me that my son was in his hands. If you want to live, please keep quiet. I originally I don’t believe it, but he gave me a day to confirm whether my son is safe. I asked my husband to go to the academy to check it out, and he told me that the eldest son is really gone, and someone saw him being blacked out by a straw hat The person who loved it took it away.

When I came back, I was thinking about whether to report to the official, and the man sent me my son's bloody clothes.He said that this time he just scratched the palm of his hand, and if I was disobedient, he would cut off an arm for me.He asked me to make a pot of tofu, which I did, and then he asked me to wait outside, and told me to give the pot of tofu he had cut to Chunlai, and then asked me to come over with a bucket. "

Aunt Li explained all the things that should be explained in tears, almost crying her eyes dry.

Bao Zheng immediately ordered people to search the inn in Qingshan County, and all suspects were arrested and brought to justice, and all Aunt Li's husband and children were brought back.

Zhan Zhao secretly sighed in his heart that Zhao Hanyan had guessed correctly again.

"Do you know the deceased?" Zhao Hanyan suddenly asked Aunt Li.

Aunt Li shook her head, and replied, "I didn't dare to look at it just now. After I heard that it was a human head, I was... frightened."

Bao Zheng motioned to Gongsun Ce, and sent the head, which had been put into a box and had been combed into a mess, to Aunt Li for identification.

Aunt Li tilted her face, she was a little bit reluctant to look at it, but she knew she had to look at it, so she glanced lightly. So sharp that it almost pierces everyone's head.

"My, my... son!"

Aunt Li yelled, holding the face of the deceased, crying into a puddle of mud, and finally collapsed on the ground.

Gongsun Ce had the head taken away, and ordered Aunt Li to be helped down.

After Aunt Li left, the atmosphere in the courtroom didn't ease up at all. Uncharacteristically, everyone didn't discuss the case right away, but they were all terribly quiet.

No matter who it is, the murderer's approach is quite cruel.Asking Aunt Li to turn herself in with her son's head, she actually gave Aunt Li "hope" to make her think that her son would save his life after confessing.

The murderer is using maternal instinct to retaliate.Aunt Li committed a murder case, but the murderer did not kill Aunt Li directly to relieve her hatred, but tortured her son to make her suffer from the pain of rebirth.

"A straw hat covered with black gauze." Zhan Zhao spoke out first, breaking the silence.

Yes, there is also a description of 'straw hat covered with black gauze' in the testimony of the witness.This was familiar to everyone present, it was the most characteristic attire of the murderer in the previous 'Ou Erchun' case.

"Couldn't this murderer be 'Ou Sanchun'?" Ma Han said what everyone thought but didn't say.

Bao Zheng's face was gloomy, and he asked everyone to investigate the case as usual, "Before this matter is confirmed, no one should speak up casually."

Everyone responded in unison.

Soon after leaving the court, Zhao Hu came back with news, but he did not find her husband and daughter in Aunt Li's hometown.

Half an hour later, another group of people who went to Qingshan County also came back, and reported to Bao Zheng that they did not find Aunt Li's husband and daughters in the only inn in Qingshan County.

"Could it be that the three of their parents have already been killed?" Zhao Hu asked.

Everyone present was silent.

Everyone has doubts in this regard, because no body has been found, so it is not easy to talk nonsense.

After coming out of Sansi Hall, Zhan Zhao said to Zhao Hanyan, "How likely do you think it is 'Ou Sanchun'?"

"It sounds right." Zhao Hanyan took a deep breath, "But I don't understand what the relationship between the man behind the scenes and the Kaifeng government is, so much so that every day after he instigates people to do such things, he has to send some news to Kaifeng government."

Zhan Zhao shook his head, he didn't understand anymore, before encountering these things, he had never imagined that such a case would happen.

This time, the man wearing the straw hat and the black veil will definitely be found out, and we will try to find out the man behind the scenes this time.

Hearing this, Zhao Hanyan looked back at Zhan Zhao with complicated eyes, and the words on his lips finally turned into a sentence: "It's worked hard to protect Zhan Zhao."

