[It's another big chapter, and it's worth the part that was owed before.] 】

It is an alley that can be found everywhere outside of Tokyo New Town.

The pavement is cobblestone and cement, with culverts for drainage on both sides.

There was only room for two ordinary carriages side by side, and any more horses would have to rub against the walls on both sides.

The alleys are connected at both ends by a ten-pace-wide side street, which is only then connected to the busy street.

On both sides of the street, there are three-storey courtyard-style buildings, and in the middle of these buildings, there is a patio, and the corridors on each floor are facing the courtyard in a circle.

The patio is not large, and during the day, you can only see a burst of sun. Every sunny day around noon, there are sometimes one or two arguments in the patio over the place to dry the quilt and clothes.

There is an exit on each side of the building facing the front and back alleys for residents to enter and exit the courtyard, and on both sides of the exit is the rental façade.

The alley is more than 30 zhang long, and there are more than a dozen courtyards on both sides, and there are twenty or thirty shops.

Restaurants, liquor stores, rice shops, oil shops, butcher shops, vegetable shops, cloth shops, north and south groceries, and a pharmacy, only some common medicinal herbs, and some plasters for bone-wounds, the business is not very good, so it also sells rat poison. The daily needs of the residents in the alley can be met in these small shops.

The alley at the other exit of the yard is also laid out, and even the type of shop pù is not much different.

If you can stand on a seven-story tower not far to the north and look at this piece, you can find that two horizontal streets sandwich five lanes of the same width and narrowness, and then the five lanes are separated by six rows of buildings composed of courtyards, each courtyard is made of the same drawings, neatly like mung bean cakes in a box, stacked up piece by piece.

This neighborhood is located outside the Minami-Kaoru Gate, near the avenue from the Minami-Kaoru Gate to Tokyo Station.

It has only been repaired for less than ten years, and when it was just repaired, the white walls and black tiles looked clean and tidy, and the people who lived in it were either students who came to Beijing to study, or employees of some shops.

However, as time passed, the premises gradually became dilapidated, and the identities of the tenants inside gradually changed.

The coolies at the station, the landless peasants, the workers in the small factories, the bankrupt and unemployed, the ruffians and hooligans, and even the half-closed rogues/warblers have brought bad atmosphere in the neighborhood and bad criticism from the outside world.

Today, there is nothing to boast about, except that it won't flood when it rains.

But the shop pù is still here.

Regardless of whether you are high or low, food, clothing, housing and transportation, anyone is indispensable. Maybe I changed the store, maybe I changed the business, but it's still rice, noodles, meat, vegetables, tea and wine.

A small wine shop is one of these shops.

The small wine shop has no name, let alone a signboard, so it picks out an apricot yellow corner flag on the door, and a wine word is written on it.

Literate and literate, sniffing the smell of wine, and seeing a few wine jars on a high table near the door, you know how much this shop does for a living.

The high table occupies half of the façade, and behind the table are large wine urns.

The shopkeeper collects the accounts behind the table, and Xiao Er takes the wine behind the table. The other half of the storefront, which was not occupied by table tables, had three square tables and a few benches.

Most of the time, regular customers come alone, so they lean on the table to drink, ask for a plate or two of snacks to accompany the wine, and by the way, they clink glasses with a few drinking friends and chat. After two or three wine glasses were eaten, and after one or two dishes were eaten, he threw away a few coins, large and small, and then went home.

If a few friends come together, sit down at the square table, go to the braised vegetable shop opposite to get some pig's head meat, cut two plates of chicken and duck, or ask the restaurant next to you to send a few hot dishes.

The shopkeeper is from Hebei, neither high nor low, neither fat nor thin, and his appearance is also ordinary. The only characteristic thing is that for some reason, he has a bad throat, and his speech is not only hoarse and rough, but it is said that his throat will be sore, so he is always silent. Another characteristic that is not characteristic is that he often goes to the temple to donate, and he is a good believer in this area.

In this shop, the water in the wine is always a little less than that of other homes, and the side dishes are cooked a little more flavorful, although the shopkeeper doesn't talk much, but he always smiles kindly, and when he meets a drinker who forgets to bring money, he will not raise his eyebrows, he will always smile and serve a bowl of hot rice wine and a small plate of broad beans. So there is always no shortage of customers in the small tavern.

