Facing Zhao Bufan's questioning, Lu Deng turned around in frustration, slowly walked to the edge of the wooden bed and sat down, his head was also buried, and his dirty and messy long hair fell down, completely blocking his face, and his voice was a little hoarse.

"When my subordinates saw the adults yesterday, their minds were in chaos, and I only hoped that the adults could help my subordinates avenge their grievances, so I didn't think about it so much. ”

Zhao Bufan squinted his eyes and laughed: "Lu Deng, why are you still lying until now, you obviously don't believe me, you are afraid that saying too many things will make the case more complicated, and I am afraid that I will not be able to find out the cause and effect, and I will treat you as a substitute for the dead ghost to take the merits to the imperial court?"

Lu Deng was struck by lightning and raised his head suddenly!

He stared at Zhao Bufan's eyes for a long time, and sighed dejectedly.

"My lord, it's not that my subordinates are suspicious, it's really this big song...... Hey, I am loyal to Lu Deng and patriotic, even if I die in battle, I don't frown, but I am really afraid of dying in prison so unjustly, with such a charge, what face do I have to go to see my ancestors and ancestors under Jiuquan, I am really afraid of dying here unjustly!"

At this time, Lu Deng looked very helpless, Li Ruopu rose a little sympathy, and couldn't help but persuade out loud: "Lu Dujian, no matter what, now no matter what, you can only gamble, Lord Zhao is famous, he shouldn't do that kind of thing, he has only taken a nap for two hours since he arrived in Puyang last night, running around for your business, and was almost assassinated in the Blood Knife Gate earlier, if he didn't really want to find out the facts of the case, he wouldn't have worked so hard, you still have to make everything you need to say clearly, don't let us take a detour, you can only bet on this line of life!"

Hearing this, Lu Deng gritted his teeth tightly, and suddenly stood up again and bowed to Zhao Bufan: "My lord, if you can wash away my grievances, I will definitely saddle the horse in the future, even if I am a cow and a horse, I will repay your great kindness, I Lu Deng is a martial artist, I am really unwilling to die in prison like this!"

"What do you say? I can buy cattle if I want cattle, I can buy horses if I want horses, what do you want to do for me?"

Zhao Bufan glanced at him, waved his hand and said, "You don't have to do the cow and horse, I will do my best to repay you justice!"

Lu Deng had tears in his eyes and gave his hands heavily.

"Thank you, ...... you."

Zhao Bufan looked at him, unwilling to delay any longer, frowned and said: "Okay, now is not the time to say thank you, according to what you just said, when you got the box at the Blood Knife Gate, you met a man in black, did that man in black ever see your face? Did you still pretend to be a big man with a scumbag on your face at that time? Did you have a mask?"

At this time, Lu Deng seemed to have completely let go, and simply replied: "My subordinates were not masked at the time, but they were still dressed as big men with scumbags on their faces, and when I faced the man in black, there was a moment of stagnation between each other, I felt that he was very familiar, and after he reacted, he fled quickly, I felt that he seemed to recognize me, and he should also be a person who is very familiar with me!"

"Feeling familiar, flee quickly?" Zhao Bufan muttered softly, and then paused before asking, "Then is this man in black the same as the man in black you met in Cai Xue's outer house?"

"It's definitely not the same person, their height and size are not small, the man in black in Cai Xue's outer house was chased by me for five days, and during this period, I fought seven or eight times, it is impossible to be mistaken, and I am not familiar with him at all!" Lu Deng said categorically.

Zhao Bufan thought for a moment and continued to ask: "Since you are familiar with the black-clothed man you met at the Blood Knife Gate, is it possible to narrow down the scope? For example, is he your old acquaintance before? Or has he met recently? or is it someone in the army?"

Lu Deng immediately shook his head: "My lord, I've been thinking about this for more than a day or two, but I can't remember where I've seen it, he was too tightly covered at the time, it's hard to distinguish, it's those eyes that make me feel familiar!"

"What if you see it again? Can you recognize it? If you draw it with a memory, how much similarity can you draw?"

"It's hard to recognize, unless you cover his face and just look at his eyes, nine times out of ten, it's okay, and as for drawing it, it's basically impossible!"

Zhao Bufan's forehead wrinkled even tighter: "Then where does your family live? Where are your knives and shoes placed in your home? What is the situation at home? Who are some of them?"

