The Golden Hairpin

Zhou Ziqin, who used to climb the windows of Yizhuang to sneak in to see the corpse, is now in his early days. He swaggered in through the gate and directly greeted the guard inside: "Old man Jiang, let me see the most beautiful one in Shu County. The corpse is here!"

Old Uncle Jiang smiled, with a trace of unnatural embarrassment on his face: "Oh, stop catching your head, you're too serious! Come again?"

Zhou Ziqin came down immediately and said, "This time I not only watched it by myself, but also brought others to see it. This is our newcomer...Uh, quick catch, very good at finding the case, I will take her to see it."

Old Uncle Jiang hurriedly nodded and bowed at them, looked at Huang Zixian, and frowned in confusion: "This little brother...where does he seem to have seen him vaguely?"

Huang Zixia, who had dealt with him frequently before, smiled, and did not speak in order to avoid trouble.

Old Uncle Jiang frowned, thinking about it, and when he saw Zhou Ziqin leading someone, he walked inside, and hurriedly called to a halt: "Fresh heads, less heads..."

Zhou Ziqin looked back at him: "What's the matter?"

"Then...that corpse..." He was hesitant to say something, his expression awkward.

"It's decayed? No?" Zhou Ziqin suddenly became anxious. "No! How come it decayed so quickly in such a cold ice cellar?"

"It's not, but..." Old Uncle Jiang looked guilty and almost bit his tongue. "A woman came before and said she was the sister of the deceased. She wanted to see her sister's body. I don't think she looks like it. It's a bad person, so I'll take her down."

"Where is she now?" Zhou Ziqin asked.

"Worship inside..." Old Uncle Jiang touched his sleeve, and a piece was hanging down there, and he didn't know how much money the woman gave him.

The Yizhuang in Shu County is one of Huang Zixian's most familiar places.

She went to the filing cabinet in Yizhuang first, took out the autopsy transcript that would be stored here as usual, and opened it to look at the records.

The latest volume is transcript of "Songhuali Fu's Family Marriage Case".

The post-mortem was Jiang Songlin, an old man from the county.

Examination: one male corpse and one female corpse.

The male body was six feet long and thirty-seven years old. He was slightly plump, dressed in plain linen and plain silk shoes. He lay on his back on the low bed where Fu's female slept during the day. His face was slightly distorted, and his body was flat and relaxed. Mild diarrhea symptoms.

The female corpse was five feet two inches long, less than thirty years old, with a high degree of slenderness, in a bun, wearing a gray purple shirt, cyan skirt, and plain silk shoes, lying on the right side of the male corpse on his back. The left hand was clasped with the right hand of the male corpse, and the **** clenched tightly due to the stiffness of the corpse and it was difficult to loosen it. The tip of the right finger is slightly black, and it seems to be stained with paint.

The empirical investigation revealed that the corpses of both men and women showed no signs of external damage, and they were obviously poisoned and died. The poisoning incident was between Youshi and Xushi the day before.

The poison is inferred as: arsenic.

She took a closer look, then followed Zhou Ziqin and entered the corpse room.

There are a few empty bamboo beds inside, and a cellar entrance inside the house. They went down the steps, getting deeper and deeper, getting colder and colder. The summer in Shu County was very hot and it was difficult to keep the dead body. So when the Yizhuang was rebuilt two years ago, Yu Xuan and her discussed a way to dig out several cellars in the morgue and build them thickly with blue bricks. The wall, only open a few small dampers to ventilate. There are more thick doors, and ice is taken inside in winter. If the in and out is not very frequent in the midsummer, the ice inside may not melt completely in the summer, which is very suitable for preserving the corpse.

The more down the steps, the more chilling the air inside. And in this gloomy cold, only the small lamp in their hands cast a little light, swaying on the surrounding stone wall, making it even more gloomy.

Zhou Ziqin led them into the Xuanzi small room, where a faint candlelight was revealed, and a woman was standing motionless in front of a corpse.

Although the cloth on her body and the simple hair bun were simple and plain, her slender and long figure made them instantly recognize who she was.

It is the grandmother Gongsun of this generation, Gongsun Yuan.

Huang Zixian immediately knew who Zhou Ziqin's mouth was the most beautiful corpse in Shu County.

