Li Ziyu was the patrol officer in charge of the crime, so he naturally led the way. Following Wu Xiang's instructions, he first took him to the entrance of East Eighth Alley, then to West Eleventh Alley, and walked along the locations of various crimes.
once.
Wu Xiang rarely spoke along the way. He would only stop and ask a few questions at certain places. But he didn't discuss anything in detail. He just kept looking closely. This made Li Ziyu feel very mysterious.
They walked and walked like this until they reached the back door of Zhenbo Garden in Dongzhiba Alley, when Wu Xiang suddenly asked: "Where is this?"
Li Ziyu quickly said: "Chief Wu, this is the back door of Shanshan Guild Hall."
"Since it's the back door, why is the lock hanging on the outside?" He pointed to the door.
The door is larger than the ordinary back door, with double door leaves. There is a cast iron padlock hanging on it, which is stained with rust.
With this question, Li Zhenguo suddenly realized that he had missed a suspicious point. Why was the back door of the guild hall locked from the outside?
In the 17th century, the locks commonly used by Chinese people were padlocks. The biggest difference between modern locks such as padlocks and pinball locks is that padlocks can only be opened and locked in one direction, so building doors have latches on the inside and no locks are needed.
Only use the lock to lock the door when no one is home.
Li Zhenguo knew that similar to the back doors and corner doors of government offices, guild halls and wealthy families, although there are latches on the inside, they must be locked with padlocks at night. As for the back doors that are generally not opened, General Iron has been guarding the door for many years. This kind of door
Locking from the inside is mainly for the purpose of internal security and to prevent people inside the building from communicating privately with outsiders, which may lead to theft and sexual intercourse.
Therefore, the back door of the Shanshan Guild Hall is actually locked from the outside. This is a bit strange, because if people in the Shanshan Guild Hall want to open the back door, they have to come out from the main door and go around in a big circle to get to the back door.
Come and pick the lock. This is too counterintuitive.
Did someone come out of the back door of the Shanshan Guild Hall last night? This question appeared in the minds of Wu Xiang and Li Zhenguo. As the saying goes: Abnormality is a monster. Li Zhenguo looked at the padlock carefully. The lock was stained with rust, but the area around the keyhole was rusty.
The light was bright, indicating that the lock had been opened recently.
"There's something wrong with this lock!" Li Zhenguo said excitedly, "Someone must have come out of here last night!"
Wu Xiang nodded and said: "I'm not sure whether it happened yesterday, but it is indeed a doubtful point."
Li Ziyu bravely said: "Chief Wu, Comrade Li, this is not...a doubtful point..."
"Oh?" Wu Xiang was immediately interested. The young patrolman actually raised objections immediately, "Let's talk about it."
Seeing that he showed no sign of anger, Li Ziyu said cautiously: "It is true that this is the back door of Shanshan Guild Hall, but it is actually the back door of Zhenbo Garden."
Zhenbo Garden has been reduced to a "haunted house". When Shanshan Guild Hall bought it, it would not be used to house people. Instead, it would be specially used for a "not afraid of ghosts", that is, a temporary coffin.
When businessmen do business and scholars travel to study, once they die in a different place, the guild hall in their hometown is obliged to take care of their posthumous affairs. Therefore, they often find a meaningful place. However, the ancients placed the most emphasis on returning to their roots. Those who died in a foreign land would have their coffins returned to their hometown for burial as long as conditions permitted.
Some coffins are temporarily stored in temples and guild halls, waiting to be transported back to their hometowns one day with a permit. Therefore, larger guild halls often have a separate courtyard in a secluded area at the back for coffins. Although there are not many merchants from Shanxi and Shaanxi in Guangdong,
The clubhouse also has such facilities.
Since the coffin needs to be stored, it is impossible to enter or exit through the main gate. Firstly, it is bad for the feng shui. Secondly, it is frustrating to see people coming and going in the guild hall, so I always go in and out through the back door of Zhenbo Garden - you can directly use the one on the river.
vessel.
Li Ziyu said that in order to facilitate the entry and exit of the coffin, the padlock was always locked outside. Because of Zhenbo Garden's "fame", it was almost completely isolated from the Shanshan Guild Hall, and even people in the guild hall were unwilling to go through Zhenbo Garden.
"Those who transport coffins always carry them in through the back door and leave through the back door. Even the handyman who takes the key to the back door dare not go back to the hall through Zhenbo Garden. They would rather go around the back door and enter through the main door. So this lock
The head is always hanging outside the door, not inside the door."
"It's quite evil." Wu Xiang nodded, feeling that the patrolman had a good grasp of the local situation, so he asked again, "Who are the manager of the club and the doorman? You came to me and I have something to ask."
Li Ziyu said: "I don't know that. The gate of the guild hall is not in Jianzi Lane..."
It turns out that the gate of Shanshan Guild Hall is opened in the adjacent Xiangyao Lane. According to the principle of dividing the jurisdiction of the street where the gate is opened, the large area in Dongzhiba Lane is not Li Ziyu's jurisdiction.
.
After Wu Xiang heard what he said, he immediately asked him to go to the Shanxi Guild Hall in Xiangyao Lane.
The group of people left Nanjianzi Lane and hurried slowly to the gate of Shanshan Guild Hall. When the gatekeeper saw the police coming, he quickly called the person in charge out.
