My enemies became my companions

Chapter 494 The Murderer (Two in One)

"Several officers, where is Duan Siyuan?"

"Hold him here and take him to the county tomorrow."

The Li family was one of the richest families in this town, and even in the nearby county. They also had a juren who was an official, so the squad leaders stationed in the town had to speak to them in a friendly manner.

Chen Yi asked, "Who are imprisoned in there?"

"The Duan family is all in the house, more than 30 people,"

As he spoke, the foreman with a long horse face looked at Chen Yi.
"Brother, you are from out of town, right?"

"A small passage. Can I go in and see the person inside?"

Chen Yi looked at the house in front of him. The town was not a county seat, and there was no county jail to detain people. When someone was arrested, he could only be detained on the spot, and then escorted to the county seat the next day after being detained.

The officers have always been very disciplined, and when they saw that he didn't want to see the man without giving them some benefits, they suddenly became upright.

"Murder is a serious matter and should be handled impartially. You can't just meet the magistrate whenever you want before the interrogation."

Chen Yi said directly: "I have money."

"The law does not exclude love. Since you have begged for mercy, I will not make this an exception."

Chen Yi threw the leash in his hand to Li Chengxing, asking the latter to lead the sheep, and then stepped into the yard. Yin Tingxue hurriedly followed.

The Duan Mansion does not cover a large area, not as large as Li Chengxing's Li Mansion. It has a courtyard but no unique garden. It is just an ordinary mansion. After Duan Siyuan's matricide was exposed, the police surrounded the place and trapped the entire Duan family in the house, not allowing them to enter or leave.

Yin Tingxue turned her head to look.

I seemed to hear some noise in the yard, and a shadow flashed by the window, as if looking over here.

Chen Yi was the first to push the door open and heard a startled cry from inside.
“Who, who is it?!”

"Li Chengxing asked me to come. I want to meet Brother Duan."

"…What do you want to see my husband for?"

The person who was speaking was a woman who came out from behind the screen. She had a beautiful appearance, with black hair piled high. She looked haggard and her figure was erratic, with a few fine lines at the corners of her eyes, as if she had aged a lot overnight.

Chen Yi cupped his hands and asked, "What's your name, Madam?"

"My last name is Zeng. You can call me Mrs. Duan Zeng or Mrs. Duan." As she said that, Mrs. Duan Zeng looked at Chen Yi deeply, with a look of doubt and a little confusion in her eyes.

Chen Yi could understand her current panic. Her husband had killed her mother-in-law and her home was surrounded by officials. No one would remain calm when faced with such a catastrophe. Moreover, since ancient times, every dynasty had ruled the world with filial piety. If such an evil thing happened, if things went wrong, not only Duan Siyuan would die, but the whole family would be exiled.

He consoled her by saying, "There is something fishy about this matter. Let me investigate it first."

Duan Zeng's face turned even paler. After a long while, she nodded heavily and looked at Chen Yi.

Yin Tingxue was frightened when she saw Duan Zeng's actions...

Although she looks haggard, she is still a wife after all.

She suddenly became alert.

Chen Yi didn't know what Yin Tingxue's mood was. He was very curious about the situation in this town. He felt that a thick fog was covering the town.

Duan Zeng pointed in a direction and Chen Yi walked around the screen, and saw Duan Siyuan sitting on the ground dejectedly with disheveled hair.

Everyone was happily gathered at the poetry banquet yesterday, but in the blink of an eye, everything has changed. Duan Siyuan sat on the ground with a look of despair, as if he had suffered an unbearable blow and had lost all his strength.

He heard the sound and looked up to see Chen Yi, muttering: "Master..."

"it's me."

"Why are you here..." Duan Siyuan's shoulders trembled for a long time, then he regained some composure and said, "I drank good wine last night, wrote idle poems and asked about ghosts. How could that be possible?"

"Tell me what's going on first, maybe I can help you."

“…This…I…I killed my mother…”

"Where's the body?"

"The police took it away," Duan Siyuan's pupils trembled, as if he couldn't believe he had done that, "How could I do such a thing."

"Calm down and tell me what happened last night."

"Last night...last night I asked your Taoist priest for the talisman, and then I went home and burned it and put it under the bed. At that time, I was worried and didn't know if it would work, so I took a dagger and put it next to the bed. I didn't dare to sleep all night."

"Have you heard the weasel asking for a title again?"

"...Yes... The weasel spoke again, asking for a title from me, but he sounded very weak, and threatened me again and again. I made up my mind and stabbed him with my sword. After that... I felt something was wrong, and then I listened again, it sounded like my mother's voice, I quickly went to light a lamp... and found out it was my mother..."

As he spoke, Duan Siyuan was shaking violently, as if he would commit suicide at any time because he could not bear it anymore.

