The night is getting darker and the winter cold is getting heavier.
Chun Miao stood under the eaves, holding a lantern in her hand. The flames flickered and illuminated her face, which looked green and white. She didn't know whether she was cold or frightened.
From time to time I would glance into the room, then quickly turn my head back, silently reciting Amitabha in my heart to strengthen my courage.
After reciting it for more than a hundred times, the light and shadow inside shook and expanded in circles, finally illuminating the door frame and projecting a slender figure.
"Miss!" Chunmiao's heart skipped a beat and she hurriedly held Lu Anran's arm, "You finally came out. This slave is standing at the door, very flustered."
Lu Anran blew out the candlestick in his hand and asked Chunmiao to lock the room again.
"Miss, what did you discover?"
"I still don't understand."
After asking and answering questions, it seemed that they were not on the same topic. Chunmiao did not ask any further questions. She helped Lu Anran leave and said, "Miss, why don't you just tell Village Chief Yin that maybe his daughter-in-law is the murderer?"
Lu Anran shook his head: "All these are mostly speculations and judgments without any actual evidence. The government officials will come in two days and they will decide the case."
Chunmiao blinked, with confusion on her face, "Then why did Miss go to the room of Mr. and Mrs. Yin Tianxiang to check it out?"
Lu Anran lowered his eyes: "Maybe... just to solve the mystery in my heart."
Chun Miao said with a proud smile: "Anyway, I think the government is not as powerful as Miss Yun and Mr. Yun. After two trips out, the matter will be investigated to 80-90%."
Lu Anran glanced at her: "There is still one or two points missing."
"It's just a point or two. After all, things have a direction and it will be easier to handle."
Lu Anran paused and sighed: "The last two points are the key. A case's motive, specific time and place, what weapon was used during the crime, how many people were involved, the method of committing the crime, and the process of committing the crime, etc. are all indispensable. "
"Ah!" Chunmiao finally realized what she was doing and shouted, "Miss is going to Yin Tianxiang's house just to add to her eighty-nine points."
The two walked around the house and discovered a secret door from the outer wall. It was blocked by bushes and an osmanthus tree, so it was not easily visible from the inside.
After returning to the Buddhist hall and handing back the key, before Village Chief Yin could ask, Lu Anran asked about the door first.
"It turns out that there was a door at the end to make it easier to move firewood and items. However, every winter it froze and the road behind it became slippery and difficult to walk on. It was not used for many years."
Especially a few years ago, Village Elder Yin's mother fell down and she died. Firstly, he missed his late mother and was heartbroken. He also felt that it would be unlucky to come back again, so he simply locked the door.
Lu Anran: "In other words, if you have the key, you can still leave?"
Village Chief Yin: "Of course, yes."
"Where's the key?"
"I put it in the locker in the wing. It hasn't been touched in so many years. Of course it's still there."
Lu Anran's dark eyes darkened slightly, and he pointedly said: "It was there before, but not necessarily now."
Village Chief Yin brought his eyebrows together, squeezing a deep groove in the middle, "What on earth do you want to say? It's better to say it openly."
Lu Anran's eyes were fixed: "That door is next to Yin Tianxiang and his wife's room."
Village Chief Yin reacted, his eyes trembled, his face twitched violently, he turned around and ran to the side room.
When Lu Anran and Chun Miao arrived in a hurry, Village Chief Yin's face was livid, his fists were still shaking, the candlelight and shadows were intertwined, and he was full of despair.
Lu Anran understood without him having to say that the key was gone.
The wind moved, the candle shadow flickered, and a scream pierced the night sky.
The three of them looked towards the place where the sound came from. Not long after, Yin Tianming ran over out of breath. As soon as he arrived at the door of the wing, before he could speak, his legs went weak and he almost fell, but he managed to hold on to the door frame.
"Father, father..." He huffed, his face covered with sweat, "Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, she..." He bit his tongue with his teeth, and his forehead twitched in pain, but he could say the words smoothly, "Hand in the room. He killed himself with a gold hairpin!"
—
The wind picked up again, and the snow that had stopped for a long time was blown. Snow particles hit the face, as cold as a knife.
After Yin Tianxiang's accident, the Wei family moved to Su Su's room. At this moment, many people were screaming at the door. Listening to the noise outside, other villagers also came one after another.
Inside, a plump middle-aged woman was surrounded by dozens of people, all talking incessantly, until Village Chief Yin passed by and everyone moved aside.
Lu Anran stepped forward to follow, asked someone to block the way, turned his eyes and asked, "Your Majesty?"
"You don't have to squeeze into this mess. If you want to know anything, I'll tell you."
Lu Anran thought for a moment and asked, "The prince was here just now?"
"I just came back and saw you going straight to the Buddhist hall, so I had a chat with Yin Tianming." Yun Qi was still wearing the same silver robe and fox fur, with a clean and elegant look. His black hair was like splashing ink in the wind, and he was freehand about the country, but his expression was less A bit of frivolity made him more dignified, "Originally, I was checking whether Widow Wang and his words were compatible, and I happened to meet the woman who brought the meal."
After the accident at Yin Village Chief's house, Village Chief Yin and Yin Tianming were left. On the one hand, they were too sad, and on the other hand, they needed to keep vigil, so no one took care of the family affairs. So after some uncles and uncles in the village discussed with everyone, each family pitched in to help. The woman from the neighboring family was responsible for cooking and bringing three meals a day here.
