Chapter 7 She's here! She's hiding right here!
Qin San's vision seemed to be veiled by a red gauze, and everything he saw appeared blood-red, including Lu Bing and the two constables who had rushed up behind him.
She slowly stood up, gripped the kitchen knife tightly in both hands, pointed it at the other person, and said in a trembling voice, "Don't come any closer..."
The knife tip is dripping blood; it's the blood of that crow.
Qin San was thin and small, his body as thin as paper, and his hunched shoulders trembled slightly, yet he dared to point a knife at the tall and strong Lu Bing and threaten, "Don't come any closer..."
Lu Bing slowed down, but didn't stop: "Little girl, don't be silly. You dare to wander around at night. Put down the knife and come back with us."
Qin San took a step back timidly, but her hands gripped the hilt of her knife tightly, pointing it at Lu Bing. His words, "Go back," had pierced her heart. Her family had been destroyed overnight; where could she go back to?!
Her eldest brother, whom she considered a father figure, had just died, right before her eyes, and her second brother was also dead. Qin San's bloodshot eyes gradually went mad...
"Girl." Lu Bing approached her, trying to persuade her to put down the kitchen knife.
Qin San, standing a few steps away, stubbornly brandished his blade at Lu Bing, who was approaching him: "Get away, get away, don't come any closer, she's here! She's hiding right here!"
Lu Bing stopped, feigning ignorance: "Who's here?"
"That woman!" she cried out bitterly, almost gritting her teeth, unable to call out "Second Sister-in-law" again. "That woman, she's right here!"
If they didn't know she was Qin San, the one who stormed the haunted yamen, her ghostly appearance would have scared the two yamen runners to death. Hei Zi said frankly, "No, it's the middle of the night, and there's no one else here except us."
Another person also advised, "Yes, we already searched the place during the day. Sun Xiuniang isn't here at all. Those people must have mistaken her for someone else and are just talking nonsense. You should come out with us quickly; this place is very eerie."
"She's here!" Qin San suddenly became agitated and roared at Lu Bing and the others, "I saw her! She killed my second brother! I'm going to kill her! I must kill her!"
Lu Bing said in a deep voice, "The case hasn't been fully investigated yet, so we can't arbitrarily convict someone. If Sun Xiuniang really did kill someone, the authorities will handle it themselves..."
Qin San was completely consumed by resentment and reason. She firmly believed that Sun Xiuniang had killed her close relative and would not listen to Lu Bing's words at all. She shook her head and stepped back: "I want to kill her. I want to kill her with my own hands to avenge my second brother!"
At that moment, Lu Bing saw a well behind her, his expression changed drastically, and he shouted, "Don't retreat!"
Qin San stared in horror. Seeing Lu Bing suddenly lunge at her, she screamed and swung the kitchen knife, slashing hard at Lu Bing's outstretched arm. At the same time, her heel hit the well stone, and she lost her balance and fell backward.
The constables exclaimed and rushed forward, "Boss!"
If Lu Bing reached out, he would be stabbed; if he didn't, the girl would fall into the well. He didn't even have time to weigh the options; it was too late to pull his arm back.
Qin San looked frail and weak, but due to his impoverished family background, he had done odd jobs like carrying loads and chopping wood since he was a child. So when he got really angry, he didn't hold back when he wielded the knife and was definitely strong enough to break his bones.
Lu Bing was horrified. His flesh had been ripped open by the blade, and blood was already seeping from his palm. Just at the critical moment, a sharp "bang" was heard. A piece of gravel struck the back of the knife, causing the cleaver to bounce off, leaving only a thin, bloody gash on Lu Bing's palm.
Lu Bing grabbed Qin San's wrist and was pulled forward by the force of the fall, dragging him to the well. Fortunately, the two constables did not fail to hold on and grabbed Lu Bing's waist on both sides, working together to pull Qin San out of the well.
Lu Bing exploded, pointing at Qin San who was slumped on the ground, wishing he could kick her hard: "If you weren't a woman, I guarantee I'd beat you to death!"
They almost sliced off half of his hand!
Qin San shrugged and curled up into a ball.
Lu Bing stared at the bloody gash on his hand, still feeling lingering fear. He turned to Zhou Yaren, who had silently approached, and thanked her, saying, "Thanks. If you hadn't been quick, I would have been crippled today."
