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[Chapter 480, clues left by the murderer]

Shao Qingge and Ye Qi were wandering on the street. During the day, Qingfeng Town was very lively with people coming and going. Ye Qi noticed with sharp eyes that many children were holding a red rattle in their hands, swinging it back and forth while walking, making a clear and sweet sound.

Ye Qi saw several children playing together. He walked up to a little boy, leaned over and looked at him and asked, "This rattle of yours is very fun. Where did you buy it?"

The child pointed to the street in front and said in a sweet voice: "My mother bought it from Grandpa Zhang. Big brother, do you want to play with this?"

Ye Qi smiled and put a piece of candy into the child's hand and said, "Thank you, I'll buy one too."

The two of them followed the direction directed by the child to the end of the street. Sure enough, they saw a shop specializing in selling children's toys, with colorful face figures, various beautiful marbles, and a large number of rattles hanging on the walls.

The old man selling toys must be around fifty years old. He has white hair and a long beard. He wears a blue shirt that has been washed until it fades. He smiles and looks very kind. Shao Qingge took Ye Qi forward, took out a piece of silver from his pocket and handed it to him, saying in a low voice: "Old man, buy me a rattle."

The old man collected the silver, found a large handful of broken silver for Shao Qingge, and said, "There are many patterns painted on the rattle. Master, you can choose for yourself."

Shao Qingge took a closer look and saw that there were indeed many patterns painted on the surface of the rattle, the most classic of which were the twelve zodiac signs.

Ye Qi's eyes lit up and he asked curiously: "If the child at home is born in the year of Tiger, do the parents usually buy rattles with little tiger designs on them?"

The old man smiled and touched his beard: "Yes, you can buy one corresponding to your child's zodiac sign."

Shao Qingge looked at Ye Qi and asked, "Who do you belong to?"

Ye Qi coughed lightly: "I belong to the monkey."

Shao Qingge picked a rattle with a little monkey painted on it, handed it to Ye Qi with a smile, and then said to the old man: "This eldest child in our family still has a childish heart, and the rattle was bought for him."

The old man looked puzzled, as if he was thinking, is it appropriate for you, an adult, to play with this kind of thing?

Ye Qi took the rattle with a smile, played with it in his hand, and asked curiously: "By the way, old man, are there many shops selling rattles in this town?"

The old man shook his head: "It's just my family, I did all these myself."

Shao Qingge then asked: "Your rattle is indeed exquisitely made. Do all the children in the town have one?"

The old man looked proud: "That's natural. My skills are not something ordinary people can learn. It can be said that most people in this town have bought the gadgets I made."

Shao Qingge and Ye Qi looked at each other. It seemed that this was a key plot NPC.

Ye Qi asked softly: "Old man, you have been in the town for so many years, but do you know what happened during the famine 20 years ago? My cousin named Zhang lives in Qingfeng Town. I heard that in 20 years, I starved to death before."

When the old man heard the word "famine", his expression suddenly changed. He sighed and said: "That year was really miserable! Not only our town, but also the nearby Qingzhou and Yuezhou were all suffering from famine. If it weren't for the fact that there was still some food stored at home, I almost starved to death. Alas...many people are eating bark and leaves, and some even survived by eating the flesh of dead people in their families!"

Ye Qi was frightened when he heard this. He had experienced the nightmare chamber in the 3 of Spades and survived by eating leaves. The gatekeepers asked him to survive in the nightmare chamber for 15 days, and he almost couldn't hold on. One can imagine what a person would become if he was starved for several months. I'm afraid that driven by extreme hunger, eating human flesh and drinking human blood has become commonplace.

Shao Qingge handed the broken silver that the old man had given him back to him and said, "Old man, there was a famine that year. Have you ever heard of anyone who deliberately killed people and cannibalized human flesh?"

The old man accepted the money, nodded solemnly, and mysteriously leaned into Shao Qingge's ear and said: "At that time, all the pigs, sheep and cattle in the town had been robbed. Later, they couldn't find food, so some people established a Gangs specifically look for people who are unable to resist, capture them and keep them like animals, and when they are hungry, they cut their flesh and eat it..."

Ye Qi felt hairy all over after hearing this. Hunger was indeed unbearable, but asking him to eat human flesh? He would rather starve to death. What's more, the same kind of people are simply raised as livestock and cut off some meat to eat when they are hungry? This is simply more cruel than killing.

Shao Qingge said in a deep voice: "What happened to those people?"

The old man smiled bitterly and shook his head: "They probably also knew that doing so was against the laws of nature. When they came out to arrest people, they all wore black clothes and masks. No one had seen their true faces. At that time, everyone was unable to protect themselves. No one dared to meddle in other people’s business. After the famine passed, most of the people in the town died, and not many people knew about it.”

He looked around and lowered his voice cautiously: "Why are you asking about what happened twenty years ago? I advise you two not to be too curious. Judging from your age, your cousin must have been very young back then. He must have been starved. dead."

Shao Qingge said: "My father asked us to stop by to find out about my cousin. If my cousin really passes away, we can go to the grave to pay homage and burn some paper money for him."

The old man shook his head quickly: "Don't go. People who starved to death back then had their bodies dumped in mass graves. I heard that it was unclean and that there were ghosts there in the middle of the night. People in our town never go to mass graves!"

Shao and Ye looked at each other, and Ye Qi smiled and said, "I know, thank you, uncle!"

Just at this time, Xiao Lou's voice came from the two people's headphones, asking them to return to the inn as soon as possible. Shao Qingge also felt that this matter was unusual, and immediately took Ye Qi back.

