The first work of the imperial prison

Until the completion of the autopsy, Ye Baiting's brain was running at high speed, and he was never idle.

Based on the situation of the corpse, he sent a lot of notes to Qiu Yiqing and Shen Jiang who were still at the scene, reminding them of more investigation directions and paying attention to the key points. The small notes at the scene will also be sent back, allowing him to understand the latest situation , analyze and judge more details...

It's just that I was busy before and didn't have time to read it, so far, it has accumulated a thick dozen.

Ye Baiting took off her overalls, washed her hands, picked up the paper, and walked back to the Nuan Pavilion.When he entered the room, he didn't pay too much attention. He sat cross-legged on the side of the kang, unfolded the paper, and read it.

I don't know how long it has passed, the sky is getting darker and darker, and Fusi in Beizhen is getting quieter and quieter.I don't know when the room was lit, but the brightest thing was not the candlelight, but the clear and sharp eyes of the person under the candle.

Ye Baiting's attention has never been distracted, and he has been focusing on the news paper in his hand. He even took out all the case files, spread them out on the small table, and adjusted the position and direction in various ways. Crossing his chins, his eyes slid across the page again and again, and his brain quickly screened the information...

Is there something that he missed?Are there any hidden details that he overlooked?

This case is very difficult. The relationship between the deceased and the related people is relatively obscure, few, and private. It is difficult to find out in a short period of time. Others may not cooperate. If you ask, they will probably lie. Jin Yiwei needs to be very clear. First clarify the lines behind and all the sources of motivation, then you can follow along and grasp the entire context of the facts...

But what about the murder itself?

Did they miss any key information?

His eyes flicked over the names written in the file, the people involved in the case, the possible murderer, the deceased... Ye Baiting's eyes paused.

The three deceased all fell to their deaths from heights, and the fact is already obvious that they were homicides.But if you just want to kill people, there are many more accurate and convenient methods in terms of operation. It is not so easy to do things like "push people upstairs and cause people to fall to death". Will resist, how can the murderer ensure that he will succeed, and succeed every time?

From Ye Baiting's point of view, this way of presentation is the only direction that is beneficial to the murderer is "accident". The scene is too easy to explain with these two words, and it is too easy to escape guilt, but how did he do it?

Previously, their focus had been on 'fraud in imperial examinations', whether this incident existed, whether there was a chain of interests in the middle, how did the black hands behind the scenes operate, how did they catch them, how did they stop them, what did the people involved in each case hide, and what happened to the murderer? Who, but what about the dead?

What is the deceased's temperament, what has he experienced, what did he like, what did he dislike, what did he care about, what happened to him, and what choices would he make?

Ye Baiting picked out all the files and pages related to the deceased, and looked through them carefully. Slowly, his eyes became brighter and his mind became clearer...

"Why are you sitting here?"

A big hand supported Ye Baiting's waist, and gently pushed him in: "Aren't you afraid of falling?"

Ye Baiting didn't even need to look back, Ye Baiting knew it was Qiu Yiqing, he was just thinking about things, he didn't realize that he was sitting outside after changing his position, and just moved inward with his strength, he saw that the other party was holding A dozen fresh record files.

His eyes lit up: "There are more things, right?"

That posture almost wrote the words 'strongly demanded to work overtime immediately' on his forehead.

Qiu Yiqing helped him to sit up, and said in a calm voice, "...don't worry."

"Master, please spare me," Shen Jiang sighed from behind, sat down on the chair, his eyes were empty, and he was paralyzed, "I'm still hungry if you're not hungry, let's eat first, okay? ?”

Rice……

Ye Baiting patted his stomach belatedly, although he didn't feel too hungry, it seemed that he should have eaten long ago.

"Ok."

While agreeing kindly, he still couldn't hold back, his eyes turned from the two of them: "Is there any major progress?"

Qiu Yiqing didn't give a damn: "It's sort of."

Ye Baiting: "Then let's eat quickly! Analyze the case after eating!"

