Antong County is located in the upper reaches of the Wujiang River, and when the giant ship arrived, it was already early the next morning.

The White Lotus Sect put down the plank, and Qin Yuesheng strode down, he was here to investigate the reason for the inexplicable disappearance of the Seven Star Prison team, who would have thought that on the way, he would encounter the White Lotus Sect looking for the Great Buddha Cave.

Seeing the arrival of this group of people dressed in white, the people of Antong County couldn't help but be curious, and they poked their heads out of the doors and windows of their respective homes to take a look.

"Go on your own, don't follow me, you must return to the ship before noon, and if anyone dares to delay, I will take off his head. Qin Yuesheng said.

"Yes!" Everyone hurriedly disbanded on the spot, and soon Qin Yuesheng was left alone on the street.

After walking forward for dozens of feet, after seeing a pawn shop, Qin Yuesheng thought about it and strode in.

"What are you going to be?" asked a young man, standing behind the counter.

Qin Yuesheng looked at his appearance, this person looked sickly, his face was pale and scary, and his two eye circles were even darker and purple, as if he had been beaten.

"I'd like to ask you for some news. ”

"We're a pawnshop, where did the news come from. ”

Qin Yuesheng took out a silver ingot and slapped it on the counter, and immediately the entire silver ingot fell into the table, directly printing a pit on the table.

"I'm not asking about any confidential information, did you have a group of outsiders in this town not long ago?"

When the young man saw the silver ingots given by Qin Yuesheng, and saw Qin Yuesheng's move, his mouth suddenly became honest, and he hurriedly said: "Guest officer, we have a foreigner coming over from Antong County, and if you ask like this, I can't tell you clearly." ”

Qin Yuesheng thought to himself that the last time Zuo Zonghao and his party came to Qingyang City from Chang'an, they were all dressed in official mansions, so the group of Seven Star Supervisors who were sent to Antong County to investigate should not be an exception.

Qin Yuesheng said: "It's a group of foreign officials, all wearing official uniforms. ”

"Oh, as soon as you say that, I remember, a group of officials did come to our town not long ago. The young man nodded a little sneeringly.

"You know where they went. Qin Yuesheng asked.

"I don't know, I only know that an official came to ask me, saying that some of the people in our county who have encountered water ghosts in their family look like they are going to investigate. ”

Qin Yuesheng's eyes lit up, this was breakthrough news.

"Tell me, forget it, it's better to write it down. ”

At Qin Yuesheng's request, the young man had no choice but to bring pen and paper and write down the information he knew.

After he stopped writing, the paper was already full of words, what the Zhang family, the Li family, and the Wang family, densely packed.

"Do you have water ghosts all the time?"

"I can't tell, I don't know what's going on, Wujiang often crawls out of those things at night, and we have to close the doors and windows of every house at night, otherwise if we accidentally break into those things, the lives of the whole family will be lost." ”

Seeing that this young man didn't even dare to mention the word water ghost, and just replaced it with those things, Qin Yuesheng didn't say anything, and directly took the piece of paper and left the pawnshop.

Speaking of this Antong County, it is also strange, everyone I saw on the road was either wearing an umbrella or a hat, and their faces were listless and lifeless.

Qin Yuesheng couldn't help but feel worried about the situation of the water ghosts in this place, what a terrifying water ghost it had to be, to scare the people of a county so out of shape.

In the center of the county is a square paved with stone bricks, and a stout tree stands in the center of the square, and the dense branches and leaves grow unusually densely, like a canopy.

Several children with pigtails were squatting under the big tree and playing with crickets, Qin Yuesheng was thinking that he didn't know the situation in Antong County, even if he had the piece of paper in his hand, he couldn't accurately find the location of the person recorded on it.

So Qin Yuesheng walked towards the big tree, wanting to ask a child to be a guide to lead the way for him.

"Bite it, bite it. ”

The two crickets confronted each other in the bamboo bowl, jumping out from time to time to collide with each other, and the fight was quite fierce.

When Qin Yuesheng walked over, a child raised his head and looked at Qin Yuesheng with puzzled eyes.

"Kid, are you interested in making some money?" Qin Yuesheng took out a silver ingot: "With this money, wouldn't it be more interesting to play dog and fighting." ”

"Dog fighting?"

"Cockfighting?"

But they had never heard of this kind of play, and several children immediately expressed strong interest, and got up one after another and asked, "What is dog fighting?"

Qin Yuesheng said: "Each of you has a dog and a chicken, and when the time comes, when they grow up, they will be locked up and fight together, and they will all fight crickets, but it will be more intense." ”

The child nodded again and again: "Okay, good, I want to earn, I want to play dog fighting." ”

Qin Yuesheng handed him the silver ingot: "I just came to your Antong County, and I am not very familiar with the terrain, you take me to these places, and the money is yours." ”

As he spoke, Qin Yuesheng said the names of the residents recorded on the paper.

