Kaifeng Shuangmeiji

After breakfast the next day, a few people came to the Zhou family's mansion, and saw that it was indeed a wealthy family, the vermilion gate was very imposing, and the stone lions on both sides were of high quality and finely carved.

Bai Yutang knocked on the door, pretending that he was sent by the Beijing Yamen to investigate the case, the doorman hurriedly let the three of them into the room on the left side of the door, and they sat down to drink tea and wait.

Bai Yutang picked up the tea cup and took a sip, "I went to the city yesterday and found out that Zhou's family is in the cloth business. It seems that the business is quite big. Even the tea served in the side room is the best bud tea!"

Qin Qi didn't know much about tea, but Gu Qing knew how much it was. She drank a few sips of tea and it was really good tea. She traveled around the rivers and lakes on weekdays and did some things for a few wealthy households.These rich people often have fires in the backyard or scandals in the dandy fish and meat town. Although not all rich people are like this, but the few that Gu Qing encountered have such problems more or less, which makes Gu Qing have a good opinion of this week's family. I also had some prejudices, and after drinking this tea, I felt that it was a good tea bought with silver taels obtained through many dirty means, so I put down the cup and didn't take another sip.

Not long after, a middle-aged man with the appearance of a housekeeper trotted over and led the three of them to the middle hall of the front yard. After a cup of tea, a man in his fifties walked in with wide ears and fat cheeks, mouse eyes and snub nose. man.Seeing that this person was wearing a long silk jacket, covered with a soft shirt, with a silk belt hanging around his waist and a jade pendant, he looked like a nouveau riche, Qin Qi felt displeased when he saw this person.

The housekeeper introduced that this was his master, Zhou Yuanwai, and told him that these people came from the capital to investigate the case of Miss's disappearance.When the outsider heard that he was from the yamen of the capital, he bowed and gave up his seat for a while, trying to flatter him.Both Qin Qi and Gu Qing sneered, were too lazy to answer, and said nothing.Bai Yutang had no choice but to go forward and pretend to be a snake with him, and then he was able to talk about the situation of the missing lady.

Zhou Yuanwai said that the missing person was her fourth daughter, who was born to the third wife. She was 16 years old this year. On the eighth day of the eighth day, she went to the temple with the third wife to offer incense. It disappeared in two days.

This daughter had already made an appointment and promised to be a side house to the magistrate of Lu'an, and she was brought into the mansion after the Lantern Festival, who would have thought of such a thing.Member Zhou said angrily, "Master Zhifu has already agreed to give me [-]% of the cloth demand for next year's supply, but now I'm afraid it won't happen!"

Qin Qi was indignant when he heard this, he was clearly exchanging his daughter for money, and this person was really black-hearted.Bai Yutang also frowned for a moment of contempt, stopped his conversation impatiently, and asked to take a few people to the girl's boudoir to have a look.

The housekeeper led her there, and as soon as she entered the room, Qin Qi could faintly smell a very faint fragrance, but she couldn't remember where she had smelled it.I had no choice but to keep the feeling of this fragrance in my heart for the time being, and ponder it after I got back.

Several people searched carefully, but found nothing, so they had to leave and go back to the inn. Qin Qi remained silent all the way, trying hard to recall where he had smelled the fragrance.Bai Yutang, on the other hand, kept cursing that member Zhou for being rich and heartless, and that the Wanguan family wealth was obtained by selling a few daughters!Even Gu Qing did not contradict Bai Yutang, but cursed with him instead.

When they arrived at the inn, the three of them went back to their rooms to tidy up, and then went downstairs to the hall to order a few small dishes to eat, and exchange ideas by the way.

"Xiaobai, tell me more about the time and place of your encounter with Sha Qianli." Qin Qi wanted to know more details, maybe he would have a different discovery.

Xiao, Xiaobai?

Bai Yutang felt chills for a while, this title sounded like Huangkou Xiao'er, he didn't want to, but because she was Gu Qing's junior sister, she didn't dare to offend her, so she had to grimace, and began to think about it carefully.

