Chapter 6: Snow Chamber after Emergency Assembly
A strange scene happened in front of everyone, and the officers and soldiers who saw this moment outside the barracks were all stunned on the spot. No one made a sound for a full ten seconds, as if the whole world had frozen.
"What's going on? Where did the gunshot just now come from?"
At this moment, Deputy Head Situ Xin appeared from behind the crowd and asked everyone.
"Captain...something happened to the captain!" Someone in the crowd answered tremblingly.
"Has something happened to the commander? What happened?" Situ Xin asked, walking straight to the barracks door and was about to break in.
Yin Chuan didn't know where he got the courage from, but he stretched out his hand in front of him and said, "Sir, please wait a moment!"
Situ Xin glared at him, "What are you doing?"
"Everyone saw what happened just now, Commander Situ, why didn't you know anything?"
"How dare you speak to our deputy commander like that?" The adjutant next to him was about to draw his gun from his waist.
Situ Xin stopped the adjutant. Perhaps because he was surprised that Yin Chuan dared to speak to him like that at this time, he softened his tone and asked, "What do you want to say?"
Yin Chuan glanced around the edge of the barracks and said, "I'm not trying to pick a fight with anyone. After all, we're in a military camp, so the officers have the final say. It's just that the scene you just saw was too bizarre, and everyone, please look—" He pointed to the snow surrounding the regimental barracks, "There are no footprints on the snow outside this barracks, which means no one has been in or out of the barracks just now. So, this room is now... what is it?"
Linlang quickly took over the conversation, "It's a secret room."
"Yeah! A locked room! This is a locked room murder case!"
All the officers and soldiers present looked at each other, seemingly only half understanding what Yin Chuan said. Second Battalion Commander Shen Xi lost his temper and stepped forward to grab Yin Chuan by the collar, "Stop talking nonsense here! Get out of here! I need to see what's going on with my brother!"
"If you, Captain Shen, had seen what happened just now, it would have been best not to act impulsively," Yin Chuan said calmly. "If everyone rushed in without thinking, you might end up causing unnecessary trouble. Besides, this is a military camp, and the soldiers are armed with weapons. There's a chance they might accidentally discharge their weapons."
Perhaps the speaker did not mean it, but to the officers, it seemed to have hit the mark.
"Who do you think you are? How dare you teach me a lesson?" Shen Xi frowned and glared at Yin Chuan, asking angrily.
"Captain Shen, calm down. I think what Mr. Yin says makes sense," Situ Xin said. "If anyone barges in like you, there's no guarantee something might happen. Let him go."
Shen Xi clearly seemed a bit dissatisfied with Deputy Commander Situ, but after all, his military rank was not as high as his, so he still had to obey orders. So he let go of Yin Chuan and retreated to the side in anger.
"Mr. Yin, from what you said, it seems that you have some insights into solving murder cases?" Situ Xin asked.
Du Yunzhang perked up upon hearing this. "Of course, he's a famous detective in the canal area, solving countless strange cases. He's also a capable advisor to me, the captain of the patrol police in Wuhe County, Zhili."
"Oh? I didn't realize you were a government official?"
"Let's not worry about whether it's officialdom or not," Yin Chuan said, "Let's go inside and take a look at the scene first. So, Du Yunzhang, Chief Situ and I will go in first. After we have inspected the scene, we can talk about other things."
"No, Deputy Captain, I have to go in too."
It was Staff Officer Han who spoke. Situ Xin nodded and said, "You can come too. Guards are guarding the gates, and no one else is allowed to act rashly."
Linlang pulled Yin Chuan and said, "Then I..."
"Just wait for us outside," Yin Chuan patted her and said with a smile. He figured the scene in the barracks was too bloody for a girl like Linlang to witness, so he didn't let her in. Linlang naturally understood his good intentions and didn't force him.
When the four of them opened the door and entered the house, they saw that the floor of the barracks, which was more than ten square meters, was littered with stools, military water bottles, military clothing racks and other items. The simple military table was not fallen over, but on the camp bed next to it, the headless body of the regiment commander Chen Hui was lying. His head was found by Adjutant Han against the tent wall not far from the head of the bed. However, the blood on the ground at the scene did not seem to be as much as imagined.
Yin Chuan swallowed his saliva and walked to the camp bed, frowning as he carefully examined Chen Hui's headless body. He saw that the body was lying on its back next to the tent cloth, with the left half of the body pressed against the tent wall.
"How strange..." Yin Chuan murmured.
"Old Yin, what did you figure out?" Du Yunzhang asked.
Yin Chuan shook his head. "I didn't see anything, but do you think the place where the deceased fell is a little... unreasonable?"
Du Yunzhang looked at it carefully, but didn't know what Yin Chuan meant.
"Why was he so close to the tent? We just saw him sitting down. Even though there was a chair next to him, the way he fell down doesn't look like he was sitting upright when he was killed. And..." Yin Chuan looked at Chen Hui's head by the wall again, "The expression on the deceased's face is also very strange."
Du Yunzhang turned his head and saw that Shen Hui's face was pale, but his expression was very calm, his eyelids drooped, and his lips were tightly closed. "Why is this expression so strange?"
"If you look at the expression on the head alone, there's nothing strange about it. But considering the awkward position of his body, it's clear that his head was chopped off instantly, resulting in a sudden death. Logically, his expression at death should be one of shock, eyes wide open, mouth gaping. But that's not the case. Isn't this baffling?"
Yin Chuan raised these initial doubts, which made Situ Xin look at him with new eyes. "Okay, Mr. Yin, just these two sentences show that you are indeed quite capable. So what do you think is going on in this case?"
"Deputy Captain, please don't worry. These two suspicious points are just a drop in the bucket. We need to investigate further, and I expect more will surface soon. For example... before we even entered the barracks, I was very curious about one question: what was that gunshot about? And how does it relate to Captain Shen's beheading?"
A moment of silence fell in the barracks. Yin Chuan shrugged and continued, "Let's put these questions aside for now. It's more important to conduct a detailed investigation of the scene. Perhaps there are some clues that can clarify many of the doubts."
The four of them searched around the barracks. After a while, Yin Chuan asked everyone, "Did you find anything new?"
"What did Mr. Yin find?" Situ Xin did not answer, but asked back.
Yin Chuan spread his hands and said, "I didn't find anything else special."
"Me neither." Du Yunzhang also said, "What about you two?"
Adjutant Han shook his head and said no.
"Since there are no new discoveries, there is no need to waste time here." Deputy Regiment Commander Situ Xin said as he prepared to walk out of the barracks.
"Commander Situ, what about you?" Yin Chuan stopped him.
"Me? Naturally, I'm the same as you."
"So, in this barracks, apart from the victim's beheaded body, there's nothing suspicious?"
"That should be it."
"Hmm..." Yin Chuan paused, "Commander Situ, don't you think that the fact that there was nothing suspicious left at the murder scene is suspicious in itself?"
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