After going out of the city and coming to the bottom of the mountain, he could only dismount and walk, and along the steep and rugged mountain road, he came to Lianwu Village.

In the village, most of the houses have turned off the lights, the rural people go to bed early, the villagers almost go to bed except for the help, only the Hai Dashan family funeral is still bright, the suona sound is coiled between the cottages, still blowing heartbreaking, from time to time there are firecrackers and crying, late at night people feel a chill in the back of the spine.

Hai Dashan sat in front of the hall, looking at the mourning hall in a daze, Lin Ruofan was dressed in white filial piety, sitting on a straw mat in the hall, leaning against the wall, as if he had lost the support of his body, he was so weak that people felt pity.

Outside the house, Hai Li is personally taking a few people to patrol and monitor the surroundings, this is the task personally assigned by the county magistrate, he already knows that this master is more than the county master, where dare to be a little lax, open his eyes and look around vigilantly, from time to time coldly look at Hai Dashan and Lin Ruofan in the house.

Meng Tianchu and his group of torches and lanterns had already informed Hai Lizheng of their arrival in advance, but they didn't dare to greet them with the monitoring task, and after Meng Tianchu and them came, they greeted them with a smile and bowed down.

After Meng Tianchu returned the salute, he entered the hall, Lin Ruofan seemed to wake up like a dream, looked up and saw Meng Tianchu, stood up in a panic, said a blessing, and under nervousness, the white filial piety hat on his head fell down, covering half of his face, and he didn't dare to tidy up, just lowered his head and didn't speak.

Meng Tianchu sighed softly, stepped into the back kitchen, and under the attention of the villagers who helped, he walked to the back door of the kitchen, pushed open the door and went straight to the backyard.

The countryside is vast and sparsely populated. In addition to the residence, there is often an attached yard to plant some fruits, vegetables or fruit trees, as well as raising pigs and chickens and ducks.

The backyard of Hai Dashan's house is also relatively large, surrounded by a high fence wall, and there are thatched houses in the middle, and next to it are several vegetable fields, where some loofahs, pumpkins, onions, ginger, Chinese cabbage and so on, and the vegetable fields are next to the kitchen. There is a large water tank in the corner. The water tank is relatively low, and the edge of the tank is only up to the thighs of the person. This kind of low water tank is found in almost every household in the village, and it is used by the villagers to prevent kitchen fires and scoop water to extinguish fires. It is also used to water vegetable patches.

There is no water in the water tank of Hai Dashan's house. There is an osmanthus tree next to the water tank, and the osmanthus flowers on it have almost withered.

Meng Tianchu stood by the water tank, looked up at the osmanthus tree, nodded, took a lantern from a catcher next to him, bent down and shone on the water tank. The bottom of the tank is recessed in a bright reflection. Indicates that there is also a small amount of ground water remaining.

Meng Tianchu handed the lantern back to the catcher, turned his back and opened the forensic evidence investigation box. Take out a straw, reach out and suck some water from the bottom of the tank, and put it back in the box. Carrying the box to find a vacant room, he studied it for a long time before he came out, and when he came out, his eyes were already flashing with the excitement of success, but also mixed with a little sadness.

Back at the water tank, he carried a lantern and looked around the water tank, which was covered with some green bricks for footing. He crouched down to take a closer look, carefully took out one of the bricks, and returned to the room, this time quickly coming out, and going straight back to the hall.

In the hall, Lin Ruofan was still sitting on the straw mat and leaning against the wall as if she was asleep, and the wakes for several days had exhausted her, but she still keenly felt Meng Tianchu's arrival, sat up busily, turned sideways and stood with her hands down.

Meng Tianchu picked up a small teacup on the incense table, took out a sweat towel from his arms, carefully wiped the surroundings of the teacup, then poured a cup of tea, walked in front of Lin Ruofan, and handed it over: "Mrs. Hai, it's hard work, let's have a cup of tea." ”

Lin Ruofan obviously didn't expect that the famous master of the dignified county government would pour tea for her a village woman, and took two steps back in a panic and waved his hand repeatedly: "No... Thank you..., the women are not thirsty... Thank you very much..."

