After leaving Yangchun Restaurant, it was already around Shen Shizhong (4 pm).

The sun is slanted.

A light golden light overflowed from the jagged clouds, as if inlaid with a circle of shining gold edges.

Captain Hu's face was flushed, and he was obviously drunk.

After a frank conversation in the restaurant, his attitude towards Chen Mu changed a lot, and he hugged his shoulder and smiled:

"Brother Chen, why don't we have some fun?"

The so-called fun is nothing more than playing shooting games.

Chen Mu declined, "It's getting late, so it's important to investigate the case first. If you have free time in the future, I will take Brother Hu to Ju Chunlou and have fun."

"Then let's make up. I heard that the girls in Ju Chunlou are all first-class."

Captain Hu showed a pure smile that only men understood.

Zhang Awei came out of the restaurant and held a few records in his hand: "Teacher, I have asked basically all the questions, and the shopkeepers and shop assistants in the store cooperate very well."

"Thanks for your hard work."

I learned from Meng Yanqing that the first time she met Mu Xianger was in this "Yangchun" restaurant.

So Chen Mu asked Zhang Awei to make a record.

Chen Mu flipped it around casually and said to Captain Hu: "Brother Hu, what does Mu Xianger's family do?"

Captain Hu sneered: "They don't have any serious jobs. Mu Dahe was a gangster before he got married. He was a man and had no change in nature after getting married. He often stole other people's things and blackmailed some local evil forces.

I was locked up a few times before I became more honest, but I also did some stealing things from time to time or hang out in the casino."

Chen Mu's eyebrows locked up: "What about his son?"

"It's not a good thing. Like his father, he has become the tycoon of some rich children at a young age and bites people everywhere."

Captain Hu asked for a bowl of sobering soup from the stall next to him, and said while drinking,

"Later, because he almost insulted a good woman, Lord Zhao, he almost chopped up the thing. After he was released from prison, he was assigned to work at the dock for a while, and he also worked for three days and had two days of drying the net."

Chen Mu wrote down the information in the small notebook and continued to ask: "Where is Mu Xianger's mother?"

"Just an ordinary girl, she has no status at home, is often beaten by her husband, and she just does some work in the field on weekdays."

"How much do you know about Mu Xianger himself?"

"This girl rarely goes out on weekdays, and she doesn't talk to each other when she sees her mother. Sometimes she goes out to do some miscellaneous work with her mother."

Speaking of this, a bit of sadness appeared on Captain Hu's face.

"I'm going to hide it from Brother Chen, Lao Hu, I'm actually quite interested in this girl, but I have a yellow-faced woman at home. Now that this girl is dead, I feel very sad."

"understand."

Chen Mu asked a few more questions before closing the notebook.

Mu Xianger's family situation is very different from what he expected, but there is nothing to be surprised about.

After all, such families are very common, not to mention ancient times, but modern times.

Especially domestic violence.

"Brother Hu, there is one more thing to bother you."

Chen Mu took out a piece of paper and handed it to the other party, "I want your brothers to take a record, mainly for people who come into contact with Mu Dahe's family on weekdays, just answer these questions on the paper.

In addition, I also made a record of the people involved in the firefighting that day.”

Captain Hu glanced at the question on the paper, seemed a little hesitant, and then smiled and said, "A small matter is a matter, I will let my brothers do it now."

Soon, Captain Hu summoned more than 20 constables.

Each person copied one.

With Chen Mu's careful explanation, the detectives began to search for people who had contacted Mu Xianger's family to take notes.

Maling County is not big, so it is still easy to find someone.

...

Half an hour later, Chen Mu and the other two came to Mu Xianger's residence.

As he had expected before, Mu Xianger's house was indeed remote and was almost surrounded by two short mountains.

There is no water source nearby.

The neighbors closest to them must also be ten minutes away.

At this time, Mu Xianger's house could no longer tell the appearance of the house, only the broken walls and some broken wooden beams left.

The pungent smell of smoke remains strong.

Some furniture only burned the corners and left the outlines, and a few damaged buckets were thrown on the ground, which should have been left when extinguishing the fire.

"They only have this house?"

Chen Mu asked.

Captain Hu sarcastically said: "Before, the court allocated money, and the lord gave them a new house. Who knew that Mu Dahe sold it and took the money to the gambling house and lost to the sky, haha."

I see.

Chen Mu stepped on the scorched earth and carefully observed the burned house.

Captain Hu sighed: "Only, there are few murders in such small places. Once a murder occurs, it will be a big deal.

We are not as good as those in large places, with the investigation department above and the Ministry of Justice below, and we are very clever.

It’s okay for us to do small cases, but if we encounter major cases, it will be a headache.

Especially this is a matter of time limit, no one can get along with it."

Facing Captain Hu's complaints, Chen Mu also expressed his understanding.

In the Great Yan Dynasty, if a case occurred in the local area, the constable would be given a deadline to solve the case, which is called "biased limit".

Small cases are basically a "comparison" for five days, while major murder cases are a "comparison" for three days.

The above will supervise.

If this deadline exceeds, the constable will be beaten.

The county magistrate will also be reprimanded.

This is why after Mu Dahe and his family were burned to death, the Maling County Government quickly "solved" the case.

"Brother Hu, how did you infer that this fire was caused by the spontaneous combustion of coal stone."

Chen Mu asked curiously.

Captain Hu smiled and did not answer, but took Chen Mu to a low mountain on the right.

What caught my eye was a devastated carboniferous farm.

There are a lot of crushed cinders scattered on the ground.

Captain Hu said: "This was once a coal mine, which was abandoned five years ago. After the government filled it, it ignored it again. In March last year, a coal stone spontaneous combustion occurred, which was extinguished by my brothers and I…”

Captain Hu pointed to a landslide covered by sand and said:

"After the fire that day, I found that there was smoke coming here, so I came up to check it out and saw coal stones spontaneously igniting."

Chen Mu walked to the edge of the collapse and gently placed his palm on the ground.

You can feel the obvious heat.

This means that this place has indeed been burned.

But when he looked around the surrounding environment, he frowned. He used his hand to push the sand on the ground, and fell into deep thought as the weathered and inferior carbide stone exposed.

Captain Hu continued: "Mu Dahe's house is located at the foot of the mountain, and a lot of coal ash slags were found around the haystacks.

So I guess that the accidental fire was caused by the help of the wind that day...

Of course, I didn’t know that Mu Xianger was dead at that time.”

Chen Mu patted the sand on his hand, stood up and smiled, "Brother Hu is still very capable of judging cases. If he were to other captains, he might not have such insight."

This flattery made Captain Hu very useful.

The smile is also blooming like a chrysanthemum.

"So Brother Chen also thinks it was an accidental fire caused by the spontaneous combustion of coal stone?"

However, Chen Mu shook his head gently: "On the contrary, I think the fire in Mu Dahe's family was caused by man, and... the spontaneous combustion of coal stones you see was also caused by intentional humans!"

As soon as these words came out, Captain Hu's smile froze on his face.

"How did you decide?"

The person who asked this question was not Captain Hu, but a pleasant and cold voice from a woman.

At some point, there was a woman next to Chen Mu.

Like a ghost.
Chapter completed!