Hantang is named because of its low terrain, and when it rains, it will accumulate water into a river. At the beginning of the founding of the Yunchu Kingdom, a plague swept through most of the country, the Chu Emperor set up a simple shack here, used to treat and isolate the infected people, and then the epidemic ended, the shack was built into a pigeon cage-sized house, for the people who live in a fixed place, gradually the houses are built more and more, the streets and alleys are getting narrower and narrower, and there are more and more people living in them, and finally the sixteen streets and alleys criss-crossing are formed, which are called the sixteen lanes of Hantang.

This is the most dilapidated place in Qingzhou City, although the streets and alleys are dilapidated, but they give the same down-to-earth people a rare place to stay, sixteen streets and alleys are like cobwebs, the roofs are stacked with broken and dark tiles, as far as the eye can see, one by one like pigeon cage-like houses are close together, there is no gap, covering the traces of the streets and alleys.

There are many houses here with small window sashes, the bright moonlight does not shine here, even the candle flame is dim, the shadow of the cold pond in the night is full of shadows, it is not clear where is the house and where is the road, if a stranger comes here, I am afraid that I will be dizzy.

In the silent night, the screams of the mournful screams tore through the dark cold pond, a woman with a miserable white face like seeing a ghost, rushed into the vast night in a panic, ripped her throat and ran all the way, the sound of help tore through the dark and dark night, some of them were bold to open a crack in the door, just showed their heads out, as soon as they saw dozens of black-clothed people chasing behind her, they were so frightened that they closed the door tightly, and they didn't dare to talk nonsense.

I saw that the man in black chased more and more closely, and the road ahead was an alley with no way out, and the woman looked back in horror, and screamed for help miserably, and her life wiped her fingers, and she was about to slip away.

At the critical moment, things turned around, only to see a hand silently stretched out in the dark, covering the woman's mouth, she didn't have time to struggle and shout, she was quickly pulled into an inconspicuous secret door, the door just closed quietly, the man in black chased over, saw the person in front of him disappeared out of thin air, couldn't help but stare at each other for a long time.

In the middle of the night, the occasional breeze blows, the clear moonlight flows lightly in the courtyard, and the flowers, trees, and roof tiles seem to be wrapped in water, shining with sparkling waves.

It was very quiet in all directions, but Luo Kui did not have a trace of sleep, only sat cross-legged on the bamboo bed in the courtyard, absentmindedly holding the wine and pouring himself a drink, sometimes glancing at the silhouette of Jingmo on the window, and tinkering with his bottles and cans, sometimes looking at the floating clouds on the dark sky, constantly changing the strange figure like smoke.

In such a quiet night, if Su Zi was there, he would definitely pull her to play, or listen to him talk about some old things about the old days of Chen Sesame and rotten grain, or put on a stupid bird to fly first, forcing her to learn this and that, where would she be so lazy.

The sound of the wind faintly passed, there was a subtle gray light suddenly cut through the dark night, quietly fell in the courtyard, just touched the ground, there was a seedling broke through the ground, when it grew to an inch high, the curled leaves of the seedling unfolded very quickly, Yingying weak quality, in the night emitted a green glow, flickering and dark is very hazy, if you do not look carefully, but it is not clear.

At this time, Du Heng walked out of the shadows quickly, his fingertips moved slightly, overflowing with a sharp light, and he circled around the seedlings, and the two young leaves flew into Du Heng's palm, and the seedlings turned yellow and withered in an instant while the young leaves fell, turning into a little gravel, and the night breeze blew through, and the gravel disappeared suddenly.

A touch of red light flashed through Du Heng's fingertips, and the blood beads soaked into the depths of the young leaves, and the hazy green light on the young leaves turned into condensed points of light.

After reading it, Luo Kui's face became more and more ugly, waved his hand to disperse the handwriting, deliberately lowered his voice, and whispered to Du Heng: "Hantang Sixteenth Lane, how many people have you arranged." ”

Du Heng stared at it: "The subordinates have arranged a total of twenty-six people there, and there is no big deal to worry about the main matter." ”

Luo Kui lowered his eyes, dipped his fingers in tea, swiped across the table, and said in a low and fierce voice: "It's me who overestimated his conscience, he finally took it personally, I'm afraid they won't be able to stop it, Du Heng, you go on a trip, bring people out, and send them to the temple." ”

Taking advantage of the night, although the matter has passed, it still leaves subtle traces, and the sixteen lanes of the cold pond on the bright side are as calm as before, but the inside is surging.

The door of the house in the dark was hidden, and the blood stains scattered at the door were already half-dried and blackened, and before the person approached, he had already smelled the bloody smell rushing to his face, and the bloody smell was extremely heavy and disgusting.

Pushing the door in, I saw more than 20 people lying in the courtyard, Du Heng raised his hand to probe under their noses in turn, and all of them had no breath, these people died tragically, obviously experienced great pain and struggle before they died.

Du Heng raised his eyes, only to see the blood flowing from the depths of the courtyard to the door, and the ground was smashed out of a huge claw-shaped pit by heavy objects, and the flowers and trees fell to the ground in a messy manner.

He rushed in in a panic, only to see a bloody man leaning against the door, he reached out and touched the man's neck, he could still detect a faint beat, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, by the dim moonlight, he raised his right hand, bent his five fingers into an eagle's claw, and slowly stretched out towards the man.

There are many dragons and snakes in Qingzhou City, and in the slightly larger houses, there will be one or two hidden places that no one knows, and the same is true for the Qu family. It's just that this dark room of the Qu family, except for Qu Tianxiong himself, no second person knows about it, and even the craftsmen who dug this dark room back then were all buried in the dark room by him.

