Merchant of the Underworld

After returning from Europe, the first thing I did was to call the man in the T-shirt and ask him if he needed help.

He said that the matter had been resolved, and asked me how things were going here. I thought about it and told him about Longquan Villa's involvement, and then asked him if he knew the purpose of Longquan Villa.

"Probably not intentional."

The man in the T-shirt quickly realized what I meant, but he believed that it was not Longquan Villa that caused the trouble for all of us at the same time. He also said that if that were the case, the Zhang family in Jiangbei would not sit idly by and ignore it.

When I thought about this, I didn't think much more about it, and then called Senior Shu.

Although this old man is very shameless, he has helped me many times in times of crisis. Moreover, he is a member of the Zhang family and is of the same generation as my grandfather. So without realizing it, I already regarded him as my grandfather. I was really afraid that he would be chased by his enemies and something would happen to him.

"Grandson, what do you want from me?" As soon as the call was connected, Senior Shu's obscene voice came over.

I knew from the voice that he was in good condition. I breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, you old man, don't take advantage of me, be careful as my grandpa comes back to beat you.

After saying that, I put away my smile and asked him seriously how the situation was and if he needed help.

"What else can I do? It's not easy for them to find me, but it's not easy for me to get rid of them completely. So I just don't care and just run around as a tourist."

Senior Shu said nonchalantly, I admire him for his optimistic attitude.

The two of us chatted for a while, and I was about to hang up the phone when Senior Shu lowered his voice and asked me if I was free recently.

"Huh?" I frowned, thinking that they are asking me to take on some business, right?

He quickly shook his head and said, please don't cheat me anymore. It's good if I come back alive this time. I want to take a good rest for a while.

"What are you talking about? You are Yaoyang's grandson. How are you different from my own grandson?"

Senior Rat chuckled and then started telling me.

A few days ago, he was hiding from his enemies. When passing by Linzhang County, Hebei Province, he heard a strange thing.

It is said that a local man braved the heavy snow to go to the fields to catch hares, but he suddenly disappeared and did not return until three days later.

On the night he came back, his wife and children died at home, and their heads were even chopped off.

But not only was he not sad, he also laughed at the corpse and cursed a few words from time to time, as if the death was his enemy.

The news that he disappeared for three days was known to the villagers, so many people thought that he encountered something unclean and was possessed by a ghost; some said that he deliberately pretended to be crazy and acted stupid, and he was the one who killed the person.

But after the police intervened, they found that he was mentally sane and that his wife and children were not killed by him.

There weren't even any fingerprints left at the scene of the crime, and the heads of his wife and child seemed to have fallen off on their own.

In the end, the police could only close the case hastily, but Senior Shu keenly sensed the weirdness in it and settled down in Linzhang County.

Sure enough, in the next few days, similar mysterious beheading cases occurred one after another nearby. The police were too busy to get any clues, but they found Senior Rat who was also following up on this matter.

After the two parties talked, the local Director Liu wanted to ask Senior Shu for help.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Senior Shu took over the case, his enemy caught up with him.

"Jiulin, I have received benefits from the police station. You must do things beautifully, otherwise my sign will be ruined!" Senior Shu said pretending to be pitiful, and his voice could be as mean as possible.

I purposely teased him, so I said angrily: "You collected the money, but let me do the work. This is a good plan, but I won't do it!"

"Are you sure you don't want to do it?"

There was a hint of threat in Senior Shu's words. I won't do it if I say so. What can you do to me?

"Then I'll go by myself. I'll be caught and killed by my enemies later. Let's see who can help you when you get into trouble in the future."

"I'll go and be cruel to you..." I said helplessly. I had no choice but to agree to deal with such an old naughty boy.

Then Senior Shu sent me Director Liu’s phone number and asked me to contact him in Linzhang County.

Linzhang County was called Yecheng in ancient China. It was the capital of Wei State during the Three Kingdoms period and the most prosperous city in the north. Unfortunately, it has gradually declined over the past two thousand years and is now far inferior to the big cities of Beijing and Shanghai. City.

Since I agreed to Senior Shu, I didn't delay any more, took Li Mazi and drove to Linzhang County.

Yin Xinyue and Ruxue are both from the south. They were immediately excited when they heard they were going to the north, saying they were going to have snowball fights and build snowmen.

In the end, I stopped them because it was almost the Chinese New Year and I needed to prepare New Year’s goods.

It was already evening after we arrived in Hebei. Considering that there was too much snow on the road, we stayed there for one night.

That night I called Director Liu and explained my purpose of coming. After hearing this, he was very unhappy. He thought that Senior Shu couldn't handle it, so he found a young apprentice to fool him.

However, after I told him about my previous success in cooperating with the police to solve crimes, his attitude immediately became enthusiastic.

Major cases such as human bone necklaces and ancient murder paintings were all registered on the police system's intranet, and they could be found with just a quick search. He couldn't help but believe it!

Director Liu then asked us to leave immediately. I said we were not familiar with the terrain and road conditions and would wait until dawn. Unexpectedly, he immediately offered to pick us up, so Li Mazi and I had to rush to the Linzhang County Public Security Bureau overnight.

As soon as I got off the car, I saw a policeman with thick eyebrows and big eyes in a coat. He hurried over and said excitedly: "You are finally here. If you don't come, I don't know what I will do!"

"Who are you?" Li Mazi snorted, deliberately pretending not to recognize him.

