Placid Chang'an

"Here again, there's no end to it!" Knowing that someone was causing trouble, Qu Ling'er was not so afraid, she got up from the bed, and was about to open the door, but was stopped by Su Cen.

"I'll go." Su Cen put on his clothes and stayed on the bed, lit a candlestick and went to open the door.

When the door opened, Su Cen couldn't help being taken aback: "Grandma Lu?"

Granny Lu's hands like eagle claws immediately climbed onto Su Cen's wrists, her eyes were eager, and she repeated inarticulately: "Xiao Jiu... is gone..."

Su Cen took Qu Ling'er to the room where Lu Xiaojiu and Granny Lu lived, and saw that the bedding was still spread out on the bed, but the person had disappeared.Su Cen checked the door. The latch was intact and there was no sign of damage.

Su Cen asked Granny Lu: "When did you disappear?"

However, the old woman was not only deaf, but also had poor eyesight. She kept repeating "Xiao Jiu is gone", completely ignoring what Su Cen asked.

Su Cen frowned, thinking that the old woman must have knocked on their door after waking up and finding that Lu Xiaojiu was gone. It is probably not clear when Lu Xiaojiu disappeared.

Qu Ling'er wondered, "We've been catching that pretender in the yard just now, but we haven't seen Xiao Jiu come out."

"It should have been earlier," Su Cen said, "otherwise there was no reason for him not to take a look at the loud knock on the door just now. There is another possibility..."

Seeing that Su Cen stopped talking halfway, Qu Ling'er leaned over and asked, "What else?"

Su Cen pursed her lips: "Maybe...the one who just smeared eel blood on the door was Lu Xiaojiu."

Qu Ling'er felt cold, and glanced at the sitting old woman from the corner of her eye. The scene of the old man sharpening a knife under the moonlight the night before immediately came to mind. Who can guarantee that other people in this village will be normal?

Fortunately, the old woman was still slumped on the bench and muttering to herself, and she didn't look like she had any lethality. Qu Ling'er felt relieved and asked Su Cen in a low voice, "What should we do now?"

"Let's find him first," Su Cen said after thinking for a moment. "He can't leave the village. He should still be in the village. Let's search separately."

Qu Ling'er nodded, and just as she was about to leave, Su Cen gave him another hand, took out the picture from her pocket and stuffed it into Qu Ling'er's hand, "Be careful, we will meet here in half an hour."

Qu Ling'er left the courtyard gate and went west. Su Cen thought about it, and went straight to the east, passing through a winding path, an independent thatched house stood quietly under the moonlight.

At this time, Su Cen thought that the person must have fallen asleep, but when Su Cen looked through the fence, he saw a lonely figure sitting in the courtyard, holding a cigarette stick in his hand, looking up at the moon.

There was no sign of Lu Xiaojiu.

Just as Su Cen was about to leave, someone in the yard smacked his breath, "Since you're here, come in."

Su Cen froze for a moment, since he came, he settled down and moved forward.

Unlike every house in the village where the courtyard doors are closed, the old man's firewood gate is open. Su Cen came in and called "Senior" to the old man's back, and the old man turned his head and squinted through the smoke. She glanced at Su Cen: "It's so late, what happened?"

Su Cen replied: "Lu Xiaojiu from the village is missing, I'm here to find someone."

From the wrinkled face, Su Cen could still tell that the person was frowning, "It's gone? Why didn't it go?"

"There were no traces of fighting in the room, and the door lock was not damaged. The person should have left by himself." Su Cen didn't know why he had to explain this to the old man, but he still told the truth what he knew, " I'm not familiar with the village, so I dare to ask senior if he knows where Lu Xiaojiu might have gone?"

The old man squinted his eyes and took a sip of the cigarette, and after a long time he slowly let it out, saying: "Don't worry about it, I'll go get him back."

"Do you know where he is?"

The old man put out his pipe and stood up slowly, "I'm just going to look for it."

Su Cen frowned by the light of the extinguished fire: "You hurt your hand?"

The old man raised his hand to look at it indifferently, and said as he walked, "Killing fish was accidentally scratched by a fish scale."

Su Cen stood still: "I'm afraid it's not a scratch, but a bite?"

The old man stopped and looked back at Su Cen with squinted eyes. The two stood opposite each other, and they were in a stalemate for a while.

After a long while, Su Cen said: "Tonight, someone smeared eel blood on our courtyard gate and attracted bats to knock on the gate, trying to scare us."

