April in Yimeng, drizzle, night shrouded a small town in Qingzhou. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning passed by, and a woman's call came from the house. People rushed to find the door wide open, and the room was dark and empty. When the lights were lit, people couldn't help but be surprised: a bloody female corpse lay on the ground. The victim's name was He Lanying, and she was about twenty-six years old. Because her husband Fan Xiaoshan traveled abroad all year round, selling brushes, she was the only one left in the house. Why was she killed tonight? Who was the murderer?

After checking at the scene, people found a small fan in the soil behind the door. There was a poem inscribed on it, and the handwriting was clear and beautiful. There was a line of small characters below, which read "Yiqing Wu Brother Correction." The signature was "Wang Sheng." This important clue immediately attracted people's attention. But who was Wang Sheng? People looked at each other and shook their heads. The name of the fan's owner, Wu Feiqing, was very familiar to everyone. He was a well-known rich boy from Yidu County who lived in the same village as Fan Xiaoshan, a family member of the victim. He usually behaved dissolute and had frivolous manners. So the villagers believed in his crime. So the county government arrested Wu Feiqing. After several interrogations, he refused to admit it. But the torture again and again finally made him to confess to murder.

Afterwards, he was escorted to all levels of government. Although he appealed many times, after repeated interrogations by more than a dozen officials, he did not raise any objections to his murder charges. Wu Feiqing expected that he would be executed, so he instructed his wife to use all the money in the family to help the lonely and helpless in society. Anyone who came to his door to recite "Amitabha" a thousand times gave him a pair of cotton-padded pants; if he recited 10,000 times, he gave him a cotton-padded jacket. The sound of chanting Buddha reached more than ten miles away. As a result, the Wu family soon became impoverished and could only support themselves by constantly selling their land. Wu Feiqing secretly bribed prison guards in prison to help him buy poison and prepare for death.

One night, Wu Feiqing dreamed that the man of God said to him, "Don't die, you used to be 'fierce on the outside ', but now you are 'auspicious on the inside.'" When he woke up, he couldn't sleep for a long time. As soon as he closed his eyes, the man of God appeared in front of him again, and the words were still in his ears. He felt that there must be some mystery in it, so he didn't want to seek death. Not long after, Zhou Yuanliang, the waiter of the Ministry of Household Affairs, became the governor of the region. One day, he was reviewing the cases that had been judged in the yamen. When he saw Wu Daiqing's murder case file, he thought about it. He asked to the left and right: "What is the conclusive evidence that Wu Feiqing killed?" Immediately came the plaintiff Fan Xiaoshan, and asked the police officer to take out the fan he had found at the scene. Zhou Yuanliang took the fan and looked at it carefully, then asked, "Who is Wang Sheng?" The court said they didn't know. He carefully read all the records of the trial again, and immediately ordered Wu Feiqing to remove the torture tools of the death row prisoner and transfer him from the prison to a warehouse.

Fan Xiaoshan was not convinced and argued vigorously. Zhou Yuanliang asked angrily, "Do you want to kill a random person, or do you want to find out the real enemy before you are willing to accept it?" Everyone suspected that Zhou Yuanliang was partial to Wu Feiqing, but they did not dare to speak. Zhou Yuanliang issued another bamboo stick to summon the prisoner, and immediately arrested the owner of Xinghua Restaurant outside the south gate. The boss was very panicked. He did not know what crime he had committed, and he knelt trembling in front of the hall. Zhou Yuanliang asked, "There is an inscription by Li Xiu of Dongguan on the wall of your restaurant. Let me ask you, who is this Li Xiu? When did he come to your restaurant?" The boss replied, "Last autumn, when Lord Xuezheng came to our Qingzhou Prefecture, three scholars from Rizhao County drank in our store. After getting drunk, they inscribed a poem on the wall, but I don't know where they live.

