When everyone in Kaifeng rushed to the official department, they saw that many people were already surrounding the three floors inside and outside.

Pei Huanzhi, the Minister of Civil Affairs, had just taken office, and he never expected to encounter such a thing.

As soon as Zhan Zhao arrived, he met Liu Peng, the Sima of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Master Liu saw Zhan Zhao and ran out, "Master Zhan is here!"

The people from the Ministry of Official Affairs hurriedly called Pei Shangshu.

When Zhan Zhao saw Liu Peng, the image in his head was of his concubine and the minister at the inn this morning... but somehow he felt that Liu Peng's face was a bit green.

At this time, Pei Huanzhi came out with his people, and behind him was Chen Ming, the Minister of Civil Affairs.

Chen Ming became even more embarrassed when he saw Zhan Zhao and kept his head down as much as possible.

Gongsun took the medicine box and asked, "Where is the body?"

Chen Ming quickly took him there.

Bai Yutang and Lin Yehuo were just here to watch the fun. Zhao Pu originally wanted to follow, but was stopped by Mr. Bao.

Pei Huanzhi told Zhan Zhao how he found the body.

It has only been more than a month since Pei Shangshu took office. This gentleman has a bit of a mysophobia. He always feels that there is a strange smell in the house of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as if something is rotten.

Mr. Pei even hired someone to clean the nearby sewers, but the smell still lingered.

Seeing that the New Year was coming soon, the adults thought of a way and decided to do a dust sweep, open up the attic, warehouse and other places to ventilate, and also clean up the books and files.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has been sweeping the dust for a few days, and when cleaning the attic today, they found a large wooden box.

Master Pei said that the smell in the attic was very strong, and he suspected that there were some dead cats or mice in the box. The master was quite happy, and thought that he had found the source of the smell.

As soon as he reached out to open the box, Mr. Pei was so frightened that he sat down on the ground.

I saw a corpse in the box.

While they were talking, everyone had already arrived in front of the attic. Mr. Wu frowned - there was indeed a strange smell.

This attic was originally the study room of the Ministry of Personnel... Later, the roof leaked a little, and the Ministry of Personnel was expanded, so it was converted into a warehouse to store some useless files and the like. There were many wooden boxes and cabinets.

Gongsun was now upstairs carrying the medicine box. This house was indeed old, and the wooden stairs creaked loudly. The floors above the second floor were added because of leaks in the roof of the old house. It was special.

Short, tall people have to lower their heads when going up.

There were some abandoned broken tables and chairs in the attic, and a camphor wood box in the middle.

The attic windows have been opened, and the smell in the room is pretty good.

Gongsun covered his mouth and nose and walked to the box to take a look.

There is a folded corpse in the box. The folding method is not too elaborate, but the person is directly stuffed into the box. The back of the corpse is lying at the bottom of the box, the head is bent to one side, and the legs are curled up.

the top of the body.

A large amount of lime powder was poured into the box. The body was half rotten and half dry, and had a strange smell. It looked like it had been left like this for a long time...

Zhan Zhao also came up to take a look.

The deceased was a man, looking quite thin, wearing a black cloth gown and a pair of cloth shoes.

Zhan Zhao asked Gongsun, "How long have you been looking dead? He said he has been smelly for a month."

Gongsun also nodded, "It must have been almost three months since he died. The deceased looked quite old."

After observing the attic, Zhan Zhao found that the surroundings were very messy, with tables and chairs toppled over.

Gongsun pointed to Zhan Zhao's hands of the corpse and said, "The fingers were crushed, which should have been caused when the murderer closed the lid of the box."

"So the person was still alive when he was thrown into the box?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"It should be." Gongsun said, "The murderer must have good martial arts or great strength. After beating the person seriously, he picked up the clothes on the chest and threw them into the box, and then forcibly closed the lid."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Did you pour lime into the box for the second time after killing someone?"

"Speaking of lime." Gongsun looked at the messy footprints on the ground and said, "These lime powder seem to have been dragged here, not lifted."

Zhan Zhao walked to the stairs and took a look. Indeed, there was some lime powder on the stairs.

"Isn't the person who poured the lime powder the same person as the person who committed the murder?" Zhan Zhao asked Gongsun in a low voice.

Gongsun nodded, looked around to see if there was anyone else in the attic, and whispered to Zhan Zhao, "Didn't the Ministry of Civil Affairs expand the Yamen before? When I first came in, I saw several bags of stone and lime piled in the corner of the yard. Someone may have moved it.

One bag was brought up and poured into the box, trying to cover up the smell! But the man who brought the lime powder up was probably not very strong and was dragging it upstairs, so he sprinkled a lot of powder outside."

