Chapter 47: Inviting You into the Urn

  October 25th, the autumn sun shone brightly, and Bisu, who had disappeared for nearly half a month, suddenly surfaced.

  Min An was standing on the horse frame in the school field. Li Peinan signaled Lei Qun to add two sandbags to his feet. A communication soldier came over and reported to Li Peinan: "Bi Daren has been found, at the Luanyanggang outside the city."

  Min An fell head-first from the wooden stake as soon as he heard this. Although Old Master Bi's treatment of him was not particularly generous, they had known each other for two or three years, and now that he heard his master had been thrown into a chaotic grave without explanation, how could he not be anxious? He scrambled to his feet, not even bothering to brush off the dirt on his clothes, said a sentence "Young Master, let me go take a look" to Li Peinan, then ran out of the school gate.

  Li Peinan waited in the mansion for over ten days, just waiting for a result. As for whether the person was dead or alive, he originally didn't care. Seeing Min An rush out anxiously, he thought for a moment and then turned to instruct Li Qun: "Follow him, as long as it doesn't cause trouble, try your best to help him find the cause of death."

  Li Qun hastily chased after him.

  Luanfen Gang is ten miles east of Qingquan County, where every few days, old yamen runners would drive a donkey cart to bury the bodies of prisoners who had died in prison or had no family members to claim them. Recently, the notorious criminal Mao Thirteen was also buried here.

  The Luanyang Ridge was shrouded in a heavier, gloomier atmosphere than usual, with occasional wisps of ghostly fire. The large and small tombs were all very quiet, while on the nearby mountain slope, a patch of purple wildflowers had bloomed. But today, there was an additional corpse on the ridge, not brought by the old gravedigger, and dressed in luxurious attire, so the old gravedigger quickly reported it to the authorities.

  Qingshui County had lost two officials, the county magistrate and the history recorder, in a row. The newly appointed county magistrate sent by the imperial court had not arrived yet, so the chief clerk was temporarily in charge of finance, civil administration and public security. When Min An rushed to Luankenggang, the chief clerk had already ordered the yamen runners to set up bamboo barriers to block outsiders from approaching and had sprinkled quicklime powder around the corpses, making preparations for the initial investigation.

  The county's coroner was shot dead in the previous prison riot, and no one had been hired to replace him. The chief clerk looked at the corpse on the ground with some anxiety. He turned around and saw a worried face of Min An in the crowd, he hastily beckoned and called out: "Young Master come over and take a look."

  Min An could have entered the scene with Li Qun's token, but he was familiar with criminal law and knew that getting involved in the case would not be beneficial to himself. So he stood outside the bamboo fence and watched. When the clerk called out to him, he didn't go over, just waving his hand and saying that idle people shouldn't get close.

  The chief clerk said, "I originally wanted to ask Mr. Wu Ren to come over and inspect, but I didn't expect the master to have already left the county. If Little Gongsuo continues to decline, then Master Bi's body will not be able to be buried properly, which is also something that Little Gongsuo does not want to see, right?"

  Min An considered it carefully and repeatedly emphasized to the chief clerk that he could only roughly inspect the body once, and the conclusion he drew could not be used as evidence for presentation. After shirking responsibility and getting a guarantee, he began to examine the body.

  As soon as he walked to the outside of the bamboo fence and saw the signs on the grave, he knew that Mr. Bisu had died under suspicious circumstances. Not to mention that the time of death coincided with the re-examination of the case by the Ducha Institute, but just looking at the messy scene in the grave, it made him feel extremely surprised.

  The master, Mr. Bis, was lying on his side under a felled flower tree, with his clothes neat and no signs of struggle. The fatal wound was a sword mark on his throat, the killer had stabbed straight in without splashing out excessive blood. Mr. Bis's jaws were tightly closed, his face was slightly purplish, there were no visible wounds from being knocked or bumped, except that his skin was pale with a yellowish tint, and his limbs were soft and weak, all external symptoms were normal.

  There were many chaotic footprints beside the corpse, and the wild grass was trampled down, leaning in all directions. It was impossible to tell which direction someone had come from or gone to. After this clue of footprints was cut off, another dragging mark extended down the slope, pressing the grass tips upside down, as if someone had crawled down the slope from under the flower tree, or rolled down the slope.

