Tang Dynasty detective

Chapter 214 The mastermind behind the scenes
The three girls, including Zhao Lan'er, seemed to recall the nightmare again. They hugged their heads and cried out in horror.

Seeing this, Kang Xu frowned slightly and said: "Baojia, you take the three of them down first, so as to calm their emotions, and don't let them be stimulated again."

Baojia glared at Liu Tie bitterly, sighed vigorously, and went to appease the three girls.

At this time, Zhao Lan'er's parents and all the villagers had already arrived.

Seeing their long-lost daughter, the Zhao couple burst into tears of joy, hugging their daughter and weeping together.

Fearing that they would affect Kang Xu's trial, Baojia asked several village women to accompany the Zhao couple and two other girls to leave the deserted house.

"So, in order to play tricks on them, you played tricks and spread rumors, didn't you?" Kang Xu asked in a cold voice without the slightest warmth.

Liu Tie's face turned blue, he bit his lips and said, "This is all his idea. He asked me to pretend to be a Taoist priest, and tried his best to spread rumors about ghost houses. In addition, I am originally from Hetou Village, so I don't care about people in the village. Knowing things like the palm of my hand, and casually speaking, the villagers think that I have a good plan, able to predict the past and the future, and they have no doubts about what I say. Over time, the villagers believe in the ghost house and dare not come near this place.”

"As you said, more than the three of them were imprisoned in this deserted house, what about the others?" Kang Xu asked indifferently.

"They... are dead or alive, and their whereabouts are unknown." Liu Tie said tremblingly.

Kang Xu's eyes turned cold, and he said heavily, "Speak clearly."

Liu Tie said in horror: "My lord, I really don't know! After those women were tortured, as long as they survived, they were all taken to other places, but I don't know exactly where."

Kang Xu rubbed the center of his brows, and then asked, "How much do you know about Tao Zhaoxue?"

"Three days ago he brought a woman and imprisoned her in the dungeon. I don't know exactly what happened. The next day, he called me down to the dungeon, only to find that the woman was dead. He asked me to find a way to dispose of the corpse, so I thought of sinking the corpse in the Luo River."

Liu Tie's body kept shaking, and he kowtowed desperately to Kang Xu, saying: "My lord, I have confessed everything I know. I am only responsible for guarding this place and handling some sundries. I really didn't kill anyone. Please, my lord." Forgive me! Please forgive me, my lord!"

"Have you really confessed everything you did? Let me ask you, who is the 'he' you're talking about?" Kang Xu stared at him closely and asked sharply.

"He...he is the son of the Lu family." Liu Tie hesitated.

"Young Master of the Lu Family? Which Young Master of the Lu Family?" Kang Xu suddenly felt that he seemed to have grasped the point, so he hurriedly asked.

"Lu... Lu Jitong." Liu Tie said.

"Lu Jitong! It's him!"

Kang Xu was shocked. When he heard the name in Zhang Hebi's place, he felt that this matter had something to do with him, and he didn't think he was the owner of the secret road in this deserted house.

"Lu Jitong?" The village head, who was so angry that he almost lost his temper, muttered a few times, and suddenly asked, "Nizi, let me ask you, is this Lu Jitong the son of Lu Wangtian, a wealthy gentry in Zhengyang City?"

Liu Tie was stunned, and he said inconceivably, "Father, how did you know?"

The village head gave him a hard look, and then said to Kang Xu: "My lord, this house is exactly the old house of the Lu family. The Lu family was originally a big family in the village, but later moved to Zhengyang City, and this house was abandoned."

Kang Xu rubbed his chin, nodded, looked at Liu Tie and said sharply, "I ask you, are you willing to testify against Lu Jitong?"

Liu Tie was stunned for a moment, he thought of Lu Jitong's brutal methods, and fear appeared on his face.

"Liu Tie, you have to think clearly, if you don't identify him, these things will fall on your head. One by one, even if you have nine lives, it's not enough to pay for it!" Seeing that he hesitated, Kang Xu said immediately.

"Nizi, don't you know that this is a capital offense?" the village chief said angrily.

"I... I am willing to identify! Please forgive me, my lord!" Liu Tie lay on the ground, weeping bitterly.

Kang Xu ordered someone to fetch a pen and paper, wrote down all the things Liu Tie confessed, and asked him to press his fingerprints, and then he said coldly: "Liu Tie, although you didn't kill anyone, but you helped the tyrant to abuse, the death penalty can be punished." Forgiveness, living crime is hard to forgive."

After a pause, Kang Xu continued: "However, as long as you become a witness, the judge will sentence you according to the circumstances."

"Thank you for your grace, thank you for your grace!" Liu Tie kowtowed in cold sweat.

"The two of you escort Liu Tie back to the yamen with me, and the rest of you stay here so that you can take care of the house and strictly prohibit idlers from approaching." Kang Xu ordered.

"Yes, my lord!" Several yamen servants answered with a bow.

After the confession, Kang Xu took two yamen servants, escorted Liu Tie, and left the deserted house.

Kang Xu's expression was solemn. In fact, he knew that Liu Tie would not be the murderer.