After listening to this, Chen Yi asked again: "Why is your mother in your room?"

"I don't know, I don't know either...the weasel's voice has also disappeared..." Duan Siyuan hesitated to speak.

"Is your mother a weasel?"

Duan Siyuan was silent for a moment, his head lowered like an eggplant hit by frost, "I don't know, I don't know, I haven't thought about it, I haven't thought about it..."

Chen Yi hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Were you adopted?"

Duan Siyuan's eyes widened in disbelief, "Master, why..."

It seems that what he said was right. Chen Yi said slowly: "The weasel has been asking for titles from people for a long time. People have learned to be smart and don't say anything when they hear it. Not only can the weasel not ask for titles, but it will also peel off a layer of skin. But the weasel has also learned to be smart. Instead of asking for titles from passers-by, it is better to adopt a child and wait for him to grow up and ask for titles from him."

Duan Siyuan's pupils constricted and he sat stiffly on the spot, as if the blood in his body had stagnated.

After a long time, he said to himself with a trembling voice: "Impossible, impossible, mother is not..."

He simply couldn't believe that Duan Guan, who had raised him for many years, would be such a person.

Chen Yi ignored it. He pinched his fingers to tell fortunes. The hexagram was medium to good. It seemed that his guess was close to the truth. If the temple keeper Duan Guan was really a weasel spirit, then it could explain why she was able to get to know the Five Gods and why there were so many statues of gods in her home...
But there are still some problems that cannot be solved and many doubts remain.

"Where is your bedroom?"

Duan Siyuan was still immersed in deep emotion and seemed not to hear anything.

Chen Yi was about to ask again when the beautiful Duan Zeng came over and whispered, "I'll take the Taoist priest over there."

Yin Tingxue was startled for a moment, but remained expressionless.

"Okay." Chen Yi responded.

Duan Zeng immediately led the way, and as she walked down the corridor, her hips swayed slightly, and the hem of her dress traced a graceful path. "This is it."

When they arrived at the bedroom, Duan Zeng asked in a low voice:
"Master, can you come in with me?"

"Why?" Chen Yi heard the implication of her words, which was to leave Yin Tingxue aside.

Duan Zeng lowered her voice and almost pleaded, "I have something to tell you."

After thinking for a moment, Chen Yi agreed: "Okay."

He immediately turned to look at Yin Tingxue and ordered, "Stay here for a while."

Yin Tingxue frowned slightly and became more alert.

This is a man and a woman alone in a room...

Besides, why does it feel like she is being asked to guard the door...

The reason is simple. Chen Yi has too many married women that he likes. Among the eight women with whom he has had affairs, four of them, Lin Wanlang, Concubine Dong, Zhu E, and Qin Qingluo, are married women, which accounts for half. At that time, saying that he liked married women sounded like a joke, but how many of the truths were said as jokes?

Yin Tingxue immediately thought again, it was said that Master Zhou had married him in her previous life, so she could be considered his wife. From this point of view, he was not only lustful, but also a married woman.

The little fox couldn't disobey him, not to mention that he had a legitimate reason. She rolled her eyes and said, "I'll wait for you here. Come out as soon as you're done. I have a lot of things for you to teach me." She paused and added, "Just like Master Zhou taught you."

"Yeah." Chen Yi nodded heavily.

He couldn't help but want to find out the result as soon as possible, so that he could go back and teach Yin Tingxue a good lesson. At that time, she would show a curious and admiring look, and sometimes say "Oh" as if she suddenly realized something. After returning, he could also let Zhou Yitong see that his ability to teach his disciples was far better than hers.

Duan Zeng pushed open the door and led Chen Yi in.

The wooden door pressed forward and slammed shut in front of Yin Tingxue's sight.

Yin Tingxue breathed a sigh of relief. She was not overjoyed by Chen Yi's mood, but just felt a little relieved.

Although she would also take control of Chen Yi from time to time, she was completely different from her cousin Yin Weiying. Yin Tingxue was not complacent, but seemed to be walking on thin ice every time.

Because of this, compared to Yin Weiying, Chen Yi often listens to Yin Tingxue's words more. It seems that if he doesn't listen to what she says, he will always feel some inexplicable guilt in his heart. During the long time they have known each other, the little fox has been cleverly taking advantage of this.

Yin Tingxue gazed into the distance, waiting slowly. Seeing the branches and leaves swaying in the distance, she suddenly recalled the stories in the miscellaneous books she had read recently. Among them, there was a story called The Green Messenger.

