Chapter 33: Meat

Palm hat and palm hat lying on the roof, through the light of the lantern, saw the scene in the open ear room, completely unimaginable, there were many shadows hanging in the room. I saw that the inspectors went into the house and walked around, came out again, locked the door, and walked away with the lantern.

After waiting for a while, seeing that no one had returned, the two of them jumped lightly from the roof and quietly came to the door of the ear room. The door lock was ordinary, and it took a moment to open it. As the door opened, the strong smell of spices and bacon wafted out, and the two couldn't help but choke their noses. The room was very cloudy and dark, the window paper was covered with moonlight, and he took out the fire twist he carried with him and hit it. It didn't matter if the fire twist was on, the scene inside the house scared the two of them.

I saw that the room, which was about 20 paces square, was full of bodies, with no head, no hands or feet, only disemboweled, not pigs, but human bodies! Each body had been coated with peppercorns, bay leaves, and other materials, and sprinkled with coarse salt. I don't know how long these have been marinated and air-dried, and the skin that has been soaked in coarse salt is shining with grease in the dark light, crystal clear. The shape of the body is large and small, it seems that there are adults and children, fat and thin.

After all, the two of them have passed through the battlefield of life and death, and they are used to seeing corpses. But even so, at this time, I couldn't help but feel sick in my heart, the palm of the hand almost threw the fire twist in his hand, couldn't help bending over to vomit, the palm of the hat endured the sour water gushing up, grabbed the palm of the hand, and rushed out of the room as fast as possible. Walking to the door, Zhangli hurriedly took a few deep breaths of the cold air of the autumn night, and luckily lucked again, but he didn't vomit after suppressing it. But the palm of the hand had already leaned against the root of the wall and vomited heavily. Seeing that the palm was spit here, the palm hat knew that he couldn't stay longer. Those who patrol tomorrow morning will definitely find vomit here and will have to leave as soon as possible. He held his breath again and covered his mouth, rushed into the house, glanced at the hanging body as fast as he could, and roughly counted them, about a dozen or twenty. Then he exited again and locked the door. Holding the palm of his arm in one hand, he said "go quickly", and with all the strength of his body, he lifted the palm of his hand to the roof.

The two of them did not dare to go out of the front yard again, so they went straight over the dock, jumped to the river, and according to the moon, they discerned the direction, and stumbled along the river, which was only a foot wide, towards the city. Finally found a place where he could go ashore, and the palm felt that the palm was getting heavier and heavier, and he saw that his face was pale and weak. It seems to be really scary. Gotta get back to the inn as soon as possible. He remembered that there should be two subordinates watching the big ship not far away, so he helped the limp palm and tried to move forward, and when he saw the black and tall shadow of the ship from a distance, the palm hat put his hand in his mouth and whistled, which was a unique whistle in their barracks, and if people were still in the dark, they should be able to understand. Sure enough, as soon as the whistle fell, two people ran from the shadows in the distance, and when they saw the appearance of the palm, they knew that something was wrong. Hurriedly took the palm. "One person will continue to stay here, and the other will take him back to the inn with me at once." ”

It's easy to get back to the inn, and I don't want to alarm the store. Woke up the others and helped him to the bed, at this time the palm was weaker than just now, his face was bloodless, his eyes were closed, his teeth were clenched, and his whole body was still trembling slightly. The subordinate asked what was wrong, but the palm didn't answer, but he didn't know how to answer. Answering that Palm's heart was beating suddenly, and he felt his soul scurrying in his body. Now I have no choice but to wait for dawn to ask for a doctor. And he also felt very tired and tired. As soon as I lay down, I couldn't wake up.

In his sleep, he saw the bodies dangling and various voices floating in the darkness, "It's so salty!", "Where is my head?", "Do you like meat?"... Some of the bodies even pressed straight at him. Palm felt suffocated, opened his eyes suddenly, and broke out in a cold sweat, only to realize that it was a dream. At this time, it was already bright outside the window, and he secretly screamed, "Oh no", jumped up and shouted, "Someone!". Immediately a subordinate came in, and he asked, "How is the palm?" and the subordinate said that he had gone to the doctor. He didn't care about grooming, picked up the "long side" of the heavy sword, and called a few people to go straight to the mansion together.

As soon as he arrived at the mansion, Zhangli immediately called the head of the shop and told him roughly what he saw last night, and the head catcher in Jingzhou was also shocked and couldn't believe it. The two immediately gathered people and rushed to the summer house.

