Sitting on the bamboo raft drifting slowly, Wang Qilin closed his eyes and thought about the murder of Yu Darong and Yu Feizu's uncle and nephew.

It's about King Zhen, that's for sure.

But how did Yu Feizu die?

At first, they speculated that he was persecuted by a starving demon.

Obviously not, Yu Feizu's bulging stomach was not because of the thatch he ate, but because of a ghost baby hiding in it.

The Tiger Head Prison in Jingzhao Mansion is guarded by fierce spirits, and generally speaking, ghost babies can't enter, and it is impossible to be killed for no reason.

Xie Toad once speculated that it might be the person killed by Yu Feizu who turned into a ghost and entered the Tiger Head Prison to take revenge, but the fox did not intercept him.

At that time, their doubts about this were how Yu Feizu's dignified second generation and second ancestor could have anything to do with starving ghosts?

Now that the case has taken a turn for the worse, he should have been killed by the ghost baby, and the ghost baby will be incubated by its corpse.

In this way, Yu Feizu is a gambler and lustful, maybe he once coveted beauty and harmed a girl, and she became pregnant and died.

The girl was unwilling, and chased him to the capital in an unknown way and went to the Tiger Head Prison, and finally planted the ghost baby into his womb and let him give birth to the child.

Maybe someone sent the ghost baby in, or even this person was from Jingzhao Mansion, so he didn't stop him or deal with the ghost baby he took out.

Because Yu Feizu died too coincidentally, he died just before Wang Qilin was going to interrogate him, and according to his residual body temperature at that time, it was inferred that he should have died when he was looking for someone in Jingzhao Mansion to invite Wang Qilin to jointly investigate the case.

It's like someone knows that once Wang Qilin arrives, Yu Feizu will definitely be arraigned, and once he is arraigned, he will definitely get some news.

That's why I killed him in advance.

From this point of view, it is more like a crime committed by ghosts in Jingzhao Mansion.

So who is the inner ghost?

It's very simple, the specific time to find him to enter the Jingzhao Mansion was set by Wang Quan and the other three giants, this matter is quite confidential, except for the three of them, only the officials who went to the Hospitality Temple to inform him knew.

There is no need to suspect that although he was assassinated by the officials, the Jingzhao Mansion investigated that night, and the officials were impersonated.

So the ones to be suspicious of are Jing Zhao, Yin Wangquan, Jing Yunan, and Youfufeng Luo Taiying......

This person's choice to kill Yu Feizu was a faint move.

Wang Qilin thinks that his guess is fine, but the Big Three can't investigate if they don't have evidence, which is too offensive.

He should go check on the ghost baby now.

This ghost baby is Yu Feizu's species, and he has a lot of resentment, so he has to be born from Yu Feizu's body, so it is a demon cultivator as soon as it is born.

Thinking about Yu Feizu shouting 'retribution' in prison before he died, it is likely that he saw the pregnant girl he killed, and he would express such feelings.

Before he died, he cried out that he was hungry and ate so hard that he even ate his own feces and thatched mats, which was also related to the ghost baby.

Ghost babies are born and need a lot of nutrients.

But what does this ghost baby have to do with Zhu Yan in the painting boat? Could it be that the girl he killed was a dusty woman in Zhu Yanzai?

He had many doubts in his heart, and some answers gradually appeared.

Outside the world of rivers, the mountains are in the middle of nothing.

It's a quiet and eerie place, but as long as you're not scared, it's really good to think about.

They drifted in the mist for I don't know how long, anyway, Wang Qilin didn't feel cold, and in the snoring of Eight Meow and Ninety-six, a ray of sunlight bloomed from the east.

The fog is dispelled by the sun.

Wang Qilin slowly opened his eyes and saw Xu Da kneeling towards the east in a upright posture, raising his hands above his head, and bending down to kowtow.

Old religious.

This startled him, and cautiously walked over and called tentatively, "Master Xu?"

Xu Da looked back and was taken aback: "Seventh Master, what do you mean? What are you doing standing behind the uncle with a sword?

