Chapter 8 Chapter 8 He Zhou couldn't care less when he heard the call...
Hearing the call, Hezhou didn't bother to analyze anything, turned around and ran over. Xie Xunzhi was standing beside the Buddha statue with his head down.
Hezhou walked over quickly and smelled a disgusting fishy odor as soon as he got close. When he saw it clearly, he almost vomited his breakfast.
There were large bloodstains behind the statue, on the ground, on the walls, and everywhere, and there were even some blood-red skin that looked like flesh.
"It seems that this is the scene? There is dough on the ground. Look here..." Xie Xunzhi took out his gloves and took out a paper bag. There was a square handkerchief under the statue. It looked like it had been there for a long time.
Hezhou pursed his lips and moved forward to smell it, but the next second he felt his stomach churning again. He held onto the cold statue and waved his hands.
"This is disgusting, what's all this on the ground?"
"The murderer might have killed someone here. The person's face was scratched and it looked like it had been cleaned. I didn't see any dragging marks or bloodstains here yesterday." Xie Xunzhi picked up the handkerchief and took a look, and saw embroidery in the lower right corner.
Hezhou stared around, tears welling up in his eyes. "I saw two sets of footprints at the base of the wall over there. They're about the same size as me. They look like the murderer's."
The dilapidated temple was empty, and the wind blowing through the exposed sinkhole made a strange roaring sound.
Xie Xunzhi squatted down to take a closer look. Hezhou stood behind him, carefully lifted up the hem of his clothes, and tilted his head to look inside carefully.
Xie Xunzhi felt the movement, looked back and smiled helplessly.
There weren't many things on the ground, and people would occasionally come to the dilapidated temple, so it wasn't surprising to see someone cleaning around the statues.
But it can be seen that the deceased had lost a lot of blood. How was it possible to drag him away without leaving any bloodstains?
He stood up and found no murder weapon or other items at the scene except the handkerchief.
"What's wrong, Brother Xie?"
"Nothing much. I feel like it was a murder of passion. It was planned, but... it was still dominated by hatred. It seems that if the two knew each other, all we need to do is find the identity of the deceased."
Hezhou was so disregarded in his stomach discomfort that his eyes were filled with joy. "So, let's go back and post notices now? Actually, I think the murderer is almost here. Look, his footprints are no smaller than mine. He also needs a carriage and a shoe repair awl, so the area has been narrowed down a lot."
Xie Xunzhi took off his gloves and handed him the evidence and gloves together. "There are quite a few horse and mule carts in the county. Awls are available in every household. They are mainly knockout drugs. When I picked up the handkerchief just now, I smelled a bitter smell of medicine. This dosage can be run at the pharmacy."
"Okay! Then I'll go for a run now?" Hezhou took the things cheerfully and pointed at the base of the wall. "By the way, look for the footprints. Do you think this can reveal the murderer's height?"
"I saw it yesterday, and I don't think it's possible. There are no patterns on the footprints, and the force deviation between the front and back feet is too large. It's like the murderer wore large-size shoes, and there is not even a trace of blood." Xie Xunzhi turned his back to him, and there were some mud stains on his white clothes.
Hezhou looked at him quietly, and the sense of unreality brought about by the time travel seemed to subside a lot.
He walked around the dilapidated temple carefully, not even missing the peeling paint on the wall.
"Let's go and draft the notice." Xie Xunzhi turned around and walked to the door.
"Okay, Lord Xie, when will you be so kind as to go and buy me some clothes?" Hezhou walked around the scene of the hanging corpse and went out the door, looking at Xie Xunzhi blinking awkwardly.
"No...no, wait until the case is over before buying it?"
"Come on, this is the only one you have. Won't you need to forge iron by then? Go buy some tonight." The seal on the door broke into two pieces and was blown into the air.
Hezhou tore off the window paper of the dilapidated temple and tore it into pieces. He cursed inwardly and took out a new one to paste it on. The scene inside could still be seen from the outside.
