Daming Yinghua

Chapter 54

Hearing that the case will not be tried today, there was another wave of discussion among the crowd.

The scholar scholars commented with a sneer, the superiors are about to examine the performance of officials, and the county officials are probably afraid of being accused of sloppy trial.

The rough and reckless men, like dogs who haven't eaten enough shit, shook their heads in frustration and complained: "It's boring, it took me half a day to earn a living, and in the end I couldn't even see the nun being tortured."

Zhang Yanke has a violent temper. Hearing this, he wanted to go up and beat someone up again. Zheng Haizhu quickly stood in front of him, and Zhang Dai even grabbed his brother's sleeve with quick eyesight and quick hands, and shouted in a low voice: "You foolish King of Hades, we will have more to do later!" Run around for Sister He, don't cause trouble at this moment."

Zhang Yanke gritted his teeth and gave up. Seeing Zheng Haizhu froze, holding a handkerchief to pretend to wipe off his sweat, but his eyes flew towards the crowd like shuttles, he asked, "Miss Zheng, what are you looking at?"

Zheng Haizhu answered with a suppressed voice: "Look at Master Yang's domestic servant. He was looking like he was going to fight Sister He desperately in the hall. Now that the magistrate has withdrawn from the hall, he didn't call Qingtian or cry. He just ran out in a hurry. , and there was no resentment or sorrow on his face, as if he was going to meet someone."

Zhang Yanke simply said: "Then I will follow him."

Zheng Haizhu shook his head: "I'm afraid you're rough, please take Agui to the Eldest Young Master to have a look. Third Young Master, follow me."

What?
Zhang Yanke was shocked by this little woman's evaluation and assignment regardless of class differences, and couldn't answer for a moment, only staring.

Zheng Haizhu explained quickly: "If Sister He was wronged, the murderer will definitely come to hear the trial. But today's trial, and finally fell on whether there is anyone's evidence by the river, the murderer's mind is concerned about this section, so he went there And in order to avoid suspicion, he or they should not wander around the Nine Lotus Nunnery. So now, I want to go around the nunnery, maybe I can find some strange traces."

Zhang Dai understood, and told Zhang Yanke: "Miss Zheng is our military adviser now, so let's do this, third brother, you protect her."

Zheng Haizhu said bluntly: "Yes, I can't die for investigating the case."

Zhang Dai frowned and smiled slightly.

He really admired this Miss Zheng's habit of speaking, not so much hypocrisy and flattery, let alone submissiveness.

Zhang Dai immediately called Agui, and followed Master Yang's servants not too far or too close to the edge of the crowded crowd.

Zhang Yanke turned around and said to Zheng Haizhu with a straight face: "I said Miss Zheng, can you show me some face in the future?"

Zheng Haizhu squatted with a blessing: "Apologize to the third son. Since the two sons think highly of the young lady, the young lady thinks about how to not do bad things and make things happen. Isn't it easy for the young master to be coaxed and praised? Go to the Goulan restaurant , just spend money. Right, Third Young Master?"

Zhang Yanke choked again, and finally gave a "cough" in admiration, curled his lips, and said submissively, "Miss Zheng, lead the way."

……

The back door of Jiulian Nunnery, like many courtyards in the Jiangnan water town, faces the river, with a wide stone bridge corridor built on the side of the embankment where water and soil blend, which is not only a walkway for land pedestrians, but also a place for boats to park.

The enthusiasm of the nun to kill people attracted people to the county government court.Since there is no reason for the trial today, those with ulterior motives began to patrol for new clues, and the people who watched the excitement quickly returned to their own lives.

After all, in this world, most people would starve to death if their hands stopped.

Therefore, when Zheng Haizhu and Zhang Yanke groped over, there was silence near the nunnery.

On a mud wall outside the wooden fence, the fine shadows of sumac leaves were reflected, and the cat basking in the sun on the stone board stared at them indifferently.

Zhang Yanke followed behind Zheng Haizhu, frowning and said: "Miss Zheng, fortunately, I have a broad mind and a good temper. I listened to your words and changed into this suit. If you are still wearing a robe, it is really difficult to move in such a dirty place."

Zheng Haizhu just found a clothing store in Lixiang, and got Zhang Yanke a set of dark homemade clothes to change into, so that his gorgeous Hang Jin wouldn't stand out.

At this moment, looking back at Zhang Yanke, the trousers were covered with mud, and said in a low voice, "We have to thank the mud."

After she finished speaking, she took a few steps to run up, jumped over the ditch, and landed on the old wooden door of Jiulian Nunnery.

"Third Young Master, when you come here, jump a little sideways, don't face the center of the door, and don't move after landing." Zheng Haizhu reminded.

Zhang Yanke complied.

