The Secret Chamber of the Card Game

During the daytime, Qingfeng Town looks like a normal town, full of people coming and going.

Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci stayed at the gate of the town and found several hunters walking towards the forest not far away with tools on their backs.Last night, the two of them rode Suzaku across the forest, worried that there might be wild animals in the forest, but they did not land in the forest. Now they just took this opportunity to investigate the situation in the forest, at least to be aware of the surrounding environment. end.

Lu and Tang followed the group of hunters calmly and entered the forest.

The trees in the forest are dense, towering trees cover the sun, and only a small amount of light shines through the gaps in the leaves. After entering the woods, you can hear the crisp chirping of birds, and there are many hares and pheasants. These game are hunters. The goal.

Several hunters started hunting separately, and the two followed the hunters for a long time without finding anything unusual.

However, there is only one winding path in the woods.

Tang Ci said softly: "The end of this forest should be connected to the mountain we flew down last night. There is only one path in the forest. How did so many corpses in the mass graves be carried up?"

Lu Jiuchuan frowned and thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I don't understand either. According to Xiao Lou's deduction, the missing people in the town were all killed by murderers and dumped in mass graves. Why did he spend so much money Zhou Zhang moved the corpse to the top of the mountain? Wouldn’t it be more convenient to find a random place and burn it with fire?”

Tang Ci guessed: "The ancients were very concerned about leaving a whole body after death and reincarnation. The rich and powerful would build tombs and hold funerals with great fanfare. Throwing corpses in mass graves, the remains of the deceased would be eaten by eagles and dogs. A means of revenge? Let people have no peace after death?"

Lu Jiuchuan touched his chin and said, "It makes sense. It seems that the murderer has a deep hatred with these two families?"

Tang Ci said: "Let's find the way first and see if there is a shortcut to the mountain."

At this moment, Yu Hanjiang's voice sounded in Lu Jiuchuan's mind: "Brother, did you go to the woods?" The telepathy channel allows Yu Hanjiang to be aware of the thoughts in his brother's mind at any time. He already knows that Brother Jiu and Tang Ci are in the woods .

Lu Jiuchuan explained: "Xiao Tang and I were standing guard at the gate. It was too boring. I just went into the forest with a group of hunters and found nothing unusual so far, but I was surprised that there was only one path in the forest. The end of the forest was where we were last night. Seeing the mountain of zombies, how did so many corpses move to the mountain?"

Yu Hanjiang said: "Just now Xiao Lou also thought of this question, what he meant was, let's go to the mass grave again."

Lu Jiuchuan was not surprised. Last night, just after they arrived in the secret room, after a burst of lightning and thunder, a large number of zombies suddenly appeared in the mass grave, forcing them to flee for their lives.It was pitch black at that time, and they didn't have time to find out the situation of the mass grave.Since the bodies of the deceased were all buried in mass graves, they must investigate further.

Lu Jiuchuan readily agreed: "Okay, Tang Ci and I will go up the mountain later, do you want to come too?"

Yu Hanjiang said: "Use Li Qingzhao's sign to pull us over. Xiao Lou said that he wants to do an autopsy."

Lu Jiuchuan: "..."

He ran to the mass grave for an autopsy, fortunately he figured it out!

However, for forensic doctors, it is actually easier for the dead to "tell" the truth than the living.

Lu Jiuchuan relayed Yu Hanjiang's meaning to Tang Ci, and the two continued to move forward along the path in the woods. After walking a certain distance, their feet suddenly stepped on the air, and their bodies suddenly fell!

Fortunately, Lu Jiuchuan reacted quickly enough, hugged Tang Ci's waist with one hand, jumped forward, and jumped to the side without any risk.

The two were still in shock, and looked back——

I saw that the place where I stepped on the void just now is actually a huge trap with a depth of more than two meters. The bottom is full of sharp barbs, emitting a sharp cold light.If they didn't react fast enough, they might have been tied into hedgehogs by now.

Lu Jiuchuan cursed and said, "Is this a trap used by hunters to catch wild animals?"

Tang Ci nodded: "The traps are very concealed, covered by leaves, we didn't find them at all just now... There are probably traps everywhere on this road, so be careful."

After he finished speaking, he released his mechanical ants, and let the two ants walk ahead to explore the way.

Sure enough, after walking a few meters, they stepped on another trap. Tang Ci quickly retracted the ants and released them again... Repeatedly, the two checked more than a dozen hunting traps along the way, and then they saw a tree house in front of them. .

