Chapter 46 The Eighth Day

Time: At the beginning of Yinshi, the first moment (according to today's time, it should be 3:15 in the morning). Location: Wuming Villa, Purple Bamboo Garden. Several bonfires formed a circle, crackling and burning in the bamboo forest, splashing out the aroma of charcoal wood. Although it was early morning, it didn't feel cold.Lying on the hammock in the bamboo grove, Ning Xin'er didn't feel sleepy for the time being, although the case was successfully solved, she still had a lot of doubts waiting to be solved, so she asked the third son, "Cao Xiaosan, how did you do it? How do you know the murderer was a beast and not a man?"

The third young master said: "This is a long story, I can't finish it in a while, you should go to bed first, the sky is almost dawn. I will tell you tomorrow." Ning Xin'er said unyieldingly: "But I can't sleep, so you talk slowly and I listen slowly, it can be regarded as singing me a lullaby." The third son said: "I first suspected that the murderer was a beast rather than a person. It started with two dogs. You still remember that when Master Bao Wenbao was investigating the scene where the bodyguard of the Baisheng Bodyguard Bureau was killed, he brought two dogs with him. West Domain dogs trained for many years. These two dogs can trace the escape route of the murderer by sniffing the residual smell at the scene of the crime. They have been successful every time before, but this time, the two dogs were terrified when they arrived at the scene. They are so scared that they can't move. This proves that they smelled something that they dare not smell, and they are terrified. What are they afraid of? Obviously not afraid of people, but afraid of beasts that are stronger and more ferocious than them. This is Their animal instincts, their faculties, their physical appearance, and their ancestral fear of this beast, I have a hunch, may well be a monster of a kind we have never seen before.

"The day before yesterday I deliberately found a book to read. There were many legends of ancient beasts in that book. I flipped to a page and happened to see a monster called gluttony mentioned in the book. This kind of monster is extremely ferocious. He is the notorious king of greed. He cannibalize people insatiably. When he is too full to swallow, he will bite the human body into pieces and chew it before giving up. This is exactly in line with the death conditions of the four bodyguards of Baisheng Bodyguard Bureau. There were five bodyguards traveling together, but the bodies of only four bodyguards were found at the scene. I speculate that the fifth bodyguard has actually been swallowed whole by Taotie, which is why the fifth bodyguard has never been found. The reason for the bodyguard's body. This kind of speculation sounds quite reasonable, but at this time, it is only speculation, and there is still a lack of further evidence.

"The next few murders made me more convinced of my premonition. These dead had no contact with each other before they were alive, and it is absolutely impossible for them to have a common enemy. Even if the murderer wanted to divert the attention of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, there is no need to create the same tragedies in succession. .Only beasts can do this. When a beast is hungry, it will not choose a target. It always attacks the first person it encounters. Its purpose is only one—to eat people. So, where will this beast hide? ? If it is hiding in the city, it will be discovered by the common people. If the common people find this kind of monster that has never been seen before, they will definitely report it to the Yamen or the Ministry of Criminal Justice. After all, this kind of monster has not appeared in the world for hundreds of years. In fact, it is not There were no reports of sightings of any monsters, which meant that the beasts were not hiding in the city.

"Looking at the locations of several murder cases, Yongjinmen, Fengboting, and Qianhumen all happen to be close to the West Lake. Isn't such a vast and vast West Lake the best hiding place for monsters! At this time, I have already With a 50% certainty, after several murders occurred in succession, the Ministry of Criminal Justice imposed a curfew on the whole city. Since the curfew, except for the two policemen Zeng Yaowu and Chang Yangwei who were killed outside Qianhumen, there have been no new murders. Happened, then I was 70% sure. "Following that, the skeletons of the Sirius Seven Killers emerged from the West Lake. They were the seven guys who tried to kill us on the Su Causeway last time. The assassin Xiao Tang killed them and threw their corpses into the lake. He has always been clean and tidy in his work. In just two days, the corpses of seven people were eaten up, including the flesh, blood and internal organs. This is not something a few small fish can do. There must be a carnivore hidden at the bottom of West Lake Huge beast of human flesh. At this moment, I am 90% sure. When you are 90% sure of something, there is no reason not to give it a try.”

