Cloud of the Qing Dynasty

Amidst the crowd watching and whispering among the villagers, this Miao man named A Wu took them to a stilted building. The original owner of the stilted building did not know where it went. It seemed that no one had lived here for at least several months. It wasn't really a good place, but at least there were tables, chairs and beds, and the Miao people gave them bedding and food, so they settled down temporarily.

There was only one bed, and Zhang Chi was going to let Mu Liuyun sleep on it, but Mu Liuyun refused his kindness because he thought it was dirty. Zhang Chi shook off the quilt speechlessly to have a look. There are some colors on the head that can't be washed off.

Zhang Chi is not picky about where he sleeps. His hard military career in his early years has trained him to lie down and sleep even when the sky is on the ground, but Mu Liuyun will sleep on a clean bed for several hours except when staying in a hotel. In addition, in the wild, I often stay up all night for several days, meditate and adjust my breath until dawn, and I am still in good spirits.

It is said that this is a unique mental method that can only be mastered after long-term training. It can keep people in a half-asleep and half-awake state to adjust breath and exercise. Zhang Chi was envious.

Seeing that Mu Liuyun brushed off the dry grass leaves on his trouser legs and began to sit cross-legged on the low table again, Zhang Chi yawned and said, "Brother Mu is so delicate and expensive, it's really hard for you to come out and wander the rivers and lakes."

"I don't want to be like this either, if it wasn't because of you..." Mu Liuyun glanced at him, thinking that the matter hadn't been clarified yet, so he didn't say any more.

Zhang Chi said very politely: "Brother Mu, don't worry, I will find out the murderer as soon as possible, and seek justice for Brother Mu's dead fellow."

Mu Liuyun also temporarily stopped exercising and adjusting his breath: "What is your plan, can't you tell me clearly?"

"It's not that I didn't want to tell you on purpose." Zhang Chi began to quickly clean up the firepit in the middle of the house that hadn't been lit for several months, planning to light a fire before the sky darkened. "My plan is actually to play it by ear step by step. Like before I came to Miao Village yesterday, I had already thought of more than a dozen possible situations, and thought out countermeasures one by one, but everything may still deviate from the plan at any time. If you think I am bragging, give me a slap If you shoot me to death, it will be bad."

Mu Liuyun sighed lightly: "I'm not such a brutal and brutal person."

"I know, it's just a joke, you are my savior, if you are brutal and cruel, there will be no good people in the world." Zhang Chi blew a few puffs, ignited the fire, and continued, "Don't worry, Now these Miao people have been hooked by your money, and then I will wait for them to come to 'negotiate business', and I will take the opportunity to get more information from them, and then decide what to do next. "

"Let's just believe you." Mu Liuyun nodded, closed his eyes and began to adjust his breath with luck.

***

Three days passed in a row, but there was still nothing about the "door-to-door business talks" that Zhang Chi said.

Zhang Chi slipped back through the window again in the middle of the night, and Mu Liuyun paid off when he heard the noise: "Did you find anything?"

Zhang Chi shook his head and went to drink water: "Except that there seem to be a lot of empty houses in this village, I haven't found any useful news for the time being."

Mu Liuyun looked at him suspiciously of the other party's ability and said, "It seems that your method doesn't work either."

Zhang Chi smiled and said, "Be patient, they don't mean to let us go, do they?"

"Because you give them money every day?" Mu Liuyun put one foot on the window sill, bent down to stretch his ligaments, and if he didn't practice swords for a few days, he felt that his bones were going to rust.

"One penny is a lot less, and more is not much. We have to delay to earn our money. I'm afraid it won't be until the day my son can make soy sauce."

"Aren't you unmarried, where is your son?"

"I'm just making an analogy." As Zhang Chi said, Mu Liuyun retracted his legs and looked in the direction of the door: "Someone is coming."

Two Hmong men came to the small building in the dark of night, discussing with each other furtively in Miao dialect, the taller one took out a thin bamboo tube, just approached the door of the stilted building, Zhang Chi opened it The door: "Hey, you two come here late at night, what are you doing?"

The man froze for a moment, put away the bamboo tube and said, "Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Zhang Chi leaned on the door and said, "I'm a night owl, and I'm used to going to bed late. Unexpectedly, the two of you are too. I'm used to coming out to visit in the middle of the night."

"Don't talk nonsense, we're here to discuss business." The short Miao man looked around and said as if he was afraid of being discovered, "The leader won't let you sell thistle to outsiders, so we came to talk to you secretly." For business."

"So that's how it is. Please come in, both of you." Zhang Chi smiled and moved away from the door.

The short Miao man took out a cloth bag and opened it layer by layer to reveal a few freshly picked grasses inside: "I brought thistle, where is your money?"

