Downstairs cleared a table, Twilight and the old man put the head, the tea bowl and the blood words on the table, and ordered someone to bring pen and ink, she solved the case, and the old man wrote the corpse sheet.

Liu Huai and the others didn't dare to look at the head, but only listened to the words of Duqing.

"The deceased's head was decapitated, his body was in a different place, and his body parts were piled into a snowman and placed under a tree in the backyard. Corpses in snow and ice can be cooled in half an hour, frozen in a little longer, and the time of death can only be inferred from the skull. The cornea in the deceased's eyes has appeared white dots, and there were coals in the house last night, and when I entered the house, the coals were still a little unburned, and the temperature in the house combined with the cornea of the deceased was cloudy, and the person died for at least three hours, that is, when the night was ugly. ”

"After the death, the killer cut off the head, and the body was thrown out of the back window and thrown into the backyard, as evidenced by the blood splashed on the walls of the house and the blood buried in the snow pool. I cleared out all the layers of snow, and there were splashes of blood in the snow in the distance from the large pool of blood under the window, considering that the person had just died at that time, the blood was still warm, and the melting process of the snow when it was splashed dù and the height between the snow layer and the ground where the blood stains were located, as well as the snow conditions last night, it can also be inferred that the time of death of the deceased was around the ugly hour. ”

"Last night, His Majesty and King Di went to the Yongde Inn for dinner, and when they left, the snow fell more than half an inch thick, and it was already the time of the year. Considering that the snow on this night was sharp and the wind direction was moderate, it can be roughly speculated how thick the snow was under the ugly window. Combined, these three events can be inferred that the time of death of the deceased will not deviate much. ”

It's just a speculation about the time of death, and Twilight uses three things to prove it. Bu Xihuan was in a trance with the cold tea, as if he saw the courtyard of the Assassin's Mansion a few months ago, and he was also sitting in the porch drinking tea like this, listening to her autopsy and verdict on the case. It was only half a year ago, and now when I see this scene again, my heart is different from that day.

Yuan Xiu glanced at the backyard, just helped her move the ladder, she told him not to step on that blood road, he thought it was the evidence of the corpse removal route, now it seems that he thought too simply, she even took into account the snow layer where the blood spilled out, she didn't want him to step on the snow layer in fact, because she wanted to use it to prove the time when Li Ben was killed!

Hu Yanhao touched his chin and stared at Twilight Qing with interest, he went to the inn last night, and she paid attention to how much snow fell when he left?

The three of them had their own thoughts, and there was silence in the lobby, and most people were dizzy to hear it.

The old man held a pen and paper, and almost forgot to write, he wrote a lifetime of corpse sheets, and never wrote this, there are so many sayings when people die!

Twilight glanced at the old man, and he woke up and wrote hard. After he had finished writing, Twilight picked up the head, came to the kneeling man, and pointed to the cavity, saying, "There is a clear hole-like wound on the side of the deceased's neck, which is about a sharp triangle. Along this triangular wound, all the way to the front of the larynx, the wound margin is flat. But if you go around the back, there are traces of violent pulling and peeling of the flesh. This shows that the murder weapon is in a semi-arc shape......"

"Machete?" Yuan Xiu's face sank, his eyes were like a sword, and he looked at Hu Yanhao.

Liu Huai and other court officials were shocked, and their eyes brushed towards Hu Yanhao.

Hu Yanhao snorted disdainfully: "This king is not interested in building snowmen. ”

Yuan Xiu didn't believe Hu Yanhao's words, but he also had doubts. The murder weapon is a scimitar, it does not mean that the murderer is a Hu person, Yihe is very important to Wuhu, will someone really kill the officials of the Daxing Yihe mission at this time? Could it be that there is a main battle faction in Wuhu that opposes peace? Moreover, there are Wuhu messengers living in Fengxian Post House, even if the murderer is really a Hu person, it is not necessarily Hu Yanhao, he just looked at Hu Yanhao, just because he had killed three Northwest recruits when he was in Qingzhou Mountain, and the means were cruel, at first glance, when he heard that the murder weapon was a scimitar, he reacted instinctively.

"It's not a scimitar." Twilight frowned, she hadn't finished her sentence yet, "The scimitar is half-moon-shaped, this knife is not so curved, just slightly curved, and its tip has a sharp end that is almost triangular, which the scimitar does not have. There is something special about this murder weapon, and there is only one kind I can think of - a firewood knife! ”

"Wood knife?"

"Well, the wood knives used by the people to chop wood."

The magistrate of Fengxian County turned around and looked at each other with the county Cheng, firewood knives are available in every household in Fengxian County, and there must be one in the inn! The murderer used a firewood knife to kill people, where did he get this firewood knife, or was the murderer from Fengxian County?

"Judging from the neck wound, the murderer cut off half of the deceased's neck with a single knife. According to the violent pulling of the other half of the neck, the murderer at that time held the deceased's hair in one hand and violently cut off the head with a firewood knife in the other hand after killing the deceased with a knife. Master Li is five feet long, of medium stature, and the murderer has the strength to lift him with one hand, which can be described as strong. "Twilight said.

There was no one in the lobby, Liu Huai and the others didn't dare to look at Li Ben's head, but only glanced at it a few times, as if they could imagine the bloody scene of the murderer in the room killing people and cutting off his head in the dead of night last night.

The wind howled, rolled the curtains, and the snow foam swept in with the wind, only making people feel that the cool air was drilling straight up from the soles of their feet.

With the murder weapon clear, Twilight put the head back on the table and asked the old man, "Do you have tweezers?" ”

She left home without a wooden autopsy box, only a scalpel.

The old man hurriedly put down the pen and paper, and went outside to bring in the wooden box, which was full of tools for autopsy, awls, tweezers, and knives.