Who is Li Xiu, the villain doesn't know either. Zhou Yuanliang immediately sent agents to Rizhao County to arrest Li Xiu. A few days later, he took Li Xiu to the government office. Zhou Yuanliang was shocked and shouted angrily," Li Xiu, as a scholar, why did you deliberately kill someone? "Li Xiu was very surprised when he heard that, and nodded repeatedly and said," My lord, this is absolutely not the case. "Zhou Yuanliang threw the fan down the hall and asked Li Xiu to read it for himself. He asked," This poem was clearly written by you, why did you pretend to be Wang Sheng? "Li Xiu carefully read the poem fan and replied," My lord, this poem is indeed written by a villain, but this word is really not written by a villain. " Zhou Yuanliang said, "Anyone who knows your poem must be your friend. Take a closer look, which friend wrote it?" Li Xiu picked up the fan and looked at it carefully for a while, and replied, My lord, the handwriting seems to be written by Wang Zuo of Yizhou.

He was also drinking with me at the restaurant that day. "So Zhou Yuanliang immediately sent agents to Yizhou to search for Wang Zuo. After catching him, Zhou Yuanliang interrogated Wang Zuo carefully from beginning to end like he interrogated Li Xiu. Wang Zuo immediately gave a new clue. He said,' This word was written by Zhang Cheng, a merchant of iron goods merchant. He said that Wang Sheng was his cousin. "Hearing this, Zhou Yuanliang couldn't help but be moved." I found him. He's the killer! "Zhang Cheng was immediately suppressed, and he was promoted to the first trial." In the face of personal evidence, he had to bow his head and confess. Therefore, the truth of the attempted rape and murder case was finally revealed.

It turned out that one day three years ago, Zhang Cheng went to this small town to sell iron tools, and happened to see He Lanying. Seeing her handsome appearance and romantic demeanor, he couldn't help but salivate. He wanted to come forward to tease, but he was afraid that the woman would not obey. After returning home, he had a plan: it was better to use Wu Feiqing's frivolous name to achieve the purpose of personally possessing the British daughter He Lanying. So he bought a small fan and asked Wang Zuo of Yizhou to inscribe a poem on the fan. Then he signed the next line to create the illusion that the owner of the fan was Wu. Everything was ready, Zhang Cheng proudly thought to himself, and took this small fan to find He Meimei. If he hooked up, he would report his real name, and if not, he would pretend to be Wu Feiqing. At that time, he did not intend to kill He Lanying. After making up his mind, on a drizzly night, he took Shi Fan and jumped over the wall into Fan's house. He Lanying had just come down and immediately got up when she heard the sound. Since her husband was often away from home, she had prepared a short knife by her side. Hearing the sound, she took the short knife to open the door. After opening the door, she saw that it was not her husband and that Zhang Cheng had bad intentions, so she grabbed Zhang Cheng's clothes with her left hand and used her right hand to defend herself.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Cheng was very nervous in his heart and hurriedly reached out to grab the knife. He Lanying grabbed Zhang Cheng and shouted for help. Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhang Cheng became even more flustered. He grabbed the short knife and stabbed He Lanying in the heart with all his might. Then, he threw away the fan and fled in a hurry. Now, the murderer who broke into the house at night has finally been caught! Three years of unjust imprisonment, once a time of snow. Qingzhou people all praised Lord Zhou for his wisdom. At this time, Wu Feiqing realized that the "inner ji" mentioned by the god in the dream turned out to be the word "Zhou". However, people still do not understand the mystery of Zhou Yuanliang's solving the case.

Later, a squire found an opportunity to ask Zhou Yuanliang about this matter. Zhou Yuanliang smiled and said, "This unjust case is easy to figure out. Looking carefully at the original interrogation records, it can be seen that He Lanying was killed in early April. It was rainy and cold that night, so he didn't need a fan at all. What's more, he was sneaking around to do bad things, how could he bring this kind of thing to find trouble when he was in a hurry? It can be seen that the murderer wanted to use this fan to put the blame on others. This is one of the first things. The inscription on the fan is usually only the first name, not the last name. And this fan, with the first and last names all inscribed on it, is clearly intended to divert attention, to confuse the truth. This is the second. Third, on the day I came to Yizhou, I was sheltering from the rain at Xinghua Restaurant outside the south gate, and I happened to see the inscribed poem on the wall. This time, the poem inscribed on the fan was very similar to the poem on the restaurant, so I guessed that this matter was related to Li Xiu. Sure enough, I found the real murderer by following the path. "Listening to Zhou Yuanliang's analysis, people were all amazed.