To The Land of Nevernight

In late August, there was heavy rain in the north.

On the streets of Cizhou City, only the sound of crackling rain can be heard, and occasionally a few officials in official robes can be seen hurrying from one end of the city to the other.

I don't know when, three factions appeared faintly in Cizhou City.The first one is naturally the supervisory mission headed by the supervisory envoy Ji Zhi, and the second is the official group headed by Yin Zhangfeng of the governor of the governorate, who has been in the governorate city for several months or even longer.The third is the officials headed by Su Wenyun who were not accepted by the first two.

Su Wenyun is an inspector, and has no actual connection with the construction of official roads in Cizhou City.But he is not one of the post-discipline supervisors either.This makes his identity very embarrassing.

But besides these three, there is one more embarrassing than Su Wenyun.

That is Tang Shen.

Don't worry about the officials of Zhang Feng and Xie Cheng's faction, Tang Shen has nothing to do with him.Not to mention Su Wenyun's faction.Su Wenyun hid the yin and yang account book in Tang Shen's room, almost pushing him into a sea of ​​fire, and he didn't say anything when he saw Tang Shen again, as if he didn't sneak into Tang Shen's room at all that night.

As for the supervisory mission, Tang Shen originally belonged to this faction, but it was a pity that Ji Zhi somehow found out about Tang Shen's private contact with Su Wenyun, and vaguely excluded Tang Shen.

In the early morning of this day, Tang Shen came out of Fu Yin's yamen, holding a bamboo umbrella, and came to a steamed stuffed bun shop not far from the yamen.

"Here are two buns stuffed with shepherd's purse."

"Okay!"

The vendor wrapped the hot buns in oiled paper and handed them to Tang Shen.Seeing that Tang Shen was wearing official robes, he asked cautiously, "Your Excellency, you came out of the yamen."

Tang Shen: "Exactly."

"The small steamed stuffed bun shop has always been open opposite the Yamen, and I have never seen such a handsome and handsome official as your lord. From the accent, isn't your lord from Cizhou?"

"I'm from Jiangnan."

"No wonder."

Fortunately, he had nothing to do, so Tang Shen simply sat in the steamed stuffed bun shop, chatting casually with the vendor.

When Xie Cheng, the right servant of the Ministry of Industry, and Zhang Feng, the governor of the governor, came out of the yamen, they saw this scene from a distance.A young official in a crimson official robe sat in a dark booth, eating buns and chatting with ordinary people.Zhang Feng pointed and said, "Then...it seems to be Mr. Tang Shentang?"

Xie Cheng glanced: "I don't know what I'm doing."

Zhang Feng: "Ji Zhi and the others seem to no longer associate with him, because he has gotten closer to Su Wenyun."

Xie Cheng said "oh", and the two left together.

In the city of Cizhou, the surface is calm and the sea is calm, but the undercurrent is turbulent behind the scenes.

In the middle of the night that day, Ji Zhi, the inspector, suddenly ordered to arrest Yue Ziguang, the Minister of the Ministry of Officials.Yue Ziguang was shocked, and his face suddenly lost all color.Hearing this, Zhang Feng was also surprised and said, "Master Ji, what do you mean?"

Ji Zhi sneered, threw a small golden leaf on the ground, and asked sharply: "What do I mean? Then I have to ask Mr. Yue first, please tell me what it is! Mr. Yue, you Since I came to Cizhou four months ago, my job is to control the flow of people for the construction of the official road. When you came, you brought your family. It is normal to come here. The construction of the official road in Cizhou does not take a year or a half. Endless. This golden leaf was given to the flower lady by ordering the young master to drink flower wine in the city of Cizhou a month ago!"

Everyone was shocked, and Zhang Feng said in astonishment, "Lord Yue?"

Yue Ziguang was dumbfounded, and stammered, "This is my wife's dowry, so...is there something wrong?"

Ji Zhi: "Get it for me! Let's see where Madam Ling, an ordinary peasant girl, got her gold leaf dowry from."

