"Seven! Oh no..." Lieutenant Li recalled carefully, "Eight, definitely eight!"
"Lead the way."
The name of the accident was Chenjiazhuang, located on the outskirts of Liu County, more than a mile away from the nearest rural road.
If you want to go to Chenjiazhuang, you have to take a side road and walk into the mountains.
In barren mountains and remote fields, rabbits and mice are occasionally seen in the long grass.
"What are the products of Chenjiazhuang?"
"Grain, citrus, wool, mutton... and the like." Lieutenant Li thought for a while, "Our Zhuangzi here basically produces these, and there are mountains behind Chenjiazhuang."
"How's the yield?"
"That's not clear." Lieutenant Li scratched his head, "I don't care about this."
He Lingchuan looked around: "It's a bit remote, and it's a bit far from Liu County."
It is not convenient to transport products from here to Liu County.
"Yes." Lieutenant Li pointed forward, "We're here."
He Lingchuan himself had a manor in his name, and he knew that many Zhuangzi in the suburbs lived in families, and built walls and prepared weapons to ward off foreign enemies.
The same goes for the Chenjiazhuang in front of us. There are five to six hundred descendants of the Chen family living here, and it looks like a small county behind closed doors.
After the incident, the Chen family still lived here and guarded the gate of Zhuangzi, preventing outsiders from entering or exiting.
If Lieutenant Li hadn't opened the way, He Lingchuan wouldn't have been able to come in openly.
There are mainly private houses in Zhuangzi, including grain fields, livestock sheds, workshops, warehouses, wells and springs, and even taverns and restaurants. It is really not much different from a small county town.
Everyone observed carefully and found that many buildings had signs of being attacked. For example, they had just passed a farmhouse and there were three deep claw marks on the wooden door.
When the head of the Chen family heard that Lieutenant Li, accompanied by the inspector, was coming to investigate the case, he immediately went out to greet him.
According to him, the day of the incident was a calm night with stars but no moon, and the light was very dark. Suddenly, several monsters appeared in the village and pounced on everyone they saw.
More than forty strong men from the Chen family's village protection group grabbed weapons and rushed over, but they were no match for those monsters, and seventeen or eighteen of them were bitten to death in the blink of an eye.
Zhuangzi was in chaos, and the head of the Chen family himself had two sons killed.
Others did not have the courage to resist, and the high walls of the manor became an obstacle to their escape.
The remaining people thought they were dead, but the monsters suddenly howled loudly and jumped out of the wall to the west.
Once they left, they never came back.
The Chen family's panic has just subsided and they have been on tight alert to this day.
He Lingchuan listened carefully and asked about the doubt: "How many monsters are there?"
"I saw three heads." The head of the Chen family said, "But some of my clansmen said they saw five heads, and some said they saw seven heads. It was too chaotic and dark that night, and they were so fast that no one could see them.
See them all." And the monsters are of different sizes and shapes.
"What do the three-headed monsters you saw look like?"
"There is one that looks like a tiger, but its tail is black and hairless. It looks like a big scissor. It can also attack people."
He Lingchuan thought of the claw marks on the wooden door. He glanced at Dong Rui, who shook his head. He had never heard of such a monster.
"anything else?"
"There is another one that is round and rolling around, but it has thorns all over its body. I have seen a strange plant in the south called cactus. It's a bit like that." Patriarch Chen turned around and entered the house, and soon took out five spiky sticks.
The thorn was handed to He Lingchuan, "This is the kind of thorn that can be fired out to hurt people!"
He Lingchuan took it in his hand, and several people gathered to observe.
The shortest thorn is seven inches, and the longest can reach three feet. It is black and white, and has barbs on the top. Just imagining what it feels like to be stabbed makes me shudder.
Patriarch Chen also said: "It hurts the most people. The treatment afterwards is extremely painful."
To remove the thorn, the flesh must be cut first, which is another layer of pain for the injured.
"There is also one that can burrow into the ground and emerge from the ground."
"You have high walls and gates here. How did the monsters get in?"
"Climb the wall." Chief Chen smiled bitterly, "I asked the guard on duty that night, and one of them saw the tiger running from the forest, climbing over the high wall like an ape, and attacking the guard."
"According to your statement, these murderous monsters must have been diverted by something, and you were able to save your lives." He Lingchuan pondered, "Before that, was there anything strange happening inside and outside Zhuangzi?"
The Chen clan leader shook his head: "No, our Zhuangzi has always been peaceful."
"Have any outsiders been here?" This kind of place should be very exclusive. Once outsiders come in, the Chen family will not know about it.
The Chen clan leader thought about it carefully this time and shook his head: "No."
He Lingchuan looked through the window at the livestock pen below, "When was the last time your village delivered goods?"
"I just came back five days ago," the clan leader said, "and shipped out a batch of wool and fruits."
"Did you encounter any accidents or strange things on the way back and forth?" He Lingchuan asked him, "Maybe these monsters were also attracted here."
