Xie Qing turned around immediately and saw a tall and thin man in his fifties entering the gate, holding a large piece of fat meat in his hand.

There was surprise and anger on his face, but no panic or fear.

Captain Chang and Fu Da turned back. Captain

Chang asked, "Are you Ma Hongda?"

"Yes." The tall and thin man asked loudly, "Are you looking for me because of Ge Qin?"

Captain Chang said, "Did you know that Ge Qin was dead?"

Ma Hongda threw the meat into an enamel basin on the stone mill, and the meat and the basin collided, making a crisp sound.

He cursed, "It's all over Siling Village, how could I not know? I'm a widower, but what's the relationship between me and Ge Qin? You're all just talking nonsense. You say I watched this woman take a bath, or you say I watched that woman pee, all bullshit!"

Captain Chang had a blank expression on his face, "Where were you at 5pm on November 23, 1993?"

Ma Hongda said, "It's been two or three years, how can I know where I was on that day? Let me ask you, do you remember where you were on that day you said?"

Captain Chang was stumped by his question and was speechless for a moment.

Fu Da quickly said, "Old Ma, if you don't remember, we will search your house according to the law. I hope you can think about it carefully. This will not only help us, but also help yourself."

He said this with sincerity.

Ma Hongda's expression softened, he moved a small stool from the firewood pile and sat down, thinking for a long time with his head down, "I still can't remember, you guys search, just don't make too much trouble."

Xie Qing and Li Ke looked at each other - this didn't look like the murderer's behavior!

Li Ke whispered, "It seems that rumors can't be trusted."

Xie Qing said, "Let's talk about it after the search." After

investigation, someone saw Ge Qin leaving Siling Village that day, so her husband was not suspected of committing the crime.

People in several villages said that Ma Hongda was not decent, and Ge Qin passed by Majia Village on her way back to her parents' home, so he was very suspicious, and it was impossible to cancel the original search plan because of a few words.

Deng Wenxiang and the county's trace detection personnel conducted Luminol reaction tests on the kangs, kang walls, and all possible collision sites in the landlord's east and west rooms.

However, except for a small bloodstain on the kang mat in the west room, no bloodstains similar to Ge Qin's skull injury were found in other places.

And this small piece of bloodstain was more like a menstruating woman accidentally spilling it on the kang - the edges were clear and there was no scattered blood.

Fu Da asked Ma Hongda about this.

Ma Hongda's explanation was that his son and daughter-in-law occasionally came back and usually lived in the west room. The blood was not his, and it could not be Ge Qin's.

Li Ke asked Xie Qing: "Even if his daughter-in-law had her period, it should have been on the mattress, how could it be on the kang mat?"

Xie Qing pointed to the quilts piled on the kang, "Looking at the thickness, there are probably only two sets. It is normal for someone to sleep on the kang mat when there are many people. In addition, sanitary napkins are not widely used in rural areas, so it is reasonable not to sleep on the mattress in order to avoid dirtying the quilts."

Li Ke muttered, "Yes, rural life was really hard in the past few years."

Ma Hongda's house was thoroughly searched, and there was no suspicious bloodstain in the house. Although there were bloodstains in the courtyard and on the millstone, they were obviously left by slaughtering livestock and poultry.

Everyone who thought the case would be closed immediately got nothing, and everyone was a little disappointed.

Fu Da and Captain Chang expressed their sincere apologies to Ma Hongda.

Ma Hongda not only didn't take it seriously, but he even had a kind of arrogant attitude, "It's okay, if someone talks about me again in the future, I will go to the authorities. I'm not afraid to tell a few leaders. Someone taught me that gossiping is also called slander. I will sue them for slandering me."

Fu Da was amused and said, "Not really, just ignore them and that's it."

"No, I've endured for so many years and nothing good has come of it, and they even called the police to my door. That's enough!" Ma Hongda was still angry, "Don't they just think I'm poor and can't find a new wife? There are plenty of people doing nonsense in these nearby villages, why don't they say anything about them? How dare you talk to me about this and that, a bunch of bastards who look down on others!"

