Murder

Shuanghua and the scribe exchanged names and started chatting.

The scribe called himself Wen Xuanzhou, and said that he had no father or mother since he was a child, and it was the old King Lu who took him in the mansion, so he was able to get acquainted with the current King Lu.Shuanghua pretended to be surprised: "Old King Lu is also a kind man."

The scribe smiled and nodded slowly: "He is indeed a kind person."

The two talked for a while, Wen Xuanzhou looked down at the tea beside Shuanghua.The tea was served cold on a small bamboo table.A small stove for boiling water was arranged in the waterside pavilion, he got up and walked over with the kettle in his hand, as if he remembered something, he took out a small square tea brick from his sleeve.

"Princess Lu just gave it to me today." Wen Xuanzhou smiled, "It's a coincidence tonight, if you don't mind, we can try this rare thousand taels of black tea together."

Shuanghua also had some experience with tea, knowing that the Qianliang tea mentioned by Wen Xuanzhou was a kind of Hunan dark tea, and it got its name because each roll of tea plant weighed about 1000 liang.But Qianliang tea has a special shape, usually cylindrical or flaky, it is rare to see such a square in Wen Xuanzhou's hands.

This piece of tea cake should be peeled off from the big tea cake.Shuanghua suddenly became vigilant: the shape of the small tea cake has passed through the hands of several people.Although it was in Prince Lu's mansion, this Wen Xuanzhou in front of him was unknown to him, and his appearance was quite strange.As long as I am in the water pavilion, there will always be people inside and outside the water pavilion. Although King Lu's debate with people has attracted a lot of attention, there are many attendants in King Lu's mansion, but the surrounding water pavilion is too quiet.

The tea cake was not firm, Wen Xuanzhou pinched it with his fingers, and a lot of crumbs fell off.Shuanghua looked at the movements of his hands, and became even more sure that the tea cake had been tampered with.

But the tea is really fragrant, light and cold, and with the heat, it slowly brings out a rich aroma.

But it is also because it is so fragrant, this is definitely not the smell of black tea.

Shuanghua knew something was wrong, but she was alone here in Shuixie, she didn't dare to speak out loudly, and suddenly she heard the sound of a watchman coming from a distance.

"It's so late at night!" She sighed in surprise, "Mr. Wen, I'm sorry, I have to go."

Wen Xuanzhou didn't show regret either, and there was still a smile on the corner of his lips.The smile on his face made him look like a scholar with profound connotation.

"It's okay. Miss Shuanghua is a frequent visitor to the palace, so let's talk about it next time when I have time." Wen Xuanzhou nodded, "It's really a pity that I haven't discussed instrumental music with you yet."

Shuanghua stood up holding the qin, said goodbye to him and walked away from the water pavilion steadily.

The bamboo curtain was right in front, and she was about to reach out to lift it, when a hand suddenly stretched out from behind, lifting the bamboo curtain one step ahead of her.

Shuanghua was slightly startled: Wen Xuanzhou was sitting next to her, and she had been paying close attention to his footsteps because of being too nervous, but she didn't even hear him approaching so silently.This man has kung fu on him.Shuanghua quickly smiled and thanked, and hurriedly stepped out of the water pavilion.

There is a wooden hook hanging on the bamboo curtain, which happens to be hooked on a hairpin on top of her head.Hearing a crisp clang, Shuanghua felt a pain in his scalp, and then found that his bun was a little loose, his hair fell loose, and a plain pearl hairpin was spinning around on the ground of the waterside pavilion.

Wen Xuanzhou picked up the pearl hairpin for her, and carefully handed it back to her.

Shuanghua was greatly embarrassed, she had lost her manners.She held the pearl hairpin in her hand and didn't put it back on.

"The hairpin is so pretty." Wen Xuanzhou smiled, "It's clean and elegant, and it complements Miss Shuanghua very well."

