The candles in the Buddhist hall were burning dimly, the old master Xu was kneeling on the futon, his back was hunched, and he was staring blankly at the half of the incense head in front of him.
Thin, about to be extinguished, light blue smoke emitted, curled up and spread out quickly, enveloping the solemn and solemn Buddha statue.
Everything here was originally the one he was most familiar with, but for some reason, as he sat and sat, a trace of fear suddenly appeared in his heart, like the ice that formed in the river at midnight, freezing even the flesh and blood. His chest seemed to be flooded by a flood, he was oppressed and out of breath, he opened his mouth but couldn't make any sound, his hands could only grab randomly, and knocked the melon and fruit snacks enshrined on the incense table to the ground, hot wax oil dripped onto his arms, The stinging pain made the whole person sober.
Old Mr. Xu panted heavily, staring blankly at the mess in front of him, unable to tell whether this was the end of a long nightmare or the beginning of another one. And just when he finally calmed down and wanted to support himself to stand up, another servant from outside rushed to report, "Old Master! His Royal Highness Xiao Wang led the troops, and together with Mr. Zhang, surrounded the courtyard of the fourth master." !"
…
The torch was shining brightly, picking out a dazzling light in the dark night.
Xu Qiuyi was kneeling in the front hall. He was lifted from the bed, and he just put on a long robe hastily. At this moment, he didn't know whether it was from the cold or from fear. Like a dead person: "My lord, Mr. Zhang, this... on the morning of the sixth day of June, I couldn't sleep, so I got up earlier, and I went to look for the elder brother because of the business."
A soft sedan was parked at the door, Mr. Xu rolled down from it, almost fell at the door, but was blocked by officers and soldiers when he wanted to go in, so he could only grab the master next to him, and asked anxiously: "What happened?" ?”
The master has always respected this old good man, seeing that he still has to worry about such bad things in his old age, he couldn't bear it, so he whispered: "The prince and your lord are in trial, I'm afraid it will be dawn, the old man should go back and rest first .”
"Why... this Qiuyi has pleaded guilty, why is there still a trial?" Mr. Xu asked with a bang, "Could it be that there is something else, yes, what is it?"
"It's hard to say, it's being investigated inside." The master said, "It's useless to stay here, the night is heavy and the old man's body is afraid that he won't be able to bear it."
Mrs. Xu waved his hands repeatedly, but refused to leave no matter how much he persuaded him, the master sighed secretly, so he had to move a chair for him, and sent someone to take care of it carefully.
Inside the house, Xu Qiuyi still bit her to death, saying that she was only nervous for a while, and dragged Zhang Ruirui back to the woodshed, causing her to lose her life, and she didn't know anything else. He had a clear calculation in his mind, as long as he gritted his teeth, even the Heavenly King and Lao Tzu would not be able to fabricate a crime out of thin air. The matter has come to this point, and the only way to survive is to cling to the secret and not let go. Ji Yanran did not torture to extract a confession, but just sat on the chair, and from time to time turned sideways to talk to Yun Yifeng, halfway through, he sent his subordinates to bring two braziers, and put them all under his feet.
"Are you still cold?"
"A little."
Ji Yanran waved his hand and continued adding charcoal.
It's so hot in the room...
Zhang Guhe is the closest to Yun Yifeng, he was already sweating profusely, he didn't even care about the official authority, he just wanted to pull up his collar to fan the wind, the rest of the servants also sneaked towards the wind, thinking that he was afraid that he would be in the first month Live heatstroke. Fortunately, there were people outside the house again, and the heavy curtains were raised and lowered to dissipate a lot of heat.
"My lord." Wu Suosi reported, "On the sixth day of June, the servants and maids who served at the banquet have already been brought, that's all."
Yun Yifeng glanced at Xu Qiuyi, and saw that there was no obvious change on his face, he was still kneeling with his head bowed, only the unconsciously clenched hands could reveal some inner ups and downs. Those servants and maids didn't know why they were brought here, they were trembling one by one, Zhang Guhe answered whatever he asked, one sentence after another, after a long time of piecing together, they finally figured out that on the day of the family banquet, Xu Qiuyi left very early At the banquet, the last round of dishes hadn't been served yet.
"Master Xu Si." Ji Yanran asked, "Why did you disappear before the food was finished?"
Xu Qiuyi was sweating profusely, but still insisted: "I didn't feel well that day, so I went back to sleep early in the morning. All the servants in my courtyard can testify."
Ji Yanran smiled: "I'm afraid the servants in your courtyard have followed you to do bad things. But it doesn't matter, now that they are being tried elsewhere, there must be a few weak bones among them, and I'm afraid they are about to be recruited."
Hearing this, Xu Qiuyi's whole body was paralyzed, as if she had been drenched in ice water, her face lost color in an instant, she opened her mouth in vain to speak, but she only stared at her eyes and remained silent.
