Shao Qingge and Ye Qi looked at the vines hanging down from the cliff, hesitating whether to follow them. Ye Qi said in his mind: "What if Ren Yuan takes us up the cliff, what if he is a murderer and wants to kill us?"
?”
Shao Qingge thought for a moment and said, "Let's do this. You pretend to climb up first, and I will place an entrance to the Peach Blossom Spring nearby. If things go wrong, we will retreat immediately. It won't be that easy for him to kill us."
"Okay, I'll block his view. You can summon Tao Yuanming as soon as possible." Ye Qi raised his head and said to Ren Yuan: "Brother Ren, wait for us, I'll come up right away."
Ye Qi followed the vines and slowly climbed up. Shao Qingge summoned Tao Yuanming in the darkness and opened the Peach Blossom Spring. Fortunately, Xiao Lou gave him two Tao Yuanming cards. The skill of the first one was cooling down, and the skill of the second one was just right.
It came in handy. In the next three hours, he and Ye Qi could return to Peach Blossom Spring for refuge at any time, and there was no need to worry even if they encountered a murderer.
After Shao Qingge arranged the peach blossom garden, he climbed up behind Ye Qi.
This vine is woven from weeds, as thick as an adult's arm, and very strong. Someone must have climbed this cliff frequently, and there are many artificially dug pits on the cliff that can be used as footholds.
Ren Yuan climbed very quickly, and within a moment, the three of them reached the top of the mountain.
Twenty years ago, the top of the mountain was not a mass grave. The bright moon hung in the sky, as close as if it were within reach. The wind on the top of the mountain was very cold, and the surrounding dry trees were rustling by the cold wind of winter. It would be freezing if I was far away.
He stuffed his red hands into his sleeves and walked forward quickly, saying in a deep voice: "You two, follow me quickly."
Ye Qi and Shao Qingge followed behind him.
After taking a few steps, Ye Qi almost tripped over a corpse. He hurriedly held on to the tree trunk next to him, pretending to be horrified and said, "Here, are these corpses?"
Ren Yuan made a "hush" gesture on his lips and lowered his voice and said: "They are those bandits. They robbed the gold and silver treasures in the town and ran to the mountain to claim the mountain as king. As a result, many internal strife broke out due to uneven distribution of the spoils.
People were killed.”
Ye Qi had already guessed the identities of these corpses and asked Ren Yuan to inquire, just to confirm.
Shao Qingge quickly glanced around and leaned over to roughly examine the corpses nearby. Although he was not a forensic doctor, he also learned a lot of autopsy knowledge under Xiao Lou's familiarity. Most of the corpses had chests and abdomens.
, all had obvious stab wounds, and there were bloodstains all over the ground. Obviously, these people were killed in a fight, and the weapon used by the other party should be a sharp knife.
Ye Qi still wanted to take a closer look, but Ren Yuan urged: "Let's go quickly."
The two had no choice but to follow him.
After walking along the winding road for a while, a simple wooden house appeared in front of us. The wooden house was in a very hidden location, behind a few big trees. It could easily be overlooked if you didn't look carefully.
Ye Qi said in his heart: "I remember that there was no such wooden house in the mass grave twenty years later, right?"
Shao Qingge said: "Yes. Twenty years later, the top of the mountain will be full of graves. But now, there are no more than ten corpses on the top of the mountain. Those who died of starvation were not dumped here in large numbers. The corpses are in the small town.
Throwing it everywhere.”
Ye Qi nodded and said: "There should be very important people living in the wooden house. We will pay attention to it later."
The two of them were communicating through a telepathic channel, and Ren Yuan suddenly said: "You two, wait for me here. I'll be back as soon as I go."
He took a step forward alone, knocked gently on the door of the wooden house, and whispered: "Mother-in-law, it's me."
After a while, the door creaked open from the inside, and a wrinkled old lady came out. Her voice was hoarse: "Ren Yuan? You came up the mountain to see me in the middle of the night. What's the matter?"
Ren Yuandao: "I want to take some food back."
The mother-in-law nodded and said, "Okay, come with me."
The two walked into the wooden house one after another. Shao Qingge and Ye Qi looked at each other. Ye Qi quickly threw a bug into the house. Soon, a burst of footsteps came from the terminal of the bug - it should be two people.
A person stepped down the wooden steps and went downstairs. Immediately afterwards, there was a conversation. The conversation had obvious echoes. It might have been in a closed secret room.
Ye Qi pricked up his ears and listened to Ren Yuan whisper: "Mother-in-law, two people suddenly broke into my house today and found my cellar. The two people looked very unfamiliar. They said they came to Qingfeng Town to escape from other places.