  The chief naturally saw this obvious mark and had already sent a yamen runner to investigate at the foot of the slope. Min An, who remained on the slope, carefully examined Bysshe's body, and after trying it and finding that no poison had been administered, he knelt down and kowtowed, then opened Bysshe's clothes to examine the underside of his body for any marks.

  "Judging from the appearance of the corpse, Mr. Bi should have died at dawn today." Min An looked up and saw the mountain flowers blooming brightly in front of him, adding another sentence, "Died when the flowers were in bloom."

  The chief clerk squatted down, pointing to the withered branch of the flower tree beside the corpse, and asked: "All the flowers everywhere are growing neatly, just this one is cut off. Young master, take another look, can you recognize what kind of flower this is?"

  Min An had long since discerned that the flower tree was not ordinary, and had even taken the opportunity to sniff the fragrance on the residual branches while squatting, finally deducing that it was indeed the Zi Mei Ren Hua that Fei Yi had been searching for. Previously, he had spent a lot of effort to pick one in Huang Shi Slope, but Li Peinan took it away and gave it to Fei Yi, who made a soft pillow out of the dried flowers and gave it to Xiao Xue. Later, Xiao Xue fell ill again and needed the refreshing fragrance of the Zi Mei Ren Hua to clear her mind, so if Fei Yi knew that there was another one growing here, she would surely come to pick it.

  Moreover, Min An also knew Fei Yi's temperament. For Xiao Xue's headache, Fei Yi never delegated tasks to others and was willing to go to great lengths to help her pick rare flowers and herbs, even in remote and shaded areas, nothing could stop his footsteps.

  Thinking of this, Min An had a faint worry about the whereabouts of Fei's clothes. The chief clerk pushed him, and he came back to his senses and replied: "Purple Beauty Flower."

  The chief clerk then called over an old scribe who understood flowers and grasses, had him smell the fragrance of the broken branch, and verified Min An's words. At this time, the yamen runner who had gone down to the bottom of the slope shouted loudly: "Your Honor, there is another living dead person down here!"

  The accountant hurriedly walked down to the bottom of the slope with Min'an to take a look.

  The scene was just in front of the grave mound of Mao Thirteen, with some offerings and paper money laid out, and there was not much difference from the other wild graves. Except for the footprints trampled by the yamen runners, the drag marks also stopped here, and a piece of turf on the ground had collapsed, revealing a yellowish-black pottery mouth. The brave yamen runner lifted up the grass cover, dug around inside, and actually dug out a woman covered in mud and wax!

  Min An parted the woman's disheveled hair and looked at her, then suddenly called out: "Huan Xiao!"

  Her smile was gone, replaced by a look of terror in her eyes, as if she had seen some kind of monster. Her embroidered shoes were caked with mud, and her clothes were dirty and disheveled. When Min An touched her unintentionally, he felt that her body was slippery and cold to the touch, not just from the mud on her outer garments.

  With a smile, he stretched out his ten bare fingers, which were full of mud, sand and grass clippings, pointing at Min An and shouting: "It's you! It's you who killed Bi Si!"

  The chief clerk was surprised, looked up at the bailiffs, and made a gesture. The bailiffs quickly surrounded Min An, who was squatting in the middle. Li Qun saw this and drew his sword as he walked over.

  Min was calm and composed, stabilizing his smiling body to ask: "I've been staying at the inn and haven't gone out, how could I have killed Lord Bi? Little lady, you'd better think carefully, can't frame people with blood on your hands!"

  With a faint smile, she suddenly shouted sharply: "That's the young master who came with you! The one you called 'Fei Yi'! It's him! It's him!"

  Li Qun walked up to Min An and his group with a sword in hand. The clerk saw that Li Qun's face was not pleasant, so he quickly stood up and smiled: "There may be some misunderstanding in the middle, General Li, don't get angry, we will take people back to the government office for further trial!"

  Two quarters of an hour later, Li Qun rode a horse with Min An to hurry back to the Hangguan. They rushed upstairs and found Li Peinan discussing something with Zhang Fang, the captain of the guard in the study.

