It was the evening meal time, and Xu Ji's restaurant was very busy with people coming and going.
Yao Yao lowered his head and held his arms as he walked into the restaurant. As soon as he sat down in the corner, a waiter came over with a menu card.
The two of them pretended to be ordering under the cover of the menu, whispering one sentence after another.
"Dear guest, what do you want to eat? Xiao Liuzi did you go?"
"Steamed goose breast, eight-treasure vegetables, golden jujube soup, and lotus seed cake. Yes, in two hours, you go and change Xiaoliuzi."
"Hey, okay, Yao Canjun, why don't you look so good?"
"Isn't it good?" Yao Yao subconsciously touched her face. As soon as she let go, the burning pain on her arm came back again, and she hurriedly covered it tightly.
"He's no different than a dead person." The waiter said in a low voice. He held the menu card and went to the door of the restaurant to pick up the dishes while singing.
Yao Yao was stunned for a moment, then let go of his hand, reluctantly took out a palm-sized mirror from his belt, and whispered in surprise: "Oh, come on, my face has turned several shades paler."
The burning pain in her arm came back like a tide. She trembled and covered her arm tightly, and weakly shouted: "Xiaoer, have another cup of black chicken and yam soup."
The steamed vegetables are all prepared in advance and placed in a large vat at the door. The food is served very quickly. Almost as soon as the diners have finished ordering the dishes, the waiter is wearing special thick hand guards and taking them from the vat at the door. The corresponding dishes were put on the tray and delivered to the food table.
Yao Yao discovered this restaurant while catching a thief a few years ago. When Chu Chu tasted the food, she almost thought she had met a fellow villager. The taste of the food was similar to the small bowls that were everywhere in the streets in her previous life. The steamed vegetables are exactly the same.
After eating the taste of her hometown in a completely strange foreign land, she almost cried with joy. After several inquiries, she realized that she was overeating and overthinking. This is a craft passed down from ancestors, and it has to be gifted by the late emperor. Delicious" two words.
Since then, she has become a frequent visitor to this store, using the taste of her hometown to comfort her wandering heart.
But this time when she came to the restaurant to eat, her mood was completely different. This restaurant turned out to be one of the hidden dangers of the Department of Internal Health, and her homesickness was fed to the dog.
When she thought of this, she couldn't eat the steamed vegetables in front of her.
She picked up the vegetables nonstop, and her arms were so painful that she could hardly hold the bamboo chopsticks.
She lifted up her sleeves and took a look. Her entire arm was neither red nor swollen, but there were bursts of pain that felt as if insects were eating her.
There was a sudden sharp pain in my arm, and the flesh actually surged.
As if she had seen a ghost, she stretched out her hand and pressed her arm. As if in response to her, her arm surged again.
This surge was like the wriggling movement of some kind of soft-bodied reptile. The hairs all over her body suddenly stood up, and her clothes were instantly soaked in cold sweat.
Now she was able to confirm that there was something in her arm.
The word "parasite" suddenly came to her mind.
Before she could recover from the shock, she saw that the arm had shriveled up at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if the layer of flesh and blood under the thin skin had been hit by something in the blink of an eye. Smoked clean.
She turned pale, pushed the food table away, covered her arms and ran outside.
Seeing this, the waiter hurriedly chased him out and shouted: "Hey, you are freeloading. Hey, you haven't paid me yet. Hey, you shameless bastard. Don't let me see you next time."
Yao Yao paused, barely holding on to his uncontrollable body, enduring the pain, turning back and whispering tremblingly: "Go, go find the adults, go, go to Pingkangfang, save me."
After saying that, her whole figure was like a gust of wind, passing through the faint twilight. She ran so fast that her figure was shaken out.
The waiter threw the sweat towel over his shoulder, entered the restaurant with a curse, and walked around the back kitchen. Not long after, a man with an ordinary face walked out of the restaurant and hurried to the Department of Internal Health.
It gets dark very fast, and in a blink of an eye, the ink ripples on the horizon, swallowing up the rays of light, and the entire city is swallowed up into the night. The undulating eaves and stacked walls add a bit of eeriness.
Curfews were imposed everywhere, cavalry patrolled the criss-crossing streets, and shopkeepers held lanterns and inspected the closed lanes.
After turning the corner and walking to the middle of the winding alley, there was a brightly lit and smiling church next to it. The young fellow suddenly stumbled and fell forward heavily.
The elder Fang Ding grabbed the young Fang Ding's clothes and managed to hold him back from falling face down.
The lanterns in their hands were swaying, lighting up the ground.
There was a person lying on the ground. He looked very skinny and his back was very weakly undulating.
The young Fang Ding kicked the man angrily and cursed: "You're so unlucky to be lying here, you almost tripped me."
The man was kicked, but he remained motionless and didn't even grunt.
