"According to the law, even if the assassination of an official fails, he will still be sent to the frontier for three years."
Lin Xi looked at the female beggar, whose face had turned completely white, and said calmly, "If you reveal the messenger, I can convict you of the crime and serve you, and you will only be imprisoned for one year at most."
"No one instigated me." The female beggar lowered her head knowing that there was irrefutable evidence, but did not change her words. She still said in a trembling voice: "I carry a dagger just for self-protection."
Lin Xi shook her head, sighed softly, and said, "I just want to talk to Fourth Master Zhu. Why, is it so difficult for him to admit his mistake and talk face to face?"
The female beggar and several people in the crowd had some strange feelings in their hearts because of Lin Xi's words, "Is this the new arrester who arrested Liu Tong yesterday?" At this time, some people around him also reacted.
"They say the new arrester is a young man, but I didn't expect him to be so young!"
"Then Liu Tong even bullied the old lady who sold tofu. Fourth Master Zhu really went too far. Even though Mr. Ti was in charge, he actually dared to send someone to assassinate her."
"Thankfully, the arrest was alert. Otherwise, if he had been stabbed, he might have escaped."
"I saw with my own eyes just now that this woman sneaked up from behind. I thought she was going to steal something, but I didn't expect that she was going to assassinate her!"
Many people were talking about it, and compared with last time, the voices were of course one-sided, and all of them were on Lin Xi's side.
At this moment, the crowd dispersed, and the son of Fatty Xu from the fish market, the sullen black-faced boy, walked in again.
"I am Xu Sheng, the young boss of Thirteenth Wood Shop here. I have met Mr. Lin." The black-faced boy bowed directly to Lin Xi, then looked at the female beggar and said coldly: "Take the dagger in your hand.
Hand it over."
The female beggar hesitated for a moment, then said nothing more and stretched out her hand.
There was an uproar.
There was indeed an extremely sharp black dagger in her hand.
"We and you have always been on the same page, but if something happens here, we will be dragged into the water. Fourth Master Zhu has crossed the line this time, so we will not help you this time. You can only bear the responsibility yourself."
Hold on." While taking the black dagger from the female beggar's hand and handing it to Lin Xi, Xu Sheng, the young owner of the Thirteenth Ward Shop, squinted his eyes and whispered this sentence into the female beggar's ear.
The female beggar knew that it was her mistake that had put herself and Fourth Master Zhu in such a situation. For a moment, her figure trembled slightly and her face became paler.
"It seems that we need to ask the young proprietor to be a witness on this matter." Lin Xi took the dagger, smiled slightly at Xu Sheng, and said.
Xu Sheng pondered for a moment, took a thousand steps, and whispered in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "Sir, it is probably not difficult for you to find out that Fourth Master Zhu has no bad deeds. If he really wants to assassinate you,
The best place is in a deserted place, not just the day after you have a conflict, in full view of the public. My lord, you definitely don’t want this Donggang Town to become more chaotic, so I hope your lord will calm down.
Give me one day to mediate the anger in your heart and let Fourth Master Zhu have an interview with you."
Lin Xi also pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled, pointed at the pool below with two iron-headed pikes, and asked: "Are those two iron-headed pikes?"
Xu Sheng didn't know his intention, frowned slightly, nodded and said: "Exactly."
Lin Xi looked at the young and experienced young master and asked seriously: "How much silver do these two fish usually sell for?"
Xu Sheng frowned even more and said: "Three, two, one."
"Then if I pay six taels of silver, can you sell me these two fish?" Lin Xi asked with a slight smile.
Xu Sheng was startled, looked at Lin Xi, pondered for a moment, and said, "Of course."
Lin Xi patted him on the shoulder and said: "I live in the small building owned by Uncle Mo. I have already paid for the Laojiang group here, and I will ask the young master to help me send it there.
I will give the money from these two fishes to the young master's family... If Fourth Master Zhu changes his mind and wants to find me, he can also go there to find me."
"Thank you, sir." Xu Sheng heard what Lin Xi meant, his brows jumped, and he immediately bowed and bowed seriously to Lin Xi.
"Let's go."
Lin Xi said nothing more, nodded to the pale female beggar, and walked out of the fish market.
The female beggar lowered her head and just followed. After just a few steps, Liang Sansi, who had received the news, also ran over quickly.
…
Just when Lin Xi walked out of the fish market.
The green and white dead thing that the fisherman child who was babbling and talking had seen was already floating and sinking in the harbor of Donggang Town along with the foam.
Because all large ships with deep drafts must load and unload cargo in this port, there will naturally be more foam generated by the agitation of large ships in this port, and there will naturally be more dead branches and leaves discarded on board.