Lu Deng quickly replied: "My family lives in the west of the city, it is a small house, except for the guards on duty, there are only me and my wife, my old father and mother and five maids, those five maids have also followed me for several years, and they have a good relationship with each other, and my treasure knife is carried with me on weekdays, and it is hung on the wall of the bedside before going to bed, but that day I want to accompany the lady back to my mother's house to visit relatives, in fact, it is to celebrate the birthday of my mother-in-law, thinking that it is not very auspicious to bring a knife, so I stay on the wall at the head of the bed!"

"Where is your mother's maiden home? is it far away?" asked Zhao Bufan.

"Not far, just seven or eight miles west of Puyang City, Xiaoniu Village, after walking out of the city for half an hour, it is precisely because it is not far, and there are many official roads along the way, so I took care of etiquette and never brought the treasure knife with me. ”

"When did you set off from Puyang City?"

"We went to the street to buy a congratulatory gift in the afternoon, the specific departure time did not pay attention, to the old man's house when it was the unitary time, dinner has not yet started, I drank a lot of wine in the evening, slept all night, and set off after dinner the next morning!"

Zhao Bufan thought for a while, and then asked: "Then does anyone know that you didn't bring a treasure knife, and you went to your father-in-law's house?"

"No!" Lu Deng shook his head again and again, and said with a wry smile: "How could my subordinates go out and swagger around saying that they didn't bring a treasure knife, I even locked the door at that time, even the maids and guards at home didn't know that I didn't take the treasure knife, only that I went to my father-in-law's house." Oh! That's right! When I went out of the city gate, Zhang Dutou, who was on duty, greeted me, and I told them that I was going back to my father-in-law's house, and the guards at the gate should have heard it, and many of the villagers in Xiaoniu Village also knew about it!"

Saying that, Lu Deng seemed to understand the intention of this inquiry, and woke up in shock: "Lord Zhao, do you suspect that the person who stole my treasure knife knew in advance that I accompanied my lady back to her mother's house, so he took the opportunity to come and steal it, thus framing me?"

"Yes, but it's hard to say right now!"

An inexplicable light flashed in Zhao Bufan's eyes, and he turned his head to look at Li Ruopu, then stopped asking about this clue, and said: " Okay, let's not talk about this for the time being, let me ask you a second question, based on what you said last night and just now, you returned from the Blood Knife Gate on the night of the 26th of the winter month with the box, and then handed the box to Cai Xue, and Cai Xue said that he would secretly hand it over to Cai Taishi, so you thought that there was nothing wrong with you, so you accompanied the lady back to her mother's house to visit relatives the next day, that is, on the 27th of the winter month, until you returned on the morning of the 28th of the winter month, during which the sword and shoes were stolen, right?"

"Yes!" Lu Deng nodded.

"So where were you from the morning of the 28th lunar month to the 3rd day of the lunar month, and what did you do?" asked Zhao Bufan.

Lu Deng paused for a moment, and said with a little shame: "After I took my wife home, I found that the sword and shoes were stolen, and I didn't think much about it at the time, thinking that it was stolen by a thief, and I was also a prisoner in a mansion, and even the saber was stolen by a thief, and it was not easy to publicize it everywhere because of my face, so I didn't say it to anyone, and after that, I was either in the barracks or at home, and I didn't do anything else!"

Zhao Bufan nodded: "Okay, then there is one last question left, when you saw me last night, you first told me that before the Cai Xue tragedy, that is, on the afternoon of the third day of the lunar month, you received Cai Xue's order to secretly investigate the people who bought salt and sent it to Yunzhou, and then you changed your words, saying that you were ordered by him to send a letter to the Blood Knife Gate." How do I make sense of these two discrepancies?"

With the inquiry, Lu Deng also began to think back to the events of last night, and after a while, he shook his head again and again.

"My lord, the previous sentence was said by me in a hurry, in order to attract the attention of the adult, I hope the adult knows that the subordinate is to investigate those people, and I hope that the adult can help me clear my grievances in this situation, but it can be said to be a straightforward speech, the actual meaning is that Cai Xue asked me to send a letter to the Blood Knife Gate, the contradictory words of the subordinates are not intentional, from the bottom of my heart, I hope that the adult will understand!"

"It seems that my idea is right, I thought the same last night, so I didn't ask more, but the current case is far more complicated than imagined, so I need to get an accurate answer from you, not to question you!"

Zhao Bufan replied casually, and soon stared at him with burning eyes: "But in this way, there is a very important thing that must be clarified, that is, why did Cai Xue let you send the letter to the Blood Knife Gate, why did you agree to send the letter, where is the letter, and what is the content?"

In an instant, Lu Deng's eyes were red, and the question seemed to touch his heart, forcing him to rush over excitedly and clutch to the iron fence.

