Chapter 318 They robbed a tomb, and someone died.
Yan Wenjing was clutching a handful of cow dung, his eyes bulging outwards.
The two policemen were overjoyed. One used a shovel, and the other used his hands to dig, picking out the grains one by one.
Get this straight, it's cow dung, wet, smelly, and dripping with urine. The three policemen didn't even have time to put on gloves.
Several leaders, realizing something was wrong, disregarded the dirt on the ground and rushed over.
Seeing the police officers picking up white particles, Director Chen of the Municipal Public Security Bureau narrowed his eyes: "What is this, lime?"
Sun Jiamu glanced at it: "No, it's ancient three-in-one soil!"
Director Chen was suddenly taken aback.
Where does the ancient three-in-one soil come from in cow dung?
Unless, there is a tomb underneath, and it was dug out from the top of the vault when the tomb raiders were making their way through.
But why didn't the instrument detect the robbery hole during the previous exploration?
Nine times out of ten, the tunnel was filled in after it was dug.
Wu Hui looked at Sun Jiamu, who remained silent, and then looked at Lin Sicheng.
Lin Sicheng didn't say anything, looked around, then walked closer to the enclosure wall and looked through the manure window.
Four cows, two large and two small, stared curiously with their big eyes. Iron chains held their reins to posts beside a concrete trough.
The ordinary poplar wood, already quite old, was covered in fly droppings. A thick wooden pole was placed on top, with poplar branches draped over it and covered with mud.
There were many leaves, which had dried to the point of turning gray.
The walls were also old, just ordinary mud walls, with grooves and trenches on the right and traces of rainwater washing over them.
At first glance, it looks normal; both the structure and the building materials are very common in rural northern China.
What's unusual is that the cement cattle trough and the cement floor are newly built, and look to be no more than six months old.
This is quite unreasonable: a cement floor of several dozen square meters, a cement trough 80 centimeters high, half a meter thick, and 40 to 50 meters long—in a rural area where manual labor is the main method of construction, the amount of work involved is considerable.
But without demolishing the walls or the roof, it was actually repaired?
How were the sand, gravel, and cement transported in, and how was the construction carried out?
They just shoveled it away, one shovel at a time, and carried it out from the outside.
"A cement floor in the cattle pen?" Lin Sicheng sighed. "Captain Yan, the tomb raider's hole is inside the cattle pen. It must have been a tomb raiding under the guise of repairing the pen. They sealed the hole with cement after they finished."
Yan Wenjing could understand the second half of the sentence, but he didn't quite understand the first half: "Why can't cement be laid in the cattle pen?"
Lin Sicheng patiently explained: "Cattle have a characteristic that they can eat a lot and defecate a lot. This place is rainy and damp. If it were paved with cement, how slippery would it be? In summer it would be a mud pit and in winter it would be an ice beach. Adult cattle weigh at least half a ton. If they fall, they will break their bones and have to go to the slaughterhouse."
Firstly, cow urine and dung are extremely corrosive, and cows are large and heavy, so their destructive power is considerable. A concrete surface like this will crack within six months and become a trap for horses within two years.
"Replacing the floor every two years would be incredibly costly, and it would also damage the cow's hooves. Therefore, even large-scale farms rarely use cement floors; they mostly use yellow sand."
Yan Wenjing perked up and was about to give instructions to his subordinates when Lin Sicheng shook his head and propped his chin up to the side: "Captain Yan, don't make too much noise!"
What's nearby? Villagers watching?
No, there's still one tomb that hasn't been looted.
The fact that the vaulted ceiling was made of rammed earth suggests that the tomb has been completely looted. But the tomb raiders were so meticulous as to backfill the tunnels so thoroughly that even high-tech instruments couldn't detect them. Was it for environmental protection?
This was to cover up the fact that they were preparing to rob the tomb next door.
The saying goes, "Those who live near mountains live off the mountains, and those who live near water live off the water." This village is so close to the imperial tombs that, while it's hard to say that everyone there is a tomb raider or antique dealer, there are definitely quite a few villagers who associate with criminals who make a living from these two activities.
Guess who might be among them, someone who knows the group that robbed this tomb? Or perhaps, their accomplices are in the village, among the onlookers…
Yan Wenjing suddenly realized: all that secrecy was wasted on the ground work, which was tantamount to keeping nothing at all.
He was startled and immediately turned to report to the deputy brigade commander and the detachment leader.
The two leaders then invited Li Zhijie and the director of the municipal bureau's office to coordinate the matter.
Suddenly, reports came in, and people were being transferred.
