Kaifeng Monster

Chapter 6 Six Fingers (1)
Duanmucui has gone on a long journey.

Inspired by Pao Ding's Niu Niu Knife, she went to the land of Qilu to find the old relics of Yi Ya, a famous chef in Qi State in the Spring and Autumn Period.

"As long as I find all the knives, pans, and shovels that Yi Ya used, and cast a little spell to summon the ghosts attached to them, they will naturally serve me delicious delicacies specially prepared by Yi Ya, delicacies, Zhan Zhao." Duanmu Cui's eyes lighted up, and her index finger moved wildly.

"I heard that Yi Ya is not a good person, so he steamed his own son and gave it to Duke Huan of Qi." Zhan Zhao poured cold water on Duanmucui.

"Zhan Zhao, you need to understand that cooking skills are usually not linked to character." Duanmu Cui gave Zhan Zhao a white look. Has the kitchen burned down?"

Zhan Zhao almost jumped up: "You... who told you?"

Only Gongsun Ce, Wang Chao, and Ma Han were present, and they all swore that they would never speak out.

Duanmucui was triumphant: "Of course it is the Kitchen God."

After being connected with the Kitchen God, Zhan Zhao gasped, and at the same time came to a conclusion—although a person can cultivate into a god, the problem of gossip, gossip, and short-sightedness still follows him everywhere.It can be seen that divinity and humanity still have something in common at certain times.

"Then you're gone, what if there are ghosts haunting you?" Zhan Zhao worried about the common people as always.

"How can there be so many ghosts?" Duanmucui patted Zhan Zhao's shoulder, "Besides, isn't there a letter butterfly?"

Zhan Zhao finally couldn't find any thorns: "When are you leaving, I'll see you off."

"It's so troublesome, just leave it alone." Duanmucui stomped on the ground a few times, "Land, borrow a way."

Next, Duanmucui's body became shorter, and it is not appropriate to say that it was shorter. To be precise, it should be that the ground under Duanmucui's feet suddenly became soft, and Duanmucui sank just like that. until it's gone.

Could this be the legendary Tudun?
Zhan Zhao was dumbfounded, before he could react, Duanmucui called him: "Zhan Zhao, Zhan Zhao?"

Looking down, her scalp was numb——Duanmucui only had one head sticking out of the ground, and hurriedly said: "Help me look at the house, if you have nothing to do, come and have a look."

"I know, I know." Zhan Zhao's spine felt cold, "You can go."

With a satisfied smile on Duanmucui's face, she sank into the ground again.

Zhan Zhao stretched out his hand to wipe off the cold sweat on his forehead: Dealing with Duanmucui does require a strong psychological quality.

For the first two days, Zhan Zhao took the time to sit in the Duanmu Thatched Cottage, but from the third day onwards, he was no longer free - there was a murder case at Jinxiu Cloth Village on West Fourth Street in the city.

In a place as big as Kaifeng, it is not uncommon for a murder case to occur.Then again, if there were no homicide cases, the whole day would be full of neighbor disputes, jealousy, lack of weight, and so on. Kaifeng Mansion would have changed its name to Kaifeng Mediation Center long ago.

The victim was Li Songbai, the owner of Jinxiu Cloth, a man in his fifties, with simple relationships, a middle-aged widow, and childless. He adopted a godson from a distant relative, named Li Guangzong.

This Li Guangzong has not married yet, he eats too much, is lazy and doesn't do anything productive, so Li Songbai doesn't like it very much.

According to the eyewitness Lu Amao, a servant of Liu Shangshu in the household department, the scene at the scene that night was as follows:

That night, Lu Amao was ordered by the nanny in the mansion to go to Buzhuang to fetch a piece of Lingxiao red cloth for his wife. As soon as he walked to the gate of Buzhuang, he saw Li Guangzong come out in a panic and almost bumped into Lu Amao.Lu Amao felt strange, he didn't see Li Songbai coming out to greet the guests, so he went to the inner room to look for it, and as soon as he entered the inner room, he saw Li Songbai lying on his back on the ground, his eyes wide open, his tongue sticking out, he died of exhaustion.

So Lu Amao chased out the door while yelling "Killer", just in time to meet Dynasty and Ma Han who had been watching the night.According to the whereabouts of the suspect provided by Lu Amao, Wang Chao and Ma Han chased Li Guangzong within two blocks before they caught Li Guangzong.

According to Wang Chao, Li Guangzong has never shut up since he was caught, and without waiting for Wang Wang to ask questions, he began to self-examine the evil deeds he committed in the past three years, including restaurant repudiation three times, stealing sheep twice, molesting a good woman once, and the most recent One time: I stole ten taels of silver from Jinxiu cloth shop to drink flower wine.

