The middle-aged woman was evasive, her eyes were erratic, and she didn't dare to look us in the face. Officer Yang said in a deep voice: "Sister, if you have anything to say, just say it directly. There are no outsiders here, only a few of us. If you have been wronged, we, the police, will definitely give you justice!"
I don’t know if it was because of the pressure from Officer Yang, or if the middle-aged woman really knew something but was afraid to say it, or if it was because she was too sad and frightened by her husband’s death, but after Officer Yang asked this question, the middle-aged woman was so excited that she couldn’t breathe, closed her eyes and fainted.
I was stunned at the time, turned to look at Officer Yang who also had a confused look on his face, and asked him what to do
Officer Yang shook the middle-aged woman vigorously, then opened her eyelids and took a look, then sighed and said, "She's not pretending, she's really dizzy."
I am very sure that I can get some important clues from this middle-aged woman, but the current situation makes me very helpless. Officer Yang asked Lin Yingxue to take care of this middle-aged woman here, and took me out of this house and walked towards the village chief's house.
"Let's go and see what Master Liu is going to do. But you must keep a low profile when you get there. We are now in the wilderness and the villagers trust Master Liu more than they trust us. If we anger them, who knows what they will do." Officer Yang instructed me as we walked.
I nodded gently. I was very clear about the current situation. I certainly would not risk my life by doing something impulsive. While walking forward, I made a detailed review of everything I knew.
At present, the biggest question in this case is not why Zhao Tiezhu's father would "fake his corpse" and kill people, because I know that it is not very difficult to fake a corpse and kill people. If we have professional forensic doctors around us, I believe we can find some clues from the marks on Li Jianmin's neck. In my opinion, the murderer must have secretly dug out the body of Zhao Tiezhu's father at night, brought the body to the home of Li Jianmin, where he was going to commit the crime, strangled Li Jianmin to death while he was sleeping, and then put Zhao Tiezhu's father's body on top to fake the scene of fake corpse and murder. Although I have no evidence, but according to my speculation, this must be the case.
As for why he had to create such a weird murder scene, I think there are only two possibilities. One is to hide his crime and put all the blame on Zhao Tiezhu's father. The other is for fame and fortune. According to these two motives, Master Liu is obviously the most suspicious, but I always feel that things should not be so simple. Maybe there is a third motive for murder, but I have not discovered this motive yet.
Of course, in my opinion, the biggest question in this case is why did Zhao Tiezhu's father die so coincidentally? Why did he die of natural causes inexplicably the day after Qiongqi's package was sent here? I don't believe that Qiongqi has the ability to predict other people's deaths. In my opinion, the murderer must have made all the plans in advance and killed Zhao Tiezhu's father in a way that could deceive the forensic doctor.
When I thought about it this way, I suddenly felt that this matter was so complicated. Up to now, there was no clue to the doubts I listed. I suddenly felt that I was not suitable for this line of work. The confidence I had gained from solving the empty package case was also shaken at this moment.
With a heavy heart, I followed Officer Yang all the way to the village chief's house, only to see his wife. After asking, I learned that the villagers did not carry the body here, but to an empty house that had been left for many years in the former village committee.
We were very frustrated that we had made the trip in vain, but fortunately, the place was not far from the village chief's house, and I could faintly hear the sound of ringing bells from a distance.
So we followed the sound of the bell and soon arrived at the village committee mentioned by the village chief's wife.
This village committee is not as formal as I imagined. It is actually just a large courtyard with an iron gate. There are several exercise facilities in the courtyard and the house looks quite old. I am afraid that if Master Liu had not chosen to perform his duties here, few people would be willing to come here.
At this time, the huge courtyard was already crowded with people, but there was no noise among so many people. Everyone was staring intently at the room where the bell sound came from. Even the people standing in the back row who couldn't see anything still leaned their heads forward to look.
Because of the special identities of Officer Yang and I, it was a bit difficult to squeeze in, but we still managed to squeeze into the dusty room in front.
There was a lot of dust on the floor of the house, and the surrounding walls were all gray. There were a lot of spider webs in each corner. It seemed that this house had been abandoned for a long time. However, such a dilapidated house was more lively than any other house at this time.
