"Second girl, go and call your brother to come back for dinner."

In a small courtyard near the city wall in the west city, a woman in the stove room poked her head out of the doorframe and shouted to a young woman who was concentrating on embroidery under the old tree in the middle of the courtyard.

"Got it, mother."

The delicate woman named Er Ya agreed, carefully put the silk handkerchief that had just finished embroidering half a mandarin duck in the bamboo basket beside her, stood up and carefully smoothed the folds on the skirt, and tucked a few strands of hair hanging down from her forehead behind her ears, and then Lianbu walked towards the courtyard gate.

Outside the courtyard gate is a narrow alley that only allows two people to walk in parallel, and the ground is an uneven yellow mud road. Er Ya looked left and right and saw no trace of the little brother, frowned and muttered dissatisfiedly.

"This ten thousand people are annoying, and I don't know where to go."

Complaining is complaining, Er Ya still lifted the hem of her skirt to avoid being contaminated with the dust splashed, and carefully avoided the bulging dirt bags or pits on the ground according to her memory, and walked towards the west entrance of the alley. There is a long-abandoned mansion not far away, which is a paradise for these half-grown children nearby, and Er Ya guesses that most of the younger brothers are there.

Located on the edge of Kyoto, the neighborhood is not as bustling as the center, and when it is approaching, it is dark and it is difficult to see pedestrians on the streets.

The deserted house was in the alley diagonally opposite, and Er Ya walked to the mouth of the alley and looked inside, but it was darker than the street, and she couldn't help but feel a little scared.

"Xu Tieniu... Xu Tieniu... My mother called you home for dinner. ”

The second girl clasped her hands together in the shape of a trumpet, stood at the mouth of the alley and shouted inside.

"Driving... Drive... Drive..."

The sound of children playing in the deserted house in the middle of the alley came out, and Xu Tieniu, who was already crazy, didn't seem to hear his sister's shouts.

Er Ya stomped her feet in annoyance, and was hesitating to enter to pull the little brother out, when she heard the sound of gurgling wheels behind her.

Following the sound, I looked sideways, and a carriage of unclear colors was slowly approaching this direction, and the coachman sitting in front of the carriage pulled his head, as if he was dozing off.

When she finally saw the figure, Erya's courage strengthened a little, and she wanted to rush into the deserted house while the carriage had not gone far.

Lifting the skirt again, Erya's right foot had just been raised, and a rope with a ring was thrown out of the carriage and wrapped around Erya's neck.

The panicked Er Ya subconsciously wanted to shout, but the rope was suddenly tightened, and the speed of the carriage suddenly accelerated.

The carriage never stopped, still moving unhurriedly, and the coachman returned to his half-asleep appearance.

"There are still a few small ones in the alley, why don't you get them all together, and take advantage of the recent good market, our brothers can also make more gambling money." Tsk, this little woman looks thin and weak, but her breasts are not small. ”

A man's voice came from inside the carriage.

"Shut up! The boss specially explained that only one sheep can be caught within ten days in each square area, if you catch too much and are diligent, and attract the attention of the government, you kid will wait to be chopped into meat puree by the boss and feed it to the dog. ”

The coachman rebuked in a low voice.

"Hmph, it is said that the older the rivers and lakes, the less timid he is, in my opinion, the boss has earned enough pension money, pondering the golden basin to wash his hands, and find a place where no one knows to go happily, and he has never considered our brothers who help him to work tiringly."

Hearing the man's complaint, the driver wanted to refute, but he remained silent after flattening his mouth.

"Hey Huzi, let me tell you something. But first, I treat you as a brother, so don't turn around and sell me. ”

"If you have something to say, let it go."

"A few days ago, the people under Boss Xue in Nancheng looked for me."

"Are you looking for death, that surnamed Xue is a mortal enemy with our boss, if the boss knows, not only you, but even me will suffer."

The coachman said angrily.

"Don't worry, listen to me. It's not an outsider who is looking for me, it's a fellow countryman with the two of us, it's the second pillar of the old Li family at the head of the village, the kid who buried Ba Tai when he was a child and sucked rhubarb snot all day long, do you remember? ”

"Hmm... When I heard you say that, I remembered, what is he looking for you for? ”

"The second pillar is not what it used to be, and the people are now the white paper fan of Boss Xue, and the second is in charge. He said that the big seller behind the scenes had already sensed that our boss wanted to get out, so he thought..."

The man leaned out half of the carriage, put his palms across his throat, and made a motion to wipe his neck.

The coachman's body shook for a moment, and after a long silence, he asked in a low voice.

"Is the news reliable, don't let people fool you."

"We are fellow countrymen with Erzhuzi, and he can't fool anyone else."

"Even if his information is reliable, why should he find you? You can't just want you to kill the boss and replace him. ”

"Don't make a fuss, don't you know what kind of tiger I'm a tiger, this life is an errand life. Erzhu said, as long as I can provide them with the location of the boss's hideout, I will give this number after the deed is completed. ”

The man spread his fingers and shook them in front of the driver's eyes.

"Five hundred taels! Rather..."

"Look at your little bit of interest, it's a full five thousand taels!"

The man interrupted triumphantly.

Hiss!

The coachman gasped when he heard this, and his heartbeat couldn't help but speed up a lot.