The two of them approached, Gongsun Yuan glanced back, the candlelight was refracted by the surrounding ice, like several beating rainbows lingering all over her, making her unobtrusive, and even the tears on her face appeared Crystal clear.

She raised her hand to wipe away the tears, and bowed to them as a salute, her voice muttered: "Zhou's head is forgiven! I came here from Yangzhou, but I couldn't see the last side of the little girl, because I was afraid of becoming a lifelong regret. That's why I begged Mr. Jiang to let me come in and have a look, and please forgive Zhou Catchhead."

Zhou Ziqin said quickly: "It doesn't get in the way, as long as you don't touch it."

"I know... I just stand here and watch, never touch it..." she said, tears that had just been wiped out again, "I know... A Ruan must be very cold lying here."

Zhou Ziqin said: "This case is actually closed. She and her lover should be sure of their love. The Wen Yang family still has distant relatives and said that they are willing to put them in the land as soon as possible. I don't know what the girl meant? "

Gongsun Yuan looked at Fu Xinruan's body, reluctantly nodded, and said: "Or...wait for my sisters to come over, at least let them see Ah Ruan for the last time."

Zhou Ziqin nodded and said, "That's fine too."

Gongsun Yuan thanked him again.

Huang Zixian walked to the corpse with a lamp and motioned to Zhou Ziqin to come over. Seeing that the white cloth covering the corpse was only pulled to the neck by Gongsun Yuan, revealing Fu Xinruan's face, Zhou Ziqin lifted the entire white cloth directly to expose her whole body.

Huang Zixian carefully illuminated Fu Xinruan with the lamp. Her clothes were neatly dressed, gray purple shirt, cyan skirt, plain silk shoes, etc., which were the same as those recorded on the autopsy file. And her figure, as Zhou Ziqin said, is a rare perfect body. Although her muscles turned blue and hard from the cold, her body was smooth and white, and her figure was full of slenderness. When she was alive, she would be too long if one point was added, and too short if one point was lost. She was too red if she was applied, and too white if she was powdered. .

After scanning, she focused on Fu Xinruan's hands. Her fingers were slender and well-proportioned, and the tip of her right finger, as stated on the autopsy document, showed an uneven black color on her bluish-white skin. Especially conspicuous.

She looked at it for a long time, raised her hand and wiped it a few times, it was cold and not wiped off. She bowed her head and smelled it again, but the body had been frozen for a long time, and it was clear that there was no smell anymore.

She frowned slightly, put Fu Xinruan's hand down, and looked around her body again. Zhou Ziqin said: "I have checked it twice, and indeed died of poisoning."

"Um... indeed." She nodded affirmatively, and gently pulled the white cloth to cover the corpse again. The ice cellar was extremely cold. They were all dressed in summer clothes. They were doing post-mortems here. Their hands and feet were already cold. Seeing that there were no other findings, Huang Zixian said to Gongsun Yuan: "Auntie, I'm afraid the light will smoke too much ice. Why don't you go up first."

Gongsun Yuan nodded, silently stared at Fu Xinruan who was lying there quietly, and walked up the steps.

Huang Zixian went to Tianzihao's room again, and the body of Princess Qi Le stopped here as expected. A round face, those beautiful almond eyes have been closed forever. The poisonous needle on her body was removed, but the body still showed that blue-black color, and it was obvious that the poison was severe.

Zhou Ziqin said behind her, "Don't look at it, he was poisoned to death."

She lowered the collar of Princess Qi Le a little bit, and saw that the pinholes in her neck and chest had turned into small black holes.

Zhou Ziqin checked it carefully and said, "These needles seem to be urgent, fast and dense. They should be launched by a machine, not by someone."

Huang Zixian nodded and thought, Li Shubai was able to avoid those poisonous needles at that time, it was really amazing—maybe, this is an instinct developed in a long experience.

She thought about the assassin again, but she didn't have a clue, thinking that since Li Shubai was familiar with him, she should have been sure about the matter, so she stopped thinking about it again, and used white cloth again on Princess Qile's body. Cover gently.

Old man Jiang was caught in the crime today, and he was about to commit crimes, and he had already prepared water basins and refreshments for them.