The food was served very quickly, and Ye Baiting ate it very quickly, almost faster than Shen Jiang. Qiu Yiqing couldn't see it, and put a bowl of soup for him, and put it at hand: "Slow down, the night is still long, we have a lot of food. time."

"I got it, I got it," Ye Baiting picked up the soup and drank it, thinking he was slow, "Hurry up, too!"

Qiu Suiqing: ...

In terms of eating, Shen Baihu would not admit defeat, and performed a storm inhalation on the spot.

He was the first to finish eating, so he was also the first to prepare to clean up. He opened the small whiteboard bracket by the wall. There were still names on it from the analysis of the case last time, and the simple relationship between the characters was sorted out with clues. There are more, and I have to add a lot.

When the writing was almost finished, the young master and the commander had also finished their meal. He called out at the door and called for someone to come over and remove the food. He cleared the table and made a pot of hot tea. Today's discussion and analysis began.

Shen Jiang put on a posture, coughed pretendingly, and put his hands behind his back: "When it comes to major progress, the young master has to praise me."

Ye Baiting: "Have you found a new clue?"

"The evidence of imperial examination fraud, Geng Yuanzhong's line, is solid!"

Shen Jiang couldn't hold back at all, and showed off to the young master: "He and He Yiming, the young master and the commander have already guessed it? There must be a ghost, there must be Maoni, the store business under his name is so conspicuous, but any store that wants to go astray must have fake accounts..."

"But I don't think it's that easy to catch. The old official is very skilled. How can I ask you to find it casually? I just got a little mind and didn't stare at the front. I didn't follow the business, I didn't follow the big business. Don’t understand, commanders are better at it, so I let the little soldiers under my hand stare at the corners where there are no people, and I didn’t even let go of the broken warehouses. Hey, you said our luck really made me squat A few days ago, they cleared out a batch of expired and defective old goods, and there were some ledgers mixed in those boxes!"

Ye Baiting paused: "Account book?"

Shen Jiang's eyes lit up: "That's right, it's the account book! It records a lot of key money transactions, and the names are marked in code words, huh, I thought I couldn't see it if I pretended to be like this? Then the money coming and going, There is clearly a problem with the payment, the regular time and amount! There are also those names that are referred to in code words, which cannot be deciphered for the time being. We need to find their decoding booklets, which can be used to distribute benefits. Once you figure it out, you will know all the gangs involved and catch them in one fell swoop!"

This is indeed very good news, Ye Baiting couldn't help applauding him, but...

Shen Jiang glanced at Qiu Yiqing, and sighed: "But, after all, it was discarded by others. It may be written wrongly, or the follow-up transaction failed, so there is no need to keep it. I don't know why it was not thrown away. There are two copies left in the bad warehouse, which have not been dealt with. Even if we solve it, the information may not be accurate and correct, and there may be many mistakes and omissions..."

Qiu Xunqing: "I will follow up and find out more."

Ye Baiting nodded repeatedly, afraid that there would be no clues, and he would not be able to find them anyway. The unknown is the greatest pressure, and it would be easy if he had a direction, but it was only a matter of time, sooner or later he would find the right ones!It's best to catch the people behind the scenes and the entire interest group together!

Qiu Yiqing turned to look at Ye Baiting, and pushed the teacup in front of him: "What about you, have you got something new?"

Ye Baiting then placed the selected files of the deceased on the small table——

"The subtleties of human nature."

"Ok?"

"Why?"

Qiu Yiqing and Shen Jiang Qiqi looked over and didn't understand, what do you mean?

Ye Baiting: "Look carefully at the three deceased, what do they have in common?"

something in common...

Shen Jiang looked at it for a long time, but couldn't see it, turned around and compared the information on the small whiteboard behind him, sorted it out carefully, but still couldn't see anything.

Qiu Yiqing was thoughtful, and after a long time, said two words: "Pure."

Ye Baiting's eyes were sharp: "That's right, those two words!"