Basically, halfway through Li Guangzong's self-analysis, the Dynasty already had an intuition that Li Guangzong was not the murderer. Later, Wu's autopsy also confirmed this point: Li Songbai was smothered to death and strangled to death. Pinching first and then being bored is irrelevant. The key point is that the pinch marks on Li Songbai's neck are slender, obviously belonging to a woman.More importantly, judging from the fingerprints of the pinch mark, the woman has six fingers on both hands.

If you don’t understand, let me simplify the description again, that is: Li Songbai, the owner of Jinxiu Cloth, died—he was strangled to death—a woman strangled him—this woman is Liuzhi.

Li Guangzong was cleared of murder suspicion and he could have been released-if he hadn't blatantly confessed so many crimes.

There is only one clue left: the six-fingered woman.

It was not difficult to find, and the suspect soon surfaced: Zheng Qiaoer, who grinds tofu from the fourth household on Donger Road.Anyone who has bought her tofu knows that Zheng Qiaoer was born with six fingers in both hands.

Zheng Qiaoer is fierce and fierce by nature, and she happens to be selling tofu, but suddenly she is caught by a group of wolf-like yamen servants and leaves, how can she be willing?Kicking, biting, scratching and screaming all the way, the poor yamen who guarded her, usually only five blood marks when being scratched, this time it was six marks.

Hearing that the six-fingered suspect was caught, everyone in Zhan Zhao was delighted, but seeing Zheng Qiaoer face to face, it was like a basin of cold water poured over their heads.

This Zheng Qiaoer is too thin, too small, too short, even though she is an adult, her body is still as thin as an eleven or twelve-year-old girl, she can't even reach Zhan Zhao's chest when she stands upright.Although the momentum of scratching people is very aggressive, but in the words of Yachai: "The strength is not much stronger than that of a chicken..."

Li Songbai is a tall man with a thick back, can you believe that Zheng Qiaoer strangled Li Songbai to death?

At this point in the case, basically all clues are broken, and the investigators are in a state of helplessness—as long as there is an alibi, the second suspect, Zheng Qiaoer, will also be acquitted.

However, the phrase "There is no way out when the mountain is poor and the river is full of doubts, and the willows are dark and the flowers are bright and another village" is usually applied to this kind of occasion.

That night, when Zhan Zhao was patrolling the night with Wang Chao and Ma Han, an old woman with white hair came tremblingly on crutches, grabbed Zhan Zhao's arm and let out a mournful voice: "Lord Zhan, Qiaoer was wronged." Ah, Qiaoer doesn't know how to kill people... Li Songbai is black-hearted, it's not enough to harm the Zheng family, he has to ask Qiaoer to be buried with him when he dies..."

Zhan Zhao immediately heard something wrong: "Li Songbai harmed the Zheng family? What kind of grudge does Li Songbai have with the Zheng family?"

The white-haired old woman was in tears, and began to reminisce about the past.

The elderly are confused and rambling, and occasionally their thinking jumps a long way, so we won't go into details, but a brief summary is as follows:
Twenty years ago, Li Songbai was just a treasurer hired by the cloth shop. The owner of Jinxiu cloth shop was Zheng Wanli, who married Liu Ximei.One day, Zheng Wanli went out to collect the bills and did not return all night. The next day, news came that Zheng Wanli had met robbers on his way and had met with misfortune.

Liu Ximei was devastated. If she hadn't been pregnant, she would have committed suicide to her husband.The Zheng family was originally sparsely populated, and when Zheng Wanli died, Li Songbai took over the business of Buzhuang.This Li Songbai was interested in making money, and seeing that the mistress was pregnant and had no time to take care of business, he secretly resorted to some despicable means. After only a few months, he secretly transferred the money from the cloth village, saying to the outside world that the management was not good and the turnover was unsustainable. .In order to keep her husband's family business, Liu Ximei was coaxed by Li Songbai to borrow several usury loans in the name of cloth village.It is conceivable that subsequent creditors came to press for debts one after another. Liu Ximei was unable to repay the debts, so she had the will to die. After entrusting her daughter Zheng Qiaoer to the nanny Zhang, she burned the cloth village and died in the fire.

The creditor didn't know that the Zheng family's orphan had to be released, but said that no one in the Zheng family survived, so those debts had to be let go.On the contrary, Li Songbai appeared in the name of a loyal servant of the Zheng family, solemnly held the funeral for his mother, took over the rest of the Zheng family's property, and reopened Jinxiu Cloth Village.

After reminiscing, the white-haired old woman, the nanny Zhang mentioned above, broke down in tears: "Master Zhan, do you think this Li Songbai is still human...Qiaoer, Qiaoer was wronged..."

