Although the rain stopped, there was still a gray cloud in the sky. In the afternoon, the sky became darker and faster. Two yamen walked along the ridge of the field and walked through a small dense forest, and then arrived at the ancient tomb pile in the village.

The shade of trees covered the sky and the sun became more and more dim and dull. The two yamen clasped the sword on their waists, feeling a little nervous and terrified. When the two of them slowly walked into the grave, they were shocked to find that there had never been a monument before the tomb here. Not to mention the stone monument, even if it was a wooden monument, they naturally could not see who the owner of the tomb was named.

There were more than twenty tombs piled up in this tomb, but no traces of worship were found. The surroundings were covered with weeds and the grass was not over. Even the tomb was covered with weeds. If it was far away, it would be difficult to find a tomb here. The two yamen members looked at each other for a moment. At this moment, a mountain wind suddenly blew over, and the grass was rustling with sound. They were so scared that they ran outwards and ran to the ridge of the field. The two of them breathed a sigh of fear and came back to find Wu Xiang.

Wu Xiang had already taken everyone to the second empty house to search. When he saw Wu Xiang, a yamen officer said with a bitter face: "Captain, go and see. There is no inscription on the tomb, and there is not even a wooden tablet. I can't tell who the owner's name is."

Another person said: "The tombs in that cemetery have no inscriptions."

Wu Xiang heard it and felt a chill inexplicably on his back. He turned around and saw Bo Ruoyou also pondering something. He noticed his gaze. Bo Ruoyou turned around and said, "Most of the funeral customs in the village are quite conservative, and this place is not as poor as possible to erect a monument. Therefore, this inscription is probably wiped out on purpose."

Bo Ruoyou stood at the door of the main hall and walked a few steps out. She looked at the three sides of the surrounding mountains and said slowly: "This is Heishui Village, but if we came that day, Grandma Zhang told us that this is Baishui Village and Chishui Village, we would believe it. Although this place looks not far from the capital, there are only a few families in this small valley, which is not a major transportation route. If they don't bring people from outside, I'm afraid that there will be no people from outside the country to come once in a few years."

Wu Xiang stared at him and said, "You mean-"

Bo Ruo's voice was slightly deeper, "I was thinking that the owner of the house did not move away, but disappeared, and the inscription on the surrounding desolate tombs was erased. I am afraid that someone did not want others to know who originally lived here."

Several yamen around him were shocked when they heard this, and Wu Xiang nodded, "It's true that this is the truth. This place is isolated from the world. As long as they can justify themselves, we will all let them deceive them. But why don't they want others to know who originally lived in this place? Could it be that this place is not Heishui Village?"

Hou Yang shuddered when he heard this, "If it weren't Heishui Village, wouldn't it be the Guzhang Village we were looking for?"

Wu Xiang frowned, thinking without responding. Bo Ruoyou said, "The plague in Guzhang Village happened more than ten years ago. The dead hair and bones we discovered just now are something that has been more than ten years, but it should not be Guzhang Village."

Wu Xiang looked at her and Bo Ruoyou said, "After the incident, the government was still alarmed. In the end, the government came to the village to collect the body and deal with the aftermath of the plague. It is conceivable that many yamen members came to the village at the beginning. Since this is the case, it is impossible for this village to change its names and surnames to make everyone think that this place is not Guzhang Village."

Wu Xiang nodded, "This is the reason. Grandma Zhang said that the government discovered the plague in the village at that time and sent people to collect the body." At this point, Wu Xiang sighed, "This matter is still something that needs to be asked about Qinshui County Government—"

He looked at the people in front of him and wanted to send someone to Qinshui County Government immediately, but he felt that there was not enough manpower at the moment, so he only brought seven yamen out. Now that the houses in the village have not been searched, if people are sent away, there will be even fewer people left. Moreover, there are many strange things in the village, he is also afraid of accidents, especially when Bo Ruoyou follows him, he will never let her be in danger again.

Wu Xiang gave up the idea of ​​sending someone to Qinshui County at this moment and ordered: "Search quickly, this matter is not simple. If you find enough physical evidence, we can get someone--"

The yamen officers dispersed, and as they saw that it was getting dark, everyone's movements became more and more neat.

