As soon as Kang Xu was about to open his mouth to stop Tao Youran, he heard a terrible cry in his ears.

Dongmei knelt on the ground and said with tears in her eyes: "Master, you have never understood Miss's thoughts. Miss has been locked up in this house since she was a child, and has never seen outsiders, do you know how eager Miss is to go outside to see? Zhang Gongzi is a little poor, but Miss really likes him, but what about you, sir? You hate the poor and love the rich, and tear up the marriage contract, do you know how uncomfortable the young lady is? If it weren't for the fact that you repeatedly forced Miss to marry Lu Jitong and that bastard, how would Miss have thought of eloping? ”

"You...... You! Tao Youran's chest rose and fell violently, he gasped desperately, and said angrily: "It's the opposite, it's really the opposite!" ”

"Tao Gong, this official thinks what Dongmei said is reasonable. Have you ever wondered why all this is happening today? Miss Tao's death, don't you have a little responsibility? Kang Xu asked in a deep voice.

"Master, what Dongmei said is right, Zhaoxue's death, we have an unshirkable responsibility, woo woo~."

I don't know when, Mrs. Tao came to the main hall, she cried: "Master, if you don't hate the poor and love the rich, and look down on Zhang Hebi, would you have fallen to the current field?" Zhao Xue has a strong temperament since she was a child, and the person she believes will never change, you don't know this, but you just tore up the marriage contract and let her marry the Lu family. It's all you who forced Zhaoxue to death, you return my daughter, return my daughter~ woo. ”

Mrs. Tao walked up to him, shook his shoulders desperately, and cried loudly.

Tao Youran's face instantly became bloodless, and he sat weakly on the chair, with two lines of tears flowing from the corners of his eyes. The hair that was originally half-white turned gray in an instant. It seems to be much older.

"Am I who hurt Zhaoxue? Did I really hurt Zhaoxue? Tao sat leisurely in his chair and let the tears slip down. muttered to himself, and the words were not as aggressive as before, but full of remorse.

Kang Xu was a little unbearable, it was already a kind of sorrow for a white-haired person to send a black-haired person, how could he put this crime on him again?

"Tao Gong, this official ...... It's a bit heavier, and I hope you will forgive me. The official went to find the murderer and give Miss Tao justice. It's also fair to return this Lang Lang Qiankun! ”

With a solemn expression, he bowed to Tao leisurely, and Kang Xu immediately left Tao's mansion.

After this incident, he believed that Tao Youran would not use any more punishment against Dongmei.

Dongmei is not wrong, on the contrary, she is still a woman who values love and righteousness, and after Tao leisurely figured it out, he would treat her well.

After leaving Taofu, Kang Xu led people straight to the southwest bamboo forest outside the city.

According to Dongmei's confession, the location agreed upon by Tao Zhaoxue and Zhang Hebi is the southwest bamboo forest, so it is very likely that this will be the scene of the first crime.

It was about five or six miles west of the city. You can see a bamboo forest.

Kang Xu asked people to patrol around, strictly forbidding idle people to approach, and then walked towards the bamboo forest alone.

This bamboo forest covers an area of about ten acres, and the bamboo forest is dense inside. It's hard to pedestrianize.

In front of the bamboo forest, there is a clearing.

Kang Xu glanced around the entire bamboo forest, and secretly guessed in his heart. If it were him, he would definitely choose to meet in the open space in front of the bamboo forest.

First of all. This bamboo forest is relatively secluded, and few people come to it.

Secondly. Since it was agreed to elope, it was natural to stand in a conspicuous place and wait, and it was impossible to hide in the depths of this bamboo forest.

What's more, it was late at night, this bamboo forest was dense like a labyrinth, and it was difficult to find the direction after entering, as long as it was a person with a normal mind, he would not choose to meet in the bamboo forest, right?

Kang Xu walked straight to the open space in front of the bamboo forest, there were flying bamboo leaves everywhere, and there was even a layer on the ground.

After a little contemplation, Kang Xu folded half of the bamboo and held it in his hand, and gently swept the bamboo leaves on the ground.

Some of these leaves are emerald green and seem to have just fallen, but most of them are yellowish.

Due to the lush vegetation around it, the ground under the bamboo forest is not exposed to sunlight, and over time, the falling bamboo leaves begin to rot and become soft as mud.

Kang Xu gently swept the newly fallen bamboo leaves on the surface, and carefully observed and searched inside.

After a few moments, he found some messy footprints in the soft and muddy rotting bamboo leaves.

These footprints were covered by newly fallen bamboo leaves, and it was difficult for people to find them, Kang Xu's heart moved, took out the rice paper and charcoal stored in the cloth bag, and compared them to the footprints.

He squatted down in front of the footprints, meticulously measured the length, width, and depth of the footprints, and noted them next to the pattern.

Then, go to the next footprint and draw the footprint in the same way.

After comparing the footprints, Kang Xu soon found that the messy footprints here were actually two people.

Moreover, it is still a man and a woman.

Because, among these messy steps, some of the shoe prints are small and the stepping marks are shallow, and they look like they are stepped on by a woman.

The other part has larger footprints and relatively deep stepping marks, which are obviously the footprints left by men.

The footprints are messy and appear to have been clashed.

The woman's footprints were in a backward form, heading towards the bamboo forest behind her.