In fact, looking at the police officer's shoulder badge, it was obvious that he was Director Liu. Li Mazi asked this purely to vent his dissatisfaction, so I didn't stop him.

Sure enough, after Li Mazi finished speaking, Director Liu was stunned for a moment.

Then he sheepishly introduced himself: "My name is Liu Zhengyi, the chief of the Linzhang County Police Department. On behalf of the folks in Linzhang County, I welcome you!" After saying that, he quickly extended his hand.

I thought it was almost done, so I shook hands with him with a smile, and said softly: "Zhang Jiulin, the merchant of femininity."

Then Director Liu took us to his office. As soon as we entered the door, we smelled a strong smell of coal. When we looked at it, we found an old-fashioned large iron stove in the corner, burning briquettes. Apart from that, there was only one bed in the room. There are several chairs at the desk, and a thick stack of documents is placed on the table.

"The county is poor, so it has never installed a heater. It's just enough to be able to work."

Director Liu smiled and asked us to sit down, then pulled out a document from the table and handed it over. I glanced at it and found that it contained information on several families where the mysterious case of beheading occurred, and I quickly started reading it carefully.

The rabbit catcher that Senior Shu mentioned to me is called Zhu Fengchun, and his information is ranked first. In addition to him, three similar incidents occurred. The second person, Wang Zhuangzhuang, disappeared mysteriously while taking photos near the Tongquetai ruins in the evening. When he returned home a few days later, his head and body were separated that night.

The third man, Li Tiansheng, fell to the ground for no apparent reason on his way home from get off work and was beheaded that night.

The fourth man, Zhang Yang, was also beheaded, but he was an old bachelor and no one knew what happened during his lifetime.

"Besides this information, did your police find anything else?"

After reading it, I thought about it and asked with a solemn expression.

From the fact that people were beheaded in all four incidents, it is not difficult to see that this was the work of the same murderer. Since the next three parties involved had already been killed, Zhu Fengchun became an important clue!

What's more, the other three people were beheaded, and only he survived, which in itself speaks volumes. However, the information provided by the police showed that there was nothing wrong with Zhu Fengchun, and there was not even any arrangement for normal police surveillance. I doubt there is any inside story.

"These people all died on their beds at home, but we carefully investigated the scene and found no clues. Judging from the scene alone, we rule out the possibility of homicide, unless it is..."

Director Liu's expression turned extremely pale at the end. I spread my hands and said, "The three people behind are dead, only Zhu Fengchun is still alive. Shouldn't you keep an eye on him?"

After I finished speaking, I stared at Director Liu intently, but his eyes were always very open, as if he was hiding something from me. This was hard for me to understand, so I asked him directly.

"Who said there was no surveillance, but he has never left the house since the incident. Even if he went out occasionally, he would buy something to eat and go home immediately. We even made several surprise inspections, but inside Everything was normal. Later, three such incidents happened in succession. Our police force was limited and we could only withdraw our manpower..."

After speaking, Director Liu suddenly reacted and looked at me with his mouth wide open: "You mean Zhu Fengchun is the murderer?"

"The murderer may not be him, but it must be related to him, otherwise he would not be alive today."

After I finished speaking, I asked Director Liu to take me to Zhu Fengchun's home immediately. He nodded repeatedly and then went to drive the police car. I thought for a moment and said, "Let's drive our car! If the police car enters the village, it will probably alert the enemy."

According to my experience and intuition, Zhu Fengchun must be inseparable from the three murders that occurred later. The police failed to find any problems during every surprise inspection. It was probably the police car that exposed the target.

Director Liu nodded repeatedly and praised me for my sharp mind.

I smiled slightly, then closed my eyes and rested.

The roads were heavily snow-covered, and Director Liu drove very carefully. Sometimes I felt like walking was faster than driving. Fortunately, Zhu Fengchun's family lived near the county seat, and they arrived in half an hour.

After all, he was a police officer. Director Liu quietly turned off his car lights before entering the village and drove forward slowly based on his feeling.

It was already late at night, the whole village was dark, the sky was gray, and the moon could not be seen at all.

As we entered the village, the dogs of several households at the entrance of the village began to bark. Fortunately, the cold wind howled by, covering up the barking of the dogs.

When they arrived at the entrance of the village, Director Liu pointed to the lighted house directly in front and said that that was Zhu Fengchun's home.

After saying that, I opened the car door, and the biting cold wind suddenly penetrated our collars. I wrapped myself in the cotton clothes and got out of the car.

When I walked up to it, I realized that it was a blue brick house. I couldn't help but frown. After seeing it, Li Mazi asked me cautiously what was wrong?

"How old is this? They still use blue bricks to build houses. No wonder unclean things are involved."

I shook my head and said, almost convinced that this beheading was not man-made, but related to dirty things.

After the reform and opening up, almost all buildings in the north and south of China were replaced with red bricks, and few people used blue bricks to build houses anymore.

But in terms of practicality, the durability and corrosion resistance of green bricks are much higher than that of red bricks. In ancient China, the term Qin Bricks and Han Tiles refers to green bricks, so why do people still use red bricks?

Because blue bricks are yin, Chinese people will use blue bricks or bluestone slabs when building cemeteries. Some old blue brick houses are very likely to be regarded by nearby ghosts as houses built for them, and they will live in them. .

Zhu Fengchun committed a big taboo by living in a brick house, but his house didn't seem to have been built for a long time. How could he attract such a powerful thing?