Cui Xiu, who was nearest, was so shocked that he forgot he was still clutching a bloody puppet in his hand. When he noticed that he was still holding it, he threw the puppet aside with a cry of surprise and dove into the crowd for fear of being dragged to the bottom of the cliff by ghosts.
Yu Fenglin was a man who had survived numerous battlefields. These little matters could not frighten him. Seeing that the puppet had been cast aside, he jumped up and caught it, staining his own hands with blood. Yu Fenglin turned to find Su Yunkai and handed him the puppet.
Right now, Yu Fenglin was being very rational. The only way down the mountain had been blocked. They were trapped in the villa with the murderer. Only by finding the murderer as soon as possible could they have a chance to get down the mountain safely. Therefore, setting aside his airs to help Su Yunkai solve the case was his best option.
Su Yunkai took the puppet. Similarly, his hands also got stained with blood. Ming Yue dabbed some blood with her finger and sniffed it. She said, “The blood has dried up a lot and the puppet has been here for about an hour, but I can’t tell whether it’s human blood or something else.”
“It’s not human blood. It’s bird blood.” Su Yunkai took a piece of fluff from the puppet’s clothes. It appeared to have come from a bird, but it was beige white, so it was hard to tell what kind of bird it had been. Su Yunkai asked, “When did Yu Xianghong die?”
“About an hour ago.”
Shen Wei interrupted, “But the puppet’s blood has dried up, while Yu Xianghong’s blood has not.”
“Yu Xianghong’s body was under a roof. There was no wind, so the blood dried slowly. On the other hand, the puppet was on the bridge, where the night wind has been blowing fiercely. Moreover, the doll itself does not bleed. It is abiotic. This is different from Yu Xianghong, who had so much blood all over his body. It is no surprise that Yu Xianghong’s blood would dry slower than the puppet’s.”
Su Yunkai listened and continued examining the puppet, which was half an arm high. Its limbs and body were all wrapped in now-broken threads that drifted in the breeze.
Who would go to all the effort to place a bloody doll here? Was it just to scare the people attempting to run away?
The lengths of the five or six pieces of thread were almost the same. Judging from the cut marks, they had been cut by a sharp blade. When Cui Xiu had picked it up just now, everything seemed natural. Su Yunkai hadn’t noticed anything that had been cut. Then, after a moment, it seemed as if the threads had been cut before getting handed over.
So why was there the noise of rope cutting after Cui Xiu had picked it up?
Su Yunkai walked over to the edge of the cliff, three steps away from its edge. Ming Yue was nervous. While the crowd retreated, she took a step forward and grabbed onto his clothes. Su Yunkai looked back, saying gently, “Go back. I won’t fall.”
Ming Yue shook her head. “Look quickly. I’ll continue to light the area with a lantern for you.”
Whether they were in the pit in the woods outside the Yang Family Village or standing at the edge of the abyss on Mount Gu, the lantern would shine upon their hearts rather than the objects before them.
Ming Yue forgot that if Su Yunkai truly did fall, she would probably fall into the cliff with him, given her strength. Su Yunkai crouched down and carefully scrutinized the ropes. Each of the four ropes were comprised of six smaller ropes, each as thick as an arm. The hissing sound had only occurred four or five times. Unless someone had cut the bridge with an axe, the suspension bridge should not have broken at all.
“The killer cut the rope ahead of time. It was not done by ghosts.”
“How do you know?”
Su Yunkai said, “Because there are no ghosts in the world. If there were ghosts, all the cases would’ve become riddles with answers people cannot understand. These ropes are new, so they should not be broken so easily, at least not only with four or five cuts. Judging by the fracture of the rope, the killer didn’t use a sharp axe, but a small blade like a dagger.”
Shen Wei didn’t care who the murderer was, nor did he care about Yu Xianghong’s death. He only knew that the house he had just bought had turned into a haunted one. He had spent that large sum of money in vain. Now, they were still trapped in the mountains, unable to go down. In addition, officers and soldiers were unable to come up. “What should we do now?”
Su Yunkai glanced at the people behind him. Looking back at him were faces full of panic and fear. Su Yunkai couldn’t discern who the murderer was. “Let’s go back to the villa. If we can’t leave, the murderer also can’t leave.”
“But what if the murderer strikes again?”
Su Yunkai thought about it and said to Yu Fenglin, “How does the marquis prevent deserters from escaping the barracks?”
Yu Fenglin said, “The soldiers stay in groups of five. If someone escapes, the other four will also be punished.”
Su Yunkai lightly nodded his head. “From now on, everyone must stay in groups of five to eat, drink, and live together. If one person leaves and the other four don’t know, then they’ll get treated as accomplices and suffer the same charges.”
Although the last sentence made the innocent feel wronged, the people found this method to be the best one for the time being after thinking it through. Each group could only hope that there was no murderer in their ranks.
Yu Fenglin immediately said, “Lord Su, I’ll be in a team with you.”
Seeing people from both the government and the military in the same group, Shen Wei was eager to join. He thought it would be safer than being in the same group as unknown performers, so he said, “Marquis, I’ll also be with you two.”
Jin Fugui, Liang Fangdong, and Shen Wei were good friends, so they also expressed their desire to join the group.
