Zhu Nao

"Ziqi, wait for me."

Pei Ziqi turned his head and saw that it was Cheng Jingzhe, so he stopped and waited for a while.Jing Zhe quickly caught up and walked towards the farm together with him.It was getting late, and if they didn't speed up their pace, it would be difficult for them to find the way back when it got dark.As a result, the two teenagers walked hurriedly, and they had walked hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye.

Jing Zhe only wanted to check the last farm quickly, but she had no intention of chatting, so she just walked forward dully.After walking for a while, he suddenly heard Pei Ziqi next to him calling him: "Jing Zhe..."

"Ok?"

Pei Ziqi asked, "How did you know Zhu Zhoumu?"

Jing Zhe turned around.Against the twilight light, he couldn't see the expression on Pei Ziqi's face clearly, and wondered, "Why do you ask this all of a sudden?"

Pei Ziqi said concisely: "Curiosity."

This reason is also very reasonable.There is nothing that cannot be said about these things, so Jing Zhe told Pei Ziqi how he met Zhu Nao in the downtown area, and how Zhu Nao paid for him to steal the buns.

After hearing this, Pei Ziqi was silent for a while, and said in a low voice, "Your fate is indeed very good." This was said very lightly, not as if it was for Cheng Jingzhe, but as if he was talking to himself.However, Cheng Jingzhe still heard it.

"My life is good?" Jing Zhe was taken aback for a moment.

This sounded very strange, at least before that, no one had ever said that to him.He lost his relatives at a young age, so he can't be called "good fate".However, he did not refute.Because it was Pei Ziqi who said it.

Pei Ziqi lost his father at a young age like him, the difference is that he met Zhu Nao two years earlier than Pei Ziqi, which means two years of homelessness.He doesn't know if his life is good or not, but his luck is indeed better than Pei Ziqi's.

After a while, he asked calmly, "Pei Ziqi, isn't your life bad?"

Pei Ziqi asked in surprise, "Me?"

He immediately wanted to refute, but before he could speak, he was stunned again.

He originally wanted to talk about the misfortunes he had encountered, but most of what he encountered, Jing Zhe had also experienced.He said that Cheng Jingzhe's fate is good because he is compared with himself, the two are about the same age next year, Jingzhe is already Zhu Nao's right-hand man, but he can only study with other teenagers in Beifu.Even the martial arts he practiced since he was a child is not as good as the Jingzhe he has only practiced for two years.The same person does not have the same fate, which is probably the case.

However, if you want to say that his life is not good... he has seen more lonely and helpless people, and compared with them, his life is not bad.After all, even though he was two years late, he still met Junao and got the chance to learn.

Pei Ziqi didn't know what to say, and the atmosphere between the two fell silent again.

Jing Zhe glanced at him, then raised his head to look at the sky, the sunset in winter is very fast, and now the setting sun is almost sinking into the horizon.He said, "Let's go faster."

Pei Ziqi nodded: "Okay."

The two teenagers accelerated their pace more and more, and ran towards the farm ahead.

……

Not long after, the two teenagers finally came to the entrance of the farm.

It was almost dark, and the people working outside had already gone home to rest, only a few figures were still walking outside.Jing Zhe's sharp eyes immediately saw Wang Zhongqi who was walking back with a basket of freshly washed clothes.

"Wang Zhongqi!" He immediately chased after him.

Wang Zhongqi turned his head when he heard the sound, and seeing that it was Jing Zhe, he couldn't help showing a pleasant expression: "Jing Zhe, I haven't seen you for a long time. Why are you here at this time?"

Cheng Jingzhe ran up to Wang Zhongqi, and Pei Ziqi immediately followed.

Jing Zhe said: "Zhongqi, I'm here to investigate. Have you seen any suspicious strangers in your village recently?"

"Investigation?" Wang Zhongqi asked, "Is it because of the Liujiazhuang being robbed by refugees?"

Jing Zhe wondered: "You know? The news has already reached you?"

Wang Zhongqi shook his head: "No. An official came here just this afternoon. He talked about it and asked a lot of people in our village. They said that it was not peaceful recently, and a group of refugees from Jianzhou were wandering around, reminding us to be careful. .”

Jing Zhe was taken aback for a moment: "Is there an official here this afternoon?"