His fingertips landed on Yu Wenzhang's name: "From a poor family, he was born in poverty but was brilliant. He has his own persistence and perseverance. His family gave him a lot of love and encouragement. He didn't demand or oppress him at all, but he was very demanding of himself. He is He is free, and he is also striving forward. Others' evaluation of him includes praise and admiration, as well as accurate knowledge of weaknesses, such as too strong and easy to break, such as..."

"Old mother?" Shen Jiang came to his senses, "He hasn't married a wife yet, and there is only his old mother in the family, who has always depended on each other. Yu Lianhai said that he is very filial..."

Ye Baiting's eyes flickered slightly: "If someone uses this threat, will he be forced to obey? More deeply, if the other party creates a dangerous situation and asks him to choose, whether to kill the old mother or kill him, how will he choose?" ? No matter how unwilling, no matter how angry and sad, don’t you want to hurt the old mother?”

Chou Xunqing: "Then it would be easy for the murderer to kill him."

As long as you hold the most important person in the palm of your hand, he has to cooperate wherever you lead him, and he has to do whatever you ask him to do.

"There is also the deceased Huang Kang," Ye Baiting's fingertips landed on the name, "he was greedy by nature, and what he cared about the most was money."

Shen Jiang looked at the stack of files, and knew that it was the information he had investigated and visited, and nodded immediately: "Yes, I took someone to ask about the news in person. Although Huang Kang got a fat job and his family property is increasing day by day, he still can't stand him. Woe, he was full of alcohol, sex and wealth, and he owed a huge amount of gambling debts before he died, but because he was an official, he hid some things well, so I found it after searching for two days..."

Based on what he found, he approved of the young master's judgment, but——

"Greedy people spend all their time chasing wealth for the sake of enjoyment, so they may not be willing to die?"

Isn't this inversion of cause and effect? ​​The logic is illogical.

"What if it's not careful?"

Ye Baiting pointed at the paper on the table, it was Huang Kang's death three months ago, and the file left by the government investigation: "The information on it is very interesting. On the day Huang Kang died, it snowed heavily and there was thin ice on the roof. There was also snow. On the thin ice on the ground, the officials found traces where his shoes had slipped. The traces were half a foot forward, which was the wall railing on the roof that was neither too wide nor too high. There was snow about half a palm thick, but the wall in front of this piece of thin ice was very clean and there was no snow at all. The official judged that this was where Huang Kang fell. fell off the snow on the front wall, and fell to his death—”

"But isn't the length of this fence without snow a little too long? Huang Kang is not a fat man. Even if he is fat, he has to rub left and right when he passes this fence before falling to his death, so as to get rid of it." Take all the snow here?"

Do you want the whole person to lie on the wall and wipe off the snow!

Not to mention slipping first and then falling, the time was very short and there was no time at all. Even so, he controlled the slippery foot and was able to slowly lay across the wall, rubbing all the snow down. This snow-free area The range is also not right, it is not enough for a person's height.

Qiu Xunqing: "Leave things here."

Shen Jiang slapped his thigh fiercely: "Yes, if you let things go, it will make sense! It's shorter than a person's height, and longer than shoulder width!"

What kind of thing is more suitable?

"Box...box?" That's what Shen Jiang thought of.

Ye Baiting looked encouragingly: "Be bolder, what if there are very attractive things in this box? Such as gold, such as jewelry..."

Shen Jiang: "Then Huang Kang must not be able to bear it, he will definitely want to touch it."

Ye Baiting: "What if someone says give it to him?"

"Then what are you waiting for, you must have fun first—" Shen Jiang paused, "Push over?"

On the top of the building, if you do this kind of forward movement, if you don't have an accident, whoever will!

"So Huang Kang's death was really careless? But this carelessness was not chosen by him, but someone deliberately guided it?"

"Not impossible."

"Hiss... No, there is another problem," Shen Jiang still had doubts, "If this is the case, Huang Kang's movements are so fast and violent that he can fold himself down the stairs and fall to his death. Can the box be spared? Don’t fall along with it? But the results of the on-site investigation are clear, except for him, nothing fell, and no one saw it.”

