Todasan said: "Those children who first discovered the body, can I ask them again?"
The prefect said: "Of course, you can do so. Anyone you want to interrogate can do so." This time, the prefect did not say that this was not necessary and that was not necessary like the last time he investigated the murder of an official. Because last time, the prefect said
Tian Shan has said that when he investigates the case, he will re-investigate it as necessary. But in this case, solving the case is the most important thing. As long as the case can be solved, nothing matters."
The village chief immediately sent someone to call the children who found the body that day.
Among these children, the oldest was eight or nine years old, and the youngest was only four or five years old. Todayama left the oldest child behind and asked the others to leave first and come back later.
Todayama said to the child: "Can you tell me what happened when you saw the body?"
The child nodded and said: "That day, a few of us went to fish in the ditch in front of us. The water was too cold and we couldn't catch any fish. So we came back. As soon as we got here, I saw a man lying there with a head on his head.
It was full of blood. He was lying on the ground like this. The snow around his head was red. He was so scared. We all stood there and didn't dare to go over and look. In the end, I came over. After I looked, I found out that it was Brother Jiji with a head.
They were all dead, so we walked around the field ridge and ran back from there. We shouted "Brother Jiji is dead!" along the way until we ran to the door of Jiji's courtyard. After saying this, people from their family followed.
Look, they took the person home and asked us to call the village chief. That’s it.”
Todasan said: "When did you find the body?"
"It's almost lunch."
The magistrate said: "It's around noon. This is what Jiji's family said. They have lunch at noon every day. It's like this every day. That day, the eldest young master Jiji went out and didn't come back just after dinner time. He was about to take someone away.
Looking for it, I heard these children running and saying that they saw the eldest son of the Jiji family dead on the road. It only took a cup of tea to run from here to Jiji's house. So it was almost that time."
Todayama asked the child again: "Did you touch the body at that time?"
"No, who dares to touch it? It's so scary, my skull will be smashed!"
"Who touched the body first?"
"It should be the servants of the Jiji family. We called them here, and they hugged Brother Jiji and cried. Then they took the body back."
Todasan said: "When you found the body, did you see anyone else next to it?"
"Yes, some brothers, sisters, aunts and fathers are working in the fields! After hearing my call, they all came over to see me, and then asked me to call someone."
"Oh? Where were they then?"
The child pointed to several places, all hundreds of steps away, some far away and some near.
hts said to the chief: "Can you call these people?"
The head of the village quickly called someone. Soon, these people came. Before that, Todayama asked the children again, and their explanation was similar to what the older child said before.
Todayama asked the children to go to the location where they were at that time. He took a look and found that some seats were different from what the child said just now. He called the child and asked, and he said that he didn't pay attention at the time, just the general location.
Todayama called the nearest child over and asked: "At that time, did you see the eldest young master of the Jiji family passing by?"
The child shook his head: "At that time, I was digging the soil in the field and didn't pay attention to when he passed by. Later, when I heard the shouting, I ran over to take a look and realized that something happened."
"Did you see anyone else passing by?"
"Didn't see it."
Todayama looked into his eyes and said, "You didn't come here yourself at noon that day?"
The child was stunned and said: "No!"
"Really not?"
"Of course not!" the child replied firmly, looking at Mount Toda without evading his eyes.
Todasan said: "Remember it carefully. Did you really never come here before?"
The child said: "I really have never been here. I have been digging the ground. They can testify. Please take a closer look."
"I will check." Todasan said.
He called the man nicknamed Harry Oil over again and conducted questioning, which confirmed the child's statement. They had been in the fields and talking to each other.
Todayama interrogated these people separately. As a result, they had been in the fields all morning and were able to prove each other and found no clues.
Todayama told the prefect: "The deceased was killed by multiple blows to the back of the head. I looked at the corpse and found that there were no resistance wounds on the body of the deceased. This shows that the murderer made a surprise attack rather than a fight between the two parties. At the same time, they were nearby
No unusual noises were heard. No one was seen passing by. Moreover, the jade pendant and money bag around the deceased's waist were not stolen. This can rule out murder for money, and it is likely to be a premeditated murder. Therefore, the direction of investigation is
He should be the enemy of the deceased!"
"That's right!" The magistrate praised: "The analysis makes sense."
Toda Sandao: "If we want to investigate his enemies, we can only go to Jiji's house."
When they arrived at Jiji's house, the eldest son, the third son and several grandsons of Jiji's family came to greet them at the door. The second son of Jiji's family was an official in the capital and did not come back.
Jiji's house is very luxurious and elegant. There are two plaques hanging on the lintel. The top is Jiji's Mansion, and the bottom plaque reads "One family, three grades" and several large gilt characters.
When the guests and hosts were seated in the living room, the boss of the Jiji family held his hands and said: "My father is old, sad that his grandson was killed, and cannot afford to fall ill. So I cannot come out to greet you all in person. Please forgive me."