I saw Master Liu, the village chief, Zhao Tiezhu and Zhang Guozhong were all in the house. In the middle of the house, there was an altar covered with red cloth, on which were incense burners and tributes, as well as some yellow talismans and some miscellaneous things. In short, it looked very much like the scenes of Taoist priests performing rituals in Hong Kong zombie movies in the 1980s.
I don't know how Master Liu did it, but the bodies of Zhao Tiezhu's father and Li Jianmin were standing straight behind the altar. Both of them had their eyes closed and a yellow talisman was stuck on their foreheads. At first glance, it looked like they had resurrected from the dead and their bodies were fixed by the yellow talisman.
Officer Yang said in a low voice with a gloomy face: "These idiots, in just a few moments, all the clues on the body have been destroyed!"
I know why Officer Yang said that, because I also saw that both bodies were dressed in new shrouds, and there were faint drops of water on their hair, so they must have been washed. Even if there were fingerprints left before, they can't be found now.
It is obvious that the only person who could make someone do such a thing is Master Liu in front of me, and the more he does this, the more suspicious I think he is.
The village chief and Zhao Tiezhu saw us come in. The village chief immediately turned his head and pretended not to see us, while Zhao Tiezhu looked very haggard at this time. He just nodded to me gently and said hello.
I also smiled politely at Zhao Tiezhu, but when I turned around to look at Master Liu who was busy standing in front of the altar, I was stunned by his actions.
I saw that Master Liu was still wearing the green Taoist robe, standing upright in front of the altar, holding a big bell in one hand and shaking it in front of the two corpses behind the altar, while the other hand kept making the sign of the cross on his chest? This was not the weirdest thing, the weirdest thing was that Master Liu was still chanting Amitabha.
I looked at Master Liu's Taoist robe, his movements and the Amitabha Buddha he said, and wondered what kind of path Master Liu followed? How could Taoism, Buddhism and Catholicism be combined into one
Officer Yang obviously saw this funny scene and couldn't help laughing out loud, which immediately attracted the angry glares of the surrounding villagers. He had no choice but to stop laughing and whispered to me: "Master Liu is too unprofessional. Anyone with a little knowledge will definitely not believe his tricks."
"It can't be helped. This place is so remote, and it seems that there are not many people who have received education. You too should hurry up and improve the education environment here, so that people like this won't feel ashamed."
Officer Yang said helplessly: "It's not my decision. I'll report this to the leadership at the next city meeting."
At this moment, Master Liu suddenly stopped all his movements, took out a piece of yellow paper from the table, picked up a brush and kept writing something on it. We all leaned forward to take a look, but found that it was just some incomprehensible scribbles.
Officer Yang asked curiously, "Master Liu, what is this that you wrote?"
Master Liu did not answer directly. Instead, after filling the yellow paper with his name, he said proudly, "You mortals don't understand. The text I write is called the Destruction Text, which is a text that only the dead can understand. I translated my name into the Destruction Text to make that evildoer retreat!"
I couldn't bear it any longer, so I sneered, "I couldn't understand this when I was alive, so how can I understand it after I die? According to what you said, if I can't learn English when I'm alive, can I get a Level 32 English certificate after I die?"
Facing my doubts, Master Liu's face darkened instantly. He did not continue to argue with me, but turned his back to me and said, "Everyone, this is a critical moment for me. If anyone disturbs me again and something goes wrong, I will not be responsible!"
It was obvious that Master Liu was speaking to the surrounding villagers. After hearing this, the villagers surrounded Officer Yang and me with ferocious looks. It seemed that if we made trouble again, this group of people would probably bury us.
The village chief also waved his hands at us, signaling us not to continue talking. I looked at the atmosphere around me. When have I ever seen such a scene? I immediately shut up. Officer Yang snorted coldly and said nothing. Although there were many people here, as a policeman, he would not be afraid.
We didn't continue to make trouble, and Master Liu continued to perform his ritual. The boring ritual made me want to sleep, but the group of villagers watched it with gusto. I really couldn't understand what they were seeing.
The entire village committee was silent. Even those standing at the door could hear Master Liu muttering something. But at this moment, Officer Yang's cell phone suddenly rang! In an instant, everyone present turned their angry eyes to Officer Yang!