There was a black and red stain on the ground of the empty temple, and two kneeling mats had flown away and were nowhere to be found. Hezhou patted Xie Xunzhi and pulled him over.
He lowered his head and looked at Xie Xunzhi in a daze. Now he could see the mole at the corner of Xie Xunzhi's eye and the faint blush under his eyes.
Xie Xunzhi nudged him uncomfortably, "What do you want to say?"
"Nothing... nothing. Where are we going now?" Hezhou shook his head stiffly. His hand that was around the other's shoulder was slightly sweaty. For the first time, he intuitively felt how thin Xie Xunzhi was.
"You are confused. Aren't we going back to the yamen?" Xie Xunzhi said in a low voice with his head down.
A gentle voice echoed between the two of them. Xie Xunzhi spoke softly, but as long as Hezhou was not deaf, he could hear it since the two of them were close together.
Hezhou smiled sheepishly, "Yes, yes, isn't this the beauty getting carried away again?"
"Stop talking nonsense. I'll go to the pharmacy with you after I finish writing the notice."
"receive!"
Arriving at the Yamen Hezhou, I saw Li Erniu squatting in front of the gate. This time he had changed into a nice outfit, a dark black suit. "Sir! Oh, I heard you were out when I got here, so I was waiting for you here."
"Wait here for a moment, I'll take you to solve the case."
"Ah! So fast!" Li Erniu shouted in shock.
"Yes, wait." Hezhou pulled Xie Xunzhi in.
After a while he came out with the notice. Li Erniu was still squatting in front of the door, holding melon seeds in his hand and eating and spitting out the shells.
Hezhou kicked him and said, "Let's go and post notices on the streets."
Li Erniu stretched his neck to look inside. "Sir, that young man just now? Not coming with us?"
"Let's go, he will be here soon." Hezhou walked to the bulletin board with the notice and posted it.
Soon the place was full of people, looking at him curiously.
"How long has it been since you posted this?"
"It's been several years. I heard that the county magistrate and Zhao Hunshui made a bet..."
He didn't listen to the rest of the words and turned around and left. Xie Xunzhi was standing outside watching him.
Li Erniu hurried over and saluted Xie Xunzhi, "Sir, where are we going?"
"No need to be so pretentious. Do you know where the nearest clinic to the ruined temple is?" Hezhou looked up at him.
"I know, I know." Li Erniu nodded quickly, made a gesture of invitation and walked forward.
Hezhou tilted his head and leaned close to Xie Xunzhi's ear, "Xunzhi, it feels like we've been walking around all the time. Are all county magistrates like this?"
"How is it possible that the county magistrate doesn't have seven or eight men under him?"
"As for us, they all say there haven't been any cases in a while, but isn't it a little strange that they can control a crime like this?"
Xie Xunzhi was a smart man and naturally understood it immediately. It was indeed strange that in a depressed county town, there had been no cases or riots for many years.
He looked towards Hezhou, only to see him silently say "Master Chen!"
In fact, sometimes he could see that Hezhou was not completely ignorant, and he could even say that his thoughts were very quick, but he just didn't say it in a strange way, as if he was watching a show.
Seeing that he didn't react, Hezhou winked at him and said, "After we finish buying clothes, let's call the married drivers in the county and see which one is suspicious. By the way, we should also find a designated driver."
"Isn't it time to think about money now?"
“That’s a good question.”
Hezhou stroked his chin and looked around, wondering if there was any place where he could find a part-time job. If not, he could even go farming after the case was settled.
Li Erniu took them to the east and walked through the alleys until they arrived at a small clinic.
Standing outside, you can not only see the medicine cabinet, but also the bed inside, with a thin blue quilt piled casually at the head of the bed.
The doctor with wrinkles on his face was sitting in front of the cabinet with his legs crossed, writing something in his coat. He didn't even raise his head when he saw them coming.
"What's the illness?"
The three of them didn't say anything. Li Erniu looked at them, and Hezhou looked around.