The prefect said: "This time I invited Mr. Todasan Toji from Kyoto to come here just for this case. Mr. Toshi's ability to solve the case is very impressive."
The boss of the Jiji family said calmly: "We don't care whether the case is solved successfully or not. What I care about is who killed my son."
Toda-san said: "I also want to know the answer. In order to know the answer, I must conduct an investigation at your residence. I hope you will cooperate."
"Okay!" The eldest son of the Jiji family simply said.
Toda-san said: "I need to ask each one individually. Is that okay?"
"Okay!" Da Dao, the boss of Jiji's family.
"Then let me ask you first."
The boss of the Jiji family nodded and told everyone else to go out and wait.
Todayama asked: "When did the young master go out? What did he go out for?"
Lao Dadao: "I only found out about this later. The old man and I were talking in the house. Later, the concierge said that my son could go out at almost noon. He only said what he was going to do, but he didn't say.
The concierge didn’t even ask.”
"Does the young master have no followers?"
"Yes, but that day he didn't let his followers follow him when he went out. He went out alone."
"Why?"
"This was never clear. For this reason, we hung up and beat the follower for several days and asked why he didn't follow. The follower only said that the young master refused to follow, but did not tell the reason or where he went."
Todayama was thoughtful, thought for a moment, and then asked: "When will he go out specifically?"
"It's almost time for lunch - our family has dinner on time at noon."
"How long until noon?"
"Well..., there should be time for a meal. At that time, the concierge also said, 'It's time to have lunch soon, young master, are you still going out?' The young master ignored him and left."
Todayama asked: "Then when did you get the news that the young master had been killed?"
"It's about a meal's time past."
"So, the young master should have been killed during two meals around noon!"
"That's how it should be."
"Does the young master have any enemies? - I hope I can tell the truth! Only by telling the truth can we accurately analyze the case and find the right direction for the investigation."
"Okay!" The boss thought for a while and said, "How should I put it? For a family like ours, which has land and land, and collects rent and debts every year, some people will be jealous of us, no matter how big the hatred is.
"
"No matter what the reason is. As long as there is a grudge or someone who might kill your son, tell me."
"Okay!" The eldest son of the Jiji family thought for a moment and said, "There are three people who may kill my son. One is Jiji You, one is Jijicai, and one is Jijigao."
"What do they have to do with your son?"
"That Jijigui made my son angry because he insulted our eldest father and said he was fake mercy. My son brought his servants and beat him up. Several teeth were knocked out. He hated my son very much. Once
She threatened to kill my son several times. That Jijicai owed my family a lot of money, so she wanted to use her sister to seduce my son to pay off the debt. Naturally, my son didn't like this bitch. She took the initiative to seduce my son repeatedly.
, my son was also honest, so he fell into the trap and went to bed with him. He rushed in to catch him, and his sister said in turn that it was my son who raped her, and she cried and wanted to hang herself. Jiji just said how much money it would cost.
This is obviously a matter of confusing right and wrong and extortion! My son was naturally angry and beat him up."
Toda Sandao: "If you have anything to say, you can reason calmly. How can you just hit someone casually?"
The boss said hurriedly: "It's called a beating, but in fact it's just a push and a shove. It's nothing. It's a rural area, so it's nothing."
Todasan said: "I heard that your family has a third grader, which is also a scholarly family. It is always wrong for a gentleman to hit someone with his words but not his hands."
The boss knew that he was in the wrong, so he smiled and said: "I also reprimanded him severely for this. But, alas! I will never have the chance to reprimand him in the future!"
Todasan said: "You can talk about the third one."
"The third Jijifu is a gambler who gambles excessively. He gambles with others all day long and defaults on his debts when he loses. He gambled with my son and was unlucky. He owed a lot of money and couldn't pay it back. My son asked
He sold the land to pay off the debt, but he refused to do it. My brother couldn't stand it, so he stood up for his nephew and came to reason with him. Not only did he not listen, he also beat my brother first. My brother was very angry and took him to the Yamen.
, and gave him a good beating. This kind of thing was originally a matter of the Yamen, and he insisted on blaming us. He went around and said that our family was bullying others. Isn’t that annoying? So I gave him a good beating. This
But he who offended us has already been sent to prison, and he is still so unreasonable. For this kind of..."
"I understand!" Todayama interrupted, "Apart from these three people, is there anyone else who has any grudge against the eldest young master or your Su family?"
"It's mainly these three. Everything else is trivial. If there is hatred, it's mainly them!"
"Since you suspected they did it, didn't you investigate?"
"Of course we will investigate. We are scholars and come from a scholarly family. We don't just hit people casually. This is what our old man said. Therefore, we can only send the three of them to the Yamen and let the Yamen investigate."
Todayama turned around and looked at the prefect.
The prefect said: "That's what happened. However, these three people are not criminals."
