Be a small county magistrate in ancient times

Chapter 639 The Identity of the Deceased
"Madam! Something terrible has happened! A terrible thing has occurred!"

Before news from Liangzhou City arrived, the constable who had gone to Yanglin Town returned first.

In the March heat, he ran until he was covered in sweat, muttering repeatedly, "Something terrible has happened."

Madam Mao, accompanied by her maid, came out of the room. "What's wrong? Speak slowly."

"The clerk and..." The constable didn't know how to finish his sentence.

Madam Mao had a very ominous premonition. "Who is the advisor with? Tell me!"

"The advisor and..." The advisor took a deep breath and said, "and the master."

"What?" Madam Mao refused to believe it. She rushed to the constable, almost losing her balance. Fortunately, her maidservant caught her quickly. But Madam Mao didn't care about that now. She stared blankly at the constable. "What did you say?"

The constable's expression was worse than crying. "The two people who died outside Yanglin Town were the clerk and the master."

"No, no, no, it's impossible..." Madam Mao was shaking her head when she leaned back.

The maid caught the person in her arms and then realized that the person had fainted.

"Madam! Madam!" The maid was so frightened that she quickly pinched the philtrum, and the head constable ran out to find a doctor.

Beishan County, at the entrance of the county government office.

The horse came to an abrupt halt, and the rider dismounted and ran towards the county government office.

They were moving so fast that the guards at the gate didn't see their faces clearly and even tried to stop them.

Upon seeing that it was Zhou Xing, the guards dispersed. "What's wrong? Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Is the master here?" Zhou Xing asked with a serious expression, clearly something important had happened.

"Yes, it's in the study."

Zhou Xing strode inside, catching his breath at the study door before knocking. "My lord, it's urgent!"

In the study, Meng Changqing was discussing the county government's work schedule for the month with Cheng Guang. Upon hearing Zhou Xing's tone, he knew the matter was serious and quickly said, "Come in."

Zhou Xing pushed open the door and saw Cheng Guang there; he abruptly stopped himself from saying anything.

Cheng Guang, being perceptive, said to Meng Changqing, "I'll go out first." Meng Changqing nodded.

Cheng Guang closed the door behind him as he left, and Zhou Xing then lowered his voice and said, "Lord Mao of Yangmen County is dead."

"Huh?" Meng Changqing was stunned for a moment, then stood up and asked, "How did you die?"

Zhou Xing was still catching his breath when he said, "I heard there was a knife wound on his neck, so he could only have been murdered."

Meng Changqing instantly recalled the two groups of people he had seen yesterday: one group was constantly staring at the official road, while the other was running quickly to the east.

Her intuition told her that those people must be related to Mao Chunfang's death.

"Tell me more specifically, where was Lord Mao killed? Was he alone?" Meng Changqing asked.

As Zhou Xing recalled, he said, "The body was found in the wasteland outside Yanglin Town, not far from the main road."

“Yanglin Town.” Meng Changqing recalled carefully that the two groups of people she encountered yesterday were near Yanglin Town.

Zhou Xing continued, "It was the town head who reported it to the county government. When the coroner arrived, he found that the deceased were Lord Mao and his clerk..."

"What? The advisor is dead too?"

“Yes.” Zhou Xing asked, puzzled, “Didn’t I just say that?”

Meng Changqing asked, "How did the news reach your ears?"

"I took a walk around the city early in the morning, and when I found nothing unusual, I went to the government office."

Magistrate Sun invited me to breakfast, but before we finished, a constable from Yangmen County came to report that Magistrate Mao and his advisor had been murdered. Zhou Xing said, “Magistrate Sun didn’t even finish his breakfast. He put down his chopsticks and headed to Yanglin Town. I was on my way back, so I went with him to take a look.”

The death was swift and clean; there was only one cut on the neck.

By the way, Magistrate Sun instructed that no one in the counties was allowed to move around or gather information. All checkpoints within Liangzhou were to be sealed off, with Yangmen County only allowed to enter but not leave.

He also specifically instructed us that no one should leave Beishan County unless it was absolutely necessary.

"It's already a huge favor that I was able to come back."