Two rows of walls are towering, stretching into a line of sky. The warm sunshine in early winter cannot shine into this dark and desolate place.
Lu Anran lowered her eyes and glanced over. The person covered with black cloth on the ground had died. She slowly clenched her fists, her heart felt as if it had been rubbed into crushed ice, and it was cold and cold.
Perhaps because Lu Anran didn't yell, there was a flash of amusement in the man's eyes, but he was calmer and more composed than the average woman.
When she walked around Lu Anran's back, she saw the man wearing a silver mask on his face. His eyes were black and extremely cold, like an ancient well and a cold pool, deep and bottomless.
The man approached Lu Anran. Her skin was filled with goosebumps. His voice was full of laughter, but the laughter was extraordinarily charming. "You have nothing to say? Then I have to send you on your way."
"I am the eldest daughter of the Lu family." Lu Anran's heart tightened, hoping that the other party would care about her identity. "If you kill me, you won't be able to leave Mengdu."
The man's hand moved away from the dagger that was pressed against Lu Anran. Under Lu Anran's doubtful eyes, he suddenly smiled lowly and his throat rolled, "Oh? Lu Xun brought back that illegitimate daughter."
The tone was teasing and frivolous, but Lu Anran's expression changed.
It was only a few words, but it was enough for Lu Anran to judge the message inside——
First, he is not afraid of the Lu family, or Mengdu County.
Furthermore, he knew very well what happened in Mengdu County and the Lu family.
Lu Anran closed her eyes hard and took a deep breath. The cold air entered her lungs and made her feel cold from head to toe.
"I..." Lu Anran tightened her fists and used all her strength to make herself speak smoothly, "I can help you destroy the body and eliminate traces."
The man raised his eyebrows, and for the first time there was a look of surprise in his eyes. He pondered her words and repeated, "Destroy the corpse and eliminate all traces?"
"When he appears in broad daylight dressed like this, I can only think of two identities, secret guard or killer. And you chose this alley to attack. Obviously you have discovered that he was following him secretly and deliberately lured him here." Lu Anran looked at it. Looking at the masked man, a glimmer of wisdom flowed through his clear eyes that were still frightened.
"However, no matter how clean you handle it, as long as it existed, the people behind him will always find clues, and your troubles will not stop."
The man flicked the dagger he was holding with his index finger, the cold light moved slightly, and it made a crisp sound. He asked nonchalantly: "Maybe there is no one else?"
Lu Anran shook his head, "If it's a simple vendetta, you don't have to be so obscure, and he doesn't have to hide his identity. I can make him disappear without a trace in this world, but if someone who has ever existed suddenly disappears, sooner or later someone will call someone Doubtful, I believe you can use the time in between, maybe one or two days, maybe two or three days, enough for you to solve everything."
"You are confident, but I don't need to take risks."
"I don't think you like trouble more."
The man whispered: "How can you prove that you can do it?"
"On my life!"
The man looked at the girl, her face was pale, and the red bloodshot protrusion on the right side of her face was like a fierce scream, and it was extremely distorted. Even if he suppressed it with all his strength, the man could still clearly distinguish the fear hidden in her eyes.
Even so, the girl still tried her best to maintain her composure and pretended to be calm while negotiating with him.
The man did not expose Lu Anran's pretense. He turned his backhand and retracted the dagger flexibly, "Give you a chance."
—
When the sun shone on Lu Anran again, she felt as if she was alive again. She staggered and almost knelt on the ground, holding on to the wall at the entrance of the alley, gasping for air.
His face was red from panting, and the finger bones holding on to the curtain hat turned white and blue. There was still a hint of shock on his face. The corpse that rotted like mud and finally returned to dust flashed through his mind, and he suddenly started retching.
Lu Anran was not a timid person, otherwise she would not have disemboweled the man's corpse without changing her expression that day. Instead of fear and nausea, it was more about the guilt rising in her heart, making her feel sick to her stomach.
Different from the starting point of the autopsy, no matter whether the black-clad deceased in the alley had been good or bad, it should not be the reason for her to dispose of the body at will.
See, in order to survive, she is not so aboveboard.
Lu Anran took a deep breath. At this season of the year, the air in Mengdu always contained invisible grains of sand, but now she felt that there was no better air than this.
Walking across the coffin-paved street, her weak legs slowly regained their strength. Lu Anran, who put on her curtain hat, was once again the eldest lady of the Lu family who was calm and calm in the face of trouble.
The old man's house had been rented to another family. Lu Anran was silent for a moment, changed his planned route, and turned around to go to another place.
—
Fireworks are on the willow ground, powder is scattered in the air, and fragrance is floating all over the place. Set among various spring-filled flower buildings, a short red building stands out.
The courtyard is sparse, the sun is shining in the sky, and the glazed tiles on the roof of the red building are shining brightly, sweeping away the emptiness and casting a brilliant golden light.
Lu Anran raised his head and looked at the yellow sandalwood plaque with the words "Yin Lou" written on it. The iron was painted with gold hooks and the pen was written with a dragon in mind.
A pair of couplets are pasted on the left and right sides of the red-painted wooden door: He knows everything before and after, past and present, and is omnipotent in heaven and earth.
Hengpi: Money comes in.
As soon as Lu Anran approached, the door automatically moved without any wind, just enough space for one person. It was not her first time here, but she was used to the style of the silver building, so she stepped in.
After looking at the wall, a tree covered with red silk flutters in the wind. Countless copper coins hit it, the sound is crisp, and the light shuttles back and forth, dazzling people.
