Card Room

Chapter 492 - Clue Transmission

Xiao Lou’s group of six had returned to Qingfeng Town in the daytime. The residents of the town were preparing lunch. The smell of food wafted around the streets and people had kind smiles on their faces. It didn’t seem like there were two cold-blooded and brutal murderers hiding in this peaceful town.

Qin Feng’s roster was very important material evidence. The people with red crosses on the roster were all people who had disappeared in Qingfeng Town in recent years. Apart from the Zhao and Chen families who were definitely led to the mass burial site by the murderer, it was unclear which murderer killed the other missing people. Xiao Lou intended to investigate it one by one.

He first screened all the women on the roster who were around the age of 18.

Apart from Zhao Zesui, the fourth young lady of the Zhao family, the number of the remaining girls was exactly the same as the number of corpses found at the bottom of the lake. In other words, in the past few years, all the missing girls in the town were dragged into the lake by the second murderer and drowned.

Xiao Lou thought about it for a moment before saying to his teammates, “The families of these girls are still here. My guess is that they have been tricked by the rumors of the ghost and haven’t continued to search for the whereabouts of the missing. We have to find a way to let them see the corpses at the bottom of the lake with their own eyes, proving that it isn’t a murderous ghost. Then an investigation can be carried out.”

Yu Hanjiang agreed. “The murderer is hiding in the darkness so we will be very passive. Moreover, our status is just a passing guest and it isn’t convenient for us to ask for clues about the dead directly. If we ‘accidentally’ find a body in the lake, the mayor will have to look into it.”

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other and said tacitly, “In order to draw out the enemy, we will use the mayor Qin Feng and borrow his mouth to investigate the truth of the girls’ drowning case.”

Xiao Lou determined this and started to arrange it.

The six of them had to put on a show.

***

After lunch, the weather was hot. Liu Qiao and Old Mo went to the lake to cool off and pretended to enjoy the scenery.

Liu Qiao was lying on the edge of the fence and looking into the distance. Suddenly, she slipped and fell into the lake. She opened her mouth and shouted, “Help… help… save me…”

Old Mo’s expression changed when he saw her struggling in the lake, her head being submerged. He hurried to the lake, sweating profusely and his face pale. “Who can save my apprentice? She fell into the lake!”

Yu Hanjiang, Xiao Lou, Long Sen and Qu Wanyue ‘just happened’ to be passing by. Upon hearing the cries for help, Yu Hanjiang strode to the lake. There were already a lot of people around it who were watching. He squeezed through the crowd and asked in a low voice, “Old man, what’s wrong?”

Old Mo pointed to the lake with a panicked expression. “My apprentice accidentally fell into the lake and she is sinking. Will she drown? Is there anyone who can save her?”

Yu Hanjiang took off his jacket, stuffed it into Xiao Lou’s hand and told Long Sen, “Save her!”

The two of them jumped into the lake one after another.

The people nearby stuck their heads out and looked curiously at the lake. Someone whispered, “She has fallen into the lake for so long without any response. Is there any way to save her?”

”Maybe. If the girl is lucky then she might be alive.”

Xiao Lou nervously looked at the place where Yu Hanjiang had jumped into the lake.

Yu Hanjiang and Long Sen had already sunk into the lake to find someone—Of course, it wasn’t Liu Qiao but a female corpse at the bottom of the lake.

According to the original plan, they would rescue Liu Qiao and also drag out a recently deceased female corpse. The onlookers would definitely be frightened so they could take the opportunity to investigate the clues of the corpses at the bottom of the lake.

There was just one question. The female corpses were discovered last night in the ghost town. Now it was Qingfeng Town in the day. Would there still be corpses in the lake? If their speculation was wrong then this scene would be acted out in vain.

Xiao Lou waited nervously for a moment. Suddenly, Yu Hanjiang emerged from the lake with Liu Qiao, who was ‘on the verge of death’. Old Mo immediately ran over and asked, “Xiao Liu, are you okay?”

