Weicheng snow

The four of them arrived in Jiangling one day later, late at night, and the city gate had already been sealed. Fortunately, Jiang Zhige brought the government's approval document, and the guards confirmed it before letting them go.

After they entered Jiangling City, they saw the streets were silent, there was no one in sight, they couldn't even see a house with a lantern lit in front of the door, the four of them made do and walked for a while, they stumbled a bit, their clothes lightly dusted He took out a fire pocket from his pocket and lit it, so that he could walk more smoothly.

But before he had gone far, a watchman heard the light of the fire and shouted from a long distance, "Extinguish it! Extinguish it! Can't light it!"

Yi Qingchen obediently turned off the fire, stared straight at the panting beater in front of him, and said, "Why can't you beat him? Is it because of the previous accident?" This is too much of a fuss.

The watchman's eyesight had already adapted to the night, and he saw the patterns on Qingjiang Zhige and Chaoyu's clothes by the moonlight, and immediately recognized the identities of the two, and said clearly, "You two look strange, you are here to investigate The official of the case, right? You don’t know that this city is haunted by ghosts recently!”

As soon as Yi Qingchen heard the word "haunted", Yi Qingchen's heart thumped, and he unconsciously thought of the drowning ghost holding his hand in Shilin Village and talking yin and yang, and a bad premonition surged in his heart.Zhao Yu is not a person who believes in evil, after hearing what the beater said, he frowned, and his tone was quite dissatisfied, "Why is such an important matter not written in the document?"

Although the watchman's status is not high, he wanders in the streets and alleys all year round. He knows the anecdotes in the city very well, so he explained to Zhao Yu, "This ghost just started tormenting a few days ago. Post it, it’s too late to change it. It’s not the place to talk right now, how about I take a few of you to the inn to rest first?”

The four of them were exhausted by boat and car, so they followed the watchmen around the streets and alleys, and walked towards the buildings in the city that still had some fires.

The watchman walked away and talked to the four about the abnormalities in Jiangling recently, "The fire earlier burned half the city, not here, but on the other half of the city across the river. Among the dead, one The opera troupe sang in the opera troupe, this troupe came to Jiangling not long ago, and suffered from this misfortune as soon as they came, probably felt that their death was wronged, and their souls would linger after death. Every moonlit night, they would look for places with fire lights to sing As soon as it came out, many people in the city heard the sound of the play, they were startled and frightened, and they followed suit and extinguished the candles."

Hearing this, Yi Qingchen praised the bravery of the gangster, "You are so brave, you are like a fellow in the city, yet you dare to wander the streets at night." The gangster sneered and waved his hand , Self-modestly said, "Son, I was a coffin bearer when I was young, and when I got old, I lived on a mass grave outside the city and took on the job of a tomb guard. Isn't it haunted in the city recently? No matter how much the government pays, it will No one dares to be this pawnbroker, the boy was envious of the government's offer, so he took on such a temporary job just now."

After speaking, several people have arrived at the inn, and the watchman has fulfilled his duties, so he wants to say goodbye to everyone, Yi Qingchen asked all the questions he could think of at the moment, so he didn't want to keep him anymore.

Knocking on the door of the inn, the Xiao Er who came to answer the door first asked vigilantly through the door, "Who is it!" , looked at the clothes of the four people vigilantly, and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with it, then opened the door and made a way out, "A stay of two hundred wen, without breakfast, is a day until noon the next day. OK?"

Two hundred wen is indeed not a small amount of money, Yi Qingchen felt heartbroken in his heart, but considering the current situation, the inns who dared to open the door were taking great risks, so they could understand such a high asking price, and each paid the rent .When paying the money, Jiang Zhige couldn't help explaining to everyone, "The money is recorded in the account, and when the matter is over, I will return a lot of money to you."

Yi Qingchen didn't pay attention to Jiang Zhige's words, his gaze was always attracted by the woman sitting on the west side of the inn. A handkerchief was used to wipe away tears, in the empty hall, only her crying could be heard endlessly, Zhao Yu couldn't help but roll her eyes, but she couldn't get angry.

