Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The next morning, the farmer’s body was found.
News soon spread throughout the village.
Everyone gathered in the wheat fields, even those who usually woke up late.
Village Chief Qiao looked at the twisted body on the ground, frowned, and said nothing.
He was smoking an old-fashioned pipe in his mouth.
It had been decades since anyone had died in the village.
In Qiao’s memory, the last time someone died, it was due to a quarrel.
But it wasn’t intentional. It was an accident.
The village had always been very safe and everyone got along well.
But this time, it was different.
John had died a horrible death.
Looking at his twisted face, the villagers found it hard to imagine what happened to John before he died.
“Has the police been notified about this?” Qiao turned around and asked.
“Yes, the police said that our village is relatively remote and will only arrive in half an hour.”
The old village chief nodded and turned around again to look at the body.
The village chief had lived for so many years and was knowledgeable.
At the same time, he had been a police officer when he was younger, so he had some experience.
Although he had retired for several years, he still did not feel any discomfort after seeing the body, let alone panic.
His steadiness was practically carved into his bones.
“There are three bloody holes on John’s body, and the murder weapon looks like a pitchfork.
“Thomas, go to every house and check everyone’s farm tools.
“Remember to check them carefully.”
The young Thomas was slightly stunned when he heard the old village chief’s order, but he still nodded and quickly ran to the village.
Immediately, a dissatisfied voice came from the crowd:
“Qiao, what do you mean? Are you suspecting us?”
“Do you still think you’re the police? You have no right to search our personal belongings!”
Hearing these words, the village chief looked at the crowd, his old eyes as sharp as an eagle’s.
Just being looked at by Qiao automatically made people nervous.
“You guys, don’t tell me you have a guilty conscience?”
Qiao looked at the crowd and said in a low voice.
Although this kind of “If you don’t want to be checked means you have a guilty conscience” statement was somewhat overbearing, but under Qiao’s aura, it was indeed effective.
The few people who had just spoken in the crowd immediately shrank their necks and did not dare to speak anymore.
Seeing this, the old village chief did not continue to dwell on this topic. Instead, he looked at John’s corpse and analyzed it.
“The lividity hasn’t reached its final stages yet. This means that John’s time of death was within 12 hours.
“If an outsider had the intention to murder John, it’s absolutely impossible to predict which path John would take to return.
“Similarly, it would be very unnatural to carry farm tools on the wheat fields of our village.
“Therefore, the person who killed John was most likely a villager.”
Qiao took a puff of his cigarette, held the pipe in his hand, and squatted next to the body.
“The degree of stiffness of the body also tells us the time since John’s death.
“This means that my judgment should not be wrong.”
After saying that, Qiao frowned and turned to look at everyone:
“Think about it. If you have a murderer by your side, and his methods were extremely cruel. As for the police, they will only be here for at least half an hour.
“Can you all still stay here in peace?”
After Qiao finished speaking, the villagers all looked at each other in dismay. Their eyes were filled with watchfulness and suspicion.
Right now, they all looked like murderers.
No one could be trusted.
At this moment, someone frowned and asked,
“Qiao, did you just mention that the methods were cruel?
“May I ask, how did you obtain this information?”
Although these words were not very clear, the few villagers standing in front reacted one after another. They silently took two steps back and distanced themselves from Qiao.
No one knew who the murderer was, so how did Qiao know about the “cruel methods”?
Could it be that the murderer was Qiao?
Qiao was well-versed in human nature. Naturally, he could tell what everyone was thinking at a glance.
However, he was still very calm. He pointed at the corpse and said,
“Did you see the farmer’s expression?
“If he didn’t experience an extremely terrifying incident, why would he be so frightened.
“This isn’t a simple expression that would appear as someone wanted to kill him.”
After hearing Qiao’s words, many of the villagers nodded in agreement.
Qiao didn’t continue to observe the crowd. Instead, he began to slowly walk around the farmer’s body.
He wanted to see the scene from multiple angles, trying to find some clues.
However, after taking a few steps sideways, he bumped into a hard object.
It was the old scarecrow who had stood on the wheat field for decades.
Judging by his age, this scarecrow was only about ten years younger than him.
However, now was not the time to reminisce about his childhood. Qiao’s face was still full of seriousness.
There was a small clearing around the scarecrow, and there was not much wheat.
This made Qiao have some doubts.
If he was the murderer, he would have hidden the body well after killing.
At least he would have put it in the wheat field so that people would find the body later.
Why did the murderer choose to put the body near the scarecrow?
Was it to let people find the body earlier?
Was this the first crime scene?
Or was it that the killer killed John in another place and specially moved the body over here?
One question after another appeared in the old village chief’s mind.
At this moment, the old village chief seemed to have discovered something and let out a soft “eh”.
A few more courageous young men leaned over and followed the old village chief’s line of sight to look over.
They saw a trace of blood on the scarecrow’s back.
In an instant, a young man boldly guessed:
“Could John have been killed here and then his body was moved over there?”
Another young man also said:
“Perhaps John was attacked here first and then received a fatal blow after escaping there.”
A few young men began to discuss.
But at this moment, two people had a bad feeling in their heart.
One of them, of course, was Flanders.
He had carefully cleaned up the blood on his body last night, but who knew that there was a bloodstain on his back which he had overlooked.
And the other person was Qiao.
Seeing the blood on the scarecrow’s back, Qiao had a bad feeling.
After all, he had worked in the police station for 30 years when he was young.
During that time, he had heard some rumors.
There were strange things in this world.
Many supernatural phenomena were caused by strange things.
Although it was only a legend, Qiao suddenly thought of it.
That was because there were almost no other bloodstains in the area behind the scarecrow.
In the farmland, bloodstains were difficult to deal with unless all the soil stained with blood was dug out.
However, there were no traces of soil being dug out.
At this moment, Qiao couldn’t help but slowly walk to the front of the scarecrow and look at its face.
“This scarecrow seems to be a bit strange.”
The old village chief said with narrowed eyes.