Half River Autumn Moon and River Spring [Rat and Cat]

Following Yan Bei's words, the two masters lowered their heads and looked at each other, and a faint embarrassment spread between the three of them.Forget about Zhan Zhao, but to put it mildly, the Kaifeng mansion is used to being caught in the wind and rain all day long; Bai Yutang... Our Fifth Master Bai has never been so dirty since he was born. !

Zhan Zhao coughed twice and said, "I just took the mouse to dig a grave and found some clues."

Yan Bei's eyes widened, he looked at Bai Yutang with a complicated expression, then at Zhan Zhao, and said to himself that this young master of my family has always been pampered and well-clothed!Not to mention digging graves, I have never played with mud in Dalian since I was a child!It's a serious cleanliness at all, and he tossed himself like this for a certain cat?

Yan Bei sighed deeply in his heart, unknowingly his eyebrows were tightened, and his baby face suddenly looked mature.After all, I can't help my mother, and let's say, the Lanying Dart, the head of the family begged the young master so many times before begging for it, but because of the casual praise of the Little Cat Master, he even took time off the originally flashy Lanying Dart along the way. The dart has been transformed into a light and practical one, which really doesn't look like the young master he knew in the past!

Yan Bei had no choice but to believe in "friendship" again!

Zhan Zhao didn't understand the various sighs in Dao Yan Bei's heart, so he said to himself: "Brother Yan Bei, do me a favor, find a chance to see if Mr. Wei Quan, Mr. Wei, has been cut by sharp objects or bitten by animals. Wound……"

"Wei Quan?" Yan Bei paused and said, "Except for his severed limbs, tongue and eyes, he didn't have any other wounds."

"Are you sure? No cuts or bites of any kind?"

Yan Bei nodded and said, "After you left, I helped Mr. Ye change Wei Quan's medicine and bandages, so I looked at his whole body... I'm sure there are no other wounds! However, there is one thing that is very strange."

"What is it?"

"Hmm... It's just that his wound is not smooth, it looks like it was cut off by a layman with a blunt instrument like an ax many times." Yan Bei tried his best to recall Wei Quan's wound, and frowned again. I frowned.

Zhan Zhao said: "That's true. We found Wei Quan's severed limbs in the village head's wife's cemetery. He was placed in a wooden box under the coffin. It was already covered with maggots, but we can still see from the traces of the incision. It can be seen that it was caused by multiple hacking and smashing."

"What?!" Yan Bei's baby face was already in shock, "So that's what you just said about grave digging? This... why did you put Wei Quan's severed limb under the coffin of the village chief's wife? ?”

Zhan Zhao shook his head: "The specific reason is still unknown. By the way, after we left, did brother Yan Bei discover anything else?"

"Discovered?" Yan Bei thought for a while and said, "Others are fine, but that Wei Quan's attitude is really that, as if the whole world has enmity with him, he won't let him approach at all, even his own father is on guard, never mind Anyone who approaches him will yell hysterically, but the only difference is his attitude towards Ye Gongzi, only when Ye Gongzi feeds him, chats with him, and changes his medicine, he will be quiet and honest."

Yan Bei then couldn't figure it out and said, "This Mr. Ye is so charming? I think Master Li is also very nervous about him and treats him like a treasure, and this Wei Quan also... If Mr. Ye is a delicate girl, it is understandable." , but he is clearly a skinny guy..."

Bai Yutang, who had been silent all this time, suddenly coughed softly, Yan Bei came back to his senses, glanced at Bai Yutang, and suddenly thought that our little master treats the little cat as a treasure, and it really doesn't have to be a woman , So he scratched his head, and said with a flattering smile: "When you are old, you are conservative in your thinking, and you can't turn a corner all at once. Don't take offense, don't take offense."

Zhan Zhao pursed his lower lip and said, "I also asked Master Li about this point, why Wei Quanhui relies so much on Mr. Ye... The explanation he gave was because Mr. Ye also took care of him when they came to the grave village to investigate Wei Quan's case. He passed him, so Wei Quan may have more trust in Young Master Ye."

"Oh, that's right, if I didn't say that, I would have thought that they were very familiar with each other before!" Yan Bei muttered when he heard the words, but when he said this, Zhan Zhao also responded, "That's right. ,I think so."

"You...you think so too?"

"Cat, do you think Li Chengsi is lying?" Bai Yutang couldn't help asking after seeing Zhan Zhao's expression.

Zhan Zhao nodded, and his tone was a bit cold: "Not only do I think Li Chengsi is lying, but even the whole village is lying to us."

"Is the whole village lying?"

"When I went to hot porridge with Lao Liu before, Lao Liu told me that Wei Quan, who was seriously injured, was found by him at the entrance of the village, and there were vicious dogs biting him at that time..."

"Huh? But Wei hasn't been bitten all over his body?" Yan Bei bit his lower lip, a little puzzled.

"Exactly, and we looked around the village. There are only a few docile puppies, and there are no vicious dogs. I also asked the children in the village, and they said that not only are there no dogs that can bite people in the village, There are no such animals outside, that is to say, Lao Liu is either exaggerating the case on purpose, or deceiving on purpose."

"This...it's quite weird." Yan Bei thought that he had experienced a lot of traveling with Bai Dadang's family all these years, but he had never seen a village like Grave Village, which seemed calm on the surface, but turbulent in the dark.

