Thinking of this, Song Yi was about to leave, planning to visit again when he returned from the Nine Egret Palace, suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a flash of light on the ground, which seemed to be the reflection of something.

This is......

In addition to the genuine material, the black wood used for the handle of the knife, as well as the gems inlaid in the wood, and the gold and silver wrapped around the edges are also one of the reasons.

How could such a good knife fall among the dead branches and leaves? It is not so generous that even the hunters in the mountains are so generous that they just throw away a good weapon.

Song Yi became suspicious, took the dagger and picked at the pile of rotten leaves, only to hear a crisp sound, and picked up another thing.

This time something made Song Yi even more surprised, it turned out to be a necklace.

The necklace has a typical mountain folk style, rugged and atmospheric, with a thumb-sized turquoise in the center, bordered with silver, decorated with animal claws, and some precious stones, which should belong to Orion's wife or daughter.

On top of that, the necklace was incomplete and was ripped from the middle...... Song Yi flipped through the dead leaves again, and sure enough, he saw the same beads as the necklace.

The obvious situation is...... The necklace was torn off by some force.

Under what circumstances will you tear off the necklace and throw away the dagger?

Song Yi faintly felt that something was wrong, picked up the dagger and necklace, walked to a house again, and asked, "Is anyone at home?"

There was still no response, Song Yi no longer hesitated, pushed the door and entered.

What caught Song Yi's eyes was a simple house, with a layer of fine soft hay on the ground, and the hay was covered with a hand-woven blanket, with lively colors. A blanket was topped with an animal skin, and a few cushions were pressed against the wall. Two cabinets stand aside, made of wood commonly found in the mountains.

After thinking for a while, Song Yi walked to the kitchen and found that there was a pot on the stove, which was full of water, and it seemed to be ready to boil, the kitchen knife was put aside, the half-chopped vegetable leaves were placed on the board, and the lid of the spice jar had been opened.

Hey?

Looking at this scene, Song Yi became more and more suspicious, this is clearly a kitchen that is about to be opened, if the master's family goes out, how can he not even clean up here?

Out of this room, Song Yi went to see other houses, almost every family is like this, it seems that several families here left suddenly when the meal was about to arrive, and they left in a hurry, and they didn't have time to clean up the house.

Why, did they just run into prey, so everyone chased them out? But...... No matter how fat the prey is, it won't be all of them, isn't it more reasonable to leave one or two female dependents to watch the house?

Song Yi thought about it, while strolling around the small courtyard, and when he walked to the northeast corner, he noticed that there was a protruding ring on the ground next to him, as if something was buried in the ground, squatted down and took a closer look, and suddenly understood: This must be the ice cellar set up by the hunters. Dig a cellar in the ground and put it in the ice, so that when it is hot, the game can be stored in it to prevent it from rotting.

Boom –

Song Yi pulled up the ring hard, opened the roof of the ice cellar, and the light pierced in, only to see that there was indeed a warehouse below, more than a zhang deep, almost the same size as a room, and half of it was piled up with prey on the ground, large and small, enough for the restaurants under the mountain to do business for more than half a month.

The shopkeeper said that the hunters had only sent game once last month, and the one that should have been delivered in the second half of the month had not been delivered, and the harvest in the ice cellar was obvious, so it seemed that the hunters did not catch the prey, but simply did not send it down the mountain.

Why not send it?

Song Yi secretly thought, and gradually had some not very good thoughts in his heart, he completely opened the top of the ice cellar, and looked closely, suddenly, he found that there was a drag mark on the edge of the ice cellar, which seemed to be left by pulling something from the inside out, the size of this trace ......

His gaze swept over the prey within...... It doesn't match, the prey in the ice cellar is mainly small and medium-sized animals, what hares and pheasants, unknown fawns, the largest is just a wild boar-like thing, and this trace is more like ......

Alone?

Thinking of this, Song Yi frowned, pulled down the top of the ice cellar, and returned to the courtyard.

The surroundings were still so quiet, only the sound of the wind was whistling, the sky was darker, and a dark cloud came, covering these houses in half-light and half-darkness, strange and inexplicable.

Something must have happened to these hunters......

However, if something really happened, why couldn't there be any traces of struggle and resistance here, if it weren't for the reflection of a dagger that had just leaked out of the dead branches and leaves, Song Yi would not have noticed.

Bandits, enemies, ferocious beasts?

Even after thinking about a few possibilities, Song Yi felt unreliable. Because these possibilities all mean that Orion will resist, and once it resists, there will definitely be traces left, and now there are no traces, there are only two possibilities: one is that acquaintances committed crimes, and Orions are not vigilant;

After all, Song Yi is not engaged in criminal investigation, and he has read a few mystery novels before he crossed, which are purely on paper, and he has not yet judged the direction of things based on this little clue, and the professional is completely different......

Song Yi remembers that in the summer of his junior year, he interned in a government department for two months through a relative's introduction, that is, he did chores. During that time, he came into contact with a leader, a veteran policeman who had worked in the front line for more than 20 years of criminal investigation work, and because of his outstanding merits, he was promoted step by step to become the deputy district chief. That day, the leader attended a meeting, there were many speakers, and he was verbose, and he couldn't finish talking, and seeing that he was going to have a meal, the office director asked Song Yi to go to the canteen first to bring up lunch and put it in the office for the leader.