Director Chen was only responsible for making connections, not for the specific business, so he was temporarily idle. He peered out the window at the cattle pen.
The cattle trough is new; anyone with eyes can tell. But the land is new too; few can tell that.
What Director Chen found strange was that someone who hadn't lived in the countryside for a long time couldn't possibly know so much: why lime couldn't be sprinkled or cement laid in the cattle pen.
It's not that Yan Wenjing is unprofessional, nor is it an attempt to defend him; it's simply a matter of different focuses. Don't believe me? Ask any police officer in ten cities: would two out of them know this?
Thinking it over, he looked at Lin Sicheng curiously: "Teacher Lin, have you lived in the countryside?"
"Of course!" Lin Sicheng said without blinking. "My family is from the countryside, I've seen these things since I was a child!"
Director Chen believed it to be true, but Wang Qizhi curled his lip and said: "You're just listening to his nonsense?"
Because he owns a house in his hometown, Lin Sicheng's household registration is only in the countryside. Including holidays, he only returns to the countryside a handful of times a year.
Moreover, Qujiang Pool, a famous tourist attraction in Xi'an, is right outside the door. Forget raising cattle, they don't even allow raising chickens anymore, so where is he supposed to go?
Just as I was feeling sentimental, a commotion broke out nearby.
It sounded like the villagers were arguing; some men were cursing, some women were wailing, and some children were crying.
It was a bit far away, so he couldn't hear it very clearly. Lin Sicheng walked over.
Wang Qizhi was taken aback: "Where are you going?"
"Let's go take a look."
"What's so interesting about villagers arguing?"
Ordinary arguments are nothing to watch, but Lin Sicheng is tall and has a wide view: he was hiding on the ground, throwing a tantrum and yelling at the top of his lungs, as if he were the lady of the house next door.
The pile of corn that the sister-in-law of the family who lived in the cattle pen just pushed over belonged to their family.
After getting closer and listening for a while, Lin Sicheng roughly understood: there was a tomb beneath the threshing ground, and it wasn't small; proper protection measures were definitely needed. The corn that had been pushed out couldn't be pushed back and had to be hauled away.
The woman said she had nowhere to put it and that if she wanted to take it, she should take it, and she would compensate her for whatever the market price was, and she wanted the money on the spot.
Even if we lose money, it can't be done so quickly: the town mayor said it needs to be reported and approved, which will take at least three to five days. Upon hearing this, the woman thought, "You're probably just trying to fool me," and then they started arguing.
As the argument escalated, the villagers called over the woman's parents-in-law, and the three of them joined in the argument. Then, the woman from the cowshed family also joined in, demanding that the manure be pushed back to her.
Therefore, there wasn't just one woman rolling on the ground, but three: one mother-in-law and two daughters-in-law.
The father-in-law, his neck stiff, roared at the townspeople: "No amount of money will get us to take this corn away! Anyone who dares to touch a single grain of rice will have their entire family of eight die here!"
Four adults and four children...
Lin Sicheng squeezed forward: "3911?"
Yan Wenjing asked, puzzled, "What?"
"Phenythium, an insecticide, the one the old man is holding in that bottle!" Lin Sicheng pointed. "Highly poisonous, one sip and you're dead!"
Yan Wenjing looked at him strangely: "How do you know everything?"
Lin Sicheng blurted out, "My family is from the countryside!"
Yan Wenjing didn't say a word, but blinked his eyes.
Director Chen hadn't seen Lin Sicheng's file, so he readily believed it, but he had.
"Captain Yan, have the personnel been transferred yet?"
"Of course, I'll be there in twenty minutes!"
"Something doesn't feel right?" Lin Sicheng thought for a moment. "These people seem to be deliberately trying to escalate things?"
The corn can't be taken away right now, so it's still there. Furthermore, the town mayor personally guaranteed that it will be taken away in three days at most, after the compensation is received, and absolutely at market price.
It would just mean piling the grain for three more days. Even if they didn't lose money in the end, they wouldn't suffer any loss. But if they did lose money, they wouldn't have to thresh the grain, nor would they have to hire trucks to haul it to the grain station, saving them so much trouble.
Moreover, the town mayor personally guaranteed it, the village party secretary and village head vouched for it, and they were even willing to write a written agreement for them. What's there to complain about?
Some even want to drink pesticide, or even take their whole family with them to their deaths?
"These guys probably know there's a tomb down there. Most likely, the theft of the one under the cattle pen is related to them. They're afraid the truth will come out, so naturally they're doing everything they can to stop it."