In Nuo Da's room, only his heavy breathing was left.
After a while, another person hurried in and whispered something in Zhang Guhe's ear. Sitting beside him, Yun Yifeng saw Master Zhang's face turn from red to white, from white to blue, and then to purple black sullenly, and finally cursed: "Something that is not as good as a beast, come here!"
"Here!" The yamen servants all entered the door.
"According to the confessions of those servants, go and search this house carefully!" Zhang Guhe said, "Even if we dig three feet into the ground, we must find out the truth!"
Looking at Xu Qiuyi again, she couldn't even kneel down stably, and there was a foul smell under her body, she was so frightened that she couldn't control herself.
"It's over." He said foolishly: "Everything is over."
…
The officers and soldiers found a secret passage from Xu Qiuyi's study, leading directly to the deepest underground. Yun Yifeng wanted to follow in, but Ji Yanran grabbed his wrist: "Just wait here."
He knew what was going on, there was no shortage of such people in the palace, those old eunuchs relied on their power, and often forced the young maids to go back to be wives and concubines. , all kinds of obscene means, as dirty and twisted as their hearts, in the silent night, the shrill and sharp screams can be heard for several miles.
"It's a wild cat." The people there often coax children who wake up in the middle of the night like this.
Yun Yifeng stood under the eaves, although she was wrapped in a thick cloak, her hands were still cold. Ji Yanran originally wanted to get him a hand warmer, but then she thought that the things in this villa might have been used by someone, and it was too dirty, so she simply continued to hold those slender white jade hands, using the warmth of her palms to warm them up bit by bit. warm him.
Zhang Guhe held up the torch and walked down the steps to the deepest part of the dark room. At the end was a few small rooms—or simply a prison, with shackles, instruments of torture, neatly arranged and unsightly obscene objects, and blood on the walls. Mottled, some have turned dark black, and there are still scratches on it, just like the accusations of an innocent girl, silent and full of blood and tears.
A yamen servant at the front reported back, saying that there was still a long secret passage, and after going out along it, it turned out to be a deserted suburb outside the city.
According to the confession of Xu Qiuyi's servants, the yamen servants soon dug up a lot of bones nearby, they were all neatly stacked, layer by layer, roughly counting, there were over a hundred of them.
And these are only the victims who were killed in the dark room of Xu's family and then smuggled here. During the years when Xu Qiuyi traveled all over the world, he did not know how many innocent girls were killed. She was the only survivor who was very dangerous. If the people from Fengyumen had not arrived in time, it is likely that she would not have escaped bad luck that night.
Zhang Guhe didn't care about resting, so he was promoted again immediately. Xu Qiuyi knew that the matter had been exposed and there was no way to undo it, so she just wanted to die happily and confessed to all the crimes. In these years, he used the convenience of going out to do business, and often made up an identity indiscriminately, and sent his servants to pick out young and beautiful girls from brothels or matchmakers. , smuggled back to the dark room for fun, he was extremely cautious, each victim would be given dumb drugs, and there were only two accidents over the years.
Once, a girl who was bought from a brothel had many thoughts and secretly vomited without taking the medicine in her mouth. She ran out and shouted for help when no one was guarding her. Fortunately, she was found by the servants in time and dragged back. You Shi also heard the screaming that night. Although Xu Qiuyi had fooled the matter with a few words, she still couldn't let go of her mind. In the end, she even thought of killing people. She couldn't do it clearly, so she secretly bought back a lot of tonics. , multiplied and multiplied into Youshi's medicine, trying to make her weaker and weaker, unable to pass away from this world.
The other time was Zhang Ruirui, he drank two extra glasses at the banquet that night, seeing that everyone was congratulating his elder brother, but he suffered from this hidden disease of shame and humiliation, he felt unhappy for a while, so he went back to the room and chewed a few The pills made my whole body hot and hot, and my heart seemed to be on fire, but the dark room was empty, so I ran out in a daze, knocked out a maid on the dark path, gagged and dragged me back to the dark room .
At that time, he had already been dizzy from the pills, he only cared about his refreshment, he tossed about all night, and then he fell asleep after drinking. After waking up, she found that the darkroom was empty, and the maid had sneaked away. The secret she had kept for many years was about to be exposed. Xu Qiuyi was shocked, so she hurried out to look for it. Relying on a few drops of blood dripping down the road, she chased her all the way to Xu Qiuwang's backyard. I saw that the elder brother was in the firewood room for some reason, pressing down on the little maid and beating him violently.
It was almost dawn at that time, Xu Qiuyi was very anxious, hiding in the dark, not knowing what to do, when the sister-in-law happened to find her.
What happened later was just like Yuan's confession, the two of them beat the maid to death together. It's just that she didn't know that Xu Qiuyi was not in a hurry to help, but intentionally used her hand to beat Zhang Ruirui to death.
