Chapter Fifty-Four: A Nighttime Visitor

  The case was solved so quickly?

  Everyone was thrilled by his words, and Lu Haoshan immediately stood up and said excitedly: "Let's go and take a look."

  Deal with these sudden events as soon as possible to prevent the situation from getting worse. Lu Haoshan was overjoyed that the case was solved so quickly and immediately led his men to see who was so bold as to dare kill people and set fires in Jiangyou County.

  A group of people walked to the entrance of the county government office, originally intending to welcome Cao Hu back. However, upon arriving at the entrance, they were startled by what they saw: several bailiffs were supporting each other as they returned, and their leader, Cao Hu, had one hand wrapped in a bloody bandage that was visible under the firelight. It seemed he was seriously injured. Another bailiff was being carried back on a stretcher, also severely hurt. It appeared they had been through a fierce battle. The captured prisoners, however, were only an approximately 12- or 13-year-old girl, three children, and four women, each locked in wooden stocks. What was most astonishing was that despite their capture, not one of these people cried out for injustice, nor did anyone weep; they simply walked silently. In contrast, the injured bailiffs were wailing and moaning.

  The scene had an inexplicable sense of eeriness.

  As soon as the county magistrate came out to greet him, Cao Hu did not dare to be slow and immediately walked a few steps forward to pay his respects to Lu Haoshan. Unfortunately, his right hand was injured, so he couldn't even make a proper salute.

  Lu Haoshan didn't have time for these trivial matters and hastily asked: "What's going on? Are you also injured?"

  Cao Hu said with some embarrassment, lowering his head: "To answer the master's question, that thief's martial arts are too high, and my brothers are no match for him. The opponent knocked down four or five people in a few moves, even I couldn't withstand one of his moves, it's really shameful."

  "What's going on with these women?" Lu Haoshan's face was not good, he hated this kind of despicable thing the most. Now Cao Hu and others wouldn't be unable to catch people, they just casually caught a few people to deal with it.

  "Sir, these people are with that murderer. His martial arts skills are too high, we're no match for him. Fortunately, the opponent didn't kill us outright, or else I'm afraid I would have died somewhere tonight."

  "If you're no match for him, how did you manage to capture him?" Lu Hao looked at the women and said: "These women? You can't even beat them?"

  "Sir, these are just accomplices and helpers. The man is a giant of nearly seven feet tall, with a strong and agile body, and immense strength. I saw that the situation was not in our favor, so I took advantage of his distraction to throw a handful of lime powder at him, and then seized these accomplices as hostages while he was momentarily blinded. This managed to scare him off. Who would have thought that such an expert had appeared in this small Jiangyou?"

  No wonder they came back one by one in such a sorry state, it turns out their brains were too hard.

  Zhang Yunhui was surprised and asked: "Who did it?"

  "It's still unclear, but from what I can gather, they're people from the Liaodong front line. However, it was very dark at that time and the person had their face covered with a cloth, so I don't know what their intentions were." Cao Hu said with some lingering fear.

  In fact, if it weren't for that handful of lime powder, I'm afraid so many people would have been caught and brought to justice. After doing this job for a long time, Cao Hu also developed his own set of skills, such as flying hooks, knocking on the door with a club, and sprinkling lime powder - he was proficient in all these "techniques". Cao Hu had self-awareness and didn't have the extraordinary martial arts skills like Wu Song or Yang Zhi, so he always carried things like lime powder and anesthetics on him. This time they came in handy.

  "What's the situation with Baiyuan Pharmaceutical Store?" Lu Haoshan knew that this time, it was Baiyuan Pharmaceutical Store that had an accident. He saw flames rising high in the county government office and didn't know how big of a deal it was.

  As soon as the case of murder was mentioned, Cao Hu's face turned pale and he said in a low voice: "Terrible, too terrible. The shopkeeper and three apprentices were all burned to death. Even the four family members living in the backyard did not escape. It can be called a tragic case of extermination. The medicine store was also burned down, but what's strange is that those valuable medicines are still there, and the silver on the cabinet hasn't been touched either. It doesn't seem like a murder for robbery, but rather like revenge."

  Seek revenge?

  What deep hatred do these people from Liaodong have with a small pharmacy? Even if there were disputes, at most it would be physical fights and smashing the store, is it necessary to kill everyone? Such intense killing intent, what kind of grudge could this be? Lu Haishan also started to get a headache, this being the first murder case since he took office, and it's already a horrific case of wiping out an entire family.

  Zhou Dayuan whispered on the side: "Sir, Cao's wound is still bleeding now. Do you want to hold court or throw him into prison first?"

  "First, put these suspects in prison, the situation is tense, all the police officers must go to the county government office on time, strengthen the guard and patrol, so as not to let the suspicious people take advantage of it, and interrogate them again tomorrow." Lu Haoshan hesitated for a moment before deciding to put them in prison first.

  Now Cao Hu and several yamen runners are injured, now they need to be bandaged and comforted, but the real culprit has not been punished, even interrogation is useless. Now it's late at night, even if there's an interrogation, there won't be any onlookers, can't show off one's power, can't increase one's prestige. Moreover, human evidence and material evidence are not yet fully prepared, now holding court is too hasty.

