Unexpectedly, Cai Zhao remained unmoved. He sat down slowly and poured himself a cup of cold tea. "Didn't you hear what they said? My father might have left on his own for something important."
Chang Ning looked at the girl for a while: "Are you guarding against me?"
Cai Zhao looked at him quietly.
Chang Ning was defeated and sighed: "Don't be wary of me. I will never harm you or your family."
Cai Zhao slowly turned back: "You're right, I can't be suspicious of everyone."
She added, "Then tell me, do you think my father left on his own?"
Chang Ning smiled contemptuously: "Cai Gu mainly left by himself, so who cleaned the whole house?"
A smile appeared on Cai Zhao's lips: "It seems that this person is a fool. If he wants others to believe that my father left on his own, he should have left the half-sleeping bedding and the half-drunk teacup. He had to keep it so clean. On the contrary, it makes people suspicious."
Chang Ning frowned: "What do you want to say?"
Cai Zhao spoke very slowly: "I usually listen to you, but this time, brother Chang Shi, please listen to me."
Chang Ning raised his eyebrows and said, "I would like to hear the details."
Cai Zhao put down the tea cup: "First of all, I never believe that my father encountered something urgent and then left on his own - in our family, only my aunt's heart is completely hot, my mother is about half hot, and I Dad probably only has two or three points of fever, and only close relatives and a few old friends are left."
"My mother and Xiao Yao are now hiding in a safe place. I am in Qingque Sect, with all the furniture in the house, and my father has nothing really important to do. How urgent is it? Huh, even if the world is turned upside down and Luoying Valley is burned down, Now, my dad won’t get impatient. I’ll tell you what you don’t want to hear, even if someone lures you with clues about the Chang family murder case, dad will never leave without leaving me a word.”
Chang Ning was shocked and thought: "So, Valley Master Cai has indeed encountered something unexpected!"
"Is there anyone in this world who can make my father catch him without any ability to fight back?" Cai Zhao asked back.
Chang Ning immediately denied: "I have seen your father's power, and I dare not say that it has reached the realm of transformation, but I have rarely encountered an opponent in the world. In a duel between masters, it is not difficult to kill or injure, but if your father is unable to even hit a blow, even if Even if Nie Hengcheng is reborn, he won’t be able to do it.”
"Yes, I think so too." Cai Zhao looked at the few rays of sunlight coming through the cracks in the window.
Chang Ning continued: "Then there is only one possibility. That person is someone whom your father is very familiar with and even trusts. He took advantage of your father's unpreparedness and succeeded with one strike." He glanced at the girl and said bitterly, "But the person your father is familiar with must be He is also someone you are familiar with. I am afraid that if I say something wrong, you will fall out with me, so I have no choice but not to mention it."
Cai Zhao glanced over and said, "Who do you want to talk about?"
"I watched carefully during the two days of the festival. Your father was indifferent to everyone. Even towards Sect Master Qi, he had more respect than closeness. Only towards Master Zhou, he regarded him as his brother from the bottom of his heart." Chang Ning said simply. The tone said it all.
Cai Zhao thought for a moment: "That's natural. My father grew up in Peiqiong Villa and really regarded Uncle Zhou as his older brother - but wasn't Uncle Zhou seriously injured?"
"If you haven't seen it with your own eyes, it may not be a cover-up."
Cai Zhao smiled and changed the topic, "Did you smell a very light fragrance in Room Tianzi No. 1?"
Chang Ning frowned.
"The flowers and leaves are luxuriant in the Luoying Valley. My mother loves to make incense and mix it. I have been used to it since I was a child." Cai Zhaodao, "It took me a long time to notice the fragrance. It doesn’t have to be someone my father is familiar with and trusts, as long as he is an acquaintance who secretly spreads the poison while talking to my father and then captures him alive.”
"But my father must have noticed it in the end. Before he fell into coma, he knocked over a teapot, a stove, a brazier or something, and the house was in a mess, so those people had no choice but to clean the whole house thoroughly. And because they were afraid of long nights and dreams, they were anxious to kill people and silence them, so they didn't think of it. There should be traces of my father’s rest.”
Chang Ning was dubious and said with a smile: "It's like you saw it with your own eyes."
"Not only does my father know that group of people, but the shopkeeper of the inn must also know them." Cai Zhao added.
Chang Ning noticed the strangeness in the girl's tone and said solemnly: "You noticed something."
Cai Zhao: "Have you noticed the wall behind the shopkeeper? There used to be many bamboo signs with red ropes hanging there."
Chang Ning recalled the situation when he entered the inn yesterday, and it was indeed the case.