Meng Tianchu took two steps forward, stubbornly handed the teacup to Lin Ruofan, and said in a low voice: "It's about to take it, it's not good for others to see it." ”

This sentence worked very well, Lin Ruofan hurriedly took it with both hands, glanced at Meng Tianchu gratefully, and tears flashed faintly in the corners of his eyes.

"Drink it! Be careful with your body. ”

Meng Tianchu's soft words, gentle eyes, and thoughtful care summoned Lin Ruofan's bitterness and bitterness, and he couldn't help but cry in a low voice, raised his sleeves to cover the cup, and drank the tea in one gulp.

Meng Tianchu stretched out his hand to take the teacup, glanced at her, turned around and entered the empty room where he had just checked the green brick floor.

After a while, Meng Tianchu carried the green brick out of the room and returned to the backyard, put the green brick back in place by the water tank, and then stood under the osmanthus tree with the lantern in a daze for a long time, and then ordered Hai Dashan and Lin Ruofan to be called to the backyard, and then ordered everyone to withdraw, including the people in the kitchen.

Only Meng Tianchu, Hai Dashan, and Lin Ruofan were left in the backyard.

Hai Dashan squatted in the corner of the wall, burying his head and looking like he was left to his fate, Lin Ruofan was nestled under the osmanthus tree, the filial piety hat on her head had been scattered, she had not recovered her calm from the shock brought by Meng Tianchu's cup of tea and care just now, and she was not in the mood to tidy up the filial piety hat, holding it in her hand, and a green silk waterfall was scattered on her shoulders. The side face was backed by the light, and she couldn't see the expression on her face clearly, but the outline of her pretty face was so bright and soft in the moonlight and ***.

Meng Tianchu carried the lantern, didn't know how to speak for a while, and paused for a long time, then sighed and said, "The sea pillar drowned in this water tank, right?" ”

Hai Dashan's lowered head stiffened, and he slowly raised his head to look at the water tank next to him, and then turned back and did not speak.

Meng Tianchu walked to the water tank, picked up the green brick he had just taken out, and walked in front of Lin Ruofan: "You hit the head of the sea pillar twice with this brick, and he was planted in the water tank and drowned, right?" ”

Lin Ruofan's pretty face suddenly turned extremely pale, the filial piety hat in his hand slipped to the ground, and he hurriedly bent down and picked it up, thinking that his shock must have aroused the suspicion of the criminal master, he was even more panicked, and peeked at Meng Tianchu, but just met Meng Tianchu's gaze, so he avoided it in a panic. Didn't speak.

Meng Tianchu said: "You must wonder how I know, in fact, it was this osmanthus tree that told me." Of course, the osmanthus tree does not speak, but it can tell you what is happening under its feet in its own way. ”

Lin Ruofan couldn't help but look up at the osmanthus tree above his head, the poetic tree during the day, at this moment in the night, it seemed to have become a hideous monster, staring at her, Lin Ruofan shuddered. Busy lowered his head.

Meng Tianchu slowly continued: "After I dissected Hai Zhuzi's body, he inhaled the water in his lungs. I found some small yellow particles, and I couldn't figure it out. I don't know what this small yellow particle is, not long ago, I sat under the osmanthus tree, and talked about the osmanthus falling, which suddenly came back to me, this yellow particle is the pollen of the osmanthus ground! ”

Meng Tianchu walked to the water tank and knocked on the water tank with the brick in his hand: "I checked the situation around your house before. And later, when water samples were taken around for testing. I've all been here to see this tank, but I found that there was no water at the time. I thought that maybe you ran out of water in the vegetable field, so I didn't care, after discovering the secret of the osmanthus pollen field. I thought about it again, and then I realized that I had made a ridiculous mistake - how could this water tank, which you use to prevent the kitchen from being fired, to keep it empty and without any water! Besides, there is no other water source around you except this water tank, how can you do without water in the vegetable field?

So, the water in this tank must have been dumped recently! “

Lin Ruofan couldn't help but sneak a glance at Hai Dashan, but Hai Dashan was really as quiet as a mountain, still squatting in the corner, hanging his head and not saying a word.

