[Food] Prosperity

Anqing County, Qingzhou

morning of june [-]

Everyone in the yamen got up early today, even the magistrate who usually sleeps until the sun rises, got up early.It was rare for a large yamen to gather so well except for a meeting. The county magistrate sat at the head, took a sip of the strong tea made by the maid in his hand, and yawned from time to time.

"...If you're sleepy, go to sleep. You're not too young to join in the fun." After the county magistrate yawned No.20, someone who couldn't stand it finally appeared below, urging the county magistrate to go quickly Sleeping, getting up so early at such an age, it is really troublesome to join in the fun.

Hearing someone talking, the county magistrate first yawned, then looked at the speaker, shook his head and replied slowly: "Hey, people are useless when they are old. If it weren't for Xiaoxie, you would leave me today." I won't come to give it away, you kid still don't get it..." Before finishing speaking, he yawned again, and the people standing below also yawned with the county magistrate, this is a contagious yawn.

Xie Qi said goodbye to everyone, and set off with his little red horse with three months' salary.

Xie Qi was sitting on the horse alone, with a grass in his mouth and a sword behind his back, and he drove the horse forward slowly.A few days ago, he received a letter from his former good friend. The letter said that he was in trouble and hoped to help him, but he didn't say what the trouble was. This made Xie Qi very upset, so he tried his best to delay.It was only a month's journey, but he insisted on walking for a month and a half.

Passing by Liancheng, Xie Qi went directly to the restaurant and asked for some delicious food, and then he continued on his way.

My friend said it was in Liancheng, but in fact it was only in the wild about 2-3 miles away from Liancheng.

Riding a horse all the way, I soon arrived at my old friend's house.

Xie Qi looked at the dilapidated house, smelled the smell of blood in the air, and was a little dumbfounded.He was still a little unsteady when he got off the horse, but he quickly supported the horse to stand on his feet. He suddenly remembered that it was the same way before.

Xie Qi looked at everything in front of him and thought, maybe there was a mistake there, maybe only the servant was killed, a shrewd old friend must be fine, maybe he hid there and watched his legs go limp from fright Ha ha ha laugh, I have to go in and have a look, if I find that guy, I have to beat him up, is there such a joke!

He staggered inside and pushed open the door. The smell of blood became stronger. He walked forward and reached the yard, where the bodies of domestic servants were randomly piled aside. All stuffed.

There is a large water tank in the yard, which was brought by Xie Qi from Liancheng back then. At that time, a good friend decided to settle here with a child. Xie Qi heard that after moving, there should be some things that are missing in the house and the child’s life. That's good, he specially ran to Lotus City to carry one, filled it with water, and planted lotus flowers.

Xie Qi blinked, as if he saw a seven or eight-year-old fat man lying on the side of the water tank to fish for lotus roots, and in the blink of an eye, the fat man disappeared.

Xie Qi walked to the water tank, there were no lotus flowers in the water tank, only a few lotus petals, and the lotus leaves were gone, the water in the water tank was muddy, Xie Qi expressionlessly took the servant's blood from the water tank. The body was lifted and placed on the ground.

Carefully wipe off the blood stains next to the water tank. A few lotus flowers were carved outside the water tank. The middle of the petals of the lotus petals has dried up and the blood stains are stuck inside. Xie Qi took a lot of effort to clean the water tank.

After cleaning the water tank, Xie Qi closed his eyes and continued to walk inside.

The door of the hall was closed, Xie Qi put his hands on it and shook his hands for a long time before slowly opening the door. If his old friend saw this, he would laugh at him again. He became a hero and became timid after returning to seclusion.

Compared with the hall in the courtyard, the hall looked much cleaner. There were no domestic servants who fell on the ground at will, and no bloodstains.Some are just a person hanging from a beam.Xie Qi's hand holding the door couldn't help shaking, he thought he should be very angry, but he wasn't.

He is still calm.

He is not calm like himself, he remembers someone saying a long time ago, "Qi, you are too impatient, you will suffer in this way. Be calm when things happen."

He couldn't remember who said it. Since then, he has been pretending to be calm and calm. Now it seems that he has pretended to be in his bones. Now when it is time to get excited, he is calm as hell.

