Chapter Fifty-Seven

  The dim candlelight stretched their shadows out and cast them on the wall.

  Chu Fei Yan pressed his fingers on the soft wax oil on the table: "Seven years ago, my brother was burned to death on this mountain."

  "But what does this explain?" Lin Yuan said puzzledly, touching his nose with his index finger.

  "Do you think your brother's death is related to the murder case in this village?" Su Jin'er guessed, "I feel that we have been led by the nose from the beginning of the investigation. The murderer seems to want us to find him, but doesn't want to give us any clues. He deliberately leads us around in circles."

  "I always feel that this case is related to me." Chu Fei Fan furrowed his brow, it wasn't the first time he had this feeling, and recently it had been getting stronger.

  "We'll go take a look at that room now." Su Jin'er stood up.

  Before they knew it, the sky had already turned a pale white, and the five of them quietly made their way towards that house, with not a single soul in sight outside.

  The house still maintained the appearance of when Ah Lang died, only his body had been carried out. At this moment, although the sky was not yet fully bright, the light that shone through the window into the room was enough to see the entire room.

  "We'll search around and see if we can find any useful clues." Ge Yaze stood in front of the table, looking at the half-burned candle.

  The rope that hanged Ah Lang is still on the beam, the rope is very long, one end was used to hang Ah Lang, and the other end dragged all the way to the ground. Under the window, there are some disordered footprints, which are Ah Lang's footprints, meaning he had wandered around in front of the windowsill before.

  "But don't you think it's strange? The killer tried to disguise the scene as a suicide, but it seems full of loopholes." Chu Feifan squatted in front of the window and looked at the messy footprints. "Look, there are also rope marks here." The rope marks started from the windowsill.

  "I really want to know now whether the murderer was trying to create a locked room murder but failed, or did it on purpose." Su Jiner said, looking at the long drag mark.

  "It must be the murderer who did this." Lin looked up at the rope on the beam.

  "I also think so, how could the murderer be so careless when killing someone?" said Zuo Yi.

  "I may be able to guess the killer's method now." Su Jiner said, looking at the footprints on the ground.

  Everyone looked at her in astonishment.

  "Think about it! It's impossible for Ah Lang to walk in himself and put his head into the noose, so the killer must have knocked him out and then put him into a pre-prepared noose, strangling him to death. And since there are no footprints of the killer in the room, it's likely that the killer wore Ah Lang's shoes, and after killing him, he walked backwards out of the house, which is why there are no outgoing footprints. The killer also grasped that we wouldn't be able to detect the depth of the footprints, so he became even bolder."

  After hearing Su Jiner's words, they nodded and Chu Feifan said, "These don't seem to be premeditated, but rather a temporary decision."

  "It's possible that Ah Long really discovered something, so the murderer killed him to silence him."

  At this time, the sky was already bright, and there were people starting to move outside.

  "Look here!" Gao Ya-zhe said, pointing at the windowsill.

  Everyone gathered around and saw a clear footprint on the edge of the windowsill.

  This footprint overturned Su Jiner's previous reasoning entirely.

  "What's with this strange footprint?" Lin Yuan pouted, looking at the black footprint in puzzlement.

  Gao Yazhe touched it with his fingers and said, "It hasn't rained recently, has it? How can there be mud?"

  "There is land everywhere here, but it hasn't rained recently, and there are no rivers either. Then where does the water they drink come from?" Su Jiner looked out the window at the busy people outside.

  "Ah Lian said there was a well outside the village." Chu Fei Fan remembered Ah Lian's words from a few days ago.

  "We'll go find someone now, maybe he can tell us something."

  Su Jin'er's words reminded them of Ah Jian, who looked very similar to Ah Lang, the person who went to the master's house that night.

  A Jian was drinking alone, frowning and gulping down his liquor. People who saw him thought he was heartbroken over the sudden death of his best friend.

