With the order of the crooked carp, the people of the Yin Cao Division acted quickly, and in a moment the entire tavern was surrounded, and at this time, not even a single fly could fly. For a moment, the drinkers who were partying in the tavern suddenly quieted down, and everyone looked at each other with inexplicable fear in their eyes......

Rao had reached this moment of embarrassment, and no one there would have noticed in astonishment: the blind old man who had just sat silently in that remote corner had already gone to his seat—silently gone!

In fact, as early as about half a quarter of an hour ago, before the crooked carp gave the order to block the "Nightless" tavern, the old head who had already predicted had already pretended to be quite drunk and left quietly with staggering steps. Leaving the tavern door and turning the familiar street corner, this blind old man, who usually had poor eyesight, actually moved quite quickly into a secluded alley, and disappeared in an instant......

After the fourth and a half watches, a ray of light has already appeared. The incense burner peak standing proudly in the early morning cold wind blows, like the image of a stubborn old man.

Under the cover of a few coniferous pines, in an inconspicuous mountain recess, a small Taoist temple that is half new and not old is built without publicity. The gate of this Taoist temple is closed all year round, and there are very few pilgrims in normal times, so it looks mysterious and unpredictable in the eyes of the nearby mountain people.

After a while, a dark shadow quietly came to the side door of the Taoist temple facing the cliff by the slight morning light. He raised his hand and knocked lightly on the door, and a small crack was opened in the thick wooden door between gasps - a teenage Taoist boy inside hurriedly came to answer the door, and immediately pushed the door open to welcome him in: "Mr. Nan, are you here?" ”

"Well, you're Hitomi! Your master is here, right? Although the visitor known as "Mr. Nan" was in a hurry, he still pretended to be polite to the little Taoist boy easily.

"Yes, Master is sitting and cultivating at this time." Hitomi looked back at the visitor with a slightly puzzled look, and then silently led the way in front.

Although the visitor was a little old, he walked vigorously and vigorously, and was obviously a man with martial arts. Circumventing several sections of the corridor on the side of the temple, the visitor, guided by the Taoist child, followed a gravel path through a rockery, and finally came to the outside of a house.

Xiao Daotong motioned to the visitors to wait for the time being, and he called softly outside the door: "Dare to ask Master, have you rested at this time?" ”

"I'm just going to recuperate, what- is there a guest coming?" A confident voice sounded in the room.

"Report to Master, it's the old man Nanhezi who came to visit."

"Oh? Coming so early? The voice of the questioner in the room immediately softened a lot, and after a pause, he said, "Well, please—"

Xiao Daotong gently pushed open the door, stood beside him, and stretched out his hand to make a gesture of "please come in": "Mr. Nan, please come in." ”

Nanhezi bowed his head slightly to express his gratitude, and slowly walked in with square steps.

"Hehe, I'm bothered, Brother Mu Dao." The visitor arched his hands and politely gave a salute.

"Brother Crane came late at night, there must be something unsolved?" The clogs sat upright, just picked up the dust in his hand and returned it.

"It's hard to put into words...... Rather, has the Northern Tiger arrived? The visitor hesitated, as if he had a hidden intention.

"Northern Tiger? You're talking about Xin Laoer, right? The head of the clogs obviously disdained to mention Xin Chaihu's nickname on the rivers and lakes.

"That's right, it's him." The visitor replied dryly.

"Well, last night...... Hitomi-chan, what time was it at that time? The clogs Michigan's answer seemed nonchalant.

Xiao Hitomi, who had been standing quietly outside the door, saw the master asking, and hurriedly replied in a crisp voice: "Report to the master, it was about midnight about three and a half o'clock. ”

"That's it, Xin Lao Er arrived in the middle of the night, and he should still be sleeping in the guest room now." The clog chief picked up the cup and took a sip of tea, and said slowly, "What, do you want to see him?" ”

"Forget it, let's wait until dawn." The visitor sat down on his own chair and casually said "thank you".

The head of the clogs didn't mind, and just said to Xiao Hitomi: "You go to the backyard guest room to see if Xin Lao Er is awake, and remember to make a cup of tea for the guests when you come back." ”

Hitomi agreed, and immediately went with his hands and feet.

Seeing that there was nothing to do for the time being, the head of the clogs talked with the visitors, and occasionally talked about metaphysics such as "Qimen Dunjia" and "Mai Shenxiang".

……

As the roosters crowed three times, the sky over Soseki Town gradually became clearer. A large group of soldiers were ordered to set up sentry posts to isolate the site of the murder last night. In the distance, there were many townspeople who had heard the news and came to watch, and there were also some curious mountain people with wide eyes on the side of the hillside.

After half a cup of tea, Kong Rong, the head of the guard, accompanied Song Che, the magistrate who came from the state government early in the morning, and came to inspect the body with his assistant. Just from the dead body left at the scene, it is not difficult to see that the old man's death was extremely tragic - and this also shows that the murderer is extremely cruel!

Song Che frowned when he saw this, and he was speechless for a long time. After arriving at the scene, a question kept circling in his mind: what was the reason for someone to kill lives so viciously?

Because there was nothing worth inspecting at the scene except for the dead body, Song Che asked Kong Rong to order his subordinates to quickly arrange for the corpse to be collected. At that moment, someone took a large white cloth, wrapped the body of the violent man, and carried it to an empty room for temporary storage.

Just as he was filling out the corpse box (death result report) as usual, suddenly, someone outside the gate of the guard station started crying. Song Che, who has rich experience in handling cases, immediately had a premonition that something was wrong, and hurriedly ordered the crying person to be brought up.

The person who ran to the guard station and cried and made trouble claimed to be a nearby mountain man, and his name was Qiu Laosi. Just now, Qiu Laosi, who was mixed in the crowd watching the excitement, was very surprised to find that the person who died tragically under the sentry tower for no reason last night turned out to be his younger brother Qiu Laoliu! After being shocked by this situation, Qiu Laosi suddenly felt that the sky was spinning in front of him, and all of a sudden the whole person was almost about to faint......

As soon as the news spread, other people who knew him also felt inexplicable, and they couldn't believe it - how could Qiu Laoliu, who was honest on weekdays, suddenly suffer such a catastrophe? For a while, in the town of Soseki and the surrounding mountain villages, there were people everywhere talking about such a very strange thing, and at the same time, all kinds of theories and even rumors spread one after another......

In the opinion of Song Che, an experienced magistrate who handles cases, this bizarre and mysterious case that happened in Shushi Town is indeed becoming more and more confusing and strange - how to properly investigate the case and appease the people, there are really many unknowable variables in it!