Chapter 5: New Year (4)

Li Yuanfang hesitated for a moment and nodded to Ajun. Mei Yingchun and Di Jinghui also came to the door when they heard the sound. Ajun whispered to the three of them: "Breakfast is ready, in the main room. I... go to clean up for my father." Mei Yingchun hurriedly asked, "Do you want help?" Ajun nodded: "Mr. Mei, please help me put my father on the bed in the inner room."

Mei Yingchun followed Ajun into the house. Li Yuanfang gave Di Jinghui a wink. The two of them searched the back wall along the footprints on the snow. Bypassing the woodshed, Di Jinghui pointed to the front and shouted, "It's this, I'm hitting that person!" Li Yuanfang looked closely and looked at it. The footprints on the ground were indeed mixed with two pieces, and then headed towards the front yard and the back wall respectively.

Li Yuanfang stared at the snow, and snowflakes were still flying in the sky, but the morning sun was very strong, making the snow shine, quite dazzling. Di Jinghui also narrowed his eyes and looked left and right, but found nothing. He rubbed his neck and was about to leave, but Li Yuanfang suddenly leaned forward and picked up something from the snow.

Di Jinghui looked closely and actually asked, "Huh? Why is there a knife here? Is it?!" Li Yuanfang pondered and said, "I don't know. This knife looks like a knife used in the kitchen of ordinary people, and the knife is clean and there is no trace of blood. It doesn't look like a weapon." Di Jinghui thought, "Yes, didn't you say just now, the weapon should be a scissors, not this kind of knife... Could it be that A Jun accidentally fell here?" Li Yuanfang took out a handkerchief from his arms, wrapped the knife, stood up and said, "Ask her later."

The two continued to follow their footprints to the base of the back wall. The courtyard wall was not tall or short. On the wall where the footprints led, large areas of snow were stripped down, revealing black mud and dust. It was obvious that someone had just climbed out from here not long ago.

Li Yuanfang turned his head and said to Di Jinghui: "I'll go out and have a look. You go find Brother Mei and A Jun and help them. If Brother Mei goes out to find 'Mo Feng', you must stay in the yard. You can't just let A Jun, the old lady, Bin'er and others stay alone, I'm afraid it's not safe." Di Jinghui nodded: "Don't worry."

Li Yuanfang jumped and stood on the wall. Looking around, the ground was vast outside the wall, and there was no road on the entire snow, only two lines of crooked footprints appeared on the snow, which were unusually prominently.

Li Yuanfang jumped off the wall and walked along the footsteps. While walking, he concentrated all his energy and carefully searched the snow around the footsteps, trying to find some clues. After walking for a long time, his eyes were hurt by the white snow, and he still found nothing. In a moment of disappointment, a small earth slope suddenly appeared in front of him. After Li Yuanfang followed his footsteps to the small earth slope, there was not much new snow covering the leeward, and the footsteps became more distinct than elsewhere. What surprised him even more was that around the footsteps, there were many books and volumes scattered, half buried and half hidden under the new snow, and the pages were blown by the wind.

Li Yuanfang picked up two books from the ground and opened them. The book looked like it was a thing of the past. The paper was crispy and yellow, and the fonts on it were even more weird and difficult to tell. He read it for a long time and didn't understand it. Then he picked up the remaining books, all of which were similar old books in ancient style. Only a few of them could barely read them. It can be concluded that these books must be treasured ancient books, and they belonged to the same category as the books he had just seen in Shen Tingfang's study.

Li Yuanfang tore off the hem of her clothes, made it into a simple bag, and wrapped the books on the ground. Standing there, he thought quietly for a while, and it seemed that the murderer had escaped to this point, and then he remembered to examine the books he had taken from Chen Ting's place. Obviously, these classics did not make him interested in it, but only made him feel burdened, so he simply threw them all away. Judging from the murderer's actions, he went to Chen Ting's place for those collections. So, what did he want to do? Could it be that it was really a revenge? But he killed people too hasty and unresolutely. Or he was looking for something, but he didn't find it in a panic...

Li Yuanfang touched the knife in his arms. Although he still needed to confirm with A Jun, he actually did not believe that the knife was thrown away by A Jun in the courtyard. The biggest possibility was that the murderer ran away in panic and collided with Di Jinghui and dropped the knife that he had originally planned to act as a weapon. But the question is, why didn't he kill people with this knife? There was no blood on the knife, and the scissors that stabbed several wounds on Shen Tingfang's body. Could it be that the murderer was carrying two weapons with him? Li Yuanfang felt that his thinking was a little incoherent. He tried hard to imitate Di Renjie's way to reason, but it seemed a little helpless. More importantly, some details in this case made him feel inexplicably feared from the bottom of his heart, making him afraid to do further exploration and discover the truth.

The cold wind blew, and Li Yuanfang tried hard to clear his mind. His footprints were still extending forward and he still needed to continue tracking. Going forward were some continuous small slopes, with footprints rising and falling, left and right, as if they were also looking for directions to move forward. Li Yuanfang continued to stare at the footprints in the previous way, bowing slightly, and searching while walking, but unfortunately he did not find any valuable clues. After walking for more than an hour, he climbed over a larger hillside and bypassed several sparse dead woods, and a narrow official road appeared in front of him. On the other side of the official road were the endless high mountains.

After entering the official road, the footprints were mixed with the ruts that were coming and going, and could no longer be identified. Li Yuanfang selected a nearby hill and quickly climbed to the top of the bridge. Looking down from above, you can see from a distance that one end of the official road connects the bank of the Yellow River, and the other end leads to a lonely pass. There are forks along the way to lead to nearby villages. Li Yuanfang thought silently in his heart that the pass should be the Golden City Pass that Ajun mentioned. He turned around and looked at his way. On the white field, scars were dotted with several woods, and the hills were connected in sequence. There was no trace of people in the place where he could see the eyes. The house in the sunken courtyard hid its traces in the desolate and desolate scenery of thousands of miles. People who traveled from the Yellow River to Jincheng Pass along the official road could not imagine that there was a mysterious house in the depths of the field.

Li Yuanfang knew that this tracking could only end here. At this time, he realized that his back hurt so much that his waist could not even straighten. He held a quick rock beside him and decided to sit down and rest for a while. After sorting out his thoughts, Li Yuanfang asked himself again, what kind of person is Chen Tingfang? Why did he choose to live in such a desperate situation? What was he doing and what was he afraid of? A Jun, how could this gentle and amiable girl live in such a harsh environment? Now that Shen Tingfang is dead, only A Jun is left, where should she go?
Chapter completed!