treacherous world

"What about Brother Bai?" Wei Shaochang actually wanted to ask Bai Yutang mainly, because Wei Yuee had his eyes on him.

It took Bai Yutang a long time to come back to his senses, looked at Zhan Zhao, and suddenly nodded, "Yes... also."

Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang in a blink of an eye, as if asking—is it a lie or is it real?

Bai Yutang smiled slightly at him, with such noncommittal meaning... Zhan Zhao felt it was true!

Immediately, the two stopped talking.

Wei Shaochang looked at his little sister helplessly—it was too late to start, but that's right, such a good man has already been settled.

Wei Yue'e is embarrassed to look up, why is eldest brother so direct, how can we meet again in the future!After thinking about it, he sneaked a glance at the two people on the side, only to find that the atmosphere had become a bit awkward, both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked with their heads down and did not speak.

"Ahem." Liu Xie felt that they might ask such personal matters as soon as they came up. The two were not used to it, so they quickly changed the subject, "Let's continue to discuss the case."

Zhan Zhao came back to his senses and nodded, "Hmm...has anyone seen that monster before?"

"One person saw it." Liu Xie remembered, "When the homicide case happened the first day, a local watchman named Xiao Maozi said that he had seen a female ghost with white hair and white clothes and a white face. , passed by in the middle of the night, and floated into a family’s home.”

"There is such a thing?" After hearing this, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt chilly... The man in white is fine, with a white face and white hair, could it be that he is an old man?

"Where is that little guy?"

"Sick and dead."

"Died of illness?" Zhan Zhao and the others felt even more inconceivable, how can a person die of illness?Xiao Maozi is not an old Maozi, which means he is not very old.

"It's all a strange disease, and the face and hair are faded...all white!" Liu Xie sighed, "The body is still in my office. I have frozen it, but neither the office nor the doctor can find it. The cause of death, I only know that people died so suddenly."

"Can I go and see the corpse?" Zhan Zhao was very interested.

"nature!"

When they arrived at the gate of the Yamen, all the horses were taken to the stables, and Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang followed Liu Xie to Wuzuofang.

There are a total of four Wuzuo rooms in this yamen, distributed in the shape of a field, in the southeast and northwest.

The bodies of those female dead are all in the west room, the east room is for the dead in other cases, and the north side is empty for future autopsy.The unavoidable room was locked, and it was said that it was the corpse of that little boy.

When everyone came to the door of Wu Zuo's room, Liu Xie took off the key he was carrying with him, gently turned the door lock, and led the four people behind him in. There was a thin coffin in the middle of the room. Stack crushed ice.

"This is a stone coffin, very useful. I use it to preserve the corpses that need to be investigated." Liu Xie lifted the cloth covering the corpse's face... Everyone couldn't help frowning when they saw it. What a strange disease, the whole corpse showed a grayish color, like the feeling of fading.

"Did he suffer from vitiligo?" Wei Shaochang couldn't help asking when he saw the strange death of this person.

"I checked it with the doctor. It's not vitiligo at all. As for what it is, no doctor knows." Liu Xie shook his head.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang once again regretted not bringing Gongsun here. This time they saw his importance, and thought, if the fourth son was here, they could ask him to ask about their sweetheart... who is it!

After looking at the corpse, no one found any suspicious signs. After Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stayed in the yamen, they packed up their things a little and went to the courtyard.

The two looked at each other, inexplicably embarrassed.

"Cough." Bai Yutang looked at the sky, "It's still early, go visit the victim?"

Zhan Zhao felt that he was in a bad mood today, and it would definitely be even worse to see the victim, so he suggested, "Or go for a walk around the hidden mountain?"

Bai Yutang readily nodded in agreement, "All the peasant women in a certain place know how to carry a skeleton up the mountain, so they probably know a lot!" The two left the yamen together and went to the mountain.

The Xinghua area is densely covered with mountains, and the terrain is complicated. You should find a guide to enter the mountains. Zhan Zhao wrote a letter to the posthouse and sent it to Kaifeng. Bring both, it is more convenient to go into the mountains with them.