Yue Ziguang sat down on the ground, and there was no more sound.

Zhang Feng immediately sent Yamen servants to take him down.

Before he could catch his breath, Ji Zhi said again: "It's better to speak clearly about Mr. Gao now."

Hearing the words "Master Gao", Xie Cheng, the right servant of the Ministry of Industry, twitched his eyes, looked at Ji Zhi, and said with a smile, "Mr. Gao, who is Mr. Gao?"

Ji Zhi: "Master Gao Weigao, a doctor in the Yu Department of the Ministry of Industry."

Xie Cheng: "What happened to Gao Wei?"

Ji Zhi winked at his subordinates, and took out a thick stack of IOU account books.Xie Cheng read the above record, his face was ugly, and he kept silent.Gao Wei was the doctor of the Ministry of Industry who went to Shengjing half a month ago to report to the emperor that the Jinghe Bridge had collapsed.He is still in Shengjing now, but the evidence is conclusive. Ji Zhi wrote a note that day, accusing Yue Ziguang and Gao Wei of their crimes, and sent him to Shengjing overnight.

The galloping horse stepped on the muddy official road, and when it was still daylight the next day, he sent the notebook to Zhao Fu's desk.

In the early court, Zhao Fu was furious again.The booklet was thrown all over the ground by him, and all the officials lowered their heads, not even daring to breathe.

After the morning court, Meng Lang, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, shook his hand as a fan and said to his subordinates with a sigh: "Wang Zifeng is good. He walked cleanly. After he went to Cizhou, he couldn't come back for five or six days. We But it’s too bad, the Holy Majesty is angry and vents his anger on us.”

The left servant of the Ministry of Rites laughed and said: "Master Hubu Shangshu went to assassinate the state, and he was demoted, and he redeemed his merits."

Meng Lang sneered: "Can he still be demoted? I'm afraid the sky is about to drop gold. Sigh, when will the sour plum soup come today? The weather is so hot that I can't live it."

In Fu Mansion in the east of Shengjing City, in the backyard garden, Fu Wei hung the birdcage on the branch and carefully fed it with bird food.Inside the cage was a rare canary, shy and spoiled. Fu Wei coaxed it for a while before the little canary was willing to eat something.After taking two bites, the sound of footsteps coming from outside the wall made Canary fly back in fright.

Fu Wei raised his eyebrows: "What are you doing? Which army is harassing the people outside!"

After half an hour, the Fuqin boy came back panting to report: "My lord, I found out that something happened to Mr. Gao, a doctor from the Ministry of Industry in the alley next door! His house was confiscated, and the Gao family was terrified, and it is said that Mrs. Gao just passed out."

"If you ransack your house, you can disturb the people, and if you raid your house, you won't be allowed to feed the birds? What kind of soldier ruffian are you?"

The fuqin boy said in his heart: Everyone's house has been ransacked, it's horrific, blood is flowing like a river, you still think about your bird, it's not human!

Fu Wei clapped his hands: "Let's go, go out and have a look."

Fuqin boy was taken aback: "Master?"

"Go and watch the fun."

"Okay!"

In one day, Gao Wei's house and Yue Ziguang's house were ransacked.

The envoy who sent the letter to Shengjing returned to Cizhou City that night and told Ji Zhi that the emperor had sent someone over again.Ji Zhi was shocked and said: "The Holy One sent someone to assassinate the state again?"

The official said: "Yes. I heard that it was led by Mr. Wang, Minister of the Household Department, and he set off yesterday morning. I met Mr. Wang's carriage on the road. According to their footsteps, they will arrive tomorrow."

When Tang Shen entered the house from the outside, he happened to meet an official who came out of the house.

Ji Zhi originally wanted to say something, but when he saw Tang Shen coming, he shut his mouth and said nothing.

Tang Shen smiled helplessly, and when the yamen was closed, he returned to the post house with an umbrella.There was a muffled thunder in the sky, Tang Shen pushed open the window, only to see that it wasn't raining outside, but the sky was overcast, covered with dark clouds, and gusts of wind blew up, blowing his hair back.