Yan Wenjing lowered his voice, "I just inquired, and the cattle pen was renovated during the Qingming Festival. They didn't hire any local craftsmen, but rather some from out of town. After the renovation, the two brothers went out to work and haven't returned since..."
"But don't worry, it won't cause a scene. Even if someone wanted to report it, they wouldn't be able to: the telecommunications bureau and the mobile company have already been contacted. We're not afraid of him reporting it; we're just afraid he won't report it..."
Why were Ma Long and Ma Shan able to catch them so quickly that night? It was because they tracked them down using phone signals.
No wonder everyone's just standing there watching, and no one's trying to stop them?
Lin Sicheng remained noncommittal, squinting as he glanced at it.
The old man was yelling and cursing, occasionally waving a pesticide bottle. The three women stopped rolling around and sat on the ground, crying loudly.
But something was strange: the mother-in-law and sister-in-law were genuinely crying, one with tears streaming down her face, the other heartbroken. Only the eldest sister-in-law, the matriarch of the family in the cattle pen, just sat there wailing, unable to squeeze out a single tear.
It's just moving a corn cob, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, why be so upset?
Subconsciously, Lin Sicheng recalled the day he bluffed Ma Long.
Then he turned around and looked at the cattle pen behind him, his eyelids twitching involuntarily.
"Captain Yan, you just said that after the cattle pen was repaired, the two brothers went out to work and haven't come back yet?"
"Yes, they probably went into hiding!"
It's normal to go out and lay low after committing a crime.
The worst-case scenario is that the two brothers aren't just hiding from the storm...
Lin Sicheng's heart skipped a beat, and he was about to remind Yan Wenjing, but he swallowed the words back.
Yan Wenjing probably won't work.
It wasn't that he lacked ability, but rather it was his personality. Having always been a police officer and a leader, he was used to giving orders. Unconsciously, his speech, expressions, and eyes all carried a sharp and scrutinizing quality.
Such a person will subconsciously arouse people's vigilance and make them secretly wary.
But there isn't a suitable person for the time being?
Lin Sicheng looked around and said, "Captain Yan, I'll go over and try to persuade him, but you shouldn't go."
Wang Qizhi belatedly realized what was happening and was startled: "Lin Sicheng, don't do anything reckless. What if you push him too far and that old man holds you down and forces you to drink a couple of mouthfuls?"
Lin Sicheng was both amused and exasperated: How could that be?
"Teacher, I suspect it's filled with water!"
Wang Qizhi glared at him: "Even if it's water, what if the old man kicks you twice?"
You know what?
In the past, Lin Sicheng would not have been afraid, but he had just been injured...
"Teacher, Senior Brother Fang, let's go together!"
Wang Qizhi nodded: That's more like it.
Yan Wenjing looked at him strangely, as if to say: There are village party secretaries, town mayors and leaders of the cemetery management committee here. What can you possibly do to persuade them?
Why can't I go by myself?
Wang Qizhi pursed his lips and shook his head: Yan Wenjing's reaction speed isn't very good.
Lin Sicheng remained silent: "His quick wit is indeed a bit lacking. If it were Jing Zeyang, he would know what he wanted to do with just a glance."
Of course, Yan Wenjing is definitely taller than Tang Nanyan.
With that thought in mind, Lin Sicheng took out his compass and walked over to the group.
Sure enough, being good-looking does have its advantages, especially when you're young. The old man merely glanced at him and continued arguing with the town mayor and village secretary.
Lin Sicheng patted the child's head.
The eldest sister-in-law stopped wailing, but the mother-in-law and sister-in-law continued to cry, heartbroken and devastated.
The crying was genuine, and the sadness was genuine.
Strangely, between crying spells, the sister-in-law would occasionally glance at her sister-in-law and the two children beside her, her eyes filled with intense hatred, as if she were looking at an enemy.
Lin Sicheng was startled, his heart sinking.
Seeing him standing still and not saying a word, the woman looked at him strangely: "Young man, what are you doing?"
"Just came to take a look!" Lin Sicheng smiled. "I'm a geomancer!"
A Taoist priest, so young?
But what are the geomancers here for? They can't possibly be saying, "The location of our corn and cow dung pile is wrong, it's ruining the feng shui," can they?
The eldest sister-in-law felt even stranger, but the mother-in-law and sister-in-law stopped crying and stared intently at the compass in his hand.
Lin Sicheng squatted down, and the compass spun around and around several times, the needle pointing straight at the cattle pen.
"Big sister, do you know why the compass needle points there? It's because there are wronged spirits and resentment there!"
