Lin Ping'an nodded, "There are no mistakes or omissions."
The one-eyed middle-aged man waved his hand and asked the jailer to take Lin Ping'an down and bring in another prisoner.
In this way, the one-eyed middle-aged man randomly interrogated five prisoners, and the words he came up with were exactly the same as Lin Pingan's, proving that no one was telling lies.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that prisoners are connected in series, but it is almost impossible for so many prisoners to be connected in such a consistent way.
The one-eyed middle-aged man looked at the other officials and smiled, "Everyone, have you found any clues?"
The young Jinyiwei Qianhu spread his hands, his hands were very white and slender, "I am here just to listen and take notes. Investigating cases is not my specialty, so I will not express my opinions, so as not to disturb your thoughts.
"
The one-eyed old man nodded slightly. This was exactly what he wanted. He asked several people for their opinions just to avoid them thinking that he was arbitrary. He didn't really want them to express any opinions. It would be best if they all became mute!
The county magistrate looked at his eyes, his nose and his heart, and turned into a wooden man. I couldn't speak and I couldn't hear.
The right minister of the Ministry of Punishment wanted to remain silent, but then he thought about it. Although he gave up the leadership of the case, he couldn't let the spotlight be given to the Demon Slayer Department. Didn't the Ministry of Punishment not want to lose face?
Thinking of this, he coughed twice and said, "I would like to express my opinion first."
The one-eyed middle-aged man frowned imperceptibly, "You're just talking, shut up!"
The right minister of the Ministry of Justice sorted out his thoughts.
"First of all, there are two more people in the team of exiles. One is a tiger monster. Who is the other? Ordinary people will definitely not pretend to be exiles. What is the purpose of the two monsters lurking in?"
"Secondly, after the tiger demon was forced to reveal himself, he took away officials and dozens of prisoners and government officials, and then released them back. What was the purpose of the tiger demon doing this? Is it really just to ask a few questions?"
"There is another prisoner who was taken away by the tiger demon and has not returned, that is, the prisoner next to Lin Ping'an. Who is he? Why did the tiger demon not let him back?"
"The prisoner next to Lin Ping'an was taken away and has not returned. However, there are still 218 prisoners in the prison, not one is missing. Is there another lurker still among this group of prisoners?"
"The last thing is the environmental factor. What's so magical about the stretch from Bajiao Pavilion to Linfu County? Why did ten years pass overnight?"
He spoke eloquently and in one breath, identifying all the doubtful points.
The one-eyed middle-aged man thought what he said was nonsense, "So?"
Are you testing me? The right minister of the Ministry of Justice was a little unhappy, "I think we can start from four directions."
"One of the household registrations is to check the household registration information of all the 218 prisoners in the prison and find out who the prisoner was who was taken away and did not come back. The person whose household registration information is wrong must be another lurker.
"
"The second tiger monster, as long as you catch that tiger monster, all problems will be solved."
"The third method of torture is that the tiger demon has a secret method of controlling puppets. The officials and dozens of prisoners who were taken away and released by the tiger demon should be severely punished to see if there are puppets."
"The fourth is to search the mountains, carefully search the mountains and forests along the road from Bajiao Pavilion to Linfu County, looking for clues."
After hearing this, the one-eyed middle-aged man nodded. Although the direction of the investigation mentioned by the right minister had no bright spots, it was quite satisfactory. It seemed that the Ministry of Punishment was not all empty-handed, but it still had a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
The one-eyed middle-aged man handed the household registration list to the Linfu County Magistrate, "Your Excellency, County Magistrate, please check the household registration information of the two hundred and eighteen prisoners in the prison to see whose household registration information is wrong. In addition, please check the household registration information of the dozens of prisoners."
The prisoners who were taken away and released by the tiger demon were kept in solitary confinement, and I will use the Eye of Deception later."
"Yes, I will go and do it immediately."
The county magistrate respectfully took the household registration list with both hands and left in a hurry.
The one-eyed middle-aged man looked at the right minister of the Ministry of Punishment and said, "Your Excellency, in the name of the Ministry of Punishment, please issue an official arrest warrant for the tiger monster. The key areas are the surrounding counties. It should not have gone far yet."
Aren't you very capable? You're not asking me to do something now! The right servant of the Ministry of Justice said calmly, "I know what to do, and I don't need your instruction."
The one-eyed middle-aged man had no time to fuss with him and looked at the young Jinyiwei Qianhu, "Jinyiwei's spies are all over the world, and they are careful and good at searching. I would like to ask Qianhu about the mountain search on the road from Bajiao Pavilion to Linfu County."
Mr. Hu."
"OK."
The young guard Qianhu chuckled lightly, crossed his arms, and turned to leave.
The Taoist nun who had been silent until now suddenly spoke, her voice was ethereal, like a voice coming from outside the world, "The ancestor has devoted himself to studying the Taoist fruits of time for many years. If you find any traces related to time, I hope you can tell me about it."
The young Jin Yiwei was startled for a moment, stopped, and smiled back, "No problem."
The other people also had strange eyes. They were pure and fair, with picturesque features and beautiful appearance. It was strange for such a young and beautiful Taoist nun to call herself a poor Taoist.
Zheng Yan'er thought to herself: How painful it must be for the stinky men in the world.
The jailers moved tables and stools and brought tea in.