Zhou Yaren remained unmoved: "You saw her pointing a knife at you, yet you still dared to reach out."
Lu Bing was furious: "I'm sick." He raised his arm and cursed as if his "hand" was being unreasonable, "This hand is so stupid, it had to go and try to save her. What was it trying to do? Even if she fell into the well, it was her own fault. She's tired of living."
Zhou Yaren was amused by his reaction and curled the corners of her mouth.
However, a constable nearby stepped forward anxiously and said, "Boss, you're bleeding. Quickly, bandage it up."
Lu Bing attacked indiscriminately: "Why bother with a bandage for such a minor injury? Take her back with you. I'm going to punish her for the serious crime of assaulting an official."
"yes."
As a result, everyone turned around at once and saw that the girl had quietly crawled to the side and was reaching out to pick up the murder weapon that had killed Lu Bing.
Hei Zi kicked the kitchen knife away first: "You actually tried to use a knife to commit violence, that's an even bigger crime!"
Lu Bing was in a real headache and waved his hand impatiently, saying, "Tie him up, tie him up."
Hei Zi pulled out a rope and bent down to grab the person, but a brick came flying at him. Hei Zi reacted quickly and dodged, but the brick hit his colleague's foot directly behind him.
The bailiff wailed and cried out, clutching his aching leg and standing on one leg.
Lu Bing hadn't expected this girl to dare to resist, so he had to step in himself: "You've gone too far!"
Three grown men couldn't control a teenage girl; if word got out, wouldn't they lose all face?
Qin San got up and fled, running blindly, but was blocked by the man in blue. Qin San recognized the brocade robe immediately; a musical instrument was tucked into his waistband, adorned with a piece of high-quality, crystal-clear white jade, and the man's voice was gentle: "Don't run around."
Qin San stood rooted to the spot, his face covered in blood as he raised his head, looking neither human nor ghost.
This man had shared a dilapidated temple with them last night, ate a bowl of hot porridge from a pot, and saved her in a critical moment outside the city. Qin San was filled with mixed emotions and asked in a hoarse voice, "Are you also a government official?"
“Yes.” Lu Bing replied from behind her, twisted her wrists, and Hei Zi quickly handed her a rope. Lu Bing put the rope around her wrists and tied a tight knot in no time.
Qin San struggled incessantly, tears mingling with blood as they streamed down his face: "Let me go! Let me go! I want revenge for my brother!"
The young girl had a fiery temper, her eyes filled with deep-seated hatred. Lu Bing wasn't unsympathetic; he had initially wanted to scold her, but seeing her pitiful and miserable state, he softened his tone and toned down his fierceness: "The county government is investigating this murder case. We will definitely bring the murderer who killed Qin Er to justice, but you can't..."
Qin San roared, "A murderer should pay with his life! I want her to pay with her life!"
It's only right that a life should be paid for a life, but with her fiery temper and impulsive nature, she can't even let him finish a sentence. Lu Bing decided to lock her up for a few days to calm her down, otherwise she'd definitely go out and attack people. What if she went too far and accidentally hurt someone? After all, he almost had half his hand chopped off by this crazy girl, a living example.
Lu Bing tossed Qin San to his men: "Go back."
But Qin San stubbornly refused, shouting and struggling under the hands of the two constables: "Didn't you come to arrest that woman? Why aren't you arresting her? She's hiding right here, and you're just going to ignore her and let her escape."
Lu Bing really wanted to say: I came here to catch you.
Before he could speak, Zhou Yaren asked, "You saw it?"
Qin San nodded vigorously: "I saw her, I really saw her! She was hiding in that dark room. I even slashed her arm, but she got away. I chased after her, I just went after her, but she hid again and disappeared. I haven't found her yet, I must find her..."
Lu Bing frowned upon hearing this. Although he felt that the girl's words were somewhat incoherent, they did not seem to be rambling nonsense, and there seemed to be a little bit of credibility to them.
Zhou Yaren asked again, "Which room?"
"Over there, right over there." Qin San's hands were tied behind his back, so he couldn't point and turned his face to another direction.
“Take us over there to have a look.”
