treacherous world

Zhan Hao appeared and disappeared, came and went quickly, and left Zhan Zhao with a sentence that he couldn't guess the meaning at all.

Seeing Zhan Zhao frown, Bai Yutang stretched out his hand to gently rub the center of his brow, "Don't worry, it's good to know the most important thing, and think about the rest slowly."

"the most important thing?"

"Between brothers, the most important thing is friendship. As long as you know that your elder brother's brotherhood towards you is true, everything else is easy to talk about. Listen to what you said, your elder brother is very measured in dealing with people. If he does this, he must He has his reasons." Bai Yutang said while looking into Zhan Zhao's eyes through the gauze, wanting to see if the medicine is effective.

"Yes." Zhan Zhao nodded, "That makes sense."

"By the way, did you ask him why he blinded you?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao was silent for a long time, "I forgot..."

Bai Yutang sighed, what kind of cat is this? It's really annoying.

Afterwards, the room returned to silence. Zhan Zhao felt Bai Yutang's breath near his ear, and asked curiously, "What are you doing?"

"No, let me see if your eyes are better." Bai Yutang replied.

"Oh?" Zhan Zhao raised his face and asked, the two got closer and replied with a smile, "Look."

Bai Yutang wanted to laugh, but his gaze unconsciously jumped over the gauze and landed on Zhan Zhao's mouth...

They were looking at each other when they heard a soft knock on the door from outside.

The ambiguity in the room was interrupted, and the two regained their clarity. Bai Yutang said, "Come in."

The door was pushed open a little, and the fourth son came in cautiously, as if he was afraid of interrupting something good.

"Little Si, what's the matter?" Zhan Zhao had already identified it as Xiao Si when he heard the knock on the door, and asked him with a smile.

"Daddy said, please go to the front, Xiao Baozi has a letter." Xiao Si replied, looking at the two of them, thinking, what were they doing before?

"Here we come." Zhan Zhao nodded, went out with Bai Yutang, and followed the fourth son to the front hall.

Gongsun and Zhao Pu are reading the letter at this time.

"Gongsun, have you told Master Bao about the case?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Yes." Gongsun nodded, "My lord said to collect as much evidence as possible, and those officials who have participated in making sea mermaids out of young girls or buying sea mermaids, such inhumane behavior must be severely punished!"

Zhan Zhao nodded, indeed he should be severely punished.

While everyone was discussing, Ziying and Zheying came in.

"My lord." Zhe Ying replied to Zhao Pu, "We found out that Liang Bao was ordered by Liang Bao to kill people, so we followed Liang Bao and found a lame old policeman imprisoned in a cave in the suburbs, who was the head of the juggling troupe back then. .”

"Is he still there?" Everyone asked nervously.

"Yes." Zhe Ying nodded, "Liang Bao wanted to kill him, we brought both of them back, Liang Bao is on death row, and the old policeman is outside."

"Let him in quickly!" Zhao Pu ordered, and Zhe Ying went to bring him up.

After the old catcher came in, he was still pretending to be crazy, so Gongsun let him meet Xiaohong and Xiaohouzi's grandma...

At this time, Xiaohong's feet had been separated, and she was recuperating on the bed. When she saw the old man, she even recognized him, and called him, "Master Qin."

The old policeman burst into tears immediately, and Gongsun advised him, "If you want to make amends, tell the truth."

The old man nodded immediately, willing to tell the truth in every detail, to testify against the heinous deeds of Zhifu Liang and his party.

The old man's real name was Qin Fu when he was walking in the rivers and lakes, but he changed his name after he became a policeman to deceive others.

As Grandma Little Monkey said, he was originally the head of a theater troupe and was forced to help make sea mermaids. Because of perennial fear and guilt, he could only pretend to be crazy and leave evidence. Bring to justice.However, there were many officials coming and going in the past, and most of them were protecting each other, so he never dared to tell Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang and others, and only reminded him from the sidelines.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang thought of that strange white snake, and asked if he had sent them to inform them, but the old man shook his head, saying that he had no such ability.Moreover, Liang Bao had put him under house arrest long ago, and he didn't know anything about what happened recently.

