As the night grew late, in Luoyin City, in a mansion, Bai Junzhu and Bai Yingxue sisters were waiting for Bai Yan to return.

And until it was about dawn, the two sisters, who couldn't resist the sleepiness, fell asleep on the wooden table, and they didn't see Bai Yan return.

Day 2.

When Bai Ping arrived, he woke up the two sisters.

"What about Yan?"

Bai Ping came to the study, looked at the two cousins who woke up in a hazy way, and asked softly.

"I left yesterday and didn't come back!"

Bai Junzhu got up and said to Bai Ping.

Yesterday, she had instructed the attendants and other people in the mansion to inform her if Bai Yan returned, but until now, Bai Junzhu had not seen the servants come to report.

"Leave?"

Bai Ping frowned when he heard Bai Junzhu's words.

On the way to Luoyin, Bai Ping already knew what had happened here in Luoyin City, so when he heard that Bai Yan left yesterday, he also knew why.

"I have already ordered someone to go back to Xianyang and inform my father!"

Bai Ping said to Bai Junzhu.

Luoyin City was just given to Bai Yan as a fief, and Bai Yan didn't know anything about the clan and relationship in Luoyin City, so after Bai Ping learned about Luoyin, he was worried that Bai Yan would suffer, so he immediately ordered the servant to return to Xianyang to report to his father and let his father come to Luoyin.

"Hmm!"

Bai Junzhu also breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Bai Ping's words.

Bai Junzhu naturally knew Bai Ping's intentions, as long as the uncle came here on behalf of the Bai clan, if it was really the Shi clan in Luoyin City, then with the contact with the uncle and after determining the uncle's attitude, the Shi clan in Luoyin City would also take the opportunity to rein in, not only would they not continue to make too much trouble, but they would also buy Bai Yan's favor and help Bai Yan calm down what had happened recently.

At this moment, whether it is what happened in the city or the previous plunder, the forces that Bai Yan offended are, in the final analysis, nothing more than interests.

As long as Bai Yan compromises and concedes to them, no matter who is behind Luo Yin's back, he will accept it when he sees it.

Inside the study.

Just as Bai Junzhu was talking to Bai Ping.

"Little Lord! I heard that Miss Xu received a letter from the general and was about to leave the mansion! ”

A maid hurriedly approached the study and came to Bai Junzhu to report.

Hear the words.

Bai Junzhu and Bai Ping glanced at each other, and walked directly towards the outside of the study, and Bai Yingxue hurriedly followed behind.

Inside Luoyin City.

Bai Yan was dressed in cloth, sitting cross-legged on a street corner, leaning against the pyre, if it weren't for a sword at his waist, he looked like a young man who had nothing to do all day long.

With his hair a little messy, and the corners of his mouth starting to have a slight beard due to age, it was difficult to compare the Bai Yan under his eyes with the general of Qin who was galloping on the battlefield.

Look at the pedestrians coming and going on the street.

Bai Yan had a piece of grass in his mouth, he didn't spend a meal of wine in vain last night, and at this moment, he already had an understanding of the relationship between the scholars and clans in Luoyin City.

Even those children of the scholar clan relied on the strength of their families to run rampant and domineering in Luoyin City, and Bai Yan knew it well.

However, at the moment, Bai Yan is still not sure whether the people who made trouble here in Luoyin City and took the opportunity to make him stumble were the scholars in Luoyin City, or the forces that had offended before.

With the sun rising.

Bai Yan waited for a long time, and finally saw Xu Shi arrive with two cronies.

"Gentleman, I checked, it's not poisoning! No external injuries were found! Listening to Qin officials, it is indeed the appearance that only appears when they are drowned! ”

When Xu Shi saw Bai Yan, he looked at the pedestrians around him, so he stepped forward to change his words and whispered to Bai Yanyu.

After getting Bai Yan's letter, Xu Shi followed Bai Yan's request, and immediately took the seal and went to the official mansion to check the body, but fortunately, the body was not buried, and through checking, it was determined that those people were not poisoned before they died.

"Yingxue girl, why aren't you in the mansion?"

Bai Yan heard Master Xu's words, nodded at Master Xu, and then looked at Bai Yingxue who came with Master Xu.

With Bai Yan's inquiry.

Bai Yingxue lowered her head with a weak heart.

"I told my eldest sister that it was too boring in the house, so I wanted to go out with Miss Xu."

Bai Yingxue explained in a low voice.

Xu Shi glanced at Bai Yingxue, then turned his head to look at Bai Yan, bowed his head slightly, and didn't dare to speak, in fact, the eldest daughter of the Bai family, Junzhu, promised to let Yingxue follow her, but it was only limited to where to go to the official mansion, and it was completely Bai Yingxue's private decision to follow here.

