Chu Lan rushed into Yang Huan's room with the anxious Yang Husheng, which was already empty, and there was only one shoe next to the bed.

A shoe embroidered with a bright peony flower on it.

Yang Husheng only has such a daughter, although he is strict with her on weekdays, but he loves her to the extreme, and now he suddenly disappeared, anxious like an ant on a hot pot, he only felt that his brain was blank, and his original exquisite mind was now inactive.

"When did he disappear?"

"I, I don't know, I haven't seen her for a day, I've just finished my work, I just wanted to come and see her, but she's gone"

"Little Brother Chu, was she captured by the embroidery thief?"

"Mostly yes"

Chu Lan walked out of the inn and saw that the clouds on the horizon could not be dissolved, the stars and the moon were no longer visible, and his current mood was as heavy as this sky.

But where are you going to find Yang Huan now? If you want to find Yang Huan, you have to find out the location of the big man in red.

He thought for a moment and turned back to the inn.

Yang Husheng sat limply on the stool next to the door, his face buried in the shadow of the candlelight.

Chu Lan stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder, "Brother Yang, don't worry, Yang Huan is probably fine, and no blood stains were found in her room, which means that she is not only fine, but also has not become blind." ”

Yang Husheng's eyes flashed for a moment, and then he was a little relieved, and suddenly knelt down in front of Chu Lan in despair, hugged Chu Lan's thigh and said, "Little Brother Chu, no matter what, you must get Yang Huan back."

Chu Lan could feel his mood, probably similar to when Chu Daiyan learned that he had fallen into the end of the world.

The diners around looked at this side, and they were all shocked by the innkeeper's unusual behavior.

Chu Lan picked up Yang Husheng and led him to his room.

He poured a cup of tea for Yang Husheng to drink, stabilizing his mind.

Chu Lan knew that this seemingly ordinary innkeeper definitely had a lot of secrets hidden, otherwise the embroidery thief would not have robbed his daughter inexplicably.

"Brother Yang, if you want to rescue your daughter, tell me everything you know, he robbed Xiaohuan, most likely to threaten you. ”

Yang Husheng's face was gloomy like a pool of thick ink, he sat on the chair, and he didn't speak for a long time.

Chu Lan just sat on the side and waited.

After a long time, Yang Husheng was able to get a few words out of his teeth, obviously after a fierce ideological struggle.

"More than ten miles east from here, there is a village called Qingxi Town, you can go and see it tomorrow, there may be some clues. ”

Chu Lan nodded, comforted Yang Husheng for a while, and then sent him away.

I lay on the bed, tossed and turned, and fell asleep for a long time.

In a daze, he dreamed of a man dressed in red, sitting on a stone under a willow tree with a needle and thread in his hand, and several figures lying on his side.

Chu Lan stepped forward, and was just about to say hello to the man in red, but he disappeared.

There was a layer of mist around him, which made it impossible to see the real thing, and he had to close the distance again

He was like the boss who pushed Fu Ruixiang at that time, raised his hand to push the few people lying on the ground, in order to avoid being startled like the last time, he has been silently thinking in his heart, I am not afraid, I am the best.

But when he saw their appearance clearly, he was covered in sweat and hair again.

What caught his eye was a rotten face, as if it had been dead for a long time, and there were all abscesses in the other exposed parts, and when he touched it, half of the face that was originally stained on the ground was instantly torn off.

Chu Lan ejected directly on the bed, and everything disappeared like foam.

With his last memory, he found that it was actually seven men in embroidered shoes, each with two embroidery needles in their eyes, and blood flowing from the holes.

The faces were a little rotten, the rotten flesh was sticking to the bones, and it was vaguely distinguishable that they were two old men, a middle-aged woman, and three children.

Now that it was dawn, Chu Lan took a sip of herbal tea and settled down, this is a dream, a nightmare, but it is so real.

He shook out a dozen embroidered shoes from his baggage.

After counting carefully, there were now twelve of them, and he put all the shoes, left foot and right foot together in a group, a total of six groups, but the last group turned out to be the shoes on the two left feet.

What does that mean? He has at least two more cases to follow!

Of course, all this is Chu Lan's speculation, maybe the embroidery thief didn't think about the left and right feet at all when he placed these embroidered shoes.

But he always felt that this thief with strange behavior always pays attention to some things when doing things, and this seemingly scattered shoe may have some other meaning.

In addition, the murderer who killed Fu Ruixiang yesterday was definitely not him, he did not leave shoes in place, and the method of killing was not the same, and Chu Lan speculated that the theft of the jewelry in Xuanhua Mansion and the murder of the old man were likely to occur in the same time period.

That means that in addition to the red-clothed thief, he also has a helper, and this helper needs to know the structure of the entire Xuanhua Mansion's inner library, the time of the handover of guards, and so on. So this person is from Xuanhua Mansion, and his status in the mansion is not low!

At the beginning, Chu Lan had guessed that Yang Husheng's various actions were suspicious, and since Yang Huan was arrested yesterday, Chu Lan overturned this conjecture, if Yang Husheng was the helper of the red-clothed thief, then he would not use Yang Huan to blackmail the other party.

Now the answer to all this may lie in that town called Qingxi.

He washed his face, and then walked out of the inn, without informing Yang Husheng or calling a carriage.