When the two came out of the post house, they wandered around the mountain. There were some small villages scattered on both sides, and it didn't look like there were many people there.

"It's so desolate." Zhan Zhao said intermittently, "It doesn't feel like the deserted place that a big town store should have."

"Because there are goblins in the mountains." Bai Yutang replied.

The two looked at each other, then said nothing, and walked forward.

"Um……"

Passing by a small market town, there are yarn sellers. It turns out that many people here are spinning yarn, and many girls are picking.

Zhan Zhao saw it, and asked Bai Yutang, "...won't you bring some for your sweetheart?"

Bai Yutang shrugged, "My sweetheart doesn't like these things, so he just wears cloth, which is very casual."

Zhan Zhao was surprised, and thought he couldn't, Bai Yutang's lover must be a beautiful and beautiful young lady, could it be a girl from an ordinary family?

Seeing his doubts, Bai Yutang said, "His family is quite rich, with a lot of fertile land and mansions, and a few shops. It is also a big family."

Zhan Zhao blinked, "Then why is she dressed so plainly?"

"He's stupid." Bai Yutang said, "I can't tell the difference between the material and the material." As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and gently tugged on Zhan Zhao's sleeve, asking, "What is this?"

Zhan Zhao thought for a while, "Bu."

Bai Yutang nodded and showed him his sleeves, "What about this one?"

Zhan Zhao, "... cloth..."

Bai Yutang pointed to the colorful silks on the side stall.

Zhan Zhao hesitated for a while, "...Bu..."

Bai Yutang nodded in satisfaction, and spread his hands, "Look."

Zhan Zhao didn't understand, thinking what's going on?

The two continued to move forward, when Bai Yutang suddenly said, "By the way, where is your sweetheart?"

Zhan Zhao was taken aback, and said innocently, "I don't have a sweetheart."

Bai Yutang was also taken aback, "But you just said yes."

Zhan Zhao was a little dissatisfied, "I've already winked at you, and I'm lying if I said yes, otherwise it would be a lot of trouble... But, Miss Wei is looking at you, brother Bai, since you have a sweetheart, then you'll be fine." Don't be afraid of trouble."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, and suddenly smiled, "You seem quite happy to know that I have a sweetheart."

"Who said that?!" Zhan Zhao replied.

Bai Yutang stared at him, "So, you're not happy that I have a sweetheart?"

"Naturally!" Zhan Zhao said with a straight face, pretending to be serious, "Why do I have you without you?"

"Yeah..." Bai Yutang nodded to himself, "Why do you think this is?"

"I know that Fifth Master Bai is attractive." Zhan Zhao patted him on the shoulder and looked away.

"Do you want to hear what my sweetheart is like?" Bai Yutang asked, "He's quite interesting."

Zhan Zhao was inexplicably unhappy, and said, "You have a sweetheart and you still run around, why don't you go back and stay with her?"

Bai Yutang shrugged, "I can't help it. He just likes to run around and meddle in other people's business. I can't even catch up with him."

Zhan Zhao was puzzled when he heard this, oh...Bai Yutang's sweetheart seemed to be a son of a gangster, so he asked, "Kung fu?"

"meeting."

"A well-known family in the world?"

"Hmm..." Bai Yutang thought for a while, "He's quite famous himself."

Zhan Zhao is full of doubts now...there are not too many famous heroines in Jianghu, "Do you look good?"

"Okay." Bai Yutang blurted out, Zhan Zhao's heart trembled - she must be a beauty!Bai Yutang has high eyesight, it's rare for him to say who looks good with such certainty.

"Then... what's your last name?" Zhan Zhao was curious.

"Cat!" Bai Yutang said abruptly.

"Ah?" Zhan Zhaoxin said, is he calling me or Mao?

"What do you do so clearly?" Bai Yutang gave Zhan Zhao a smile.

Zhan Zhaoxin said why are you being stingy, let's hear what's going on.But from what it sounds like, Bai Yutang should really like that girl... No wonder it's said that he's flirtatious all over the world but he hasn't seen any girl he hooked up with.