The tavern has been here for ten years. The shopkeeper watched this neighborhood see the old people away and welcome new customers, becoming lively and gradually falling into disrepair.

Those who succeed move to better residences, and those who fail have no hope of returning home. Some people die here, some people are born here.

One batch has gone, and there is a new batch.

A visitor to Beijing returns home in a lost way, and the next day another out-of-town guest with a backpack full of hope will stay here.

But the shop is always here, welcoming the first customer from noon until the last drunkard is sent off late at night.

The owner always stood behind the table, smiling, and silently listening to the chatter of the drinkers.

The night was dark, and the guests gradually dispersed, and occasionally one or two streams/warblers passed by the door with prostitutes/guests, but they were also in a hurry.

In the end, there was only one guest left, with a beard, fierce eyebrows and eyes, tall and strong, neatly dressed, but a good set of clothes was worn on him, but how awkward it looked.

When he entered, the light in the shop was dim, and the shop, which had been noisy, fell silent. It wasn't until he sat down at the table, ordered food and drink, and ate and drank that he was a little more active again. But it's not as good as weekdays, and it's not as good as Xuzheng, and a dry of familiar customers walked away at seven or eight in the morning.

Xiao Er wiped the table, washed the wine utensils and chopsticks, went out, took off the lanterns and wine flags in front of the door, pushed the door panels into the door slot, and finally put the latch on the door, not caring at all that there was still a guest who did not leave.

When the door closed, the drinker, who had been silent, opened his mouth in a strange accent, "Business is doing well?" ”

"Okay."

The shopkeeper replied. It sounds like an acquaintance chatting.

His voice seemed to have been filed with a file, blurring his age and provenance, and he couldn't tell whether it was a problem with the country accent or a problem with his voice.

"I walked around the city today, and it was very lively at Nanxun Gate."

"To build the railway around the city, on the city walls."

The drinker wiped his beard and laughed: "I chose a good place, and demolished the city tower and the enemy tower." ”

He looked up, but his laughter was almost silent.

The low voice, the low light, condensed a suffocating atmosphere.

The shopkeeper didn't see any change on his face, put his hand on the table, and said hoarsely and slowly, "If you can't block it outside, you will lose, and it is useless to have a wall." ”

"This is nonsense, I see that the city wall is still ramming earth, obviously thickening the city wall."

"What was originally bent should be straightened." The shopkeeper is still concise.

The drinker sneered, "I'm afraid it's better to build a few forts by the way." ”

The shopkeeper shook his head, "I don't know." ”

The drinker rolled his eyes and stared at the shopkeeper opposite, "yes, you don't know. He stood up abruptly, across the table, and brought his face closer to the shopkeeper, "That'...... What the hell do you know?! ”

The shopkeeper and the drinker looked at each other, breathing straight to their faces. But his eyes met the drinker's gaze, as motionless as a stone bead, without the slightest fluctuation.

Suddenly moved, but there was no response, staring at the shopkeeper's pupils contracted, the drinker straightened up, and sat back as if nothing happened, "Don't forget, all these years, what are you hiding in this shabby place for?" ”

As if holding a newspaper in both hands, the drinker raised it in vain and read the contents, "The Duke of Chu is seriously ill and dying. He slammed the table and said sternly, "Who in Tokyo City doesn't know that Wang Anshi is going to die now?!" I'll go to the street and buy a few more newspapers for all the news you sent back. The court sent you over and arranged your identity, is it for the news of these two pennies a copy?! ”

After staring at him for a while, the drinker suddenly smiled again and poured himself half a bowl of wine, "The court treats you well, your son has now entered the Divine Fire Army, and he is by the emperor's side day and night." Do you think that this kind of good thing can be achieved just because of your past status? What's more, when are you going to do it like you are now? Not planning to go back? If you do something big early, you might as well go back early, and when you go back, there is nothing in the cattle and sheep land? Isn't it better to have an official position than to sell wine here? Don't take his word for it anymore, he can't let you go back, but I can! ”

The shopkeeper listened quietly, then suddenly turned around and walked inside, "Come in with me." ”

The drinker drank the wine in one gulp, threw down the bowl, and asked Xiao Er to clean it up, while he followed him to the store, and said with a smile: "What good things are hidden?" ”

The tavern is separated from the front and back, with the shop on the outside and a small living room and two rooms on the inside.

The shopkeeper pushed open one of the doors and stood still.

