Chapter 15: The Dead Horse
Lei Laohu sat at the dinner table in a daze bored, he had never had such an appetite as today.
"Uncle Lei, you don't even have an appetite for eating, this is the first time for you, right?" Chunhua said with a sneering expression.
"What we're thinking, you little girl can't understand! Eat yours!" Lei Laohu said angrily.
"Childe Jiren Tianxiang, he will definitely be fine, maybe we will be back after breakfast in a while!Uncle Lei, don't worry too much, let's eat a little more!" Qiu Yue persuaded.
At this time, Zhao Si'er, who had been immersed in cooking, raised his head and said with a smile: "Miss Qiuyue is right, this person is iron and steel, and he is hungry and panicked, no matter what happens, he must eat first before he can do anything!
Chunhua glanced at Zhao Si'er and said with a smile: "Look, a groom understands so many big truths, Uncle Lei, you should really study hard!"
"My aunt, can you fight with me a few words?" Lei Laohu looked displeased, "Luo Qiushui is my brother, his whereabouts are unknown now, you say, can I eat it?"
"But, even if you don't eat, he won't be here right away?" said Qiu Yue.
"Who says I won't show up right away?"
When these words came, Chunhua and Qiuyue immediately shouted excitedly: "Childe is back!"
Luo Qiushui pushed open the door of the room with a smile on his face, and walked in a few steps: "Am I too surprised?"
"It's not unexpected, it's not unexpected at all!" Lei Laohu hurriedly grabbed Luo Qiushui's hand and dragged him to the bench, "Come, let my brother take a good look at it, has he lost weight again in the past two days!"
"Childe's face is blessed, where does it look like he has lost weight?
"This is--" Luo Qiushui's eyes were like torches, staring straight at Zhao Si'er.
"He, let me tell you, his name is Zhao Si'er, and thanks to him saving me this time, I can sit here and talk to you unharmed!"
"Oh, according to that, Brother Zhao Si'er should know martial arts?" Luo Qiushui said this, and his brows couldn't help frowning.
"Yes, when I was young, in order to make money, I came out and worked as a dart master for a few years, and later married a daughter-in-law and honestly farmed at home to live. I haven't walked around the rivers and lakes all these years, so I have left my martial arts behind!"
When Zhao Si said this, he glanced up at Luo Qiushui, and then said: "This time when I was out of the house, I was thinking of finding a serious errand and earning more money so that I could bring the silver home for the New Year during the Spring Festival, but I would have thought that I would be stolen and entangled halfway, and I would have starved along the way, and I was very down!"
When Zhao Si said this, he hurriedly picked up his wine glass and said to Chunhua and Qiuyue: "Thank you for the life-saving grace of the two girls, this cup is my respect for you, and I will do it first!"
After Zhao Si finished speaking, he raised his neck and drank it all!
"Is what he said true?" Luo Qiushui turned his gaze to the spring flowers and autumn moons.
"He's right, we can testify!" said Chunhua and Qiuyue in unison.
"He's right, I can also testify! If it weren't for Brother Zhao Si'er's action that day, I wouldn't have been able to escape from the cellar, but Brother Zhao Si'er was almost kicked in order to save me, and if I want to say thank you, I have to give Brother Zhao Si'er a cup first!"
Lei Laohu said, hurriedly poured a glass of wine for Zhao Si'er, and then picked up his own wine glass, he had to toast Zhao Si'er.
Zhao Si couldn't get over, and at that moment another glass of wine entered his stomach.
"What's going on with the cellar you're talking about?" Luo Qiushui asked.
Lei Laohu immediately took the person to the cellar and forced him to interrogate the Demon Jade Bead, until finally Zhao Si'er came forward to rescue him and told him one by one, Luo Qiushui listened carefully, and then said, "Do you remember that cellar?"
"Remember, that's where I came from!" said Lei Laohu, patting his chest.
"If that's what you say, then there must be something wrong with this store!" Luo Qiushui glanced at Zhao Si'er lightly.
"That's right, I see it that way!" Zhao Si'er echoed.
"Since that's the case, then we'd better get out of here quickly!" Luo Qiushui slowly stood up, "It just so happens that we are all here now, everyone get ready, and leave here immediately!"
"Childe, if you leave now, isn't it a little anxious?" said Chunhua.