  "Lock up Yang Jiu and Fei Xi in the large prison." Cao Hu ordered loudly.

  "Yes, catch them." Yang Jiu and Fei Xi heard this, their eyes red with anger, as they drove the people into the prison. This time, in capturing the culprits, several brothers were injured, and both of them had a burning fire in their hearts, planning to "entertain" these people well after locking them up, no matter what, they had to vent their anger for their injured brothers.

  Lu Haoshan detected the resentment in their words and hastily called out, "Wait!" After Yang Jiu and the others stopped, he solemnly said, "This official knows you have a grievance in your hearts, but you can't take revenge, absolutely cannot use torture privately, do you understand?"

  Like these yamen runners, they have a set of methods to torment people. Once they get angry, they can beat you to death. Now that the case is not clear, it's not suitable to act rashly, especially since the suspect has high martial arts skills and is difficult to deal with. It's best not to cause unnecessary trouble. There's also another very important reason: for some unknown reason, Lu Haoshan vaguely feels that this matter may be related to the burly man who was selling white tiger skin on the street yesterday.

  "Yes, sir." Seeing the county magistrate being so serious, everyone else didn't dare go against his wishes and hastily agreed.

  After locking up the people, Lu Haoshan arranged for Cao Hu and others to recover from their injuries in the county government office, sending someone to find a famous doctor in the county to treat the wounded, arranging for people to patrol and be on guard, comforting and praising those brave injured captives, promising heavy rewards later, only then did he drag his tired body back to his room to rest, tonight was really exhausting.

  Back in the backyard, he heard that the kitchen had made a midnight snack for those captives to enjoy. Lu Haoshan was also a bit hungry, so he lay down on the recliner and asked Liu Jinchu to go get some food while he closed his eyes, swaying gently as he thought about things.

  After a while, the door creaked open and someone came in. Then there was the sound of dishes being placed on the table.

  Lu Haoshan didn't open his eyes and asked casually with his eyes closed: "Jin Zhu, what did you eat last night?"

  (No one answered...)

  Lu Haoshan raised his voice again, somewhat displeased, and said: "Jin Zhu, didn't you hear? I asked what food do you have?"

  Still no one responded, Lu Haoshan opened his eyes wide to see what was going on, but as soon as he opened them, he was shocked and jumped up from the recliner, shouting loudly: "Is it you?"

  Inside the room, it wasn't his younger brother Liu Jinzhu who was sitting at the edge of the round rosewood table, but rather a robust man as tall and sturdy as a mountain. He was playing with a porcelain cup in one hand while gazing at him with great interest. This person looked very familiar, and to his surprise, it was the burly man who had sold him the white tiger skin yesterday.

  "With a 'crack', the burly man suddenly exerted his strength, and the cup was crushed in an instant. The burly man placed the fragments on the table while calmly saying: "It's best if Lord Lu doesn't shout for help. If he does, I'm afraid it won't look good for him. Before those rascals of his arrive, I can easily twist your neck off."

  What a huge finger strength, without seeing him exerting force, just casually pinched, like pinching tofu, that finger strength is too scary, Lu Haishan was startled, knowing that this burly man was an expert, but didn't think he was so fierce, had already strengthened his vigilance, didn't expect him to be able to sneak in silently, could secretly calculate himself without any effort, fortunately there was that one good deed, Lu Haishan was first startled, but quickly recovered calmly.

  "Where's my little brother?" Lu Haoshan was most concerned about his younger brother's situation. Earlier, he went to fetch the midnight snack, but now he can't be seen anywhere. This midnight snack was delivered by this burly man, who obviously robbed Liu Jinchu. It's unknown whether he is dead or alive right now.

  A burly man said calmly: "Nothing's wrong, he just fainted."

  It's a bit better now. Lu Haoshan sat opposite the burly man, frowning and said: "The homicide case of Baiji Medicine Shop, was it you who did it?"

  "That's right," said the burly man, not denying it.

  "Why?"

  "An eye for an eye."

  Lu Haoshan was shocked and said: "What? A life for a life? Who killed?"

  "There's someone whose life is more important to me than my own, who finally managed to scrape together some silver coins to buy his old mountain ginseng. Who would have thought that they'd use fake ones to deceive me? After eating the fake ginseng, the person I was protecting kicked out with both feet and left just like that. Not killing them is hard for me to swallow this hatred in my heart."

  "Injustice has a source, debt has an owner. Why do you want to slaughter indiscriminately?" Lu Haoshan said with a serious face: "You urgently needed silver and sold the white tiger skin. To say this, for just one hundred taels, you killed eight people. Your killing intent is too heavy."

  "They're dead, and it's not like they died unjustly." The burly man said coldly, his face revealing a ruthless expression. In his eyes, the few lives were like a few small chickens, not worth considering at all.

  Lu Haoshan stared at the burly man and said: "So late, you sneaked in here, what, do you want to rescue someone, take me as a hostage?"

  "Hostage?" The burly man was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing. After he finished laughing, he became serious and said: "This small county government office can't stop us. Honestly, I'm not here to kill you, but to save your life, considering our encounter yesterday."

  Yuan? Lu Haoshan's pupils contracted and his whole body shuddered.