Chapter 372 The Non-Existent Murderer
Upon hearing this, Chen Er's expression suddenly changed, and he shouted, "That woman, don't talk nonsense!"
The beautiful middle-aged woman suddenly didn't dare to speak anymore after being yelled at by him, and shrank back behind the sick man.
When Gu Qingyi saw this, he stepped in front of her and said, "Don't be afraid, as long as I'm here, no one will dare to touch you!"
After saying that, she asked the middle-aged beautiful woman, "Sister, did you see anyone else going out besides Mr. Shen?"
"Ah, I don't know about the others. I went to bed after feeding." The beautiful middle-aged woman whispered.
Gu Qingyi combined Chen Er's previous words with the middle-aged beautiful woman's words.
If someone else left the ruined temple after Shen Zhou, the people from Xingtong Escort Bureau had no reason to hide it.
Because even if this can't completely eliminate Shen Zhou's suspicion, it can at least help more people share the pressure.
It seems that the case is very clear. Unless there is a killer lurking outside the temple, Shen Zhou is the murderer of He Qisheng.
Thinking of this, Gu Qingyi's eyes towards Shen Zhou became colder.
Shen Zhou's heart also sank, and he hurriedly said, "Okay, I did go out in the middle of the night, but it was because I was worried that the heavy rain would cause flash floods and destroy the plank road in front, delaying tomorrow's trip.
"I didn't see He Shaoxia after I went out. Chen Er just lied for me. I just didn't want you to doubt me."
"How are you going to prove it?"
Shen Zhou thought for a while, "I went out to investigate and found footprints. Although some of them may have been washed away by the heavy rain, some are still there."
When Gu Qingyi heard what he said, he didn't think nonsense, and immediately walked out of the temple gate.
As expected, there were many messy footprints scattered in the open space in front of the temple.
Because it rained heavily tonight, the previous footprints and horse hoof prints had been almost washed away, and now only four kinds of footprints could be identified, all of which were left recently.
The two Songxi Sword Sect disciples first stepped forward to identify their own footprints. There were two remaining footprints. Ma Lu took off one of He Qisheng's boots, and the shape and size matched one of the footprints.
And the last kind of footprints left is that of Shen Zhou.
The string of footprints was indeed what Shen Zhou said. After leaving the ruined temple, he headed south all the way to the plank road, turned around and then returned to the temple.
Although there are some interruptions in the middle, the movement trajectory is still very clear.
Gu Qingyi checked the footprints and found that Shen Zhou had indeed never been behind the ruined temple as he said.
On the other hand, looking at He Qisheng's footprints, he went straight to the back wall when he left the house. It seemed that he was indeed going there for convenience.
From this point of view, the two of them went out one after the other, but they really didn't run into each other.
Hey, could it be that He Qisheng was really killed by someone outside the temple?
Gu Qingyi frowned, but except for the footprints of He Qisheng and the two Songxi Sword Sect disciples, there was no fourth kind of footprints under the back wall.
It can't be an internal fight between the Songxi Sword Sect, right?
Gu Qingyi looked at the two Songxi Sword Sect disciples with a strange expression.
The tall and thin disciple said with a dark face, "Gu Shenqi, what do you think we mean? Are we suspecting that we murdered our senior brother?"
Gu Qingyi did think so, mainly because judging from the footprints, there was no one else nearby.
Unless He Qisheng committed suicide, they are the two senior brothers who are most likely to be suspected.
Fortunately, Malu spoke again at this time, "Apart from Shen Biaotou and these two young heroes from the Songxi Sword Sect, there may not be anyone else who has been here."
"Ah?" Gu Qingyi was a little surprised, "You mean to say that the man named Chen Er of Xingtong Escort Agency lied again?"
Chen Er immediately said, "I'm not lying. I didn't see anyone else going out during the night watch. In my opinion... He Shaoxia must have been killed by someone ambushing outside the temple!"
Ma Lu said, "Don't be so sure. I slept late last night and saw you keeping vigil. When you were keeping vigil, you faced the temple gate, right?"
"That's right." Chen Er nodded, "So if someone comes in or out, I will definitely be able to see it."
"But what if that person doesn't take the main entrance?"
"Um?"
"This is a ruined temple," Ma Lu said. "The ruined temple means that the temple has many holes. I walked around the temple before and found that there were holes in the walls and roof.
"If someone got out of these holes, you wouldn't be able to see them."
"This..." Chen Er hesitated, "Actually, I don't stare at the front door all the time. I look around every once in a while."
"But your attention is mainly focused on the people in the world, and even though there is a fire in the temple, you should be able to see three to four feet away from the fire. No matter how far away, you can only see a Probably the outline.”
"You mean..." Gu Qingyi raised his eyebrows.
"That old beggar." Ma Lu said, "Since I entered the temple, he has been lying motionless in the corner with a straw mat covering him. Most people will ignore his existence.
"If he sneaked out of the hole in the middle of the night, Brother Chen who was keeping watch at night would probably not notice him, because no one would pay attention to whether there was anyone else under the straw mat."
"Well, I really didn't pay much attention to the situation over there..." Chen Er admitted after recalling it.
"But there are no footprints of his here." Gu Qingyi's brows were still furrowed.
Malu raised his head and glanced at the roof, then asked Gu Qingyi, "If someone launches a sneak attack here with a hidden weapon and uses a private mode to duel with He Shaoxia, will the duel take place above or below?"
"In that case, it should be below." Gu Qingyi said, "Because the hidden weapon hit He Shaoxia below, the place of the battle is also below. If the sneak attacker chooses the non-public mode, we in the temple cannot hear the sound of the battle, but they will still leave footprints on the ground."
"Huh?" Ma Lu was also stunned.
Mainly because he had just come into contact with the rules of this world, and many things were only half-understood.
However, his reasoning was also stuck, because if someone sneak attacked, the battle took place below, and there would be traces left.
Could it be that He Qisheng really committed suicide, or was killed by his two fellow disciples?
Apart from this, there seemed to be no other explanation, but Ma Lu still felt that there was a big problem with the old beggar.
And Gu Qingyi obviously noticed this, and now all other clues were broken, so she decided to try her luck on the old beggar.
At least Ma Lu's analysis in the first half was quite reasonable.
Everyone returned to the temple again, and Gu Qingyi walked to the corner where the old beggar was curled up and called softly.
"Old man, wake up, I have something to ask you."
She called out three times in a row, and raised her voice twice, but the figure under the straw mat did not respond.
Gu Qingyi reached out and patted the old beggar's shoulder again, but the latter remained motionless.
Finally, the tall and thin disciple of Songxi Sword School became impatient and lifted the man up from under the straw mat, "You are pretending to be deaf and dumb, old thing, Gu Shenfei asks you a question..."
But the next moment his voice stopped abruptly, because he was shocked to find that the old beggar was actually dead.