The return of the son-in-law

The fire quickly swept through most of the cottage, and everyone escaped and stood in front of the cottage.

Several of them thought that they had fled here in a panic a few years ago, and had been hunting and farming for several years. Compared with the days of robbing traders, they were even more sad, and lowered their heads with tears.

Old Sun hugged Huo Yu tightly. The latter's eyes were slightly red because of the smoke, he looked up at Old Sun and asked, "Grandpa, are we going to move again?"

Elder Sun sighed, and said, "Yu'er is not afraid, there is grandpa here." As he spoke, he lightly pressed his chest, where there was a silver note hidden close to his body, and touched the secret pocket in his sleeve. , and two or three hanging copper coins.

Huo Yu bowed his head and said nothing, he was young and in poor health, he was already sleepy after making such a fuss.

Sensing Huo Yu's sleepiness, Elder Sun found a rock, wiped off the snow on it, sat on it, let Huo Yu sit on his lap, and hugged Huo Yu tightly, patting his back : "Sleep, grandpa is here."

On the other side, several bandits tied up Guo Zhanan again, and a killer that Guo Zhanan dragged out was still unconscious on the ground.

Boss Liu, who already knew the ins and outs, let his mother-in-law bandage his wounds, and scolded him: "Well, you little boy, you know that you came from a wrong way, and you lied about who you are from the county? Let me tell you, today we are in Laohuzhai All losses will be borne by you alone!"

Guo Zhan'an naturally refused: "The former county magistrate of Tonghua County has been taken to the capital, and I am the new county magistrate personally appointed by the Holy Majesty. You have committed a serious crime by kidnapping the imperial court official; , fish and meat people, it is an unforgivable crime."

Mr. Liu was so angry that he almost vomited blood: "Who said we are fish and meat people? We have been hunting and growing vegetables for a living these past few years. Which eye of yours has seen us fish and meat people?"

Guo Zhan'an continued: "Then what if you call yourself Tiger Village and you said you were a bandit earlier?"

Boss Liu was afraid of the court, so he immediately said: "We are just joking, you, you, you, I tell you, don't spout blood!"

Seeing Boss Liu showing fear, Guo Zhanan continued to threaten: "This is not something you can just say for fun, and you can't say that again in the future. Otherwise..."

Boss Liu is completely sober at this time. Although he has a grumpy temper, he is not reckless, especially for such a big matter that concerns his own head.

"Got it, got it! We won't talk about it in the future!" Now there are only a dozen people in my village, and if the court wants to be serious, they are naturally no match.

However, after thinking about it, he didn't ask people to untie Guo Zhanan, but asked again: "You said you are the county magistrate, why should we trust you? What credentials do you have?"

Naturally, Guo Zhanan would not hand it over to Boss Liu. He said, "Go to Tonghua County and ask, and you will naturally know whether the original county magistrate is still there."

Boss Liu thought about it, and turned to the person behind him and said, "You, go to Tonghua County and ask about the situation."

The person who was named said with a bitter face, "Boss, everyone in this county knows us. As long as they get close, they will beat me with a hoe. Can I not go?"

"Cut," Boss Liu spat, turned his head and said to Guo Zhanan, "Even if the original county magistrate is gone, it still can't prove that you are the new county magistrate. Hurry up and show the certificate, or I will be rude gone."

This is the most important thing of Guo Zhanan, of course he will not hand it over, he said: "The certificate is with my boy, and he will come to the mountain to find me tomorrow."

It's not easy to start now.

They are bandits, living a life of licking blood on the edge of a knife, but this does not mean that they will have trouble with the court.

It's been a long time since they went to Tonghua County to inquire about the situation. If what the little boy said was true and he was really the new county magistrate, then they couldn't do anything casually.

Boss Liu was still hesitating. Huo Yu heard their conversation clearly while he was half asleep. He pointed to the killer who was still unconscious on the ground and said, "We can ask him."

Guo Zhanan's eyelids twitched, and he couldn't help but look back at the talking child.