"Yes, what has happened in the past few days seems to be a big conspiracy, if we leave now, we will not be able to find out the truth of the matter, and if we leave so rashly, I am afraid that those who want to harm us will attack us halfway, and then we will be very passive. Qiu Yue was very worried.
"Your worries are not unreasonable, but," Luo Qiushui smiled faintly, "There are a lot of people now, there is no loss for us, if we stay here, even if we are not remembered by those who want to harm us, sooner or later we will be calculated by the people of this shop, so the best way for us is to get out of here quickly!"
"Brother Luo, do you mean that we deliberately left here and let them pounce?" said Lei Laohu, tilting his head.
That's pretty much what it means. Luo Qiushui continued: "Besides, even if we want to investigate the truth of the matter now, we can't find out, so why don't we leave here and let those who want to harm us take the initiative to come out to find us?"
"I understand, Childe wants to use this method to lure them out, when the time comes, we are in the light and in the dark, as long as they appear, we will have a chance to catch them!" Chunhua said with a smile.
"Moreover, if we take the initiative to leave, we will already be in an active position, so we don't have to stay here and passively wait for them to calculate us!"
"You two are getting to know my mind more and more!"
When Luo Qiushui said this, he glanced at Zhao Si'er: "Have you finished eating?" β
Zhao Si'er lost his job at the moment and said, "After eating, I'll go and prepare the carriage!"
"We have ready-made horses in our carriage, so when the time comes, your horse will follow behind the carriage!" Haruka commanded.
"Okay!" Zhao Si'er finished speaking, and without further words, he immediately exited the room.
"This person can definitely be trusted, I have observed, although he knows some martial arts, but as he said, he has only been a dart master for a few years, and his martial arts are mediocre, what do you think?" Lei Laohu said and looked at Luo Qiushui.
"If you want me to say, I'll have to observe for a while before I can draw conclusions. Luo Qiushui said lightly.
"There are so many of us, even if he wants to play tricks, we are not afraid of him!"
"We're in so much trouble these days, so it's better to be cautious. Qiu Yue reminded.
"You guys hurry up and eat, and when you're done eating, hurry up and clean up, and we'll try to get out of here today!" Luo Qiushui urged.
As soon as he said this, the three of them were still interested in eating, so they got up and went back to the room to pack their things.
After about a cup of tea, Zhao Si'er trotted in all the way, he was out of breath, and said with a head full of sweat: "Oh no, son, our horse is dead!"
"What?" Luo Qiushui Huo Ran got up, "Take me to see it!"
Luo Qiushui followed Zhao Si'er all the way, passed a few yards, and finally arrived at the stable, at this time all the horses in the stable had all fallen to the ground, and none of them were alive!
Zhao Si'er said with a crying voice: "It's a pity that my horse was poisoned for no reason!"
"How can you be sure that these horses were poisoned?" Luo Qiushui questioned.
"Childe, please look!" Zhao Si'er casually broke open a horse's mouth so that Luo Qiushui could understand it, "You see, they all have white foam in their mouths, and they are obviously poisoned to death." β
"Could it be that the horse is ruminating?" Luo Qiushui asked.
"It would be reasonable if it were just one, but all of these horses are like this, so I conclude that they must be poisoned. Zhao Si'er was very sure of the authenticity.
"Oh, have you checked all these horses?" Luo Qiushui asked.
"That's right, I checked them all before I went to report to Childe. Zhao Si'er said.
"It seems that they don't want us to leave here!" Luo Qiushui couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
"Then what should we do now? Please make it clear to the childe!" Zhao Si'er said.
"The more they don't want us to go, the more we have to leave immediately!" Luo Qiushui took out a five hundred taels of silver ticket from his arms and handed it to Zhao Si'er, "This is five hundred taels of silver tickets, you go and help me pick two good horses immediately, we must leave here this morning!"
"The villain understands, the villain will do it!" Zhao Si'er took the silver ticket and hurriedly went to buy a horse.
Luo Qiushui walked all the way back to the room with restless steps, at this time, Zhang Dacheng had already cleaned up the table in the room, and when he saw Luo Qiushui coming in, he hurriedly said, "Guest officer, are you back?"
"Shopkeeper, all the horses in your stable are dead, do you know about this?" Luo Qiushui asked tentatively.
"This can't be possible, right? Are you kidding me, guest officer?" Zhang Dacheng only cared about cleaning up the leftovers on the table, and didn't take Luo Qiushui's matter seriously at all.