In addition, the most common cargo here is tung oil, so there are a lot of oil flowers on the water in this port.
An old man wearing a bamboo hat slowly approached the green and white dead thing while rocking a small wooden boat.
The old man’s surname was Zhong. Because he was a lonely old man with no nephews, the officials in charge of the freight at the dock in Donggang Town saw his pity and asked him to be responsible for cleaning up the river in the port. He could barely scrape together a few taels of silver a year.
With a full belly, sometimes you can catch scraps discarded on merchant ships that can be sold for money, which can be considered as extra income.
Because he is nearly seventy years old, this old man's movements have become very slow, and his eyesight has become very difficult to use.
He slowly picked up the messy things in the white foam and piled them in the cabin of the boat. Only when he was about a dozen steps away from the green and white dead thing, the old man could see it.
His dim eyes brightened slightly, thinking it was some good thing left on the ship, and he immediately put a bamboo pole connected to a net bag in his hand.
After turning it over slightly, he could see it more clearly. The green stuff seemed to be clothes.
But with his exertion, the thing turned over, but the old man let out a horrified cry and fell onto the boat. The small boat almost turned over.
.
A face turned white by the river water "looked" at him, frightening him so much that he almost lost his mind.
What a good thing this is, it's just a floating corpse bloated by the river water!
The flow of the Xizi River is gentle, and there are many fishermen on the river. The fishermen on the river do not say that drowning people are looking for substitutes for drowning ghosts. They are usually the first to save someone when they see someone falling into the water.
In the past few years, I have never heard of any floating corpses appearing around Donggang Town!
At this time, the large ship in Donggang Town was unloading.
The two ships parked in the port are both big fortune ships carrying several thousand kilograms of cargo. There are large black characters on the hull of the ship, and groups of porters are carrying barrels like ants on the gangplank towards the dock warehouse.
The old man let out a horrifying scream, which immediately attracted the attention of many people.
Among them, several people who looked like businessmen on the bow of the big ship near the old man could see clearly, and their faces suddenly turned pale.
Not unlike the old man's eyes, they saw that there were several thick hemp ropes tied around the floating corpse.
Several boats immediately approached the floating corpse.
The official of the Internal Affairs Department who happened to be in the port on the ship this morning covered his mouth and nose with an embroidered handkerchief and suppressed his nausea as he looked at the floating corpse.
His face immediately became extremely solemn.
The hemp ropes were tied tightly, and there was an obvious inverted wound on the floating corpse's throat.
This is undoubtedly a homicide.
…
"A floating corpse appeared in the port?"
In the arrest room, Lin Xi frowned.
Originally, after he and Liang Sansi brought the female beggar back to the arrest room, he planned to go to the superior Yamen Police Station in the town governor's mansion to report it, and then return to Lulin Town to meet his family in two days and give him a report.
A surprise for them.
He has no idea of interrogating this female beggar for the time being, because he is a party involved, and he is the one who wants to decide the case. As long as the case is not reported, the case cannot be finalized. Next, he will definitely want to see Fourth Master Zhu’s reaction.
If Mr. Zhu couldn't give him a satisfactory attitude within the one-day deadline mentioned by Xu Sheng, then he didn't have to worry at all for the time being. He could go home to visit his family for a few days and let him wait for a while.
But what he didn't expect was that when he returned to the arrest room, before his butt was hot, Du Weiqing, Xu Jianling and other arrests had already rushed back and told him the news.
"Lord Lian!"
Lin Xi stood up, planning to go to the port to have a look first, but before he could take a few steps, a middle-aged man in aqua blue official uniform walked in with his hands behind his back. As soon as he saw this middle-aged man
The officials, Liang Sansi and all the detectives immediately looked awe-inspiring and bowed in salute.
Lin Xi immediately realized that this tall, hook-nosed, old-fashioned and stern-looking middle-aged official was his superior. Lien Zhanshan, the policeman of the Donggang Town Police Station, had an official rank of ninth rank, so he also
He immediately bowed slightly, saluted, and said, "Lord Lian."
"Are you the new arrester Lin Xi?" Lien Zhanshan looked at Lin Xi and nodded slightly in return, but his expression darkened: "You already know about a floating corpse appearing in the port?"
Lin Xi said: "I just found out."
"Just found out?" Lien Zhanshan snorted coldly, his eyes seemed to shine with cold light, "Where have you been this morning?"
Lin Xi's brows twitched slightly. Lien Zhanshan seemed to be very unhappy with him, but his expression remained calm and he said, "I'm going to the fish market."
