In the early spring of the fifteenth year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, on the official road in Zunhua County, Hebei Province, a carriage was slowly moving forward, and the driver was a man in his early thirties, with a dark complexion, a short beard under his forehead, and a round-necked narrow-sleeved shirt. Although the cold winter has passed at this time, the wind blowing in the carriage is still very cool, this man is thinly dressed, not only does he not see the cold, but there are slight beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Uncle, are you thirsty? Drink some water, shall we? The voice of a young girl came from inside the carriage.

"Yue'er, uncle is not thirsty, you are hungry, you will be in Fuquan Town in front in another hour, and when we get there, we can eat at the inn." The man who was driving the car replied with a smile.

A white and tender little hand lifted the corner of the curtain of the carriage, "Well, I'm still a little hungry", a young but delicate face was revealed, this girl named Yue'er was wearing a purple skirt, aged eight or nine years old, and a pair of bright big eyes were particularly eye-catching.

"Huh! You kid! When you get to Zunhua, let your aunt cook for you and do her best job - Babao Guiyu! ”

"Well, that's great!" The two uncles and nephews chatted word by word.

This man's name is Jin Cheng, he has been practicing martial arts since he was a child, and now he is a head catcher in Zunhua County. The little girl's name is Zhang Yue, is the eldest daughter of Jin Cheng's eldest sister, she just turned nine years old this year, and her family lives in Xingji County, Hebei Province. And brother-in-law Zhang Luan is a talented person in the county school, busy with his studies all day long, and he has no time to care for his daughter.

Jin Cheng saw that the little Zhang Yue was clever, cute and likable, so he proposed to let Zhang Yue be fostered at his home in Zunhua County on the grounds that he and his wife had nothing to do. Zhang Luan and his wife are already patriarchal and have always paid little attention to their daughter, so they readily agreed. The uncle and nephew have been on the road for four days to leave Xingji County, and the journey has been smooth, and they will arrive in Zunhua County in two or three days.

The uncle and nephew were chatting, and there was a sudden noisy sound of horses' hooves behind the official road, and in a blink of an eye, I saw several people riding high-headed horses galloping to the side of the carriage. The second horse that followed was a boy of seven or eight years old, richly dressed and with an extraordinary temperament. The people behind the boy were all dressed as entourage, tightly surrounding the boy. The big man at the head held down the horse's head. Turning his head to Jin Cheng, he arched his hand and said in stiff Chinese: "This brother, how far is it from here to Fuquan Town?" ”

Jin Cheng also bowed his hand and returned the salute, "Go east along this official road, and you will arrive at Fuquan Town in less than an hour!" ”

"Uh, thank you!" The leader turned around and bowed his head to the little boy behind him very respectfully and said, "Little master, let's hurry up again and rest again when we get to Fuquan Town, right?" ”

The boy turned his head slightly to look at Jin Cheng and Zhang Yue, Xu is the relationship between peers, Zhang Yue was also looking at the boy curiously at this time, the boy's eyes were extremely focused, revealing an innate arrogance, the boy only glanced at it and turned his head, and he didn't look at the bearded man, and he snorted lightly in his nose, and skillfully urged the horse forward. The other horsemen hurried to follow, and the puff of dust raised by the horses' hooves disappeared in a moment.

Zhang Yue was stunned for a moment, and chuckled, "Eighty percent of the rich young master of which family is going out of the city to play." Look at his domineering look! ”

Jin Cheng frowned slightly, thinking slightly, "Looking at their figure and speech, they don't look like they are from the Central Plains, that boy rides a horse and looks ordinary, but in fact, he is a good horse in a million, and it is extremely difficult to control, I can't imagine that this boy is so skilled in riding at such a young age." ”

"Uncle, you deserve to be a famous catcher in the river, and you can observe it carefully!" Zhang Yue blinked and smiled.

"You kid, you make fun of your uncle again, what a name! It's not early, sit tight, my uncle is going to speed up, or he won't be able to reach Fuquan Town before dark. After saying that, he raised his whip and urged the horse to hasten his way.

When it was about to get dark, Jin Cheng's carriage arrived in Fuquan Town and stayed at the Fulai Inn. Although Fuquan Town is not under the jurisdiction of Zunhua County, Jin Cheng often passes through Fuquan Town to handle cases, and he has long been familiar with the innkeeper, who specially cleaned up two rooms in a remote but quiet location in the northwest corner of the inn to accommodate the two uncles and nephews.

Zhang Yue followed his uncle to finish dinner at the inn. The two went back to their rooms, the guest room is not big, it is very clean, in addition to the bed, a double-door wooden wardrobe, and a small round table, Zhang Yue saw that the hour was still early, so he took out a pen and paper, and practiced writing from his luggage.

Zhang Yue's father has orthodox Confucian ethics, thinking that a woman only needs to learn the 'three obedience and four virtues' well, and has never taught his daughter to read and write, but Zhang Yue's uncle Zhang Qi is open-minded and loves this niece very much.

Zhang Qi is full of poetry and books, especially good at regular script, and is a well-known calligrapher in the local area. When Zhang Yue was four years old, he unintentionally taught his niece to write a few words, and praised his niece for her talent, and then often taught Zhang Yue's calligraphy by hand, until Zhang Yue was seven years old, Zhang Qi was in the Jinshi, and entered Beijing as an official, so he interrupted teaching Zhang Yue's calligraphy.

