Dozens of people from the East Factory were running fast in the narrow streets and alleys, like a black arrow. The people and horses on the street retreated one after another, revealing the look of Zhang Huang. Xia Houlin was also in the middle, with a wild goose ling knife on his waist, a hand crossbow tied to his arm, and a fire gun on his left thigh. No one spoke, only the dull breathing and footsteps of the men, solemnly like an army.
Alleys and lanes criss-cross like a dense cobweb. However, the fans did not look sideways, did not hesitate at every turn, and seemed to know the layout of the capital well. They quickly arrived at their destination, a tooth shop on Deshengmen Street. Without the need for Situ's sincere orders, the fans spread out in an orderly manner in the alleys around Yaxing, like a black tide running silently in all directions, and finally disappeared into nothingness.
Xia Hourong followed behind Situ Jin, and the two of them squatted in an alley with their backs against the wall. The entrance to the alley was the door to Yaxing. Yaxing is a place for businessmen who travel from south to north to transfer goods, but this is a private business. The boss does not have official stickers issued by the government, and the goods in it are all private goods that have not paid tax. According to past experience, most of them are alcohol, tobacco and soil. The boss offered some money to the people of the government office, and the government turned a blind eye and let it go. Only today is different, the boss of the Xingqing Gang confessed that they had sold everything they had shipped to the owner of this tooth shop, and were ready to sell it in the capital.
That thing is so mysterious that even the boss of the Xingqing Gang has never used it. It is said that it looks like a small black pill, what is the name of the bliss fruit, this name is too elegant, the underworld people call it "black grain". The boss of Xingqing Gang said that after taking this black food, he wanted to die, like reaching bliss, but it was poisonous. He had seen a man swallow thirty grains in one go, and the Qiqiao bled to death in less than half a stick of incense. .
Xia Houlin poked out his eyes to look at the door of the tooth shop. There were two lanterns hanging on the eaves, and two people stood under the lanterns, both wrapped in old gray cloth jackets, rubbing their hands in the cold wind. As he walked, the guy hidden under the placket appeared to be a two-foot-long dagger.
"Be careful for a while, there are desperados here, and many of them are wanted criminals." Situ Jin whispered.
"Unfortunately, so do I." Xia Houlin said while checking his arrows and projectiles, "Brother Situ, I'll be the vanguard in a while, you go in slowly."
Situ Jin frowned at him.
"You have a family and a room. It's not good to go back and make your sister-in-law and Yujie sad. I'm a bachelor, it doesn't matter." Xia Houlin patted him on the shoulder, "I heard that the two of you quarreled again yesterday. It's alright."
"You will be sad even if you are injured, the overseer." Situ Jin sighed, showing a helpless look, "In the past few days, I have been investigating the fruit of bliss, and she has not returned home at night, and she suspects that I have someone outside. In fact, I did not quarrel with her. It's always her crying and coaxing me."
Xia Houlin had never coaxed a woman, only Shen Jue, and he couldn't give any good advice in such a situation, so he had to sigh with Situ Jin.
"East factory affairs are so complicated, I rarely have time to stay at home to accompany them. Mingyue has a sensitive temperament, and the pitiful spare time is used to quarrel." Under the dim moonlight, Situ Jin's sharp face showed a little bit Some are lonely, "She is always afraid of her old age, and feels that she is not as good as young girls from other families. Actually, no, there is only one bright moon in the world, and I only like the bright moon."
Situ Jin took out a small long mahogany box from his arms and opened it to Xia Houlin to see, there was a silk gilt hairpin inside. Situ Jin said: "When I married her, the dowry gift I gave her was this kind of hairpin. A few days ago, I saw an identical one in Liulichang, about a pair, and I also met her. You said I will give her as an apology, will she like it?"
"Uh..." Xia Houlin struggled for a while, then said, "You may ask the Governor in a while, he used to deal with women every day, and he must know better than us."
Situ Jin nodded and said yes, put the box back in his arms, stood up and looked at the time.
"It's almost there, break the door."
Xia Houlin walked out of the alley, sweeping the dust off his sleeves and striding towards the gate of Yaxing. The night shrouded his figure, and only the shadow of a tall man could be seen vaguely. The two janitors noticed him and quietly pushed the short knife from the waist out of the scabbard.
Xiahou walked towards them silently. The gatekeeper realized that something was wrong and asked, "Hey, what are you doing..."
Before he finished speaking, there were two sharp sounds from the sky, and two black iron arrows one foot long came towards them, and instantly pierced the foreheads of the two of them. Before they could even cry out, they had already fallen. Xia Houlin supported their bodies before they fell, leaning lightly on the door pier.