"This is not the weirdest thing. Obviously all the young people in the village are missing, but the people in the village don't seem to really care about it. They are quite perfunctory and even avoid us all the time; and the sixth child, he thinks those people can't come back. In addition, the village chief went bankrupt and bought a thousand-year-old ginseng just to save Wei Quan's life. Although father and son love each other deeply, he always felt that something was wrong. I gave my grandson the best bird's nest, and listened to the child's tone, more than once..."

Yan Bei couldn't help clicking his tongue: "It's really unheard of, no wonder the head thinks that the problem here is serious, so he asked me to bring the two masters to find out."

"Again, it's Li Chengsi." Zhan Zhao rarely sneered, "On the way back, he told us a long story with great emotion and emotion, but he deliberately fixed the story on the cliff, which was so meaningful that it suddenly stopped. It just means that the first scene of Wei Quan’s murder and the place where Ye Hong’s accident happened are both on the cliff. He is deliberately luring us to go there. "

Hearing Zhan Zhao's words, Yan Bei's expression darkened suddenly, and he said, "It's right, the village chief and Lao Liu did mention the cliff during dinner, but they only said that it was very dangerous there, reminding me and Mr. Ye Don't go. I thought to myself at the time, according to what they said, the cliff is very far away from the village, and it is impossible for us to run that far away if we have nothing to do, so there is no need to mention this... Later, I thought that the old man might be a bit long-winded, anyway. It was a kind reminder, so I didn't worry too much about it, but after listening to your analysis, Master Kitty, I feel that they are indeed very deliberate!"

"Mao'er, you once said that whenever there are mass disappearances that are concealed and unreported, the local government is likely to be involved, and the officials and gangsters are in collusion." Bai Yutang's tone was also a little unhappy, "This county in Mochao Could Ling be the instigator? Shouting "stop thief" in front of us?"

"This matter should not be easily asserted. There are many doubts at the moment." Zhan Zhao sighed inaudibly, and then said, "Yutang, do you remember that Master Li asked me a question on the way to the graveyard this morning? At that time, he asked me if Jingcheng had received his secret letter and specially arranged for us to come over to investigate the case. I was ambiguous and replied to him, and he also lamented the efficiency of Jingcheng's work."

Bai Yutang thought about it for a while, and nodded: "Well, there is such a thing, but my brother arranged for Yan Bei to inform us about the tomb village. The capital city has not received a secret letter from Mo Jiang, and Li Chengsi said that there is a secret letter." Report the matter in the capital, or just to deceive us?"

Zhan Zhao said: "Actually, I was a little skeptical at the time, so before I brought you to dig the grave, I sneaked into the file room of the county government. Generally, letters submitted to the capital must be in triplicate, and they will be sent to the state government first. It is up to the prefect to judge whether the content of the secret letter needs to alarm the capital. If the prefect thinks it is necessary to submit it, then the first copy will be reviewed and sent to the capital, and the second copy will be kept in the state capital to prevent loss. The third copy will be stamped by the prefect and returned to the local county government for preservation, and there will be detailed time records on it for subsequent verification of whether there is any delay in state affairs."

Yan Bei couldn't help interjecting: "So, Mr. Cat, you went into the file room to find the sealed secret letter returned from the state capital?"

"That's right, if Mr. Li really wrote a secret letter, the governor of Linzhou will definitely report such a big matter to the capital, and he will definitely return the sealed letter. As long as the letter is found, it can prove that Mr. Li has really reported to the court. In contrast, the possibility of him being the mastermind behind the scenes will be greatly reduced, otherwise writing this secret letter is tantamount to shooting yourself in the foot."

"Then... Master Cat, did you find the letter?"

Zhan Zhao paused, then nodded slowly: "I found it. He did write a secret letter, mentioning the disappearance of the young people in the grave village, and it was quite early, even before the Yelan gang found Wei Quan. Earlier, the letter said he would investigate the case himself."

The reason for the pause was because Zhan Zhao remembered that in that letter, Li Chengsi, the magistrate of Mojiao, stated in high spirits that he would lead by example, plead for the people, and would not be afraid even if he put himself in danger.In the letter of this young parent official, people can truly feel his dedication to the people in the area under his jurisdiction, his duty-bound intentions, and even a little bit of recklessness like a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers!But thinking of Li Chengsi's various performances these days, Zhan Zhao has some doubts that the impassionedness in the letter is just an artificial illusion...

After hearing Zhan Zhao's words, Yan Bei was a little puzzled and said, "The secret letter is earlier than we found Wei Quan? That's almost a month, so it's been so long, so the capital hasn't received the letter yet?"

"It's not impossible," Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, "The letters from the local government to the capital have always been strictly controlled, and there are many barriers. Often some letters arrive in the capital after several months. Although this is more rigorous and meticulous, but Low efficiency and slow speed are his biggest criticisms.”

"There is another possibility, that is, it was cut off halfway by someone with a heart, but only officials are qualified to read the secret letter in this place. If it is really cut off, it is basically taken by the court."

"Hey!" Yan Bei snickered, "It seems that there are a lot of twists and turns."

There was silence all around, and after a while of silence, Bai Yutang said, "Cat, are you going to go to that cliff?"

Zhan Zhao patted Bai Yutang's shoulder, with an approving expression of "You really understand me".

Yan Bei twitched the corners of his mouth, struggling: "You two, according to what you said just now, the cliff is clearly a trap, and you plan to send it to your door?"

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows and smiled, a cunning flashed in his eyes: "If you don't enter the tiger's den, how can you catch a tiger's cub."