"There is a case." Wu Xiang cut to the chase, with a stern expression on his face.
When Bo Ruoyou saw Wu Xiang entering the mansion, he knew there was another case, but he glanced at the sky and asked suspiciously, "When did the case happen? Why is it so early?"
"Two days ago, someone went to the city to report to the officials, saying that their child was lost. At that time, I asked Hou Yang to take people out of the city to help find it, but it was still fruitless. Today, the servant of the family went into the city to the government office, saying that the child was found. gone."
Bo Ruoyou's heart skipped a beat, "The child was killed."
Wu Xiang nodded, "Yes, I haven't left the city to see it yet, but it's a long way to go this time, so I'll come to you first."
Snow flakes were flying, and the cold morning wind was blowing on people's faces, cutting people like knives, Bo Ruoyou nodded quickly, "Wait a minute."
After she finished speaking, she ran into the front yard, just as Cheng Yunzhi got up and came out. He was wearing a thick fur-collared cloak, seeing Bo Ruoyou hurrying, and seeing Wu Xiang standing at the gate of the courtyard, she knew it was wrong. "Is there a case?"
"A family outside the city has lost a child. I'll go and see."
Aunt Liang had prepared breakfast, and Bo Ruoyou asked Uncle Liang to pack a plate of bean cakes and then went back to her room to change. Because of the snow, she also wore a thick cloak embroidered with blue patterns in moon white, and put on the cage, and then Followed Wu Xiang and left home.
Cheng Yunzhi stood under the eaves, but his eyes were filled with worry.
Walking on the road, Bo Ruoyou ate bean cakes while listening to Wu Xiang outside the carriage, "The owner of this family is surnamed Wen. He is not from the capital city. He came from Luozhou for the Buddha's birthday ceremony at Xiangguo Temple. Arrived at the foot of the Xiangguo Temple, and later participated in the Buddha’s Birthday Ceremony on the fifth day of October. They wanted to go back to Luozhou, but because the 17th of this month was the birthday of Amitabha Buddha, they stayed for an extra month and usually lived in Xiangguo. In the inn at the foot of the temple mountain."
"Two days ago, that is, on the twelfth day, their servants went to the city to report to the officials that the young master of the family was lost. Hou Yang took three people out of the city to help find him, but they searched all over the small town under the Xiangguo Temple mountain. I searched all over the mountain in front of the Xiangguo Temple, but found no trace of the young master of the Wen family. At that time, I suspected that the young master Wen was kidnapped by a kidnapper, and the couple were very sad."
"Usually in cases like this, a missing person is recorded first. If it is really abducted by a kidnapper, the government can do very little. When he came back that day, Hou Yang took someone to draw a portrait, and then searched at the city gate and inside the city. I tried again, but I couldn't find anyone, so I suspected that I went south to Luozhou. The Yamen told the Wen family about it, and the Wen family immediately sent people to Luozhou, intending to search for it on the way. If it didn't work, I went back to Luozhou. Go to the Luozhou government office to report to the official."
Bo Ruoyou frowned, "Master Wen and his wife haven't left yet?"
"Mrs. Wen fell ill because she didn't see her child, so she couldn't hurry, so the Wen family sent servants back first."
Bo Ruoyou asked again: "How old is the child?"
"Just six years old." Wu Xiang sighed.
Bo Ruoyou's heart tightened, she subconsciously closed her cloak, and she suddenly remembered, "I was also at Xiangguo Temple on the twelfth day, and recently Xiangguo Temple is indeed preparing for the Buddha's birthday ceremony on the seventeenth day, and there are many pilgrims in the temple , did anyone say how the child was lost?"
Wu Xiang didn't know about this, "Why are you in Xiangguo Temple?"
Bo Ruoyou said: "For my father and mother's death ceremony, from the seventh day to yesterday, I just returned to Beijing yesterday afternoon. I have been fasting in Xiangguo Temple for the past seven days."
