"Liuzi, why are you going to bed so late?"
"There is a game at the bottom of the mountain. Let's go over and play a few games. Do you want to join us?"
"You just got some money and you went gambling. If you lose everything later, don't come here to drink."
"Hey, let's go, don't leave the door open, I won't be back tonight."
"roll roll roll!"
The man who was called Liuzi hummed a tune, held a lit lantern in his hand, shook his shoulders and shook his head, leaving the iron yard step by step and walking down the mountain.
The night sky was dotted with stars, but there was no moon. The area around the iron field was completely dark, with only a little light around the lantern in Liuzi's hand.
Liu Zi had not gone far from the iron field when two black figures followed him from behind in the night, sandwiching Liu Zi on the left and right. One of them covered Liu Zi's mouth with his hand.
"Don't move, it will kill you if you move."
Liu Zi shuddered and felt something hard pressing against his waist.
Two more figures walked out of the shadows behind the mountain road in front, and one of them said: "Knock him unconscious, take him away."
Listening to the voice, Liu Zi felt that it sounded familiar. Before he could think about it, he felt a pain in the back of his head, his eyes went dark, and he fainted.
Wow... A ladle of water poured on Liuzi's face. Liuzi woke up from the coma and slowly opened his eyes.
What caught his eye was a torch, lighting up the surroundings, and Liuzi found himself being taken to a strange room.
"Are you Liuzi?"
Hearing the sound, Liu Zi opened his eyes wide and looked in the direction of the sound. Before he fainted, he felt that the sound was familiar. When he saw the person opposite, he was stunned for a moment, and then he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
The person who arrested him was from the iron yard where the trouble occurred during the day.
"I'm asking you, are you Liuzi?" Yang Yuan repeated the question in an accentuated tone.
"Master, I made a mistake, please spare me. I'm really wrong. I think I'm just a fart, so let me go!" Liu Zi knelt on the ground and wanted to crawl towards Yang Yuan, but was stopped by him. The two big men held him down tightly, unable to move.
Yang Yuan said in a cold voice: "Whatever I ask you now, just say it. No need to say other nonsense, and don't even think about lying to me. Do you understand?"
"Sir, if you ask, I will tell you everything. I will tell you everything. I will never hide it." Liuzi nodded repeatedly.
Yang Yuan said: "Who asked you to come to the iron yard to cause trouble during the day?"
Liuzi said hurriedly: "Our proprietor, it was the proprietor who asked us to come."
The corner of Yang Yuan's mouth raised slightly, revealing a sneer, and said: "So Fatty Xu asked you to do this?"
"Yes, yes, yes, Fatty Xu, the big proprietor of the iron yard, asked us to come and cause trouble." Liuzi responded repeatedly.
Yang Yuan sneered and said to the person on the side: "Chop off one of his fingers."
A big man standing next to Liu Zi walked over with a grin, grabbed Liu Zi's right hand, pressed it to the ground, inserted the dagger into the ground and pressed down, directly cutting off Liu Zi's little finger, and blood spurted out.
"Ah!" Liuzi howled in pain, his body trembling with pain, but his shoulders were firmly pressed and he couldn't break free.
"Stop the bleeding." Yang Yuan waved his hand, and the big man next to him picked up a red-hot chopstick and pressed it directly on the severed finger.
It's stinging... A burnt smell wafted out, and Liuzi rolled his eyes and fainted.
"Wake him up."
The big man poured a ladle of water on Liu Zi's face, and Liu Zi woke up leisurely.
"The little one says it, the little one says it all." Liuzi woke up with runny noses and tears. "It was Manager Xu. Manager Xu asked us to come to the iron yard to cause trouble. I was ordered by him."
"Which manager Xu is in charge?" Yang Yuan asked. He did not remember that there was a manager named Xu in Fatty Xu's iron yard.
Liu Zi said with a cry: "Manager Xu is the steward of the Xu family iron yard. He gave us twenty taels of silver and asked us to come to the iron yard to cause trouble. If we can scare away the miners you recruited, he promised to give us another twenty taels. What happened? It's not big, and we still have twenty taels of silver to make, so we agreed to let him come and cause trouble. Unexpectedly, your proprietor knocked down one of us with a shot and frightened us all. The other twenty taels didn't come either. Dare to make money."
Yang Yuan asked coldly: "Is there any more?"
Liu Zi shook his head repeatedly and said: "No, no, that's all."
After asking who was behind the scenes, Yang Yuan winked at the man beside him and walked out of the room.
"I've said everything I need to say, can you let me go?" Liu Zi looked at Yang Yuan's back and begged.
The man next to him grabbed Liu Zi's hair and pulled it back. The other man took a dagger and slashed across Liu Zi's neck.
The dagger cut Liu Zi's neck, and blood spurted onto the opposite wall.
Liuzi struggled for a few times, and finally his head tilted. His last bit of strength was taken away from his whole body, and he was as motionless as a puddle of mud.
The man who did it wiped off the blood on the dagger, walked out of the room, came to Yang Yuan's side and whispered: "Yang Tou, we've dealt with it."
Yang Yuan slowly turned around and said: "Since it was Xu's Iron Works Hua Yinzi who invited us to cause trouble, return the body to them."
"Yes." The man agreed and retreated into the room behind him.
Not long after, two big men walked out of the house carrying a sack and disappeared into the night.
………………
"Steward, no good, something happened." A miner rushed into a house in a panic.
There was a middle-aged man wearing clothes in the house. When he saw someone breaking in, he said dissatisfiedly: "Why are you panicking? The furnace has exploded?"
"No, it's not." The miner shook his head and said, "It's dead. A body was found in the iron yard."
Manager Xu frowned and said, "Come to me for such a trivial matter and throw it directly into the stove."
The miner shook his right hand and said: "He is not from our iron farm. Someone who knows him said that the person who died was the guard Dice Liu of the Xu family iron farm."
Hearing this name, Manager Xu's heart skipped a beat, and he said calmly: "Take me to see it."
The miner led the way, and Manager Xu came to the place where the body was found.
There were several circles of miners surrounding the body. As soon as Manager Xu arrived, someone shouted: "Get out of the way, everyone, get out of the way, Manager Xu is here."
The miners made way for Guanshi Xu to pass.
When he came closer, Manager Xu saw a sack on the ground. The opening at one end was open, revealing half of his body. Looking at his face, the deceased was none other than Dice Liu, the guard of the Xu family iron yard.
"Who was keeping watch last night?" Manager Xu asked around.
A man stood up from the side with a knife on his waist and said, "Return to the manager, there was a small vigil last night."
"What's going on with this corpse?" Manager Xu pointed at the corpse of Dice Six in the sack.
The man said: "The body was secretly thrown in in the middle of the night."
"Can I not know that someone threw it in?" Manager Xu's face sank and he said, "I ask you who threw it in? And when did it happen?"
"This... little one doesn't know." The man shook his head.
Hearing this, Manager Xu snorted coldly, knowing in his heart that all the guards who were keeping vigil would go to bed in the middle of the night and would not concentrate on patrolling at all.
It was not the responsibility of the guard to be held accountable at this time, he needed to pass the news back to the Xu family first.
I just heard Manager Xu ordering with a sullen face: "Go and prepare a fast horse for me."
"Where is the body?" the iron yard guard asked.
"Throw it in the stove and burn it."
