In the blink of an eye, in September, a disaster occurred in northern Anhui, and the people were hungry and miserable. On September 15, Xiao Zhenlei, who was at the 23rd Mixed Association Headquarters in Suzhou, came to the office that morning, and according to his habit, he took a copy of the day's newspaper from the office of the administrative comprehensive section of the headquarters, and carried a few steamed buns and steamed buns for breakfast, and read the newspaper while eating breakfast.

Suddenly, a newspaper caught Xiao Zhenlei's attention, and he didn't even eat the buns, only to see an obituary published in the newspaper, which is also called an obituary, also known as an "obituary", which is the news of a person's funeral after death. It is the funeral committee organized by the deceased's unit or the family to report the news of someone's death to their relatives, friends, colleagues, and the public. The obituary should be sent out before the farewell ceremony to the deceased, so that the relatives and friends of the deceased can make the necessary arrangements and preparations in time, such as preparing wreaths, elegiac couplets, etc.

The obituary said that Huo Yuanjia, the hero of Tianjin, had passed away yesterday, and his memorial service was held two days later at the China Jingwu Gymnastics.

Huo Yuanjia is a martial artist that Xiao Zhenlei has always admired, three months ago in June, when Huo Yuanjia founded the China Jingwu Gymnastics Association in Shanghai, Xiao Zhenlei was in Shanghai at the time, and was invited to attend the celebration ceremony.

Xiao Zhenlei knew that Huo Yuanjia died in 1910 in history, but the specific date was not clear, and the reason was not clear. After Huo Yuanjia founded the China Jingwu Gymnastics Association, he began to teach Huo Jiaquan to many young people in the society, and made it public to the world without reservation, without any gateway view, which is extremely rare in this conservative era. During his stay in Shanghai, Xiao Zhenlei talked with Huo Yuanjia several times, and consulted him in martial arts, Huo Yuanjia knew everything and said everything, and then Xiao Zhenlei, who came from later generations, had a deeper understanding of the martial arts of this era.

After seeing this obituary, Xiao Zhenlei was very sad and depressed, he hurriedly ate breakfast, asked the adjutant Ma Xiaoshuang to prepare a vehicle and guards for him, and he wanted to go back to Shanghai to attend Huo Yuanjia's memorial service.

In the afternoon, Xiao Zhenlei returned to the Xiao Mansion in the Public Concession, and Wang Yanan and Cheng Biyao, who had already received Xiao Zhenlei's telegram, had already arrived from the Shumin Newspaper to wait for him in the Xiao Mansion.

Cheng Biyao took the gift box in Xiao Zhenlei's hand and asked, "Why did you rush back in such a hurry and call us here?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei said as he walked into the house: "I came back to attend a senior's memorial service, and you will go with me to condolence later!" ”

Wang Yanan asked, "Is it Huo Yuanjia, the master of Jinmen?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei was surprised: "How do you know? ”

"I guess that's it!" Wang Yanan said and explained: "Since the news of Huo Daxia's death came out, there were rumors that he was killed by the Japanese, and the people in Shanghai were very excited when they found out!"

Xiao Zhenlei stopped and said, "You are a reporter, didn't you go to investigate and interview?" ”

"Of course I went, but the people from the Jingwu Gymnastics Club didn't have evidence and it was not easy to talk nonsense, just that Huo Yuanjia had a large amount of hemoptysis before he died!"

Xiao Zhenlei nodded, a few people walked to the living room to sit down and rest, Xiao Zhenlei called Goudan and asked him to go to the incense and candle shop near the outside to order a few wreaths, write a couplet, and Goudan took the order. He asked the dozen or so guards who followed him to change into dark suits.

Xiao Zhenlei asked the two girls to wait in the living room, he went upstairs to take a shower, changed into a dark blue robe and walked downstairs, and saw that the clothes worn by Wang Yanan and the two women were too bright in color, and he felt bad, so he said: "Let's go, let's go to the street to buy a darker dress for the two of you first, it's not good for you to wear so brightly to attend the memorial service!" ”

Soon, five cars drove out of Xiao's mansion, Xiao Zhenlei, Wang Yanan, and Cheng Baguio sat in the front car, and there were security guards in the four cars behind, Xiao Zhenlei didn't want to take so many people, but he couldn't stand Ma Xiaoshuang's insistence.

After spending an hour visiting a few ready-to-wear shops and buying a dark cheongsam for Wang Yanan and Cheng Biyao, and wearing them directly on their bodies, the convoy came to the nearby incense and candle shop to take the dog eggs and the wreath he had already bought to the Jingwu Gymnastics.

The Jingwu Gymnastics Club is not very far away from the Wang's house on the west side of the Zhabei Dry Bridge, and the convoy only takes more than 20 minutes to arrive, and the two students of the Jingwu Gymnastics Club standing guard at the door saw five cars parked at the door, and they knew that there were a lot of people, and they also guessed that important people had arrived, and immediately a person ran in to report to the principal Nong Jinsun.

Xiao Zhenlei had just opened the car door and asked Wang Yanan and Cheng Biyao to get out of the car, and Nong Jinsun and Huo Yuanjia's apprentice Liu Zhensheng, who got the news, walked out of the hall.