And because she is also a woman, Xu Shi is not good at really opening her mouth to catch Bai Yingxue away.

After all, although Xu Shi used to be a woman of the scholar clan, but after she was kicked out of the Xu Mansion with her mother when she was a child, as soon as her mother died, she was sold to a restaurant.

Therefore, for Bai Junzhu and Bai Yingxue, who were born in the Bai family, Xu Shi had some small inferiority complex in his heart, and lowered his status a lot.

Although he once saved Bai Yu and pretended to be Bian Que's disciple, the Bai clan, regardless of men, women, young and old, respected Master Xu very much, but without Bai Yan's orders, Master Xu didn't dare to open his mouth to drive people away.

"Don't talk nonsense!"

Bai Yan heard Bai Yingxue's explanation, he didn't say anything, for this Bai Yingxue, who was younger than himself, Bai Yan was also very clear about his heart, and after thinking about something, he finally didn't say anything to let Bai Yingxue go back.

"Good!"

Bai Yingxue saw that Bai Yan didn't drive her away, she looked up in surprise, looked at the backs of Bai Yan, Xu Shi and the others who turned to leave, and hurriedly followed.

on the streets.

Along the way, there are people talking about drowning, whether it is a teahouse or a restaurant, you can hear the noisy discussion.

As the days passed, more and more bad remarks about Bai Yan appeared on the streets.

"Recently, I have been scared, many people don't even dare to do business, and they are worried about their wives and children at home."

"But isn't it, if you have money, who wants to come out, there are dead people everywhere lately, have you heard? Where is the pardon village, the butcher named Yak took advantage of the fact that the man next door went out, so he entered the house and occupied the woman next door, not to mention, but also killed the woman and the whole family. ”

"It's not been very peaceful lately! I heard that those who drowned were all because of the sky~ to punish Bai Yan! ”

A vendor selling hats was chatting with the vendor of the stall next door, and at the end of the conversation, he was very quiet, but when the voice fell, he suddenly saw a man come to the stall.

This startled the peddler and quickly turned his head.

And before he had time to be afraid, when the hawker saw the two beauties behind the man, especially when he saw the younger beauty, the vendor looked straight, he had been in Luoyin for more than ten years, and he had seen a woman who could compare with the beauty in front of him, and there were few people.

It's no exaggeration to say that you don't necessarily see one all year round!

And the vendor selling wooden hairpins next to him is no better at the moment, the hosta that was originally in his hand fell to the ground without knowing it, and in his eyes, only the beauty he saw.

"How do you sell your head hat?"

Bai Yan took a hat on the paving and asked softly.

When the vendor who sold the hat heard Bai Yan's inquiry, he came back to his senses, and even reacted, seeing that Bai Yan had a sword and was not angry, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in his heart.

"Five bucks!"

The vendor said to Bai Yan, a flattering smile on his face.

When Bai Yan heard the price, he took out the money left over from yesterday from his sleeve pocket, counted twenty-five pieces, handed them to the vendor, and then picked up two hats from the stall, turned around and put them on for Xu Shi and Bai Yingxue respectively.

Seeing that he was wearing a hat, he looked much better, Bai Yan nodded with satisfaction, and then took three more and gave them to his two cronies, and he also wore one himself.

Bai Yingxue watched Bai Yan turn around and leave, and while following behind him, her heart was also full of questions at the moment.

At present, the city is full of slanderous words against the young man, why the young man doesn't care at all, he is obviously walking on the street, and he hears the words of pedestrians and traders with his own ears, why he doesn't care at all.

She couldn't help but be a little angry when she heard it.

Why is it that as a young man who is talked about by the people, he is indifferent, and he can immediately show his identity to the government and let the government order to refute the rumors.

Thinking of what the eldest sister said last night, Bai Yingxue already hated the scholars in Luoyin City at the moment.

In Bai Yingxue's eyes, no matter whether those people were killed by those scholars or not, but right now, those scholars must be in the mansion, sitting and watching the young man's jokes, waiting for the young man to bow his head.

On the banks of the Weishui River.

Bai Yan came to the riverside again, but this time it was different from yesterday, from the mouths of Wu Meng and others, Bai Yan already knew a lot of things about Luoyang City.

After all, how Puling is down, after all, he is also a Luoyin person, a Luoyin scholar, and he knows much more about Luoyin's news than ordinary people.

】

Follow the Weishui River and go upstream along the riverbank.

Since people have been drowning during this period of time, there are not many people fishing in Weishui, let alone a few people.