Waiting for Song Yi to make lunch, he found that the door of the leader's office could not be opened, and at this time, the meeting was dissolved, and the leader came upstairs and stood behind Song Yi to look.

Song Yi was so anxious that he was sweating down, but the leader smiled and said lightly: No need to do it, they changed the lock for me.

Song Yi was stunned, can't you, haven't you heard the director mention it?

The leader laughed again and said that I have been doing criminal investigation work all my life, and this little thing can be seen at a glance.

Song Yi was still suspicious, and suddenly saw the office director hurriedly running over, saying Oh, I'm sorry I forgot, I just changed the lock this morning, and I forgot to give the new key to Xiao Song, the lock of this door has not been flexible, just today the workers came, so I simply changed it.

Now Song Yi was convinced, and couldn't help but ask the leader how he saw it?

Maybe it's been at the grassroots level for a long time, this leader doesn't have any shelf, and he can't explain it clearly in a sentence or two, young man, this matter, sometimes it depends on experience, sometimes it depends on speculation, and sometimes it depends on the judgment of that moment, but in the final analysis, you have to sink down, and you can really feel that kind of feeling in your heart...... By the way, how old are you?

Junior, summer internship, to help with chores.

Oh, the same age as my son, who went to our city's police academy. Speaking of which, I have a notebook, which is all the ideas and ideas accumulated in the past decades of work, and I have used them as a reference for their school as lesson plans. If you're interested, they'll send it back and give you a look.

......

Later, Song Yi left there because of the start of school, and I never saw that notebook, and now that I think about it, I regret it a little. If you know that you can encounter this crossing, you must be fully prepared before you set off, including reading the notes of the old criminal investigation captain.

Alas, with the change of experienced leader at this point, he will surely be able to discover more details and draw conclusions. I don't have this ability, so let's press it for the time being, and go to Jiulu Palace first. When the things are sent to Luo Zhen, he will reply to the shopkeeper, this side should still be within the jurisdiction of Huzhou City, and the shopkeeper will report to Huzhou City for disposal.

Having made up his mind, Song Yi put the dagger and necklace in his bag as evidence of the interrogation to the shopkeeper, and then walked through the archway with the words "Jiulu Palace" written on it and went up the mountain.

The road to the Nine Egret Palace twists and turns, it is more pure than the square, only the insects and birds can be heard in the ears, and the shadows of the trees are swaying, and the hustle and bustle of the red dust is all left behind, obviously it is not far from the mountain, but it seems that it has stepped into the peaks of the wilderness.

After walking like this for about a quarter of an hour, Song Yi saw the Nine Egret Palace, which was located halfway up the mountain.

Looking at it this way, the scale of the Nine Egret Palace is much smaller than that of the Yuequan Sect, and it does not occupy a continuous mountain, but there are seventeen or eighteen buildings, loosely enclosed on the hillside, and the highest point is only five floors, which are scattered with each other, but also have an exquisite pattern, showing a kind of craftsmanship, which is very consistent with the specialty of their casting.

Song Yi glanced twice, walked to the gate, the two dark gates were closing, and there were two tall trees next to them, the crown was covered with pavilions, which should be the species of spring leaves, at this moment the ground was full of dead leaves, piled up in the courtyard in front of the Nine Egret Palace, and it seemed that no one had cleaned it for several days.

It seems that this Nine Egret Palace is not very particular, but the Yuequan Sect has disciples on duty every day who are responsible for cleaning and hygiene, and they are kept clean up and down.

Knock, knock.

Song Yi stepped forward and knocked on the gate of the Nine Egret Palace.

No one answered.

Song Yi knocked twice, and finally, a hoarse voice came from behind the door.

"Who......"

"I ...... In the next month, the disciples of the Spring Sect came to visit your land. ”

"Yuequan Sect?" The voice behind the door hesitated for a moment, and with a "squeak", the door opened, and a person poked his head out and looked Song Yi up and down.

"You...... Of the Moon Spring Sect?"

"Yes. Under the name of Song Yi, entrusted by a friend, he passed a token to you. ”

"Passing something?" the man thought for a moment, frowned, and stretched out his hand to him: "Something, bring it." ”

"This ......"

Song Yi secretly wondered in his heart, this person had a casual attitude and was a little rude, why didn't he look like a sectarian hospitality. Listening to Luo Zhen, Jiulu Palace has always given priority to casting, never causing disputes, and most of the disciples are humble and kind, and the etiquette is thorough, why is this person ......

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid it's inconvenient to hand over this thing to my feet, can you let me meet the palace master and transfer it in person?"

Luo Zhen's girlfriend is the daughter of the palace master of Jiulu Palace, although the two have not crossed the clear road, but after contact in the past few years, each other has that meaning, presumably the palace master also knows, and even acquiesces, since it is to help people send tokens, they must not give it indiscriminately, and they must ensure that this thing is delivered to the right person.

As soon as this man heard his request, his brows furrowed tighter than just now, and the corners of his mouth glanced at him, and he said coldly:

"Palace master, the palace master is not a guest, you can go. ”