Yun Qi said: "When I met her, she said that she gave Mrs. Wei some medicine in the evening. After drinking it, Mrs. Wei said she was sleepy and wanted to sleep for a while. During dinner, she called out once, but there was no movement inside. The woman thought that Wei might have left before she woke up.
When I went back at this hour, there was still no response. She was hesitating. Yin Tianming and I heard her passing by, so we asked her to open the door and go in to take a look. We found that Wei was dead in the room. "
After briefly talking about the previous situation, Lu Anran got a general idea. Just as Village Chief Yin had finished asking questions, he shrank before opening the door and looking at Lu Anran.
"Chunmiao, stay here." Lu Anran dropped these words, quickened his pace, and entered the room one step ahead of Village Chief Yin.
Lu Anran came here once and found that the layout of the farmhouse was the same, but because the children lived there, there were a few extra knick-knacks. They were originally stored in a bamboo basket, but now they were scattered all over the floor.
Next to the overturned basket, Wei's body lay, holding a gold hairpin in his right hand. The other end of the gold hairpin was stuck in Wei's chest. Blood stained her clothes red, spread over the ground, and solidified halfway, as if Wei's life had suddenly disappeared. Stop.
"People are dead, people are dead again."
"Oh, Yaoshou, you are really dead, Amitabha."
"You are so young, oh...poor village chief's family, why do all these troubles come to his family?"
"It can't be that I was cursed by an evil spirit..."
There were more people, and the fear was dispersed. It seemed that the courage was strengthened. They squeezed the door frame and looked in. Until someone said a ghost, the fear that had just dispersed was gathered again, and everyone suddenly fell silent.
Lu Anran first walked around the body. The ground was very messy. There were not only overturned gadgets and objects, but also fragments of tea bowls, overturned stools, and various footprints of different sizes.
Yun Qi stood at the door and saw Lu Anran staring at the footprints on the ground and touching his nose: "It happened so fast. The first few rushed in without having time to stop it."
Lu Anran raised her eyes and glanced at him, her eyes seeming to say - don't you understand such a simple principle of protecting the crime scene?
Yun Qi felt the contempt in his eyes and wanted to speak. He opened his mouth but had nothing to say. He opened his fan and fanned the air to drive away the evil fire!
"Guanyue! How do you do things?"
Guanyue, who was squatting on the tree with his sword in hand, stumbled and almost fell down. In addition to moving rocks, running errands to check the scene, and picking door locks, he, a palace guard, now had an additional task of guarding the door?
Lu Anran didn't care that Yunqi's master and servant were glaring at each other. She took out her sheepskin gloves and picked up a few hair fragments from the ground and placed them on the open handkerchief, then turned to check the body.
"Look at that gold hairpin." A villager saw Lu Anran pick up the gold hairpin held by Mrs. Wei, patted the people around her and said, "Ms. Wei specially wore it to show off in front of us last time."
"Yes, I remembered it. That was her favorite hairpin. Although the inside is made of bronze and the outside is gilded, the shape is really exquisite. You can't find the same one even in the county. Only the one in Wangdu It can only be found in a place with beautiful flowers.”
It can be seen that women's priorities are the same.
"Let me take a look." Mrs. Tian emerged from the crowd, squinted her eyes, and said loudly: "What kind of gold hairpin is the Wei family? It looks like Jin family has worn one like this."
After saying this, several people remembered and nodded: "Jin has some good jewelry in her hands, including the bracelets and earrings she wears most often. If you think about it carefully, the styles are not exactly the same as this hairpin. It seems like a complete set." Coming."
Mrs. Tian clapped her hands in an exaggerated manner: "Hey! According to you, the golden hairpin used by the Wei family to commit suicide was her favorite, and it is very likely that this hairpin originally belonged to the Jin family."
Everyone was startled and turned around. The woman in front took a few steps back at the same time.
"Mo...could it be...Jin turned into a resentful ghost and leaned over Jin Chai, only then..."
"I also see Wei's character as someone who easily commits suicide."
"Mother, the devil is asking for his life!"
The north wind whistled, wandering back and forth in this village surrounded by mountains, like a roaring beast, a hundred ghosts walking in the night, and the dark night became even more eerie and strange.
Lu Anran took out a box of ointment from Wei's body and opened the lid. The fragrant smell immediately came out, and her expression changed slightly.
Yun Qi kept paying attention and immediately put away his fan and asked, "What?"
"The smell of lilacs."
Yunqi took a few steps to Lu Anran's side, leaned over and took a whiff. The smell was light and fragrant, but it lingered around him like a ghost.
Village Chief Yin watched the two of them playing riddles. He had lost all his patience after the accidents happened at home, and his face was gloomier than the dark clouds on a snowy day. "If you have anything to say, Miss Lu, just tell me."
Lu Anran covered Wei's face with a piece of handkerchief, giving her the last trace of dignity. She stood up slowly, looked at Village Chief Yin and everyone, and said softly: "After Su Su fell off the cliff, I smelled it on her body." After having such a fragrance, something happened in the Buddhist hall, and the window sill near the Buddha statue also had this smell."
After saying that, he paused and asked Village Chief Yin: "Village Chief still remembers my request to go to Yin Tianxiang's room again just now."
Village Chief Yin pursed his lips into a tight line and listened to Lu Anran say in a calm voice: "Although the fragrance in his room dissipated, I found the same paste stained on the inner wall of the bathtub."
A bolt from the blue struck Village Chief Yin so hard that he almost fainted.
A thought suddenly came to his mind, no wonder the key was lost, the murderer is at home!
Wei, his daughter-in-law, is the murderer!
