When the devil

[Xiaoxue in the 39th year of the Zhao calendar]

There is snow floating in Yudu City, the white snow lining the red walls, covering the glazed tiles, a vast expanse of whiteness.

At dawn, Wei Ling was practicing sword in the yard. He has not been idle for the past few days, and he recovered a lot from the feel of the sword. Lao Li sent hot porridge and steamed buns. After practicing Jian Weiling ate some, By the way, chat a few words.When he returned to the room, Xia Zhou was still sleeping, without Wei Ling in his arms, he hugged the pillow with a peaceful expression, and slept very soundly.

In the afternoon, the snow never stopped.

The lazy cat finally woke up. He saw Wei Ling sitting in front of the window and writing. Curious, he walked over barefoot to have a look.

Wei Ling didn't need to listen or look, he knew that Xia Zhou was approaching. He had just finished writing the letter and was leaving his name at the end when Xia Zhou's voice came from the side: "A Ling's handwriting is so beautiful, neat and tidy. , clean and clean, who is this written for?"

"Elder Meng." Wei Ling put down his pen, "Can you read?"

"Not only can I read, but I can also write." Xia Zhou caressed Wei Ling's shoulder with one hand, and picked up the pen with the other hand. He leaned slightly, dipped the pen in some ink, and added the word Xia Zhou at the end of the letter .

The handwriting is scribbled and wild, especially the three stripes of the Zhou character, which are drawn very long.

"Don't write carelessly." Wei Ling took the pen away.

"Where is this scribbling, let someone... read it and feel more at ease, knowing that I am by your side, and no one dares to bully you."

Wei Ling smiled wryly, and she still had the face to say it was more down-to-earth. Anyone who saw it would be more worried.

"A Ling, you said earlier that you wanted to take back the Canglin elixir from the queen." Xia Zhou rested his head on Wei Ling's head and read the letter absently. When I returned to Liuli Mountain, Xia Zhou thought about it, and he was looking forward to it: "Why don't we make a quick decision, take it and leave quickly."

Wei Ling said: "It's useless to grab it hard, they will always come after you."

Xia Zhou was blunt: "If you chase him, kill him."

Wei Ling thought about it seriously, and said, "You said earlier that you had a contract with the queen. What kind of contract is it?"

"The key lies in that elixir... Simply put, it can be regarded as my demon elixir."

"what?"

Xia Zhou spoke casually, and Wei Ling was shocked.

"The world of demons is like two lifetimes away. Since I broke the enchantment of the demon gate, someone has to maintain my demon power... Last time it was you, this time it is Yue Erzhen, but her own demon power is not strong, so... I used the elixir. "

Xia Zhou stood up straight, and rubbed his black hair that had just woken up and hadn't taken care of it: "I owe her now."

The more Wei Ling heard it, the more she felt that Xia Zhou was avoiding the important and neglecting the important, so she simply broke the point and said: "She designed me to be a sacrifice. Since you accept it, you have to fulfill her wish, am I right?"

Xia Zhou: "Well, but she was very strange, and she didn't say what she wanted in the end."

Wei Ling turned around and looked at the light from the window falling on Xia Zhou's sleepy face: "The other party didn't even talk about the content of the contract? Doesn't that... mean that what she says is what she says?"

"It doesn't matter." Xia Zhou yawned: "There is nothing difficult in the world to get me."

Wei Ling frowned: "Xia Zhou."

Xia Zhou was confused. Hearing Wei Ling's voice, he was not very happy. His heart tightened, and he regained consciousness: "It's a big deal to violate the contract."

breach of contract.

It's easy to say, but Wei Ling is very clear about what a contract means to a demon.

Usually, demons are summoned by people, and they can come to the world only after accepting the sacrifices. Second, what comes with them is the blood curse left by the contract. In severe cases, the soul will fly away.

"A Ling. I am a thousand-year-old fierce beast. I have seen all kinds of big winds and waves. I don't take this little thing to heart." Xia Zhou pinched Wei Ling's face, watching him raise his eyes and look at him, as if Thousands of words were condensed in those dark pupils.

Sure enough, head-to-head confrontation with this monster was fruitless.

What's more... all of this can be regarded as because of myself.

"Have you seen everything?" Wei Ling said softly, "Then have you ever seen such a hated person like me?"

"I'm so ignorant." Xia Zhou bowed his head and lightly touched Wei Ling's forehead: "I hate you so much that I want to sleep with you all the time."

