"Son, you can't lack silver if you lack anything, and the big hero can't stop the three words hunger, cold and poverty with a knife in his hand." These were the last words he said to Duan Chu when his mother died.

This year, the first snow in Jiangbei suddenly came, and it fell for two days and two nights.

On the twenty-second day of the lunar month, the territory of Pengzhou Mansion rode on the Dragon Mountain, and the cold wind was cold and the snowflakes were fluttering.

Duan Chu wore a hat and black clothes, and walked forward in the wind and snow on the mountain road.

Xie Yuwen, a prisoner on death row in Pengzhou Mansion and a gangster who was beheaded by the emperor, took the opportunity to escape from prison when it snowed.

After Xie Yuwen escaped from prison, he also took advantage of the heavy snow to sneak into the depths of Qilong Mountain.

Originally, Xie Yuwen was supposed to be handled by Duan Chu, and two days later he was beheaded on Cross Street to show the public.

This is the decision of the Pengzhou Mansion, the Wen Dynasty Astronomical Master, and the board.

Routinely chasing down escaped death row inmates is a matter of arrest and inspection, and it is not within the scope of Duan Chu's duties, but this is the first official red mission of a young executioner.

If you cut off your head, you will see blood, and if you see blood, you will see red.

Generally, in order to get lucky, the executioner calls the beheading a red errand.

The executioner team in the yamen, known as the Hongyang class, is also for this reason.

Duan Chu's knife to cut Xie Yuwen must not be missed!

As an executioner, the first knife in his career failed, and that was a great omen.

Even if he puts aside the taboo of this industry and doesn't kill Xie Yuwen, for Duan Chu, this cold winter will not be easy for him.

The executioner of Pengzhou Mansion usually has a very low salary, and he can only earn a capitation fee when he is on a red business trip, generally a head of one or two silver, and the more fierce and reckless the death row prisoner, the higher the capitation fee.

For example, Xie Yuwen.

Because he killed too many people and refused to bow his head and admit his guilt, the capitation fee has risen to ten taels of silver that Pengzhou Mansion had never issued before.

Since joining the Hongyang class for more than a year, Duan Chu has been excluded in the class due to his young age and low qualifications.

The last surplus food in the family has been made into a nest, and now it is in Duan Chu's arms.

If you don't kill Xie Yuwen, he has no income, and he has no money to buy New Year's goods.

In order to survive, he had to carry Xie Yuwen's head and go to the Pengzhou Mansion in exchange for the ten taels of silver.

Duan Chu was already in the Dragon Mountain, going around all night and one day.

At this moment, he shook off the snow on his hat and clothes, and stood with his chest straight, the main peak of Qilong Mountain, the highest point of Tongzi Peak.

Against the north wind, he gnawed on the head of the nest with the snow, and Duan Chu stepped on the boulder and looked at the four fields.

There are several white steamed bun-like mountain peaks around, and there is a white expanse everywhere, stretching until the end of the eye.

The cunning Xie Yuwen brought a lot of trouble to Duan Chu's tracking.

Before, he used messy footprints to lay down a suspicious formation, but after Duan Chu was misled, when he realized that something was wrong and looked back again, the footprints had been buried by heavy snow, and now he could only look high and look far away to find clues.

In Tong Zifeng, he gnawed off two nest heads, and Duan Chu didn't find any clues.

If you can't find Xie Yuwen, you won't be able to get the ten taels of silver.

The cold wind was biting, and the sweat from climbing the mountain before had turned into close ice.

At this time, Duan Chu, like a death row prisoner, also felt that he was at the end of his rope.

Just when Duan Chu was about to despair, he suddenly found that on the northwest side of the mountain peak, a wisp of black smoke was rising.

Without the slightest hesitation, Duan Chu touched a cold steel knife behind his back and quietly walked towards the place where the black smoke was rising.

It was a hidden cave, with an entrance of just over five feet, and most of it was covered by snow.

There was still light smoke coming out of the hole.

Xie Yuwen was ruthless and quick, and it had been verified that he used the black shop of the inn to kill thirty-six people before and after.

At most, one person can single knife, and in the middle of the night, he will behead the seven big men who sell illicit salt in the inn.

