The first love of Shaoxing people is said to be Shaoxing wine; The second love is probably Shaoxing opera. Therefore, Han Ding and Luo Jingjing only need to ask passers-by casually, and they can easily find the century-old red brewery and this Baihuashao troupe. Shaoxing was not big, and the Baihua Shao Troupe was not far from the small hotel where they were going to spend the night, and when they found this brick building, which looked like a dilapidated house, it was still early for the troupe to get off work, but for some reason it was empty. They went up to the fourth floor and down from the fourth floor to the first floor as if they were in a no-man's land, and finally found an old man at the door of a men's bathroom. They stepped forward to ask the old man about the flowery face surnamed Li, and when they inquired, they learned that the actors in the troupe had all gone to the theater in the afternoon, and there were special performances for primary and secondary school students in the past few days.

So, Han Ding and Luo Jingjing rushed to the direction of the theater again, and when they arrived at the theater, the sun had begun to set in the west, and the special performance for primary and secondary school students was about to end. The gongs and drums on the stage are noisy, the sound of killing is bursting, and the backstage is busy and the flow of people is endless. Han Ding and Luo Jingjing asked several people, and finally found the big flower face who had just come down from the stage and had not yet been unloaded. Hearing that it was Long Xiaoyu's lawyer who asked to see him, the flower face was very enthusiastic and cordial and took them to a relatively secluded corner of the backstage to sit down, and answered all questions. The flowery face was painted with ferocity, but the voice was thick and gentle. Han Ding couldn't tell his age, judging from his voice and common sense, he was at least forty or fifty years old. He said that he and Long Xiaoyu's father were close friends, and they were both from Shiqiao Town. Long Xiaoyu's father later pulled the troupe to a large extent under his influence. Because he was the only professional Shao opera artist from Shiqiao Town, he was a little famous in that township and later in the entire Shaoxing City. Speaking of Long Xiaoyu's father, there were some shining tears in his eyes with black edges, he said: "Xiaoyu's father can't sing well, but he is a good person, and the four towns and towns know that he is a good person!" ”

"What's so good about him?" Han Ding asked.

"He's a good man to his wife; After his wife left, he was kind to his son. He took Xiao Yu to be both a father and a mother, and a teacher. How many times others brought women over, he refused to marry again. What is he for? Not for the sake of the son! I hope that my son will grow up and be promising. He is in the countryside, his popularity is very good, you respect him, he respects you, the grace of dripping water, the spring reciprocates, we talk about this in the pear orchard line. For people like Xiao Yu's father who break on their own outside, this is even more important. So when someone else dies, we still miss him, and when his child is in trouble, we still have to help. So Xiao Yu didn't have a job at the time, so I vouched for him in the group and found him an errand to do. ”

"Is it a handyman in the regiment?"

"Yes. Xiao Yu's child is very similar to his father, people, he usually doesn't speak, but he actually has a lot of heart. He is very grateful to the people who were good to him and the people who were good to his father in the past, he is willing to be a cow and a horse for others, and he is willing to put his life on his shoulder. Once, my little daughter was bullied by a gang of hooligans on the street, and he ran into them, and he fought with the six of them alone, and the head was broken and the head was bleeding, and he ran away from all six. At that time, my girl was in middle school, and Xiao Yu got up early every day to send her. Until now, my girl has worked, and she often talks about it, saying how Brother Xiao Yu is, and I miss him very much. Therefore, I won't tell her about Xiao Yu's accident now. I don't talk about my wife, and my wife also likes Xiao Yu's child. I really don't understand how he could do something like that, he never takes the initiative to provoke others. Later, I was told that he had killed someone outside, and I really didn't believe it! ”

Han Ding asked, "Long Xiaoyu works in your group, how is his performance?" ”

Flower face said: "Performance? Of course! He works very hard, and he is willing to ask him to do something. Did you know that he went to college? He is educated, and our teachers here are optimistic about him, and they all say that he will definitely have a future in the future. Alas, I really haven't seen anyone worse than his life, he has been walking in the countryside with the troupe since he was a child, he didn't go to school, and it was not easy to be admitted to university in the end. Unfortunately, as soon as his father died, he came out of school and went to the countryside to row boats for others, which was very hard and tiring. So, this kid is so pitiful. If he kills someone, he must have been forced to be in a hurry, otherwise he wouldn't. ”

Han Ding didn't want to let this flower face continue to sigh Long Xiaoyu so sympathetic and exculpatory in front of Luo Jingjing, he was afraid that these words would mislead Luo Jingjing to look at the case more emotionally. He interrupted the nagging of the flower face, diverted the conversation, and asked:

"How long has Long Xiaoyu been working with you?"

Hua Mian thought for a moment: "There will always be a few months, but it won't be long." ”

"Because of what, did you resign yourself?"