The elder Fongding said: "We are in Pingkangfang, and there are many people who drink too much."
The young man stepped over the man and spat: "Bah, you damn drunkard."
The elder Fang Ding shook his head and smiled, walked past the man, glanced at him, stopped suddenly, frowned slightly and said, "That's not right."
The young Fang Ding was stunned and said: "What's wrong, Master?"
The elder monk walked back to the man and squatted down, raised his head and said, "Put the lamp closer."
The dim yellow light lowered, covering the man's body.
The elder Fang Ding pointed to the man's hair and said, "Look, this is what a girl wears."
The young man in the square also saw that something was wrong. A young girl was lying in Pingkang Square, motionless and not knowing whether she was alive or dead. It didn't look like a good thing.
He licked his dry lips: "Master, she can't, she must be dead."
The elder Fang Ding put his hand on the man's neck, shook his head and said, "I still have some breath, but if I lie here all night in such a cold weather, my breath will become exhausted."
He felt compassion and said, "Turn it over first to see whose family it belongs to."
As he said that, the young man put the lantern on the ground, and together with the older man, turned the girl over. Seeing that it was not a big deal, the two of them were startled, and they sat down directly on the ground. I couldn't get up for a while.
The girl had a pale face, even her lips were pale and bloodless, her eyes were closed tightly, and the eye circles were light blue, it was a dead face.
The young fellow clenched the older fellow's sleeves and said tremblingly: "Master, master, she, she, isn't she dead? Isn't she dead?"
The elder Fang Ding put his trembling hands under the girl's nose, tested her breath, and saw that there was no blood or wounds on her body, then he took a deep breath and said: "It's okay, it's okay, she's still alive, I guess she's frozen." Very good."
The young man also breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at the girl and let out a light sigh.
This place was just far away from the lights in front of the church. It was as dark as ink. Only through the dark moonlight, the girl's face could not be seen clearly.
He felt that this girl was very similar to the person in his impression, but he also felt that he was wrong. That girl was so fierce, how could she be so unlucky and lying here half-dead.
He thought for a moment, then brought a lantern over, and the firelight illuminated the girl's face.
The pale face had a withered yellow color and looked lifeless.
Now he finally saw clearly and threw the lantern aside with a cry.
The candle was crooked, and the flames instantly caught the paper lampshade. In just a few breaths, the lantern was burned to ashes.
The elder Fang Ding was so frightened by his cry that he staggered, slapped him hard on the back of the head, and cursed: "What do you call it? You almost scared me out of my soul."
Young Fang Ding stuttered: "No, no, master, this person, this person is an official of Jingzhao Mansion, Jingzhao Mansion."
"An official of Jingzhao Mansion, what official?" The elder Fang Ding twitched the corner of his mouth, raised another lantern and looked at it carefully: "It looks a bit familiar."
"It doesn't look like that, it is." The young shopkeeper got up and pointed at the pale face: "I recognize her. She came to investigate the Feng Heyuan case a while ago. I saw her beaten up and refused to tell the truth. Gu Yuan, such a strong Gu Yuan, as soon as she was whipped, her skin and flesh were torn apart, and she couldn't even get up."
The elder Fang Ding's expression changed. Seeing that the girl's face was getting paler and her breathing was getting weaker and weaker, he shouted loudly: "Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up and hit the car and take her back to Jingzhao." Go to the palace, if we delay any longer, she will die, and then Lord Fu Yin will tear us both alive."
The young Fang Ding responded and trotted to find the chief.
The elder monk took off his lambskin coat, covered it with the girl, and stood by her side and muttered: "Sir, if you survive, you don't have to worry about our master and apprentice, but if you are unlucky, If you die, please don’t come looking for us both, it’s both your life.”
Not long after, the headman personally drove the carriage over, carefully identified the girl's appearance, and looked through the pouch in her waist. Sure enough, he found a black iron plate. His face changed greatly, and he put the girl on the carriage and threw it away. The next sentence is to guard the gate and leave.
The two watched the carriage go away and closed the door. They leaned against the wall and just breathed a sigh of relief when the door was banged hard.
The young shopkeeper cursed impatiently: "It's a curfew, hit whatever you want, just stay away."
A very cold and deep voice came from outside the square door: "The Internal Security Department is investigating the case, open the door."
The young shopkeeper jumped to his feet and cursed: "You said you are the Department of Internal Health, but you are the Department of Internal Health. I also said that I am the senior minister."
There was silence for a moment outside the square gate.
The young Fang Ding raised his eyebrows at the older Fang Ding proudly: "Master, tell me why there are so many imposters."
Before he finished speaking, there was a huge rumble outside, like thunder in the dark night.
The wooden door latch squeaked and suddenly broke into two pieces, with uneven fractures.
