Mrs. Guan still had a knife wound on her body, and she was noisy by the chaotic noises around her, so she inevitably coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood.

But the prefect's wife, Mao, was not angry, and said reluctantly: "We are guests invited by the Guan family to be guests, even if we lose something, we shouldn't be suspicious first, why don't you check whether you are a thief in your own house first?" ”

Song Zhihua frowned in embarrassment while serving tea to the old lady to rinse her mouth, and replied, "I have already checked, so I turned my suspicions to the guests." Since the prefect's wife said so, then we have no choice but to tell the truth, and the Xuemei picture that was imitated by the embroidery girl but was lost is not the new one made by Master Lu Tan. ”

"It's not the new one made by Master Lu Tan...... What do you mean......" Miss Guo asked hesitantly, and the others were also confused. For some reason, He Angelica suddenly had a layer of ice floe in his heart, and he felt a chill. And what happened next confirmed her hunch.

Suddenly, like a black cloud, a group of people emerged from the ground without warning, and quickly surrounded the garden, each of them holding a long knife that was clearly unsheathed.

Long knives! Want to kill someone?

The young ladies and ladies present had never seen such a battle, and they all screamed in fright. The prefect's wife, Mao, also changed her face, pretended to stare at Song Zhihua calmly, and asked, "What do you mean, do you want to kill or chop?" What a guts! Who gives you the power? ”

He Angelica pursed his lips and squinted at those people with long eyes, dressed in a black nylon robe, with a jade buckle tied around his waist, a blue scarf on his head, and a cross leather mask on his face......

Her heart suddenly tightened, these people ...... How did it end up here? Even if the Guan family has face, please don't move the people who wear this kind of service, unless there is some special reason. And when it comes to "power", these people are probably the most unscrupulous people in power in the world!

"Madame is angry," Song Zhihua smiled bitterly, "We have been wronged to death, how dare we be disrespectful to everyone?" I can't hide it if I want to, so I'll tell you frankly - the Xuemei embroidered picture lost in my house is actually a relic of Queen Xianma! If we don't find it back in time, even our family will have no shame to live in the world, so we have to search carefully one by one. These adults were sent by the emperor to investigate the theft. ”

Before the words fell, everyone was stunned, and He Angelica also felt incredible. Song Zhihua actually said that the relics of the former queen were lost in the Guan family's house? What is the reason for this?

Someone asked their common question: "The former queen's belongings are naturally stored in the palace, and they suddenly spread to your family, which is very suspicious, and you are not able to take care of yourself, it is your responsibility to close the family, why are you implicated in us?" ”

"That's it, don't go too far!" Several people echoed in unison. They came to the banquet happily to save face for the Guan family, but the Guan family treated them as thieves, and this friend couldn't do it anymore!

At this time, Mrs. Guan breathed a sigh of relief, leaned on her daughter-in-law, and said sadly: "It's really because I can't find it anywhere else, and there is no other way, so I have to ......."

Guan Bai suddenly appeared, and then his mother's words said: "Five days ago in the palace, a cat destroyed the first queen's Xuemei map, the emperor was furious, disposed of the cat, and asked the master of Lu Tan, who embroidered the picture, to repair the snow plum map. However, the master of Lu Tan gradually got older, and his hand was unstable, and he was afraid that he would make any mistakes in his efforts, so he brought Xuemeitu to Yangzhou to ask us for help, hoping to gather the craftsmanship of a group of embroiderers to repair the embroidery. We heard that it was the emperor's errand, so we didn't dare to slack off, so we sent the best embroidery girl to listen to the master's command, and it took several nights of hard work to do it. ”

Song Zhihua continued: "Master Lu Tan is grateful to us, I heard that the family is embroidering a batch of uppers with the night pearl, and he also helped make two pictures. It's just that the fingers are not as flexible as before, and the aura of the embroidery has also been greatly reduced, and it is no longer a priceless treasure, and ordinary people can't recognize it as the master's embroidery. ”

Miss Liu and Dong, who got the precious uppers, looked at their shoes, and sure enough, they were not much different from ordinary embroidery.

The prefect's wife, Mao, thought for a while, and then retorted: "No matter what, you still don't keep it well, and you just lose the relics of the former queen by leaving them indiscriminately." Before checking us, check your embroidery girls and maids, nine times out of ten people with unclean hands and feet are inferior. ”

Seeing that Mao was still tough, He Angelica guessed that she didn't recognize the identity of the people surrounding the garden. Those talents are a group of people who have to completely obey the emperor's orders "no matter what", and there is no difference in the eyes of prefects like Mao. So, He Angelica spoke in a low voice and persuaded Mao: "Madame, let's stop being angry, they have more experience in investigating cases than us, wait for a while, maybe the result will be out." ”

While Guan Bai and his wife were explaining the ins and outs, those who exuded a cold aura stood silently, looking at the ladies and ladies covered in jewels with a pair of unemotional eyes. At this time, no one understood their danger.

But Mao's fierceness was extremely strong, and he didn't appreciate He Angelica's words, and sneered: "Hmph, investigating cases is what my family Han often does, and of course I am the most qualified to speak." Glancing contemptuously at the dozens of black-clothed people holding knives, he raised his head arrogantly and said, "If you want to check me, you have to weigh whether these people are enough or not, and whether they have the courage to move me a single hair-Xiaocui, let's go." ”

The maid behind Mao answered, and the master and servant walked out of the vine arch in the garden with their heads held high. Since marrying the prefect Han Fei, on this piece of Yangzhou land, the Mao family has always been so noble and inviolable. But this time, she overestimated the price of playing "noble".

