"According to what you say, Zhu Qi committed suicide, like a martyr?"

The bespectacled woman asked sadly, and the Shiling replied in a calm tone,

"All you need is two pistols of the same type."

"How is that possible? Is that an antique from the Anti-Japanese War? ――"

"You mentioned it yourself in the audio, it's a collector's gun."

"Yes. I seem to have heard Liu Zhenzhen mention that it was his ancestral trophy, and now it is rare. "

"Although guns used in collectibles are rare, there are always trophy guns of the same style after eight years of anti-Japanese war. Zhu Qi was born in a famous family, and when their family still had military relations, old comrades-in-arms and old subordinates might have shown it to Zhu Qi, so she knew where to find these murder weapons. Liu Zhenzhen, who lost consciousness, did not hold the one that killed Zhu Qi in his hand. I don't know why the bullet disappeared, but since it is a pistol from the era without line marks, it will not be detected even if it is stolen. "

"But you didn't find another gun."

"That's right. But I think that's the only answer to the truth, so I think it should be possible. At the time of the search of the scene, the police may not have known about the structure that had been opened up and converted into a rococo building. Moreover, those who understand are also silent. "

The old Aunt Mei gasped as she lost her teeth.

"It's okay, Aunt May. Don't worry, at your age, there's no need to worry about what the crime is. "

After comforting Aunt Mei gently, Shi Lingren walked to the corner away from the crowd and walked in the direction of the fireplace.

The only door to the murder scene was the one you had just entered, and the front of the room hung with a black velvet curtain as heavy as lead. On the left, there are two two-section metal windows that open to the side porch, separated by a high screen, and on the right is a large fireplace made of several stone blocks with a pattern carved in the center, rather than the usual decorative fireplace with a gas heater inserted.

In addition, there is a three-foot-high platform on the side of the wall from the door to the fireplace, on which are placed back-to-back statues of Cleopatra and Antony. Two or three pieces of fragrant wood are placed on the inside.

Liu Yaoyong, who had been leaning against the fireplace, was on guard with surprised eyes.

"Is it here?"

"Yes, it's here. Did you know? Most of the rooms, or all rooms, in European-style houses, have mantels. Because of this, murders set in European-style houses often have a fire stick. The killer took it and took a lot of lives. ”

"Burning sticks?"

"It's not an insinuation against the immortals."

When humans began to use violence, their first weapons were probably limbs. The next thing to use is undoubtedly the stone, the cutter, the sharpener...... Stick.

The stick is an extremely primitive and not at all elegant primitive weapon. Among them, the most impressive ones are Hong Qigong's "dog stick", Wu Song's whistle stick and so on.

Murders committed out of agitation are often carried out with the use of sticks. And the most famous "fire stick" in the history of reasoning is probably the case of Sherlock Holmes's "Striped Rope". It takes more courage for a woman to kill, but it's okay if you can't do it in two. Because, no matter whether a man is bent or straight, as long as he holds the fire stick and hits hard, it is definitely enough to kill.

The fireplace in front of him was apparently equipped with this murder weapon. Shi Lingren picked up the stick and beat it around, and explained: "This fireplace is basically the same as the internal structure of the fireplace in Liu's old house. One morning a long time ago, although Zhu Qi asked to prepare for a fire in the fireplace, he took special care not to light a fire. Why? This time, when the door was opened, the fire was blazing. That is, it was she who lit the fire for the fireplace herself. Why, exactly? It must have been because she had already begun to explore the inner workings of the fireplace, so that she could prepare for something that had to be hidden here. "

"But—"

"The rococo style of architecture comes from Florence, which is famous for its assassinations, and it is not impossible for a converted rococo villa like this to have a secret door and a secret cabinet."

"It's ridiculous. If there is such a thing, how can the police not know! "

Seeing that everyone was full of objections and stood up one after another, Shi Lingren said:

"Please wait a moment. Now, I'm going to show it to you. "

Then, suddenly, he knelt on his knees. As I approached, there was a pungent musty smell that gathered about five minutes of dust on the mantelpiece, and as soon as it touched the curtain, the choking dust flew up from the velvet and scattered like droplets with a silvery glow.

I looked at him at the bottom of the blackened stone stove and groped with my fingers, and I pulled out a small knife from my pocket, which I had bought some time ago for self-defense.

"Use this!"

"Thank you...... It should be here, right? "

He used the blade of his knife to dig through the joints of the stones.

"Is there really a secret chest here?"

