Lu Anran asked: "Do you have a grudge with her?"
The girl tilted her head, "No?"
Lu Anran asked again: "Do you have a grudge against me?"
The girl blinked: "I don't know him."
The woman reached over Lu Anran's shoulder, carefully exposed half of her head, and said hurriedly: "Girl, this person and I... have not known each other from before until now."
There was some confusion in Lu Anran's eyes, and the girl's lips twisted into a nasty smile, "I just passed by on the street, did you look at me?"
The woman's eyes widened slightly, "I..." She took the maid to choose something, and she didn't even remember whether she had seen it.
"Hmph! You shouldn't be looking around, damn it." The girl raised her chin, "It just so happens that I don't like you too."
Lu Anran held her forehead. The girl's words made no sense. She didn't want to get too entangled, and said, "Even if she looks at you, you will see her back."
"That won't work. She is an ugly creature. It makes me sick to see her."
Lu Anran: "If you don't look at her, how do you know she is looking at you?"
Girl: "..."
"You, you, you, you bullied me." The girl did not act according to ordinary people and was moody. She actually covered her face and started crying. She stamped her feet and said, "They are all bad people, who can kill with a thousand cuts."
Chun Miao had never seen such a battle before, and the girl was stunned.
The girl took her hand away, with a trace of tears on her face, and smiled: "I will remember you, good sister." She turned on her toes, and lightly jumped into the air as if being blown up by a gust of wind. , stepped on the eaves and walked back and forth a few times, and the person disappeared.
After the woman waited for the girl to leave, she gave a ladylike salute to Lu Anran. After crying, her voice was thick and nasal, and she said in a soft voice: "She is not easy to mess with. The girl should not have stepped in to save me."
Lu Anran was silent for a moment, looked at her seriously and asked, "Then why didn't you say anything just now?"
The woman was stunned. Lu Anran had already led Chunmiao through the alley.
Chun Miao said angrily: "Miss is right. She obviously used her as a shield to force her to take action. She made such a gesture afterwards. People in the royal capital really have too many evil intentions."
—
On the way back, Lu Anran saw that everyone was buying new year's goods, and some wealthy families were even driving carloads of them home. Suddenly they woke up and they were so busy on their way that they almost forgot that it was already the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month.
After arriving at the inn, Lu Anran asked Chunmiao to take out the small box at the bottom of one of the boxes. There was a stack of silver notes and jewelry in it.
The banknote was given by Lu Xun and was stuffed in the clothes box. Chunmiao was rummaging through the clothes on the way and discovered it. However, Lu Xun also loved his daughter very much. He said he was reluctant to let Lu Anran go to the capital, but he still secretly stuffed a lot of silver. .
Lu Anran took out one and gave it to Chun Miao, "Go and exchange for some broken silver. Each person will pack a bag, Xu Jia and Ding Yi will add three taels more, and the rest will each have eight taels. Send it to them on the New Year's Day. Your share will be calculated according to Xu Jia's share." Ding Yi is a member of the Lu family who stays at the inn during the day, and is the captain of the nursing home like Xu Jia.
He called again, grabbed a handful of pearls the size of rice grains, and said: "There are six others, but you keep twelve. Go ahead."
Chun Miao said happily: "Hey!"
What makes her happy is not that she has six more pearls, but that the young lady always treats her differently.
That night, Lu Anran took an early rest and lay down on the bed to relax. Only then did he realize that the limbs causing the carriage to jolt were sore and weak, and they did not seem to be his own.
I fell asleep due to sleepiness, and suddenly a scream pierced my ears. It felt like a needle had been stabbed in my head, and my ears felt like they were being torn apart.
Lu Anran gritted his teeth, pulled out a needle and pierced himself, and stumbled up. Chun Miao had fainted on the ground, and there was blood oozing from his ears.
Before she fainted, she saw a girl with a sweet smile hanging upside down from the window.
Even when she woke up the next day, Lu Anran was still dizzy, as if there was an invisible hand pulling on the meridians of her head. She had a splitting headache and wanted to hit the wall.
This continued until noon, when Chunmiao woke up leisurely, and just when she was about to speak, her head buzzed as if a temple bell was hitting her ears, painful and rumbling.
Although Lu Anran recovered a little or two of his strength, it was still a bit difficult to inject himself with acupuncture, and he was not good at it after all. Fortunately, Ding Yi came over again and found something strange, so he immediately invited the old doctor from Dekang Hall in the Royal Capital to take a look. diagnosis.
When the old doctor checked his pulse, he was half surprised and half helpless, and shook his head repeatedly.
Ding Yi was horrified: "Doctor, what's the problem?"
The old doctor moved slowly and trembled slightly when picking up the things. He placed the needle steadily and said in the slow tone typical of the elderly, "It's not a big deal, but it's a bit troublesome."
After burning the incense, Lu Anran felt that his brain was much lighter. He took the old doctor's prescription and glanced at it, "What trouble does the old gentleman mean?"
The prescriptions were all ordinary medicines that soothed the heart, unblocked the meridians, and nourished the blood and brain. She just suffered a sudden external stimulus and lost strength, but she understood that it was not a serious illness, and it was naturally not her illness that caused such trouble.
The old doctor took a sip of the tea handed over by Ding Yi and said slowly: "Miss, I have had no less than five or six headaches in the past three months."
A girl's face with a sweet smile but a hint of evil flashed in Lu Anran's mind. She curled her fingers slightly and said, "Mr. Do you know the reason?"
