Tang Dynasty Prison Administration

090: The Murder Case of the Buddha of Shazhou

As the performers began to demonstrate, Su Wen knew from the start that this was magic, but it became increasingly outrageous as it went on, even conjuring up a rabbit out of thin air, and finally, at the very end, a horse appeared out of nowhere.

The horse galloped around the field, and after running a few more steps, it disappeared in an instant, which greatly shocked Su Wen!

Even Su Wen couldn't figure out how it was created. Could it really be magic?

Of course, that's obviously impossible. So there's only one explanation: using the light to induce hallucinations or visual illusions, or being drugged to induce hallucinations.

However, Su Wen and Xu Ge didn't eat anything, and there was no particular smell here.

Su Wen only felt strange, truly strange, a strangeness without any scientific explanation.

Of course, there may be scientific theories, but Su Wen doesn't know them yet!

Next up were sword swallowing, stilt walking, breaking large stones on the chest, and balancing spear tips on the throat, etc., which were almost replicas of modern acrobatics, or rather, modern acrobatics were an evolution of ancient acrobatics.

Later, Su Wen saw a woman who was about six feet tall and rather thin, and she began to demonstrate her special skills.

To untie the copper rings, she locked her body with the rings and then began to wrap herself around them in various ways until she finally freed herself. The most exaggerated part was that she curled herself up to be less than the size of a ball.

Xu Ge, standing to the side, exclaimed in amazement, "This person is like he's made of mud. How could someone so big manage to shrink himself to this size?"

Su Wen whispered, "Bone-shrinking technique!"

The moment he said this, Su Wen's mind began to flash through all the locked-room mysteries, and he even began to recall what the restaurant owner had said back then.

There have been a lot of rats lately, they're always chirping and squeaking, and they've even stolen my garlic.

Lu Yao's fingers were soaked with the color of garlic.

Lu Yao's alibi states that he went out to herd livestock and returned the next morning. According to the rules of herding, one must go out at 9:00 AM and return to the city before dusk. Why didn't he come back that day? He even said he was away for several days.

Su Wen understood instantly.

The murderer did not infiltrate on the same day. Instead, he took advantage of the opportunity to return to the city a few days earlier while herding livestock, and used his bone-shrinking technique to ambush the victim in a closet in the victim's room. Then, he came out one night and killed the victim!

As for the cattle and sheep, they were handed over to the Tibetan man who had been captured by Zhang Yi. He was not a spy, but someone who looked after the cattle and sheep while Lu Yao was away!

So how did Lu Yao, the murderer, know how the murdered person would enter that room?

Immediately, Su Wen thought of Shen Qiushui.

But how were the other victims killed?

The former governor could also be an explanation. Lu Yao crawled into the temple through that hole beforehand and hid inside, waiting for the right moment. But how did he know that the former governor would go to the temple?

In addition, there were seven other dead.

Suddenly, Su Wen frowned, and his mind exploded with thoughts that he had previously thought there was no connection between the seven dead.

But now that I think about it, all seven of the deceased were connected.

First, of the first seven dead, three were newly appointed market managers, two were household registration clerks, one was a patrol officer, and one was in charge of managing shops.

These people may seem to have no connection, but in fact they are the most closely connected because they all go to the market.

If you go to the market, you will see Shen Qiushui. If Shen Qiushui deliberately leads people to a specific location, and then Lu Yao makes his move, then it makes sense.

But why would they do that?

Not for money, not for wealth?

Su Wen suddenly realized that Shen Qiushui was extremely beautiful. She could make countless people infatuated with her beauty alone. With just a little trickery, she could drive most men crazy. What benefits would she gain from doing this?

Su Wen seemed to have hit a dead end again, but he didn't want to worry about those things right now.

He immediately stood up and said, "Xu Ge, come with me. Let's go to the tavern where the Tibetan envoy was killed today. I've thought of a very important clue!"

Xu Ge asked, "Master, aren't we going to watch anymore?"

Su Wen didn't answer, but left directly. Xu Ge hurriedly followed after him.

Su Wen led Xu Ge straight to the tavern where the Tibetan envoy had died.

When the two arrived at the restaurant, Su Wen immediately asked a waiter, "I remember the owner told you to throw everything out of the restaurant. Where did you throw it?"

The shopkeeper was taken aback by Su Wen and Xu Ge's aggressive demeanor and quickly said, "I saw that thing was quite valuable, so I took it back to my own home!"

"Take me to see it!" Su Wen said.

The waiter responded in unison, "Yes, sirs!"

Before long, Su Wen and Xu Ge arrived at the shopkeeper's house and saw the cabinet. Without any hesitation, Su Wen pulled out all the drawers.

The cabinet had about seven or eight drawers, the largest of which could only fit a ball. Su Wen carefully examined the sides of each drawer.

If it really was Lu Yao, then he would definitely have left some traces.

Sure enough, Su Wen found a trace of yellowish-brown on the edge of a drawer. He smelled it and, although the wood smell was strong, he could still faintly smell a hint of garlic.

Su Wen stood up and said, "Xu Ge, arrest him!"

Xu Ge looked completely bewildered and hurriedly asked, "Master, who are we arresting?"

Su Wendao said, "Arrest Lu Yao and Shen Qiushui together and take them to the government office!"

After saying that, Su Wen and Xu Ge headed towards Lu Yao and Shen Qiushui's residence. When they arrived at the market, it was bustling with activity, but Shen Qiushui's cloth merchant's door was tightly closed.

Su Wen then went to the spice shop next door and asked, "Where is Lu Yao?"

At this moment, a middle-aged, overweight man slowly walked out and said, "He asked for leave today, saying he was sick and needed to rest for a day. I see that he is usually honest and hardworking, so I gave him a day off to rest!"

Su Wen then asked, "What about Shen Qiushui's family next door?"

The fat man hesitated for a moment before saying, "I don't know!"

Xu Ge looked at Su Wen and asked, "Master, did they escape?"

Su Wen seemed to be deep in thought, his brain working at a rapid pace, going through every scene of the entire case carefully.

After killing nine people, he suddenly remembered something from the crowd in the main hall of the government office earlier that day: someone said that the new Buddha needed to kill one more person to make a total of ten.

Su Wen suddenly remembered something: ten people, the ten major sins of Buddhism. Could it be that the nine people who were killed each corresponded to one of the nine major sins?

Su Wen pondered and began muttering to himself, trying to find the last person. If it really was Shen Qiushui and Lu Yao, they would definitely kill the tenth person, because this was a task given to them by someone else.

Suddenly, a scene flashed through Su Wen's mind: in court earlier that day, Shen Qiushui glanced at Zhang Yi and then lowered her head, while Zhang Yi also glanced at Shen Qiushui.

Looking back, Zhang Yi had helped Shen Qiushui, and Shen Qiushui knew him; in other words, it was highly likely that the two knew each other.

Among the ten major crimes, one is the crime of not killing. As a border army commander, Zhang Yi often clashed with the Tibetans and even fought in battles in his early years. In other words, the next target is very likely to be Zhang Yi!

Thinking of this, Su Wen immediately looked at Xu Ge and said, "Quick, go find Zhang Yi! The killer's next target is Zhang Yi!"