Card Room

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【Chapter 481, Suspect】

The crisp sound coming from the window made the teammates fall silent in unison. The sudden sound of rattles at noon in the summer sent a chill down Xiao Lou's spine for no apparent reason.

He took a deep breath, walked to the window, opened it and looked outside——

The sound came from the alley behind the inn.

The alley was shrouded in the shade of trees and dimly lit. At this time, there were no extra pedestrians in the alley, only a young man, wearing a navy blue gown and a hat of the same color, dressed like a scholar.

The man held a rattle in his hand and kept shaking it. The projectiles on both sides of the rattle hit the drum surface, making a rhythmic clang sound. There was a pattern clearly printed on the drum surface - one of the twelve zodiac signs. sheep.

The painted lamb is lifelike, and the man plays with the rattle while walking forward, smiling and walking briskly. Xiao Lou looked back at Yu Hanjiang and asked his opinion with his eyes. The latter lowered his voice and said, "It doesn't look like a murderer."

Xiao Lou also felt that this person did not look like the murderer. Is it just a coincidence?

Just as he was thinking about it, he saw a girl dressed as a maid suddenly run into the alley from the other end, quickly came to the man, and asked breathlessly: "Master, where have you been? The young lady is looking for you everywhere!"

The man smiled slightly and said warmly: "Don't worry, I'm going to buy something fun for the child." He shook the rattle in his hand as he spoke: "I heard that if a child keeps crying at night, Use this to tease me and you won’t cry.”

The maid said helplessly: "Just let the servants go to buy toys for the young master. Why do you have to make this trip yourself..."

The man waved his hand: "Okay, okay, I'll go back right now."

The two walked out of the alley one after the other.

In the next room, Ye Qi, who opened the window and saw this scene, breathed a sigh of relief. He put down the window, held down his headphones and said, "I was really shocked just now. I suddenly heard the sound of a rattle. I thought the murderer was coming to the door."

Qu Wanyue said with a smile: "It must be just a coincidence. The young father was out buying toys for his children and passed by the alley behind the inn. We happened to talk about the rattle, and everyone was so nervous that they were startled."

Xiao Lou said: "Did you notice the pattern on his rattle?"

Ye Qi said: "I saw it, is it a lamb?"

Shao Qingge said with certainty: "I went to my old man's stall today and I saw all the twelve zodiac signs. The one he drew is indeed a sheep. His child should be a sheep."

Xiao Lou looked at the rattle he found from the Zhao family - since the rattle is a toy for children, the maker would do some beautification when drawing the pattern. The little tiger on the drum was very cute and was wearing red. The clothes and the anthropomorphic painting method are obviously more popular with children.

Yu Hanjiang followed Xiao Lou's gaze and looked at the drum head, and said, "The young father mentioned just now that his child kept crying in the middle of the night. It is possible that his child is not yet one year old... Is this the Year of the Sheep?"

Shao Qingge said: "It should be the Year of the Sheep. In the stall of the old man who sells toys, a rattle with a sheep painted on it hangs at the front, and there are also some colorful figures in the shape of cute lambs."

Xiao Lou calculated carefully and said: "According to the order of the twelve zodiac animals, this year is the Year of the Sheep, and the 20 years before the famine... it should be the Year of the Pig. The Tiger is 9 years older than the Pig. Assume that the Zhao family and Chen The rattle found at home belongs to the murderer, and the murderer’s zodiac sign is tiger. So, when the famine happened 20 years ago, the murderer was probably just a 9-year-old child?”

Yu Hanjiang added: "It may also be adults aged 21, 33, or 45."

For those born in the year of Tiger, the cycle is 12 years, and the murderer in that year may be 9, 21, 33, or 45 years old.

Xiao Loudao: "In other words, the current murderer may be 29, 41, 53, or 65 years old?"

