The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Chapter 112: The Second Victim

August 16, 2010 in Guangde.

A sudden heavy rain in the second half of the night completely extinguished the grievances of the officers for several days. Those who had complained about *"The Master moved his mouth and the subordinates broke their legs by running errands" *before, all changed their words and praised Sun Shaozong now, saying that he has forethought and foreseen everything with divine accuracy.

If Sun Shaozong had not applied to start the construction ahead of time, even if it was raining, the attendants would not be able to rush to repair.

In contrast, if he can't enjoy the Mid Autumn Festival safely and stably, it's not a big deal.

However, Sun Shaozong was also lucky. He only saw that the Imperial Court was too dilapidated to be renovated, so he made the decision to start the construction ahead of time. However, he never thought it would be right, and that he could avoid the heavy rain.

The attendants were relieved, but he and Jia Yucun could not rest. They arrived at the Imperial Court early morning in the rain and led the people to carefully check the situation in the examination room to avoid any further trouble when the Ministry of Rites sent people to check tomorrow.

Fortunately, the situation at the site was fairly good. Although there were room leaks, they were basically attached to the wall seams, which would not affect normal use. After all, they were all made of thin boards, and the requirements could not be too high.

After the inspection, Sun Shaozong was discussing the order of day and night duty with Jia Yucun in the temporary thatched hut when he saw several Yamen runners coming hurriedly.

"Reporting to the Prefectural Magistrate and the Assistant Prefectural Magistrate that the floating bridge has been built in Hebei. The victims of the disaster started to cross the river this morning. The Governor asked the two Masters to return to the government to discuss matters quickly!"

Fine~

This is even more lively.

Jia Yucun smiled bitterly and could not help twirling his beard and said, "Even I begin to doubt whether you can predict things not, Brother."

In the beginning, all the bridges on the Yongding River were destroyed by the flood. In addition, the water has not receded, making it difficult for ordinary boats to cross. Therefore, the victims have been blocked on the south bank, and it’s not a matter that the Central Judicial Office needed to worry about.

But once these victims crossed the river, the Central Judicial Office was duty bounded. It was necessary to send most of the officers to maintain order so as not to affect the good life of the people in the Capital.

In this way, if he wanted to repair the Imperial Court in the rain, it would not be possible to rely on the Central Judicial Office alone. He has to ask for help from above, and then he still has to be scolded for being "short-sighted" and "mend the fold after the sheep have been stolen.”

Therefore, Jia Yucun has such a saying.

Sun Shaozong smiled, but he was too lazy to explain anything.

The two returned to Yamen by carriage. Jia Yucun, an official of the government, was naturally one of the leading roles in this play.

Sun Shaozong, as the Assistant Prefectural Magistrate of the Criminal Department, was now also the Inspector of the Autumn Examination. He has nothing to do with dealing with the victims.

So he had nothing to do in the inner hall of the back Yamen. Hearing everyone in the hall pass the buck, he cursed the Hebei Officials for being shameless and deliberately allowing the victims to cross the river.

He saw someone who wanted to accuse the victims of not allowing them to cross and starving them to death, so they had to make trouble for the Imperial Court. Suddenly, a petty green official was looking around outside the hall.

When Wang Qian, the Magistrate of Daxing County, and Su Xingfang, the new County Magistrate, saw him, they all hurriedly stood up, pleaded guilty, and hurried out of the inner hall.

At first, Sun Shaozong didn't care about this matter. After a moment, Su Xingfang quietly turned back to Sun Shaozong and said, "Lord Sun, I have something to ask you about together with County Magistrate Wang. Can you..."

Sun Shaozong was shocked and asked, "The murderer who left the blood word of ”Divine Judgement” hurt people again?"

Generally, such maniacs who actively provoke the ”law enforcement agencies” often chose to commit crimes continuously before they fail to achieve their goals.

Besides, except for the case against Sun Shaozong, Daxing County didn't need to consult him specifically.

.

Su Xingfang bowed a little and said, "You’re indeed worthy of your name. We just want to ask you about the case of "Blood Word.” Please give us your advice."

Normally, this kind of case would be named after the content of the word "blood,” but to avoid the upper official Sun Shaozong, Daxing County called it the "blood case,” and the word "Divine Judgment" was not mentioned.

Since they said it so politely, Sun Shaozong would not refuse. Besides, he was interested in this case, but he just couldn't leave for the time being.

So hurriedly got up and reported an excuse, and followed Su Xingfang out of the inner hall.

Outside the door, he saw Wang Qian, the Magistrate of Daxing County, talking with the previously looking around green-robed officials in the corridor not far away. To be exact, Wang Qian was scolding the green-robed official.

Because of the heavy rain, Sun Shaozong didn't hear what he was saying. But when he came near, he saw that he was still moody, so he guessed that this ”son-in-law of the Zhen family” probably didn't want to intervene in the case himself.

As an assistant, he could surpass Wang Qian the Master, and decide on the case himself. It seems that Su Xingfang was not simple.

"Lord Sun."

"Magistrate Wang."

Although they were also six grades, Wang Qian was much more significant in terms of power, but Sun Shaozong was a top official in the government after all.

So when Wang Qian reluctantly saluted first, he returned the salute and asked directly, "I wonder who the murderer killed this time?"

"Well..."

Wang Qian turned his head and stared at the petty green-robed official. "Tell Lord Sun about the latest case soon!"

"Ding Renlu, greetings to the Master."

The petty green-robed official also came forward to salute and then told Sun Shaozong about the latest progress of the case.

However, it was said that the disaster victims from Hebei Province poured into the territory of the Central Judicial Office. Although it made the city jittery, many people cheered for it, such as the trafficker of human beings in the city, the brothels, and the bachelors who couldn't afford wives.

After all, after the disaster, selling daughters was the most common thing, but some things could not be overcome. It was also common to sell wives and daughters at a low price.

Chen San'er, a lame man in the east of the city, was a member of the bachelor army.

Therefore, after hearing the news, he hurriedly took the copper money from his family and prepared to go to the rice shop to buy some food to save up.

But when Chen San'er hurried out of the house with money and rushed to the nearest rice store in the rain, he unexpectedly met a corpse on the way!

At that time, Chen San'er was so scared that he could not buy any rice anymore. He hurriedly went to report.

"The dead man was a rascal, and he was also a ruthless and dark-hearted person. He was also famous nearby."

"The cause of death was being pierced by a sharp weapon. According to the shape of the wound, the lethal weapon should be a single knife."

"At the beginning, I didn't think about the case of ”blood word,” but when I was doing an autopsy, I found a blood stain on the lining of the clothes, which could be vaguely identified as two characters."

"Although the handwriting is indistinguishable after being soaked in rain, we speculated that it should be related to the case of ”blood word.”

Hearing this, Sun Shaozong suddenly asked, "When was that drunk killed? In the evening of the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, or in the morning of the tenth day of the Lunar New Year?"

"Well... according to the analysis of the grave, he died around 1 a.m. to 3 a.m., probably in the morning of the 10th day of the Lunar New Year." Ding Renlu said, a little embarrassed, "As for the rascal who died this time, because he has been soaking in the rain for a long time, it is still impossible to infer when he died.”

"So there should be no mistake."

Sun Shaozong said in a deep voice, "Any maniac who takes the initiative to provoke the Government will often set some goals for himself, such as… Killing a person every five days!"

"Since he wants to challenge the Government, he will naturally leave a clear mark.”

"And the mark on that rascal was obviously written by the murderer around 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., that is, before the rain."

"In that case!"

Wang Qian's face became deeper and deeper, and he angrily said, "Is that guy going to continue killing people on August 20?!"