Old Man Liu rolled up his two trousers to his knees, and then returned to the chair with his bare feet.

"Little one, take a look!" Old Man Liu pointed to his legs and said, "See what's the difference?" ”

Mu Yuan leaned down, squatted in front of Old Man Liu, and carefully looked at Old Man Liu's two calves. These two calves are much whiter than Old Man Liu's complexion, the soles of the feet are wide, and the green tendons are emerging, if you look at one of them, it is difficult to find anything, but the comparison of the two legs is a little weird, because the left leg is obviously much stronger than the right leg.

Many people think that the human body is strictly symmetrical, but in fact, it is not, maybe when born, a person's left and right hands and feet are very similar, but with the growth of the day after tomorrow, a person's dependence on the left and right hands and feet will become more and more obvious, so the dominant hand or foot is often stronger than the other, generally manifested in flexibility and strength. However, for some people with strong occupations, the degree of development of hands and feet will be more obvious, such as thickness, muscle prominence, etc.

But Old Man Liu is even more special, his left leg is not a little thicker than his right leg, and it is difficult to believe that these two legs belong to the same one.

"Old man, your right leg has been ......" Makihara stopped halfway through the question, his body jerked for a while, so that he sat on the ground with his butt in his head.

"Haha!" Old Man Liu laughed happily, as if he had lost a long time playing chess, and finally came up with a clever move, as if he had won the battle, "Little guy, I am really not mistaken, you are still the first person who can see this secret!" ”

Makihara didn't speak, because he already knew where he was wrong.

Old Man Liu took a small flashlight from the desk of a gang, the difference was that the head of the flashlight was covered with a red transparent board. Mu Yuan knew that this was the so-called red light injury test, which was a test method in the current forensic examination, but it first appeared in Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Writings".

It is rumored that Shen Kuo heard that there was a beating to death in Shen County. However, when the magistrate went to the autopsy, he could not find the wounds of the deceased. Later, after listening to the advice of an old man, the magistrate ordered someone to carry the corpse into the sunlight and use a red umbrella to cover the sunlight, and the various scars on the corpse suddenly appeared clearly. Shen Kuo pondered carefully, experimented repeatedly, and finally understood that this was the function of the filter.

The new red oil umbrella, just like today's light filter, is generally blue-purple in the place of subcutaneous bruising, which is not clear under white light, but can be clearly visible under red light, because the light wave of red light is longer, which makes it easier for the scar to appear in the eyes of people.

There is also such a scene in the TV series "Da Song Ti Criminal Officer", but many people don't understand the reason, thinking that Song Ci, played by He Bing, opened a paper umbrella and covered it on the corpse, out of superstition that the corpse cannot see three lights.

Old Man Liu stretched out his left foot, turned on the flashlight in his hand near his ankle, and under the red light, a blue-purple handprint appeared. The palm print was very small, like the palm print of a one- or two-year-old child, and it couldn't hold all the ankles of Old Man Liu, only grabbing less than half of the span, more like sticking to it.

"This palm print has been with me for more than 40 years!" Old Man Liu sighed and said.

In the middle of the last century, Liu Yingqu, who was in his twenties, like most young people, went to X province to join the queue under that call and became an insider. As a mere element, there is no suitable job for him in the countryside, and he, like other young intellectuals, mainly works in the fields. In the summer when he first went to the countryside, after the harvest work, Liu Yingqu, who was covered in dust and sweat, could not sleep due to the hot weather, and decided to go to a pond not far from the village to take a bath.

At that time, the conditions in the countryside were very poor, and sometimes in remote province X, the farmers' water supply came almost entirely from groundwater. Farmers with better conditions still have the kind of manual pressure wells in their homes, and the poor conditions are to draw water from ponds and rivers, wash clothes and vegetables, drink alcohol and horses, and almost all of them are the same water source.

In the countryside, bathing in the pond is also divided into periods, generally men are at 10 in the evening, while women are generally men who take water home and scrub it in the yard; If you go to bathe in the pond, most of them are in a group at 10 a.m.

Because of these conventions and rules to avoid misunderstandings, Liu Yingqu decided to go to a pond farther away from the village to wash, with the help of the hazy moonlight, Liu Yingqu arrived at the pond, went into the water and scrubbed it briefly, and then wanted to prepare to go home. Then, just as he was standing on the edge of the pond, ready to go ashore, he suddenly felt something grab his foot.

