After Li Zhiyun and others entered the county seat of Xia County, they stayed in a post station. The next morning, as soon as he finished breakfast, Xu Tiecheng, Wang Xingben, and a middle-aged man in his thirties came to the post house to pay their respects. Xu Tiecheng introduced: "This is the county Cheng Ding Guoyi. "Hey, the three chief officials of Xia County are here, Li Zhiyun hurriedly greeted and laughed with them, and then said: "County Lieutenant Wang, how was the situation of the inquest yesterday?" ”

"Back to the King of Chu, Zhou Shen was hit in the back of the head with a blunt object and died, the murder happened at midnight the day before yesterday, and the lower officials have been investigated for the case, and strive to capture the real murderer as soon as possible." Li Zhiyun nodded, and asked again: "Where does Zhou Shen live?" Does he have a family? Xu Tiecheng said: "His home is in the county. ”

"Okay, let's go to his house and have a look."

Li Zhiyun took his entourage and followed the three county officials to Zhou Shen's house. They walked through two avenues, through an alley, and into a courtyard. Zhou Shen's family had learned the bad news, and arranged a mourning hall at home, setting up tablets and offerings, and Zhou Shen's wife and children knelt on the ground and wept in linen and filial piety.

One by one, the people offered incense and bowed to the spirits of the dead. After Li Zhiyun finished the incense, he came to the wing room in the backyard, there are two wings, one is a bedroom and the other is a study. He walked into the study, looked around, and found a desk against the wall, on which were placed inkstones, pen and ink, and a few thread-bound books, and a paper silk pressed with paperweight, and the paper silk was full of words. At this time, there were footsteps and talking outside, and before he could take a closer look, he hurriedly picked up the paper handkerchief, hurriedly folded it and stuffed it into his sleeve.

Li Zhiyun turned around, and Xu Tiecheng and Ding Guoyi walked in. He said indifferently: "There's nothing in this house, let's go and have a look elsewhere." ”

Leaving Zhou Shen's home, Li Zhiyun said: "Xu County Order, this orphan and widow is very pitiful, and the matter of bereavement must be properly handled." ”

"King Chu rest assured, Zhou Shen was killed by a traitor, and the lower officials have reported to the state government according to the martyrdom, and there will be a reply in a few days."

The group walked out of the alley and came to the street, Li Zhiyun asked again: "Ladies and gentlemen, is there a temple near this county seat?" Ding Guoyi said: "Back to the King of Chu, there are many temples on Yinhua Mountain, five miles away from the county seat. ”

"The King of Chu doesn't know anything." Xu Tiecheng said, "In that year, the Indian monk Mo Teng carried the Buddhist scriptures to Luoyang with a white horse, passing through Yinhua Mountain, and saw that this mountain is steep and the scenery is beautiful, and he is very happy. Later, he built a temple here to practice, and it has been hundreds of years. At present, there are more than 100 temples on Yinhua Mountain, 5,000 monks and nuns, and there are no less than one million good men and women who come here every year to worship the Buddha in nearby states and counties, and the incense is very prosperous! ”

"Oh? So, this Yinhua Mountain is a Buddhist holy place, right? ”

"So to speak."

After everyone walked not far, Xu Tiecheng stopped and arched his hand: "His Royal Highness the King of Chu, General Yuwen, and all the generals, the lower officials have prepared a little thin wine at home today, please do not give up, and deign to come to the cold house." ”

"Lord Xu, you are too polite."

"The lower officials are just a little bit of the friendship of the landlord, please don't shirk the king of Chu and the generals."

"Okay, it's better to be respectful than to obey your fate," Li Zhiyun said, "Then it's going to bother Lord Xu." ”

Under the leadership of Xu Tiecheng, everyone came to Xu's mansion. As soon as he entered the hall, Li Zhiyun found that there was an altar in the corner, on which there was a tablet, and he hurriedly pointed his finger and said, "Lord Xu, what is this tablet?" ……”

"This is the spiritual seat of the clumsy thorn."

When Yu Wenxin heard this, he was shocked: "Sister-in-law, is she? …… What the hell is going on? Xu Tiecheng sighed and said: "On the eighteenth day of the lunar month last year, Humble Cunning took Yahuan to the Yinhuashan Temple to incense, and never returned. When Li Zhiyun heard this, he hurriedly asked, "Then you didn't go to the temple to look for it?" ”

"Why didn't you look for it? The lower officials asked all the monks and nuns in the monastery, but no one saw them. Instead, some people saw her go down the mountain after she finished the incense. After the disappearance of Humble Jing, Xia Guan and Wang County Lieutenant searched everywhere, and finally found one of Yahuan's silk shoes by the Lingzhang River. Presumably after Jing Jing went down the mountain, he went to the river with Yahuan to play in the water, and unfortunately fell into the river. Although the body has not been found so far, Xia Guan thinks that more than half a year has passed, and there is no possibility of survival, so it is convenient to set up a spirit card at home and pay tribute every day. ”

After Xu Tiecheng finished speaking, Wang Xingben on the side added: "Xiaguan once sent people to salvage in the Lingzhang River, but in the end nothing was found. ”

When everyone heard this, they all sighed. Xu Tiecheng waved his hand and said, "This matter is over, don't mention it." The banquet is set up in the back hall, please go to the back hall......"

