Butler Wang's expression changed suddenly, he lowered his head and looked around with his eyes, as if he had something to say that he wanted to say but didn't dare to say.
"You are the steward of the Qi Mansion, what else are you afraid of?" Li Xin'an said, "Just say it!"
"This is what the emperor's grandson meant. What are you afraid of?"
The implication is that if something happens, Li Chu will naturally protect you!
"yes……"
With Li Xin'an's words, Butler Wang bit his lips and finally made up his mind.
"My lord, you don't know that my husband was promoted to the position of doctor of the Ministry of Industry and Water Ministry just this year. Before that, he had been an unknown petty official."
"After Li Linfu fell, he suddenly became famous."
"Li Linfu?"
Li Xin'an was stunned. He didn't expect that this matter could involve a dead person.
"Hush, sir, please don't raise your voice. In Qi Mansion, these three words Li Linfu must not be mentioned!"
Li Xin'an said coldly: "You continue."
"Yes... my master's rapid rise seems to be related to a distant cousin of his. That person worked as an aide in Li Linfu's house, and finally got in touch with the current prime minister Yang Guozhong and betrayed Li Linfu."
"I was nostalgic for my past, so I promoted my husband..."
"That's not what I asked!" Li Xin'an interrupted him rudely and gritted his teeth:
"I'm asking about the friendship between the four of them!"
"Yes, sir, please allow me to finish." Butler Wang said in fear.
Li Xin'an closed her eyes and slowly exhaled, "Go on."
"My husband has a good personal relationship with those three adults. In other words, they are very good friends. We usually go out for drinks together."
"But one day, when I went to the study to deliver meals to the master, I found that the master was not there. There was a brazier next to his desk, and some letters were burning in the brazier."
"Those letters were not completely burned yet. I was curious, so I took some and read them."
Butler Wang swallowed, a look of fear appeared on his face
"I saw the letter written: Ziyi, you and He Nian Jingde and others have betrayed Prime Minister Li, which is unkind and unjust, and there is no way back. Now that Jing'an is crazy, there is no guarantee that he will not do something extraordinary. Once
If we reveal the original secret, the lives of the six of you and me will be in danger. For this plan, we should kill them..."
"After that, the letter was burned. I put down my food plate and left."
"Now everyone in the house says that the death of these four people is because Li Linfu's ghost came back to take revenge. Everyone who betrayed him must die!"
"Who are the people on the letter?"
"Ziyi is the name of my master, Henian is Mr. Wang, Jingde is Mr. Zhou, and Jing'an is the name of Chen Changming, the head of the household department who died of illness two months ago."
"Is it Zhang Ying who wrote the letter?"
"I don't know, but I guess... it should be."
"I see."
Li Xin'an nodded and walked away expressionlessly.
"Sir..." Steward Wang called hurriedly.
Li Xin'an's cold voice came from far away: "Don't worry, the case has been solved!"
Butler Wang looked aggrieved. How could I be afraid of this...
After walking out of Qi Mansion, Li Xin'an got on his horse and headed to the next location.
"Let's go to Wang Qinglang's house!"
Murong Bai followed him on horseback, "Why, are you so unhappy?"
"Fortunately." Li Xin'an sighed, "Evil people will be punished by evil people. Li Linfu died because of the betrayal of his subordinates. He deserved it."
"That distant cousin of Qi Yuanhan, do you know who he is?"
"Know."
In Li Xin'an's mind, she recalled the vague impression of the man from back then, and she only remembered that he also liked to wear white clothes.
"His name is...Qibo."
"Li Linfu's chief aide."
Murong Bai opened his mouth slightly. The betrayal of such a person was undoubtedly a fatal blow to Li Linfu.
"Everyone knows that my brother-in-law, Yang Qixuan, stood up and accused Li Linfu of colluding with the traitor general Absi and conspiring against the father and son. Now that I think about it, I am afraid that Mr. Qi Qi Bo was the one who stabbed Li Linfu to death."
Knife."
Li Xin'an stopped talking. Not far away, Wang Qinglang's home was clearly visible.
…
Qi Yuanhan, Wang Qinglang and Zhou Shimin all lived in Yiyangfang, but Zhang Ying lived in Pingkangfang where dignitaries gathered.
This is also where Li Xin'an was born.
Coming out of Zhang Ying's home, Li Xin'an and Murong Bai looked relaxed.
In the homes of Wang Qinglang, Zhou Shimin and Zhang Ying, the lines on the unicorn face were completed in one stroke!
This shows that when the killer killed the first Qi Yuanhan, he was indeed unskilled in drawing the one-horned human face.
It took the second, third, and fourth time to correct this mistake.
"It's confirmed now." Li Xin'an stood on the stone steps in front of Zhang Ying's house and said with a smile:
"The smooth lines on the face of the one-horned man were not painted by the artist himself, but were indeed done by the killer. He discovered this revealing place after the first painting, but it was no longer realistic to go back, so
He can only change the place in a few subsequent actions."
