Chapter 121 Stag Beetle
June 21st (early morning)
The "Book of Heaven" was unexpectedly burned in this way , as if it was fate.
Everyone in the hall was terrified. It was almost impossible for anyone to predict such an outcome, but Huai Liang just shouted, trying to stop Xu Chong from touching the sealed box, which showed that he had some foresight.
Bao Zheng stepped forward, picked up the mostly burnt silk, and looked at the remaining words on it that looked like scribbles.
"As far as I know, this is not the real thing. The real Heavenly Book is still in the hands of the government, so just burn it. It won't harm the destiny of the Song Dynasty." He said indifferently, and threw the silk in his hand to the ground. This was the only way he could think of to comfort everyone present. Of course, it was true that the Heavenly Book was handwritten.
"Amitabha. However, in the eyes of the world, the "Book of Heaven" in the hands of the government has become fake. The destiny of the Song Dynasty lies in the hearts of the people. Why would people care whether the "Book of Heaven" is true or false?" Huailiang said.
What Huailiang said was true. The lie of the Heavenly Book was based on the official ceremony and royal endorsement from the beginning. With the intention of praying to the gods and worshipping the heavens, even if the one hanging under the emperor's throne was fake, it became real in the hearts of the people. The real thing in the hands of the officials became fake when it was taken out at this moment. Of course, to be frank, if we look at it from the definition of a divine book given by heaven, these two books are also fake, but one was forged earlier.
"Mr. Bao, I think we should strictly order everyone here not to spread this matter." Li Cheng'an said.
"With so many people inside and outside this hall, how can we stop the spread of the news?" Bao Zheng sneered. He had been in government for many years and naturally knew that such a naive idea was impossible to achieve. Before the sun sets today, this matter must be known to everyone in Bianliang City. If it is not strictly controlled and allowed to spread among the people, it may be better. If it is suppressed by the king's law, it will only cause more undercurrents.
Shen Kuo came to the side of the monk and said, "Master, I heard you stop Xu Jieji from moving the seal just now. It seems that you guessed that this would happen?"
"I haven't guessed everything, but I guess there will be variables."
“How do you guess the variables?”
"Because if it were me, I would do the same. Burning the Heavenly Book in public, this is the conspiracy, and the intention is still on people's hearts." The monk said bluntly.
"So, this is actually a game?"
"That's right. If the troll went into the temple and burned the Heavenly Book, not many people would see it. It would be a real spoiler for a conspiracy."
Bao Zheng had been listening to them, and finally breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the monk mention the conspiracy. If it wasn't a conspiracy, it would be trouble.
"Master, do you also think it is a conspiracy? But, but, this..." He looked at the open mouth of the jar, and then looked at the dead body of Fang Xiang beside it. Many questions came to his mind and he didn't know how to ask them.
The monk was not in a hurry to answer Lao Bao. He lowered his head and looked around, and finally found a bug behind a pillar. At this moment, the bug was struggling with its six legs facing the sky, unable to turn over.
The monk picked up the insect with both hands and put it in front of his eyes. The people around him retreated. Xu Chong was even more anxious to remind him: "Master, be careful, this is clearly an evil insect transformed by Tian Gang. It flew out of the jar when the smoke came out just now."
"What Tiangang? It's just a bug." Huailiang said.
Shen Kuo also came closer to take a look: "It looks like a bookworm gnawing at it, but much bigger."
"This is a cyprid. I've seen one in the south, but it was this big. I just don't know how it could fly out of the tank?"
"Yes, the life span of these flying insects is only a dozen days, at most a few months, as the saying goes, summer insects cannot talk about ice. Could it be that this jar was buried not long ago?"
"Don't talk nonsense, Cunzhong." Taoist Priest Li quickly came out to explain, "You all came to see it yesterday morning. This stone slab has never been opened."
"Well, I also don't think it was buried a few days ago." Huailiang said.
"Look, Master also said that." Li Cheng'an found that the monk was talking to him, so he quickly changed his address and called him Master.
"I was thinking that Mr. Fang's face looked as if he had just died, so he must have been buried not long ago," Shen Kuo said.
"That's wrong. I just said it: the so-called magic trick is nothing more than letting the audience see the appearance you want them to see, while hiding the truth you don't want them to see."