Wei Ling pursed his warmth, and raised his head to touch Xia Zhou's lips, but just as he was about to touch them, he suddenly felt someone approaching. He paused for a moment, then turned his eyes to look in the direction of the door, but Xia Zhou remained the same, sticking to Wei Ling's lips. Kissed and kissed on the face.

"elder brother!"

The door was pushed open with a "snap", but it reminded Wei Ling that she forgot to lock the door when she came back. Zi Guan'er was sweating profusely, her face was flushed, and she seemed to rush into the room in a hurry.

Xia Zhou acted as if she didn't exist, and touched Wei Ling's face to continue kissing. He had just woken up, and the thin robe was loose and opened to the waist. The seductive lust is lingering, and anyone who sees it will blush.

Zi Guan'er was dumbfounded, her already red face was even redder to the heels, and she could tell at a glance that this little girl hadn't been pissed yet.

"Who let you in." Xia Zhou looked at her.

Under the drooping black hair, the handsome and handsome face looked a little more lazy, and the most terrible thing was the pair of red phoenix eyes, which were soaked in light, full of gentle and thick desire.

"Xia Maomao!" Zi Guan'er was dizzy, so she could only look out the window: "I, I have something urgent to tell you! Otherwise, I wouldn't come here in a hurry."

"What's the matter?" Wei Ling conveniently helped Xia Zhou pull up his clothes, but Xia Zhou wasn't affectionate enough, because of bad intentions, he grabbed Wei Ling's hand and wouldn't let go.

"Something happened... just... just... dead." Zi Wan'er was in a hurry.

Wei Ling: "Who died?"

Zi Guan'er seemed to have remembered something terrible, suddenly her face turned ugly, and she stared at Wei Ling in a daze.

"Imperial Medical Office... Those people who collected medicine from the imperial and imperial pharmacies... were killed."

The herbal pickers arrived near Yudu last night. Because it was too late and the city gate was closed, they stayed overnight in an inn outside the city and planned to enter the city after dawn.

However, the disaster of blood and light happened overnight. The murderer was so skilled that the knife passed through his throat without splattering blood and leaving no breath. Such a big incident happened at the feet of the emperor. Rumors abounded in Yudu City. The building was burning strangely, and what happened today was a matter of course, so I will first hand it over to the Taili Academy to find out what happened.

Yuan Chun really didn't want to get involved in this muddy water, but the matter was entrusted to her, and she wanted to do it for the sake of her salary, so she arranged for her assistants to check the scene over and over again, even the herbs scattered on the ground were all gone. Pick them out one by one.In the afternoon, people from the imperial medical office also came, and the first one to bear the brunt was the imperial doctor Zhang who went to pick up Zi Wan'er in the Taili courtyard that day. He looked at the medicines all over the floor and kept sighing, his hands trembling helplessly, his face Also wrinkled into a ball.

Zi Wan'er called Wei Ling and Xia Zhou to help, and came with the people from the Imperial Medical Office. Yuan Chun saw an acquaintance, and hurriedly approached: "Xianzun, you are here to save my life, aren't you?"

Wei Ling didn't know what she wanted to express.

Yuan Chun said again: "There is no way to investigate this nonsense."

Wei Ling probably looked around, but before she spoke, she saw that Dr. Zhang had already squatted on the ground and started to pick up herbs. Zi Waner was frightened, "Oops!", and hurried forward to help: "Dr. Let's go! People from the Taili Academy are on business, so they have to see what's going on first—"

"What do you know!" Imperial Physician Zhang pushed her away: "These herbs are all sent to Xiting Mountain! Can't be broken!"

Zi Wan'er suddenly opened her eyes, as if she understood something, Yuan Chun hurriedly followed: "Xiting Mountain? Is this medicine for the queen?"

Imperial Physician Zhang ignored him and continued to grab the herbs on the ground. He didn't have a cloth bag on his body, and he couldn't take it off with two hands. He also pushed him away, and said cursingly: "Don't touch the medicinal materials with your dirty hands! It's very expensive."

Zi Wan'er frowned, and explained in a low voice: "Every month, a batch of medicinal materials are sent to the palace, and after being boiled, they are taken to Xiting Mountain to be taken by the queen. I heard from Imperial Physician Xue that since the queen married into the palace, maybe the climate is not acclimatized. I often can't sleep at night and my spirits are not good, so I must take this unique herbal medicine in the east, burn it to ashes and then condense it for aromatherapy, so as to calm the nerves."

Wei Ling: "What will happen if the medicine is stopped?"

Zi Wan'er shook her head, not understanding.

