The houses in Xiaoyang Village were a bit crude, and the cold wind blew in through the broken windows, blowing the papers. Zhou Yuan was busy pressing the paper, and Shen Chongming stood sideways in front of the window.
The light in the room suddenly dimmed, Zhou Yu'an raised his head and met Shen Chongming's eyes, and the atmosphere suddenly changed.
Shen Chongming spoke first: "I asked Zhijian to find something to block this window."
"There is hay in the yard, and there are a few beds of old cotton wool in Yang Kuina's yard. Although they are badly bitten by mice, they are suitable for blocking the windows." Zhou Yu'an tugged on Shen Chongming's sleeves: "It's cold, don't Stand at the window!"
"I'm afraid you'll be cold!"
The words that blurted out made Zhou Yuan blush instantly. She quickly avoided his gaze and said in a nonchalant and slightly disgusted tone: "You only cause trouble for me. When your old injury relapses, I will still suffer."
Shen Chongming slightly raised the corners of his lips and stepped aside, still covering the place where the wind was flowing with his sleeves.
The wind ruffled the things on the table a lot, and the content on one of the papers caught Zhou Yuan's attention.
"The county magistrate's mother is from Qingyang County, from Huzhou where she fled, and she is the county magistrate's second wife. Is it a coincidence?"
Zhou Yu'an showed Shen Chongming the paper.
"Twenty years ago, before I was born, I went to Qingyang with my master and never heard him mention this matter. My master was so talkative that he even told me about the locust plague in Suizhou. This Qingyang There is no reason not to tell me what happened in the county. There are only two reasons why he didn’t tell me. One is that there has been no disaster in Qingyang County. If there is no disaster, how can one escape? The other is that there has been a disaster in Qingyang County, but the disaster It’s too small for him to talk about it. Do you need to flee even if there is a small disaster? Let’s flee to a place as far away as Huzhou.”
"Escape is not necessarily a natural disaster." Shen Chongming leaned over and picked up the wind-blown hair beside Zhou Yu'an's ears: "Maybe it was a man-made disaster."
The two were very close, their breathing intertwined, and Zhou Yuan's face turned red.
"Sir!" Looking at Shen Chongming's eyes that were getting closer and closer, Zhou Yuan leaned back and shouted urgently. Just as he finished shouting, someone held the tilted chair, and Zhou Yuan Anxin added with lingering fear: "Thank you, sir." !”
"Are you hiding from me?" Shen Chongming's eyes were unkind and seemed to be annoyed.
Zhou Yuan hurriedly said: "How is it possible? How could I hide from you? I was just careless. By the way, you just said that the county magistrate's mother was hiding from a man-made disaster?"
"Twenty years ago, a paper seller in Qingyang County was sentenced to death for being involved in a case involving the Ministry of Household Affairs. According to the regulations, his family was going to be exiled, but something happened on the eve of the exile. According to the person involved, the paper Shang’s wife and daughter hacked and killed the escorting officer, and his wife died on the spot. His daughter disappeared without any reason, and her whereabouts are still unknown.”
"Killing an official is a serious crime. Didn't the court send anyone to arrest him?"
"Caught, not caught, the clues were cut off when we reached Huzhou." Shen Chongming twisted the paper on the table.
"Huzhou, Renyazi, identity..." Zhou Yu'an removed Shen Chongming's hand and dug through the papers: "How did a paper merchant's daughter escape from Qingyang after she chopped up a police officer and was rounded up? She didn't dare to ask for help, so she could only hide around the city. She met Yang Kui. Yang Kui was a human being and knew her situation. After they hit it off, Yang Kui used his own methods to take her out of Qingyang. He took it to Huzhou and sold it to the county magistrate's father as a sequel."
Shen Chongming gave Zhou Yuan an appreciative look, and just as he was about to speak, he heard Zhou Yuan muttering to himself: "Is the county magistrate's father such a casual person? Why did Yang Kui take her to Huzhou instead of something else? place?"
"What do you think?" Shen Chongming asked, looking at her without blinking.
Zhou Yu'an thought: "Huzhou is to the east of Qingyang County. The distance is far away, and most of it is waterway. If it is for sale, it can be sold to the north or even outside the customs. Why would Yang Kui choose to go far away? There is only one answer. Yang Kui can make a profit. , and this profit was promised to him by the paper merchant’s daughter.”
"That's right." Shen Chongming held Zhou Yu'an's hand. The cold wind was biting, and even with his cover, her hand was still blown red.
Zhou Yu'an was so immersed in the case that she didn't realize that Shen Chongming was breathing into her hands and gently warming her hands. Because of the warmth, she leaned forward unconsciously. Shen Chongming saw it, raised the corner of his mouth slightly, and his eyes seemed to be glued to her, but when she looked up, his eyes suddenly dimmed, as if it was not him who was looking at the person just now.
"The county magistrate's father is related to a paper merchant? You just mentioned the case in the Ministry of Household Affairs. What case in the Ministry of Household Affairs can be related to these small businessmen?"
"The counterfeit banknote case!" Shen Chongming exhaled softly, "Didn't your lousy master tell you about it?"
"I have said that this case is related to Ning Guohou." Zhou Yu'an clenched the paper in his hand: "The Minister of Hubu was killed, and many people in the capital were implicated, but I didn't expect that there were also people among the people, and a small paper was involved. It’s a merchant, and this paper merchant is far away in Qingyang.”
"Qingyang's paper, Huzhou's ink, the county magistrate's father happens to be an ink maker." Shen Chongming said: "This matter is far away from now. The officials responsible for investigating the case at that time were also confused and hastily closed the case. The county magistrate's It cannot be proven whether the mother is the daughter of a paper merchant."
"We can't prove it directly, but we can prove it circumstantially." Zhou Yu'an said: "The villagers of Xiaoyang Village said that the little girl brought back by Yang Kui was only fifteen or sixteen years old, and she was similar in age to the missing sister of the county magistrate's family. And her accent is similar to that of Shutong, which is Huzhou accent. Assuming that the county magistrate's mother is really the daughter of a paper merchant, then she has another purpose in going to Huzhou, and Yang Kui is just a part of this purpose."
Shen Chongming looked at Zhou Yuan without interrupting.
Zhou Yu'an continued: "Yang Kui is a bitch. He brought the paper merchant's daughter to Huzhou for money, and he kidnapped the little girl back from Huzhou for money. Xu knew the power of it, so he didn't sell the little girl. , but brought her back to Xiaoyang Village and locked her up in his own home. As a bad guy, it doesn’t seem strange to feel evil after seeing such a beautiful little girl. The blame lies with the county magistrate. The official distance is small Yangcun is far away, how did he get to Xiaoyangcun?"
"It's not that I got lost and entered Xiaoyang Village by mistake, but I came here on purpose. Getting lost is just an excuse to fool the people around me." Shen Chongming knocked on the table: "He is afraid that he knows what happened back then and his sister. He was brought to Xiaoyang Village by Yang Kui."
The county magistrate is an upright man. Even if he has never met his sister, after learning about what happened that year, he will visit Xiaoyang Village and secretly inquire about his sister's whereabouts.
In his opinion, the fact that he went to Suizhou to serve as the county magistrate may be a good thing. At least this hot potato would allow him to pass through Qingyang County legitimately, and the Qingyang County Magistrate could help him investigate his sister's affairs.
The little girl is dead, and the Yang Kui family who abducted and abused her are also dead. How did the county magistrate get into trouble? She didn't believe in evil ghosts seeking her life. Rather than saying there were evil ghosts, it was more like there were evil people.
To find out the root cause of the death of the county magistrate, we have to start with the little girl twenty years ago.
