"Boom! Boom! Boom! ”

Hearing the sound of drums, Dong Lingxing sat up from the bed. He squinted his eyes and looked out the window, and the courtyard was pitch black.

"What time is it?"

He asked, and no one answered.

Dong Lingxing remembered that the last time he heard the sound of drums was on the fifth watch. Someone came to report the case, saying that the female corpse was found on the city gate tower, and the female corpse was very strange, and it was suspected that she had been killed and hung upside down on the city tower.

This is not the first murder case that Dong Lingxing has come into contact with, but it is the first case since he arrived here to take office. He is a serious person, he was serious when he was studying, and he became more and more serious after becoming an official. So, he got up quickly, and he didn't even bother to wear official clothes, so he hurried to the scene with the officials.

The scene is indeed weird.

A woman dressed in white was hung upside down from the city gate, her hair hanging down in the night wind, obscuring her face. Downstairs at the city gate, the first husband to find the female corpse was already sitting on the ground, and no matter what he asked, he only repeated the word "ghost!" ”。

Ghost?

In this world, only people can harm people. As for whether people will become ghosts after death, he doesn't know, but his past experience tells him that ghosts can't turn people into like this.

He knew that the husband was frightened, so he ordered his subordinates to take him back to the yamen for the time being, and then ask him in detail when he came to his senses. Then, he walked to the bottom of the city gate, raised his head, and looked at the upside-down female corpse.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, but just as he looked up at the female corpse, another gust of wind rose in the flat ground. The gust of wind blew away all the hair that covered the woman's face, and he saw the face, the miserable white face. Oh no, it should be said that it is a dead white face.

That face was weird, the kind of weirdness he couldn't describe in words. He stared stunned, feeling as if his heart had been grasped by some invisible hand at that moment. I didn't feel any pain, but I couldn't breathe.

It had eyebrows, a nose, and a mouth, but no eyes. But Dong Lingxing felt that the female corpse was looking at him.

He is the county lord, so naturally he can't be frightened by the strange corpse in front of him. So, he took a deep breath, staggered his gaze, and lowered his head.

The messenger quickly climbed up the tower and freed the woman's body from the gate.

The pretendent in the palace was an old man, and after examination, it was confirmed that the woman had been murdered, but there were no obvious fatal injuries on her body. As for the face, it was drawn on a blank piece of paper. The female corpse is pitiful, because before or after death, she was skinned alive.

Such a vicious murderer and such a vicious murder method made Dong Ling's behavior angry. He decided that no matter what method he used and what price he paid, he would arrest this vicious murderer.

When I returned from the scene of the crime, the sky was faintly bright. But why, now the sky is dark again.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! ”

The drums beat again. This is a drum of grievances placed at the door of the government office, which was placed by the officials after he took office in the government office, in order not to miss a single case. He stared at the door and moved his ears. I thought to myself, I wonder who is beating the drum this time? Also, the drums have been sounded twice, why haven't the officials come to report yet?

"Outside the door, is there anyone?"

It was silent outside the door, and no one answered.

Dong Lingxing frowned. Although he is not the kind of person who is accustomed to putting on official authority, and he does not need servants and maids to serve him in his daily life, he will also place a small servant in front of the door at night. Usually at this hour, the little servant would wait at the door, listen to his command, or wait for him to get up.

Today, there seems to be something unusual.

Dong Lingxing stood up, he frowned, walked to the door, and then stretched out his hand and pulled the door open. There was no starlight or moonlight in the black hole outside, and even the lanterns under the cloister had been extinguished.

"Strange, why did this light go out?"

Dong Lingxing had just finished speaking, when he saw a woman standing not far away. The woman had her back to him.

"Who? Who has broken into my house? ”

"Dong Lang, it's me."

The woman's soft voice fell into Dong Lingxing's ears.

"Yun'er, why are you here? Did the guy at the door let you in? ”

Dong Lingxing frowned. The clouds in his mouth refer to the cutting clouds.

Dong Lingxing is not a person who likes to covet women, before he met Yun'er, he had a wife and a concubine. The wife was married for him by his father and mother in the early years. There is a popular saying among the people, called the female junior, hugging gold bricks. The wife that his father and mother chose for him happened to be three years older than him. is not as beautiful as a flower, nor is it gentle and virtuous, but he treats him wholeheartedly and takes care of his daily life properly.

The concubine is accepted after being an official. was originally a confidante sent to him by his colleagues, able to write and paint, and his red sleeves added fragrance.

has a wife and a concubine, Dong Lingxing never thought of accepting other women to get in. For him, it was enough for two women to be around. But by the way, he met Qiyun. This strange woman who was obviously born in Qinglou, but was a little different from ordinary Qinglou women, instantly snatched his attention. Later, he was moved, and even despite the persuasion of others and the humble background of Qiyun, he wanted to take her into the mansion.

