"He ran away?"
Zhao Lin's veins were pulsing on his forehead. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
He thought that the master was angry to Chu Liu, or used despicable means such as poisoning, but he didn't expect that he was directly assassinated.
In fact, with Zhu Huaishan's cultivation level, nothing would happen if he was just a little careful. Unfortunately, he never dreamed that the apprentice he brought up by himself would commit murder.
"It's all my fault, senior brother, for my incompetence and failure to protect the master."
Gao Yuan blamed himself: "When we chased him out, Chu Liu had already escaped from the city."
Zhao Lin consoled him: "I can't blame you for this. No one would have thought of it. Have you reported to the official position?"
"Reported, but it is an internal matter of the sect. The government will at most put up wanted notices and conduct strict interrogations at the city gates. The rest is just for show."
"Although Chu Liu doesn't practice diligently, he is still a real second-level Qi realm. Those police officers will not dare to come forward to arrest him when they see him. It would be good if he can give us a tip."
Zhao Lin knew that this was the case and didn't hold out much hope. He pondered for a while and said, "Senior brother, where do you think Chu Liu will go?"
This is the issue he is most concerned about. Chu Liu killed his master, so he must retaliate and kill this traitor who killed his master.
Gao Yuan shook his head, then sighed, "In the past month, our brothers and sisters have been secretly monitoring the Chu family while searching around the county. Unfortunately, we found nothing."
"The world is so big. If Chu Liu is determined to leave his hometown and hide for the rest of his life, how difficult it would be to find him!"
Zhao Lin disagreed with senior brother's opinion, but did not refute. He grabbed the teapot and filled it for the two of them, and asked, "Where is senior brother Yuan? Why didn't I see him?"
Gao Yuan looked around and lowered his voice, "The Chu family has a relative in Songyuan County. Junior Brother Yuan thought that Chu Liu might defect there, so he went there to monitor him."
"Senior Brother Yuan is interested."
Zhao Lin nodded and glanced outside the tea shop, "Senior brother, I want to go to Master's study."
Gao Yuan smiled and said, "Okay, let's meet some senior brothers."
"No, now is not the time."
"Why?"
Zhao Lin said in a deep voice: "There are only six people in our Liuhe Sect including me. To put it bluntly, even if Chu Liu is hiding in a house in Qinghe County, we may not be able to find him."
"Now that Chu Liu is in the dark, you are in the open, so of course you can't find him."
"If I don't show up now, then I'm in the dark."
Gao Yuan thought for a while and agreed: "Junior brother has thought carefully, so I won't tell them yet."
When Zhao Lin was the chief of police last year, he solved several old cases and was the main force in arresting the Zuanshanbao gang.
As the saying goes, a person's name is like a tree's shadow. If Chu Liu knew that Zhao Lin was back, he might really run away.
After leaving the tea shop, the two of them found a restaurant on the street to eat something.
Until it was getting late, after the apprentice and his disciples left, the two walked into the Liuhe Gate.
After Zhu Huaishan passed away, Gao Yuan moved into the mansion as the new sect leader, but because he was still in mourning, it was not officially announced.
Everything in the study remains as before, with a memorial tablet of Zhu Huaishan on the right side of the door.
"Now that you're here, let's burn some incense for Master." Gao Yuan said softly.
Zhao Lin came to the memorial tablet, lit three sticks of incense, bowed down and said silently in his heart: "Master, don't worry, I will kill that beast to give you an explanation."
After paying homage, Zhao Lin turned around and said, "Elder brother, what was going on at that time?"
Gao Yuan came to the desk, pointed to the chair and said: "When we came in, the master was sitting on this chair with his back, a dagger stuck in his chest."
Zhao Lin walked over, looked around, and saw deep red blood stains on the chair and the surrounding floor.
"Where's the dagger?"
Gao Yuan opened the drawer and took out a gleaming dagger.
Zhao Lin took it and felt a move in his heart.
The dagger is about eight inches long, edged on both sides, with a pointed and thin head.
With a dagger of this sharpness, even a warrior who has practiced armor power cannot stop it with full force, not to mention that Zhu Huaishan is unprepared.
The handle of the dagger is very long, taking up half of the entire dagger. It is wrapped with a layer of stingray skin to prevent it from slipping due to sweating. It is smooth and shiny, with a thick layer of patina.
It can be seen that the owner of the dagger likes this weapon very much and plays with it all year round.
Zhao Linti sniffed and smelled a smell of sweat and grease.
This is the smell of Chu Liu!
"Senior brother, can I take this dagger away?"
"Okay, you can take it."
Gao Yuan happily agreed without asking the reason.
Zhao Lin put away the dagger and said seriously: "Brother, as I said just now, you are responsible for the investigation, and I will come to make an unannounced visit."
