A killer umbrella floats in the river

Early in the morning of the fifth day of the sixth month of the eighth year of the Qing dynasty, the governor of Ningbo, Pei Wenhai had just finished washing up when the magistrate reported that a murder had occurred at the Guandi Temple. He rushed to the scene of the crime. The bloodbath took place in the front hall of Guandi Temple, where a young man fell on his back with a large puddle of blood behind his head. A bloody stone was thrown next to the body. Pei Zhifu examined the corpse and the deceased was about twenty-four or twenty-five years old. The clothes on his body had traces of being drenched by rain, and thinking about the heavy rain yesterday evening, the governor initially concluded that this person was killed when he came to the temple to escape the rain. At this time, the ground to protect the report: "the young man named Liu Junqing, family living in Hangzhou, yesterday took a cargo ship to Ningbo uncle's family to visit relatives. According to the people on the same boat, Liu Junqing had 30 taels of silver with him." The governor of Pei asked.

"When you arrived at the Guandi Temple, did you find these silver taels?" The groundskeeper shook his head. The governor then went into the back hall of the Guandi Temple, where a few tiles and a broken straw mat were placed in the corner of the back hall. He asked him, "Who lives here?" The ground Paul said: "There is a beggar called Xie Ah San live in the temple." The governor immediately ordered the magistrate to Xie Ah San escorted to the county court. Unexpectedly, the magistrates found thirty taels of silver from Xie San. Pei immediately ascended to the court to try the case, but no matter how to use torture, Xie Ah San only admitted to stealing the silver but did not admit to killing Liu Junqing. Xie San said he stole the silver when Liu Junqing was already dead. When Pei saw that nothing could be said, he ordered the magistrates to take Liu Junqing's portrait and visit the city the next day. Soon, the magistrates got a clue: on the evening of the day of the crime, someone had seen Liu Junqing with an umbrella from the lion street Tian Dagui's house. Tian Dagui is a mason, this year has been in Xiangshan County to solicit work, and only living at home with his wife Feng. After listening to the report, Pei Zhifu immediately ordered people to Feng summoned to the court.The governor of Pei showed Feng's portrait of Liu Junqing, and Feng said, "This gentleman had taken shelter from the rain in front of my slave's house the day before yesterday." It turned out that the evening of the day before yesterday, it suddenly rained heavily and Liu Junqing took shelter in front of Feng's house. Seeing that it was getting dark, Feng was worried that she was alone at home and it was inconvenient for Liu Junqing to stand outside the door, so she took out an oil paper umbrella and gave it to Liu Junqing to let him leave. Pei governor listened, could not help but twist his beard and ponder. From the situation that has been grasped, the case should be like this: the rain is too much that night, Liu Junqing even with an umbrella, is also difficult to walk, he ran into the temple to avoid the rain. Soon after entering the temple, someone used a stone to smash the back of Liu Junqing's head, killing him. Then, Xie San came back from outside to pick up rags, when he saw the silver in Liu Junqing's arms, he got greedy and stole the silver ...... If the above reasoning holds, then, where did the oil paper umbrella go? Could it be that Xie Ah San escaped when the umbrella was away? Thinking of this, the Pei governor ordered the magistrate to Xie A-san from the jail to raise. Xie San said that he saw an umbrella next to the body. Seeing that the governor interrogated the whereabouts of the umbrella, Feng, who was standing aside, suddenly opened her mouth: "Your Excellency, just now I forgot to say a strange thing, the umbrella that I lent to Liu Junqing, I have already got it back and put it at home." "The umbrella has been returned? Could it be that you have been to the Guandi Temple?" Governor Pei asked. Feng said, "Yesterday morning, I went to the river port behind my house to wash my clothes, and suddenly I saw an oil paper umbrella floating in the river, and when I picked it up, I saw that it was the umbrella that I had lent to Liu Junqing!" The governor asked, "What makes you think it was that umbrella?" Feng explained, "Because there is a character Tian engraved on the umbrella handle." The governor nodded and asked Feng to fetch the umbrella.

Not long after, Feng brought the umbrella. The governor ordered the magistrate to hand the umbrella to Xie A-san and asked him to take a closer look. Xie Alan said, "This is the one!" Upon hearing this, Pei's frown tightened: it seems that there is a name behind this oil-paper umbrella, does it grow legs of its own and will not run? Then again, even if the murderer returned to the scene after killing Liu Junqing and took the umbrella, he could not just throw it into the river. Turning to this. Pei governor gave an order to hang the oil paper umbrella at the mouth of the government office for public display. At the same time, the government also posted a notice: Liu, Junqing was killed on this day, and all those who have seen this umbrella must report to the Yamen! Soon, the city legend is that the oil paper umbrella is a vicious goblin change, specializing in harming people.