"Beiyang, there are two natural birthmarks on the back of your neck, which are very similar to the antler shape of the young Qilin Town Tomb Beast, except that you are fiery red and it is snow-white." Qi Yuanshan continued to wipe his hair with a towel, "You may still have secrets hidden in your body that you don't even know. The other day, the two of us went to take a bath at the bathhouse on Kade Road, and you said that you felt like someone was peeking at you, and I joked that there was a man who liked you. Now that you think about it, someone must be peeking at the birthmark on the back of your neck. ”

Qin Beiyang subconsciously touched the back of his neck: "Yes, that's why, after I fall into Suzhou Creek tonight, there will be people who will use bamboo poles to save me, they have been staring at me." At this moment, maybe it's behind us. ”

"Don't scare me!"

Qi Yuanshan looked back vigilantly behind him, and there was really a gray figure, wearing a top hat and a long robe, with a face hidden in the shadows, like an assassin who slaughtered everyone in this house.

"Who?"

Qin Beiyang shouted violently and rushed towards the ghostly figure, the other party dodged lightly, and a murderous aura spread in all directions.

Qi Yuanshan attacked from the other direction: "Be careful that he has a dagger!" ”

In the deserted street, three long figures were illuminated by the street lamps...... Tossing and turning, fists and feet, like a silent movie, relying on the interplay of light and shadow to support the picture.

The other party is also very skilled, but he didn't show the murder weapon for a long time, and used his arm to block a few moves, seeing that his two fists were invincible to his four hands, he was about to be forced into a dead end by Qin Beiyang and Qi Yuanshan.

Suddenly, there was an extra pistol in his hand, aimed at Qin Beiyang's nose.

The gunshot didn't go off, but Qin Beiyang put down his fist: "You are not an assassin!" Because you use a gun, and an assassin only uses a dagger. ”

"Qin Beiyang, I haven't seen you for four months, and you have grown again!"

The voice was very familiar, and the faces of the people who came showed their faces under the street lamps. A man in his early thirties, twisting a pair of thick eyebrows and a mustache, and his eyes were like knives, but Qin Beiyang couldn't help but be overjoyed - Ye Kenan, the inspector of the Beijing Police Department.

"Inspector Ye! How did you get to Shanghai? ”

Ye Kenan put away the pistol, took off his top hat, and said with a smile: "Can't you come to see the scenery of the Huangpu River?" ”

"Please accept Qin Beiyang's worship!"

"Please bow to Qi Yuanshan!"

The two of them want to thank Ye Kenan for rescuing them from the prison where Zhang Xun was restored four months ago.

"What a gesture!"

Qin Beiyang grabbed his hand and said, "That's right, Inspector Ye, do you know where my father is?" ”

"Don't worry, his injuries have healed, and now he is the chief mechanic of the Nanyuan Arsenal of the Beiyang Government."

"My dad went to the arsenal to work as a mechanic?"

"I haven't seen him for a long time, and he is said to be developing a secret weapon for the Beiyang Army."

"Secret weapon?" Qin Beiyang looked back at Qi Yuanshan, "Could it be a tomb beast?" ”

"It was a military secret, ordered by Premier Duan Qirui, and personally supervised by Vice Minister of the Army Xu Shuzheng. I, a detective of a criminal investigation case, how can I know these inside stories. ”

"As long as he's okay! As the chief mechanic, at least the salary will not be less, and there will be no hunger again. ”

"I heard they went digging graves recently."

"Gravedigging?"

Ye Kenan looked back at the Hongkou Arrest House, and got down to business: "Sheriff Hilton of the Shanghai Public Concession Patrol House invited me to come to Shanghai to help solve the case through the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Beiyang Government. Worried that this was a political case and that it would cause interference from the British and American powers, the Chief of Internal Affairs instructed me to solve the case as soon as possible. However, I am the inspector of the Beijing Police Department, and I can only work as a consultant for the concession, and I have no right to participate in the arrest operation. ”

"September 2, 1907." Qin Beiyang was also polite, pointing to the murder scene that was sealed, "Behind this gate, the murderer used the blood of the victim to write down the date of ten years ago, this is the reason why the patrol room invited you to assist." That year, the steamer Xu Fumaru from Shanghai to Japan disappeared, and the Gengzi compensation on the ship disappeared, and the huge amount of one million taels of silver was this big case, right? ”

"I'm sorry, I can't go into details." Ye Kenan stared at Qin Beiyang's eyes and changed the topic, "I was hiding in the dark just now, eavesdropping on the conversation between the two of you for a while. You have a point. ”

Qi Yuanshan couldn't help but ask: "Is there any progress in the case?" ”

"Although the board of directors of the Ministry of Industry and the consul generals of various countries in Shanghai have ordered the case to be solved as soon as possible, the patrol room is still helpless. I told him all the details of the Tianjin Concession extermination eight years ago, as well as the massacre in Beijing this year, and even brought the murder weapon from the filing cabinet at that time, the dagger with an ivory handle and a "comet striking the moon". ”

"It was this dagger that killed me...... Mother. ”

Qin Beiyang did not say the adoptive mother, but still said the word "mother", which shows that the murder hurt the child deeply.

"Well, this is the only murder weapon left at the scene by the assassins, and I think it may be the key to unlocking the mystery."

"Inspector Ye, then you came here tonight to investigate the scene, did you find anything special?"

"Yes!" Ye Kenan walked a few steps east along the street, "What kind of place will it be if you go all the way down here?" ”

"The wharf by the Huangpu River."

"After the massacre in the early hours of the morning, where did you say the Assassins had gone? Where is that thief named Xiaomu hiding now? Why can't any clues be found in the Public Concession, the United French Concession and the Chinese Concession? It is said that the patrol house has turned tens of thousands of households north of Suzhou Creek upside down. ”

Qin Beiyang was reminded by Ye Kenan: "What if...... They got on the boat in the early hours of the morning and left? ”

"Maybe not yet!"

"Yes, since they are still spying on me, they will not let go of the Dharma Mountain and the small town tomb beast on the sea."

Qi Yuanshan interjected again: "I guess, those people are still in Shanghai, maybe on the ship moored at the dock?" Each ship flew a foreign flag, and the concession authorities were not allowed to search the ships unless there was direct evidence, which became a gap for the Assassins to exploit. ”

"Not bad." Ye Kenan patted him on the shoulder, "I don't think this case will be solved for a while." ”

"Since you're here to help solve the case, have you talked to Mr. Ouyang, the boss of the Green Gang?"

As Ouyang Sicong's apprentice, Qi Yuanshan cares more about his master's thoughts.

"We just talked about it today. He talked about the origin of the tomb beast in the young Qilin Town, and the name of the warlord who resold cultural relics in Hankow, and I will investigate it through the relationship of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Mr. Ouyang also said that whoever owns that town tomb beast will have endless bad luck. ”

Qin Beiyang shuddered. A gloomy wind swept through the streets of the murder scene, and the fallen leaves of the withered yellow sycamore swirled strangely.

Suddenly, Qi Yuanshan felt that someone was touching his heels: "Don't stay in this ghost place, I feel that a group of Indian ghosts have floated over......"

Ye Kenan said goodbye, and finally warned: "The experience of handling the case tells me that unless you are a policeman, don't return to the murder scene easily, maybe you will meet the murderer on a narrow road." ”

"I'm still looking forward to this day!"

In the late autumn, Qin Beiyang clenched his fists, and in order to take revenge, he was afraid that the assassins would no longer go out of the mountain to act.