If you don't count, you will die

Chapter 15

After getting off the carriage, Shen Mo smelled a burst of strong fragrance. Looking from afar, the layers of locust trees beside the city wall are closely linked to each other, and the crown of the trees is full of locust trees. , the strong fragrance comes from these Sophora japonica flowers.

Lin Mu got off the carriage, looked at the bouquets of Sophora japonica and said, "It's only the beginning of April, and the Sophora japonica is already blooming so vigorously."

Looking west along the city wall, the Sophora japonica is even more lush. There is a small village called Sophora japonica Village.

I heard that Sophora japonica is full of pagoda trees. From mid-April to the end of May every year, Sophora japonica is in full bloom, and the whole village is full of flowers. Local villagers often take Sophora japonica to go home and make some delicious food about Sophora japonica. But this year, at the beginning of April, the Sophora japonica has already bloomed so lushly.

Wen Pu led the carriage to the city gate, "It's getting late, let's go into the city and find a place to live."

Mo Mo turned to look at the locust trees spreading westward on the city wall, and said, "I want to go to the locust tree village first."

Wen Pu looked at Lin Mu when he heard the words, and when he saw Lin Mu nodding, he set up the carriage again and drove the two of them to Huaishu Village.

As the name suggests, Huaishu Village is really full of pagoda trees, beside the houses and in the yard, they are lush and growing very well.

"so quiet."

Looking around silently, he couldn't help but speak.Since they came in, they haven't seen anyone yet.

Although the village is clean and tidy, the doors are closed everywhere, and it doesn't look like there are people.

Lin Mu and Wen Pu walked in next to Shen Mo on the left and right, Wen Pu was still some distance away from Shen Mo, and Lin Mu was a little closer to Shen Mo.

"Ugh..."

A whimper came from not far away, and everyone stood on guard. They saw a small brown hair ball rolling out from behind the locust tree. Come here, it's a little brown-haired puppy.

The little milk dog was very courageous, he ran to the feet of several people, silent but young, couldn't help but want to bend down to pick him up, but Lin Mu clenched his arms to prevent him from squatting down go.

Seeing Shen Mo ignoring him, the little milk dog was very wronged, and turned over in front of Shen Mo, revealing its soft belly.

Lin Mu held Shen Mo's arm tightly, not letting him move.

Seeing that this was not possible, the puppy got up angrily, and bumped its head against Shen Mo's ankle, but because it was too small, the bump knocked itself backwards.

Wen Pu suddenly said sharply, "Come out!"

Silence froze for a moment, looked up, the surroundings were empty, and there were no other people.

There was no movement for a while, Lin Mu winked, and Wen Pu walked to a corner, drawing out the broad knife at his waist while walking.

As we were getting closer, a child suddenly ran out from behind the haystack in the corner, his feet limp and his hands fell to the ground, and he said in a trembling voice, "Who are you? What are you doing in our village? Tuan Tuan! Tuan Tuan comes back !"

As he said that, he went to call the little milk dog again, and it seemed that the puppy belonged to him.

Seeing that it was just a helpless child, Shen Mo felt relieved, but Lin Mu still held Shen Mo's arm tightly.

"What about the rest of your village?" Wen Pu asked.

The child was dressed in common clothes with grass clippings on them but it wasn't messy, his eyes were gurgling, and he looked very clever.

"All the adults went to the next village to go to the market. Today is the big market, and the children went too."

When Wen Pu heard the words, a sharp light flashed in his eyes, and he asked, "Why don't you go?"

The child fell silent again.

Suddenly, the sound of chaotic footsteps gradually came from a distance, light and heavy, and when they got closer, they heard laughing, scolding, and gossip. Turning their heads in silence, they saw a group of people coming in twos and threes, men and women Both young and old, they carried a lot of things in their hands or on their backs.

When the young and middle-aged men who were walking in front saw the silent three, they were stunned, and then walked over quickly, and when they saw the little boy covered in grass clippings not far away, their expressions were even more clear.

A man in the lead said: "Sirs, you think you are going to Zeshui City?"

Lin Mu nodded, and said nonsense: "Exactly, I passed by here and wanted to stay overnight."

