Chapter 35: The Secret Dungeon
The arrest yamen has blocked the streets around the 12th square of the red card, not allowing anyone to enter or leave, so it has attracted many onlookers and speculated whether it is related to last night's murder.
Tang Xiaohao hid in the corner, shaking the dust that fell from the beating, and by the way, he observed whether there was a chance to sneak in. Although he stepped forward, those patrols would also be released, but he didn't want to be seen, because he wanted to solve this matter quietly, for no other reason, it was because of the little bell involved.
No matter how much Tang Xiaohao deceives himself, he can't really hide the fact that he likes the little bell in his heart.
After thinking about it, Tang Xiaohao thought of the secret passage that could enter the Twelve Fangs, and the reason why he knew the secret passage was because Hanshuang told him.
Of course, it's the real frost, not the white rainbow that is now easy to look like a frost.
At that time, Tang Xiaohao had just started to mix in the Twelve Fangs, and because of his careless words, he offended a wealthy businessman in Xiyuan. The wealthy businessman didn't know Tang Xiaohao's identity, and Tang Xiaohao didn't want to make extraneous branches, so he wanted to turn the big thing into a small one and turn it into the best policy.
Who knows, the rich merchant of Xiyuan did not find Tang Xiaohao in the twelve squares, so he took his group of Xiyuan warriors to guard the flower bridge in and out of the twelve squares.
At that time, Tang Xiaohao and Hanshuang were also familiar with each other, and Hanshuang also knew that Tang Xiaohao was not a real villain, and he fell in love with him, so he told Tang Xiaohao about the existence of a secret passage. Although the secret passage was in a dirty and smelly toilet, it was better than falling directly into the hands of the rich merchant.
Why did Hanshuang know that there was a secret passage in the Twelve Squares? This is not accidental, but because Hanshuang was originally the daughter of the former owner of the Twelve Squares.
The former boss of the Twelve Fang offended a retainer of the Nan Rong family because of a certain time, and the Nan Rong family found a trumped-up crime to raid the house, and all the family's wealth was confiscated, not to mention, the men were exiled, and the women were either reduced to slaves or became sinners and sent directly to the land of fireworks in the Twelve Fangs to be dragged Yunxian.
To say that Hanshuang's father is actually not a good person, he found that there are tunnels underground when he built the twelve squares, so he changed part of the tunnels into dungeons, specifically to imprison the women of good families who were lured from all over Jiuyuan. If those women accept their fate, they will be assigned to each hall according to their posture level, and if they don't accept their fate, they will be locked up directly to death.
Because of this, Hanshuang will learn the secrets of the underground of the Twelve Squares. This is also the reason why she was reduced to a sinner girl and came to the Twelve Fangs, and she tried her best to become an Oiran. As long as she becomes an Oiran, she has the power to choose a room, so she finally chooses a room that can lead to the dungeon, hoping that one day she will save enough money to leave here, go away from home, and live a normal life incognito.
Although the dungeon was originally one with the tunnel, but in order to imprison those poor women, Hanshuang's father sealed the connection with a brick wall, leaving only another secret door in the toilet position, and even the workers who designed the entrance and exit for him were secretly killed by him, in order to be unprepared, who knows, even if he was ready for the so-called retreat, in the end it still did not come in any use, but gave his daughter the last hope.
Later, after Bai Ruhong replaced Hanshuang, although he found the entrance to the dungeon when he searched the room, he thought it was just an old dungeon, and he didn't know the existence of the secret passage, let alone that the secret passage was connected to the dungeon, so he asked Liao Yanqi to hide the dragon created with the ashes of the armor in it.
Tang Xiaohao came to the well of a house in Nanshi, and while others were not paying attention, he slid down the well rope, and then drilled through the hole in the well wall, and then came to the tunnel.
In the early years, when Hanshuang told Tang Xiaohao about this tunnel, Tang Xiaohao thought that her father had built it privately, but after entering the tunnel, judging from the traces left in it, it should be left by the previous dynasty, after all, almost all of the end of the previous dynasty were out of military disasters, and it was not uncommon to build such a tunnel in Shendu City to hide ambushes.
After entering the tunnel, Tang Xiaohao first found a place to put away the food box with the fire talisman gun, and then he was ready to move on, who knew that just a few steps, he heard a strange sound on the left side of the T-shaped intersection of the tunnel, the sound was like the howl of some kind of monster, and it was terrifying to hear.
What's that thing calling? Tang Xiaohao, who was about to move towards the right, stopped and looked to the left, but at this moment, the voice came again, and this time he heard it clearly, it was indeed the cry of something.