Zhang Chi rubbed his chin and said with a smile: "The silver is naturally where it should be, but how do I know that this is the real soul-breaking thistle, and not pretending to be something else?"

"What do you mean by that?" The tall Miao Ren's face suddenly turned ugly.

"You two are too contemptuous of people. If you can't even tell the truth from the fake, how dare I stand here?" Zhang Chi sneered, "Just a small amount of fresh grass juice from thistle can kill people. The most experienced Miao people dare not pick it with bare hands, judging from the sections of these grasses and the green juice on your thumbnail, it is basically a weed you picked from any field.”

The short Miao man who was exposed was angry from the heart, and he took out the Miao knife from his waist: "Don't talk nonsense, hand over the money, or you will die!"

The tall Miao man next to him was a little slow, and also went to draw the Miao knife at his waist. He had just drawn the knife halfway, and a huge force hit him in the chest through the air, and he flew upside down before he could say anything. He went out and knocked open the door, falling into the darkness outside the house.

After Mu Liuyun knocked the tall Miao man away with his palm, he immediately kicked the short Miao man away with his kick without any pause. He spat out a mouthful of blood, fell to the ground and couldn't get up for a long time, the tall Miao man helped him up, and the two retreated in a panic.

Zhang Chi's hand was still on the hilt of the knife, as if he was about to stand up and face the enemy, but the battle was over.

He slowly turned his head to look at the expressionless Mu Liuyun.

Mu Liuyun also looked at him: "Could these two people be related to the murder?"

"No, it should be purely for the sake of money." Zhang Chi let go of the handle of the knife despondently, with a feeling that people are more deadly than others, and goods are more expensive than goods.

***

The next morning, when Zhang Chi was still making a fire and cooking, Ah Wu came over and asked, "What's the matter with you! Why did you hurt the people in our village?"

Zhang Chi said angrily: "You might as well ask the two people who were beaten first why they were beaten. They came to us in the middle of the night last night. They first tried to drug them, and after they were discovered, they tried to deceive them with fake soul-breaking thistles." Qian, after being exposed, we still want to rob, so we have no choice but to fight back, I would like to ask you, is this your way of hospitality?"

"There is such a thing?" Ah Wu said in surprise, "You are lying, the two of them obviously did not say so."

"Seeing things like Cai's intention to rob and get beaten up, don't they have the nerve to tell you the truth?" Zhang Chi crossed his hands and said, "You believe everything they say, why don't you think about those two people taking you with you in the middle of the night? What serious business can Dao come to us, is he here to drink tea and chat?"

Ah Wu's face changed, but when he saw Mu Liuyun, who was calm and calm, he still didn't get angry after all, and said in a firm tone: "The leader wants to see you."

"Great, he is finally willing to see us." What Zhang Chi said was not "he is finally back", but A Wu did not refute, and the expression on his face did not change. Zhang Chi understood that the so-called "leader is out" It's just an excuse.

Four days had passed since they came to Wugu Village, and the two finally met Adamu, the leader of Wugu Village.

Adamu is an old man in his 50s. His dark and thin face is covered with traces of time and wind and frost. When he saw Awu leading Zhang Chi and Mu Liuyun over, he put down the bong in his mouth and greeted them. : "Sit down, guests from afar, please drink tea."

Zhang Chi looked at the three bowls of tea that had been brewed on the table, shook his hand and said, "The tea is free, let's talk about business."

Adamu glanced at him, took the bowl of tea in front of Zhang Chi and drank it down, put the tea bowl heavily on the table, and said: "We treat you as guests, but you are causing trouble in the village." , what exactly do you want?"

"How do you say this? We came here to do business sincerely, but you first pretended not to shut us up, and in the next few days, someone tried to poison us one after another. Seeing that we were really on guard If you can't be deceived, you can't deceive me, you can't beat me, so you can't beat my brother, so you are willing to sit down and have a good talk. Such a level of 'good hospitality' ’, as an ordinary person, I don’t know how many lives I have to bear.”

Adamu, who was exposed, blushed and argued: "What happened last night... I really didn't know about it. If they were really greedy for money and robbed, no one else would be blamed for being beaten. I just wanted to test you guys before. , I didn’t use any powerful Gu, I didn’t intend to kill you.”

Zhang Chi said with a smile: "So, it turns out that the voodoo was just a joke with us, and the leader of Adamu is very ingenious even when he jokes."

Ah Wu couldn't stand it any longer: "Father, why are you humiliating them? The Han people are always cunning. Who knows what is their purpose when they come here at this time?"

"Awu!" Adamu gave him a reproachful look.

Zhang Chi could hear Mingtang: "Where did you start with this? Of course we came here for the purpose of breaking the soul. Apart from this, do you have anything else that people can plot?"