The streets after the rain were unusually quiet, not even a single figure, and there were some muddy narrow roads, leaving only the chaotic horseshoe prints that overlapped countless times, and it seemed that the rain had not washed away all the traces of last night.

"Old leaves, there seems to be a terrible smell...... "Xiaolai's nose is very sharp, even in the smell of the earth after the rain, there is still a trace of different taste.

Ye Zhiqiu didn't seem to hear her words, and raised his eyes to look, wanting to see something wrong from the subtleties.

He frowned, even Xiaolai could smell something strange from his breath, how could he not see anything strange.

First of all, there are not many people living on this street, and no one goes out on a rainy night, so they should all be still at home, these people are hard-working people, it is impossible to lie in bed and sleep lazily when the sky is dawn, under normal circumstances, not only should someone appear on this street, but there should be cooking smoke in those houses.

Although everything seems to be extremely calm, in fact, if you think about it a little, you will find that it is actually very abnormal, more like a deep sense of vacancy, and he doesn't even feel anyone's breath, or the breath of a living person.

"Lao Ye, why don't you speak, is there something terrible happening here?" Xiao Lai suddenly asked.

Ye Zhiqiu is also very strange sometimes, at such a young age, she shouldn't have thought of those things that are too complicated, but she seems to be born with an extremely keen sense of touch, so that she can always incredibly perceive some things that even she can't fully understand.

"It's really strange here, it's just a rainy morning, the air is good, but no one comes out, not even children, this is obviously not right......" Ye Zhiqiu didn't mean to hide it, this was his habit for many years.

As he spoke, Ye Zhiqiu stopped, the door of a small courtyard on his left was wide open, and the horseshoe prints turned the originally flat small garden in the courtyard into a pot of mud.

"Let's go in and have a look......" Ye Zhiqiu seemed to be talking to herself, and she didn't mean to ask Xiaolai, but just hugged her more steadily.

The gate was not very far from the small, dilapidated house, and it was only a few arrows away, and the doors and windows of the hut were closed, not unlike the way you would close your own door before going to bed at night.

Ye Zhiqiu didn't rush to hold the doorknob, but stood in front for a while, looking up and down, and then took a deep breath, and the hand holding the sword was on the deadbolt.

However, what he never expected was that before he could exert his strength, the door actually opened, he subconsciously took a quick step back, and the muscles of his whole body immediately tensed, and at this moment, if there was any danger, he could fly back as fast as possible.

But after a while, there was no sound inside the door, and no danger occurred.

A little relieved, he walked over again, but when he just stepped on the threshold with one foot, Xiaolai immediately covered his nose, and his face was full of extremely disgusted, and he firmly lay on Ye Zhiqiu's shoulder, and said, "Inside...... The taste inside ......"

Although he was a step slower, Ye Zhiqiu quickly smelled the smell coming from inside, a disgusting fishy smell.

Ye Zhiqiu frowned, instantly covered Xiaolai's eyes with his hand, and said in her ear: "Hold your breath, don't be afraid ......"

He spoke very simply, and the little girl could hear it very clearly, and really held her breath as he said, deliberately not smelling the smell coming from it, and was very well-behaved.

It was a silence between the two of them

contract, because there have been many extremely dangerous moments, so that they have practiced such a tacit understanding again and again.

Ye Zhiqiu left the door completely open, but he didn't really walk in, because then he saw the source of the fishy smell.

He lowered his head and looked at his feet in a daze, because blood was slowly flowing out of the dark room, and it was stopped at the threshold, and the blood had already coagulated somewhat, probably because it was too much to rush over.

The light outside didn't seem to be able to penetrate the door to really shine in, even a person like Ye Zhiqiu, in front of this pool of blood like a river, it was impossible to be completely unmoved.

However, his body still stood still, quietly watching everything in front of him.

Behind the door, there was not only blood, but also several bodies that had been cut off and lay in pools of blood, and it seemed that there were not only adults, but also children who were not yet adults.

Ye Zhiqiu had no intention of going inside, since the sword was sealed, he had a strange weariness of blood and bones, perhaps this boredom was infected by Xiaolai, because she had always been the most sensitive to the bloody qi that came out of this kind of scene, and she was disgusted.

However, no matter how careful he is, he will inevitably encounter all kinds of things, but no matter what it is or who, as long as it poses a threat to Xiaolai, then the sword in Ye Zhiqiu's hand will not be just a rusty broken sword.

He stepped back slowly and steadily.

"Inside...... What's going on? it can't be dangerous, right?" Xiaolai's voice trembled a little, and it was obvious that even if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, there was still some obvious feeling.

"There's no danger, it's just ...... It's just something you shouldn't see......"

Then he looked at many more houses, almost all of them were the same, covered with blood, and there were headless corpses left in the houses, but unfortunately he did not approach the corpses to see what kind of cruel man had done this.

