Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1790 Shanshan Guild Hall
Li Ziyu is the patrol officer of the area, so naturally he will lead the way.According to Wuxiang's instructions, he first took him to the entrance of East Eighth Alley, then to West Eleventh Alley, and walked along the various crime locations.

Wu Xiang seldom spoke along the way, only stopping at certain places to ask a few questions.But nothing specific to talk about.Just keep looking closely.It made Li Ziyu feel very mysterious.

He stopped and walked like this until he reached the back door of Zhenbo Garden in Dongzhi Eighth Alley, when Wu Xiang suddenly asked, "Where is this?"

Li Ziyu hurriedly said: "Chief Wu, this is the back door of the Shanshan Guild Hall."

"Since it's the back door, why is the lock hanging outside?" He pointed to the door.

The door is larger than the normal back door, double door leaf.There was a rusty iron padlock hanging from it.

With this question, even Li Zhenguo suddenly realized that he had missed a suspicious point.This is clearly the back door of the guild hall, how is the door locked outside?

In the 17th century, the locks commonly used by Chinese folks were padlocks.The biggest difference between modern locks such as padlocks and tumbler locks is that padlocks can only be opened and locked in one direction, so there are latches on the inside and outside of building doors, and locks are not used. Locks are used to lock the door only when there is no one at home. Anti-lock.

Li Zhenguo knew that even though the back doors and corner doors of government offices, guild halls, and rich families had bolts on the inside, they had to be locked with padlocks at night.This kind of locking from the inside is mainly for the needs of internal security, preventing private communication between people inside the building and outsiders, which in turn leads to theft and sex incidents.

Therefore, the back door of the Shanshan Guild Hall is locked from the outside, which is a bit unbelievable, because in this way, if the people in the Shanshan Guild Hall want to open the back door, they have to come out from the front door and go around a big circle to get to the back door Come to unlock.This is too contrary to common sense.

Could it be that someone came out of the back door of the Shanshan Guild Hall last night?Both Wuxiang and Li Zhenguo had this question in their minds.As the saying goes: abnormality is a demon.Li Zhenguo took a closer look at the padlock. The lock was rusty, but the area around the keyhole was shiny. It was obvious that the lock had only been opened recently.

"There is a problem with this lock!" Li Zhenguo excitedly said, "Someone must have come out of it last night!"

Wu Xiang nodded and said, "It's not sure if it was yesterday, but it is indeed a doubt."

Li Ziyu boldly said: "Chief Wu, Comrade Li, this is not... suspicious..."

"Oh?" Wuxiang was immediately interested, and the young patrolman actually raised objections immediately, "Tell me."

Li Ziyu saw that he didn't show signs of getting angry, so he said cautiously: "This is the back door of the Shanshan Guild Hall, but it is actually the back door of Zhenbo Garden."

Zhenbo Garden has already been reduced to a "haunted house". Naturally, the Shanshan Guild Hall will not be used to live in people when it is bought, but a special purpose for "not afraid of ghosts", that is, the temporary coffin.

Merchants do business, scholars study abroad, once they live and die in different places, the guild hall in their hometown is obliged to take care of the funeral affairs for them.Therefore, it is often reasonable to buy.However, the ancients paid the most attention to returning to their roots, and those who died in foreign lands would return their coffins to their hometowns for burial as long as conditions permit.Some coffins are temporarily stored in temples and guild halls.Waiting for the photo to be transported back to my hometown one day.Therefore, larger guild halls often set up a separate courtyard in a secluded place behind for coffins.Although there are not many Shanshan merchants in Guangdong, the guild hall also has such facilities.

Since the coffins have to be stored, they can’t go in and out through the gate. Firstly, it hinders Fengshui, and secondly, there are people coming and going in the guild hall. It’s frustrating to see them, so they always enter and exit through the back door of Zhenbo Garden—you can directly use the water on the river. vessel.

Li Ziyu said that in order to facilitate the entry and exit of the coffin, the padlock has always been locked outside.Because of the "fame" of Zhenbo Garden, it is almost completely isolated from Shanshan Guild Hall.

"The people who transport the coffins are all transported in through the back door, and then out through the back door. Even the handyman who takes the key to the back door does not dare to go back to the guild hall through the Zhenbo Garden, and would rather go around the back door and enter through the main door. Therefore, this lock The head is always hanging on the outside of the door, not inside the door."

"It's quite evil." Wuxiang nodded, feeling that the patrolman had a good grasp of the situation in the area, and he asked again, "Who are the steward and the janitor of the guild hall? You asked me something."

Li Ziyu said: "I don't know about that, the gate of the guild hall is not in Jianzi Alley..."

It turned out that the gate of the Shanshan Guild Hall was opened in the adjacent Xiangyao Lane. According to the principle of dividing the jurisdiction of the street where the gate is opened, this large area in the Eighth Lane of Dongzhi was not under the jurisdiction of Li Ziyu. .

After hearing what he said, Wuxiang immediately sent him to the Shanxi Guild Hall in Xiangyao Lane.

A group of people left South Scissors Alley, and hurried to the gate of Shanshan Guild Hall. When the gatekeeper saw the police coming, he quickly called the supervisor out.

