When the book-traveling little detective meets the two-faced prince

Xiao Xu thought for a moment, tightened his grip on the teacup, frowned slightly and said, "It's recorded on the stone tablet that He Yuqing's parents moved out of Yulong Village overnight on the night He Yuqing disappeared. Could it be..."

Xiao Xu was slow to express his guess.

Lin Lezhi nodded.

"Although this story sounds perfect, and it is reasonable that He's parents left this place because of excessive grief, but the time between He Yuqing jumping into the river and disappearing and his parents moving away was less than a day in total. This behavior is as if they are certain that He Yuqing is dead."

Sun Wan'er: "This time is too short."

"Yes, it was too hasty. Moreover, the people of Yulong Village have lived here for generations. There are several hundred residents in the whole village, but without exception, they all insisted that He Yuqing, the daughter of the He family, was taken away by the Lord River God."

Lin Lezhi paused and continued, "Since we arrived in Yulong Village, all the villagers seemed to be deliberately hiding something. The time they worshipped was exactly the night when He Yuqing's parents moved out of Yulong Village twelve years ago."

Xiao Xu raised his eyes, put down the teacup in his hand, and said, "You suspect that the people they are going to worship tonight are He Yuqing's parents."

Lin Lezhi sighed, and there seemed to be some sadness in his eyes.

"It's true that He Yuqing disappeared, and it's also true that they're afraid of the river god's revenge, but the truth is hidden behind layers of fog, and they're not afraid of the river god."

Sun Wan'er: "Then should we go and take a look tonight?"

Just as Lin Lezhi was hesitating, Xiao Xu reached into his arms and was about to take something out. From the edge of his clothes, he saw that it was a piece of paper.

Xiao Xu was sitting facing the door. Just when he was halfway through drawing the lottery, a figure appeared at the door.

Xiao Xu immediately put the thing in his arms back and hinted to Lin Lezhi and Su Wan'er with his eyes that there was someone outside the door. The three of them understood and fell silent.

"Thump, thump, thump—!"

"come in."

With Lin Lezhi's permission, the person outside pushed the door and walked in. Village Chief Ji still had a smile on his face and said, "Dear guests, the other two rooms have been prepared. Please follow me. It's getting late and everyone is tired today. I will have someone bring you some food later."

"Thank you very much."

"Mr. Jiang, you don't have to be polite. This is a simple village, and I'm afraid I've neglected you." Village Chief Ji glanced at Sun Wan'er and continued, "This room will be for Miss Meng Wan to rest. Please follow me to other rooms, gentlemen.

Lin Lezhi and Xiao Xu looked at each other, and then followed Village Chief Ji to the other two rooms.

As soon as he entered the room, Lin Lezhi smelled a faint fragrance. Following the scent, he saw a stick of incense burning in the incense burner on the windowsill. Lin Lezhi turned around and looked at the village chief and asked, "This incense smells good. I wonder what it's called."

Village Chief Ji smiled and said, "This incense is called tranquilizing incense. There are bound to be some mosquitoes in the countryside in the hot summer. This incense is used to repel mosquitoes. The people in our village will light this incense at night. It can repel insects and help them sleep, so that they can rest well."

Lin Lezhi bowed lightly and said, "Village Chief Ji is thoughtful."

"Then Mr. Jiang, please take a rest. I will go to the kitchen to urge you to eat."

After saying this, Village Chief Ji left the room.

After dinner in the evening, Lin Lezhi felt sleepy early and climbed into bed to rest.

Not long after Lin Lezhi fell asleep, several dark shadows appeared from the direction of the door. A moment later, three people in night clothes pushed the door open and entered the rooms where the three of them were resting.

After confirming that the person on the bed was asleep, the three of them left the room.

Then the three of them looked for the light in the forest and went into the forest.

In the deep forest, the villagers held lanterns in their hands and gathered around a grave in a very secluded place. The grave was covered with weeds and it was obvious that no one had taken care of it for a long time.

The tomb was filled with paper dolls in the shape of boys and girls and paper white sails. At this moment, all the paper dolls had eyes painted on them.

The white sails and candlelight swayed in the breeze.

Judging from the location of the cemetery, it is not far from the river and you can vaguely hear the sound of flowing water.

Each of the villagers present held a bundle of yellow paper in their hands. Only adults were present, and they all looked quite old.

The villagers outside saw the three people coming back and asked in a low voice: "How is it, have you all gone to bed?"