Yu Hanjiang said: "The possibility of being 53 and 65 years old is relatively low. The average life span of ancient people was not long. Elderly people over 50 years old will have various diseases in their bodies. It is difficult to kill dozens of people in a row quietly. . Therefore, the most likely possibility is that the murderer was a 9-year-old child or a 21-year-old young man when the famine occurred, and now he is 29 or 41 when he comes back to take revenge."

After locking in age, the scope of the investigation will be much narrower.

All young and middle-aged people aged 29 and 41 who belong to the year of Tiger in the town are likely to commit crimes.

Xiao Loudao: "I wonder if this town has an agency similar to the government? It would be much easier to investigate if we could find the roster and files of the town's residents."

Shao Qingge said: "Since it is a small town, there should be a mayor, right? We can take advantage of lunch time to find out."

The morning passed, and it happened to be lunch time. Everyone went downstairs in batches to eat.

The inn became obviously lively, with many passing travelers coming here to stay and dine.

Shao Qingge repeated his old trick and asked the waiter to order a few plates of the most expensive dishes. When the waiter was serving the dishes, he handed the waiter a silver coin and asked in a low voice: "Waiter, please ask, your mayor." Where do you live? I am a businessman from other places and would like to visit you."

The waiter happily accepted the money and whispered to Shao Qingge: "Sir, are you looking for our mayor? His name is Qin Feng, and he lives in the courtyard at the east end of Xiushui Lane. Our mayor is a nice person. He often helps the elderly in the town to carry water and chop firewood. When someone has a child, he will go to visit him in person. Although he is very young, he

The villagers respected him. "

Ye Qi asked curiously: "How old is he this year? Is he married?"

The waiter scratched his head and said: "He is less than thirty and has not yet married a wife. However, the matchmakers who proposed marriage to him were about to cross the threshold of his house, but he rejected them all. He said that he already had a partner, and he had already had one. Engagement, he has been waiting for the woman with whom he is engaged, alas, he is such an infatuated person."

When Shao and Ye were asking for information, Ye Qi kept pressing the bump on the earphones, so other teammates could hear the information spoken by the waiter in a low voice.

Xiao Lou looked at Yu Hanjiang and asked softly: "Is this mayor suspicious?"

Yu Hanjiang nodded: "We can't enter the town at night, so we will find a way to investigate him in the afternoon."

Lu Jiuchuan stayed behind in the Peach Blossom Spring outside the town.

The Peach Blossom Spring can only exist for 3 hours and will disappear automatically when the time is up. By this time, the Peach Blossom Spring had disappeared, and he and Tang Ci simply found a shady place to hide in the woods. The two of them had been listening to the discussion of their teammates. After hearing this, Lu Jiuchuan couldn't help but interjected: "Are Xiao Tang and I still outside the town? How about we go investigate."

Tang Ci also wanted to find something to do. He held down the earphones and said softly: "The town looks normal during the day. There are many residents coming in and out. Brother Jiu and I still have the invisibility cloak skills, so we can look for opportunities to sneak in." The mayor’s house.”

Xiao Lou thought for a moment and said, "Okay, then I'll ask Brother Jiu and Mr. Tang to check on this Qin Feng."

The town during the day is not like a ghost town maze at night, with no entry and exit, so there is no need for Jiu Ge and Tang Ci to stay outside the town to find a peach blossom garden to meet them. What's more, at this time, the skills of the two Tao Yuanming cards have cooled down, and there is no use for them to stay outside the town. They might as well come in to help.

Xiao Lou and others who visited the town at night last night had their invisibility cloaks cooled down, but Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci still had their card skills, so they could use the 30 minutes of invisibility to do some research.

Yu Hanjiang whispered: "If the murderer is the mayor, and the residents of the town trust him very much, it should be easy for him to control everyone's consciousness. Brother, the focus of your investigation is, first, the mayor's Age, origin, and background. Secondly, try to find the roster information of the town residents from him. Once you find it, just use a drone to take pictures. The invisibility cloak only lasts for 30 minutes, so go and get back as soon as possible."

Lu Jiuchuan said simply: "Understood! Let's take action now."