The person in charge is an "Old Xier", who has been in business in Guangzhou for more than 30 years, and is considered a half-native, but his Cantonese is still not very good. Hearing that Wuxiang speaks "Newspeak", I feel relieved--compared to Speaking of Cantonese Mandarin, this Newspeak is even easier to communicate with.

Hearing that what the police wanted to ask was about Zhenbo Garden, the person in charge was quite surprised.This is a well-known "haunted house" in the city, even the people of the Shanshan Guild Hall will not go in during the day if they have nothing to do.What's more, there are coffins in the temporary house inside, ordinary people can't avoid it, what's so good about it?

He said that Zhenbo Garden was indeed the property of Shanshan Guild Hall, but few people went there.Including himself, it is rare to go in once or twice.If you want to talk about the specific situation inside, you have to ask the handyman in the guild hall.

So I called Lao Qi.What Lao Qi said was the same as what Li Ziyu said. For the convenience of getting in and out of the coffin, he did enter and exit the Zhenbo Garden from the outside.Wuxiang then asked him why he didn't enter and exit from the guild hall?Is there no door between the guild hall and Zhenbo Garden?
"My lord, of course there are doors, and the smaller ones also have keys. But that place is too dark, and even entering in broad daylight feels like a ghostly atmosphere inside..."

Open the narrow door of Shanshan Guild Hall, and you can enter Zhenbo Garden.But on weekdays, even in broad daylight, Lao Qi would not dare to walk this road alone.He would rather go far away for peace of mind.

"Do you have the key to the gate?" Wu Xiang asked.

"Naturally," said old Qi, "the key is hung in the concierge where the little one lives. To be honest, the little one is terrified when he looks at it, and he doesn't use it if he can use it."

"Is the key still there?"

"Yes, yes, no one has stolen it. I saw it this morning."

"Who else has it but you?"

"The steward has one."

"Where's the key to the back door?"

"It's the same, take one for the younger one, and prepare one for the steward."

But the steward said, "I don't have any." He added, "The one you use is mine."

Seeing that the policeman was puzzled, he explained that Lao Qi only came last year. The original handyman died during the plague last spring. I went outside the city to avoid the plague.I couldn't take care of the chaos for a while, and when I came back, the handyman had died of illness, and was sent to the funeral tomb by the Shantang to be buried, and even the few keys he brought with him were missing—one of them was the key to the back door of Zhenbo Garden.

Li Zhenguo suddenly asked: "Is this handyman stationed in South Jianzi Lane, and his wife's name is Wang Xiuzhu?!"

The manager blinked his eyes, and said: "It's true that he lives in South Scissors Lane. I don't know if his wife's name is Wang Xiuzhu, but her surname is indeed Wang—she often comes to the guild hall to make mending, and everyone calls her Aunt Wang... ..."

Li Ziyu almost cried out: Widow Wang's deceased husband was a janitor and handyman. He died during the plague last spring. So, Widow Wang's deceased husband was a handyman in the Shanshan Guild Hall!

In this way, the killing of the Widow Wang was somewhat related to the Shanshan Guild Hall.He remembered Gao Chongjiu said that the murderer seemed to be looking for something at Widow Wang's house, could it be the key to the back door? !

The murderer will not look for the key for no reason, he must have the key to achieve some purpose...Could it be...

Wuxiang and Li Zhenguo looked at each other, and Li Zhenguo said, "We want to go to Zhenbo Garden to take a look."

The person in charge was a little embarrassed, and said: "It's nothing at all, it's just...just...it's getting late..."

Wu Xiang took out his pocket watch from his pocket, it was already five o'clock, but now the day was growing, so the sun still looked bright.He said: "It doesn't matter, it's not dark yet. Let's go in and have a look. If there is nothing, we will come out in a while."

The steward had no choice but to ask Lao Qi to open the door and take them into Zhenbo Garden.

Old Qi was very reluctant, but since the manager had ordered him, he dared not disobey.Seeing that there are several policemen here, I thought to myself that since the policemen of the Song Dynasty and the weapons of the Emperor's standard, they have a strong vicious aura, and they may be able to suppress evil.

In order to save time, Wuxiang asked Lao Qi to open the back door and enter the garden from the hall.Old Qi had no choice but to take the key and lead the way.

Old Qi took them all the way round and round, and when they came to the back, they were in the middle of the road.I saw a small black-painted door at the bottom of the corridor. The paint was peeling off, the door was bolted, and a large lock was hung on it.There are only big trees on the top of the wall, and the shade of the trees is like a cover.

"The other side of this wall is the Zhenbo Garden." Lao Qi said, inserting the key into the lock, and was about to turn it, when suddenly he trembled and exclaimed: "God!"

The policemen were startled, Li Zhenguo looked intently, and saw half a blurred black footprint beside the lintel of the small door!

Wu Xiang hurried up to take a look, the footprints were very vague, but judging from the size and shape, it should be the footprints of a man, the footprints are very new, obviously not long left.Judging from the damp traces, it might have happened last night this morning!

(End of this chapter)