Ye Baiting: "Did you forget the weather at that time?"

Shen Jiang: "The weather?"

Qiu Suqing paused, and said, "Ice."

"That's right, it's ice!" Ye Baiting talked about his bold conjecture, "We all experienced it last winter. There were several heavy snowfalls in succession. When it snowed, no one passed by or trampled on places like the roof The thin ice that Huang Kang slipped on, according to the survey results of the file, is only that one, and there is no other place, so what's the explanation?"

It is impossible for the ice formed by natural weather to exist only in this small piece, and not in other places. Is there any possibility that some accidents have happened?

"If someone pours water there in advance, a small ice layer will form, as will the wall railing where the boxes are placed. Make reasonable use of the weather and pour some water to create a slightly hard continuous ice layer. Huang Kang from the top of the building When it falls, it won't shake the box..."

Ye Baiting knew that this idea was very bold, but this was the only direction he found after combining all the details: "Of course, the size of this box is also very important. It can be wider and longer, but it can't be too high..."

Shen Jiang nodded while listening: "This seems to make sense...Young master is amazing, how did you think of it!"

Qiu Xunqing: "In this case, it is necessary to investigate—"

"I know!" Shen Jiang immediately raised his hand, "I'll check the things that everyone carried with them that day! I didn't think of this before, I just checked the timeline, whether everyone lied, and the relationship with the scientific examination , but missed such an ingenious idea, this time there is a clear goal, and it will definitely be found out!"

Ye Baiting raised the corners of her lips: "I didn't pay attention to it before, if I hadn't sat around doing nothing today, found out the information of the three deceased, cross-referenced, and thought carefully, I would never have thought of such a possibility."

When I first came up with it, I thought it was too wild and unconstrained, but I compared it one by one with the record files at that time, and found that the feasibility was very high, and everything was consistent...

Shen Jiang's eyes slipped on Zhang You's name: "So there is something wrong with the one who died today?"

Ye Baiting looked at him and faintly reminded: "Don't you know?"

"Oh..." Shen Jiang thought for a while and understood, "That woman named Hanrui?"

According to the clues found, Zhang You is playful and dedicated. When he falls in love with a woman, he is very addicted and is willing to pay a lot for her. If someone uses this to blackmail him, he may fall into the trap.

"Human nature is subtle..." Qiu Yiqing's eyes fell on Ye Baiting's face, "You mean, the murderer we are looking for is very sensitive?"

"Yes!"

Ye Baiting's eyes are bright: "The murderer is very good at manipulating people's hearts. He is very careful in his perception of people and things. At the same time, he has certain abilities—or there are forces behind him to help him and create certain dangers for the deceased."

Arresting people is very simple, you don't even need to do it yourself, as long as someone helps you secretly, it can be achieved. On the contrary, it is not easy to notice the subtle details of human nature. Strangers you don't know meet by chance, and no one will suddenly fall in love with you, such as Zhang You , Hanrui's existence, he kept his family members secret, and kept it hidden. In order to prevent others from finding out, he hadn't looked for anyone in the past two months, and he was not particularly familiar with people around him. How do you know his temper? Care what, what's the secret?

Yu Wenzhang, for example, is quite cold-tempered. He is familiar with fellow villagers like Yu Lianhai. They don’t see each other often, and they don’t have much interest in chatting. He must be wary of people. How can you understand him after just a few comments? Nature, what do you rely on, what are you proud of, and what are you most worried about?

Returning to Huang Kang, he is a good fortune, you can probably know this by seeing him twice, but this person is cunning, always changing his mind, how do you know which sentence he said is true and which sentence is false?

The murderer in this case must be very good at observation, and also very good at guiding. He will notice something during the chat, make bold assumptions, carefully confirm, and finally formulate a plan——

So yes, the person they are looking for this time may not be so smart, strategize and win thousands of miles, but they must be very sensitive and able to study people.

