"Sir, I've recited it!" Li Wenlan jumped in excitedly, "Sir, it's only taken a quarter of an hour!" Li Wenlan looked at the dripping in the corner of the house, and her face flushed with excitement.

"Brother Lan recited it? Carry it to me. Guo Sheng replied subconsciously, with a warm smile, and seemed to listen to Li Wenlan's endorsement very seriously, but in fact, what Li Wenlan memorized, circled loudly in his ears, and then dissipated.

"Brother Lan'er has a good back, and this time there has been a lot of progress." Li Wenlan's voice stopped, and Guo Sheng hurriedly praised him.

The pen in Li Xia's hand paused, and he looked up at Guo Sheng, the sixth brother had memorized two and a half sentences, and he didn't even hear it...... I didn't see it, it turned out to be such a casual and unproductive!

Li Xia was disappointed for a while, alas, let's take a look at this matter in Xikou Town first, and see how far he can find out.

………………

Guo Sheng returned to his small courtyard, closed the door, slowly fell into the chair, and slowly recalled the words Li Xia said little by little:

On the edge of the Zixi Salt Farm, there is a place called Xikou Town, in Xikou Town, there is a family surnamed Zhao, a merchant, the head of the family Zhao Huiqing, and his stepwife Meng, to inquire about this family, the more detailed the better.

He knew that Xikou Town, close to the salt farm, compared with other places, the land is much poorer, and the people in the town are mostly small merchants, and some of them work and do business in the salt field, most of them go to Yangzhou and Xuzhou, and most of them sell tea......

What's so surprising about this place, this family?

Guo Sheng sat on the chair, pondered for a while, and was in a trance for a while, and sat until midnight, when the cold air went from his feet to his legs and waist, and it was cold, so he stood up with the armrests of the chair and slowly moved his legs and feet for a while.

When the blood is cleared, I moved to the next door, poked the stove, boiled the water, squatted in front of the stove, looked at the cheerful and beating flames, and only felt that this fire was so warm, this fire was so lively and lovely, this stove, this pot, this water, this fire, this room, this world, they were all so lively, so interesting and lovely.

The next day, Guo Sheng found an excuse for verification, borrowed a horse, and went straight to Xikou Town.

Lao Zhao's family is in Xikou Town, which can be regarded as one of the best families, almost all over the town, it sounds very easy to fight, and all kinds of gossip about his family are everywhere.

But after half a day's work, Guo Sheng inquired and understood, sitting in the small tea shop opposite Lao Zhao's house, asked for a big bowl of haggis soup, a plate of white-cut mutton, two baked cakes, while eating, while aiming at the movement of Lao Zhao's house opposite, while frowning, thinking hard about Li Xia asked him to inquire about this family, what was the purpose, what did she want to know, or rather, what did she want him to inquire about, he inquired now, did he inquire about it......

Definitely not, it's all normal now, it's too common, since she asked him to inquire, this family must be different, it's worth asking, where is it?

Guo Sheng tastelessly bites the cake, eats the meat and drinks the soup, and goes through the letters he just heard over and over again, after seven or eight times, vaguely, he seems to feel that something seems wrong......

Outside the two black lacquered vermilion-edged gates of Lao Zhao's house opposite, an old woman wearing a somewhat strange robe stepped forward and buckled the door knocker a few times.

Guo Sheng's back straightened suddenly, chewing the meat in his mouth for a while, staring intently at the dark door opposite.

The door quietly opened a crack from the inside, and the crack in the door was facing the other direction, where Guo Sheng was sitting, he could only see a hand stretched out from the crack in the door, and handed half a string of big money to the mother-in-law wearing a strange robe.

Guo Sheng immediately pushed away the soup bowl, stood up, and put on the woman in the Taoist robe not far away.

The robed woman walked down the street, and went to several more houses, all of them the same, most of them for a handful of copper coins, and one or two for a piece of fine silk cloth, and a bag of unknown things.

The robe-robed woman's skirt looked heavy, turned into a small alley, went all the way forward, passed through several vegetable patches, walked along the ridge for more than half a mile, and entered a courtyard that looked like an elephant house, but was a little weird.

Out of the alley, the line of sight was wide, Guo Sheng could see the woman in the robe from a distance, he didn't have to follow closely, he didn't dare to follow closely, he was far behind, watching the woman enter the courtyard, and the courtyard gate was still wide open.

Guo Sheng made a big circle, looking like an idler, went around to the gate of the courtyard, and looked inside.

The woman just now had already moved a small bench, sitting in the courtyard and folding something, in the middle of the courtyard, there was a half-human-high incense burner, Guo Sheng instantly understood that the reason why this place that looked like a mansion was strange was because it was not a mansion, it was a place of obscenity, but I didn't know what god was sacrificed.

Guo Sheng had a number in his heart, and went straight into the courtyard gate, as if he didn't see the woman, he walked straight to the incense burner, arched his hand towards the main house, touched a few big coins and threw them to the woman, "I didn't expect there to be offerings here, I didn't have time to prepare incense, please go back and help me put incense on the pillar." ”

"It's good to have a heart." When the woman had taken the money, she arose and went into the chamber, and in a moment she took out a handful of incense, lit it, and put it into the censer.

Guo Sheng had already stumbled up in the courtyard at random, turned around to look at the trees and the house, looked around, looked around, pointed to the three main houses with a folding fan and asked the woman, "Can you go in today?" ”

"It's not very convenient at this time, the mage is doing it, sir, wait a minute, it'll be fine in a while." The woman was very polite.

Guo Sheng sighed, turned around and walked out of the courtyard gate, along the courtyard, stumbling around, this courtyard from the inside, the three upper rooms are straight to the top of the two ends, you can see from the outside, the three upper rooms are surrounded by the courtyard wall in the middle, behind the upper room, there is a row of five low back cover rooms.

In the back half, there is a very small corner door on the left and a right, and the door is very heavy, and the brass lock is strong.

Guo Sheng went around in a circle, returned to the gate of the courtyard, looked at the three upper rooms on both sides of the courtyard gate, his heart sank, he vaguely knew why the girl asked him to come over to check the family surnamed Zhao.

Guo Shengzhong shook into the courtyard again, looked at the door that was still closed, looked very bored, stood next to the woman who was slowly folding paper flowers, and gossiped, "I'm a foreigner, I heard that there is a family surnamed Zhao in this Xikou Town?" ”

"There are several families with the surname Zhao." The woman seemed to be honest and unconcerned.

"His grandfather is doing business in Yangzhou."

"That's the Zhao family at the corner of the street, when you arrive in the town, along the street to the end, the one at the head is the Zhao family, the blue brick gatehouse, very rich." The woman carefully showed Guo Sheng the way.

"I don't know if the Zhao family is at home these days?" Guo Sheng looked at the woman, as if asking her, and as if talking to himself.