Broken Iron Clothes

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Lu Tianrui sat down opposite Yuan Mucheng and said, "Just now I went to the Ministry of Punishment and read the file submitted by Wu Zuo. It said that this person has been dead for nearly a month, but the Imperial College will be cleaned up every few days. The weeds and dead branches that fell in the well, when the well water stinks, it has been less than two days since the last time it was cleaned up, so Cui Cheng was thrown into the well after his death, but the body has already rotted badly It will take some time to find out the cause of death."

"What's going on in the Guozijian?" Yuan Mucheng asked, "How long does the general plan to lock up those prison students?"

Lu Tianrui said: "It's not just the supervisors who are imprisoned inside, even Siye, Jiancheng and many Xuezhengs are imprisoned in it. Culture and education cannot be abolished. Naturally, people cannot be imprisoned for too long."

Yuan Mucheng leaned on the edge of the table with one elbow, and said thoughtfully, "It won't be closed for too long."

"How?" Lu Tianrui asked.

Yuan Mucheng chuckled, turned to take the files on the case, flipped through them and said, "Since Cui Cheng has been dead for so long, why did that person suddenly throw his body in a place where someone will clean it up every few days?" Isn’t he doing this in order to let Cui Cheng’s body be found quickly, if the person who threw the body is still in the Imperial College, then why is he still sitting in the Imperial College after throwing the body, waiting to die?”

Lu Tianrui thought for a while and replied: "Either he has nowhere to go, or he is fully sure that he can stay out of it, or he has other plans."

"I'm more inclined to the last theory," Yuan Mucheng said, "so when he finishes what he wants to do, he naturally won't want to be locked up any longer, but as for what he wants to do, I'm sure But I can't guess."

"It's hard to say, but I do think there is something wrong with the people locked up in the Guozijian," Lu Tianrui said solemnly, "There was a prison student who drank well water, do you remember?"

"I have a little impression," Yuan Mucheng stopped his hands and asked, "That man's name is Hu Sang?"

Lu Tianrui nodded: "He was yelling in the Imperial Prison this morning that he saw a ghost last night, and it seemed that he was about to go crazy, so I asked someone from the Imperial Hospital to go there at noon, and now the man has taken medicine and has fallen asleep. But the rest of the prison students who quarreled with him kept talking, claiming that the imperial guards were dishonoring their reputation by locking them up with the murderer."

Regardless of whether Hu Suang is really crazy or not, a literati should also be well aware of the principle that three people make a tiger. Choosing a time of turmoil will inevitably create a mob.

As he said that, Lu Tianrui sighed again: "Actually, the time of dumping the corpse can be basically determined to be within two days before the well water stinks. If this matter does not cause trouble, originally we only need to ask everyone about their whereabouts during those two days. As long as there is no suspicion They can release people, but those prison students want to make everyone feel insecure. This is quite in line with the murderer's style of wanting to attract attention after throwing away the body. So I plan to wait another day to see what they will do tomorrow. Is there any movement?"

"Then remember to pick me up tomorrow, General."

Yuan Mucheng sat sideways at the edge of the table, and when he turned his head to talk to Lu Tianrui, his eyes would always unintentionally glance at the bow hanging in the room.

He vaguely remembered that the last time he took a closer look at the bow, the arms were solid but not elastic enough, and the strings were too tough, so it wasn't a good product.So he couldn't figure out why Lu Tianrui would put such a bow here.

So he asked, "I've been looking at this bow for a long time, is there anything special about it?"

Lu Tianrui smiled and said: "It's nothing special, this bow was originally placed in my mansion, but I'm busy with business and don't have time to clean it, so I just brought it here so that I can take it down and clean it when I have free time."

"It sounds like this bow is still a treasure," Yuan Mucheng raised his chin at him, "Aren't you going to explain?"

"You kid likes to join in the fun, but there's nothing you can't say, it's all the old things at home," Lu Tianrui said, stood up, took off the bow, and held it in his hand, "This bow is from my aunt. I figured it out and gave it to my cousin."

Yuan Mucheng asked: "Why haven't you heard about this cousin, Brother Lu?"

"We have been separated for nearly 17 years. I was only fifteen when I saw him for the first time. It was 20 years ago, and it is still far from the two of us knowing each other."

Lu Tianrui hugged the bow, sat down and continued: "My cousin was only seven years old at the time, and was redeemed by my aunt from the Fengyue Tower. My aunt felt that women should have the freedom not to be locked in the boudoir since childhood. So she learned to do business by herself and opened a cloth shop. Her grandfather and grandmother were enlightened, so she let her do it. Because the girls of Fengyuelou often went to her cloth shop to choose clothes, she became acquainted with some of the girls. Later, she heard from those girls that there was a boy who was a handyman in the building and was often bullied by customers, so she directly redeemed the boy."

"But Fengyue Tower is a romantic place. My aunt has not yet left the pavilion, and she has a child who was redeemed from there by her side. It is inevitable that people will gossip. Although my grandparents did not stop my aunt, they did not agree to let him enter the family tree, so My father asked my cousin to follow his surname, and named him Lu Xiu." Lu Tianrui looked down at the bow and sighed.

But every time he recalled the past again, the pictures in his mind were fragmented to the point where only a general impression remained, only this bow remained intact.

After a moment of silence, Lu Tianrui went on to say: "Lu Xiu often follows me. I saw that he was very interested in riding and archery, so I taught him how to draw a bow and shoot an arrow. Unfortunately, he accidentally injured my aunt when he was shooting an arrow, so he went to shoot. I never dared to touch these things again. Later, when my aunt saw that he felt guilty, she secretly made this bow herself and wanted to give it to him."