Yuan Chun became interested. She walked up to Doctor Zhang, squatted down, picked up a small bunch of medicine and put it in front of her nose to sniff. Doctor Zhang became vigilant when he saw her, grabbed the medicine with his hand, and said "Shsh" like chasing flies away. , Shh, " two times, to drive her away.But Yuan Chun refused to leave, with a bright smile on his face, he touched another bundle of medicine, kneaded it into powder with his fingertips, and observed it carefully.

Zi Wan'er couldn't understand what she was doing, after a moment of silence, she turned her head and stared at Wei Ling: "Where's Xia Mao Mao?"

Wei Ling was also taking medicine, and when she heard Zi Wan'er's voice, she casually said, "Leave him alone, he will show up later."

After Yuan Chun finished looking at each type of medicine, he kindly took the cloth bag on his body and handed it to Imperial Physician Zhang, who glared at Imperial Physician Zhang and took it with an unhappy expression, Yuan Chun finally turned back to Wei Ling.

"How?" Wei Ling asked her, "Did you see Ming Tang?"

"They're all precious herbs, but they're really just pure sedatives." Yuan Chun held his chin thoughtfully.

Zi Wan'er came to a sudden: "Could it be that these medicinal materials are so precious that you want to kill people to silence them?"

Yuan Chun was not polite: "You are stupid, the medicinal materials are well placed here, and there is a lot of weight per capsule, so it can be seen that the man didn't take it away at all, he has other plans."

Zi Wan'er pouted, unhappy.

Wei Ling said: "These herbs were scattered on the ground when they came?"

"Yes, it's scattered all over the place." Yuan Chun looked back at the flustered Imperial Physician Zhang, and said again: "Could it be that he was looking for something in the medicinal materials?"

"There is a list!" Zi Wan'er said: "Generally, there is a list of medicines for herbs."

Yuan Chun stayed here all day and didn't see any list, so she turned to ask the attendant next to her, "Have you seen any list?"

The legal attendant lowered his body and reported: "No."

Yuan Chun half-jokingly said: "Those who don't know how to kill just want to take away the order of delivering medicine."

"The list can be checked!" Zi Wan'er seemed to have found a moment when she could come in handy. She walked to Doctor Zhang and whispered in a low voice. When she lowered her head, the aster flower hair ornament dangling from her hair.

Doctor Zhang heard half of what she said, and immediately reprimanded: "No! You don't need the Taili Academy for this matter, we will investigate it ourselves."

"Hey!" Yuan Chun was upset, she felt that her attitude was very good, but the old man always acted as if he owed money: "They are all on errands for His Majesty, what a shame."

Doctor Zhang picked up the herbs and put them into the cloth bag. His body was covered with dust, and his eyes were even more rounded when he spoke: "Don't use 'du' to talk, it's bad luck."

Yuan Chun: "..."

Wei Ling said with a chuckle: "It seems that the Taili Academy is not welcome."

Yuan Chun tilted his head and whispered, "Don't laugh, Wei Xianzun, those old people in the Imperial Medical Office...are not very smart."

Imperial Physician Zhang glared fiercely at Wei Ling as well, then squeezed away the waiter with a cloth bag of herbs in his arms.

Zi Wan'er apologized for him repeatedly in the back, as if in a dilemma, when she was about to follow Doctor Zhang, Wei Ling stopped her.

"Guan'er." Seeing her stop, Wei Ling waved her hand again, asking her to come closer.

Zi Wan'er would never refuse Wei Ling, she obediently leaned forward, and was about to ask a question, but saw Wei Ling leaning over, approaching her ear, and whispered something.

After a few words, Zi Wan'er's expression changed unpredictably, and then she suddenly resolutely nodded towards Wei Ling, turned around and left without hesitation.

Yuan Chun watched Zi Wan'er leave, and then asked Wei Ling, "Is that little girl someone you placed in the Imperial Medical Office?"

"No, she's just a simple little girl with no intentions, so don't make things difficult for her."

Wei Ling had obviously explained things to Zi Wan'er just now, but now she said something about "a simple little girl", what the man said was really unbelievable.

Yuan Chun hated him from the bottom of his heart, but Wei Ling didn't care. Instead, he walked forward and looked carefully at the place where the herbs were put just now.

The floor was very smooth, there were no traces of fighting, the corpse had been sent away, and there was no blood in the entire inn.

"Xianzun, where is your follower cat." Yuan Chun put his hands up from the corners of his eyes, and forced his almond eyes into inverted triangles: "The one with the fierce eyes."

Wei Ling looked indifferent: "I don't know, it was still there when I went out, but it disappeared halfway."