The door of the summer house was still closed at this time, and there was a door that had been captured for a long time, but no one responded. So someone found a ladder and climbed over the wall to open the door. Everyone rushed into the courtyard, which was naturally empty. The palm of the hat led everyone to the inner courtyard room. The transept was still locked, and when it was opened, it was empty. The dock was opened again, and the boat was still there. The palm hat checked the vomit marks of the palm next to the ear room, which had been cleaned up. It seems that someone was found to have come, and they withdrew overnight. Zhangli secretly annoyed, it would be nice if he went directly to the government last night. Fortunately, there are spices and cured meat in the ear room. After all, the head catcher is also an experienced person, and he knows that what Zhang Li said is true. He had the crowd search privately. He and Palma returned to the second courtyard and waited. After a while, his subordinates came back one after another, saying that they had not found anyone, but that some of the rooms were very clean, and some of the rooms had dust on the tabletops. The head catcher said to the palm hat: "If you really want what the general said, it is a big matter, I can report it if I need it, and when the time comes to verify, I will have to bother the general to go to the government office to cooperate." Palm nodded. The head catcher ordered someone to seal the courtyard, and he went back to the mansion.

Back at the inn, his subordinates said that the doctor had come, and Zhang Li walked to Zhang's room and asked how the doctor was. The doctor's face was embarrassed, and he whispered to the palm: "This patient seems to have been poisoned, but the old man doesn't know what the poison is, and he doesn't dare to diagnose and treat it indiscriminately." "Isn't it frightened?" asked the palm. The doctor said, "Maybe there is a reason for the shock, but the symptoms look like something poisonous." Please think about it, did this patient touch something?" The palm suddenly remembered that he had been covering his nose in the house last night, and the palm had wanted to vomit in the ear room, could it be that he had exhaled the poisonous evil breath at that time? The palm hat couldn't help but feel nervous, and asked the doctor: "Then do you know how to treat it?" The doctor shook his head, not knowing that the source of the disease is not easy to cure. I can only prescribe some ordinary anti-poison medicine, but I am afraid that the wrong treatment will be made. At present, let's prescribe some prescriptions for convulsions and see if we can wake up. The palm hat said, "That's it, there is Dr. Lao," and went to see the palm of the hand worriedly. At this time, the subordinate who monitored the big boat also came back to report that about the fifth watch, two small boats carried several boats back and forth to the big boat, and then the big boat drove away, and he chased along the river bank for a while, and finally watched the big boat sail out of the estuary. Palm shook his hand, meaning that it didn't make sense to say that it was now. He blamed himself very much, he was too reckless yesterday, not only let them notice that he had run away, but also let the palm of the palm be poisoned.

It was almost noon when he tossed like this, and his subordinates brought lunch, and when he looked at the meat slices in the dish, he was sick to his stomach, and he shook his hand and took it. If this case can't be solved, it is estimated that he will not want to eat meat in his life. In the afternoon, someone from the government came over to pass the palm, and it was estimated that the head catcher had already reported the matter to Yu Liang. Zhangli cleaned up, washed his face, and followed him to the mansion.

It was not Jingzhou Taishou Yu Liang who met him, but Huan Wen. After listening to Zhangli's return, Huan Wen asked him to go to the best doctor in Jingzhou to diagnose and treat Zhangli, and then asked Zhangli to take him to the Xia Mansion again.

Huan Wen naturally didn't take a few people to catch fast, and the courtyard of the summer house was filled with officers and soldiers with three steps, one post, five steps and one sentry in an instant. Huan Wen stood in the courtyard with his hands behind his back, looked around every room, and then commanded awe-inspiringly: "Give me room by room to search, and all suspicious things will be moved here for me." "The officers and soldiers and the catchers got the order and immediately went into action. The entire Xia Mansion came alive all at once. Huan Wen called the head catcher again, and called all the people in the neighborhood to come over for questioning. Xia's house is in a secluded alley, and there is only one neighbor. The owner of the house was questioned, saying that this Xia family is very strange on weekdays, although there are a lot of people, but few people go out on weekdays, and there are only three or two people who go in and out to do errands and buy things, and they don't say hello when they meet, and the others basically can't see each other, and they don't know what the owner does for a living. But it's certainly a rich family. I also found someone who sent food and water to the summer house on weekdays to pour night incense, and said that I had only seen three or two people in the porter, but ten days ago I suddenly told them that the master was going out, and there was no need to send water and vegetables for the time being. Although these confessions could not verify the authenticity of the bodies seen by the palm hat, they indirectly indicated that the people of the Xia family had indeed disappeared recently. If you really went out more than ten days ago, then some houses have dust, and some houses have not fallen dust, how to explain it. Why did the big ship stop for many days?

After asking, Huan Wen asked Zhangjia: "What do you think?"

The palm replied: "If you follow their confessions, the family surnamed Xia should have happened in the past thirteen days." But who is so cruel, not to mention killing people, but also making corpses... Palm couldn't bear to continue.

Huan Wen said: "You said that you saw a young man in blue clothes and gray hair last night, I don't know how long it has been pickled and dried, and the skin that has been soaked in coarse salt is shiny with oil, and it is crystal clear. ？”

"Yes, at first I thought it was an old silver-haired man, but when he turned his face, he did have a young face, and it was absolutely impossible to make it easy. ”

"Still smiling?"

"Yes. The smile seemed to be engraved on the face, and it made people chill to look at. General Huan has seen this person?"

Huan Wen said, "It's not just that I've seen it. ”