Cai Zhao: "This is an object used to open an inn. Write the name of each room on a piece of small bamboo sign, and then hang it on the wall. When you rent out a room or book a room, you can put the name of that room on it. Turn the bamboo card over so it’s clear how many rooms are left.”
Chang Ning suddenly thought: "Yesterday the bamboo sign in the room where your father lived was not turned over. Could there be another mystery?" He clearly remembered that the shopkeeper pointed to Room No. 1 Tianzi.
"No, that's just because the shopkeeper is lazy."
Chang Ning:......
"This kind of bamboo sign needs to be dried in the sun first, then dried in the shade, then oiled, and then dried in the shade again... Hanging it on the wall like this will make it less likely to get moldy in the presence of people coming and going with the smell of alcohol every day. More sophisticated shops also need to Several times of drying, several layers of oiling." Cai Zhaoru counted his family treasures.
Chang Ning smiled: "Why do you know so well?"
"Because when I was eight years old, I made a wish to open an inn in the future."
"Didn't you want to open a restaurant when you were a kid?" It wasn't Chang Ning who was arguing, but he couldn't help it.
"I had the idea of opening a restaurant when I was six years old. Later I realized that it was better to open an inn because it can provide both food and accommodation." Cai Zhao answered seriously.
Chang Ning:......
"A bamboo sign made this way is less likely to be damaged," Cai Zhao said.
Chang Ning remembered that the girl just now had been burning bamboo tiles, and suddenly an idea flashed: "Is it that brazier? Could it be that you found a clue in the bamboo tiles on the ground!"
Cai Zhao tilted his head slightly, as if thinking about something, "When we went in, the brazier was already cold. It burned for half the night, and nothing in it was burned. But I could still see that there was a small piece of burnt bamboo wrapped in the ashes of the charcoal. piece."
She tapped the table, "I think the shopkeeper threw it into the brazier before he died."
Chang Ning held his breath slightly when he heard this.
Cai Zhao continued talking to himself: "I have stayed in that inn before, and I remember a few things - there are about twenty guest rooms in the entire inn, and the room numbers are named after the words "Heaven, Earth, Xuanhuang, Sun, Moon, Universe, and Fortune, Luxury, and Longevity". "
"The shopkeeper is very capricious and arranges the room numbers as he pleases. The word Tian has three rooms, but the word Di has only one room. The word Xuan and the word Huang have two rooms each. The word Kun has five rooms, but the word Qian has only one. , and also used to pile up debris.”
"Just now, I was afraid of attracting attention, so I burned the bamboo tiles on the ground piece by piece, pretending to keep warm. After they were all burned -" her eyes lit up, "I found that there was indeed one bamboo tile missing."
Chang Ning was nervous: "Which one is it!"
"Room No. 3 with the word "Yue".
The girl's beautiful face showed a hint of redness from the paleness, "I remember very clearly that although the shopkeeper arranged the room numbers randomly, he did not change the numbers. Rooms No. 1, 2 and 4 were all there. Only the bamboo sign in room three is gone - the shopkeeper threw it into the brazier himself."
"Room number three?" Chang Ning was confused, "What does this mean?"
Cai Zhao dipped his cup of cold tea into his cup and wrote "三" on the table, followed by "月".
Chang Ning: "March? Whose name or birthday is related to March? Ah... the shopkeeper's blood letter..." He thought of it!
Cai Zhao looked into his eyes and nodded: "It's the vertical line that the shopkeeper drew on the ground."
Then she made a short vertical stroke in the middle of the word '三'.
——It’s exactly the word ‘green’!
Chang Ning's brows revealed a hint of sinister aura: "So, it was someone from the Qingque Sect who did it."
Cai Zhao looked at the fine dust dancing in the light, and said slowly: "Do you still remember what that idiot Dai Fengchi said this morning? He said that my father was exposed by a man, and in order to silence him, he killed him all the way from the door. Get out."
"Actually, he was half right. He did fight his way out from the door of Tianzi No. 1 room. He was not my father, but the real murderer."
"Soon after we left yesterday, it got dark. My father once told me that he saw that the shopkeeper had suffered severe internal injuries when he was young, so he was particularly afraid of the cold and would light a fire to keep warm every night. Last night, I think he also went to bed early as usual. A brazier was lit.”
"About midnight, the shopkeeper saw that there were only two small pieces of charcoal left in the basket. He estimated that it was almost time, so he planned to go back to his room to sleep. At this time, a guest suddenly came - the visitor was from the sect, and the shopkeeper knew him. I had no choice but to work hard to entertain them. That person..." Cai Yao shook her head, "No, it's those people. He must have helpers."
"The man left his men in the lobby and went up to the second floor to see my father - because he was afraid of making my father suspicious, he couldn't kill the shopkeeper and the clerk in advance."