Yuan Chun took a breath, feeling like he heard a horror story.

After looking around, Wei Ling turned around and asked Yuan Chun, "Where's the corpse?"

"Put it in the inner room." Yuan Chun felt scruples.

Wei Ling: "Take me to have a look."

According to Yudu's regulations, people who died outside cannot enter Yudu, even if their family members are in the city.So these people died outside the city, and their bodies could only be placed outside the city.

The room inside was supposed to be the place where the inn stored ingredients, but now there are several corpses lying neatly side by side, including the innkeeper, the waiter, and some other guests who seem to be involved in it. The wounds of these people are very simple. , the throat was cut, with different shades, and the injuries of the people who collected medicine for the Imperial Medical Office were relatively complicated. One of them had injuries to his knees and arms, one of his eyes was also gouged out, and his teeth were broken. torture.

"This kid was unlucky and died a miserable death. Everyone else died cleanly, so we speculate that the assailant came after the herbal collector." Yuan Chun had cast a spell on the corpse, so that the flesh and skin could last longer. The state at the time of discovery is for the convenience of letting someone to test it later.

"This method of beheading and killing people is quite familiar." Wei Ling looked at the wound, the deepest part of which was more than half of the neck: "Especially for these unrelated people, their wounds don't look like they were cut by a knife."

Yuan Chun blinked, curious: "How to say it."

"This man's strikes are decisive, and the sword is deadly. It can be seen that his martial arts are extraordinary, but because of his extraordinary martial arts, he can weigh the most when he strikes a knife. I know better than anyone else how deep my knife can hurt." Wei Ling licked his throat Make a gesture: "It only takes one knife to break the throat. He will make a special trip to clean up the blood, and he will naturally control the strength. Look at the wound on the neck of the herbal picker. He cut it with a knife, which happened to be fatal. Look at the shopkeeper's— —Even the bones are broken, if you try harder, this head should fall off."

Yuan Chun wondered, "Would it be possible that I missed killing the shopkeeper?"

"No." Wei Ling already understood in his heart, and he said: "Based on his habits, he probably calculated the only way to escape, and laid steel wires there, waiting for the target to hit him by himself."

Yuan Chun's eyes lit up when she heard this, and she immediately summoned the attendants to examine the gate carefully. Sure enough, as Wei Ling said, there were very fine scratches on the door frame of the gate.

"Shen Feihuan, that little bastard, actually knows how to clean up bloodstains. He needs some brains, and he shouldn't use such an obvious weapon as steel wire." Yuan Chun carefully observed the floor at the door, and found that the gaps in the templates had been cleaned up, and there was no trace of blood. Not left.

"The murderer was him, or someone wanted to blame him." Wei Ling said: "Shen Feihuan is not stupid. At the beginning, he killed people with great fanfare to attract attention, but now it is just the opposite. His character, I guess he won't use his old methods again."

Yuan Chun originally thought that she could make a lot of money by successfully solving the case, but after hearing what Wei Ling said, she felt disappointed, and muttered: "Forget it, don't worry about it, whoever the evidence points to is the one. Shen Feihuan has a lot of rewards on him. .”

"Isn't it?" Suddenly, there was a mocking laugh from behind her, and then, it seemed that someone came to her ear: "Did you forget what I said that day?"

Yuan Chun: "——!"

The aura was so indifferent that no one around could react. Xia Zhou stood behind Yuan Chun, appearing lightly, as if a gust of wind blew up a few strands of hair, touching Yuan Chun's little heart Mentioned throat.

All the legal servants drew their swords and pointed at Xia Zhou, but Xia Zhou took his time and circled around Yuan Chun without saying a word.

Yuan Chun was afraid of Xia Zhou, so he quickly waved his hands to make the surrounding legal servants calm down. If there was a fight with Zhu Wu here, no one would survive.

——Besides, Yu Wanfeng and Zhu Wu got along well last time, and I don't know what kind of shady business these two monsters are doing. What." After laughing, she mustered up her courage, and even poked her finger in front of Wei Ling: "There must be a hush money."

Wei Ling: "Leaving aside the hush money, since Ms. Yuan is proficient in medicinal materials and took over this case, why not follow the vine and find out the source of the medicinal materials?"

Yuan Chun giggled, "Is this considered extra money?"

"Forget it." Wei Ling touched the decorative jade pendant on Xia Zhou's waist, and put it in Yuan Chun's hand: "Deposit money."

Yuan Chun smiled sweeter: "Deal."

Xia Zhou: "??"