Martial Arts: Starting from a Seemingly Real System

Qiao Rui took Huang Jingxuan and followed Chen Nian and Lu Jia to the scenes of other missing cases.

We circled from near to far and headed north to the first stop, Zhujiafang next door. The missing person was a five-year-old boy from the village. His parents were farmers and there was nothing special about him. No clues were found inside or outside his house or in front of or behind the village. When we asked the villagers, they told us that they had never seen any strangers come.

The second stop was Majiabao in Xiangxia Town, where a four-year-old girl was missing. Her mother, a single seamstress, found nothing unusual.

The third stop was Niujiatun, Lianhua Town, where a six-year-old girl was missing and the family was brewing wine. There was nothing unusual inside or outside.

The fourth stop was Yangjiazhuang, Duofu Township, where a three-year-old boy was missing. His father was a single carpenter and there was nothing unusual.

The fifth stop...

sixth……

seventh……

……

For three consecutive days, they gained nothing, and even Qiao Rui became a little discouraged.

Fortunately, this morning, Huang Jingxuan picked up a unique thin red rope in the woods in Qiao Rui's hometown.

During the past few days of investigating the case, Qiao Rui would take Huang Jingxuan back to his grandfather's house every night. Because he had to go to other places to investigate the case during the day, Qiao Rui could only talk to his grandfather at night and in the early morning, so he told Huang Jingxuan to go to the woods to practice martial arts alone.

Huang Jingxuan did not expect that when he was practicing Qinggong in the morning, he found a beautiful thin red rope about five or six inches long on the top of a big tree. The red rope was strung with delicate small jade beads. He thought it was very strange. Could it be left by the female suspect who was good at Qinggong? Otherwise, how could it be hanging on the treetop? It couldn't have been blown up by the wind.

Taking it back for everyone to analyze, Chen Nian told them that these were the things of a brothel girl.

When the girls in brothels enter the industry, they will tie a thin red rope like this around their waists or ankles to show that they are not naked when receiving customers. It is their last act of stubbornness. The saying "tie a red rope when going into the prostitutes and cut off the black hair when coming ashore" means this.

The thin red rope that Huang Jingxuan brought back was so short, and it was obviously tied around his ankle. The red rope tied around the ankle also represents nostalgia for hometown. After all, people who do this job have to leave their hometowns, so what would they do if they met acquaintances?

But I don't know why this girl in the brothel has such excellent Qinggong skills, or why a girl with such excellent Qinggong skills would commit herself to a brothel?

Why did she steal Xiao Yunlei? Did she take him back to train him as a pedophile to make money?

Thinking of this possibility, Qiao Rui's face turned green. If his grandfather knew the fate that little Yunlei was going to face, he would be so worried that he would go crazy.

So they sped up the investigation of missing cases in other places so that they could get back to the city as soon as possible, and then go to the brothel to search and find the brothel girl who stole Xiao Yunlei.

"Does this count as visiting a brothel under orders? I don't know if Tian Jing will be angry. I heard that when a woman becomes pregnant, her mood will fluctuate greatly..."

"And the Grand Commander, what would his reaction be if he knew I went to the brothel again?" Thinking of the abnormal Grand Commander, Qiao Rui felt inexplicably guilty.

The black Lilong horse was galloping on the country road, and he was thinking about other things at the same time. If he couldn't find any clues today, he would have to go to the branch or altar of the Beggar Gang and wait for the opportunity.

The last stop of all missing cases is Goujiaao, Sanshuihe Town, which is located in the lower reaches of Sanshui River. The whole village depends on the river for livelihood and the population is not prosperous. The missing person, Gou Erdan, was six and a half years old. There was only a blind grandmother and a black dog in his family. However, the old grandmother fell ill after her grandson disappeared and died within a few days.

The person who received Qiao Rui and his friends was the nearby village head, a little old man in his fifties who looked even older than Qiao Rui's grandfather. At this moment, he was chattering on and on about Gou Erdan's situation.

"This kid doesn't like to talk, but he's very sensible. He's known how to help his grandmother with housework since he was little. He can also catch birds in trees and fish in rivers to improve his diet..."

"The black egg in their house is not bad either. It can't even eat enough, and it helps its little master catch fish."

"Black egg?" Qiao Ruiqi asked.

"It's the black dog in Erdan's family. The kid was called Erdan, so he named the black dog that grew up with him Heidan." The head of the village smiled, and there was a sigh in his words. It was such a pity for Erdan.

Qiao Rui nodded without saying anything more and came to Gou Erdan's home, a shabby thatched hut with not much furniture or other things. They quickly finished the inspection and found nothing unusual inside and outside the village.

Finally, they arrived at the bank of Sanshui River. Qiao Rui pointed at the still calm river surface and asked the head of the village, "You said Erdan fell into the river and drowned, rather than being kidnapped?"

"Yes, even Heidan drowned while trying to save Erdan." The village head looked at Qiao Rui and answered carefully. Although he knew Chen Nian's identity as the Dianshi, he vaguely felt that Qiao Rui was the backbone of these people.

"Didn't they say Erdan and Heidan both go fishing in the river? They should be good at swimming, right?" Qiao Rui frowned, a little confused.

"Those who drowned were all good swimmers. Sometimes even adults couldn't escape, let alone children and dogs," the village head explained hesitantly.

"Then why was only Heidan's body found, but not Erdan's?" Qiao Rui asked again.

"This..." Li Zheng's forehead was covered with sweat. This young man brought him too much pressure. "Heidan's body was blocked by branches by the river, and we found it. Erdan's body may have been washed away by the current. The river surface looks calm, but the current is actually very fast."

"Well, go back!" Qiao Rui waved his hands impatiently. He always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't grasp the key point.

It's like a woman suspects that her man has a mistress. Her man seems to be doing everything normal, but the woman just feels something is wrong, which is very maddening.

After the village chief left, Qiao Rui looked at Chen Nian and the other three and asked, "Don't you think there's something wrong?"

"No!" Lu Jia and Huang Jingxuan both shook their heads. There are countless children drowning while playing in the water throughout history. What's wrong with that?

Chen Nian was also stunned for a moment before he said, "Perhaps this is really a case of an accidental fall into the water, but it happened at about the same time as the other missing cases, so we misunderstood it!"

"I also checked the body of the black dog. Apart from some scratches on the side of its front limbs, there were no other external injuries, and it was not blackened by poisoning. When we found the body, it had turned white and swollen from being soaked in water, which is a normal sign of drowning."

Am I really being paranoid? Qiao Rui shook his head and smiled bitterly, "Have you found a coroner?"

"What?" Lu Jia was dumbfounded. Even a dead dog needed a coroner's examination?

Chen Nian also twitched his lips, "Isn't this making a big deal out of nothing?"

Qiao Rui was just saying it casually, but seeing the reactions of Chen Nian and the others, he suddenly thought of a saying: the more ordinary something is considered by everyone, the more unusual it may be.

"Brother Chen, let's ask the coroner to perform an autopsy to see if the person really died of drowning or was already dead and then thrown into the water. After all, this is the only relevant clue in these missing cases." Qiao Rui said in a deep voice.

Song Ci, a predecessor, once solved a charred corpse case. On the surface, the deceased committed suicide by fire after drinking, but in fact, the murderer set fire to the corpse after killing the person. Because there was no ash in the mouth and nose of the deceased, it was judged that the deceased was burned after death.

So, regarding the death of the dog, the coroner should be able to find out whether it drowned itself or was thrown into the river after death, right?