Xie Qing interrupted, "Master Ma, can you tell me who are the ones doing nonsense?"

Ma Hongda said, "Yes, why not? We are barefoot and are not afraid of those who wear shoes. I will tell them all, one by one."

Li Ke took out a small notebook.

At that time, televisions were not so popular in the countryside, and the leisure life was not rich enough. In the countryside, people mainly gathered together to chat and play cards. There were unruly married men and women in every village.

Among Wuling Village, Majia Village, and Siling Village, Siling Village was the largest in area, and had the most people and things like this.

Ma Hongda spoke vividly for half an hour before he described the erotic network of the three villages.

Among them, everyone was most interested in the romantic news of the village chief of Siling Village.

This village chief is 38 years old this year, with a handsome appearance. It is said that he graduated from a technical secondary school and led Siling Village to plant peach trees and make a fortune. He has achieved some success and is the No. 1 in the hearts of many rural women.

His love history took up half of Ma Hongda's speech.

On the way back, Li Ke said, "It was the village chief who received us when we went to Siling Village."

Xie Qing asked, "How is he, is he handsome?"

Li Ke said, "Not half as handsome as Brother Fu."

Fu Da laughed, "We were young but had good taste."

Liu Feng teased while driving, "You can only compete with a few village chiefs."

Fu Da retorted, "You are not convinced. How can they be better than an old helper like you?"

Liu Feng stopped while he was ahead, "That's right, I can't compare with you. I'm ten years older than you. Time is unforgiving."

Fu Da said, "Yeah, look at the pile of bones of the eighth master. They were like that after death. What does it matter whether they are good-looking or not? Work hard to make money, live a better life, and enjoy yourself while you can." Talking

about life and death always triggers countless thoughts.

The car was quiet for a while, and then snoring began.

Fu Da fell asleep first, followed by Deng Wenxiang, and then Li Ke.

Xie Qing didn't sleep. She occasionally talked to Liu Feng, and the two of them drove to the guesthouse together.

The five of them ordered three hot dishes and two cold dishes at the guesthouse and had a good meal.

When they were almost done eating, Xie Qing's cell phone rang.

She picked up the phone.

"Captain Tan."

"Xiao Xie, how's the case going?"

"It's not going well today. I still don't know what to do."

"Well..." Tan Yi hesitated, "Please give the phone to Brother Fu, I want to talk to him for a few words." Xie

Qing agreed and handed the phone to Fu Da - Fu Da was the squadron leader, and Tan Yi discussed the case with him first out of respect for him.

Everyone stopped chatting and listened to Fu Da introduce the case to Tan Yi.

While he was talking, Xie Qing was thinking about two questions: First, is there any connection between Ruan Hongli's case and Ge Qin's case; second, if what Ma Hongda said is true, are these two women secretly connected with a certain man?

The second possibility seemed unlikely. There were almost no secrets between villages, and it was not worth killing people because of these.

Xie Qing discarded the second possibility and focused on the first one.

Ruan Hongli was from Wuling Village, and Ge Qin's mother's home was in Wuling Village. One went to the city during the day and disappeared somewhere unknown, with a larger range. The other rushed from Siling to Wuling, with a smaller range.

From the location point of view, there is overlap.

One disappeared four years ago, and the other disappeared two and a half years ago.

From the perspective of time, it does fit the pattern of a serial killer...

Thinking of this, Xie Qing shook her head - Ruan Hongli's life or death is unknown, and there is no condition for merging the cases at the moment. It's okay to think about it a little, but if you get into it, you will lose more than you gain. It's easy to be limited in your thinking.

Let's consider the Ge Qin case first.

Judging from the place where Ge Qin dumped her body, the murderer knew Wuling Village. The distance from the crime scene to the place where the body was dumped should not be too far. It is speculated that the murderer is most likely in Wuling Village and Majiagou.

