In less than two days, two murders occurred in the ancestral hall of Nanwang Village one after another, and the second deceased was still the suspect that Chang Tai had just mastered, the oldest ancestor of the Zhang family.

"Village...... Village chief, what do you say? The ancestor was also harmed? Zhang Chengniang asked, there was no blood on her face. Not only was she surprised, but everyone present was a little surprised.

"It's the old ancestor, it's really the old ancestor, this time I saw it clearly, and told them not to move again. It just so happened that the servant from the yamen had not gone far, so I asked someone to invite him back, and he was waiting for the two adults to come over in the ancestral hall. ”

Chang Tai didn't hesitate, he got up directly and took Xiao Shengzi to the direction of the ancestral hall, and Xing Ruyi followed slowly with the fox in his arms.

Hearing the familiar footsteps, he got up and stood up.

"What's the situation?"

"He killed, choked and suffocated, but he didn't just die." Make a brief statement.

"Didn't you just die?" Chang Tai grasped the point of the question: "But didn't this person just find out?" ”

"Man is just discovered, but not just dead. Judging by the extent of the old lady's stiffness, she had been dead for at least a few hours. ”

"In this way, she was killed at about the same time as Shen Mingyue." Chang Tai thought about it, squatted down, opened the collar of the old ancestor with his hand, and looked at the strangulation on her neck.

This strangulation is a little different from what we see every day.

"See, right?" He stroked his beard and stood behind Chang Tai: "This neck was choked from behind." In general, if you want to strangle a person to death, it is best to choose the front. Why? Because men are afraid of death. It's not that the person is cowardly, but an instinctive reaction. Even if you want to die, at the moment of death, there will be a subconscious struggle. Frontal strangulation can maximize a person's strength. Also, when the deceased is struggling, you can use your elbows, legs, or even your whole body to suppress the other person. But this old lady was strangled by her neck from behind and strangled to death. ”

Indeed, because of death, a large and very special bruise appeared on the neck of the ancestor of the Zhang family. This bruise was caused by the murderer using too much force after strangling the neck of the ancestor with his hands, causing the neck to be full of bruises, and the blood no longer circulated after death.

Strangling the neck from behind, indicating that this person sneaked in and took advantage of his unpreparedness. Judging from the touch wound on the forehead, the deceased should have been lying on his stomach in a table-like place after his death. The scene of the first crime should be the house of the ancestor of the Zhang family, and the murderer deliberately moved her body to the ancestral hall.

The ancestral hall had just gone through a lively scene, and when Chang Tai and Xiao Shengzi went to Zhang Cheng's house, the crowd of onlookers on this side of the ancestral hall was evacuated. Since the matter of Shen Mingyue has not been clarified, the ancestral hall is only a padlock and has not been locked. The murderer took advantage of the time to move the body.

But what is the purpose of the murderer's removal of the body? Showing off, ridiculing, or wanting to set off a bigger storm in Nanwang Village.

"This should only be the scene of the removal of the body, not the scene of the crime." Xing Ruyi squatted in front of the ancestor of the Zhang family with the fox in his arms: "The scene of the crime should be in her bedroom, judging from the mark on her forehead, it should be in front of the dresser." Oh, there are traces of rouge on this cheek, this old ancestor should be a person who loves beauty very much, and when the murderer appeared, she was looking in the mirror. Also, her facial expression is relatively peaceful, which shows that the murderer who appeared behind her is someone she knows, and she didn't expect that the murderer would do it to herself.

The ancestor of the Zhang family has never been married all his life, and he has lived alone all the year round, aren't you all curious about who appeared in her bedroom, and it hasn't made her feel strange and defensive? ”

"She is the ancestor of the Zhang family, and she is the oldest person in the family, so it is normal for younger generations to often come and go in her yard." Xiao Shengzi whispered, "I often run to my grandmother's house. She likes to pack some good food and wait for me to go to her house. Sometimes there are so many things in the yamen that I may not go back for more than ten days or even a month, because no one has turned over her house, and she still has a temper at home. Old children, old children, old people, when they get older, they are actually no different from children. ”

"I'm afraid this old ancestor of the Zhang family doesn't have the same temper as your grandmother." Xing Ruyi glanced at Xiao Shengzi, and then his eyes fell on the village chief Zhang Youfu: "What did the village chief say? ”

"It's true that the old ancestor is not as approachable as the average grandmother." Zhang Youfu replied on the side: "But if you talk about people who are close to you, there are also ancestors. ”

"Who?"

"Zhang Xi."

"Who is this Zhang Xi?"

"It's also a member of our Zhang clan. Zhang Xi's parents were sick, and they passed away not long after giving birth to Zhang Xi, and Zhang Xi became an orphan from that time, and he grew up eating hundreds of meals in our Nanwang Village. This is a hundred family meals, but the courtyard of the ancestors lives. Although the ancestor is older, she is actually not a few years older than me, and she raised Zhang Xi by her side, which is equivalent to her adopted son. It's a pity that this Zhang Xi, when he grew up, was a little obedient, and always disobeyed discipline, and left our Nanwang Village after a dispute with his ancestors, and worked hard alone in Luoyang City. ”

"After this Zhang Xi left, did he come back?"