"Yes, he lives at his girlfriend's house, and his girlfriend's mother has rheumatism and is unable to move, so she relies on him to go in and out of her back every day to see a doctor, cook and feed and take care of her. But our troupe often has to go outside to perform, and we don't come back for ten days and half a month. He always asked for leave and was not happy not to go to the group, so he talked to him, but he had no other way but to quit. I can't help it. There was an old aunt in our troupe who played Tsing Yi who introduced him to a cultural unit to use a computer to type scripts, and he studied computer science in college. The old aunt also felt that this child was too pitiful, her husband belonged to this unit, and he had a computer at home, so she used it for him. But this is a temporary job, if you have a manuscript, you can do it, if you don't have it, you can't do it, and you can't make a lot of money. Later, Xiao Yu's girlfriend's mother could get out of bed and do things by herself, so he went to look for a job in other places. You called me to say goodbye before you left. ”

When the flower face talked about Long Xiaoyu, he always gushed endlessly, and his eyes were always moist with blood. It wasn't until Han Ding and Luo Jingjing walked out of the theater and stood on the side of the street, watching the sunset hanging low in the sky, that thick and hoarse voice seemed to be ringing in their ears. The voice made the mood of both of them heavy. At least Han Ding's opinion of Long Xiaoyu in his heart has changed somewhat after listening to the description of the director of "Hundred Years Red" and the flower face surnamed Li. He didn't conclude that Long Xiaoyu didn't kill anyone, but felt that Long Xiaoyu might really be a very good person, otherwise how could so many people say that he was good? How could Luo Jingjing love him so much? He killed Siping, maybe it's true, maybe it's really something special, something special.

They walked slowly back under the blood-red sun on the roof, watching their figures stretch longer and longer, and no one was in the mood to speak. Until the light cast by the sun on the ground gradually turned cold, and the breeze on the river surface also had a biting chill, Han Ding's body was still hot and unbearable. He couldn't tell how much confusion, how much doubt, and how much confusion he had in his thoughts.

That evening they had eaten something in the streets, which was considered supper, and when they returned to the little inn by the river, it was already dark. As soon as they entered the door of the hotel, a waitress at the front desk greeted them:

"You're upstairs in room three, aren't you? Someone over there is looking for you. ”

On the bench on the wall to the right of the service desk, there were two women, one was a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl with a rustic face, and the other was a thin middle-aged woman. The middle-aged woman struggled to get the little girl to stand up, and cast her sick and weak gaze on Han Ding.

Han Ding recognized it, this was Zhu Siping's mother whom he had seen in the Pingling Court.

Maybe it was because the pain left by Siping's father on Han Ding had not yet subsided, so when he saw Siping's mother, Han Ding was still subconsciously nervous, and looked around vigilantly, he saw that there were no other idlers inside and outside the hall except for these two powerless women, so he greeted them, but he didn't know what to call Zhu Siping's mother.

"You...... Are you looking for me? You're Siping's mother, right? ”

Siping's mother leaned on a cane, and let the girl support her with the other arm, and took a step forward and said, "Are you ...... A lawyer in Beijing? ”

Han Ding said: "Yes, do you have something to do with me?" ”

Siping's mother looked at Luo Jingjing beside Han Ding, and stopped talking. Han Ding introduced: "She is my assistant, if you want to find me for something, can you come to my room to talk?" Han Ding then thought that this woman had rheumatism, he looked at her legs and asked, "Can you go upstairs?" ”

Siping's mother moved forward and said, "Okay." ”

Although there was only one staircase in the guest room to Han Ding, Siping's mother still climbed very slowly and hard, supported by Luo Jingjing and the little girl, one left and one right, and slowly went up to the second floor step by step, and entered Han Ding's room. There was only a dim lamp in the room, and Siping's mother and the little girl were allowed to sit down on the bed, their faces sunk into the shadows of the lamp.

Siping's mother spoke first: "You guys went to my house today, I know." Later, I heard from a neighbor that I saw you living here, so I asked the neighbor's child to help me over. I...... I want to meet you, Siping's father went out for a drink just now, so I came over......"

Han Ding nodded, he nodded kindly at the sick and weak mother, and said, "You...... You came to us, do you have something to say? ”

Siping's mother's lifeless gaze shook Han Ding's face, and she said in a crying voice, "I...... I want to know, I want to know Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu, this child, what happened to him, what will happen to him in the future? ”

Han Ding's mouth was half open, not knowing what to answer, and at this moment he was very puzzled by what this woman asked. He never thought that Siping's mother, a woman who could barely get out of bed, would hide from her husband and let people walk here step by step, and then go upstairs, not for her daughter Zhu Siping, but for Long Xiaoyu, the murderer suspected of killing her daughter. Han Ding had almost forgotten his identity, and he could barely hide the great suspicion in his heart.

