Li Yu hid in the kitchen and watched the government officials carefully. After seeing these government officials discussing, they dispersed and searched in different places. Three of them came this way.
"Hey, Old Liu, look, there is a bamboo house here."
"Why is there a bamboo house in this place?"
"Hey, are these bandits hiding here? It seems that we are going to make a contribution this time!"
"Xiao Zhou, you'd better be careful. If that gang of gangsters is really hiding here, the three of us won't be enough to stuff their teeth."
"What are you afraid of? Brothers are all nearby!"
"I think Lao Liu is right, we should be more careful."
"Master, you didn't betray me, did you?" Li Yu muttered in a very low voice, listening intently to what was going on outside and not daring to relax at all. However, after listening to the conversation between the three government officials, Li Yu understood at this time that they should have found this place by accident. Li Yu was now anxious, "I actually found this place! What should I do?" Looking around, there were no windows in this kitchen. There was only a vent next to the stove, and it also led to the outside. If he ran away from this vent If you run away, you will probably be bumped into by the nearby government officials. As the three government servants walked into the bamboo house little by little, Li Yu became more and more anxious, "Don't panic! Don't panic!" Li Yu kept chanting in his heart to relieve his nervousness.
The three government officials walked into the bamboo house at this time and opened the door of the bamboo house. When the three government officials saw this simple and neat room, some of them were immediately discouraged.
"Oh, this doesn't look like a place where bandits live."
"Xiao Zhou, why do you say that?"
"Brother Sun, look at how clean this room is. Which bandit have you ever seen who would make a room so clean?"
"That said, what if this group of people are clean-minded bandits?"
"Brother Liu, look at that! How can any bandit still recite sutras every day?"
"Well, this is indeed unlikely. If they are Buddhist and compassionate people, how can they make a living by robbing people?"
"One more thing. According to our current investigation, there are at least ten people in that group of bandits. Look here, the Communist Party of China only has two stools. Do the others stand there every day?" As he said, Xiao Zhou pulled A stool sat down. .
After listening to Xiao Zhou's analysis, another yamen officer also felt that this place did not look like a place where bandits lived, so he pulled out another stool and sat down.
"Hey! Why are you both sitting down?"
"Old Liu, let's take a rest. We haven't stopped since morning. Finally, we have a place to rest here, so let's take a rest."
Lao Liu said: "I would like to take a rest. You two sit on a stool and tell me where to take a rest."
"Oh, come on, come on, sit here, I'll give you half of my butt!" Lao Sun made some space on the stool and asked Lao Liu to sit down.
"That's pretty much it."
The kitchen was on the side of the main house, separated from it by only one wall. In addition, Li Yu was a martial arts practitioner, so his senses were very sensitive, including hearing. He could clearly hear the conversation of the three people next door, and he couldn't bear to let himself go. Laugh out loud.
Xiao Zhou fiddled with the small teapot on the table and shook it. There was no water. He complained: "There is no water in this place."
Old Liu looked at the room and said: "Looking at the furnishings of this room, it really doesn't look like a bandit's residence. Either a literati lives in seclusion here, or an eminent monk lives here. Let's not stay too long. It would be bad if others saw it.”
Lao Sun said unconvinced: "See what happened? We go out in the wind and rain every day to protect the security of Xinyang City. Now, when I come to your place, I won't even let you drink water!"
Xiao Zhou responded and said, "That is, if he drinks some water, will it prevent him from attaining the Tao and becoming an immortal?" After saying that, he stood up and picked up the small teapot, "I'm going to find some water. It's such a hot day, let's search It's been a long time and I've been thirsty for a long time." After leaving the door, he walked towards the kitchen.
When Li Yu heard the noise, he looked around to see if there was any hiding place in the kitchen. He took a closer look and saw that there were only a dozen or so empty water jars where he could hide. With lightning speed, he immediately jumped into a In the water tank, curled up. When Xiao Zhou walked in, the kitchen was already empty. Xiao Zhou saw the dozens of water jars at a glance, and quickly walked over with a small teapot. He took a quick look and saw that there was water in one of the water jars, so he picked up the water ladle beside the stove and took a scoop. , directly took a big gulp of the water and drank it. After drinking, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Then, he glanced around and murmured in a low voice: "Why are there so many water tanks? Is it possible?"
When Li Yu heard this, he was shocked. Could it be that this government officer had discovered him? Li Yu held his breath and remained motionless, listening intently to what was going on outside.
"Ah! I know!" The yamen servant ran out of the kitchen happily.
Li Yu felt the man running out and cautiously stuck his head out. When he saw that no one was in the kitchen, he breathed a sigh of relief.
The yamen servant ran back to the bamboo house and confidently said to the other two yamen servants in the house: "This must be where the bandits live!"
Lao Liu said: "Oh? What did you find?"
"Come and see!" Xiao Zhou pointed to the kitchen and motioned for the two of them to follow him.
