In the early winter of October, on the drizzly silky ancient road, two green horses are galloping. The two men on the horse, one of them was in his thirties, his face was sparse and handsome, with several iron ropes wrapped around his waist, and a black cloth robe was facing the autumn wind and cold rain at the moment, hunting and flying. The other is a young man in white, his posture is leisurely and elegant, his eyes are smart, his spirit is bright, and he has the temperament of a scholar.

The man in black shirt is Lei Yu, the head catcher of the Criminal Department who has just taken office, and the young man in white is Li Tao, who is dressed as Lei Yu's entourage. They came to Kuozhou to investigate the case by the edict of Emperor Zhongzong.

It was getting late, the ice and rain were pouring in, and it was already getting heavier and heavier, and I saw a house in front of me standing in the wind and rain, and a man in gray was standing at the door. Lei Yu turned his head and said: "King Jun, the front is the boundary of Kuozhou, let's avoid this heavy rain for the time being, after tonight, how about hurrying again?" ”

Li Tao smiled: "You are now my boss, how to arrange for me to obey everything, don't ask me!" ”

Lei Yu was a little embarrassed and said, "King Jun, you are laughing!" ”

With that, Lei Yu turned over and dismounted, and walked towards the mansion in front of him. Li Tao also led the horse and followed.

After tying their horses to the dead trees by the roadside, the two of them walked towards the house, and as they got closer and closer, they saw the man in gray standing in front of the door of the house, staring at the red door of the house, and not moving.

Lei Yu couldn't help but smile, walked under the eaves, wiped the rain on his face, raised his hand and patted the man's shoulder, and said loudly: "This old man ......"

As soon as the words came out, Lei Yu was shocked. Secretly: "That's not right. ”

hurriedly let go, but as soon as Lei Yu took his hand away, the man made a "bang". Planted straight on the ground, a steel knife sank into his chest from the bottom up, there was no blood on a rectangular face, on his forehead, green tendons burst out, his eyeballs burst, staring at the thunderstorm in a daze. The moment he fell to the ground, two lines of blood and tears gushed out of his eyes and flowed to the ground. twisted a big mouth, as if he was unwilling.

Seeing this, Lei Yu hurriedly leaned down and put his right index finger in one place. Leaned under the neck of the man in gray. Suddenly, the cold air penetrated the bones, and there was no life. Lei Yu turned around and said: "The king of the county, he has been dead for many days, no wonder he patted him on the shoulder just now, his tentacles are stiff, and he doesn't look like a living person." ”

Li Tao raised his eyes and looked around, but found nothing unusual, so he leaned down and began to look at the deceased carefully.

The deceased was forty-three or four-four years old. Medium stature, with broad shoulders and back. The arms are slightly longer than normal, and the skin on the head, extending from the forehead to the ears, has a pale white mark, and the skin tone is slightly worse than that of the face. Dressed in a gray cloth suit, stepping on a pair of black thin-soled official boots, with thick knuckles, calluses all over, dark red blood clots leaking out of the nail cracks, and the soles of the boots are smooth and free of mud.

Lei Yu raised his hand to grasp the hilt of the knife, and with a little force, pulled out the steel knife, and then untied the deceased's robe and examined the wound. The knife stabbed extremely deeply, but it pierced from the deceased's lower abdomen Qi Sea Acupoint, passed through the chest cavity and neck, and went straight to the top of the Baihui Acupoint.

After examining the body, Lei Yu untied the wine bag from his waist, poured a sip of old wine, and began to carefully examine the steel knife. It is more than three feet long and more than one foot wide, quite heavy, and the handle is slightly long, which is suitable for chopping. Lei Yu flicked the blade of the knife lightly with his fingers, and there was a sound.

Li Tao took the steel knife from Lei Yu's hand, sniffed the blade lightly, and then leaned down, spread out the palm of the deceased, and looked at it silently for a long time, then he stood up, exhaled a breath of turbidity, and the corners of his mouth were filled with a shallow smile, and he said to Lei Yu: "Let's go in and talk about it!" ”

Lei Yu took two steps forward, took the rain, washed away the blood stains on his hands, turned around, walked along the door of the house, walked under the courtyard wall, tiptoed, flipped in the air, and fluttered into the courtyard wall.

When the thunderstorm opened the courtyard door, Li Tao moved inside.

At this time, the sky was already at night, and it was raining continuously, and there was no moonlight, and the two of them walked a few steps quickly from under the courtyard wall, and stepped on the stone steps of the bluestone slab. Take only three or two steps away, around the shadow wall, Thunderstorm just stepped into the hall with one foot, only to feel a burst of cold air blowing, which provoked Thunderstorm to stand on end for a while, and his heart was tight, and he waved his hand is a palm, only to see a white shadow flashing, and this palm actually hit the empty place.

Lei Yu, as the first master of the criminal department, is also a person with outstanding minds, only between this lightning and stone fire, with a movement of his palms, he has already held the rope around his waist in his hand, and his footwork is smart, like a meteor dragging lightning, and he goes straight to the back hall to chase. Straight through several corridors, through the bleak moonlight revealed by the clouds, the thunderstorm gradually saw a figure in front of him is flickering and moving, looming, at the moment the big sleeves rolled up a fallen leaf, Shu palm grabbed, twisted up a piece, full of internal force, snapped his fingers, in the middle of the figure shoulder, only to hear a miserable scream, faintly not like a human voice. Just when Lei Yu was secretly surprised in his heart, the figure suddenly strengthened, several ups and downs, and entered a palace, without a trace.

Lei Yu was about to catch up, but he heard Li Tao say behind him: "Don't worry, he can't run!" ”

Li Tao had already pulled out the long sword and held it in his hand, and he pointed to the palace: "There is something strange here, don't trade in, it's better to be careful!" ”

The two came to the door of the palace, at this time the wind and rain were combined, and the dark clouds covered the moonlight, only to see that it was an ancestral hall, the wall was mottled, the temple door was empty, and most of the green tiles on the eaves had fallen off, and it was dilapidated.

Seeing this, Lei Yu said softly: "King Jun, you stay where you are, I'll go and investigate the situation first!" ”

Li Tao shook his head and said, "Let's go in together, so we can take care of it!" ”。

Lei Yu nodded, took a deep breath, and slowly stepped forward, slowly pushing the temple door open. The door leaf has been eroded by wind and rain for a long time, and it is very dilapidated, and under a push, a lot of dust fell from the "boom", and half of the dust fell from the thunderstorm.

Entering the temple gate, it was all pitch black, and in a vague way, you could see that four or five steps ahead, there was a screen. Seeing this, Lei Yu stopped his steps, put the knot rope in his mouth, took out an oilcloth paper bag from his arms, opened it, took out a small bamboo tube, pulled out the lid, raised his hand and shook it, reflecting a firelight. Through the faint light of the fire fold, Li Tao faintly saw that a portrait seemed to be painted on the screen, with his hands open, his head and neck tilted, and he pointed to something.

When the thunderstorm approached a few steps, the color of the figure seemed to suddenly fade a lot, Li Taoton felt strange, and after walking a few steps, the figure became more and more dim, and only a faint red shadow remained on the screen. Lei Yu raised the fire fold in his hand and took a look around, and found that the screen was so tall that he didn't find the intersection to bypass for a while. Looking at the figure with open hands on the screen, under the reflection of the firelight, the face and face gradually became clear. (To be continued......)