"Then why wasn't the bow delivered?" Yuan Mucheng asked.

"Lu Xiu was in the Fengyue Tower earlier, because he couldn't bear the bullying of the guests, and bit the hand of a guest. Later, when the guests heard that he was redeemed by my aunt, they went to Buzhuang to ask for compensation. My aunt didn't respond, so they smashed the cloth shop. Lu Xiu probably felt that he was dragging my aunt down, so he left without saying a word. When he left, he only took two steamed buns from the kitchen. My aunt has been looking for him for more than ten years , I couldn’t find him as I wished before I died, so I took care of this bow.”

Lu Tianrui rubbed the bow arm carefully, feeling a lot of regrets from it, and couldn't help feeling a little more genuine.

Yuan Mucheng and Lu Tianrui have known each other for more than ten years, and this is the first time seeing him feel sad, and thinking that today he has experienced too many past years with the two of them, he really doesn't want to be sensational, but it seems that in this city, he walked These sentimental things can be recalled everywhere, except Jiang Zhai.

Just thinking about it, he suddenly remembered a person, so he said to Lu Tianrui: "If he hasn't changed his name, maybe I know someone who can help find him."

Lu Tianrui immediately raised his head: "Really?!"

Yuan Mucheng smiled: "Whether you will find it or not is yet to be seen, I can only say try it, I dare not promise it."

"enough."

-

Today's weather is just right, thick clouds cover the scorching sun, and there are a few gusts of breeze outside from time to time, making it comfortable and comfortable.

Jiang Shiqing took two books from the study, sat in the pavilion, and read them calmly under the sunlight.

It's just that Xu Guo drooped his head early in the morning, neither went to look for Ji Donglin's song, nor practiced martial arts with Zhong Dingshan, but just leaned on Jiang Shiqing's side. At this time, he was also sitting in the pavilion, but he didn't see the usual joy.

Jiang Shiqing was flipping through the book, and from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Xu Guo resting his chin on the table and playing with his fingers boredly, so he asked casually, "Why are you unhappy today?"

Xu Guo sighed, tilted his head against the table and replied: "Last night when I was talking with Lin Song, I talked about my own life experience, but he was frightened. to his figure."

As he said that, he suddenly sat up straight, lowered his head and said in a low voice: "Master, does he think that I am trying to kill someone so that he avoids me like this..."

"There is no such argument." Jiang Shiqing said.

Xu Guo asked, "Then why is he afraid of me?"

Hearing this, Jiang Shiqing suddenly remembered Xu Guo's background, his eyes darkened suddenly, and he called out, "Xu Guo."

Xu Guo raised her head and said in a daze, "Huh?"

Jiang Shiqing asked, "Did I bring you back from Qinzhou?"

"That's right," Xu Guo said, "Lin Song is also from Qinzhou, and it's my fault. When I heard him say that his parents were also killed by bandits last night, I shouldn't be in a hurry to tell him about me. Those words aroused his sadness again, so he doesn't want to talk to me today."

Jiang Shiqing was thinking alone, vaguely feeling that there was a clue to this coincidence.Xu Guo was born in a poor family and lived in the mountains. It is not surprising to encounter bandits, but Lin Song knows poetry and books and has touched calligraphy and ink. He should come from a scholarly family. If something unusual happened, he should not He would provoke bandits, besides, it was bandits who killed his parents, why did he hide from Xu Guo?

Seeing that Jiang Shiqing was lost in thought, Xu Guo continued to lower his head and pick his fingers again, even losing the usual momentum of punching and kicking.

After Jiang Shiqing came back to his senses, seeing that he was worrying, he reached into his sleeve and groped.

"Want some candy?" Jiang Shiqing said suddenly.

When Xu Guo looked up again, he saw Jiang Shiqing covered his hands under his sleeves, and fiddled with his hands behind his back for a long time, before he stretched out his two clenched hands in front of him, and said, "Which hand, guess."

Xu Guo said strangely: "The left hand!"

Jiang Shiqing smiled slightly, and spread the palm of his left hand, revealing a piece of candy wrapped in paper.

Xu Guo picked up the candy, and the cloud instantly dissipated: "Master, don't underestimate me, I'm smart!"

Jiang Shiqing then spread out his right palm, lightly put the other candy in Xuguo's hand, and said with a light smile, "Our Xuguo is too smart, so we will give you one."

Xu Guo looked at the two candies in his hand and was stunned for a while, because Jiang Shiqing would never tease him like this before.He was happy for a while, but as long as he thought of Jiang Shiqing's approaching death date, he felt that this kind of joy made people sad.

Seeing him looking down at Candy, Jiang Shiqing didn't speak for a long time, so he asked, "What's wrong?"

Xu Guo raised his head, and his smiling eyes were splashed: "I found that the master is different from the past. Although the previous master was also very good, I like the current master even more, so..."

As he said that, Xu Guo suddenly held the candy and raised his sleeve to cover his eyes. He held back his tears and didn't want to lose control, but he also felt that he didn't live up to it. He loved to cry since he was a child. He would cry when his parents and elder brother died, and Jiang Shiqing would cry when he became poisoned. Fearing that he would still cry when he was left behind again, the more he thought about it, the more angry he became, and he wanted to cry even more, so he covered his face and bit his lips tightly to keep silent.

After a long time, Xu Guo held back his tears and gasped for breath, but still didn't dare to look at Jiang Shiqing again, and just lowered his head and whispered: "So I don't want the master to go."