The group walked through the corridors and courtyards into the inner quarters of the county government office, arriving at the east room that Qin San had mentioned. Inside were square tables and chairs, antique shelves, a four-piece cabinet made of huanghuali wood, and a canopy bed, which should have been the bedroom where the county magistrate lived in the past.
The room was covered in dust, so it was easy to see that someone had been there. For example, there was a thick layer of dust on the display shelf next to it, but half of the table was clean.
The room was filled with a musty, rotten smell, and Zhou Yaren could even smell a faint, pervasive stench of blood in the air. Because the doors and windows were wide open, the cold wind diluted the stench to a very faint degree.
The bailiffs discovered that there was still a little bit of lamp oil left in the lamp holder, so they took out a tinderbox and lit it.
The room instantly brightened. Several chairs and stools lay askew in the middle, and there were footprints, drag marks, bloodstains that were not yet completely dry, and bloodstains that had already dried and turned brown. Lu Bing finally believed what Qin San had said: she had just stabbed Sun Xiuniang with a knife in this room, and these fresh bloodstains must have just dripped.
"Boss, come and see."
Lu Bing walked to a corner of the cabinet, where Hei Zi was using two fingers to pick up a dirty, pale yellow outer robe, stained with mud and mottled blood, with the hem torn and the sleeves ripped in half.
Although Hei Zi was disgusted, he still held it in his hand and examined it carefully: "This satin is nice, it looks neither new nor old."
Another constable kicked the half-eaten cornbread on the ground with his toe: "This cornbread is fresh too. It seems that woman really is hiding here."
Lu Bing asked with a stern face, "So how did you search during the day? Didn't you find these things?"
The two constables' faces changed drastically, and they hurriedly explained, "No, boss, we...we searched, but we might not have been careful enough. There were bound to be some oversights..."
After all, the Ghost Office was a dark place where no living person could enter. It had been genuinely haunted in the past, so who would dare to stay inside for long? Especially in some dark rooms or pitch-black corners, they would only stand outside and quickly glance around before going back to report after checking a few rooms.
Lu Bing knew their nature very well. Just as he was about to speak, his eyes fell on two pieces of hemp rope, each about the thickness of a thumb, on the ground. He squatted down, picked them up, and examined them. The ropes had obviously been worn down little by little by the slightly sharp stone next to them, as there were still fresh wear marks on the stone.
Lu Bing immediately became suspicious: Could someone have been kidnapped here?
So the old farmer who sold melons said he heard screams coming from the ghost yamen half a month ago, which is very likely the person who was taken hostage.
He raised his eyelids and glanced at the pale yellow brocade robe in Hei Zi's hand. Suddenly remembering something, he asked, "When Master Shen came to the yamen to report that Young Master Shen had been missing for over a month, what color clothes did he say Young Master Shen was wearing?"
The two constables were suddenly startled, their necks slowly turning as they stared at the robe.
Hei Zi opened his mouth blankly: "Pale yellow."
Another constable hesitated and said, "Really?"
Listening to their conversation, Zhou Yaren immediately guessed the gist of it. She even recalled that when she was at the Qin family, a bystander had said something like, "This young wife is restless and ambitious. She has climbed up to the eldest son of the Shen family."
More than a month after the eldest son of the Shen family went missing, Lu Bing and the others searched almost the entire Beiqu County but could not find him. However, they found what appeared to be the outer robe that the eldest son of the Shen family was wearing when he went missing.
What a coincidence, Sun Xiuniang is also hiding here...
Lu Bingyan also connected the two of them. His expression turned serious, and he ordered Hei Zi to put away the outer robe and take it out for the Shen family to confirm later.
Hei Zi couldn't help but speculate: "Could it be that Young Master Shen was tied up here?"
No wonder they searched everywhere but couldn't find him; nobody thought to come to this infamous, dreadful government office to look for him.
Another constable then asked, "Who tied her up? It couldn't have been that Sun Xiuniang, could it?"
"Whether it's her or not, we'll find out by arresting her and questioning her," Lu Bing said with a stern face. "Search her."
As soon as Lu Bing finished speaking, Zhou Yaren's keen hearing picked up a faint sound in the distance and immediately determined its location: "There's movement in the southwest."
Lu Bingdao said, "As expected of someone with keen hearing."
A note from the author:
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