Wang Qilin said: "What are you kneeling here kowtowing for? I thought you were evil, or eight meows possessed." ”

Hearing his father say his name, Hachimeow stood up lazily and yawned, it stretched out its claws facing east and sank its ass back, and then pulled hard.

The body can grow half as small as usual!

Eight Meow finished stretching, and his body immediately shrank a lot, which made Xu Da stunned: "What, what's going on?"

Wang Qilin said calmly: "As we all know, cats are made of rubber bands. What's going on with you, Master Xu?"

Eight Meow also saw Xu Da kneeling facing the east, it shook its head to cheer up its spirits, and ran over to stare at him suspiciously: Something is wrong with you.

Xu Da said angrily: "Uncle is worshipping my golden armor god general, don't disturb me." ”

He opened his palm and showed it to Wang Qilin, and inside was a little god general like a golden bean.

Wang Qilin suddenly realized that this was the magic weapon of the Shangmao Sect God given to him by the Qinglong King.

Xu Da continued to kowtow to the east.

Eight meows don't know why, tilting his head to look here, and after looking at it for a while, he decided to kowtow too.

Whether it's useful or not, you can't miss the opportunity to kowtow anyway!

You have to poke a shot if you don't have a shot, what if you can hit a date?

The sun was shining well today, and the fog on the river was quickly dispersed, and then boats appeared on the Wei River.

There are big boats, small boats, some dragging nets, some people standing on top, birds that get up early to catch fish fly close to the surface of the river, and from time to time there are carp breaking through the water and jumping out of the river.

The sun shines on the carp, and the golden red color is brilliant.

Wang Qilin thought of the feng shui fish in his house, and he didn't know how that little thing cultivated, he actually liked that little thing that fish, but unfortunately it had to live in the water, and he couldn't carry a fish tank when he was fighting, right?

There was a man standing on the top of a boat next to the raft, and when he saw them, he jumped and jumped on the boat and waved vigorously: "Lord Wang, is it you?"

Wang Qilin also smiled and waved his hand to greet him: "Hello fellow, this official is indeed a Lord Wang, haha, the weather is good today, it is very windy and sunny." ”

"Lord Wang has found it, Lord Wang is here! He is not dead, don't fish for corpses in the river, put away all the nets, Lord Wang is alive, he is alive and well." The man dressed as a fisherman exclaimed excitedly.

Wang Qilin immediately reacted: There are so many boats on this river early in the morning, it turns out that they are all looking for them?

Chen Weiyue fell from the sky like a superman, and he landed on the raft with a rare smile, and said, "Seventh Master, alive." ”

Wang Qilin sighed and said, "Alive, you are alive too?"

Chen Weiyue was stunned and said, "It's considered alive, right? ”

Xu Da stood up and said with a smile: "Yo, why did Brother Fei open Chrysostom today?" Hey, Uncle always thinks you are dumb, but in fact, you are quite slippery, talk more in the future." ”

Chen Weiyue said: "We all thought that Xu Ye was dead. ”

"Okay, shut up, it's good to be dumb. Xu Da decisively interrupted him.

A fast boat floated on the wide river like an arrow from a string, and the witch waved happily: "Seventh Master Xu Ye Daoye, they all said that you were dead, I knew that you would not die, you would definitely live." ”

Xu Xiaoda in the back had tears in his eyes: "Brother, it's so good that you are alive." ”

Swallowing with tears in his eyes: "Am I not worthy of being cared for?"

Many people came to Jingzhao Mansion, including Wang Quan, Jing Yunan, and Luo Taiying.

When the raft went ashore, Luo Taiying, who looked tired, held Wang Qilin's hand and said happily: "Lord Wang is really a Ji person, and I learned last night that you lost your figure on the river, which can make a few of us anxious!"

Compared with Jing Yunan and Wang Quan, he knew Wang Qilin the earliest, and Wang Qilin helped him, so he was the one who had the most feelings for Wang Qilin among the three.

