Xiangye

Chapter 29 A move in my heart

After the two returned to the city, Gao Wen walked around the town of Zichuan for a long time and asked ten relevant people.

He had already decided in his heart that Miss Shi's family must have eloped with someone, but after asking for a long time, whenever he brought the topic to men and women, everyone shook their heads and said, "Impossible, there is no such thing." "Shi Who is a scholar, he is very evil, who would dare to tease his daughter?" "Anyway, I don't have the guts."

The so-called "evil" is actually a local dialect of the Hancheng Ming Dynasty, which means: fierce, bad temper, unkind, and incapable of dealing with people.

Shi Asan, the daughter of the Shi family, is also gentle and good-looking.At the age of 16, there are also many matchmakers who come to propose marriage.However, they were all scared away by the bride price offered by the Shi family.Old scholar Shi asked for a high price, but also said that the future son-in-law must be a famous scholar.

Just kidding, there are not many scholars in Shaanxi, and most of the famous scholars have already married, but it is hard to find a son-in-law.

Moreover, this incident reminded Shi Xiucai.After discovering that her daughter had grown into a big girl, she watched very closely.Whenever a young man dared to say a word to Shi Ah San, the old man would come to his door and scold him angrily.In the end, no matter how old you are, whether you are married or not.As long as it is male, I dare not look at Miss Shi more.

In a word, the old man is a bit perverted.

And Miss Shi Asanshi is cowardly, so naturally she refuses to have any contact with any man.

After asking for a long time, his mouth became dry and tongue dry, and Gao Wen didn't do anything.It seems that Ms. Shi's disappearance is not like eloping with someone as I thought before, so how did this person get lost?
In this way, the whole day passed.

On the second day, Gao Wen went out of the city for a long time.The snow was heavier, and a thick layer had already accumulated on the ground, reaching ankles.Three slippery steps, cold and tired, still nothing.

In the early morning of the third day, just as he left the city gate, Gao Wen was startled suddenly.Today is the last day of Li Jinbao's deadline to solve the case. If Miss Shi Asanshi is not found again, the Seventh Uncle may have to be beaten again tomorrow.He still can't get out of bed, if he is beaten again, with Han Kui's viciousness, he is afraid that he will be a handicapped person for the rest of his life, and the team leader will naturally not be able to do it.

Li Jinbao retired due to disability, and Han Kui's next step is to deal with me, Gao Wen.Although a certain person is not afraid, he hates being harassed by this fly all the time.

If we go to visit Zichuan Town again like this, we may still find nothing.

Thinking of this, Gawain was a little dejected.On a snowy day, it would be a little lack of motivation to walk more than ten miles.

Converting these tens of miles into the length unit of later generations, it is only about seven kilometers. If you drive, just kick the accelerator, and it will only take 10 minutes.In fact, the county seat is not far from Yuchuan Town, and you can see it when you look up when the weather is good.The problem is that the road is really difficult. After walking for a few miles, the cloth shoes on the feet get into the snow and become wet and uncomfortable.

Fortunately, there was a tea shed by the side of the road, and several porters were drinking tea by the fire.

Seeing the steaming white gas coming out of it, Gao Wen couldn't stand the temptation any longer, so he went in, asked the boss to serve a cup of hot tea, and roasted the wet socks while eating the hot soup. Clean outside.

Seeing an official come in, to be honest, the porters in the tea shed were a little nervous, and each dropped two copper coins and left after they couldn't eat two bites.The owner of the tea shed came over to greet him graciously, and laughed along with him: "This official invited me. Officials from the Hancheng County Government and Tongguan Road go in and out of this road every day. The old man spends a long time watching it. Yes, and we all know each other. It's just that the official looks familiar, but I don't know where the hair grows?"

Gao Wen laughed and said, "Where can I grow up when I'm so miserable. At the end of last month, I got a job from Captain Li to make up the fast shift, and now I'm running errands in the county government."

"Oh, so you are Li Bantou's nephew. I heard someone say that the official name seems to be Gao Mingwen."

Gao Wen was taken aback: "I am Gao Wen, boss, you are well informed!"

Boss: "The little old man runs a tea shed here. I don't know how many people I have to talk to every day. I still know a little about the affairs of Hancheng. By the way, I heard that Li Bantou got a wrench because of Shi Xiucai's case. Brother, you are going out of the city to Zichuan Town this time, so you don’t know if there is any clue to that case?” He knew him well, and he had already replaced the word “Guan Ye” with “Little Brother” in his mouth.

How could Gao Wen talk about the case to a stranger who didn't want to do it, only smiled, but didn't speak.

The boss knew it was interesting, and said, little brother, you slowly turned to the fire, and the little old man was busy, so he was about to step down.

At this time, Gawain saw a small hill in the distance, not very high, only about a hundred meters tall vertically.The place is not big, covering an area of ​​at most two square kilometers.However, because the area around Hancheng is a large plain, the hills and plains suddenly rise up, which looks very abrupt.Looking from a distance, to say an unlucky word, it has the taste of an ancient emperor's mausoleum.

It's winter now, everything is bleak, and the fields are bare, but the hill is lush and full of trees, which looks very good in Fengshui.Probably because of this, a small temple was built on it, and it only entered the courtyard twice, with red walls and green tiles, and the scenery is very good.In my memory, this small temple seems to be called Baoen Temple, and I don't know who built it in what year, but it can be said to have a long history.

In the field under the hill, several peasant women were collecting firewood with a machete on their backs.

