The only thing that comforted Lu Yang was this small courtyard, which looked like it hadn't been inhabited for a while, and a thin layer of ash had fallen in many places, so she went to the kitchen ash channel to take some fine ash and rubbed it vigorously, and sprinkled it between the east and west, trying to cover up the traces of someone living there.

Lu Yang searched and searched, and found a well in front of the kitchen, she happily opened the manhole cover, looked inside, and immediately sighed in disappointment.

This well is not deep, and the water is very clear, you can see the bottom at a glance, and if you want to hide here, you will freeze to death without being discovered.

Lu Yang went to the kitchen again, to see if there was a tank to store water to do some hands and feet, or a big jar or something, she had watched a TV before, there was a mother in order to protect her young son from the pursuit of the enemy, hiding him in a wooden bucket full of rancid leftovers, only let him breathe with a reed, so he saved his life.

However, Lu Yang was still disappointed, not to mention that there were no jars or jars, there were wooden barrels, but there was nothing to eat, where did the leftovers come from.

Because the kitchen is not very far from the alley outside, any big movement in the alley can be faintly heard in this kitchen.

The official sent to arrest criminals, in this small alley, but it is a big thing, and it is impossible to be silent, so Lu Yang listened to the direction of the alley while looking for a place to hide, for fear of missing any sound.

She walked around the kitchen without giving up, her eyes fixed on the ash tunnel below the stove.

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Lingqiu County Ya is located in the northwest of Lingqiu County, the county order surnamed Duan, he has been serving here for two years, and there is another year to expire the time of his term, and he will be transferred elsewhere.

If nothing goes wrong in the rest of the year, and there is a clan brother who is the left servant of the official department in Beijing to deal with him, there is a great chance that he can rise one liter, even if it is to change the land of fish and rice, it is better than being an official in this border place.

Those damn Tartars might come out and plunder the people around them at some point.

Although the Tatar tribes and alliances had been fighting each other over the years, and had not been able to organize any large-scale attacks, they could not prevent small groups of Tartars from bypassing the defensive line and sneaking up on each other to steal food and women.

But Duan County Ling was lucky, he had been an official here for two years, and there had never been a Tartar attack.

He was secretly glad that he could take up another post as long as he stayed up for another year.

But he was so unlucky, that Jiang Xi returned to Beijing after the assessment of the official's political performance, but he wanted to come to Lingqiu to visit some old friend, not mentioning Jiang Xi's own identity, just said that his old friend was a very prestigious squire in Lingqiu, and even if he wanted to make a difference in this place, he had to rely on one or two.

There was such a big murder under his rule, Duan County Ling felt that his career as an official was almost over, and the black gauze hat seemed to have flown away, and he didn't even know if he could keep his head.

He knew very well that Shoufu Jiang Xian attached great importance to this young brother.

Duan County's order did not dare to delay and conceal it, and quickly reported this major case to the government office.

All he can do now is to find out the murderer as quickly as possible, hoping that he can be less guilty of negligence and let Jiang Xian's anger be transferred to the murderer.

Therefore, as soon as he heard that there was information about the murderer, he immediately called all the three non-rotating officials on duty in the county office, and asked the county officer, who had always been proud of his superb character painting skills, to draw the murderer mentioned by the head of the fast shift overnight, and then let a few poor and sour talents who made a living by writing documents follow the images drawn by the county Cheng, stamped the official seal and pasted it on the main roads everywhere, and asked the head of each class to carry portraits and lead the fast hands to immediately search for criminals from house to house.

Duan County Ling was worried that someone would take advantage of the chaos to announce personal vendettas, so he sternly ordered the horses to be fast, and the main servants such as Bu Kuai should manage the helpers and white servants below, and they should not take this opportunity to extort and extort the people.

But Duan County made it difficult to protect himself this time, and there were a few officials like old fritters who would take his warning in their eyes, so they naturally took advantage of this rare opportunity to exploit and extort, and those who didn't like it on weekdays could be regarded as being able to let them bleed out openly.

The powerful are better, these officials who are equivalent to lowly servants do not dare to be overly embarrassed, and those solid families and ordinary people who have no backing will be unlucky.

No wonder the people saw these officials and privately called them Yahu.

After searching in this way, the efficiency will naturally be slow, and the search near Lu Yangzhi's courtyard is almost in the middle of the day.

The voices of the people complaining faintly came into Lu Yang's ears, and Lu Yang felt a little happy in her heart, fortunately, she had been prepared and found this hiding place, as long as those officials did not see anyone, and found that no one had lived here for a while, there was no benefit, so she should not rummage too carefully, so her escape rate would be greatly increased.

The search for this alley was carried by a team led by a few fast steps, one of which was followed by several hired helpers and some local ruffians who volunteered to run errands behind the officials, called white servants, who were more harmful than the officials, who were lazy and ruthless, and who were not merciless in oppressing the people.

It is said that the owner of the yard has gone out some time ago, and the nearby neighbors heard him say that he wants to go back to his hometown for the New Year, and he will not come back until the New Year is over.

The duty of the officials is that every household must not be left behind, so that the courtyard where no one lives is likely to be the hiding place of the murderer, so after knocking on the door and no one answered, the officials slashed the door lock and broke in.

The first thing you see is the courtyard that is so simple that there are no potted plants, only scattered farm tools and clothes poles hidden by snow.

In front of the small ear room on the landlord's side, an ancient tree was planted near the courtyard wall, and the ancient tree looked old, and there were branches sticking out from the low wall, and there were some snow blocks that had not fallen on the dead branches, and there was no leaf left on the tree, which was clear at a glance, and could not hide people.

The snow in the courtyard was not cleared, and there was not even a single footprint.

The officials looked at it, let the white servants take the lead, and followed the white servants carefully and vigilantly to the main house.

The white servants also knew that they were using themselves as a pathfinder, but what could they do, this was originally their role, so they knew that there might be danger ahead, but they also had to bite the bullet.

Fortunately, there were no Tibetans in the three small main rooms, and the white servants breathed a sigh of relief, and their courage grew, and they scattered in all directions, and rummaged around in this small courtyard to find clues.

The places that Lu Yang had seen before, these white servants had not been missed.

While making money, it is also necessary to work seriously.

Soon, a white servant searched in front of the kitchen, lifted the manhole cover and looked in like Lu Yang, saw that there were no Tibetans, and then grabbed a helper and poked into the kitchen together.

What kind of buckets, kitchen cabinets, and even a small urn that is impossible to stuff a six-year-old child has not been spared, this careful attitude is not at all like Lu Yang's imagination of a little perfunctory.

A white servant and a helper tore down everything in the kitchen and moved it away, and they didn't see anyone, so they planned to leave.

But before leaving the kitchen, the attentive helper suddenly glanced back at the black hole of ash under the stove.