  Min An carefully sniffed around his body and found no unusual smell, then walked into the study room. He told Li Peinan about Bi's cause of death and symptoms, and after choosing his words carefully, he said: "There is another witness at the scene, named Hanyu, who was Mao Shi San's old lover before. Myself and Second Master retrieved the account book from her hands, she recognized Second Master's face, thus accusing him of killing Bi."

  Li Peinan said coldly: "She said it very affirmatively?"

  Min nodded, and Li Peinan asked again: "Is there a way to break it?"

  Min An thought for a moment and said: "Hanyu is already somewhat dazed, her spirit and energy are not quite normal, but she still speaks clearly. If we want to refute her testimony, we can only start with her madness and make her words invalid."

  Li Peinan replied coldly: "No need to refute, a madman's words are not credible anyway."

  This is indeed a fact. Min An had already revealed the first question, and Chao Lie looked at him with a glance: "There's another piece of evidence that's not in favor of the second young master."

  Ligun took out a well-drawn diagram and handed it to Li Peinan: "The soft sword worn by the Second Master is made of Wujin's special ice-tempered steel, with a three-edged blade. Once inserted into the human body, the cold air on the sword can seal the blood vessels, preventing the wound from bleeding, and that was exactly the situation with Bi's fatal injury."

  Li Peinan replied, "Where did he find such a soft sword, it's just causing trouble." After glancing at the rough sketch, he casually tossed it aside and turned to instruct Zhang: "Send word back immediately, tell him to stay in the Young Master's mansion and not take a single step out of the main gate. If officials come, ask Father Wang to receive them, guard until I return."

  Min An only then realized that the second piece of evidence was extremely unfavorable to him, otherwise, he wouldn't have startled the young master into making such a big show. The young master had always been somewhat disregarding of the laws and reason of the Hua Dynasty, as long as he could protect the reputation and dignity of the King of Chu Nan, apart from these two points, Min An saw that he was willing to kill whoever he wanted, without any mercy or softness.

  In front of the county government prison, Min An had carefully counted: Wang Huaili died under the indifference of the young master; The coroner died at his own behest, pierced by a arrow through his throat by Li Qun; A large number of recaptured prisoners died under his arranged flying arrows; Only that Da Wei who dared to challenge him in front of the gate was also beheaded by one sword on horseback with an excuse found by him.

  It can be seen that the young master is extremely ruthless to outsiders, he can pass on messages and ask Fei not to show his face and hide, probably because he encountered problems that need to be considered.

  Indeed, Li Peinan handed a letter to Min An: "After the emperor's leave, the palace specially appointed Peng Yin as the new governor of Chu State, overseeing all major and minor government affairs. His first stop is Qingyuan County. He arrived quickly, bringing the imperial guards to seal off all roads in and out of Qingyuan County, setting up layers of checkpoints for inspection, and even the horse soldiers from the sentry post were blocked outside, only a flying letter was sent back."

  Min An anxiously asked: "Has Lord Peng arrived yet?"

  Li Peinan replied: "This afternoon."

  In the afternoon, at the hour of Shen, news indeed arrived that Peng, with a new hand holding the imperial sword bestowed by the young emperor, led a team of cavalry into the county government office. Unexpectedly, Fei followed behind and also entered the county government office under the respectful invitation of the officials, without showing any signs of coercion.

  Li Peinan put down the tea in his hand and said to Lianye, who was attending him, "Bring me the crown prince's attire." Min'an bowed his head, tugging at his clothes as he thought that since Li Peinan had come to the county government office, he must have done so of his own accord. From start to finish, Li Peinan didn't say anything else, only calling out to Min'an to wait on him as he changed into his attire, then taking up the chill-emitting ancestral crown prince's sword, Xi Yang, and striding towards the county government office with great alacrity.

  Thank you very much, Zhu Er Duo, Hui Lai Men (2), Yi Yi, Fei Tong's hand grenade (*^__^*)

  Thank you h (2), Shallow Moon, 987 (2), Yu Yan (5), En Na, Little Musk Melon, Pig Ear, Rong Ma Ma, Huang Sang, Xiao Piao, Yue Jian. The landmine of beautiful women (*^__^*)