"The man made a noise when he attacked my father in the room. A clerk ran upstairs to take a look. The man's men chased him and restrained him. At this time, the man pushed the door open and came out. He was face to face at the door of the room. Took out the man’s heart!”
Chang Ning suddenly realized: "So the wounds on the corpse are all slightly tilted."
"Yes." Cai Zhaodao, "The great thing about 'picking flowers and picking leaves' is that it can accurately pick people's hearts and hearts even in a fierce fight. But if the hands and feet of the waiter and shopkeeper are restrained, then as long as the skills are strong enough, they can It can break the chest and dig out the heart. Master Chen’s great compassion hand and Master Ouyang’s diamond finger can do it."
"The shopkeeper saved a life from the dead. When he saw the man on the second floor being killed, he immediately knew that he couldn't escape. So he took advantage of those people's unpreparedness and first removed the bamboo in the 'Yuezi Room No. 3' He took off the cards and threw them into the brazier, and then in the fight, the counter, pen and ink, account books, and the bamboo cards on the wall were all messed up and knocked down..."
"They killed the waiter, killed the cook who came after hearing the news, and finally restrained the shopkeeper. In the same way, they broke his limbs and took out his heart from the front - or the other way around. The shopkeeper took his last breath and made a short vertical stroke on the ground. . Those people didn't understand its meaning and thought it was the shopkeeper who was in unbearable pain before he died and scratched it randomly, so they didn't pay attention."
"I'm done."
Cai Zhao stood up slowly, his eyes indifferent but firm, "So, I will not leave Jiuli Mountain. You don't need to persuade me, I know what I want to do."
Of course she could escape all the way back to Luoying Valley, then call for help from all directions, and wait for the news safely.
But no.
When Cai Pingshu was fifteen years old, he was already famous all over the world.
When she was fifteen, all she wanted to do was protect her family.
Before today, all decisions in her life were made for her by her parents and aunt.
For the first time in her life, she chose a path alone.
"Auntie will approve of me." She raised her young face as if looking at the sky, "Auntie will bless me in heaven."
The author has something to say:
Readers reading the comment section have their imaginations flying out of the galaxy. Let me make a few points:
1. I am against incest marriage, do you understand?
2. The character in Chapter 13 is Nie Zhe. I named this person Nie Jun at first, but then I thought it was not auspicious enough, so I changed his name to Nie Zhe. How auspicious.
3. Stop thinking about the story between Cai Pingshu and Nie Hengcheng. They are different generations! Nie Hengcheng and Yin Dai are the same age, boots!
Chapter 36
The next morning, Qingjingzhai, study.
Cai Zhao was writing furiously, and his handwriting was as small as a mosquito's feet, and was densely covered with small scrolls.
Chang Ning was grinding the ink beside him, going round and round.
"...Didn't you say you don't want to call for help from all directions and wait for news?" He couldn't help but say.
"First, I didn't ask for help from everywhere, I only asked for help from three places, Uncle Zhou, Master Fa Kong, and Master Jingyuan." Cai Zhao kept writing.
"Second, I didn't wait for news. I had to let people outside know my situation - my father was missing, my life or death was uncertain, my mother was far away, and it was useless to come. I was a helpless little girl with a headache and fever. It’s because of the sect.”
The inkstone was a little dry. Chang Ning used a gilt spoon to add some more water and continued grinding. "Do you think these three people will come to rescue them immediately after seeing the letter?"
"He will come, but not right away." Cai Zhao's fingers were numb when he wrote, and he put down the pen and shook his hand, "I have master here at least, and they have a lot of troubles in front of them. Especially Uncle Zhou, not only himself and The family members were seriously injured, and there are still a lot of casualties to be compensated. Alas, my aunt is right, it is better to ask for others than to ask for yourself."
Chang Ning hesitated for a moment, and finally asked: "Who are you doubting?"
Cai Zhao continued to write: "Since it was someone my father knew in Qingque Sect, it is possible that Master, Senior Brother, Senior Uncle Li, Senior Uncle Lei, and even Senior Brother Fan. But what I don't understand is..."
She frowned delicately, full of confusion, "What is the purpose of arresting my father? Among the six sects, Luo Yinggu is at the bottom, and the Cai family is nothing in the martial arts world. Even if the acting leader of the Demon Sect wants to establish his authority, It’s not my dad’s turn.”
After thinking about it for a long time, I had no idea.
She finished writing the last piece of paper, stuffed it into the small bamboo tube at the feet of the carrier pigeon, and then handed it to Fleur to let it out. At the same time, she pretended to take the other carrier pigeon from Jade's hand and took out the 'secret letter'.