Lien Zhanshan looked at Lin Xi and sneered: "Since you have arrived at Donggang Town, you should know that the fish market is managed by Fatty Xu and his son, and nothing will happen at all. Are you in a hurry to go to the fish market because you want to pay a visit in a hurry?
Do they want to get some benefits from their hands?"
Lin Xi frowned and didn't reply for a while. She raised her head slightly and looked at Lien Zhanshan.
The stern-looking Lien Chanshan seemed to be even more displeased, and said coldly: "You must have never looked at the floating corpse, right?"
Lin Xi responded: "I haven't had time to see it yet."
Lien Chanshan narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at Lin Xi and said, "I can tell you that the floating corpse was tied up with ropes and had a fatal knife wound in the throat. This is a murder case!"
"Our Donggang Town has always been peaceful, and everyone is willing to do their best. There are very few serious cases, let alone such murders! In broad daylight, it is also the time when large commercial banks are unloading goods, and the impact is extremely bad." Lien Chan
After Shan Wei paused, he looked at Lin Xi and said, "So I give you seven days to solve this case and bring the culprit to justice!"
"Seven days?!"
As soon as Lien Zhanshan said this, Liang Sansi and others, whose expressions had changed slightly before, froze, but Xu Jianling, who was dissatisfied with Lin Xi, had a smile of gloating on his lips.
It is not known where this kind of floating corpse came from in the river, and the place where the murder occurred was either on the river or on a river bank somewhere. It is most difficult to find out. Unless you have the ability to reach the sky, it is impossible to find it in seven days.
"Because the port is important and is the lifeline of our Donggang Town. Most of what we eat and drink, including the prosperity of Donggang Town, comes from this port. Therefore, there must be someone patrolling the port in our arrest room on weekdays, but today something happened
For such a major matter, the first one to come forward to check was the officials of the Internal Affairs Department, not the people from our Criminal Division." Seeing that Lin Xi had not expressed his position for a while, Lien Zhanshan sneered again, and said somewhat sinisterly: "
Then let me ask Mr. Lin, where was the detective who patrolled the port today?"
Among the several agents behind Lin Xi, the timid agent named Qi Guangwu immediately trembled slightly.
He was originally responsible for the port inspection today, but Heng Rongchang's ship number was managed very well, and everyone was also proud of being the largest trading house on the Xizi River, so Heng Rongchang unloaded the goods and the patrolling detectives could go elsewhere to rest.
It is a common practice to arrest someone in the cell, but no matter what the reason is, when it is put on the table now, it is unjustifiable to higher-level officials. It is a dereliction of duty no matter what.
Lin Xi glanced at Lien Zhanshan and said, "The policeman who was patrolling at that time was transferred by me to escort the criminal."
Qi Guangwu couldn't help but raise his head, and couldn't help but look at each other with the people around him. He didn't expect that Lin Xi actually helped him carry it with one mouthful.
"Very good." Lien Zhanshan glanced at Lin Xi and smiled instead of being angry: "Then please hurry up, Mr. Lin. If the criminal is found within the seven-day deadline, then everything will be easy, and there will be rewards from the superiors. If the investigation is overdue,
If you don’t come out, then don’t blame me for doing business.”
"Of course there is no problem with official business." Lin Xi looked at Lien Zhanshan who turned around to leave and said, "There is just something I don't understand. Please help me clarify my doubts."
Lien Zhanshan suddenly turned around, looked at Lin Xi, and said coldly: "What's the matter?"
"I have reviewed some records of the arrest room yesterday... It is true that homicide cases are major cases wherever they are placed, but it is not that there have always been no homicide cases around Donggang Town. If the records are good, Bench Alley was a big case three years ago.
There was a major case involving a business dispute that resulted in a family of three being killed at home. The impact of that case was far worse than this case, and the shock was quite large, but it only had to be solved within one month." Lin Xi looked at it.
Looking at Lian Zhanshan, he asked for advice seriously and said slowly: "My lord asked me earlier if I was in a hurry to get some benefits from Fatty Xu and the others when I went to the fish market. I would like to ask Lord Lian, during this seven-day deadline,
Does this count as deliberately making things difficult?”
"You can think of it as an examination of young people like you, or you can think of it as giving you a chance. If you can't do it, someone else can."
Lien Zhanshan sneered, said no more, and walked away.
When he walked out of the small courtyard of the detention room, he thought with disdain in his heart, who knows where you came from? You have offended so many people, and even the criminals and officials in the province have spoken out. Above.
There is a big mountain to crush you, but you don't know what to do below... From Lien Chanshan's point of view, even if Lin Xi can barely keep her official position, her life in Donggang Town will definitely not be easy.