The young man had such an expression on his face when he heard it, "We Huaishu Village lives next to Zeshui City, and there are often foreigners or business travelers who come here to stay here. Please come with me, my lords. I think it just so happens that we are both Going to the market, that kid Shuisheng has disturbed you."

The Shui Sheng that the young man said should be referring to the child holding the milk dog.

At this time, the people in the village came back, and soon it became lively. Gradually, Cui Yan curled up, and every household had already started to light fire and cook.

The young and middle-aged man took Shen Shen and the others to a courtyard. There were several tile-roofed houses in the courtyard. Although they were empty and simple, they were also neat and tidy.

Wen Pu took out a piece of broken silver and handed it to the man. The villager was not hypocritical, and readily accepted it, saying: "My family lives not far away, and you all come from a long way to come to starve, right? The food made by people is not bad, why don't you bring some to fill up the stomachs of several people?"

Lin Mu nodded, "Also."

The young man said no more and left.

In the evening, they had a hasty meal, and then went into their rooms to rest.

Mo Mo hadn't had a dream for a long time after a strange dream that day, but she never thought that today, in Huaishu Village, she had a dream again.

The strong fragrance of Sophora japonica in the dream floated over in bursts, and the surrounding area was foggy and the visibility was very low.

Children's laughter and laughter could be faintly heard ahead, but through the thick fog, nothing could be seen.

Mo Mo hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward, walking and walking, as if walking a long way, but also as if he had not moved at the same place, the laughter seemed to be all in front of his eyes, but the next moment was far away.

Silence seemed to be possessed, and he still walked forward step by step, faster and faster, but gradually the speed of walking could no longer satisfy him, and he seemed very anxious and anxious in his heart.

Hurry up, hurry up!

See you soon!

See you soon!

But who does he want to see?

Suddenly the dense fog dispersed like water, Mo Mo fell to the ground exhausted, and finally saw clearly ahead.

But there were no children playing in front of him, only a child in dirty clothes turned his back to him, repeating it softly over and over again.

"Why don't you come..."

"Why don't you come to me..."

"I'm waiting for you..."

"Where are you……"

"I'm in so much pain...I don't want to die..."

Suddenly, the child seemed to notice that someone was watching him from behind, and slowly turned around...

Moaning and chirping sounded next to his ears, Shen Mo opened his eyes, was startled by the enlarged dog's face in front of him, immediately stretched out his hand and waved it away, only to see a furry brown ball rolled around a few times before getting up again Heeping, silently staring at the little milk dog who kept shouting in front of him, why did this dog come here?

He rubbed his head, vaguely felt that he seemed to have had a dream, dreamed of something, but could no longer remember.

The three got up early and rushed to Zeshui City.

Zeshui City was built by water and lived by water. It is a necessary place to go to several nearby small towns. Therefore, most business travelers settle here, and because of the rich aquatic products, there are many delicacies, which also attracts many gourmets. .

Lin Mu: "Go directly to the local law enforcement hall. The registration status will be arranged by the local officials. Do you have any tokens?"

The three of them entered the city gate together, and because the three of them were all handsome youths and teenagers, there would often be female relatives passing by secretly, covering the corners of their mouths and laughing, while Wen Pu was cold and seemed unapproachable, silent and young and looked childish , is Lin Mu's most eye-catching.

Mo Mo glanced sideways at a girl next to her who was staring at Lin Mu's blushing cheeks, then looked away, and said, "There is a token."

Lin Mu nodded, "That's good."

The Law Enforcement Hall is not difficult to find. It seems that someone from above has already ordered it, and there are several people waiting at the door at this time.

The leader has a goatee and is about 40 years old. He is dressed in a black robe unique to the Law Enforcement Hall. He has thick eyebrows and big eyes, with deep grooves between his eyebrows. He seems to be full of melancholy, but his eyes are very sharp. He saluted with a humble expression and said, "Your Majesty welcomes your lords, do you dare to ask if your lords have customs clearance certificates?"

Mo Mo put one hand into his waist, took out the token and handed it to the man.

The man took the token, immediately knelt down with a changed expression, held up the token and shouted: "Meet the emperor!"

Seeing the token, Wen Pu immediately knelt down on one knee, "I greet the emperor."

Only Lin Mu still stood there with a smile on his face, lazily took the token and threw it back into Shen Mo's arms, "Seeing the black order is like seeing the emperor, the emperor has given you great rights." not afraid.