Zhang Yue studied the ink on the small round table in the house, and began to practice the calligraphy he brought, and unconsciously wrote for an hour, Zhang Yue felt sleepy, so he packed up the pen and paper, picked up the wooden basin, opened the door and walked to the well in the middle of the courtyard of the guest room to draw water and prepare to go back to the house to wash, suddenly heard a "snap" behind him, like the sound of something hitting the door frame, Zhang Yue was stunned for a moment, turned his head to see, there was nothing in front of the door, so he didn't take it seriously, walked back to the guest room after receiving the water, turned around and locked the door, and was just about to wash, Suddenly, a faint fishy smell permeated the room.

Zhang Yue immediately became alert, and quickly inspected the house, there was nothing abnormal in the house, and suddenly she found that the wardrobe door handle in the house had a wet light red mark. Zhang Yue was startled, and he couldn't tell if there was this mark on the doorknob when he moved in, so he walked over hesitantly, held his breath, slowly opened the wardrobe door, looked inside, and suddenly took a step back in fright, and gasped. There was a gray thing cowering in the closet.

Zhang Yue has been bold since he was a child, and his personality is like that of a boy, so he settled down, and when he took a closer look, he saw that this mass of things was a person, or a half-grown child, only because the child was too cowering and his clothes were torn, so he was mistaken for a mess. The child was stained with blood, his hair was scattered, and his face was clinged to blood and mud, his eyes were blank, and his hands were clasped to his head, as if he was terrified. Sensing that the wardrobe door was open, Zhang Yue covered his head even tighter, Zhang Yue was stunned for a while, and then asked, "You... Who are you? How... How in... In the cupboard? ”

"......" The kid just held his head in his hands, trembling, and didn't answer Zhang Yue.

Zhang Yue didn't know what to do for a while, and was thinking about whether to tell his uncle, when suddenly a series of chaotic footsteps came from outside, coupled with a man's fierce voice:

"There are a few more rooms on the west side, look for them here!"

"He's injured, he won't go far, search here!" When the child heard this conversation, his dull expression suddenly distorted violently, his pupils constricted, his trembling became more intense, and he muttered, "Don't! Don't kill me! ”

"Bang bang bang!" Immediately, there was a loud knock on the door. Zhang Yue panicked, and her voice trembled a little: "Yes... Who is it? ”

"Girl, I'm a businessman staying in the hotel, and there was a burglar at the inn, and we lost something, and we want to check it out in your room." A man speaking in stiff Chinese said hurriedly. As soon as the words fell, the child suddenly grabbed Zhang Yue's arm, widened his eyes, and shook his head violently. This child has a lot of strength, and it hurts to catch Zhang Yue.

Zhang Yue looked at the child's frightened and desperate eyes, and her heart softened inexplicably, looking at her figure, this child should not be as old as her, she made a decision in an instant.

She shoved him into the closet and whispered, "Don't make a noise!" After speaking, he closed the wardrobe door, took out a handkerchief from his bosom and quickly wiped the blood marks on the wardrobe door, then came to the door, stabilized his breath, and said, "I don't have a thief here." Let's go. ”

The man outside heard the voice of a girl this time, and thought it was a good coax, so he hurriedly said: "Little girl, that thief has stolen our valuables, in case he hides it in your room, it may hurt your life, you open the door, I will search for you and keep you safe." ”

"It's late at night, I'm a girl, how do I know that you are a good person and a bad person, and I can't open the door with you!" The man didn't want Zhang Yue to be so difficult to deceive, so he hurriedly said, "Little girl, if you don't open the door again, I'm going to hit the door and break in!" ”

Zhang Yue was not only anxious when she heard this, but at this moment, a familiar voice came, "Who is going to break into my niece's room!" As soon as Zhang Yue heard that it was the uncle next door who rushed to hear the sound, his heart settled, "Uncle, they said that a thief stole their things, but they wanted to search my room, and if I didn't open it with them, they would break in." ”

"Good niece, don't worry, no one can break in here, look at a few benevolent brothers dressed, unlike people from the Central Plains, if you lose something, you should go to the government to solve the case, so hard, I'm afraid it's not appropriate."

"Yes, yes, here is the shopkeeper of this shop, this Jin Ye is the head catcher of the government, a few uncles, lost something, you can report to Jin Ye, you can't break into the guest room like this, this disturbs the guests, how can the small shop do business!" It turned out that the gang was shouting all the way, and the shopkeeper rushed over when he heard the news.

"You are from the government..." After hearing that the uncle was a head catcher, the uncle outside hesitated, and at this time, there seemed to be a few more people outside, whispering something to the man who spoke stiff Chinese, and the man suddenly asked, "In which direction did you run away?" ”

"To the south!"

"A few brothers, today's events are all misunderstandings, there are many offenses, there are urgent matters below, farewell!" The man with stiff Chinese said anxiously.

"Brother, please!" Jin Cheng didn't stop the man. There was a rush of footsteps. After a while, it was quiet outside.

"Yue'er, are you okay, uncle went in to see you?"

"Uncle, I'm fine, you don't have to come in, go and rest."

Jin Cheng was silent for a moment, "Okay then, you go to bed early!" Something shouted at my uncle. After speaking, the footsteps of Jin Cheng and the shopkeeper leaving came from outside the room.

After it was completely quiet, Zhang Yue came to the front of the wardrobe and opened the wardrobe door, the child's expression seemed to relax temporarily, and he returned to his previous sluggishness. looked at Zhang Yue's eyes and was not so guarded, but he still didn't say a word.