I am a consultant in Kaifeng

Thinking of the rumors in the market, Zhan Zhao couldn't help frowning.

Gongsun Ce looked at Zhan Zhao calmly, hesitated for a moment, and then said: "The rumors in the market are mostly embellished, but they may not be true."

Zhan Zhao: ""

Bao Xing had asked people to put away the bowls and chopsticks on the table, and opened the windows for ventilation.

The weather, which was still very hot during the day, became cooler after a storm.

Refreshing with the hearts of the people.

Except Zhan Zhao.

When he thought of the rumors in the market, he felt impetuous for no reason.

There must be a reason for the groundless rumors.

He was restless, but his frown was loosened. He looked at Gongsun Ce with a smile, and said half-jokingly, "What is there in Bianjing that Mr. Gongsun doesn't know?"

Gongsun Ce smiled and sat down at the Eight Immortals table, holding a teacup, "There are many things in Bianjing that I don't know, but I know more about what Mr. Zhan cares about than you."

"What do I care about, you know again?"

Gongsun Ce smiled.

It is said that Zhan Zhao is a man with a meticulous mind and high martial arts skills, and he is very calm.

In fact, after getting acquainted with him, you will find that this person is just pretending to be calm, and he will be confused if he cares about what he cares about.

Gongsun Ce took two sips of tea, and looked at Zhan Zhao without blinking.

Zhan Zhao: "What are you doing looking at me like that?"

Gongsun Ce smiled, "If you don't look at me, how do you know I'm looking at you? Mr. Zhan, tell me first, why did you look at me just now?"

Mr. Zhan didn't get the trick, he just said: "I am no better than you in debate."

The smile on Gongsun Ce's face faded, his eyes were gentle and his voice was calm.

"You probably don't know that what you want in your heart can't be hidden."

"Zhan Zhao, do you care too much about Xiao Ning?"

Zhan Zhao looked at him, "I care about you all."

Gongsun Ce asked back, "Really?"

Zhan Zhao was silent.

After a while, Master Zhan asked, "Is it really obvious?"

It was a sentence without beginning or end, but Gongsun Ce could understand it.

Mr. Gongsun sighed secretly, then nodded his heavy head.

Mr. Gongsun: "It's really obvious."

Master Zhan: ""

Early the next morning, when Du Xiaoning went to Kaifeng Mansion, Zhan Zhao was already gone.

When the young man Shoufeng saw her, he was very happy, "Third Young Master, you are here."

As the boy said, his eyes fell on the food box Du Xiaoning was carrying in his hand, and then he licked his lips with a similar greed.

As we all know, Miss Siyao, the third son's maid, is as good at cooking as the royal chef in the palace. Whether it's dishes or desserts, it makes people powerless.

Du Xiaoning smiled and handed the food box to Shou Feng, and asked, "Where's your brother?"

Shou Feng took the food box, and before he got close, he could already smell the aroma of food, and his saliva almost flowed out.

He swallowed his saliva, and said to Du Xiaoning: "My brother? My brother went to Renjia Village and said he wanted to fetch something important."

Take an important item?

It should be to pick up Ren Minling's manuscript.

Du Xiaoning left the food box to Shou Feng, turned around and walked towards the library.

Shou Feng looked at her back, "Third Young Master, where are you going?"

The third son said concisely: "The library."

"Then if you go out, remember to call me with you."

Shoufeng shouted in Du Xiaoning's direction, but Du Xiaoning had already turned the corner, and he didn't know if he took his words to heart.

Shoufeng: ""

Should he go to the front and finish the snacks with everyone before following the third young master, or would he follow the third young master without eating any snacks?

While Shou Feng was still struggling, Du Xiaoning had already arrived at the library.

Gongsun Ce was flipping through the files downstairs.

Du Xiaoning was a little surprised. He was working during breakfast time, which meant that Gongsun Ce spent the night in Kaifeng Mansion last night.

She walked over and asked Gongsun Ce: "Did you not go home last night?"

Gongsun Ce looked up at her, smiled, and said, "Last night, the wind and rain were too heavy. I am alone and have no family to wait for me to go back, so I stayed here overnight."