"The blood eel is usually cut off by chopping off its head, but the eel is a fierce meat eater, and it is slippery and difficult to handle. It is easy to be bitten if it is not handled properly." Su Cen stared at the old man's hand hanging by his side, "You are the one who was killed by the eel." Bitten?"

The old man raised his hand and smiled: "You can tell it's me just by such a small wound?"

"That's not true," Su Cen replied, "Using bats to scare us doesn't mean to hurt us, it's just to scare us out of this village."

Su Cen smiled modestly and politely: "Senior, don't you feel familiar? Isn't it exactly the same as the previous senior who sharpened his knife in the middle of the night to scare us?"

The old man froze for a moment, then sneered, "How do you know I'm just scaring you?"

Su Cen said frankly, "Senior is not like a bad guy."

The two looked at each other for a while, then laughed together, and the old man stood with his hands behind his back: "You are an interesting young man."

Su Cen thought it was a compliment, bowed his head and smiled lightly, the bright moonlight was like a warm wind blowing on his face, it was a pleasure to watch.

The old man asked again: "What do you want to do in this village?"

Su Cen stood upright under the moonlight with a starry sky in his eyes: "Hold the heart as balanced as possible, and use reason as peace, so that the world can be cured, and the prosperous world can be restored to peace."

The old man stood for a long time before he murmured: "It's a good 'holding the heart as balanced, taking reason as the balance'..."

"This is what Mr. Chen Guanglu, the former Minister of Dali Temple, said," Su Cen explained. "He has a copy of "Chen's Criminal Law", which is still regarded as a standard by criminal officials all over the world. I have been fortunate enough to read it once or twice. This is his title page The inscription on it. This senior..."

"Is Lu Xiaojiu still looking for it?" The old man interrupted.

Su Cen rubbed her nose embarrassingly, "That's the senior I respect the most, I can't stop talking about it, senior forgive me."

"You go back first," the old man waved his hand away, "Lu Xiaojiu has been found, I will naturally send him back."

Su Cen bowed his hands and bid farewell. Just as he walked to the door, he heard the old man behind him say again: "If you want to leave, come and find me before dawn. After tonight, I can't guarantee it."

When Su Cen returned to Lu Xiaojiu's house, Qu Ling'er was already waiting at the door. When Su Cen came back, she shook her head dejectedly, "Brother Su, I couldn't find it."

Su Cen nodded, "Just wait until dawn."

Just about to enter the courtyard, Su Cen's eyes suddenly stopped on the coffin at the door. The red paint was peeling off, and a layer of icy frost appeared under the moonlight.

Su Cen touched the coffin lid, and suddenly pushed hard on the coffin lid.

The creaking sound of the wood being squeezed was particularly obvious in the silent night. The coffin lid was not as thick as it seemed. Su Cen pushed a crack open without much effort, and a stale breath came over the two of them. Qi Qi looked into the coffin, and it was really empty.

Qu Ling'er looked at the coffin and then at Su Cen, "Brother Su, what's wrong?"

Su Cen shook her head, and was about to turn around when suddenly something flickered faintly under the moonlight.

Su Cen leaned into the coffin, and squeezed out a piece of silver from the gap in the coffin.

Qu Ling'er was startled: "This...is this..."

"There is no business in this village, and there is no need for such things as silver." Su Cen took the silver back into his palm, "So this is the one we gave Lu Xiaojiu during the day."

Qu Ling'er took the money and looked at it for a long time, "But why did it appear in the coffin? Where is Lu Xiaojiu?"

Su Cen stared at the coffin for a while, then put his hand on the coffin lid, "Ling'er, help me."

The two pushed the coffin lid back together, searched the coffin, but found nothing, Su Cen knocked on the bottom of the coffin, the echo was dull and hollow, Qu Linger said in surprise: "There is something underneath!"

Su Cen groped around on the coffin wall, and sure enough, he found a slightly convex secret door, pressed it lightly, and a gap appeared in the lower wooden plank.

"Go get the candle." Su Cen ordered.

When Qu Ling'er brought the candles, the two lifted the bottom of the coffin, and a stone step appeared out of thin air.

Su Cen asked, "Are you afraid?"

Qu Linger shook her head, "Brother Su, you are here, I am not afraid."

Su Cen smiled lightly, and led Qu Ling'er down the stone steps. The faint candlelight quickly disappeared under the moonlight.

At the same time, a melodious bell rang from a certain room in the big mansion. After passing through layers of reports from the men in black, it finally fell to the ears of a man in white, "Someone has entered the game."