Huitong Bank is a bank that mainly focuses on deposits, withdrawals, exchanges, issuance of banknotes and mortgage loans, with branches all over the world. The banknotes redeemed by Huitong Bank can be used anywhere in the Central Plains, and their circulation range is extremely wide. In the field of money business, Huitong Bank not only has a high authority among the people, but also has bank accounts with the government. It is now the leading bank in the Central Plains.
The main hall of Huitong Yinzhuang is located in Jinling, and the general manager is named Gu Wannian. He is also the founder of Huitong Yinzhuang. Three or four years ago, Huitong Bank was only a third-rate bank in Jinling, and all it engaged in was the most basic small business of money exchange. But later, I don’t know whether it was the smoke coming out of the ancient ancestral tomb or the God of Wealth directly moving to his home. His business grew bigger and bigger, and the types of business became more and more diverse. Later, it directly squeezed out the "Taifengyuan" bank, which was known as the No. 1 bank in Jinling at that time, and then replaced it. At that time, people thought that Gu Wannian's wealth had reached its peak, but they did not expect that becoming the No. 1 Silver Bank in Jinling was just the beginning. In just two years, the branches of Huitong Silver Bank had spread all over the world. He has become the richest man in the Central Plains. It is no exaggeration to say that he is as rich as the country. Huitong Bank also has the potential to become the number one bank in the world.
In Changzhou, there is naturally a branch of Huitong Yinzhuang.
Huitong Silver Village in Changzhou is located in the west of the city. It is not large in scale and the terrain is not as good as the location in the center of the city. However, the amount of silver flowing in and out every day is very considerable.
The shopkeeper of Huitong Bank in Changzhou is named Liu and named Qicai. He is just fifty years old this year. There is nothing special about his appearance, but perhaps because he has been running a bank all year round, he has the smoothness and sophistication of a businessman all over his body. He is slightly thin and not as fat and greasy as ordinary businessmen. Instead, he gives people a very smart and capable impression.
It's dark now, and it's time for Huitong Bank to close its doors. Liu Qicai, who had a short beard on his chin and shrewd eyes, waited for the guys in the bank to finish sorting out the chores, and after he had finished calculating the day's mercury accounts, he slowly walked to the gate with a tired look, rubbing his waist and getting ready. close the door.
Liu Qicai raised his eyes and looked outside the door. The street was brightly lit, full of pedestrians, and a lively scene.
"It's still early tonight, so I can go back and have a good drink."
Liu Qicai smiled and thought to himself, he was in a good mood. If a person receives tens of thousands of taels of silver every day, everyone will be in a good mood.
But everyone who knows him well knows that his original wife died many years ago, and he just married a good-looking wife not long ago. The woman is only twenty-four or five years old, but it is the age when women first become interesting. So going home and drinking is fake, but wanting to hold a woman and have sex with her early is real.
Thinking of the woman at home, Liu Qicai, who had long passed the age of vitality, suddenly felt a rush of heat in his heart. No matter how old a man is or how settled his mind is, the only thing that can make him instantly rejuvenate seems to be a woman.
Especially beautiful women can often make a man who is like an old tree grow vigorous vitality again.
So at this moment, Liu Qicai unconsciously raised the corners of his mouth. He suddenly felt that living was really a beautiful thing.
The reason why he feels this way is because he has confidence. And his confidence comes from money.
"When a person is poor, everything is sad." For those who are down and out, living is actually a very painful thing. But rich people like Liu Qicai have no idea what it feels like. That's why he thinks everything is beautiful.
Liu Qicai was about to close the door when he suddenly found a person standing at the door.
Liu Qicai was almost startled because he didn't see anyone at the door just now. But at this time, this person suddenly appeared like a ghost, and he was not aware of it at all.
Liu Qicai couldn't help but take a closer look at the people outside the door.
The person who came was a young man wearing a bamboo hat. Although his clothes and appearance were quite ordinary, his figure was very strong. He stood at the door as if a spear was stuck on the ground.
Liu Qicai looked at the young man who was dressed like a groom and said with a habitual smile on his face: "Little brother, do you want to withdraw money? Unfortunately, we have already accepted the title, so we have to be early tomorrow."