Tang Shen said softly: "The mountain rain is about to come and the wind fills the building."

With that, he closed the door and blew out the candle.

At night, everything was silent, and before the storm came, there was only a strong evening wind that smashed against the door with a force that wanted to tear the house apart.In the post house, several black figures suddenly climbed over the wall and came in before Tang Shen's room door with quick movements.One of them took out the blade, passed the blade lightly through the gap in the door, and then opened the door.

As soon as the four of them entered the room, one of them picked up a white cloth smeared with drugs, and walked quickly to the bed.He lifted the quilt and was about to cover Tang Shen's mouth and nose.Unexpectedly, after the quilt was lifted, the man was stunned for a moment, then turned around and said, "Not on the bed!"

The other three were also startled, and hurriedly searched the house for a long time, but they couldn't find Tang Shen.

The four encountered difficulties, and one of them said: "Look for it directly! Anyway, it's not him."

The four of them immediately rummaged through boxes and cabinets and searched for them in the room.They searched for less than half an hour and searched every crack in the room, but they still found nothing.Just as they were about to discuss countermeasures, there was another rustling outside the door.The four of them hid immediately, and after a while, five masked men entered the house.

The five people had just entered the door, and when they saw the room turned over, they immediately pulled out their knives: "Who is it!"

The four people knew they couldn't hide, so they drew their swords and rushed out.

A loud thunder rumbled down, and the next moment, heavy rain poured down, and the sound of swords fighting was blocked by the loud rain.But the blood could not be hidden, and the red blood flowed out of the door along the rain.The officials of the post house got up in the middle of the night to pay respects, and when they saw the blood all over the courtyard, they yelled in horror.

All the people living in the post house were officials, because all the officials from the monitoring mission lived here, and other officials who had originally stayed in Cizhou also moved here to live with them.

After being awakened by the screams, Zhang Feng, Governor of the Assassin's Governor, Xu Linghou, the Left Servant of the Household Department, Xie Cheng, the Right Servant of the Ministry of Industry, and Ji Zhi, the Supervisor... all ran out of the room one after another.Seeing the blood all over the ground, Zhang Feng immediately transferred an official from the Yamen.

There were still three men in black alive in the room. Seeing that things were not going well, they reached a tacit agreement and decided to stop the war and run away.

Zhang Feng hurriedly shouted: "Don't let them run away!"

Su Wenyun walked out of the room at this moment, sneered, and said, "Go and catch the one running east. The other two are all covered with scarves. You just need to look for them tomorrow. They are hard to fly."

Zhang Feng was stunned, looked at Su Wenyun, and said, "Master Su, Cizhou City is so big, how could you find those two people from the vast crowd?"

Su Wenyun pretended to be surprised: "Huge crowd? Mr. Zhang is joking, do you need to find it from the crowd? Just look for it from the guards of your Zhang family, isn't it enough!"

Zhang Feng's face turned red: "Su Wenyun, what do you mean!"

Su Wenyun sneered: "What do I mean? What do I mean, you Zhang Feng don't understand? Go, go after that assassin who didn't die!"

"Let's chase together." The gentle and graceful voice came from outside the post house, and all the officials in the house were shocked.

Hearing this sound, Xu Linghou, the left servant of the household department, showed a strange expression. He coughed and stood silently in the crowd.

"Crash-"

In the dark night, a bolt of lightning split the sky and illuminated the post house.

At the main entrance of the post house, Qin Si, the right servant of the household department, held a large oil-paper umbrella, followed behind Wang Qin, and walked in.He carried the umbrella for Wang Qin. Wang Qin was wearing a white brocade robe and gold jade. He was holding a white paper fan in his right hand. The fan was closed tightly and he tapped lightly on the palm of his left hand.

He tapped lightly, and behind him, a group of imperial guards in armor rushed in.With another knock, Shao Wenzhao, the left general of the Yulin Army, entered the posthouse holding his sword, and said to Wang Qin, "My lord, all three assassins have been arrested and brought to justice."

