"Report to Magistrate Wen and Magistrate Ye, Magistrate Tu of Jiang'an County died in Hongding Restaurant."
The leading officer quickly came up to report with a solemn expression.
"What, Tuhong is dead?"
Wen Yuming looked at Ye Chengguan and a group of subordinate officials with a surprised look on his face.
Ye Chengguan was also shocked for a while.
First, Liu Cheng committed suicide out of fear of guilt, and now Tuhong suddenly died suddenly without trial, which is really incredible.
He was vaguely aware that this might not be simple.
If it was just one incident, it could be understood as a coincidence, but the continuous occurrence of such strange things has to make people suspicious.
Tuhong committed many evil deeds, and it is reasonable to commit suicide out of fear of crime, but Liu Cheng's death has always made him worried.
I'm afraid Liu Cheng was not just involved in a few cases of persuading people to commit suicide while in office.
Ye Chengguan became more and more confused at this time:
Why are they so afraid of interrogation?
Or maybe someone doesn't want them to be interrogated?
Thinking of this, he slowly and erratically looked at Wen Yuming, who was questioning the officers in detail.
"Tuhong is avoiding seeing you today. He must have realized that our government would find out evidence of his evil deeds a long time ago, and he committed suicide before the trial in fear of guilt."
Wen Yuming made the conclusion first, and then looked at Ye Chengguan unhurriedly: "Zhixian Ye, go with me to Hongding Restaurant to find out the cause of Tuhong's death."
Ye Chengguan nodded thoughtfully, immediately got on his green horse and led others in front to lead the way, and hurried to Hongding Restaurant.
Wen Yuming told Tang Haoran to stay at the county government office to collect the prisoners, and he also brought some people from the state capital to sit on sedan chairs and followed him away.
However, his bulky physique made the bearers have a hard time walking on the road like a turtle crawling. Ye Chenggui finally lost his patience and disappeared at the end of the street while whipping his horse.
After noon, the Hongding Tower, which should have been quiet, was extremely lively at this time, with an endless stream of people watching.
After receiving the message back to the Yamen, the officers in Jiangling City learned that a murder had occurred in the restaurant. They rushed over immediately and surrounded all the important streets of the restaurant extremely tightly.
When Ye Chengguan arrived, the leading officer led him upstairs and reported in detail:
"I asked the shopkeepers and waiters of the restaurant, and they all said that Tuzhi County has been here since the restaurant opened. He ordered a table of food and drinks and drank for a long time, and no one dared to disturb him. Later, someone
The waiter saw that it was too quiet inside, so he came up to ask if he wanted more food and wine, and found that Tuzhi Xian had died in the side room."
"He hasn't seen anyone?"
Ye Chengguan glanced at the guard suspiciously.
I remember that the officials in Jiang'an County said that Tuhong had something important to do and was delayed.
The officer hesitated and reported: "From the tone of the shopkeeper and the waiter, Tuzhi County really wanted to meet someone here, but they never saw anyone coming."
"This is strange."
Ye Chengguan sneered.
As soon as they entered the wing on the top floor, they saw a stiff male corpse lying on the master's chair, with congealed blood on the corner of his mouth spreading to his neck.
"Autopsy."
Ye Chengkui calmly gave instructions to the man who was following him, then sat on a small stool not far away and waited for the result. He looked around from time to time, but found no sign that the doors or windows had been opened.
Wu Zuo took the autopsy tools and carefully examined the body while making a detailed report: "There were no injuries on the body of the deceased, and there were no signs of a fight in the house, ruling out the possibility of a fight or homicide."
The scribe was recording carefully on the side.
"The silver needles from the samples taken from the corpse and the food and wine on the table were all silver-white, so it was not murder by poisoning."
Wu Zuo put away the silver needles one by one and examined various parts of the body, and finally came to the conclusion: "The neck was stiff and there was blockage in the esophagus. He probably died of a sudden myocardial infarction."
"Sudden heart attack?"
Ye Chengguan stood up dubiously, slowly circling the corpse back and forth, and then turned his attention to the table where the dishes were placed.
He inspected the leftover dishes on the table one by one, picked up the unfinished wine bottle, swung it to the root of his nose and took a sniff.
The smell of wine is a bit pungent.
He picked up the wine glass in front of Tuhong and smelled it carefully, and a faint fragrance hit his nose.
He sneered faintly: "Obviously, the wine Tuzhi County drinks is not just the taste in the pot."
After thinking for a while, he took another empty cup on the table and took a deep breath. A complex smell suddenly swept into his taste buds. There was the pungency of soju but it seemed to be mixed with a hidden fragrance.
"I'm afraid someone has already been in this house."
Ye Chengguan muttered to himself: Otherwise, how could one drink two glasses of wine by himself?
He immediately called the waiter and asked, "How many bottles of wine have you served Tuzhi County today?"
"Two pots."
The waiter replied without thinking: "At noon, the magistrate finished a pot of wine, and asked the young man to remove the empty bottle and replace it with new wine. Later, he told the young man not to come up and disturb him again."
Ye Chenggui held up the empty glass and asked again: "Is there any difference between the two bottles of wine?"
"There is no difference."
The waiter looked confident: "Tuzhi County loves our store's soju Chun Shang Xue most, so I only ordered this wine."
Ye Chengguan suddenly understood and handed the remaining glass of wine in front of Tu Hong. The waiter smelled it and immediately shook his head: "This wine has a very strange taste. It is not owned by our store."
Ye Chengwei nodded and handed the empty cup in his hand to him. The waiter nodded quickly when he heard it: "This is the smell of snow in spring."
"very good."
Ye Chengguan frowned and smiled.
Now it is absolutely certain that someone has been to this wing and brought additional wine.
However, no toxins were found in the body during the autopsy, and judging from the smell hidden in the empty glass, the person who entered had also drank the wine he had brought.
It can be seen that there is nothing strange about the wine.
So it was not the drink that killed Tuhong.
Thinking of this, he continued to look around in front of the desk, his eyebrows flashing lightly and not daring to miss any corner.
After looking at it for a long time, he suddenly found a small particle on the bottom of the table where the empty cup had been placed. He picked it up and smelled it, and immediately smelled a faint fishy smell.
Comparing the dishes on the table, I found that there was no such thing on the table.
He then ordered the officers to search around on the ground, and again found a few fine particles with the same smell as the substance.
Ye Chengguan gathered these black particles together, put them in a handkerchief, spread them in front of the waiter, and asked sternly: "What are they?"
The waiter repeatedly looked at it and sniffed it with his nose, and finally shook his head in confusion.
Ye Chengguan had no choice but to turn his attention to the servant in the room.
It was extremely difficult for the police officers to even visit such a luxurious restaurant on weekdays. Even if they could smell the smell, they all shook their heads in confusion.
Ye Chengguan had no choice but to look back at the corpse and ordered the man in a deep voice: "Take the corpse back to the Jiang'an County government office, disembowel it and conduct an autopsy to find this foreign object."
Thinking back to the few times that girl from the Hua family made a fuss about dead bodies, and there was an enigmatic old beggar beside her, maybe this girl could give him the answer.
Wrapping the handkerchief and hiding it in his sleeve, he was about to take people away, but he saw Wen Yuming arriving late with a big belly.
"How's it going, Brother Ye, have you gained anything?"
Wen Yuming put his hands tightly on Master Mu Xian and asked breathlessly.
"No conclusion yet."
Ye Chengguan smiled coldly.
Inadvertently, his apricot eyes flickered towards a willow window propped up at the end of the corridor outside the wing.