The kitchen on Zhuangzi is no cleaner and brighter than Liu's, just a dim and cramped adobe house. The whole room had a wooden window facing the door, and under the wooden window was a burnt black stove.

On one side of the stove, there is an old table of eight immortals, on which are some dried vegetables and bacon in a mess, and a stack of dishes and chopsticks that have not had time to be washed. It can be seen that Liu Laohan rarely sets foot here, so he is still very unaccustomed to it at first glance, and his face is full of disgust.

The kitchen was steaming at this time, and a rugged man was curled up on the stove to stuff firewood into the stove. His face was dark, with a bit of honesty and dullness, and when he saw the messenger in official clothes coming, he hurriedly got up.

He didn't dare to look up after just one glance, but in addition to those few officials, the woman in front of him was dressed exquisitely and exquisitely, and at first glance, she was not a rough person like him who could talk. He rubbed his hands that were stained by the fire, hung his head in panic and asked, "Is there something wrong with the official?" ”

Xu Chu swept his face with sincere fear, his gaze fell on his swarthy hands full of cracked scars, and then slowly frowned. Although this person is Liu Laohan's son-in-law, he is dressed well and in spirit, which is really much worse than Liu Laohan's family of three.

If Liu Laohan is still tactful, then this person is really kind and not good at words. Seeing the frightened and panicked appearance of the man in front of her, she couldn't help but sigh in her heart, could this person really be an accomplice?

But after thinking about it, she still looked around, and in the dim light, she could only hear the crackling fire in the stove, and the sound of soup tumbling in the cauldron with the lid on it.

Xu Chu didn't care about the environment, but walked around casually, and when he saw the half of the meat and bones on the board, he couldn't help but smile and asked, "Are you making pork bone soup?" ”

The man replied stiffly, apparently uncomfortably at the sudden question.

In the dim light, Xu Chu's eyes fell on a knife placed on the side of the board. On the blade, there were still some blue-green marks, with yellowish oil stains, and they were discarded haphazardly. However, what made her eyebrows suddenly cold was not the filth on the blade, but the firewood knife......

Her eyes changed slightly, and she reached out and touched the side of the blade. It is sticky and slippery with a bit of a fishy smell and a little cold mud.

"This is what I just used to chop the pork bone, and it is dirty ......" The man saw that Xu Chu was going to take a firewood knife, and hurriedly opened his mouth with difficulty.

Xu Chu's expression was solemn, he squinted his eyes and ignored his words, but walked straight to the cauldron and lifted the heavy wooden lid of the pot suddenly. saw that the pot was really full of bone broth, and it seemed that it had been boiling for a while, and the meat and bones were all white.

"The tired official sent the eldest brother to help find a clean place and take out the meat and bones in the pot." Xu Chu took a deep breath, suppressed the rebuke that was about to come out of his heart, and closed his eyes slightly. She had boiled corpses for bone examination, but she did not expect that anyone would dare to boil the rotten head into broth......

She didn't even dare to imagine that if she hadn't come this time, this pot of human broth would have entered the belly of Liu Laohan's family. When she thought of this, she had never been sick to her stomach because of the corpse, and she couldn't help but tumble in her stomach.

The official who followed and Liu Laohan looked at each other and didn't know what she meant, but at this moment, a figure in a brocade robe with a bit of chill came from outside. Xu is hearing Xu Chu's words, the corners of his lips were slightly hooked, he handed over the toolbox in his hand, and then waved his hand to let Wei Guang take out the white cloth he brought with him.

As soon as she looked up, she saw Xiao Qinglang's eyes coming from the backlight, and her eyes were shallow with a smile, which made her suddenly look at her. Xu Chu's hand trembled, pursed his lips and looked away, and then forced himself to calm down: "I bother you to pick out the meat and bones in the pot." ”

Most of the officials who came with her had seen her autopsy in the morgue that day, or had heard about her pushing the case in Qian Si'er's case. So even if I can't fully understand her words, I don't dare to do it with discounts.

A few people stepped forward and saw that the soup in the pot was still tumbling, with the color of Bai Sensen, and there were some innocent cabbage tofu. I looked at a pot of good broth, but unfortunately it didn't taste very good, and I was blind to the good meat and bones.

Several of them were speechless, holding their breath and raising their eyebrows to look at the man who was cooking, and said, "Do you have unwashed pig intestines in your stew, and even boil the together." ”

The man's eyes turned red when he was ridiculed, and the whole person was even more uneasy.

Only Xiao Qinglang's eyes were deep, his eyes were like a sword looking into the pot, and he didn't pay any attention to the words of others.

Because the soup in the pot is boiling, only one person can carry the basin, and the other person uses a spoon to scoop out the bones. Obviously, it was not a moment or a half to simmer on high heat, and as soon as the meat and bones were fished out, the white flesh automatically separated the bones.

