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My great-grandfather didn't dare to enter the yard, not because he was afraid of anything else, just imagine, what do you want to do when you jump into someone's yard in the middle of the night? If the name is not right, if you don't get it right, you will bite back to the people inside, and sue you for trespassing into the house.

After a moment of silence outside the courtyard, my great-grandfather turned around and returned to Cai's house.

Early the next morning, my great-grandfather told Cai Wenye about it. Of course, Cai Wenye doesn't know anything about this, it's all up to my great-grandfather, as long as he can get rid of these evil things in the house, my great-grandfather can do anything.

Next, according to my great-grandfather's wishes, Cai Wenye asked the family to go to the county government to call the second son back, not only did the second son come back, but he also took a few people to catch the horse.

Cai Wenye's second son, my grandmother doesn't know what his name is, when my grandmother told me this, it was a mouthful of "his second son", my grandmother can call it that when she tells me a story, I want to tell the story now, of course I can't call it that, otherwise it will be awkward to look at, let's call him "my great-grandmother's second brother".

After my great-grandmother's second brother returned to the house, my great-grandfather briefly told him about the matter, and my great-grandfather meant that he wanted my great-grandmother's second brother to take a few catchers and go to that family's house with him. Besides, my great-grandfather suspected that there might be some cult elements living in it, just imagine, who in an ordinary family would know this? If it is really a cult element, this matter will have something to do with the government, and it is only natural for the government to intervene.

At this time, the secret edict of the Tongzhi Emperor had already been issued to Weishi County, and my great-grandmother's second brother was worried that he would not be able to catch the cultists.

Subsequently, my great-grandfather and my great-grandmother's second brother rushed to the house in the north of the city with those few fast catchers.

This family in the north of the city is not too far from Cai's house, and it is only half a mile away.

After a cup of tea, several people came to the door of the house, and at this time, the courtyard door was closed, and they didn't know that the people inside were not there.

My grandmother's second brother didn't know what his position was in the county government, and he was quite skilled in arresting business, and when he leaned on the wall to see the situation in the yard about the same, he waved his hand at the few catchers, and a few catchers quickly dispersed, and surrounded the family tightly in front of and back.

In the end, the only ones who remained with my great-grandfather were my great-grandmother's second brother and the remaining two catchers. My great-grandmother's second brother motioned for one of them to come and knock on the door.

The catcher walked to the door and raised his hand to "snap" a few times, and a young woman's voice came from inside, and the voice asked, "Who?" ”

Catch quickly replied loudly: "The county official is on a mission, open the door." ”

"Wait, wait, it's coming......" The woman inside responded, her voice sounding a little flustered.

After the sound had passed, after a long while, there was the sound of small footsteps in the courtyard.

After the courtyard door was opened, my great-grandfather saw that the door was opened by a young woman wearing a wide plain dress, with black cloth tied in her hair bun, as if someone in the family had died and was showing filial piety to her relatives. The woman is about ten ** years old, and she looks good, she may be the woman who spoke just now.

At this time, the woman put her hands on the two doors, and only opened the courtyard door half a foot wide by a gap, and did not let my great-grandfather and a few of them enter the door. The woman's face was expressionless and asked, "Is there anything wrong with the official coming to my house?" ”

My great-grandfather was just about to answer, but my great-grandmother's second brother preemptively said, "The yamen will chase the fugitives, conduct a thorough investigation from house to house, and it will be your turn to open the door." "My great-grandmother's second brother is also wearing an official uniform at this time, which is a little higher than those official uniforms that catch fast, so it looks different.

When the woman heard this, she hesitated, her lips moved, and she seemed to want to say something. At this moment, the catcher who had just called the door pushed the door open and rushed directly into the courtyard, and my grandmother's second brother glanced at the woman coldly and followed closely behind.

My great-grandfather saw that these catchers were almost like robbers, but he couldn't say anything, so he lowered his head and followed him into the courtyard. Of course, the woman was also among the suspects at this time, and was pushed by another arrester pulling her clothes.

A few people quickly entered the house, and the house was quite clean, judging from the furniture inside, the woman's family was not poor, and it was considered an upper-middle class family at that time.

As soon as Bu entered the house, my great-grandfather sniffed his nose and frowned, he smelled a smell of burning incense and paper money, the smell was quite strong, it seemed that it had just been burned, which was similar to what my great-grandfather had guessed before, but my great-grandfather did not see anything in the room such as an offering table, a statue of a bodhisattva, a tablet, an incense burner, or anything like that. This can only show that the woman delayed opening the door just now, and she must have taken the opportunity to hide the incense burner, brazier, tablet and other items.

