The ending that Auntie Xinghua was talking about was probably the ending of the two homicide cases that year.
Auntie Xinghua said, "Sister Xiuhong told me a lot at the time that she didn't want me to tell my husband the truth, fearing that I would be divorced if I took the child with me. But I got sick when I got back, and I almost had a miscarriage and couldn't walk. So I could only tell my husband that I had to find Sister Xiuhong and rescue her."
"My husband was so scared that he cried after hearing this. He just said thank God that I could come back alive. This was something I didn't expect," Aunt Xinghua said, "so I asked him to report the case to the authorities. I wanted to rescue Sister Xiuhong and I couldn't let her die because of me."
"My husband went there immediately, but he came back less than half a day later. He told me that before he had time to report the case, he saw a notice posted on the official case, which said they were looking for two strange women. My husband knew at that moment that Sister Xiuhong, who saved me, was no longer alive."
"I was in a state of panic the whole day I was detained. After I escaped, I didn't even know how I got home. When I woke up, I only remembered a young man holding a child. I couldn't remember what he looked like. If I went to report the case, I wouldn't be able to say anything."
At this point, Aunt Xinghua finally burst into tears, and her cries were filled with guilt and regret.
"My husband said at the time that he wasn't afraid of being criticized, stabbed in the back, or secretly mocked, but he was afraid that our child would be called a bastard and live in this torture for the rest of his life," Aunt Xinghua sobbed. "We were both too selfish, too selfish. For my own sake, I didn't report the case in the end and buried it deep in my heart forever."
"In the past fourteen years, I have lived in fear for not hearing about the flower demon killing people. I have tried my best to help everyone who needs help, just like when Sister Xiuhong saved me. Fourteen years have passed, and the murderer has never appeared again. I thought he would never appear again, but who knew..."
"He killed Little Jane."
Aunt Xinghua screamed and gritted her teeth, her face was covered with tear marks, her eyes were as red as a demon from hell, and there was only pure hatred in her eyes.
"Why can't he die? Why didn't he die? Xiaozhen is so good, Sister Xiuhong is so good, why do they have to die in such pain?"
After she yelled, she curled up in the chair and cried bitterly.
Her crying was so sad and resentful that even the hard-hearted Royal Guards could not help but be moved.
When she was crying until she was almost convulsing, Jiang Lingyao stood up and came to her. She bent down slightly and wiped the tears from her face with a handkerchief.
"Auntie, I admire you for saying this," Jiang Lingyao said softly. "For a woman, a mother, to say this would probably mean she would be cursed countless times, and her children would probably live in the shadow. But you still said it."
"You didn't hide anything. You told us the whole story and gave us the most complete clues about the murderer."
"I am very grateful to you, and I think those who died will be grateful to you too."
"Whether it's Sister Xiuhong or Xiaozhen, they won't hate you because you didn't kill them. You are a victim just like them. They should hate the murderer."
Jiang Lingyao gently wiped the tears from Aunt Xinghua's face with a handkerchief. Aunt Xinghua raised her head and looked at Jiang Lingyao in a daze.
There was determination in Jiang Lingyao's eyes. She looked like a weak woman, but the strength in her could not be ignored.
Her determination infected Aunt Xinghua, and she gradually calmed down and was no longer as sad as before.
Jiang Lingyao's eyes were determined. She spoke word by word, "Don't worry, Aunt Xinghua. The details of the old case you confessed will only be recorded in the case file and the Jinyiwei file. No one else, including the yamen runners, will know why you came to the county yamen. We will not tell anyone about you. They will just think you came to identify Xiaozhen's body."
"I can promise that I will not let you and Yaya suffer these rumors, and I will not let the victims be hurt again."
Jiang Lingyao's words made Aunt Xinghua's eyes sparkle with twinkling lights. She nodded involuntarily and choked up, "Thank you, sir."
At this time, Nanqi spoke up: "The Imperial Guard can also guarantee it. In this case, you can rest assured."
Aunt Xinghua wanted to cry again.
But she held back her tears and said, "I want to go see Xiaozhen."
Jiang Lingyao nodded, and Duan Nanqi asked Pei Yu to take her to identify the body. Only after Aunt Xinghua left did Jiang Lingyao frown again.
"My Lord, Aunt Xinghua was young and pregnant at the time. She was panicked after being kidnapped and can no longer remember where her kidnappers lived. But based on the details in her testimony, I believe that the place where the deceased was imprisoned should be along the Baihe River and within Wanping."
Both of them listened carefully, without missing a single detail. Duan Nanjue nodded and said, "That's right. If she was imprisoned in Tongzhou, she would not have been able to walk back home in a daze. This can only mean that the murderer's house is near Baihe Village, no more than thirty miles away."
Being able to deduce these details has already inspired others. No one would have thought that there was a survivor in the case that year, and this survivor knew the third victim.
It is true that the law of nature is vast and nothing can escape it, and everything is in God's will.
Jiang Lingyao said, "I just don't know if the murderer still lives here. After all, there were survivors who escaped that year, so he can't still be here."
