Cloud of the Qing Dynasty

Of course Adamu would not admit it, he said with a sullen face: "If the purpose of your coming here is to kill the thistle, I can give it to you, and you can leave as soon as you get it."

"Father!" Ah Wu was in a hurry, "Don't try to calm things down at a time like this. Everyone in the neighborhood knows that the soul-breaking thistle is only available in our Wugu village. If they use it to do something bad, they will be blamed on us. What can I do on my head?"

Adamu hesitated for a moment, and Zhang Chi said: "How could it be? Someone killed someone with a kitchen knife. Would everyone still blame the blacksmith who beat the kitchen knife? After tracing this far, you say that you have sold too much, and if you can’t remember clearly, you will end up.”

A Wu was startled, and retorted: "Nonsense, we have never sold the soul-destroying Ji to outsiders."

"Never?" Zhang Chi looked into Adamu's eyes and carefully observed his expression, "You guys have been hiding such a good thing and not selling it, what a waste of money."

"Why am I lying to you? It's not that we don't want to sell it, but that no one wants this thing at all." Ah Wu also seemed to be a real person, and Adamu also sighed if he had something to say, and his expression didn't look like he was lying at all: "I don't know where you heard about thistle, but it's really useless. It can poison people to death only when it's fresh, and it will go bad if you take it off and leave it for a day at most. In one day, you can kill even this mountain. If you can’t get out, what’s the use of buying it?”

Zhang Chi said indifferently, "I can dig out the roots and put them in flower pots."

A Wu snorted coldly: "Even if you have the ability to carry a flower pot with a foot pot on you, you can only grow it for three or four days at most. How far can you go? Over the years, this is the first time we have encountered a flower pot that wants to buy it out." Soul Thistle."

Zhang Chi and Mu Liuyun looked at each other, Zhang Chi stood up and said, "So that's it! That is to say, it was indeed the murder of your people from Wugu Village!"

Both Awu and Adamu were stunned: "What do you mean?"

Zhang Chi looked at them with a sharp expression: "Not long ago, in a village that was a day's journey away, four priests from the Qing Palace on Huashan Mountain were poisoned to death with thistle while staying at an inn. Do you know about this? "

Adamu was frightened for a moment: "This... this is none of our business."

"I'm afraid you have to explain it to the people in the Qing Palace." Zhang Chi smiled, winked at Mu Liuyun and said, "Our mission is completed, and we can go back and report now."

Mu Liuyun didn't know what Zhang Chi was up to, but he had already agreed to act according to his wishes, so he stood up without saying a word and planned to go out.

"Wait! You can't go out and gossip about this kind of thing." Adamu was in a hurry, and Awu also moved to the door, holding a scimitar in his hand, as if they would kill people if they dared to run away.

"This news is very valuable, either you give me a hush money--" Zhang Chi took out an iron plate from nowhere, and tossed it up and down in his hand, "Or I can take this news home and clearly mark the price, The highest price wins."

With sharp eyes, Mu Liuyun saw that there was a big "bao" character in the middle of the token-shaped sign, and an owl-shaped pattern was engraved on the edge.

Adamu also stood up "swish" and looked at Zhang Chi in shock: "Are you the one who 'inquires'?"

"However, I didn't expect the leader to have some knowledge." Zhang Chi stepped on the stool proudly, "To be honest, I'm not interested in poison that can't be carried for thirty miles. I was entrusted by someone to investigate the origin of this mysterious and highly poisonous poison. Now that the origin has been found, as for the other things, it is not something I should worry about."

He raised a finger and shook it in front of the tense A Wu: "Don't use your brains, if you kill us, 'Bao inquiring' will definitely know, besides, you may not be my brother's opponent yet. "

"...Awu, come here." Adamu had no choice but to compromise. He knew that Awu's martial arts skills were the best in the village, but after all, the two who were sent flying by Mu Liuyun last night were also considered They are more capable of fighting in the village, and they are still beaten like that. If it is only about martial arts, no one in the village is a match for Mu Liuyun. They can only submit, "Tell me, how much do you want?" Only the money will be kept secret.”

"Just give me 3000 taels." Zhang Chi made an offer.

A Wu even felt scared to pay back the money by sitting on the ground: "3000 taels! Are you kidding me? The whole village can't get that much money for a few lifetimes without eating or drinking."

