After leaving the main room, Chen Ying didn't take a few steps, Pei Shu sent Lang Tingyu over and ordered him to accompany Chen Ying to investigate and collect evidence.

Lang Tingyu is not only a general in the Pei family's army, but also has a civilian position, and he is also Pei Shu's cronies, with him by his side, the next testimony collection work is very smooth.

According to the information provided by the master of the He family and the servants and others, Chen Ying got the time line of Old Lady He last night.

The He family did not hold a banquet last night, and He Juncheng did not entertain, and the dinner was eaten by the whole family. Because he was in a very good mood, He Juncheng and the old lady had a few glasses of wine, and the dinner lasted from five o'clock in the afternoon to two o'clock in the afternoon (half past six in the afternoon), which took an hour and a half.

Half an hour after dinner, Mrs. He was drunk, and returned to the courtyard where he lived, He Juncheng was afraid that his father would be unwell, so he personally followed him to serve, and finally two servants helped him complete Mrs. He's washing work, and helped the old man to bed. At this time, it was about 8 p.m., and the incident was confirmed by the testimony of many people.

And from eight o'clock in the evening to nine o'clock in the morning of the next day, that is, today, that is, at the beginning of the morning, because he saw that the door of Mrs. He's room was always closed, and there was a banquet at noon, which needed to be attended by Mrs. He, so Huang ordered two servants to go to inspect it, only to find that Mrs. He had been killed in bed.

According to many confessions, Mrs. He has a strange temperament, hates to have people to serve in the room, and sleeps alone every night, and no one is on duty. In addition, in recent years, he has advanced and is not in good health, and often has to drink tranquilizers, so he gets up late in the morning, usually at 8 o'clock in the morning.

However, because the old man was drunk last night, the Huang family didn't care much when he saw that he got up late today, just because he was too old to stand a hangover, and he didn't dare to ask someone to disturb him, who thought that the old lady He was killed in bed.

It should be noted that the He family was not a native of Penglai County, but because of the property change in the He clan, the old lady He suffered a loss, so he simply followed his son to settle in Penglai County, listed a single branch, and never interacted with the clansmen since then, which was three years ago.

It is precisely because the foundation is too shallow that the life of the He family is not easy, and the total number of servants in the family is only eight.

Speaking of which, He Juncheng is now regarded as an official from his hometown, which is actually not allowed in Dachu, just because of his special situation, so the order has not been issued so far.

Chen Ying carefully inquired about the movements of everyone in the He family that night, in other words, she was seeking an alibi for everyone.

It's just that when the time of death is not clear, the so-called alibi is also equivalent to useless, but Chen Ying still compared the evidence with each other and came to the conclusion that all the servants, including the sick Mingxin, and all the masters of the He family, were not abnormal on the night of the crime.

handed over the thick stack of confessions to Lang Tingyu to collect, and Chen Ying returned to the scene of the crime non-stop, and finally found footprints again under the back window.

Like the footprints she had marked before, this one was mud-stained.

In the past few days, it has been raining continuously, and except for a few main passages in the He family's house, the rest are all mud, and the soil on the footprints should come from this.

Chen Ying squatted down to observe the shoe print, and it didn't take long for her to notice that at the edge of the footprint, there was an object about five millimeters long and as thick as the tip of an embroidery needle, which looked like a wooden thorn or bamboo silk.

She picked up this thing with chopsticks and looked at it carefully, but at the end of her eyes, she caught a glimpse, and Lang Tingyu on the side was also staring at a pair of tiger eyes, also observing this thing.

Chen Ying sent the chopsticks in front of him and asked, "What does General Lang think this is?" ”

Lang Tingyu touched his head unconsciously, and said with some uncertainty: "My subordinates feel that this thing looks like a bamboo stick." After a pause, he added, "It's the kind of bamboo skewer that is particularly finely chopped." ”

Chen Ying nodded and said approvingly: "General Lang has good eyesight. ”

If you look closely, you will find that it is indeed not a wood thorn, but a fine crumb of bamboo, the Han family's mansion is full of bamboo, and there are often servants who go to prune it, this thing Chen Ying has seen a lot.

She wrapped the thin bamboo silk in a white cloth, got up and said to Lang Tingyu: "There should be a lot of footprints here, I think it is likely that the murderer left them." We can follow this footprint and look back. ”

The hidden window, as well as the footprints under the window, all indicate that the murderer sneaked in from here, and Chen Ying felt that maybe she could find the location where the murderer first sneaked into the house.

Lang Tingyu answered yes neatly, and then got up to lead the way.

He was a martial arts practitioner, and his eyesight was much better than Chen Ying's, and he soon found several identical shoe prints from under the courtyard wall where Old Lady He lived, and on one of the shoe prints, Chen Ying extracted a thin bamboo thread.

"The murderer must have come in from here." Lang Tingyu pointed to the courtyard wall where the footprints were and said, his tone was very affirmative.

Such a big footprint was there, and there was a flower window on the wall, and the murderer must have stepped on the courtyard wall with the help of the flower window.

Chen Ying nodded, agreed with his inference, and went to the flower window to observe.

However, the shoe prints here are gone, and I don't know if the footprints are too shallow to be detected by the naked eye, or because they are quite high off the ground, the traces have been blown away by the wind.

Chen Ying was not in a hurry, and turned out of the corner gate with people, and before he could go around to the corresponding position outside the wall, he found another footprint.

"Sure enough, the thief came in from outside." Lang Tingyu's tone was a little excited.

It seems to be quite interesting to investigate the case, and this Chen San girl is really smart, and she found so many shoe prints without hurrying.

Chen Ying didn't know what he was thinking, leaned over and looked at the shoe print for a while, or first returned to the position of the flower window outside the wall, to make sure that there were indeed traces of climbing here, and then continued to follow the shoe print back.

The shoe prints came and went, all the way from Mrs. He's yard to the yard of Mr. He Juncheng and his wife.

At this point, the footprints seemed to be jumbled, as if the murderer had walked around in a circle, and then they found traces of climbing under the stained windows of the courtyard wall. And following this trace, under the window of the main house where He Juncheng and his wife lived, they found at least a dozen clear shoe prints.

It can be seen that the murderer stayed outside the house for a long time, and even some footprints still have traces of repeated trampling.

So far, the fine bamboo silk extracted by Chen Ying has reached four.

Looking at the messy footprints on the ground, Lang Tingyu couldn't help but let out a soft "huh".

"What's the matter, does General Lang see something?" Chen Ying asked.