Duan Nanqi said, "Not entirely. From what Aunt Xinghua said, the murderer was very confident. He was not afraid of killing weak women at all, so Xiuhong seized the opportunity and not only saved Aunt Xinghua, but also severely injured the murderer. The murderer has not overturned the case in the past fourteen years. I don't know why, but I guess it has something to do with Xiuhong."
The two of them talked more and more attentively. Jiang Lingyao suddenly heard Xiuhong's name and said, "Xiuhong and Xiuying sound very similar. Could they be the same person? If so, then Xiuhong did come to Wanping and disappeared there. We can use her two names to search the directory and maybe we'll find something unexpected."
Jiang Lingyao finished speaking in one breath, and then said, "According to Aunt Xinghua's testimony, we know that the murderer was very young, tall and thin, so he was probably under 30 years old. In order to deceive the victim, he even used a baby in a cradle as bait. If he had specifically robbed or stolen a baby to deceive the victim, it would have been difficult to raise the baby. Therefore, we can infer that the child is probably his biological child."
Duan Nanqi thought thoughtfully: "So that means he should also have a wife?"
Jiang Lingyao paused for a moment. All the clues she had collected since she started investigating the case came together. Jiang Lingyao's eyes lit up. She asked, "Could it be that Rong Niang is his wife?"
Duan Nanqi raised his eyebrows slightly, and his eyes were full of interest. He said, "If this is true, everything makes sense, and it will be easier for us to investigate Rong Niang's identity."
"Let's assume that Rong Niang and the murderer were married. When the murderer committed the crime, Rong Niang had already given birth to a child. Aunt Xinghua saw the child with her own eyes, so it couldn't be fake. But Aunt Xinghua never saw Rong Niang. Combined with what Old Xiu Niang said, it means that Rong Niang was either not in prison, or was seriously ill or dead when the murderer committed the crime. Therefore, she would not show up, nor would she take the embroidery to the embroidery shop to sell for money, and she has never appeared since then."
"The fact that the murderer was so obsessed with Yu Rongniang's embroidered dress, using it as the final touch to the victim's makeup, shows the murderer's obsession with the embroidered dress, or perhaps with Rongniang."
Duan Nanqi said this, but Jiang Lingyao still frowned. She suddenly asked, "What if Rong Niang is not his wife?"
"Not his wife? You mean..."
Jiang Lingyao spoke in a heavy tone. She lowered her eyes and looked at the wood in her hand: "What if Rong Niang is not his wife, but his first victim? Then she..."
Then what Rong Niang suffered must have been inhuman torture. Not only was she kidnapped and imprisoned by the murderer, she was even raped and gave birth to a child. The child was even used by the murderer to deceive and kidnap more victims.
The cruelty and brutality of this murderer made Jiang Lingyao shudder.
Anyone would feel uncomfortable hearing about such brutal and cruel acts, especially a criminal official like Jiang Lingyao, who wanted to kill the murderer with her own hands and give justice to the deceased.
Duan Nanqi saw that Jiang Lingyao looked unhappy, and knew that she must be upset. He poured a bowl of warm tea into the cup and pushed it to Jiang Lingyao: "Have some tea."
Jiang Lingyao poured the tea into her mouth in one gulp. The warm and fragrant jasmine scent lingered between her lips, gradually easing the anxiety in her heart.
The interrogation room was dark, as if there was no light at all. Jiang Lingyao clenched her hands tightly and stared at the burning lantern in a daze.
Duan Nanqi's voice was very cold, and that kind of calmness and rationality were very different from his usual appearance.
He said: "We have found so many clues, which is better than before. The murderer must have other reasons for committing crimes again after so many years. Following these scattered clues, we can finally catch this thread and catch this murderer."
Jiang Lingyao took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. She closed her eyes and began to recall all the clues in the case so far in her mind.
As she recalled, she said, "Let's not talk about whether Rong Niang is involved in this case. Just based on Aunt Xinghua's description, we know that Xiuhong stabbed the murderer's leg when she resisted. Did this cause the murderer to be injured in the leg and become incapable of walking?"
Duan Nanqi said in a deep voice: "It is possible."
Jiang Lingyao said, "Then all the clues we have now can already infer the general outline of the murderer. Fourteen years ago, he was a young father with a baby in his arms. Fourteen years later, he is about forty years old. If the child is still alive, he should have grown up. If the father and son lived together, it would be easier to find them."
Jiang Lingyao said, "According to Aunt Xinghua, she was kidnapped and imprisoned in Wanping. If the body of the deceased fourteen years ago appeared in Tongzhou, it means that the murderer deliberately brought the body to Tongzhou and dumped it. According to our initial analysis, he should have had a small boat at that time."
"By hiding the body under the boat, he could enter Tongzhou smoothly. But after entering Tongzhou, he still needed to move the body from Baihe River to the city. I don't know how he did it."
Duan Nanqi thought thoughtfully, "Could it be that the murderer also has a legitimate business in Tongzhou?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