A few people were drinking tea, no one was talking, and they were thinking about things in silence. The Taoist nun didn't drink tea, so she held Fuchen in her hand, twisted the secret formula with the other, and sat quietly in meditation.
Not long after, the county magistrate came back in a hurry, "The household registrations have been checked clearly, and all the 218 prisoners are correct. In addition, I have detained the 36 prisoners who were taken away and released by the tiger demon in solitary confinement."
The one-eyed middle-aged man and the right minister of the Ministry of Punishment looked at each other, and then looked away with disgust at each other. The two of them understood in an instant that the prisoner who was taken away by the tiger demon and did not come back was another lurker!
That is, the prisoner next to Lin Pingan!
The one-eyed middle-aged man asked the jailer to bring Lin Pingan out again, and gave Lin Pingan a pen, ink, paper and inkstone, "Draw a rough picture of the prisoner next to you."
Lin Pingan rolled up the sleeve of his right hand with his left hand, and held the pen in his right hand, which was dipped in ink.
Seeing his standardized way of holding the pen, the one-eyed middle-aged man's eyes narrowed and he suddenly said, "Have you ever studied?"
Lin Ping'an's hands froze and he said shyly, "I studied in a private school in the village for a few years."
The one-eyed middle-aged man's gaze was as bright as a flashlight, "Specific years."
Lin Ping'an hesitated and said, "Three...three years."
"If I remember correctly, your household registration does not say that you went to school."
The one-eyed middle-aged man smiled playfully, opened the household registration list returned by the county magistrate, turned to the page of Lin Pingan, and tapped it with his fingers.
Lin Ping'an said, "I heard that some official documents of the imperial court occasionally made mistakes, and it was also common for officials who registered household registration to make mistakes and omissions."
"Yeah?"
The one-eyed middle-aged man smiled brightly and said, "I will check it out."
Lin Ping'an fell silent and began to draw on the paper with his brush. He drew a head, a shackled body, and a "criminal" uniform. However, when he reached the facial features, he slowly stopped.
His brows were furrowed, no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't remember it.
He could only put the brush back into the pen holder, "I can't remember what he looks like."
"Can't remember?"
The one-eyed middle-aged man was confused.
The right minister of the Criminal Department sneered, "The prisoner is right next to you. Moreover, when you were interrogating you just now, you also said that he was with you along the way. You also chatted a lot. How can you not remember it clearly? According to my official
Look, you are his accomplice and you are covering him up!"
"Someone is coming!"
The right minister of the Ministry of Punishment looked at the jailer and said, "Exercise punishment!"
The jailer immediately took an iron spiked whip and beat Lin Ping'an severely.
"Pa", "pa"...the prison uniform was torn, the skin was torn, and Lin Ping'an couldn't help but scream.
After about ten lashes, seeing that Lin Ping'an couldn't bear it any longer, the one-eyed middle-aged man raised his hand to stop.
The right assistant minister of the Criminal Department frowned, "Why stop? Exterminating demons is the duty of your Demon Extermination Department. We in the Criminal Department are the experts in using torture on these prisoners. Let him use all the torture instruments in this prison. If I don't believe it, he won't tell me."
.”
The one-eyed middle-aged man shook his head slightly, "He has nothing to do with the prisoner. If he was an accomplice, there would be no need for him to tell the officer about the prisoner's failure to come back, and there was no need to tell us. As long as he didn't tell, no one would know at all.
Who is the prisoner who didn't come back?"
The right minister of the Criminal Department was silent for a moment and said, "Then why didn't he draw the prisoner's face?"
The one-eyed middle-aged man said, "There are many possibilities. Maybe the prisoner used some secret method to prevent Lin Pingan from remembering his appearance; or maybe the prisoner erased some of Lin Pingan's memory."
The one-eyed middle-aged man asked the jailer to take Lin Pingan down and told him to apply some medicine.
Immediately afterwards, the one-eyed middle-aged man asked the county magistrate to take him to where the thirty-six prisoners were held. He raised his hand to lift the one-eyed mask a little, revealing his other eye, and scanned the thirty-six prisoners one by one.
The corner of the right minister's mouth twitched. He thought he was blind in one eye, but he didn't expect it to be hidden.
Zheng Yan'er subconsciously raised her hand to touch her eyes and found that she was not wearing an eye patch, so she had to give up.
"After my observation with the Delusion-breaking Eye, these thirty-six prisoners are all ordinary people, and there are no puppets of tiger monsters sneaking in."
"Of course, it's also possible that the tiger demon's level is too high, and its secret method has eluded my delusion-breaking eyes."
"This possibility is extremely slim and almost non-existent."
"I have been in the Demon Slayer Department for many years, and I have never met a tiger demon with a higher rank than me."
One-eyed middle-aged people are very confident.
To be on the safe side, he went to the area where other exiled prisoners were detained, used his Eye of Deception to observe all the prisoners, and finally concluded that there was nothing wrong with this group of prisoners.
"Only the inspector and the sixteen government officials are left without interrogation. If I were that tiger monster, I would definitely not choose the prisoner to use the secret method of the tiger's minions. The first choice would be the inspector."
The one-eyed middle-aged man put the one-eye mask back on, opened the first page of the household registration list, and looked at the inspector's information, "Go and call that inspector for questioning."