Chapter 82 The lingering ghost
The dark Tongji Street.

If it were normal, Tongji Street would be extremely lively at this time.

Each merchant would invite the opera troupe to his home to entertain his guests. There would be a long line of carriages and horses in front of the door, and the drivers of each family would squat in the corner gambling and bragging.

But today Tongji Street was very quiet. Many merchants left overnight, fearing that they would be caught by the Secret Service and taken advantage of as spies of the Jing Dynasty.

In the abandoned mansion, seven men in black and wearing bamboo hats stood solemnly around the body of Manager Yuan, like seven sculptures.

While Chen Ji was thinking, no one else dared to say a word, for fear of disturbing his thoughts.

What just happened in the Yingke Restaurant was still vivid in their minds. Being with their new boss who had great insight, the spies dared not even breathe, as if a huge rock was pressing down on their heads.

Chen Ji looked at the body of Manager Yuan lying still on the ground and suddenly asked, "Every stab was aimed at the vital points, which is consistent with the killer's method at the Yingke Restaurant, indicating that the two scenes were indeed committed by the same person. Among the thieves of Jing Dynasty, are there any who are good at using short knives? There are not many killers who use short knives as their handy weapons."

Xifeng said hurriedly, "There is a man who is very good at using a short knife. Our colleagues in Jinling tried to capture him, but he killed more than ten people and then jumped into the Qinhuai River to escape... We also suspect that this man committed the crime, but he has never demonstrated his skills in using a short knife before, which makes us a little uncertain."

Chen Ji asked, "How long ago did the Jinling incident happen?"

Xifeng replied: "It seems to be three years ago."

Chen Ji nodded: "Three years is a long time. Maybe this man has mastered some special skills in these three years. For the time being, I will designate him as the biggest suspect and issue a warrant for his arrest."

Anyway, Gui is going back to Jing Dynasty, so it should be no problem for him to help me bear the hatred of the Secret Service.

Xifeng said with difficulty: "No, this man is cautious. During the last fight, he wore a green-faced fang mask, so no one could see his appearance clearly. This arrest warrant cannot be issued. But Lord Jinzhu has led people out of the city to block all the main traffic routes, so they can't escape."

Chen Ji's heart sank, it turned out that Jin Zhu had gone out of the city to set up a checkpoint himself.

He asked casually, "Are you sure that the Jingchao thieves have escaped from Luocheng?"

Xifeng thought for a moment and said, "It's hard to be sure, but the biggest goal of the Jing Dynasty thieves is to steal our firearms. Now that they have succeeded, the most urgent thing must be to send the firearms back to Jing Dynasty. There is no benefit in keeping them here."

Chen Ji didn't know that after he used three firearms in a row last night, the matter was being sent to the capital and the border troops at an urgent speed of 800 miles, and was regarded as a top priority. The land and water routes leading to the north were being blocked and set up one by one, and the thieves of Jing Dynasty must not be allowed to bring the firearms back to Jing Dynasty.

Jing Dynasty did not actually get the firearms, but everyone thought they had, and the Secret Service was blocking all routes to the north with the highest standards.

Fortunately, Gui did not choose to go directly north, otherwise he would have fallen into the trap by now.

Chen Ji squatted down beside Manager Yuan's body, thinking about what he should do next.

First of all, I definitely cannot track down Gui and Wu Hongbiao. If I really catch these two people, I will be in trouble.

Secondly, he must capture a group of Jingchao spies, otherwise Jinzhu will not let him go.

But who should we catch?

Wait, he thought about who he should catch.

Chen Ji asked calmly, "Xifeng, was he already naked when you found the body? Are there any clues that can prove his identity?"

Xifeng squatted beside Chen Ji and responded in a low voice: "This person is an official from the Kujue Temple of Jing Dynasty. He should be a spy of Jing Dynasty. His other identities are still under investigation... There are no other clues for the time being."

Chen Ji frowned: "No other clues? What did you do today?"

The spies suddenly felt the pressure doubled. Xifeng hurriedly said, "We asked all the neighbors on Tongji Street to come here today to identify him one by one, but no one on the entire Tongji Street has seen him. This house belongs to a Huizhou merchant and has been abandoned for more than a year... We also asked nearby brokers and village heads to identify it. We checked for a day and checked everything we could."

The corpse seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and no one within a few miles knew his identity.

It’s not that the spies didn’t try hard, it’s that they simply had no clues.

Chen Ji said calmly, "It was freezing cold, it was impossible for this man to walk out of the house naked. The killer must have taken his clothes off after killing him. Why did the other party take his clothes off? It must be that his clothes were recognizable enough that someone could use them to recognize his identity."

Xifeng asked, "Sir, have you thought of a way to track them down?"

"How many people does the Secret Service have in Los Angeles?"

"Master Jinzhu has left forty-two men to guard Luo City."

"Send them all here and seal off the East Market," Chen Ji stood up and said slowly, "Since reasoning doesn't work, let's use the stupider method of elimination. This person must have lived in Luo City, and his disappearance would definitely not have left no ripples. Call the head of the East Market and the brokers here, and investigate all the missing people in the entire East Market. Whoever disappeared inexplicably is the dead person."

