The wife of the power minister's family

"Ah."

Xiao Yi nodded, "This case has indeed been delayed for too long. It is obvious that Dali Temple has nothing to do with this case. His Majesty sent someone to ask me if I would like to take over the case and give it a try, so I agreed. It just so happened that this time There is time to recuperate.”

Xu Jing was silent.

What is this called recuperating? Isn’t this a proper way to work while injured?

Xiao Yi suddenly raised his eyes and looked at Xu Jing, "However, the murderer of this case has not been found for five years, which shows that there are still certain difficulties in solving the case. I wonder if Madam Xu is willing to help me? I will still pay you the salary."

What he said was that they had agreed before in Anping County that the salary would be one tael of silver per autopsy.

To be honest, for Xu Jing today, one tael of silver is no longer attractive to her. Yesterday, after she helped Mrs. Jiang solve the trouble around her, Mrs. Jiang gave her a red envelope of 100 taels. , not to mention that Xu Jing had already made a considerable amount of money by treating patients and selling medicines. It is no exaggeration to say that she is now a little rich woman.

However, the meaning of these two taels of silver to her is not just white money. Xu Jing raised her eyebrows slightly and said: "I have no problem with the autopsy, but I can't guarantee the investigation. I heard that the Smiling Killer recently It was half a year ago that I committed a murder, and even though Mr. Xiao wanted to ask me for an autopsy, I guess there was no corpse for me to examine."

A well-preserved corpse like Wang Wuniang's is an extremely rare phenomenon.

"Although there are no corpses for Madam Xu to examine, the corpses of the previous victims have been sent to my house by Dali Temple. I want Madam Xu to see them, and she will definitely be able to tell more things than I can."

As Xiao Yi spoke, he raised his hand to call an attendant and asked him to fetch all the corpses sent from Dali Temple.

After doing this, he continued: "The Smiling Killer's first murder was five years ago. Five people have died in his hands so far. The deceased were all young women between the ages of 16 and 24. Moreover, these women They all live in or near Xijing.

Originally, this murderer had killed so many people, and his severity should have been enough to attract the attention of the superiors. However, because he killed all women from ordinary people's families, only two of the women were the wives of small officials, and there were intervals between each of his cases. It takes a long time, and compared with other major projects in Dali Temple, the weight seems a bit insufficient.

If this time Wang Wuniang's case was not related to the Smiling Killer's case, it would not have attracted the attention of the Holy Emperor. "

Xu Jing frowned slightly, "But Wang Wuniang died half a year ago. Why didn't the Holy One pay attention to this case at that time?"

Xiao Yi was silent for a moment and then said: "Because this matter has not reached the ears of the Holy Emperor at all, the Wang family is bent on downplaying Wang Wuniang's death. The best result is to make it completely disappear. Therefore, no one in Dali Temple or the Shangjing government office took this matter seriously." The matter was reported. This time, it was Mrs. Yu who made too much noise that alerted the Holy Emperor.

A person has a huge grievance. If there is no one to redress his grievance, the people around him will not know about it. "

This is the truth.

The victims in the case of the Smiling Killer were basically girls from ordinary families, so they did not attract the attention of the superiors, let alone Wang Wuniang, who was not valued by the Wang family in the first place.

This era is not like modern times, with developed public opinion media. If a case is too serious, people across the country will supervise the public security organs to solve the case. In ancient times, whether a case was taken seriously or not all depended on the weight of the deceased and the conscience of the officials.Xu Jing's heart felt a little heavy, and she slowly exhaled and said, "Master Xiao, please tell me in detail about the case committed by the Smiling Killer."

Xiao Yi glanced at her and said: "Mrs. Xu should know the origin of the name Smiling Killer, because every woman he kills will have an upturned arc sewn with red thread at the corner of her mouth, as if she is smiling. That's why the public gave him the name Smiling Killer.

The first time he committed a crime was in the second year of Tianxi, that is, five years ago. The deceased was a wife of a cloth dealer living in the northeast of Xijing. Her surname was Fan. She had just turned 16 years old. When she was found, her clothes were It was in a state of tatters, with numerous pinches, scratches and bite marks on its body, as well as signs of rape.

The second time he committed a crime was in the third year of Tianxi's reign, about a year after the previous case. The deceased was also a woman living in the northeast of Xijing. Her family ran a breakfast shop. Her surname was Zeng. She was 19 years old. When she was found The situation is similar to that of the previous deceased.

Just when the people in the government thought that the killer's pattern of committing crimes was to kill one person a year, he did not commit another crime for the next entire year. "

Xu Jing was startled, this was beyond her expectation, and she couldn't help but ask: "If he didn't commit a crime in Tianxi for four years, how did he kill five people so far? Why didn't he commit a crime that year?"

At first, she heard that the Smiling Killer killed five people in five years, and when she heard that he killed one person a year in the first two years, she subconsciously thought that he killed these five victims at a frequency of one a year. .

"Because, after a year of silence, he committed a crime again, and this time he came out, his killing pattern changed, killing one every half a year."

Xiao Yi said in a deep voice: "The government still has no clue why he did not commit a crime in the fourth year of Tianxi. He appeared again in January of the fifth year of Tianxi. The deceased was a woman from a farmer's family in the suburbs of Xijing, surnamed Chen, 22 years old .

In July of the same year, he appeared again. The deceased was the wife of a school clerk who lived in the southwest of Xijing. Her surname was Qian, and she was 24 years old.

Then came January of the sixth year of Tianxi. It was originally rumored that there were two women killed by him. One was the wife of an assistant professor of law who lived in the suburbs of Xijing. Her surname was Sun, who had just turned 20 years old, and the other was Wang Wuniang. , but now it has been found that the murderer of Wang Wuniang was not the Smiling Killer. "

What Xiao Yi said was very detailed, but Xu Jing immediately heard what was wrong with it. She stared at Xiao Yi closely and said: "The three women who died behind, why didn't you tell us about the condition of their bodies when they died?" , but what’s wrong?”

Xiao Yi couldn't help but raise his eyebrows slightly, and chuckled: "Ms. Xu's acumen in investigating cases is indeed extraordinary. Yes, the situations of the three women who died later were somewhat different from the first two women.

When they were found, their clothes were also in tatters, with signs of rape, and the corners of their mouths were sewn with red thread into an upward curve. However, the injuries on their bodies were very different from the first two deceased, and they were very... horrific.

In addition to the pinch wounds, scratches and bite marks on the first two deceased persons, the latter three deceased persons also had obvious burn marks, their fingernails and toenails had been peeled off, and there were more than a dozen wounds from sticks and whips. Wounds, fists and feet, the skin of the deceased... private parts, and traces of being peeled off alive..."

Xu Jing's heart trembled slightly.

This is not a simple rape and murder case, it is simply an inhumane torture and murder!
Xiao Yi observed Xu Jing's face before continuing: "These situations were all told to me by the Minister of Dali Temple before. It is said that because the bodies of the three deceased were too miserable, the families of the deceased could not accept it for a time and were unwilling to do so. Acknowledge their identities. For more detailed information, you can only know the files sent by Dali Temple."

Xu Jing suddenly said: "The situation... is not quite right."