The carriage faded away and disappeared into the night.

The five and a half big urchins in the deserted house were hungry and tired, so they reluctantly said goodbye and went home, and agreed to come here again tomorrow to continue the game.

In the dark narrow alley, Xu Tieniu skillfully jumped over a stinky puddle, jumped back home and shouted.

"Mother, I'm hungry!"

"It'll be fine right away, and we'll start dinner when your father comes back."

The woman poked her head out of the stove and looked at her youngest son with a doting expression.

"Look you're getting dirty, go back to the house and change into clean clothes. By the way, let your second sister wash the dirty clothes. ”

"Great!"

Xu Tieniu responded crisply, ran into the house while stripping, and threw the dirty clothes he took off on the ground.

After washing his face indiscriminately and changing his clothes, he saw that the dirty clothes he had just taken off were scattered in the yard, so he shouted at the top of his throat.

"Second sister, my mother asked you to do the laundry. Second sister... Second sister..."

After shouting a few times and no one answered, Xu Tieniu ran to the door of the stove room and shouted.

"Mother, where is the second sister?"

"Hun boy, you two came back together, why did you ask about me."

"I came back by myself, I didn't see the second sister."

"Ahh

The woman hurriedly put down the spatula, grabbed Xu Tieniu's shoulder and asked.

"I asked your second sister to call you home for dinner, didn't you see it?"

"I said it all, I came back by myself, and I didn't see the second sister."

Xu Tieniu shook his shoulders vigorously, shook the woman's hand off, and replied impatiently.

The woman glanced up at the dark night sky, realized that something was wrong, and told Xu Tieniu to stay at home and wait for his father to come back, and then ran out to find his daughter.

As soon as she ran to the door, the woman bumped into someone, and looked at her father-in-law.

"Why are you flustered?"

The man who had just finished doing odd jobs and was tired reprimanded weakly.

"The second girl is gone."

"What!"

After hearing what happened to the woman, the angry man would slap her with a big mouth.

"Last month, when Lao Li's daughter-in-law was lost, Lao Tzu told you that the second girl and Tie Niu are not allowed to go out after dark, why don't you stinky old ladies have a long memory, Lao Tzu beat you to death!"

"It's useless for you to kill me now, hurry up and find the second girl."

The woman cried out with a crying voice.

The father and the two hurriedly told the younger son not to run around, locked the courtyard door and went to the two ends of the alley.

"Two girls... Two girls..."

Most of the people living in this area are poor families, reluctant to buy lamp oil, and they all go to bed early after eating. It was a cloudy day tonight, and the clouds obscured the moonlight and starlight, and I could barely make out the scenery within three or four paces, and it was completely dark at a distance.

The woman also felt a little frightened, hugged her shoulders tremblingly, and kept calling the second daughter's name in a trembling voice.

……

"I have already made a note of the situation, and I will inform the second elder as soon as possible if there is news."

With the faint light of the fire fold, Li Ji truthfully recorded what the second elder of the Li family said, closed the case and said.

This family and Li Xiang are the family, also surnamed Li, the son went out with relatives to learn to do business, and there was only a pair of old couples and daughter-in-law in the family.

Last month, the daughter-in-law of the family went out to buy vegetables and never came back, and after a fruitless search, the old couple could only go to the yamen to report the case.

There are cases of population loss, but the Kyoto Prefecture has only a rough record, but the specific time of the loss, the physical characteristics of the lost person and other detailed information have not been recorded.

After asking about the situation, when Li Xiang said goodbye to the old couple, he was grabbed by the old woman, and the old man spread his hands into his arms and took out more than 20 copper plates to be stuffed to Li Xiang.

"There are so many left in the house, and I hope that the cha master will bother to get my daughter-in-law back, otherwise... Otherwise, when my son comes back, how can I explain to him? ”

The old man pleaded with tears in his eyes.

"I received the wishes of the two old men, but we said that we were not allowed to take a stitch from the people. If I take your money today, I will be beaten on the board tomorrow morning. So keep this money for your second elder, although rest assured, I will do my best to find your daughter-in-law. ”

In the old couple's thanksgiving, Li Ji left the small courtyard and turned around and closed the courtyard door.

Alas, poor!

Li Ji sighed in his heart.

It was already too late, and most of the people who lived here had already fallen asleep, so they had to come back tomorrow morning to continue their visits.

Putting the case file into the cloth bag behind his back, Li Ji groped the wall and walked out of the dark narrow alley, and as soon as he walked out of the alley, he heard the shouts of a woman in the dark.

"Second girl, you should respond to your mother's words, second girl... Yes... Hell yes! ”

Li Yan's heart tightened, could it be that another woman is missing?

I didn't have to think about it, so I followed the sound and looked for it.

The woman who had come out to look for her daughter was walking and screaming in fright when she realized that she had hit something.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not a ghost, and I'm not a bad person."

In the dark, Li Ji hurriedly explained.

Unfortunately, the woman was in a panic and could not listen to all his words, but when she heard the words 'ghost' and 'bad man', and let out another terrible scream, her eyes rolled and she was about to faint.

"What's the name of the old woman's ghost, but I've found the second girl."

The sound of men asking and rushing running could be heard in the alley.