Kang Xu cautiously followed the backward footprints, and at the end of this small clearing, there was a clump of bamboo, very crumbling, like a screen made of bamboo.

The footprints became more messy here, and Kang Xu carefully avoided the footprints on the ground, bending down to look around, trying to find useful clues.

There are bamboo leaves falling in the bamboo forest, and if you are not careful, you will miss a lot of clues.

Therefore, Kang Xu was very careful to look for the ground, from the fallen leaves on the ground to the surrounding bamboo, he carefully checked it.

However, to his dismay, there were no other clues to follow other than the footprints on the ground.

Kang Xu looked down at the footprints on the ground, trying to imagine the scene in his mind.

In the more conspicuous place in the open space, the woman's footprints were deeper, and she seemed to be standing there anxiously waiting, and after standing for a long time, a small piece of disorganized women's footprints was formed.

In the bamboo forest not far from the woman's footprints, there is a row of relatively calm and powerful footprints leading straight to the woman's direction.

Judging from the situation at the scene, when the row of footprints walked in front of the woman, the woman began to retreat step by step, until she retreated to the tightly growing bamboo forest behind her.

Kang Xu closed his eyes and thought about the direction of those footprints for a moment in his mind, he opened his eyes sharply and walked straight towards the bamboo forest.

The tight bamboo forest seems to be made up of a few bamboo shoots stuck together, exuding a mass of bamboo, like a blooming lotus, due to the age, the bamboo group has accumulated a lot of bamboo leaves.

Kang Xu walked to the bamboo forest and searched it from the bottom up, and when he found the middle, he found that there was some obvious artificial chaos under the layers of bamboo leaves.

This bamboo forest is rarely visited, the bamboo leaves fall naturally, and it will naturally be superimposed layer by layer, even if there is a wind blowing, blowing the bamboo leaves above, the bamboo leaves below should not be too messy.

Kang Xu picked up a bamboo leaf and looked at it, this bamboo leaf was yellow and damp, with a slight smell of corruption, and it was definitely not a newly fallen bamboo leaf.

Judging from what he observed, there were obvious traces of man-made in front of him, and these dead leaves seemed to be bamboo leaves that had been accumulated underneath for many years, but they had been turned up.

"Could it be that there is a clue hidden here?" Kang Xu's heart moved, and he hurriedly removed the dead leaves on the surface, and carefully searched for it.

Sure enough, he found a white silk scarf in this dead leaf.

This silk scarf is embroidered with a proud snow cold plum, and after careful identification, it can be found that the shape of this cold plum is very similar to the word 'Tao' written in cursive.

Kang Xu held the silk scarf, and knew in his heart that this must be Tao Zhaoxue's silk scarf.

Judging from the situation at the scene, Tao Zhaoxue should have encountered some kind of danger at that time, so he took advantage of the retreat to bury the silk scarf in the pile of dead leaves in this tight bamboo forest.

"When encountering danger, you can still think of leaving clues, Tao Zhaoxue's mind is indeed exquisite." Kang Xu sighed in his heart.

Kang Xu took the silk scarf and quickly fell into deep thought.

Tao Zhaoxue came to the appointment, if the person she saw was Zhang Hebi, she had no reason to be afraid.

After all, Zhang Hebi wouldn't harm her at all.

However, if it weren't for Zhang Hebi, who would be the person who came to the appointment?

Dongmei once said that no one else knows about the agreement between the two except them, so how did the person who went to the appointment know the time and place they agreed on?

Now it is certain that Tao Zhaoxue has indeed been here, and there is indeed a man here, if you want to know if Zhang Hebi has been here, you can go back and ask.

But Zhang Hebi attempted suicide, and now I don't know if he has woken up, which complicates the originally simple matter.

The crux of the whole case is actually the agreement between the two parties.

If the person who came to the appointment was not Zhang Hebi, it was obvious that someone had taken advantage of their agreement and pretended to be him to come to the appointment, then the person who came to the appointment was likely to be the murderer.

"There is no blood here, Tao Zhaoxue should have been taken away from this place." Thinking of this, Kang Xu immediately ordered everyone to look for footprints along the surroundings of the clearing.

After receiving the order, seven or eight officials swept the bamboo leaves on the ground according to the method mentioned by Kang Xu, and searched carefully.

"My lord, I found it, there are a series of footprints here." After a few moments, one of the officials shouted.

Kang Xu hurriedly walked over, he looked at the pile of footprints, and his brows furrowed.

The footprints were left by the mysterious man, and judging from the depth of the footprints, the weight of his body seemed to have increased a lot.

"It seems that Tao Zhaoxue was put on the body by that person and left here." Kang Xu's mind turned, such rude behavior, could that person be a thief?

Kang Xu followed the footprints forward, and after walking more than ten feet, the footprints suddenly disappeared.

"Where does it lead?" Kang Xu straightened up, looked ahead, and asked casually.

"Back to my lord, eight miles ahead is Hetou Village." A servant bowed.

"Riverhead Village?" Kang Xu groaned: "But Hetou Village, where Zhou Aliu is located? ”

"Lord Hui, exactly."

Kang Xu's eyes narrowed, and he said in a deep voice: "Order everyone to go to Hetou Village with this official to investigate." ”

"Yes, sir."

The official bowed down in response, then gathered everyone, followed behind Kang Xu, and went to Hetou Village. (To be continued.) )