The reason why he threatened Liu Tie was to deceive him, so that he could feel fear in his heart, so that he could relax his vigilance and confess to the mastermind behind the scenes.

Judging from the clues he has so far, the murderer is undoubtedly a person with an extremely twisted heart. This kind of person is far stronger than ordinary people, and will never admit what he has committed easily.

At best, Liu Tie is just a gangster, and he will never have such a strong psychological endurance.

What's more, there are still many doubts.

For example, how did the murderer know the time and place of Tao Zhaoxue's appointment?

As the lady of a rich family, Tao Zhaoxue is absolutely impossible to recognize a scoundrel like Liu Tie, and he naturally has no way of knowing the time and place of the appointment.

However, Lu Jitong was not the same. He learned about the elopement of the two from Zhang Hebi, and it is entirely possible to find out the exact time and place.

According to his guess, after Lu Jitong heard about the elopement from Zhang Hebi, he secretly exchanged the letters between them, which made Tao Zhaoxue abducted by him.

Even though he now knew that the murderer was Lu Jitong, there was still a doubt that bothered him and made him puzzled.

According to what Zhang Hebi said, the letter he received to attend the appointment was indeed in Tao Zhaoxue's handwriting.

Since Tao Zhaoxue wanted to elope with him, she definitely wouldn't make a mistake on purpose, and judging from the clues found, Tao Zhaoxue had indeed gone to the appointment before Chou Shi, and she was indeed kidnapped.

So, what happened to this lost hour?

How did Lu Jitong know the specific place and time for the appointment of the two of them?

Such a series of doubts made Kang Xu fall into deep thought again.

Even if he identified the murderer as Lu Jitong, it is still difficult to convict him based on Liu Tie's unilateral testimony.

Lu Jitong can deny everything and put everything on Liu Tie.After all, it was Liu Tie that Kang Xu caught in the dungeon of the deserted house, not Lu Jitong.

The so-called "catch the thief and take the stolen goods, catch the adulterer in bed", Kang Xu knew that in order to convict Lu Jitong, he must have conclusive evidence of the crime, so that he cannot stand up.

Kang Xu hugged the Chow Chow, thinking about the problem while walking casually.

Inadvertently, he walked to the ancestral hall in the village.

At this time, many villagers have gathered in the ancestral hall in the village.

What Liu Tie did has already spread throughout the village, and all the villagers were filled with righteous indignation and scolded him one after another.

"My lord, please keep this beast, we will deal with him according to the village rules!"

"Yes, use the village rules to deal with him!"

……

The villagers were so angry that they wished they could go up and kill Liu Tie on the spot to avenge their hatred.

"Villagers, I was the one who taught such rebellious people because of my incompetence. I am sorry for you!" Village Chief Liu knelt down tremblingly when he heard the angry words of the villagers, with tears streaming down his face.

"Village chief, this matter has nothing to do with you. There is a wrong and a debt, and whoever did the evil will pay it back! He tortured Miss Lan so badly that she was like a beast, and she must not be forgiven lightly!"

Liu Tie's face was pale, and he looked at the villagers in horror, for fear that Kang Xu would really hand him over.

He has been a local ruffian since he was a child, causing troubles all day long, and the villagers have long been full of resentment against him.

Now, he has cheated the villagers and abused the girl again, how can the villagers forgive him?

Village head Liu aged a lot in an instant. He kowtowed to the villagers on his knees and wept, taking all the crimes on himself.

Kang Xu saw it, and frowned involuntarily. He really felt sorry for the parents of the world. This son is unfilial, but the father would rather resist all charges.

"Fellow folks, please listen to my words." Kang Xu waved his hand and said, "Liu Tieshen committed an important case, so I will take him into prison. But don't worry, I will follow the laws of the Tang Dynasty." Judgment, let him bear the punishment he deserves."

"My lord, this beast has done a lot of evil, we can't just let him go like this!"

"That's right, I was in the deserted house just now, and I heard that the adults want to punish him lightly, and the whole village will not agree to it!"

Kang Xu didn't expect that the villagers' aversion to Liu Tie had reached such a level.

At this time, Baojia came out from the ancestral hall.

He had brought the rescued three women to the ancestral hall to resettle, but at this moment he heard the noise outside, and hurried out.

"What are you doing? There are adults here, why are you worried? Why don't you disperse quickly!" Baojia frowned and shouted.

This Baojia lived with the villagers, so his words naturally had some weight. When he drank like this, the villagers became much quieter.

"My lord, their mood has stabilized a lot. Do you want to ask them some questions?" Baojia waved his hand to let the villagers disperse, and asked Kang Xu with a bow.

Kang Xu nodded and followed him into the ancestral hall.

In the ancestral hall, several village women, together with the Zhao couple, were comforting three women. When they saw Kang Xu coming, they stood up and saluted.

As expected, the emotions of the three women stabilized a lot. They knelt down to Kang Xu and thanked him for saving his life.

"You don't need to be too polite, get up quickly." Kang Xu helped a woman up and said, "I am here this time because I want to ask you something."

(End of this chapter)