Jiang Zhige's and Hua Shenchi's eyes were attracted by that woman one after another. Seeing the guests caring about each other, Xiaoer looked distressed, and explained to everyone in a low voice, "Many people died in the water a few days ago. This woman's relatives also died in the fire, and none of them had a whole body. They all stayed here with the troupe, but she was the only one who cried every night. It's not easy for me to chase her away. Just bear with it, and go back to the room. Quiet."

The girl's family was crying for nothing, and they couldn't say anything more, so they took the keys and went upstairs.

Jiang Zhige and Zhao Yu each opened a room, but Hua Shenchi could not refuse to squeeze into a room with Yi Qingchen, Yi Qingchen persuaded him not to move, thinking that it would be less than half a month before they had to separate , so he went there, but when choosing a room, he specially asked Xiaoer for a room with two couches.

Xiaoer looked at Yi Qingchen clearly, then at Hua Shenchi, showing a meaningful smile, laughing until Yi Qingchen got goosebumps all over his body, which didn't go away after returning to the house.

After a busy day, Yi Qingchen was already tired, and didn't bother whether to wash or not, so he picked a couch and lay down, closing his eyes and going to sleep.

Hua Shenchi was not very sleepy, as a living dead person, his work and rest were different from ordinary people, not only his five senses were dull, but also much less sleepy than ordinary people, two or three hours of sleep a day was enough.So he just put the package away, sat on the edge of Yi Qingchen's bed, stared at Yi Qingchen on the couch thoughtfully, "Sleepy?" Yi Qingchen nodded truthfully, Hua Shenchi was silent for a moment, and wanted to speak He stopped, "...then you go to sleep."

Yi Qingchen felt that Hua Shenchi had something to say, but he didn't say it, his curiosity was aroused, he struggled with drowsiness for a long time, and ended up with half or five points, so he struggled to open his eyes, looked at Hua Shenchi, "Tell me...I'm listening..." The words he spoke were somewhat vague.Seeing that he was so tired, Hua Shenchi just shook his head, covered Yi Qingchen's eyes with his hand, and said in a low voice, "Go to sleep first, it's not a big deal."

Yi Qingchen didn't have the strength to push Hua Shenchi's hand covering his eyes, so he let him put it like this, and confirmed again and again, "Really?" Hua Shenchi said, "Really." Yi Qingchen then gave up Lie back down like that, and fell asleep within a moment.

Hua Shenchi carefully withdrew his hand, staring deeply at the bright moon outside the window, just sat like this, and sat until the middle of the night, and only got up and walked back to his couch when the clock sounded again , Take off your boots and lie down.

When Yi Qingchen woke up the next day, the sun was already high outside the window, Hua Shenchi was sitting in front of the tea table writing something, Yi Qingchen got up and looked over, "Is this a diary?" Suddenly remembered the book in Shilin Village The diary was lost by himself at the time, and he felt ashamed, so he confessed to Hua Shenchi what happened in Shilin Village. .

Yi Qingchen didn't know how Hua Shenchi would react, and felt extremely uneasy.

He didn't want Hua Shenchi but didn't say anything, just sighed softly, and continued to write, as if nothing happened.

Yi Qingchen saw that no matter what happened to Hua Shenchi, he looked so calm and breezy, he felt helpless and distressed, and persuaded him, "If you are unhappy, you must tell me."

Hua Chenchi shook his head, "It's just the past, and there is nothing important on it, so don't worry about it." Yi Qingchen couldn't say anything more, just looked at the empty coffee table, and asked Hua Shenchi, " Have you had breakfast? What do you want to eat? I'll go buy some for you."

Hua Shenchi then confessed, "Jiang Zhige and Zhao Yu went to investigate the case early in the morning, and said they came back at this hour, and would bring you some food along the way, so I didn't go again." Yi Qingchen was a little disappointed, "Is that so..." Sitting bored for a while, until Zhao Yu and Jiang Zhige came back with pancakes.

As soon as the two entered the door, Yi Qingchen showed a curious look, "How is it going?"

