When I heard Wang Hai's words, I immediately stopped, turned my head and stared at him and asked, "Are you sure?"
Wang Hai probably thought my expression was a little strange when I asked the question. He was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "Of course I am sure. How dare I say such a thing casually?"
In that case, I roughly understood some things. When I heard that the abbot chose to stay in the main hall at that time and asked all his followers to leave and close the door, I felt that the abbot must be up to something. Now I heard Wang Hai say that the abbot had never done this before. This can only prove that the abbot was actually waiting for someone to say something shameful, so he did this!
But I was confused. What shameful thing had to be said in the Great Hall? Couldn't it be said in the abbot's meditation room? Or was it that the place to discuss the matter was not decided by the abbot, but by the person who arranged to meet the abbot? If so, there must be some secret in the Great Hall, or the murderer's murder process could not be separated from the Great Hall!
Combining what Wang Hai said before, before the abbot allegedly became a Buddha, a total of four people appeared near the main hall. The last disciple who delivered food was only in there for less than a minute. Therefore, the suspicion of this disciple has basically been reduced to zero.
Among the remaining three people, the abbot's second junior brother who was the first to enter the abbot's room was the most likely person to make an appointment with the abbot to meet in the Main Hall, but after him, a sixth junior brother went in. If the abbot disappeared after the second junior brother left, it would be impossible for the sixth junior brother to stay in the Main Hall for twenty minutes. In other words, the suspicion of the second junior brother can basically be reduced a lot.
In the end, only two people were left, one was the sixth junior brother who entered the main hall at last, and the other was the mysterious sweeping monk. Perhaps because I watched the TV series "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" when I was a child, I always felt that the sweeping monk in Shaolin Temple was a mysterious figure, who might even possess peerless martial arts.
The Sixth Junior Brother was the last person to come out of the Great Hall. Although it is not certain whether he is the person who had agreed to meet the abbot here, he had plenty of time to commit the crime. The most important thing is that the abbot disappeared after he left, so on the surface, he is the most suspicious.
But I don't think so. On the contrary, I think the person with the greatest suspicion should be the sweeping monk. The sweeping monk swept the floor in front of the Main Hall for more than an hour. Although I don't know whether it really takes so long to clean the floor in front of the Main Hall, he was the only person who had a legitimate reason to stay near the Main Hall at that time. In other words, the person who made an appointment with the abbot to meet in the Main Hall was most likely the sweeping monk!
Moreover, after the Sixth Junior Brother left, the Sweeping Monk had about twenty minutes to commit the crime. If he had killed the abbot, then making the body disappear was actually an extremely simple matter. He only had to take off the abbot's robes and put them in the main hall when no one was around, and then take the abbot's body and hide it somewhere quietly. This would indeed explain everything that happened yesterday. Moreover, the Sweeping Monk must be very familiar with many places in Shaolin Temple. If he wanted to hide someone, it might not be that difficult to find him.
Anyway, I now have a clearer idea about this matter in my mind. Wang Hai will take us to the Main Hall first in a while, and then I will ask the people who were present at that time, and perhaps everything will become clear.
But is this really the case? You have to know that this case was directed to me by Qiongqi. Generally speaking, the places pointed by Qiongqi's express delivery are definitely dangerous places. Maybe the story behind this matter is not as simple as I thought.
I followed Wang Hai as I thought about it. After we passed the Heavenly King Hall, Wang Hai said, "The main hall is in front of us. Should we go ask the monks first, or should we go directly to the main hall?"
"Let's go directly to the main hall. I need to see the crime scene first before I can determine what questions I need to ask them."
Wang Hai nodded, and took us directly to the main hall. We walked up the steps, opened the door, and went straight in.
I was thinking a lot before, so I didn't look at the surrounding scenes. But after I entered the main hall, I felt a kind of admiration from the bottom of my heart that I couldn't express in words. There is a Baoan Temple in Zhongwei City where I used to stay. It is ancient and solemn. Now when I see the main hall of Shaolin Temple in front of me, I think I can't think of any adjectives to describe this solemn scene.
The overall architecture of the Main Hall is very tall, almost reaching the height of two or three floors, but it only has one floor of rooms. Inside, there is a row of solemn golden Buddha statues whose names I cannot tell. In short, when I took a look, I felt that I was very small in front of the Buddha statues, as if what was in front of me at this moment was a real god or Buddha, and a feeling of respect arose spontaneously.