Thinking of this, Zhan Zhao inexplicably felt a little empty in his heart, but he couldn't say anything about the empty space. In short, he felt depressed, and it was far from the happy time when he came here. This case is very boring!

Seeing that Zhan Zhao had stopped talking, Bai Yutang suddenly felt bored. Seeing him, he didn't seem very happy. He was inexplicably guilty and puzzled, why is this cat unhappy?

The two walked to the vicinity of the mountain forest with their own concerns, and saw a group of woodcutters gathered outside the forest in front of them. There were men and women, some old and some young.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked over to ask.

It turned out that these were all woodcutters nearby. There is a rule on this hidden mountain. Generally, there are at least ten people in groups when going up the mountain to cut firewood.

"But this morning I saw a girl who went up the mountain alone." Bai Yutang was puzzled.

"Pull it down." One of the burly men smiled and shook his head, "This young man must have misread it. We burly men dare not go up the mountain alone. How can a girl go in alone?!"

"She's carrying a skeleton."

……

As soon as Bai Yutang's words came out of his mouth, everyone fell silent.

"Oh... that's probably a firewood collector from other places. Come to the intersection to pick up some firewood and use it at home." After a long time, one of the elderly men slapped haha, and put the matter aside.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, vaguely feeling that they had something to hide.

"Then you carry skeletons on your back when you enter the mountain?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Haha!" A fat woman in her 40s shook her head, "We don't need it! Handsome people like you two have to carry a ward off evil spirits when they enter the mountain. You can't be jealous of us, can you?" With that said, the group of people tied up the firewood and left in a hurry.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao stood outside the forest and watched them leave.

"Do you feel... something is wrong?" Zhan Zhao asked suddenly.

"Yeah." Bai Yutang nodded, "They're hiding something."

The two turned their heads at the same time and looked into the depths of the dark woods. What was hidden there?Let the whole Xinghua people talk about the hidden mountain?

The two circled the mountain all the way, and it was dark for most of the day.At the intersection, I found a small restaurant in the village to eat a bowl of noodles. The cook was an old woman with gray hair.Probably because he was happy to see the young and handsome son, he gave the eldest two bowls.

While eating noodles, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked the old woman, "Is the mother-in-law a local?"

The old woman stretched out her hand and compared three characters, "The three generations are all locals, born and bred!"

The two asked her about Yinshan.

The old woman moved a stool and sat down, looked at the two of them, "I said that the two young masters are not from the local... are they from the government?"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

"The Hidden Mountain God will not come out to kill for no reason." The old woman said mysteriously, "Someone must have bumped into her!"

"Clash?" Zhan Zhao frowned, "For example?"

"Hey... This Yarn Festival was originally an authentic blind date festival, but now it has become a beauty pageant. You two are handsome, so you may not be able to understand the pain of ugly people! You know, the one who puts gold on the face of a beauty At the same time, they are also slapping ugly people. There are a few girls in our village who are not good-looking and have bad family affairs. The good people in the town don’t get married anymore, they just wait for the yarn-handling festival to find a beautiful woman who is a good match. Even the family with a girl can’t live well. A painted boat."

"Isn't it a lot of money to rent a painting boat?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"The last painting boat costs 15 taels of silver." The old woman shook her head, "How much is the dowry of a good family? Although it is said that those pretty girls who died are in vain, many people in the village say that it is best The Yarn Raising Festival is cancelled!"

……

After dinner, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang left the village and went back to the yamen.

Zhan Zhao suddenly asked, "Do you think that someone pretended to be an old demon from Yinshan to kill people, and the real purpose was to cancel the Shanch Festival...or to make people afraid to marry beautiful wives?"

Bai Yutang nodded, thinking it made sense, and was about to speak, but saw a figure flickering in front of him...

In the middle of the night, the two of them clearly saw a man with a basket on his back running into the thick woods in front of him, very sneaky.The two looked at each other and followed quietly.