Bo Ruoyou thought carefully and looked at these houses again. Seeing her face showing a calmness, Wu Xiang asked, "What did you think of? Old Wu, I have been working on someone for several years. I am good at surveillance and searching, but sometimes I have become a bit rough and a few strange places that are twists and turns. I always find it fast enough. If you think of anything, just say it."

Bo Ruoyou said, "When the captain said in the morning that the vacant house was already in one place, I felt strange. Even if someone moved out of the village, it would not be possible that these households were moved away from each other. Now that human bones were found in the house, I guess the owners of these households should not have moved away, but were murdered."

Wu Xiang frowned slightly, "This is an empty house for four or five households."

There are more than one family in each family, and there are more than one person in total, and there are more than a dozen or twenty people, but they only found a few bones. It would be really terrifying to conclude that these families were murdered.

Bo Ruoyou said: "At least one or two households were murdered, and the tomb was erased. Is that tomb the ancestral tomb the ancestral tomb of these households?" She frowned, "There are two surnames Zhang and Wu in this village. I heard that most people in the same village are very united, and if there are other clans in the village, internal strife will arise."

Wu Xiang said: "You mean, these families who disappeared may have been murdered because of internal fighting in the village?"

Bo Ruoyou nodded, "This is a possibility, because the things in their house appeared in other people's houses. I guess it was because after the internal strife, the people died, and the others divided the finances of these companies."

Wu Xiang didn't know what he thought of, and suddenly said, "What you said is reasonable. I have seen such cases. Different clans in the same village fought each other, and then a murder case occurred. But if you said that they were cruel and ruthless and killed all the people of these families, it would be too cruel."

Wu Xiang said while looking in other directions, "The Wu brothers and sisters and the Zhang brothers all seem to be honest, and the old couple will find it difficult to survive in the future. Besides, the Zhang grandma's family and the Wu grandma's family in the middle of the mountain. Can they do such a ruthless move?"

The Wu brother and sister were sick, but their brother looked kind. The old couple was ill in bed. The old man was one-armed, and the Zhang brothers were also honest and honest. They took the initiative to help them dig the road. No matter how they looked, they were all simple and kind villagers, and they were not without houses. For the sake of fighting, why did they fight to the point of killing other people's family?

When Bo Ruoyou thought this, she also felt that this kind of conjecture was too cruel. She frowned slightly, "If it weren't for the murder of an internal fight, why did these families happen to be missing?"

Wu Xiang held the knife on his waist tightly, feeling more and more that the small mountain village was not only full of fog, but also a bit ferocious. He said in a deep voice: "I don't know how many people died. Now I have to find the remaining bones. People come to the cellar in the morning, just to take away the bones, because I saw me leaving the door in the morning and visiting this house while wandering around the village."

Bo Ruoyou nodded, "The corpse will probably be placed in a safe place when taken away. Although only skeletons are left, there are also a small pile of skeletons of an adult man, which is not easy to hide. If there were more than one person who was killed back then, there should be more skeletons hidden somewhere in the village, which is not easy to search."

Although the village is not big, there are many farmland, ponds and forests around it. If you want to hide corpses on these three sides of the mountain, you don’t know how many corpses can be buried. You have to dig inch by inch, but you are afraid that you will not be able to find them after digging for a few months.

Wu Xiang had a headache, "This is the case in the mountains. It is so difficult to deal with. The land is vast and the population is sparse, so it is too easy to hide something."

But Bo Ruoyou said, "It is not necessarily that there is no trace of people. The corpse in the cellar is the best proof. After murdering people, he could have taken the corpse to the mountain to bury it, but the murderer chose to leave the corpse in the cellar, which shows that the murderer had expected that no one would go to the house to search carefully. He was quite confident and did not make any complete considerations. Since he had this intention, he would mostly deal with other people's corpses in this way."

Wu Xiang sighed, "It's just that I don't know the identity of the deceased, so it's hard to infer who the murderer is. The Zhang brothers, the most suspected, have been ruled out, and there is no direction to be found at the moment."

Bo Ruoyou sighed helplessly. She turned around and looked at the empty house. Soon after, the yamen officers came out one after another, but they did not notice it.