Dong Lingxing is a more pedantic reader, he doesn't know what love is, but he knows that the strange feelings he has when facing Qiyun are completely different from when facing his wife and concubine. In the face of his wife, he can raise his eyebrows, and in the face of his concubine, he can treat each other with sincerity, but in the face of Juyun, what he has is the kind of selfish, even unreasonable emotion that wants to hide her in the mansion and take her into his arms, and not reveal her beauty to others.

Because of his relationship, the officials and subordinates in the palace also knew Qiyun. Occasionally, Cut Yun would come through the back door of the mansion and meet him, but the two of them always maintained a delicate relationship. Both a lover and a friend. Dong Lingxing told himself that before he welcomed Qiyun into the mansion, he would definitely not take away her beauty like those frivolous men.

However, Cutting Yun had never come to his mansion at this hour. She's not the kind of woman who does whatever she wants, unless something goes wrong.

"Is someone bullying you?" Dong Lingxing asked, taking a step forward.

Cutting Yun turned his back to him and nodded.

"Who? Who bullied you? ”

Cutting Cloud didn't answer, but walked straight forward. Dong Lingxing didn't think much about it, and followed Qiyun forward.

went around and around, and when Dong Lingxing stopped, he found that he was standing at the door of Yizhuang.

"Yizhuang? Cut the clouds, you ......"

Dong Lingxing originally wanted to ask Qiyun why he brought him to Yizhuang, but found that Qiyun was missing.

"Cutting clouds?"

Dong Lingxing shouted the name of Cutting Yun and turned around on the spot, but found himself standing under the city gate again. On the tower of the gate hung a rope, and from the rope hung a woman dressed in white. Dong Lingxing opened his mouth slightly, but saw the woman in white raise her head and face him with that dead white face.

"Dong Lang, I'm here!"

"Ghosts! Cut the clouds! ”

Dong Lingxing opened his eyes suddenly, his body straightened instantly, and he sat up from the bed. Looking up and looking out the window, it was already dawn.

He sighed lightly, wiped the cold sweat from his face, and muttered in a low voice, "I see...... It turned out to be a nightmare! ”

……

"I think about it day and night I have dreams, and I guess that this county lord surnamed Dong was also frightened by the female corpse, so he had such a nightmare."

Xing Ruyi held his chin and dozed off. This kind of gray and rainy day is easy to make people sleepy, and Liu Sheng's storytelling tone is too bland, so bland that Xing Ruyi can't pull these contents to a strange case, so he becomes more and more sleepy.

She got up, stretched her arms, supported her eyelids with her hands, looked at Liu Sheng and asked, "That Lord Dong shouldn't think that the deceased is the real girl who cut the clouds because he had this dream, right?" ”

"The government pays attention to evidence in handling cases. Although he had a strange dream, Lord Dong did not associate the deceased with Qiyun because of this dream. The reason why he suspected that the deceased was Qiyun was because of another incident that happened later. ”

"What's the matter?"

Because of that dream, Lord Dong had no intention of sleeping again. He got up and took the servants of the government to Yizhuang again. This time, he discovered something new. ”

"Isn't it a token of the clouds?"

"It's not a token, it's a trace."

"Traces?"

"I told you that in order to bury his adoptive father, he sold himself to a wealthy merchant as a concubine. However, the wife of the wealthy businessman could not tolerate the clouds, and often took advantage of the rich businessman's absence to criticize her and abuse her. On Cutting Cloud's forearm, there is a burned scar. After entering the flower building, the grandmother in the building was afraid that the guests would see the scar and be disgusted, so she found a strange man from Persia and painted a flower with special paint on the burned scar of Qiyun. ”

"Tattoos."

"What?"

"Nothing, you continue."

"I haven't seen that flower, but Master Dong has seen it. When he saw the flower on the arm of the female corpse of Yizhuang, he had a strange feeling. He felt that the nightmare he had was not born out of nowhere. This woman who was lying in front of him and was skinned by life is very likely to be his cut. ”

"In this case, why don't Lord Dong go to the Begonia Courtyard and arrest the fake Cutting Cloud."

"Because the same flower is depicted on that cloud's arm."

"What?" Xing Ruyi frowned: "Is it exactly the same?" ”

"It's almost identical." Liu Sheng replied, looking into Xing Ruyi's eyes: "But obviously, there can't be two abused Cutting Clouds in this world, and there can't be two almost identical flowers used to cover the scars. ”