"Cai Xue said to me that afternoon, the box I found back only had physical evidence, and it was okay if I only investigated the responsibility of the owner of the Blood Knife Gate, but if I wanted to bring down Tong Guan, I still needed human witnesses, so I took his handwritten letter to the owner of the Blood Knife Gate, and used the atonement to coerce the owner of the Blood Knife Gate to surrender and make him a witness. Although Cai Xue is not a good thing, I thought about Tong Guan's accumulated crimes at the time, and felt that it was also a good thing to get rid of a disaster for the Great Song Dynasty, so I agreed. ”

Zhao Bufan frowned and asked, "Why are you going alone?"

"Cai Xue said that Tong Guan has too many minions, and he can't confirm whether there are any Tong Guan people around, and he can't startle the snake, only by secretly going to coerce the Blood Knife Sect Master can we avoid leaking things, otherwise we will all be very dangerous, and the Blood Knife Sect Master may also be exterminated in advance, so his subordinates chose to go alone!"

"Then when did you set off from Puyang City? Have you read that letter?"

"My subordinates felt that things were very dangerous at the time, and they were worried that something would happen to them, so they went home, explained some family affairs to my mother, had dinner with my mother, sat down for some hours, and waited for the blood knife door that set off after nightfall. As for that letter......"

Speaking of this, Lu Deng's already reddened eyes were even more bloodshot, and his tone was full of resentment.

"The letter was sealed, I naturally didn't suspect it at the time, not to mention that I didn't have the habit of peeking at the letter, so I just quietly rushed to the Blood Knife Gate with the letter, who thought that the Blood Knife Gate would be empty! At that time, I realized that something was wrong, and quickly hid it and secretly investigated, but it was too dark at that time, and I didn't dare to light a torch to check, so I didn't find anything. After grinding like this for an hour or two, I was a little flustered, feeling that things were unspeakably weird, and after thinking about it, I opened Cai Xue's letter, but ......"

Lu Deng was speechless in anger, and his fists clenched "crackle".

"But what?" Zhao Bufan hurriedly asked.

"That letter was not written at all, it was a blank sheet of paper!"

Lu Deng angrily slammed his fist on the iron fence, making a muffled "bang", and said angrily: "Although I couldn't figure out what was going on at the time, that letter can at least show that Cai Xue definitely wants me to die, if it weren't for his intention to harm me, I wouldn't be where I am today!"

Hearing this, Li Ruopu next to him couldn't help but speak: "Lord Zhao, my subordinates did see a letter in the corner of the west courtyard of the Blood Knife Gate, the cover and the letter paper were scattered separately, and the letter paper was undoubtedly white paper, and the subordinates thought it was the people of the Blood Knife Gate who discarded it casually!"

"That's the letter I threw away!"

Lu Deng hurriedly took over the words: "At that time, I was angry, waved my hand and threw away the white paper and the shell, quickly left the blood knife door, and on the way back to Puyang, I have been thinking about how to find Cai Xue to settle accounts, I did have the urge to kill him at that time, but I still held back, just thinking about what to do in the future, and then I decided to resign and go to Luzhou, planning to start from scratch over there, but I still couldn't help but question Cai Xue, out of the evil anger in my heart, I thought that I just walked into Cai Xue's outer house and ran into a bloody case!"

After listening to these words quietly, Zhao Bufan turned to look at Li Ruopu.

"Does this claim conflict with other information we know so far?"

Li Ruopu shook his head: "There is no conflict, it can be matched!"

"Okay, I don't have anything to ask for the time being, Lu Deng, you can rest in peace, eat when you should eat, sleep when you should sleep, remember the man in black that you are familiar with when you are fine, and then someone will send you paper and pen, try to draw the eyes of the man in black!" While Zhao Bufan spoke, the person had already turned around and walked towards the entrance of the dungeon.

"Draw it?" Lu Deng's face was dazed, looking at Zhao Bufan's distant back in a daze, and chattering to himself: "How can I draw this? Although I also know some calligraphy and painting, I only saw one side hastily at that time, and I only saw a pair of eyes, not a human face, how could I paint it like it? Even if I draw it, it's useless?"

Li Ruopu, who was walking at the end, seemed to have figured out Zhao Bufan's intentions, and looked back at him with a smile: "Lu Dujian, paint with peace of mind, you can draw whatever you want, in short, as long as you draw it, maybe the case can be solved, as for the reason, don't think about it, just remember not to show it to anyone after the painting is drawn, you can only show it to us!"

When the words fell, Li Ruopu didn't say much, and caught up with Zhao Bufan and Shang Kunyang's footsteps, leaving only Lu Deng in the cell dazed!