Jing Yunan yawned and said, "Lord Wang is extraordinary, and the official said that nothing happened to him, what are you doing in the middle of the night?"

He shook his head, his face untouched.

Luo Taiying whispered in Wang Qilin's ear: "Don't care about Lord Jing's attitude, Lord Jing's two hobbies in life, food and beauty. ”

"There is nothing more important to him than missing the food and not being able to sleep well, and last night he accompanied him on the river for half the night, which is already a rare thing. ”

Wang Qilin smiled and didn't even dare to say.

Wu Dasan squeaked and said about last night's incident: "Everything was normal, but after the fog on the river, I couldn't find any trace of you, we cared about you, and we couldn't get any news from you for a long time, so I drove a boat to look for you in the river, but I didn't find anything......"

"You can't see people alive, you can't see corpses when you die, do you say that people are angry?" said the white ape smugly.

Wang Qilin said coldly: "You are angry that you can't see the corpse, right? If you see the corpse, you can leave the Heavenly Prison and fly freely, right?"

The white ape man smirked, and then shouted violently: "What nonsense? Old ape, am I such a monkey? I must hope that you are safe, I only have one month left in my sentence in the Heavenly Prison, no, there is only one month left in the Heavenly Prison, how can I hope that you will die in order to leave the Heavenly Prison in advance?"

"It's so vicious, it's not my old ape's style. He shook his head.

Wang Qilin laughed, and Shen San played with the natal money in his hand and looked at the white ape with pity.

This fool is so pitiful.

Luo Taiying and Wang Quan went to look at Yu Feizu's corpse, and after seeing the hideous big wound on its abdomen, they reacted and asked, "Is there something in its stomach?"

Wang Qilin said: "A ghost baby crawled out of it. ”

The two sides are now in a task force, so they have to communicate with each other, so he told the story of last night in detail.

Of course, it was not as detailed as what was said to Xie Toad.

When he said the specific appearance of this painting boat, Wang Quan subconsciously gasped: "Is Zhu Yan here?!"

Luo Taiying was stunned and asked, "Where is the southern pink Zhu Yan?"

Wang Quan said: "There is a green lotus flower about one zhang in the bow of the boat, surrounded by a white jade carved railing - the jade carved fence should still be there, but Zhu Yan has changed, isn't this exactly where Zhu Yan is?"

Luo Taiying hesitated for a moment and said: "This official has not seen this famous painting boat in the south, but it is indeed rare to carve a painting boat with a railing carved with jade, and there is a nine-foot blue lotus on the bow of the ship, these two points are indeed Zhu Yanzai's signature features." ”

"Then this case is really related to King Zhen?" Wang Quan asked with a fluttering look in his eyes, "Zhu Yan is a gift from the four great families of Shu County after King Zhen obtained the fief of Shu County, and the girl on the painting boat is a lady carefully selected by the imperial court from the Teaching Workshop Division, right?"

Luo Taiying sneered: "There is a tigress in the official's family, so I am not very familiar with these matters. ”

He changed the subject with a sad face: "But wasn't this Zhu Yan burned clean by a heavenly fire? Why did he appear on our Wei River again?"

"And since the beginning of the year, people have been missing in the surrounding river, is this also related to Zhu Yanzai?"

Wang Qilin asked: "Since the beginning of the year in Chang'an City, people have been lost in the river?"

He remembered that when he first came to Chang'an City to cross the Wei River, the boat boss once mentioned this, saying that the river has been swallowing people recently, so that the big guys can stay on the boat honestly.

But he didn't take it to heart at the time, because some of the children on the boat were very noisy, and he thought that the captain of the ship was deliberately scaring the children.

Luo Taiying pulled him to a secluded place and said: "This thing is a little weird, the earliest is the first day of the Lunar New Year, there was an accident in the Bahe River next to Balingyi, and a few children went to blow up the ice with firecrackers before dawn, and then disappeared. ”

"At the time, people thought they were mischievous and used firecrackers to blow up the river ice, causing it to fall into the river and wash it away – when people were looking for children, they found a waterway in the ice of the river. ”

"Three days later, there was also an accident in Changlingyi, someone's house went on fire at night, and the surrounding neighbors helped to go to Xiaochangshui to break the ice and fetch water to extinguish the fire, and finally the fire was extinguished, but there were five fewer people who helped extinguish the fire!"