Wu Xiang made a quick decision and “go to the next house.”

The empty house was full of nowhere. Half of the roof of one of them collapsed and had long been abandoned. Wu Xiang took his people in to check it out and saw that the walls inside the house were half collapsed and were covered by weeds, so he went to the last house again.

The farmhouse here is the lowest. Although the rain stopped for most of the day, the water in the courtyard did not retreat. Wu Xiang brought the yamen to the water and saw a dilapidated scene of doors and windows.

The yamen members entered the dusty spider web. Soon after, a yamen members whined softly in the inner room, "Captain, have you noticed!"

Wu Xiang immediately turned around and headed to the inner room. When he arrived, he saw a scattered bed frame, and a pile of dirty cloth strands that looked like curtains were piled on the ground. Wu Xiang walked over and the yamen pointed at the scattered bed frame and said, "Look, are there knife marks on it?"

The wooden boards on the bed frame were no longer visible, except for the wooden legs of the bed frame and four bed columns lying on the ground. The place was quite damp and the wood was heavily damp, but it was not eaten by insects. On the bed column to the end, Wu Xiang saw several very obvious knife marks at a glance. He was not good at identifying the scars on the corpse, but he was very good at identifying the traces cut on the wood.

"It's the knife mark--"

The wood did not rot, and the old knife marks were left by Qingxi. Wu Xiang pulled out his sword and compared it, and was even more certain. "It was still a long sword with a sharp edge, but the blade that was cut was a little uneven. It should not be a very exquisite weapon that was polished."

He frowned, "It may be a farmer's property, such as a hatchet."

This bed frame is made of birch wood, which is milky white and slightly yellow. The years of abandonment makes it covered with mold spots and the skin color turns yellow-brown. Wu Xiang looked at the knife edges carefully and soon found a few strands of hair-shaped objects under a pile of wood. He hurriedly asked the yamen to invite Bo Ruoyou in.

When Bo Ruoyou entered the door, Wu Xiang said, "Xiao Bo, come and take a look. There are many blades on this bed frame, and some hair falls in the corner of the wall. Come and see if you recognize your hair."

The hair was only three or five inches long and was easily broken. At first glance, it was landed on the ground for many years and had lost its resilience. After Bo Ruoyou checked it, he nodded, "It's human hair."

Wu Xiang's eyes darkened, and he pointed to the wood on the ground and said, "This is a scattered bed frame. There were several blades found on it. I counted twelve, mostly on the columns, and two on the horizontal frame at the head of the bed. The blade that left traces was sharp, but the blade should be a bit rough, and the blade edge was extremely wide, and the front and back edges were not bad. It should be a long knife. I guess it might be a hatchet used by farmers."

After saying that, Wu Xiang was afraid that Bo Ruoyou wouldn't understand, so he said, "This is birch furniture. The birch wood is fine and soft, and the cutouts are generally quite smooth. But if the tool plane used for workmanship is not flat enough, it will easily leave scratches on it."

Bo Ruoyou's face suddenly showed his mind, and squatted down to check, "How could there be so many knife edges on the bed frame--"

Wu Xiang turned his eyes and looked around the house. The dust on the ground was more than inch thick, and the doors and windows were also rotten and poured with wind. The spider webs were densely knotted around him. There was also a pile of debris on the ground. In addition to the bed frame, there was also a chair with legs missing. Other objects disappeared like several other houses. Wu Xiang said: "It is very likely that there was a fight here. The knife edge was not to cut off the wood, but to cut people. Therefore, it fell down with one knife. The wood stopped before it was broken. There was no possibility of cutting wood for firewood or other use."

There was no shortage of firewood in the mountain village, and the bed frames, tables and chairs were scattered, so they seemed to be too lazy to repair them, so they simply abandoned them, while all the other intact things were taken away. Bo Ruoyou followed them all over the way and understood that everything that could be left in the house was all broken and abandoned, and the human bones, human hair, and the knife edges left by the fight made her more and more sure of her guess.

"If there was a fight here, then the head of this family has probably been killed. Most of the man was cut down during the fight, and maybe there will be blood. But after so many years, the blood has been covered and eliminated, and it is hard to find it."