Ning Xin'er said: "Why did you choose February 15th?" The third son smiled slightly and said: "February 15th, the night of the full moon. There has been a mysterious connection between the waxing and waning of the moon and the animal nature of wild animals since ancient times. A full moon has power several times greater than that of a waning moon, which can The beast becomes more excited, more violent, more ferocious, and quicker to respond, and a little provocation may make it savage, and the older the wild and untamed beast, the more this mysterious connection with the moon seems to be. Strong. As long as this monster continues to lie dormant at the bottom of the lake, it will easily fall into a state of madness and be lured ashore on a full moon night. Therefore, when I go out, I always look at the sky, which is covered with dark clouds. I Still worried about whether the moon will appear. Fortunately, the moon did appear."

Ning Xin'er asked again: "What happened to that luminous pearl? How did you know that there would be a luminous pearl in Taotie's belly? Did it say so?" The third young master said: "It didn't say this. That night pearl didn't grow in Taotie's stomach, but was accidentally swallowed by Taotie for some reason." Ning Xin'er said: "How do you know this?" The third son danced and said: "It's still my words that are eternal and immortal. I have a hunch. The first batch of victims were the bodyguards of the Baisheng Escort. Obviously, they were killed before they delivered the goods to the ground. The Baisheng Escort is Today, the most expensive bodyguard agency in the world, every time it receives a bodyguard, the value is at least 200,000 taels of silver. The five bodyguards chose to enter Hangzhou in the middle of the night, obviously out of caution, which also shows that the goods that the bodyguards are betting on this trip are very serious. Unusual. However, judging from the scene of the crime, the four bodyguards had nothing but ordinary silk and pearls, which were of very limited value. The fifth missing bodyguard, Yuan Wubing, is on the body, and this thing is not too big, easy to hide, and will not attract attention. In this world, something that can be carried around and is worth more than 200,000 taels of silver Not many. The East China Sea Night Pearl is one of them, and there happens to be a jeweler named Bai in Yangzhou who owns an East China Sea Night Pearl.”

Ning Xin'er suddenly realized, and said: "No wonder that jeweler surnamed Bai came to our villa to ask you to play chess last time. It turned out that he had another purpose." The third son smiled approvingly. proud. But the third son continued: "But you are wrong, very wrong. The jeweler who came to me to play chess last time was not a jeweler named Bai in Yangzhou. The jeweler named Bai in Yangzhou likes to gamble. Whores, but they don’t know anything about Go.” Ning Xin'er thought that the third young master was deliberately teasing her, so she asked angrily: "Then who the hell came to play chess last time?"

The third son said: "You will know tonight, I guarantee you will never think of who he is." Ning Xin'er said: "I don't care who he is, you should continue telling your story." The third young master said: "When I was interrupted by you, I forgot what I just said." Ning Xin'er said: "You just mentioned the Pearl of the East China Sea." The third son thought for a while, and finally remembered.He straightened out his thoughts, and continued, "If a person wanted to hide this East China Sea Night Pearl in the most foolproof way, what would he do?" Lying on the hammock, Ning Xin'er felt extremely comfortable all over, so she Deciding not to use any of his brains, he was too lazy to guess the question, so he asked directly: "What method?"

Seeing that she didn't even want to guess, the third son asked for the answer directly. Feeling that his interest was greatly diminished, he continued boringly: "The safest way is to swallow the Ye Mingzhu into the stomach, without anyone noticing it. Yuan Wu The illness must have been swallowed by Ye Mingzhu. The reason why I speculate this is because of the strange incident that happened in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment. The corpses of the four bodyguards who were torn into pieces by Taotie were carefully sorted out and arranged. The stitching was finally pieced together, and it was parked in the prison room of the Ministry of Punishment. However, when the foreman went to inspect the room again, they found that the four corpses had been torn into pieces again, as if they had never been stitched together. My lord said it was because of the Ministry of Criminal Justice's confiscated houses. In fact, it was not the case. It was because someone wanted to find something in the stomach of the corpse, so they had to tear the person into pieces. It's a pity that Ye Mingzhu was not in the stomachs of the four bodyguards. , but in Yuan Wubing's stomach.