He thought about it, maybe the officials from the state capital were still investigating.Even though Zhu Nao sent him to arrest Wei Yue, the progress of the investigation in the state capital didn't stop, so the two parties ran away.Dou Ziyi is in charge of the affairs of the government, and he doesn't know it very well.

Jing Zhe said: "Then have you ever seen a stranger?"

Wang Zhongqi shook his head: "No. We usually don't have many people here, and we haven't seen a foreigner for several months."

The location of this farm is relatively remote, a few miles away from the neighboring villages. Most of the people in the farm are self-sufficient, and occasionally go to the city, and few people from outside come over.

Pei Ziqi asked unwillingly: "I really haven't seen it? You haven't seen it. What about the rest of the village? Haven't you seen any strangers around?"

As long as Wang Zhongqi didn't understand something, even if it was getting late, he still planned to go door-to-door to ask.However, Wang Zhongqi continued to shake his head: "The official came in the afternoon and asked almost every household. Everyone said that they had never seen it. The official also reminded us to be careful, and if we saw any suspicious strangers, we should report to the government immediately."

Hearing what he said, Cheng Jingzhe and Pei Ziqi showed disappointed expressions at the same time.They've been out for days, and they still don't have a clue.If it goes on like this, when that group of people strikes again, no one knows which Zhuangzi's people will suffer again.

"Okay..." Jing Zhe told Wang Zhongqi, "The world is not peaceful these days, you should be careful. If you encounter suspicious people, you must report to the state government this morning."

Wang Zhongqi nodded quickly and said: "Understood. I will tell the people in the village again tomorrow. If we find out, we will report it to the authorities immediately!"

It was almost dark, Jing Zhe and Pei Ziqi couldn't stay any longer, so they gave a few words of advice and hurried away.

After leaving the farm, Pei Ziqi said: "It seems that those people are no longer around here."

They have been investigating this area recently. The reason is because Cheng Jingzhe considered the terrain and other reasons after reading all the files, and believed that the most likely place for the gang of thieves to haunt was this area.After all, there were 30 to [-] people in that group, and they carried a lot of stolen food and supplies. It was difficult for such a group of people to pass through roads and towns without being discovered, so the only way they could go was some people who were not guarded and the terrain Hidden alley.As a result, their range of activities is greatly restricted.

Furthermore, based on the frequency, number of people they committed and the amount of food they robbed, we can roughly calculate the time when they will commit crimes next time.With the behavior of this group of people, it is bound to need to come out a month or two in advance to investigate and prepare.Therefore, Jing Zhe deduced that the group of people would most likely choose the location of the next crime to be near here, and they might be sent out to inquire about the news in the near future.

However, after several days of investigation, there was still no clue.Perhaps that group of people hid so well that no one in the vicinity has seen them.Or maybe Cheng Jingzhe's deduction was wrong, and the group's direction was not here.

They have limited manpower, and it is impossible to dig three feet to find someone.If you can't find any news here, you can only investigate in a new direction in the future.

Jing Zhe rubbed his forehead, showing a bit of fatigue: "Forget it... let's talk about it when we go back first. Think about where to go to investigate tomorrow."

Pei Ziqi shook his head and quickly left with him.

=====

Before dark, Wei Yue took Tao Bai and others back to the mountain.

There are many mountains in Langzhou, so there are many bandits. Thanks to Zhu Nao's governance, the disaster of bandits in Langzhou has been quelled.However, the bandits can be eliminated, but the mountain is still there.Once the refugees and bandits hid in the mountains, the officers and soldiers often had no way to search them. This has been a headache for the government until now, and it has never been resolved.

Because of this, Wei Yue took everyone to find a hidden mountain forest to hide for the time being. There are still some simple buildings and utensils left by the bandits in the mountain, which also gave them a lot of convenience in life.

As soon as he returned to the mountain, Wei Yue took off his clothes and folded them carefully so as not to rub against the wet mud in the mountain.After a while, Tao Bai and others came over after changing their clothes, and handed over the changed clothes to Wei Yue, who put them away together.

Tao Bai worried: "Brother Wei, did we not get caught today? I pretended to be an official for the first time, and I was really nervous. I said a few words wrong. I'm afraid they might get suspicious."