Salt and iron are controlled by the imperial court, and it is a felony to sell them privately.

Those smuggler salt dealers were engaged in gambling with their heads tied to their belts, and seven of them were hard stubble, but they were killed by Xie Yuwen alone, which shows that their hearts are ruthless, and their knife skills are even more extraordinary.

Face to face, Duan Chu was completely sure to deal with Xie Yuwen, but the entrance to the cave was narrow, and he had to beware of ambushes and sneak attacks.

So Duan Chu didn't rush into the hole, but picked up a dead wood and poked the hole.

The snow fell in a puff, revealing a couplet carved into the stone wall on both sides of the hole.

A breath of air haunts the sky;

Create a two-foot body of a boy.

The horizontal batch is four words: exquisite snow tires.

Duan Chu didn't read much, and he couldn't even recognize half of the eighteen words of horizontal batches and couplets.

The people in the cave heard the movement, coughed for a while, and then spoke: "It's cold outside, come in." ”

Before the incident, the inn run by Xie Yuwen was in the center of the cross street, and Duan Chu often passed by there, so he could hear Xie Yuwen's voice, and it was Xie Yuwen who was talking inside!

Duan Chu couldn't help but feel excited.

Inside is a dozen taels of silver with white flowers!

Winter cotton clothes, New Year's goods for the holidays, no longer have to worry!

Duan Chu raised his hand and shook it, the dead wood flew to the cave with a strong wind, borrowed the dead wood to open the way, he pulled out the steel knife again, stretched into the hole and pulled a knife flower, and then the cat bent his waist and quickly got into the hole.

did not encounter Xie Yuwen's sneak attack, Duan Chu arrived in the cave, only to find that although the entrance was narrow, the inside was very spacious.

A small and delicate temple is located in the middle of the cave.

However, the temple has long been dilapidated, and the only complete objects are the two statues in front of the main hall.

The statue is not a Buddha, not a Taoist, not a fairy, that is, a man and a woman, two children, white clothes, white skirts and white hats are spotless, you can see that the skin is snow-white, only the four big eyes are jet black.

Xie Yuwen sat cross-legged between the two statues, burning a pile of firewood in front of him to keep warm.

He hadn't washed for a long time, his hair was messy and his face was full of stubble, and he was coughing incessantly, and he looked like he was already suffering from a cold.

For Duan Chu, Xie Yuwen is now just a turtle in an urn.

Xie Yuwen's knife stood three feet behind him.

Duan Chu smiled, stuck the steel knife behind his back, sat opposite Xie Yuwen across the fire, rubbing his hands together to bake the fire.

He didn't speak, but looked at the two statues.

"You've never seen a statue like this, have you?" Xie Yuwen asked.

Duan Chu nodded honestly.

"The material of the statue is the high-grade mutton fat jade in the Tang Dynasty, and the eyeballs are made of deep-sea black pearls, but this is not important, the important thing is that this statue is carved with a snow doll!"

Xie Yuwen's tone was sonorous.

Duan Chu didn't react much, instead moving his gaze from the statue to the fire.

Seeing that Duan Chu was unmoved, Xie Yuwen shook his head.

"I know that you don't read much, so you may not know that couplet, but I can tell you that the couplet outside the door is about the snow doll, and the snow doll hides the secret of immortality!"

Duan Chu still didn't say anything, reached into his arms, and took out a nest head and a white-flour steamed bun.

He took these two things in his hand, and then threw the white-flour steamed bun to Xie Yuwen.

Seeing Duan Chu breaking open the nest head and roasting it on the fire, Xie Yuwen, who hadn't eaten grain rice for two days, hurriedly went to roast steamed buns.

He was roasting and eating, and his mouth was not idle.

"Brother, let me tell you the truth, not only animals and plants can become essence, but also snow can become essence, as the so-called snow falls silently, exquisite snow appears, snow doll, fate to see!"

"After escaping from prison, with my skills, I climbed over the mountains and mountains, got rid of the tracking of the government's group of wine bags and rice bags, and changed my face incognito in the future, and lived in seclusion somewhere, it was as easy as a snap!"

"Why don't I go far and fly high, but live in a cave and be blocked by your tracks?"

"That's because there will be a snow doll here tomorrow!"