Chapter 57 The Gradually Complete Fragments

In the courtyard of the Six Doors, Yunfei, accompanied by a group of constables, held the charred fragments of the woolen bag in his hand and compared them one by one with the various bags and scraps of cloth scattered on the ground.

After comparing them all day, just as Li Jin returned, he actually found the yarn bag that was exactly the same as the fragment in his hand.

It's straw yellow, about half a person's height, and a little springy, just the right size to fit one person.

"It's all thanks to this bag being relatively new." Yunfei took the intact bag that had been compared and handed it to Li Jin.

"When I was chatting with several shopkeepers in the cloth market during the day, they said that based on the quality of this fragment, this bag of material was new material that would only be available after the New Year."

Yunfei turned around and glanced at the straw-yellow yarn bags lying all over the ground behind him.

He had been sitting here with his head down all day, and now that it was dark, even the candlelight in front of him was making his eyes blurry.

Li Jin opened the yarn bag; it was three feet tall and about one and a half feet wide, more than enough to fit a person inside.

A bag that can hold a person, and a body without shoes, are all that's missing is a vehicle to transport the body.

“These yarn bags can be sold in large quantities every day; merchants in both the East and West markets need them.” Yunfei pursed his lips. “Tomorrow I will go door to door and ask if anyone can remember any valuable clues.”

“No need to go.” Li Jin looked at the bag in her hand. “There are no clues.”

He looked up at Yun Fei in front of him and said, "Let Shen Wen handle the rest."

At that glance, Yunfei understood that Li Jin must have already made his own judgment and that the case was starting to take shape.

He bowed respectfully and replied, "Yes."

Then she looked up at Jin Shu behind him, smiled slightly, and took out a piece of candy from her sleeve pocket: "Mr. Jin, you've worked hard too."

But the candy never reached Jin Shu's hands.

Li Jin swiftly grabbed it, stuffed it into his mouth, and glared at him, saying, "Is there any more? I haven't eaten yet, and I'm starving."

At this moment, the bustling night in the capital city and the tranquil night in the imperial city are separated by a palace gate.

Outside the palace walls, there are ordinary people living their lives amidst the everyday hustle and bustle of city life.

Inside the palace walls, everything was orderly and gray.

The yarn bag, Xia Xiaowu, and the victim who claimed to be the old lady of the Xia family.

She has a stingy personality, a calculating demeanor, and yet she boasts of her large and powerful family, acting as the deceased matriarch of the Xia family.

The fragments of the case, like scattered puzzle pieces, were picked up one by one by Li Jin. At his desk, using logic as the thread and facts as the basis, he gradually restored them to their original form.

The case was shrouded in mist and veil, making it difficult for him to see clearly.

There is no hatred without a cause. He lowered his eyes. The truth of this case was missing a crucial piece: the motive.

The next day at noon, Shen Wen walked briskly into his study and placed the information he had been researching all night in front of Li Jin.

“You won’t believe it! This man is a porter.” Shen Wen pointed to the name on the sign and said, “It’s Wu Li’s Wu, Xia Xiaowu, 26 years old this year.”

“Finding him wasn’t difficult; he’s quite well-known among the porters,” he said. “Because he’s literate, many porters ask him to help them read letters.”

"Moreover, he is the only son in his family and has been living alone for a long time. He also has a mother, Xia, who is over 50 years old. It is said that she was often seen after the New Year, but she has been sick for half a month recently and has been lying in bed without getting up. The neighbors have not seen her since."

At this point, Shen Wen raised his hand and scratched his head: "Last night, I went to his house to check it out. I didn't see the old lady, and there wasn't anything of value. There were some household items in the cabinet, though, so it didn't look like no one lived there."

All of this fits the assumption that the victim was Old Mrs. Xia.

Xia Xiaowu's mother's age matches the victim's characteristics, and her disappearance for half a month matches the time frame of the crime.

He put down the paper in his hand and looked at Shen Wen: "Where is he?"

"He usually frequents the roadside teahouses where porters gather in the East Market, but he has disappeared since the Six Doors began investigating the case at this post station two days ago."

A porter, as the name suggests, is a person who does hard labor and makes a living by using his legs.

There are many people in the capital who live like this, and most of them like to gather in inconspicuous alleys in the East and West Markets, next to cheap tea shops.

When Li Jin found the place, a group of porters were leaning against the wall of the workshop, their faces etched with the hardships of life.

The tea shop was extremely simple; a waiter, two kettles, and a few large bowls were all it took to run a shop.

The people gathered here either carried yarn bags or had carrying poles on their shoulders.

They were all porters.

When everyone saw that Li Jin's clothes were made of silk and that he was accompanied by two men in black robes, they knew that he was definitely not from an ordinary family and must be very wealthy.

One of the men, a strong and burly one, came up with his carrying pole and asked, "Sir, are you moving goods? Need a haul? I'm cheap, come find me!"

Li Jin calmly took out a tael of silver from his chest and stuffed it into his hand: "Inquire about someone."

As he spoke, he glanced at the crowd below the wall, then turned and said, "Come with me."

By the roadside, a porter, overjoyed at receiving a tael of silver, beamed with excitement: "You know, Xiao Wu has become very strange since the New Year, increasingly eccentric. Before the New Year, he could still chat with us, play marbles and guess the size of the dice, but since the New Year, he's suddenly changed and hardly talks anymore."

At this point, he grinned and pointed to himself with a chuckle: "Porters like us wear narrow-sleeved robes for convenience while working, preferably in a grayish-brown color. But he suddenly changed; after the New Year, he started wearing long robes."

“He would change his clothes. He would wear a long robe when he arrived in the morning, but he would change out of it, wrap it in a bundle and hang it around his neck. He would then change back into it after the sun went down.”

"The long robe," Li Jin pondered for a moment, then asked with a hint of doubt, "Has he not changed his clothes lately?"

The porter looked up and thought for a moment: "...Well, it's been ten days to half a month, and I haven't seen him switch jobs. But he hasn't done any work these past two days, and I don't know the details."

Li Jin looked at the porter's face and remained silent for a long time.

The man's face was covered with deep wrinkles, and the long-term exposure to wind and sun made him look unusually old.

It's not mature, it's old-fashioned.

Thin and bony, yet with firm muscles, a hunched back, and calluses on his knuckles.

What do you usually do for a living? Do you haul goods?

“Yes, I’ve been hauling goods here for over ten years, it’s a business built on reputation. I also lend out my carts. I’m the only one with a cart in all these streets.” He grinned as he spoke, pointing to a simple cart next to him. “You gentlemen might not realize it, but there are really very few of these carts. Not many people in our line of work are willing to invest this much.”

As if guessing what Li Jin was thinking, Jin Shu, who had been standing behind him for a long time, walked towards the cart with her hands already tied.

Without turning around, Li Jin continued, "Did Xia Xiaowu borrow this car from you before?"

Although the porter was puzzled, he scratched his sideburn and nodded: "About half a month ago, I came to borrow it once, on a rainy night."

"He's actually a pretty good guy. He borrowed my car and even washed it for me when he returned it."

Hearing this, Li Jin crossed his arms, turned around, and looked at Jin Shu's back as she squatted on the ground, intently watching the car.

Watching her walk to the side of the wheel, she pinched out a thread mixed with hair from the gap on the inside of the wheel axle.

It is straw-yellow and about a foot long.