"That's it, please come in. ”

The man leading the way in front suddenly stopped at a house next to a market, he opened the gate outside the house, and Lan Meng and Alexei followed him for more than ten meters before they heard bursts of laughter floating from the back yard of the house.

"I'm sorry, could you please wait here?"

When he said this, the man looked at Alexei with some embarrassment, and then at Lan Meng, who was wearing a hood, and then showed a tangled look, and when the three of them looked at each other awkwardly for a while, he seemed to have made up his mind and said to the two:

"Although we have rules in the caravan that outsiders are not allowed to enter and leave at will. But I think that you brothers and sisters are good people and are ready to join our caravan, and if it is for the two of you to make an exception, the captain should not blame me. ”

With that, the man took out the key and pulled the door open from the house, and as soon as he entered, Alexey smelled a strong smell of sweat on the tip of his nose.

Looking at the feet, a few shirts that were blackened but still showed a bit of background color were piled up in the wooden basin at the door, and the sour smell of sweat came from this.

"Their clothes hadn't been washed for at least three days. ”

Unlike Lan Meng, who only cared about covering his nose when he entered the door, Alexei lowered his head and quickly scanned the marks on his shirt with his eyes.

"A day ago, the men here went out en masse. ”

"Someone's clothes are stained with the secretion of a poisonous hop mixture, and I don't think I'm mistaken. ”

As the three of them walked through the main hall of the house, Alexei found more subtle but sufficient evidence to support his suspicions: "There is more than just food on the table here. ”

"The smugglers of the caravan dried the rhizomes of the poisonous hops, ground them, and then transported them to Kherson to brew the preparations. ”

"Other dried leaves are mixed with tea leaves. ”

Looking at the tea residue left in the trash can, Alexei's accelerated brain quickly restored all kinds of illegal things that had happened in this main hall in recent days: "After separating the tea leaves from the leaves, some of the defective products that could not be reused were destroyed on the spot. ”

They were reluctant to throw it away, so they took it out and drank it themselves. ”

"It's really damning. ”

The leaves of poisonous hops carry a lot of toxins, and without treatment, it is easy to cause liver failure if taken raw.

"Sorry, we don't have women on the team, so, ahem, the smell in the house might be a little weird. ”

When the man walked into the main hall, he first tore open the tightly covered curtains in the room, and the late spring sun shone in, and with the gentle spring breeze, he immediately swept away the pickles that had accumulated in the main hall for several days. At this point, Alexei noticed that although the caravan had closed the curtains, they had not actually closed the windows.

"Keep it ventilated. ”

When making medicines, it is necessary to keep the air clear.

With this alone, Alexei was able to narrow down the category of hallucinogens to a very small circle.

Moreover, Alexei noticed a thick layer of wax condensation on the surface of a floor tile under the table.

"It's so dark here, and there are no candlesticks, how do you usually move?"

The mage looked around, and there was only wax oil, but the candlestick as the main body was missing.

"Oh, do you mean that?"

The man squatted down and opened a small cabinet on the left side of the window, took out the copper candlestick inside and shook it: "Here, we will put it away every time we run out." ”

Nodding, Alexei took a slight step forward, and saw that the man was busy reclosing the cupboard, stood up and laughed dryly, then raised his hand and led the two to the backyard of the house: "The caravan will leave after lunch today, there is not much time, come on, Crassus, go this way, take your brothers and sisters to meet our captain, he is very talkative." ”

"Good. ”

It's not to the point where it's turned around.

Alexei is not a messenger of justice, the first goal is to rush back to Darune as soon as possible, the mage did not have the idea of communicating too much with this group of smugglers, he pretended to be ignorant, and followed the man to the backyard of the house, before the other party could open the door, through the wall, Alexei could hear the lively noise in the courtyard.

Built in the outer circle of the bazaar, the backyard of the rented house is not too small, and when you walk down the steps, two carriages are parked directly opposite the three of them. At a cursory glance, the caravan numbered about twenty or so had their own business to do, some of them were washing their pack horses and preparing forage, while others were arranging the chests, putting the locked wooden boxes on the wagons one by one, and tying them with ropes.

A few of the workers who were sitting in front of the door, close to each other, only glanced up as the three walked out, their cold attitude in contrast to the enthusiasm of the men, as if they were not very welcoming to the new members.

"Wait here. ”

Seeing the man with his back to the captain of the caravan and having nothing to do, Lan Meng, who was glancing around, noticed that there was a pile of garbage in the corner that had been cleaned together, so he stabbed Alexei's back with a proud face, and whispered: "Look, what is that." ”

"Hay, and broken glass pipes and crockery. ”

Alexei turned his head to look, and immediately understood the little thought of the girl behind him, he smiled slightly, and didn't care: "I know what you want to say." Princess, no merchant who does not want to kill will bring contraband directly into the city, and they must always dress up like a normal caravan so as not to be discovered by the soldiers guarding the gate. ”

"Well, it looks like they're in good disguise. ”

Hearing Alexey's explanation, Lan Meng, who felt that there was indeed some truth in it, nodded reluctantly, and temporarily agreed with the mage's statement. But she still has a competitive heart in her heart, and she still doesn't forget to scan the furnishings of the courtyard around her, trying to find a few factual evidence that can actually refute Alexey's conjecture.

But just when Lan Meng was ready to compete with Alexey, the caravan captain who had talked to the man had already walked towards the two, and he greeted Alexey from a distance, walked closer, and put one hand to his chest, making a standard greeting salute:

"Good morning, young man and girl from the new king's territory, I am the captain of the galloping caravan Friccam, and I have not had time to prepare any welcome gifts for the first time we met, so please don't feel lazy. ”

"Of course not. Captain Flickham, please don't be too polite. My brother and sister are apprentices who are undergoing a trial of travel, and the instructor teaches us to fully experience life and integrate into nature, so we don't have high requirements for food and accommodation, as long as we have water and bread. ”

During the answer, Alexei first looked at the other person's figure in a bright light, and then secretly cast his secret gaze on the person's fingernails.

Except for the bottom of the nail cover, which is a little black, the nail tip is very clean, and there is basically no color to be seen.

This is a smuggler who knows how to hide himself - he wears an inconspicuous cheap shirt that is exactly the same as the workers around him, and if it weren't for the fact that he still has a big belly, Alexei really doesn't have a trace of the leadership temperament of ordinary people in his forty years old, but more like a low-level farmer who is used to living a hard life.

If it weren't for the fact that enough evidence had been found that the caravan was secretly in the dangerous business of hallucinogens, and just looking at the captain's bitter peasant appearance, it would have been difficult for Alexei to associate him with the lucrative smugglers.

"That's good, that's good. ”

Fricham looked pleased with Alexey's answer. He raised his hand and beckoned to the workers beside him, and immediately someone brought him water and bread, and he placed them in front of them, dusted the dirt under his feet, spread a layer of washed white cotton cloth, and invited them to sit down and dine on the spot.

"Don't get dirty, two, please. ”