Chapter 17 Chapter Sixteen: The Death of the Scale House Girl

Guishou Village fell into a state of panic, and the elderly complained to each other sentence by sentence: "What kind of Ghost Festival is this!" "Where is that old woman hiding?" The first to discover Wenzi's body was Chen Zang who was drunk. Chen Zang was so tired and dizzy from searching Wenzi all night last night and this night, he wanted to have a drink. At dawn, he went to the wine brewing factory in Scale House to have a glass of wine. When he twisted open the wine barrel and caught the purple-red liquid with a cup, he found something glistening on the other side.

At this time, the sun rose from the eastern sky, and the dawn shot into the factory. On the floor immersed in the twilight, two or three pieces of golden light fell. "what is this?" After taking one or two sips of sour wine, Chen Zang put down his glass.Go over there and have a look. Behind a mountain of wine barrels, Renli Wenzi was strangled and lying on the dusty floor in mourning clothes. The news of the discovery of Fumiko's body quickly spread through the entire village like an electric current. When Police Officers Tachibana, Kosuke Kaneda, and Police Officer Isokawa walked up from Six Paths, the mountain gorge was already full of people. The clues have also been trampled into a mess by the villagers.

When Police Officer Tachibana saw the situation at the scene, he couldn't help being furious.Except for Chen Zang, everyone else was kicked out of the factory amid his curses and roars, and then he stared angrily at the corpse behind the wine barrel, gasping for breath with a very solemn expression. During these few seconds, no one spoke aloud, even Kosuke Kindaichi, Officer Isokawa and the detectives all stood there blankly. Suddenly, Officer Tachibana looked at Chen Zang with his bloodshot eyes from lack of sleep and said: "Chenzang, did you deliberately play a prank?" "No... no, when I came here, her body was already icy cold."

Officer Tachibana stomped his feet angrily. "That's not what I heard, you put those weird things in the middle of the tape!" "No, no! When I found the body, it was already like that." Officer Tachibana glanced at the corpse on the floor, then looked at Kosuke Kindaichi with angry eyes. "Mr. Kindaichi, what is going on here? Why did the murderer do such a trick?" "For the murderer, it may have some kind of great meaning!" "Big significance?" "Yesterday's liter and funnel, and today's..." Officer Isokawa was talking to himself.

The next thing everyone looked at in silence was the body on the floor. I saw Wenzi lying face down on the ground, a scale was inserted into the belt of his clothes, and cocoon jade was placed on the plate of the scale. The devil once again made weird pranks on Fumiko's body. It's no wonder that Officer Tachibana was very upset and Officer Isokawa sighed involuntarily. The luminous object that Chen Zang saw before was the fake coin tied to Yuyu.Although it is a counterfeit.But those coins are made of thin metal.So gleaming in the summer morning light. Kosuke Kindaichi blinked his sleep-deprived eyes and asked:

"Chenzang. The family of Taizi who was killed yesterday is the 'Shengwu', and Wenzi's is the 'Scale House'?" "Yes, Scale House Wines..." "Mr. Kindaichi, is there any meaning in this?" "It should be. But. What do the funnel and these cocoon jade represent?" Kosuke Kindaichi was talking to himself while leaning over to look at Fumiko's face. Wenzi's face fell on the dusty floor, and her clothes were a little messy.It was obvious at a glance that she had been strangled to death—a strangle mark of a thin rope was left on her neck, the same method used to kill Yasuko.

Kindaichi Kosuke looked at the cocoon jade on the scale beam for a long time.Frowning suddenly, he straightened his body and asked: "Chenzang. Have you ever touched a dead body?" "Yes, I wanted to help her up." "Where are these cocoon jade?" "I didn't touch those things because I thought it was suspicious." "Where is this cocoon jade around here?" Kosuke Kindaichi thought that there were similar cocoon jade on the kami table above the counter of "Kame no Yu". "There is a 'land official' over there at the head office, and everyone goes there every first lunar month to get this cocoon jade."

"In Tokyo, in addition to large and small coins, there are usually dice, lucky arrows, Daifuku tents or Duofu masks hanging together." "Then pull out everything but the big and small coins." The cocoon jade on the corpse was only hung with one large coin and three small coins. Officer Isokawa said next to him: "Mr. Kindaichi, this is a recent skill. You see, the traces of pulling are still fresh." Kindaichi Kosuke also noticed.The cocoon jade that has been placed on the table of the gods since the first lunar month has been sunburned a little old, but the traces of other things being pulled out are still very new.

"So the murderer only needs big coins and small coins?" "Mr. Kindaichi, this is another puzzle." "yes." "This reminds me of the prison gate island murder incident." Officer Isokawa frowned, looking disappointed. Police officer Tachibana next to him said with a straight face: "In any case, since the murderer left Cheng and Yingyu behind, even if we search every household in the village, we have to find out where these things came from. Damn it! How can I keep letting the murderer do these tricks!" At this moment, Dr. Honda, the photography team, and the forensics team all came, so Kosuke Kindaichi and police officer Isokawa had to take Tatsuzo outside.

As soon as they came outside, they heard Shengping shouting loudly: "Ge Mingxiong, you wouldn't make Wen Zi like this just because Tai Yu died, just to vent your hatred!" Kosuke Kindaichi turned around in surprise, only to see that the square in front of Sakaya Winery Factory was filled with an atmosphere that was about to explode. The head of the youth group and the deputy head were staring at each other. What Katsuhira said just now was obviously for Kosuke Kindaichi and police officer Isokawa to hear. "What nonsense are you talking about?" "The Yasuko you liked was killed, and the aunt of Shengwu said that my father was suspected. Ge Mingxiong, did you kill Wenzi because of this?"

