Han Lihua accepted the letter of resignation from Xiaoma, but still sent Cai Zhenzhen and Lao Ma as a daughter-in-law.

The old horse hid poison in the dry tobacco bag.

The poison may have been hidden by him early in the morning, perhaps after he killed Cai Zhenzhen in anger, or when his son Xiaoma decided to take him to the yamen to report the crime.

In short, as the old horse himself said. Skynet was restored and not leaked, he never thought about escaping, nor did he think that he could escape. Life and death, perhaps many years ago, he had already looked down on it.

Lao Ma's ancestral home is in a place called Pankou under Funiu Mountain, he followed his father and mother to the suburbs of Luoyang to make a living when he was a child, although there is an orchard, but it is not the ancestral cemetery of their old Ma family. This man is dead, but he still hopes to return to his roots.

The fox was practicing in Funiu Mountain, and Xing Ruyi happened to want to go there to have a look, so he left Luoyang with the funeral procession of the Ma family. After leaving the city gate, I saw Chang Tai. He took off the fast catch coat that he wore all year round and changed into a dark blue civilian clothes, which looked a little less serious and a little more chic of a young man.

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be reluctant to let me go to Funiu Mountain with me? ”

"No, there are cases that need my help."

"Assistance?" Xing Ruyi looked Chang Tai up and down: "Then why don't you ride a horse and go by yourself, but stand on the side of the road and wait for us." ”

"Not waiting for you, but waiting for you. I know where they're going, and where you're going, I'll have to ask. ”

"Why?"

"Make sure the place you're going to isn't dangerous."

"That's right." Xing Ruyi thought for a moment: "Then it's better for you to tell me where I can go and where I can't." It's the first time I've been to Funiu Mountain, and I'm not familiar with it, but I've heard that there are a lot of herbs in Funiu Mountain, so I plan to explore the road first, and then go over again after the beginning of spring, and in summer and autumn, I can receive the goods directly. ”

"I don't know." Chang Tai raised his eyes and looked into the distance: "The case is very strange, before the murderer is found, no one knows his motive for committing the crime, the modus operandi of the crime, and the location and target of the crime chosen." ”

"So weird?" Xing Ruyi suddenly became interested: "What kind of case is it, is it convenient to reveal?" ”

"Let's talk as we go." Chang Tai pointed to the pony and Han Lihua who had already gone away.

Pony and Han Lihua drove out of the city in a carriage, and there were two coffins on the carriage, which belonged to Lao Ma and Cai Zhenzhen.

The pony was in charge of driving the carriage, and Han Lihua and Xing Ruyi were sitting behind the carriage, and when Xing Ruyi jumped off the carriage halfway and talked to Chang Tai, the pony had already driven away.

"Talking as you go? I'm very athletic, and I don't think I can keep up with your horse. ”

"Otherwise, you ride a horse, and I'll lead you."

"Horseback riding?" Xing Ruyi secretly swallowed his saliva: "I thought about it, and I did try it once, but I don't know if it was my bad luck, or if I didn't match the horse I rode back again, anyway, the experience was more painful." ”

"That-" Tsungai hesitated.

"Shall we go together?" Xing Ruyi asked tentatively: "Don't worry, I have a sweetheart, and I will never think anything wrong about you." ”

Chang Tai's chest seemed to be pricked by something, and he moved his neck stiffly: "Although I am on an errand in the public gate, I can barely be regarded as half a Jianghu person." I'm good to say, I'm just worried about Yin Gongzi's side......"

"It's okay, the fox believes in me very much, he knows that I will never hook up with other men behind his back. Besides, who is your eldest brother Chang? Luoyang's first catch is fast, and there is absolutely no problem with character. And I don't think you're going to be a little shopkeeper like me. You should like that kind of lady. ”

"Who told you I like everyone's girlfriends?" Chang Tai complained silently in his heart. "Actually, I also like a little shopkeeper like you, but it's just ......"

Chang Tai looked at Xing Ruyi's face and swallowed the half of the sentence that he didn't finish complaining about in his heart.

The punishment is in front, Chang Tai is in the back, and the reins are also held by Chang Tai. Because of his posture, he seemed a little stiff, and deliberately kept some distance from Xing Ruyi. Xing Ruyi felt it, but didn't say anything. The other party deliberately kept a distance, indicating that the person is a righteous gentleman, what can she say, it doesn't matter, I am from modern times, this kind of intimacy is nothing in our Gada.

Clearing his throat, he shifted the conversation to his own interests.

"Can you talk about that case?"

"I don't know exactly what happened. Judging from the information obtained so far, the deceased were a father and son. ”

"Did you die at home?"

"No, he died in a temple in the mountains. The father and son were woodcutters who went into the mountains to cut wood, the father was about forty years old, and the son was about eighteen or nineteen years old. Both of them are local mountain people in Funiu Mountain, and they hid in the temple when they encountered a shower on the way home after chopping firewood. ”

"How do you know you're hiding in the temple?"

