I assembled the strongest swordsman group

He always felt that this statement was absolutely profound.

Grandma Ping's house wasn't big. Following the scent of blood, Qing Deng slowly moved from the entrance hall to the depths of the house while observing his surroundings. Finally, he arrived at the location from which the scent of blood was coming—the main room.

As soon as he stood by the open door of the room, the sight inside made Qing Deng's pupils shrink slightly.

In the small hall, an old woman lay on her back with her face up, her chest covered in blood and gore.

The blood flowing from her body stained most of her body and the tatami mat beneath her red.

Even though his eyes had lost their sparkle, one could still vaguely see the lingering terror deep within his pupils...

The victim must have experienced such a horrific ordeal when he died... It's too painful to think about.

After taking several deep breaths to compose himself, Qingdeng slowly walked to Grandma Ping's body and closed his eyes in silent mourning.

May you rest in peace…

After a moment of silence for the unfortunate old lady who had been murdered, Qingdeng opened his eyes and roughly surveyed the room.

The scene was far more perfect than Qingdeng had imagined.

It seems that those who discovered Granny Ping's body did not excessively disturb the scene, and Gray Wolf also took good care of the crime scene afterward, preventing any unrelated people from approaching.

The scene was in much better condition than expected—which relieved Qing Deng.

As Qing Deng, who was crouching on the tatami mat, began to examine Grandma Ping's body, his brows immediately furrowed slightly.

He had some basic forensic knowledge, and based on his deduction, he could determine that Grandma Ping's time of death was last night.

The murder weapon was a sharp blade. Grandma Ping was stabbed seven times in the chest, and apart from the knife wound in her chest, there were no other injuries on her body.

The seven knife wounds on Granny Ping's chest were quite messy, with only one successfully hitting a vital spot. But it was this one knife that took Granny Ping's life.

After carefully examining Granny Ping's wounds for a while, Qing Deng's gaze shifted to... Granny Ping's clothes.

Looking at Granny Ping's neatly dressed everyday clothes, Qing Deng's brows furrowed even more.

Grandma Ping's clothes had a patch on her chest, sleeves, and waist.

It's clear from her clothes that she's worn them for a long time; the color has faded considerably from washing.

At that moment, Qingdeng suddenly noticed something in the corner of his eye—a small candlestick was placed not far from the body.

On the candlestick was a small candle, burned down to about the height of a thumb.

Qingdeng moved closer to the candlestick and examined the small section of candle closely.

The base of the candle is covered with a large amount of solidified candle wax.

These solidified candle liquid pieces... are all quite new, clearly indicating that they have only recently solidified.

After examining the small piece of candle for a while, Qingdeng looked up and around.

After looking around the room, Qingdeng's gaze settled on the antique storage cabinet placed in a corner of the hall.

He walked quickly to the storage cabinet, opened it—and as soon as he opened the cabinet, Qingdeng found what he was looking for—a fairly ample supply of lamp oil.

"...It went more smoothly than I expected."

Qingdeng let out a long breath.

His long sigh carried a sense of relief.

"We already... know who the suspect is..."

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New book sets sail!

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This chapter has actually provided enough clues for readers to deduce which groups are the main suspects in the case.

Interested readers are welcome to try and deduce the reasoning!

This might be difficult.

This requires some common sense about the Edo period, and people who are not familiar with the common sense of life in that era would probably find it difficult to deduce.

Chapter 31 The North Squad's "Third Round" Ace: Hosojiro Nishino

"Hey! Gray Brother! Who exactly killed Granny Ping?"

"Grey Bro! Hasn't Tongxin, who's in charge of this case, arrived yet?"

"Grey Brother..."

……

Grey Wolf felt like his head was about to explode from all the constant shouts of "Grey Wolf".

By this time, the number of people gathered outside Grandma Ping's house had grown to nearly 200.

This also made Gray Wolf, who was working hard to maintain order, feel increasingly pressured.

After all, with such a large number of people, if any accident occurs, such as a stampede or something that results in death or injury, then he, as the head of the family responsible for managing Mokuyanagi-cho, would be held accountable.

He had already started driving the crowd away.

However, there were far too few people. Including the clerks in charge of paperwork, each unit had at most a dozen or so clerks.

Grey Brother had already transferred most of his men to stop the crowd from approaching Granny Ping's house, and there were simply no more people available to drive the crowd away.

Moreover, the people gathered outside Grandma Ping's house are all quite agitated.

The number of people who had received help from Grandma Ping and her husband and who had come after hearing the news of their benefactor's death far exceeded those who had simply come to join in the fun.

They either cried or shouted angrily, telling them to leave immediately, but they wouldn't listen at all.

It wasn't convenient for Gray Brother to say anything too harsh to them or give them a sour look.

After all, many of these people are familiar faces who live in or around the town of Mokuyanagi.

The samurai of the "Three Returns" could treat these people badly, but Hai Taro couldn't. As the head of the Mokuyanagi family, he saw these people all the time. If he ruined his relationship with them, he would find it difficult to move around in Mokuyanagi and would be given the cold shoulder wherever he went.

—Sigh…why isn’t that blockhead Deng out yet…?

With a furrowed brow, Gray Brother kept glancing unhappily at the door of Granny Ping's house, where Qing Deng had not yet emerged.