This is a simple house built on a big tree. The roof is covered with a lot of branches and leaves, and there are steps made of vines beside the big tree.

A disheveled man came out of the wooden house. His hair was like a nest of weeds, his clothes were torn, his beard hadn't been shaved for a long time, and his face was still covered with mud, like a "savage".

After seeing Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci, he widened his eyes and said angrily, "You two broke my trap?"

After finishing speaking, he shouted loudly, raised a long knife, and slashed at Tang Ci!

Tang Ci stepped back in a hurry, Lu Jiuchuan stood in front of Tang Ci, and he shot as fast as lightning. At the moment the opponent slashed at Tang Ci, his hand grabbed the opponent's wrist like an eagle's claw, and slammed towards Tang Ci. The last twist——

The "savage" screamed in pain, Lu Jiuchuan simply and neatly knocked down the opponent, found a hunting rope from the side, and tied him up with skillful movements.

Then, Lu Jiuchuan clapped his hands, looked at the guy who was tied up, and said with a smile: "Don't be angry, we were almost turned into hedgehogs by your trap, so we put something to explore the way. I didn't destroy your trap , you get some leaves to cover it, and you can continue hunting."

The wild man glared at Lu Jiuchuan angrily, almost punching a hole in his face.

Lu Jiuchuan escorted the savage into the wooden house and tied him to a stool next to him.

Tang Ci walked up to the other party and asked in a low voice, "Have you always lived in this woods?"

He found that although the wooden house was small, it had all internal organs. Apart from the bed and clothes made of animal skins, there were pots, pans and other daily necessities. It didn't look like a temporary place to stay.

Hearing Tang Ci's question, the savage struggled and said, "I'm an orphan. I live in the woods and hunt for a living. You destroy my traps and tie me up. What are you going to do? I don't have much value here. thing!"

This is treating Lu Jiuchuan as a bandit who robbed his house.

Lu Jiuchuan also felt that his style was quite like a villain. He simply didn't do anything and kept going. He picked up a knife from the stove, walked up to Orion, gently pressed the back of the knife against Orion's face, and said in a low voice: "Answer us a few questions honestly, and we'll let you go."

While approaching, he checked the back of the savage's neck and back, and found no tattoo marks from the hunter organization, which made Lu Jiuchuan heave a sigh of relief.He winked at Tang Ci, who immediately asked, "How many years have you lived in the woods?"

The savage turned his head and stared at Lu Jiuchuan, Lu Jiuchuan passed the knife forward: "Say."

"..." The icy blade pressed against his face, and the savage was so frightened that his whole body froze, and he hurriedly said, "Ten, ten years!"

Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci glanced at each other—this guy who lives in the woods and hunts for a living may be a very important witness.Thinking of this, Lu Jiuchuan immediately informed Yu Hanjiang of the news, and Yu Hanjiang asked him to inquire about the situation three years ago in detail.

"Three years ago, on the night of July [-]th, didn't you see anything?" Lu Jiuchuan asked.

"No, I don't remember." The savage wanted to avoid the problem, but Lu Jiuchuan unceremoniously sent the knife forward, cutting off more than half of his hair in an instant.

Lu Jiuchuan said coldly: "Think about it carefully, if you don't remember it again, it will be your head that will fall off next time."

"I, I said!" the savage said tremblingly, "I remember that there was a heavy rain that night, and I was woken up by the sound of thunder. I got up and went outside to take a look. I wanted to take back the animal skins I had left outside , but saw... saw..." He seemed to remember something bad, his lips trembling uncontrollably.

"What did you see?" Tang Ci asked, "Think about it carefully, and then talk about it."

"..." The savage took a deep breath, and then said, "I saw a welcoming team walking towards the depths of the woods. They were all wearing bright red clothes, and no one played the suona or spoke. I was quietly carrying the sedan chair, walking at exactly the same pace, I was terrified and thought I was seeing a ghost!"

"The pace is the same?" Tang Ci frowned slightly, and then asked: "Where did the team that greeted the bride go?"

"I don't know! They kept walking towards the depths of the woods. I was so frightened that I quickly closed the door and shrank into the bed."

"What happened later? Did you see anyone else?" Lu Jiuchuan asked.

"I didn't fall asleep that night. I don't know how long it took. There was another sound of footsteps outside. Several groups of people were walking towards the depths of the woods intermittently. I didn't dare to look outside. The Ghost Festival is coming, and I am afraid that I will meet ghosts again." ..."

