snowstorm

Room on the second floor of Moss County Inn.

Xie Qiao stood by the window with his hands behind his back, and he squinted his eyes watching the flow of people under the window.It was clearly daytime, but candles were lit on the table behind him. Beside the candle table was a quaint female jade hairpin. The head of the hairpin was in the shape of a dancing white crane.

He has been in Moss County for two days, and he found this jade hairpin in a pawnshop after traveling all over the city. It is said that this jade hairpin was buried with Concubine Jing of the former dynasty.In the past two days, when he went to those antique shops and pawnshops, he ran under the guise of Concubine Xunjing's tomb. It is not even known whether Concubine Chaojing is really someone, and her tomb is even less visible.He put out a lot of money, and those bosses would naturally treat him as a victim, and they would be full of tongues if they brought out anything, and added some true and false legends, trying to trick him into buying it.

But in the end, he only bought the hosta at a pawnshop.The owner of the pawn shop is honest, he told the truth to Xie Qiao, he only said that someone came to press the hairpin, saying that it was buried with Concubine Jing, and he didn't come to pick it up after the expiration date, so he could sell it by himself - in fact, this is true It was forced out. After all, the quality of the hairpin jade is not good. Which fool would believe that it was the property of the legendary concubine Jing who was once favored for a while.

In fact, the boss felt bitter, because the hairpin was suppressed by others, and the person used the hairpin to exchange a lot of money from him, but he couldn't afford to offend that person, so he knew that the other party would not come back to get it, so he still had to Give the money to that person.In the end, I can only suffer a dull loss, and I only hope that the hairpin can be exchanged for a few taels of silver and come back to fill the gap.

Xie Qiao took the hairpin in his hand and weighed it, then put a piece of gold in front of the boss with a smile, and the boss's eyeballs almost popped out - he didn't expect that there would be such a fool today .Since Xie Qiao had enough gold, the boss answered the questions very happily, and Xie Qiao found out the truth about the person who was the hairpin.

Xie Qiao stood and looked at the street for a while, then turned around and walked a few steps to sit at the table, holding the hairpin in her hand, and shining it on the shadow of the candle, the hairpin that had no luster turned into a completely new one. Shiny and translucent, a graceful dancing shadow appeared on the crane body.It was the shadow of a woman, with flowing clouds and flying sleeves, her figure was graceful and lifelike, and there was a full moon above the woman's head, Xie Qiao moved her hand holding the hairpin, and the figure of the woman seemed to really move. It seems that a white crane flies by.

Xie Qiao smiled, he was really lucky, after only two days of searching, he really found the tomb of Concubine Jing.This is the crane dancing hairpin under the moon given to Concubine Jing by the former emperor. The hairpin looks nothing special on the outside, but the emperor recruited skilled craftsmen from all over the country to carve a lot of jade to carve himself in the body of the crane. The most lifelike figure of Ai Fei when she dances under the moon.This is what he saw from Li Mingbei's family's only copy of the previous dynasty.

Concubine Jing is a legend of the previous dynasty, and she obviously only lived for one dynasty, but everything about her, even her existence, has become a mystery of endless debate.Some people say that this woman does not exist at all. After all, such a famous concubine has no official history, but there are so many legends about her among the people. People pass everything about her by word of mouth, and she becomes a story It has become an allusion, a myth, and a legend that people are talking about now.

According to the legend, the emperor of the previous dynasty loved that woman very much. The woman missed her hometown and wanted to return to her hometown after she passed away. The woman was buried in her hometown.In order for her to sleep peacefully after death without being disturbed, the emperor specially ordered the historian not to mention Concubine Jing when he wrote the biography of Concubine Jing. In order to protect her tomb, Concubine Jing would not be alone without his company after death, so he sacrificed the lives of countless people.

It is said that there used to be an unnamed memorial tablet in the ancestral temple of the previous dynasty. Legend has it that the emperor put it in specially for the purpose of offering incense to Concubine Jing after her death.It's just that such an emperor is naturally a faint king, and that dynasty and himself are all turned into dust. Naturally, no one will think about adding any incense to his concubine.

The reason why Xie Qiao went to this place to bother to find the tomb of Concubine Jing was only because the plague in the previous life was related to Concubine Jing.The plague started from Moss County. It started very strangely and spread very fast. People who contracted the plague would vomit and diarrhoea, and then they would become stiff and die. If a family had a sick person, the family would die within a few days. There are no more living people.As strange and sudden as this plague, there is a rumor that someone has stolen the tomb of the Concubine Jing, and the empress will punish the world when she is angry.

Later, it was an old doctor in Jinling City who quelled the plague. He personally examined countless patients and read countless ancient books before he finally found a way to save people.

Regarding the plague in the previous life, Xie Qiao only knew the rumors, Tai County and the doctor. If he wanted to stop it in advance, he could only start from the tomb of Concubine Jing now—no wind, no waves. Since there were rumors back then, the plague It is most likely related to the tomb of Concubine Jing.Now, he has really found the tomb of Concubine Jing, and he also knows who the person who took the hairpin as a pawn, then he can follow the clues to find the source of these tomb objects. The real source of the plague, at that time, even if someone had already developed the disease, it could be controlled early.