Tang Xiaohao, who was curious, slowly walked to the left, and after walking less than ten meters, he was blocked by a brick wall, and the strange sound came from the opposite side of the brick wall.
Tang Xiaohao stretched out his hand to touch the brick wall, and found that the brick wall was already full of cracks, and the relationship between the original moisture and the underground felt crumbling, but what was the strange noise on the other side?
Tang Xiaohao was just about to listen to it with his ears, when the voice came again, as if the thing on the other side had discovered Tang Xiaohao here, not only roared, but also slammed the brick wall to a staggering one, and the two bricks above also fell down.
Tang Xiaohao, who was frightened, immediately put away his curiosity, such a novelty will not only kill cats, but also kill people. So, he turned around and ran towards the entrance and exit of the Twelve Secret Passages.
At this time, in the 12 squares, the chief arrest head of the Yamen had easily found out the problem and found that most of the girls' licenses had expired, so he used this as an excuse to gather all the people in the 12 squares in the lobby and prepare to interrogate them one by one.
The leopard lady who didn't know why was in a hurry, and she gathered around the chief catcher and said good things, and kept signaling the chief catcher to take a step to speak, ready to make some money to settle the matter.
The chief catcher naturally knows that there is oil and water to fish this time, but how much he can catch is not up to him, and he needs to wait for the horse bracelet to decide, so the head catcher pretended to be upright and pretended not to understand the hints of the leopard girl.
When the belated horse bracelet walked into the Twelve Fangs, the leopard lady immediately greeted her: "I don't know if the Lord of the Ministry is here, and I will miss the welcome, please forgive me." ”
The horse bracelet didn't pay attention to the leopard girl, but just asked the chief catcher: "Everyone is here?" ”
The chief catcher looked at the dense humanity in the lobby: "The girls are all here, the guests are in the side hall, and I have sent someone to verify their identities." ”
Ma Bang nodded and sat down directly: "Let's interrogate these girls first." ”
The horse bracelet has two intentions, one is to find the murderer, and the other is to use the legitimate reason of finding the murderer to come to the Twelve Fang to extort a sum of money.
After the accident of the previous boss, the business here was originally wanted to be taken over by the retainers of the Nanrong family, but it was stopped by the Nanrong style, because once this place became the industry of the Nanrong family, it was equivalent to telling the emperor that there was a stronghold of the Nanrong family in the Shendu City, and the threat would also increase, so simply go to the court to list the twelve squares as public property first, and this became the place of fireworks belonging to the imperial court, which is why those dignitaries and nobles are willing to come here to have fun.
Since it is the official property of the imperial court, most of the profits must be liquidated by the household department and handed over to the state treasury. The Criminal Department, which handled the case of the former boss of the Twelfth Fang, naturally knew about the oil and water, so he arranged for his own people to take care of the Twelve Fangs, and the leopard lady who was in charge on weekdays was a member of the Criminal Department.
It's just that Leopard Niang naturally can't openly contact the people who arrested the yamen, and the arrest of the yamen can't set up a name, so what should I do? can only let the arrest yamen find a suitable reason to find fault every once in a while, so as to make oil and water.
It's been three months since the last time he came to Twelve Fangs to make money, and Ma Bang has never thought of a suitable reason, and last night's murder happened to give him a perfect reason, so no matter whether the murderer is from Twelve Fangs or not, he must focus on the investigation of the Twelve Fangs.
After Tang Xiaohao got out of the secret passage of the toilet, he cautiously came to the corner of the second floor, hid there and watched the people in the lobby below, and listened to the horse bracelet reprimanding the leopard girl: "It is clearly written in the law that the girl here needs to change her license every month, and if it is delayed, she will be punished." ”
When the leopard lady heard this, she immediately asked in a low voice: "What will happen to the light?" ”
Ma Bang glanced at Leopard Niang and lowered his voice: "Pay bonded according to the head." ”
The so-called bonded is to ensure that someone does not have an accident and does not flee to pay the money, although a single person does not seem to be much, but if the girls here all pay a bond, the amount is amazing, in this way, the task of the horse bracelet to get oil and water is also completed.
Leopard Niang immediately said: "Then do what the adults say, and I'll go and prepare." ”
Tang Xiaohao, who was hiding in the corner of the second floor, was speechless: "These bastards are still so old-fashioned in their way of extorting bamboo. ”
Then, Tang Xiaohao walked towards the room where those girls lived in Yu Linglong Hall, he knew that extorting bamboo was one thing, the horse bracelet would definitely still investigate the case, as long as the case was investigated, it would take an hour for so many people to interrogate, and he could take advantage of this hour to search the rooms of those oirans, so as to determine who was the Sister Hong.