"Then bring me soaphorn, salt, warm water, and a veil." Twilight said again.

No one knew what she was going to do, so she just did what she said.

In order to get something, Twilight took a pair of tweezers and removed the thread sewn on the human head and mouth, the thread had been stained with blood, the blood had already dried, and the thread had turned black.

At this time, the old servant brought in all the things that Twilight wanted, and Twilight took a teacup and scooped up half a cup of warm water, handed the handkerchief to the old servant, and said, "Bother the seniors to wipe the blood off the deceased's mouth." ”

The old man has been despised all his life, and when he was old, he was flattered by the senior of the court's five-grade Zhonglang general, and he was busy taking the handkerchief and water, and did what he said.

The magistrate wiped his sweat when he heard this, will this old man have to be offered in the county government in the future?

Twilight poured salt into the warm water, soaked the thread in it, soaked it for a while, fished it out and washed it, saw that the blood stain was lighter, and washed it with soap, and then fished it out. At this time, the old man had also wiped the blood from the head and mouth, and Twilight took a closer look, pinched the thread with tweezers, and showed half a circle in the lobby, saying: "This thread is twine, which is thicker and harder than the thread of ordinary people's sewing clothes, and the needle hole on the deceased's mouth is also thicker than the embroidery needle, which is used for rough work, such as wearing a coat or sewing straw sandals." ”

The more Yuan Xiu listened, the more puzzled he became, this matter seemed to be related to the Northwest Army, but why did the murder weapon and needle and thread sound less and less like it?

At this time, Twilight put down the line, walked to the two bloody characters, and read: "Everyone who betrays the country and traitors will be punished, and the souls of the soldiers in the northwest will be sacrificed!" The murderer was not very smart, and the words left behind betrayed his origins, experience, and motives for the murder. ”

When everyone heard this, they all looked at the two bloody words, and they all showed disbelief.

"First, the murderer is literate, but his literary style is not high, and the two characters are not neat. Second, the murderer's literary skills are not high, but the characters are in block letters, and the handwriting is full and neat, which shows that the murderer has read books and practiced calligraphy seriously, but he has not been studying for a long time. It is very likely that he is a child of the Shu clan, and the family originally had some savings for him to study in a private school or ask a husband, but later changes in the family or other reasons led him to not study again. Thirdly, these two bloody characters are written with a heavy pen, and the pen has a tendency to sway, indicating that the murderer wrote this book with a strong sense of indignation. That is to say, he really hated the matter of peace, and the motive for the murder was to eliminate the traitors and sacrifice the souls of the fallen soldiers of the Northwest Army. ”

Yuan Xiugang felt that the murderer seemed to have nothing to do with the Northwest Army, and Twilight's inference made his brows lock deep again.

But he frowned early.

Twilight continued, "There's one more thing that can't be taken down, in the upstairs room. ”

"What?" Yuan Xiu asked.

"Follow me." Twilight said yes and went upstairs.

Bu Xihuan was lazy in the chair and didn't move, only looked upstairs, and saw Yuan Xiu following, Hu Yanhao also got up and went upstairs curiously.

The three of them stood at the door of the room, facing the window, and half of the bloody footprints under the windowsill were clearly visible.

"This shoe print has a clear snowflake pattern, which is the style of the army - the murderer is wearing military boots." Twilight Road.

The military uniform combat boots all have a specific style, just like the farrier of the war horse in the army, each army has its special print, and the military boot soles in the Northwest Army also have a special style, that is, snowflake boots. According to the law of the court, the horseshoe and military robes and boots cannot be imitated, otherwise the crime is the same as that of private military horses, and according to the law, it will be punished as the crime of treason.

"You mean, the murderer is someone from the Northwest Army?" Yuan Xiu stared at the bloody footprints, his face cold. The Northwest Army that entered the city last night only brought more personal soldiers with him, and the rest of the generals only brought one personal soldier each, the number is not large, and it is easy to check, but he does not want to believe that the murderer is his own person, "The murder weapon and needle and thread can be obtained in the city, and the military boots can be stolen at night, and the murderer may not be a soldier in the army." ”

"Nope." Twilight shook her head, "You can't steal these boots." ”

Yuan Xiu listened to the word, and his heart sank, thinking that Twilight Qing had determined that the murderer was in the Northwest Army, but after listening to her words, he was stunned, "What do you mean?" ”

Twilight pointed to the bloody footprints, "You can see the snowflake pattern on the toe of these boots, but not on the forefoot, indicating that the sole of the boot is quite worn." Don't you think it's abnormal? Now that it has been less than two months since the beginning of winter, and the winter boots in the army have not been issued for a long time, how can there be military boots with such heavy wear on the soles? The generals who entered the city last night were all the pro-soldiers around him, and although there were many pro-soldiers led by the general, they were all elite soldiers, and they all rode horses all the way, and the soles of their boots should not be worn so heavy. ”

"These are old boots?" Yuan Xiu broke through the mystery in one word, but his face showed a thoughtful expression.

The murderer sneaked into the house of Li Ben, a scholar of Taihedian University, late at night, killed people and cut off his head, hid his body in the snow, carried a firewood knife and thick needle and twine for the people, and wore the old boots of the Northwest Army?

It's really intriguing.

Where did these old Northwest Army boots come from? ――

Off topic -

Popular science about corneal opacity:

The cornea of a normal person is transparent, and its surface is smooth and wrinkle-free.

After death, the cornea of the eye loses its luster due to the evaporation of water, resulting in cloudiness. It is generally opaque, white, and cannot see through the pupil, a phenomenon called corneal opacity of the cadaver.

During the forensic examination, the time of death can be estimated based on the degree of corneal opacity.