Hearing the words, Mo Mo pursed his lips slightly, and stuffed the token back into his waist, with no expression on his face, but turned his head to look at Lin Mu who was still standing idly by his side, as if saying why don't you kneel down?

Lin Mu helped his forehead, and suddenly put on a weak look: "I'm not in good health, and the emperor gave me a special gift not to kneel before the emperor." How could there be any reason to kneel by yourself?

The goatee's head was almost buried in his stomach, but his thoughts were turning back and forth. Everyone in the court knew that the only person in Zhan Tian Kingdom who could not kneel before him was the Lord of the Thousand Machines Palace who was in charge of all the machines in the world.

I don't want to come this time not only the current national teacher, but also another big Buddha.

Mo Mo raised his hand to help him: "Get up." He didn't really like the etiquette of bending and kneeling, but he had to do it here.

The goatee got up neatly and said: "My lords, you have been traveling all the way, please go back to the hall with me to rest for a while, and I will prepare some food for my lords at noon, so that I can entertain you."

Hearing the food, Shen Mo immediately accepted it readily, and after the night passed, he was hungry again.

The law enforcement hall in Zeshui City is not as large as Jiuzhong's Law Enforcement Hall. Of course, Jiuzhong Law Enforcement Hall is the main hall, which is incomparable in other places, but this place is not shabby either.

The name of the goatee is Chang Li, and he is the head of the Law Enforcement Hall here.

The three of them each had a bedroom, so they all went back to their respective bedrooms.

After lunch at noon, Shen Mo called Chang Li and asked him how the case was progressing.

Chang Li frowned, "A few corpses were recovered, but..."

Having said that, Chang Li stopped.

Silence saw him hesitate, and asked, "What? What's wrong?"

Chang Li hesitated for a moment, then said: "My lord, the recovered corpses are all hideous and seriously damaged..."

Shen Mo frowned and interrupted him: "Take us to see those corpses."

Chang Li was still hesitant, the new national teacher was too young, if he was to be blamed for the frightening of several corpses, it would not be worth the loss.

How could Shen Mo think of the twists and turns in the stomachs of these officials, and only urged him again, but the official still hesitated.

Until Lin Mu opened his mouth, he said lightly: "Lead the way ahead."

But it made Chang Li tremble all over, he felt a chill down his back, and had the illusion of being stared at by a cold-blooded animal, and immediately stood up to lead the silent people.

Because the case is unimaginable and there is no clue so far, the recovered corpses have not been notified to their families, but have been placed in the ice room in the basement of the law enforcement hall. The temperature there is extremely low, which can ensure that the corpses will not rot in a short time. There is also something wrong with the retrieval.

The underground is dark, with only a few candles hanging on both sides. Going down the steps, the temperature gets lower and lower until the outside of the ice room, the exhaled gas can already form a white mist.

It wasn't until entering the ice room that Mo Mo understood why Chang Li hesitated.

The few corpses recovered were indeed terrifying. To be precise, they could no longer be called corpses, but corpses, yes, scattered corpses.

The body parts were vaguely connected by thick lines, as if someone had torn each body apart and then roughly stitched them together. Some internal organs were roughly stuffed between the body parts.

Compared with the decent corpses of Lou Xi and Jing Bozhong, and the corpses covered in mud that the emperor saw when he was patrolling the city, this was the first time Shen Mo faced such a bloody and disgusting scene. The feeling of vomiting surged up, causing him to cover his mouth tightly in a gaffe.

Even Chang Li, who has seen him a few times, is still very uncomfortable. At this time, he is pressing his lips tightly to resist the vomit in his throat.

However, both Lin Mu and Wen Pu looked normal, Wen Pu still stood aside with his face frozen, but Lin Mu had already moved closer to observe.

Silently covered his mouth tightly, even in the ice room, bursts of blood and disgusting smell penetrated into his nasal cavity.He closed his eyes tightly, and his eyes were a little red from excessive force, and a few tears were squeezed out of the corners of his eyes.

Seeing him like this, Lin Mu still smiled casually and lazily: "If you feel unwell, you can go out and stay first."

Shen Mo slowly put down his hand, pursed his lips and shook his head, he stood there for a while, then walked towards the corpse, came to Lin Mu's side, bent over to observe.