"Yuan Wubing thought that if he swallowed the Ye Mingzhu, he would be safe for this escort. Throughout the ages, there has never been a dart robber who would cut open the belly of every escort. However, cleverness is replaced by cleverness. No, what he encountered this time was not a robber who robbed the darts, but a man-eating beast. I don't know if it was a coincidence or God's will, but the Taotie swallowed Yuan Wubing whole, and this night pearl remained in his body for a long time. into the belly of Taotie. "Since I determined that the murderer was gluttonous, and it has been hiding in the West Lake, I deliberately began to pay attention to the West Lake. Every night, I can vaguely see a light emitting from the bottom of the lake, sometimes near, sometimes far, sometimes dark , sometimes it is bright, but it is also very faint when it is the brightest. Most people can't see it, but it is enough to attract my attention. But I am too lazy to find out. "Until that night, that is, the night when we met Sirius Qisha on the Su Causeway, you saw a boat with no lights and no flags. For a while, the boat shook violently. After a while, The boat stabilized. Then the boat left the center of the lake and headed towards the Town God's Temple, disappearing into the darkness. The light appeared on the boat, and the light made an indistinct low sound, and then returned to The bottom of the lake. I decided that it must not be a small fish that can glow, and it is impossible for a fish to leave the water and run to the boat." Ning Xin'er wondered: "The wind was down at the time, so I heard the sound, but why didn't I see the light?" The third son shrugged and said: "I was born with divine eyes, how can you compare with me?" Ning Xin'er stretched her waist, and said: "You're smug again. I'm a little tired, so I don't bother to get up and beat you up. You're lucky. Let me ask you, who owns that boat? Who are the people on board? What's the relationship?" The third son said: "I will know this soon." Ning Xin'er saw that the third son deliberately put on a serious look and suppressed the smile on his face, so he knew that he had a ghost in his heart.Ning Xin'er said: "Actually, you already know who owns that boat, but you don't want to say it yet, do you?" The third son coughed to cover up his embarrassment, and said, "You are really smart." Ning Xin'er said: "Of course, if you don't want to say that you have your reasons, I won't ask, anyway, you will tell me sooner or later. When a man doesn't want to say something, it's better for a smart woman not to talk about it." Ask again." The third young master slapped his hands and said: "Come back to business, in an instant, I had a premonition again. I had a premonition that the light came from Taotie's body. But I didn't understand how it glowed at the time. I didn't It is mentioned that Taotie glows like a firefly. It is said that it is God’s will, karma, and it has been tried and tested. If Taotie didn’t eat Yuan Wubing, but just ate another bodyguard, it would not have killed Donghai. The luminous pearl is swallowed into the stomach. Even if it swallows any other pearl, it just swallows the luminous pearl of the East China Sea, so at night, it will emit light from its mouth and nostrils. There is no way to control it. Although it is powerful and killing people like weeds, it has nothing to do with this fist-sized luminous pearl that fell into its stomach. If it weren't for the light from the East China Sea luminous pearl, even I know it is hiding in the West Lake, but I can only do nothing. In the West Lake, which is a thousand acres wide, the hope of finding a hiding beast is really very slim. But the world is so strange, it is eaten A dead person, in turn, took its life. How can human beings match the miracle of good fortune." Ning Xin'er said: "Didn't you say that you had saved Sikong Kongkong's life? But when you were about to hand over the Donghai Yemingzhu to Tang Situi, he suddenly appeared and stole the Donghai Yemingzhu halfway. Isn't this repaying kindness with hatred?" The third son said: "'A bitch is ruthless, an actor is ruthless.' A person who is used to being a thief can still expect him to be able to distinguish between grievances and grievances? Sikong Kongkong once said that in the world, he can steal what he wants from anyone. Steal anything but one." "And that person is you?" Ning Xin'er asked knowingly, and said in a mocking tone. "Don't be unconvinced, that person is really me." The third son said, "So he has been waiting for an opportunity to steal something from me, since the day he met me, he has always wanted to do this He tried thousands of times to steal something from me, but he didn't succeed once. I thought he would give up. This time I was really careless. I never thought he would infiltrate the Imperial Army Among them, this will allow him to sneak attack. It's cheap for this kid." Ning Xin'er pursed her lips, dissatisfied and said: "The precious Ye Mingzhu was stolen, you don't feel a pity at all?" The third son said indifferently: "The sages and sages among men have a saying: 'Don't be happy with things, don't be sad with yourself.' It's just a bead, how happy it is to gain, and how hurt it is to lose it. There is nothing to be sorry about. Besides, the bead is originally not mine."