At first I thought he was ignorant of worldly affairs, but unexpectedly he had some ideas.

After thinking about it, Boss Liu thought it was the same. He had the killer tied up and searched him, while he simply picked up a ball of snow from the ground, rubbed it on the killer's face a few times, and stuffed the rest of the snow. Get inside the killer's clothes.

The killer woke up from the cold, he tried to struggle a few times, seeing that he couldn't escape, he couldn't help being discouraged.

"Are you awake?" Boss Liu sneered, took out his dagger and walked back and forth on the killer's body, "I'll just ask you a question, who is this person you want to kill?"

The killer kept his mouth shut, and refused to answer no matter how threatened by Boss Liu.

Boss Liu chuckled and didn't say much. He stabbed the killer's thigh with a knife and spun around it with the dagger in his hand. Then he asked again, "Do you want to talk?"

In winter, the exhaled breath could almost freeze, but the killer was sweating profusely from the pain.

Seeing that he still refused to speak, Boss Liu greeted, "Open his mouth, don't allow him to bite his tongue!" Then he pierced a hole in the killer's other thigh.

The killer was trembling with pain, his mouth was tightly pinched, and he could only utter a few words vaguely: "Nest, nest, shrink."

Boss Liu waved his hand to make people let go of his mouth, and then he heard the killer reply intermittently: "Yes, he is the county magistrate of Tonghua County."

Boss Liu pretended to scare him: "Really?"

"True, really!" The killer's lips turned white, and he reluctantly replied, "Yes, someone paid us to kill the county magistrate of Tonghua County. We always take money for things and don't ask too much."

Guo Zhanan let out a sigh of relief.

Since the fact that he is not from Tonghua County has not been exposed, he simply used the power of Boss Liu to interrogate the killer: "Who wants to kill me?"

"I don't know," the killer's face turned pale, "That man is wearing a mask, and he only, knows, only knows that he is a man."

male?

Guo Zhanan was a little surprised.

Those who want to kill him must be people from the faction of Concubine Hua Gui and her son Li Shaojin.Li Shaojin is vicious and cautious, it is impossible to send a killer to kill him.

One must know that he had been on duty in the Hanlin Academy before, even if he had a grudge against others, it was not to the point of hiring a murderer to kill someone.Now, as the third prince's attendant, he went out to take office for the first time, and died in a strange way. Anyone with a discerning eye knew that it must be the hand of the fourth prince.

Others in the Fourth Prince's camp didn't seem like they would do such a stupid thing, except that Concubine Hua.

Concubine Hua Gui has only two or three confidantes, once the news of hiring a murderer gets out, it will definitely bring trouble to her and Li Shaojin, so it is impossible for Concubine Hua Gui to let outsiders do this.

Man, who could that be?

Boss Liu and the others here confirmed that Guo Zhanan was indeed the county magistrate of Tonghua County, and they were now in a dilemma.

This is the county magistrate, kill them, the imperial court will definitely not let them go, there are not many people in this tiger village, if the imperial court sends people to exterminate them, they will really have to escape into the deep mountains and old forests, or live incognito for a lifetime Oh, I'm really aggrieved; but don't kill this man, he is the county magistrate, and he was kidnapped by his own group of bandits. This is a deep hatred!Letting him go back is tantamount to letting the tiger go back to the mountain.

Guo Zhanan came back to his senses, seeing that the fire in front of him did not subside in the slightest, and asked with a thought, "Now that the village is destroyed, what are you going to do?"

Hearing his tone, Boss Liu didn't intend to wipe them all out, so he couldn't help but had a bold idea: "The village is destroyed, we can't continue living here, why don't we take this opportunity to leave Tonghua County, maybe And find new ways to make a living.”

The rest of the bandits were all startled, and couldn't help but ask: "Boss, the village was destroyed, we just rebuild it, why did you leave?"

Boss Liu yelled "Zhutou San" in his heart, but he sighed on his face and said, "You think I don't want to? It's just that we've been here for a few years, hunting and growing vegetables all day, and we can't get enough of it every meal. It's better to leave Tonghua County and find another job."

