Chapter 70: Knife Sharpening Boy
This day.
Jiang Zhou had just finished hearing a case and came out of the public housing.
Then he saw Jin Jiu coming towards him.
"Brother Jiang, you've come at the right time. Several captains are trying a case in Baijie Hall. They say it's related to the case of you picking a living being last time."
"You were the first person to discover this case. Captain You asked you to attend the trial."
"Oh? Did you find a clue?"
Jiang Zhou was shocked and quickly followed Jin Jiu to Baijie Hall.
Several captains including You Xu were already sitting in the hall.
A scholar in white stood in the hall.
The white clothes are white clothes without any honor. In fact, he is wearing a festive silk clothes.
He was about thirty years old, but his face was pale, with a bluish-grey tint, and his eyes were lifeless.
He looks like a person suffering from tuberculosis.
His face was full of fear, but he was saying something weakly. When he saw Jiang Zhou coming in, he paused slightly.
You Xu didn't even wait for him to salute, but waved his hand and said, "Patrol Guard Jiang, just stand aside and listen."
"yes."
Jiang Zhou bowed, stood aside, and turned to look at the scholar.
You Xu said again: "Scholar Liu, please continue."
The scholar said quickly: "Yes..."
Listening to Liu Shusheng's weak voice and Jin Jiu's occasional supplementary whispers, Jiang Zhou gradually understood the whole story.
It turned out that this scholar Liu was a wealthy man from Kong Liu Village outside the city, and was a failed scholar.
He came from a wealthy family, but failed the imperial examinations several times, so he simply gave up literature and went into business.
Unexpectedly, his luck turned around and he built a good fortune.
He studied for many years and made many literary friends.
On weekdays, he also regarded himself as a scholar, pretending to be cultured, and often liked to call friends to drink and recite poetry.
Because his family was wealthy, those scholars, whether they were sincere or not, were happy to eat and drink with him for free.
As time went by, his small circle became quite famous, and even students from Bailu Academy had some contacts with them.
A few days ago, he called a group of scholars to gather in the city for a drink and fun.
After the banquet, we returned home with great enthusiasm. On the way, we passed Beidu Stone Bridge and met a team of carriages and horses.
There were luxurious carriages and horses, and many servants, forming several long rows, occupying the entire Beidu Stone Bridge.
He knew that he must be an important person, so he did not dare to offend him and stepped aside.
Unexpectedly, halfway through the journey, the curtains on the side windows of the most luxurious carriage, which was located in the center of the queue and looked like the moon surrounded by stars, suddenly rose.
The figure of a graceful and beautiful woman appeared.
The beautiful woman actually invited him to get in the car and ride with her.
This beautiful woman is no more than twenty years old, with a beautiful appearance, which is rare in the world, and she exudes an air of nobility.
When Liu Shusheng saw it, his heart was shaken, how could he refuse?
So he got in the car and sat with the beautiful woman.
Along the way, the beautiful woman chatted with him enthusiastically.
She was extremely beautiful. Although Liu Shusheng's family was well-off and he had a beautiful wife and concubines, he was just an ordinary man. How could he bear this?
I was flattered and fascinated at that time.
After crossing the Beidu Stone Bridge and walking for an unknown amount of time, Liu Shusheng found himself in a daze in front of a luxurious and quiet large manor.
It was the residence of the beautiful woman.
The beautiful woman invited him into the manor and into a magnificent hall, where she treated him to fine wine and delicious food.
After drinking the wine, Liu Shusheng felt even more dizzy and didn't know what was going on.
Later, he bathed and made love with the beautiful woman in a warm pool, and then slept in the same bed.
This is a good thing for many men.
But Liu Shusheng said that he didn't know why he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night.
Then I saw that the place I was in was a dark and cold cave. Where was the luxurious mansion?
Moonlight shone into the cave, falling just around him, allowing him to see his surroundings clearly.
Lying beneath him was a huge, cold sarcophagus.
The sarcophagus was placed in a turbid and smelly pool of water.
And the beautiful woman was also lying in the coffin.
But where are the beautiful women at this time?
It was simply a filthy, rotten corpse. The beautiful face that had captivated her at first sight was now covered in rotten flesh, with wriggling creatures moving in and out of its eyes, mouth and nose.
The body that fascinated him so much was now as rotten as a sack.
It exudes bursts of biting coldness and a piercing stench.
Liu Shusheng was so frightened that he climbed out of the sarcophagus and fled in panic.
I don't know if it was because he was lucky or for some other reason, but he actually managed to escape.
He ran all the way back home, still in shock.
I fell seriously ill at that time.
Fortunately, one of his friends came to visit and heard what happened to him.
They said that he had encountered an evil spirit and was haunted by evil grudges.
This friend happened to know a student from Bailu Academy, so he went to the academy and asked for a copy of calligraphy that embodied the spirit of righteousness.
Let the scholar Liu carry it with him, and within two days, his illness gradually healed.
It just so happened that his daughter got engaged a few days ago and would be getting married in two days.
Liu Shusheng had just recovered from a serious illness, and he had calligraphy at his disposal, as well as something happy happening soon, so he temporarily forgot about the matter.
However, when he sent his daughter out and put her in the sedan chair, he met a little boy on the road in front of his own farm.
The child looked like a baby of only two or three years old and had no clothes on.
He was sitting by the road, under a willow tree, holding a sharp knife in his hand, sharpening it on a stone.
At first, Mr. Liu did not take the child seriously and thought he was unlucky.
So he ordered his servants to drive them away.
Unexpectedly, the boy who was sharpening the knife jumped up, holding the sharp knife, and rushed towards Liu Shusheng in the wedding procession.
It was surprisingly fast, arriving in the blink of an eye.
A sharp knife flashing with cold light appeared before his eyes, and Liu Shusheng was frightened.
At this moment, a brilliant light suddenly appeared in his arms.
The child let out a scream and then turned into a wisp of black smoke and disappeared.
It turned out that it was the calligraphy he got from Bailu Academy that saved his life.
Having escaped the knife, how could Liu Shusheng dare to marry his daughter?
He hurried over to file a complaint.
Liu Shusheng came yesterday. After You Xu personally interrogated the case, he took people to investigate again and brought the case back for another interrogation today.
In order to avoid mistakes and omissions, I asked him to repeat it again.
After Liu Shusheng finally finished speaking breathlessly, You Xu looked at Jiang Zhou: "Jiang Zhou, what do you think?"
Jiang Zhou was sighing that this Liu Shusheng was so good at playing, a rotting corpse...
Hearing this, he regained his composure and said in a deep voice, "Captain, I just heard that this case is related to the case of the murderer?"
You Xu nodded and said, "Yes, when I went to investigate yesterday, I found that the knife sharpening boy that Liu Shusheng mentioned had been seen by others, and not just one family."
"According to what those families said, they all saw the child sitting at the foot of the wall sharpening a knife in front of their homes in the evening, and at first they didn't take it seriously."
"It looked strange for a child to sharpen a knife, which was a bad omen. Most of the families tried to drive him away, but some kind-hearted people were afraid that he might be a lost child, so they asked him a few questions."
"But no matter whether we drove him away or asked him questions, the child remained silent and just kept sharpening his knife. If we said a few more words, he would leave on his own."
"Those families didn't take it seriously at first, but the next day, they found that their children had disappeared. They reported it to the Ministry of Justice, but they didn't know much about it. It was not until I, the lieutenant, investigated the cases of missing children in the city yesterday that I learned about this case..."
