Bronze door through time and space

Chapter 577: The Play of Fate

After killing, dismembering and setting fire to the house like experienced bandits, the Wu brothers hurried back home, but Wu Song went to the yamen halfway.

It was the middle of the night and the fire at Ximen's house was so raging that it lit up half of the county town. It was impossible not to see it. As the head of the city, he naturally had to report to the government office.

At this time, someone had already run to the government office to report the case. Upon learning that it was a family massacre, the county magistrate was shocked and cried out in pain.

In the Song Dynasty, the term of office of a county magistrate was three years. This magistrate had been in office for two and a half years and had earned a lot of gold and silver. He wanted to send it to Tokyo to store it with his relatives and then use it to bribe officials in the capital. However, he did not expect to encounter such a change. He might have to use all the money to bribe his superiors in order to reduce his crime.

There was no way. If it was an ordinary family massacre, the county magistrate could keep it secret, but Ximen Qing was a wealthy man and had some connections in the capital. This matter could not be suppressed at all. If he really dared to conceal it, he might lose his official hat. He could only pray that the case would be solved as soon as possible so that he could reduce his responsibility.

As a favorite of the county magistrate, Wu Song was naturally asked to lead the team in this major case. He did not refuse and decisively took the responsibility when the captain of the police secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Accompanied by seven or eight constables, a dozen yamen runners, and a group of local soldiers, Wu Song returned to the murder scene again.

At this time, the neighbors were helping to put out the fire. If they didn't, they would be burned too. So a large group of people came with basins and buckets, pouring water and sand, and completely destroyed the scene. Conan was helpless.

More than a hundred people were coming and going carrying buckets and wooden basins. There was both water and sand, and the ground was already muddy from the pressure of their feet and shoes. You could hardly see anything.

The coroner of the yamen picked up pieces of Ximen Qing. In fact, they had been burnt so badly that it was impossible to tell what they were. If it weren't for the head, one would have thought that a whole banquet was burnt. After all, there was meat, intestines, spleen, liver, heart, and lungs. It was definitely not a good pig-killing banquet.

Wu Song doesn't have much experience in this area, but the constables who followed him all have family-inherited skills.

These people have been working in this business for generations. Even if they don't have much knowledge, the experience accumulated from generation to generation cannot be underestimated.

Now that they were faced with a major case, these people naturally used all their abilities. After just one walk around Ximen Mansion, they were able to reconstruct the scene to be almost perfect.

There were as many as twenty or thirty people who broke into Ximen Mansion this time, but they belonged to several different forces. Judging from the footprints, they automatically divided the territory when killing people and looting, and kept a certain distance from each other.

In addition, the weapon used can be judged from the wound, which is usually a common ox-ear knife, waist knife, or broadsword.

The ox-ear sharp knife can be hidden close to the body, but the waist knife and the broadsword cannot. Even if they are hidden in gifts or goods, they cannot easily escape their eyes.

There are even experienced people who can tell whether a person is a boy or a girl from their footprints, and their estimated weight is no more than five kilograms.

These alone are enough to track down the thief.

Although the Song Dynasty was an ancient era, it did not mean that there was no way to deal with it, especially since these thieves were obviously from outside.

In ancient times, in formal businesses, outsiders had to register their information when eating or staying in the hotel. It didn’t matter whether the information was true or false, but the process was inevitable because the local government would send people to check every month. If there was a problem, the merchant would be sued.

In addition, although information can be falsified, the number of people cannot be concealed, and people cannot hide from the eyes of the store owner, otherwise how did Chao Gai and his companions get caught.

Whether it is a hawker or a bandit, there is no need to look. The shop owners who welcome and see off customers can tell by just smelling them.

Because there were not many people going out during that period, and the groups were relatively simple, either businessmen or ordinary people on the road. As for official business, there were post stations for them to go to, so anyone who did not look like a serious person was most likely to have committed a murder, which made it easier to judge.

A group of yamen runners were also busy, asking the neighbors outside about what happened, from the discovery of the fire to the firefighting, who arrived first, who arrived later, whether they had seen outsiders, what accent they had, which direction the footsteps went, etc. They asked about every detail, which made Wu Song couldn't help but be shocked.

If he followed his original plan and entered the mansion with a knife and killed someone, even if he could escape at the time, he would not be able to escape the investigation afterwards. These detectives and yamen runners who usually only know how to be sneaky and cunning are not as incompetent as they seem. But it is true that if they did not have some skills, the county would have been in chaos long ago.

With a plan in mind, Wu Song pretended to be serious. Starting from the place where he sneaked into the mansion, he stepped on all the places where traces might be left, and then patrolled everywhere. In this way, even if someone found the traces he left, no one would care. After all, he was the head of the police force and was here to investigate the case.

Everyone thought it was a family massacre, but who would have thought that there was still a survivor, and it was Li Ping'er.

Because of Ximen Qing's plan, this man did not attend the banquet but stayed in the backyard, so he escaped by luck, but was also scared and trembling all over.

Li Ping'er was not only afraid of the tragedy of the Ximen family, but also the subsequent extinction of the entire family. This was the darkest and most desperate thing she was about to face.

You have to know that although Ximen Qing was a playboy and had countless women, he did not leave any sons or daughters, resulting in her being the only concubine of lowly status who had a say in the entire Ximen Mansion.

In this situation, how can a weak woman like her protect such a huge family business and not let it be taken away by others?

You know, even if all the money in the mansion is looted, the thieves cannot take away the house, shops, land, and taxes.

The problem is that thieves can't take it away, but some people can, and with good reason.

Now, as long as she is gone, these things will be ownerless, so from the county magistrate to the wealthy, from the neighbors to the servants, no one wants to see her alive, because her life is the biggest destabilizing factor. Once someone makes a fuss about her, those who swallowed up Ximen Qing's property will have to pay the price.

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Li Ping'er has seen this kind of thing before, and because she has seen it before, she knows how cruel the future will be.

Therefore, even in public, Li Ping'er was still shivering with cold, because losing the shepherd's sheepfold could no longer bring her a sense of security, unless
Li Ping'er quietly looked up at the majestic Wu Song, and had some thoughts and a decision in her mind.

She has always had some tricks up her sleeve when it comes to dealing with men, not to mention that she has the leverage over them.

Yan Xu, who witnessed the whole process, sighed secretly.

Originally, he thought that fate was a line that could be cut or continued, made long or short, plucked or teased, allowing him to play with it and produce cheerful music. At that time, he thought he was the god who controlled fate.

Now he knows that he is not, because fate is not only a line, but also a drop of water. It was only because he did not look far enough and comprehensively before that he mistakenly thought it was a line.

In fact, even if he has the ability to splash water and skip stones, the water will still fall back into the river and flow along the river channel. It will not change at all because of such a small thing.

Yan Xu is now just like a naughty boy squatting on the shore, slapping the water, splashing water, and feeling complacent, but he doesn't know how ridiculous this scene is in the eyes of the adults standing higher and farther away.

He thought he was playing with fate, but he didn't know that fate was also playing with him.

For example, the Wu brothers, even though he intervened a lot, their fate eventually turned in a direction he didn't want to see.

Wu Dalang thought that if his brothers did not kill anyone or set any fire, they could change their fate. In fact, he was the same as Yan Xu.

They are all trying to change their fate, but their fate remains unchanged, only the details change.

(End of this chapter)