After a long time.

When Bai Yan, who was wearing a hat, saw a figure on the bank of the Weishui River, it was some people who had lost their loved ones at home, crying and mourning by the riverside.

If you drown in the river, in the eyes of the people, it must be that the Weishui River is no longer blessed, and you must come to worship, and you are also remembering the lost relatives.

Bai Yan and Xu Shi and their party came to the old and weak women and children who were crying not far away.

After waiting for a while, seeing those women, children, old and children, crying bitterly and planning to leave and go home after the sacrifice, Bai Yanfang stepped forward.

"Old woman, may I ask who in the family drowned?"

Bai Yan came to an old woman with white hair and asked softly.

Because of grief, the trembling old woman, when she saw Bai Yan and heard Bai Yan's inquiry, tears slowly fell on her wrinkled face under her white hair.

"Who are you?"

The old woman didn't answer Bai Yan, but asked softly.

The other three old women, as well as two young women with children, also looked at Bai Yan and his party with their heads at this moment, full of vigilance, but fortunately, they saw that two of them were women, and their posture was very fair and beautiful, so they were not afraid.

"I am an official of the Qin State, and when I heard about Luoyin, I specially came from Xianyang to investigate."

Bai Yan said softly, and took out a seal from his arms, but the seal was not handed over to the old woman.

But when they saw the seal, whether it was the old woman in front of Bai Yan, or the other women and children, the old and weak, they all knelt down in front of Bai Yan.

"Your Excellency!"

"My lord, please investigate for us!"

Seeing that Bai Yan was an official who came to investigate in Xianyang, all the old women were like seeing benefactors, ignoring the mud on the riverside and the stones in the soil, and kowtowing to Bai Yan while crying bitterly.

Seeing this, Bai Yan hurriedly reached out and helped the old woman up.

"Hurry up, I will do my best to make decisions for you, but now we need to know everything, and I will say everything."

Bai Yan said softly.

Hearing Bai Yan's words, the old and weak women and children kneeling on the ground seemed to have found the person in charge, and then faced Bai Yan's inquiry, they all said it without concealment, even if it involved many small things in the family, they were no exception, without the slightest concealment.

Through inquiry, Bai Yan soon knew that, as Wu Meng said, there were no one among the old and the young, and this was the place where the corpse had been seen before.

Bai Yan turned his head to look at the riverside around him, a touch of disappointment appeared in his eyes, and then he looked upstream, with a faint worry in his eyes.

Early this morning, Bai Yan also went to see the place where the body was buried.

Bai Yan also felt at this moment that if this eucalyptus wanted to find out the murderer, he might be in some trouble.

Turning his head to see these old women in front of him telling everything he knew, and seeing the young women looking at him with expectant eyes, Bai Yan also felt very stressed in his heart.

Fortunately, it is not helpless.

Yesterday, after knowing the cause and effect of the incident, Bai Yan heard the news from the Qin officials from Puling, and Fang Cai, specially asked Xu Shi to take someone to the official mansion to check the body.

Since there are no external injuries and no poisoning, it is very likely that five people who are good at drowning can drown, and the murderer or accomplice must be very familiar with the five people who drowned, at least those five people are defenseless to succeed.

Otherwise, five men who are good at water and make a living from Weishui can drown, and even ten unarmed men will be unable to do it.

Bai Yan didn't know if the Luoyang City Order and all the Qin officials in Luoyin had noticed this, but Bai Yan had a hunch, even if there were Qin officials who could think of it, there would definitely be people or forces interfering to prevent Qin officials from investigating too much, especially the villages of the dead.

Yesterday, Pu Ling said that Qin officials had drowned and died!

From this incident, it can be seen that some people want to see those five people drowning normally, and end up early.

"Didn't you say that five people were found drowned here? Why are only you and the other four families coming? ”

Bai Yan listened to the stories of these old women, and suddenly had some doubts, accompanied by the old women one by one to introduce the drowning of their loved ones in their family.

One, two, three, four!

Why did only four relatives of the deceased come to the riverfront? It's clear that five people drowned!

There is a local custom in a place, so generations of living on the banks of the Weishui River, these old women have the custom of sacrificing to the river god, so it is impossible to leave a dead body of the family, there is no such custom.

"My lord, that family is a poor person, there is only one blind old woman in the family, and the people in the village have never dared to tell her about the drowning of her third son!"

When an old woman heard Bai Yan's inquiry, she explained softly, and when she talked about the situation in the deceased's home, she couldn't help but sigh.

