Early the next morning, Xie Yu woke up at Master Liu's panicked knock on the door.

As soon as he saw her open the door, he hurriedly invited her to the front hall.

Over the years, he has been on an errand in Kangping County, and he has also come out of the pile of men, because Xie Yu has lost the arrogance of her daughter's family at all, and she took a coat and wore it while walking out.

He asked, "But what happened?" ”

"Zhou Ba is dead."

Master Liu just four words made Xie Yu's hands pause.

She asked in disbelief: "Zhou Ba is dead?" ”

"Yes."

The cause of Zhou Ba's death was the same as that of the first few people, and Xie Yu had burned his body into a piece of black charcoal when he saw his body.

Xie Yu asked, "Is it still the same as before?" ”

He nodded.

Xie Yu only felt as if a big stone was pressing down on her chest, she sighed, rubbed her eyes and walked out.

This is already the ninth person of the month.

Pei Heng and Cui Yun were sitting together, Cui Yun was rarely sad, and when he saw Xie Yulai, he hurriedly asked, "Did you find anything?" ”

Xie Yu bowed and saluted, and then replied honestly: "Master Cui, no." The cause of Zhou Ba's death was exactly the same as that of the pioneers, and he didn't find any clues in him. ”

Pei Heng was silent when he heard this, but Cui Yun was a little anxious, and took the initiative to pull Pei Heng up and asked: "Jingzhi, if you don't investigate this case again, I'm afraid that the door of the government will be broken by the people. ”

As he spoke, he asked Xie Yu again, "Didn't you go to Sitong Gambling House yesterday?" Didn't get half a clue? ”

"The people in the gambling house are very cautious, and everyone refuses to say more than half a word when they mention Lao Liu, after all, the things of these days are too weird, and everyone is afraid that they will be implicated in it."

Zhou 8 was burned to death in the middle of the night today, and the sixth child drowned in the water yesterday afternoon.

The murderer committed the crime for two days in a row, and he was really bold.

Zhou Ba is the priest in the Yilou, originally lived in the Yilou, but yesterday he went to the Sifang Gambling House and won a game, only put the silver money back in the Yilou, and returned to his home alone.

His home is in the suburbs, and it is a bit of a walk from Yilou. Because of him, he lived in the Yilou all the year round and rarely returned to his home. But over the years, he has earned some money in Yilou, so although he does not live permanently, he still builds two blue brick houses.

Although there was a fire last night, the house was not completely burned down.

Xie Yu looked around the room and asked, "Where did the others die?" ”

"On the table."

"On the table?" Xie Yu was a little surprised when she heard this result, and couldn't help but ask, "How did you die on the table?" ”

Master Liu patiently led Xie Yu to Zhou Ba's table and explained: "In fact, when we found him, he was naked, propped up in front of the table with one hand, and leaned in the direction of the window with the other, and half of his body leaned out of the window. Xu wanted to survive through the window at that time, but he still couldn't escape. ”

Xie Yu had already known a rough idea of Zhou Ba's life before he came, he was a native of Xishui Village, and his father was good at gambling, pawned the land of the family clean, and even sold Zhou Ba's mother and son into the Yilou.

Zhou Ba's mother was humiliated, so she tore off her belt and hanged herself in the Yilou that night, leaving Zhou Ba alone to survive in the Yilou, and went back to Xishui Village to buy a homestead.

Most of the people in Xishui Village are simple people who are engaged in farming, and no one wants to be neighbors with Zhou Ba, so his family is far away from everyone in the village, which is why Zhou Ba's house is on fire, and everyone does not notice until the fire is about to go out.

"Did Zhou Ba come back alone yesterday?"

"I asked someone, Zhou 8 returned around the end of yesterday, and he went back to his house and never came out."

Xie Yu listened and thought silently in her heart, she rescued Wang Xiang yesterday when she was about the beginning of the unitary time, and when she came to investigate today, she deliberately paid attention to the time it took to walk, which took half an hour.

In this way, if there was no delay on the eighth road of Zhouba, then he should have returned to Xishui Village early.

She told her speculation to Master Liu, and he added in hindsight: "By the way, the person who saw him yesterday said that he walked back with two large jars of wine, and he must have delayed some distance to buy wine on the way." ”

Xie Yu paid attention to the issue of the two major jars of wine, "His wine is so deep? Can one man drink two large jars? ”

Before she entered the door, she saw a wine jar outside the house that had bottomed out, and there was not much wine left in the wine jar in the house.

Can you drink so much alcohol in one person? Xie Yu felt a little unbelievable.

Thinking of this, Xie Yu subconsciously glanced at the wine jar on the ground a few more times.

She squatted down and picked up the wine jar, and the moment she picked it up, Xie Yu secretly thought about it in her heart.

This wine jar is not light, and now it is almost at the bottom and there is still some weight, if it is full of wine, I am afraid it is really difficult to take. Xie Yu smelled it herself, and the wine was fragrant, so she asked Master Liu, "What kind of wine is this?" ”

Master Liu leaned over and sniffed the aroma of the wine, pointed to the wine jar and said to Xie Yu firmly: "This is the peony brew of the Xu Family Wine Workshop, which is quite famous in Luoyang City. ”

"You can smell that too?"

