Chapter 224: Xi Tong is the real murderer
After a simple breakfast, the three of them went to the prefect of Luoyan City together.
"This humble official greets all the lords, Her Highness the Princess..."
When Prefect Lin saw them coming, he felt that his small government office was honored.
Luoyan City is considered to be a city that is quite far from Beijing. Officials like them have few opportunities to go to Beijing in their lifetime, let alone meet the emperor.
Even when the new emperor Jun Chenyi ascended the throne, it took them four or five days to receive the news via carrier pigeon.
Naturally, he felt that after meeting the Deng family and Li Tianzhuo, the commander of the Silver Dragon Guard, he was the highest official in the capital.
"No need to be polite, just stand up and answer."
"Explain to us all the circumstances of the rotting corpse case."
Deng Yan'an gave the order in a swift and decisive manner.
When Prefect Lin received the order, he came hurriedly.
About a month ago, the first death occurred in their city. He was a night watchman.
After that, the next dead person appeared one after another.
Including Lord Zhou last night, there are a total of twelve dead.
There was no pattern among these victims, but they were all men. Anyone who was still hanging out outside in the middle of the night would become the murderer's next target.
In just one month, everyone was in panic.
Deng Youning and her friends entered the city yesterday and felt that the reason the city was so bustling was because of the fear caused by this incident, which caused the people to not dare go out after dark, and any issues had to be resolved during the day.
"Has the coroner at the government office found out the cause of death?"
Li Tianzhuo asked based on his many years of experience in handling cases in the Silver Dragon Guard.
Prefect Lin said in embarrassment: "If we can know the cause of death, maybe we can find a way to solve the case."
Deng Yan'an listened for a long time and felt a little guilty.
"It's my fault. I should have sent some skilled brothers out to buy things last night."
Li Tianzhuo also felt a little guilty.
"When we heard about this in the restaurant yesterday, we didn't take it seriously. We didn't expect that twelve people would die in just one month!"
Seeing that he was a little angry, Magistrate Lin was so scared that he knelt down again immediately.
"Master Li, please calm down. I will strictly supervise this case and close it as soon as possible."
The three of them knew that this case was very unusual and that they would not be able to solve it with just these yamen runners, so they naturally would not make things difficult for Prefect Lin.
"Take us to see the body first."
"This county lord will personally perform the autopsy!"
Deng Youning could tell at a glance whether the death was caused by poisoning.
But when she said she wanted to perform an autopsy, Prefect Lin and everyone in the yamen tried their best to stop her.
The appearance of the corpse was so ugly that she was just a little girl.
Even the coroner, the second shoemaker and the executioner vomited bitterly after seeing it.
"Haha, Prefect Lin, you are worrying too much."
"You don't know the title of our Princess of the Nation, do you?"
"She is the new Valley Master of Nanxin Wanshe Valley. Let alone a few rotten corpses, she can even kill fresh ones for you."
Without waiting for Deng Youning to reply, the chatterbox Xiu Ming started talking about Deng Youning's abilities.
How can you talk about girls like that?
Ying Shi glared at him and signaled him to shut up.
Since they insisted on going to see the body, the people from the county government could not try to stop them too much.
Passing through the archway of the courtyard, everyone smelled the foul stench in the air before they even got there.
Prefect Lin shrugged helplessly.
"Luoyan City is located in the south, and the climate is hot. Moreover, these bodies were already rotten when they were sent here."
"You guys should be mentally prepared."
Everyone took out their handkerchiefs or simply covered their mouths and noses with their sleeves.
As they got closer to the morgue, the foul smell made Xiu Ming and Ying Shi feel nauseous again and again.
Prefect Lin and others were no longer willing to move forward.
Deng Youning could see that Deng Yan'an and Li Tianzhuo were also holding on.
They were all suffocated by the smoke and their temperature was almost red.
"Go wait for me in the front yard. If I need anything, I will definitely call you loudly."
Everyone seemed to be waiting for her to say this.
Li Tianzhuo did not dare to walk too far. He endured the stench and stayed at the archway. Deng Yan'an led the others back to the front yard of the county government office.
Deng Youning walked alone in the morgue.
The bodies were so severely decomposed that some of them had even exposed their bones, making it impossible to tell the cause of death.
She put on the gloves left by the coroner, and took tweezers and a knife, searching for signs of poisoning in the rotten flesh.
Soon, she picked up the corpse of a red bug with tweezers.
The insect was very thick, like a golden silkworm pupa dyed red.
Deng Youning doesn't know much about this kind of insect.
After finding the bugs, she still couldn't find any toxins left on the body.
But she found that the skulls of the corpses were a little strange and abnormally soft, not as hard as the skulls of normal people.
She came to Lord Zhou who had died yesterday and touched the top of his head. Soon, her expression became shocked.
With a gentle twist of her fingers, she removed an embroidery needle from Lord Zhou's head. The other end of the needle was still stained with blood.
Deng Youning seemed to have made a new discovery. She checked each corpse and found similar embroidery needles on their heads.
It seems that everyone died from this injection.
She chuckled, suddenly excited.
This method of killing people with embroidery needles is common among women. She has a hunch that Xi Tong is the real murderer.
After leaving the morgue, Deng Youning thought about sharing the evidence she had collected with everyone, but when everyone saw her, they all covered their noses.
She herself doesn't realize it.
“Is it really that smelly?”
Even Sakurashi beside her couldn't help but nod.
"Why don't you change your clothes first?" Deng Yan'an suggested.
They came in a horse-drawn carriage, which was equipped with several people's spare clothes in case any of their clothes got dirty or wet.
A few moments later, Deng Youning told everyone about his discovery.
"So the Blood Moon Saint we've been tracking for over two months is hiding here and killing the people?"
Li Tianzhuo was slightly furious, thinking back to the day when Wang He and Jun Wenci forced the emperor to abdicate and rebel, how could he let Xitong escape? !
"My initial judgment is that they killed people in order to practice Gu, and the insects they practiced were this kind of insects."
"But I don't know what kind of insect this is or what its function is."
"We can pretend to be ordinary people and wander around the streets at night to see if we can attract Xitong?"
Deng Youning has already thought of a plan.
"She's probably very familiar with us, so it's very easy for her to be exposed."
As Li Tianzhuo spoke, his eyes swept towards Prefect Lin and the others.
It’s time for them to do their part!
After some discussion, Prefect Lin sent out the head of the police, Wang Ping.
He is his own nephew.
That night, Wang Ping pretended to go to the largest brothel, Yihongyuan.
"Captain Wang, it's so late now. Why don't you stay overnight and go on duty tomorrow morning?"
"The city has been in turmoil lately. I heard that all the high-ranking officials from the diplomatic corps that passed by the capital died last night."
After a night of drinking and partying, the girl in Wang Ping's arms wanted to keep him to spend the night with her.
There are many beauties in Luoyan City, and this girl is also very beautiful.
"No, my Rouge Tiger, tsk tsk, I can't afford to offend him."
"I'll come back tomorrow."
Although Wang Ping looked drunk, he was actually very sober as he had a mission to accomplish.
After leaving two taels of silver, Wang Ping walked out.
The girl hammered the bed board angrily and picked up the silver.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