"My second brother and I encountered that thief twice. The first time was on the eighth day of October last year. At that time, three girls had disappeared, and one of them happened to be a girl from Changjia Village near our empty island. We are tracking to Sizhou When he was near Linhuai, he encountered Sha Qianli, but he was very cunning and managed to escape by taking advantage of the terrain."

"At the end of October, I heard that there was another missing girl in a town near Xuzhou, so I rushed there. I just arrived at Zhoushan and rested in a ruined temple. It was also Nasha Qianli who happened to be here to rest. After a fight, I and two My brother had already seriously injured Sha Qianli, but unexpectedly the nine-tailed fox appeared suddenly and attacked from behind with a dart that hit my second brother's arm. Qianli, first help the second elder brother seal the big acupoints around his body and force the poison. After he recovers, the thief has long since disappeared!"

Bai Yutang seemed very resentful of being plotted against, his clear eyes shot out a sharp light like a sharp sword.

"After that, I didn't hear about the missing girl for a month. I thought the clues were broken. Unexpectedly, I heard that three people disappeared one after another a few years ago. Two of them are near Chenzhou in the west of Beijing, and the other is in Muyang, a suburb of Lu'an. town, my second brother and I went to two places separately to look for clues."

After listening to Bai Yutang's narration, Qin Qi unconsciously poked the plate with his chopsticks, and mentally traced the places and times he mentioned: "So including the daughter of the Zhou family, a total of eight people were abducted. The four disappeared in September and October last year, and then it happened within a month?"

"Not bad." Bai Yutang nodded.

"In this way, the thief seems to abduct four people every once in a while, and then lie dormant for a period of time and change locations to commit crimes. Maybe the time in the middle is to sell stolen goods?" Qin Qi guessed.

"And they are all concentrated in the north of Huainan and the southwest of Beijing." Bai Yutang added.

Gu Qing seemed to have thought of something, and took some water with his chopsticks to draw on the table: "From all the places you mentioned just now, if they are arranged in a big circle, but there is a characteristic of the terrain in this area—"

Both Qin Qi and Bai Yutang leaned over to look at the sketch drawn by Gu Qing.Qin Qi was the first to reflect, and looked at Gu Qing in surprise: "There are mountains around here!"

"Yeah!" Lu Qing continued, "And it's all deep in the mountains!"

"Where there are mountains, there are temples, and where there are temples, people can hide!" Qin Qi clapped his hands, excited: "Xiaobai, I'm afraid your second encounter is not a coincidence!"

Bai Yutang also nodded: "It seems that the deep mountain is where Sha Qianli Tibetans live. The last missing daughter of the Zhou family is in Lu'an. Our next step is to check the deep mountain in Shouzhou to see if there is anything abandoned. The ruined temple and the ruined nunnery!"

Several people were very excited, this is a very beneficial discovery, if the prediction is good, maybe the thief can be caught in a few days!So a few people agreed to split up to investigate, Gu Qing and Qin Qi pretended to be tourists and went to the city market where aunts and aunts often go to inquire about nearby temples in the mountains, while Bai Yutang went to several inns to see if there were men and women who looked like Sha Qianli or Nine-Tailed Fox Lodging.

Not long after, several people came back to the inn to gather again. Qin Qi and Gu Qing found out that there is Bagong Mountain in the north of Shouzhou, which is the extension of Dabie Mountain. A young woman went there to seek a child. Because of the complex terrain and frequent landslides during the rainy season, it has been deserted in recent years. Everyone thought it was a possible place.

In addition, Bai Yutang also inquired from a beggar at the north gate of Lu'an City that a woman who looked like a nine-tailed fox had left the city on the tenth day of the lunar new year.The beggar said that the first thing a beggar sees is a human hand. The woman's hands are as dry as sticks, her face is haggard, and her ten fingernails are scorched black and glowing with silver light. Very impressed.

From the time and the location, it should be more or less sure. It was getting late that day, and several people agreed to set off early the next morning, and first go to Bagong Mountain to inquire along the road.If you travel day and night, you can arrive at midnight tomorrow.

