Chapter 014 Me and My Enemy Father and Brother
In order to save time, Chen Wenjian used the art of shrinking the earth into an inch and took Chen Yunli back to Jiangnanchun Restaurant. He landed quietly at the end of the crowd and then walked normally through the crowd to the crime scene.
At that time, the captain of the police who was in charge of investigating the case was talking to two constables. He had a name badge engraved on it hanging around his waist. The two words "Xu Shu" were rubbed smooth and shiny.
Sensing someone approaching, Xu Shu stopped talking, raised his hand to signal his two subordinates to be silent, and looked at Chen Yunli and the others vigilantly.
"You two, this is a crime scene. It has been cordoned off. Please stop."
Chen Yun left the door and went straight to the point: "We want to provide clues."
Xu Shu's pupils shrank, he thought for a moment, then nodded to the detectives, who turned and left as if they had received an order.
Then he waved to Chen Yunli and Chen Wenjian to follow him, and took the lead to walk into the temporary shed next to the restaurant, which was made of wood and hay and had a curtain as a door.
The room was brightly lit by several candles. A few straw mats covered the floor, and in the corner were toiletries. The only piece of furniture—a wooden table with a broken leg, supported by straw sandals—held the case file and the coroner's autopsy records.
It seems that this is the temporary office of the detectives, and they rested here last night.
Chen Wenjian's eyes moved, and his distrust of the government weakened slightly.
"This place is simple, there are no chairs, and there is nothing to offer. I'll excuse you two to sit on the straw mat and talk." Xu Shu sat down on the straw mat. "I wonder if this young master knows any clues?"
The straw mat was a bit prickly, and Chen Yunli moved uncomfortably after sitting on it. He told Xu Shu what had just happened in a concise manner, and concealed Chen Wenjian's identity as the disciple of the master of the Fengjian Sword Tower. He only said that he had wandered around in his early years and knew some martial arts.
Xu Shu looked at Chen Wenjian deeply, but didn't comment on the word "somewhat known." "I'll have my people go to the forest to check and confirm this matter. Thank you for your willingness to provide the clues."
Chen Yunli waved his hand, took out a torn piece of clothes from his arms and unfolded it. Inside was a handful of rice, which he took from the bag that Lin Yaoge carried to Cuiye Village.
"This is the bag of poisoned rice. Captain Xu can ask someone to confirm it."
Xu Shu carefully took the hem of the robe, a rare look of solemnity on his face. "Yes. When we checked the restaurant yesterday, we noticed a lot of food was missing, and the rice jar was empty. I've always suspected that those ingredients were the source of the poison, and Master Chen's clues confirm this. Thank you very much."
"You're welcome. I'm glad I could help you." Chen Yunli grinned, but soon turned serious and asked, "If this was truly the work of an evil cultivator, can the authorities catch him? If so, what will be the sentence?"
"According to Yongxing law, anyone who commits such a heinous act, whether ordinary citizens, jianghu people, or cultivators, will be beheaded and displayed to the public upon investigation, and the execution will be immediate. The latter two will also have their martial arts and cultivation abolished."
Xu Shu smiled faintly and said, "As for the issue of arrest, Master Chen, don't worry. Not all cultivators in the world live in the mountains or in major sects. Even the strongest ones have always been the foundation of the dynasty."
Chen Yunli breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and winked at Chen Wenjian - Can you rest assured now?
Chen Wenjian smiled back.
After a while, Xu Shu sent the two men out of the shed. He was about to take them back to the yamen for inspection with a cloth bag when he saw one of his subordinates who had just left running towards him.
"What's wrong?" Xu Shu frowned.
The subordinate hurriedly stopped in front of him, panting, "Boss, a villager from Cuiye Village just came and said he has a clue in the case. He said that yesterday afternoon, the waiter from Jiangnanchun Restaurant went to Huaiyang City to buy rice, noodles, vegetables and meat. The rice was from Lin's Rice Shop, and the noodles, vegetables and meat were all bought at the East Market. Moreover, the store where he bought the things and the rice shop are on the same street."
“…”
Xu Shu took a deep breath and said, "Go back to the government office and ask the master for a transfer order. Ask the three cultivators stationed in Huaiyang to lead a team to search and confiscate that store. Especially the Lin's Rice Shop, pay special attention to it. Also--"
He handed the cloth bag to his subordinate and said, "Check this thing too. Be careful, it's poisonous."
"yes!"
…
"I don't know how long it will take them to catch the killer."
It was still early, and Chen Yunli didn't want to go back to the mountain. He pulled Chen Wenjian towards Cuiye Village. He was still thinking about the case and felt inexplicably anxious.
Unconsciously, he seemed to have forgotten that this was a virtual world, and regarded the people and things here as real.
Chen Wenjian raised his right hand, and his thumb bounced and pressed on the knuckles of several other fingers in a serious manner, acting like a charlatan.
Chen Yunli couldn't help but laugh: "Master, what did you figure out?"
"I've calculated that the matter you're worried about will have a result in the next two days." Chen Wenjian seemed to be trying to cheer him up, his tone slightly exaggerated, but also very serious. "It will be a satisfactory result."
"Really?" Chen Yunli's eyes lit up and he grabbed his bent elbow.
"Really." Chen Wenjian touched his head. "The government you trusted has not let you down this time."
"That's good." Chen Yunli nodded happily. "This way, the deceased can rest in peace, the murderer can atone for his crime, and their relatives and friends can receive a fair trial. The deceased is gone, and this is the best possible outcome."
Chen Wenjian responded softly, the sunlight shone obliquely into his eyes from the top of the tree. He looked at Chen Yunli, his small figure encircled in the light.
The wind blows quietly, and the dust in the light settles.