The hairpin was exactly the one Ah Si gave her that day.Tonight is Princess Lu's birthday, she was afraid that her makeup would steal the limelight, so she tried to dress up as simple as possible, with only the pearl hairpin on her bun, nothing else.For some reason, Shuanghua felt her heart beating faster and faster in front of Wen Xuanzhou. She didn't know where this feeling of fear and fear came from, so she lowered her head, turned and hurried towards the place where the crowd gathered.

When she left Prince Lu's mansion, she had a face-to-face meeting with Sima Liangren.Sima Liangren frowned and looked her up and down, his face trying to hide his displeasure.

Shuanghua had no choice but to pretend to be arrogant, and passed him by, failing to tell him what happened just now.But Sima Feng and Ah Si were already waiting for her in Qinshuangyuan.Shuanghua got into the carriage and urged the coachman to leave quickly in a low voice.People like Wen Xuanzhou are exactly what Sima Feng and the others want to pay attention to, and Shuanghua is very sure of this.

The carriage walked quickly on the quiet road at night, because there were decorations on the body of King Lu's Mansion, no one checked.After turning a few corners, the driver saw no one on the road, so he flicked his whip and quickened his pace.

Unexpectedly, there was a loud noise in the carriage, followed by the sound of strings being strummed.He was startled, stopped the horse immediately, turned around and asked, "Miss Shuanghua?"

There was a faint groan in the car, and he hurriedly opened the curtain, only to see Shuanghua lying prone in the car, with one hand resting on the strings of the zither, unexpectedly grabbing a few strings.

"Miss Shuanghua?!"

"Head...headache..." Shuanghua held his head tightly with the other hand, his voice trembling, "Quick...take me back...quick!"

The carriage immediately began to run at full speed.

When Ban Mu slowly pulled out the knife from his close-fitting clothes, the three people standing on the mountain road heard the sound of horseshoes at the same time.

Ban Mu's back was covered with cold sweat, and he immediately put the knife back.

At this time, Liu Dali couldn't care about money anymore. The sound of horseshoes came from the mountain in the direction of the brick kiln.He immediately stood together with Zhang Songbai and the others, and the three of them exchanged winks before turning around and hiding in the bushes.

A man riding a fine horse just stopped outside the bushes and stopped moving forward.

"Zhang Songbai, Liu Dali, Ban Mu." The man said, "Master Liu, please go back to the brick kiln to discuss something."

Liu Dali and Ban Mu were still tense, but Zhang Songbai suddenly relaxed.He got up and walked out of the bushes first, but he didn't approach, and asked from a distance: "Is the one here, Brother Ma?"

"It's Ma." The man on the horse saw that he was a Lianjiazi. Seeing that Zhang Songbai was too vigilant, he jumped off the horse and patted his waist, "Don't be nervous, I have no sword or sword on me."

Zhang Songbai laughed dryly: "Brother Ma doesn't have a weapon, but a pair of fists and two legs are enough to beat the three of us to death several times."

"Master Liu ordered me to come and look for you. He has something important to discuss with you." The man surnamed Ma spoke in a very angry voice, without any panic or guilty conscience, "It's not a bad thing, it's for you to make money Good thing."

Zhang Songbai knew that although this man had no weapons, it would not be a problem to beat the three of them to the ground, so he turned around and pulled Liu Dali and Ban Mu out.The three of them still put the body in the bushes, and followed the man up the mountain.

This warrior surnamed Ma is Liu Fangcun's confidant, and his name is Ma Yongzhi.Liu Fangcun is the newly appointed manager of the brick kiln. Everyone in the brick kiln will respectfully address him as "Lord Liu" when they meet him.But Liu Fangcun's eyes were on the top of his head, Liu Dali and Ban Mu had never seen him, let alone had any contact with him.

"How did you get in touch with Liu Fangcun?" Liu Dali asked Zhang Songbai.

"Do you think that no one really knows when we do these things?" Zhang Songbai lowered his voice, his eyes were a little stern, "Why did I say that the three of us brothers will leave after finishing this order? It's because Liu Fangcun has his eye on us. .”