This said to everyone's heart, they have all been favored by Huo Dashan, so no matter how hard or tired they are, they don't plan to leave, but this day is really hard, their hearts are already ready to move.

Now Boss Liu uttered everyone's most secretive thoughts, and for a while, everyone fell silent.

Elder Sun understood it, and said, "Since this is the case, then Yu'er and I will continue to live here."

"How did this happen?" Mrs. An was the first to disagree. "You, old and young, how inconvenient is it to live here without us? The village is burned, but we are all still there, why don't we go to other places together?" place."

Elder Sun shook his head: "No, I'm old and I can't stand tormenting. Yu'er's bones have been bad since she was a child, and she can't ride hard in the winter. I thought about it, anyway, I have studied for a few years, and Accountant, no matter what, enlightening children, or writing letters for others, earning some money, is enough to support Yu'er and me."

Boss Liu saw that he had planned his future, so he teased Aunt An and signaled her not to talk anymore.He himself put away the golden melon seeds and other things he had found from the killer, and said: "Then when the fire is extinguished at dawn, let's find out if there are any usable things, and then go to Yong'an Mansion to have a meal first." , and find a place to stay."

Guo Zhan was happy to see these bandits leave, but his eyes fell on the golden melon seeds in the hands of Boss Liu, and he couldn't help but pause: "Let me have a look at these golden melon seeds."

Boss Liu thought he wanted to grab it, but of course he refused. Guo Zhanan smiled and said, "Don't worry, even if you give me your golden melon seeds, I won't use them."

Guo Zhan'an took the golden melon seeds, turned them over, and found a small imprint engraved on the back.With a sneer, he handed it back to Boss Liu, seeing the other party hastily put the golden melon seeds in, and reminded: "It's better to melt these golden melon seeds."

"why?"

"The imprint on it is owned by a certain nobleman in the palace. Tell me, if someone finds out, what will they do?"

Boss Liu couldn't help but feel that the golden melon seeds were hot, and he couldn't hold them or throw them away.It's just that he has lost face enough today, this time he can't show timidity in saying anything, and he said in his heart, "Of course I know."

Guo Zhan'an didn't say any more, dragged the body of the killer who died of blood loss, and threw the body into the fire.

The fire gradually became smaller. Thanks to the considerable distance between the cottage and the woods behind it, it did not cause a wildfire.

Clothes, food, all of these are gone.

Boss Liu and the others were cursing, and finally found some copper coins and broken silver that were blocked by the wood and stuffed them all into their arms.

Huo Yu was led by Elder Sun, watching Elder Liu and others bid farewell to him one by one, his nose was sore, and he cried out in pain.

Aunt An and Aunt Zhou also felt uncomfortable. They wanted to take Huo Yu with them, but Huo Dashan entrusted Huo Yu to Elder Sun, and Elder Sun had a stubborn attitude and would not listen to their persuasion at all.

Thinking of the elderly Sun's old age and Huo Yu's future life still not settled, the two women were infected by Huo Yu's cries and choked up.

Aunt Zhou wiped her tears, turned her eyes to Guo Zhanan, and said boldly: "Master County Magistrate, although we are bandits, Yu'er has never had a life on his hands. If Yu'er's life is difficult in the future, can you please see?" For the sake of Yu'er insisting that we not kill you, take care of us."

Thinking of Huo Yu feeding himself in the hall, and stopping the killer's fearless actions, Guo Zhan'an's cold heart softened, and he finally nodded and agreed: "We can do what we can."

When Boss Liu and the others were gone, Elder Sun let go of Huo Yu's men and asked him to stand still and wait for him.

And he walked cautiously into the ruins, turned back and forth a few times, and finally stood still on a spot, picked up the cold wood next to him and dug up.

Old Sun dug out a small box from the soil, put it in his arms as a treasure, and walked to Huo Yu's side again: "Yu'er, from now on, we will only depend on each other for life."

Guo Zhanan said at the right time from the side: "The old man is wrong, I still have to rely on you."