When returning to Cuiye Village, the two took a detour and did not disturb the constable who was collecting Lin Yaoge's body, nor did they bring the news of death to this quiet village.
Ning Bufan and his companions were no longer at the village entrance. Instead, a clearing in the middle of the field was crowded with people and very quiet. One could only hear Lou Zhixi's sincere voice of repentance. It was so heartfelt and eloquent that it made anyone who heard it sad and anyone who saw it cry.
When it came to the key point - why he pretended to be an old man and got free food and drink in the village, he wiped away a tear and looked up suddenly. He was startled by Chen Yunli and Chen Wenjian, who were standing at the end of the crowd on the ridge of the field with their hands in their pockets. He almost forgot the emotions and words he had prepared.
But he reacted quickly, immediately lowered his head and wiped his tears with his sleeve, hiding the stiffness and shock that flashed across his face, and continued speaking.
He said that he had offended someone he couldn't afford to offend, so he had to change his appearance to avoid being hunted down. He kept it a secret from the villagers because he didn't want his identity to be exposed and implicate them.
Even so, he was indeed wrong to lie, so today he sincerely apologizes to every villager who has helped him, and will move out of Cuiye Village today.
The village chief, smoking a water pipe, wasn't angry, but tapped him with his pipe as punishment. The other villagers didn't care either, and asked him about his future plans.
Lou Zhixi was mostly acting, but when he was really forgiven, understood and cared for, he became uncomfortable again. He did not show any sign of arguing with Chen Yunli and Chen Wenjian just now. When he responded to their questions, there was a real sense of guilt in his eyes.
"Not bad," Chen Yunli said, "Although he's still a liar, he's not a true liar. He's not beyond redemption."
Chen Wenjian smiled, then was stunned. He seemed to have laughed a lot in the past two days, and was no longer as calm as before when facing life and death.
Ning Bufan and Ming Shaotu were also on the periphery, and naturally saw that the unfortunate Lou Zhixi was not telling the truth.
But although Ning Bufan was unhappy, he did not expose it. After all, everyone has secrets, and if he really can't tell them, as long as his guilt and apology are sincere, it is enough.
The villagers don't mind anyway.
Ning Bufan was more concerned about one thing right now. He raised his hand and pinched his brother's face: "Aunt Xu wanted to introduce you to someone, and you really foolishly agreed?"
Ming Shaotu had fair skin, and when he was pinched, red marks immediately appeared on his face.
He was helpless: "Auntie meant well. Besides, if she hadn't introduced Lin Yaoge to me, how could the village chief have learned the clues about the Jiangnanchun restaurant case and sent his son to the authorities to provide them?"
Ning Bufan uttered a "tsk" and was about to say something when he heard Chen Yunli's puzzled voice behind him: "The village chief's son provided clues to the government?"
The two brothers looked carefully and found that Chen Yunli and Chen Wenjian had walked towards them at some point, and they just heard the last two sentences of their conversation.
Lou Zhixi was still talking to the villagers. The four of them retreated to the shade of fruit trees in the distance, where it was quiet.
Ning Bufan recounted what happened in the village after Chen Yunli and the others left.
The news about Lin's Rice Shop that Aunt Li got was like a needle with a thread. When she was gossiping with the villagers, she brought out many new clues, including which shop's noodles, meat and vegetables, oil and salt Jiang Nanchun used for dinner yesterday. These were all trivial details. If the government didn't think of asking about them, the people who knew about them would not bring them up on their own initiative.
But because the deceased died from eating poisoned food, these small clues became very important.
However, everyone in the restaurant, from the boss to the waiter, was dead, and the detectives could not find anyone to question. They could only use a crude method, casting a wide net in the places where these things were sold in Huaiyang City and nearby villages, and questioning each store one by one.
The village chief obviously thought of this, so he collected all the clues known by the villagers and asked his son to send them to the yamen.
Chen Yunli was stunned. "You people from Cuiye Village...are you so well-informed? Jiangnanchun is several miles away from here, and you know so much about such a trivial matter?"
Ming Shaotu chuckled and said, "The nearby villages have always been close to each other. The villagers often interact with each other and like to exchange various trivial matters in life. Anyone who often travels around is well-informed."
Chen Wenjian was used to traveling alone, so he found this kind of thing quite novel when he heard about it for the first time.
Chen Yunli could understand it very well. After all, his family used to live in the countryside, and his aunts and uncles knew as much gossip about every household as an intelligence agency. He himself heard a lot of it every year when he went back home for the holidays, and he accepted it well.
Chen Yunli scratched his head and chuckled, "The officials probably never dreamed that what they thought was the most time-consuming part of this case—finding the source of the restaurant's ingredients—would actually be solved so quickly."
Ming Shaotu nodded, and suddenly something came into his mind. He looked up at the sky almost at the same time as Chen Wenjian.
Several streaks of light of different colors passed through the eastern sky, heading towards the same destination - Huaiyang Chengdong City.
Ming Shaotu narrowed his eyes and said, "Now, the most difficult part of this case has been solved."
…
In Huaiyang City, on the busy East Market West Street, Lin's Rice Shop temporarily closed, with its doors and windows closed.
The person inside was hurriedly packing up his things and was stuffing an incense burner into his bag when he suddenly heard someone knocking three times outside.
“Knock knock knock—”
The girl in black armor and white skirt used her fingers covered with sharp armor to pick up the loose hair and tuck it behind her ears. In her other hand, she held a crossbow half a person's height, her index finger pressed on the trigger, and twelve arrows were aimed at the thin wooden door.
There are two figures standing on her left and right, one is waving a fan in the autumn, and the other is fiddling with a golden suona in his hand.
The girl raised her hand and knocked on the door three times firmly.
"Open the door and buy rice."
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