Jiang Zhige handed two scones with spicy peppers to Yi Qingchen, and after taking them, Yi Qingchen gave one to Hua Shenchi, but Hua Shenchi didn't take it, "Let's put it first." The pancake was carefully placed on the table, and he turned his head to wait for Jiang Zhige's answer.

Jiang Zhige took a sip of tea to soothe his throat, before explaining unhurriedly, "Jiangling City has a strange layout, a canal runs through the city, dividing the people in the city into north and south, and this time the fire started in the south .”

I made gestures on the table with my fingers, regardless of whether Yi Qingchen could understand it, "The first place where the fire started was the open-air stage in the south of the city. According to the owner of the stage, after their performance that night, a group of people went to the inn to drink as usual. Only the opera singer who was burned to death, named Taketori, was worried because he made a mistake in singing before, so he stayed in the troupe to practice again and again. It’s huge, and the stage is built right at the outlet, so half of the city is implicated.”

"At that time, except for the dead Taketori, everyone in the troupe went to the restaurant, so no one knew the real cause of the fire. But..."

Yi Qingchen knew that an important turning point was coming, so he stopped even biting the pancakes, and waited for the next sentence, Jiang Zhige continued, "Because the sun is getting brighter in the daytime recently, the troupe always opens at night According to the owner of the theatrical troupe, before the accident, for several nights in a row, a guest dressed in black came to listen to the opera, but he refused to sit on the stool, but sat on the opposite side of the troupe with a jug Upstairs..."

"I asked the boss about the specific description of this person, and he said, 'The black dress is very long, even if you sit on the top of the building, the hem of the skirt hangs down for a long time, the fabric should be gauze, because the moonlight can pass through it The hair... should be draped, with a mask on the face, doing nothing, just listening to the opera while drinking, and throwing away coins at the end, I will just treat it as a weirdo There's a lot to say'."

With such a description, there is no doubt that he should be the ghost-faced gentleman.

When Jiang Zhige said this, he held back his voice, his eyes became sharper, Yi Qingchen knew that he would be overwhelmed when he mentioned the ghost-faced gentleman, and he couldn't ask questions, so he cast his curious eyes aside. The morning rain of tea.

Zhao Yu received Yi Qingchen's wink, drank the tea in the cup unhurriedly, and then said slowly, "Afterwards, I went to the government again. They could not be released for a long time, and have been taken back by family members for burial one after another. The cause of death of some of the corpses has been verified by the local foreman, but some cannot be given a clear cause of death, such as the corpse of Taketori."

After a pause, he held the teacup in his hand and turned it around, and said calmly, "However, it is difficult to examine the corpse after burns. If it is not a professional disciple from Lingshan, it is estimated that it is difficult to tell the reason based on these local masters... ...."

Yi Qingchen heard something in Zhao Yu's words, which meant something.

Just at this time when the article was written and signed, Hua Shenchi threw the pen into the clear water, closed the book, put it in his arms, and got up straight, "I'll go to the county government." Zhao Yu didn't get up, but looked Xiang Jiang Zhige, "Take him."

Because Chaoyu official Gao Jiang Zhige was a little bit more, and Jiang Zhige was indeed responsible for going to Jiangling to track down the ghost-faced gentleman, so the latter didn't say anything, and led Hua Shenchi out.

For a while, only Yi Qingchen and Zhaoyu were left in the room.

Yi Qingchen swallowed the last bite of pancake, wiped his hands with a towel, and looked at Zhaoyu with a smile on his face, "So, what should I do to prove my innocence?"

Zhaoyu recalled what the national teacher said to him before he left, that he would set some "tests" for Yi Qingchen, but he didn't say the specific content of the test, so he reminded Yi Qingchen, "Wait, you are Mr. Chan Ji's Dear apprentice, Sun Guoshi will definitely not let you go easily. If you are really in a hurry, it is okay to help catch the ghost-faced gentleman. If you can really catch it, it is also a great achievement, and it may change many people in the court. opinion of you."

Yi Qingchen thought about it for a while and felt it made sense, so he got up and packed his clothes, pushed the door and went out, when he went downstairs, he deliberately cast his eyes on the woman who was crying last night, the seat was empty.