"These five big guys all have the impression that they did help fetch water to extinguish the fire, but they disappeared after dawn, and went to the river to look for it, and found that there was another waterway in the river, but people are not sure if it was broken when the ice was broken. ”

"Since then, people have disappeared from the surrounding cities, and the people originally said that many water ghosts came to the river to find a substitute, but after listening to the heavenly prison's intervention, they did not find the water ghosts, so this theory is not true. ”

"Later, people said that there were big wolves in this river, and some people went out to sea to see big wolves, and when they were running rampant on the water, they stretched the shark fin on their back out of the water, and the shark fin was like a big knife and axe, which could cut through the iron boat, not to mention break a layer of ice?"

Hearing this, Wang Qilin shook his head: "Sea wolves, I know, they are very powerful, yes, but they only live in the sea, because the sea water is salty, they can't live in the river, and how big are the sea wolves that can break through the ice with shark fins to form a waterway? They can't swim in ordinary rivers." ”

Luo Taiying said with a smile: "What you said is the same as what the Lord of Baichuan Gate Luo said, and the Green Dragon King also refuted the rumors, saying that the people lost in the surrounding rivers have nothing to do with the sea wolves, but the common people spread it like this." ”

"So last night your subordinates hurriedly came to say that you were missing, and we were very worried that you were dragged away by the sea wolf or something, so we quickly mobilized the ships of Baichuanmen and Pai Gang to find you. ”

Speaking of this, he paused and asked, "Lord Wang, you said that you ran into Zhu Yan last night on this ship that had already burned down, but isn't it, I know this painting boat, it is very big, why didn't we find any trace of it last night?"

Wang Qilin smiled vaguely: "I don't know about this, maybe the fog last night was too big." ”

He didn't want to say the existence of Jiang Liu now, because Xie Toad told him that Jiang Liu would not appear for no reason, and its appearance needed a key, and this time it should be Yu Feizu's identity as the key.

They will investigate this later, and Yu Feizu must have a secret.

Luo Taiying is not easy to fool, after all, people who can do the right to support the wind will not be stupid.

But he didn't pursue it too much, he smiled and continued: "Yes, the fog last night was too big, you said that since you met Zhu Yanzai and were almost taken away by Zhu Yanzai, will the people who were lost a few days ago be taken away by Zhu Yan in this ghost ship?"

Wang Qilin shook his head and said: "It's hard to say, but it shouldn't be related, because Zhu Yan is very big, and it definitely can't go to a place like Xiaochangshui." ”

Luo Taiying said: "But it's a ghost ship, is the ghost ship the same as ordinary ships, and it has to take the appropriate waterway step by step?"

There is nothing wrong with this, Zhu Yanzai can indeed be regarded as a suspicious direction.

After they finished chatting about the loss of population in the township, Luo Taiying suddenly asked again: "What is the relationship between Lord Wang and Lan Da of the Hehai Prison? ”

Wang Qilin pondered: "Lan Da has Lan Gonggong? It's not a secret, it's the first time that Xia Guan has heard the name of this father-in-law today." ”

The Hehai Prison is one of the Eight Inner Prisons, and the Eight Inner Prisons are the small imperial court set up by the Holy God today, also known as the Wuquan Yamen.

The reason why it is said that there is no power to the yamen is because although the Taijia Emperor chose eunuchs and palace maids who had read, read and understood arithmetic to set up the eight eunuchs, they were strictly forbidden to interfere in the government affairs, and they imitated the operation of the yamen, but they did not have the power of the yamen.

Emperor Taijia set up the purpose of the Inner Eight Prisons to monitor the yamen at all levels from the palace, and every year the financial and grain collection books of various places were sent to the Beijing Division, and he would hand them over to the Inner Eight Prisons for inspection.