Although the bones are separated from the flesh, not to mention others, even Xu Chu himself didn't see the skull. She frowned slightly, if her heart hadn't been boiled, what else could she do?

Her eyes fell on the man, but she saw that the man's body was slightly bowed at this time, and he was full of strength. A swarthy face that couldn't see much expression, I don't know if it was smoked by fire and water vapor or born from nervousness, it was all beads of sweat.

Xu Chu stared at him tightly for a moment, but when he saw the pot of flesh and bones, his mouth and eyes opened, his eyebrows raised, his nostrils opened and even gasped slightly. Even, the whole person involuntarily took a step back, and then kept rubbing his hands against each other. And his gaze was even more wandering, and he didn't dare to look at the flesh and bones, even if he was very well disguised and had always been honest, it also made Xu Chu conclude that he must be afraid and frightened in his heart and even constantly comforted himself.

If there really is nothing wrong with that pot of flesh and bones, why would he behave like this?

Generally speaking, when the real perpetrator sees the photo of the victim and the relevant traces, he or she will show contempt, disgust, or fear. If he hadn't done anything wrong, but had just cooked a pot of broth, he wouldn't have been so upset.

Thinking of this, Xu Chu simply took the toolbox from Xiao Qinglang's hand, and then stepped forward with gloves. Although the meat and bones were out of the pot, they were still hot, but she didn't care at all, she just rummaged in them.

She used a neat and clean technique, placing the peeled pork bones on the ground on one side. The rest, some fine bone scraps and bone fragments, were carefully picked up by her on the white cloth.

The fragments of bones were quickly collected by Xu Chu, and she held her breath as she took out some hemp, grass ropes, or thin slivers from the toolbox to connect the larger pieces of bones together. Then she used spare clay to fill in the missing gaps, and after repeating this a few times, she slowly glued the messy bones together.

Although the person who cuts it out does his best, the layman is not proficient in the texture of the skull flesh, or he is in a hurry and does not have the opportunity to deal with it carefully. So many of the pieces are still relatively intact. Just like the maxilla, cheekbones, nasal bones, lacrimal bones, palatal bones, and turbinate bones, they are not really smashed to pieces. That is, except for the skull, which was cut into four or five bone fragments, the rest was easily recognizable.

In the eyes of outsiders, it seems that there is nothing abnormal, but it is just a messy and complicated bone, which gradually takes shape in Xu Chu's hands. Although it is not completely restored, it can also make people see the shape at a glance, and it is the human head that is alive!

Not to mention how the officials were surprised by the officers, the two of them who had just fished for flesh and blood couldn't help but change their faces at this time, and they didn't know where to put their hands. Liu Laohan was more direct, and he didn't have time to question his son-in-law, so he ran directly to the swill bucket and vomited.

As he retched out of breath, the official who had just scooped up the bones and even took a sip finally couldn't help but staggered out the door.

In the entire kitchen, there were only the sound of vomiting one after another by the two of them, and a group of officials who pursed their lips and did not dare to speak. As for Wei Guang, Xu was used to it, and just silently turned his gaze away.

And Xiao Qinglang's face was indifferent, his expression was calm, he looked at Xu Chu and asked, "Is there a conclusion?" ”

"The deceased, female, should be around twenty years old, depending on the degree of occlusion of the teeth and the condition of the skull. Looking at the condition of the face, the cheeks are thin, and the body shape is speculated to be slender and slender......" Xu Chu calmly touched the skull temporarily fixed with clay, and said, "There are chopping marks on the neck, which should be made by a firewood knife, which is consistent with the scar on the neck of the headless female corpse." As for the cause of death, further examination is needed. ”

It seems that before Xu Chu came, the man had already put enough vinegar to cover the smell into the pot. Therefore, even if Xu Chu did not pour vinegar and spirits, nor did he stew it with white plum, there was a blue-black crack on the skull.

"The deceased had been hit with a blunt object on the top of his head before his death, resulting in a fractured skull. The broken hyoid bone, coupled with the silver and silk threads found in her trachea during the previous autopsy, can be inferred that the deceased was strangled from behind before his death. Xu Chu put away the hyoid bone that obviously had a dark section after steaming, and then took off his gloves to continue to analyze, "That headless female corpse is consistent with this skull, and it can be determined to be the same person." According to the results of the post-mortem examination at the time, there had been a blunt force wound to the posterior shoulder blade of the corpse, which was similar in shape to a skull wound. ”

As she spoke, she took the paper pinned to the inside of the toolbox and drew it with pen and ink. Obviously, her painting is not as realistic as Xiao Qinglang, but it can also make people see clearly.

Anyone who had seen the body that day, or who had seen the autopsy, had some impression of the wound. At this time, compared with the traces drawn on Xu Chu's paper, it is really the same.