After lunch, Li Zhiyun and the others came out of Xu County's house, and on the way back to the post house, Yu Wenxin was still sighing about Mrs. Xu's affairs. Li Zhiyun said: "General Yuwen, do you know this Mrs. Xu?" Yu Wenxin said: "I will not be a fellow villager in Liaocheng with Xu Tiecheng." Mrs. Xu is the only daughter of the county guard, beautiful and talented. Xu Tiecheng is also a son of a family, and the two families are world friends, and they are married. After marriage, the two were in love abnormally, and once became a beautiful talk on the street. I don't want Mrs. Xu to suffer an accident, it's a pity! ……”

It was still early, and Li Zhiyun wanted to go shopping in the market by the way, so he led everyone to a lively street. He found that what Yu Wenxin said was true, Xia County was indeed very rich. In recent years, due to the continuous wars, the people in many places have lived in hardship. He walked through many towns and found that many of the people there were yellow-skinned and malnourished, and their clothes were mainly linen, and there were very few people wearing silk and satin, while the people here were all healthy-looking, and seemed to eat very nutritious, and their clothing was mainly silk fabric. The streets are full of people, men carrying oil, grain, rice and noodles, women holding silk and silk in their arms, and children holding windmill sugar cakes, a scene of abundance and comfort.

They walked around for a while, it was hot, and there happened to be a tea shed on the side of the street. Li Zhiyun said: "Let's go in and sit down and have a bowl of tea." ”

Everyone entered the tea shed and sat down. Li Zhiyun was drinking a big bowl of tea when he suddenly noticed a crazy man walking on the street. Although this man was disheveled and filthy, his skin was fair, like a scholar. He was followed by a group of urchins, screaming at the madman and scavenging at him. The scholar seemed to be unconscious, just staggering along, and his mouth kept on muttering......

After the crazy man walked over, Li Zhiyun found that several strangers at the same table with him pointed at the crazy man just now and whispered something, so he put down the tea bowl and said to an old man with gray hair next to him: "Uncle, that person just now looked like a scholar, how could he be crazy?" ”

"Little brother, you don't know anything." The old man said, "His wife went to the temple on Yinhua Mountain half a year ago to make incense, and she never returned. He missed his mother, and he went crazy. ”

It's another case of disappearance, and it's another trip to the temple to make incense. Li Zhiyun thought of the wood carving he found from Zhou Shen. The two disappearances and one homicide are related to the temple in some way. It seems that he is going to go to Yinhua Mountain tomorrow......

After Li Zhiyun returned to the post house, Zhang Zheng said to him: "Lord Wang, I asked Zhou Shen's wife, Zhou Shen ran away from home at the beginning of the day, and never came back. Li Zhiyun nodded and walked into his guest room.

He sat down next to the desk, took out the paper silk from his sleeve, unfolded it, and saw that it was a poem:

There are no heavy arrows in the bow of Houyi, and there are caves in the blessed land of Lingshan;

The heart has mountains and seas and is boundless, and the mystical and forgetful methods are re-enacted;

There are many coincidences in chance, and the sky is unpredictable.

He read it twice, and it was a poem, and he couldn't seem to find any clues. He put down the paper and fell into deep thought.

According to Wang Xingben, Zhou Shen is Ku Cao. Among the county-level officials in the Tang Dynasty, only the county commander, the county magistrate and the county lieutenant are officials with good rank, and the others are all minor officials who are not in the stream, and they are called outsiders. There are nine levels of official positions outside the stream, which shows that there are still quite a lot of petty officials who do not enter the stream. Li Zhiyun didn't know that Ku Cao belonged to the outer ranks, but he knew that Ku Cao was in charge of the Fucang. In ancient times, the place where money was hidden was called "house", and the place where grain was hidden was called "warehouse". Therefore, Cucao is roughly equivalent to the bank president and grain director of later generations, and it is still a very important position.

At night, Li Zhiyun didn't sleep for a long time, meditating on the candle, and the scenes that happened during the day passed again in his mind. Less than twelve hours after he arrived in Xia County, he discovered two disappearances and one homicide. It seems that the water in Xia County is still very deep. The depth of the water will hide the demon dragon, but where is this demon dragon hidden?

Yinggu walked in with a porcelain bowl, put the bowl on the table, and said, "Lord Wang, I saw that you didn't eat much at night, so I boiled a bowl of lotus seed soup for you, you can drink it while it's hot." Because he drank too much wine at noon, he didn't eat a few bites of dinner, and when he smelled the fragrance of lotus seed soup, he did feel a little hungry. After thanking him, he picked up the porcelain bowl and ate it with a spoon. Ying Gu, who was sitting on the side, smiled happily when she saw that he was eating well......

Xu Tiecheng heard that Li Zhiyun was going to Yinhua Mountain, because he had official business to deal with and could not accompany him, so he sent the chief bookkeeper Hong Zhaoran to be his guide. Mr. Hong was about twenty-seven or eighteen years old, wearing a pale blue robe, and judging by his countenance, he was a loyal and amiable man. Intimidated by Li Zhiyun's status and power, he was very respectful to Li Zhiyun.

Li Zhiyun took Yinggu, Zhang Zheng, Cai Hu and Scarface, and set off with Master Hong. They went out of the north gate of the county seat, and after walking a short distance, they saw several peaks rising from the ground in front of them, with rugged mountains and lush forests. Master Hong pointed with his hand and said, "That's Yinhua Mountain." ”