At this time, Manager Yuan was no longer in Bailu Pavilion, and the only clue pointed to Bailu Pavilion.

As long as he confirmed that Manager Yuan was missing, he would have a reason to search Bailu Pavilion, arrest people for interrogation, and get an explanation for Jin Zhu. There was no reason to copy the test paper according to the answers. Chen Ji knew that Gui took Manager Yuan's clothes because he didn't want the Secret Service to find out about Bailu Pavilion and ruin the Military Intelligence Department's financial resources.

But what does this have to do with Chen Ji? Bailu Pavilion hides so many ginsengs, which is exactly what he needs.

……

……

Late at night, the village head was pulled out of his home by the secret spy. He followed the spy tremblingly, fearing that he would anger these living devils around him and be eaten alive.

Xifeng held a torch in his hand and led the secret agents to knock on the doors of shops one by one, searching each one carefully.

There were cries of fear coming from the originally quiet shop. The sleeping shopkeeper and his employees had no time to put on their cotton-padded jackets before they were mercilessly dragged to the street by the spies, shivering with cold.

Xifeng and the others had grim expressions on their faces, and it was not until the head of the village confirmed that there was no shortage of staff in the store that the spies let the shopkeepers and their employees go back to sleep.

Chen Ji followed the spy silently. His mind was not on these irrelevant shops. He just waited to check one by one and get closer and closer to Bailu Pavilion.

In order to prevent the Jingchao villains in Bailu Pavilion from counterattacking and fighting to the death, he always hid at the back.

However, when he was about to find Bailu Pavilion, Chen Ji felt that something was wrong... it was too quiet.

It seemed as if Bailu Pavilion was unaware of what was happening in the outside world. No one tried to escape. It was just like an ordinary shop.

The next moment, Xifeng walked forward and knocked on the main door of Bailu Pavilion.

Inside the door, someone pulled out the bolt.

With a creak, the door was opened from the inside. A young man, half-drowsy, was dazzled by the light of the torch. He squinted and covered his eyes with his palms. "Who is it? What's going on in the middle of the night?"

Xifeng didn't say anything, but the head of the village came forward with the household register in his hand and asked with a smile, "There's a murder on Tongji Street, but we can't identify the deceased. We're going door to door to see if anyone is missing. Boy, please call out everyone in the store. We'll leave after we've checked everything."

"Oh..." The young man turned around and shouted into the house, "Boss! The head of the village has brought some people to see if there are any missing people in our store."

Chen Ji's muscles tensed up, ready to kill or retreat at any time.

However, he was suddenly stunned.

I saw a fat figure in the house leading five waiters to the door, and said with a smile: "Master, these are the only people in our Bailuge store. They are all here."

Shopkeeper Yuan!
Chen Ji almost thought he had seen it wrong, but he confirmed again and again that the fat figure in front of him was wearing a bright red satin robe and a golden crown on his head. Who else could it be but Shopkeeper Yuan? !

At one point, he even felt a little dazed.

In Bailu Pavilion, Si Caogui cut off the neck of a shopkeeper Yuan. In Tongji Street, Chen Ji also cut off the neck of a shopkeeper Yuan with his own hands. But now, another shopkeeper Yuan appeared in Bailu Pavilion!

It seemed as if the other party could not be killed, like a ghost that could not be driven away.

He wanted to grab the other person by the collar and ask, are you a human or a ghost? !

Chen Ji stared at the fair face of Manager Yuan. He knew that this face was a new human skin mask. After the Jing Dynasty Military Intelligence Department discovered that the Secretary Cao Xin had died, they must have found a new person to replace him, and even prepared the human skin mask early.

Do you want to expose the other person's human skin mask now?

But after the revelation, how should he explain to Xifeng, how did he know that the mask on his face was a human skin? Xifeng was not a fool, and by then the other party might even realize that he had come to Bailu Pavilion tonight!
In front of Bailu Pavilion, the head of the village was heard saying to Xifeng: "Sir, Bailu Pavilion is an old merchant in my East Market. They have always used these people, there is no mistake."

Xifeng looked at Shopkeeper Yuan and said, "Luo City has been unstable these days. If you find anything unusual, please report it to us immediately."

Shopkeeper Yuan said with a smile: "Of course, of course. We are all law-abiding citizens of Luo City. It is our duty to help you catch the criminals."

Xifeng nodded, and he simply reminded everyone to "close the doors and windows" before going to the next shop.

In the end, Chen Ji did not speak up to expose the truth. He turned around and followed Xifeng away, leaving Manager Yuan and his employees standing calmly at the threshold of Bailu Pavilion, with calm expressions showing no emotion.

At this moment, a secret agent suddenly came from a distance. When he got closer, the secret agent said to Xifeng, "Sir, when we were investigating at Li's Clothing Shop with our agents, we got an important clue. The shopkeeper of that shop said that when he was outside Red Clothes Lane last night, he saw us blocking the lane, and four people with swords and knives secretly ran out from behind the lane. These people might be the thieves of Jing Dynasty!"

Chen Ji's heart sank. Could it be the four people who abandoned the prince and Bai Li? !

(End of this chapter)