(This chapter is not finished, please turn the page)
"What surprises me is that he didn't make a mistake." Murong Bai frowned and said, "If someone is interested in comparing these four unicorn faces, it is not difficult to find the weirdness of the first one, and deduce that the murderer is also the murderer.
It’s not difficult.”
"Yeah, I didn't notice this. He was too pursuing perfection, but he ignored a fatal flaw. He is not a first-class killer."
Murong An looked at him curiously, "Then what counts as a first-class killer? Strength? Scheming?"
"The profession of killer is different from other professions. In other professions, strength is respected, but that is not the case with killers."
"Killing a person is not simply suppressing it with force. In the eyes of some killers, the killer's assassination is a very delicate matter."
"If you are not strong enough to tie up a chicken, you can't kill him if you are prepared to be on guard. If you are strong enough to do anything, you can't kill him. If you are unparalleled in the world, if your mind is slack, even a child can kill him."
"There are many standards for judging first-class killers, but generally speaking, there is only one."
"Make a mistake!"
"The fewer mistakes you make, the stronger the people you kill, and the more difficult the task. Only those who can overcome these problems are called first-class killers."
Li Xin'an looked at the piece of paper with a unicorn face in his hand and sneered softly.
"Self-defeating!"
"Qi Yanglong's home is not far from Huangsun Mansion. Why didn't you go visit him first?"
"Because of the loophole."
Li Xin'an smiled and said: "If the killer commits crimes continuously, the last one is the most perfect for him, but the first time often has a lot of loopholes. Isn't this right? Just let us discover it?"
"The Huangsun Mansion is a long way from here. If you want to go there, leave as soon as possible, otherwise it will get dark again."
Li Xin'an looked at the gray sky and nodded.
"Let's go another way."
Murong Bai turned his head slightly and looked towards the way they came.
After turning this corner, there is a wide road. There are many high gates on both sides of the road.
The most noble family is none other than Yang Mansion, whose doorstep is inlaid with gold foil.
"Yang Mansion... is very disgusting."
"yes."
Li Xin'an sighed, with a look of compassion in his eyes.
"If Yang Guozhong was the only one who lived in that mansion, I would be eager to walk by his door and spit."
"Is that yard any different?"
"Of course, it is a splendid house. It used to live in the Duke of Wei, General Li Jing, and later, a Duke of Jin... Li Linfu lived in it."
Li Xin settled for a moment and sneered:
"Now, another Duke of Wei has moved in. There are three Dukes in one house, and this is the only one in the entire Tang Dynasty."
"Gone."
…
Qi Yanglong's home is very simple, or rather crude.
A house less than five feet tall, with a small courtyard whose door is almost the courtyard door, looks out of place in the surrounding area of the Imperial Sun Mansion where every inch of land is precious.
"I didn't expect that Commander Qi's life would be so poor. It really puts us to shame." Li Xin'an sighed.
"Brother Li, have you never had a hard time?"
"I've passed it, why haven't I passed it?" Li Xin'an opened the door and said:
"Shortly after His Highness recruited me, I ran out of money, my master and senior brother were not around, and the people in the Blood Clothes Hall, because one of my elders had just passed away, had different intentions, and they were not completely under my control. I also pulled him
I didn't have the humility to beg His Highness, so I lived like a beggar for two months."
Li Xin'an didn't say how he survived specifically.
"Thinking about it now, I don't know why, but catching mice and eating them on the Khitan grassland was more pleasant than that time."
Li Xin'an looked at the room, and there were no furnishings in the room. A bed, a table, four stools, a cabinet, a set of broken tea sets and two jars of wine on the cabinet were all Qi Yanglong's possessions.
On the cabinet, the unicorn face stood out clearly.
The first thing Li Xin'an looked at was the place where Qi Yanglong died.
An official from Dali Temple drew a human figure on the table. It can be imagined that Qi Yanglong was lying on the table and was stabbed to death with a sword from behind.
On the table, there was still the leftover food he had eaten. The weather was getting colder, but the rancid smell had not yet emitted.
"Commander Qi has no father or mother, no brothers, no wife, no children. He wants to mourn, but he can't find anyone."
Li Xin'an drew out "White Rainbow", performed a sword trick, stood the long sword in front of her, and performed a swordsman's ceremony.
Murong Bai also drew his sword. At that time, the descendants of the two top swordsmanship schools in the Tang Dynasty unanimously expressed their highest respect as swordsmen to the deceased Qi Yanglong.
"Commander Qi's body has been sent to the Imperial Hospital. We will be able to find out what kind of drug he took as soon as tomorrow."
Li Xin'an said doubtfully: "It stands to reason that with the strength of Commander Qi, he would not notice it after being drugged."
"There are very few drugs in the world that can directly stun a second-grade high-ranking master."
"Perhaps the drug was put in later?"