Master Liu laughed, slightly proud in his words, and stretched out his hand to his nose, "This peony brew is made from our local peony flower dew in Luoyang, and it has this refreshing fragrance." The wine in the jar is mellow, presumably not long after the altar was opened, it seems that Zhou Ba is a ready-made loose wine in the workshop on the outskirts of the Xu family. ”

Xie Yu of the peony brewing in Xujia Distillery has heard a little about it these days, and it has been brewing wine for generations since the previous dynasty, and now it has a foundation of more than 100 years. The aroma of peony brewing comes from fresh peony flower dew. Therefore, in order to ensure the purity of peony brewing, the Xu family has always planted their own flower fields in the suburbs, brewed immediately, and then transported them into Luoyang City for sale before the altar was opened.

According to Master Liu's meaning, after Zhou Ba came out of the Yilou yesterday, he went to the workshop on the outskirts of the Xu family. In this way, it is right that he will return at the right time.

"Is the loose wine freshly made in the workshop better than the one sold in the city?" Xie Yu was a little curious.

Master Liu thought seriously for a moment, and replied to Xie Yu: "It's not much different, but the price of loose wine is cheaper." ”

That's weird.

Zhou Ba won a lot of silver money in the Sifang Gambling House yesterday, and it stands to reason that he is not short of silver, so why should he go to the workshop on the outskirts of the Xu family to buy loose wine.

Master Liu stretched out his hand and weighed the weight of the wine jar, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "But Zhou Ba's amount is indeed large enough, you don't see that this wine is made of peonies, but this stamina is also very strong, even an old drunkard like me, it is only half a jar of volume." ”

Yilou is a flower building, and it is understandable that Zhou Ba is a fierce drinker, but if he drinks alone, one jar is enough.

Xie Yu's eyes were faint, she had already understood on the road, and Zhou Ba was not on an errand in Yilou yesterday, so he went to the Sifang Gambling House to gamble. In other words, Zhou Ba was supposed to return to the Yilou on an errand today.

In this case, Zhou Ba will not be drunk.

"But do you think there's something wrong?" Master Liu asked from the side.

Xie Yu thought about it, and always felt that there were some things that she couldn't figure out, so she repeatedly confirmed to Master Liu, "Are you sure that Zhou Ba came back alone yesterday?" ”

"When Zhou Ba came back, many people saw it, and I didn't dare to pack tickets for other things, but when I came back yesterday, he definitely came back alone with two jars of wine."

"Here's the problem."

Master Liu sighed, as if he didn't know what Xie Yu meant.

"Master, have you ever seen two jars of loose wine? Although the price of loose wine is cheap, it is nothing to Zhou Ba, who has just won money from the gambling house. If it were you, Master, you could have bought it in the city, would you be so willing to save that few pennies? ”

"Then what do you mean ......"

Xie Yu's eyes fell on the wine jar, narrowed her eyes slightly, and said slowly: "Unless the workshop on the outskirts of the Xu family is the place where Zhou Ba will pass when he comes back." ”

Xie Yu came out with Master Liu, and saw a carriage slowly driving towards him from a distance.

When the carriage and horses got closer, they saw someone pushing the door and revealing their faces.

It's Pei Heng and Cui Yun.

As soon as Cui Yun saw Xie Yu, he asked, "How is the investigation?" ”

Master Liu presented the wine jar and repeated Xie Yu's speculation to Cui Yun, Cui Yun was anxious when he heard it, and hurriedly urged: "Since you have discovered this, why don't you go to the Xu family's workshop quickly." ”

Pei Heng, who had been silent when he heard the words, raised his hand and signaled to Xie Yu, "You come up." ”

Xie Yu was stunned for a moment, looked left and right before realizing that Pei Heng was talking to herself, and glanced at the carriage full of eyeshadow, and refused again and again: "The adult has raised his love, just let the subordinates go." ”

"The time left for us in Luoyang is less than five days, and now we have other thoughts, so we don't want to find out quickly." Pei Heng sat in the carriage and didn't come out, but Xie Yu could even guess his current demeanor by virtue of his tone.

She knew that Pei Heng could not speak without a beak, and she also understood what it would mean if it was five days to her.

As soon as the fifth day arrived, Pei Heng would never delay his time to go to Lingnan for this. At that time, she had only two options to choose from, one was to leave with Pei Heng with nothing, and the other was to stay in Luoyang to investigate the case until it came to light.

Xie Yu didn't dare to guarantee that Pei Heng would take her away, she was not a necessary person sent by the court, Pei Heng was willing to take her to Lingnan to lift, and Pei Heng asked him to stay in Luoyang to solve the case.

She couldn't refuse.

Cui Yun also urged, "Don't delay time." ”

At this point, if she still shirked it, it would really look hypocritical, so she followed into the carriage.

Master Liu helped close the door outside, and the light in the carriage dimmed in an instant.

The outside of the carriage looked inconspicuous, but in fact, there was a soft satin hidden sac inside, and a small mahogany table was placed in the middle, Pei Heng and Cui Yun sat on the left and right, Xie Yu didn't dare to trespass, so she had to find a corner to lean on.

Xie Yu is narrow, thin and petite, and the whole person is almost hidden under the figures of Pei Heng and Cui Yun.

Pei Heng pressed the lid of the pot and poured a cup of tea, pushed it in front of Xie Yu and said, "It's been a busy morning, drink a cup of tea to moisten your throat." ”

Now that the three of them are in the same carriage, Xie Yu only felt that Cui Yun's eyes had been falling on her, so she lowered her head and held the tea cup to her lips and sipped it so shallowly, until the cup of tea in the Xu Family Wine Workshop was half a cup.