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

Lin Lezhi carefully observed the two grooves on the rotten wood in front of him again, and placed the vines clinging to it back into the grooves.

The groove is neither too big nor too small, just the right width for a vine.

Lin Lezhi withdrew his hand, stood up and said, "You just said that in order to make the wood more durable, it would be soaked in tung oil. I guess that's why these woods didn't completely rot after they were cut down. If my guess is correct, these woods and these rattans were originally a bridge."

"a bridge?"

"Well, the bridges we see are usually made of wood or stone, with ropes or iron cables as auxiliary materials. But this one is different. It is made of wood as auxiliary materials, and the bridge deck is made of rattan, which is locally available. If you want to accurately describe its shape, it is probably similar to a suspension bridge."

Lin Lezhi paused and imagined in his mind: "The fir wood is only soaked in tung oil and embedded deep into the mountain. Then, gaps are chiseled in the two ends of the fir wood just enough for the rattan to pass through. Then, the rattan is woven and hung on the fir wood to form a simple suspension bridge for people to walk on."

"If it's true as you said, the place where this suspension bridge leads to is where the murderer wants us to go, but..." Xiao Yihuo said with confusion in his eyes: "Since the murderer intended for us to find this place and wanted to lead us there, why did he cut down the suspension bridge? If no one finds it, then it's a useless effort."

At this point, Xiao Yihuo suddenly thought of what Lin Lezhi said, 'The murderer has been doing something elaborate'.

"If the murderer did it on purpose, he would not have gone to great lengths to do it, but would have done it with great care and effort." Xiao Yihuo looked at Lin Lezhi with a slightly gloomy look in his eyes and said, "You just said that there were no fallen leaves on the stove, but that's just one of the reasons. What else is strange?"

Unexpectedly, Xiao Yihuo's brain was so quick. Lin Lezhi's eyes lit up with surprise and approval. Then he said calmly, "Let's go back to the village first."

With the help of Xiao Yihuo, the two quickly returned to the roof of the house.

Relying on his own alertness, Xiao Yihuo immediately discovered a piece of burning firewood in the weeds in the yard, with a column of white smoke rising above the burning firewood.

Xiao Yihuo's eyes quickly swept around, and all around was silent.

After looking at each other, the two came down from the roof and came to the burning fire.

"Could it be that someone came here after we left?" Xiao Yihuo said with a serious brow.

Lin Lezhi carefully looked at the shape and position of the fire pile.

The fire was not in a pile, but rather scattered. There were pieces of wood that had been burned into charcoal, pieces that had just been burned, and some pieces of wood that had not yet been burned scattered around.

Lin Lezhi looked to the side from where the firewood was burning. The fire was not far from the wellhead.

After thinking it over calmly, Lin Lezhi looked at Xiao Yihuo and said, "If someone came here to light a fire, they would not mix used firewood with unused firewood. In addition, if they wanted the fire to burn smoothly, they would not place the firewood so far apart, nor would they leave it in the grass. If I remember correctly, these firewoods should have been blown here by your internal force just now."

"And..." Lin Lezhi sniffed lightly and frowned slightly, "Do you smell anything?"

After listening to Lin Lezhi's story, Xiao Yihuo sniffed it carefully, then looked at Lin Lezhi and said, "There is indeed a smell, a bit pungent, like..."

Xiao Yihuo couldn't think of an accurate description for a moment.

“Garlic?”

"Yes."

"From the combination of the white smoke and the smell it emits, it looks like phosphorus powder."

After that, in order to verify and prevent the fire from spreading, Lin Lezhi took away the burning firewood on the ground, and the nearby weeds were burned black by the burning firewood.

After taking it away, the smell of burning phosphorus powder hit me in the face, which was stronger than the smell just now. Looking among the weeds, I also saw some fine gray-white powder among the weeds.

This verified Lin Lezhi's guess.

"It's late autumn now and the temperature in the mountains is not high. The phosphorus powder is hidden in the weeds and is not easy to burn. It's probably because the firewood you just shook away still has residual heat, which ignited the phosphorus powder in the grass and ignited the firewood next to it."

“Why is there phosphorus powder here?”

While Xiao Yihuo was talking, Lin Lezhi rummaged through the weeds around him and took out a piece of wood that was about to break, which was only barely connected together by the bark.

Zhou Yuanliang found it for Chang Feizhang to fix his ankle injury.

The moment he saw the wooden strip, Xiao Yihuo also recalled what happened during the day and said, "In the morning, we found the location of the wellhead through the skull. Chang Feizhang, who had a foot injury, fell here in panic. His foot injury had not been fixed at that time. I guess he fell here at that time and was accidentally stepped on and broken by someone. Who could it be?"

Lin Lezhi thought for a moment, shook his head slightly and said, "Anyone who has been to this courtyard today is a suspect, and we cannot rule out the possibility that someone came here after we left just now."

"So what do we do next?"

Lin Lezhi stood up holding the stick that was about to break, stomped out the small fire on the ground with his foot, and kicked away all the firewood that might ignite the phosphorus powder.

After doing all this, Lin Lezhi looked at Xiao Yihuo and spread his hands slightly, saying: "If it is one of our own, we will not avoid them. If it is someone hiding in the dark, they will not be stupid enough to fall into the trap. After all, it is useless to wait here. Let's search the houses in this village for safety. I just want to verify my guess."

After checking several houses nearby, no one was found. After walking into a house, Lin Lezhi waved his hand with surprise in his eyes and said, "Come and see, the second strange place is here."

Xiao Yihuo followed Lin Lezhi's gaze and saw just an ordinary floor inside a house. Because no one had lived there for many years, a lot of weeds had grown inside.

However, because of the floor tiles, the weeds are not as dense as outside the house, but there is nothing strange about it either.

"What's so strange?"

Xiao Yihuo stopped guessing and asked directly.

As Xiao Yihuo looked puzzled, Lin Lezhi picked up something from the ground and handed it to Xiao Yihuo, saying with a smile on his face, "Look, what is this?"

Seeing clearly what Lin Lezhi was holding, Xiao Yihuo's eyes twitched slightly, and then he looked at Lin Lezhi with a speechless look, and said in a joking tone: "You were so close to it during the day, how come you are so cold and indifferent to it in less than a day?"

"I'm not kidding you, I'm asking you seriously."

Afraid that Xiao Yihuo couldn't see clearly, Lin Lezhi raised the thing in his hand closer to Xiao Yihuo.

Xiao Yihuo stepped back and looked at Lin Lezhi's serious expression. After a moment's silence, Xiao Yihuo seemed to believe it, with doubt in his eyes and a hint of helplessness, and replied: "Xanthium sibiricum."