The sister-in-law froze, her lips trembling, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly, she glanced at her sister-in-law again, her eyes filled with even more hatred, her teeth grinding together.
Is this the end? Is this truly a human tragedy?
If his previous ideas were just sudden whims, wild fantasies, and wishful thinking, Lin Sicheng now has at least a 50% chance of success.
He sighed again: "Auntie, both sons are my flesh and blood. What's the use of paying more money if my son is gone?"
The old lady suddenly froze, her eyes bulging as if they were about to burst out of their sockets.
Lin Sicheng turned to his sister-in-law beside him and said, "Sister, your two children are still so young, and they're both boys. What will you do without a man?"
The woman's face turned deathly pale, and tears streamed down her face even faster.
Okay, that's about 70-80% complete now.
Lin Sicheng raised his hand and pointed at the cattle pen: "You were bullied when you were alive, and you can't even rest in peace when you're dead. You're crushed by manure and trampled by livestock. Auntie, sister-in-law, don't you have nightmares at night?"
The mother-in-law and sister-in-law both jumped in fright, their expressions as if they had seen a ghost.
The sister-in-law looked completely bewildered, not understanding what the child was talking about. The father-in-law, however, suddenly exclaimed, "Crayon, you son of a bitch, what nonsense are you spouting?"
"Uncle, I'm not making this up, I'm a geomancer!"
"You're fucking insane..."
The old man cursed and threw a bottle at him.
Lin Sicheng's arm and shoulder were injured, but his leg was fine. He stepped back, and the bottle flew past him.
With a crash, the glass shattered on the floor.
Lin Sicheng glanced at it, then sniffed: "See? I told you it was water!"
Wang Qizhi glared at him and kicked the old man who rushed up at him, sending him sprawling.
The old man got up and started looking around for his belongings.
Yan Wenjing was right there. He might lack quick wit, but he wasn't an idiot. Lin Sicheng had spoken so clearly, and with the old man and woman, and his sister-in-law so agitated, even a fool could guess what had happened.
He was quick-witted and tackled the old man to the ground.
Like slaughtering a pig, the old man shouted and cursed with all his might, his words filthy and grating to the ears.
The three women snapped out of their daze, scrambled to their feet, and rushed forward. Yan Wenjing looked up at his subordinates and said, "What are you standing there for? Why aren't you pulling them apart?"
"No, hold the adults down and take the child away..."
The police officers were completely baffled.
But the boss orders you not to ask why, just do it. Even if you make a mistake, the boss will take the blame.
The others were even more confused.
Just a minute ago, the old man was arguing with the village chief, and three women were throwing a tantrum and crying. Then, this young man went up and said a few words, and the two women seemed stunned, while the old man acted like he'd gone mad?
Lin Sicheng sighed: "The eldest brother killed the second brother and buried him in the cattle pen!"
The leaders were all stunned: What is this?
"It must have been an internal conflict caused by a dispute over the spoils. The boss might not have struck first, but he definitely delivered the final blow..."
Lin Sicheng looked at his sister-in-law and asked, "Sister-in-law, was your brother-in-law out to work before the cattle pen was even finished? And why did your husband leave so many days later?"
The woman clenched her teeth, her lips trembling, her gaze shifting between her father-in-law and mother-in-law with suspicion and uncertainty.
Lin Sicheng looked at the old man again: "The eldest brother admitted that he killed the man, but the boss must have paid the compensation. He was afraid that his sister-in-law would see him and, in a moment of impulse, call the police, so he went into hiding."
The old man struggled with all his might, but how could a man in his sixties possibly outmaneuver the young and strong Yan Wenjing?
There were just too many onlookers, otherwise Yan Wenjing would have been handcuffed long ago.
Unable to break free, the old man cursed in frustration, "You bastard, you're talking nonsense!"
"I'm not a bastard, I'm a geomancer!" Lin Sicheng pointed at the cattle pen. "Whether I farted or not, we'll know once we dig."
The old man suddenly stopped, his face turned as white as dirt, and his whole body was trembling.
"My son... my son..." the old woman cried out in anguish, rushing forward to hug Lin Sicheng's legs. But before she could get going, the police pulled her back.
"Taoist priest, how is my son down there... how is my son?"
"Being buried in a cesspool is worse than dying without a burial place. What do you think he would do?"
My sister-in-law sobbed uncontrollably, biting her lip until it bled: "Call the police! I want to call the police! Zhang Zhong killed Zhang Xiao and buried him in the cowshed... Zhang Zhong is my uncle, and Zhang Xiao is my husband..."
