Chapter 83: Case Files

In the dimly lit inn room, four corpses were laid out on the bed, their manner of death tragic and terrifyingly violent.

Chen Ji found it very difficult to reconcile the scene before his eyes with the carefree, even somewhat foolish prince.

If a person could disguise himself so thoroughly, then how terrifying was the face beneath this disguise?

Chen Ji instructed Xi Feng in a low voice: "Go ask the guests on the second floor if anyone heard fighting or wailing."

"Yes."

Xi Feng cupped his fists and left, leading several secret agents to knock on doors one by one.

After a moment, Xi Feng returned and said in a low voice: "My lord, it's a bit strange. No one heard any wailing. Could they have been killed instantly and then had their faces peeled off? So there was no time to wail."

Chen Ji didn't answer, only bent down to carefully examine the corpses.

He opened the dead people's eyelids and was surprised to find that two copper nails had been driven into the pupils of each dead person. The area around the eyeballs was a deep red.

After a moment, he stood up and said: "These four people had their faces peeled off while they were alive and copper nails driven into their eyes. They were tortured alive for a good while."

Xi Feng was startled: "Had their faces peeled off alive?"

Saying this, he took out a handkerchief from his chest and handed it to Chen Ji: "My lord, wipe the blood from your hands!"

While wiping his hands, Chen Ji calmly analyzed: "If their faces were peeled off after death, not so much blood would have flowed from their faces, and their eyeballs wouldn't have been so severely congested. It's strange. Since they were tortured alive, why couldn't they make a sound?"

In the eerie quiet, the secret agents' palms gripped the knife handles at their waists tightly.

Even these secret agents, who had witnessed many killing scenes, couldn't help but feel a sense of tension and solemnity.

These four people didn't look like they were killed by people; it was more like their souls had been seized by ghosts.

Someone said in a low voice: "In the mountains back in my hometown, there are legends of face-eating hags. They say they like to eat the faces of dead people and then impersonate the dead to continue living."

Xi Feng laughed coldly and said with a solemn face: "As a secret agent, you are actually talking wildly about ghosts? How can we, officials of the Ning Dynasty, fear such filthy things?"

Someone whispered: "Then could it be that some official drove ghosts to do it?"

Xi Feng kicked him: "It must be assassins who killed them to silence them."

In this era, most people were superstitious. All unexplained things could be attributed to ghosts and gods.

Even the secret agents who killed without blinking believed in such things.

Chen Ji said calmly: "It wasn't ghosts, it was people! Their official path is very strange. They could control these people to endure punishment while alive yet unable to struggle."

What he didn't say was that according to criminal psychological profiling, the killer should also have suffered similar physical and psychological trauma, thus developing twisted desires for abuse.

Chen Ji looked at Xi Feng: "In the secret agents bureau records of official paths, who could do such things?"

"Some sorcerers from minor or unconventional paths might be able to!"

Xi Feng frowned: "My lord, this requires checking the case files library in the capital. Also, one needs to be at least Hai Dong Qing level to enter that area of the case files library. This kind of official path is usually more hidden and rarely used against the government. Our official status will greatly reduce the effectiveness of their 'techniques'."

"Oh?"

Chen Ji was surprised.

This was the second time he had heard this statement.

Earlier, when Lin Chao Qing was at Liu Shi Yu's mansion, he said to Jiao Tu: "This seat has the status of a fourth-rank official in Da Ning. Don't bring out mere small techniques to lose face."

At that time, Chen Ji didn't understand official paths, so he didn't pay attention to that sentence.

But now, combined with Xi Feng's words, he suddenly realized something: the official positions of the Ning Dynasty were themselves a kind of official path. The higher the official position, the less one needed to fear techniques.

Xi Feng looked at Chen Ji: "My lord, what do we do now? The clues are broken."

Chen Ji was silent. Before coming, he had hoped the clues would break, but now that they were truly broken, he didn't know whether he should be happy or worried.

Should he continue the investigation? Or give up?

Seeing that he didn't answer, Xi Feng was puzzled and asked again: "My lord?"

Chen Ji turned and walked out of the room: "Take me to the inner prison case files library. I want to check a case file!"

He vaguely remembered seeing similar punishment methods in the files when he was helping Jiao Tu and Yun Yang investigate the Liu family case, but he couldn't recall some details clearly. He needed to look again.

Additionally, he could take away a piece of ice flow.

As he was about to leave, Chen Ji suddenly added: "Put these four corpses into coffins and bury them. It must be done secretly. Don't let the wind leak out."

In the night, on the Luoyi Street of the East Market, a carriage quietly stopped by the roadside. The tall and sturdy horses snorted in the cold wind, spraying out tidal-like white mist.

Xi Feng stood behind Chen Ji and covered Chen Ji's eyes with a black cloth.

While tying the black cloth, he explained: "Please forgive me, my lord. Because the Luocheng inner prison was previously infiltrated, the qualifications to enter and exit the inner prison now require special approval from Jin Zhu adult. Everyone else entering and exiting must be blindfolded."

"Understood!"

Chen Ji sat into the carriage with support.

As the wheels slowly rolled, he closed his eyes and asked: "How long have you followed Jin Zhu adult?"

Xi Feng recalled: "Seven years!"