According to the work carried out by the Yamen in each region throughout the year sent by the Huangquan Supervisor, the Eighth Supervision Committee of the Inner Committee will simulate the work of the Yamen in each locality, so as to roughly sum up the expenses and income of the Yamen for a year, and then account with the account books sent to it.

In this way, although the eight inner prisons do not have any power, they also have a lot of energy:

If they were more rigorous in their work simulations, the local expense accounts would have become much more ugly, and someone would have been unlucky.

If they were more lenient in their work simulations, they might be able to hide their accounts somewhere, and people who should have lost their hats would be able to take a break.

However, Emperor Taijia was a shrewd person, and he only used the results of the review of the Inner Eight Eunuchs as a reference, which limited the energy of the Inner Eight Eunuchs to a certain extent.

In addition, Emperor Taijia strictly forbade the eight eunuchs to have any connection with the local yamen, and once it was discovered that there was a connection between the two parties, even if there was no transaction, he would severely punish both parties.

Therefore, the existence of the eight inner eunuchs is a taboo, and the magistrates want to have a relationship with them, but they are afraid of having a relationship with them.

Wang Qilin had heard of this legendary small court, but he really had nothing to do with it, and all he knew about the small court was to listen to other people's gossip when he was meeting with some officials.

In this matter, he was not afraid of the shadow, so he said frankly that he didn't know why the Hehai Supervisor would come to help.

Luo Taiying was just curious, he didn't think much about Wang Qilin's frankness when he saw Wang Qilin's reply, and instead told him to be careful, saying that the eighth eunuch tried not to touch it.

They were talking about the Inner Eight Prison when some clippers appeared on the river downstream.

The most common small wooden boats on the rivers of various places were similar, no more than a foot in length, narrow and deep, and there were six people in them, but there were four oarsmen, all of whom were dark-skinned, strong-muscled middle-aged men.

The bow of the ship is raised above the water, and at the bow and stern of the ship is a soldier in a stubborn cloak, and their weapons are long spears and short guns, long spears are melee and short guns are long-range shots, and they are very lethal.

Taizu started as a sailor, Wang Qilin heard that the sailors of the New Han Dynasty were unparalleled in the world, and even some of the water demon clans were afraid of the sailors of the imperial court.

In addition, since the time of Taizu, the naval divisions of the New Han Dynasty have continued to expand overseas with large ships, and they have occupied many islands overseas and conquered many small countries to become vassal states.

Wang Qilin looked at these clippers flying on the water and exclaimed, "This is the light infantry flying boat in the naval division, right?"

Luo Taiying smiled: "Yes, this is Feige, but what is light infantry?"

Wang Qilin hurriedly showed a shy smile: "The subordinate himself gave the names of the military branches to make it easier to distinguish their duties, which made the adults laugh." ”

Luo Taiying said: "Lord Wang is polite, you are really talented, the name of this light infantry is not very elegant, but it is indeed very vivid." ”

The flying boat struck like a fast arrow, faster than the galloping horse.

Wang Qilin knew that this was because of the water amulet pasted on the boat, otherwise how could a boat sailing against the current have such a speed?

However, the water charm is time-limited, and once it is used on ordinary days, this charm will be useless.

In other words, in order to find him, the river and sea supervisor wasted several water-repellent talismans, which belong to strategic materials and are still quite precious.

No wonder Luo Taiying would be curious about his relationship with the Eighth Inner Eunuch, ordinary Captain Tong had an accident and was just not sure whether he was dead or not, and the Eighth Inner Eunuch would never pay such a big price to help.

The flying boat could rush directly onto the riverbank, and a burly man jumped from the current boat.

The dragon walks and walks with high spirits, if it weren't for the beard under the chin, no one would really think he was a eunuch.

The eunuch can practice so fiercely, this person can be regarded as a genius.

Luo Taiying introduced: "This is Lan Dayou, the director of the Hehai Prison, the master of the Seven Grades Realm!"

When Wang Qilin heard this, he couldn't help but scold, damn, this is better than himself?