Seeing that the corners of his eyes were red, Lin Mu laughed lightly, "Bearing bravely."

Having endured the discomfort at the beginning, even though he is still committing crimes when he looks closely at this time, it is still within the range that silence can bear.

I saw that the division of these corpses was not regular, and the edges of the body parts were not neat. I think the cutting tools were blunt. The placement is stitched together, but there are often places where the placement is wrong, and the stitching is so rough that it looks very weird.

Shen Mo looked down one by one, his lips moved slightly, as if he was calculating something.

Then he straightened up, and the first thing he saw was Lin Mu who was staring at him intently. He was taken aback for a moment, and suddenly became a little awkward. This feeling was very strange and caught him off guard.

Lin Mu didn't know what he was thinking, but asked, "How is it? What did you find?"

Shen Mo retracted his gaze, looked at the corpses again and said, "It's not complete...these corpses are not complete, they all...are missing some places."

As he spoke, he pointed to a male corpse and said, "This arm is missing a piece."

Pointing to another female corpse, he said, "This one's left leg is missing one piece, the right leg has four pieces, and the left leg has only three pieces. The lengths are obviously different."

"These are inconspicuous missing body parts, but two are very obvious, such as the boy's body missing both eyes, and the female body missing two palms."

"They all have one thing in common, the skin on their palms has been cut off."

Chang Li leaned against the edge of the ice room, the continuous air-conditioning behind him suppressed the nausea in his mouth, he took a breath before he said, "What does your lord mean?"

Without answering, he frowned and walked to the corpse of a girl, staring at it for a long time.

A total of five corpses were recovered, and it was said that the recovery was a bit of a stretch, because they were all thrown into the law enforcement hall.

A total of 15 people died of drowning. The bodies of 15 people were all lost from the law enforcement hall. After the loss, they were dismembered and thrown back in tatters. This approach seemed to be a provocation.

But what is certain is that they were dismembered and sewn up after death, and because of this, at least they suffered less pain during their lifetime.

Mo Mo swallowed a mouthful of saliva, forcibly suppressed the nausea from the bee chrysalis again in his throat, and slowly stretched out his hand to the girl's corpse in front of him.

He gently touched the little girl's broken body, carefully avoiding those hideous gaps, and inspected carefully, only this corpse, on the surface, seemed to have nothing missing except the skin on the palms of the hands.

After a while, he withdrew his hand and stood up, but he didn't notice any difference in the girl.

Before coming here, he thought that there was already a dead person's hexagram in Jing Bozhong, so he shouldn't have to worry too much this time, but now he thinks it's because of his carelessness, after these corpses have no palm skin, he can no longer touch the palm to ask Hexagram, at this moment, he has no clue and even becomes a little anxious.

Thinking of this, for some reason, he raised his head to look at Lin Mu.

He didn't know why he was looking at Lin Mu at this moment, as if asking for help, he understood that this was not a good sign, Lin Mu was not as simple as the smile he always had on his lips.

Lin Mu was looking at a corpse at this time, as if he had sensed something, when Shen Mo looked at him, he immediately raised his head to look at Shen Mo, and the two looked at each other, Lin Mu still had the usual light smile on his face , even among the bloody and terrifying corpses, the faint smile on his face never disappeared.

After a while, Shen Mo looked away first, and Lin Mu raised his eyebrows, as if he was a little puzzled by his move.

Shen Mo closed his eyes, and stroked Hao Su's cold pen body with his fingers on his waist. This pen seemed to have a calming effect, and when his fingertips slid gently, he calmed down.He is not an arrogant person, and he also clearly understands that apart from this magical fortune-telling system, in this ancient era, if he doesn't know martial arts, he is half a waste.

Opening his eyes, he went to observe the corpses again, thinking over and over again the progress of the case that Chang Li had said.

The first corpse to be thrown back was the boy who lost his eyes. The boy was only five or six years old, just at the age of innocence, and he didn't have a deep understanding of the world, so he passed away in such a tragic way .

The fabric of the boy's clothes is soft and the skin is delicate. Presumably, he comes from a good family and is loved by the elders in the family.