"Everything is normal." The Chen family leader was slightly angry, "If someone really leads a monster to attack Chenjiazhuang, that would be crazy!"
He Lingchuan asked a few more questions, but found no clues, and then asked: "Do you have all the information on the deceased?"
"Yes." More than a month after the incident, the Chen family recovered from the panic, "But only the name, age, residence, and family members were written on the note and inserted into the genealogy."
He Lingchuan looked out the window and saw that the sky was already dark: "I'm staying at Guizhuang tonight. I'll also check out the information."
The head of the Chen family had no objection and made a small courtyard for him and Dong Rui to live.
That night, He Lingchuan and Dong Rui took out fluorescent spores and began to look through the deceased's information.
It goes without saying that 60% of the people living in Zhuangzi are related by marriage. But other than that, there seems to be no commonality among the victims bitten to death by monsters.
After looking at it for almost an hour, Dong Rui couldn't help but rub his eyes. Lingguang handed him a small bottle of eye drops at the right time. "Why do these people write like ghosts drawing symbols?" It takes too much effort to read.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "It would be good if there are people in the countryside who can read and write." He Lingchuan urged him, "What do you see?"
"At first glance, these monsters seem to be killing people randomly and eating while killing. Grizzly bears that have just finished hibernation don't have as much appetite as them." When Dong Rui was conducting an autopsy in Liu County, the police officer nearby saw the mutilated corpse and wondered.
How many times have you vomited?
These monsters bit the humans in Chenjiazhuang completely as food, and only ate the nutritious internal organs.
"Until I had an idea, I went to summarize the locations of the victims." The two of them were sitting in the yard, and Dong Rui drew a picture on the sand. "This is the general topographic map of Chenjiazhuang. This is the location of the victims. Can you see anything?"
?”
He poked dozens of small holes in the sand, each small hole representing the residence of a victim. It was late at night when the incident occurred, and most people were sleeping in their houses. Even if they were frightened and ran out, they would not be far from home.
He Lingchuan came over to take a look: "Well, the monsters jumped over the wall from the east, but there are more people eating in the west of Zhuangzi, and there are almost no visits to the south and north... Are there any people living on the east and north and south sides of Chenjiazhuang?"
The last sentence was directed at Old Man Chen beside him.
The head of the Chen family specially sent him a local correspondent to answer questions and resolve doubts of the inspector. The old man looked wrinkled and a bit hunchback, but in fact he had agile legs and feet, a sharp ear and eyesight, and his reactions were quick.
Old Man Chen didn't know how big an official the "Inspector" was. Anyway, he was sent by the official to investigate the case, so he cooperated and said: "I live in the west. There are several big drying farms, so there are more people living in the east than in the west."
.”
"So instead of staying in the east where there are more people, the monsters go to the west and start killing people?" He Lingchuan pointed at Shatu and said, "In the end, they all left from the west."
All monsters are like this, so it shows as a commonality.
"So, there is indeed something in Zhuangzi that attracts them."
Dong Rui said proudly: "It's your turn. After watching for an hour, you won't get nothing, right?"
His discovery was extraordinary. Although it is not worth it to break it, but to deduce this clue from a pile of messy information and a pile of torn paper that looks like ghost drawings is a test of one's intelligence, right?
He followed He Lingchuan and saw countless cases, big and small, and he himself was no longer what he used to be.
He Lingchuan smiled and took out a stack of notes: "Li Xianwei's information is wrong. The number of people who died peacefully was not seven or eight, but five in total. Well, these are the five people."
Everyone else died miserably, but these few people "died peacefully" are very conspicuous.
"They are all men, aged between twenty-five and fifty-three." He asked Old Li next to him, "Old Li, do you recognize these five people?"
Old Li was illiterate. After He Lingchuan read out the names of the five people, he nodded: "I know, I know them all. These three are bachelors, one has a wife, and the other has a wife who has died long ago."
The twenty-five-year-old was married and had children, and the others were singles. The fifty-three-year-old deceased was a widower, and his wife had been dead for ten years.
"Do these five people all live to the west of Zhuangzi?"
"No, no, only Chen Fuang, who married a wife and had children, lives in the west." There are four other dead, two in the east, one in the north and one in the south.
The sample is too small and not representative.
He Lingchuan pondered for a long time before asking: "What is the usual relationship between these five people? Who among them has traveled far recently?"
"Chen Fu'ang, who are close in age, are cousins, and the other two always drink with them and go out to do some small business." Old Man Li explained, "The people who live in this village are all related to each other.
"
Most of them have the surname Chen, and they were in the same family decades ago.
"Have they been out of Chenjiazhuang recently?"
"I'll go ask." After saying this, Old Man Chen walked out of the yard.
Two quarters of an hour later, he came back and said:
"The three Chen Fuang brothers basically went out with the convoy in Zhuangzi and came back with the convoy. They just came back a few days ago."
Chenjiazhuang only had a centralized sale a few days ago, selling wool and fruits.