The information is almost collected and I have a rough plan in mind.
Zhao Lin didn't think that it was difficult to find someone in such a big world.
In this era, most people's living scope was limited to one county or one city.
It's hard to leave your homeland, and it's not easy to take root in a foreign place, especially for a young master like Chu Liu who has never suffered hardship. It may be okay to live away from the place where he has lived for a long time, but can he endure such a life?
If you want to live a comfortable life, you still cannot do without acquaintances and familiar places.
So Zhao Lin judged that Chu Liu must still have contact with the Chu family!
These were all things he thought about in his mind and he did not directly confront Gao Yuan.
Gao Yuan apologized: "Thank you for your hard work, junior brother. You were supposed to be practicing in Xingyun Sect, but you still have to come all the way back."
Zhao Lin said nonchalantly: "It's nothing. This is what you should do as a disciple. By the way, senior brother, you should spend more energy on the door. I see that a lot of apprentices have left recently."
Gao Yuan looked ashamed, "Junior brother said that this aspect has been neglected recently."
Zhao Lin rested at Liuhemen that night, and early the next morning, he went out to Nancheng before his apprentices and disciples arrived.
The Chu family is in Nancheng.
There are many rich people in Nancheng, and many people from all walks of life are making a living here.
There is a bakery near Chu's house. The owner separated a room from his house and turned it into a big shop. It can accommodate ten people and costs three pennies to stay there for a day.
In order to deceive others, Zhao Lin pretended to be Lifu, found the landlord, paid the money for three days, and moved in directly.
Tongpu is inhabited by rough men who go out to find work during the day and come back to rest at night.
Zhao Lin also pretended to go out to work during the day, but he only moved around the Chu family.
Keep your ears open, listen to what's going on inside, and don't let go of everyone's conversations.
Before coming here, Zhao Lin had already inquired with Gao Yuan about the situation of the Chu family.
The Chu family was in the silk business and had a large business. The house occupied almost half of the street.
The current head of the Chu family is the old man Chu Hongtai, who has four sons and one daughter.
The daughter married to Songyuan County, and her four sons helped run the business here.
Logically speaking, the family should be separated when the son grows up, but this is not the case in the Chu family.
The reason is that among the four sons, only the eldest father gave birth to a son, namely Chu Liu, and the other three brothers either had no heirs or gave birth to daughters.
There is only one heir to such a huge family business, Chu Liu. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a seedling in a thousand hectares of land. Naturally, he has been pampered and bossy since he was a child.
Growing up in such a family, Zhao Lin didn't believe that Chu Liu could bear to live a precarious life outside.
Such a large family property cannot be protected without force. In addition to practicing martial arts with his own family, he also hires resident bodyguards to guard the mansion all year round.
Zhao Lin listened for three days in a row, his brain was about to burst, but he made no progress at all.
The word "Chu Liu" seems to be a taboo. Except for the servants and slaves who occasionally gossip behind their backs, no one in the whole house mentions it!
The closer people are to Chu Liu, the less they mention it.
Apparently a gag order was issued.
In the past three days, Zhao Lin only heard one sentence from Chu Liu's mother: "Master, you said Liu'er..."
"Shut up……"
Not being allowed to mention Chu Liu's name means there must be something wrong.
Zhao Lin knew that as long as he kept monitoring like this, he would find clues sooner or later, but time waited for no one, and he couldn't spend all his time here.
If it really takes a year and a half, I'm afraid Xingyun Sect will expel me.
A large number of people come and go from the Chu family every day. Zhao Lin has no skills and can only pick two or three people to follow him. Unfortunately, he can't find any trace of Chu Liu.
Zhao Lin felt that he could not go on like this and must find a way out!
He has Chu Liu's dagger, which has his scent on it.
However, the smell of human body is too weak, and it can only be found by smell when the distance is very close.
Unless, like the beard of Mount Paektu, it is traced with a special musk, the smell spreads far and lasts.
Thinking of this, Zhao Lin suddenly had an idea in his mind.
…
Baekdu Mountain, Yulinba Village.
Old Man Ma was holding a shower in one hand and a flower hoe in the other, playing with flowers and plants in his yard.
More than ten years ago, he was captured by his beard and sent to the mountains to raise scented mink. In order to kill his boredom, he planted some flowers and plants in his free time.
Although people have returned to the village now, this hobby has been retained. After farming, they are often accompanied by flowers and plants.
The courtyard door creaked, and a burly young man with a dark face walked into the courtyard. He smiled and said to Old Man Ma, "Old man, do you still recognize me?"
Old Man Ma looked at the visitor in surprise. He seemed to have heard the voice somewhere, but couldn't remember it for a moment, so he asked: "Are you..."