The drinker stepped forward and looked inside, "What, in there?" ”

There was no electric light in the room, the black hole was hollow, and he couldn't see it clearly, and he was about to go inside, when there was a sudden cold hair on his lower back, and after an instant, a sharp pain radiated from his lower back to his whole body.

The sharp pain caused the drinker to scream, but he received a sudden blow to the diaphragm, and as soon as his cry got up, he was interrupted in his mouth and turned into a muffled cough.

The drinker shook his arms and pushed the shopkeeper away, he staggered his head, and saw that the shopkeeper who was only a teenager was stepping back, looking frightened, but the afterglow in the guest's eyes found that something should not be inserted in his waist.

How could it be a knife handle?

He stabbed me?

Isn't he packing up, and the jingling sound can be heard clearly.

The drinker suddenly found that his thinking had slowed down, as if it had taken him a long time to figure it out.

He turned his head again with all his strength and looked at the shopkeeper in front of him.

It's still the kind of giggle that he can't get used to, dumbfounded, but now, he finds a little irony in his smile.

I don't know where all the strength of my body went, and the drinker staggered and fell to the ground, but his head was still unwilling to be raised, and he pointed at the shopkeeper with one hand.

"You...... You...... Cen ......"

Poof, there was another pain in the back, the drinker stiffened, and as soon as he opened his mouth, a mouthful of blood spurted out.

A rag greeted him, covering all the blood and covering his mouth and nose.

The shopkeeper squatted down, filling the rag into the drinker's mouth with one hand and pressing the drinker's head firmly to the ground with the other.

The hands, which were not thick, had become iron tongs at this time, and no matter how much the drinkers struggled, they could not break free.

It wasn't until he was exhausted and could no longer struggle that the shopkeeper lowered his head, short and hoarse, "He sent you, why, you know?" ”

The drinker was speechless, and his eyes were full of puzzlement.

"You're in too much of a hurry."

'Am I in a hurry?' ’

It was the last thought of the drinker in the darkness, and the hands around his neck that kept tightening kept him in the darkness forever.

Feeling that the blood vessels in his neck were no longer pulsating, the shopkeeper slowly let go of his hand.

The originally thick neck had been pinched thin, the huge head was crooked, and the neck was twisted into an angle that was impossible for a living person to have.

The shopkeeper stood up, faced the dead corpse, folded his hands, and bowed.

Go all the way.

Xiao Er also came over and saluted, muttering words in his mouth.

In the silence, suddenly, there were several loud bangs at the gate, and someone was banging on the door outside, and then a voice was heard shouting, "Zhao Jiu, Brother Zhao Jiu." ”

Xiao Er was so nervous that he almost froze, and the shopkeeper quickly dragged the corpse into the room and kicked it under the bed.

He quickly took off his clothes and shoes, broke his hair bun, found a batch of clothes on his body, stepped on his shoes, went over to the latch, and opened the store.

Outside the door, there was a neatly finished soldier, who was looking at the shopkeeper with a smile, "Brother Zhao Jiu, are you already asleep?" ”

The shopkeeper nodded silently, Xiao Er came out at this time, he was also dressed when he was sleeping, and he couldn't see Fang Cai's nervousness anymore, and asked with a smile, "Brother Chen, you are on duty all night today." ”

"This is a strange question, which month is not your brother and I are on duty?"

It was the patrol police of the workshop, who used to be called the patrol or the military patrol shop, and now it is drawn out of the army, and it belongs directly to the newly established metropolitan police superintendent, commonly known as the patrol police. The outermost façade of the alley at the corner of the street is their patrol shop.

This one is the patrol officer on duty today, and he is an old acquaintance with the neighbors here.

Wearing a highly recognizable police uniform, he has an iron ruler inserted in his waist, which doesn't look so murderous, but this iron ruler is heavy, and when he comes down, his bones are broken.

The patrol officer was in front of the door, "Brother Zhao Jiu, don't blame me for disturbing your rest." It's just that I listened to Wang Lao bastard...... Yes. The words were abrupt, and then he smiled embarrassedly, "Actually, you shouldn't say his name, Brother Jiu, don't remember, he is also kind...... That is to say, there is a noodle customer in your house, and he looks like he is murderous and arson, and he doesn't leave after drinking, and in the end, he is the only one left in the store, worried that something will happen to you, Brother Jiu. Now that Chu Guogong's condition is not good, the above forces us to be vigilant, strictly prevent foreign criminals from making trouble here, and ask more questions about big and small things. ”

The patrolman explained, his eyes glancing at the store.

