treacherous world

After a meal, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao couldn't taste it.

After dinner, tea was served and everyone continued to study the case. Liu Xie came to tell him that he asked Qian Dayou's family in detail, and said that Qian Dayou was always restless these days.In addition, he also hired some thugs to guard near his home, as if someone wanted to kill him.What's even more strange is that he has nightmares every night recently. In his dreams, he often yells for help or begs for mercy, talks about reforming his mistakes, and regrets endlessly.

Zhan Zhao waited to hear it, and it seemed that Qian Dayou's death was not a coincidence or an accident, but someone deliberately murdered him, and he knew it in advance, so he stepped up his guard.In addition, the nightmare every night, it feels like Qian Dayou has done something wrong before and now the enemy is looking for revenge, maybe he can find some clues at his house.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang wanted to go, but the fourth son grabbed Zhao Pu.

Zhao Pu met the little guy's eyes, and knew that he would not let them go at this moment, so he said, "Let Zhe Ying and the others investigate."

"Yes, we are familiar with this job, Mr. Liu will send us two yamen servants to take it with us?" Zhe Ying is so clever, he quickly took over the job.

Liu Xie naturally agreed, and he happened to be going to Qian's house too, so he simply took the two of them along.

Afterwards, they searched for stone statues, looked for woodcutters, inquired about old cases, searched for clues... etc. Zhao Pu's dozen or so shadow guards were all covered, and even Zhao Pu and Gongsun ran to the autopsy, leaving Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang staring. Small eyes, on the side is the fourth son who is covetous.

There were a lot of corpses to be examined at Gongsun's place, and Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't have the intention to look at them just after dinner, so they went to the file room to check the files of old cases, hoping to get something.

But wherever the two of them went, the fourth son would follow him, and whenever he had time, he would ask his "sweetheart".

Now Bai Yutang gets dizzy whenever he hears the word "sweetheart", Zhan Zhao is quite curious, if he can get the fourth son to ask who is Bai Yutang's sweetheart, that would be good too, so as to save himself from guessing.

"Brother Zhan, Brother Bai."

At this time, Xiao Liang, who was concentrating on flipping through the files in the file room, suddenly asked, "Look at this."

Zhan Zhao took the file and looked at it, and saw that there was a theft case recorded on it. This case happened 20 years ago. There was a man who stole and was fined ten boards and imprisoned for three months. That man was called Qian Dayou .

"Thief?" Zhan Zhao didn't understand, "Qian Dayou is a local gentry, could it be that he was so poor before?"

"It's not uncommon for people to get rich overnight. Didn't Gongsun say that he has calluses in his hands, so he should have suffered before." Bai Yutang took a look at the file and asked Zhan Zhao, "Could it be a different person with the same name? It's a pretty common name."

Zhan Zhao thought it was possible, and to be cautious, they called the oldest policeman in the yamen to ask about the local situation.

The old policeman didn't panic, and seemed to be prepared with all manners.Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other knowingly, the old man might have something to say, indeed, if you want to ask about the old case, don't you have to ask this kind of old policeman? !

After looking at the file, the old man smiled, "Master Zhan, it's that Qian Dayou who looks like that."

"Could it be that he was poor when he was young?"

"There are quite a few squires in Xinghua County. They were very poor in the past, but they got rich later, including Qian Dayou. But at the beginning, the gates were all for the rich and unkind bastards. Hua County is full of smog. The original county magistrate was greedy for wealth and colluded with them. The squires have settled down a lot. In addition, in those years, some strange things happened every year, so they have been doing good things recently. But good and evil will be rewarded in the end, it’s not that the time has not come. "

"What do you mean by accidents every year?" Zhan Zhao heard something in the old policeman's words, and seemed to imply that Qian Dayou and the others had done something harmful. "Don't you say that Xinghua County is very stable, and there are few cases?"