Zhan Zhao understood what Gongsun meant. Most of the officials were civil servants. Perhaps one of them helped hide the body.

Zhan Zhao asked Pei Shangshu, who was waiting downstairs, to come up and ask him if he knew who the deceased was.

The minister shook his head and said that there were not many people in the official department.

Zhan Zhao asked other people.

As a result, no one recognized who this person was.

This is strange. A person who has nothing to do with the official department would die in the attic of the official department's warehouse?

Gongsun asked Wang Chao Ma Han to carry back the box and the body. Zhan Zhao looked around the attic again and noticed a round object in the corner near the door, so he walked over and picked it up.

It was a very small pearl with a hole in it.

Zhan Zhao searched again and found that there was only one bead like this in the entire attic.

This is a bit strange. These beads are too small to be used as necklaces and earrings. They are more like being displayed on clothes, shoes or other objects for decoration... They look out of place in this rag-filled attic.

Zhan Zhao put away the bead and went downstairs with his hands behind his back.

Outside the warehouse, a group of officials from the Ministry of Personnel were discussing the matter and talking about anything.

Bai Yutang and Lin Yehuo were mixed in the crowd and heard something. They were quite concerned about something, so they came to tell Zhan Zhao, "A few people said that three months ago, they all saw someone in the attic.

Green will-o'-the-wisps flickered."

Ever since the ghost car incident, everyone is still more concerned about the green flames...and they are preparing to investigate why the official who was responsible for digging the river channel died in the official department.

Zhan Zhao asked Pei Shangshu if there was a list of officials in charge of excavation projects in Kaifeng City in previous dynasties.

The minister had just taken office and he didn't know many things, so he asked Sima and the minister.

Chen Shilang said, "These directories are not kept in the Ministry of Personnel. They are all under unified control in the Six Departments' Cabinet Library..."

At this point, Chen Shilang was stunned for a moment, as if he remembered something, and ran over to stop the box that was about to be carried out.

Mahan of the Dynasty put down the box, and Chen Shilang ran to the box and looked carefully at the face of the corpse in the box, "Oh, isn't this Wang Zhizhang!"

Others gathered around to take a look, and many people recognized him after being reminded.

"Yes! Oh, it's Lao Wang!"

"Hasn't he resigned from office?"

"Why did you die here?"

Zhan Zhao asked, "Do you recognize this person?"

Liu Sima explained to Zhan Zhao, "This is Wang Daquan, Wang Zizhang, who was in charge of the previous Liubu Jigeku and was in charge of the civil affairs archives. We had dealt with him in the early years when we sent the files to the library for collection, but

Lao Wang resigned five years ago, so I really didn’t think about it for a while.”

Zhan Zhao had a bad premonition and looked at Bai Yutang and Lin Yehuo - just as they were going to look for something in the Sixth Department, the manager died.

Lin Yehuo and Bai Yutang both reminded him that he was so pessimistic - isn't this his predecessor? The current one might still be alive, and as long as the warehouse is not burned down, he can always be found...

Zhan Zhao silently glanced at the two of them. If he rushes over and happens to have the warehouse burned down, it will be you two who are the worst!

Lin Yehuo and Bai Yutang both looked at the angry Zhan Zhao and asked him, "Where is the warehouse?"

Zhan Zhao didn't even remember the name clearly, what the price was, what the inventory was... what the hell? He had never heard of it.

Bai Yutang and Lin Yehuo both shook their heads and looked at him - why do you know so many of the delicious restaurants in Kaifeng?

Chen Shilang said that he was not at the official office, but at the Shangshu Provincial Officials' Court.

Zhan Zhao was even more confused. Does my Kaifeng Mansion have such a place?

"It's not far from here." Chen Shilang was very enthusiastic and said that he could show the way.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang followed him. Lin Yehuo sent the body back with Gongsun first, and asked Zou Liang for gossip.

…

After leaving the official department, Chen Shilang kept trying to get close to Zhan Zhao, explaining that he and Liu Sima had worked together for many years and had a good relationship.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at him silently - they have such a good relationship, why do you want to pry into someone else's corner?

After walking through the street, we came to a large house.

Zhan Zhao raised his head and looked at the plaque, and it was indeed written that the official was suing the courtyard's warehouse.

Zhan Zhao had passed by it when he was patrolling the streets before, but his attention was focused on the shaomai shop diagonally opposite the door in front.

I followed Shilang Chen and walked in. The structure inside looked somewhat similar to Longtuge, both of which were bookstores.

When he came to a study room, a young and elegant scholar was sitting inside, so he stood up and greeted Chen Shilang.
To be continued...