"Boom, boom, boom."
The next day, before we heard the rooster crow, we were woken up by the rapid ringing of bells.
I was just about to complain, but Lao Jiang suddenly sat up from the bed, his eyes flashing: "No, something happened!"
"Something happened, isn't this the morning bell of the temple?" I asked, yawning.
"No, this is a death knell. Only the dead will ring it..."
When Lao Jiang and I walked out of the Zen room, we found that the atmosphere around us was extremely tense. The door of Hantan Temple was closed tightly, and there were seven or eight monks holding wooden sticks around the Zen room blocking the way.
Lao Jiang looked at each other and quickly stepped forward to inquire about the situation. The leading monk explained: "Several donors, a murder occurred in the temple last night. For your safety, no one is allowed to step out of the Zen room!"
Only after we named Zhang Baiju did he start talking about it. It turned out that at three o'clock in the morning this morning, when the shift of the Sutra Pavilion was changing, it was suddenly discovered that a young monk on duty had been killed. The Buddhist scriptures in the entire Sutra Pavilion had been turned over in a mess, and the cabinets were knocked around.
It seems like a thief has sneaked in quietly, looking for something!
Hantan Temple has always been independent of the world, and this is the first time a murder has occurred. The abbot concluded that the murderer must be among the pilgrims, so he urgently sounded the death knell and sealed the door...
I immediately thought of the Three Lingnan Ghosts, but I saw that they were also watching the fun behind them, with an expression that it was none of their business.
Lao Jiang's face was so gloomy that it was almost dripping with water. We really didn't expect that the other party would take action so quickly, and even kill people.
"Can we go into the Sutra Pavilion and have a look? Maybe we can help." Lao Jiang hoped to see the scene with his own eyes, but the monk shook his head: "The donor Nick has agreed to help. He is a detective in the American Concession. The murderer will be found as soon as possible.”
Nick? This sounds like a foreign name.
A particularly bad premonition suddenly arose in my heart, and I looked nervously at Lao Jiang. Lao Jiang once again moved Zhang Baiju out and said that we were also policemen.
The monk could only go to the abbot for instructions. After a long time, he trotted over and led us to the Sutra Pavilion!
The Sutra Pavilion is actually a tall tower standing behind the main hall. Although it was already dark at this time, the lights on the tower were brightly lit, and there was a faint sound of chanting. It turned out that the abbot was offering salvation to the dead little novice monk.
The abbot is over sixty years old. He is wearing a red cassock, has a kind face, and has a long beard reaching to his chest. He was very happy to hear that we were friends of Zhang Baiju. He said that if the drought a few years ago had not been helped by Mr. Zhang, he would not have died. It is unknown how many victims were displaced.
Even the construction of this sutra-storage pavilion with such grandeur was due to Mr. Zhang’s donation.
Lao Jiang smiled slightly and replied: "Master Zhang first told me that Hantan Temple is very efficacious! So I made a special trip to Shanghai and brought my wife and a pair of children to visit. Unexpectedly, someone dared to kill Buddhists. , Jane's head is unforgivable."
"As long as the abbot is trustworthy, we can help. To be honest, I have been a policeman for several years and have solved countless unjust cases."
This old Jiang took advantage of He Lanxue, me, and Yin Ling'er in just a few words, but in order to disguise his identity, we could only let him talk nonsense.
The abbot immediately made a 'please' gesture!
After entering the door, we found that the blond foreigner we met yesterday was interrogating a young monk in broken Chinese. The young monk was the first person to discover the deceased.
The foreigner's name was Nick, and he was carrying a detective certificate from the American Concession. No wonder Hantan Temple asked him to investigate the case.
But the problem is that the most suspicious people now are him and the Three Lingnan Ghosts. The murderer is investigating himself? How could this ever come to light?
Nick took the initiative to come to us. Seeing how attentive he was, I became more and more suspicious. In the past few days in Shanghai, I have not seen many foreigners so enthusiastic.
Lao Jiang didn't bother to deal with him. He led me to squat in front of the corpse. Yin Ling'er also made a face at the foreigner: "Blue eyes, blond hair, Wei Luo Luo, I won't talk to you!"
When Lao Jiang lifted up the bloody white cloth, everyone present took a deep breath.
The young monk who was killed was only fifteen or sixteen years old at most. He was handsome in appearance, but his eyes widened with unblinking eyes, and the way he died was extremely horrific!
Three of his ten fingers were chopped off, and his arms were turned ninety degrees in a weird posture. It was obvious that the bones were dislocated, and even the teeth were stripped out. They were bloody from head to toe. The murderer The cruelty is outrageous!
At that moment, I suddenly thought of Bai Bing's appearance before his death. Both of them had been tortured with their fingers cut off, and I could even clearly feel their despair before they died.
The techniques are similar, as if they were made by the same people.
Lao Jiang looked at Nick angrily, and I instantly understood that he felt the same as me. Warner had indeed taken action against Hantan Temple.
If it was just suspicion before, now it is 100%25 certain that Nick and the Three Lingnan Ghosts are all subordinates of Warner!
I walked around the site and found that what the previous monk said was right. The Sutra Pavilion was indeed in a mess. There were torn scriptures and opened cabinets everywhere. It was obvious that they came here for the clay statues.
Since he couldn't find it, he wanted to use torture to extract a confession and threaten the young monk to reveal the whereabouts of the temple's treasure. Unfortunately, he didn't know at all...
"This little monk died miserably." Yin Ling'er couldn't help but lamented: "It seems that he is not even older than me."
"It is unforgivable to kill innocent people indiscriminately, and it is even more unforgivable to kill monks, Taoists, old and young. Master will definitely make the murderer pay with blood." He Lanxue suddenly looked at Nick beside him, and the cold murderous intent quietly rose in his eyes. .
But the murderer was too experienced. We searched the house for a long time, but there were no footprints or clues. Apparently the place had been cleaned up before leaving!
When we turned our attention to the corpse again, Nick pretended to ask other monks: "Has the deceased made any enmity with anyone recently, and will he be retaliated against?"
The meaning seems to be that the death of the young monk was just a vendetta that took place inside the temple.
Lao Jiang exposed his lie at a glance and said sternly to the abbot: "The Sutra Pavilion is the important place of Hantan Temple. It was turned into a mess and the young monk was tortured to death. The other party obviously did not come for him, but for him. I want to get a treasure from the temple.”
"Abbott, please excuse me, but you should be careful in the next few days! People will continue to die in the temple."
When Lao Jiang said this, his eyes were as cold as a knife.