Chen Ji said "Oh": "Then you've followed Jin Zhu adult for a long time. Do you often see Tian Ma?"

Xi Feng smiled and said: "Tian Ma adult is like a dragon whose tail is not seen. It's hard for us to see him. But every Shang Yuan Festival, Jin Zhu adult holds a banquet to reward his subordinates, and he will attend as long as he's in the capital."

The spacious carriage swayed, and cold wind occasionally blew through the gap in the cotton cloth curtain.

Xi Feng took out a fire starter from the carriage, carefully lit a copper hand warmer, and stuffed it into Chen Ji's arms: "My lord, warm your hands."

"Thank you!"

Chen Ji fumbled for the copper hand warmer and asked again: "Have you seen Bai Long?"

While closing the fire starter, Xi Feng said: "We've seen Bai Long adult even less. His whereabouts are very mysterious, and we only see him on very important occasions. Bai Long adult also wears a mask when he appears. Probably only the inner minister adult knows his appearance."

Chen Ji was silent for a moment: "Then what about Bing Hu?"

Xi Feng was slightly startled: "I've never seen Bing Hu. This adult is like a ghost, with no presence. Only when the inner minister adult occasionally says 'let Bing Hu handle this matter' will everyone remember that the secret agents bureau still has such a figure."

"Has never appeared?"

"Has never appeared..."

Xi Feng carefully recalled, "At least since I joined the secret agents bureau, I haven't seen him. Six years ago, when the emperor went south on a tour, all the zodiacs were guarding left and right, but there was still no sign of Bing Hu. Perhaps he was hidden in the crowd, but we didn't know."

Chen Ji pursued: "What kind of things does the inner minister adult generally assign Bing Hu to do? Is it assassination or gathering intelligence?"

Xi Feng looked at Chen Ji in surprise. He always felt that Chen Ji seemed particularly interested in Bing Hu: "My lord, have you also heard about Bing Hu adult's retirement? But that position is too far from us, and there are too many contenders. It's not possible even with Jin Zhu adult's help."

When the carriage arrived in front of the inner prison, Xi Feng was the first to jump down, supporting Chen Ji as he walked down the narrow stairs of the inner prison.

After removing the blindfold black cloth, the flames of the Bagua array lamps on the walls on both sides of the stone path flickered.

The inner prison was even more gloomy at night, as if walking into hell.

"My lord, which files do you want to see?"

Xi Feng asked.

Chen Ji tried to recall the files he had seen: "Jia Ning seven years, Jia character files."

After the jailers carried a large box, he quickly flipped through each page, scanning ten lines at a glance.

Time passed minute by minute, second by second.

Chen Ji lifted his head: "That's not right. Bring the Jia Ning eight years and nine years, Jia character files. All of you also search together. Find everything related to nails on dead bodies for me."

He had looked at too many files earlier and only vaguely remembered similar cases, but he couldn't remember clearly which files they were in.

However, a jailer said with difficulty: "My lord, we don't know characters."

"Don't know characters?"

Chen Ji was startled.

He knew that the literacy rate was low in this era, but he didn't expect that the jailers of the secret agents bureau also didn't know characters.

Civil officials monopolized the paper and book industry and monopolized knowledge.

Ordinary families, let alone participating in the imperial examinations, might not even find a way to learn characters.

Xi Feng said: "My lord, I'll help you find them."

"Good!"

The two sat together in front of the oil lamp flipping through the files. The jailers boiled water and brewed strong tea for them. It wasn't until their eyes were sore that Xi Feng suddenly said: "My lord, is this what you're looking for? Jia Ning nine years, Kaifeng Fu Wu family extermination case."

Chen Ji took the files and saw that they recorded the case of the extermination of the seventeen people of the Wu Zhuo family, the supervisor of the silver field in Kaifeng Fu, twelve years ago. In this case, after the death of the principal wife of the Wu family, her mouth, nose, eyes, and ears were all nailed with wooden nails, the kind used by coffin shops to seal coffins.

Not only that, the principal wife of the Wu family was also brutally cut off at the lower body.

He looked carefully, but suddenly felt something was wrong: "The files record that there should have been eighteen people in the Wu family household. One is still alive."

Xi Feng leaned over to look: "The silver field's... these are people from the Eunuch Bureau's twenty-four offices. Officials who can supervise the silver field all have extraordinary backgrounds and must have talents above. It's a big fat job. But it's a bit strange. Our Eunuch Bureau always protects its own. Their own people were killed, yet they didn't catch the murderer?"

Chen Ji thoughtfully said: "Perhaps the murderer didn't leave any clues?"

"That wouldn't leave the files shelved and unattended either."

Xi Feng explained: "The rule of our Eunuch Bureau is that even if the murderer wasn't caught that year, the files must be reviewed once every year afterward to see if they can be 'combined with other cases'. We won't give up until the murderer is caught. But my lord, you see, these files are all pressed to the bottom of the box..."

Chen Ji said lightly: "Unless the murderer is some important figure in the Eunuch Bureau."

Xi Feng was startled and subconsciously retreated a step, keeping some distance from the files.

Chen Ji was somewhat confused. The murderer in this case used methods extremely similar to those of tonight's killer.

But if the murderer was indeed some important figure in the Eunuch Bureau, why would the other party help the prince kill and silence?