Chapter 4 Empty House
When he came to the door, Pei Ye tapped the beast ring lightly. Only then did he remember to look down at his own image, and he couldn't help but laugh. But there were more times when I was practicing boxing than this embarrassing time, and it didn't hurt to give Uncle Lin a joke.
After laughing, he raised his head and waited quietly, but time passed by and no one answered the door for a long time.
Uncle Lin likes to do everything by himself, so there are no servants such as concierges and grooms in the house, but with his keen senses, he should be able to hear.
Pei Ye knocked a few more times, but when there was still no response, he simply jumped up, climbed over the courtyard wall lightly, and came to Lin Lin's bedroom, where he saw a candlelight shining through the heavy rain curtain.
Uncle Lin didn't sleep? Then why didn't you answer the door?
Pei Ye frowned and walked over, but the bedroom door was open. Pei Ye lightly knocked on the door frame: "Uncle Lin?"
However, no one in the room responded. Pei Ye looked around and found no one.
With his eyebrows furrowed even more, Pei Ye walked into the room and saw the quilt was lifted and the candle in front of the bed was on. He lowered his head and didn't wear any shoes in front of the bed.
But when he turned his head, there was only a scabbard left on the sword hanging by the bedside.
With his heart tightening, Pei Yesurong looked around and found that the flint was placed far away. The candle in front of the bed was obviously lit by Lin Lin with his true energy.
Pei Ye could almost imagine the scene where he suddenly woke up, lit a fire with his fingers, and then rushed out with his sword drawn.
What's so urgent?
As soon as this question came to his mind, an answer that made his heart skip a beat blurted out: "Lin Jue!"
Lin Lin lost his wife in his early years and only had one daughter, whom he loved very much. The girl's name is Lin Jue. She is about the same age as Pei Ye. She is quite gentle and lively, but her left arm is congenitally disabled. There is only a lump of flesh where the hand should be, which is very distressing.
He still remembered Lin Lin saying that if Lin Jue was not disabled, he would still be a very good martial arts seedling.
Now that he thought of this possibility, Pei Ye ran to Lin Jue's room regardless of the differences between men and women, but his heart sank - Lin Jue's door was also open to the outside, and there was no candle burning in the room.
Pei Ye lit the candle in the room. There was no one in the room. The girl's quilt was lifted and her shoes were still placed in front of the bed.
Lin Lin might have heard some evil noise in the middle of the night, grabbed the knife and stood up to check, but would a frail seventeen-year-old girl who was awakened by a terrifying sound in her sleep lift up the quilt and look for her?
So the root cause lies with Lin Jue. She went out for unknown reasons, but Lin Lin had keen senses and heard something was wrong, so he got up to save his daughter.
Then why did Lin Jue push out the door wearing obscene clothes and bare feet?
A feeling of familiarity suddenly came to his mind, and Pei Ye lowered his head. Isn't this just like... himself?
A shiver climbed from the tailbone all the way up to Tianling, and Pei Ye shivered.
What's going on?
Pei Ye wanted to ask Lao Xiangzi in detail, and wanted to study the origin of the fire talisman on his forehead, but Lin Lin's family was in an unpredictable situation, and he had no time to care at this time. Pei Ye ran back to Lin Lin's room, turned over a sword and came out , the heavy weight came into his hands, and he felt a little more at ease. Pei Ye tried hard to identify the vague traces and trace the traces of the two of them.
Lin Jue's footprints only extended a short distance outside the door, and then turned into the boot prints of a man on the ground, who was obviously abducted. This place was still four or five feet away from the wall, but the man jumped up from the ground with Lin Jue on his back, and reached the outside of the courtyard wall with one step, followed by Lin Lin's footprints.
Pei Ye also climbed over the courtyard wall, but outside the wall was a field. At this time, the water was turbulent, the soil was soft, and there were crops blocking the view. It was too difficult to follow.
Although Pei Ye was anxious, he still tried to calm down and think carefully: Since Lin Jue and himself both sleepwalked out, did they reach the same destination? He had just left the north gate of the city at that time, and Lin Jue might have also gone to the north of the city.
Following this general direction, he searched for traces bit by bit. After a long time, he finally found a path heading north. Pei Ye followed the traces and reached the river beach after leaving the fields. The footprints here were much more obvious. Look. Both of them were seen flying across the river. Pei Ye didn't have such skill, so he leaned down and swam across the river.
After crossing the river, there was a plain, and the traces became more and more obvious, but a phenomenon that made Pei Ye uneasy also emerged: the captor was still walking at an even pace while carrying one person, and seemed to have plenty of energy. Lin Lin's heart was in love with his beloved daughter, and his imminent urgency could be seen in his footprints, but even though he tried his best to catch up, he was still being pushed further and further away.
Pei Ye had no real energy, so he could only rely on the strength of his legs to run through the rainy fields, and he was much slower than the two of them.
Finally, when it was almost nine o'clock, the rain became weaker and the roosters began to crow. Pei Ye came to a forest and his trace disappeared here.
There was silence in the forest, there was no sound of fighting, and the faint smell of blood penetrated the nostrils.
Pei Ye held the hilt of the sword and walked in slowly.
The forest was not large, so Pei Ye didn't have much time to prepare. A bloody corpse came into view.
It was Lin Lin.
The place was deserted.
Pei Ye came to the body, and an unsheathed steel knife fell next to it. It was the one Lin Lin often wore. There was no blood on the blade.
The face that was calm and self-possessed was pale and distorted in a strange way. The eyes were red and bulging, and there were two tear stains on the cheeks. The remaining expression was like anxiety, anger, disbelief, but more of it was pain.
Pei Ye was silent for a few breaths at this face, pursed her lips and looked down.
Lin Lin was wearing white pajamas that were stained red with blood. There were nine claw marks on his left and right arms, chest and abdomen, and legs. Some were cuts and some were stab wounds. The fatal part was on his neck, where two huge blood holes were left. .
Pei Ye slowly squatted down and inspected the wounds.
The claws of wolves and leopards are not so sharp, nor are they so long. The tiger's teeth can leave this bite mark, but it is also not used to fighting with its claws. These beasts hold their prey down and bite it to death without leaving so many claw marks, and they don't leave any hair behind.
What's more important is that even if five tigers come, they won't be Uncle Lin's opponent.
Maybe there are no wild beasts. There are some strange weapons in the world that look like sharp claws and can be worn on the hand.
But Pei Ye quickly rejected this speculation, not only because of the genuine bite marks on his neck, but also because of the hard-to-identify paw prints on the ground.
Pei Ye pushed aside Lin Lin's clothes with a heavy expression, revealing a blackened palm print on his chest and abdomen, half of which had been cut open by claw marks.
Pei Ye's complexion changed, and he gently pressed his palm prints. The bones and flesh underneath were as soft as mud and water.
Uncle Lin received this palm first and then encountered the beast. This palm broke four of his ribs and almost completely shattered his internal organs. If he really faced a tiger at this time, he would probably be unable to fight it.
A very strong and vicious palm.
But what really made Pei Ye's heart sink was the location where the palm hit - right in the heart, impartially, and there were no other man-made scars on the entire body.