Du Xiaoning put his hands on the table, looking at the files covered all over the table, "It's so early in the morning, what are you looking at?"

Gongsun Ce: "I looked through it. In the past five years, there are several files that record the disappearance of young women for no reason. They all came to Bianjing from other places with their families."

Du Xiaoning leaned over.

Gongsun Ce's knuckle fingers landed on one of the files, "This woman is surnamed Jiang. The Jiang family is from Hangzhou. At the age of 14, she followed her father and brother to Beijing to visit her relatives. She was separated from her family during the Qixi Lantern Festival. According to the file, this Shu The appearance is beautiful, and he has dabbled in both piano, chess, calligraphy and painting."

—a young girl of good birth.

It is quite similar to the missing Zhang Qingyun.

Du Xiaoning looked through other files and found that the missing young girls all had such characteristics. They were between fourteen and sixteen, average in appearance, able to read and write, and talented.

Du Xiaoning flipped through the file, frowning more and more.

"Do you think this is a coincidence?" Gongsun Ce's voice sounded beside her ear.

If it is not a coincidence, then the records that can be found in Kaifeng Mansion today are just the tip of the iceberg.

Just like Zhang Qingping, even if the Zhang family is rich and successful in Liangzhou, what can they do?

At the feet of the emperor, the most indispensable thing is a powerful family.

High-ranking officials and nobles, relatives of the emperor and relatives of the state, walked everywhere in Bianjing.

Du Xiaoning slid his finger across the cover of the file, "This is the record of the disappearance of a foreign woman in Bianjing. What about within the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture? Is there any record of the disappearance of a young girl of Ren Minling's age?"

Gongsun Ce: "I haven't found it yet."

Du Xiaoning sat on the chair next to him, seemingly lost in thought.

Gongsun Ce glanced at her and asked, "Are you still going to find Yang Silang?"

"Go, why don't you go?" Du Xiaoning rested his elbows on the armrest of the chair, and his eyes fell on the flowers protruding in from the window. "Everyone who walks by will leave traces. As for whether you can find these traces, it depends on the person's knowledge." No heart. Yang Silang's things will not fall into Ren Minling's hands for no reason. According to Aunt Ren Jin's words, the shrimp beard bracelet should be a token of love given to her by Ren Minling's lover."

Gongsun Ce also sat down on the chair next to him, "Is it possible that Yang Silang is Ren Minling's favorite?"

"Probably not. Yang Silang's flirtatiousness is only in the entertainment field. His old love and new love are all among the famous girls in Fanghua Building."

What the third young master said made Mr. Gongsun look sideways.

In the past few months, the third son kept his duty in the Kaifeng mansion, which almost made him forget how the third son was famous in Bianjing.

Gongsun Ce laughed and said, "Third Young Master is actually no stranger to Yang Silang."

Du Xiaoning raised his eyelids, his phoenix eyes were slightly bent, and he said with a half-smile: "Mr. Gongsun is a little strange today."

Mr. Gongsun:? ? ?

The third son: "Mr. Gongsun is a lonely family. Last night, he had some unexplainable dream. Today, he started to envy me, right?"

Mr. Gongsun was even more confused, "What, what?"

The third son stood up with his hands on the handrails. She stood by the window, looking down at Gongsun Ce with a smile in her eyes, and her tone was very teasing——

"Fanghua Building, Mr. Gongsun."

Gongsun Ce couldn't help laughing.

And the third young master had already walked out of the study building with his hands behind his back.

***

There is a girl in Beicheng, her name is Changqing, she is twenty this year.

This Shu has an outstanding appearance and a lot of experience, and countless lords have knelt down under her pomegranate skirt.

People in the city often see her standing on the top floor of the North Tower, looking north.

People in the city asked her why she always climbed high and looked far away?

The answer is that all relatives and brothers are in the north, so climb up and look north.

—— Ren Minsheng

Zhan Zhao had already brought Ren Minling's manuscript back to Kaifeng Mansion, and Du Xiaoning was looking at a section of it.

Ren Minsheng is the pseudonym Ren Minling chose for herself.

