Demon detective

Chapter 10
In the early morning of the next day, Xu Zhen came to the county government early.

Unexpectedly, instead of seeing the county magistrate Song Zhili and the captor Cheng Xiao, he saw the old county magistrate Chen Houlu who hadn't seen him for a long time.

The county magistrate is equivalent to the deputy county magistrate and is the second in command of the yamen.

However, this county magistrate Chen is old and sick, and has not been to the county government for a long time.

In fact, when it comes to old age, Chen Houlu is only 58 years old. It's just because he married too many concubines and overworked, which made him senile and sickly.

Now, Song Zhili had invited him here, apparently to let him deal with the villagers' complaints, because Chen Xiancheng's greatest strength was his ability to be kind.

However, Xu was surprised that the outside of the yamen was as clean as usual, and there were no villagers who complained.As a result, the old county magistrate had nothing to do, and was strolling around in the inner hall with a cup of Dabu tea.

However, the more this happened, the more uncomfortable Xu Zhen felt.

There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

Sure enough, as expected, it didn't take long for two arresters to come back in a hurry.

Since Song Zhili, the county magistrate, was not there, they reported the situation to Chen Houlu, the old county magistrate.

"My lord is bad," said one of the policemen, "The news that old man Li died in the Yamen prison has spread!"

Oh?
Xu Zhen and Chen Xiancheng expressed surprise at the same time, but Xu Zhen pretended to be because he knew this was one of the murderer's plans.

"We went to investigate Old Man Li's house today," another policeman added, "and found that many neighbors near Old Man Li's house have gone far away!

"It was only later that they found out through side inquiries that they already knew about Old Man Li's death in the prison of the county government. They knew that they would not be able to come to our county government to file a complaint, so...so..."

"So what?" Chen Xiancheng was anxious and urged, "Hurry up!"

"They..." The arrester reported, "They should have gone to the county government to file a complaint!"

"Ah!? It's broken, it's broken..." Chen Xiancheng shook his hands like Parkinson, splashing a lot of tea leaves, he said worriedly, "If the county government is alarmed, we will all be implicated!

"Oh," he asked anxiously to the yamen servants, "Where is County Magistrate Song? Why hasn't he come back?"

"My lord," someone replied, "Magistrate Song went out early in the morning, and we don't know when he will come back."

Xu Zhen understood that Song Zhili must have gone to Qiu Batian for questioning.

"Then... what about Cheng Butou?" Chen Xiancheng clapped his hands and said, "We have to think of a way quickly and see if we can stop him!"

"My lord...I'm afraid I can't stop it," said the policeman, "I heard that the news spread last night, and those people left overnight!" 2
"Ah? Sigh..." Chen Xiancheng sighed, and put down the big tea helplessly, "It's over, it's over, this time...it's going to be a big mess..."

Xu Zhen didn't care how the county magistrate sighed, quietly turned and left the inner hall, and went to the South Prison of the county government.

In order to block the news, Old Man Li's body is still parked here. Xu Zhen wants to check it himself to see if there are any clues on the body?

However, what he didn't expect was that the head catcher Cheng Xiao was also here, and he was examining the corpse with Wu Zuo.

"Yes, it takes several hours for these imprints to appear after a person dies," Wu Zuo was a hunchbacked old man who was pressing the corpse and gesturing to Cheng Xiao, "Look at the head catcher, there are obvious pinch marks here !"

Cheng Xiao leaned closer to the face of the corpse, and sure enough, he saw dark red pinch marks on the old man's cheeks.

Seeing these pinch marks, Cheng Xiao's already frowning brows tightened even more.

Obviously, the old man was forced to take poison. Someone pinched his mouth and forced him to swallow the poison!

In other words, his previous guess was correct, there must be ghosts in this prison of the South Prison!
In the Daxuan Dynasty, the Nanjian Prison in the Yamen was only similar to a detention center, where criminals awaiting trial, as well as plaintiffs and defendants in lawsuits were detained.

Once the prisoner is convicted, he will be transferred to the county government prison in Daguan City to serve his sentence.

As the saying goes, people dare not go to the Yamen to file a complaint easily when they see officials strip their skins, so there are not many prisoners in the Nanjian Prison.

What's even more coincidental is that there was no prisoner yesterday, and there was only old man Li in the huge South Prison.

Therefore, the suspect also becomes quite clear...