It is said that during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, there was a wealthy man named Yang Chongyi in Chang'an. His wife Liu was in love with a young man named Li Yan, so Yang Chongyi was murdered by the two and disappeared. When the county magistrate heard about this, he investigated overnight and sealed Yang's house. He also investigated the suspects and servants, and hundreds of people beat them, but still could not find any clues. When he was at a loss, he checked Yang's house again and heard a parrot shouting "The murderers of the master are Liu and Li Yan." The case was solved immediately. When Emperor Xuanzong heard about this, he named the parrot the Green Messenger.

Yin Tingxue didn't know why she thought of this story. She just thought about it for a moment and then moved on.

...........
In the bedroom, Chen Yi squatted and saw the talisman ashes on the ground.

He told Duan Siyuan last night that if he wanted to deal with the weasel, he should burn the talisman and put the ashes under the bed, and Duan Siyuan did exactly as he was told.

Chen Yi turned his head again and looked at the dried blood splattered on the ground. He pondered for a moment and counted with his fingers.

It is undoubtedly the blood of a weasel.

Chen Yi immediately turned his head to look at the talisman ash again. After thinking for a moment, he grabbed it with one hand, twisted the talisman ash, and then frowned slightly.

There were tiny pieces of paper scattered among the talisman ashes.

The thin yellow paper used to draw talismans will turn into ash when burned. There will be no torn pieces of paper, unless... you burn more than one talisman.

Moreover, the talisman that he drew for Duan Siyuan had been explained in advance as being for exorcising purposes, so how could it have made the weasel spirit so weak?

Chen Yi slowly turned his head.

puff.

Before Chen Yi could speak, Duan Zeng suddenly knelt down.

Chen Yi narrowed his eyes and asked, "You did it?"

"It's...I killed my mother-in-law..." Duan Zeng's face turned pale, and she said in a trembling voice, "Duan Lang mentioned to me many times before that there was a sound under the bed. As a wife, even if I couldn't hear anything, I wanted to find out the reason. I didn't tell anyone else, and secretly took the opportunity to go to the county town to burn incense to ask a Taoist priest. The Taoist priest said frankly that there might be someone in my family who was transformed by a demon, and asked me to buy a demon mirror.

I secretly photographed many people in the house, including the maids, servants, and Duan Lang's relatives and friends, but I couldn't find the monster.

I thought the fortune teller was cheating me and wanted to throw away the useless mirror, but seeing that it was a mirror, I kept it and used it for dressing. I never thought that one day when I was fixing my hair in the garden, my mother-in-law happened to pass by...”

Having said this, Duan Zeng stopped and trembled all over.

At that time, in the mirror, a weasel's face turned around...
Duan Zeng knelt on the ground and trembled, and for a moment she did not know what to say.

"Then what are these extra talisman papers..." Chen Yi interrupted her thoughts and asked.

Duan Zeng puffed his throat and continued, "I bought these talisman papers in the county town, but I was afraid of being exposed, so I waited for the opportunity and didn't dare to use them until I saw Duan Lang burning talisman papers last night, so I burned them with him and blended in.

Also...last night, after my mother-in-law was stabbed with a sword, she wasn't actually dead. She ran to the kitchen and seemed to want to cast a spell with charcoal ash, but I followed her out, and then, then...she was stabbed in the heart.

I thought, I thought that after my mother-in-law died, the true face of the weasel would be revealed, but I didn't expect, I didn't expect it to be in human skin. Taoist priest, Taoist priest, please save us!"

It seems that the truth about the weasel's death has been revealed. Chen Yi looked at Duan Zeng crawling on the ground and figured out that she was not lying.

In the mortal world, monsters are killed with weapons, but their spirits remain after death and they will not reveal their true faces. Only by using peach wood swords or gold money swords, which can exorcise evil spirits and suppress demons, can the monsters be exposed.

Chen Yi said, "Get up, let's go out, I'll go check out the body."

Duan Zeng was overjoyed when he got the answer and nodded, "Yes."

The two of them immediately pushed the door open and looked into the distance casually. The fog was thick and the Duan Mansion was still shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere.

When Yin Tingxue saw Chen Yi walking out, she quickly followed him and took his hand.

Chen Yi was a little surprised, and when he lowered his head he met her curious gaze.

In this case, it would be okay to give a brief explanation and tell the truth in advance.

Chen Yi smiled and was about to speak.

Suddenly, Li Chengxing screamed outside the door, as if he was being dragged, and shouted: "It, it broke in, I can't stop it!"

The goat seemed to have great strength and dragged Li Chengxing forward. It suddenly stepped over the threshold and came in. Its horns swayed along with its head as it desperately squeezed into the house.

Chen Yi frowned. What on earth was the purpose of this goat he brought from Duan Guan’s house?
Suddenly, the goat stood up on its hind legs, put its front legs together, bent down and bowed.
"Master, I am Li Xian."

The goat spoke human language.

"I killed Duan Guanshi."

(End of this chapter)