The young man wearing a bamboo hat shook his head slightly.
Liu Qicai frowned slightly and asked again: "My little brother came to the bank not to exchange money, but do you have other important matters?"
But the man asked: "Are you the shopkeeper here, Liu Qicai?"
His tone was gentle, but his voice was quite magnetic.
Liu Qicai's heart moved. He had read countless people's thoughtful thoughts, and he suddenly became a little alert. The world is not peaceful these days, especially in Changzhou. There have been a series of murder cases recently, and among the dead are famous martial arts heroes. So in this special season, he couldn't help but be more cautious.
In fact, everyone knows that if there is no strong background to rely on, how can a private bank like Huitong achieve its current position as the world's number one bank? This kind of background requires not only the support of the government, but also the secret help of Jianghu forces. Therefore, in Huitong Bank now, under normal circumstances, no one would look for trouble, let alone anyone who would be brave enough to rob.
But the world is full of wonders, and there are always some blind people who will do stupid things.
So now Liu Qicai was a little wary. As a very powerful bank manager, he relies on his shrewd vision and experience.
But the shrewdness of businessmen is often hidden in the dark, so Liu Qicai remained calm on the surface and replied with a smile: "I am Liu Qicai, what do you want from me, little brother?"
"very good."
When the young man heard the answer, he nodded, then walked into the bank's door.
His steps were light but steady. In just two steps, he had arrived at the counter of the bank.
Liu Qicai's heart suddenly sank. He was a little surprised because this seemingly ordinary person was not actually an ordinary person.
Liu Qicai hurriedly followed him. Before he could speak, the young man raised his head. There was no extra expression on his ordinary face, and he said in a calm tone: "I'm here to deliver a message."
When Liu Qicai saw his face, he couldn't help but his expression changed.
Because Liu Qicai saw the young man wearing a bamboo hat in front of him, his eyes were actually dark blue.
This strange feature that is different from ordinary people shows that this person does not have pure Chinese blood. But what surprised Liu Qicai was that the young man's appearance and skin color were no different from those of the Central Plains people.
Liu Qicai was still in a state of confusion, but the young man had already reached out and pulled out something.
A silvery feather.
The young man handed the lifelike feather made of sterling silver to Liu Qicai.
Liu Qicai was still speculating on the other party's identity when he saw the feather. He was stunned for a moment, then seemed to suddenly think of something, and his expression suddenly changed again.
He reached out his hand and carefully took the feather.
The young man didn't pay attention to Shopkeeper Liu's strange look, and then took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Liu Qicai.
"Send this letter to the ancient shopkeeper of Jinling as soon as possible."
Then without any more words, the young man turned around and left.
Liu Qicai hurriedly came to his senses. He quickly walked to the door and looked around, but found that the man had disappeared.
The old shopkeeper frowned and quickly locked the door. Then he sat on a chair, lowered his head and carefully looked at the feathers and envelopes in his hands.
Liu Qicai's face looked a little strange. He looked around with some vigilance. After making sure that the guys in the house had rested in the backyard, he focused his eyes on his hands again.
The sterling silver feather was as light as nothing, yet lifelike, almost no different from real feathers.
Liu Qicai's face gradually became serious, because this feather was not unfamiliar to him.
Because he had seen this feather on someone's hand.
That person was none other than Gu Wannian, the general manager of Huitong Bank.
Liu Qicai can still clearly remember the situation at that time.
Three years ago, Liu Qicai and the other 107 shopkeepers of Huitong Bank branch attended Gu Wannian's 60th birthday in Jinling. After the birthday party, Gu Wannian summoned his subordinates and spoke to them personally.
When Gu Wannian was speaking, he was holding a feather in his hand. That feather was exactly the same as the one Liu Qicai was holding now.
Gu Wannian took the piece of feather and said to his 108 bank storekeepers: "Please remember this feather. In the future, as long as there is a place with my Huitong Bank, no matter at any time, As long as someone comes to you with the same feather, no matter what he asks you to do, you must accept his request unconditionally."
Gu Wannian was very serious when he said this, because he was not just talking casually, but giving an order.
One hundred and eight semicolon shopkeepers remembered this incident. Although they had doubts, since Gu Wannian did not explain much, it meant that the reason was definitely not something they could know.