He Angelica didn't have time to say anything, and the most shocking scene was staged in front of everyone's eyes.

Mao and the maid were stopped by a man in black outside the arch, and He Angelica especially noticed that the jade belt around the man's waist was purple-red, which meant that the person was at least in the fifth rank. Mao was in a hurry, a little unable to get off the stage, he didn't expect that he would encounter obstacles, so he raised his hand and pushed that person hard. That person looked like he was born in the army, and of course he would not be pushed away by Mao.

He Angelica subconsciously shouted "stop", others thought she was asking Mao to stop, but in fact, her words were shouted to the man in black.

Since the man in black dared to offend the prefect's wife, how could he listen to He Angelica's obstruction. His response to Mao's push was to hold the knife in his backhand and slash it lightly forward. The knife flashed and shook people's eyes.

The person standing in front of him was Mao, and there was a maid behind Mao. The two women seemed to be made of Jiangmi paper, and the blade did not directly touch their bodies, but after the knife light flashed, Mao let out a low whimper, and it broke off at the waist. The maid behind her was also injured, her chest and face were covered with bright red liquid, and she lay straight back, her body still convulsing.

Mao said that death is death, and it happened in the blink of an eye. Her viscera fell out and filled the green meadow, staining the black man's boots. The waist of the man in black was as straight as a pine, he wiped his boots on Mao's gauze skirt, and took two steps forward to block the arch of the tree vine.

The pair of emotionless cold eyes turned left and right, and asked, "Who wants to learn from her." ”

Mao's tragic death happened right in front of him, and the ladies and ladies were shocked and stunned. At first, they couldn't even breathe in the garden, and they forgot how to catch their breath. When she eased up a little, Miss Guo, who was sitting next to He Angelica, was stimulated and cried loudly.

The surrounding people cried one after another, and the garden was full of mournful screams, which was the effect of the man in black's "killing chickens and setting an example for monkeys". It's just that the "chicken" is also a little more expensive, and it is the wife of the main room of a four-grade feudal official! Even the fourth-rank lady dared to kill, and even if the black-clothed man who swung that knife was of the fifth rank or higher, he didn't even have to hesitate before swinging the knife.

People who have the power to do this in public, and are accustomed to doing so, except for the eunuchs of Dongchang, there is no second kind of person in the whole world.

Dongchang, an iron-blooded institution that shows the imperial power more nakedly than Jinyiwei, ends in a bloody situation every time it is dispatched. At least in He Angelica's impression, he has never seen those eunuchs do good things.

With the emperor's backing, no one in the world is not afraid of them, from the ordinary people to the Manchu civil and military, and even the princes, vassal kings, princes and other big figures are also afraid of the eunuchs at the level of the head of Dongchang. Because Zhu Yuanzhang trusts them very much, they say a word of informant, and they explain a hundred sentences to others.

"Shut up and keep crying if you don't want your tongue." The eunuch of the purple and red jade belt issued a warning.

The howling cry was immediately cut off, and it was unspeakably quiet. The eunuch's voice was not like that of a man, and the ladies heard the mystery and guessed the identity of the man in black, and they were even more frightened. Miss Guo ran to He Angelica's seat, clinged to her, and whispered, "Those people...... Is it a eunuch? ”

The eunuch heard it and glanced sideways, and Miss Guo almost fainted.

After the scene was restored to order, the eunuch said: "Our family is acting on the orders of the general manager of Dongchang Cao, and we just want to find Xuemeitu, and we will not kill people unless necessary." You only need to cooperate with our family to find something, catch the thief, and leave unscathed afterwards. ”

Listening to his words, the female guests in the garden were so relieved that as long as they obediently cooperated, they could go home safely? As long as you don't learn from Mao's arrogance and rudeness, you won't become a puddle of dirty blood on the ground?

Old Madam Guan coughed a few times and asked in a muddy voice: "Master Li, I don't know what happened to those subordinates in my family, but the results have been found?" ”

The eunuch bowed slightly, and replied: "Our family has personally confirmed, each of them is not suspicious, and the most suspicious person is the twenty-three people who are sitting in the garden now." After blocking the way out, our family will investigate them one by one. ”

His voice is like a layer of sandpaper, and the person who hears it feels that his skin has been polished, and the hair from head to toe is heard that he has to be checked one by one, which means that he has to talk to a murderous monster face to face, and if he is not careful, he may end up like Mao......

Dong couldn't hold back at first, stretched his white tender finger forward, pointed in the direction of He Angelica, and shouted: "Check her first, she is the most suspicious!" She is the only one who knows Xue Meitu, and this is the first time we have even heard of it, and we won't steal it! ”

Others admired Dong's courage to speak without permission, and they all looked at the place she pointed, there was only an empty seat, and He Angelica was not in her seat. Miss Guo, who was closest to the seat, turned white in fright, waved her hand and said, "It's not me, it's not me......"

"You!"

A father-in-law suddenly shouted, "Where are you going?" Didn't you hear what Master Li was saying? ”

So, everyone in and outside the garden saw that by the only gate out of the garden, there was a thin figure standing that had just stopped his footsteps, not He Angelica! The lesson of Mao's blood is still vivid, He Angelica actually violated it again, whether the theft of the Xuemei picture has anything to do with her, she is in big trouble! Many people think so.