Start By Parsing The Sun

Chapter 26: Obtaining the Handle of the Mastermind

The imprint of controlling spirits is an extremely magical existence. Any creature affected by the power of the imprint will establish an invisible connection with it. From then on, no matter how far apart they are, as long as the creature is not dead, the connection will not disappear.

After sensing for a moment, Cheng Han identified the "lost" bird - the blue flycatcher.

He immediately thought of a crucial question - was this a simple accident, or did Qin Zicheng discover the bird's peeping?

If it was the former, it could only be said that the blue flycatcher was very unlucky.

If it was the latter, um... it didn't seem to be harmful either.

Because Cheng Han had specially prepared a set of preventive measures against divination, he didn't think that Qin Zicheng had the ability to trace it back to him.

The only trouble was that this guy would definitely be more vigilant, which would greatly increase the difficulty of monitoring. In the future, he would have to find other means.

While Cheng Han was turning his thoughts, he pushed his bicycle towards the entrance of the vegetable market.

After walking a few steps, he suddenly heard someone shouting from behind.

"Young man, wait a moment."

Cheng Han turned his head and saw an old man with graying hair panting as he chased after him.

He stopped and politely asked, "Sir, what can I do for you?"

The old man asked directly, "Do you still have any burrow rabbits?"

Cheng Han shook his head and said, "Sorry, they're all sold out."

The old man, cunningly probing, asked, "Young man, you caught so many burrow rabbits, you probably still have one left, right?"

Cheng Han didn't answer.

The other party guessed correctly. He does indeed still have some burrow rabbits, and not just one, but a total of six. He plans to pickle them as a reserve food for the winter.

The old man tried to appeal emotionally: "My youngest son's wife gave birth to a baby boy half a month ago. These days, her milk supply is not sufficient, and the little one often cries out of hunger.

"Burrow rabbit meat can stimulate milk production. I wanted to buy one to help my daughter-in-law recover, but I searched the market for a long time and didn't see a single burrow rabbit."

Burrow rabbits have peculiar habits. When raised in captivity, they become extremely irritable and attack each other, resulting in the death of many young rabbits.

Wild burrow rabbits are extremely cautious, and traps and similar methods are rarely effective against them. Therefore, it is common for burrow rabbits not to appear in the market all day.

It is only because Cheng Han possesses extraordinary abilities and has an extremely capable black cat that he was able to catch so many rabbits at once.

The old man gritted his teeth and tried to entice Cheng Han with self-interest: "I'm willing to pay two silver coins for one!"

For ordinary people, this is a very tempting price.

But Cheng Han, aided by his all-knowing eye, has found over thirty silver coins in the past year alone, so the other party's offer is not enough to move him.

The old man pleaded with a longing look in his eyes: "Young man, my grandson's health is already not good. If he continues to go hungry, I'm afraid he won't survive the winter."

Cheng Han sighed inwardly and silently recited, "Calculate!"

He didn't fully believe the other party's words and decided to verify it with his skills.

His mental value decreased by 1.2 points.

A series of illusions appeared.

After a moment, the images disappeared.

Cheng Han raised an eyebrow slightly and decisively said, "Old sir, I'll go back first. You wait for me at the market."

The old man hesitated a bit, "You're not trying to make an excuse to leave, are you?"

This person immediately realized his mistake and quickly apologized, "Young man, please don't take offense. I'm old and a bit confused."

Cheng Han replied, "It's okay," and turned to leave.

*

After fifteen minutes.

Cheng Han returned to the market on time.

The old man saw a rabbit hanging on the handlebar of the cart and immediately smiled with joy, saying, "This young man is true to his word!"

He complimented, "When I was young, I also wanted to catch rabbits to make some money, but these things are too clever. I spent three days working hard in the wild and got nothing. This young man is really impressive!"

Cheng Han smiled slightly and made up an excuse, saying, "I was lucky. I and a few companions managed to get rid of a rabbit den together."

The old man looked at the rabbits and voluntarily raised the price, saying, "These rabbits from the den must weigh around six jin, right? I'll give you 220 copper coins, how about that?"

Cheng Han nodded and said, "Deal!"

The rabbits left at home were already a batch with larger sizes, so it was only natural for the price to be higher.

Both sides exchanged money and goods.

The old man carried the rabbits and happily went home.

Cheng Han watched his back and whispered, "I never expected that this old man's affairs would be related to Qin Zicheng."

The deduction results showed that this person's daughter-in-law had been troubled by nightmares recently, which affected her mental state and led to insufficient breast milk.

What's more important is that the house where this person lives is less than fifty meters away from Qin Zicheng's house in a straight line.

Is this a coincidence?

He felt that it wasn't!

Cheng Han rode his bicycle and thought, "I actually overlooked this point. The neighbors are so close, and the probability of Qin Zicheng targeting them is the highest.

"This guy secretly did something in the school's botanical garden before, it should have been a momentary impulse, just like a young person showing off in front of classmates."

He thought about the old man's daughter-in-law's nightmares, his expression changing, "When I first deduced the black cat, the shadow turned into a ghostly hand and sucked the black cat dry.

"And in that woman's dreams, there were frequent appearances of terrifying and strange black shadows, which sounded a bit like ghostly hands. Could this be the power of an evil god again?

"The death of the blue flycatcher should not be a coincidence. Its feathers were bright, most likely Qin Zicheng discovered that it had been lingering nearby for a long time and felt that something was not right, so he killed this unlucky bird."

Cheng Han felt somewhat fortunate, "Fortunately, I am very careful and cautious. I didn't rashly go near Qin Zicheng's house for on-site investigation, otherwise I might have encountered an accident like the blue flycatcher."

He pedaled his bicycle forcefully and thought, "After a while, I will deduce it again to verify my thoughts."

*

Night fell.

Cheng Han arrived at his doorstep.

He pushed open the door and immediately saw the black cat lying next to the wooden barrel containing the rabbits, seemingly guarding the spoils.

As for the two "sentries" birds, they were both standing on top of the cabinet, obviously having a serious psychological shadow towards the black cat, so they didn't dare to approach it.

"Meow~"

The black cat stood up immediately and greeted its owner.

The two birds flapped their wings and flew down, landing on his left and right shoulders respectively.

Cheng Han stroked the cat's head a few times, then stroked the birds' heads a few times, and then opened a drawer of the cabinet, taking out a feather from it.

It was the feather of the blue flycatcher.

To prevent any accidents, before releasing the three birds, he specifically plucked a feather from each of them as a "related object" for tracing.

Cheng Han gently stroked the feather and chuckled, "If you didn't touch my birds, I wouldn't be able to do anything to you. But you just had to touch the bird, directly establishing a connection with it. Isn't this just handing yourself to me?"

He focused his mind and silently said, "Using the feather as a clue, deduce the cause of the blue flycatcher's death!"

(End of this chapter)