"What a lie!" "What the hell? Please explain clearly! Your actions last night were a bit weird. You were so young and you were crying like that... Hey, tell me! Did you kill Wenzi?" "Damn! Shit! Taizi was killed by your father!" "What? Why did my father kill Taizi? Tell me! Why did my father kill Taizi?" "Okay, let me tell you! Your father wants to force his illegitimate daughter to me. So kill Taizi who hinders this!" "What did you say?" Shengping shouted hoarsely: "Who do you say is the illegitimate daughter? Tell me!" "The illegitimate daughter is your sister Wenzi, the one who was killed in this factory. Bastard!" "What! Let me go! Let go...I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill Ge Mingxiong!" "Okay, okay! Ah Sheng, you misunderstood, Ge Mingxiong is very good, there is no way he would do such a thing." "Ge Mingxiong is really good, why did you speak so badly! You two are usually so good." While Goro and the Youth League members talked kindly to mediate, they pulled away the tense head and deputy head of the group. I saw Shengping blushing, kicking his feet and shouting: "Let go... let me go! I'm going to kill Ge Mingxiong! Kill Ge Mingxiong!" "Shenghei, shut up!" Behind the villagers who were watching the quarrel between Ge Mingxiong and Shengping, suddenly there was an angry shout. Then, Renli Jiaping walked through the crowd of spectators and strode between the two of them. "Ge Mingxiong, please forgive Shengping, he is so angry that he speaks without choice. But what you said is too much..." After Renli Jiaping gently reprimanded Ge Mingxiong, he said: "Katsuhira, why are you like this! A series of misfortunes happened in the village, do you still have time to quarrel with others? Ah! Mr. Kindaichi, Officer Isokawa..." A shadow cast over Renli Jiaping's face. "Please don't pay attention to what the two of them said just now. I haven't slept for two days, and the young man's temper is getting hot." "Where, I didn't expect your family to encounter such misfortune..." Officer Isokawa said regretfully. "This village seems to be possessed by a demon...can I go and see Wenzi's body?" At this time, the filming work in the factory has ended. "Come in, Dr. Honda is now conducting an investigation." "Okay. Zhihei, you come too." Zhihei was still young, different from his father's calmness, it was hard to hide the surprise on his face when faced with this murder case. He glanced sharply at Ge Mingxiong, and followed his father into the factory. However, he immediately turned back and said: "Officer Isokawa and Kosuke Kindaichi, please come along." "Is there a problem?" "I have something to tell you later, can you please wait in front of the office?" There was a meaningful look in Zhihei's eyes. "Ah! Okay, what does Mr. Kindaichi mean?" "I'll go with you too!" After Kosuke Kindaichi finished speaking, he followed Police Officer Isokawa to the office inside the factory.There was dust everywhere, and there was no place to sit. He stood by the window, looking blankly at the direction from the Sakura Tribe to the "Jinya Ruins". "Mr. Kindaichi." Officer Isokawa walked up to him and said in a low voice: "It seems that the whole village knows about Wenzi." "Rural and urban, it's hard to hide something once it happens." "Yes! But, is it related to this case?" "This……" Kindaichi Kosuke faltered and said: "It's a really elusive case." After finishing speaking, he fell into long contemplation. Kosuke Kindaichi and police officers Isokawa waited for a long time before officers Ninre Kahei, Naohira and Tachibana walked in together. "Where's Doctor Honda?" Officer Isokawa asked. "I went back. The cause of death was strangulation, which is exactly the same as last time." Police officer Tachibana left the scales and Yuyu on the dusty table. "Officer, this time we have to surrender again." "What's wrong?" "look!" Officer Tachibana brought the bottom of the scale beam in front of the two of them, with a mountain-shaped scale stamped on it, which is the mark of "Scale House". In an instant, Kosuke Kindaichi seemed to hear the murderer's ridicule in his ears, and his whole body felt a shudder, which showed that the murderer's scheming was very deep. Officer Isokawa's breathing became more rapid, and he said: "Ah! Is this the beam of your family?" Renli Jiaping said with tears in his eyes: "With this burnt seal, it means that it is definitely my family's resignation. But who took it out?" Zhiping's eyes were full of anger. "Are these scales usually placed in factories?" "It's not in the factory. Large scales are used in the factory." "Then it was taken from your house?" "Yes, who took it out?" "and this." Police officer Tachibana took out Yudama in frustration. "Even if you search every house in the whole village, you still have to find the owner of this cocoon jade..." "But...officer." An angry voice interrupted Officer Tachibana: "Look at this!" Kosuke Kindaichi, Officer Isokawa, and Officer Tachibana couldn't help but widen their eyes when they saw what Naohei grabbed from the table. Apparently, these are blessing items plucked from cocoon jade, with turtle masks.Lucky arrows, Qianliang box contains big fortune tents, dice, etc., as well as treasure ships. "Where are these things found?" Officer Tachibana's tone was very sharp. "Someone left it in my yard." "Drop it in your yard?" "Yes, after Katsuhira informed us, when we were about to rush out from the back door, we saw these things were thrown in the yard. Katsuhira told us that Fumiko's belt was tied with Yudama, so we immediately I went to check the table of gods, only to find that the cocoon jade on it was gone." "The cocoon jade belongs to your family too?" At this moment, Officer Tachibana's expression was as ugly as if the world was coming. "So, who took it out?" In the ears of Police Officer Isokawa and Kosuke Kindaichi, it seemed that they heard the murderer's ridicule like waves again, coming wave after wave...

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