My great-grandfather thought about it for a moment, and whispered a few words to my great-grandmother's second brother and the two catchers. After hearing this, my grandmother's second brother immediately glared at the two catchers, and said in his mouth, "What are you still doing in a daze, search!" ”

In this house, in addition to the living room, there are two ensuites on the left and right. My great-grandmother's second brother gave an order, and the two catchers quickly searched through the house, and at this time, the woman wanted to step forward to stop her, but was glared at coldly by my great-grandmother's second brother, and was so frightened that she stood there and lowered her head and didn't dare to make a move.

The woman's home seemed to be home to her, and no one else had been seen.

It didn't take much effort, and the two catchers found incense burners, braziers, burning paper, incense and other items in the two suites, and threw them on the floor in the living room.

My great-grandfather walked over and crouched down to look at the objects, and saw that there was a wooden tablet among them. My great-grandfather picked up the tablet and looked at it, the texture of the tablet seemed to be water willow wood, this kind of wood is very evil, generally no one will use this kind of wood as a tablet, unless it is used in some evil witchcraft, which is one step closer to my great-grandfather's previous guess.

On one side of the tablet, there was also a line of red vertical characters, my great-grandfather could barely recognize a rough one, in order to be sure, he asked my great-grandmother's second brother, "Second brother, what do you think is written on this?" ”

My great-grandmother's second brother came over and glanced at the tablet and read, "The spiritual seat of the deceased husband Zhang Jiang"

My great-grandfather nodded and said, "That's right." After speaking, he stood up and asked the woman, "This young lady, what is your relationship with Zhang Jiang?" ”

Although the woman stood there at this time and did not move, her face was gloomy, and she replied coldly: "Zhang Jiang is my husband." ”

"You have this filial piety coat on you, are you wearing it for him?" My great-grandfather asked again.

The woman didn't speak, but nodded slightly.

"Then were you just putting incense on him and burning paper?"

The woman looked at my great-grandfather suspiciously, but still did not speak, and nodded slightly.

Seeing this, my great-grandfather walked up to the woman, "Can you stretch out your right hand and show me?" ”

At this time, my great-grandfather had already concluded that this woman in plain clothes was another woman who Xiaolan had told him before, and who was good with Zhang Jiang. On the night of August 15, the small courtyard where Xiaolan followed Zhang Jiang may be here, and it was here that Xiaolan quarreled with Zhang Jiang and a fierce woman. However, what my great-grandfather didn't expect was that the plain woman in front of him was Zhang Jiang's wife, that is to say, the responsibility is all on Zhang Jiang, and Zhang Jiang can only be blamed for his misconduct.

At this time, the woman was very flustered when she heard that my great-grandfather wanted to see her right hand, and hurriedly hid her right hand behind her.

My great-grandfather was about to say something more, when my great-grandmother's second brother glanced at a catcher, who rushed over and pulled out the woman's right hand, and saw that the woman's right hand was tightly clenched into a fist, and the other catcher rushed up and forcibly broke her fingers one by one.

At this time, several people looked at the woman's hand at the same time, and saw that there was a transversely cut wound on the fingertips of the woman's five fingers, the wound was still fresh, and the scab had not long been scabbed, and it could be seen that it had been cut out by a sharp weapon.

Then my great-grandfather looked at the pile of items on the ground, and said to the two catchers, "There is one more important thing, why don't you two find ......it?"

Hearing my great-grandfather say this, the two catchers were stunned at the same time, and my great-grandfather continued: "There should also be a man of about a foot of cloth." ”

My great-grandfather said, and my great-grandmother's second brother glared at them and yelled at the two catchers, "Why don't you go search yet!" ”

When the two catchers heard this, they searched the room again in fear.

This time, they really found a small cloth man more than a foot high, made of white coarse cloth. The cloth man is quite fine, the hands and feet are complete, there are noses and eyes, and on the chest of the little cloth man, there are two blood-red characters that seem to be written with fingers - Zhang Jiang.

Seeing Xiao Buren'er, he could be regarded as confirming my great-grandfather's previous guess, he sighed with regret and asked the woman, "Which old fairy apprentice are you?" "Old Xian'er, this is what we used to call some folk strangers here, people like us. Physiognomy, fortune telling, and feng shui are not among them.

The woman was stunned for a moment, but did not speak, as if she did not understand the meaning of my great-grandfather's words.

When my great-grandfather saw that the woman did not speak, he took the cloth and asked, "Who taught you this method of 'burning incense'?" ”

The woman's eyes showed confusion, as if she still did not understand my great-grandfather's words, and she asked rhetorically, "What is 'burning incense'?" I don't know. ”