He Lingchuan asked him, "Is it seven or eight?" ”

"Seven! Oh no......" County Lieutenant Li recalled seriously, "Eight, sure it's eight!" ”

"Lead the way."

The wrecked case is called Chenjiazhuang, which is on the outskirts of Liuxian County, and is more than a mile away from the nearest township road.

If you want to go to Chenjiazhuang, you have to go to the fork in the road and go to the mountains.

Barren mountains, remote fields, rabbits and rats are occasionally seen in the long grass.

"What are the products of Chenjiazhuang?"

"Grain, citrus, wool, lamb...... Something like that. County Lieutenant Li thought for a while, "The Zhuangzi we have here basically produce these, and there is a mountain behind Chenjiazhuang." ”

"How's the yield?"

"It's not clear." County Lieutenant Li scratched his head, "I don't care about this." ”

He Lingchuan looked left and right: "Its location is a bit remote, and it is far away from Liuxian." ”

It is not very convenient to transport products from here to Liuxian.

"yes." County Lieutenant Li pointed forward, "It's here." ”

He Lingchuan also had a manor under his own name, and knew that many of the Zhuangzi in the suburbs lived in the form of families, and built walls and prepared weapons to ward off foreign enemies.

The same is true of the Chen family in front of me, there are five or six hundred descendants of the Chen family living here, and it looks like a small county town behind closed doors.

After the incident, the Chen family also lived here, and guarded the gate of Zhuangzi, not allowing outsiders to enter or leave.

If it weren't for County Lieutenant Li to open the way, He Lingchuan would not have been able to come in openly.

Zhuangzili is dominated by private houses, with grain farms, livestock sheds, workshops, warehouses, wells, and even taverns and restaurants, which are indeed not much different from small county towns.

The crowd paid close attention and found that many buildings showed signs of attack, such as a farmhouse they had just passed by, and there were three deep claw marks on the wooden door.

As soon as the patriarch of the Chen family heard that County Lieutenant Li accompanied the envoy to investigate the case, he immediately went out to greet him.

According to him, the day of the crime was a calm night, with stars and no moon, and the light was very dim, and suddenly several monsters appeared in the Zhuangzi and pounced on people when they saw them.

More than forty sturdy men from the Chen family's Baozhuang regiment grabbed their weapons and rushed over, but they were not the opponents of those monsters, and they were bitten to death by seventeen or eighteen people in the blink of an eye.

Zhuangzi was in turmoil, and the Chen family patriarch himself had two sons killed.

Others had no courage to resist, and the high walls of the manor became an obstacle to their escape.

The rest thought they were dead, but the monsters howled and jumped out of the wall to the west.

They went, and they never came back.

The Chen family was shocked and has been on strict guard until now.

He Lingchuan listened carefully and asked suspiciously: "How many monsters are there?" ”

"I saw three heads." The patriarch of the Chen family said, "But some of my clansmen say that they have seen five heads, and some say that they have seen seven heads. It was too chaotic and dark that night, and they were so fast that no one, no one, saw them all. "And the monsters are all different sizes and shapes.

"What do the three-headed monsters you see look like?"

"There is one that looks like a tiger, but the tail is black, bare and hairless, like a big scissor, and it can attack people."

He Lingchuan remembered the claw marks on the wooden door. He glanced at Dong Rui, who shook his head, he had never heard of this kind of monster.

"What else?"

"There was another one that rolled around roundly, but with long thorns. I've seen a strange plant in the south, called a cactus, and it's kind of like that. Patriarch Chen turned around and entered the house, and after a while, he took out five spikes and handed them to He Lingchuan, "It's this kind of thorn, it can be launched to hurt people!" ”

He Lingchuan took it in his hand, and several people came together to observe.

The thorn was seven inches shortest and up to three feet long, black and white, with barbs at the top. What is it like to be pierced, I shudder just by imagining.

Patriarch Chen also said: "It hurts the most." After-the-fact healing is unspeakably miserable. ”

To pull out the thorn, you must first cut the flesh, which is another pain for the wounded.

"There's also one that burrows into the ground and emerges from the ground."

"You have high walls and gates, how did the monsters get in?"

"Over the wall." The patriarch of the Chen clan smiled bitterly, "I asked the guards on duty that night, and one of them saw the tiger running from the forest, climbing over the high wall like an ape and attacking the guards. ”

"According to you, these monsters must have been led away by something so that you could save your lives." He Lingchuan groaned, "Before that, had there been strange personnel inside and outside the Zhuangzi? ”

The patriarch of the Chen clan shook his head: "No, our Zhuangzi has always been very peaceful. ”

"Has anyone else been here?" This kind of place should be very xenophobic, and once an outsider enters, it is impossible for the Chen family not to know about it.

