Zhuang Siyan's hands and feet were extremely fast, and when she saw the person, her feet had already run out.

Ye Yuanpei cooperated with her tacitly, and it didn't take much effort for the two of them to catch the person who was hiding in the dark and peeping at them.

As soon as the man knelt on the ground, he began to tremble, and his hands were pressed on the ground, and there were cracks of various sizes on it, some of which were already oozing blood.

When Zhuang Siyan turned his head to look at him, he saw that his face and neck were also black, and his skin was chapped.

"You're a river keeper?" She asked.

The man pounded his head on the ground and trembled for a long time before he said in a dumb voice, "If you go back to your lordship, yes." ”

Zhuang Siyan's words were fast: "Then why are you following us?" ”

As soon as these words came out, the river keeper actually crawled on the ground and wept "hmm".

Zhuang Siyan and Ye Yuanpei glanced at each other, didn't ask any more here, and brought the person back to the General's Mansion first.

It turned out that this person's name was Niu Er, and he and his younger brother Niu San were both working as river guards in the capital, and they had been doing it for many years.

But since the disappearance of the river guards here, his brother has disappeared with him.

What made Niu Er depressed was that some people were missing, and the government was looking for them, and some people were missing, but no one mentioned a word.

Niu San is the kind that no one mentioned, Niu Er found a small official for this matter, but was reprimanded back, on the grounds that his brother is usually a good gambler, saying that it may be killed by debt collection, and it is not necessarily, and he can't report it.

Niu Er said in a dumb voice: "My lord, although my brother usually gambles, if he has something, he will tell me, and he usually tells me when he goes out, and he won't go out for so long." ”

Zhuang Siyan asked him, "How long has your brother been missing?" ”

"Ten days." Niu Er said.

Niu Er also told them one thing, the loss of river guards happens every year, and there are not only these three people.

Zhuang Siyan felt that he had listened to the Book of Heaven, his eyes looked at Ye Yuanpei again, and when he saw that his face was not very good, he was comforted a little in his heart.

It turned out that not only did he feel that this matter was strange, but Lao Ye was afraid that he also saw something unusual.

Jing Niu Er said that since May this year, there have been river guards who have disappeared every now and then, so the land will be replenished with so many new ones.

At this time, the three people who reported to the government were the newcomers who were added later.

When Zhuang Siyan asked him why he didn't report to the official and whether those people had any families, Niu Er's tears fell.

He refused to stand up, and kept his legs on his knees, a little hysterical, as if the words were coming from the depths of his throat.

"My lord, most of these river guards are outsiders, who have no relatives and no reason in Kyoto City, and some are not outsiders, that is, homeless people in the city, so they will do this tiring and hard errand."

Zhuang Siyan scratched his head and said puzzledly: "Before the official came, someone told me that those who can do things here are all with iron rice bowls, and ordinary people can't come in, how can you say that it will be so miserable?" ”

Niu Er smiled bitterly: "My lord is right, but this was two years ago, and it has changed here since the year before last." ”

"Two years ago? What happened then? Is there anyone who is missing? ”

Niu Er's face was crying, his eyes were cloudy and he couldn't tell if it was tears, it was not a thing of eye feces, he was originally kneeling and crawling on the ground, and when Zhuang Siyan said several times to let him stand up and say, the others did not stand up, but raised their heads.

Zhuang Siyan was also depressed when he looked at this face.

I want to ask something from him, but I always feel that this person doesn't seem to tell the truth, or that he doesn't tell the truth.

He said part of it, maybe he was really too anxious to find his brother, so he said this part, but he was half-hidden about the river guard.

She was thinking about how to get the truth out, but Ye Yuanpei got angry first, and said to Niu Er: "You didn't tell the truth, I said earlier that people only started to disappear around May this year, and now I say that it was wrong two years ago." Niu Er, General Ben is looking at your brother is also among the missing people, so he has the patience to say that if you deceive General Ben with any more nonsense, you will be dragged out now, and the military couch will be killed. ”

Sitting on his heels, Niu Er, who looked chaotic, didn't finish hearing this, so he crawled forward and planted his head on the ground again.

Zhuang Siyan looked at it for a while.

In their line of work, it is normal to meet a few people who know and do not report the detours, but this Niu Er is different, he lost his younger brother, and he also took the initiative to find Zhuang Siyan and them.

It can be regarded as taking the initiative, if he is silent, Zhuang Siyan and the others will not arrest him back.

As a result, after arriving here, there was still no sentence, and then he was still frightened by Ye Yuanpei, so he said the following words again.

Then, Zhuang Siyan and the others learned another piece of news from it.

Tian Miao, the current waiter of the Ministry of Works, was transferred two years ago, and there were other people who used to manage the Ministry of Works.

Niu Er was just a very small river guard, and he couldn't even tell the names of those adults, so he only told them that since the change of adults, there had been problems with the river guards.

Withholding money and food and bullying river guards happen from time to time, and changes are taking place in the entire river protection team.

Niu Er said: "People who are usually a little powerful have been transferred, and the rest are those of us who have no power, no power and no money."

