Cloud of the Qing Dynasty

After Zhang Chi returned to Jinghong Villa, he was about to borrow the kitchen of Jinghong Villa to make crystal taro cakes, when Mu Liuyun came to find him.

Mu Liuyun noticed that there was a small scratch on Zhang Chi's cheek: "What's wrong with the face?"

Zhang Chi touched the small wound that had scabbed over: "Ah, it's nothing, I accidentally fell off the horse."

It was indeed when he fell off his horse. There is no way. Wuying has been upset to see him for a day or two. Beating him up in the name of is nothing new.

Mu Liuyun frowned suspiciously. In his impression, Zhang Chi's riding skills should be very good.

But he didn't ask too much, just said: "Qin Wuqi promised to meet with the people from Shangqing Palace tonight, you should go with him, and see what he has to say."

"Okay." Of course Zhang Chi would not refuse, and he agreed wholeheartedly.

***

In the evening, Qin Wuqi hosted a banquet as scheduled. In addition to Tianhe Daoist, Mu Liuyun and two Yizi disciples, the Shangqing Palace also brought a 17-year-old disciple Qingyue.

Qin Wuqi didn't think it was strange. It's normal for the Shangqing Palace to bring the disciples who want to be cultivated with him since he was a child, but he became interested in Zhang Chi who came with him: "This little brother looks familiar, I don't know where he is from. He Pai, why did you come with Shangqing Palace?"

Zhang Chi clasped his fists and said, "I, Zhang Chi, is just a no-nonsense person. Because he happened to be involved in the murder case of a disciple of the Shangqing Palace last time, he came to Master Qin to answer the doubts in his heart."

Mu Liuyun added: "Zhang Chi is my friend, I asked him to help with the investigation."

Qin Wuqi thought that although Zhang Chi looked young, he would not be a simple role if he was specially recruited by the Shangqing Palace for help, so he didn't mean to underestimate Zhang Chi because he was unknown, raised his glass and said with a smile: " It turns out that meeting is a fate, and Qin Mou toasted Brother Zhang."

"Master Qin, you are being polite." Zhang Chi raised his glass quickly.

After saying some polite words on the scene, Mu Liuyun became a little impatient, and directly cut to the point: "Master Qin, we didn't come here for dinner, let's talk business."

Tianhe smiled apologetically: "Master Qin, please don't take offense, my junior is quite straightforward."

Although he said so, he didn't mean to change the subject.

Qin Wuqi smiled: "That's fine, then let's stop beating around the bush. However, I'm only hearsay about the murder of several disciples of the Shangqing Palace, and I don't know much about it. Why don't you tell me what happened first, and then let me know what happened." Let's see what exactly caused you to misunderstand, and think that Qin has something to do with this matter."

Tianhe Daoist, who was not there at the time, turned his head to look at Mu Liuyun, and Mu Liuyun, who was not talkative, turned his head to look at Zhang Chi again.

Zhang Chi did his part to explain, starting from how he met several Taoist priests, until the two followed the clue of Duan Hun Ji to Wugu Village.

Speaking of this, Zhang Chi raised a question: "There we met a Miao girl named Bai Ling, does Master Qin recognize this person?"

"I know." Qin Wuqi did not deny it.

"It is said that you are in a relationship with her. I wonder if this is true?"

Qin Wuqi smiled wryly and shook his head: "Bai Ling did show her kindness to me, but I rejected her at that time, and I have never set foot in the southern Xinjiang area since then. As for why such rumors spread, I don't know. .”

Zhang Chi took out the hidden weapon syringe that Bai Ling used to shoot the second head of Heilongzhai that day: "This should be from Jinghong Villa, and everyone in Wuguzhai said it was a token of love you gave her. "

Qin Wuqi took it over and looked at it: "This is the Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle. It is indeed a hidden weapon made by the workshop of Jinghong Villa. Back then, Bai Ling helped me a lot, so I gave it to her as a thank you gift. It's not a token of love. I just don't know why this thing came into your hands?"

"After some investigation, we found that Bai Ling was the one who poisoned and assassinated the disciples of the Shangqing Palace that day." Zhang Chi said, "Bai Ling absconded and hid in the Black Dragon Village in fear of crime. One person and one sword picked up the incident in Heilongzhai. During the fight, Liuyun was almost killed by her with this hidden weapon. Later, we captured Bai Ling and imprisoned him in Heilongzhai. We planned to bring him back to the Shangqing Palace for questioning, but there was nothing in time After asking, Bai Ling was silenced, so I had no choice but to use this hidden weapon to ask Lord Qin for clues."

"She was killed? Who did it?" Qin Wuqi's expression remained unchanged.

"We don't know about this, but what's interesting is that we also found this on her." Zhang Chi took out the card that said "After the matter is completed, you can use this note to pick it up at Jinghong Villa." Five hundred taels of silver", signed "Qin Wuqi" letterhead, "I wonder if this is the handwriting of the owner of Qin Zhuang?"

Qin Wuqi took it over and looked at it, and actually admitted: "This is indeed written by me. We sometimes entrust some things to people outside Jinghong Villa. As for who this note is written to, entrust Please forgive Qin for the inconvenience of telling me what to do, I can only say that this note was not addressed to Bai Ling, as for how it ended up on her, I'm afraid there must be a conspiracy in it."