Liu Qiao coughed desperately. She coughed up a large amount of lake water before finally calming down. She said with a white face, “Am I still alive?”

Old Mo was ecstatic. He stroked her wet hair and said, “That’s great! This savior, thank you.”

Liu Qiao turned to look at Yu Hanjiang. “Big Brother, thank you for saving me.”

Yu Hanjiang replied in a low voice, “There is no need to thank me.”

The group threw themselves into the performance and the crowd was ready to disperse after watching the show. At this moment, Long Sen suddenly dragged a woman in red to the surface of the lake. “Old man, is this your apprentice?”

Old Mo was stunned as he looked at the girl dragged out by Long Sen. “This… whose girl is this?”

Long Sen laid the woman in red on the ground and asked, “Isn’t this your apprentice?”

Old Mo replied, “My apprentice has already been rescued. I don’t know this girl!”

The onlookers looked horrified. They jumped down to save a girl and ended up rescuing two girls. What type of situation was this?

Moreover, the woman in red seemed to be dead? Her skin was as white as paper and her face was swollen so it was impossible to see her facial features.

Yu Hanjiang stepped forward with a serious expression and crouched down to look at the corpse. He tested her breathing with his hand and shook his head. “I’m afraid this girl has been dead for more than a day or two. Is there anyone in this small town who has recently committed suicide by throwing herself into the lake?”

An aunt next to him said, “I haven’t heard of any girl committing suicide! However, not long ago, a girl went missing during the Ghost Festival. It was said that she was killed by a ghost and became a ghost wife?”

A middle-aged man added, “The jade pendant on this girl’s waist looks familiar to me?”

An old woman asked suspiciously, “Isn’t this Miss Lin? This jade pendant seems to have the word ‘Lin’ written on it. I remember, their young lady was the one who went missing during the Ghost Festival. I didn’t expect her to fall into the lake… ah, what is this sinful thing?”

The people around them discussed it and someone soon went to notify the mayor Qin Feng.

Qin Feng arrived at the scene and found the crowd surrounding the corpse. He pushed through the crowd, looked at Yu Hanjiang and asked in a low voice, “Did you find a corpse?”

Yu Hanjiang stood up. He looked at the other person and nodded. “Yes, this little girl accidentally fell into the water. My guard and I went into the lake to rescue her. We didn’t expect we would find a dead woman at the bottom of the lake.”

Qin Feng frowned and crouched down. He carefully examined the condition of the corpse and concluded, “She should have drowned.” He picked up the jade pendant on the woman’s waist and looked at it. “It is Miss Lin who disappeared a few days ago. I didn’t expect her to fall into the water unexpectedly.”

Xiao Lou said, “I heard from everyone just now that Miss Lin went missing during the Ghost Festival and it was done by a ghost to become a ghost wife. How could she suddenly fall into the water and drown?”

Qin Feng said coldly, “Outsiders shouldn’t ask about our Qingfeng Town.”

He stood up and turned toward his two subordinates following him. “Send the girl’s body back to the Lin family for a proper burial.”

Then he turned and walked away cleanly.

Xiao Lou, “……”

The plot NPCs didn’t cooperate with the investigation at all.

According to common sense, there had been so many girls missing in the town in recent years and the body of one of them was found in the lake. Shouldn’t they search the lake thoroughly to see if others had fallen into the water and died as well? As a result, the mayor just wanted to bury the body and walked away like nothing had happened?

They wanted to borrow Qin Feng’s hand to collect clues. They didn’t expect Qin Feng to act against common sense and Xiao Lou’s wishful thinking came to nothing. He glanced at Yu Hanjiang and had no choice but to disperse with the crowd.

This was a misstep. They couldn’t jump into the lake and fish out more corpses, right?

After returning to the inn, Xiao Lou helplessly said, “This time, we have no influence on the plot characters in the secret room. It seems impossible to ask Qin Feng for help. We have to find clues on our own. However, Qin Feng’s suspicion hasn’t been ruled out yet.”