"That's right!" The policeman thought for a while, "Well, this matter has nothing to do with ordinary people, and it doesn't harm the village. How should I put it... For example, Qian Dayou's son fell into the water and died; Liu Yuanwai's concubine hooked up A man, after the Dongchuang incident, the man killed the concubine, and burned most of Liu Yuanwai's family property; and Shen Yuanwai opened a kiln and made a lot of money, but he became a hidden mountain demon. No one dares now When I went to the kiln, the kiln sisters didn’t dare to pick up customers, and they didn’t dare to dress themselves up; besides, Chen Yuanwai, the gauze seller, died this year at the Yarn Huan Festival, which was not as good as in previous years, so his gauze business lost money; Except for the Kong Yuan who opened the dock, the Yarn Huan Festival has stopped now, and the charter business is terrible. This time, Qian Dayou is still dead... Alas, those country gentry must be in danger."

"Those people... all suffered heavy losses because of the hidden mountain monster killing this time?" Zhan Zhao frowned, "Could it be that they were all unkind for the rich before, and then got rich overnight?" It’s hard to say that it’s not easy. Generally, if you have capital, you can get rich quickly if you spend it well! But this group of people don’t know where they got so much capital. It’s always a blink of an eye, restaurants and teahouses are all built up... Hehe, in the blink of an eye, the little ruffian becomes a wealthy country gentry."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang heard the old man's voice-over, did he suspect that these people's sources of money were unknown!

"Old man, is there any gossip?" Zhan Zhao asked with a smile, "Let's hear it."

"Master Zhan also likes to dictate gossip, these are just rumors that cannot be completely believed." The old man stroked his beard and said tentatively.

"Since it's gossip, it's okay to say it, isn't it? Just treat it as a pastime after dinner." Zhan Zhao moved a stool for the old man to sit down, and the fourth son obediently poured tea.

The old man was delighted to see the young prince pouring the tea himself, took the tea and said seriously to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "I have been born and raised here for many years, and there was only one richest person in Xinghua County back then, named Xu Shengsan, Mr. Xu. The ancestor of the Xu family was an imperial physician in the palace, and it is said that he had fought with Grandpa Taizu and saved Taizu's life, so he gained a fortune of ten thousand and became a wealthy family."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, is there such a Xu family in Xinghua County?I haven't found it.

"Grandpa Xu has inherited the ancestral property. There are many businesses in the family, and the management is good. He is generous and likes to help the poor, so he is very respected... However, 20 years ago, the Xu family suddenly suffered a fire, and the whole family died."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang are particularly sensitive to the case of the whole family exterminated so many years ago, and the descendants came to take revenge?They instinctively realized that there might be some connection, so they asked, "Is it arson or an accident? Did you find out at that time?"

"There was a fire, and there were hundreds of people in the family, and no one was left alive. I am a small catcher in a small yamen, and I have never seen the big world." The old man sighed, "You two are big men who come and go in the wind and rain. , You said, is it possible that it was just an accident?

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang understood it—it was really weird.

"The Xu family just disappeared, and everyone was very sad. However, the county magistrate at that time did an investigation, but there was no result, so he said that there was a flood in the house, an accident. At that time, I was working in the yamen, and the office worker at that time told me... There are knife wounds on every charred corpse! But the magistrate gave the order, they were burned to death, they were burned to death!"

"After the whole family was killed, they set it on fire." Bai Yutang frowned, "And then?"

"There is no more... The Xu family is gone, and a large group of squires have sprung up in the local area, and they have bought the business of Mr. Xu's family with a lot of money and started to make money. Moreover, these people were all ruffians back then, poor and white When the old catcher said this, he paused for a while, "Magistrate Liu is still young, young and vigorous... It's just that his temper is too straightforward, we old people know that he has no ability to touch some things, So keep it a secret from him, otherwise it may lead to killing fire. Only Master Bao can move, so Master Zhan... this is a common saying, you can think about it."

Zhan Zhao nodded happily, "Thank you, old man... By the way, is the post-mortem work still there?"

"Yes, there is Qili Lane in the east of the city, and there is a small workshop in it, which sells wine. There is an old oilman in the wine shop, who used to be the clerk of the yamen."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao sound fresh——Wu Zuo is old and sells wine?

"Hehe, he is crazy and always drunk. If you want to ask him for a question, it will take some effort." After the policeman explained, he left.