The two of them did not go into the town to eat. They directly opened the resource supply card and had a meal of milk, chocolate and instant noodles. Then they found a deserted place, put on their invisibility cloaks, and quickly sneaked into the town.

Following the instructions of the waiter, Jiutang and his wife soon arrived at Xiushui Lane - this is a very secluded alley with several families living in it. The mayor's residence is at the end of the road. It is a large courtyard with well-organized layout. Simple and elegant.

In order to make sure there was no one in the house, Lu Jiuchuan threw the bug against the wall and listened intently for a moment. After hearing no sound, the two of them climbed over the wall and entered the small courtyard.

There are many medicinal herbs drying in the yard, and you can smell the aroma of herbs as soon as you enter the door.

The mayor is not at home, maybe because he has something to do, which is convenient for the two of them to investigate.

Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci pushed open the door and went in - the interior of the room was also very simple and cleaned very neatly.

The furniture is all made of bamboo and looks like it is handmade. There are two rows of bamboo chairs in the large living room, which can accommodate dozens of people for meetings at the same time. There is a study room and a bedroom next to it. The two of them checked the bedroom first.

There is an old solid wood cabinet in the bedroom with an iron lock hanging on the door. Important information should be stored inside.

Lu Jiuchuan used the master key to open the iron lock, and sure enough he saw a thick stack of notebooks inside. He quickly took out the notebook, opened it, and asked Tang Ci to use a drone to take pictures of the contents.

In these books, the family members, birthdays and birth dates of all residents in the town are recorded in detail.

Lu Jiuchuan's sharp eyes discovered that the missing persons of Zhao Zeping and Chen Yu were all recorded in one of the blue rosters, and their names were marked with a bright red cross with a red pen.

Those red crosses are shocking.

In a roster, more than 90% of them are red crosses. I don’t know the Zhao and Chen family, but many people have also been crossed!

Tang Ci took a breath - this list was like a "dead list". Could it be that the murderer was killing according to the list?

He quickly photographed these scenes with a drone, then asked Lu Jiuchuan to restore the roster to the previous order, put it back in the cabinet, and then relocked the iron lock.

The two walked out of the bedroom and came to the study.

The study room is filled with all kinds of books, including some related to medicine, herbal medicine, and acupuncture. There is also a row of shelves filled with medicine bottles of various colors. The names of the medicines are marked on the bottles. It seems that the mayor also Understand some pharmacology.

Lu Jiuchuan looked around and whispered: "Look for any secret doors, secret rooms or the like."

Tang Ci carefully observed the bookcase. All the books were neatly arranged. Most of the books had a small amount of dust on them. It is normal for an open bookcase to have dust on the books.

However, there is a row of books that are obviously much cleaner than the books next to them.

Tang Ci stepped forward and pulled out the thick "Compendium of Materia Medica" on the top. The next moment, there was a sudden rumbling sound in his ears - the bookcase in front of him actually split into two, revealing the middle door. Secret door!

There are long steps leading underground behind the secret door. The light in the house is extremely dim, and the end of the steps cannot be seen at all.

There must be a secret in this secret door!

The two of them were about to go down when, suddenly, the door of the yard suddenly

Being pushed away.

There was a sound of footsteps coming towards the study.

The owner of the yard is back.

It was too late to go down to investigate now, so I could only take pictures of the scene in the secret room as quickly as possible.

The drone flew much faster than the two of them climbing the stairs. Lu Jiuchuan lowered his voice and said: "Use the drone!"

Tang Ci quickly released the drone to take pictures of the scene in the secret room.

Almost at the moment he took back the drone, the door to the living room was slowly pushed open by the man.

Passing through the living room is the study room where the two of them are.

Tang Ci hurriedly put the book back and closed the door of the darkroom. Lu Jiuchuan quickly came to the window, found Tang Ci's position by feeling, gently grabbed Tang Ci's wrist, pushed open the window and said, "Quickly go!"

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