Zhang Guhe asked: "Since everyone is already dead, why do you need to buy corpse water?"
"I'm afraid, I'm afraid that the injury on her body will be seen by others. It's not the elder brother's fault." Xu Qiuyi's face was ashamed, "It's too obvious. Anyone with a discerning eye will know what's going on. I will send A Yuan to the city , Bought a bottle of corpse water, thinking to finish it off."
When he said this, his eyes were dull, and there were black and bruised bruises under his eye sockets, like some kind of ugly monster in a New Year painting.
…
There was noise in the street outside the window, Yun Yifeng opened his eyes on the bed, and lay down for a long time before regaining consciousness.
He pushed away the heavy quilt and sat up, rubbing the center of his eyebrows with one hand, feeling a little dizzy in his brain.
Ji Yanran promptly handed over a glass of water.
Yun Yifeng: "..."
"I just came in." Ji Yanran explained, "Later, I saw the Feiluan sword was on the table, so I looked at it for a while."
"Have you seen the result?" Yun Yifeng's voice was hoarse.
Ji Yanran commented truthfully: "It's quite sharp."
Yun Yifeng smiled, and didn't want to wear shoes, just leaned on the bedside and drank tea slowly, and asked after a while: "I'm afraid that eight out of ten people in Wangxing City are discussing Xu Qiuyi?"
"Yes." Ji Yanran said, "everyone is saying that the 'ewe' and 'blood flowing into a river' in the nursery rhyme refer to Xu Qiuyi mutilating innocent girls. There's a river of blood."
Yun Yifeng sighed: "The four nursery rhymes have all come true."
"Grandpa Xu couldn't stand the excitement, so he fell ill this morning. As a result, only Xu Qiuping, who was crying and looking for food, was left in the Xu family. He is the last person in charge of Shiba Villa." Ji Yanran said, " Even if the common people had guessed before, most of them still sympathized with the Xu family, but once Xu Qiuyi's incident happened, the wind changed completely, and rumors spread wildly in the city that this time it was a punishment from God, and Xu Qiuping was afraid that it would be unclean."
"What the people want to say is a matter for the people, but at least from the current point of view, Xu Qiuping is still innocent, and the government has to protect him." Yun Yifeng asked, "Are you going to meet the fifth treasurer?"
"It's getting dark now, and you've slept all day." Ji Yanran took the empty glass away from him, "Tomorrow, don't be in a hurry."
"Forget it." Yun Yifeng stretched, "Do you have a face?"
"You've been hungry all day, so you just eat a bowl of noodles?" Ji Yanran sat beside his bed, and seeing that ankle was thin, white and delicate, she naturally reached out and pinched it, "If you're so thin, let's go, I'll take you Go and have a good meal."
Yun Yifeng: "..."
Yun Yifeng said: "Let go first."
Ji Yanran was a little dissatisfied: "Why is it so cold just after waking up?"
Yun Yifeng originally wanted to give him a slap, but the other party suddenly came with such a sincere expression of concern. For a while, he didn't know whether to do it or not, so he could only watch him rummaging through the box and pulling out a pile of clothes: "All clothes Come on, don't catch a cold."
They are still the ones that Lin Ying bought before, light yellow and willow green, willow green and light yellow.
Yun Yifeng disliked it: "Ugly."
Ji Yanran glared at him: "Wear it!"
Yun Yifeng pulled the quilt to cover her head: "Your Majesty, I'm not hungry all of a sudden."
Ji Yanran: "..."
Yun Yifeng slept quite intently, not caring about worldly affairs.
Ji Yanran took a deep breath: "Old Wu!"
"Hey!" Wu Suosi quickly appeared at the door, "My lord."
"Go and tell all the tailors in this city." Sitting at the table, Ji Yanran pointed to the bulging quilt on the bed, "Tomorrow morning, everyone will bring me ten sets of clothes!"
…
This night, in every garment shop in Wangxing City, there were a group of people lighting the lamps and rushing to work.
In the middle of the night, Lao Zhang knocked on the door of the inn cautiously, and greeted Xiao Erduan to come in with a bowl of stewed pork noodles and some refreshing side dishes.
"Your Highness ordered you before you left." He said with a smile all over his face, "Master Yunmen, would you like to get up and eat?"
Yun Yifeng yawned: "I have no appetite."
Lao Zhang continued to smile: "My lord also said that if Master Yunmen refuses to eat it, I will come over every half an hour to ask. If the stewed pork noodles are not good, then replace them with beef noodles, and if the beef noodles are not good, then replace them with shredded chicken noodles. To eat noodles, you can cook vegetables, or cook porridge, or roast duck, or hot pot, in short, whatever the cook can come up with, they should be prepared and served in the room, and asked one by one, until the door owner has an appetite."
Yun Yifeng got dizzy and sat up from the bed.
"What about others?"