Chapter 22: Simulated Chamber
The second child, bewildered, followed Yin Chuan and Lin Lang to an open space. Yin Chuan used a branch to draw a square ten feet square on the snow and said to the second child, "Come, build a replica of the barracks you built for General Han here."
"Here? You must be kidding. How can such a large barracks be built in such a small place?"
"Hey, I'm not asking you to recreate the barracks exactly, but to build it in proportion."
"Shrink? Oh... I see. What you mean is, if the real barracks' pillars are four zhang and the beams are two zhang, then I'll build one here with pillars two zhang and beams ten zhang, right?"
"That's what I mean. Anyway, just build it within the scope of my drawing."
"Okay, but it's a bit hard for me to do it alone, so I can call a few more brothers."
"I advise you to do it alone. Otherwise, are you willing to share the benefits with others?" Yin Chuan said, taking out a silver dollar from his pocket and handing it to the waiter. The waiter immediately smiled. "When your construction meets my requirements, I will give you another one."
The waiter put the silver dollar in his mouth and bit it, then smiled and put it in his arms. "You are very generous. But if I do it alone, I'm afraid it will be slower."
"It's okay, we can wait." As she said that, Linlang found two stools and the two of them sat beside them, watching the waiter busying himself. From time to time, she would point out the differences between the barracks and the real barracks and asked him to correct them.
Although Xiao Erzi was a little confused about the requests made by the two officers sent by the regiment headquarters, after all, it was better than working hard to carry those big boxes, as it was less labor-intensive and he could earn money, so he worked very hard.
After half a day of tossing and turning, they finally built the scaled-down barracks. Yin Chuan squatted down and carefully examined it from side to side, up and down, inside and out. "Staff Officer Han said his barracks have a double-layer tent wall structure. Is yours the same?"
"Yes, it's exactly the same as the one he lives in now. The outside is tent cloth and the inside is thin board. Except for the regimental commander's barracks, the barracks of all regimental and battalion commanders are like this." The waiter wiped the sweat off his forehead and replied.
"Why is the captain the only one who is not like this?"
"I don't know about that. Just build it however the commander tells you to."
"What's the layout inside?"
"Inside? You didn't say you wanted to go inside? Besides, it was set up by Adjutant Han's own people, and we don't know what it looks like."
Yin Chuan smiled, "You don't know that I know. Just use some scraps of wood and stones to build a rough outline, and that'll be enough."
The second boy was completely confused and had to follow Yin Chuan's instructions and use wooden blocks and stones to represent beds, tables, chairs and other items in the barracks.
Yin Chuan looked at the sky. The sun, which had just emerged from the haze after the snow, drooped weakly in the west sky, and it seemed that dusk was about to approach.
"Very good, very well done!" Yin Chuan praised.
"Hehe, you're so kind. Then I'll..."
Before Xiao Erzi finished speaking, Yin Chuan drew another square on the snow diagonally opposite the small barracks, "Come on, make another one like Captain Shen's barracks."
The second boy was a little dissatisfied. "Hey, sir, are you making fun of me? You're making me do this thing over and over again—when will it end? I have a lot of things to do, otherwise the deputy platoon leader will scold me!"
"Don't be anxious, this is the last one. When I'm done, I'll double the benefits for you." As he said that, Yin Chuan took out two silver dollars from his pocket.
When the waiter saw that there was still money to be taken, he immediately became excited and began to build the barracks in the area drawn by Yin Chuan in a hurry, imitating the appearance of Chenhui Barracks.
Linlang tugged at Yin Chuan and whispered, "Hey, why are you spending money like water today? Where did you get so much cash?"
"Hey, this is what I got from Baohan. Didn't he plunder Luyuanzhuang? There are a lot of gold and silver treasures there. I'll just take advantage of the thief and get fatter and fatter. Hehe——" Yin Chuan answered with a wicked smile.
In this way, after working for a few more hours, another miniature barracks was built, with the front and back barracks facing each other diagonally. It was dark at this time, and the lights of the barracks were lit one by one, but this place was located in the corner of the barracks, and the light was particularly dim.
"Waiter, help me find a light and a piece of wood!" Yin Chuan ordered.
"Please wait a moment."
The waiter skipped out and soon brought back the electric lamp and the wooden board. He handed them to Yin Chuan and said, "This thing is hard to find. The ordinary barracks in our camp can only be equipped with kerosene lamps, and the electric lamps can only be used by officers above the company level. But I'm in the logistics platoon, so getting some logistics supplies shouldn't be a problem."
"Thank you!" Yin Chuan patted his shoulder and handed him two silver dollars.
"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!" The waiter took the silver dollar with a smile on his face.
After Yin Chuan sent him away, he handed Linlang a portable electric lamp and placed the wooden board at an angle in the snow, and the two of them worked together to conduct an experiment. Linlang was a little confused at first, but after the experiment was completed, she finally understood. "So this is the truth behind Chen Hui's murder! I'm so glad you could imagine such a method!"
Yin Chuan grinned. "When I first thought of this method, I wasn't very sure about it, so I had to test it myself to be sure. Judging from the results, it seems to be working."
"So... the murderer is that person?"
Yin Chuan held his chin and murmured, "Judging from the method, it should be that person. But what surprised me was that Chen Hui's personal bodyguard Duan Biao was also killed. This is a bit unbelievable."
"What if there's more than one murderer? That person couldn't be without help. After using this trick to get rid of Chen Hui, his men could also naturally kill Duan Biao."
"That being said, what puzzles me is, what was his motive for killing Duan Biao?"
"motivation?"
"Yes, it's easy to understand why they killed Chen Hui. They wanted to take advantage of the chaos in the Independent Regiment and seize military power. But Duan Biao is just a private, not even a leader. Will he threaten their plan? Unless..."
"Unless Duan Biao saw through the ruse, so he decided to kill to silence the witness?" Linlang guessed with narrowed eyes.
"But that doesn't make sense... After Duan Biao was killed, his body was found next to the reconnaissance squad's barracks, and Huang Tan from the reconnaissance squad escaped, as if he was afraid that others wouldn't pay attention to that place. This definitely doesn't make sense!" Yin Chuan said after careful consideration.
Linlang listened to Yin Chuan's analysis, and many inexplicable questions arose within her mind. But like Yin Chuan, she couldn't find a reasonable answer. Of course, if they simply wanted to identify the murderer, or perhaps the mastermind behind the murder of Captain Chen Hui, they already had a clear candidate. However, Yin Chuan, believing that the case would remain unsolved if the full truth of the case wasn't fully revealed and all the mysteries thoroughly explained, decided not to identify the murderer to Supervisor Wan or the Independent Regiment's senior leaders. Furthermore, there were still people like Chen Xi who were secretly threatening him and plotting a mutiny and seizure of power.
After confirming the murderer's modus operandi, they smoothly returned to the barracks arranged by Situ Xin. After all, there were guards outside the barracks who were controlled by Linlang's hypnosis, making it very convenient to enter and exit.
The only thing that worried Yin Chuan was Du Yunzhang, who was running around outside the military camp alone. He didn't know whether he could find the most critical person, Huang Tan, in the Huang family compound.
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