"Father!" , Xu Tiancai screamed sadly, pounced, knelt on it, and kept shaking the man.

Nie Xiaohu walked over, leaned over, stretched out two fingers to probe the artery in the man's neck, and then shook his head gently.

Xu Xiaohe was also confused by the sudden situation and was stunned.

Xiaohu stood up and began to observe the situation inside the secret room. The chamber is not large, surrounded by stone walls, without windows, it is a completely enclosed basement, and there is a hole in the stone wall on the left, and an oil lamp is placed in the hole; There was a cabinet on one side of the room, in which all kinds of food were placed, enough for one person to eat for a month; There is also a water tank in the corner, which is filled with clean water; There was a brazier in the center of the chamber, full of extinguished charcoal, and it seemed that the pungent smell just now must have been emitted by the charcoal burning; There is a thumb-thick fine iron latch on the inside of the stone door, which has been broken into two sections, one of which fell on the ground of the doorway, which should have been caused by the impact and shock just now, and there was nothing else in the secret room.

"Carry the body out first", Nie Xiaohu waved his hand at Shi Yuning and the others after observing the scene.

Everyone got out of the secret room, parked the body in the living room on the first floor, covered the body with a white sheet, Xu Tiancai knelt beside the corpse and wept bitterly, beating his chest and feet, crying silently, Xu Xiaohe was also in tears on the side, grief-stricken.

"What the hell is going on?" , Nie Xiaohu asked with a frown.

"That's right," Xu Tiancai said with a sob, "Since my mother died of illness last month, my father has been mentally depressed, chanting his mother's name all day long. ”

"Alas!" Hearing this, Xu Xiaohe couldn't help but shake his head and sighed.

Xu Tiancai continued: "In recent days, my father suddenly said that he didn't want to live anymore and wanted to follow his mother, which frightened me, for fear that he would do something stupid, so I stayed by his side all the time, and also told Zhao's mother to be careful. But, only last night! Speaking of this, Xu Tiancai couldn't help but bow his head and cry again.

After crying for a while, Xu Tiancai slowly stopped his sadness.

"What happened last night?" , Xu Xiaohe asked eagerly.

"Yesterday after dinner, my father began to muttered that I didn't want to live anymore, and I was very scared, and followed him every step of the way, but after we went up to the second floor, my father suddenly took out a rope out of nowhere, and while I was unprepared, he tied my hands, and gagged my mouth with a piece of sackcloth, and then hung me on the beam of the house, and went downstairs."

"It seems that he is bent on seeking death, and he has been prepared for a long time!" , Xu Xiaohe shook his head and said.

"Father, why can't you bear to leave me alone!" , Xu Tiancai threw himself next to the corpse again and cried loudly.

"Brother, you have always been as timid as a mouse, why did you just do it this time...", Xu Xiaohe slapped his thigh, lowered his head and sighed.

"What is this secret room for?" , Nie Xiaohu asked.

"My father was always timid, and he was always afraid that one day the house would break into the robbers, so he built this secret room to hide from the robbers." , Xu Tiancai cried and said.

"How many keys do you have?"

"There is only one handful, and my father hangs on him every day."

"Won't the food and water in the chamber become moldy after a long time? What I just saw was all fresh. ”

"I change the food and water in the chamber regularly to ensure that I can eat it at all times."

"Father, why are you so stupid!" , Xu Tiancai's cry raised the tone again.

"I'll check around again, a few of you are here to talk to Old Man Xu", Nie Xiaohu finished speaking, and glanced at Tang Yibin.

Tang Yibin understood, and turned his head to comfort Xu Xiaohe.

Nie Xiaohu went up to the second floor and came to the room where Xu Tiancai was hanging. There was a square table at the door, and there was a copper candlestick on the table, the candles had burned out, and the candlesticks were full of solidified wax oil, but to Xiaohu's surprise, there seemed to be a lot of black powder in the wax oil, like ashes left behind after something burned.

Xiaohu picked up the rope on the ground again, observed it from beginning to end, and found that the end of the dead knot on the rope was black, obviously burned.

Nie Xiaohu frowned and thought about it, suddenly his eyes lit up, and he walked quickly to the window, the window was wide open, and outside the window was a low cliff, Nie Xiaohu carefully observed the wooden window frame again, there was an obvious trace of rope rubbing on the window frame, and the probe looked down the window, the bottom of the cliff was full of rocks and weeds.

Nie Xiaohu walked a few steps back and forth from the windowsill to the position where Xu Tiancai was hanging, and nodded, a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Then Nie Xiaohu checked in the room again, and then went down to the first floor.

"Old man Xu, I will wronged you first, don't leave here for the time being, Xu Tiancai is too", Nie Xiaohu glanced at Xu Tiancai, who was still howling next to the corpse.

"There are still some formalities to be done in this matter, so that I can find you at any time."

"Okay, Nie catches the head, please", Xu Xiaohe raised his hand slightly.

The five of them went out and got on the horse, and Nie Xiaohu walked in front, not running fast, but walking forward in a hurry.

"It seems that my second cousin was overly sad because he missed his deceased wife, so he went to the extreme, first hoisted Xu Tiancai, then entered the secret room, locked the door from the inside, and then committed suicide by burning charcoal."

Shi Yuning sighed and lowered his head and said.

"I don't think so!" , Nie Xiaohu pulled the horse's silk reins to the side, "Follow me!" ”

The four of them were stunned, but they didn't speak, they all pulled their horses' heads and followed.

The four of them followed Nie Xiaohu all the way, came to the bottom of the cliff on the back of Hekou Mountain and stopped, looking up from the bottom of the cliff, it was Xu Xiaotian's house.

"Tiger Head, what are you doing here?" , Shi Wei asked puzzledly.

"Looking for something," Nie Xiaohu said, as he dismounted and searched around in the pile of rocks at the bottom of the cliff.

"Help me find a big rock with a rope tied to it."

"Understood!" , the four of them agreed, and then scattered in all directions.

After looking for about half an hour, Liu Zhenxiao suddenly shouted happily: "Tiger head, I found it!" Little Maozi, come and help! ”

Liu Zhenxiao and Mao Guangjian worked together to carry a large stone weighing 100 catties and put it in front of Nie Xiaohu.

It was a large cyan stone with a rope tied to it.