The room was too wet. Not to mention blood, even the scratches on the ground were attached to mold spots. Wu Xiang said: "It doesn't matter. It's enough to have this knife edge. It must be a person with great strength to leave such deep marks with a knife. Based on more than ten years of calculation, it is possible that the Zhang brothers, the Wu brother, and the son of Grandma Zhang, even the one-armed old man."

After a pause, Wu Xiang said again: "Grandma Zhang said that these families moved away because their children were promising, which was a lie, so we don't have to make other guesses. In addition, the things that Grandma Zhang concealed were all aware of, and this is not a possibility that two people in the village were killed. If the disappearance of these families is really a problem as you said, it is the result of the union of everyone else, and what they said is untrust."

More than ten years ago, among these people in the village, the women were all young and middle-aged. The eldest brother of the Wu family and the Zhang family were both in their teens and twenty years old. It was a time when they were skillful and powerful. It was not impossible if they wanted to do evil. But Wu Xiang still couldn't figure out what the reason could make these people unite to do evil? Is it really a clan struggle?

At this time, the sky was already dark outside, and it was getting dark. Thinking of staying at Grandma Zhang's house tonight, Wu Xiangding said, "I still ask for the same words of sacrificial methods when I go to Grandma Zhang's house tonight. I don't need to mention anything else. I also need to look for Grandma Zhang's house more carefully to see if there are any other clues, especially the women's clothes you saw on the first day of Xiao Bo."

There are more and more suspicious points, and all the physical evidences representing human murder cases appear. Wu Xiang has regarded the people in the village as suspects, so he is more vigilant and careful. The yamen operators responded, and Bo Ruoyou also responded. The group looked in the empty house again, and then left here and returned to Grandma Zhang's house.

Although Wu Xiang was unwilling to alarm the enemy, the village was so big. Every move of their people seemed to be under the surveillance of the villagers. When she returned to Grandma Zhang's house, her expression was no longer as natural as before.

Wu Xiang said in a big way: "Mother-in-law, your village is quite strange."

Grandma Zhang's expression changed slightly, and her eyes with sunken eyes looked at Wu Xiang with some alertness. Wu Xiang said, "Except for your grandson, other families have no children, and even have unmarried people. This is too strange. It's still good now. In a few years, the old couple in the east will not be able to eat. How can they support themselves when the other families get old in the future?"

Grandma Zhang didn't expect that Wu Xiang was asking about this. She breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's hard. There were few young people here who went outside. There were only one or two girls in the village, so they couldn't marry a wife."

Wu Xiang smiled, "Fortunately your child went out to find a livelihood, so your daughter-in-law is a foreigner?"

Grandma Zhang nodded, "Yes, she is a foreigner and a miserable child. She is already sick and has weaker after marrying and giving birth to Yuer, so she died early."

After saying that, Grandma Zhang looked at the sky outside, "It's going to be dark, you have to stay for another night, but do you want the old woman to prepare meals for you?"

Wu Xiang originally wanted to say no, but looking at Grandma Zhang's slightly anticipated look, he nodded again, "Okay, please make some food for me, let's deal with it, we'll give it enough money."

Grandma Zhang tugged her lips, "Okay, that old woman will go to cook now."

Grandma Zhang pulled Zhang Yu into the kitchen and had to cook food for many people tonight. She was busy alone, and Zhang Yu was a little bored. Not long after, he came out and squatted at the kitchen door with firewood branches to poke the yellow mud on the ground to play. Bo Ruoyou saw this scene when she came out. She turned around and entered the room, came out for a moment and waved to Zhang Yu. Zhang Yu looked at her for a few moments, got up and walked towards her.

Bo Ruoyou gave him two more pieces of snacks. Zhang Yu's eyes lit up slightly when he saw it. He clapped his hands to take the snacks and ate them in small bites. Bo Ruoyou pulled him to sit on the wooden pier at the door. Zhang Yu felt more relaxed when he saw this.

There were not many dim sums for two pieces, and Zhang Yu finished eating quickly. Bo Ruoyou looked at him again, "Do you still want to eat?"