"According to the informant, when the bodies of the father and son were found, the clothes on the two were half-dry, and the firewood was also half-dry. The wood was placed at the entrance of the temple, and the father sat next to it, while the son leaned against the idol. Both of them were coarse linen clothes, and their outer clothes were animal furs to protect them from the cold. The shoes on his feet were single shoes, and his father's shoes still had scratches. In addition, the father and son both have mud spots on their uppers, but there are not many of them. It can be deduced that the two encountered a shower on their way home from chopping firewood, and then hurriedly hid in the temple. Because it was a shower, the father and son did not plan to stay in the temple for a long time, so the father sat closer to the temple entrance, and the son sat near the Buddha statue because he was afraid of the cold or did not want to be caught in the rain. ”

"What about the cause of death?"

"I don't know, that's where I need to help with the investigation."

Xing Ruyi sighed softly, didn't speak again, and the two of them were silent to each other to the handicap. First, they helped the pony to place their parents' coffins, and then Xing Ruyi followed Chang Tai to the village called Dakou.

"Why is this village called Dakou?"

"Handicap, big mouth, probably the way the village in this area is named." Chang Tai turned over and dismounted, holding the reins in one hand, while looking for someone in the village to inquire.

"The uncle just told me that this plate means whirlwind. Handicap is the place where you can turn, and it is also the first village you see before entering the mountain. From the handicap and further inside, it is the big mouth where we are. This village, when viewed from above, looks more like an open mouth. If we think of Funiu Mountain as a cow, the location we are in is the cow's mouth. The handicap is the millstone that holds the ox to it. The uncle also said that these are all statements left by the ancestors, and the name of the village was called by the ancestors for generations, and no one knows what the ancestors thought back then. ”

"We didn't stop at the handicap, but went directly to this Dakou village, is it because those two woodcutters are from this village?"

"Hmm." Chang Tai nodded slightly, and then went to inquire about the temple where the crime occurred with the uncle.

The village chief was busy dealing with the aftermath of his father and son, so he pointed out the direction and asked Chang Tai to go up the mountain by himself with Xing Ruyi. As soon as he was halfway there, he heard a "click" in mid-air, followed by a flash of lightning that pierced the sky in an instant. Just when Xing Ruyi was worried, thinking that she and Chang Tai would be drenched in soup by the sudden showers in the mountains, a small temple appeared in front of them.

"Brother Chang, look, the temple."

"What the village chief said, it should be that place."

As a burst of rain fell, Chang Tai and Xing Ruyi also entered the temple. It is said to be a temple, but I don't know what kind of gods are enshrined here. Looking at the clothes, she looks like a woman, but what this woman is wearing is not the kind of clothes worn by the goddesses and immortals worshiped in ordinary temples. I don't know if it's because this temple has been abandoned for too long, or if this statue is originally the color here, and the goddess statue that fell into the eyes of Chang Tai and Xing Ruyi was actually wearing a black dress.

What's even stranger is that this idol has no arms, no hands, and even a head.

"Brother Chang, can you tell who is enshrined in this temple?"

Chang Tai shook his head, and when he saw some hay on the ground, he bent down and picked it up.

"Brother Chang, what are you doing here? Is it a fire? We shouldn't be spending the night in this ruined temple? "Although it is a temple, it is a temple that is ventilated everywhere. Mo said that it was still raining outside, but it didn't rain, this season, it was still in the mountains, and the cold could freeze them to death.

"It's a fire, but it's more about preventing the beasts in the mountains." Chang Tai explained, "Although this place is close to the village, you can also see that the mountains are undulating and densely forested, and no one knows what will be hidden in these mountains and forests. ”

"Brother Chang, what do you mean, the father and son may not have been killed by humans, but attacked by some animal. By the way, how did they die? I'm not asking about the cause of death, I'm asking what it was like when I died. ”

"It's like the gods in this temple." Chang Tai lit the fire as he looked up at the strange statue of the goddess.

"The same?" Xing Ruyi looked at Chang Tai's gaze: "You mean, the father and son who chop wood also have no arms, no hands, and their heads are gone." ”

"I'm afraid you won't be able to stand it, so when I first entered the village, I didn't take you to see it."

"Brother Chang, you didn't go to see it."

"I didn't go to see it, but the old man at the entrance of the village told me. He said that the arms of the Hao family father and son seemed to have been torn off by something, and their heads were missing, but there were also traces of being bitten on their necks. You say, "There will be something in this mountain that can tear off a man's arm along with his head." ”

"Rip?" Xing Ruyi shivered inexplicably, and looked down on the ground.

On the way, Chang Tai said that the father of the father and son died at the entrance of the temple, and the son sat next to the statue. If an animal bites, it will leave a large mess of blood on the ground. Animals are not human beings, and they do not deliberately process or cover up these murderous traces. But if it is man-made, how did this murderer create those traces?