Bao Zheng remembered what Li Si said just now to let Ling Chuchu and Zhuo Yun get married as soon as possible, looked at Ling Chuchu with a strange expression, and asked, "What's the matter with you and that Zhuo Yun?" ”

Ling Chuchu shook his head helplessly, sighed lightly, and said, "I only found out about this three months ago, and it turned out that Zhuo Yun and I were married. When my father and I mentioned it, I didn't agree, and I had a big quarrel with him, and then ran away from home, and then I met you in Luzhou. ”

When Bao Zheng heard that Ling Chuchu himself did not agree to the marriage, the expression on his face relaxed slightly, but his face was too dark for several people to notice.

Jiang Yi was thinking: This Zhuo Yun is also a protagonist with a deep hatred of blood, and his fiancée is about to regret her marriage, so she is just one golden finger away from rising.

Ling Chuchu continued: "Later, I came back to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with my father, and my father brought up the old matter again, I had a big fight with him, and he locked me up.

Then, Uncle Zhuo Qi was killed in the woods, and when we found his body, his left shoulder was cut off and could not be found, which made the people in the village panic.

At the same time, my dad suddenly disappeared......"

After briefly explaining the matter, Ling Chuchu said, "I'll take you around the village first, familiarize yourself with the environment, and see if you can find any clues." ”

"Okay."

Ling Chuchu took the three of them, first went to Zhuo Yun and Yang Kai's house to have a look, and then went to the knife factory in the village.

The knife factory is quite lively, and many young people are striking iron, forging weapons, and ping pong in it.

Ling Chuchu introduced: "This is the knife factory opened by my father, and Yang Kai and Zhuo Yun usually build weapons here. After the weapons are ready, they will be taken out and sold. ”

Bao Zheng nodded, thinking back to what he had seen and heard in Yinyi Village all the way, and his thoughts turned: According to Chu Chu, the people in the village basically have martial arts, and they also run such a large knife factory, obviously they will not be too short of money, so it is impossible to live in seclusion to escape the harsh taxes of the imperial court.

Could it be that he is hiding from some enemy?

……

In the evening, Yang Kai invited Ling Chuchu to dinner, and by the way, he also invited Jiang Yi and the others.

The main ingredient for dinner is naturally the fragrant roe deer that I just hunted today.

After the meal, Jiang Yi and the four of them returned to Chu Chu's house and began to discuss their next actions.

"Brother Jiang, Brother Bao, did you find anything today?" Ling Chuchu looked at the two of them and asked.

Bao Zheng shook his head: "I haven't found any useful clues yet." ”

Jiang Yi said: "Your village is really weirdly tight. It's as if they're all hiding secrets. But these old people don't care about him beforehand.

Let me ask you, apart from the death of your Uncle Zhuo Qi and the disappearance of your father in the recent period, has there been any strange things that have happened in this hidden village? ”

"Strange things?"

After pondering for a while, Ling Chuchu said, "Recently, there have often been ape-men in the mountains and forests outside the village, Yang Kai and Zhuo Yun can often see the remains of food torn apart and eaten by ape-people when they are hunting, is this a strange thing?" ”

"What ape-man?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously.

"Legend has it that the ape-man was eight feet tall, covered with hair, and extremely powerful, and could tear tigers and leopards alive." Ling Chuchu explained.

Jiang Yi knew that the ape-man was Ling Chuchu's missing father, Ling Ri. It's just that he can't say it directly, he can only rub his chin and make a thoughtful appearance.

Ling Chuchu looked at him as if he had thought of something, and hurriedly asked, "Brother Jiang, is there something wrong with this ape?" ”

Jiang Yi didn't answer and asked, "When did the legend of the ape-man appear?" Has anyone in the village ever seen an ape-man? ”

Ling Chuchu recalled: "There were rumors when I was a child, but no one had ever seen it, and I had never seen the food remains left by the ape-man before. It wasn't until a month ago that the apes began to haunt frequently, which happened to be the time when my father disappeared and Uncle Zhuo Qi died. ”

Ling Chuchu thought about it, and also felt that the time when the ape-man appeared was too coincidental, and guessed: "Could it be that this ape is the real murderer?" ”