Zhan Zhao, Wang Chao, and Ma Han looked at each other.

Well, this is indeed a tragic story of common people that makes the listeners weep and the listeners move. Li Songbai's character is indeed despicable.

The key is--

Will this work for Zheng Qiaoer?

Zheng Qiaoer would be able to return home soon, after all, she had both proof of her alibi and no motive for killing, but now, due to Zhang's "active running", Zheng Qiaoer could not get away in the short term.

Although she wasn't there that night, killing doesn't have to be done by oneself, and buying murder is also very popular.

She had a motive for killing, and it involved a generational grudge.

She is suspected of murder, she is Six Fingers.

Speaking of Liuzhi, one cannot fail to mention another piece of information provided by Zhang, Zheng Qiaoer's mother, Liu Ximei, is also Liuzhi.

It is not unusual for people in Kaifeng Prefecture to be involved in a case within a case.It's only been more than [-] years, so it's not difficult to ask about some of the situation back then.

Sure enough, Wang Chao found out about the fire in Jinxiu Cloth Village from an old yamen servant.It is said that the fire was extremely intense at that time, and although the neighbors wanted to rescue them, they were all forced to retreat by the fire.Liu Ximei's horrific screams came from the fire, and everyone who heard it was shocked.

After the fire, everything was reduced to ashes except for the copper pot and iron furnace for boiling the dyed pulp.What was even more pitiful was Liu Ximei, whose body was never left behind after being burned.

"Hasn't even the dead body been left behind?" Zhan Zhao's heart skipped a beat.

Wang Chao and Ma Han looked at Zhan Zhao together, and the three thought of a possibility almost at the same time.

Liu Ximei may not have been burned to death.

Zhan Zhao decided to go to Jinxiu Cloth Village to take a look.

At the gate of Buzhuang, I met Lu Amao who was probing his head.Seeing Zhan Zhao's suspicious look, Lu Amao was taken aback, and quickly cleared himself up: "My wife is thinking about Ling Xiao Hongbu, and sent me to see if Jinxiu Cloth will open again."

Zhan Zhao was puzzled: "There are many cloth shops in the city, why do you have to buy them at Jinxiu cloth shop?"

"The little one also asked the same question," Lu Amao scratched his head, "but madam said Lingxiao red cloth is only sold in Jinxiu cloth shop."

How is this possible, Kaifeng is the place where the world's kitties gather, and the red cloth in the sky can also live in rare goods?

Zhan Zhao disagrees.

Pushing the door open and entering the house, the shop was very dark, and in just a few days, there was dust everywhere.It is said that the light goes out when people die, but now it seems that it is more appropriate to say that people die and live.

There was an open account book on the counter, Zhan Zhao looked down, and the last entry read "Liu Mansion, a piece of Ling Xiao red cloth".

Looking forward casually, the business of Jinxiu Cloth Village is good, with batik, interlaced dyeing, silk, hemp and silk yarn, and silk cotton silk, and there are not a few of them coming in and out.Zhan Zhao smiled, turned around and walked into the inner room. After walking for two steps, he suddenly thought of something, turned back and went through the account book again.

Just now Lu Amao said that Lingxiao red cloth is only sold by Jinxiu Cloth Village, so Lingxiao Red Cloth should be specially made by Jinxiu Cloth Village, and the trading volume is not rare.Why is there only one account in Liu's house in the entire account book?
Zhan Zhao frowned slightly, turned around and entered the inner room, and opened the wooden cabinet where the account books of the cloth village were stored.The wooden cabinet was full, containing the account books of Li Songbai's re-opening of Jinxiu cloth shop for more than [-] years.

Let’s look at this year’s first, batik, interlaced dyeing, silk and hemp tulle, silk and cotton silk… there is no Lingxiao red cloth.

Open the second book, batik, clip dyeing, silk, linen and tulle... nothing.

The third book, batik, clip dyeing... nothing.

The last book, the first page, the first stroke, "Wangfu, Lingxiao red cloth, one piece".

Mrs. Liu Shangshu was called Wang Huan before she left the pavilion.

In the 20 years since Jinxiu Cloth opened, it has only done two transactions of Lingxiao Red Cloth, both of which were sold to Wang Huan.

Zhan Zhao slowly closed the account book in his hand.

What I heard from Liu Shangshu's wife, Wang Huan, was an ordinary story.

"It was more than [-] years ago. I passed by the newly opened Jinxiu cloth shop one day and saw a piece of Lingxiao red cloth on the shelf. The color was extremely bright and moist. I bought it and cut a big red skirt. Making a wedding dress. Two days ago, my niece came out of the cabinet and saw a lot of big red cloth samples, but I didn’t like it, so I thought of the Lingxiao red cloth from Jinxiu Cloth. When I sent my servants to ask, the shopkeeper said that he remembered that there was another , I just wanted to rummage in the warehouse, so I asked the son of the Lu family to pick it up at night, who knows..."