After he also stood still, Zheng Haizhu squatted down and stared at the ground in front of him: "Third Master, according to the story that they pressed on Sister He's head now, Sister He killed Master Yang in the Zen room, and then passed through the water at the back door of the nunnery." Throw it into a ditch and rush to the lower reaches of the river. Before it was too late to wash the blood in the meditation room, the carpenter Ye discovered the murder in order to secretly take a chisel to work in another county. Then there must be footprints on the mud here, there must be There are traces of dragging and blood, right? Even if the tolerance and foremen have come to check, we will check it carefully."

Zhang Yanke was listening very attentively at the moment, without the usual hippie smile on his face.

After Zheng Haizhu finished speaking, his eyes began to search carefully from front to back.

Fortunately, the rainy Jiangnan in late autumn has been sunny these few days.

There were many footprints on the muddy ground, and the two patiently found them.

Zheng Haizhu looked carefully, and the tip of his nose was almost on the ground. After a while, he said to Zhang Yanke: "Look at this footprint, it is much smaller than the mud pit you stepped on, and it is similar to mine. I am Tianzu, your family's lotus My sister is also Tianzu..."

Zhang Yanke thought that she still thought Sister He was suspicious, so he interrupted her and said, "You are not the only two people who don't bind their feet. The murderer can be a woman, or a half-child."

Zheng Haizhu looked at those footprints carefully, shook his head and said: "No, these footprints are small at first glance, maybe everyone thought they belonged to Mrs. He, but they are actually grown men. Look, the circle of the sole is more beautiful than a shoe. The head is much deeper, and there are marks on both sides of the upper. This is the mud print when a person wears shoes that are much smaller in size."

Zhang Yanke imagined it for a moment, squinted his eyes and said, "You mean, the murderer deliberately wore women's shoes?"

Zheng Haizhu moved a few steps carefully, squatted down in front of a piece of grass, and said word by word: "Not only that, the murderer also deliberately wore men's shoes."

Zhang Yanke also moved over like a duck moving his buttocks, and asked modestly: "How do you say that?"

Zheng Haizhu pointed to a place of dirt and said: "Look at the prints of this shoe, it is very big, with a round toe, and the traces of the sole are very light. These should be satin shoes worn by your rich masters and young masters, because we flat-headed people or As servants, before the northwest wind blows this season, they still wear brown hemp shoes or straw sandals, and the traces imprinted in the mud are like fishing nets. But look here again, these pits, are they weird?"

Zhang Yanke leaned over and asked doubtfully, "Is this the mark of a person's bare feet?"

Zheng Haizhu nodded: "Yes, it is covered by the grass in the ditch, why do you think there are marks of bare feet here?"

Zhang Yanke pondered for a while, and suddenly realized: "The murderer took off the shoes on his feet before throwing down Master Yang's body, and put them back on, so he was barefoot?"

Zheng Haizhu listened to Zhang Yanke's analysis, but his eyes were still fixed on the scene in front of him, and his eyes flickered.

"Third son, there were at least two people here at the time. The first one was wearing women's shoes, and the second was a barefoot man wearing Mr. Yang's shoes, because their footprints were very different. It is very far to the left. It is impossible for Mr. Yang to wear shoes without wearing bare feet, so if the barefoot prints are the same as the shoe prints, then this person must not be Mr. Yang, but it is probably as the third son deduced."

When Zhang Yanke heard the last sentence, it was very helpful, as if the cat had been stroked, and suddenly realized a detail, and said to Zheng Haizhu: "Miss Zheng, that carpenter Ye said that he also climbed into Zen through the back fence yesterday." room."

Zheng Haizhu said "Yes", and said: "Yes, I found it. Here, most of them are these straw sandals. He went to court today, and he was wearing straw sandals."

Zhang Yanke praised sincerely: "The girl has really good eyesight."

"We embroider with needles, and we are used to it."

Zhang Yanke looked at it carefully and commented: "It's not an inner character."

Zheng Haizhu said calmly: "I saw him walking just now, and it's not true. But, Master Yang's domestic servant just turned his right foot too far."

Zhang Yanke was horrified, and instantly remembered the stories of evil servants who murdered their masters that he had read in many playbooks, and admired the thoughtfulness of Miss Zheng in front of him.

But seeing that Zheng Haizhu had no complacency to prove his conjecture, but began to pick weeds carefully again, then stood up halfway, and searched for the courtyard wall and fence gate.

After going back and forth like this several times, Fang talked to Zhang Yanke: "There are indeed some bloodstains, but they are more strange than shoe prints and footprints. There is not even an ant around the bloodstains."

After finishing speaking, Zheng Haizhu took off the burden on his body, shook out the brocade robe Zhang Yanke wore in the morning, and spread it on the ground.

"Third Young Master, I have to take this blood-soaked soil away."

(End of this chapter)