Jiang Yi guessed that the previous ape-man rumors should have been released by Zhuo Qi to prevent the woman on the back mountain from being discovered, and said:

"It's hard to say whether this ape-man has anything to do with the affairs of the village, but it is very suspicious. If possible, we'd better catch this ape-man. It doesn't matter if it's a real ape-man or someone pretending to be it. ”

Ling Chuchu nodded: "Okay, I'll go and discuss with Yang Kai and Zhuo Yun tomorrow, go to the forest to set a trap, and capture the ape." ”

After speaking, he looked at Bao Zheng again: "Brother Bao, do you have anything to add?" ”

Bao Zheng thought for a while and proposed, "I want to go to your father's room and study to check and see if I can find any clues." ”

"Okay, come with me."

Ling Chuchu said, took the three of them to Ling Ri's room to search, found nothing, and then went to the study again.

The study room is tastefully decorated, with a variety of books on the shelves.

After Jiang Yi entered the room, he noticed at a glance that there was a delicate sword hanging on the wall, shining brightly.

He stepped forward, took the sword off, and drew it in his grip.

With a snort, there was only a steel wire attached to the hilt, but there was no sword body.

With Jiang Yi's movements, there was a muffled rumble, and the wall in front of him suddenly flipped over, revealing a dark passage.

Ling Chuchu looked at the dark secret passage, and was also a little surprised: "There is actually a secret passage here, I never knew it. ”

Jiang Yi smiled: "Let's go in and have a look." ”

The four of them took an oil lamp for lighting, walked into the dark passage, and walked more than ten meters before they came to a secret room.

There was a table against the wall of the chamber with a black rosewood box on it.

Ling Chuchu looked at this wooden box and shouted: "I have seen this rosewood box once before, my father is very precious to this box, and he didn't let Erniang touch it with me at all, but I didn't expect my father to hide it here, no wonder I never saw it again." ”

Bao Zheng heard her say this, knowing that the contents of this box must be very important to Ling Ri, and stepped forward to open the rosewood box, only to find that there was only a yellow cloth inside, and the cloth was tattooed with small dragons.

Jiang Yi looked at this piece of yellow cloth, his eyes flashed, and a thought suddenly flashed in his mind: In fact, outsiders can take this piece of yellow cloth and the yellow cloth and bracelet from Liuzi, and pretend to be the prince who was in exile back then.

If it works well, there is no chance of ascending to the throne. After all, the orthodox title still has a strong appeal in this year. The current emperor's improper position can be said to be a great weakness.

It's a pity that he doesn't have the heart to do things at the moment, he just wants to improve his strength as soon as possible, and he doesn't want to get involved in this matter.

Bao Zheng took the yellow cloth and looked at it carefully for a while, but he couldn't see anything abnormal, so he could only continue to look for it in the secret room.

As soon as I turned my head, I saw a curtain in the corner of the wall, as if it was blocking something.

Bao Zheng stepped forward curiously and lifted the curtain.

Suddenly, a black, headless corpse came into his eyes.

"Ahh

Suddenly seeing this terrifying thing, Bao Zheng couldn't help screaming and fainted.

Jiang Yi and Zhan Zhao hurriedly went over to help him up and carried him back to the room.

"Brother Bao, is he okay?" Zhan Zhao asked worriedly.

After Jiang Yi checked Bao Zheng's pulse, he was relieved: "Don't worry, he was just too frightened and fainted, and I will be fine if I prick him with two stitches." ”

As he spoke, he took out the golden needle and began to acupuncture for Bao Zheng.

Soon after the injection, Bao Zheng came to his senses. When I opened my eyes, I shouted with palpitations, "There are ghosts."

After finding out that he was not in the secret room, Bao Zheng breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's not a ghost, it's a dried corpse."

Ling Chuchu comforted.

However, her comfort undoubtedly had the opposite effect, and Bao Zheng's face was still so ugly: "What, dry corpse!" Why do you have dried corpses in your house? ”

"I don't know, I've had it since I was a child. And it's not just my family, every family in the village has a dried corpse in their home, and there is also one in the knife factory, and each dried corpse has a part of its body missing. I asked my dad and he wouldn't tell me why. ”

Ling Chuchu explained.