Placid Chang'an

Su Cen froze in the courtyard, and after a while he found his own voice: "What's going on?"

The old man shook his head, "When he found it, he was already out of breath."

"How could this be?" Su Cen was nailed to the spot in disbelief, muttering to himself, "How could this be?!"

The child led them into the village talking and laughing yesterday, but now his lips are pale, his eyes are closed tightly, and the fear and pain before dying are still in his brows, and the blood in the big hole on his chest has been drained.

"This child must have accidentally discovered the secret underground passage, and mistakenly thought it was the way out of the village." The old man looked down at Lu Xiaojiu's body. "When I found him, there was a small bag with him, which contained I bought two changes of clothes and a few pieces of silver."

Su Cen pursed her lips, "I gave it to him."

Lu Xiaojiu pretended not to understand during the day, but now it seems that he already knew the usefulness of money, and this departure was also premeditated.

The gray-haired old woman hugged Lu Xiaojiu in her arms. Perhaps it had been too long since she had spoken, she could only make a gurgle-like sound from the depths of her throat. The stock is dead.

Before Su Cen stepped forward to comfort him, the old woman suddenly raised her head and glared at Su Cen viciously. The next moment, she jumped up from the ground and danced towards Su Cen with her teeth and claws like dry wood.

Su Cen couldn't dodge in time, and stood still, the whimpering in the old woman's mouth turned into a beast-like roar, Qu Ling'er reacted and hurried forward to restrain the old woman, but she still couldn't prevent the sharp nails from scratching a streak of blood on Su Cen's face mouth.

"Brother Su..." Qu Ling'er hugged the mad old woman with both hands, and frowned at Su Cen.

Su Cen came back to his senses, raised his hand and wiped the hot spot on his face, with tiny blood stains on his fingertips.

"Let go of people," Su Cen said softly.

If he hadn't told Lu Xiaojiu so many things outside, if he hadn't come in and disturbed the muddy water, Lu Xiaojiu wouldn't have left the village so eagerly, and wouldn't have died alone in the cold tunnel.

"Brother Su..." Qu Ling'er looked at Su Cen with some embarrassment, but she couldn't resist Su Cen's intention, so she could only let go slowly.

It's just that the old woman's strength was also exhausted, and she sat slumped on the ground with her mouth open, but she lost her voice. Finally, she let out a long and shrill howl, mixing endless sadness and despair.

Presumably she also knew that Lu Xiaojiu was different from her, that this village couldn't hold her grandson, and if she didn't vent her anger on Su Cen, she didn't know how else to get angry.

Su Cen knelt down in front of the old woman, knowing that she couldn't hear her, but said solemnly: "I will avenge Xiao Jiu."

It wasn't until the end of the long night and the full light of day that Granny Lu got up from the ground, muttering to herself: "Xiao Liu is gone, and Xiao Jiu is gone..." Step by step, she walked towards the still dark main room .

A moment later, there was a loud noise, and when Su Cen and the others rushed in, Granny Lu had already fallen to the ground, with a pair of shiny scissors nestled in her chest.

The corpses of Lu Xiaojiu and Granny Lu were taken away by Su Cen and buried in the cemetery they passed by that day.

Looking at the lonely graves without tombstones, Su Cen suddenly understood why the people here didn't erect tombstones.If it were him, he would rather be an anonymous ghost than be trapped here again.

After burying the two of them, Su Cen led Qu Ling'er to the old man's hut, and bowed seriously to the old man, "Senior said last night that he could send us out, does it still count?"

The old man looked up at Su Cen from the cigarette stick: "Want to leave?"

Su Cen said: "I would like to trouble Senior to send Ling'er out for me."

Qu Linger: "?!"

The old man asked: "Aren't you going?"

Su Cen nodded: "I won't go."

"Then I won't leave either!" Qu Ling'er said urgently: "Brother Su, I'm with you, I won't leave!"

Su Cen turned around and smiled at Qu Ling'er, "Who will rescue the soldiers if you don't leave?"

"Move, move rescuers?" Qu Ling'er was taken aback, "What rescuers?"

"Stupid girl," Su Cen smiled helplessly, "They can kill more than 200 people in the village, and they have the strength to build such a big chess game under the village. Do you really think they are just ordinary people?"

Qu Ling'er's face turned pale: "Secret door?!"

"Liubo chess corresponds to Taiji gossip, and gossip corresponds to the eight secret doors. I already had an idea when I figured out the chessboard." Su Cen said, "Xuzhou's official bank was robbed, 60 taels is not a small sum. A few heavy boxes are too eye-catching when walking on the road. At that time, I thought that the secret door should have a place to stay in Xuzhou, so that they can store official silver and then transfer it to other places. And this place is different from the world. The isolated Lujiazhuang couldn't be more suitable."

Su Cen paused, and then continued: "I still remember that when I was in Yangzhou, He Xiao mentioned that there was a master Lu in the secret door who wanted to arrest me. Later, in the case of offering sacrifices to heaven, the white phosphorus in Yugui's hands sank. It was also made by this Master Lu, and the Master Lu they are talking about, if I am not mistaken, should be the same as the one in the mansion."

"But..." Qu Ling'er frowned, "Brother Su, why didn't you come with me?"

Su Cen said, "I still have things to do."

Qu Linger frowned: "What's the matter?"

Su Cen smiled lightly: "I want to enter the mansion."

After seeing off the reluctant Qu Ling'er, Su Cen sat across the table from the old man. The old man looked at Su Cen with a cigarette in his hand, "You said you want to enter the mansion?"

Su Cen nodded: "Yes."

"How do you get in?"

Su Cen dipped his index finger in water, and drew a Liubo chess game record on the table, "If the whole chessboard is Lujiazhuang," Su Cen clicked on the small box in the middle, "then the position of 'water' in the middle is the mansion. The big house on the ground has high walls and thick walls, so naturally I can't get in, so I can only enter the game from the game, starting from the chess game underground."

The old man stared at the chess record under Su Cen's hand for a while, and asked, "You know Liubo chess?"

Su Cen replied humbly, "I know a thing or two."

The old man sneered, "If you know a thing or two, you dare to enter the game. If it weren't for me last night, you would have been killed on the outside, and you would have been allowed to enter the inner circle?"

"We were plotted against last night," Su Cen said with lowered eyes, "I just wanted to test it out and see how the chess game works. I never thought that the opponent let others into the game. counted as invalid.”

The old man said: "Then how can you guarantee that the other party's people won't get in the way?"

"That's why I need the help of seniors," Su Cen said. "It stands to reason that one side can only choose one 'zhang' position as the entrance, and other chess pieces can only start from this position if they want to enter the game. I want senior to guard that entrance for me. , as long as there is no interference from others, I can enter the inner circle."

The old man sneered and said, "There is no 'zhang' position in the inner circle, you can't retreat if you want. And the worst case..."

"In the worst case, there may be six groups of opponents besieging one of me at the same time, I have already thought of it," Su Cen's eyes were as calm as water, "but the fairness of Liubo chess lies in the word 'Bo', I just want to have a gamble, whether the principles of heaven are for treacherous evil or the great way."

The old man narrowed his eyes and looked at the person in front of him. After all, the sharpness in his eyes was melted by his loneliness, melted, and defeated. He sighed softly, "Do you know what are the prerequisites for entering the inner circle?"

Su Cen raised his eyebrows and nodded, "Hua Xiao."