Xi Yuanxiu silently looked at Cao Cheng who was standing at the entrance of the hall, thought about it for a while, and felt that it made a little sense, after all, there were no idlers in the yamen, and when he was in Qingzhou, he had already said that he wanted to cooperate, but in fact, if you look at it now, it seems that except for Liu Xiao, they are all idlers!

Xi Yuanxiu looked at Cao Cheng and stretched out his hand towards the same position that night, Cao Cheng sat down naturally, and he was not polite, and poured himself a cup of tea, Xi Yuanxiu raised his eyebrows, but he didn't say anything, because this is all Liu Xiao's thing!

Cao Cheng didn't think that Xi Yuanxiu cared about his own tea, thinking that he was thinking about things for a while, so he said: "I want to talk to adults about cooperation!" ”

Xi Yuanxiu looked at Cao Cheng with a serious face and said, "Since you said cooperation, then there are conditions!" ”

"That's right!" Cao Cheng turned the water in the teacup and said, "I want a guarantee from an adult!" ”

"What guarantees?"

"Keep me alive!"

Xi Yuanxiu felt that this person's brain was not very good, and he would say such things, shook his head, and said: "You have known that you are guilty of a capital crime since you started selling salt, how can this official protect you?" ”

Cao Cheng was silent.

"What if you live in prison?" Xi Yuanxiu asked.

Cao Cheng smiled: "Then my lord, you might as well let me die!" ”

Xi Yuanxiu said again: "Besides, the person who can speak is not me, it is the three people in Yangzhou City, presumably you won't know it!" ”

"But in my opinion, those three are not as good as adults!"

"Let's talk about what you can help me with first!"

"Then let's talk about it another day!"

After Cao Cheng finished speaking, he got up and was about to go out, Xi Yuanxiu didn't speak, and when Cao Cheng was about to walk to the door, Xi Yuanxiu frowned and said, "I also need to ask, give me some time!" ”

Cao Cheng didn't reply, but nodded, Xi Yuanxiu knew that Cao Cheng didn't have accurate words to guarantee his life now, and he wouldn't help himself, so he didn't ask him to stay and say a few more words.

......

......

Just after the four of them finished lunch, new news came from Yangzhou, Chichao found that someone had come to deliver the letter, and the direction of arrival should be the salt field outside the city.

And there is also new news from Qingzhou, all the salt gangs in Qingyang and Yangzhou have been integrated, and the Yishui Gang has been completely merged into the Chenghua Gang!

But now the transportation route of the entire Chenghua Gang is unknown, after all, no matter how long Chichao's hand is, but the foundation is still not thick, there is no way to achieve the effect of a mirage, all over the country, those places you can see, or in the corners that you can't see.

Xi Yuanxiu had a headache, he wanted to enter Beijing through the private salt case, he had to do something, he didn't have to be so anxious, when the transfer order arrived in a few years, then the red tide would also penetrate deeper, and it would be a good opportunity to return to Beijing, but he always felt that there was not enough time, and he should go back to the private salt case this time!

And this time someone was in a hurry to kill him, he felt that the capital was much safer than Yangzhou, although the mirage didn't like him very much, but he wouldn't let him die in vain.

Zhou Wenbin has not had a good time recently, knowing the depth of the water in Yangzhou, someone has been paying attention to him on the first day he arrives, so he doesn't dare to take drastic measures to handle the case, plus what happened in the previous fire case, he is more careful now!

And he has now had a conflict with that Xue prefect, the reason is that because the corpse that was directly buried that day did not leave him any clues, so now he is quite at odds with this prefect.

Although his official is very large, but after all, the Qincha is temporary, but this prefect has always been in Yangzhou, so many of the following officials only visited the prince in Guangxing Building that day, and after the fire case, only a few people came to see him again.

Of course, there is also Xiao Ye from the Salt and Iron Division, who now comes over every day to be sloppy, and when he mentions this case, he doesn't know anything, except that he knows that someone went to the prison to find Zhao Benliu one night, he has no clue at all.

Because of the fire case a few days ago, no matter how stupid a person is, he knows that such a thing will happen because of the leakage of private salt news, so Zhou Wenbin went to the market to investigate and secretly visit for many days, but no one paid attention to him, Lord Qincha, the most aggrieved Lord Qincha since the founding of Jingguo!

Except for Xi Yuanxiu, no one seems to be happy to be close to him.

Although he has served in the court for many years, this is the first time he has been so disappointed in the court officials of Jingguo, why did these officials not pay attention to such a big case at all, only thinking about how to stand in line, knowing that the prince and the king can only choose one of the two, as long as the officials who stand in the wrong line, needless to say, the new emperor will naturally have to clean up after he ascends the throne.

"My lord, are you still going out to investigate today?" Zhou Wenbin's entourage asked.

Zhou Wenbin rubbed his eyebrows, and replied weakly: "Naturally, I have to go out, and the case always has to be done!" ”

He said this on his lips, but he couldn't hold it in his heart, the first time he handled the case on behalf of the Son of Heaven was like this, it was really too embarrassing, thinking that Xi Yuanxiu in Scoop City still had some clues, he was also a little relieved in his heart, it was not too embarrassing, but after all, he was appointed by His Majesty, thinking of this, he jumped up directly on the seat, startling the entourage on the side.

