It’s night on the third day of the second month of the first year of Tianyou’s reign.
A scream came from a trail leading into the city from the north of Zhuzhou City, quietly casting a layer of haze over the entire Zhuzhou City.
The next day, someone reported the case, saying that the lady of the house went to the mountain to worship Buddha and did not return all night.
They originally thought it was because of the rain that they were delayed in staying in the temple, so they didn't worry much and only sent someone up the mountain to pick him up the next day.
But the person who went to pick him up came back and said that their lady had already left last night!
The government immediately sent out people and horses to look for it, and finally found their lady's carriage along with a coachman, a maid and an old woman on a trail.
The three of them were asleep in the carriage, breathing normally, but their lady had disappeared!
After waking up the three of them and interrogating them separately, the confessions they got were the same——
Their lady went up the mountain to pray for her sick mother, but by the time she finished praying, it was already evening.
It was very dangerous to go down the mountain after evening, not to mention it rained that day. But the lady was thinking about her sick mother at home and insisted on rushing back. Several servants could not resist, so they had to go down the mountain.
But who would have expected that just as they arrived at the foot of the mountain, they learned that the official road in front was blocked due to rain and landslides. If they wanted to get back to the city, they could only take a trail.
Several people also advised their lady to go back to the temple to spend the night first. They heard that there were bandits on that trail. But their lady didn't listen. They also said that it was raining so hard. How could a bandit be ambushing people on the roadside?
So when these people left, they embarked on a path of no return.
The three of them didn't know how their lady disappeared. They only knew that halfway through, they suddenly lost consciousness, and then they couldn't remember anything.
There was no trace of a struggle, no evidence at all, a living person just disappeared.
"Xu sent people to search for many days with no results, and no one was sent from the nearby mountains to send a blackmail letter. On the morning of the seventh day, someone left a note at the yamen gate, asking us to rush to the north of Zhuzhou City.
In a small alley, we found the body of Miss Huang."
When Xu Jinsong said this, he paused and his tone became much deeper: "To be precise, it's not a corpse, it can only be regarded as body parts. Put it in two white bags, and the other bag contains the body of the deceased.
The clothes and accessories were just piled there, and they were so red that it was dazzling."
This was the first deceased. She was only fifteen years old. She was a flower-like girl, sweet and generous, filial and confident. She had a loved one who planned to get married when her mother got better. However, she ended up like this.
Xu Jinsong could not forget the feeling when he saw that scene for the first time. His stomach acid surged and he almost vomited at the scene, but he still held it back in the end.
Until later, this kind of scene happened again and again, and he was almost numb.
"Since that day, similar cases have occurred one after another. The victims are all unmarried wealthy women around the age of fourteen or fifteen. Including the one discovered by the two young masters, the number of victims has reached seventeen so far.
"
"So many?" Mo Jingxiao narrowed his eyes slightly, with anger overflowing between his brows, "Why don't you report it to the court?!"
"It's Xu who is confused." Xu Jinsong stood up quickly to apologize.
Mo Jingxiao snorted coldly and said, "For Mr. Chen?"
Xu Jinsong paused and smiled bitterly: "I still can't hide it from you. Mr. Chen will leave office soon. If such a major case remains unresolved during his term, I'm afraid it will become a permanent problem for him in the rest of his life."
There was no way to erase the stain, so Xu suppressed the matter without permission."
"I don't think so." Ning Yujin, who had been listening on the sidelines, added, "I ordered not to allow the family of the deceased to hold a funeral in an open and honest manner because I was afraid that the whole matter would be exposed and Ah Xiao, who happened to be here, would know about it. But you didn't
It is obviously self-contradictory to come to the door on your own. I am afraid that it is Mr. Chen himself who gave the order to suppress this matter."
Xu Jinsong raised his head and glanced at Ning Yujin, shook his head and said with a wry smile: "I can't hide it no matter what. I'm sorry that you tried so hard to cover it up."
Mr. Chen, the prefect of the various states, has been in bed for a long time, and Xu Jinsong has always been taking care of his official affairs. Now he has finally managed to survive the day of honorably retiring from office, but he did not expect that such a thing would happen.
He was afraid. As people get older, they start to be afraid of various things. He was afraid that his superiors would blame him for this matter, so he came up with the idea of suppressing the case.
He ordered that all women in the city who met the conditions of the deceased were not allowed to go out, ordered the family members of the deceased not to hold funerals, and ordered Xu Jinsong to catch the murderer as soon as possible.
"Although Mr. Chen is confused, this may not be a bad thing. At least he won't alert others." Ning Yujin said objectively.
Xu Jinsong immediately cast a grateful look at Ning Yujin.
"By the way," Ning Yujin suddenly remembered a question and asked him, "that night we heard the watchman's call and ran over and discovered the crime scene, but you also rushed over shortly after. Who reported it?"
case?"
Of course it couldn't be them, let alone the watchman. The only possibility was that someone else was the first to discover the crime scene.
Xu Jinsong shook his head and said, "We don't know who reported the crime, but the only thing we can be sure of is that it is the same person who reported the crime every time."
"The same person?!" Ning Yujin and Mo Jingxiao were stunned at the same time.
Immediately, Ning Yujin hurriedly said: "Then why don't you arrest him? He must be a serious suspect!"
Xu Jinsong shook his head again: "We don't know who he is, how can we catch him? Every time, the yamen's grievance drum sounds three times. When the yamen servants go out, there is no one there. Only a note is left at the yamen gate.
Mark a location where the deceased was found."
"So magical..." Ning Yujin rubbed her chin and thought slowly, "Could this be a provocative act by the murderer?"
But at this moment, Mo Jingxiao stared at Xu Jinsong with a cold look in his eyes: "Does Master Xu have something to hide?"
Xu Jinsong was immediately embarrassed and said: "Master Mo is very aware that Xu is indeed hiding something. It's just that Xu thought it was nonsense, so he felt that there was nothing good to say, so he didn't say it."
"Regardless of whether it is true or not, any detail may point to the truth. If there is any situation, please tell Mr. Xu everything." Ning Yujin also said at this time.
"Yes." Xu Jinsong's fair face turned slightly red, and he was obviously a little ashamed at being told that. He paused for a moment before continuing, "Have you ever heard of white ghosts?"