Wu Xiang looked stunned, and said again: "It is said that the child was lost outside the mountain gate. Xiangguo Temple has set up a porridge shed under the mountain gate to give away porridge. This year there is no natural disaster around the capital, and most of the people who go to drink porridge are The people inside and outside the capital were looking for good intentions, so the small town under the mountain gate was quite lively these few days. The child was lost near the porridge shed. The time of loss was on the evening of the 11th. I searched the town for half the night, and even went to Xiangguo Temple to ask, but I really had no choice but to report to the official the next morning."
Bo Ruoyou just came back from Xiangguo Temple yesterday, so she naturally knew that there were many tourists inside and outside the temple these days, at this moment Wu Xiang said again: "Yesterday the child was found in the back mountain of Xiangguo Temple."
Wu Xiang's eyes darkened, "I don't know why he went to the back mountain. The front mountain and the back mountain are very far away. It's also because Hou Yang and the others finished looking for the town and the front mountain, and then the sky got dark. I thought the child would not go to the back mountain alone. The mountain has not been found."
"And how did you find out?"
"The little novice monk from Xiangguo Temple found it yesterday afternoon when he was practicing in the back mountain. There were several wild cats in the temple. The wild cats ran into the woods following the smell. They felt something was wrong and followed them. That's when they found the child's body."
Wu Xiang's voice gradually became heavy. It was a six-year-old boy who died. It was also a group of half-grown children who found the boy's body. One can imagine how terrified they were at that time.
"The temple knew that someone had lost a child, so they invited Master Wen into the temple last night. Master Wen recognized it was his own child at a glance, and was distraught at that time. It was too late at that time, so they sent people into the city at dawn today Report to the government."
After hearing this, Bo Ruoyou sorted out the cause and effect. She thought that a six-year-old child was killed, and for a moment she couldn't figure out who was going to kill the child. However, she didn't see the body, so it was not necessarily an accident, so she made up her mind not to make assumptions.
The first snow of the night covered the field outside the city with plain white. They walked all the way to Nanshan. Halfway, the snow foam was getting denser, and the cold wind rushed into the carriage. Bo Ruoyou's hands and feet were cold. Looking up, Luohe River Icicles formed on the surface of the river, and the two sides of the river were as white as plain, and the peaks of Tingshan Mountain, which were farther away, were also covered with white hair.
Xiangguo Temple has been built for a hundred years and has been supported by the royal family. It is now the first Buddhist temple in the Great Zhou Dynasty. At the beginning of the year, Lin Zhao went south to bring the Buddhist classics of Famen Temple to Xiangguo Temple for collection. After leaving the capital, he walked along the official road Ten miles away, turn to the southeast avenue, and then ten miles away, you will arrive at Nanshan. Nanshan is not far from Tingshan, but it is a gentle and beautiful peak. Xiangguo Temple is built on the mountain like Famen Temple. Although it was built, it is more magnificent and solemn than Famen Temple.
Because there are many worshipers here, and it is quite inconvenient to live in the capital every day, a small town gradually formed at the foot of the mountain. The town is a hundred feet away from the mountain gate, so as not to disturb the cleanliness of the temple. During the New Year's holidays, or when the Christmas of the Buddhas is approaching, there are many tourists and bustling.
Bo Ruoyou is from the capital, and she came to Xiangguo Temple for business the last two times, so before today, she had never been to that market town. Today, the carriage passed the mountain gate without stopping, and they went straight to the inn in the distance to find Mr. and Mrs. Wen.
The so-called market town is nothing more than a main street running through Erli, with inns and shops standing along the street, and some residential houses in the depths of the alley. From the half-closed door, you can see that it is full of guests.
Master Wen and his wife lived in an inn named "Fanyin" on the street, and most of the people who came and went in the town were people who worshiped Buddha, so the shops in each place took some Zen-like names that catered to Buddhism. Wu Xiang dismounted in front of the shops, Bo Ruoyou also got out of the carriage, and as soon as she walked up the front steps, she felt weird.