The person in charge is an "Old Xi'er" who has been doing business in Guangzhou for more than 30 years. He can be considered a half-native. However, he never speaks Cantonese very well. Hearing that Wu Xiang speaks "Newspeak", I feel relieved -
Compared with Guangzhou Mandarin, this Newspeak is easier to communicate with.
I heard that the police wanted to ask about Zhenbo Garden, and the manager was a little surprised. This is a well-known "haunted house" in the city, and even the people from the Shanshan Guild Hall would not go in if they had nothing to do in broad daylight. Moreover, it is a temporary residence.
The coffin is something that ordinary people avoid. What’s so good about it?
He said that Zhenbo Garden is indeed the property of Shanshan Guild Hall, but few people go in. Even he himself rarely goes in once or twice. To know the specific situation inside, you have to ask the handyman in the guild hall.
So he called Lao Qi. What Lao Qi said was the same as what Li Ziyu said. In order to facilitate the entrance and exit of the coffin, he did enter and exit Zhenbo Garden from the outside. After the matter was done, he locked it and went back from the outside.
Wu Xiang asked him why he didn't enter and exit from the guild hall. Is there no door between the guild hall and Zhenbo Garden?
"My Lord, of course there is a door, and the small one also has a key. But the place is so gloomy that even if you go in broad daylight, it will feel very ghostly inside..."
You can enter the Zhenbo Garden by opening the door of the Shanshan Guild Hall. However, even in broad daylight, Lao Qi would not dare to walk this road alone. He would rather take a long way around for peace of mind.
"Do you have the key to the gate?" Wu Xiang asked.
"Of course," Lao Qi said, "this key is hanging in the concierge where the little one lives. To be honest, the little one gets scared when he looks at it. If he can't use it, he won't use it."
"Is the key still there?"
"Yes, yes, no one stole this thing. I saw it this morning."
"Who else has it but you?"
"The steward has a handful."
"Where's the key to the back door?"
"It's the same thing. The younger one will take one, and the steward will prepare one."
But the steward said, "I don't have one." He added, "The one you used is mine."
Seeing the policeman's confusion, he explained that the old man had only come here last year. The original handyman had died during the plague last spring. The disease was very severe at that time, and many people in the club fell ill. Those who were not infected hurriedly hid.
He went out of the city to escape the plague. There was so much commotion that he couldn't care about it for a while. When he came back, he found that the handyman had died of illness and was sent to the charity to be buried in a cemetery. Even the whereabouts of the few keys he brought were unknown - one of them was
It's the key to the back door of Zhenbo Garden.
Li Zhenguo suddenly said: "Is this handyman stationed in Nanjianzi Lane? His wife's name is Wang Xiuzhu?!"
The manager blinked his eyes and said: "It's true that he lives in Nanjianzi Lane. I don't know if his wife's name is Wang Xiuzhu, but her surname is indeed Wang - she often comes to the guild hall to mend, and people call her Auntie Wang...
…”
Li Ziyu almost screamed: Widow Wang's late husband was a janitor and a handyman. He died during the plague last spring. So, Widow Wang's late husband was a handyman at the Shanshan Guild Hall!
In this way, the murder of Widow Wang was somehow connected with the Shanshan Guild Hall. He remembered that Gao Chongjiu had said that the murderer seemed to be looking for something at Widow Wang's house. Could it be the key to the back door?!
The murderer will not look for the key for no reason. He must want the key to achieve some purpose... Could it be...
Wu Xiang and Li Zhenguo looked at each other, and Li Zhenguo said: "We want to go to Zhenbo Garden to have a look."
The manager was a little embarrassed and said: "It's nothing, it's just...it's just...it's getting late..."
Wu Xiang took out his pocket watch from his pocket. It was already five o'clock, but the day was getting longer, so the sun still looked bright. He said: "It doesn't matter, it's not dark yet. Let's go in and take a look. If there's nothing else,
Come out as soon as you can."
The manager had no choice but to ask Lao Qi to open the door and take them into Zhenbo Garden.
Lao Qi was a hundred reluctant, but he didn't dare to disobey the officer in charge. Seeing that there were several policemen here, he thought that since they were policemen of the Song Dynasty and they had the weapons of the emperor, they were so evil that they could probably suppress them.
Evil.
In order to save time, Wu Xiang asked Lao Qi to open the back door and enter the garden from the guild hall. Lao Qi had no choice but to take the key and lead the way.
The old man took them all the way to the back alley. They saw a small black door at the bottom of the alley. The paint was peeling off. The door was bolted and a big lock was hung. It was already rusty. There was a vague appearance on it.
You can also see Taoist talismans. There are only big trees on the wall, providing shade like a canopy.
"On the other side of this wall is the Zhenbo Garden." Lao Qi said, inserting the key into the keyhole and about to turn it, when suddenly he trembled and exclaimed: "Oh my God!"
Several policemen were startled. Li Zhenguo looked closely and saw half a blur of black footprints next to the lintel of the small door!
Wu Xiang hurriedly went up to take a look. The footprints were very blurry, but judging from the size and shape, they should be those of a man. The footprints were very new and had obviously been left not long ago. Judging from the traces of moisture, it might have happened yesterday.