When Li Yu heard this, he quickly retreated into the water tank. Xiao Zhou pointed at a dozen water tanks at the door of the kitchen and said: "Look, there are so many water tanks! How can ordinary people use so many water tanks! But if it is a group of bandits, doesn't that make sense! "If Li Yu hadn't dared to speak at this moment, he might have complained secretly directly! Seeing more than a dozen water tanks, one would think that bandits would use this as their base! A bamboo house is just here in plain sight, with no one on guard?
The other two government officials felt that Xiao Zhou was right, so they walked towards the dozens of water tanks. After a casual glance, Old Liu stopped next to a water tank and said, "That's right. How can ordinary people use so many water tanks?" Then he picked up the water ladle, took a spoonful of water, and looked after himself. He started to drink, and after finishing the drink, he said: "Let's go back and tell Lao Chen and let him pay attention. Do you still drink?"
At this time, Lao Sun still had no water to drink, so he took the water and scooped it up to drink. Suddenly, a golden-armored bug flew out of nowhere, buzzing around the person drinking water. Lao Sun impatiently patted the bug into the water tank where Li Yu was, just in time. It landed on the back of Li Yu's neck. "Hiss!" Li Yu couldn't help but let out a cry. Although the voice was extremely low, the three government officials still heard some noises and looked at the water jars with vigilant faces. Walk slowly towards the water tank!
"Old Liu! Old Sun! Xiao Zhou! Where are you three?" A voice came from outside the door.
Old Liu recognized the owner of the voice and shouted to the door: "Old Chen! He's here!"
The person who came was none other than Lao Chen, the foreman of the third team. Lao Chen followed the sound and walked to the kitchen. Seeing that the three of them were there, he said, "No need to check here!"
Lao Liu asked: "What's wrong?"
Lao Chen said: "I forgot to tell you. This morning, Lao Yang told me that he has a bamboo house halfway up the mountain. Let us be careful when searching and don't rummage through his things."
Xiao Zhou said: "Lao Yang? That Lao Yang?"
Old Chen said: "That's Lao Yang, our county government's handyman."
Xiao Zhou still looked confused, as if he had no impression of this old Yang. Lao Sun said: "Lao Yang? I seem to have some impression. What happened to Lao Yang? What if he is a member of that group of bandits and is hiding in our county government as a spy."
Lao Chen said: "You can pull him down. With Lao Yang's body, he coughs every day and gasps for breath after waving the broom a few times. If you let him become a bandit, you should kill him!"
Lao Liu said: "What if he is pretending?"
Lao Chen said: "It's impossible. He has been in our county government for two years, and this group of bandits only started to appear a year ago. It's not like he has been squatting for a year. Moreover, when you take office as the county magistrate, you will also be here. You know, don’t you know what his virtues are? He just thinks about making money with Yiyang and that group of people every day, so he doesn’t care about suppressing bandits. Do bandits need to plant spies in the county government? "
Lao Liu pointed to the water tank and asked, "Then what do he do with so many water tanks here?"
Old Chen shook his head and said, "I don't know either. Why don't you go back to the county office and ask him yourself."
After hearing what Lao Chen said, the three government officials said nothing more, and the three of them didn't care about the weak sound just now. Lao Chen said: "Let's go. You didn't rummage through things. Lao Yang is not in good health. Don't rummage around for others."
Lao Sun said: "No, no. I just drank a little water from him."
Lao Chen looked at the water scoop next to the water tank and said, "That's okay. Lao Yang is not that stingy. Just go back and tell him. Let's go and look elsewhere."
Then the three of them followed Lao Chen out of the kitchen. Li Yu, who was in the water tank, his heart almost jumped into his throat. When he saw them leaving, he breathed a long sigh of relief, picked up the golden beetle on the side, and whispered angrily: "You almost killed me! "Then, he threw the insect out of the water tank, and the golden beetle flew away with a buzzing sound. Li Yu didn't dare to come out for a while, so he had to continue to stay in the water tank. After more than half an hour, Li Yu carefully felt the surrounding situation and made sure that there was no movement nearby, then he slowly climbed out of the water tank and gently He walked to the door of the kitchen with his feet and leaned out. After scanning around, he made sure that no one was there before he dared to walk out of the kitchen. He thought to himself: "I'd better not go out now. If I meet them again on the road, it will be a big deal." It's wonderful." Then, he stayed behind the water tank and had nothing to do, so he sat cross-legged and meditated, practicing the internal skills and mental methods of Yinlong Villa.
Magistrate Jiang and Zhu Shuo found Li Chunlin's file record, which was written very simply. It probably said that Li Chunlin borrowed Guo Zixiong's silver and had no money to repay the debt, so he had to sell his property to repay the debt. Zhu said he read the file again and again carefully and said: "That Yamen Zhang said that the case was reported by Guo Zixiong, but what is recorded in the file is the case reported by Li Chunlin."
Jiang Zhixian said: "No matter who reports the case, the facts are like this."
Zhu Shuo shook his head and said, "There must be something wrong with this matter. I'm going to go check it out near Li Chunlin's house."