Although I don't really believe in these things, I can't be impolite. After all, we can choose not to believe in them, but we cannot disrespect these cultures. So Lin Yingxue and I first walked forward, took some incense and candles, lit them, and worshiped sincerely, and then began to look for what was special about this room.
Looking around the entire room, there is a large incense burner opposite the main entrance, which is used for tourists to burn incense. These golden Buddha statues are also very huge, standing against the wall inside. There are various offering tables below, and there are many tributes on the offering tables. Generally speaking, it may be difficult to hide someone here. Once all the doors are closed, this is a real secret room.
"Pan An, can you smell any strange odor in this main hall? Or is there any hidden secret passage or something like that?"
Pan An shook his head and said, "This place is filled with the smell of incense and candles. I can't smell anything at all. You'd better not count on me."
I thought to myself, of course I didn’t count on you. When have you ever let me down
I saw a pile of clothes on the cushion below the Buddha statue in the middle of the main hall. I walked over to take a closer look. This should be the robes left behind by the abbot after he became a Buddha. Looking at the way the robes were placed, it really looked like a person suddenly disappeared and the clothes fell off automatically to the ground.
I walked to the cushion where the abbot's clothes were lying, and lifted the curtain on the altar in front of me. I immediately discovered that although the entire main hall looked very clean, there were piles of incense ashes left under the altar.
Seeing the incense ashes, I asked Wang Hai with some curiosity: "Have you discovered this thing before?"
"We found out. The monks here said that it was all caused by the laziness of the disciples who clean the main hall. Guests burn incense every day, so there is naturally a lot of incense ash, which sometimes falls to the ground. They are too lazy to clean it up, so they just kick the ashes under the altar. Anyway, no one can see it."
After hearing Wang Hai's explanation, I thought to myself, this is an important Buddhist site, aren't you afraid of retribution for doing this
I walked to the offering tables under several other Buddha statues and looked under them one by one. Sure enough, I also found a lot of incense ashes under the other offering tables, but there was one difference. The incense ashes under the other offering tables were not as much as the incense ashes under the offering table at the door, not even one-fifth of it!
As the saying goes, anything abnormal is a sign of evil. There is so much incense ash here, which must mean there is something wrong!
At this moment, my brain was spinning rapidly, and I began to simulate various possibilities in my mind as to why these incense ashes appeared. Finally, staring at the altar in front of me, I had a vague answer in my heart.
Perhaps the murderer accidentally knocked over the incense burner on the altar while fighting with the abbot, which led to so much incense ashes here. Or perhaps the murderer had some motive and needed to stand on the altar to do something, so he kicked over the incense burner on the altar.
Thinking of this, I stood directly on the altar, trying to recreate what happened at that time. Wang Hai at the door saw me standing on the altar and was so scared that he hurriedly shouted for me to come down quickly, otherwise it would be troublesome if I was seen by the monks here.
But just when Wang Hai called me, I suddenly saw something, and an idea flashed in my mind, and I seemed to vaguely guess something.
I immediately jumped off the altar, turned around and whispered something to Pan An, asking him to help me check something. Although Pan An was a little confused, he still did as I instructed.
Bai Longfei was sitting on a futon to rest, while Lin Yingxue came over and asked me, "Did you find anything?"
"Well, I think I understand how the abbot disappeared. I'm going to ask Pan An to verify something for me. If his answer is the same as I imagined, then the case can basically be declared solved, except..."
"Only what?"
"But is this matter really so simple? This is not the level of Qiongqi that I imagined! I don't know if I think he is too powerful, or if there is actually a more complicated side to this case?"
Lin Yingxue and I had been chatting for about ten minutes when I saw Pan An running back in a hurry. He came to me with an excited look on his face and whispered something to me. After getting the news from Pan An, I was completely sure that my guess was correct.
Pan An had just finished talking to me when Wang Hai at the door seemed to be impatient and said to me, "Ji Wen, I think we have seen enough here. Let's go ask the monks who were here at the time. After all, you only have one day for yourself, so you can't waste too much time here."
I smiled and said, "No need, just call those people over. I already know what this case is about!"