There is a red box placed unexpectedly in front of the tree, with its mouth facing the sky to make a grin, which looks like a merit box in a temple.
Lu Anran took out an ingot of ten taels of silver and threw it in. Just when she heard the sound of falling to the ground, a flying shadow caught the wind, and a copper coin lay in the palm of her hand that she had not yet withdrawn.
Three characters are engraved on the reverse: 三二五.
This is the rule of the silver house. The ten taels of silver that Lu Anran threw out were only exchanged for a chance to enter the silver house. In other words, even if she gained nothing here, she could not get back the ten taels of silver.
The style that Silver House has always adhered to is that those who have money come in, whether love comes or not.
On the contrary, if they have spent enough money, almost no one who comes in will go back empty-handed. This is the confidence of the silver building, which is as arrogant as the couplet at its door.
Lu Anran followed the instructions of the copper coins and came to the room. There was still no one inside. She walked to the window, flicked a wind chime made of copper coins, and then sat quietly aside.
After a cup of tea, the wind chimes were stirred by a gust of wind, making a dense and urgent swaying sound.
Lu Anran raised his head, and there was another person sitting on the seat by the window.
The visitor was dressed in gorgeous gold, and even the mask on his face was gilded with gold paint. Copper coins were dangling under the window, the sunlight was cut into pieces, and the golden light intertwined, like a moving human-shaped gold bar.
Lu Anran disagreed with his preference for the smell of copper everywhere in the silver building. After squinting to adapt to the light, he took out the willow leaf copper token and handed it over, "I want to know its origin and use."
The man took it and instead of being busy with the business, he said jokingly: "She is indeed the princess of Mengdu City. In a place where ordinary people set foot once every few years, Miss Lu is just like a regular person."
"The princess is in the royal capital." Through the curtain, Lu Anran's bright eyes were calm and he said quietly: "This is one thousand taels. Can I come and get the news in a few days?"
Lu Anran put a thousand taels of silver notes on the table. The man took it and shook it in his hand. He laughed even louder: "It's a pleasure to do business with Miss Lu. Please take care of her in the future." Second-rate."
Lu Anran had something hidden in her heart, and she had experienced life and death in a dark alley before, so she didn't want to deal with others, "What if the Silver House doesn't want to be transformed into a tea house?"
Being ridiculed in person, the people in Yinlou stopped laughing, shook their heads and said, "I just heard about Miss Lu's feats in the execution ground, and I admire her deeply. Alas, that's fine, since Miss Lu is so anxious, I'll tell you."
As early as the first time she stepped into Yinlou, the other party knew her identity. Lu Anran did not doubt Yinlou's opportunity to get the news first. What surprised her was the second half of the sentence.
"What's the meaning?"
The man held the token between his two fingers and said, "I can tell you without checking that Liu Fen Yiye is the waist card of the Liu family in the royal capital."
The royal capital, the Liu family?
Lu Anran didn't know how many Liu families there were in Wangdu. The one that everyone knew was Prime Minister Liu, who now had power over the government and held the Jixia Palace.
While thinking, I heard the man say again: "Yes, Mr. Liu knows the Liu family."
In order to distinguish themselves, noble families would carve special waist badges. In this way, if they went out to do business, they would take out the token to facilitate the other party. In case of any accident, they could know their identity with the token and it could not be counterfeited. .
On the street outside Yinlou, Lu Anran was still recalling the other party's voice in his mind.
"There are thousands of willows, but only the Liu family in the royal capital can pick the highest one. There are three prime ministers, five ministers, and seventy-two Jinshi in one sect, which is unprecedented."
"The previous dynasty was overthrown, and the Liu family, who was the right prime minister at the time, should have declined with the torrent of history, but Liu Xiangzhi appeared."
"Xiang Liu knows who he is, the concubine of the Liu family. Before the age of fifteen, almost no one in the capital knew such a person. However, when recruiting students in Jixia Palace in the 14th year of Dingkang, he stood out from more than a thousand people and became famous in the capital."
"It wasn't until Jin Sheng came to the throne that he realized that Liu Xiangzhi was the strategist behind the overthrow of the previous dynasty. When the new dynasty was established, he became the emperor's right-hand man and the only prime minister of the dynasty."
"Originally, the willow tree had one branch, but later it became known that the willow branch had only one branch, and it became what it is now."
A token implicates Prime Minister Liu of the capital, and things become more complicated and confusing.
There seemed to be two choices at the moment - the old man was a member of the Liu family, or he was captured by the Liu family.
Lu Anran calmed down. He had to go to the royal capital. He didn't know if the execution site would be effective.
Walking back to the main street, there was a constant flow of people coming and going.
When the old man proposed to overturn the verdict, Lu Anran suddenly had an idea in his mind.
The arrival of people from the royal capital confirmed her suspicion. After twenty years, Jixia Palace finally recruited students from all over the world again.
With the Lu family's status in the Ning Dynasty, she was bound to receive a notice, but she also knew her father's character, so when her father chose Lu Jianyu, she was already prepared.
Then, there is another way to make the people in the royal capital notice her and force her father to compromise.
Just now, someone from Yinlou accidentally revealed a piece of news that gave Lu Anran an extra chance of winning. If that didn't work out, she could do what Liu Xiangzhi did in the past and take the self-study entrance examination like a poor student without a letter of recommendation.
Lu Anran stopped and turned to look south.
Will Wangdu and his party finally be able to solve the many confusions in her heart?