"Shopkeeper, I didn't lie to you, don't believe it, you can go to the stables and see for yourself!" Luo Qiushui immediately sat down at the table and looked at Zhang Dacheng very seriously.
"Really?" Zhang Dacheng opened his mouth wide and froze, and then, he put down everything in his hand and hurriedly ran to the stable!
Not long after, Zhang Dacheng ran back panting: "Guest officer, that's really the case! Excuse me, how do you know?"
"My coachman happened to go to the stable to lead the horses and saw it, and he took me to see it, and I still don't believe it!
"I don't dare, I just want to ask the truth, otherwise, I won't be able to answer the shopkeeper's question!" Zhang Dacheng circled around Luo Qiushui, "If the guest officer is not busy, can you please take a trip and go to the shopkeeper to testify for me, so that I can also have an explanation to the shopkeeper!"
"This is no problem!" Luo Qiushui stood up, "Let's go!"
At that moment, Zhang Dacheng took Luo Qiushui to meet the shopkeeper of the Sifang Inn.
The shopkeeper also didn't believe that such a thing would happen in the inn, so he went to the stables to see it in person, and when he understood the truth of the matter, his eyes rolled and said: "It's really an accident that something like this happened in our store, but since it has happened, then we have to have an explanation for this matter!
"That's fine, it's just that Luo wants to settle the bill and leave the inn today, and ask the shopkeeper to make it convenient and settle the bill for me first!" Luo Qiushui said.
"This guest officer, you are the main witness here, you can't go! If you go, there will be no witness in this matter, and when the time comes, the owners of these horses will come and ask me for horses, so how can I afford to pay for them? Besides, even if I am willing to pay other people's money, but the reputation of this store is unsafe, what will I do in the future?" The shopkeeper's face became more and more sad when he said this.
"So, is the shopkeeper going to leave under it?" Luo Qiushui said.
"That's what I mean, I just want the guest officer to stay temporarily, cooperate with the people of the government to investigate the case, and when this case is over, I will immediately let the guest officer leave, and I will never dare to stop it in the slightest!"
"What if, I'm leaving today?" Luo Qiushui said coldly.
"If the guest official has to do this, then the small shop will have to tell the official to send a message, and when the time comes, whether the guest official will leave or stay, the government will have to decide!"
"Yes! The villain will go right away!" Zhang Dacheng said and ran out of the door.
"Slow!" Luo Qiushui hurriedly stopped Zhang Dacheng, and he smiled slightly: "Isn't it just a few horses? There is no need to trouble like this! The shopkeeper, you see how much those horses are worth, if you make a price, I will help you get the money out, so that the owner of those horses will have an explanation!"
"Guest officer, isn't this okay?" the shopkeeper smiled, "This matter was not done by you, guest officer, how can you be the wrongdoer?"
"I just say okay! Shopkeeper, let's make a price!" Luo Qiushui said very cheerfully.
"Thisβ" The shopkeeper didn't know how to answer for a moment.
When Zhang Dacheng heard this, his eyes rolled, and he hurriedly lowered his voice and said in the shopkeeper's ear: "Since the guest officer is willing to pay, then rely on him, it is more reliable than counting on the people of the yamen!"
The shopkeeper listened to Zhang Dacheng's words, and immediately laughed and said: "If this is really the case, then the guest officer has done the small shop a great favor!
Luo Qiushui took a silver ticket from his body, shook it in his hand and said, "Here are three thousand taels of silver tickets, it should be more than enough to buy those horses, right?"
"Enough, enough!" The shopkeeper was overjoyed when he heard this price, and immediately reached out to pick up Luo Qiushui's silver ticket.
"Don't worry!" Luo Qiushui raised the silver ticket above his head, "The matter of the horse is solved, is it time to help me settle the bill next?"
"That's nature, that's nature!" the shopkeeper stretched out his hand and made a gesture of please, "Guest officer, please come to the counter to talk!"
Luo Qiushui followed the shopkeeper to the counter to calculate the house money, and immediately handed over the silver ticket to the shopkeeper and instructed: "This matter is over, I don't want to make any more extraneous branches, do you understand?"
"Understood, understood, the villain understood! The guest officer can rest assured!" The shopkeeper took the silver ticket, full of joy, and nodded his head extremely desperately.
"Childe, we're ready, when will we leave?" asked Haruka.
"Let's go!"