After getting affirmative answers from three people, a villager shouted to the village chief: "Village Chief Ji, we can start now."

When the ceremony began, the villagers knelt down one after another, leaving only a dark shadow standing upright in the crowd.

However, before the village chief's eyes swept over, the black shadow was pulled down.

After confirming it, the village chief also knelt down in front of the grave.

The nearby villagers looked at the three people in panic and said, "Why did you forget to bring the yellow paper?"

Before the three of them could say anything, the villager next to them distributed some of the yellow paper in his hand to the three of them and said seriously, "Don't forget it next time, or you will be in big trouble."

Following the command, "Bow once--!"

Everyone kowtowed in front of the grave.

“Two bows—!”

The villagers kowtowed in front of the grave, their eyes full of panic and begging.

"Bye again——!"

After three kowtows, Village Chief Ji raised his head with a look of grief, but no tears could be seen in the corners of his eyes. He said with great guilt: "What happened back then was indeed an unintentional mistake on our part. Please do not blame us if you are still alive. We will do our best in this lifetime to return our daughter to you."

As soon as he finished speaking, Village Chief Ji wiped the corners of his eyes with his sleeve, took the torch beside him, and lit the paper figurines and white sails surrounding the grave.

The fire spread quickly as the paper figures were burned one by one. Then Village Chief Ji stepped back and the villagers lined up and threw the yellow paper in their hands into the blazing fire, saying, "I'm sorry."

The sacrifice was over and everyone left.

When Village Chief Ji returned to the village and passed by the inn, he saw that the door and windows of the room where three people lived were closed. However, he was still very worried. After thinking it over again and again, Village Chief Ji went into the room to check.

Village Chief Ji groped in the dark and walked towards the bed. When he reached the bed, he reached out his hand and touched the bed.

But wherever my hands reached, there was only air.

Village chief Ji suddenly felt something was wrong and quickly took out a tinder to look for the location of the candle in the house. However, after taking a few steps, he was tripped by an obstacle on the ground and fell flat on his face.

The fall caused Village Chief Ji to suffer heavy injuries.

Village Chief Ji didn't even have time to cry out in pain. He reached out his hand to touch something on the ground. He felt a warm and firm touch at his fingertips. He felt something was wrong and quickly got up and lit the light in the house.

The light in the room was turned on, and the person on the ground could be seen clearly.

At this moment, the person on the ground was only wearing underwear and was sleeping unconscious on the ground. But it was not Jiang Lian'an, and there was no one on the bed.

Village Chief Ji looked up at the windowsill and saw that the incense had been broken.

Village Chief Ji looked anxious and hurried to check the other two rooms, which were exactly the same as Jiang Lian'an's room.

Three dark shadows came and went.

At this time, the paper figures had not been burned yet.

Three black shadows took off their masks and night clothes. They were Lin Lezhi and the other three.

Xiao Xu threw his nightgown aside with a look of disgust and asked, "What should we do now?"

Lin Lezhi bent down and picked up the unburned paper figurine on the ground. There was a complex emotion in his eyes. Lin Lezhi closed his eyes, took a long breath, then opened his eyes and said, "Open the grave."

Because they didn't have any suitable tools, the three of them could only pick up any tools that looked suitable on the ground and dig up the grave.

Sun Wan'er looked visibly weaker. After being with them for so long, even a healthy body couldn't stand it. Lin Lezhi quickly stopped her and said, "Miss Wan'er, you can just rest aside. Let us do the heavy work."

But Su Wan'er shook her head, smiled softly and said, "I can do it. Let me help you. If I get tired later, I will go to rest."

Seeing that Sun Wan'er insisted, Lin Lezhi did not insist anymore, and the three of them opened the grave together, but their efficiency was too slow.

If we continue digging like this, I don’t know how long it will take to finish.

Xiao Xu threw away the stick in his hand, frowned slightly and said, "How long will it take to dig? I'll go find some handy tools."

But just a short while after he went out, Xiao Xu fell back.

Lin Lezhi was still working hard. Seeing Xiao Xu coming back, he guessed the reason. Lin Lezhi looked at Sun Wan'er and said with a smile, "Miss Wan'er, don't dig for now."

Afterwards, Lin Lezhi threw away the wooden stick in his hand, sighed lightly, and wondered why it was so difficult to solve this case.

Lin Lezhi turned around and looked at the villagers who were rushing here, put on a smile and greeted them, "What a coincidence, you are also out for a walk and watching the moon."

