The man was very tall, maybe because he was hanging from the tree, his neck was stretched very long.

Qiu Wuhen shouted: "Look at the tree!"

Everyone looked up and suddenly screamed.

One of the tall parents cried and wanted to climb a tree because he recognized that the tall man hanging on the tree was his son who was on the hike, nicknamed Giraffe.

Captain Ke stopped him and was about to let the policemen go up and free him.

Qian Jinzhi had already taken out a thin flying rope, flew up in a swish, hung on the branch, and then followed the flying rope and climbed to the top of the branch where the child was hanging as quickly as an ape.

Qiu Wuhen said: "Be careful! Check if there are any scratch marks on the top of the tree?"

If someone strangled the neck and pulled it up, there must be scratch marks on the surface of the branch.

Qian Jinzhi took out a dagger and cut the belt holding the giraffe's neck, and slowly lowered the body. His parents cried to pick him up.

Qiu Wuhen said: "Don't touch it. Since he was hanged, we have to find out the real cause of his death. Did he hang himself or was strangled? If you touch it, it will destroy the traces."

The parents were arrested and quickly stopped, and they could not get closer. Others also stood far away, watching all this sadly.

Several parents were even more anxious, urging them to continue searching because they found that a student had been hanged, which made them very worried about their children. But they did not dare to let them go alone, hoping to wait for the arrests.

Together.

After putting the body down, Qiu Wuhen untied the rope.

Qian Jinzhi went down to the tree and said to Qiu Wuhen: "I looked at the branches above, and there are no signs of pulling or scratching. So, he should have hung his belt on it and hanged himself."

The giraffe's father shouted: "No way, my son is fine, why would he hang himself?"

Qiu Wuhen said: "Don't rush to conclusions yet, let me take a look first."

He is now a criminal master hired by the county magistrate, responsible for the trial of criminal cases. Moreover, the county magistrate has authorized him to actively intervene in the investigation once a suspicious case is discovered, without the need for separate authorization.

Therefore, after Qiu Wuhen discovered that there was a possibility of homicide in this case, he began to perform his duties as Master Xingming.

He was not in a hurry to get close to the body, but observed first.

The bottom of the tree was covered with white snow, and there were no traces of it, except for the two footprints of the parent who lost control and tried to climb the tree, and Capt. Ke who brought him back.

Qiu Wuhen slowly walked around the tree and carefully examined the surface of the snow. There were no traces or objects.

He looked at the body and saw that the giraffe's belt was strangling the neck - the deceased's belt was missing and his trousers were tied in a knot, barely hanging around his waist.

The father of the deceased also recognized that the belt belonged to his son. If so, the possibility of suicide is very high.

He checked the knot again and found that it was a looper. This kind of looper can be braided by oneself and then the head can be put into it.

He checked the branch where the deceased hung himself and found that he could complete all the hanging movements himself.

If the hanging cannot be completed by oneself, then the possibility of suicide can be ruled out. But so far, no traces of homicide have been found.

Qiu Wuhen untied the noose around the neck of the deceased and observed the marks of strangulation. The eight figures did not cross backwards, and there were knotted marks at the intersection on the back of the head. From the appearance, it was also consistent with the characteristics of a rope ditch formed by hanging.

There was obvious subcutaneous bleeding on the skin of the neck, which is a typical reaction in daily life. In other words, from this preliminary inference, it can be inferred that the deceased was hanged before death, rather than being hung after death.

He examined the face of the deceased and found that the face was obviously swollen, the lips were cyanotic, and the tip of the tongue was slightly protruding. This was due to the rope compressing the throat and forcing the tongue to stick out.

There were punctate subcutaneous hemorrhages on the eyes and lips of the deceased, which is an important feature of death by suffocation.

He then inspected the entire appearance of the body and found no external injuries from head to toe, and the clothes were intact.

Corpse spots have formed and are located in low places such as the legs and hands, which is consistent with the phenomenon of corpse spots caused by hanging.

He pressed his fingers on the deceased's palm and extracted fingerprints.

Then, he took another hair from the deceased, pressed the hair follicle with his hand, and immediately obtained the DNA typing results of the deceased. He also touched the deceased's feet with his palm and obtained the size of the feet.

He said to the father of the deceased: "At present, it seems that the child committed suicide by hanging. No traces of homicide have been found, and the body does not have any resistance or trauma. If the cause needs to be finally determined, an autopsy may be required on the child."

"Anatomy? What is anatomy?"

The ancients were unfamiliar with this term because basically no one did it.

Qiu Wuhen said: "It is necessary to cut open the body and check his internal organs to see if there is poisoning or disease, etc. At the same time, we need to cut open his neck to check if there are any signs of external force on his hanging, and finally conclude that he is dead.

The real reason.”

The giraffe's father immediately said: "No, since there are no signs of harm, his belly cannot be cut open, he is already dead, and I will not allow his body to be damaged. But there is no reason for my son to hang himself! He has always been studying.

He is very good in the school. And in the past few days, he told me that he plans to take the scholar exam next year, then the civil servant exam, and then the Jinshi exam, step by step, to become an official. How could he commit suicide? It doesn't make sense."

Several other parents were anxious and said, "Can we find someone else first? Maybe if we find someone else, everything will be clear."

In fact, Qiu Wuhen didn't waste much time here. He just inspected the body surface very quickly, and it only took two cups of tea. But for the parents of the missing children, this time is already long enough.

, they are very worried about their children.

So Qiu Wuhen said: "Okay, let's continue the search. Put the dead here first. You can send people back, call more people, and prepare the carriages and horses to transport the bodies back."

Qiu Wuhen realized that if one person hanged to death inexplicably, then they must have encountered something very strange last night. It was already past noon, and there was no sign of the others, so it was probably a disaster. But

He couldn't say these words. After all, if he said it like this, it would definitely put a huge psychological pressure on other students' parents. It was better to find the children first before talking.

They continued to search, calling loudly and searching forward.

The snow on the mountain is much heavier than in the county town, and many shrubs are covered with snow, so you can see very far.

Everyone was very nervous, reminding each other not to get separated and not to be left alone and encounter accidents.

Suddenly, a policeman in front shouted: "There are footprints here!"

Qiu Wuhen and the others hurried over to check, and sure enough, there were footprints leading to a small stream.

The water in the creek has frozen. Where do these footprints lead?

After Qiu Wuhen stepped forward to observe, he determined that these were a series of human footprints, and they belonged to one person. Judging from the pace and depth, he should be a half-grown child, which matched the characteristics of the child they were looking for.

He checked the footprints again and found that the bottom of the footprints was not covered by soft white snow, which meant that the footprints should have been left after the heavy snow stopped.

They immediately followed the footprints and searched forward. The footprints continued until they reached the creek and then disappeared.

Where have people gone? It’s impossible for them to just walk here and suddenly disappear, right?

Qiu Wuhen subconsciously looked up at the sky, and felt a little funny. How could a person disappear out of thin air? There is no way there is in the sky! There is no trace of these footprints going back. They will not disappear out of thin air. The owner of the footprints

It's probably around here.
Chapter completed!