Although it felt that the body was hanging on the branch structure by chance, Yuan Shasha clearly remembered that when she and several police officers took the body into the kayak, they could not get the body away from the branch no matter what.

Finally, everyone unified their thinking and broke the branches one by one, thus successfully solving the problem.

But Lu Weiwei's reminder just now also made Yuan Shasha re-examine.

"Xiao Yuan." Seeing Yuan Shasha looking at the big tree with dull eyes, Gu Chen reminded: "Is there any problem?"

"Senior Brother Gu." Yuan Shasha was questioning, and after thinking briefly for a few seconds, she said again: "I think what Senior Sister Lu said is not unreasonable."

"I remember that when I rushed here with a few junior students, we really tried our best and couldn't separate the bodies."

"In the end, I had to break the branch, but it took a lot of effort. So when I heard what Senior Sister Lu said just now, I felt as if someone really hung the body here intentionally."

After listening to Yuan Shasha's explanation, Gu Chen didn't say much. He just stepped into the water and carefully inspected the roots and branches of the tree.

"Where's that broken branch?" Gu Chen turned to look at Yuan Shasha and asked, "Where did you throw those branches?"

"On the shore, Brother Gu, please wait." Yuan Shasha knew where the branches were discarded, so she quickly turned around and searched for them on the shore.

Finally, Yuan Shasha came to Gu Chen holding three thick branches, dropped them at Gu Chen's feet and said, "This body is lucky to be caught by so many branches, otherwise it might really drift downstream."

"Yeah." Gu Chen responded, and quickly took out one of the broken branches, placed it on the broken branch of the big tree, and compared it repeatedly.

Finally, Gu Chen found a crease that was more consistent with the branch in his hand and directly inserted the branch back.

"This branch is facing the wrong way." Gu Chen seemed to have discovered something fishy.

Lu Weiwei hurried forward, carefully compared Gu Chen's closed parts, and instantly understood what Gu Chen meant.

"Junior Brother Gu, do you mean that this branch should face upward, right?"

"Yes." Gu Chen held the broken part and demonstrated it to everyone: "Obviously, this crease should be combined like this."

"All the concave and convex parts are consistent, which means that the branch on my hand was obviously broken from this position, but the direction is obviously a bit strange."

"Yes, the branch connects to the stump and obviously grows upward. But how can this branch go down deep into the water?"

Officer Wang, who was sitting in the kayak, also clearly saw the clues.

After thinking briefly for a few seconds, Officer Wang added: "And even if the water rises, it won't be so high. It seems like someone deliberately bent it and put it into the water. Look at the head position of the branch."

Seeing Officer Wang pointing at the branch in his hand, Gu Chen directly stretched his head towards Officer Wang.

Officer Wang pointed to several hook positions and said clearly: "This kind of hook structure is very suitable for making hooks."

"But if the hook is artificially hooked to the body, the branches will inevitably be immersed in the water."

"So..." Gu Chen glanced in the direction of Yuan Shasha and continued to ask: "So when you discovered the body, this branch had been hanging the body like this and soaking it in the water, right?"

"Yes, that's it." Yuan Shasha seemed to be awakened and couldn't help but said: "When we were digging this section of the tree trunk, we found that the trunk was very curved."

"And it's not just this branch, I remember there is another branch like this too."

"Is it this one?" Lu Weiwei directly matched another broken tree trunk to another crease.

The creases completely match the concave and convex positions of the tree trunk.

Yuan Shasha nodded fiercely: "Yes, that's it."

"The orientation is also wrong." Gu Chen took the tree trunk from Lu Weiwei's hand and corrected the normal growth direction of the trunk again.

Like the one just now, the two trunks grow upward.

All these seem to confirm what Gu Chen and Lu Weiwei had just thought, that is, if the body needs to be hung firmly in this position in the water flow like yesterday, and ensure that it is not washed away.

That will inevitably require the help of artificial power, using two thick branches on the big tree as assistance.

Gu Chen thought of this and continued to ask: "Xiao Yuan, besides these two branches, are there any other fixed points?"

"There are also... tree roots, tree roots extending into the water." Yuan Shasha pointed to one of the locations and said: "But these tree roots can only hook the clothes of the corpse at most."

"Coupled with the two bent branches above, we can form a stable triangle to fix the body."

"That is to say, the body was obviously hung here intentionally." Gu Chen heard Yuan Shasha's story and combined with the situation at the scene, suddenly felt that there was some discrepancy in the sudden disappearance of the old man yesterday and the time of death.