Wang Huan seemed to be sighing, shook her head and sighed softly, and the maid Ya'er obediently handed over the brewed Biluochun.Wang Huan took it, but didn't rush to drink, just looked at Zhan Zhao: "I only remember so much, I don't know if I can help Mr. Zhan?"

Of course it can't be helped, Zhan Zhao thought for a while, and then asked: "Is the Madam's wedding dress of Ling Xiao red cloth still there?"

Ya'er spoke quickly and rushed to answer: "Master Zhan, speaking of it, this is a rare thing. My wife asked me to rummage that day, and said to show my nephew to see the style. I dug it out from the bottom of the box and put it on hand , but it disappeared in a blink of an eye—asked the servants in the mansion, and they all said they had never seen it. It’s really strange, did the dress grow legs and run away?”

Coming out of Liu's residence, Zhan Zhao heaved a long sigh.

This case is confusing at times, and confusing at times.

It would be great if Duanmucui was here.

Although Duanmucui liked to choke him whenever he had time, but his mind was extremely clever, and he might be able to find out that strange thread, and then straighten out the mess.

Just thinking about it, before he knew it, he came to the gate of Jinxiu Cloth Village.

It was already late at night, the night was extremely dark, but the moonlight was as light as a wisp of moon mist.

The Jinxiu cloth village in front of him was strangely quiet, the old tree at the door stretched out its branches silently in the darkness, a black-feathered owl stood on the branch, and a pair of strange eyes with a strange light moved slowly as Zhan Zhao approached.

Zhan Zhao slowly pushed open the door of Jinxiu Cloth.

The door opened, and the door hinge made a creaking sound, and invisible dust fell from the top, dancing demons in the moonlight like a veil.

Zhan Zhao lit the torch that he carried with him, and the choking smell of saltpeter and smoke dispelled the rotten smell and dampness in the inner room a little.

Zhan Zhao walked very slowly, the open flame of Huozhezi was erratic, and Zhan Zhao's shadow reflected on the wall was also erratic, sometimes long and sometimes short.

There is a little unknown smell in the air, and it seems that something is wrong.It's like a pair of eyes in the dark, lingering on your back, wherever you go, your eyes will follow you.

That gaze was cold.

Zhan Zhao stopped.

He clearly saw the shadow on the wall, besides himself, there were other people behind him.The man opened his arms exaggeratedly, and the shadow of the wall was huge and weird by the candlelight.

Zhan Zhao secretly buckled a sleeve arrow in his hand, and with a thought, he took off the point of the arrow.

Continue to walk forward slowly, and the person behind follows suit.Zhan Zhao smiled slightly, exerted force on his wrist suddenly, and shot an arrow with his hand, at the same time, he turned around in the air and looked back at the man.

nobody.

If there are people, it will not be so quiet.

There is only a large Lingxiao Hongru skirt, which floats upright in mid-air lightly, with a flick of the ribbon, and the empty sleeves are opened to both sides, like a person spreading his arms.

With cold palms, Zhan Zhao clenched Ju Que tightly.

Under the firelight, the Ling Xiao Hong Ru skirt was glowing with a strange dark light, still floating in the air, but for some reason, his back was slightly arched, like a beast about to attack.Almost at the same time that Zhan Zhao's long sword was unsheathed, Ling Xiao's red dress swooped down towards Zhan Zhao.

Ju Que's vigorous blow did not have any effect, and the strength was lost in the air without sound.But the Ru skirt was wrapped around the head, and it was getting tighter and tighter, as if it wanted to grow into one body with the flesh, and stretched out countless tentacles to penetrate into the flesh and blood body, and the cool air pierced through the bones.

The fire fold rolls to one side, the flame flickers, then disappears in an instant.

Zhan Zhao's whole body was tightly wrapped in the skirt, unable to move even a bit.The Ru skirt became tighter and tighter, until Zhan Zhao couldn't breathe.

While suffocating, a pair of female hands slowly wrap around Zhan Zhao's neck.The twelve cold fingers are like the slippery skin of a poisonous snake.

Zhan Zhao suddenly thought of Xindie on his right shoulder.

It's too late, his whole body has fallen into this layer upon layer of darkness, he will never be able to touch Xindie again, and Duanmucui will never know that he is here.

Here is a corner where even the moonlight cannot reach.

It is seven steps from Duanmu Bridge to Duanmu Thatched Cottage, and seven steps from Duanmu Thatched Cottage to Duanmu Bridge.

(End of this chapter)