The Ming Dynasty's henchmen, working from nine to five

Chapter 22 Tracing Back

"Please come in, sir."

The old woman paused for a moment, bent down even lower, opened the door, and stepped aside.

Shen Lang walked into the courtyard and went straight to the point: "Old man, what is Huang Cuier to you?"

"Reporting to Your Excellency, it is my granddaughter."

Where are her parents?

They all died more than ten years ago.

Where is your husband?

"He's dead too."

"Does Wong Tsui-yee have any siblings?"

"I have an older brother and an older sister who died of an epidemic three years ago."

The old woman spoke as usual, answering whatever Shen Lang asked, as if she were just talking about a trivial matter.

But Shen Lang fell silent, unable to ask any further questions.

Looking at the dilapidated house with its bare walls, he couldn't help but sigh.

The inner city was bustling with music and revelry, a picture of peace and tranquility. But who would have known that, just across the city wall, the people on the other side were living such a miserable life?

Seeing that Shen Lang remained silent for a long time, the old woman gripped the hem of her clothes tightly and said cautiously:

"Sir, you've come here today because the murderer who killed Cui'er has been caught?"

Shen Lang snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head: "They haven't been caught yet; the case is still under investigation."

"I came here this time to see if there are any new clues."

Upon hearing this, the old woman was visibly disappointed, but she forced a smile and said, "I still have work to do, sir, please go ahead."

After saying that, she found a needle and thread, picked up a basket of clothes, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Shen Lang stood up, glanced around briefly, and then went outside.

He closed the door, and a wisp of gray mist rose from the depths of his eyes.

True Vision Realm, activated!

The thatched house and its small courtyard shrank and transformed, appearing clearly before his eyes like a projection.

However, it wasn't over yet. The next moment, the gray mist in Shen Lang's eyes suddenly boiled over!

He stepped forward, and his entire body transformed into a phantom, disappearing into the Realm of True Sight.

"Backtrack!"

With a low shout, the spacetime within his domain seemed to be rewound, rapidly reversing.

Soon, time was anchored to a month earlier, on the day Huang Cuier died.

After doing all this, Shen Lang closed his eyes slightly to calm his disordered qi and blood and restore his energy.

What he just used was a new function that came into being after the arrest and case-solving skills were upgraded to LV15.

The effect was nothing short of miraculous; he entered the Real Sight Realm alone and freely altered the spacetime nodes within it.

Fast forward, rewind, pause, loop.

The cost, however, is the expenditure of physical strength and energy.

The larger the scope of the regression, the more physical strength and energy are required.

Shen Lang has now officially entered the realm of an eighth-rank martial artist.

Their muscles and bones are tempered like steel, and their energy is as vigorous as a raging fire in a furnace.

Even so, retracing the steps of this thatched hut back to a month ago nearly exhausted all his strength.

After resting for a while, Shen Lang opened his eyes and turned his gaze to the well in the courtyard.

According to the information provided by Liu Baichuan, Huang Cuier's body was found in this well.

Shen Lang strode over and stopped at the wellhead.

Waited for a while.

Boom!

A sudden sound of a heavy object falling into the water rang out.

Shen Lang looked down into the well and saw that the once calm water surface was now rippling.

"Huang Cuier's body was thrown into the well at this time."

"Go back in time again!"

Shen Lang's eyes were filled with gray mist. He let out a low shout, and time and space reversed, going back two hours once again.

The Real Sight Realm is, after all, just a simulated world. Once the rewind function is enabled, it can only display inanimate objects that are not flesh and blood.

Therefore, Shen Lang could not see people or corpses, and could only make calculations based on the changes in the state of the debris in the yard.

I waited quietly for a while.

boom!

The courtyard gate suddenly swung open, as if it had been kicked.

Then, it was immediately shut down.

A jumble of footprints appeared on the ground.

Shen Lang bent down, half-squatting on the ground, and examined it carefully.

"Two kinds of footprints, one big and one small."

"The younger one is Huang Cuier, and the older one must be the murderer."

"As expected, the killer was a human, not some kind of ghost."

Shen Lang continued to stand still and observe.

The footprints on the ground became increasingly messy, and later, drag marks appeared.

"Huang Cuier is struggling, very violently."

"It's clear she really wants to live."

The whole process lasted about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea.

Of the two footprints, the smaller one disappeared.

Immediately afterwards, a drag mark appeared on the ground, following the large footprint, extending to the outside of the house.

"Huang Cuier was subdued by him and dragged into the house."

Shen Lang followed him inside and found that the wooden table at the entrance had been knocked over.

Immediately afterwards, the bed became a complete mess.

Shen Lang frowned, unable to bear watching any longer, and strode outside.

About the time it takes for an incense stick to burn has passed.

Large footprints reappeared in the yard.

Subsequently, the pile of firewood in the corner was overturned, the cart was kicked aside, and buckets and hemp ropes were scattered all over the ground.

The footprints covered almost every corner of the courtyard.

Shen Lang said in a low voice, "Huang Cuier is dead."

"He wanted to find a shovel to dig a pit to bury the body, but Huang Cuier's family didn't have a shovel."

A short while later, there was a loud bang.

The courtyard gate was wide open, swaying from side to side, and then quickly closed again in the next second.

"He was kicking the door to vent his anger."

Although he couldn't see the person, Shen Lang could picture the murderer's furious expression in his mind.

After that, the footprints moved again, heading towards the door.

It disappeared briefly for a moment, then reappeared.

"His footprints became deeper, and he went into the house and carried out Huang Cuier's body."

Then came the scene that Shen Lang had just witnessed.

Huang Cuier's body was thrown into the well.

Shen Lang stood by the well, looking down at the rippling water, and murmured to himself:

"Go two miles further west, and you'll find the government-run mass burial ground."

"But he couldn't even be bothered to walk those few steps; he just wanted to get it over with quickly."

"Farmers need water for washing clothes and cooking every day. There's only one well in the yard, so there's no way to hide a body."

"That's common sense, doesn't he know that?"

"Or... does he know, but he just doesn't care?"

Shen Lang began to sort through the clues and deduce the killer's characteristics.

First, the perpetrator should be very thin and weak, and have never practiced martial arts.

Judging from the footprints when he first entered, this person's steps were very unsteady.

Moreover, according to the information provided by Liu Baichuan, Huang Cuier is less than four feet seven inches tall.

It took him the time it takes to brew a cup of tea to subdue such a frail woman.

If it were a strong, adult male, he would not do this.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the murderer did not choose to move Huang Cuier's body to the mass grave.

Carrying someone for two miles was too strenuous for him.

Besides, there was the courtyard gate, which was full of cracks. He kicked it twice, but it remained unscathed. Clearly, his strength was very weak.

Secondly, the perpetrator must have been of a high social status.

Unable to find a shovel, he casually threw Huang Cuier's body into the well.

He was confident because he believed that killing a commoner would not be a problem even if he was discovered.

In the eyes of the powerful and wealthy, Huang Cuier's lowly life was no different from that of a stray dog ​​on the roadside.

So what if he was killed?

As the clues were pieced together, a blurry portrait of the murderer gradually appeared in Shen Lang's mind.