Northern Shaanxi is a coal producing area, where people use coal for heating and cooking.But there doesn't seem to be such a thing here in Hancheng. Even if there is, it is estimated that it has not been discovered now, or there is no necessary excavation technology.In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, the mining industry was very backward.Even in northern Shaanxi and northern Shanxi, the scale of coal mining is small, and the mining is all open-pit coal mines.It costs money to use coal, and firewood is the main source of fuel for ordinary people.

Therefore, in addition to working in the fields, farmers have to mow grass and collect firewood every day.Otherwise, you won't be able to start a fire and cook.

It is a pity that it is winter now, the grass in the field has been cut, and the ground is bare.Many people have to walk miles or more to cut grass.It takes too long to do this kind of thing, and it is usually the women, children, old and weak at home.

In arid regions, everything that grows on the ground has economic value.There are also incidents where someone mows grass and mows other people's mountains and fields, causing fights between two villages.

Seeing the peasant women who were just collecting firewood, and then looking at the monastery on the mountain, Gao Wen's heart suddenly moved, as if he had grasped something: "Boss, the Baoen Temple has a beautiful scenery and the trees grow well. By the way, Why didn't that woman go up the mountain to collect firewood?"

The boss laughed and said, "That mountain is the monk's property. I just bought it this year. How can I fight it?"

Gao Wen was taken aback: "The monk in Bao'en Temple is very rich and bought a mountain, but I seem to remember that the incense in the temple is not very good, right?"

Boss: "It's not so good in Hancheng, but it's strange to say that in the past six months, many businessmen from other places have gone to the temple, and they can't afford the incense oil money, and they say that the Bodhisattva there is very effective."

Gao Wen: "Outside monks can chant scriptures."

Boss: "That's it, that's it, just fool the outsiders, we can't fool us Hancheng people. To say it is effective, we have to count Puzhao Temple and Nanchi Temple. Especially Nanchi Temple is amazing, one of the five small mountains. ! He is not ranked in the Baoen Temple."

"Let's go." Gao Wen threw two copper coins on the table, put on his shoes and socks and walked out of the tea shed, looked up at the Baoen Temple in the distance, and became more and more curious about this temple in his heart.

After thinking about it, there is a seven-kilometer road from Zichuan Town to Hancheng Chengguan, and this hill happens to be located between the two places.There is a bare area within dozens of miles, and Miss Shi Asanshi has nowhere to mow the grass, unless she goes to Baoen Temple Mountain... It is a pity that this is the 14th year of the Ming Dynasty, and there are no roads and bridges scattered all over the streets and alleys. Skynet.Otherwise, if you check the monitoring, you will know exactly where Miss Shi went on the day of the incident.

Wait, surveillance... There is no such thing as surveillance, but there is a confession in the file... Gao Wen, Gao Wen, what are you running around all day, why don't you quickly pull out all the files to have a look.

Thinking of this, Gao Wen immediately turned around and walked towards Hancheng.

……

"Sure enough, I caught it." Gao Wen couldn't help laughing out loud, causing several clerks in the execution room to roll their eyes.

On the big case in front of Gao Wen, there was a hideously crude map of Hancheng. Fortunately, the mountains, rivers, cities, and market towns were marked correctly on it.Of course, don't think about the scale, the ancients didn't have this awareness at all.

Beside the map is a pile of files on Miss Shi's disappearance, including the pleadings of Shi's family, the verdict of the former magistrate, and the testimonies of relevant people and witnesses.

Among them, the most valuable is the testimony of eyewitnesses. Hancheng County is densely populated, and Shi Xiucai can be regarded as a local celebrity with a small name.His daughter went out to mow the grass, and it was difficult not to be recognized.

Therefore, who and where saw Ms. Shi on the day of the incident was recorded in the testimony.

Every time he made a mistake, Gao Wen didn't delay after entering the city, and went directly to the execution room to borrow the file of Miss Shi's disappearance.For Li Bantou's sake, things went well.

All Gao Wen needs to do now is to summarize these testimonies one by one, and then mark them on the map.

On that day, a total of ten people saw Shi Ah San in different places.Connecting these ten locations together forms a big arc.One end of the arc is Shijia, and the other end is Baoen Temple.In other words, the place where Miss Shi last appeared was Baoen Temple.

"The monk is quite suspicious...how come the people who handled the case didn't think of this before?" Gao Wen couldn't help shaking his head.

In fact, it's not that the ancients were stupid, but Gao Wen's way of thinking is completely different from theirs.

"In the past year, the monks in the temple suddenly made a lot of money and bought another mountain. Such a large amount of money cannot be collected with a few sesame oil from foreign merchants. It seems that I have to go to the Baoen Temple in person. trip."

Speaking of the monk, Gao Wen suddenly remembered the plots in Ming Dynasty novels such as "San Yan" and "Er Pai". In these five novels, the monk seemed to be the villain.Especially the kind of handsome young monks who either hook up with women from good families, or hide their population in the monastery to practice in the Huanxi Meditation Hall, and do all kinds of bad things.

In fact, there are many stories about lecherous monks in Ming and Qing novels. For example, in "Water Margin", Yang Xiong's wife Pan Qiaoyun seems to be hooked up by a monk named Pei Ruhai.Because the adultery was broken by Shi Xiu, Saburo was framed and killed by Shi Xiu; another example is that Cui Daocheng in the book captured many women when he was in the crock temple. He committed adultery day and night, and was finally killed by Lu Zhi. Killed by the monk.

Could it be that the plot in this storybook happened in my Hancheng, around me?

(End of this chapter)