Zhan Zhao smiled and cupped his hands to Zhao Hanyan, "Since there is a case to be dealt with, Duan Xiaowang will ask Brother Zhao to help take care of it."

Zhan Zhao waited for Zhao Hanyan to agree, and left in a hurry, running around day and night without sleep, he was determined to investigate the case.

Xiuzhu looked at the back of Zhan Zhao's leaving, and leaned over, trembling: "Why is this case getting more and more scary, young master, I think something will happen if we stay in Kaifeng Mansion."

"Stop talking nonsense, let's go back." Zhao Hanyan said.

"Go back? The tofu wrapped with fingers is still in the kitchen!" Xiuzhu hugged herself with her arms, frightened.

Zhao Hanyan gave her a funny look, telling her not to go if she didn't want to, then turned around and left.Xiuzhu hurriedly followed, walking close to Zhao Hanyan, she was afraid that nothing would matter, the princess's affairs came first.

After arriving in the kitchen, Zhao Hanyan saw that the pot of tofu was still there, so he sent Chun Lai to throw it away, and then split the wooden pot to burn firewood.

Chunlai slowed down early, and after agreeing, he quickly did the job.Then he took his younger brother Chun to clean the kitchen twice.

At this time, Duan Silian sent someone to summon Zhao Hanyan.

Zhao Hanyan immediately went to see him.

"Staying in Kaifeng mansion all day is so boring, I want to go out for a walk. Originally, I wanted to find the guard Zhan, but I heard that he has left the mansion to investigate the case, so I can only look for you." Duan Silian explained.

Zhao Hanyan agreed, saying that he would receive Duan Silian on behalf of Zhan Zhao, "Where does the little prince want to go?"

"I'll tell you when I get out."

Zhao Hanyan led the way silently, and took the lead out of Kaifeng Mansion.

"Pingkang County Lord's Mansion." Duan Silian said.

Zhao Hanyan was stunned for a moment, then looked back at Duan Silian in surprise.

"Don't ask me why, I just want to go." Duan Silian added hastily.

Zhao Hanyan: "My words are a little blunt, so please don't take offense to my little prince."

Duan Silian nodded, motioning for Zhao Hanyan to say.

"I heard that the princess does not see any outsiders when she is in Qingxiu in the mansion." Zhao Hanyan continued, "And even if you don't clean up, as the little prince's niece, I'm afraid you won't be able to see her."

"I know I can't see her, and I don't intend to see her now, I just want to take a look outside the mansion." Duan Silian mentioned Princess Pingkang, with an uncontrollable joy on his expression, it can be said that he was very happy.

If Zhao Hanyan didn't know him at all, at this moment, he really thought that Duan Silian was in love with Princess Kang, so that Duan Silian became such a fool.

Since Duan Silian insisted, Zhao Hanyan didn't have much to say, so he really took Duan Silian to Pingkang County Lord's Mansion.

She deliberately took a detour, saying that she couldn't remember exactly where the mansion was.Duan Silian didn't mind at all, after arriving at the place, he got off his horse at the main entrance, looked up at the front of Princess Pingkang's Mansion for a while, then rode his horse to the back door of Princess Pingkang's Mansion.

Zhao Hanyan was speechless for a while.But she was very curious about how Duan Silian would stare at her, so at this moment she maintained the patience to figure it out.

When we got to the back door, it was clean and there was no one there, just like the front door.Because of the declaration of Qingxiu to the outside world, the door must be closed to refuse to see visitors, so there is no guard outside the door.

It so happened that at this time, a figure floated down from the wall not far from the back door.

In broad daylight, the princess' mansion was attacked by thieves. Zhao Hanyan was about to call for someone, but when he took a closer look, he found that he knew this person.

After Bai Yutang jumped off the wall, he turned around and found a group of people looking at him, he didn't feel anything, and was about to leave in a casual manner, but happened to catch a glimpse of a familiar figure among the crowd, he turned and walked over.

"Coincidentally, I met you here." Bai Yutang beckoned to Zhao Hanyan, as if he was worried that she would not see him, and there was a slight smile on the corner of his mouth when he spoke.