"The blind old woman's early men, eldest son, and second son all died on the battlefield, but fortunately, the only three sons left before were born filial piety, although the family was not rich, but since childhood, they have been busy taking care of the blind old mother, that is, when they talked about their relatives, they were disliked by other women's families again and again, and they never abandoned the blind old mother, and they also did not know how to tell the old woman! only said that her third son had something to do and wanted to leave the house for a while. ”

By the riverside.

Bai Yingxue and Xu Shi, when they heard the old woman's words, their beautiful eyes couldn't help but flush slightly.

When they heard that the blind old woman had only one child left, and that she had no children, they all knew how desperate the old woman would be if she knew.

"Can you take me to the old woman's house?"

Bai Yan thought about it and bowed to the ladies in front of him.

"You don't have to be polite, if you want to go, you can do it now!"

Several old women by the riverside wiped the tears from their eyes and hurriedly responded.

Half an hour later.

On a remote road away from the riverside, Bai Yan followed behind many women, bypassed a hillside, and came to the village where the women were talking.

Before he could walk down the hill and go to the village, Bai Yan saw a middle-aged man sitting under a tree beside the road crying.

Bai Yan saw all the old women and young women, as well as Bai Yingxue and Xu Shi, but they didn't see the middle-aged man.

Bai Yan thought of something and breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

It's so much easier to see it!

"My lord, which small garden is sitting in the courtyard, it is the blind old woman!"

An old woman said to Bai Yan, pointing to a small family in the village.

Bai Yan looked in the direction where the old woman was pointing out, and saw the small garden in the village, an old woman was sitting alone in it, her figure was not big, but in the small garden, it was extremely conspicuous.

Bai Yan didn't know why, and suddenly remembered his maternal grandmother.

Since my uncle moved to Linzi after getting married, my grandmother is often like this, sitting alone in a small garden.

Every time I went to see my grandmother, I saw my grandmother alone.

Between thoughts.

Looking at the figure in the distance, thinking of his grandmother, and remembering the scene of his grandmother spoiling herself with a loving face when she was a child, smiling and doting on herself, Bai Yan could no longer suppress the thoughts in her heart, turned her head, and looked to the side with reddened eyes.

I have been away from home for more than two years, and I don't want to miss my grandmother!

When I left home, my grandmother still coaxed her to dry food overnight.

"You go first! I'll be there later! ”

After Bai Yan came over, he asked softly.

Xu Shi and Bai Yingxue, the two looked at the side of the young man with beautiful eyes, when they saw the young man's eyes, they didn't expect that Bai Yan, who has always been known as a famous young general in the world, would show such a side.

Bai Yingxue looked at the young man, recalling the scenes that the two had experienced, she had always heard of the deeds of this young man, in her eyes, the young man has always been very strong, not only strong swordsmanship, but also amazing to others for his scheming and courage, but at this moment, looking at the young man's slightly reddened eyes, for some reason, there was a trace of distress in her beautiful eyes.

"He should be homesick!"

A thought appeared in Bai Yingxue's heart.

"Let's go!"

Under the protection of the two servants, the old woman quickly led Xu Shi and his party towards the direction of the village.

Bai Yan looked at the back of Xu Shi and the others leaving, and after calming down the emotions in his heart, he turned his head to look at the middle-aged man in the shade of the tree.

...........

Inside Luoyin City.

In a mansion, in a main hall, seven men dressed in silk and wearing jade ornaments knelt behind their wooden tables, drinking and laughing.

"This time that Bai Yan, I'm afraid that no matter how capable he is, he won't be able to return to the sky!"

"Yes, now the people in the city all say that God punished Bai Yan, so he will die!"

"Hahaha! We will sit and wait to see the joke of Bai Yan, fief! Hehe, although Luoyin is already the fiefdom of Bai Yan, it doesn't mean that we have no choice! ”

The three men laughed and talked to each other, and when they mentioned Bai Yan, they all smiled and shook their heads.

Although there is no such thing as a strong dragon not suppressing the head snake in this world, in the eyes of these men, this is really what it means, no matter how capable Bai Yan is, he has not yet gained a foothold in the land of Luoyin.

"Don't underestimate Bai Yan, even if Bai Yan can't find out, the Bai family will probably not give up in the future!"

A white-haired old man headed by a man above the main hall knelt behind the wooden table, glanced at the men, and asked softly, and beside him, there was a scepter.

"Elder Luo, don't worry, the Bai clan doesn't say that the murderer can be found or not, even if the Bai clan finds the murderer in the future, it will not find us here!"

A middle-aged man saluted the old man, and after speaking, he smiled and turned his head to look at the others.

They were all waiting for the time when Bai Shi and Bai Yan made a fool of themselves and begged them in person.