"No, it's just a place where the ash is discharged, it's a longitudinal space, called an ash pit, which leads to the piping system, and the ash goes through this flue to the piping system. Ah, dug up. "

Others unconsciously walked over to the fireplace, poking their heads out and looking. The bespectacled woman hands over a flashlight.

The lamppost hit, and people made gasping sounds.

There was a hole ten centimeters square, pitch black and bottomless. But the entrance to the cave was covered with a thick layer of barbed wire, and a black thing hung from it.

Shi Ling wrapped his hand in a handkerchief and pulled it up. It was covered in dust and burning, and it was pitch black, could this be a murder gun? Underneath the thing, there hung a long, loose rope-like thing. I subconsciously pinched it, and it felt so strange.

"What's this?"

"That's ...... Umbilical cord. "

Shi Ling muttered.

"That's right, it's the baby's umbilical cord. But this umbilical cord seems to be particularly strong. The bespectacled woman pinched it too. I withdrew my hand like a burn, and my head ached,

In an instant, I saw something else besides the fireplace. A ghost—someone who had long since died—stood there.

I rubbed my eyes, and I seemed to see a pregnant woman's lower body revealing half of the umbilical cord, on which hung a bright hemostat, and blood dripped down the hemostat all the way to the door. That's Zhu Qi...... Is it my delusion?

Why the umbilical cord? I was in a trance, and I missed Shi Lingren's explanation.

"Leave the lid open, possibly with a small piece of wood against the lid. Then the umbilical cord was tied to a barbed wire rack, and the gun was tied to the other end. Then pile the incense wood high again and burn the fireplace. If the movement is too slow, the umbilical cord will be burned. But Zhu Qi wrapped the butt of the rifle with the sleeve of his home clothes and shot himself in the temple. “

I remember that there was a martial arts book with such a plot, and the protagonist had the same surname as me.

"As soon as you let go, the gun will be pulled back by the umbilical cord, fall into the ash hole, and the lid will close. The burning incense wood will take advantage of the situation and fall on the lid. It was all in her plan, but the bullet that killed her also fell into the ash pit, probably by accident. "

"According to your meaning, the reason why Zhu Qi fell in front of the fireplace is because of ......."

"It was supposed to burn off the right hand and the right sleeve in order to destroy the gunpowder reaction."

Shi Lingren slowly turned around and looked at Aunt Mei in the corner of the room.

"Of course Aunt Mei found out about this, because after the move, she continued to work here inside and outside for a while, until she was old and weak."

"I don't know—I don't know anything."

Aunt Mei kept shaking her head like a broken doll, and kept arguing. But Shi Ling just glanced at me, and it was surprising that I knew what he was going to do—it wasn't a heart-to-heart relationship, at most a family with a common secret.

I also gestured to urge him to say first, and Shi Lingren finally spoke again, "Actually, ......"

"You've all watched the American drama "Heroes", right? In fact, superpowers do exist in reality...... For example, I was born with an incredible power. ”

Hearing his explanation, I immediately continued: "It's the so-called communication yin and yang, right? "It seems that things will settle down soon.

"The application of my talent is not only the two worlds of traffic yin and yang, but also can see the darkness hidden in the human heart, and now the police I assist are solving a series of major cases in this way, and I have helped to do a lot of investigations, so I am still familiar with this aspect." Fortunately, this sentence made several people present show half-believing looks.

It turns out that your pretending to be a gentleman is called "assisting in the investigation", which is a bit subtle.

"So, Shi ...... Teacher, you have psychic abilities, so what's wrong? "That girl was the first to come to her senses.

Shi Lingren didn't say a word and walked towards Aunt Mei. Then, in Aunt Mei's panicked eyes, she raised the old lady's weakly drooping hand, palmed it up, and poured out the contents of her pocket, and immediately dropped a small, black bullet.

"Why? How could you possibly know—"

Aunt Mei stared at the thing in her palm and muttered to herself.

"Why don't you ask...... Why did she die like this? Why didn't you say anything beforehand and didn't leave a suicide note? I sighed.

Looking at Shi Lingren's behavior of pretending to be a ghost, I don't plan to ask him how he did it, whether it was pretending to be a ghost or an ancestral craft, or was his magic really boundless? All I know is that with him, I'm not an outlier in the crowd, and since I saw Mu Tongtong's apparition, I haven't been able to tell anyone else what I've seen and heard, or maybe it's because I don't want to believe in private that it's not a hallucination. Over the years, however, I have come to learn that the mind has a will of its own, and that no matter what you pray, no matter how often you pull out your worst fears*.

