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

Lin Lezhi's words left the villagers present puzzled and bewildered.

Lin Lezhi looked at the villagers and said, "The reason why you didn't find He Yuqing's body after two days of searching is not because you couldn't find it, but because you looked in the wrong place. That's why you couldn't find it."

"Mr. Jiang means... that all the people who fell from above fell onto that platform."

"Not really."

Lin Lezhi's four words successfully plunged the villagers into confusion again.

"If a corpse falls from the top of the waterfall, there is indeed a high possibility that it will fall onto the platform, but it is not certain."

Lin Lezhi looked at the Yulong Waterfall beside him. The River God Festival had just passed four days ago, and there were still some lanterns and paper figurines floating on the water. Lin Lezhi paused, looked at the villagers and asked, "How much does it take to prepare a River God Festival in the village?"

A man standing nearby said, "Although there are not many people in our village, it takes at least a month in advance to prepare the items for the River God Festival. From lanterns to flower lanterns, paper figurines and bamboo rafts, there are thousands of items in total."

Lin Lezhi asked again, "According to what everyone has said, after every river god ceremony, the bride's body and bamboo raft disappear. Then why was there a bamboo raft floating on the water the next day when I accidentally walked into your ceremony?"

The bamboo raft that Xiao Xu picked up from the water that day was still on the shore.

The man couldn't figure it out, and shook his head and said, "This...we don't know."

Lin Lezhi casually picked up a lantern that accidentally floated to the shore, held it in front of him and said, "Just like these lanterns and paper figurines, the same goes for the bride and the bamboo raft. It's impossible for them to land on the platform exactly every time."

"But there really wasn't one before."

"Did you come here immediately after the sacrifice?"

Another man next to him said, "No, it's too dark in the forest, and everyone is afraid of revenge from Yuqing's parents, so they don't dare to come."

"That's right." Lin Lezhi put the lantern on the water. "Originally, it wouldn't have happened this time, but it was interfered with by humans."

The villagers were confused by what they heard.

Lin Lezhi explained: "In order to accurately find the location of the cave every time, the length of the vine extends just to the entrance of the cave. There is only one way to the Yulong Waterfall, and Village Chief Ji sent people to guard the only exit that night, so the bamboo raft did not disappear completely."

Village Chief Ji suddenly realized, his eyes widened and he said, "So every time the body of a newlywed disappears, it is because someone is secretly controlling it."

"Yes, there are enough lanterns. No one would notice if there were a few dozen less. But if there were only a few bamboo rafts floating on the water, people would definitely be suspicious. But it's not difficult. As long as the bamboo raft and the bride disappear together, we can perfectly fake it as the river god picking up the bride."

Lin Lezhi turned around and said, "Am I right, Magistrate Li?"

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's eyes fell on Li Weisheng, with disbelief on their faces, but Li Weisheng stood where he was without saying a word, his eyes fixed on He Yuqing's body lying on the ground.

Village Chief Ji walked forward a few steps, his eyes fell on He Yuqing's body, and said with confusion in his eyes: "It's impossible. When Yuqing jumped into the river to commit suicide, County Magistrate Li was not in Yulong Village."

"He was indeed not here, because according to his original plan, Yuqing would not die in Yulong Village. It was only after he came back that he discovered rumors of the river god getting married had spread in the village. In order to hide his real reason, he had no choice but to let this farce continue."

Li Weisheng turned around, his eyes full of sadness, and said calmly: "Brother Jiang, Yuqing saved my life, why would I want to kill Yuqing?"

"For the sake of your career, you were worried that Yuqing would become a stumbling block to your career, so you bribed the town's bandits and forced He Yuqing to marry you, pushing the He family to death. You even had the entire village hold this inhumane human sacrifice for fear of the secret being leaked."

"Career..." Li Weisheng smiled bitterly, then looked at Lin Lezhi and said, "Brother Jiang, you have been talking about this for so long, do you have any evidence?"

"You want evidence? Okay." Lin Lezhi took out the small piece of wood found in He's house from his arms and presented it to everyone again.

A woman said, "Isn't this the piece that fell into Yuqing's house when we replaced the furniture in the house?"

"wrong."

"Where is wrong?"

"You can see that the cut of this piece of wood has been carefully made to look old, but the mistake is that it is too clean. Xiao Xu has mysophobia and frowns when he goes to a dirty place. But when I gave him this piece of wood, he took it naturally. Isn't this too strange?"

"Jiang Lian'an."

As if as a warning, Xiao Xu whispered Jiang Lian'an's name.

Lin Lezhi felt a chill on his back, glanced at Xiao Xu and said, "Well... I didn't mean to criticize you with my reasoning, don't interrupt me."

Lin Lezhi cleared his throat and continued, "Think about it, a room that no one has entered for twelve years, with the door still wide open, must be full of dust. How can this small piece of wood be so clean?"

"There is only one reason, that is, this piece of wood was thrown in from behind, and the only people who have entered that room are me, Xiao Xu, Miss Sun Wan'er, and Magistrate Li."

Li Weisheng smiled and said, "If what Brother Jiang said is true, any one of the four of us could be a suspect, and Brother Jiang could be the murderer."

Lin Lezhi nodded and said with certainty: "You are right, but Xiao Xu reminded me."

Xiao Xu frowned: "Me?"

"Yes, you still remember that night when you said there were two muddy palm prints on the hem of my clothes."

Lin Lezhi looked at Li Weisheng and continued, "Magistrate Li said that he hid in the river that night to save his bride, but to save her you only need to hide on the shore, not in the water. Besides, who knows whether you hid in the water to save people or to kill people."

"There is only one possibility. You happened to go to the cave to check on the situation that day. When you came up, you found me coming out of the river. You were afraid that I knew something, so you followed me. But I injured you and ran away. It happened to be the beginning of the river god festival, so you were afraid of being discovered, so you didn't follow me."

"Then, you secretly discovered my identity and tried to attribute it all to the villagers' fear of the river god, thereby completely extricating yourself from the issue."