Liu Qicai returned to Changzhou to take over the branch of Changzhou Yinzhuang. Four years have passed in a flash.
In the past four years, no one has ever come to him with feathers. So Liu Qicai had almost forgotten about it.
But now someone really sent a feather.
Liu Qicai looked at the letter again. The envelope was an ordinary envelope with no other special features, and the seal was just randomly sealed with fire paint.
Although Liu Qicai was old, his eyesight was still very good, so he saw a very small mark on the fire paint used to seal the seal. The mark was in the shape of a feather.
Liu Qicai took a deep breath, then stood up and walked to the backyard.
Not long after, a fast horse galloped out of the stable in the backyard of Huitong Yinzhuang.
The fast horse galloped all the way out of the city and headed straight for Jinling.
Three days later, Jinling City.
There was a knight from Changzhou. He traveled day and night and killed four good horses on the way, and finally arrived at the main hall of Huitong Bank in Jinling City.
He rushed to Jinling after such a long journey just to deliver a letter to Gu Wannian, the general manager of Huitong Bank.
Half an hour after the letter was delivered to the main hall of Huitong Yinzhuang, nearly a hundred fast horses galloped out of Jinling City. The sound of rapid horse hooves was like rolling thunder, almost shattering the bluestone tiles on Jinling City Street. .
After nearly a hundred riders galloped out of Jinling City, they all galloped away from different directions.
Those on horseback all received a mission, and they all carried a letter on their bodies.
Their mission is: to find out the Red Mansion Killer hidden in various places in the Central Plains in the shortest possible time.
But no one knows where and to whom the letters on them will be sent.
The content of the letter was very brief: Kill the building.
And just as the fast horse from Changzhou Huitong Yinzhuang was running out of Changzhou City, in a dark room somewhere in Changzhou, there was a man sitting cross-legged with his back to the candlelight, and a bronze mirror in front of him.
This darkroom is not an absolutely secret place, but it is a very safe place. The reason why it is very safe is that this darkroom is within the Changzhou government office.
There is a person living in the Changzhou government office. He is the county governor of this city, and he is also the largest official in Changzhou City today.
Therefore, no matter how complex and unpredictable the current situation in Changzhou City is, it will not easily affect the safety of Changzhou Government Office.
Therefore, the government office, a place that ordinary people cannot approach at will, is relatively safe for some people, because the more dangerous the place, the safer it is.
For a person who needs to deliberately hide his traces, Changzhou government office is the most unexpected place, because no one would ever think that a certain person would be hidden in a powerful official place.
Therefore, the dark room located in the government office is undoubtedly the safest place.
In the absolutely quiet dark room, a candle flickered slightly, and the man sitting in silence remained silent. He turned his back to the candlelight and could not see his face clearly.
There was a wooden table in front of him with a bronze mirror on it. Under the bronze mirror were placed seven or eight bottles and jars, as well as a large bowl. The bowl contained more than half of a pale white viscous substance of unknown use.
After the man was silent for a long time, he raised his hands and took off the ribbon that bound his hair, letting his long hair fall loose.
After letting out a breath of turbid air, the man slowly straightened his back, then straightened his arms, as if he was moving his muscles.
Then he suddenly waved his hands, and saw the shadows of his fingers flying like lightning. In an instant, thirty-six fingers were tapped on each of the thirty-six acupuncture points on his upper body.
Then the finger shadows suddenly stopped, and the man let out a heavy breath again.
With a heavy and long breath, the man straightened his back again and stretched his arms horizontally. With his slow breathing and movements, thirty-six thin silver needles slowly came out of the thirty-six acupuncture points on his entire upper body.
When the silver needle broke through his body, he could not hide the powerful energy flowing rapidly throughout his body. The incomparable power of the true energy was like the violent flow of deep water blocked by a high embankment. At this moment, it was frantically impacting the physical body. Imprisoned, it wants to burst through the embankment and pour out.
The man's clothes were not swaying in the wind, his arms were slowly moving in circles, and he was breathing and breathing heavier, as if he was trying his best to suppress the vigorous and vigorous gongti essence in his body.