He now has a lot of opinions about this "dumbhead".

What good would it do you to be at the crime scene? You'd be better off helping him maintain order... With him, a trusted resident of the town, there'd be some stability...

Just as Grey Brother was venting his dissatisfaction with Qing Deng, a clerk suddenly came running up to him, panting heavily.

"Mr. Grey! Tongxin, the officer sent by the Northern Frontier Bureau to handle this case, has arrived!"

"Oh?" Gray Brother's eyes lit up, and he asked quickly, "Who's here?"

"It's Nishino Hosojiro, who returned to the Tojo-gumi from Sadamachi!"

Upon hearing the name Nishino Hosojiro, Hai Taro's eyes shone even brighter.

Just as Gray was about to press the scribe in front of him for details about where Nishino was—

"Oh! Another member of the magistrate's office has arrived!"

"Make way! Everyone, quickly make way for Tongxin!"

"Ah! It's Lord Nishino of the North Camp! Lord Nishino of the North Camp has arrived!"

……

Shouts rose and fell from one end of the crowd outside the house.

Attracted by the shouts, Gray Brother paused for a moment, then quickly stood on tiptoe and looked in the direction of the sound.

Then, on one side of the distant sea of ​​people, a giant "gap" appeared, which kept expanding inwards.

This "gap" kept widening until it finally became a wide road leading directly to Grandma Ping's house.

Five figures stepped onto this avenue without any hesitation.

Four of the five men were dressed as Gang Yin, with jitsu tucked into their waistbands, walking with a swagger and an air of arrogance.

The last of the five... had two swords, a standard samurai accessory, on his left waist, a jitte with a red tassel on his right waist, and an inro from the magistrate's office tied to his belt. His lips were tightly pursed, and his face was cold and stern.

The four Gangyin members tightly surrounded Tongxin, who was walking in the middle of them, and strode towards Hui Dalang and his group along the path cleared by the crowd.

Upon seeing this, as if by conditioned reflex, Gray Wolf skillfully plastered a fawning smile on his face and strode forward to meet the man who was leading four Okabe-in-waitings to this place.

Grey Brother's current appearance is completely different from when he greeted Qing Deng earlier.

Out of contempt for "Dumb Deng", when he greeted Qing Deng earlier, there was a hint of disdain in Gray Brother's eyes.

But at this moment, facing the cold-faced Tongxin, Hui Dalang's face showed only the purest respect and flattery.

"Ah! So it's Lord Nishino!" To show his respect, Hai Taro bowed so low that his chest almost touched his knees, his eyes practically slits with laughter. "I am Hai Taro, the head of the Koyanagi-cho family..."

"Let's skip the self-introduction for now."

Just as Gray Brother had a chance to introduce himself, Tongxin interrupted him with a tone that was neither sad nor happy.

"The magistrate has assigned me to take charge of this case."

"Quickly report the details of the case to me, the more detailed the better."

Tongxin was extremely stingy with words, as if she didn't want to say a single extra word to Hui Dalang.

Seeing the man in front of him so indifferent, Gray Brother was stunned.

But soon, as if he didn't care at all... or rather, dared not care, he put on a fawning smile again.

"Yes Yes Yes!"

"It was the rude person who did this!"

"Here's what happened: about half an hour ago, several families in the neighborhood discovered the body of the house's owner, Granny Ping, in this house..."

As Hui Dalang recounted the general details of the case to Tongxin, he led Tongxin and his gang through an "invisible wall" constructed from the canes of their own officials to separate the crowd from the crime scene...

Grey Brother's eloquence is quite good.

In just a few words, he reported everything he knew to Tongxin.

Who was the victim, Granny Ping? How was Granny Ping's body discovered? When was Granny Ping's body discovered?

After Gray Wolf finished reporting, Tongxin nodded slightly.

"...Besides the person who discovered the victim's body, were there any other people who entered the house?"

"I went in for a quick look, but I didn't touch anything! And then..." Gray's expression gradually became strange, "...Lord Tachibana, who is in charge of patrolling this area, just went into the house..."

"Ju?" Tongxin was taken aback at first, then her brows furrowed instantly. "That Ju Qingdeng?"

Grey Brother quickly replied, "Yes."

"...Tsk." Tongxin clicked her tongue, a disdainful and mocking smile curving her lips. "What's that idiot trying to do... Don't mess things up for me..."

After saying that, Tongxin passed by Hui Dalang and led his four Gangyin men toward the door of Granny Ping's house.

"No one is allowed to come in without my order," Tongxin said to Hui Dalang.

"Yes!" Gray Brother bowed respectfully to Tongxin as he saw her off.

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Chapter 32: The Case Solved!

Qingdeng carefully searched through the storage cabinet in the living room for a while, and finally found another item in the corner of the bottom drawer that could prove his guess - a few candles placed in the corner of the drawer.

After staring intently at the candles for a while, Qingdeng closed the drawer, slowly walked back to Grandma Ping's body, and examined it once again.

"Did the perpetrator cover the victim's mouth with one hand and use the other hand to commit the crime with a knife...?" Qingdeng carefully examined the scratch marks on Granny Ping's mouth.

Around Grandma Ping's slightly open mouth, which was covered with blood and foam, were marks of pressing and scratching with fingernails.