Dingbei Hou's doctor brother

Chapter 136 Human Traffickers

Lang Si rode his horse across Dongming Street, and Xiao Yan followed behind.

Not far from Chengfu Temple, I caught a glimpse of a familiar green figure being escorted by the Jinyiwei on the side of the road.

He reined in his horse quickly, and the horse neighed loudly and turned its head to look back.

It was indeed Lu Ziqing.

Lang Si heard the sound of a horse being reined in not far ahead, and he also stopped and turned around.

"what happened?"

Xiao Yan rode his horse back without saying a word, and met Lu Ziqing's gaze before he even dismounted.

"Master Hou?"

"What's going on?" Xiao Yan glanced at him and asked the Jinyiwei next to him, "Why are you arresting an official appointed by the imperial court?"

"Meeting the Marquis of Dingbei."

Several Jinyiwei greeted him in unison, and the leader explained later.

"We found them hiding in a house and the girl was injured. As a precaution, we decided to take them back to the Northern Pacification Office for further questioning."

As he spoke, his eyes widened, and when he saw someone coming behind Xiao Yan, he immediately greeted him.

"Boss."

Lang Si walked over, raised his chin towards Lu Ziqing, and spoke to the Jinyiwei.

"There's no need to check this person."

Several Jinyiwei put away their knives, and Lu Ziqing began to explain the reason.

"This girl escaped from human traffickers and fell injured on the roadside. I happened to pass by and rescued her."

"Human trafficker?"

Lang Si's eyes lit up, and he immediately perked up and looked at Xiao Yan.

"Could they be the group we are looking for?"

Xiao Yan looked at the woman and asked, "How do you know for sure they are human traffickers? Where did they escape from? Do you recognize those people?"

Murong Wei repeated everything she had said to Lu Ziqing, except for the appearance of the human traffickers, which she had forgotten due to fear and nervousness.

She thought for a moment and said, "I didn't see anyone else because they were wearing black masks. The only person I recognized was the child who was delivering food to a few rooms."

"What child?" Xiao Yan glanced at Lang Si, knowing the answer. "What does he look like?"

Murong Wei thought for a moment and said, "About... seven or eight years old, with scars on his face, and he seems to be... crippled."

Lang Si got excited and said to Xiao Yan.

"Yes, it's exactly as Su Xin described. It's this group of people. Just like what Magistrate Song said, they used the same modus operandi for the recent disappearances of women. They used that child as bait to specifically lure beautiful women."

Xiao Yan thought for a moment and looked at Murong Wei, "Now, you need to cooperate with us to identify the scene."

"This..." Murong Wei was a little scared and hesitated, "...Okay!"

Xiao Yan patted Lu Ziqing on the shoulder and prepared to mount the horse.

The drizzle gradually stopped, and the dark clouds slowly opened up.

At this moment, a fast horse came from the direction of Chengfu Temple. It was He Yizhou. He reported directly without getting off the horse.

"My men found a female corpse in the pine forest near Guangcheng Temple in the north city."

Lang Si's expression suddenly changed, and he asked anxiously, "What does it look like?"

He Yizhou said: "Sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing a pink dress."

Lang Si's entire body instantly broke out in a cold sweat, and he looked towards Xiao Yan, "Oh no! Could it be..."

"Leave the woman to Zhou Nan, we'll go over and take a look first." Xiao Yan said while riding his horse.

In the pine forest of the north city, several Jinyiwei were guarding the corpse. Xiao Yan dismounted and walked quickly towards the person covered by the white cloth.

Seeing the pink clothes exposed, my heart started to get nervous.

He remembered that the princess liked to wear pink clothes. Could it be true...

Xiao Yan squatted down and uncovered the white cloth. Lang Si's frightened eyes immediately relaxed. He sat down on the wet grass as if relieved and sighed.

"Mom, luckily it's not the case. My life is safe for now."

Magistrate Song arrived just in time. After investigating, he said, "Another slashed throat, with wounds all over the body. It's the same method used in the rape and murder of several women three years ago. The murderer has already been apprehended and executed, so I didn't expect him to reappear."

"Could it be that the real culprit behind this has not been caught at all?" Lang Si asked casually.

"That's impossible," Magistrate Song pondered. "That man personally admitted and signed his name, so how could he not be the real murderer?"

"These missing people are all women from decent families, not prostitutes in brothels," said Xiao Yan.

"The victims are not only from Beijing, but also from other places. The women found in Beijing are all from other places, just like the kidnapping case a few years ago."

"They would transport the missing women from the capital to other places, or outside the Great Wall, or sell them to wealthy merchants or high-ranking officials and hide them away."

"This gang of human traffickers must be a large organization, not as simple as it appears. The murderer three years ago was probably just a scapegoat."

Lang Si looked at the woman's scars and said, "This woman has scars all over her body, even... burns like this. The murderer is a pervert who likes to torture and play with her before killing her."

In Siyuanfang in the east, Murong Wei led Yang Zhounan through the small alley to the back alley.

There was no one in the alley. She walked to the wall of a dilapidated house and pointed to a hole covered by weeds in the corner.

"I crawled out of this dog hole."

The back door was half open. Su Chengfeng pushed it open and walked in. The courtyard was surrounded by weeds and several dilapidated gatehouses were open.

Several subordinates drew their swords and went out to investigate.

Yang Zhounan stepped into a room and looked around. On the long table in the middle were several unfinished cups of tea and two sesame cakes.

Su Chengfeng casually opened the lid of the teapot and took a look, then said, "The tea and sesame cakes are from today. They moved away early, so we arrived a little late."

Yang Zhounan slung his knife over his shoulder and peered into the inner room. "They should have left when that woman ran away."

He looked inside and outside for a long time but found nothing, so he stood in the yard waiting.

A subordinate came out from the room opposite and handed him the pearls in his hand.

"General, this was found in the house."

Yang Zhounan took it in his hand, took a look at it, held it in his hand, and gave instructions.

"Go back first."

Under a locust tree at a corner of Jingu Street, Lang Si finished drinking some water and saw Yang Zhounan riding a horse towards him from a distance.

"came back!"

Xiao Yan took a few steps forward and asked, "How is it?"

"They moved ahead of time." Yang Zhounan dismounted and took out the pearl. "We only found this."

"this is……"

Lang Si stared at the pearl, as if surprised. He immediately took out the pearl that Su Xin gave him and held it in his hand for comparison.

"This was given to me by Su Xin. It's the pearl that fell from the princess's button. Both pearls are covered with gold thread. As Miss Murong said, the princess must be in that black cloth bag. It's a pity that I was a step too late."

"It's a waste of time to visit every household and investigate. There's no time left." Xiao Yan looked up at the sky.

"Now that the rain has stopped, more people are starting to appear on the streets. It's still early before dark, so we can only lure them out."

In the office of the Imperial Hospital, Chi Musheng was busy writing a prescription. When he saw Lu Ziqing walk in, he asked casually.

"How is Concubine Chun's pregnancy?"

Lu Ziqing put the medicine box away and sat back at the table.

"The queen's baby is fine, but she's a little old and needs to be taken care of carefully."

Chi Musheng looked at Fang Zi and nodded, remembering what Lu Ziqing had not finished saying when he came back.

"By the way, who did you say you saved on the street?"

Lu Ziqing wrote a prescription and didn't look back.

"I saved a girl from human traffickers at Chengfu Temple."

"Human trafficker?" Chi Musheng paused and looked at him sideways. "Where is that girl from?"

"People from Zhongzhou."

"It's been three years, and these human traffickers are at work again," Chi Musheng said. "I wonder how many decent women have been harmed."