*

In the crescent moon sky, the deep forest was punctuated by the calls of wild beasts, and two men with torches struggled to the top of the hill as they shuttled between the charcoal-burned trunks.

A panting voice spoke.

"You say that the people of the Yan family, why are their heads so strange, raising pheasants on the slopes? Aren't they afraid of the pheasants they raise, but they are all cross-eyed, long and short-legged? ”

"Cross-eyed? At best, it's squint. ”

Tatsumi leaned against the ground with the handle of his knife and struggled to build his mouth.

"You see, the eyes of these birds are all on their own sides, and when they stand like this, their left eye will fall down, and when they turn around, their right eye will also fall down, won't it become a cross-eye?"

Ning Xiaoxiao touched the trunk of the tree that had been burned into charcoal, and turned around flexibly, like a fat pheasant, enchanting, making Chen You laugh.

"Hahahaha..."

Suddenly, there was a crisp click in his ears, and Chen You watched in a daze as Ning Xiaoxiao held the broken charcoal, held the torch, and rolled down the hillside like a hot wheel.

"Oops, oops, oops..."

"Ning Xiaoxiao—"

I don't know how long it took, there was silence under the dark mountain, there was no movement, and the anxious Chen You just wanted to slide down the hillside, and the ground shook.

Ning Xiaoxiao, who was covered in weeds and leaves on her head, jumped from the bottom and landed in front of Chen You like a 'wild man in the deep mountains'.

"Lord Ben is fine, Lord Tatsuyo doesn't need to worry." Ning Xiaoxiao said in a calm voice and with a particularly manly voice.

It's really the best fast catcher in history, and the bounce is amazing.

Tatsumi twitched the corners of his mouth, relieved from his surprise.

"It's okay, I knew it and climbed up with light work."

"Can you use light work? Master Ben thought that Lord Tatsuyou wanted to search for clues along the way, so he accompanied you like an old man and walked slowly. ”

Ning Xiaoxiao looked at Lord Chenyou in disbelief like a husky being bluffed.

"Who is the old man, today I read the records of entering and leaving the city in the Criminal Department for a day, and you are not allowed to come out to move your muscles and bones, and take a walk?" Tatsumi said solemnly.

"Walking?"

Ning Xiaoxiao turned around and looked around, the smell of roasted chicken wings overnight wafted everywhere on the dead pheasant farm, and along the way, there were either pheasant corpses or animal corpses that escaped from Jiaoshan.

"Lord Chenyou is really caring, the third watch took me to this kind of place in the middle of the night to climb the mountain for a walk."

"It's good to know that this official is sympathetic to you, let's go, haven't you been here a few times before? Take me to see if the pillar with the swastika is still there? ”

"Okay, come with Ben-sama."

Ning Xiaoxiao led the way in front with a big knife and axe, ignoring the wound she had just scratched, carefully identifying the surrounding scenery.

The light of the torch can only reach a limited place, and Chen You behind him can only lower the torch to illuminate the ground and find clues that he can't notice during the day.

"Strange, really strange, that pillar should be near here, how could it be missing?" Ning Xiaoxiao lingered in place for a long time, but she couldn't find the pillar in her memory.

As if it never existed.

"Are you sure you saw it here before?" Tatsuyo confirmed again.

"Yes, it's a pillar, if it burns out, the roof here will collapse, but although a few pillars are burned to black coal, they are still end-to-end."

Ning Xiaoxiao looked at the pillar suspiciously, patted it, and suddenly found that the texture of the pillar had changed, making a snapping sound.

"Lord Chenyou, come and have a look."

"Okay."

Hearing this, Chen You hurriedly walked forward, and suddenly his feet were empty, and the whole person lost his balance, crashed into the pillar, and fell backwards.

"Lord Chenyou, you don't have to be in a hurry, this pillar won't go, it will wait for you."

Ning Xiaoxiao's voice suddenly became ethereal, like the sound of the wind whistling by, her confused vision was replaced by the scorching light of the fire, and her thoughts gradually moved away, replaced by some fragments.

"Ahh

Chen You slapped his forehead vigorously, trying to break free from the painful memory and wake up, Ning Xiaoxiao squatted beside him in a panic, calling his name worriedly.

"Chenyou, what's wrong with you?"

Two familiar faces appeared in the blurred vision, and the blurred picture was like a tight spell, tossing him to the ground.

Chenyou, who was sweating profusely, stretched out his hand in pain and shouted, "Dad, mother..."

Immediately, his gaze was replaced by pitch blackness, and he closed his eyelids heavily, leaving only Ning Xiaoxiao's faint and ethereal voice in his ears.

"It's over, it's over, you must be stupid, you actually call Lord Ben Dad, good son, Dad will take you to see the doctor."

Someone who didn't forget to take advantage of the crisis, frowned tightly, and reached out to point his acupoint, so that he could take him back to see the doctor, and was about to start, when his wrist was suddenly caught vigorously by Chenyou, who fell to the ground.

Ning Xiaoxiao was taken aback, looked at Chen You who opened his eyes in surprise, and put his shoulder full of 'emotion'.

"You're awake, good son."

The bright eyes stared at him tightly, and the corners of his mouth twitched with a bruise.

"Who's your good son? Don't take advantage of everything! ”

"Lord Chenyou, you have changed, obviously you called Lord Ben Dad, and after calling someone, you still don't admit it, Dad, I don't have your son."

Ning Xiaoxiao pretended to wipe her tears, as if she was an 'old father'.

"Enough, do you still want this official to marry your sister, how can you marry a junior?" Tatsuyo was angry.

"Think, my brother-in-law is still waiting to drink the tea poured by my brother-in-law himself, are you okay, just like hitting an evil spirit, you are not usually so delicate, should you not be possessed by a burned pheasant, right?"