The shopkeeper stepped aside and pointed to the alley outside the door.

The patrol officer will know, "Gone?" ”

The shopkeeper nodded.

The patrol officer looked inside the store and looked in the opposite direction from where he came, "I didn't see it when I came, maybe I left from the other side." He rubbed his hands and sighed, the night breeze of early spring was still cold, so cold that he stomped his feet, "Run for nothing." ”

"Brother Chen, it's cold, drink some hot wine." Xiao Erjing obediently shouted inside, and then looked up at the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper nodded, reaching out to invite the patrol in.

The patrol officer didn't shirk, maybe he just thought about coming to have a drink, strode in, sat down in the old position, and praised the little two without a mouth, "Little monkey, smart and diligent, why don't you want to study." ”

"I'm studying, who's going to take care of the store?"

Xiao Er opened the wine urn as he spoke, and the aroma of wine suddenly wafted into the air in the store.

The patrol officer sniffled vigorously, eager to inhale the wine into his lungs, and said with a smile, "Let your father marry one early, won't someone help you?" ”

Xiao Er scooped a few spoonfuls of wine, filled the wine jug, and began to light hot wine on the stove, the patrol officer looked at it, and handed over the half steamed bun in his arms, "

This also warms up a little by the way. ”

Xiao Er responded, and the patrol officer said to the shopkeeper again: "The flower widow on the Lee Kum Kee soy sauce shop in Lane 3, last time I talked about you, Brother Jiu, you earn a lot every year, but you send it to the temple. You said she didn't have that heart, why bother about you? There must be something in mind! Find me and say, Brother Jiu, don't send money to the temple anymore, save up for two months, and ask Xu Po next door to find Widow Li to be a matchmaker. Although Widow Li is a little older, she can still give birth, and there are two boys by her side, just doing the work in the store, letting your little monkey go to school for two years, maybe you can do it as a showman, one is not good, and you can do it too. In case you get a jinshi, ah...... Even the branches of the branches, our neighbors also have brilliance on their faces. ”

The patrol policeman chattered for a long time, and ate the hot steamed buns with a pot of hot wine.

The shopkeeper didn't speak, but listened, and every once in a while he made two noises to show that he was listening.

After drinking the wine and eating the steamed buns, the conversation was satisfied, and the body was not so cold, the patrol officer finally got up, "Brother Jiu is delayed, I'm sorry," he got up to say goodbye, went out, belched, and turned back to the shopkeeper who sent him out, "Thank you Brother Jiu for your wine." ”

The patrol officer staggered back to the patrol shop, and wrote down the reporter, the results of the examination, and the basic information of the suspect in the police record book. Because there was no result, he just scribbled the content in the words he knew, and got into a bed in the patrol shop and fell asleep.

The next day, the notebook was handed in, not because important information had been recorded last night, but because it was already the date for the record to be handed in this month.

Far away from this neighborhood, away from the Nanxun Gate Outer Street, in a small courtyard inside the Suzaku Gate, a group of highly vigilant people are looking through these police records from different regions, comparing and corroborating each other.

A man was looking down and flipping through the record book, there was very little valuable information in it, in fact, it was very little, and he needed to analyze it carefully before he could deal with it.

Suddenly, his expression moved, and he didn't continue to look at it. On the map, he found three records from different regions, but the objects described were all similar, and they were supposed to be a person.

The eyes that were originally stunned were round all of a sudden, and the eyes were different, as if the cat had caught a mouse, and there was an ambiguous smile that seemed to be playing a game, and he sang in a strange tune, "Let me see where you came from and where you are going." ”

But his search immediately stopped, and there was such a commotion outside, so loud that it was almost impossible to sleep.

"What's wrong?!"

There was chaos in the courtyard, and many people were asking, "What the hell is going on?" ”

One of the people who was observing in the front yard ran back and shouted, "It's the Son of Heaven who is driving and going to the Mansion of the Duke of Chu." ”

The emperor can finally go out?!

As if a bomb exploded, many thoughts collaborated on one idea,

The Jingshi, who has been like a stagnant water in the court for several years, is it about to change now?