"Long Xiaoyu? Are you concerned about Long Xiaoyu? He's the suspect in your daughter's murder......"

Siping's mother cried softly: "How could he harm Siping? He's good to Siping, and he's ...... me It's also good. When I was so sick that I couldn't get off the ground, he took care of me, he cooked for me, washed my clothes, and carried me to the hospital. He's like my son, and my own son can't be so nice to me...... He lives with me and calls me mom every day...... He called me Mom, he didn't have Mom, I was his Mom! How could he harm Siping? I can't believe it! I told him okay, he will not be with Siping in the future, I also recognize him as a son, I like him to be my son. He can't get along with Siping, he doesn't have to hurt her, Xiao Yu is not that kind of child......"

The woman kept sobbing, wiping her tears with a handkerchief. She regards Long Xiaoyu as her own son, maybe her feelings for him have surpassed that of her bad-tempered daughter. The grief of her daughter's death from heaven was endured. But now that someone told her that it was her son who killed her daughter, could she bear such grief?

Luo Jingjing burst into tears, and Han Ding's eyes were also red.

But with red eyes, he asked the mother such a question: "Since Xiao Yu and Siping are so good, why don't you want to admit that they were once a couple in love now?" Why did you tell the police that they had never been in a relationship? ”

Siping's mother cried and shook her head, and shook it for a long time before she said the reason intermittently: "It was Siping's father who said this, and he forced me to say this." He doesn't like to let people say that our daughter's boyfriend is a murderer, he is afraid that he will lose face, he is afraid that if he doesn't say so, he will not get the compensation money. If people know that Siping let her boyfriend kill her, they will say that you are all a family, and if you kill yourself, you won't compensate us...... I really don't believe it, the two of them are so good, how can they kill themselves? ”

When sending Siping's mother away, Han Ding said this to the grief-stricken woman: "Yes, I don't believe it either, I don't believe that Long Xiaoyu would do such a thing, just like you." He is a person who knows how to repay his kindness, a person who values feelings, and a person who is willing to sacrifice for others, and it is unreasonable for him to suddenly do such a thing. I came to Shaoxing to find out the reason for this incident, and I want to defend the truth of this matter. ”

This is the first time that Han Ding has expressed such an attitude in front of Luo Jingjing. It was from this moment that he made the same decision in his heart: he wanted to have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of Long Xiaoyu, understand everything that happened between Long Xiaoyu and Zhu Siping, he wanted to scrutinize all the evidence presented by the procuratorate one by one, and he wanted to comprehensively question this ostensibly unassailable accusation from the position of innocence.

That night, Han Ding began to prepare for the defense of his innocence, that is, he had a long talk with Luo Jingjing for almost a night. He asked Luo Jingjing to tell him all kinds of information about Long Xiaoyu, including how they met, how they got along, and how they met in Beijing after Long Xiaoyu absconded for nearly a year. Han Ding said to Luo Jingjing: "All these issues are no longer personal privacy between you, but the plots that I, as Long Xiaoyu's defender, must know and master, and I must get a truthful statement about these plots, any intentional or unintentional concealment and any change in the facts will lead to the wrong path of defense and the ultimate failure." ”

That night they talked all the way about late at night, and all the time about dawn. Luo Jingjing used intermittent narration and intermittent tears to review her beautiful love with Long Xiaoyu. The beauty of this love certainly includes their later separation, which was once a definite farewell for them. In the year they were apart, any expectations that lurked within each other were utterly disillusioned, and their reunion in Beijing a year later was so incredible. This kind of love is something that Han Ding really didn't have. Compared with Long Xiaoyu, the love between Han Ding and Luo Jingjing, the love that he had always thought was extremely romantic and twisty, immediately seemed to be bland. At dawn, Han Ding and Luo Jingjing walked out of the riverside inn exhausted. Han Ding originally planned to take Luo Jingjing to Wang Xizhi's Lanting and Lu You's Shen Yuan to have a good time after this investigation in Shaoxing was over. He always felt that Luo Jingjing was born beautiful, but he lacked a little culture. Visiting these cultural monuments, listening to explanations, seeing introductions, increasing knowledge, and cultivating interest are definitely a beneficial edification for Luo Jingjing. Luo Jingjing also agreed to Han Ding's plan, every historical relic in Shaoxing, every scene of reality, she seems to be willing to stop and admire and ponder carefully, and she has a special interest. But on this morning, after a night of conversation, they walked out of the inn and walked on the shore where the morning mist had lifted, and no one spoke of the planned itinerary. They walked through an old-fashioned alley, out into the street, and caught a bus to the train station.