"But this trick is too mysterious, isn't it?"
"If it's not mysterious, how can it deceive the world? Yu Jing has been compiling "New Edition of Goose Fantasy", which shows that he has been studying the tricks of magic tricks."
"Since it's a magic trick, how do we break it?" Bao Zheng let go of his pride and asked.
"I am dissatisfied with you, sir. I still don't understand it at this moment. However, I know that it is impossible for this Fang Xiang family to cross a stone slab out of thin air and lie down here."
"Yeah, yeah." Lao Bao stroked his beard and waited for what to say next.
“So, eliminate the impossible, and the remaining one, even if it is impossible, can only be the truth.”
"That is to say, the corpse was already down there before?" Bao Zheng said.
"It can only be this way."
“How do we find clues to crack the code?”
"I think the best thing to do now is to have the coroner perform an autopsy. Secondly?" The monk spread the insect on his palm, "Secondly, we can only look for clues from this little insect."
"What clues can we get about this strange insect?"
"I remember Taoist Priest Li said yesterday that the main hall was renovated three years ago?"
"Yes, three years ago." Li Cheng'an nodded quickly, denying the possibility that he had buried the body yesterday.
"Will the Heavenly Book be available during the repairs?"
"The ground and the beams were being repaired together, so naturally we had to take down the Heavenly Book and find another place to store it. So we were afraid that if the Heavenly Book was not there, the Demon King under the stone slab would not be suppressed and would escape. And my master was not in the capital, so we asked the Fangxiang clan to perform the ritual to protect it. That's why I had that argument with her."
"I think the clue lies in this three-year period. Xu Jieji, the account book you found in Boss Pei's shop yesterday was from the last few years."
"There are dozens of books in total, all from the last three or four years. We only read the ones from the year of Guisi and the month of Bingchen. That is, two years ago." Xu Chong said.
"I think that account book contains all the secret things that Boss Pei bought. You can check it again. You don't have to look at all of it. Just look at the months three years ago when the main hall was renovated. If there are any bugs or something like that."
"Master, what kind of clues are we looking for?" Bao Zheng said.
The monk fiddled with a beetle with a huge horn in his hand.
"My husband, please give me another half day. We will know the result in the afternoon."
He turned to Shen Kuo again and said, "I won't bother you with checking the account books, sir. We have some important matters here."
"What's the important matter? Master, just tell me."
"Sir, please check this pile of burned clothes and the things under the stone slab. I think such a careful conspiracy must be full of tricks. It depends on whether we can see through it."
"good."
He walked up to Lao Bao again and said, "Sir, we can send a spy to investigate a person. But we don't have the person's appearance, so we can't post a picture or a picture. We only want a woman around 30 years old, with a missing finger on her right hand. Also, her legs may be disabled, so it's not easy for her to walk."
Bao Zheng thought for a moment and said, "I understand what you mean, Master. But I still don't understand the reason behind it."
"Don't worry, sir. I still don't understand it very well. I've said that only by eliminating the impossible, will the truth remain. We can only follow this vine to find the melon."
"Okay. I'll go set it up right away."
Bao Zheng agreed with the monk's plan, and took the body back to the Military Headquarters. He found a coroner to perform an autopsy, and sent people to the city gate and the four counties to search for the woman whose right hand was missing fingers and had difficulty walking. Xu Chong also returned to the Military Headquarters to look through the pile of account books again.
Shen Kuo and Huai Liangze stayed in Yuqing Zhaoying Palace to inspect the scene. For the time being, the monk could not figure out a complete clue, and it would take multiple parties to investigate together to find clues connecting the whole case. In his opinion, it was because the case was too carefully handled that many tricks were done in advance, and the tricks could be seen through and become a clue.
While Shen Kuo was checking the pile of burned clothes, the monk checked the jar under the stone slab. He confirmed that there was nothing inside, but it was wet. He dipped some of the cloth in it and sniffed it. There was no smell, as if it was just water. But there were some dead insects at the bottom of the water. It seemed that not every evil insect incarnated by Tiangang flew out.