This time, the old doctor pondered for a moment and then said: "If you meet someone else, the medicine will definitely not treat the problem and you will need to spend more time. Coincidentally, I traveled to the south for a while when I was young and heard that there is a sect in Lucheng called Xuanmen."
"Xuanmen?"
"Yes, the Jianghu sect is not known to most people. Xuanmen people are good at Qinggong, especially using sound as a weapon to attack the enemy."
Lu Anran's eyes narrowed slightly. Before she felt the tingling pain in her brain last night, there seemed to be a sharp sound that hit her ears.
Ding Yi was speechless: "Can playing the harp/flute still hurt someone?"
The old doctor smiled and said: "The outsider cultivates strength, and the inside cultivates Qi. The strength can carry a thousand catties, and the energy can swallow thousands of miles. You can tell clearly which one is more powerful, which one is lighter and which one is more serious."
However, the old doctor only heard a superficial story, and he didn’t know much about it. He only said that there might be a Xuanmen disciple hidden in the capital, and Lu Anran should be careful in the future. People in the world are very violent. Although they are more powerful than the powerful family, they are especially good at appearing and disappearing. They are hard to guard against. It is not advisable to offend easily unless it is absolutely necessary.
Ding Yi saw the old doctor off. Chun Miao held her head and said sadly: "Miss, we have only been in the capital for one day. We have no time to offend others. It's obvious..." At this point, her voice stopped.
"Is it that girl? No way?" Chun Miao shouted.
Lu Anran gave her an affirmative look and poured out a few pills for Chunmiao to take. "We blocked her way. She breathed her last night, so she should be fine."
Chunmiao muttered: "She's just a little girl. She doesn't look like..." such a dangerous person.
—
For the next two days, Lu Anran and Chun Miao recuperated in the inn. Until New Year's Eve, Chun Miao went to the place where Ding Yi and the others rested in the evening, gave everyone a rice dumpling, and said hello to the store owner. In the evening, a New Year's Eve dinner was served on the table, and two jars of good wine were served on the table.
Chun Miao didn't go out in vain. When she came back, she poured out the news she heard on the way through the bamboo tube like beans.
"Unlike previous years, this year talented people and beauties from all over the country are in the royal capital. During these days, various gatherings are held every day, such as poetry gatherings, chess gatherings, piano gatherings, and martial arts competitions."
"But the chess club is the most lively here, because the talented girl Su Xiangxiang just broke one of the top ten chess games."
"Oh, by the way, miss, remember, it was the day we entered the royal capital."
"I heard that the most talked about in teahouses and restaurants these days is which talented scholar's articles are so impressive and which beautiful lady plays the piano that makes people intoxicated."
Chunmiao talked for a long time, while Lu Anran held her head and flipped through the book without responding, showing a lack of interest.
"Miss, there is one more thing." Chunmiao pursed her lips: "But it can't be compared with the poetry and chess players over there. It's like a loser."
Lu Anran opened a page without moving his head, and raised his eyes slightly.
Chunmiao seemed to be inspired, her spirits were shaken, and she said vividly: "Last night, a group of children from aristocratic families went to Xunfang Courtyard to drink, but they got jealous over which top star was quarreling and got into a fight.
No matter how much damage was done inside, everyone saw that half of the door of Xunfangyuan was kicked down. One by one, those who came out with bruises on their noses, faces, and broken arms and legs were asked to be arrested by the Jingzhao Mansion.
However, they are all people with rich family backgrounds. They say they are arresting people, but in fact they are just having fun. After all, the trouble is embarrassing, so they still have to adjust it privately. "
Lu Anran felt that Chunmiao's last sentence was right. Being able to openly cause trouble at the emperor's feet without any scruples must have been fostered by the care and support of the family. No matter what this kind of person did, he would always be protected by his family.
In the end, Xunfangyuan was probably the only one who was unlucky.
"Oops!" Chun Miao clapped her hands, "I forgot to mention the scary one."
Lu Anran pressed the page of the book and took a formal look at Chunmiao.
"Miss, what's wrong?"
"I was wondering how you collected this information after going back and forth for an hour and a half."
Chunmiao knew that Lu Anran was teasing her. Seeing Lu Anran pick up the brush, she dropped water on the inkstone, then picked up the ink stick and slowly ground it, "Miss, when we checked into the inn, there was a group of Gu family guards and searchers. ?"
Lu Anran's pen tip was stained with ink and he was noncommittal.
"I heard that Miss Gu is not the first victim, there are three more before her." Chunmiao raised her head and thought for a while, "One seems to be the youngest son of some captain, one is the concubine of some house, and the other One of them looks like a boy from some family, but the other three are dead, and only Miss Gu survived. Everyone said that General Gu has a spirit in heaven and is blessing him."
"The Gu family may not be able to do anything about it. The last three cases happened more than three months ago. The government can't even catch the individual, and they don't even know who the murderer is. In this way, the Gu family can only think about themselves. Arrests."
Lu Anran lowered his eyes and wrote, "You said these were all committed by one person? Is there any connection?"
The royal capital is not only inside and outside the imperial city, but also has several counties outside the city. They are all within the scope of the royal capital. It is not unusual for several cases to occur and several people to die within a year. However, people who died in different periods are attributed to the same murderer. , there must always be some evidence.
But Chunmiao shook her head: "This servant doesn't know. It is said that the crime scenes have something in common. The government does not allow the specific details to be disclosed. Outsiders are just guessing, so I don't dare to speak out."
While the two were talking, the window clicked, and they were startled at the same time, "Who?!"