Gongsun showed him the forged sea mermaid corpse, and Lao Qin recognized it at a glance. It was done by him back then, and it was also ordered by Lord Liang.

The purpose of making this mermaid corpse is to convince those dignitaries that mermaids do exist and can reproduce!

"So more people come to buy sea mermaids?" Zhan Zhao sneered, "So that's how it is."

"Is there any other evidence?" Zhao Pu asked Lao Qin, "Can a group of people be convicted?"

"Yes!" Lao Qin led the crowd to the dilapidated house where he lived all year round, and dug out a clay jar from the ground. There were several letters in it, which were used by the prefect of Liang to communicate with the customers who bought mermaids. There is also an account book, which records in detail the income from buying and selling mermaids.

Finally, Lao Huantou led the crowd to a valley west of the mass graves in the suburbs.

Looking down, there are many young dead bones strewn about in the valley. It is said that these are the girls who couldn't bear the torture and died unfortunately.

Zhao Pu ordered all the bones to be brought up from the bottom of the valley, and all the corpses were found to find ways to confirm their identities, inform their families, and bury them properly.

With the account books, letters and corpses, as well as the testimonies of Lao Qin, Grandma Little Monkey and Xiaohong, it can be said that there are all kinds of witnesses and material evidence.

Zhao Pu immediately asked Zhe Ying to mobilize soldiers and horses from the surrounding military camps, and surrounded the county government. Liang Bao and his party were all sacked, and all account books and registers were sent to Kaifeng Mansion.Master Bao handed over the account book to the emperor, and informed him of the strange case in Qushan County. After hearing this, Zhao Zhen became furious, and demanded that all the persons involved in the case on the roster be brought to justice, and no one would be left behind.

All the suspects were gone, except for one person—Prefect Liang!

All the shadow guards had been keeping an eye on him, but the old boy dug a tunnel in the house and escaped.

"Where did you go?!" Zheying Ziying led people to search around, but there was still no whereabouts of Liang Zhifu, a little reconciled!How can the culprit escape!

"He is not young, and we have guards near the city gate." Zhan Zhao thought for a while, "He should still be in Qushan County, maybe he is hiding."

"Scatter out and look for it." Zhao Pu told the shadow guards, "Send more people, dig three feet to find this old gopher, absolutely can't let him go! I'm going to cut him alive!"

"Yes!" The shadow guards each took a group of soldiers and horses out to find someone.

Gongsun and Zhao Pu were busy investigating the identity of the mermaid back then. If they wanted to give the deceased a name, it would be best if they could find their parents and let them return to their roots and their families.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang brought Lao Qin into the room.

Bai Yutang took out the rubbings of the inscription left on the bedboard of Room No. [-] in Tianzi by Ri Zhanhao that day, and showed it to the old man, hoping to translate it for him.

Lao Qin looked at it, frowned slightly, and said, "Oh...there is written on it, 'Soul Soul Bead, see the bead for mourning, hold the bead to return the soul, hold the bead to control the soul, swallow the bead to lock the soul'."

After hearing what Lao Qin said, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang subconsciously asked - what do you mean?

Lao Qin was at a loss and shook his head, "I don't know about it, but there are some articles in this character."

"How to say?" The two humbly asked for advice.

"Look, these characters are changing all the time. In the communication among troupes, there are more and more types of characters, and the forms are getting simpler and simpler, mainly for convenience."

"The closer it is to now, the simpler it is, and the older it is, the more complicated it is. These characters look quite complicated." Bai Yutang asked Lao Qin, "Does it mean that time has passed a long time ago?"

"That's right." Lao Qin nodded, "Look at this character, at least it was used by our previous generation, not the current one. Maybe it's the earliest one."

Bai Yutang frowned slightly. Brother Zhan Zhao is only in his thirties, so it is impossible for him to know more than Lao Qin... Unless, he learned it from someone older than Lao Qin, so the characters he uses are more complicated ?

After asking again, there was still no clue, and when it was noon, Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao up, "Go, go out to get some fresh air, let's talk after dinner!"

Zhan Zhao felt the same, so he went out with Bai Yutang.

Now the imperial list is posted all over the streets, it is the list of rewards for the arrest of Liang county magistrate.