......

......

At night, Xi Yuanxiu didn't seem to be afraid of the coldness, sitting in the courtyard humming a tune, pinching these unrelated clues, at this time Liu Xiao threw the notebook directly on the table, glared at Xi Yuanxiu angrily, and said: "I said that our heroic Lord Xi, I have been following this dog for several days, when is it a head?" ”

Xi Yuanxiu stretched out his hand to pick up the notebook, looked at it roughly, and said with satisfaction: "It's enough, let's stop here!" ”

Liu Xiao asked a little at a loss: "You're angry with me, it's okay, I'll just follow me again!" ”

Xi Yuanxiu smiled and said, "It's really enough, you don't have to follow anymore!" ”

Seeing Liu Xiao's somewhat confused appearance, Xi Yuanxiu pointed to the place where the most was written in the notebook, Xinghuayuan!

Liu Xiao follows this dog back and forth every day, and if he stays in a place for a longer time, Liu Xiao will remember it, and the most he goes to is Xinghuayuan, it seems that he has to go to Xinghuayuan again!

It's late at night, Xi Yuanxiu is naturally not enough to climb the wall of Xinghua Courtyard, but with Xu Lai, it is naturally not a problem, Xu Lai lifted Xi Yuanxiu's back collar, and the two flew directly onto the wall of the backyard of Xinghua Courtyard, observing the movement of the backyard, as in the past, except for the drinking and laughing in the building, and the sound that makes people blush, there is nothing else that is different.

This went on for several nights, and finally one night, a person familiar to Xi Yuanxiu appeared in the backyard of Xinghua Courtyard, Jia Daya.

Xi Yuanxiu didn't expect that he didn't find him that day, he was still hiding in this apricot blossom courtyard, this green building is really not such a simple place, for example, Xi Yuanxiu has been here for so many years and has not found that there is a secret door in this backyard, the secret door is the same as the wall in the building, if someone doesn't open it, ordinary people can't find out that there is such an ingenious design!

I saw that after Jia Daya came out of the secret door, he looked left and right, and when he saw that there was no one around, he waved his hand inside, signaling that the people inside were safe. But it wasn't anyone who came out of it, it was a carriage, it was the carriage that Xi Yuanxiu lost that day, the carriage was loaded with a few bulging sacks, Jia Daya saw that the car was completely out, and then went to open the back door, and the carriage slowly went out of the door, heading towards the trail to Yangzhou.

Xi Yuanxiu thought for a while, and decided to go back to the yamen first, after Jia Daya entered the secret door, Xu Lai flew down with him again, and along the way, Xi Yuanxiu didn't speak, I don't know what idea he was thinking in his heart.

As soon as he entered the yamen, Liu Xiao began to ask Xi Yuanxiu how he was, Xi Yuanxiu first took a cup of hot tea to warm his hands, and then said slowly: "Xinghuayuan is also related to this case, and I also saw Jia Daya tonight!" ”

Liu Xiao was surprised to hear these things, but he still decided to ask the question he wanted to ask the most: "What do you mean by letting me follow that dog these days?" ”

Xi Yuanxiu took a sip of tea and said, "Although I haven't seen it, this dog must be the same one I saw next to Jia Daya in Xinghuayuan that day, plus the salt carriage that came out of the secret door tonight, everything makes sense!" ”

Liu Xiao was a little stunned and asked, "Don't beat around the bush, if you have something to say, you say it directly, right?" ”

Liu Xiao asked Xu Lai on the side as he spoke, and Xu Lai nodded rarely in agreement, because he didn't know how these could be connected.

"Mr. Zhou wrote to me that day, and his friend said that if the dog began to shed its hair inexplicably, it may be that he has eaten too much salt. So I'm going to let you follow the dog and see where he goes the most. ”

After listening to Xi Yuanxiu's words, Liu Xiao also remembered, every time the dog arrived at Xinghuayuan, he would go down the dog hole and go in, and then it would come out after a while, which was the place where this dog went the most in the city.

Xu Lai suddenly said: "The radish you ate that day was also thrown there." ”

The other two looked at each other and felt that things were getting more and more complicated.

Saying this, some people have long hinted that Xinghuayuan is not a simple place, and even this kind of tribute from the court can be thrown out of a basket casually.

Xi Yuanxiu thought for a while, and then said: "So plus the scene in Xinghuayuan tonight, these are all connected, the cloth in the backyard of Xinghuayuan is full of salt, and it is taken out to dry during the day, and Hao Daniang's dog often runs to find Jia Daya, sometimes Jia Daya will not pay attention to what this dog is doing in the backyard, so he eats a lot of salt by mistake, which leads to hair loss, and those carriages must be hidden in the tunnel behind the secret door, which makes sense!" ”

Liu Xiao said with a little flattery: "My lord is mighty! ”