Huang Zixian cleansed her hands in the basin, and then kept Gongsun Yuan said: "Aunty and let us have some refreshments. Regarding your little girl, we still have a few things to check with you, so please feel free to give me advice."

Gongsun Yuan nodded, and knelt down with them at the table. Zhou Ziqin personally distributed tea to them, and graciously brought them snacks.

Gongsun Yuan had no intention of using tea, and she only held a tea cup and said: "Eighteen years ago, we had six sisters. Because we each admired each other's arts, we became sisters of different surnames in Yangzhou, and we met for lifelong support and depended on each other. At that time, I had an old friend who spent a lot of money to build the Yunshaoyuan for us, so we are called the six daughters of Yunshao."

Zhou Ziqin said: "I also heard Jinnu say this in Beijing."

"Yes, Jinnu is the disciple of my second sister Wanzhi. After my second sister disappeared, she was the number one when it comes to Yangzhou Pipa."

Huang Zixia didn't know if she knew Jin Nu died, but she thought that Gongsun Yuan must not know that Jin Nu died in the hands of her second sister Mei Banzhi who had been missing for many years.

"Several of us have their own strengths, like me, I am good at healthy dance, the third sister Lauder is good at soft dance, and the fourth sister Yin Luyi's singing voice in the past was hailed as the world's best... But A Ruan is different from us. She is not a person to show her face, because she is good at choreography." Gongsun Yuan sighed and said softly, "A few years ago, A Ruan was invited by several Kabuki academies in Shuzhong to help them compose a big song. It was supposed to be back in two months, but she knew Wen Yang, so January was postponed to one month. We heard that Wen Yang’s wife passed away early in her letter, and we thought it was nothing to be a continuation, so we let her stay. Here. Later, because Wen Yang’s parents objected to her son marrying a happy woman, A Ruan returned to Yangzhou for a few years. Until the fall of the previous year, she reunited with Wen Yang in a field, knowing that both of her parents were dead, so she followed He arrived in Shu County. The previous month, she wrote to inform us that Wen Yang’s filial piety expired and the two of us were about to get married. Several of our sisters contacted each other. The third sister from Puzhou and the fourth sister from Suzhou also agreed to go together. Come. Only because I am the eldest sister, I want to come over and help her raise the marriage as soon as possible, so I set off earlier than the others. Who knows that after arriving in Shu County, it was the bad news of A Ruan who greeted me..."

When she said this, she couldn't help being excited, with tears in her eyes, but she forced her not to fall. She looked at Zhou Ziqin and said, "I heard that Lord Zhou, you are the chief catcher of Shu County appointed by the emperor. I think you will also find it impossible.-My little sister, Aruan, after waiting so long, I will finally be with my lover. There is a lot of comparison. They are now unimpeded and love each other deeply, so why did they choose to die before they got married? I think there must be inner feelings in it!"

Zhou Ziqin nodded and said, "This is indeed counterintuitive!"

Huang Zixia asked again: "Wen Yang is outside, what's wrong with it?"

"No. I also found Wenyang's neighbor's house. It is said that after his parents and his wife passed away, he stayed simple and didn't have much contact with people. Because his family has mountain and forest assets, his income is good every year, so he can only read and paint at home every day. Painting is a person with a very gentle temperament. This is also very consistent with what Aruan Xin said to us."

"Then, your Sixth Sister, before she died in love, was there anything unusual?"

"I don't know... A Ruan is good at choreography and choreography. Therefore, she usually lives in Jane. She only rents a small house in Chengdu with a servant woman next to her. Now that she is about to marry into Wen's house, that servant woman has long since been dismissed. Home, I can’t find it.” Gongsun Yuan shook his head with tears, “And the several song and dance theaters she helped choreographer only said that she went to them to say goodby two days before she died. It’s really unexpected that she will commit suicide with the man in a few days..."

Huang Zixia thoughtfully, nodded and said: "It is indeed very strange to say that. I have waited for ten years and all the obstacles are gone, but before they got married, the two committed suicide. Whatever they think, it feels incredible. "

"So, I hope that Young Master Zhou can re-investigate the case. Gongsun Yuan is grateful!" She looked at Zhou Ziqin, her eyes filled with tears made Zhou Ziqin nod without realizing it, and said, "Don't worry, body. It is my duty to catch the head of Shu County!"