He stepped forward and reached out to reach the old friend, but the old friend hung too high and couldn't reach it.Xie Qi shook his head, and said to himself, "I've said it all, don't build the house too high, you see, I can't even put you down even if I want to." Moving a chair, he could barely reach the old friend's feet, After finally getting his old friend down, Xie Qi felt a little tired.He sat directly next to his old friend's corpse. He forgot to bring the appetizers right away, but he did not forget to bring the wine.

He opened the jug, took a sip himself, and spilled the rest on the ground.

"You say, you say...you..." Xie Qi opened and closed his mouth, he wanted to say a lot but couldn't. "You said you, why didn't you say it clearly, I thought you lied to me to drink, and I bought a lot of vegetables. If you make it clear to me..." Xie Qi wiped his face and he didn't need to say the rest.

Xie Qi looked at his old friend, who was wearing his favorite white clothes, with no hair tied, because his hair was a little messy when he moved it, and his expression was still peaceful, but his right hand was clenched tightly.Xie Qi saw a piece of fabric from his clenched hand, and slowly pulled it out.It can be seen that it is a piece of fabric torn from the clothes, and only one word is written on the fabric.

tomb.

Xie Qi looked at the writing, and suddenly ran towards the back of the house desperately. Along the way, the corpses of the servants were everywhere, blood stains stuck to the ground, Xie Qi didn't care about it anymore, the things behind were more important than them.

Xie Qi ran to the back of the house, and an unnamed tombstone appeared.The tombstone was about the size of three Xie Qis. Xie Qi patted the tombstone and found it was hollow.Xie Qi wanted to smash the tombstone with his palm, but he was afraid of hurting the people inside, so when he was at a loss what to do, the tombstone opened from the inside.A woman holds a thin child with sunken cheeks.

Xie Qi knew this person, she was the cook in the old friend's house, and she could cook delicious roasted pigeons.Now she has one arm gone, and she holds a kitchen knife in the other hand, with overwhelming hatred in her eyes.Xie Qi had no doubt that this person's usually cheerful aunt would come over.

"Thank... thank you... sir... take care of... master." The aunt saw Xie Qi clearly, and she felt more relaxed. She handed the child and a letter to Xie Qi. She wanted to speak, but she couldn't.She felt that she had completed the task assigned to her by her husband, and she was relieved. Her hand, which she hadn't felt before, began to hurt, and there was also the place where she was stabbed in the back.

The aunt watched Xie Qi take the child carefully, watched Xie Qi open the envelope, slowly leaned against the tombstone and began to want to rest.She was rescued from the gangsters by her husband, who gave her some food and asked her to take care of the young master at the tombstone behind. If someone knocked on the tombstone, she would open the door and hand over the letter and the young master to him.She waited for countless days, she was inside with the young master, unable to see the sunrise and sunset outside, she didn't know why the husband did this, she was afraid that the people who came would be slow, so she gave all the food to the young master, Although there is only a little every day, it is still not enough. The young master has been hungry for a long time, and she dare not go out. She is afraid that outsiders will not go out like this and the young master will be in danger. After such a long time, she heard the sound of knocking on the tombstone , she knew her mission was over.

Xie Qi watched the aunt leaning on the tombstone, her breathing gradually weakened.He felt his eyes were a little dry, rubbed them indiscriminately, and opened the letter.

In the letter, the old friend explained the whole matter clearly, and also said that he himself sent the pigeon to send the letter when they came. He prepared a month's food for the cook, and he didn't want the child or Xie Qi to be alone. To avenge himself, he said it was his own fault.

Xie Qi covered his eyes, he didn't know where the water got wet the letter, maybe it was raining, but it was sunny when he came.The old friend was very good at everything, he gave the servants a leave of absence many days in advance, and let them go, he prepared the wordless tomb in advance, and he prepared the food.

But he didn't count, after he died, the gangsters stayed behind and washed the whole mansion with blood, he didn't count that Xie Qi was half a month late, he didn't count... Xie Qi already knew who the murderer was.

The child in his arms moved, Xie Qi looked down nervously, he was still awake, and his brows were frowned.Xie Qi rubbed the letter into his arms, picked up the child and walked to the place where he came, looked back at the gate of the house, and then turned around.

Xie Qi looked down at the person he was carrying, then at the horse grazing beside him, and finally decided to go to the doctor with the person in his arms.