Nong Jinsun saw that it was Xiao Zhenlei, and hurriedly walked down the steps with Liu Zhensheng and bowed: "Lord Xiao, thank you, thank you, and bother the adults to come all the way over!" ”

Xiao Zhen said solemnly: "Brother Jinsun, if you want to call me an adult again, I will immediately turn around and leave!" ”

Nong Jinsun hurriedly said: "Don't don't, don't, I was wrong!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei nodded and said to Nong Jinsun and Liu Zhensheng: "The two of you mourn and change!" ”

"Thank you three for coming, please drink tea inside!"

Xiao Zhenlei and the others followed Nong Jinsun and Liu Zhensheng into the Jingwu Gymnastics Club, and walked through a huge and empty courtyard, surrounded by some practice tools and eighteen weapons such as swords, guns, swords, and sticks. On the way to the back hall where Huo Yuanjia's coffin was placed, there were students of the Jingwu Gymnastics Club standing every few meters on both sides, and white cloths were hung everywhere.

Came to the door of the inner hall, the coffin was placed opposite, and a large portrait of Huo Yuanjia was hung on the wall, which was full of people, Xiao Zhenlei glanced at it, and saw many familiar faces, including Chen Qimei, Liu Fubiao and others.

A student at the door handed over a few white corsages, Xiao Zhenlei and the others took it and hung it on their chests and walked into the mourning hall, and saw someone coming in to offer condolences, and someone inside immediately sang: "There are guests here-"

Xiao Zhenlei and the other three walked to the coffin, picked up the incense candles on the table and counted nine, put them on the incense candle flame and lit them, gave Wang Yanan and Cheng Baguio three each, inserted them in the incense ash burner, and then stood side by side. ”

"Brother Ince, you're there too?" Xiao Zhenlei walked over with the two girls and arched his hand to greet Chen Qimei.

At this time, Chen Qimei had already stood up, arched her hand and said: "Brother Huanyu, thank you for coming over, we were here yesterday, and after going back in the evening, we rushed over this morning, come, brother and the two young ladies come here to sit!" ”

At this time, no relatives and friends came, Nong Jinsun and Liu Zhensheng didn't need to go outside to greet them, so they sat down with Xiao Zhenlei and others, took the tea handed over by a student and said thank you, and then asked, "Brother Jinsun, what the hell is going on?" In June and July, I also asked Master Huo for martial arts, and he was very healthy at that time, why did it only take two months."

Seeing Xiao Zhenlei ask, everyone around him showed a look of indignation, Liu Zhensheng's eyes were about to erupt with fire, he gritted his teeth and said: "The master was killed by the Japanese!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei looked shocked and immediately asked, "What's going on?" ”

Nong Jinsun said in detail before and after the matter, it turned out that Huo Yuanjia became famous after founding the Jingwu Gymnastics Association, and many friends on the rivers and lakes came to ask for advice, Huo Yuanjia was in line with the attitude of meeting friends with martial arts, which made many martial artists in the martial arts festival extremely admired, in addition to some people from the Chinese martial arts community who came to meet friends with martial arts, there were also people from the Japanese Judo Association who came to Huo Yuanjia to compete.

The people of the Japanese Judo Association were quite dissatisfied with Huo Yuanjia's kung fu, and after being defeated once, the president of the Japanese Judo Association based in Shanghai gathered more than a dozen members of the Judo Association to come to make trouble, but Huo Yuanjia was not afraid at all and defeated them collectively. The people of the Japanese Judo Club held a grudge after being defeated, but on the surface they pretended to be convinced and often asked Huo Yuanjia for advice, Huo Yuanjia had no view of the door, and also relaxed his vigilance against these Japanese, once the Japanese found that Huo Yuanjia had asthma, and said that Judo would have an extremely powerful doctor who could treat asthma, and the effect was very good, Huo Yuanjia couldn't stand the warm invitation of the Japanese, so he followed the Japanese to the Judo Club for a few days, and after a few days, Huo Yuanjia's asthma not only did not improve, but also began to cough up blood, The condition became more and more serious, and Nong Jinsun and others immediately took him out of the judo club and sent him to the hospital for treatment, but it had no effect, and Huo Yuanjia died a few days later.

Although there is no evidence, Nong Jinsun and Liu Zhensheng and others suspect that Huo Yuanjia's death is related to people from the Japanese Judo Association, otherwise things would not have been so coincidental.

Xiao Zhenlei frowned when he heard this and asked, "Didn't you report to the patrol room for investigation?" ”

Nong Jinsun said: "It's reported, the patrol house is now being investigated, but there is still no result!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei thought for a while and said: "Although the investigation ability of the patrol room is not bad, but if someone greets the patrol room, I don't know how long this case will drag on, you must know that now the Japanese are getting more and more powerful in the concession, and sometimes the patrol house does not dare to offend them too much, this case must be done to find out the truth, the longer the time drags on, the more unfavorable it is to the investigation, if a few people do not dislike it, I will introduce a private detective to you, this person is a classmate of the deputy inspector of the Concession patrol room, named Ma Boyang, The ability to investigate cases is very strong, and he is not afraid of offending foreigners, I have invited him several times, and his private detective is on Nanjing Road, you can go to him, just say that I introduced him, and the cost should be discounted."

Nong Jinsun and a few others glanced at each other, and then Nong Jinsun said: "The private detective introduced by Huanyu is definitely not bad, it must be someone with real skills, so I'll go tomorrow!" ”R1152