"We met last year at Fuli Valley."
"Fuligu? You are Mr. Zhao!"
Old Man Ma recognized Zhao Lin with some fear in his eyes. He still remembered the scene where Zhao Lin casually killed the ferocious Beard.
Zhao Lin smiled and said in a comforting tone: "I have nothing else to do with you. Do you still have the spices you used to feed the minks?"
Huzi was arrested last year, and the interrogation was handled by Zhao Lin, including the abducted villagers.
Zhao Lin was deeply impressed by this old man and paid special attention to him. He remembered that his family lived in Yulinba Village, so he came directly to find him.
When Old Man Ma heard Zhao Lin ask about the spices, he felt relieved and said, "The villain was just running for his life and didn't bring anything with him. However, the villain knows the ingredients and production methods of musk powder."
Zhao Lin felt happy and said with a smile: "Okay, tell me the formula and I will buy it now."
Old Man Ma didn't dare to neglect, so he went back to the house to get a piece of papyrus and wrote on it with charcoal: musk, goat weed, honey, southern wood, cardamom, atractylodes...
Zhao Lin silently wrote down the prescription, thinking that it might be useful in the future.
“These herbs have a strong flavor and don’t require too much weight.”
After finishing writing, Old Man Ma handed the straw paper to Zhao Lin.
Zhao Lin didn't waste a moment, and went directly to the town. He took the medicine according to the prescription and bought more than a dozen medicines.
When he returned to Yulinba Village, Old Man Ma had already set up a pot and boiled the water.
Old Man Ma put all the medicinal materials into the casserole and simmered them for half an hour. Then he poured the soup and medicine into a vat, and then smashed them with a medicinal pestle.
Zhao Lin saw that old man Ma was sweating profusely from exhaustion, so he motioned for him to hand the things over to him, and then he pounded them at a speed that was difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.
"Puff puff……"
In a moment, the medicinal materials turned into a ball of black mud.
Old Man Ma was dumbfounded and exclaimed: "Master Zhao's magical power is unparalleled."
"What kind of magical skill is this?"
Zhao Lin smiled and asked, "What should we do next?"
Old Man Ma replied: "It can be used after drying it into powder."
Zhao Lin frowned: "It's too slow. Can it be dried?"
"Can."
Old Man Ma poured the paste into the pot, dried it over low heat, wrapped it in oil paper, and finally put it into a cloth bag.
"Thank you, husband."
Zhao Lin thanked him and left two taels of silver behind when he left.
…
There is a Buffalo Street not far from the Chu family in Nancheng. It is said that this street existed when Qinghe County was first established.
A dozen men in coarse clothes and white sweat towels sat on the street sunbathing, chatting away.
These people are also Lifu, but they are not gang organizations with hundreds of people like the docks. They are in groups of three, five, and up to ten people.
Although large families have servants and servants, they basically perform their own duties. Sometimes there is temporary work and they can't find the manpower for a while, so they come here to get help.
Zhao Lin put the white sweat towel on his shoulders and found a place to sit down.
"I didn't expect that I would fuck Lifu again."
Zhao Lin teased himself in his heart.
With the musk powder, the next step is to "drug" all the people in the Chu family who may have contact with Chu Liu.
Old Mrs. Chu, Chu Liu's father and three uncles, a group of relatives, even the nursing home, bodyguards, teachers... may all have contact with Chu Liu.
Zhao Lin has only heard the voices of these people, and their looks are basically incompatible. He can only match them by sneaking into the house to inquire about them.
"Boy, what are you doing here?"
Among the people taking the job, a man with a tuft of hair around his mouth glanced over.
Zhao Lin glanced at a tuft of hair and chuckled, "Just wait and see."
A tuft of hair sneered: "Do you know whose territory this is?"
Zhao Lin shook his head: "I don't know."
"If you want to work here, you have to pay a living wage for the first month, do you understand?"
"not understand."
"I don't know, I don't understand, get out of here!"
"I don't know how to get out, why don't you get out of here and let me see?"
A tuft of hair's expression changed, and the dozen or so men around him looked at each other, stood up one after another, and walked toward Zhao Lin with ill intentions...
Bang bang...ouch!
After a few breaths, except for Zhao Lin, no one was standing.
"Uncle, you are so skilled, why do you still do this?"
Tuft of Hair said with a grimace.
In fact, Zhao Lin didn't hit hard. He was like this because he was afraid of being beaten again.
"Stop pretending and get up."
Zhao Lin ignored his question and said, "I have a small request. My boss will be here soon. No matter what the job is, I will pick it first. No one can compete with me. Do you understand?"
"I know." Before Zuofuo could say anything, the Lifus responded in unison.
(End of chapter)