Murong Bai said: "First kill Commander Qi, and then put the poison in his body."
"Impossible." Li Xin'an shook his head, "Drugs will not have any effect on a dead person. If it is what you said, there is no way an autopsy can be performed on him.
(This chapter is not finished, please turn the page)
Give me the drug."
He stared at the unicorn face painted on the cabinet and murmured:
"We still have to look for clues from here."
Seeing Li Xin'an staring at the unicorn face, Murong Bai wandered around the room, trying to find any clues left by the killer.
He suddenly heard Li Xin'an's exclamation.
"White wood, that's wrong!"
Murong Bai turned back and looked at Li Xin'an pointing blankly at the lines that showed the killer's feet, "Look carefully!"
Murong Bai looked over, and when he saw it clearly, he couldn't help but take a breath like Li Xin'an.
The lines extend out of the eyes, and they are clearly incoherent!
"how so?"
The two looked at each other, and after a while, Li Xin'an sat down on the stool in despair.
"It shouldn't be like this..."
Murong Bai was very calm. After a brief loss of composure, he had calmed down.
"Could it be that the killer did it on purpose, as part of his plan to deceive the enemy?"
"If this is the case, then this person is too terrible."
Li Xin'an frowned, "In that case, we wouldn't be able to tell which is the correct way to draw the one-cornered face, and we wouldn't be able to tell whether the force behind the one-horned face killed the person or someone else paid to do it.
Therefore, we set up a formation of suspicion."
"Our investigation may have been wrong all along."
"Shouldn't we start with this one-horned face?"
"Of course not, this one must be investigated. Since some people know that this one-horned figure comes from the Western Regions, then it is not impossible that the Western Regions sect kills people."
"Another way of thinking is that maybe the person who killed Commander Qi is not the same person as the murderer of the first four murders?"
"Why do you think so?" Li Xin'an looked at Murong Bai doubtfully.
"I've seen this happen before." Murong Bai said.
"When the master of Hongyadong in Liuzhou was dying, he ordered the throne to be passed on to his fourth disciple. This caused dissatisfaction among his other seven disciples."
"The eldest disciple who was supposed to take over has always been dissatisfied with the fourth disciple. He thought that he always bewitched the master, which was why he had to accept the master's fate, so he secretly poisoned him to death."
"But the eldest disciple's behavior caused panic and dissatisfaction among the other six people. This also opened up a path for them. The leader does not necessarily have to be designated by the master, but it is a path that everyone can follow."
"So the seven disciples went their separate ways and killed each other. The eldest disciple was ruthless and killed the second disciple, the third disciple, the sixth disciple and the eighth disciple one after another. In the end, the fifth and seventh disciples were left blind in one eye."
"But in the end, the seventh disciple also died."
"Lao Wu was so panicked that he actually ran to the old master and cried out about what the eldest disciple had done."
"The amazing thing is that the old boss actually woke up, regained his consciousness, and called the boss to his bed."
"The eldest disciple thought that the master was going to pass on the position of master to him, so he came happily. Then he was secretly attacked and killed by the returning master and Lao Wu who was hiding behind the screen."
"But this is not the end. After the old master died, the new master drunkenly revealed a secret from that year."
"Lao Qi was not killed by the boss, but by him."
"The purpose is to completely push the boss into a point of no return. He wants the master to know that the boss has become red-eyed and has lost his conscience."
"You mean, Qi Yanglong didn't die because of investigating the one-horned man-face statue, but was involved in something else?"
"It's possible." Murong Bai nodded slowly.
Li Xin'an thought for a while, and the cloud on his face disappeared instantly.
"Baitoumu, I really belong to you!"
He stood up and said: "Now, on the one hand, we need to figure out the power behind the one-horned figure, and on the other hand, we need to investigate who Commander Qi has been in contact with recently."
Li Xin'an grimaced, "I know that he had a feud with Shenfeng Hall and was kicked out. Commander Qi's death may have been their fault!"
"Will it?"
"They are the most suspect."
Li Xin'an turned around and walked out the door, "But the most important thing right now is to investigate the one-horned figure."
"Didn't Dali Temple send people to the Western Regions?"
"It's been more than a month since I've been back and forth. I've issued a military order for half a month. How can I afford to wait for such a long time?"
"Why did you issue a military order again?" Murong Bai's voice was a little angry, "The Gu Master Case in Southern Xinjiang didn't force you to death, right?"
Li Xin'an said innocently: "I can't help it. You didn't see His Highness' frightened and pitiful look. If I don't do this, he won't feel at ease."
"Then what do you want to do?"
"It's simple. Things from the Western Regions must be recognized by people from the Western Regions."
"But the officials from the Western Regions in Dali Temple don't know each other?"
"What can you expect those officials who are familiar with the classics and histories to know about such evil things? Having seen it is already a rare thing for them, how can you expect them to know and remember it?"
"There are specialties in the art industry. Of course, you need to find someone else to look at this kind of thing."