Although the doors of other shops are also closed, at least the voices inside can be heard, but inside the door, it is quiet.
Wu Xiang called for the door, and soon someone opened the door from the inside. Bo Ruoyou saw a man in a blue shirt. The man glanced at Wu Xiang's yamen official uniform, and turned around and shouted: "Brother Yamen, the officials you are waiting for!" Grandpa is here!"
After speaking, he opened the door, respectfully invited Wu Xiang and his party to enter, and Hou Yang greeted him from inside.
Wu Xiang went to pick up Bo Ruoyou, while Hou Yang and the others came one step ahead. He saluted Bo Ruoyou, pointed to the sad-faced middle-aged man in silk robes and said, "This is Shopkeeper He, Master Wen and Mrs. Madam is in the guest room, and Master Wen's body is in the backyard."
Shopkeeper He came forward to salute respectfully, but the sadness on his face did not diminish. Wu Xiang ordered him to invite Master Wen and his wife, and looked at Hou Yang suspiciously. Come back, early this morning, all the tenants in the inn have changed to live in other houses, and now only Master Wen's family is left in this inn."
Wu Xiang sighed, not feeling strange, raised his chin to signal the backyard, "Go to see the corpse first, lead the way—"
Hou Yang led the two of them through the lobby, exited through the side back door, and went out to a corridor leading to the back yard. There was a landscaped atrium between the back yard and the front hall. Jade building, walking through the corridor, Hou Yang pointed to the house not far away with the door closed and said: "The corpse is parked here, there are not many other things here, except that there are many shops selling incense and candles, and there is a mourning hall inside the house."
As he walked to the door, Hou Yang pushed the door open. The room was empty, and the only decorations were removed from the gray prints on the ground. Two square tables were put together to form a long table, and one was bruised and purple. The scarred boy's body was lying quietly on it, and there was a bowl of bright yellow lamp oil under the boy's feet, and a wick inside was burning with a firefly candle.
Bo Ruoyou entered the door, and her eyes fell on the boy's corpse. The boy's clothes were dirty and torn, the shoes on the feet were missing, and one of the white socks was missing. There was a black and blue scar on one foot and a trauma with bloody scabs. Judging from the dense scars on the body surface, it had been dead for many days.
Putting down the cage, Bo Ruoyou rubbed her stiff hands and opened the cage to prepare for the autopsy, but at this moment, a mournful cry came over, together with a woman's whimpering question.
"The people from the government finally came. I said that day that I would go to the back mountain to find Jin'er, but why didn't I go? It's all of you, it's all of you who killed Jin'er—"
The voice of talking was getting closer, Bo Ruoyou and Wu Xiang took a step forward, and soon saw Shopkeeper He walking over with four or five people.
A man and a woman walking in front are both in their thirties. They are dressed in gorgeous clothes, but their looks are very haggard. Naturally, they are Master Wen and Mrs. Wen. The master helped her to walk steadily, and when she saw Hou Yang, the questioning in her eyes deepened, "It's you, I remember you, you brought someone with you that day, and you thought the back mountain was too far away, so you didn't want to look for it, so you went back to the capital. , if you go, Jin'er may still be alive, my poor Jin'er—"
"You are officials of the yamen, and you are merciless when you rely on your status to seize people's wealth. You are asked to help save lives, but you push back and forth. You...you are simply accomplices..."
Mrs. Wen burst into tears, and coughed violently as she spoke. Master Wen went to caress her back while apologizing to Hou Yang. Not strong enough to object.
At this time, Bo Ruoyou took two steps from the inside, "My condolences, the government officials are limited in manpower, so they can only search in the most promising direction. Sometimes the judgment is wrong, and naturally there will be omissions, but... The time was before the twelfth day, even if the government officials went to the back mountain that day, they couldn't save the young master—"
Mrs. Wen was extremely sad and angry, and immediately stared at Bo Ruoyou gloomily, "Who are you? How do you know when my son died?"