The patriarch of the Chen clan thought about it carefully this time, but still shook his head: "No." ”

He Lingchuan looked through the window and looked at the livestock pen below, "When was the last time your Zhuangzi sent goods?" ”

"Just came back five days ago." The patriarch said, "Bring out a batch of wool and fruit." ”

"On the way back and forth, have you encountered any accidents or strange things?" He Lingchuan asked him, "Perhaps, these monsters were also lured over." ”

"Everything is normal when it comes and goes." The patriarch of the Chen clan was slightly angry, "If someone really leads monsters to attack Chenjiazhuang, it will be mad!" ”

He Lingchuan asked a few more words, but he didn't find any clues, and then said: "Do you have the information of the deceased here?" ”

"Yes." After more than a month, the Chen family also recovered from the panic, "But only the name, age, and residence of the family, all of which were written on the note and sandwiched into the family tree." ”

He Lingchuan looked out the window, and it was already dark: "I'm going to borrow Guizhuang tonight, and I'll also take a look at the information." ”

The patriarch of the Chen family had no objection and vacated a small courtyard for him and Dong Rui to live in.

That night, He Lingchuan and Dong Rui took out fluorescent spores and began to look through the information of the deceased.

Needless to say, sixty percent of those who live in Zhuangzi are in-laws. But other than that, there seems to be no commonality between the victims who were bitten to death by monsters.

After watching it for almost an hour, Dong Rui couldn't help but rub his eyes, and Lingguang handed him a small bottle of eye drops at the right time. "How can these people write like ghosts?" Literacy is too much of an eye.

"In the countryside, it's good to have someone who can read and write." He Lingchuan urged him, "See what's coming?" ”

"At first glance, these monsters seem to kill people at will, and eat as they kill, and the grizzly bears that have just finished hibernation don't have as much appetite as them." When Dong Rui was in Liuxian County for an autopsy, the errand officer on the side saw the mutilated corpse and didn't know how many times he vomited.

These monsters completely use the humans of Chenjiazhuang as food, and only eat nutritious internal organs.

"Until I had the idea to figure out where I was hurt." The two sat in the courtyard, and Dong Rui casually drew a map on the sand, "This is the general topographic map of Chenjiazhuang, and this is the location of the victims." See what's not coming from? ”

He poked dozens of small holes in the sand, each representing the residence of one of the victims. It was late at night, and most of the people were sleeping in their own houses, and even if they were frightened, they were not far from home.

He Lingchuan leaned over and took a look: "Well, the monster jumped over the wall from the east, but there are more people eating in the west of Zhuangzi, and there are almost no visits to the south and north...... Are there any residents in the east and north of Chenjiazhuang? ”

The last sentence was asked by the old man Chen beside him.

The patriarch of the Chen clan specially sent him a local messenger to answer questions and solve doubts. This old man looked wrinkled and a little hunchbacked, but in fact, his legs and feet were dexterous, his ears and eyes were clear, and his reaction was very fast.

Old man Chen didn't know how big an official the "inspection envoy" was, anyway, he was sent by the government to investigate the case, so he cooperated: "I live, there are several large grain drying fields in the west, so there are more people living in the east than in the west." ”

"So the monster doesn't stay in the east, where there are many people, but goes to the west to kill?" He Lingchuan pointed to Shatu and said, "In the end, they all left from the west. ”

All monsters are like this, and that is a commonality.

"So, there is something in the Zhuangzi that attracts them."

Dong Rui was proud: "It's your turn." After watching for an hour, you won't get nothing, will you? ”

He couldn't find it. Although it is not worth breaking it, but to summarize this clue from a pile of messy materials and a stack of ghost-drawn broken paper is a test of intelligence in itself, right?

He followed He Lingchuan and saw countless cases, big and small, and he was no longer what it used to be.

He Lingchuan smiled and took out a stack of notes: "County Lieutenant Li's information is wrong, and the people who died peacefully are not seven or eight, a total of five." Oh, it's these five people. ”

Everyone else died so miserably, but these people "died peacefully" is very conspicuous.

"All men, between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-three." He asked the old man Li beside him, "Old Li, do you recognize these five people?" ”

Lao Li was illiterate, and He Lingchuan finished reading the names of the five people before he nodded: "I recognize it, I recognize it." These three are singles, one has a wife, and the other has a wife who has long since died. ”

The twenty-five-year-old had already married and had children, and the others were singles, and the fifty-three-year-old deceased was a widower, and his wife had been dead for ten years.

"Do all five of them live west of Zhuangzi?"

"No, no, only this Chen Fuang, who married a wife and had children, lives in the west." Four other deceased, two in the east and one in the north and south.

The sample is too small to be representative.

He Lingchuan pondered for a long time before asking, "What is the relationship between these five people?" Who among them has been away lately? ”

"Chen Fuang, who is close in age, is cousins, and the other two always drink with them and go out to do some small business." Old man Li explained, "The people who live in this village are more or less related to each other. ”

Most of them have the surname Chen, and they were a family a few decades ago.

"Have they been out of Chenjiazhuang recently?"

"I'll ask." After Old Man Chen finished speaking, he walked out of the courtyard.

Two quarters of an hour later, he came back and said:

"Chen Fuang's brothers basically went out with the convoy in Zhuangzi, and they also came back with the convoy, that is, they only came back a few days ago."

Chenjiazhuang only concentrated once a few days ago, selling wool and fruits.

(End of chapter)