"Is there anything wrong with the expression of the welcoming team you saw?" Tang Ci said.

"Those people's faces are very white, as white as ghosts, maybe the ghost world is marrying ghost wives!" He paused, and said mysteriously, "Behind this forest is a mountain, and there is a mess on the top of the mountain." Burial mound, it is said that there was a famine in the town 20 years ago, many people died of starvation, and their bodies were thrown in the mass grave. The welcoming team walked in the direction of the mass burial mound, could it be the ghost king over there? Marry a ghost wife?"

"..." Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci looked at each other.

The wild man was indeed one of the eyewitnesses.

However, at that time, he only saw the welcoming team walking towards the mass grave. Because he was awakened by thunder in the middle of the night, he suddenly saw a group of people in red clothes with expressionless faces walking forward quietly and in unison. The impact of the shock will make the brain dull due to excessive fright. He preconceived and defined this group of people as "ghosts", thinking that they married ghost wives in the middle of the night.

Yu Hanjiang told Xiao Lou about the news that Brother Nine had inquired about, and said, "This Orion's words are only half believable, because people are likely to have some hallucinations in a state of extreme panic, and some of his own imagination have been added to his description. .Fortunately, his words at least provided us with two key pieces of information—”

"First of all, he saw the wedding procession with his own eyes. The following footsteps should be the missing Chen family and Zhao family. Ghosts don't make footsteps. That is to say, what he saw were not ghosts, but ghosts. Living people. It’s just that those people seem to be manipulated by something, and their consciousness is not clear.” Yu Hanjiang paused, and added: “Orion’s words can prove that all the missing people went to the mass grave by themselves, not the murderer Take their bodies to mass graves."

"This can explain how the murderer transported a large number of corpses." Xiao Lou said thoughtfully, "It seems that these people may have fallen into hallucinations and were controlled by the murderer, who was killed in a mass grave. Therefore, neither the Zhao family nor the Chen family in the small town found any traces of fighting or blood."

"Yes, the crime scene is not in the small town, but in the mass grave." Yu Hanjiang said.

"Another key piece of information?" Ye Qi couldn't help interjecting after hearing this, "Was there a famine 20 years ago?"

"That's right. The hunter said that there was a famine in the town 20 years ago. Many people died of starvation, and their bodies were randomly discarded in the mass graves. The reason why there are so many corpses in the mass graves is that the murderers killed , and there are many people who have nothing to do with the case and died of starvation 20 years ago." Yu Hanjiang looked at Xiao Lou, "For the specific situation, go to the autopsy and you will know."

"We have to go to the mass grave again. I can tell the time of death from the corpse. The people who died in the past three years are the focus of our investigation. The murderer should have committed the crime three years ago." Xiao Lou paused. Dayton continued, "One more thing, I think, the murderer's motive is probably related to the famine 20 years ago?"

"You mean, he chose to commit the crime in the mass grave because his relatives died in the famine 20 years ago and were thrown in the mass grave?" Yu Hanjiang asked.

"Well, if that's the case, he lures people to mass graves and kills them in front of their relatives' bones... It's equivalent to giving blood sacrifices to their relatives?" Xiao Lou guessed, "Do you think so?"

"It makes sense." Yu Hanjiang frowned and said, "From the perspective of criminal psychology, this possibility is quite high. Revenge murderers like to reenact scenes or plots to achieve psychological satisfaction."

Relatives were dumped in the mass grave, and 20 years later, the "evil ghost" who came back to take revenge, led the enemy to the mass grave and killed them one by one, which sounds like a reasonable explanation.

Of course, this is just Xiao Lou's speculation based on the current clues. Maybe the murderer just has a quirk and likes to kill people in mass graves?Or maybe the mass grave is not easy to be found in the dead of night, and it is easy to deal with after killing people, so why did he choose that place?

All possibilities cannot be ruled out.

Xiao Lou looked at his teammates and said, "You stay here, and Team Yu and I will go to the top of the mountain."

Ye Qi thought of the densely packed zombies on the top of the mountain, and couldn't help but said: "Professor Xiao, be careful, there are too many zombies to count. I don't know if the ones I saw last night were hallucinations. What if the zombies continue to attack you?" !"

Xiao Lou took a deep breath and said, "Don't worry, there is Peach Blossom Spring as a retreat, we will hurry up."