He walked towards Qingxi Town, the main urban area of Xuanhua Mansion.

Passing through the crowded flow of people, outside the main city, the speed increases a lot.

Chu Lan took a breath and ran wildly on the tree-lined path, after a long time, I was afraid of variables.

After about half an hour, Chu Lan saw the outline of the town in front of him, but the strange thing was that the town was illuminated by a layer of gray mist, even the sunlight could not shine through.

Chu Lan's nose moved, and she almost vomited, what kind of smell is this, it is like mixing the feces of all the animals in the world together. It also smells of rot.

He pinched his nose and walked a distance, but obviously the speed was much slower, and he thought to himself, "I'm so scared, I'm so scared, maybe there's a piece of somewhere, I have to take it easy, I can't step on it." ”

The smell of rancid smell was getting stronger and stronger, and there were several crows hovering here, all fat, and their eyes were blood-red.

Chu Lan's heart sank, looking at this, these crows eat corpses, otherwise their eyes shouldn't be so red.

He tore off a piece of his robe and covered his mouth and nose to prevent his breath from leaking directly under the smell.

As he walked slowly, he glanced around, his gaze pausing under a decaying old tree.

There were more than a dozen corpses lying here, the rotten ones were no longer in shape, and the stench that Chu Lan smelled was from them.

He forcibly endured his nausea and approached those corpses, Chu Lan's expression changed again, and there were many bruise-purple marks on the skin of these people in the air, obviously not a natural death.

With so many people dying here at the same time, it is estimated that there is only one explanation.

Large-scale outbreaks of infectious diseases, similar to a type of plague.

In other words, the village in front of it may have been contaminated by the virus.

After taking two steps forward, I saw a stream flowing ziggerly ahead, and perhaps the origin of the name of Qingxi Town is here. It's just that this stream, which has now become stagnant, smells bad.

Chu Lan took out the small jade bottle from the ring, collected some stream water, and carried it with him.

Walking along the stream, the corpses were scattered on the ground next to the stream, and the dozen or so corpses just now turned out to be just appetizers.

Suddenly, Chu Lan heard the movement, hurriedly hid behind the old tree just now, and covered her nose.

In the distance, two officers and soldiers were approaching, each pushing a bicycle.

There were also corpses on it, but these corpses had apparently just died, and their skin had not completely decayed, but like the others, their temples were sunken, their eyes were bulging, and their bodies were covered in bruises, and they were covered in poisonous sores.

I just listened to the two of them complaining while pushing the cart

"Oh, why do you always tell us brothers to do this kind of thing, it stinks to death. ”

"Who said it wasn't that, but ah, the mansion master's trick is really amazing, how much silver has been looted during this time?"

"Hahaha, isn't it a bamboo basket to fetch water? ”

Chu Lan only felt anger churning in his heart, he never thought that the tragic situation in this village was actually related to the lord of Xuanhua Mansion.

The two officers and soldiers continued: "Why do you say that big man has to leave an embroidered shoe in the same place every time he commits a crime?"

"I don't know about this, it's probably some quirk."

The two of them laughed again, and then lifted the car, and the corpse fell to the ground with a gurgling, and a few of them did not slide down, so they kicked them down with their feet in disgust, as if the car was not a human corpse, and in their eyes it was more like a pile of disgusting feces.

"Besides, have you heard, the red-robed thief probably lived in this village before, and a brother once saw that big red robe!"

"It's really fake, don't talk nonsense, our lord doesn't know about this!"

"Oops, I don't know, I listened to a guy who drank that day, who knows if it's true, or if he was drunk and talking nonsense. ”

Chu Lan's mind moved, sure enough, there were a lot of secrets in this village, and what made him angry the most was that An Zeyang was probably the culprit who caused this village to look like it now.

The two officers and soldiers, taking two steps back, felt cold on their necks, and as soon as they stretched out their hands, their whole heads fell off, Chu Lan swung a sword from behind to solve the two of them, and they didn't even know how they died in the end.

Chu Lan changed into one of the clothes, which fit well, and he kicked the corpse of the officer and soldier, just like they did with the dead villagers just now.

"Grandma, dead people are also people, give me attention in the next life. ”

He took a light breath, turned around and put on the spirit fox mask, looked like the man, and then pushed the bicycle and walked slowly towards the village.

Sure enough, there was a patrol here, and as soon as Chu Lan arrived at the entrance of the village, someone came up to interrogate him.

"Why are you back, where is Wang Er Mazi?"

Chu Lan imitated the man's tone, "Eh, when Wang Er Mazi was peeing just now, he drowned himself." ”

"What?"

"It's nothing, he has a stomachache, he's going to be Gong, and he'll be back in a while. ”

The man finally nodded, and Chu Lan pushed the cart into the village.

What is called mourning everywhere, this is really a hellish scene.

There were corpses everywhere, and old people and children who were about to turn into corpses, they were leaning against the corner, beside the tree, their bodies festered in many places, moaning in pain, but they had no money, they could not afford medicine, so they had to wait for death.

There are also some corpses that are not dead, and they shiver from time to time, and the whole village is buried in a thick gray fog, and it is estimated that it will not be long before all those who have no money to buy medicine here will turn into cold and foul-smelling corpses!