Starting early in the morning, the three of them rode fast without stopping. They only drank a little at noon and ate some dry food.Finally arrived at the foot of Bagong Mountain at the second watch.

There is a small village at the foot of this mountain, with only a dozen families. Several people went to the village to find a home and gave them a few taels of silver to ask for another night's rest.The man in that family only had a six-year-old son. His wife thought he was poor the year before last, so she ran away with a peddler, and he was the only one with a boy to make ends meet.

The man saw that Bai Yutang was dressed luxuriously and spent a lot of money, so he tidied up the house with great gratitude, and cooked a pot of vegetable porridge for the three of them to eat.

Qin Qi saw that the family was poor, and this porridge might consume a lot of their rations, and saw that the youngest son of the family was staring at the porridge in Qin Qi's hand, so he asked the two of them to eat some porridge together. .

"Uncle, have any strangers visited the village recently?" Qin Qi held the bowl with a broken corner, carefully avoiding the gap.

The man added a piece of firewood to the fire, and sighed: "Our village is at the foot of Bagong Mountain. When the bamboo water nunnery on the mountain was good, our village prospered for a few years, and then the summer of the year before last. There was a heavy rain, a landslide, and a good incense burner was washed away, no one came to offer incense, and no stranger came to the village for a long time."

He picked up the fire again, and continued, "A young lady passed by here three days ago, she begged for some water at Old Wang's house at the head of the village, and left."

"What does that lady look like?" Qin Qi asked hurriedly.

"I haven't seen it, but Lao Wang said that the lady looks good-looking, but she is too thin to get on the ground."

Qin Qi turned to Bai Yutang and asked his opinion with his eyes. Bai Yutang nodded slightly and said in a low voice, "It should be her. Nine-tailed fox is good at using poison. But Tiao Ming also became skinny and shriveled."

"Are you looking for that little lady?" the man asked suspiciously.

"Uncle, that lady is - our master's concubine who ran away from home, and we chased here because we stole my wife's family heirloom." Qin Qi lied without changing his face.

When Bai Yutang heard that the Nine-Tailed Fox had become his concubine, he was so anxious that he was about to yell at her, but Qin Qi glanced at him and had no choice but to shut up sullenly.

The man looked at Bai Yutang suspiciously, as if he couldn't believe how this handsome young man could have such a concubine, but he was puzzled for a while and didn't ask any more questions.

Gu Qing saw that Bai Yutang was tongue-tied and wanted to refute but didn't dare to touch it. He thought it was very interesting, so he lowered his head and pursed his lips and snickered.

Qin Qi asked the man again: "Uncle, do you know where that lady has gone?" Pointing at Bai Yutang, "Our master misses you so much—"

Bai Yutang couldn't laugh or cry, so he could only listen to her arrangement.The man pointed to the main peak of Bagong Mountain and said that he should have gone up the mountain.Several people were excited, wishing they could go up the mountain now.It's just that it's the first month of the month, the temperature on the mountain is cold, and the ice dew is heavy at night, so they agreed to go up the mountain tomorrow.

Before dawn the next morning, several people got up one after another, tidied up without disturbing the family, and quietly led the horse and ran up the mountain along the only mountain road.Bai Yutang was complaining all the way about why he made the poisonous lady his concubine, when he raised his eyes, he saw a dilapidated building in front of him, which looked like a nunnery.Several people suddenly raised their spirits and were very excited, thinking that it was finally here.

Just as they were about to urge the horse to go forward, they suddenly heard the sound of a horse's hoof stamping on the ground behind them, the expressions of the three of them were all terrified, could it be that Sha Qianli was returning from outside the mountain?That was really effortless.The three of them got off their horses, looked at each other and gestured, Qin Qi and Gu Qingyin lay in ambush behind a big tree, while Bai Yutang led the horse and stood in the middle of the road, pretending to be passers-by.

After getting ready, all of them stared warily at the direction from which the sound came.

The author has something to say: Who is it?Can they really catch Sha Qianli during this trip?

Stay tuned! !