Based on this, their movements today are all under the control of the murderer, so will he mix with others and go to Ma Hongda's house to inquire about the situation?

If we go to ask, will he shovel his own walls, kang, or scrub the millstone? I

was careless. I should have left someone to wait.

At this time, Fu Da finished his phone call and said, "Captain Tan is not coming for the time being. He suggested that we don't worry and get to know the topography, customs and people of the three villages. He also suggested that we go back to Ma Hongda's house to see if anyone has visited, and immediately shovel our own walls and scrub the millstone vigorously."

Liu Feng nodded repeatedly, "Captain Tan is still thoughtful."

Xie Qing touched her nose, thinking of the same thing.

Fu Da dialed another phone number, and the other end picked up quickly.

"Hello, I'm Fu Da from the Municipal Bureau. Is Captain Chang here?"

"Another incident?"

"Okay, that's it for now. Contact me if there's anything else."

He hung up the phone and returned the mobile phone to Xie Qing. "A vicious murder occurred in Wuling County. Captain Chang went to deal with it. It seems that we have to do this kind of thing by ourselves."

Liu Feng said, "Okay, everyone, eat more. It's cool in the mountains at night. You won't feel cold if you eat enough."

The five of them ate up the food, got back in the car, and rushed back to the door of Ma Hongda's house forty-five minutes later.

The door of Ma Hongda's house was locked from the inside, and the lights in the house were still on.

Liu Feng knocked on the door.

"Who is it? It's not over yet. What's there to ask? I didn't kill anyone." Ma Hongda came out and opened the door in his slippers.

Li Ke and Xie Qing looked at each other, and he leaned over to whisper in her ear: "I admire Captain Tan more and more."

Xie Qing nodded in the dark.

She reflected on herself on the way here, but then she thought that there were few clues in this case, and she and everyone else were affected by a kind of slack mentality.

However, it is not a good thing to kill someone in a back-handed way.

The door opened, and Ma Hongda shone the flashlight on their faces rudely, "Why are you

here again?" Fu Da said: "We want to find out who has been to your place since we left?"

Ma Hongda made way for the door, "Come in and talk."

A group of people entered the upper room and sat on the narrow kang edge in the east room.

Ma Hongda said, "As soon as you left, people came. People from Majiagou, Wuling Village, and Siling Village all came. The first one was the Ruan family. The couple were no good. As soon as they came in, they asked if I killed Ruan Hongli. Damn it, I didn't even know that girl, why would I kill her?" "

The couple made a fuss for a while, and I kicked them out with a hoe. Then came the head of Siling Village and Ge Qin's grandfather. They also came to ask if I killed Ge Qin. I said, leader, you have to make the decision for me. It's okay to say that I'm a slut, but you can't say that I'm a murderer. Even if I can tolerate it, my son and grandson can't tolerate it."

Fu Da said, "If you help us solve the case, you are helping us and yourself."

"Then you better hurry up." Ma Hongda nodded. "After the people from Siling Village left, the village chief of our Majiagou, my cousin, also came. He asked me whether I killed anyone or not, and what you did in my house."

Fu Da: "Did you tell them everything?"

Ma Hongda stared. "Yes, I told them everything. I didn't kill anyone, but I still have to explain it to them."

Fu Da said, "Tsk, who else came?"

Ma Hongda said, "Wuling Village cadre, Wang Laoxie, also came. He said that his The uncle who is the village chief asked him to come. The rest are a few children from our village, all of them are teenagers of 17 or 18 years old. "

Fu Da glanced at Li Ke's record, "Tell me about the parents of these teenagers."

Ma Hongda said, "They just like to ask questions, but they don't dare to kill people."

Fu Da said, "

Just tell me when I ask you to." Ma Hongda had no choice but to tell them one by one...

Li Ke took notes, Xie Qing also took notes - a total of 13 families and three villages were involved. It is impossible to track them one by one, so we can only pick out the key points and take a look.