Zhou Yunke's face was slightly pale, and he said, "Father is also thoughtful. He has been holding back this death order until today. Otherwise, I and the Crown Princess might not even be able to enjoy these three days of comfort."

Yang Shaoyin said hurriedly: "It is because of our incompetence that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and His Majesty the Crown Princess have to worry about official duties on such an important day..."

"Okay, stop talking nonsense."

Zhou Yunke pulled Su Liuyue to sit down and said calmly, "Since you are here, please tell the Crown Princess about the case in detail."

Su Liuyue glanced at Zhou Yunke secretly.

From what he said, he seemed to be very familiar with the case.

These past few days, he had to spend half a day in the study every day, saying that he had some urgent matters to deal with. This turned out to be one of them.

"Yes."

Yang Shaoyin bowed again, stood up and said, "The first person to go missing in this case was the third grandson of You Taishi, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, You Changqing, who is eight years old this year. He went missing about a month ago. Because You Changqing was naughty by nature and had run away from home before and only returned after a few days, the You family did not report it to the police at first, but only sent people to look for him privately.

About three days later, when they still hadn't found the person, they came to Jingzhao Prefecture to report to the authorities.

The next person to disappear was the illegitimate son of Hong Changshi, the seventh in this generation, named Hongwu, nine years old this year. He disappeared on the fifth day after You Changqing was confirmed missing. He had a very bad temper. As he was taller than ordinary children, he often bullied other children. Hong Changshi was not very satisfied with his child because of this. Although he reported his disappearance to the authorities, the Hong family's attitude has never been very concerned.

The third person who went missing was the youngest son of Wei Shilang of the Ministry of Works, named Wei Chuze, who was eight years old. He had a very good personality and was very much loved by his family. He disappeared about ten days after Hongwu disappeared.

As soon as he disappeared, the Wei family reported him to the police. He was also the one that his family cared about the most among the first three missing children."

Su Liuyue pondered for a moment and said, "Apart from their age and family background, these children don't seem to have any other similarities."

Yang Shaoyin nodded, "Yes, this is also what worries us. The last missing child of the Sun family is also nine years old this year. He is... the nephew of Concubine Sun. He is quite introverted. On the day he disappeared, he was severely beaten by his father because he got a C in the small test in the Imperial College. Therefore, his family initially thought that he was afraid of being beaten and hid.

Unexpectedly, that afternoon, the bodies of the three missing children were found at Xiaogushan, and the Sun family was completely terrified. "

Su Liuyue asked: "How did those three children disappear?"

Yang Shaoyin's face suddenly turned ugly, "They... were all poisoned to death, and according to the coroner's observation of the bodies, the murderer should have given them a large amount of poison at once, causing them to die in a short period of time, so that their intestines came out of their anus.

The coroner initially determined that the poison they ingested was arsenic..."

The anus is also called the anus.

Before death, the body of a person who dies of poisoning will subconsciously expel the poison from the body, either by vomiting it out or by defecation.

When the toxicity is severe, the intestines in the body may actually fall out.

Everyone in the hall suddenly looked unhappy. Xue Wenbai couldn't help but grit his teeth and said, "This is too cruel. They are just children! How much hatred does the murderer have to treat these children like this!"

Su Liuyue frowned slightly and asked, "I heard that they were dug out of the ground. What was their condition when they were found?"

Yang Shaoyin shook his head and said, “This is even more bizarre.

The small solitary mountain where they were found was actually a small hillside in the Yanshan Mountains outside the city. Because there were plains all around it, it seemed a little lonely, so the surrounding villagers gave it the name Xiaogushan.

Because this hillside is relatively small, wild animals rarely go there, there are not many naturally grown medicinal herbs, and it is not suitable for living, so the surrounding villagers rarely go into this mountain. Originally, under such circumstances, it would be difficult for the three children to be found so quickly. Unexpectedly, that morning, two men from a nearby village drank and had fun all night, and came back drunk, and accidentally entered Xiaogushan. They soon found something wrong, so they sat down to rest, and planned to find the way after they sobered up.

The place where they sat down to rest was an open space in the woods. There were three wooden boards stuck in the open space. They joked that these boards looked like three tombstones and that there might be dead bodies buried underneath.

The two of them were already drunk, and once their tempers flared up, they went to dig the ground without thinking, to see if there was really a body buried underneath..."

Everyone knows what happened next.

Lu Lu sighed and said, "If ordinary people see such a weird scene, they will not be scared away but will definitely not dig it casually. It's just that they are brave enough to drink and have no fear.

After digging for a while, they found a rotten arm. The two men were so scared that they peed their pants and sobered up a lot.

Later, after they found a way out of the forest, they immediately rushed to Jingzhao Prefecture to report the case. "

Su Liuyue said, "You mean, the murderer buried them separately and erected a tombstone for them?"

"What kind of tombstone is that?"

Feng Dali suddenly said angrily: "It's just a piece of broken wood that I picked up casually. There is not a single word on it!"

"But……"

Su Liuyue looked at Feng Dali and said, "Even if it's just a broken piece of wood, the criminals found it and inserted it for them.

Moreover, from what you said, the murderer did not just dig a pit randomly and throw them in to bury them, but buried them in separate pits.”

Feng Dali was stunned, not quite understanding what Su Liuyue meant by emphasizing this.

Yang Shaoyin glanced at Su Liuyue and said, "What the Crown Princess meant is that the murderer put a lot of effort into burying them, which means that he still had some compassion for them. If he was really an inhuman murderer, after killing them, let alone digging a pit for each person and burying them neatly, there are many ways to deal with the bodies."

Su Liuyue couldn't help but glance at Yang Shaoyin, the corners of her mouth slightly raised, and nodded: "What Yang Shaoyin said is exactly what I meant."

He is worthy of being the person Zhou Yunke had his eyes on from the beginning.

When it comes to investigating cases, he is quite sharp.

Yang Shaoyin suddenly said, "In fact, the murderer's attitude towards the dead is what has always puzzled me. When the children were found, they were not wearing the clothes they wore when they disappeared. They all looked new clothes, but those clothes obviously did not fit their bodies. For the taller You Changqing and Hongwu, the clothes were obviously too small.

But for Wei Chuze, it was too big.

Moreover, although these children had been missing for a while, they were still the same as before, not thin at all, their fingernails and toenails were trimmed very neatly, and some of the children's hair even showed signs of having been trimmed.

In this regard, the case of Hongwu is the most representative. He usually resists trimming his fingernails and toenails. His wet nurse told us very clearly that when he disappeared, his fingernails and toenails were very long.

This shows that their fingernails and toenails were trimmed by the murderer.”

It actually sounded as if the murderer had tied them up and taken good care of them for a while!
Xue Wenbo got goosebumps when he heard this, and couldn't help but be confused, "But... if the murderer treated them so well, why did he kill them? And why did he use... such a cruel method?" (End of this chapter)