All these factors seemed to force Gu Chen to continue his in-depth investigation.

After standing up and finishing the shooting, Gu Chen climbed directly to the shore and started patrolling along the road along the shore.

Since the flood has soaked most of the area along the shore, the shore is already muddy.

Many aquatic plants that originally grew on the shore have long since become unsteady after the water receded.

Gu Chen cautiously followed the direction of the village and kept searching.

Officer Wang also drove the kayak, following Gu Chen's pace, and drove up together.

Two minutes later, Gu Chen stopped at a place and immediately squatted down, as if he was looking for something.

Lu Weiwei followed in small steps.

Because the road was slippery, Lu Weiwei stumbled and almost slipped to the ground.

Fortunately, Lu Weiwei has a strong sense of balance, and with a few small steps, she immediately stabilized her position.

"Senior Sister Lu, be careful." Gu Chen grabbed the belt around Lu Weiwei's waist and held her firmly.

Lu Weiwei also supported Gu Chen's shoulders and gradually stabilized her feet.

"The ground here is too slippery. I almost fell into the water." Taking a deep breath, Lu Weiwei also asked Gu Chen: "By the way, Junior Brother Gu, what did you find?"

"Footprints." Gu Chen said.

"Footprints?" Lu Weiwei heard this and hurriedly knelt down and came to Gu Chen's side.

And Yuan Shasha also walked over from the other side.

The three of them squatted on the ground, like a group of bored people watching an ant fight.

Gu Chen gently pushed aside the weeds, pointed to one of the footprints and said, "This place has obvious traces of being stepped on."

"Judging from the age of the footprints, they should have been left recently."

Standing up, looking around, Gu Chen added: "And this place, usually no one would come here."

"Could it be that the old man was brought here after his death and then deliberately hung on the shore? But I can't figure out what the meaning of this is?" Lu Weiwei asked.

"It's a fake death time." Gu Chen looked forward with bright eyes, then turned around and said to everyone:

"There is something fishy about the old man's death. If you go by the reasoning I just made at Nishizawa Central Primary School, the old man's death should have happened before we found him sitting on the roof."

"But if that's the case, then the old man on the roof we saw back then might have been a corpse long ago."

"How could this happen?" Listening to Gu Chen's explanation, Yuan Shasha felt terrified and thought about it, and couldn't help but say:

"But, judging from what you saw yesterday, didn't Senior Brother Gu go to the old house on site to check on the situation?"

"And you team members have been searching nearby for a long time, but you haven't found the old man's body."

"Yes." Gu Chen nodded silently and couldn't help but said: "This is also where my doubts lie."

"Although I can only infer now that there is something wrong with the time of the old man's death, but how did the old man gradually disappear from our sight?"

"How come it appears in this place and is still hung firmly on the shore? This is very strange."

"There are also these footprints." Lu Weiwei pointed at the ground and reminded.

Gu Chen crossed his arms and looked at Officer Wang on the kayak.

At this moment, Officer Wang also said thoughtfully: "If this is the case, it means that the old man's death is indeed very strange."

"The key is that if the old man's body is hung firmly on a branch as Xiao Yuan said, it is likely to be man-made."

"And the footprints on the shore may be left by the person who moved the body here."

"Why are you doing this? Is it to use the flood situation to complete a murder?" Gu Chen's eyes were burning and he looked towards the direction of the village.

In Gu Chen's opinion, this completely meets the conditions for murder.

Turning around, Gu Chen said without vomiting: "The current situation at least explains a few doubts."

"First of all, when we were preparing to search the village yesterday, the old man who was sitting on the roof of the old house suddenly disappeared."

"And now, after the old man's body mysteriously disappeared yesterday, it strangely appears in this place, and seems to have been hung here artificially."

"And judging from the time of death of the old man, it is completely beyond the time we found yesterday. This is not in line with common sense."

"So adding these suspicions together, this seems to be a suspicious incident."

"But……"

Lu Weiwei hesitated for a few seconds and couldn't help but said: "But Junior Brother Gu, based on these alone, it is difficult for us to make a final conclusion, including the specific identity of the deceased, and if it was a homicide, the murderer must have had issues with the old man.

We all need to master it."

"You're right, this is exactly what I want to consider now." Gu Chen took out his mobile phone and took a photo of the footprints. He deliberately avoided the easy route and walked all the way towards the village.

.

Seeing this, everyone followed him one after another.

Gu Chen searched for footprints and took pictures along the way.

Because the weeds were knocked here and there by the flood, a lot of silt was also brought to the shore.
To be continued...