Ban Mu's cold sweat broke out again: "When did it happen?"

He couldn't help but look up at the back of the person in front of him, and the more he looked, the more frightened he became.

"Just this time." Zhang Songbai swallowed.

Not long after Liu Fangcun took office in the brick kiln, the landslide where Liu Xiaodao died was the first accident he experienced.Unlike the old man before, Liu Fangcun felt that there were many doubts about the landslide, so he looked through the books and went to the landslide site to check the details.He didn't know what happened to Zhang Songbai when he found him, until Liu Fangcun showed him an unburned lead wire.

But Liu Fangcun didn't stop him, and he didn't expose it. Even the little policeman in Pengyang went to the mountain to investigate the case, and he didn't miss a word.Zhang Songbai was worried, but in the end he was safe.There is no shortage of money, and there are not many things-this is so unusual that Zhang Songbai has fear and the idea of ​​​​running away.

Liu Dali and Ban Mu didn't speak for a long time after listening.Liu Fangcun can let Ma Yongzhi come to them, which shows that Ma Yongzhi also knows about this matter.

The secret originally belonged to only a few of them, but there were two more insiders for no reason, and they were from the official family - Liu Dali and Ban Mu were not as courageous as Zhang Songbai, and they lost their steps for a while.

Liu Dali said slowly: "This is to be beheaded."

He clenched his fists tightly and stared fiercely at the figure of Ma Yongzhi in front of him.

Zhang Songbai quickly pressed his shoulder, and whispered: "Don't!"

He had just wanted to kill Liu Dali, but now he wanted to stop him, just because he was afraid that Liu Dali would not succeed in attacking Ma Yongzhi, and would hurt himself instead.Liu Dali was irritable, seeing him stop him, his blood red eyes stared at Zhang Songbai: "Why don't you do it?"

"If someone surnamed Liu wanted to expose us, he would have already exposed us. Why wait until the night is dark and the wind is high?" Zhang Songbai said in a low voice, "I suspect that he has another purpose."

Liu Dali asked: "What purpose?"

Ban Mu didn't speak for a while, and only now did he interject in a low voice: "Is...you want money?"

"I don't want your money." Liu Fangcun said slowly after taking a sip of tea.

His residence on Jiutou Mountain is higher than the brick kiln, and the smoke and dust cannot go up, so the place is still clean and tidy.The yard is not big, it's just a place to stay when managing the brick kiln, and the room is also very empty, except for densely packed books in the cabinets on all sides.Liu Fangcun sat behind the table, squinting his mung bean eyes, and looked at the three people in front of him.

He didn't speak for a long time, Zhang Songbai and others had never seen such a formation, they just felt that the silence in the house seemed to have a shape and weight, and it was going to press down people's backs.

"I want you to do me a favor and do something." Liu Fangcun finally said, this time straight to the point, "That kind of landslide, let's do it again."

The three of them were taken aback, Qiqi looked up at him.

"If one person dies, I'll give you 60 taels. Don't die too many, ten or so will do." Liu Fangcun said, "Just follow your previous method and finish it within three days, okay?"

Zhang Songbai was stunned for a long time, unable to believe it.60 taels per person, more than before, and the killing was done under the protection of the official, which is much safer than if they did it themselves.

However, this is still unusual.

"That's it?" Liu Dali was full of suspicion.

"I only have one request." Liu Fangcun suddenly lowered his voice, which made the other three people in the room involuntarily become more nervous, "Wang Huanxi must be among the dead."

Zhang Songbai and Liu Dali were taken aback: "Who is Wang Huanxi?"

Ban Mu was taken aback.He knew who Wang Huanxi was, he had talked to that person several times, and he had bought the knife from Wang Huanxi for a tael of silver.And Ban Mu also knew that before Wang Huanxi came to this brick kiln to work hard, he was a housekeeper of Lu Wangfu.