Eventually, he walked out of the village and looked at the dazzling sunlight on the horizon, as if in stark contrast to the dead silence of the village.

He took a deep breath, and suddenly remembered the horse team that came in the rain last night and left before dawn, and the faint conversation between the two people who took shelter from the rain in front of the temple, which must be inseparable.

Although he also felt that what happened here was terrible, he was not the kind of person who was willing to do justice for others, because he knew that there were too many sinisters in this world, and they were hidden everywhere in the world, and those sinisters were even more dangerous than a sharp sword that sharpened iron and clay, so he just wanted to be alone.

After waiting all night, he didn't wait for the person he wanted to wait, but he didn't expect to encounter such a thing, he shook a piece of blood-stained clothes in his hand, and his eyes became a little distracted.

"Shall we go to the official?" Although he was blindfolded the whole time, Xiao Lai could still detect something from Ye Zhiqiu's various abnormal reactions, so he said.

"Who would have thought that in such a poor and quiet place, there would be disasters falling from the sky, so this world is ...... It's really ......" Ye Zhiqiu did not directly answer Xiaolai's question, but looked at the sky and sighed.

......

The next day, when the sky just dawned, Lin'an Mansion was already lively.

The official who opened the door of the palace saw the clothes hanging on the door at a glance, there was nothing special about the clothes, just the most ordinary and even somewhat tattered linen clothes, but it was stained with blood, which was different.

Naturally, the officials will not be frightened by a bloody suit, although they have not been on the battlefield, but

I have seen a lot of murder and blood drinking incidents.

He took off the bloody garment, just looked at it briefly, and then called for a servant, and as an experienced servant, he could easily tell the difference between human blood and animal blood.

The official did not dare to delay, and found Lin'an Mansion Yin, Lin'an Mansion Yin is a person who is slippery on the surface, but actually very serious, although his official position is not large, but he has to contact and maneuver among various forces in the DPRK and China, not only no one blames him for a few years, but gradually sits in this position, and then tries to do something beneficial to the people.

Later, all the forces in the court understood his character, and they wanted to change this position to someone from their own faction, but they only fought in many ways, and in the end, they could only default to the fact that there was still this person in charge of Lin'an.

Fu Yin Wen Chongzhi carried the bloody clothes and looked at it repeatedly for a long time, except for the blood stains on it, he kept staring at a crooked word written in blood.

"Southern ......"

"It seems that someone deliberately sent the bloody clothes to the government office, so this word can't be written at random, Nan ...... But what are you trying to tell me?"

He suddenly turned his head and said to the officer, "What strange things have happened in the city in the past two days?"

The official thought for a moment and said, "Except for the fact that Tianxianglou held the night of the Oiran according to the custom of previous years, everything is as usual!"

Wen Chongzhi's face was cloudy, and he thought in his heart: "Could it be that someone is joking with me, but is there really such a boring and crazy person who can do such a thing? Or is there someone who deliberately set a trap and come to worry about this Lin'an Mansion Yin?"

"Master, do you think this Nanzi is talking about Nancheng?" the old man suddenly interjected.

"Hiss......" Wen Chongzhi was also a little shocked when he heard it, and suddenly took a breath.

"For so many years, that place has been almost forgotten by Lin'an, if you hadn't mentioned it, even I wouldn't have thought that there would be a place in Nancheng......"

He frowned slightly, thinking about it, still unable to believe that the bloody clothes in front of him could have anything to do with the dilapidated slum.

"Looking at this ragged clothes, it is very likely that they came from that place, but everyone knows that that place is not valued by the imperial court in the first place, and even the fishermen in Nancheng have gradually begun to accept this reality, so even if someone dies unexpectedly......"

He didn't finish all his words, because even if he didn't say it, everyone understood the meaning, Nancheng is an unpopular place, even if there is a murder, it is difficult to be taken seriously, and now in this kind of age, who will care about such "idle things" when people die, especially poor fishermen.

At this time, a man dressed in the service of a servant ran in from outside in a panic, looking pale, I wonder if he was frightened by something?

The man's thin face, seeing that several people in the lobby were there, quickly stopped, his eyes flickered, and then he clasped his fists and saluted: "Master, come out ...... Something big is wrong......"

Wen Chongzhi's face was gloomy and he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Yes...... It's the South Castle...... Die...... Dead man......" The man was so nervous that he even trembled a little when he spoke.

The catcher on the side frowned and said, "Dead man, what are you panicking about, have you never seen a dead person in so many years with me or what?"

The man buried his head, not daring to look at the face of the headcatcher.

"Tell me, what's going on?" Wen Chongzhi asked again.

"Nancheng is dead...... Many people died, and ...... died The death was very miserable, both the old and the children were all cut off ......"

......