His small body was broken fairly regularly, with one part for the head and one part for each of the limbs, and the body was divided into two from the middle of the stomach. Rough stitches sewed his belly together, and the internal organs were stuffed chaotically inside. He stretched out his hand silently, The fingertips slowly penetrated into the boy's stomach. It didn't feel good to feel the internal organs sliding through the fingertips, but at this moment he was surprisingly calm.

Then he went to check the internal organs of other corpses, and finally found that none of these corpses had hearts.

Withdrawing his hand, the greasy liquid in his internal organs fell to the ground along his fingertips.

Lin Mu leaned to the side to see all this, the boy with black eyes stretched out his hands to stir the abdomen of the corpse indifferently, the scene was like a pure and innocent nascent evil spirit playing with his toys.

Silently asked Chang Li who was silent at the side: "Chang Li, when were these corpses thrown back into the Law Enforcement Hall?"

Chang Li couldn't help staring at Shen Mo's wet fingertips and said: "The time... the time is not fixed, it happens in the morning, in the middle of the day, in the evening, but you can't catch this person."

At this time, Chang Li already admired the newly appointed young national teacher in his heart.

Silence: "Have the identities of these 15 people been ascertained? Is there any connection between them?"

Chang Li shook his head, "The identities have been ascertained, but these fifteen people are of different ages and family backgrounds, and there is no connection between them."

Nodding silently, today's investigation can be said to have made no substantial progress.

Several people left the underground ice room together, it was already past noon, and they stayed in the ice room for a long time unknowingly.

Chang Li is now very convinced of Shen Mo, no matter how well he handles the case, it is because he does not change his face and stretches out his hand in the face of those horrific corpses... Regardless of mentioning here, he cupped his hands at Mo Mo and said: "Several Would you like some food, sir?"

Silence actually didn't have much appetite, but he still nodded, and then he went back to the bedroom first to get water to bathe. After touching the corpse, he couldn't go to eat without taking a bath carefully.

On the other hand, Lin Mu and Wen Pu's expressions remained unchanged, as if looking at a corpse was no different from looking at a dead fish or shrimp.

After eating, Lin Mu came up with an idea for Shen Mo, "Why don't we go out and find out the news?"

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and pulled the end of the blindfolded black veil behind Shen Mo's head, and let go when Shen Mo had to tilt his head back.

Shen Mo frowned, raised his hand to straighten the black veil in front of him, and didn't want to bother with Lin Mu, since his facial expression has obviously increased since getting to know Lin Mu.

Lin Mu: "You only listen to the one-sided words of the law enforcement hall, how can you fully understand the whole story?"

Silence seemed to feel something after hearing this, and immediately followed Lin Mu to wander around the market in Zeshui City, but this time Wen Pu did not follow.

There are many business travelers in Zeshui City, and the street market is very lively. There is no change in the city because of the death of more than a dozen people. After all, those horrible corpses were only thrown into the Law Enforcement Hall in the end, and the Law Enforcement Hall blocked the matter. What rumors are coming out.So at this time, the street market is still very lively, with constant hawking in the streets and alleys.

Lin Mu led Shen Mo straight to the busiest restaurant, and the two occupied a seat on the second floor by the window, and called Xiao Er.

At this time, Lin Mu threw a piece of silver on the table with a bit of quack air and said, "Xiao Er, here is a pot of good tea."

The action of throwing pieces of silver is obviously very vulgar, but it was done by Lin Mu, but it has a casual and casual taste, which is not disgusting.

His movement naturally attracted the attention of other diners. Several female relatives secretly looked at Lin Mu, who looked back generously and gave a gentle smile.

Shen Mo has seen this kind of scene a lot in the past two days, and suddenly asked: "Do you treat everyone like this?"

Lin Mu raised his eyebrows: "So what?"

Shen Shen with a wooden face, looked at Lin Mu's smiling eyes and brows with a flirtatious look, and said: "Smiling like this... like this..." Shen Mo couldn't find a good adjective for a while.

Lin Mu leaned closer to Shen Mo, with an enlarged smile in front of her eyes, Mo Mo's thoughts suddenly stopped, as if she had forgotten what she wanted to say just now.

I saw Lin Mu gradually approaching Shen Mo, stretching out his hand to lightly touch Shen Mo's heart, and said: "This...makes your heart fascinated?"