The robbers here robbed me of all my luggage. They caught me but didn't hurt me, they just asked me for some food. I didn't think they looked like bad people, so I left them temporarily."
The mother-in-law sighed softly and said: "In this world, we are all unable to protect ourselves. You still have time to save others... but don't save two white-eyed wolves who will rob you of everything and even harm you."
Ren Yuan smiled and said: "I don't think they are evil people. I can't make up my mind either, so I asked my mother-in-law to make a decision."
The mother-in-law was silent for a moment and said: "We don't have much food in store, so many children can't share it. How can we give food to strangers? Now is not the time to be kind. Why not take advantage of the midnight to give them to them?"
They were stunned and thrown out of Qingfeng Town. Life and death are determined by fate. Whether they can survive depends on their fate. We don't owe them anything."
Ren Yuan hesitated for a while, gritted his teeth and nodded: "Okay, just do as my mother-in-law said. Later I will call them into the house, give them a full meal, then knock them out and throw them down the mountain.
It can be considered as the most benevolent and righteous thing."
Shao Qingge and Ye Qi listened to the conversation coming from the bug and looked at each other, dumbfounded.
Although the actions of the mother-in-law and Ren Yuan were not very kind, in troubled times, it is difficult to even protect oneself. Food is limited. One more mouth will make more relatives starve. No one has the obligation to save two strangers. Their
This decision can be regarded as a normal reaction. If Ren Yuan really left the two of them and shared the food with them, it would be too holy.
Ye Qi said in his mind: "This mother-in-law's voice sounds very familiar. Is it the one we saw in the town during the day?"
Shao Qingge said: "It should be her. Her hoarse voice is very recognizable. She may have a bad throat and mild asthma."
Ye Qi said: "What should we do next?"
Shao Qingge smiled helplessly and said: "We can only resort to tricks. They want to stun us, so we just pretend to be stunned, lower their vigilance, and wait until late at night to go up the mountain to investigate."
Ye Qi also agreed with this approach: "They may poison the food, so be careful later."
The conversation about communication in the spiritual world had just ended when the door of the wooden house opened again. Ren Yuan walked up to the two of them and said with a smile: "You two, my mother-in-law invites you in."
Shao Qingge and Ye Qi followed obediently. Ye Qi pretended to be curious and asked: "Who is this mother-in-law?"
Ren Yuan said: "My mother-in-law is a very good person. She adopted many orphans in the town, and I was also raised by her. By the way, my mother-in-law taught me the art of making rattles."
Orphan?Rattle?
These two key pieces of information made Shao Qingge and Ye Qi excited.
It turns out that the person who made the rattle was not Ren Yuan, but the "mother-in-law" from twenty years ago.
Since the mother-in-law is an expert in making rattles, it is very likely that all the children she raised have a rattle given by her. Perhaps this is why the murderer became obsessed with the rattle and even left the rattle at the crime scene.
reason?
Shao and Ye entered the wooden house with doubts.
The internal area of the house is much larger than expected, with three floors: the second floor, the first floor and the basement.
The two of them were brought to the table on the first floor by Ren Yuan. It was a long table big enough for eight people to sit at the same time. After Shao Qingge and Ye Qi sat down, their mother-in-law took the initiative to pour two glasses of water and took a glass of water.
He picked up a plate of dried steamed buns and said, "I heard from Ren Yuan that you two are his friends? I don't have anything to entertain guests here, so you two can just take care of yourself."
Shao Qingge looked at the water in the cup—it must have been drugged.
Ye Qi also knew that the water must not be clean, so he pretended to take a few sips from the cup and said with a smile: "Thank you, mother-in-law. We just ate at Brother Ren's place and we are not hungry. By the way, why does mother-in-law live in the mountains?"
The mother-in-law sighed softly and said: "We poor people don't have land deeds in our hands, so we can't build a house in the town. We can only build a house with wood in the wilderness to protect ourselves from the wind and rain."
Ye Qi said sympathetically: "So that's it... Let me tell you, Brother Ren, he was also raised by you?"
The mother-in-law smiled, looked at the two of them, and did not answer.
Ye Qi estimated that the drug was about to take effect, so he pretended to be in a daze and fell down on the table. Shao Qingge also lay down on the table in cooperation. Ren Yuan came over and patted Shao Qingge's shoulder gently: "Brother Shao
?Wake up.”
Shao Qingge continued to pretend to be faint.
The mother-in-law stood up and said: "My drug works very quickly, please move them two out." She shouted upstairs: "A Feng, A Ran, come down and help Uncle Ren."
Two children ran down from the second floor and, together with Ren Yuan, dragged Shao Qingge and Ye Qi down the mountain.