Fan servants approached quietly, some climbed the wall, some pushed open the door, and filed in silently. Xia Houlin and Situ Jin walked down the corridor one after the other, Fanzi following them. The corridor outside was empty. They pushed open the door with their scabbards and entered the store, which was also empty. No lights were lit, and the room was extremely dark. Fan servants stood back to back in the hall, alert to possible crises in all directions.
Xia Houlin stood for a while, and there was a faint laughter in the silent air, as if he was in the bedroom behind Yaxing.
He and Situ Jin looked at each other and walked slowly down the old stairs, the peeling wooden boards creaking under their feet. They passed through the hall in the middle and entered the second-story building behind the tooth shop. There was a loud noise in a room, and it seemed that many people were joking and laughing in it.
Xia Houlin and Situ Jin stood by the door alone, and Situ Jin counted down with his mouth: "One, two, three!"
The two slammed into the door, and at the same time took off the crossbow on their arms and prepared to sweep towards the middle of the house. However, the next moment they entered the door, they all gave up the move. Because of the scene in the house, it is simply stunned.
The veil was heavy, and in the shadow of wine and fragrance, dozens of men and women were lying on each other's pillows, entangled with each other. Dozens of bodies with white flowers are entangled together, like entangled snake knots. Everyone's faces were full of crazy and hideous smiles. At this moment, they seemed to be no longer human, but beasts driven by desire, roaring and biting each other.
They didn't notice the sudden spectators, and they were still indulging in madness. The fans looked at each other in dismay, the scene in front of them did not make their blood flow, but they felt terrified. Someone got up from the ground, smiled and muttered: "Fairy girl, don't go... don't go!"
He stretched out his hand and walked towards Xuan Chuang, Situ Jin shouted, "Stop him!"
A few fan servants rushed to catch him, but his strength was so frightening that he pushed them all away, then rushed out of the window and fell heavily outside. Xia Houlin rushed over to see that the man had knocked on the sharp stone below, and his forehead had already bloomed.
"This goddamn..." Xia Houlin looked at Situ Jin in surprise.
Situ Jin asked people to withdraw, guarding the door, and said, "Ignore these people for now, and wait until they wake up. The rest of the people will move all the goods that are suspected to be bliss fruit to the lobby and wait for the overseer to come."
"Elysium fruit is the antonym of strong and yin. It can make people go crazy?" Xia Houlin asked.
Situ Jin raised his eyebrows and said he didn't know. They waited for a stick of incense in the store, and when Shen Jue arrived, the group of people were still in a frenzy in the room, Shen Jue went over to take a look, and then came back with a pale face.
Xia Houlin reckoned that if the conditions did not allow it, Shen Jue would definitely want to wash his eyes.
Shen Jue took the pills out of the box, crushed them in the palm of his hand, and checked them under the lamp.
"How is it?" Xia Houlin asked.
"It looks like a bowl of medicine." Shen Jue said ponderingly, "The Fulong Kingdom paid tribute to a thing called Diyejia, and the people in the palace called it a bowl of medicine. It is numb and addictive after taking it for a long time. The Emperor Shenzong ignored the court for twenty-three years, and his ministers rarely saw him, because he took a bowl of medicine."
"It's a bowl of medicine, a black grain, and a fruit of bliss. What the hell is this? How did you make it?" Xia Houlin took a pill and scrutinized it carefully.
"Like Burmese white powder, it is made from poppy flowers. Their symptoms are very similar, addiction, hallucinations, indulgence, and physical weakness." Situ Jin said, "But white powder is only available in southern Yunnan, and it is expensive. , Ordinary people can't afford it at all, why did you come to the capital?"
Shen Jue pondered for a while, took a fingernail of bliss fruit powder, and licked it with her tongue.
"What are you doing!" Xia Houlin clapped his hand in surprise.
Shen Jue dodged and frowned, "It doesn't matter if the dose is not big, how would you know what it is if you don't taste it?"
"You!" Xia Houlin thought of something and asked, "When you developed the antidote for July and a half, did you taste it like this?"
Shen Jue nodded lightly, "In the beginning, I didn't have enough power, so I couldn't hire a famous doctor, so I could only try to get it." He turned it all over again, otherwise how would he know that the raw material for July and a half is succulent flowers
Xia Houlin lowered his eyelashes and grabbed Shen Jue's sleeve with his fingers. The woven gold embroidery thread on the sleeve made his fingertips hurt slightly, and he felt astringent in his heart. What a good man, why didn't he find out before
Shen Jue dipped a little more, smack the taste carefully, frowning deeper and deeper.
"How?" Situ asked.