His martial arts cultivation is unparalleled, and the true energy in his body is like rivers and lakes, and it is overflowing at this moment. But as if for some unknown reason, he deliberately suppressed his martial arts, so he used a unique method to forcibly imprison his cultivation, and those silver needles were the barrier to imprison his martial arts.
Being imprisoned by this special method made him look like an ordinary person with no martial arts skills in the eyes of others.
But this method of deliberately suppressing one's cultivation is quite strange, and the imprisoned powerful force is like a flood trapped by a dam, impacting the body at any time, causing the physical body to endure indescribable and huge pain.
Just like how he felt at this moment.
After about two sticks of incense, his breath became slightly calmer, and most of the true energy flowing violently around him was restrained and absorbed. But there is still a small amount of Qi that cannot be absorbed completely, and it is still rushing around wildly.
As if he had reached the limit of his body's endurance, the man's body was filled with a layer of lingering aura. Then with a dull exhale, the unabsorbed true energy in his body spurted out from thirty-six acupuncture points on his body. The air flow in the dark room suddenly surged back and forth, like a roaring dragon, with a terrifying sound.
The current was flowing wildly, and the only candle in the dark room suddenly swayed violently. The swaying light and shadow illuminated the room full of strange phenomena.
He finally exhaled softly, as if the pain that had been oppressed for a long time in his body was finally relieved, but his clothes were almost soaked with sweat.
After the silver needle broke through the body and Qi poured out of his body, all he could hear was a dense roar of muscles and bones all over his body. In the filled Qi, his originally thin body magically changed and recovered into a pair of muscles. Strong body.
He suddenly coughed lightly, then stretched out his hand to wipe it on his mouth. When he opened his hand again, there was a pool of blood in his palm under the candlelight, and there were actually seven red blood droplets as big as rice grains in it.
Among the scarlet blood stains, the seven red blood drops were particularly conspicuous.
"The red blood eyes are indeed an extremely vicious poison." He murmured to himself in a low voice, "What a Mu Xiaoxiang, if it had been anyone else, I would have been poisoned by you for a long time and turned into a corpse. "
Erythrocarpus is a poison that originates from Miao territory. It can also be said to be a poisonous insect. Although it is extremely small in size, it has extremely strong bloodthirsty and bone-corroding toxicity. Once someone is poisoned by the red blood eye, the poison will eat the organs, flesh and blood in the person's body, and then the size and toxicity will also increase. In the end, the poisoned person's internal organs gradually turn into pus and blood, until he turns into a fleshy body and dies in extremely painful ways, which is extremely cruel and terrifying. However, this kind of poison is extremely difficult to obtain and requires sophisticated techniques to refine it, so there are very few people who use this poison in the world.
But as the leading poison master in the world, Mu Xiaoxiang possesses this weird poison.
And the man in the dark room was able to use a unique method to suppress such a terrifying poison in his body and destroy it. No wonder Mu Xiaoxiang didn't dare to act rashly anymore even though she had superb poison-using skills.
He closed his palm slightly, and the seven red blood eyes were instantly shattered.
A sneer came from his mouth, and then he whispered to himself: "This world has been boring for too long, and it has been annoyingly lonely. But soon, an interesting game is about to begin, and the world is full of secrets. Red Mansion, what kind of game fun can it bring me? Let us all wait and see."
His words were very soft, and his voice became particularly unfamiliar.
He raised his head slightly, and a person's face was reflected in the bronze mirror under the candlelight.
Under the long messy hair, the face was a little pale.
The planner, Gong Ziyu.
At this moment, Gong Ziyu's face showed no expression, and his face was still a little stiff, so stiff that it could be described as stiff.
His eyes were looking at the bronze mirror, and his strange eyes seemed to belong to another person. He suddenly raised his hands and pressed them on his cheeks. Then ten fingers pressed accurately on the acupuncture points on the cheeks. After a series of different but weird techniques such as pressing, kneading and kneading the points, the bones of the face began to twist slightly and strangely.
In the slightly swaying candlelight, the figure with loose hair facing the bronze mirror was reflected on the wall of the dark room, a little blurred in the light and shadow.
Gong Ziyu covered his face with his hands and rubbed them gently. As his fingers gradually slid down, a mask as thin as cicada wings was slowly lifted from his face...