Su Yunkai was determined to leave a place for Ming Yue and said, “It’s better if the four of you stick together. We’ll find others.”
Shen Wei didn’t want to include a possible danger by his side. “Us five big men together, what do we want a weak girl for? Lord Su, don’t be muddleheaded.”
Ming Yue looked up at Su Yunkai. One’s true face could be seen in the face of life and death. Su Yunkai clearly knew that Ming Yue had no defensive capabilities. It would be so easy for him to push her away from the group.
Su Yunkai shook his head and pulled Ming Yue to his side to walk back to the villa with him. Shen Wei was anxious. Seeing that it was impossible to convince Su Yunkai to leave Ming Yue, Shen Wei looked to his side and pushed Jin Fugui. “Brother Jin, aren’t there many powerful bodyguards with you? It’s safer to go with them than to be with us.”
Shen Wei was clearly pushing Jin Fugui away to get him to leave the group. Jin Fugui was not stupid. Upon hearing this, he said, “We are all friends. To think that you would push me out for your own sake. You, you… Look at Lord Su. He’d rather form another team for a girl, yet you… “
Jin Fugui was so angry that he flung his sleeves. “Whatever. I’ve seen your true face clearly on this trip.” Jin Fugui turned to Liang Fangdong. “What about you?”
Liang Fangdong coughed gently and looked away. Jin Fugui couldn’t help sneering as he left.
Su Yunkai sighed. Seeing Jin Fugui leave, Shen Wei hurried forward and said, “Look, Lord Su, with Ming Yue, we have exactly five people in our group. You don’t have to look for other people.”
“The little marquis will join us as well.” Su Yunkai said, “You should go get Jin Fugui to come back. As for us, we can easily find two other people.”
Shen Wei began to hint that Liang Fangdong should leave, but Liang Fangdong just pretended not to get the hint multiple times. With no other method, Shen Wei could only go and find other people. However, he didn’t go after Jin Fugui.
After dividing the people into groups, Su Yunkai said, “Marquis, please direct the people on the way back so that chaos doesn’t occur.”
Yu Fenglin had been stationed on the frontier all year round. He had great achievements in war. Under his leadership, the sixty to seventy people returned to the villa in an orderly fashion. They all settled in the upper section of the villa with five people per room. In each room, the five people took turns keeping watch throughout the night.
Shen Wei only used the villa as a temporary place to live and as a summer resort, so he didn’t have many blankets prepared. In the middle of the night, the mountain wind was cold and there were only two blankets per room.
He Xiaofang, the deaf from the puppet team, and Han Le, the senior fellow apprentice who had spoken in his stead earlier, were in the same group as Su Yunkai. Su Yunkai and Qin Fang found the two blankets. They gave one to Ming Yue and the other to Han Le. Instead of covering herself with it, Han Le gave it to He Xiaofang.
Ming Yue said, “You two have a good relationship.”
Han Le said with a smile, “Yes. He was very young when he first joined the troupe. Teacher asked me to take care of him. After all these years, we are basically brother and sister.”
Seeing her smile, Qin Fang found it strange and asked carefully, “Your teacher just died. Are you not sad at all?”
Han Le hesitated for a moment before saying, “I’m not sad. To tell you the truth…Teacher is not good to us. As you all know, rich merchants are always proud of storing elaborate boxes and raising theatrical troupes privately. Our group was privately raised by the Shen family. Therefore, teacher did not need to worry about food and drink as long as he concentrated on teaching his apprentices well. However, if we didn’t perform well, he would beat and scold us. After all, our performance impacts his wealth. Sometimes, he is too vicious with his beatings. He has even beaten us for no reason at all. Honestly, of the eleven of us in the puppet troupe, none of us cared for him enough to feel grief for his loss.”
It was said that a one-day teacher meant a lifelong father. How strong was their hatred, such that they wouldn’t even shed a single tear for someone whom they had lived with for more than a decade?
“My lord,” Han Le said uneasily. “Will we be able to go down the mountain safely?”
Su Yunkai didn’t know. He also had no clue who the murderer was, either. After everyone had settled down, he planned to go to Yu Xianghong’s room again. Su Yunkai set the puppet doll on the table. When he looked now, the bloody doll lying there quietly was a little scary.
Han Le saw that he did not answer, so she didn’t ask any further questions.
“I’m going to the troupe leader’s room again.”
Ming Yue rose to her feet. “I’ll go too.”
“Wait, we’ll go too.” Han Le took He Xiaofang’s hand and said, “Didn’t my lord say that five people should be in a group? It will also be safer this way.”
The rules had been set by himself, so Su Yunkai did not tell them that they should not come with him. Instead, he decided that he just wouldn’t let them enter the room when they arrived later.
The five people put the blankets away and stood up to head over. Suddenly, a shadow appeared at the window, almost sticking to the door like a ghost.
Su Yunkai shouted, “Who’s there?”
“It’s me. I heard the voice of my lord and found my way here.”
Qin Fang, stunned, was the fastest to respond, “Shui Shui?”
Su Yunkai and Mingyue were also stunned. Hadn’t the suspension bridge broken? How did she get to the summer resort?
.
A Hint of Spring 