Liu Yingqu was startled, and his first reaction was that there was a very small animal in the water that bit him, he was scared, and he hurriedly climbed to the shore, but the thing that grabbed him was extremely powerful, and he was a young man in his twenties, and he couldn't pull the other party in this knee-deep water. In a hurry, Liu Yingqu hugged a tree on the shore at once, but the thing kept dragging him into the water. Under this struggle, he felt that his foot and neck were completely numb, and the ankle was clutched by something, as if it were caught by a vice, as if it could be broken at any moment.

Slowly, Liu Yingqu had already begun to lose his strength, and the things that grabbed him showed no sign of letting go, and Liu Yingqu began to despair. Suddenly, he saw the belt next to him, hurriedly grabbed it, quickly tied it into a set, and tied his body to the tree.

"! Even if Lao Tzu breaks a foot, he can't give you this life! Liu Yingqu scolded fiercely.

So, Liu Yingqu was in a stalemate with the thing in the water, many times, he seemed to feel that something was crawling up his legs, and when he looked back, it was also in the hazy moonlight, but there was nothing on the sparkling water.

"It's vague, I'll sleep for a while, wake up for a while!" Mr. Liu said, "It was always bright, and a rooster crowed, and then, I felt that my left leg was light, and the thing that grabbed me was gone!" ”

After that, Liu Yingqu climbed ashore in embarrassment, hastily put on his pants, and dragged his lame left foot back to the village.

"And then you found this palm print on your left foot?" Makihara asked.

"Yes!" Old man Liu nodded, "This leg has been swollen for many days, and the handprints on it have not been able to go down, the old man in the village said that a child had drowned in the pond, and it was a child who came to find a stand-in, and some people said that there was a water monkey in the water, and it was caught by the water monkey!" ”

After lying on the bed for half a month, the swelling of Liu Yingqu's left leg finally subsided, but the small palm couldn't get rid of it, like a weird birthmark, it was very eye-catching. Also, Liu Yingqu suddenly found that when he walked, his left leg seemed a little heavy, as if he had hung a scale, and once it was night, his legs felt cold for half a day, and a little cold entered his body.

Liu Yingqu asked some doctors in his hometown to accompany the capital, and the doctor's answer was that Liu Yingqu had a psychological burden after this incident, so he had this illusion, which in turn affected some physiological reactions. It's just that Liu Yingqu doesn't believe in this answer, and has been trying to find any way to solve the problem of his left foot, after all, he was only a few years old at the time, and he didn't have a family, such a scary birthmark and a slightly lame leg are difficult to get a wife.

"Then the palm print slowly faded by itself?" Makihara asked.

"It's not!" Old man Liu said, "Later, I consulted an old woman in the village, and she told me a home remedy, which is to soak my feet in mugwort boiled water. ”

Mu Yuan nodded, this home remedy makes some sense. The "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: Artemisia is used as a medicine with leaves, which is warm, bitter, non-toxic, pure yang, through the twelve meridians, has the effects of returning to yang, regulating qi and blood, chasing dampness and cold, stopping bleeding and stabilizing the fetus, and is also often used in acupuncture. In folklore, it is said that wormwood kudzu vine is a chain that locks ghosts, just like the wicker branches that circulate can fight ghosts, such as hanging wormwood at the door during the Dragon Boat Festival, it is said that wormwood can ward off evil spirits and dispel yin energy. In fact, there are some commonalities between these two statements.

After a period of home remedies, the palm print finally faded until it disappeared, but Liu Yingqu still felt that his left foot still seemed to be a little uncomfortable, but fortunately, it did not affect his life. I thought that this was the end of this matter, but after a few years, this palm print slowly appeared again. After returning to his hometown and returning to the city, Liu Yingqu began to work in the criminal investigation department, and took advantage of his work to find many people and do systematic inspections many times, but still found nothing.

"Once, I was studying the identification of scars at home, and suddenly thought of this old injury, and after trying it, sure enough, under the irradiation of red light, this palm print was exposed, and I knew that over the years, this palm print has not been removed at all, and it has been following me!" Old Man Liu said helplessly, "Since there is no better way, I can only insist on soaking my feet with wormwood, which can be regarded as suppressing it, but the effect is getting worse and worse!" ”

"That's because you're old!" Makihara explained, "Your physiological functions are gradually decreasing, and your absorption of the medicinal properties of wormwood is much weaker, and your resistance is also weakening, so this effect will occur!" ”

"Hmm!" Old Man Liu nodded, "I also thought of this!" ”

Mu Yuan pondered for a while, and then said to Old Man Liu, "Old man, can you let me try?" Maybe, I'll help you get rid of it completely! ”