Qu Wanyue said, “The rattle-drums in Qin Feng’s study room and the roster with the red crosses. The evidence that points to him is too obvious. Why do I feel that he isn’t the murderer?”

Xiao Lou said, “I also think he isn’t a murderer but he is definitely an insider. It is just that he won’t tell us the clues he knows. Moreover, judging from the reaction just now, he is very resistant to other people investigating this incident.”

Yu Hanjiang suddenly thought of something and frowned. “Someone has been lighting incense in the Zhao family’s memorial hall. The survivor of the Zhao family’s annihilation is likely to be the Zhao family’s daughter-in-law who hasn’t appeared on the tablets. She is also the key to this case. We’ll have to go back to the Zhao house and see if anyone has come to the memorial hall to light incense.”

Xiao Lou also wanted to go to the scene again. The last time he and Yu Hanjiang went to the Zhao house, they found that the memorial hall was a bit weird. The room was filled with the mourning tablets of the Zhao family and incense sticks were lit. It was obvious that someone had been offering incense to them for a long time.

Night was another space and they couldn’t meet this person lighting the incense.

They might find other clues if they went during the day.

Xiao Lou thought of this and said, “Let’s go to the Zhao house and Chen house to see if there are any missing clues.”

The group put on invisibility cloaks and quickly came to the Chen house.

At that time, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang hadn’t searched the Chen house. Liu Qiao and Old Mo did the investigation. The key clues that Liu Qiao found were the rattle-drum and the letter Chen Yu wrote to his father-in-law. Now Xiao Lou searched but didn’t find any other clues. Only the hidden cellar in the Chen house’s backyard caught Xiao Lou’s attention.

He walked to the door of the cellar and found that the dark cellar was strange and gloomy. A cold wind struck his neck as he looked at the locked iron door of the cellar. He asked Liu Qiao, “Xiao Liu, have you gone down here to search?”

Liu Qiao was a bit embarrassed. “Professor Xiao, time was tight and I didn’t notice the cellar in the backyard.”

Yu Hanjiang walked over after hearing this and looked at the iron door. “Isn’t a cellar usually used to store wine?”

Xiao Lou nodded. “The door is locked. We have to go down and take a look.”

Long Sen took the initiative to walk in front and break the door lock. He quickly stuck to the wall and went down before turning around. “You can all come down. There is no mechanism. The wine here is very fragrant and there is a lot of good wine hidden.”

What did this mean? Chen Yu liked to drink?

Xiao Lou didn’t dwell on this for the time being and led everyone to the Zhao family’s memorial hall.

The incense burner at the front of the memorial hall was indeed lit again. At this time, the incense was about to burn out. This indicated that the person who lit the incense had already left for a while.

Xiao Lou looked around carefully, trying to find any clues left by the person who lit the incense.

However, the other person was cautious and didn’t leave even a single strand of hair.

Just as Xiao Lou was feeling regret that the investigation hadn’t yielded any results, his eyes suddenly fixed on the beam in the middle of the room. There was a palm-sized spider and the color was very similar to the beam. It was difficult to detect unless a person looked closely.

Xiao Lou pointed there. “Look.”

Qu Wanyue looked carefully and was startled by the spider. “This spider seems motionless?”

Yu Hanjiang raised his head and said calmly, “It isn’t a real spider but Chu Huaying’s spider mark.”

Huaying’s spider mark had been seen by everyone before. It could indeed be confused with the real thing.

Xiao Lou was overjoyed. “This is the clue that Huaying left us!”

Yu Hanjiang flew up. His left hand grabbed the beam while his right hand searched carefully between the beams. Sure enough, he found a letter. He opened it and saw that it contained the vigorous and powerful calligraphy of Senior Gui.

However, the contents of the letter made everyone look at each other in disbelief.

They saw that the first line read: “Lu, Tang, Chu and Gui, the four of us have traveled to the time three years ago and we can’t go back.”

Xiao Lou, “……”

Partially proofread: Paranoid Kitten