"Aunt Wang's house, I know, I'll take you there. ”

"I also know the homes of Grandpa Li and Widow Zhao, as well as the homes of Grandma Zhang and Uncle Zheng. ”

"I know ......"

"I know ......"

Seeing these children speaking enthusiastically, Qin Yuesheng touched the head of one of them and said, "Don't worry, let's come one by one, let's go to the first house first." ”

When Qin Yuesheng withdrew his hand, he saw a few extra strands of hair inexplicably between his fingers, and couldn't help but wonder: "Did today's children start to lose their hair so early, and I didn't make much effort." ”

The children picked up the windmill that was placed on the ground next to them, and immediately ran happily out of the shadows under the big tree towards an alley in the distance.

"It's innocent. Qin Yuesheng said secretly, and immediately followed.

As these children walked all the way through the streets and alleys, Qin Yuesheng came to the outside of a dilapidated house after a while, only to see that the roof of the house was messy, and the window frames were in tatters, like a house that had not been lived in for a long time.

"Aunt Wang, Aunt Wang, there's a brother coming to you. The child banged on the door and yelled.

However, there was no response, and no one came out to open the door.

Qin Yuesheng said: "You wait here first, I'll go in and take a look." ”

He jumped to his feet, and easily jumped onto the roof, through the broken hole in the roof.

There was a musty smell in the whole house, and the tables, chairs, dishes, chopsticks and pans were neatly arranged, but a lot of dust had accumulated on them, and it was obvious that no one had lived here for a long time.

Qin Yuesheng walked to the backyard and opened the door, the backyard was surrounded by a mud wall, the vegetables in a small vegetable field were yellow and black on the ground, and several dried fish and pork ribs strung with iron hooks were hanging on the bamboo hanging pole next to it, which had already stinked and rotten, and many flies were buzzing next to the fish.

"Hmm......" Qin Yuesheng groaned, and then turned out of the room again.

"Brother, isn't Aunt Wang here?" a child asked, looking up.

"Well, no, let's go to the next place. Qin Yuesheng nodded in response.

At this moment, he suddenly noticed the longevity lock on the child's neck, and saw that several cracks were clearly visible on the lock surface, and there were still some black solids left in the cracks.

Without waiting for Qin Yuesheng to look at it more, the group of children ran towards the next house, and their faces were still happy.

After checking several houses, it turned out to be exactly the same situation, the house was empty and full of dust.

According to what the pawnshop youth said, these places were all places that the seven-star prison officials would go to check before, and the seven-star prison officials disappeared first, and now they found that all the residents who had encountered water ghosts were missing.

Immediately, a layer of suspicion shrouded Qin Yuesheng's heart.

Could there be any relationship between the two?

When the last place on the paper was also found, Qin Yuesheng reluctantly stuffed the paper into his arms and said to these children: "It's hard work, let you run for so long." ”

"Brother, these uncles, aunts, and mothers-in-law are not at home, so you shouldn't want to go back with your money. The child asked reluctantly while holding the silver ingot.

"Don't worry, the silver is still yours, now do me one last favor and take me to the county yamen of your Antong County, where you can leave." Qin Yuesheng said.

Since the only clue in his hand was useless at the moment, Qin Yuesheng had no choice but to go and meet with the local county commander first, and maybe he could learn something about the Seven Star Prison officials from him.

Whenever the members of the Seven Star Prison go to a place to do business, they first go to the local yamen to settle down when they have time, and let the local officials cooperate with each other, which is an ironclad rule, and Bai Hao and Zuo Zonghao did this at the beginning.

The group of Seven Star Prison officials who came here to investigate had no reason not to visit the county magistrate.

Under the leadership of this group of children, Qin Yuesheng soon came to the county government of Antong County.

The dilapidated drums of grievances, the ground of fallen leaves, the two listless gatekeepers, and the entire Antong County government reveal a dilapidated atmosphere.

As soon as Qin Yuesheng walked over, a servant immediately stretched out a wooden stick in his hand to stop him: "What are you doing, you have to go and beat the drum in advance." ”

"I'm not here to avenge grievances, I'm here to see your county magistrate. ”

"The prefectural commander is the one you can see when you say it, what is your identity? ”

"Go and report to your lords, and say that an official from Qingyang City has arrived. Qin Yuesheng took out a tael of silver and handed it over.

For Qin Yuesheng, it is very good to be able to solve things with money, there is no need to be arrogant with such low-level people and make any disputes to waste time.

Sure enough, everyone was open-minded when they saw the money, and when they saw Qin Yuesheng handing over the silver taels, this person immediately stretched out his hand to take it, and even his tone became polite: "It's easy to say, little brother, you wait first, I'll go and tell the county magistrate now." ”

Seeing his surprise on his face, from cold disdain to humble and flattering expression, he couldn't wait to exchange himself for a good one by smiling and being more respectful, and to give him more silver taels, Qin Yuesheng couldn't help but smile and nodded, the happiness of rich people is often so unpretentious and boring.