Shen Jue didn't answer, and stood up from the table. Shen Wenxing came over with the cloak in his hand, Shen Jue fluttered with a wink, he understood immediately, and handed the cloak to Xia Houlin. Xia Houlin put on a cloak for Shen Jue, buttoned the gold button, and the splendid dark flowers on Liu Yun's cloak were shining brightly in the shadow of the lamp.
Shen Jue looked at Xia Houlin who was close at hand, and asked, "If you run into your old friends, would you be willing to kill them?"
"Why don't you want to? I'll kill all of them. Come one and kill one, come two and I'll kill one pair." Xia Houlin helped him smooth the folds on his shoulders, "I'm not a Jialan assassin now, you didn't listen to the outside world. What do people say? There is a mad dog under the seat of the director of the East Factory, Shen Jue, who is loyal and protective of the master.
"Yeah, I thought they were talking about Situ Jin."
Situ Jin said lightly from behind: "It's not me."
"It's me." Xiahou Rong blinked at Shen Jue, "Wang Wang Wang."
"Are you stupid, you are so proud of being someone else's dog." Shen Jue complained to him.
"When someone else's dog isn't happy, when your dog is happy."
Shen Jue couldn't help laughing, there was a harrier in his heart, soaring into the sky. Happy is over, the business still has to do. He slowly suppressed his smile, and there was an icy coldness on his face.
"There are not only poppies in the fruit of bliss, but also shamrocks. Poppies and saffrons are addictive and hallucinogenic if you take them. If you stop using them, the seven orifices will bleed. Aesculus galan is really powerful. Drug trafficking is for profit, and it hurts the world. Situ, tomorrow Start a city-wide curfew. Instruct all local servants to clean teahouses, brothels, restaurants, and inns one by one. Those without official posts will be closed. If the fruit of bliss is found, it will be burned on the spot. They're looking to see if they can come up with a cure."
Situ Jin bowed his head and bowed, "I understand the humble position."
"Chegye Galan," Shen Jue said in a low voice, looking at the moon hanging high in the sky, "Since you have come to my territory, I will ask you to wait and see!"
——
The night was too dark to dissolve, and Situ Jin finally finished dealing with the affairs of the East Factory. From the depths of the alley, there was a sound of beating, and it was ugly time.
Fortunately, I can go home and sleep for half the night. Situ Jin rode his horse to run to the house. His house was still in the old place and had never moved. Walk forward three neighborhoods, cross the Longxing Bridge, and the fourth hutong on the left is his home. The hairpin was still well placed in his arms, and he specially placed it on his chest, as if that place was more noble.
There was no one on the street, the moon was obscured by thick clouds, and it slowly darkened in all directions, as if shrouded in a thin layer of mist. Occasionally, there are a few small lanterns hanging in front of the door of some people, the light as big as a fist, brightly disappears in the wind and snow. His horse ran fast and quickly crossed the bridge and was about to turn. When he reached the third hutong entrance, the horse suddenly refused to leave, and he refused to move no matter how much he slapped the whip. Situ Jin frowned, suddenly feeling uneasy.
That's all, there are only a few steps left anyway, so it's fine to walk home. He dismounted, intending to lead the horse away. The horse snorted and refused to move. He was helpless, standing in the snow trying to figure out a way. There was a small leaf in the center of the street, which was blown by the wind and brought to his eyes. He couldn't help staring at the fallen leaf, watching it curl and wither in the wind, like a dying butterfly.
"His-"
Suddenly, without warning, the fallen leaf seemed to be cut by something in the air, split into two halves in the blink of an eye, and continued to dance in the wind.
Situ Jin's pupils shrank slightly, and his body suddenly froze.
The moon came out, and he saw a dog lying on the ground with its head separated, half buried in the snow, and the neck was cut neatly. No wonder the horse refused to go. It was so cold that his sense of smell diminished. He didn't smell the dog's blood, but the horse did. His horse was a warhorse, and he had fought in the north with him, and felt as much danger as he did.
Situ Jin pulled out his knife and slashed in the air in front of him. The invisible silk thread blocked his blade, he slowly pressed down, a line of moonlight flashed across the air, and he recognized it. This was the rumored thread, the masterpiece of the unknown ghost Xia Houlin.
That fool was probably still wagging his tail at Shen Jue. He thought of those two people, who obviously liked each other, but they were still dawdling. Hurry up, Situ Jin thought, or else he will be like him, and there may be some words that may never be said again.
Footsteps sounded behind him, he turned around, and a thick black shadow came into view. It was a tall and thin man, standing in the snow with a knife, wearing a white porcelain mask on his face, and two dark eyes looked at him quietly.
This is the real assassin. Situ Jin thought silently, like a ghost descending on a wind and snow.
The man spoke, his voice was very young, word for word, indifferent.
"Seven-leaf Garan Garuda, send Lord Situ to a blissful life."