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang heard that they had a clue, they immediately decided to set off to find the old oily man.As soon as he stood up, Zhan Zhao felt his waist tighten, and looked down...

The fourth son put his arms around his waist, raised his face and said with a smile, "Meow, I'm going too."

Just as Zhan Zhao wanted the fourth son to stay at home, he saw his mouth flatten and his eyes turn red.

Zhan Zhao quickly picked him up, "Okay, I'll take you there."

The fourth son beckoned to Xiao Liang, and the Rock Scissors wanted to change, but Bai Yutang stopped him, pointing to the back and telling them to go find Gongsun and Zhao Pu, after all, it was too inconvenient to take these two out together.

After leaving the county government office, I rushed to Qili Lane.

Qili Lane is not far away, but the place is a bit chaotic, there are many wineries and gambling shops, and some people come and go.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't realize how big it was until they reached the alley, so they asked people along the way where Lao Youtou lived.

Bai Yutang walked in front, Xiao Liang asked the way, and the fourth son followed behind with his arms around Zhan Zhao's neck, looking left and right, and suddenly asked, "Meow, why don't you walk side by side with Bai Bai?"

Zhan Zhao was taken aback, "What?"

"Meow, you used to walk with Bai Bai, why did you separate this time?" The fourth son asked curiously, "Is there something wrong?"

"No." Zhan Zhao laughed, "Aren't we walking together?"

The fourth son looked at Bai Yutang ahead, and saw him stop and point to the alley ahead, as if he had found his way.

When Bai Yutang turned his head, Zhan Zhao just raised his head, and his eyes met at that moment, but Zhan Zhao turned his gaze to another place, and Bai Yutang frowned slightly.The fourth son was stunned for a moment, looking at Zhan Zhao with his chin up, suddenly an idea popped into his head.

Everyone entered the alley and rushed to the wine shop. Bai Yutang slowed down and waited for Zhan Zhao to come up to him, but he heard Xiaosi talking to the cat, "Sister Li is really beautiful, Miaomiao is going back to Kaifeng this time." Do you want to meet? Also, Dad has another niece, she is my cousin, she is also very beautiful. Xiao Bazi's nephew is also very good-looking! They are all the best girls, and you are a good match for Miaomiao! "

Bai Yutang froze for a moment, thinking what did the fourth son say to Zhan Zhao?Why is the girl of which family is very beautiful? !

Zhan Zhao was also quite puzzled, "Little four, what happened to your cousin Hayi's nephew and daughter?"

"It's time to get married!" The fourth son said earnestly, "Meow meow, you see that Baibai already has a sweetheart, you should hurry up and find one!"

Zhan Zhao pinched the fourth son's face, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "Stop worrying about it, my mother doesn't care about me."

The fourth son laughed, Zhan Zhao walked past Bai Yutang, and reached out to knock on the door of the old Youtou wine shop. Xiao Liang quietly raised his head to look at Bai Yutang, and saw his brows were slightly frowned, as if displeased, and said in his heart—— Yours, Jin'er!This trick is good.

Zhan Zhao knocked on the door twice, but no one came to answer, he pushed lightly...with a creak...the door opened.

Zhan Zhao was taken aback for a moment, he was hugging his fourth son, he quickly took a step back and looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang also came back to his senses at this time, walked up a few steps, gently opened the door with his toes, and looked inside. It was pitch black and the lights were not turned on, and the windows on all four walls were blocked by curtains .

Zhan Zhao put down the fourth son and handed it to Xiao Liang, holding the giant que in one hand, opened the door of the wine shop with Bai Yutang on the left and right and walked in... As soon as he got inside, he saw the fourth son, "Oh!" Quickly covering his mouth, Xiao Liang also pointed to Zhan Zhao Bai Yutang at a small door on the side.

The two of them looked over and saw that the bottom of the small door was covered with blood...it was almost sealed.And the blood was dry and black, even if something happened, it should have been a long time.

Zhan Zhao avoided the bloodstains and walked over, stretched out his hand, and gently opened the small door...

Everyone was surprised when they saw what was inside.