Soon, this person ran out quickly, nodded and smiled: "My lord, please come inside." ”

After learning that Qin Yuesheng was an official from Qingyang City, he even changed his verbal title, Qin Yuesheng walked directly into the yamen, and under the leadership of this person, he went to the side hall, at this time there was an ordinary-looking man sitting behind the desk, as soon as he saw Qin Yuesheng coming in, he immediately got up and asked: "In Xia Antong County, Ling Ning Houbo, I don't know who the adult is?"

Qin Yuesheng took out his copper toad official order and held it up in front of him, originally Qin Yuesheng had two copper toad official orders, but in order to resist the pill, he staked the piece that Zuo Zonghao gave himself to Xu Chang before he had time to redeem it.

"What is this?" Ning Houbo was stunned for a moment, his face full of puzzlement.

"You don't know this official decree?"

"Forgive this official for his shallow knowledge, I don't know if this official decree can please explain it. ”

I thought that everyone who was an official in the Tang Dynasty knew the Seven Star Prison, but I didn't expect that the county order in front of me didn't know, so Qin Yuesheng couldn't hold the identity of the Seven Star Supervisor, so he had to say helplessly: "I am the adjutant of Lord Xun Sheng, Qin Yuesheng, the Taishou of Qingyang City." ”

"It turned out to be Lord Qin, and the lower officials have been looking up for a long time. Ning Houbo hurriedly said.

Qin Yuesheng was disdainful in his heart, there is no adjutant in Qingyang City at all, what do you look up to for a long time.

"I came here to find someone on the order of Lord Xun, Uncle Ninghou, have a group of officials dressed in official mansions come to your Antong County before?" Qin Yuesheng asked.

"There is indeed such a thing, but those people say that they are some kind of seven-star prison officials, but the lower officials have never heard of any seven-star supervisors in Datang, so they simply met with them. ”

The Seven Star Prison is special, and it is normal for a small county commander like Ning Houbo not to know, so Qin Yuesheng asked, "Where did those people go later, do you know?"

"Those people said they had come to investigate the harm caused by water ghosts, and after asking me some questions, they went to the Wujiang ferry. ”

Qin Yuesheng said: "Is this Wujiang ferry a place where water ghosts often haunt?"

"That's not it, the Wujiang ferry port is an abandoned port, and many people were killed by a fire that fell from the sky, and those people said that they were suspicious and worth looking into, so I went, and I haven't seen them in Antong County since. ”

Qin Yuesheng nodded, but this is extremely important news, I wonder if the disappearance of the Seven Star Prison is really related to this Wujiang ferry.

Saying that, Qin Yuesheng planned to say goodbye to Ning Houbo and go to Wujiang Ferry to see the situation.

But then he thought of something else, and asked, "What do you mean by a fire falling from the sky?"

Ning Houbo's face immediately showed a trace of fear: "That happened half a year ago, that night, in the dead of night, suddenly a fire lit up in the sky, almost illuminating the sky over the entire Antong County, I was woken up by the noise of the subordinates, so I got up and walked out of the house to check,

I saw that there was a fire in the sky that was falling rapidly, and finally smashed directly into the Wujiang ferry, and in an instant the entire Wujiang ferry was turned into a sea of burning fire, and the boatman who lived in the ferry didn't even have time to escape, and many people were burned to death that night.

The next day, I took people to the Wujiang Ferry to take a look, you can't imagine that scene, my lord, there are struggling and dead charred corpses everywhere, which is comparable to purgatory. ”

"This kind of thing happened in Antong County. Qin Yuesheng was quite surprised, "Didn't you report this matter to Qingyang City for registration?"

"Yes, on the same day, I wrote a letter to send the post officer to Qingyang City as soon as possible. Ning Houbo said.

"Oh. Qin Yuesheng thought that he had only been an official for a month or two, and what Ning Houbo said happened half a year ago, and it was normal for him not to know, after all, Xun Sheng would not use this kind of thing to publicize it to the people, which would only cause panic among the people.

Without the thinking of modern people, the people are still very superstitious, and the slightest difference between heaven and earth is easy to make them panic, for fear that some of the gods who live in the sky will be angry again.

Bidding farewell to Ning Houbo, Qin Yuesheng immediately left the county yamen and quickly rushed towards the Wujiang ferry.

Wujiang Ferry is different from ordinary households, this place is extremely easy to find, as long as you come to the riverside and walk all the way north for half a mile, you don't need to ask someone to lead the way.

Under the gallop of the Heavenly Law, the Wujiang Ferry, which had long been reduced to ruins, soon appeared in Qin Yuesheng's eyes.

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