Tianhe Daoist said in a gentle tone but not very gentle content: "We also want to believe that Lord Qin will not resort to such low means, but Lord Qin is so secretive about the origin of this important material evidence, and there is nothing convincing about it." Strength."

Qin Wuqi said calmly: "Jinghong Villa will also participate in the follow-up investigation of this matter, we must let everything come to light. After all, there has just been a little friction between Shangqing Palace and Jinghong Villa, and the people who came to negotiate later were killed. Jinghong Naturally, the villa cannot escape suspicion. If it is just a coincidence that the murderer Bai Ling recognized Qin, the existence of this letter is enough to show that the person behind the scenes intends to frame us in Jinghong Villa, but they do not know that they ordered Bai Ling to poison people. And the person who killed Bai Ling with the intention of blaming others, what ulterior motives do they have?"

Zhang Chi said: "It seems that Master Qin doesn't know that Bai Ling is a member of the Red Lotus Sect?"

"Bai Ling is actually a member of the Red Lotus Sect?" Qin Wuqi was indeed a little surprised, "This makes sense. This must be the Red Lotus Sect framing Jinghong Villa, intending to provoke Jinghong Villa and Shangqing Palace In order to contain the power of Jinghong Villa, we are unable to divide our forces to deal with the Red Lotus Sect."

Before Zhang Chi said anything, Mu Liuyun said indifferently: "Could it be that Jinghong Villa intends to blame the Red Lotus Sect? If the owner of the Qin Villa is really worried that the Red Lotus Sect will poison the guests during the martial arts conference and provoke disputes, everyone But in the kitchen, the food will be inspected one by one before being sent out by trusted people. Why bother to bring chickens, dogs and livestock to the guest room in Dongyuan with great fanfare, and stage such a "red lotus teaching poisoning" right under our noses? Get caught' drama."

Zhang Chi was the first to discover the weirdness of this matter. He had some concerns at the time and didn't point it out on the spot. He just mentioned it to Mu Liuyun afterwards. Unexpectedly, Mu Liuyun directly questioned Qin Wuqi with it without any scruples.

"There is such a thing?" Qin Wuqi looked at the entourage behind him, "Who was the one who delivered the meal that day?"

The attendant replied: "Reporting to the owner, it's Manager Yin."

"Let him come over."

Yin Ci was quickly called over, and facing Qin Wuqi's question, Yin Ci admitted in a panic: "This matter was indeed done by the subordinates, but the Red Lotus Sect did indeed send traitors to infiltrate the village to poison the village. It’s just that I saw through it in advance, and I hope that other sects will realize the sinister intentions of the Red Lotus Sect, so that they can join us in fighting against the evil cult.”

Qin Wuqi frowned and reprimanded: "Who told you to be so self-assertive? Didn't you think that this would make it easier for others to misunderstand Jinghong Villa?"

Seeing that Qin Wuqi was angry, Yin Ci immediately knelt down: "This subordinate knows his mistake and is willing to be punished."

Qin Wuqi said coldly with a stern expression, "Go to the execution hall to receive your punishment."

Yin Ci withdrew without hesitation, no matter whether it was a real punishment or a fake punishment, Qin Wuqi had already assumed such a posture, and it was difficult for others to hold on to this matter, Yin Ci withdrew Afterwards, Qin Wuqi apologized and said: "This matter is all because of Qin's lack of control, please forgive me."

Seeing that neither Mu Liuyun nor Tianhe Daoist said anything, Qin Wuqi said again: "The Red Lotus Sect is indeed harboring mischievous intentions, it's not that I intend to set the blame on you, and the murder of several Daoist priests from the Shangqing Palace in southern Xinjiang is definitely not my fault." Instigation, I hope you can trust me. All these misunderstandings are caused by the eagerness of the subordinates of the southern branch of Jinghong Villa to buy the batch of logs reserved by the Shangqing Palace. To show sincerity, Qin is willing to sell the batch The logs were donated to the Shangqing Palace for free, and I hope that the two sides can turn their hostility into friendship and work together to conquer the Red Lotus Sect."

Mu Liuyun didn't feel anything about it yet, but Zhang Chi and Tianhe Daochang were a little surprised by Qin Wuqi's attitude, because it was quite strange that a sect as powerful as Jinghong Villa would subdue other sects so softly.

In the arena, many times there is no such thing as taking a step back. Generally speaking, a retreat only means one thing: if you can't beat it, you can't afford to lose it.

As the saying goes, don’t steam steamed buns to fight for your breath. Jianghu is not a place that pays attention to harmony. It affects the prestige and status of Jinghong Villa in Jianghu, making people think that Jinghong Villa had to make such a bad move because it was afraid of the Shangqing Palace.

For Qin Wuqi to make such a decision, it can only be said that he would rather sacrifice this part of his interests to reach a settlement with the Shangqing Palace, and focus on eradicating the serious trouble of the Red Lotus Sect first.

Not only that, Qin Wuqi also expressed with Tianhe Daochang some cooperation intentions of the two sects in various other aspects. Mu Liuyun didn't care about these topics, but Zhang Chi was quite interested, while Qingyue and the other two remained junior The duty of a disciple is to just listen in and never interrupt.

After changing several batches of dishes on the table and warming the wine several times, Jinghong Villa proposed various favorable conditions. In the end, Taoist Tianhe agreed to Qin Wuqi's exchange terms on behalf of Shangqing Palace, and promised to exchange terms with Jinghong Villa. Join forces to deal with the Red Lotus Sect.