It happened that a cloud passed by, blocking the moonlight above his head, and Lin Lezhi smiled awkwardly.

Village chief Ji limped towards the three of them, leaning on his crutches and with an angry look on his face.

Lin Lezhi immediately showed concern on his face: "Hey, Village Chief Ji, what happened to you? How did you sprain your ankle? Do you want me to take a look at you?"

However, after hearing these words, Village Chief Ji became even angrier, with anger written all over his face.

"Our small village has lived here for generations. We have never provoked you and have treated you with great hospitality. Why do you want to come here and meddle in other people's business?"

Lin Lezhi patted the dirt off his hands, looked at Village Chief Ji and said, "You said you didn't provoke us, think about it carefully, is that really the case?"

"How did I offend you?"

"I had no intention of interfering in this matter. I was just asked by Miss Wan'er to find Miss Mengli's whereabouts, but you refused to tell me and even wanted to kill us. Isn't this considered provoking me?"

The expression on Village Chief Ji's face was amazing. His angry face was filled with a hint of disbelief. He denied it completely, "We really don't know where Miss Mengli is now. Also, we don't know when we will take your lives. We just want you to leave here as soon as possible."

Lin Lezhi took out a small piece of unburned incense from his arms and displayed it in front of everyone.

"This incense is made of mandrake flowers. At the very least, it can make people unconscious, and at worst, it can take their lives. You guys did such a vicious thing, and you really treated us well!"

In fact, Lin Lezhi didn't know it at first. He just thought the fragrance was very strange. It was Xiao Xu who came in and directly cut off the incense and told Lin Lezhi that there was something wrong with the incense.

Upon hearing that this incense could be fatal, everyone in the village was shocked. Village Chief Ji was so nervous that his voice was trembling. "Nonsense! This incense will only make people fall asleep, it's not...not fatal!"

Lin Lezhi thought for a moment and said, "Then let me light this incense in Village Chief Ji's room. If Village Chief Ji can wake up the next day, I will believe you."

“You…! Stop talking nonsense! Come on, catch them!”

Last time, there were only four or five young men who followed Village Chief Ji to Hongzhu Temple, but this time he has to face the entire village, and Lin Lezhi is somewhat unsure of his chances of winning.

Lin Lezhi pulled Miss Sun Wan'er behind him and whispered, "Miss Wan'er, if the situation is not right, just run away."

Sun Wan'er nodded without saying a word, and there was no trace of fear in her eyes.

They were a group of civilians who had not received any formal training. They were just waving tools around randomly. Lin Lezhi would not really use any brutal force, but tools have no eyes.

Lin Lezhi was worried that they might accidentally hurt Sun Wan'er.

There are so many villagers that it’s hard to keep up with the crowds.

Seeing that a stick was about to hit Jiang Lian'an, Sun Wan'er ran to Lin Lezhi. Just as the stick was about to hit Sun Wan'er, a wild man with disheveled hair suddenly ran out from the deep forest, pushed Sun Wan'er away, and took the stick.

"Well-!"

Lin Lezhi turned around and snatched the stick from the man's hand, kicked the man aside, then supported the savage and asked with a worried look on his face: "Brother, are you okay?"

The savage smiled and raised his hand to touch his hit shoulder. There was a bruise on his raised wrist, which was tied with a red rope with a red bean hanging in the middle of the rope.

The Savage rolled his shoulders and then said with a smile, "It looks like everything is fine."

Lin Lezhi's pupils shrank slightly as he looked at the figure of the savage. It seemed to be the ghost he met in the house last night.

After that, the savage raised his hands and clasped his fists, and said respectfully: "I'm sorry, Mr. Jiang, did I scare you when I suddenly appeared in the house last night? I wanted to explain to you, but you ran too fast."

Due to the emergency, the villagers did not dare to move forward rashly.

"Why are you still standing there? If they go out and report to the authorities, all of us will die."

"Stop it, Village Chief Ji, the government officials will be here soon."

The savage said as he walked up to Xiao Xu.

At this time, the clouds that blocked the moon finally moved away, and the moonlight shone down on the wild man's face. After seeing the wild man's appearance clearly, Village Chief Ji was so scared that his two old legs trembled, and he knelt down quickly, "County Magistrate Li."

The surrounding villagers also knelt down.

The Savage smiled and said, "Everyone, get up."

After he finished speaking, the Savage turned around again and said to Lin Lezhi and the other two with a smile, "I'm sorry that I came out to meet you just now and haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Li Weisheng."