Xiao Lou pressed the earphone and asked, "Is everyone here?"

Shao Qingge said: "Ye Qi and I are back."

Chu Huaying said: "I questioned a few wandering beggars in an alley and got some clues."

Gui Yuanzhang said: "I went to the local academy to investigate. Don't worry, I'm wearing an invisibility cloak and can protect myself."

Yu Hanjiang admired the efficiency of his teammates very much. He simply said: "Okay, let's summarize the clues we know first. We can go to the ghost town at night to conduct targeted investigations."

Ye Qi said positively: "Let me tell you first. We found the owner of the rattle in the town and got two clues: first, the twelve zodiac signs are painted on the surface of the rattle, which usually corresponds to the child's zodiac; second, Second, during the famine twenty years ago, someone set up a mysterious organization to capture those who had no power to resist and imprisoned them to be eaten as livestock."

When Xiao Lou heard this, he was slightly shocked - famine, it may be difficult for modern people to imagine the feeling of not having a full meal for several months. Xiao Lou once heard someone talk about the chaos during the famine. It is true that "people eat People" terrible things happen. Eating dead people is considered good, but eating living people...it is too cruel to set up an organization to raise people in captivity and make them livestock!

Chu Huaying added: "I found out about it from a lame homeless man. This gang is called [Hound]. They have a very ferocious wild dog that smells people and looks for targets. They usually come out at night. They only The elderly, children, and women who are weak in resistance are captured and raised in captivity. The captives are called 'human animals', and their flesh is cut when they are hungry, and their blood is drank when they are thirsty."

Human sacrifice? In other words, treating "people" as edible livestock?

Lu Jiuchuan couldn't help but cursed: "Fuck, trapping the same kind and eating them, this is worse than a fucking beast!"

Yu Hanjiang frowned and said, "Where is Gui Lao?"

Guiyuan Zhang said: "I found a classmate of Zhao Zeping, the eldest son of the Zhao family, in the academy. It is now confirmed that Zhao Zeping got married eight years ago. He married a woman from Qingzhou, surnamed Qin. His family is engaged in silk business. It is said that Zhao Zeping got married eight years ago. She is very beautiful, and she gave birth to a son a year after they got married. His wife also disappeared three years ago, and her family even came to visit her."

After synthesizing this information, Xiao Lou analyzed: "During the Great Famine 20 years ago, mysterious gangs raised weak old people, children and women in captivity and used them as 'human animals' to eat their flesh and drink their blood. They used extremely cruel methods. Cruel. Those in captivity experienced even more terrible pain than Lingchi before they died. If someone happened to escape, or some of their relatives knew about these things, they could return to Qingfeng Town to take revenge. This is currently more reasonable. Motive for committing the crime."

Yu Hanjiang added: "The murderer is thoughtful and masters a kind of evil magic. He can control living people and dead bodies and act according to his instructions. We still don't know the specific control method. But what is certain is that the Zhao family, The Chen family was all controlled by him to walk to the mass grave on that rainy night three years ago. Xiao Lou was anxious to call everyone back just now because he was afraid that the murderer would control one of our teammates. After all, the enemy was there. Dark, I am bright, so I have to be more careful."

Xiao Lou continued: "After leading those people to the mass graves, the murderer imitated the famine of that year and starved everyone to death. During this period, he might also control zombies to scare those people, keeping them in a constant state of fear and hunger. State. Our autopsy found that the deceased looked frightened and there was no food residue in the stomach and duodenum, which can prove the rationality of this speculation."

Yu Hanjiang said: "There were people offering incense in the Zhao family's mourning hall. Judging from the name of the memorial tablet, the most likely reason is that the wife and children of Zhao Zeping, the eldest son of Zhao, were not killed in the Zhao family murder case. Perhaps she escaped the murderer by chance. Devil Palm, went back to decorate the mourning hall, and secretly offered incense to the family. She must know something."

He paused and then said: "In addition, the missing two families had rattles at the same time. It cannot be ruled out that it is a coincidence. After all, all the children in the town will buy rattles. But if it is not a coincidence, then the rattle is a key prop clue. It’s probably related to the murderer.”

Xiao Lou took out the rattle he got from the Zhao family and said, "The pattern on this drum is a little tiger. The children of the Zhao family should be tigers? Liu Qiao, where is the one you found at the Chen family?"

Liu Qiao said: "It's also a little tiger."

Xiao Lou was startled: "How could it be possible? Judging from the information obtained by Senior Gui, Zhao Zeping got married eight years ago and gave birth to a child seven years ago; and Chen Yu of the Chen family, the scene of his wife giving birth is in the ghost town at night. I have seen it, it happened to be a rainy night three years ago, the two children are four years apart, it makes no sense that the zodiac patterns on the rattles are the same, right?"

Ye Qi looked at the rattle with a monkey pattern in his hand and said, "That's not right. The old man who sells toys has rattles for the twelve zodiac signs, and the prices are the same. As a parent, you must buy the corresponding rattle for your baby according to the zodiac sign. No one would buy a toy with a tiger zodiac pattern for a child born in the year of monkey, right? The rattles from both families have the same pattern, could it be..."

Yu Hanjiang whispered: "It was left by the murderer."

As soon as he finished speaking, a clear voice suddenly came from outside the window. The sound was crisp and sweet, and the "dang-dang" sound of the projectiles hitting the drum surface seemed to be able to penetrate all barriers and reach directly into people's hearts.

As the sound rang out, the surroundings suddenly became extremely quiet.

——That’s exactly what the rattle sounds like.

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