"The authorities are investigating. Have you sold a large amount of knockout drugs recently?"
Hezhou suddenly turned around. He was just thinking about what Xie Xunzhi asked, but he didn't expect that he would answer directly.
The doctor put down his pen and sneered, "You... take me for a fool! After all these years, where is the government?"
Li Erniu quickly stepped forward to smooth things over. "Fourth Uncle, Fourth Uncle! You wouldn't know this if you hadn't been out, but this is the magistrate who just took office a few days ago!"
He pulled Hezhou over and pushed him in front of the doctor.
The doctor squinted at him and snorted, "Oh, you're not treating me as a fool, you're treating me as a liar! You rascal, you've even tricked me into coming to you. Hey, you've got the wrong person. I may be old, but I'm not stupid."
"Old man, you are a knowledgeable man, please take a look?" Hezhou took off his badge and placed it in front of the doctor with a sincere look in his eyes.
The doctor looked at Hezhou, carefully picked up the badge, and examined it carefully against the light outside, saying in a low voice, "It really is..."
Xie Xunzhi knocked on the table with a cold face and said, "Recently..."
"I don't remember! I'm not a big pharmacy. I only know everyone here, so there's no such thing as an internal order." The doctor threw his badge on the table with an impatient look on his face.
"Old man, have you heard about the case of the dilapidated temple?" Hezhou reached out and grabbed Xie Xunzhi who wanted to talk further, looking at the doctor with a sneer.
"I heard a little bit about it in front of the door, but... what does it have to do with me? I'm just a doctor, and as for them..."
"Then I'm afraid you'll have to come with us." Hezhou pretended to step forward and pull someone. "You may not know that Zhao Hunshui and I made a bet to solve the case within three days."
"What are you doing? What are you doing? What does this mean?" The doctor slumped in his chair, his voice trembling with fear. "The government can't arrest people without any evidence!"
Hezhou grabbed his clothes and smiled, "How come there's no evidence? You were so close, and the victim was knocked unconscious before being killed. You're the most suspicious. As for the confession... you'll have it when you get back!"
"You...you can't be tortured into confessing!" The doctor fell on the chair with his eyes wide open, his pair of withered hands tightly grasping the backrest of the bamboo chair.
"The evidence is irrefutable, yet you're still making excuses!"
Xie Xunzhi cooperated appropriately and grabbed Hezhou's wrist, his eyes sharp, "Forget it, Brother He is old, let's wait and see."
"Xunzhi! Don't you know? It's because I'm old that I need to use drugs! Otherwise, who would have the chance to get so many drugs?"
"I know! I know! There is an inside order! I know who got the drugs..." The doctor's eyes wandered between the two people's faces, and he didn't know what to say for a moment.
Xie Xunzhi sighed, his eyes filled with reluctance. "Forget it, Brother He, let's change another one..."
Hezhou pushed forward, shook off his hand, and frowned, "You'd better name the next person!"
"Yes, yes, yes!" The doctor turned around to look for the list, but he pulled two drawers in a row and found nothing right. He was so anxious that he broke out in a cold sweat.
He trembled as he took out a stack of brand new prescriptions, then turned around and took out another stack of yellowed and old prescriptions. "These are the prescriptions I wrote recently."
Xie Xunzhi waved his hand and said, "This one will do. Is this from the past year?"
"yes."
He picked up a stack, divided it into two and handed it to Hezhou.
Hezhou took the prescription and saw Xie Xunzhi was reluctant to let go. He looked at him puzzledly and asked, "What's wrong?"
Xie Xunzhi pursed his lips and shook his head. His men relaxed their strength. He counted the prescriptions and pulled out a list with the drug written on it and threw it in the middle. "Take out the one with the drug and put it aside."
"receive!"
Li Erniu stood by with eager eyes, moving the consultation stool over and carrying the teapot to pour water. He was never idle for a moment.
"Sir, let me help you look for it."
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