Zhang Yu's eyes were shiny, and hesitated for a moment and nodded again.

Bo Ruoyou smiled, got up and entered the room, and soon walked out with a food box. The food box was filled with snacks. She directly gave it to Zhang Yu, "Take it yourself."

It seemed that Bo Ruoyou treated him so well. Zhang Yu was stunned for a moment before taking the food box. He took out a piece of chestnut cake and started eating carefully. The night was already covered, and only the faint light in the main hall at the door scattered a little light. Bo Ruoyou sat on the wooden pier and looked at Zhang Yu with gentle eyebrows and no more questions.

Not long after, Grandma Zhang found that he was missing, and stood at the door and shouted. Zhang Yu suddenly stood up, but was at a loss when he held the food box. Bo Ruoyou smiled and said, "Take it and eat it."

Zhang Yu wrinkled his little face and hesitated for a moment, then he carefully carried the food box into his arms and walked towards the kitchen.

Bo Ruoyou looked at him leaving and turned around and entered the room. In the wing room, Wu Xiang and others were full of sorrow, and they were all worried about today's case. Bo Ruoyou knew that this was difficult and had no way to persuade him. After a while, Grandma Zhang prepared the soup cake and brought it into the main room. Wu Xiang called everyone out for dinner.

He didn't plan to use the meals from Grandma Zhang's house, but today is the second day, and dry food is not enough. More importantly, Grandma Zhang seemed to be very proactive in cooking for them, so Wu Xiang simply followed her wishes.

The soup cakes were placed on the table, which were ordinary farmers' meals. Wu Xiang first held a bowl, but Grandma Zhang stood beside her and looked calm. In this way, he felt relieved. He had been walking outside for many years. Although he was not good at medical skills, he had a lot of knowledge about the common medicines and fragrance. He smelled the fragrance, noticed that there was nothing abnormal, and then praised it and started to eat it.

The others used the same thing when they saw this. Zhou Liang brought Bo Ruoyou a small bowl into the wing room. Bo Ruoyou was more pharmacological, but he was relieved when he saw that the soup cake was really ineffective. After dinner, Grandma Zhang took Zhang Yuan to rest. Bo Ruoyou and the others were tired for a day, but they didn't care about so much, and lay down in the wing room.

Bo Ruoyou was quite uncomfortable and leaned against the corner of the wall for a long time before he fell asleep. He was so confused that it was so in the middle of the night that she suddenly heard a slight sound from the door. She was already sleeping lightly and immediately woke up. Just as she was about to get up, Wu Xiang pressed her down. The room was pitch black and she could barely see the figures close to her in front of her. Wu Xiang made a gesture to her and waited silently for the movement outside. Soon, they heard the sound of Grandma Zhang leaving the hospital.

It was already the second half of the night, why did Grandma Zhang leave in the middle of the night?

Snoring sounds in the room were heard one after another, and the yamen were unable to compare to Wu Xiang's alertness, and they were still asleep. Wu Xiang let out a light "shush" and then followed him out lightly. Bo Ruoyou was a little worried, but he understood that it was the best thing that Wu Xiang could only follow him alone.

When Wu Xiang followed him out, Bo Ruoyou suddenly became sleepy. She sat up and felt that there were too many people in the wing room and felt that there were so many people in the wing room that were very depressed, so she got up and came into the main room. She originally wanted to get some breath in the main room, but as soon as she went out, she saw a short black shadow standing at the door to the inner room. Her heart jumped very quickly, and then she realized that it was Zhang Yu.

She took a step forward, "Zhang Yu?"

The black shadow moved for a moment and muttered something softly. Bo Ruoyou was sure it was him, and walked forward with relief, "Why aren't you sleeping?"

She was not sure whether Zhang Yu saw Wu Xiang go out, and her tone was a little hesitant, but Zhang Yu shook his head and didn't say anything. Bo Ruoyou's heart moved slightly, "Did her mother-in-law go out? I just heard the movement..."

Zhang Yu's expression was not real in the dark, but he had no intention of rejecting her. Bo Ruoyou felt relieved and asked again: "Why did my mother-in-law go out so late?"

Zhang Yu lowered his head and said nothing.
To be continued...