"There is one more thing about Zhang You, I forgot to mention it before."

Ye Baiting leaned forward slightly, leaning his elbows on the small table: "As for the bruise on his back, I have thought about all possibilities, and one explanation is the most reasonable—"

"The list was posted downstairs. He knew that his name was not on the list, so he immediately went to find He Yiming. The little dispute, pushing and bruising he experienced before his death were all related to He Yiming. ...they probably met each other and moved their hands. The reason why He Yiming's clothes are so smooth must have been tidied on purpose, and he lied."

Shen Jiang's eyes widened: "I knew he was not a good guy, and he is still lying at this time!"

Ye Baiting's eyes deepened slightly: "Now, we can smooth the thread in our hands—everyone."

"It has now been determined that fraud in the imperial examinations did exist. Some evidence has already been obtained, and the rest is waiting to be added later. It is not a single person but an interest group that is manipulating behind the scenes. The situation of this force is very cautious. It is not a large-scale trading operation. Instead, it is a selective exchange of benefits."

"It is obvious to He Yiming and Geng Yuanzhong that the people in this interest group are inextricably linked with the power, but the purpose of this group itself is not to make money. To expand, it needs a steady stream of talents to fill it. Will those who are selected by them to enter the officialdom be absorbed in little by little?"

Just like what Qiu Xunqing said, Zhang You can use these secrets to threaten and blackmail He Yiming. Will He Yiming use this matter to threaten others, let others do things for him, or even kill people?

"Geng Yuanzhong needless to say, old fritters, his speech skills are impeccable, except for his liking to be praised, he has basically never made any mistakes..."

"He Yiming looks a bit unintelligent, but he's not that unintelligent. It feels a little subtle." When the young master was analyzing, Shen Jiang's mind was not idle, "We can't find any more definite things at present, but we I feel that he has a lot of things in his possession, and I don't believe him when he said he is not familiar with Geng Yuanzhong, there must be something between them!"

Qiu Yiqing: "Competitive relationships can cause many conflicts."

What Zhang You said about "grabbing Geng Yuanzhong's things" is probably related to this interest group. He Yiming and Geng Yuanzhong had some differences and collisions in the distribution of interests. If there are conflicts, there will be emotions, emotions, There will be a target... Everything will be undisturbed, and after careful investigation, there will be results!

"Gao Jun's performance, I think it's obvious that he genuinely appreciates his superior's compliments and does his best to protect the 'official rules'," Ye Baiting had seen before, "If given the opportunity, he would definitely not refuse to join such an interest group."

As for whether to enter now, there is no evidence yet.

Qiu Yiqing: "Hu Anju's attitude...seems to be a bit drifting away."

He has never shown anything special, just drifting with the flow, does he really not care and wants to stay away, or because of something he has done, it is better to stay close...to avoid suspicion?

"Then there is Yu Lianhai," Shen Jiang said, "his presence in this case is also very abrupt. The others are all related to the imperial examination. They either cheated or were arranged to cheat and did not cooperate. Yes, but he was rejected, not good at learning, did not pass the exam, what can a civil official know? But he doesn't look like he doesn't know anything, the distance is not very far, and he is always wandering around. Whenever something comes out, he is there..."

Just like what the young master said, did he really know nothing and just get involved for no reason?

Why is he so unbelievable?This person definitely has a purpose and definitely knows something!

"Ledgers, rosters, small boxes that Huang Kang may have had when he died, food that can be dyed...etc." Ye Baiting's eyes sparkled, "Just confirm a few more minor issues, at least we can solve the murder case!"

Shen Jiang pinched his fingers and counted the time: "Emperor's Palace Examination is usually more than a dozen times each time, and less than [-]. We don't have much time. Even if we can't catch everyone behind the scenes, this case will really be solved, or something will happen!"

Qiu Yiqing wrote a date on the rice paper: "Before this day, the murder case must be closed."

The three of them looked at the date on the table, and there was a dark glow in the bottom of their eyes.

There is not much time left for them, but no problem, they can!