Diary

"That was a dying counterattack after an assassination attempt."

Once he had moved the books aside, Qin Ran saw two mummified corpses and reached that conclusion at once.

It was far too obvious.

A dagger still protruded from one corpse's back, while its finger pointed toward the other corpse, whose chest had caved in.

Clearly, the killer had stabbed the victim from behind, only for her to strike back with her dying breath and kill him.

That final blow had been swift and powerful.

It had given the killer no chance to dodge and had sent books tumbling down, burying both bodies beneath them.

Of course, the books were not why the bodies had become mummies instead of skeletons.

"It must be the magic circle."

Qin Ran looked at the magic circle beneath a nearby bookshelf.

The circle, which resembled a pair of rings, had plainly been designed to preserve the books from the ravages of time and insects.

Whoever had set it up probably had not expected it to preserve corpses, too.

That saved Qin Ran considerable trouble.

At least her well-preserved clothing made it easy to tell that the victim had been a woman. She had likely been wealthy in life; the embellishments on her clothes said enough.

As for the killer...

He was a man dressed plainly, but his frame was massive. Even as a mummy, he was larger than an ordinary person.

Qin Ran could easily imagine how tall and powerfully built the man had been while alive.

He examined both corpses carefully before his gaze settled on the dagger embedded in the woman's back.

To his disappointment, when he touched it, the system identified it as an ordinary weapon.

Qin Ran turned his attention to the desk.

It was a broad desk.

The books that