Everyone looked at Wang Qin with ugly expressions, and Su Wenyun's expression was the most exciting.He was shocked at first, then puzzled, and finally turned into a mocking sneer, looking at Wang Qin as if he was looking at a defeated subordinate.

Wang Qin turned his head to Qin Si and said, "Master Qin, I'll just hold the umbrella myself."

Qin Si said with a smile: "It's just a matter of convenience, what about Master Shangshu?"

Wang Qin took the umbrella from him, without even looking at the other officials in the courtyard, he walked into Tang Shen's room.He walked very casually, and his movements were not fast, as if he was not in a hurry.After he walked into the room, he walked to the bed first. Seeing that there was no one on the bed, he loosened the hand holding the umbrella handle tightly. No one knew that his fingers were already white.Then he took off the masks of every corpse on the ground, but when he couldn't find the person he was looking for, Wang Qin stood up again, with a relaxed expression, and went back to the yard.

Su Wenyun smiled and said: "Master Wang, I heard that you will not be able to arrive in Cizhou until tomorrow, why did you arrive tonight?"

Wang Qin glanced at him, and said in a gentle voice, "Naturally, we have to travel all night, otherwise we won't be able to catch up with such a good show." Then he ordered the Imperial Forest Army, "Take all these corpses to the government office."

"Yes."

The heavy rain was pouring down, and the officials and officials followed to the Fu Yin Yamen, and some were cleaning up the mess in the post house.

Wang Qin searched for a long time in the posthouse alone, and finally he found a deserted woodshed.This firewood room is usually used to raise and feed horses, and put some shovels for shoveling horse dung.Before entering the door, I smelled a pungent stench.Wang Qin was dressed in white, holding an umbrella in one hand, and pushed open the door of the woodshed.

At the moment when the door opened, the boy curled up in the corner of the woodshed clenched his dagger and looked at him with wide eyes.After seeing who it was, Tang Shen suddenly felt a burst of heat in his bloodshot eyes that had been open all night.He opened his mouth slightly, watched as Wang Qin closed the umbrella, put it by the door, and walked in.

"Master...Senior brother." Tang Shen discovered that his voice was so hoarse, and there was a trace of fear that could not be concealed in his voice.

Even in two lifetimes, he has never really come into contact with such a dark side of society, never put his life on the blade like this, and walked barefoot.

Wang Qin pulled Tang Shen up, hugged the thin boy into his arms, and said in an extremely gentle voice as if coaxing: "Jing Ze, don't be afraid, I'm here."

Tears came down suddenly, Tang Shen stretched out his arms and hugged Wang Qin, buried his face in his shoulder, without making a sound.

The two brothers stayed quietly in the woodshed for a long time, Tang Shen regained his composure, and his trembling body no longer trembled.He put the dagger in his arms, looked up at Wang Qin, his eyes were still wet, but his gaze was extremely firm.

Tang Shen said calmly: "The facts of the Assassination Province are too complicated. Even if the senior brother has a clever calculation, he may only know one thing but not the other, so he can't see it clearly. The specific junior brother can't tell for a while, but a few days ago, that Su Wenyun sent a This ledger was handed over to me, and he said it was the yin and yang ledger behind the Jinghe ink corruption case."

Wang Qin frowned: "Is it the real account book?"

"It's true." Tang Shen smiled sarcastically, "After Su Wenyun left my room that night, he left an account book in my room. On the surface, he wanted to hide this dangerous thing in the Mine, take me as a target. But he doesn’t know that I have a photographic memory. After reading it once, I wrote down every word and every sentence in that account book. So I know, he left The one in my room is actually a fake ledger!"

"As for where the real ledger is... Brother, I don't know where Su Wenyun hid his things, but now, we also have that ledger."

The two came to an empty room, Tang Shen was about to grind ink, a white and thin hand stepped ahead of him, and picked up the black ink ingot.

Tang Shen looked up at him.

Wang Qin smiled slightly: "Now, it's my turn to study ink for you, little brother."