Wei Yue waved her hand indifferently: "Don't be afraid. If they really see through it, there is no reason for them not to ask questions on the spot. How can those villagers have such deep scheming? If they don't say anything, they will be bluffed by us. Just relax. .”

Tao Bai glanced at the several sets of official uniforms that were put aside, and he still has lingering fears.

Every time Wei Yue took them to the farm to explore the terrain, she would pretend to be an excuse to avoid arousing the suspicion of the people.However, the fake identities and the methods they use often change. Sometimes they pretend to be merchants buying goods, and sometimes they pretend to be tenants who rent land. Wei Yue will never use the same tricks at most two or three times, so as not to get news. As word spread, his tricks were seen through.But this time, he took Tao Bai and others to pretend to be officials.

——It was none other than Wei Yue and the others who went to the farm to interrogate Wang Zhongqi and other Zhuangmin in the afternoon.

The official uniforms were stolen when they were in Jianzhou. The official uniforms in Jianzhou and Langzhou are the same, but there is no difference.In addition, there are people in their team who can do woodwork, so they carve a few official cards and keep them in their pockets. They don't take them out on weekdays, but they are just in case.

With these, their actions will be very smooth.In the afternoon, they arrived at the farm, falsely claiming that they were officials who came to investigate, saying that a case had recently occurred nearby, and asked to ask door to door.Although they are new faces, they can justify themselves by claiming to be newly appointed officials.Moreover, the farm is far away from the town, and it is in a quiet corner. The officials in the government only come to the farm every summer and autumn when they collect taxes.

Wei Yue and the others walked through the entire farm in the name of asking, to get a clear picture of the terrain of the farm.Because they were just investigating, they didn't do anything out of the ordinary, and they repeatedly reminded the villagers to be careful of visitors from other lands and take good care of their belongings, so instead of being suspicious of them, the villagers still had a good impression of them.

As for Tao Bai's inappropriate behavior due to nervousness, it did not arouse Zhuang Min's suspicion.Firstly, it was because Wei Yue, who took the lead, performed very well, not to mention his generous attitude. He also had sword eyebrows and stars, and he didn't look like a thief at all.Most of Zhuangmin's attention was on him, so he didn't pay much attention to Tao Bai and others; moreover, the simple Zhuangmin never thought that someone would be bold enough to pretend to be an official, so they had no doubts from the beginning.Since there was no doubt, naturally he didn't pay attention to those things that were wrong.

Tao Bai was still a little uneasy, it was getting late, he didn't go to rest, and he followed behind Wei Yue.

Wei Yue sat by the fire to keep warm, looked at Tao Bai who was hesitant to speak, and said with a smile: "What are you doing with a sad face?"

Tao Bai scratched his head and said, "Brother Wei, after much deliberation, I still don't feel at ease. After all, the farm is the property of Langzhou Mu Zhunao, so why don't we change our target..."

Wei Yue hated iron and steel, raised a branch and knocked him on the head: "Why are you so timid? Let me ask you, is it Zhu Nao who is stronger, or your brother Wei?"

Tao Bai immediately said: "Of course Brother Wei is amazing!"

"That's it?" Wei Yue took back the branch and threw it into the fire.

Tao Bai still looked bitter and bitter, and Wei Yue couldn't bear it anymore, so he kicked him lightly: "Go, go, go to sleep! We have to go out to investigate the terrain tomorrow morning."

Tao Bai pursed his mouth and walked away pitifully.

After he left, Wei Yue grabbed some firewood and added it to the fire.Most of the people around had already rested, and in the silent night, there was no other movement except for the sound of "pippy" when the firewood was burning.And the sound of "Pipy" makes the night in the mountains more quiet and lonely.

Wei Yue looked around while roasting the fire.The refugees he led fell asleep not far away, their heads touching their feet, their feet touching their heads, and they were very close together.Although they returned with food in exchange for a few quilts to keep out the cold, after all, there were too many people and not enough quilts to cover everyone.On cold nights, people can only keep each other warm.

His eyes swept over the sleeping faces of the children, and the wrinkles between the old man's brows.After a while, it was retracted and continued to fall on the fire.

He looked dazed, his eyes were blank, and he didn't know what he was thinking.After a long time, he took a deep breath, rubbed his face vigorously, and lay down with his clothes on.