Nie Xiaoman asked, "You said there was a theft?" ”

Ji Shaoquan responded: "Exactly." ”

Nie Xiaoman said in a low voice: "Is the loss big?" ”

Ji Shaoquan frowned and said, "According to the owner, it is a priceless treasure!" ”

"Priceless!" Nie Xiaoman seemed to be slightly shocked and asked, "What is that?" ”

Ji Shaoquan said: "Just lost a hereditary Dingyan bead, this thing is originally a priceless thing in the market, and according to the size estimate he said, it is worth at most one or two thousand taels of silver." ”

As he spoke, Ji Shaoquan took out a piece of paper. There is a small circle painted on the paper, saying that it is a bead drawn by the owner, and Jing Mo sees that the bead is the size of a date, and I am afraid it is worth a lot.

Ji Shaoquan raised his hand and pointed to the stairs facing east, and said, "They live upstairs, let's go up from this staircase to have a look." ”

It turns out that there are two stairs there at the same time, one leading to the mountain and the other leading to the gate of the Jiuxiang River. Everyone then went up to the part that was close to the manhole mountain, and when they were going upstairs, Ji Shaoquan told Nie Xiaoman what he knew.

"This man's surname is Tian, his name is Youyu, and he fled from Zhenjiang five days ago. He had done business in Taiyuan before, and this time there were four people, one was his wife, a son of seventeen or eighteen years old, and an old maid. Last night, the old couple and the maid went to the garden together, and only his son remained in the house. This morning, the lady of the field with poultry accidentally opened the box, and only then did she find out that the pearl was missing. ”

Nie Xiaoman silently remembered while listening, and did not answer. Everyone went up the stairs, and Ji Shaoquan led them to the thirteenth door of Tianzi.

So the three of them pushed the door in, and Ji Shaoquan introduced Xiaoman and Jingmo again.

Na Tian Youyu is a big fat man with a short figure, I saw that he was wearing a scarf with a scarf on his head, wearing a somewhat wide half-new and not old straight jacket, about forty years old, with a high nose and deep eyes, a dense beard under his forehead, and his fleshy cheeks, looking a little like Zhao Gongming, the god of martial arts.

However, Zhao Gongming rode the black tiger with a solemn expression, and he had an unchallengeable majesty, but this Tian Youyu's face only had a sad and miserable color. Jing Mo looked at the lady again, she was a little younger, her black eyes, white skin, and her charm was still there. She wore a stand-up collar gown made of lake silk, and wore a gem-inlaid phoenix pattern gold distraction on her head, and her outfit was quite rich.

The woman was sitting at the head of the bed, and when she saw Xiaoman and the other three men going in together, she leaned back slightly, as if she was still a little shy and evasive. And beside her, there was a boy of seventeen or eighteen years old, who was born with a fair and delicate face, with bright eyes, and a very childish face, but he was already very tall, at least two inches taller than his father. He sat on the edge of the bed, wearing a square scarf on his head, and wearing a light gray lake deep coat, very neat, and holding a copy of "Cheng Zhai Le Fu" in his hand.

Ji Shaoquan and Tian Youyu exchanged a few words, everyone divided the guests and sat down, and Nie Xiaoman began to ask.

Nie Xiaoman said: "I heard that your family has lost a fixed face pearl. Do you know when you lost it? ”

Tian Youyu said: "It was probably when we went to the opera garden last night. According to insiders, yesterday afternoon, it seems that the lock on the box was locked. When I opened the box this morning, the lock was still fastened to the ring, but it was not locked, so I became suspicious. She opened the box and took a look, and the Dingyan Zhuguo was gone! Later, we searched everywhere, and even the bodies of everyone in the family were checked, but there was still no trace. ”

Tian Youyu stood up, took out a vermilion patent leather box behind the bed, opened the lid, and took out a small ivory box from it. The lid of the box is engraved with a coiled dragon, which is very exquisite, and it is lined with a piece of blood-colored satin.

Tian Youyu said, "That bead is in this box." Since we left for Zhenjiang, we have only opened it once in the boat and saw that the beads were still in the box. ”

Nie Xiaoman leaned over to look at the lock on the box, and said, "Did you also come by boat all the way by water?" "From Zhenjiang down the Yangtze River, you can go to Jinling, which is a waterway that everyone knows, Tian Youyu nodded.

Nie Xiaoman asked again: "When you opened the box on the boat to look at Ding Yan Zhu, did anyone else see it?" ”

"Nope. I'm very careful and never dare to be careless. ”

"You haven't seen it again since that time until you found out it was stolen this morning?"

"No, I haven't seen it."

"So, how do you know that it wasn't stolen at some other time, but it must have been stolen last night?"

"My lord, because this box is always with us, it has never left our eyes. It was only last night that we went to the opera garden and had a brief separation from this box. ”

"I heard that when you went to the theater garden, Childe was still indoors, didn't I?"

"Yes. However, he was also away for a while. He looked back at the boy. Meng Zheng, what happened to you last night, tell these adults carefully, do you understand? ”

Jing Mo's eyes also followed the young man, only to see that he lowered his eyes, a little cowering, obviously a child with no experience.

Nie Xiaoman asked softly: "You don't have to be afraid, just say whatever you want, although you didn't go to the opera garden last night, have you ever gone out?" ”

The young man Tian Mengzheng replied: "My lord, I have never gone out. I had a headache so I stayed in my room. But as I was lying in bed, I heard a commotion below, and I thought it was a fire. So I jumped out of bed and ran out to see. When I went downstairs, I heard that a thief had been caught, so it was a commotion, not a fire. Then I went back to my room. ”

"How long have you been down?"

"Not much, just for a short time."

"When you ran out of here, was the door open?"

"No, I pulled it up."

"Is the door still open when you come in, or what?"

"I remember it as it was, and it didn't change."

"Then when you came in, did you think there was anything unusual in the room?"

"Not at all. So I don't know what's stolen. ”

Nie Xiaoman crossed his arms, groaned for a moment, and continued to ask, "So did you go out again later?" ”

Tian Mengzheng shook his head and said, "No." When I went back to bed, I fell asleep shortly after. ”

"Did you hang the door before you went to bed?"

"Nope. But I don't sleep very deeply. Because I have a headache, I toss and turn a lot. If someone opens the door and comes in, I'm going to wake up. ”

Nie Xiaoman lowered his head again and thought silently. Ji Shaoquan still sat still, and did not interject, but his eyes kept secretly looking at the faces of these victims.

After a while, Nie Xiaoman finally raised his head and asked Tian Youyu, "Who is in charge of the key to this box?" ”

Tian Youyu looked at his wife and replied, "That's the insider's management." ”

The woman didn't wait for Nie Xiaoman to ask, and replied first: "The key is always on my body, and I have never left. ”

Nie Xiaoman said: "Oh, so after the lady arrived at this inn, did she open the box?" ”

The woman hesitated to reply, "The box has been opened, but I have closed it immediately." She took a long breath. There's one thing I don't know if it has to do with it. ”

Xiao Man's eyes lit up and asked, "Well, what's the matter?" ”