Meng Tianchu didn't care, he was confident that they would tell the truth, and continued to speak according to his own train of thought: "Before the water is poured out, there is a problem that must be solved first, because I have taken water samples from all the water sources in the entire village for testing, and none of the ground water samples are the same as the water in the lungs of the deceased sea pillars, since the sea pillars are drowned in the water tank, and the ground water in his lungs comes from the water tank, which proves that the water in the water tank cannot come from any water source in the village, but should come from the sky - it is rain!" ”

Meng Tianchu finished analyzing with some pride, and suddenly found that Hai Dashan had raised his head and looked at him in a daze, his eyes were full of awe, as if he was looking at a god. Looking at the side, he found that Lin Ruofan was also looking at himself with puzzled eyes, and then he suddenly remembered that water was no different for the ancients, and even for modern ordinary people, except that there may be a difference in turbidity and taste, and it was impossible to tell where a certain water sample came from, Meng Tianchu said this, in their opinion, if it was real, it was tantamount to the magic of the gods, if it was bragging, but they couldn't understand Meng Tianchu's intention to boast like this, of course, they could only look at him with puzzled eyes.

Meng Tianchu smiled and said: "Don't look at me with this kind of eyes, I'm not a monster, and I don't brag, I just know how to distinguish the water in different places, no matter what we just said, continue the topic we just had - the water in the water tank comes from rainwater, and the pollen from the osmanthus tree next to it is integrated into the water tank, and the sea pillar was knocked unconscious and poured into the water tank and drowned, because I already suspected that the crime scene was at your residence, And this inhaled water into his lungs let me know exactly where the crime really happened is under the osmanthus tree in your backyard, just now I extracted a little bit of water left in the water tank for testing, and found that it is the same as the water in the lungs of the sea pillar, and there are also this small yellow particles, that is, the pollen of the osmanthus flower, which proves that the sea pillar died in the big water tank under the osmanthus tree in your backyard, not in the pond at the edge of the village! ”

Lin Ruofan and Hai Dashan seemed to have known that nothing could be hidden from this young master, and they looked at Meng Tianchu with a pale face, waiting for fate to start counting down.

Meng Tianchu shook the green brick in his hand and walked in front of Lin Ruofan: "You must be very puzzled how I know that you used this brick to knock your husband Haizhu unconscious, your father-in-law thinks that he killed your husband, that is, his son Haizhuzi, in fact, I already know, he just wants to help you, because he is ashamed of you, let such a young and immaculate girl marry his son, an indisputable gambler and villain, but unfortunately he doesn't know how Haizhuzi died, where he was injured, and he doesn't even know when Haizhuzi died. So he can't help you, and the night of Haizhuzi's death is the second day after Huang Shihu gave him the last three-day period, if he can't convince you to agree to use you to pay off the debt, he will be killed by Huang Shihu and them, so that night must be a miserable day for you! ”

An irrepressible horror appeared in Lin Ruofan's eyes, Meng Tianchu caught this look, convinced his speculation, and said: "The reason why I know that you used this green brick to knock the sea pillar unconscious is because when you covered up the scene and put the green brick back in place, the green brick was reversed - you must be wondering, how can the green brick have a positive and negative?" Of course, this green brick is one of the green bricks used to prevent mud around the water tank to prevent rain, look at the wear and tear, it is obvious that it has been used for a short time, so the upward side has been more obvious wear, and the back has no such wear, the crime occurred in the middle of the night three watches, you can't see clearly and must be very flustered, this is reversed, in fact, careful comparison will be found. ”

Meng Tianchu turned the back of the green brick upside down, looked at it under the lantern, and said, "Have you noticed?" This side of the head of the pillar you hit the sea has some scalp fragments adhered to it - almost invisible to the naked eye, with the help of some equipment, as for what equipment can't be said, I used this equipment to test and found that these fragments are human scalp fragments, which should be your husband Junhai pillar. And on this brick, there is the mark left by your hand grasping the brick! Therefore, your husband did not stumble and fall into the pond, but was drowned by you by hitting his head with a green brick and pouring into the water tank! ”