"I've been back, and I've come back every once in a while. What he did in the past, we didn't ask, and we don't know, but since Nanwang Village started selling medicine, he opened a pharmacy in Luoyang City, and most of the medicinal materials in our village are sold in his shop. After having money in his hand and a serious business, he often came back, but the ancestor had resentment in his heart because of the things he had done, and even if he came back, he didn't care much about him. If you don't care, he doesn't care, he has the key to the courtyard next door to this ancestral hall, and he will live in the courtyard next door when he returns to the village. ”

"Has he been back recently?"

"I didn't pay attention, there have been a lot of things in the past two days, so I didn't bother to pay attention to these people who don't often wander around the village." Zhang Youfu replied.

"Can I go next door and have a look?" Xing Ruyi hugged the fox and pointed to the next door.

Zhang Youfu glanced at Chang Tai and didn't say anything.

If this was when the old ancestor was alive, he would not dare to accept it, because the old ancestor had a strange temper and did not like strangers to enter and leave her courtyard. She died, and she, as the village chief, could call the shots, but who knows if the scene next door was a real murder scene. If so, he didn't dare to admit it. If there were any traces of this destruction that caused the murder to not be solved, wouldn't he be a sinner again?

"Master Chang, let me go over and take a look. Maybe I'll be able to give you the details of the case. ”

Chang Taishen glanced at Xing Ruyi, did not agree, but did not object, just stood up and walked towards the outside of the ancestral hall. Xing Ruyi looked at it, yes, this is a tacit approval, and hurriedly hugged the fox and followed. Zhang Youfu originally wanted to follow, but was stopped by Xiao Kuai, who was guarding the scene: "Don't go." ”

"Yes, no, no." Zhang Youfu nodded in response, with a consistent smile on his face, but there was more helplessness and bitterness in that smile.

This is a very ordinary women's boudoir, with a carved dresser placed at the head of the bed, the countertop is a little messy, and there is also a relatively obvious indentation in front of the bronze mirror, which shows that Xing Ruyi's previous guess was right. In front of this dresser is the first scene where the ancestor of the Zhang family was killed.

"The rouge box was opened, and the powder was sprinkled on the table, and there were traces of some being wiped off." Xing Ruyi pointed to the dressing table and showed it to Chang Tai: "At that time, the ancestor should have been sitting facing the bronze mirror. She twisted open the box with rouge, then dipped a little of it with her little tail finger and applied it to her lips. Oh, and when I was in the ancestral hall, I saw rouge on her little tail finger, and the color of rouge was similar to the color on her lips. The reason why it is inferred that she was applying rouge at the time was because there was rouge on her cuffs, the front of her clothes, and on her face and neckline. This shows that she was suddenly attacked by gangsters in the process of wiping rouge. ”

Xing Ruyi said, put the fox on the ground, and sat down in front of the bronze mirror: "The murderer is someone known to the old ancestor, so when he appeared in the bronze mirror, the old ancestor was not guarded, and even when he stretched out his hand, the old ancestor did not think about turning his body around." If she had turned around, then when she died, she would not have been lying on her stomach like this, but lying on her back, and the rouge would have been on her hair, and nothing else. ”

"And then?" Chang Tai watched as Xing Ruyi choked his neck with his hand.

"And then? And then like I do to myself now. The murderer stretched out his hand and choked the old ancestor's neck, and it was a very hard pinch. The old ancestor is a woman, and she is an old woman, and she was suddenly choked by a pair of powerful hands so tightly that she would struggle subconsciously, but she would not struggle violently as she said. ”

Xing Ruyi said, stepped back, moved the stool in front of the dressing mirror, and bent down to check the situation under the dresser.

"Well, there are slight marks of impact here, indicating that the old ancestor struggled when she was choked by the neck. If you don't believe it, when you go back to the ancestral hall later, you can ask the servant to turn up the old ancestor's trousers and take a look, there must be bruises two inches above and below her knees. In addition, there are traces of kicks on this wall, and this trace is still new. ”

Xing Ruyi clapped his hands and got out from under the dresser.

"It's not that the ancestor didn't struggle, but the struggle didn't last long, because the murderer strangled her in a very short period of time, and then strangled her to death."

"Acquaintances commit crimes!" Chang Tai concluded.

"Yes, acquaintances commit crimes, which are the same as Shen Mingyue." Xing Ruyi said, took out something from behind his back, and shook it in front of Chang Tai: "Buddha's hand, I found it under the table, I don't know if it has anything to do with the killing of the ancestor." Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe it's not. However, I have reason to suspect that the person who killed Shen Mingyue and the one who killed the old ancestor were actually the same person. ”