He has inquired in the past two days, but no one has heard of such a disease, that is to say, the plague has not yet started, and everything has time.

This hairpin was taken by the magistrate of Tai County, Xie Qiao smiled—so, now he had to find a way to meet that—it is said that the magistrate of Taixian County is a bully in this place.

……

Xie Qiao was thinking about how to get close to the county magistrate without making a fuss, but he didn't want to, and the other party came to him by himself.

During the day, the sun is shining brightly, the bustling market is full of people coming and going.

"Hey, you look really good, why don't you go home with my master and make sure you are popular and hot!"

Xie Qiao looked at the person in front of him who was a head shorter than himself, obviously very fat, but with bruises under his eyes, who looked like an overindulgent person, and it was rare for a moment to realize that he was being molested by a man.

He stretched out his hand and swiftly knocked down the fan that the other party was about to reach on his chin, his dark eyes narrowed, a cold light flashed in them, but there was a smile on his face: "You, want me to go home with you?"

If Xu Lai was here, the hairs on his back would stand on end when he saw this master showing such a smile.

Seeing that Xie Qiao was wearing coarse linen clothes, the man just regarded Xie Qiao as a commoner who could be manipulated at will. He showed a somewhat obscene but threatening smile on his face, and he was about to go up to touch Xie Qiao's face: "Beauty, I'm the biggest here, it's best for you to take the initiative to go home with me today, otherwise—I don't want to be rough—it won't be good if I hurt you."

The people on the street seemed to have gotten used to seeing this scene, and they all secretly glanced at Xie Qiao with a little sympathy, but no one dared to step forward.

Xie Qiao sneered and stopped the man's hand and snapped it sharply at the wrist, and the man howled like a pig: "You—you dare to treat me like this, my father is the magistrate of this county—you don't let me go Drive me and my father so that you can't eat and walk around!"

The younger brother who followed the young master also wanted to make a move, but seeing that young master was in Xie Qiao's hands, he did not dare to step forward.

After Xie Qiao heard this, he simply let go of the person, and the young master covered his hands and was about to retreat behind the attendant to let the attendant teach him a lesson. Seeing another smile appeared on Xie Qiao's face, he said slowly: "Do you really want to take me with you?" I go home?"

The young master sneered while clutching his swollen wrist, and said: "You just broke my hand, do you still want to leave?! Don't even think about it!"

The smile on Xie Qiao's face did not fade, and he said meaningfully: "I will go with you. However, I can tell you in advance that I am Lu Huaiyu's friend in Jinling. If you dare to take me away, you will have to bear the consequences yourself. "

Xie Qiao's words were quite resounding, and the passers-by around sneaked up to take a look at Xie Qiao when they heard this, and when they saw the coarse sackcloth on him, they sighed helplessly and left.

When the young master heard Xie Qiao say Lu Huaiyu's name, he was stunned for a moment, then he sneered and said, "Who are you lying to?! I've never heard of Lu Huaiyu's broken sleeve—even if someone breaks his sleeve, it can break you On your body?! That’s the master, that’s the only one who likes you! Come here, tie him up for me, and tie him back!”

The attendants rushed up, Xie Qiao didn't struggle anymore, he smiled and let others tie him up, but if Xu Lai was here, he would find that when his highness looked at that person, he was looking at the dead.

……

Lu Jue and Xu Lai took the unknown doctor all the way north to Tai County.As soon as he arrived in Tai County, Lu Jue asked Xu Lai to go to the inn to settle down with the old doctor, and asked him to ask the waiter in the inn about Xie Qiao by the way.

He himself didn't care about taking a rest to go to the wind and dust, so he went to the street to find someone.

Tai County is a small town. Although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs. Although Tai County is not as lively as Jinling City, the streets are full of people, and there are small vendors selling goods everywhere.At this time, it was just after noon in the morning, and it was the time when the common people went to the streets to buy vegetables, so there were more people than other times.

Lu Jue was walking on the street, carefully identifying the faces in the crowd, and was about to ask a vendor when he was hit by someone.

The man wore a silver mask with only his eyes exposed.He brushed past Lu Jue, bumped into someone without apologizing, and just walked forward.Lu Jue caught the other person's eyes for a moment, he opened his eyes wide, and immediately turned around and patted that person's shoulder.

"Joe!"

The man turned around, Lu Jue stared blankly at him for a moment, then gave him a fist, and said: "Excuse me, I'm sorry, I've identified the wrong person."

"I look a lot like the Qiaoer you mentioned?" The man's voice was clear, but strangely low and hoarse, because Lu Jue couldn't see the other person's expression clearly because he was wearing a mask.

"I'm wearing a mask, and you can only see my eyes—that is, I have similar eyes to the Joel you mentioned?"

Lu Jue didn't know what came to mind, a smile appeared on his face, and he said without hesitation: "No, it's not like it. I just misidentified it. Sorry to bother you."

After that, he turned and left.The man looked at Lu Jue's figure for a while, and let out a sneer of disdain under his mask.