"No money? Then get more useful news and clues in exchange. Although the commission we received was only to find out the source of the poison, if we can go one step further and directly find out the murderer who poisoned those people Whoever it is, this news is even more valuable. Shangqing Palace is a well-known and decent family. As long as the murderer is executed, he will definitely not come to you to vent his anger because the Duan Huan Ji came out of Wugu Village. When we get the money, you If you are safe and sound, both parties will enjoy what they deserve." Zhang Chi said indifferently, "If we can't find out about this matter, we have no choice but to hand over this half of the news to the Shangqing Palace, and let the people from the Shangqing Palace come to you in person to discuss the explanation. "

By this time, Adamu and Awu father and son had been completely intimidated by Zhang Chi. Adamu said helplessly: "We have no intention of keeping up with the Qing Palace as an enemy. If someone really poisoned the soul-breaking Ji People from Shangqing Palace, as the leader of the village, I will not bring disaster to the village just to cover up a murderer, but I don't know what all this is going on."

"You just need to tell me everything you know, and it depends on my luck whether you can make this money." Zhang Chi said, "The priests of the Shangqing Palace were killed seven days ago, let's push forward , Ten days ago, who went out with the soul-breaking thistle?"

Adamu said: "We treat this thing as a scourge. If it weren't for the fact that it couldn't be removed, it would have been extinct a long time ago. In order to prevent children and livestock from eating it by mistake, the valley where the soul-killing thistle grows has always been full of people. The guard, ten days ago, the person who guarded the valley was Ah Wu, if someone took the soul-breaking thistle, Ah Wu must know."

A Wu frowned and pondered: "I remember that in those few days, only Granny Gu ordered a handful of soul-breaking thistles, and Da Zhao went in to pick them."

Adamu also thought of one: "It seems that there is Bai Ling, someone saw her leaving the village with thistle."

Ah Wu said suspiciously: "Really, I didn't see this."

"Okay, tell me about these three people, and I'll start with them." Zhang Chi smiled slightly, and gave Mu Liuyun a "fixed" look.

***

"I don't understand." After returning to the stilted building where they lived temporarily, Mu Liuyun asked, "What's your intention of concealing my identity and deceiving them with false news?"

"Let me tell you this, when there is no common interest, others may not tell us the truth. Sometimes there is no need to deliberately lie, as long as we conceal a little key information or give a little wrong reminder, we can make us go wrong. On the way, the investigation got farther and farther." Zhang Chi said, "Imagine, if your identity is the uncle of the Shangqing Palace, and you come to investigate the cause of the death of your nephew, and my identity is the suspect you are holding on to, then it is so urgent. We are the ones who want to get the answer, and we are the ones who want to ask others, but they want to find a murderer among themselves for the irrelevant us. At this time, we are very passive, and even if they are forced to Your martial arts and the forces behind you will cooperate on the surface, but they will also intentionally or unintentionally cover up your own people in words, because the one who dies is an outsider anyway."

Mu Liuyun nodded: "Indeed."

Zhang Chi said with a smile: "Now, we have become the party that doesn't care if we can find out better, and they are the ones who are eager to get rid of the suspects. Of course, they will hand over the most authentic news unconditionally, and Go all out to assist us in the investigation, for fear that we will not find out who the murderer is."

"There are indeed some methods." Mu Liuyun said in admiration, "Then how do you know that they have been trying to trick us these days?"

"You are open-minded and inexperienced, so it is easy to ignore some abnormal behaviors. For example, since we entered the village, we refused to eat the first meal, but they still gave us food one after another. I tracked it down secretly. They didn’t feed the chickens or dogs to the food we didn’t want to eat. They just dug a hole and buried it. He refuses to say a word to us, but there are always people who enthusiastically come to care about whether our water tank is full or not, and the little girl yesterday, who blushes when she talks to strangers, if not for someone's instigation Maybe offer to send us a big live fish."

"I see." Mu Liuyun nodded, "What's the matter with the 'inquiry' you mentioned? Why is the leader so afraid?"

"No way, you haven't even heard of 'Bao inquiring'?" Zhang Chi looked at him incredulously.

"I've heard it mentioned before, but I don't know much about it. I only know that it's related to selling news." Mu Liuyun looked at Zhang Chi, "Are you really the one who asked for it?"

"Since you are interested and have time, let me tell you in detail." Zhang Chi poured a glass of water to drink, but suddenly remembered something, poured the water and started to boil the water. There are three in total, namely 'Wanshitong', 'Bai Xiaosheng' and 'Baodiao'. Among them, Wanshitong mainly tells the traffickers about 'Where can I find a job', or sells to the merchants 'Where is the price of food low? ' and other news, Bai Xiaosheng is mainly concerned about the affairs of the various schools of martial arts, the whole 'weapon spectrum', 'master ranking list' and so on to satisfy people's chats after dinner, and recently, the relationship between the two The limelight has been completely suppressed by us, do you know where they lost?"

Mu Liuyun shook his head, and looked at Zhang Chi, who said in a low voice, pretending to be mysterious, like a storyteller, "Because there are people above us."