Later, the people who came got worse and worse, many of them were wandering sweaters who had nowhere to go, and there were also many outsiders who came to the capital and couldn't find anything to do, and they didn't want to starve to death, so they came here. ”

Zhuang Siyan asked him: "Then is your life now sadder than before?" ”

Niu Er nodded: "It's good to have a full meal a day, but there are more and more jobs, in addition to protecting the river, we usually do other things, sometimes we are called up by adults in the middle of the night to patrol the streets." ”

"Patrol? You guys? Do what? Zhuang Ye asked almost in unison.

Niu Er said: "We don't know, we just changed our clothes, walked around the street, and didn't take the main road, we all took those small roads that we didn't usually walk." ”

Zhuang Siyan immediately asked, "What clothes do you change?" ”

Niu Er probably made a comparison, it is not an official uniform, nor a guard uniform, it is the clothes that people usually wear, but in terms of style and unity, there should be some sense of ceremony.

At this point, Zhuang Siyan was already confused, she asked Niu Er to take Niu Er down first, and she sat in the hall with Ye Yuanpei to discuss what to do next.

"I'll go back and check first, who was in charge of the Ministry of Engineering before, and what happened? I have been in contact with this Tian Miao before, and he is a little cunning, but I really didn't see it at the time, he has such a big problem. ”

Ye Yuanpei nodded and said: "At that time, I felt that things were going too smoothly when I was arrested from Taichang Temple, as if someone had designed it to send that little child to us." ”

"You mean Sun Xi? What's the point of sending him into our hands, nothing has happened until now? ”

Ye Yuanpei shook his head: "I don't know, maybe it's not time to use him, maybe that's the other party's purpose." ”

Zhuang Siyan also understood at this time, if it was really all that Sun Youhe designed, then he probably knew that he would not be able to live a normal life in the future, so he sent Sun Xi back.

What Zhuang Siyan and they want to figure out is what happened during the time when Sun Xi was intercepted by him, and what will happen in the future? That's what matters at this point.

At this time, there were also many people living in General Ye's mansion, and Lu Xiao's sister-in-law was still here, and there was also a woman from the gambling house at the same time as his sister-in-law.

Then there is Liu Li's wife, and Niu Er.

When Zhuang Siyan left that day, he was still thinking, when will this Ye General's Mansion also have the function of a warm house, and begin to contain these homeless people who are carrying unjust cases.

Unexpectedly, something happened that night.

Ye Yuanpei has a habit of being brought over from modern times, that is, staying up late at night.

Like Zhuang Siyan, he usually takes a nap after dinner, and then when it comes to the real night, he is not so sleepy.

When I was in the barracks before, I walked around and checked the security around me, so I also had a good reputation in the camp, and the officers and men of the whole army knew that their generals were sleepless and searched for accounts every night, and naturally they did not dare to slack off.

Who knows, Ye Yuanpei doesn't sleep, just because he can't sleep.

Of course, this is all off topic.

Ye Yuanpei, who returned to Beijing, likes to walk around the house at night when he has nothing to do.

The General's Mansion is big enough, and it will still take a lot of time to walk down in a circle, plus he has nothing to do, and he doesn't have anyone with him, and he slowly walks through the unlit place, and almost no one will find him.

That night, Ye Yuanpei walked slowly through the courtyard like this.

At this time, the third watch day has passed, most of the people in the house have also gone to rest, the lights in the house have been turned off, only a few lights are still lit in the courtyard, which is very quiet.

Ye Yuanpei was used to such quietness, but he felt very comfortable, so he was not in a hurry to go back, so he sat down on a stone chair blocked by flowers.

He had not been settling down for a short time when he saw a man approaching from the end of the small garden, with a hurry, but with a very soft voice, and deliberately hiding from the guards of the house.

Ye Yuanpei has always been sensitive, and when he saw this situation, he knew that it was unusual, so he hid into the holly tree next to him on one side of his body.

The man walked past him and walked into a small courtyard.

It's Niu Er, after Ye Yuanpei saw that it was him, he immediately thought of the other two people who lived in his house.

He followed Niu Er quietly, watched him enter the courtyard, and then carefully closed the door.

This is the General's Mansion, it is his Ye Yuanpei's territory, not to mention that he just covers it up, or locks it, it is easy for Ye Yuanpei to go in, and he knows what his purpose is.

So when Niu Er found Lu Lin's wife, Ye Yuanpei was already there.

He was very close, watching the three people in the light uncharacteristically gather together and speak in a low voice.

Niu Erxian was very anxious, as if he was anxious to get something done, and wanted Lu's wife to help, but Lu's wife kept shaking her head and persuaded him to give up.

The woman who was a spectator next to her stood up at this time and said: "Brother Niu, this is the General's Mansion, it's not that we won't help you, but we can't help it, if we go out from here, we won't be able to survive a day in the capital." ”

Niu Er gritted his teeth: "Then are you willing to hide here, hide behind this dirty official, and do nothing?" ”

Lu's wife raised her head, her face was very white in the light, but her words were very forestous: "General Ye is not a dirty official, we have always been protected by him when we came here." ”

Niu Er's eyes suddenly widened: "Sister-in-law, it seems that you have forgotten what he did to you before." ”