Du Xiaoning's Baiwei Study would sometimes accept and sell plays written by contemporary literati, so he was not surprised by these pseudonyms and the contents of the manuscripts.

This is not a very formal manuscript. The author's technique is immature. Sometimes he hides it with words and prose, and sometimes expresses his heart directly. It makes people feel that the person who wrote this manuscript is a bit smart.

Zhan Zhao walked in from the outside with Shou Feng, saw Du Xiaoning flipping through the manuscript he brought back, and walked over.

He looked at Du Xiaoning with a serious expression, and asked, "How? Did you find any clues?"

Du Xiaoning didn't answer, she scratched the paper with her fair fingers and turned a page.

Zhan Zhao stood beside her, the distance between them was very close, he turned his head slightly, and he could see Du Xiaoning lowered his head, his beautiful phoenix eyes were drooping at the moment, and the thick and curly eyelashes were like butterfly wings.

For Mr. Zhan, this distance is too close, so close that he can count how many eyelashes Du Xiaoning has, and so close that he can smell the fragrance of Du Xiaoning's body.

Zhan Zhao: ""

So Master Zhan pulled the distance away calmly.

Du Xiaoning looked up from the manuscript, she thought that Zhan Zhao was beside her, but when she looked up, she found that Zhan Zhao was standing by the door at some point.

Looking at it like that, it looks like it is ready to run away anytime and anywhere.

Du Xiaoning was stunned for a moment, "Master Zhan is so far away from me, is it because he is afraid that I will eat you?"

Zhan Zhao thought to himself that I am not afraid that you will eat me, but it is not too late to wake up to some things in time, and it is too close, which is not very conducive to his road to awakening.

Master Zhan let out a "huh" and said jokingly, "It's too stuffy inside, I'll stand at the door to blow some air."

Du Xiaoning glanced at him, said nothing, and continued to read the manuscript with his head down.

As Mr. Zhang said, this is the story of a woman who was let down. She was coaxed and lost both physically and mentally.When I was in pain and confusion, I met a woman named Changqing, and learned that there were many other women who shared the same illness as her.

Du Xiaoning flipped through the pages mentioning Changqing, and saw a passage at the end——

I asked Changqing, since he knew where his elder brother was, why didn't he go back and look for him?

Changqing just smiled and said: She is not the same as she used to be, if she meets her old friend again, she should be a stranger.

Du Xiaoning looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao:? ? ?

Du Xiaoning looked a little speechless, and then asked with a smile: "Master Zhan, are you sure you want to talk to me like this?"

Zhan Zhao: ""

He originally wanted to say that talking like this is not bad, but when Du Xiaoning asked, he felt that he would make Du Xiaoning feel bad for him, so he hesitated for a while, and walked over, "Did you find anything?"

Du Xiaoning's pale fingertips landed on a name.

Zhan Zhao read out softly: "Is there any problem with Evergreen?"

Du Xiaoning raised her eyes and glanced at him, "Master Zhan, do you still remember Mu Yi?"

Mu Yi is Yang.

What is Evergreen?

"Mr. Zhang's younger sister's name is Zhang Qingyun. If you split the word Zhang Qing and take the right side, it is Changqing." Zhan Zhao thought for a while, with a surprised expression, "Changqing is Zhang Qingyun?"

Before Du Xiaoning could speak, Mr. Zhan denied his conjecture, "This is too bizarre."

Ren Minling is just a teenage girl, innocent and ignorant, she always likes to weave all kinds of dreams.Happy, sad, decide what kind of dream weave according to their mood.

"Master Zhan felt that Ren Minling was telling you a ghost story yesterday, isn't it strange?"

Du Xiaoning's fingers ran across the manuscript, "Changqing looks north from a tall building in the northern city. She has an elder brother. According to the literal meaning, she knows where her elder brother is but never meets her."

Du Xiaoning also felt that it was absurd for him to analyze Ren Minling's manuscript in such a serious manner.

Even if it is a real person, the authenticity of this writing still needs to be investigated, not to mention that this manuscript is likely to be fabricated.

But even if it was fabricated, it would be too coincidental.

Because Ren Minling didn't know that Mr. Zhang had a missing sister.