"Even if Ma Wenshan knows who the bandit is, he still refuses to say it, and there is nothing he can do." Zhou Jingqing frowned.

Both he and the county magistrate knew that if they wanted to make progress, they still had to start from Ma Wenshan.

But he was also interrogated, but he refused to speak no matter what, so he was tortured to extract a confession.

"Leave him alone for now, just keep him alive. Let's take a look on the road tomorrow and see if we can find any clues. Ye Xi carefully put away a stack of papers, "By the way, Ye Ziyan's body has been examined, right?" What's the catch? ”

"I only know that Ye Ziyan was strangled to death with a rope, and she should have struggled before she died, and there were still fine pieces of flesh and blood in her nails, and the bandits should have been scratched by her. However, the bandits did not know where she had scratched and how serious it was, and it was still impossible to investigate. ”

"We'd better find the place where she was killed in the first place, maybe we can find nothing."

The two went back to the small courtyard while talking, and Zhou Jingqing went to sleep in a room with Zhou Rui and let Ye Xi live in his room.

Early the next morning, after breakfast, Zhou Rui went out to the academy.

And Zhou Jingqing went to Yamen first, and then came back to pick Ye Xi out of the city.

They rode all the way to the place where Ma Wenshan said they had encountered the robbers.

Ye Xi looked around, the place was very good, there were no people around, it was convenient to get started.

As for the time of the accident, it was close to noon, and there should not be many people rushing at this time.

This is an avenue, and naturally there is no trace to be found.

Then the two of them walked around, and instead of continuing on the main road, they walked towards this remote place.

There are many rocks in the nearby mountains, so there are no fields and no homes, so these places are quite deserted.

It's not the time to chop wood or collect mushrooms, and there shouldn't be many people passing by in these mountains.

Zhou Jingqing often hunted before he went on the expedition, so he always seemed quite familiar with the mountains. They searched for a long time, but suddenly found a secluded cave.

The cave is covered by grass and trees, and it is very hidden. When he entered the cave, he suddenly opened up.

"This cave has been visited recently." Ye Xi lowered his head and watched on the ground.

There are mud footprints on the ground, and it has been raining in autumn recently, and there will be a rain from time to time, so walking in the mountains is always a little muddy.

Even when they walked this way, their shoes were stained with a lot of mud.

Ye Xi carefully rubbed the mud footprints on the ground, because the size was different, it could be concluded that there were two people.

Continuing to walk into the cave, Zhou Jingqing also carefully paid attention to the situation in the cave.

Suddenly, his gaze fell on a small piece of fabric in the corner. The fabric was just a small bits of fabric, not noticeable, and he picked it up and looked at it carefully.

"This should be a woman's clothing." Zhou Jingqing took it and showed it to Ye Xi.

Ye Xi gritted his teeth, this is not only the woman's clothing, it is very likely that it is Ye Ziyan's. Quite pretty tender yellow fabric, she remembered the last time she met Ye Ziyan in Fucheng, and Ye Ziyan also wore clothes of this fabric.

went to see Ma Wenshan yesterday, and Ma Wenshan also said that Ye Ziyan was wearing clothes of this color that day.

"I'm afraid that after the bandits kidnapped Ye Ziyan, they brought it here."

The two of them searched carefully, but they also found a few traces on the stone wall of the cave, which looked like ropes.