Tatsumi endured the headache, pestled the hilt of the knife, and stood up from the ground.

"Have you ever seen a pheasant talking to people, and will call Daddy?"

"How do you know they can't, you haven't heard them speak human."

Ning Xiaoxiao, who was joking on her lips, looked at him with worried eyes, and always felt that his state was not quite right.

"You can't do it, or Lord Ben will send you back to see the doctor, so that you won't have to wait for a 'ghost', and if you fall down again, Lord Ben won't care about you."

"Is this official so weak? The officer just remembered something. ”

Chenyou, who was pale, picked up the torch on the ground and walked towards the pillar that Ning Xiaoxiao had just said.

"It's made of stone?"

"You also think it's strange, how can the stone pillar be branded with a fire mark?"

Ning Xiaoxiao held the torch and squatted down, and found that the dirt pit that had just made Chen You fall, this round deep pit, seemed to tell them an unbelievable truth.

"My dear mother, someone pulled this wooden pillar away."

"What?" Chen You looked at Ning Xiaoxiao in disbelief, "Dozens of catties of wooden pillars have been stolen." ”

"Correct, it's a waste wood pillar that has been burned into charcoal, what are you doing stealing this?"

Ning Xiaoxiao always felt that this was not an ordinary dirt pit, but a bottomless deep pool that lured them into.

"Isn't it that a woodcutter from the neighborhood has come to pick up charcoal and wood, if that's the case, it's not surprising, it's been unusually cold lately, and it should be snowing soon, so it should be good to pick up some charcoal at this time."

"Really? Wouldn't it be too greedy to carry the whole pillar back? Ning Xiaoxiao didn't believe it.

Chen You took the torch and walked a little closer, and found half of the burned account book under the broken table, he opened it, his eyes trembled suddenly, and he was speechless.

"Lord Tatsuyou? How do you look like you've seen a ghost. ”

The curious Ning Xiaoxiao jumped forward, came over, followed Chen's right line of sight, looked down, her face was full of surprise, and her heart suddenly chilled.

Instead of numbers, there are some kind of special and easy-to-understand symbols written on this book, on which pigs, pheasants, vegetables, and wheat are drawn, each of which is very unique, and the number is marked with a vertical tick like 'chopsticks'.

"Lord Chenyou, what you think is the same as Lord Ben."

"It should be."

Ning Xiaoxiao looked at him, took a deep breath, and said a strange fact.

"This Yan family couple is illiterate."

"If you can't read, how can you write an 'unfinished' word when you're dying? What would those three points be, if not to the side? ”

Following Chen You's train of thought, Ning Xiaoxiao boldly guessed:

"Either this is the symbol left by the deceased before he died, a symbol that refers to the murderer, a clue that they think will help the government find the real murderer, or this is the mark that the murderer deliberately left on the ground by grabbing their fingers, what does he want to do? Provoking the government, so as to make a fool of it? ”

"No matter which one it is, this unsolvable mystery is like a black cloth hidden in the truth, if you don't tear it open and look at it, I'm afraid there is no way." Tatsumi hugged his forehead and shook his head.

"Don't worry, Lord Ben has already flown a pigeon to pass the book to the yamen of Liqian City and Luoshui City, and asked the yamen to help ask the victim, about the mysterious girl in Tsing Yi, I believe that within two days, there will be news back, and the truth will soon be revealed."

Ning Xiaoxiao pursed her eyes and stared at Chen You, who had a headache.

"It's better to go back first, in the barren mountains and mountains, I don't know if there are any wild beasts, in case, if you fall, Lord Ben can't run fast with you on his back."

"What are you kidding, how can there be beasts here in the main city..."

Before he could finish speaking, a wolf howl was heard in the distance, followed by the screams of horses.

"Oh no, there's a wolf!"

The two men slid down the hill with torches and sabers, and the two horses tied to the trees were panicking and trying to break free from the ropes and escape.

The eyes of the wolves are like fireflies, emitting an eerie glow that fills the entire hillside.

"Lord Chenyou, don't come here for a walk next time, there are so many 'bandits'." Ning Xiaoxiao slowly pulled out her sharp long knife.

"Lord Ning still has the heart to joke, which means that these dozens of wolves are easy for you?" Chen raised the corners of his mouth, listening to the wolf howl in his ears, and his blood was boiling with excitement.

"The happiest person is you, Lord Chenyou, so many wolves, enough for you to make dozens of catties of brushes."

The two men frantically raised the corners of their mouths, stuck their torches into the ground, and with long knives in hand, they rushed towards the wolves, and under the moonlit night, blood swayed in the air, and the blood on the blades dripped to the ground.

After the battle, the invulnerable wolves fled in panic towards the end of the forest with their wounded companions.

*

The crescent moon was gradually covered by dark clouds, and the woman lying on the bench was holding someone's letter back to her family, smiling sweetly.

Although, the letter he wrote to his family was only fifteen words.

Sunny, the red hawthorn is snowing at the beginning, who knows the heart of the lady.

"I don't know, I don't know."

She lowered her head and read the letter over and over again, but she couldn't help but sneer in her mouth: "Just write these few words, it's enough for anyone to read, and I don't know how to write more, I don't understand gentleness." ”

Knock Knock –

Steward Gu politely knocked on Shunhua's door.

"Miss, when the old slave was cleaning the attic, the roof suddenly fell such a wooden box down, looking at this lock, it seems to be the master's thing."

"Daddy's thing?"

Shun Hua gently put down the family letter, reached out and took the small wooden box handed by Steward Gu, which was covered with thick dust and had a very strange lock.

"This lock doesn't have a keyhole."

In an instant, she remembered that before his father disappeared, he had told her not to be curious about the things in the attic.