Tang Xiaohao saw clearly last night, Sister Hong was wearing a night dress and a veil, she would not hide this kind of thing elsewhere, she must hide it in her room, as long as she found the night clothes, she could determine her identity, and then she would knock on the mountain and shock the tiger.
Tang Xiaohao's purpose was to cut off Sister Hong's line of controlling the little bell, but even if he was flexible and knowledgeable, he had never experienced the real danger and thought the whole thing was too simple.
Tang Xiaohao searched one by one, and he looked carefully, but he also knew that he couldn't easily find out if there was a secret grid, but at the moment this was the only way, and the only one who didn't list last night was Ji Chun Niang, so he focused on searching Ji Chun Niang's room.
Although Tang Xiaohao tested Ji Chunniang last night and judged that she was not Sister Hong, he was still not at ease, but he did not find the night clothes in the room. After searching around, Tang Xiaohao didn't find anything, but at this moment, he suddenly remembered someone, that is, Hanshuang.
Why do you think of cream? The reason is that Tang Xiaohao didn't suspect Hanshuang at all, so he directly skipped the previous search, but none of the other people's rooms were found, and only Hanshuang was left.
Thinking of this, Tang Xiaohao suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, could it be really frosty?
However, last night, Hanshuang was picking up customers, shouldn't it? Tang Xiaohao thought about it again, even if it was to pick up guests, she could find a way to temporarily get the guests drunk or stunned, and it was not even ruled out that the guests were also her accomplices.
Tang Xiaohao turned around and went to Hanshuang's room, and at the same time compared the figure and height of Hanshuang and Sister Hong in his heart, as well as those eyes. Although Sister Hong is masked, her eyes are exposed, and the more he recalls, the more he feels that Sister Hong is very similar to Hanshuang's eyes.
However, Tang Xiaohao didn't find anything in Hanshuang's room, and after thinking for a while, he remembered that Hanshuang had told him that there was a dungeon in the room in the early years, so he immediately groped on the ground, and then found a secret door under the Xiyuan carpet.
Tang Xiaohao did not rush to open the secret door, but lay there to observe, first looked at the side of the carpet facing the floor, and found that the dust on it was not very thick, and there was not too much dust above the secret door, which showed that the carpet had been frequently lifted recently, because there was so little dust.
Tang Xiaohao didn't rush down, but left the room first to observe the lobby.
In the lobby, the horse bracelet was still interrogating the girls one by one, and Hanshuang was the last. Tang Xiaohao roughly calculated, and when the interrogation was over, it would take two or three quarters of time, and it should be in time.
After Tang Xiaohao returned to the room, he opened the secret door and walked down the stairs slowly, and just after taking two steps, he saw that there were flints and torches on the stone platform next to him by the light above.
Tang Xiaohao lit the torch with flint, and at the same time realized that there were these things here, indicating that Hanshuang often went to the dungeon. Although Hanshuang told Tang Xiaohao that she would escape from here one day if she saved enough money, there was no need for her to go to the dungeon if she had nothing to do, and prepare things like flints and torches, right?
With a full stomach full of doubts, Tang Xiaohao continued to descend, and when he came to the dungeon, he found a box, and when he opened the box, he saw the night clothes, veil, bell hairpin, and the female sword inside.
The evidence is conclusive, there is no doubt that Hanshuang is Sister Hong who is followed by Tang Xiaohao, that is, the person who controls the little bell.
Tang Xiaohao still doesn't understand who Hanshuang is? But he did know that Hanshuang was the daughter of the former owner of the Twelve Fangs, which was a fact, but when would she know martial arts?
When he met Hanshuang in his early years, Tang Xiaohao knew that she was a weak woman who was powerless and would never know martial arts. Slowly, Tang Xiaohao recalled that it was probably a year ago, and Hanshuang's temperament looked a little different.
But how could people suddenly change so much? Could it be that you are infected by the carapace? No, no, if she is infected by the cardiac and does not absorb people's energy for a long time, she will become weak, but if she wants to absorb people's energy, she will inevitably kill people, and once she kills, she will definitely alarm the arrest of the yamen.
Could it be that today's Hanshuang is not the Hanshuang he knew in his early years, but another person, but he has changed his appearance into Hanshuang?
Tang Xiaohao has also heard about the disguise technique for a long time, and it is just regarded as a folk legend.
At this moment, the seeping howl came from the end of the dungeon, Tang Xiaohao trembled when he heard the sound, and subconsciously looked over with a torch.