The jar was buried with rammed earth and slaked lime. Huailiang asked someone to uncover a few stone slabs on the side, which were also the same mixture. He was proficient in construction and could see that this was a routine operation. The hall was not built directly on the ground, but the soil was rammed, then slaked lime was laid, and then bricks and stones were laid. The slaked lime was laid to make it firm and to kill insects in the soil. But he remembered that when he uncovered the stone slabs, the slaked lime underneath was actually hot. What does this have to do with the water in the jar? And why was the body preserved so well?
Shen Kuo studied the wooden stick. As he had guessed before, the stick was filled with lead. So when the great Nuo master suddenly stopped in a strange forward-leaning posture at the bonfire, he used the stick to stabilize his center of gravity and avoid falling. But was it just for this purpose? Was there any other purpose?
He really couldn't figure out what the use was, and wanted to ask Huai Liang for advice, but he saw Huai Liang squatting on the ground thinking hard. He decided not to disturb him first, but called over a yamen runner beside him.
"Big brother, I have something I want to ask you."
"Please tell me, sir. I am afraid I don't know enough and cannot answer you."
"Have you ever seen the use of this wooden stick filled with lead?"
"Sir, isn't this a coincidence? The water and fire sticks I use in the government office have some with lead and some without ."
"Oh? Why do you need to fill it with lead?"
"It's because the Five Punishments might not make some brave men confess, so this trick was invented. If you use an ordinary cane to punish someone, seven or eight hits will break their buttocks, but they may not hurt their bones. This cane filled with lead, only one hit may not cause blood to the buttocks, but it can break the bones in the legs. Even if you take good care of yourself, you won't be able to get up in a month. It takes two people to carry you to the toilet, and then hold on to the wall with both hands."
"How can you be so cruel? Aren't you afraid of being tortured into confessing?"
"Haha, this fire and water stick is really powerful. No matter if it's a fight or not, or if it's a false accusation, after a few hits, he will definitely confess."
Huailiang was squatting on the ground, listening to their conversation distractedly, when he suddenly stood up and came over to grab the wooden stick in Shen Kuo's hand, and found that it was indeed of unusual weight.
"Sure enough, the first hand and foot are here." said the monk.
"Hands and feet?"
"Yes, the secret lies in this lead-filled stick."
"How is it so mysterious? Could you please explain it to me?" Shen Kuo was also a little confused.
The monk picked up the wooden stick, walked to a stone slab, and smashed it down hard, making a dull sound.
"This is how to activate the mechanism through the stone slab."
"But... we clearly followed the troll in, so we didn't hear the sound of something hitting the ground? If we had, we wouldn't have missed it."
"This..." The monk paused, then walked to the statue and picked up the cushion on the ground. The cushion was originally under the heavenly book and was thrown here by Xu Chong just now. He put the cushion on the ground and swung the wooden stick to hit the ground again, and this time the sound was much smaller.
"See, that's why there's no noise."
"What about the mechanism under the stone slab? What does it mean?"
At the same time, Xu Chong, who was looking through the account books in the lobby of the Military Head Office, also found a strange purchase record made by Boss Pei three years ago. The content was the purchase of 400 Lingnan stag beetles, each costing three cents, and specifically specifying that they must be the size of a fingernail.
Xu Chong was also a smart and sensible man. He was not in a hurry to go to the morgue to find Bao Zheng who was performing the autopsy. Instead, he rushed to the medicine shop near the doorway and asked what this shovel-shaped insect was.
After asking three shops, I finally found a shopkeeper who had traveled a lot and knew about shovel beetles. The shopkeeper said that the so-called shovel beetle is the largest beetle in Lingnan, and it got its name because the horns on its head look like shovels. Generally, beetles can only live for half a year or a year, but this one can hibernate underground in winter and live for several years. The shopkeeper also said that if it is cold in early spring, it may hibernate for several years, but it will come back to life as soon as it warms up. Because this beetle lives a long time, it is also used to make elixirs, but it is not available in general pharmacies and few people know about it.
Xu Chong also came to his senses at once and hurried back to inform Bao Zheng.
Bao Zheng was watching the autopsy. The coroner cut open the body and found something strange. Although the foreskin was burnt, it was still elastic, as if it had been burned yesterday. The skin on the face was like that of a living person. If you only look at these, the body should have died not long ago, but after cutting open the abdomen, the internal organs shrank into a grass-like shape, which was clearly the case of a long-dead mummy. Two completely different situations appeared on the same body, and he dared not draw any conclusions.
