In this way, not only Mrs. Luo's flower-viewing party was a great success, but the tea drink of Chunning Snow also made a name for itself in the circle of ladies in the capital. Since then, people have continued to come to ask for take-out banquet guests, and it has gradually become more than half of the profit source of Chunning Snow. That's an afterword.

At the end of the evening, Chi Tao saw that the weather was hot, so he went to cook and made locust leaves, cut dried bamboo shoots and venison into fine cubes, and fried the marinade with lard to make noodles.

Before the meal was served, Xie Yao arrived and smelled the fragrance in the air: "What is this for?"

"It's hot, make some cold food. I don't know if you're coming, I haven't prepared a main dish, so why don't you wait a while and I'll see what I can do. ”

Xie Yao waved his hand: "No need, I'll eat with you." ”

Chi Tao had no choice but to give Xie Yao a bowl and put it on the dining table in the main room, and then went to the courtyard to sit on the small square table under the grape trellis with Shao Chengchi Xing and A Chu to eat.

didn't eat two bites, Xie Yao came out with a bowl: "It's hot inside, I'll eat outside." He sat next to Chi Tao.

Achu doesn't care, he eats for himself. Shao Cheng and Chi Xing were a little restrained, and they quickly finished eating a few bites, and slipped away under the pretext of working.

After a while, Xie Yao finished eating, and Chi Tao brought him a cup of tea: "Is there any news?" ”

Xie Yao saw that Achu had also returned to the house, so he said, "Chengbei Yizhuang received a few nameless corpses a few days ago, they are not very old, and no one has claimed them so far. ”

Chi Tao was terrified: "Kill people and kill people? ”

"I'm not sure yet, it's those guys."

Chi Tao thought for a while: "I've seen Qiao Yulang, why don't I go and identify the body." ”

"It looks like I've been dead for a few days, and now it's hot......" Xie Yao didn't finish speaking.

Chi Tao understood what he meant, and the corpse was afraid that it would be unsightly, so he still insisted: "It's okay, the bone phase will not change." Besides," she muttered, "it's been almost three months since the fake county lord entered the palace, and if it's really them, it's been two or three months before being killed, and it's not certain that any clues can be found on the corpse." ”

"Well, I've already hired a servant. Do you know how to ride a horse? ”

Chi Tao nodded, equestrianism was popular in high circles, and she had learned it.

"Then you ride a horse that listens to the rain. Listen to the rain, you stay here and wait for me to come back. ”

Xie Yao led Chi Tao to a simple house in the north of the city, recognized the road sign into a narrow alley, and knocked three times on a dilapidated wooden door.

With a "squeak", a dishwashy head stretched out of the door, and the smell of wine was so strong that even the pond peach that had not dismounted could be smelled.

"Who? Big night. The face under the messy hair is very young, and he is not ugly, and he has a little clear eyebrows, "Yo, Mr. Xie......."

Xie Yao "shh ”

He suddenly came to his senses: "Okay! Wait a minute. ”

Xie Yao explained: "His name is Luo Peng, and he is a servant. ”

In less than a moment, the wooden door opened again, and a neat young man jumped out, still carrying a box: "Let's go." ”

Xie Yao also turned over and dismounted, and said to Chi Tao: "The horse is tied here, it is less than a mile from here to Yizhuang, and it is inconvenient to ride a horse." ”

When the three of them arrived at Yizhuang, the guard was an old man, it seemed that Luo Peng was very familiar with him, whispered a few words, and stuffed something into the old man's hand, and the old man waved his hand and went into the room next to him to sleep.

Luo Peng took out two face towels and sent one to his face: "The air inside is not good, wear this protection." He led Xie Yao and Chi Tao down the cellar again, although it was the height of summer, but as soon as they walked down the steps, the cold air still made Chi Tao shiver.

This kind of cold is not the kind of cold that invades the skin in winter, but the piercing coldness that seems to rise from the bottom of people's hearts to the brain.

Luo Peng lit the oil lamp, and Chi Tao saw that there were three wooden planks in the center of the cellar, each covered with a white cloth.

Luo Peng uncovered one, and the human body inside was swollen and white, and it could be seen from the clothes that it was a young woman.

He rummaged through the body: "I said it was fished from the moat." But ......." he picked up the hand of the female corpse.

Chi Tao interface: "The nails are intact, if you fall into the water from the shore and die, you will definitely damage the nails due to struggle." ”

"It could also be from a boat."

"You can look at her lungs, if it's overboard, there should be fluid in the lungs."

Luo Peng was a little shocked, he thought that this little man was Xie Yaoxin's little guy, and he actually knew these ...... He couldn't help but glance at Xie Yao.

Xie Yao nodded: "Let's open it." ”

"Okay." Luo Peng took out several knives and scissors of different lengths from the wooden box he carried, skillfully cut open the chest of the female corpse, and examined it for a moment, "There is no water and sediment in the lungs. ”

"What was the cause of death?"

Luo Peng checked it carefully, but found nothing: "Strange, there are no external injuries, and there are no signs of poisoning." ”

"Let's look at the others." Chi Tao uncovered the second sheet, and below it was a man, Chi Tao saw a black mole the size of a soybean grain above the man's neck near the hairline, and looked up and said, "It's Qiao Yulang." On that day, she knocked Qiao Yulang down from behind, and she was very impressed by this black mole.

However, it is disappointing that Luo Peng also did not find the cause of Qiao Yulang's death.