Being dragged along like a "corpse", Ye Qi pretended to be stunned, but in fact he seized the opportunity and stuck a listening device on the soles of the three people's feet. The three people left Shao Ye at the foot of the mountain and turned around.
Ye Qi then opened his eyes and asked Shao Qingge in his mind: "Should we go back to check now? Or should we wait until midnight?"
Shao Qingge said: "Go now. If you are sent back to the original world after midnight, we will have no chance to investigate."
Ye Qi nodded, and together with Shao Qingge, they used teleport cards to quickly reach the wooden house on the top of the mountain.
Ren Yuan has already gone down the mountain.
You can see through the window on the second floor that there are four beds upstairs, with bunk beds and bunk beds. Four children are sleeping on the beds, with only one head exposed. Judging from the hairstyle, they should be two boys and two girls.
Ye Qi said: "These four children are all orphans adopted by my mother-in-law, right?"
Shao Qingge said: "Hmm. Is it possible that the murderer twenty years later is still a child now?"
It is impossible for the mother-in-law to commit the crime. She looks to be in her sixties now, and the oldest person in Qingfeng Town twenty years later is less than seventy years old. So, is the murderer Ren Yuan or these children? Or maybe it is Ren Yuan or these children?
, these people are just plot characters related to the case?
Ye Qi analyzed: "My mother-in-law raised four children. When she called them to come downstairs to help, she called two names. Did you notice that one is A Feng and the other is A Ran. That 'A Feng' will
Could it be Qin Feng twenty years later?"
The mother-in-law calls the children by their names, nicknames.
Could Afeng be Qin Feng?
If so, then the other three children who grew up with Qin Feng are very suspicious. It is obvious that Qin Feng is related to the Li Guisuo murder case. He wrote a roster with red crosses on the names.
Most of those people have disappeared, and a few are still alive. He must know something.
Shao Qingge said: "Xiao Lou said at the time that Qin Feng was suspected, but he was not necessarily the murderer. The evidence about Qin Feng was too obvious and too simple. Therefore, he probably knew who the murderer was. He grew up with him.
We have to focus on the three older children."
Ye Qi said: "It's a pity that they all fell asleep. I didn't expect that Ren Yuan and my mother-in-law would conspire to stun us and throw us down the mountain. We can't continue to ask Ren Yuan for help. Let's think of a way."
Shao Qingge suddenly curved his lips: "I have an idea."
Ye Qi said anxiously: "Speak quickly."
Shao Qingge said: "We copied Brother Jiu's [Mask] card before, and that card happens to be in my hand now. I can dress up as Ren Yuan, go into the house, chat with my mother-in-law, and figure out these four
The identity of the child.”
Ye Qi's eyes lit up: "What a great idea!"
Shao Qingge pretended to be Ren Yuan and knocked on the door again, while Ye Qi lay on the roof and eavesdropped with a bug.
The mother-in-law opened the door and saw "Ren Yuan" who had gone and returned. She couldn't help but wonder: "Why are you back again?"
Shao Qingge said: "I'm worried about the children. Are Afeng and the others asleep?"
The mother-in-law said: "Everyone is asleep."
Shao Qingge said: "Just now, you asked Afeng and Aran to help me throw the two outsiders down the mountain. I see that Aran's face is not very good. Has he been sick recently?"
The mother-in-law said helplessly: "Qi Ran caught wind and cold yesterday when he went to dig weeds in the woods at the foot of the mountain. However, his health is good. I checked on him this morning. It shouldn't be serious."
Shao Qingge pretended to have a sudden realization and said: "The weather has been cold recently, so the children should be more careful. If they get sick and leave behind the root of the disease, it will be troublesome. Especially the two girls, my mother-in-law needs to take more care of them."
The mother-in-law smiled and said: "Don't worry about Ningshuang and Xiaoyun, they have always been with me, and each of these two children is smarter than the other. You can go back to the town without worry, and don't move around recently to avoid being arrested.
The sweet potatoes we brought today are enough for us to eat for several days. I want to thank you on behalf of the children."
It turned out that when Ren Yuan went up the mountain, in addition to discussing with his mother-in-law how to deal with the two foreigners, he also secretly brought food to her mother-in-law.
Shao Qingge said: "That's right. Then I'll go back first. Mother-in-law, take care."
He turned around and left the wooden house and said to Ye Qi in his mind: "Qin Feng, Qi Ran, Ning Shuang, Xiao Yun, four children, two boys and two girls, are all orphans dependent on their mother-in-law. Ren Yuan has been helping them and giving them
They give away sweet potatoes."
Among these people, who is the murderer who wiped out the Zhao and Chen families more than ten years later?