Although Qu Tianxiong is a businessman on the rich side, he is very frugal on weekdays, and he does not have the slightest extravagance in food and clothing, except for the study. The large cabinet carved by Huanghuali is full of all kinds of ancient books and rare books; the treasure cabinet of rosewood, all kinds of antique ornaments and gold-painted vases are particularly eye-catching; the ebony Fushou pattern book case, the Zhuge pen Li Tinglian ink Chengxintang paper dragon tail inkstone, the eyes are full of ten miles of prosperity of the house of the giant. The most precious is the plum vase on the table, from the hand of the famous family of the previous dynasty, it is Qu Tianxiong spent a lot of money to buy, which is offered a vein of maple leaves, the plum vase is plain white and the maple leaves are fierce, and it is very elegant.

In the middle of the night, everyone fell asleep, and the study was even more dark and empty, and the strange thing was that by the pale white moonlight, a hand reached out from the shadows, groped and carefully held the plum bottle, slowly turned the bottle several times, and did not stop until it could no longer turn.

There were a few creaky creaks in the silence, accompanied by a leisurely sound, a little dust rose from the bookshelf, and a gray floor tile in the corner fell in response, opening a passage for only one person.

The faint light of the fire fold swayed at the mouth of the passage, and the man leaned over to examine it for a long time before he cautiously got in, and walked down the stairs by the shimmer, but after walking a dozen smooth stone steps, he walked into a black lacquer hall where he could not see his fingers, and he adapted to it for a long time in the dark, and the stone walls around him were not decorated, full of mottled traces of knives and axes, a table, a chair and a bed were particularly simple, and under the stone wall there were a variety of torture instruments, and the blood stains dried up on the ground and turned into a dark red, and the life-killing flowers bloomed on the stone wall, and the chill spread awe-inspiring in the hall.

Faintly visible by the light of the fire fold, a woman was tied up on the chair, her head hung limply on her chest, it was difficult to see her face clearly, she had obviously been in a coma for a long time, and she could only detect that her breathing was still weak but weak.

The man's eyes changed slightly, and before he could think about it, he stepped forward and began to untie the ropes on her body, but unexpectedly, a light cough came from the quiet dark room, which made his heart tremble violently.

Before he could shake his hands harder, the lights and candles on the surrounding stone walls were suddenly lit up gradually, and the dark hall was brightly lit, looking back, he saw Qu Tianxiong sitting in the corner, holding a cup as usual, wanting to drink it, the man couldn't help but his eyes dimmed, and he opened his mouth with difficulty: "Father." ”

A pair of cold eyes were ruthless in the dark, staring at his face, Qu Tianxiong said suddenly: "You can find here, Yuan Shen, you are worthy of being my son, and you really have some ability." ”

"Father. Qu Yuanshen put one hand on the woman's shoulder with a vigilant face, and made a protective gesture: "The child knows that the matter of seizing the heir is tragic and cannot be merciful, but it is Lord Huang who is involved in the government affairs, not this innocent woman, what are you doing with her, do you really want to kill her." ”

Qu Tianxiong glanced at the woman deeply and sneered: "In this world now, there are a few people who are really innocent, innocent in this matter, and may not be innocent in other things, in other words, if she doesn't die in this matter today, then he will die in other things one day." ”

As soon as these words came out, Qu Tianxiong's ruthlessness was beyond Qu Yuanshen's estimate, and he couldn't help but grieve in despair: "Father, father, Lord Huang is an honest official and dedicated to the people, and this Yongzhou investigation is even more difficult and fearless. ”

"If you want to die well, you have to have a life to live until then. Qu Tianxiong didn't mind the disrespect and offense in his words at all, and his eyes turned on the woman: "Yuan Shen, these things are not your responsibility, and this person is naturally not something you can save." ”

Qu Yuanshen settled his mind and looked at Qu Tianxiong with determined eyes: "Father, even if King Lin becomes a great treasure one day, he also wants to see the government and clear government, all of them are good officials like Lord Huang, not all the people who are flattering and fighting for power." ”

Qu Tianxiong looked at him coldly: "Whether the government is clear or clear, or the court, this is not something you and I can pay attention to, what I can do now is to ensure that King Lin has the life to win the supreme position first." ”

Qu Yuanshen said disdainfully: "The supreme position is stained with the blood of innocent people, does my father think that the people of the world will be convinced." ”

Qu Tianxiong raised his eyes and sneered: "What does it matter if the people of the world are convinced or not, if there is disobedience, even if you fill it with your life, there has always been one more person in the supreme position, Yuan Shen, could it be that you have read those books in vain, and you can't even understand this." ”

Qu Yuanshen choked, he had read so many history books, how could he not understand the bloodstains on the road to the heir, looking back at the woman, there are so many innocent people, although they can't all be saved, but they can save one by one, he took a deep breath, completely ignoring Qu Tianxiong's eyes like thin blades, he started to untie the rope on the woman's body, and opened his mouth coldly: "Since the father only wants a life, then everyone's life is the same, and her life will be filled by the child." ”

Qu Tianxiong pulled away his hand and smiled indifferently: "Yuan Shen, you have really grown up, I don't know when you became so bold and wise, but you should also ask her whether you want to die by yourself or let you die for her." ”

He pressed one hand on the woman's forehead, the woman woke up with a sigh, raised her head, looked at Qu Tianxiong in horror, and said tremblingly: "Don't kill me, don't kill me, please don't kill me, I was wrong, I shouldn't have come to Qingzhou, I'll go, I'll go, you spare me, spare me." ”

"It's late, from the day you stepped into Qingzhou, you should have known that it would be a dead end. Qu Tianxiong's eyes couldn't bear it, he gritted his teeth and said fiercely: "I can not kill you, but if you don't die, your son will have to die, you have to think about it clearly." ”