Bai Yutang couldn't help but shook his head, "I knew why today. He spent his whole life doing it just for the sake of fame and fortune, but now that he's in his twilight years, his reputation has been ruined."

Zhan Zhao also nodded with emotion, "Where do you think he is hiding?"

"Quanshan County is his old den, and it should be some inconspicuous place that is not easy to find." Bai Yutang pondered for a while, "But Maoer, although the case is closed this time, there are still a few mysteries that remain unresolved. .”

"I understand. What you're talking about is the horse's belly killing people with dead rats, the white snake leading you and me to find the mermaid's corpse, and... the walking tiger fish that was lost that night, right?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "Dead rats are harmful to people... Gongsun also said before that it is dough. I asked Lao Qin the other day. It is a prop commonly used in juggling. Knead a special dough Shape it into the shape you want, and then put it in your mouth. This kind of dough will expand when it meets water, and then pull it out, it will become a magic trick. Coupled with the movements of your hands and the good news from the people behind you, you can Create the illusion of a living creature."

"Gongsun also said that all the corpses were stuffed into dough after death to form rats. They died of poisoning before...Maybe Liang Bao listened to Liang Zhifu's order and poisoned the insider to death. In order to Create the illusion of killing people in the belly of a horse and cover up the fact that they poisoned the water and caused the water rats to come out of the river... deliberately stuffed dough down the dead man's throat to confuse the public." Zhan Zhao said, clicked his tongue softly, "Indeed All the corpses were first entered into the work room before the situation emerged, but there was one person... I don't quite understand."

"You mean the young master of the Er Yue Palace?"

"That's right!" Zhan Zhao nodded, "It's strange to say that the death of the young master of the Er Yue Palace is not a trivial matter, and there is no news at all in the world! The master of the Er Yue Palace did not show up to ask for an explanation. what's going on?"

Bai Yutang nodded, it was indeed weird.

The two were puzzled, and when they sat down to eat at the restaurant, they heard a fresh rumor.

It is said that people from the Yishu sect on the rivers and lakes are planning to blow up the river embankment, divert Yishui upstream, and look for horse belly to avenge their fellow sect.

"Absurd." Zhan Zhao frowned when he heard this, "Blowing up the embankment and diverting the river water, isn't this going to cut off the lifeline of Queshan County?! Who came up with the idea of ​​starvation loss!"

Bai Yutang tapped the table with his fingers, "Yishui was originally formed by a fork of the upper reaches of the river. The terrain of Qushan County is very high. Do you remember that strange mountain shaped like a bull's horn? If you blow up the top of the upstream mountain, the huge boulders will fall The fork of the river was blocked, and the river naturally flowed away from the other end. If the embankment was blown up downstream, and the river water was diverted into the canal of the neighboring county, which is lower than Qushan County, it would not take a day. The Qushan County section will be drained, and then..."

"The underground palace?!" Zhan Zhao suddenly realized, and said in a low voice, "The belly of a horse is just a sloppy eye, and everyone's goal is the underground palace! The beads that my brother took that day were also obtained from the underground palace! Guess, could it be That soul bead?"

"It's possible! After dinner, go back and ask Gongsun if he knows the clue to the Sanghun Orb." When Bai Yutang saw the food and wine served, he brought some food for Zhan Zhao, "Eat more."

Zhan Zhao smiled, eating vegetables, he is in a much better mood now, just as Bai Yutang said, the eldest brother is not very selfish, that's enough!

At this time, there were more people in the inn... Zhan Zhao suddenly stopped holding his chopsticks, tilted his head slightly, and frowned as if he was smelling something.

"What's wrong?" Bai Yutang inexplicably found himself very sensitive to Zhan Zhao's every move recently.

"Hmm!" Zhan Zhao reached out and touched the tip of his nose, "I seem to smell..."

"Smell what?"

"smell!"

... Bai Yutang was silent for a while, and then said with admiration, "You can smell it? You're really capable."

Although Zhan Zhao couldn't see it, he still gave him a blank look, "It's a very special smell of incense, it's gone in a flash." Then, he moved closer and said in a low voice, "I've smelled it on Liang Zhifu before. "

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows after hearing this, "You mean... he's here?!"