  His hand on the table was clenched tightly, his finger bones turned grayish-white from exertion. The hand holding the wine bottle trembled nonstop, almost unable to hold onto it. Arlang was his best friend. Although he had conflicts with him over Alen before, at that time, he knew clearly that Alen liked Arlang, so he could only withdraw and preserve their friendship. However, since those people appeared suddenly, everything changed. Alen actually married that young whippersnapper, that young whippersnapper who just arrived a few days ago. He picked up the wine bottle again and took another swig. The transparent liquid flowed down his mouth corner. He lifted his sleeve and wiped it vigorously.

  Although Alan didn't like himself, he was at ease when he handed over his best friend to him. But this group of people who suddenly appeared not only snatched away the person his best friend had a crush on, but also killed him, how could he swallow this breath?

  He grabbed the wine bottle and took a big gulp, then angrily smashed the bottle on the ground.

  This startled them as they happened to be walking up to the door.

  Seeing the person who had just been scolded by himself thousands of times and tens of thousands of times suddenly appearing at the door, Ah Jian stood up in anger, staring at them.

  "How dare you show up here? You're the ones who killed Ah Lang, you're the murderers!" He pointed at them in anger and scolded. Having drunk a whole night's worth of wine, his body was already numb, and now he couldn't even stand upright, collapsing onto the ground.

  Chu Fei and Zuo Yi came over to help him up, but he shook off their hands with force, and his body that had just stood up fell to the ground again.

  "You——" He pointed at Chu Fei Fan and said: "It was you who took away Ah Lian, so Ah Lang committed suicide. Do you know or not, Ah Lian and Ah Lang had a marriage arrangement since they were young? But because of your sudden appearance, the village chief hastily married Ah Lian to you. What's good about you? Is the village chief old and his eyesight bad that he would let Ah Lian marry you?" He couldn't stand up so he sat on the ground, and actually shed tears.

  "This isn't what I wanted either, the village head threatened me with my friend's life, I had no choice but to do this, and before marrying her, I didn't know she was engaged to someone else, let alone that I have someone I like in my heart." Chu Fei Fan squatted down to look at him, although his last words were spoken softly, Su Jin Er and the others still heard them.

  "I don't care, all I know is that my best friend died, he's dead."

  A big man sat on the ground crying, it's heartbreaking to watch. Su Jin'er also squatted down and said: "We all know how hard it is for you, but no matter how hard we try, we can't bring back the dead. Don't you want to know who killed him?"

  "Isn't he suicidal? He is suicidal!" Ah Jian suddenly lay on the ground and said loudly.

  "No, he didn't commit suicide, he was murdered. So we want to ask for your help in finding the killer." Lin Yuan said with his hands on his knees.

  "Murderer? To me, you are the murderer." Ah Jian still had his eyes closed.

  "I'm just asking you one question, and as long as you answer truthfully, that's all I need."

  A Jian didn't say a word and quietly lay on the ground as if he had already fallen asleep.

  "Didn't you go to the law office last night?"

  A Jian's body moved slightly, but he still closed his eyes, and his eyeballs rotated slightly under his eyelids.

  "Yes, I did go. The village chief said that whatever the master had entrusted us with, we must accomplish it."

  "What did he ask you to do?"

  Ah Jian suddenly opened his eyes and stared at Su Jin'er in front of him: "You just said you'd only ask one question." He sat up, supporting himself on the table as he stood up: "Now that you've finished asking, can you leave? I don't want to see any of you."

  Su Jiner and Chu Feifan exchanged a glance, and Chu Feifan said, "I think you wouldn't be unaware of what happened in your village five years ago?"

  A Jian suddenly turned his head, narrowing his eyes and said, "Was it Ah Lian who told you?"

  "You don't need to know who told me, but your reaction has already given away the answer."

  A Jian was stunned for a moment, then let out a loud hum and said, "Women are unreliable."

  "Many things are not as simple as they seem on the surface, I know you have hostility towards us, and I also know your intentions towards A Lian. However, if you really don't want your friend to die unjustly, tell us everything you know." Chu Fei Fan seemed to not care whether he would tell them or not, after saying that, he said to his friends: "Let's go!"

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