"Come here," Cheng Xiao yelled at his subordinates, "Take down the two jailers who were on duty last night, and serve them with great punishment!"

"No, Cheng Butou, Cheng Butou..." Two jailers were nearby, and they hurriedly bowed to Cheng Xiao when they heard the words, one of them argued, "Really, really don't care about our business, we... we really Don’t move that old man!”

"That's right," said the other, "the old man was the only one in prison last night. If the two of us hadn't lost our minds, how dare we kill him in prison?"

"Hmph, you speak lightly," Cheng Xiao stood up, and said to the two jailers, "This man was obviously forced to take poison. If it wasn't for you, wouldn't this South Prison be a hell of a place?"

While speaking, Cheng Xiao had already seen Xu Zhen, and immediately glanced at Xu Zhen angrily.

"Cheng Butou, listen to me," one of the jailers swallowed, and said, "This old man is just a plaintiff and not a prisoner, so... we didn't pay close attention to each other yesterday, and we were all in the lobby outside for dinner. , if someone went in, maybe... maybe they didn't see it..."

"Yes, yes," the other quickly echoed, "I also went to the toilet once, and the door was also open. It should be...someone went in and killed someone while we were not paying attention. You must be aware of it, Mr. Cheng... ..."

"Hey," Cheng Xiao sighed, and said, "They are all colleagues. I didn't intend to embarrass you, but are you convincing? The old man was locked in the cell. If he didn't have the key, who would let him He forcibly took poison?"

"This..." The two were dumbfounded, not knowing how to explain.

"So, I advise you," Cheng Xiao said coldly, "tell everything you know, so as not to suffer."

After speaking, he winked at his subordinates, who immediately took down the two jailers.

The two guards turned pale with fright, and quickly fell to their knees, begging bitterly while proving their innocence.

But at this moment, Xu Zhen had already squeezed in front of the corpse, and checked the corpse together with that operation.

He even raised the old man's arm, and sniffed it closely...

Seeing this, Cheng Xiao narrowed his eyes, as if thinking of something, he went straight outside the cell.

"Xu Zhen," he stood outside the cell, and shouted to Xu Zhen through the wooden prison bar, "Come here!"

Ok?
Xu Zhen didn't know why, but seeing Cheng Xiao's cold eyes, he knew that nothing was good.

I had to listen to what the arrester had to say, so I could only walk slowly to the prison bar and look at Cheng Xiao across the bar.

"Go a little further!" Cheng Xiao waved to Xu Zhen.

As a result, just as Xu Zhen leaned in front of the prison column, Cheng Xiao's left hand suddenly reached into the gap in the prison bar, and grabbed Xu Zhen's throat fiercely!

Cheng Xiao's hands were so strong that he pinched Xu Zhen so hard that he couldn't breathe.

"You say..." Cheng Xiao pinched Xu Zhen fiercely, but said to his colleagues nonchalantly, "If someone like me, can force poison for that old man across the cell?"

After finishing speaking, he also stretched his right hand into the gap, pretending to force Xu Zhen to take medicine, and stretched it viciously towards Xu Zhen's mouth.

At this time, Xu Zhen was out of breath, his face was flushed, and he tried to break Cheng Xiao's wrist with both hands, but he couldn't do it at all.

Cheng Xiao has kung fu, his claws are like iron tongs.

He was obviously playing tricks on purpose. If he really restored the case, he should pinch Xu Zhen's cheek instead of directly choking his neck.

As a result, Xu Zhen couldn't open his mouth at all, and Cheng Xiao stretched his right hand viciously towards Xu Zhen's mouth, obviously wanting to humiliate Xu Zhen.

Xu Zhenxin was annoyed, and when he used the tricks he had learned in the police force, he suddenly grabbed Cheng Xiao's two fingers, and then forced them outward!
"Oh ah……"

Cheng Xiao was in pain, and suddenly lost his strength and let go of his hand.

Xu Zhen quickly broke free and took two steps back.He was also merciful, if he had been more ruthless just now, Cheng Xiao's two fingers would have been broken.

"you!?"

Cheng Xiao was about to explode, but Xu Zhen suppressed the momentum first, and said to him:
"Cheng Butou, I don't think there is any need to try it. The murderer is absolutely impossible to use this method to force the old man to take poison. He has to unlock the lock and enter the cell!"

……

(End of this chapter)