Those worries* will still creep back like ivy, take up space in your mind, suck out the safety latch of your soul, and then slip along your veins and drill out of your pores.

Countless nights I woke up in the dark with recurring fears, my mind turning back and forth, and I was anxious about the facts. Can anyone else hear what I'm hearing? Are the Shiling people lying because of me? How would my friends react if they found out that I was different? Will they realize that they don't know the other side of me?

These problems came again and again, and I tried to forget them, knowing that I was just letting them accumulate until I was sure that my peace was doomed, that the ghost would pull it apart. It's an avalanche waiting to happen, balancing against a dangerous problem that must be treated with care:

At this time, I think of Shiling people, why are we together?

Then the sun will climb up the windowsill, and the morning sun will make me squint. I would look at the clock, get up from bed, touch the faucet of the shower with my hand, adjust the hot and cold water, and wake my mind up with the water that was violently showering over my skin. I will return to my real and everyday life with gratitude, using only the ordinary feelings that I can trust.

Because...... There is Shi Ling here, just as I can freely cooperate with him to play double reeds, he can also tolerate everything about me.

Oops, I'm wandering again.

"I don't know. For us who are alive, it is impossible to understand the feelings of those who can only choose death. Aunt Mei straightened her back, as if aging was just an illusion.

"Don't you know either?" Shi Ling smiled, "Fortunately, we don't have to guess. But I can understand that even before she died, Zhu Qi did not forget to make future arrangements for the children she left behind. Once the evidence is left and it is known that it is a suicide, the child will be taken away by the father and will be on the road of no return. "

"That's why ......?" Someone asked in unison.

"I think it should be."

Liu Yaoyong's knees weakened and he knelt on the ground.

Because, at that time, the brother and sister said that they didn't need the Cotai Strip arranged by their father, and said that they wanted to live in this family forever. Mom-. Liu Yaoyong wept bitterly.

Let's save the world with "Pretending to be a Ghost", please collect and vote, share to the WeChat group, and share the circle of friends to earn points―

Liu Zhenzhen's ex and other women, who were noisy a moment ago, have left, leaving only me and Shi Lingren sitting on the rooftop, looking at Liu Yaoyong, who is not in his mind. The tree has grown much taller than Liu Yaoyong remembers, and the blooming weeping peaches add a bit of splendor to the desolate rooftop.

However, these flowers are also about to wither. When the wind blows, the pink petals on the branches fall off one after another. I looked at Liu Yaoyong looking at these flowers, he must be playing with the memories that he finally recovered.

Liu Yaoyong is not the biological son of Zhu Qi, the mistress of this family.

And Liu Xijun is also not Zhu Qi's daughter.

Zhu Qi has been unable to have children since the death of his child in his early years, I don't know if it is because of physical or psychological reasons, but Liu Zhenzhen wants to have a son no matter what. So, he snatched Liu Yaoyong, who was born outside, and raised him at home, and even pretended to be Zhu Qi's biological son and put on the cloak of blood.

Zhu Qi knew his plan, but he still raised Liu Yaoyong as his own child. But the two finally parted ways because of the education policy, and Liu Yaoyong did not want to be confined at home because of the man's nature or ambition, not to mention that his father had Aunt Mei as his secret agent, so while Zhu Qi was away, he secretly tempted the brother and sister, wanting to instill the same social Darwinism as him. In order to arouse the boy's ambitions, he may have shown him a gun.

So, when he found out that Liu Yaoyong was going farther and farther on the road of crime, Zhu Qi would rather sacrifice his life than let Liu Yaoyong be taken away. The reason why Aunt Mei did not defend Liu Zhenzhen, who was raised single-handedly, and silently chose to hide the evidence, should be because she also found out that it was Liu Zhenzhen, who was raised by herself, who forced Zhu Qi to go to a dead end.

After the old lady was exposed, she immediately went into shock, and was sent to the hospital by Sister Xiao Mo, who was dressed as a woman with glasses, and just then she called and said that Aunt Mei had not waited for rescue, and had choked in the hospital. Her last words were "I'm sorry", and this late sentence also reached our ears through the tosses.

However, there are too many questions about this matter. With Aunt May's death, I think the truth will never be revealed.

This book has been put on the shelves, I hope you will go to the [Pretend to be a Gentleman] Panda to read the page of the book after reading the chapters to give support, every click, every collection, every monthly pass, every comment, every subscription is a great support for "Pretending to be a Ghost", and it is also the motivation for the author Potemkin to write.