Chi Tao held the oil lamp and carefully observed the corpse back and forth, and suddenly felt a glimmer of light in his eyes flashing in the corpse's hair, and soon disappeared.

She didn't wear gloves and didn't dare to touch them, so she hurriedly called Luo Peng: "Luo Langjun, look at his head." ”

Luo Peng carefully parted the corpse's hair: "It's a nail!" It's vicious! As he spoke, he pulled out the nails from the three corpses with tweezers, put them in a tray, and said, "The diameter of the head is one centimeter, the length is three inches and one minute, and it is nailed down from the top of the head....." He inhaled a cool breath between his teeth, "It doesn't taste good." ”

The cause of death was found, but the body had been soaked in water for several days, and even any traces were washed clean by the water. Luo Peng dissected the stomach of a corpse without hope, pinched his nose and examined a pile of black things, picked up a piece of something and sniffed it carefully, and suddenly exclaimed in surprise: "Look what this is!"

Xie Yao and Chi Tao leaned over and tried to distinguish for a long time, but they really couldn't see the difference between the piece of things that Luo Peng was holding with tweezers and the pile on the plate.

"There's a mixture of sheep hesitating." Luo Peng said excitedly, "Shennong's herbs are cloudy, and taking sheep hesitant by mistake can make people faint for a day, and it is said that Hua Tuo's hemp boiling powder has this thing." And that's just a little hesitant foliage, and he has highly purified seeds in his stomach, oh, and a mandala. Luo Peng took the tweezers a little farther away, waved his hand and fanned the wind, "The smell is big." ”

Chi Tao pinched his nose: "So it should be the killer who stunned these three people first." Otherwise, this kind of death is too painful, and people will definitely struggle. ”

Xie Yao suddenly said: "I remember that sheep hesitation is mostly seen in Sichuan and Shu ....."

Luo Peng nodded: "That's right." This plant prefers heat, heat and humidity and does not grow in the north. ”

Encouraged by this, Luo Peng carefully checked again, but there was no new harvest, so he had to blow out the lamp and return to the ground with Xie Yao and Chi Tao.

After leading the horse from the Luo family, Chi Tao saw that Xie Yao was silent, and comforted: "There are not many clues now, but they have done such a big thing, and there will always be traces left." ”

Xie Yao smiled bitterly: "I'm not in a hurry, but Fu Xi can't wait-today the emperor said to people in private, the people have a saying that the queen mother's illness is not good, and he plans to let Fu Xi marry the fake county lord earlier, I'm afraid it's just a matter of two months!" ”

Chi Tao frowned: "When a woman from a large folk family gets married, it will take more than a year or two just to take a set of six ceremonies." How could the county lord's descent be so hasty?"

"Exactly." In the dark night, Xie Yao's face could not be seen clearly, and he could probably hear the deep worry in his voice, "In the afternoon, the county lord went to see the emperor, saying that the king of Qi had already instructed her to obey the arrangements of the emperor and the queen mother after entering Beijing." Now that the emperor has such a plan, she is willing not to care about red tape and rejoice for the queen mother. ”

"Is the King of Qi coming back to Beijing to participate in the descent ceremony?"

"They had been planning to arrive. The county lord also said that when the king of Qi left the capital, he had already sworn to guard the southwest frontier for the emperor, and if there was nothing to do, he would not set foot in the capital again in his lifetime. You don't know that the king of Qi was the youngest son, and he was deeply loved by the first emperor, and the emperor was a little sick..... as soon as this remark came out, the emperor was even more happy, and gave the lord of Huayin 10,000 food on the spot. ”

10,000 food eups, which is already comparable to the prince, should also be a disguised compensation for King Qi.

For a while, Chi Tao was also worried.

Xie Yao said quietly: "Fu Xi once vowed not to marry for life, and he also contradicted the emperor and Concubine Lin several times for this marriage. He still doesn't know what is going on in the palace today, and if he does, he doesn't know what he will do. ”

Chi Tao has always felt that Murong Ling has a strange temperament: "If he doesn't marry, what is the point of his sister enduring humiliation and being a concubine?" ”

Xie Yao raised his eyebrows: "Bear the burden of humiliation? You speak boldly. ”

It's almost to Goldfish Lane, and another intersection is the Chi family. Chi Tao said: "After running all night, do you want to use some supper?" ”

Xie Yaozheng was a little hungry: "It's okay." ”

Shao Cheng was looking at the mouth of the alley, and when he saw Xie Yao, he hurriedly saluted: "I've seen Gongzi Xie." ”

Chi Tao got off the horse and said strangely: "What are you waiting for me to do?" ”

Shao Cheng glared at her: "Are you willing to do it?" My brother and sister are as anxious as ants on a hot pot, and they will run out once in a quarter of an hour to see you. I'm afraid that his wife won't be safe, so I let her stay in the house in peace, so I'll just come out and wait. ”

Chi Tao smiled and said, "Thank you, Brother Shao Cheng." ”

"I'm salty and don't worry about turnips. I don't read much, anyway, I only know one sentence to cherish the people in front of me. Shao Cheng chattered as he took the reins from Chi Tao and Xie Yao's hands and tied them to the tree at the door, "You go and talk to her and let her rest assured." ”

Xie Yao mouth-shaped behind Shao Cheng asked, "He doesn't know?" ”

Chi Tao nodded, raised his finger and said "shhh ”