Lin Sicheng sighed again: Alright, now it's perfect...
The group of people looked at each other in bewilderment.
Things happened so fast that many people didn't even have time to react.
Only a few police officers managed to piece together some clues:
Lin Sicheng was so agitated by his father-in-law's reaction that he actually took out a pesticide bottle just to move a pile of corn, and even threatened to drag the whole family down with him.
Suspecting something was amiss, Lin Sicheng impulsively decided to try and trick someone.
But how did he know that someone was buried in the cattle pen?
Because Ma Shan had already shown his true colors: after robbing the tomb, they had a dispute over the loot, which led to infighting, and he killed someone to cover it up before burying the body in the tomb-robbing hole.
If they stole from here, they must have buried it under the cattle pen.
How did Lin Sicheng know that the eldest brother killed the second brother?
Because the mother-in-law and the second daughter-in-law were crying so hard, the second daughter-in-law looked at her sister-in-law and two nieces as if they were her mortal enemies.
As for why he carried a compass and acted like a geomancer from beginning to end?
If you have a clear conscience, you have nothing to fear. At this time and in this place, a geomancer is a million times more effective than the police.
Like my sister-in-law, she only suggested calling the police because she believed he was a geomancer...
Lin Sicheng looked at the two old men again: "Old folks, don't be stubborn. They'll dig the person out soon. No matter how much money the tomb raider pays you, you can't hide it."
Furthermore, your second son wasn't killed by your eldest son. He was forced to finish the job; otherwise, he would have been the second one...
So even if he's caught, at most he'll be convicted of tomb raiding. But if he doesn't turn himself in and the real culprit isn't caught, he'll have to take the charge of murder whether he wants to or not…
"Besides, human lives are at stake. If the boss can kill one, he can kill two, and it won't be long!"
Lin Sicheng pointed to the threshing ground, "After we finish robbing this one, your eldest son will also be silenced..."
The old man froze, then began to tremble again, more and more violently. After a long while, he forcefully raised his head: "The second son's spirit is telling you: it really wasn't the eldest son who killed the second son?"
Lin Sicheng thought for a moment: "I calculated it myself, it's not very accurate, but it's at least 70-80% correct!"
However, this is just a calculation, not divination: even if blood relatives are desperate, they would never kill their own brother in front of outsiders.
It's more like that when no one's around...
"Eighty percent...that's enough!" The old man gritted his teeth, spitting out two words, "I'll talk!"
The group of people were shocked again: This is possible?
It actually worked, because the old man believed it to be at least 70-80% true: very few people knew that someone was buried under the cattle pen.
The tomb raider's boss wouldn't tell, the eldest son wouldn't tell, and neither would the old woman or the second son's wife. The old man thought: apart from the second son appearing in a dream, the only other explanation was divination.
The more crucial point is that the body will be dug up soon. If the money is confiscated, and there's neither a person nor money left, the second son's wife will definitely call the police.
The old man couldn't hide it any longer, so he had no choice but to take a gamble.
The old man and two women were taken into the car, and the villagers who had come to watch were persuaded to go home.
The loader arrived and began dismantling the cowshed. After removing the concrete floor, Lin Sicheng casually poked around a few holes and found the tunnel.
They brought in two more excavators and started digging around the hole. After digging less than a meter, they found a corpse in the excrement filling the hole.
The soil was alkaline, with few microorganisms, so the body was only partially decomposed. It was unrecognizable, but thankfully, the clothes were still there.
They called two women and two old men to identify him, but both said he was not Zhang Xiao.
The clothes weren't right, and the person wasn't that short: the forensic doctor estimated the deceased to be between 1.65 and 1.7 meters tall, but Zhang Xiao was 1.85 meters tall.
They continued digging, and after only two buckets, they unearthed another body.
But it still isn't.
Immediately afterwards, two more bodies were unearthed below, but they were still not the correct ones.
A group of local public security bureau and cultural relics bureau leaders were all stunned.
Director He and Li Zhijie looked at each other with dark expressions, unsure of what to say.
Just as they had thought: if it was just a tomb raiding case, even if they dug up an imperial tomb, it wouldn't be a big deal.
But what if someone dies?
Four bodies have already been dug out, but Zhang Xiao has not been found yet. Doesn't that mean there are at least five people buried down there?
Three sharp object wounds and one gunshot wound—could this have been suicide?
Five or more people involved, and firearms involved... this is already a major criminal case within a major criminal case. If the tomb is large enough and the cultural relics lost are significant enough, it could even be classified as "extraordinarily serious".
Fuck his mother...
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