After Guanyue left, Su Ji coughed a few more times. Yunqi poured a cup of tea for him to soothe his throat, pretending to be disgusted and said: "It's an eyesore to see you dragging around a broken body."
"Isn't it to show that your prince has no talent or virtue, so you need me to work everywhere?" Su Ji finished drinking the tea, pressed the lid of the tea and said, "You just said that someone did it on purpose. Could it be..."
Yun Qi opened the jade bone fan and waved the cool breeze, "Master Su, we are now the bait in other people's mouths."
Su Ji held the teacup motionless for a long time. After a while, he sighed softly, "It turns out that I was wondering why the emperor asked you to handle this case. Now that I think about it, the prince wants to be someone else's pawn, a stepping stone."
Let Yun Qi attract everyone's attention and hatred, and then secretly send the emperor's most intimate ministers to kill them all with thunderous means.
Yun Qi turned his head sideways: "Aren't you, Mr. Su, the mainstay of our Criminal Division? You should feel sorry for yourself."
Su Ji vomited blood, twitched the corner of his mouth and said, "Speaking of which, the water in the royal capital is deep, so you don't have to worry if you just leave a little girl in there and the water is hot."
There was a smile in Yun Qi's eyes, "How could you know that the water is deep and hot, instead of fishing in troubled waters?"
Su Ji shook his head and laughed: "You really trust her."
Yun Qi waved his folding fan and was speechless for a long time. After a long time, his voice was low, as if he was saying to himself: "She is worth it."
—
At the foot of Yanshan Mountain
It was only three days since the last time that Lu Anran saw Feiyan again.
Feiyan got out of the carriage, wearing a hood and a black gauze tightly wrapped around her head, not letting any wind pass through.
"Feiyan took the liberty to come here just to tell the lady one thing." Feiyan's slender body was blown by the mountain wind, as if she would be blown down at any time, "Yesterday, a customer who had a good relationship with Liu Changhe ordered me , I asked him some questions while he was drunk. He told me that before his death, Liu Changhe had cursed, saying that Xianglan was dishonest and had a man secretly hiding in his room."
I don't know if it was Lu Anran's misunderstanding, but Fei Yan felt that she was much thinner than when she last saw her.
Feiyan continued: "I privately looked for an opportunity to find the cleaning girl in Xianglan's room. She also said that Xianglan often had contact with a mysterious man, but she was not a personal servant and had never met him."
"I understand. Don't do any other unnecessary things. Just leave them to others."
Feiyan said in a smiling voice: "Don't worry, young lady, that guest is so drunk that he doesn't even know who his wife is. As for the little girl, I first blocked her mouth with money, and then I found an excuse to ask my mother to come over and keep it by my side." .”
Lu Anran saw that she had thought carefully and had no other instructions, so he asked, "Can you eat the recipe I gave you?"
"I dare not neglect it. My hands and feet used to feel cold in the morning and evening, but I have really gotten better during this period."
Lu Anran motioned for her to raise her hand, and nodded after checking her pulse: "It has indeed eased. I will start changing the prescription tomorrow. I will ask Chun Miao to deliver it to you later. It will mainly focus on warming and tonic."
"Miss, don't think it's because I've lost weight. It's just my winter clothes." Feiyan is now trying to survive among men, and is particularly sensitive to different looks. She sees Lu Anran's expression, but it warms her heart.
"Yeah." Lu Anran saw that she was hesitant about what to say, "What else can I say?"
"The description of the body shape from Xiaocui's mouth is that he is very similar to the old cat from Xianglan's secret society." Feiyan said uncertainly: "It was also said that Xianglan met him once after his death, but he had already left the royal capital, how could he be here again? Qiongxian Tower appears?"
Lu Anran said: "How did you know he left the capital?"
This time Feiyan lowered her head and was silent for a while before saying: "Those who are in the flesh business like us come into contact with many and mixed people, and there are always a few who are on official business. I said casually that I wanted to get a peony thorn on my collar. Although the man didn’t say it directly, I guessed what he meant.”
Lu Anran finally understood why some people like to use brothels to collect information. The brothel has a complex staff, full of monsters, ghosts and snakes. It is an intoxicating and gentle countryside, and the women of the brothel are the least likely to attract attention.
"With my low status and incompetent methods, I made the lady laugh."
Lu Anran said calmly: "You are the one who eats this bowl of rice, why should I laugh at you?"
The tone was natural, without any pretense of pity, as if Feiyan's identity was no different from anyone else's, just as natural as a waiter in a shop picking up customers, a porter choosing goods, and an embroiderer selling cloth.
Feiyan pursed her lips and said, "It seems that I have been despising myself."
"Be careful in the future." After Lu Anran finished speaking, he thought for a moment and said, "The old cat did not leave the capital. I bumped into him the day before yesterday."
Feiyan was full of surprise: "How did you meet Miss?"
"Houchi Lane, in front of his house. Unfortunately, he ran away immediately when he realized something was wrong." There was a lot of regret in his words.
Feiyan was surprised and smiled: "It turns out that Miss is also an adventurous person."
Before the two parted ways, Feiyan said: "They say one's true nature is hard to change. Since the old cat is still in the capital, there is a way to find him."
—
The dark alley seems to be endless.
Until I saw two red lanterns swaying in the wind, sending out a charming call in the misty dark night.
"In addition to the brothels registered with the government, there are many black brothels." Feiyan's words echoed in Lu Anran's ears, "Black brothels are also called secret prostitutes. They are opened privately without the permission of the government. Many conditions are not good. The girls also have a harder time.”
There are no luxurious high-rise buildings, nor are there rows of luxurious car racks in front of the door like other brothels. This place is small and dark, with cave-shaped doorframes close together, and thick curtains hanging on the doors. From time to time, when someone opens them, a strange smell immediately comes out.
The reason why secret prostitution is a black brothel is that there is no one to protect the girls from behind; the origin of the girls here is unknown, and many of them may have been bought and sold by force.
"There were also some maids who were kicked out by the master's family. I couldn't beat them to death and were afraid that they would go out and talk nonsense, so I beat them and threw them into the dark brothels." Wu Fang's voice was too stereotyped, which would make people feel indifferent, "As long as they open their eyes , and began to receive guests day after day.”
If the brothel girls outside are miserable people, the girls here have long been living like human beings.
No one can listen to the moans, jokes or cries of sorrow and sadness in the dark sky wrapped in the dense night, and no one can change them.
Lu Anran lowered her eyes to cover her dark eyes, "Where is the girl that Old Cat often goes to?"
"East Sanjian." Wu Fang led Lu Anran in a direction inconspicuously and said, "When Old Mao has money, he goes to Qiongxian Tower to squander money. When he has no money, he comes here again."
You can't get in to Qiongxian Tower without ten taels of silver, but a girl here only needs five coppers to receive a customer, so prostitution is also a place where men from the lower class patronize.
They don't care whether the girl inside is old, ugly, disabled or not, they just want to vent their endless energy accumulated during the day on women.
When they were getting close, an old, slutty, white-faced woman came out and Wu Fang threw a purse to him, "Stay the night."
The woman raised her eyebrows and pulled up the accumulated crow's feet at the corners of her eyes. Her eyes were full of scrutiny and curiosity. Just when Lu Anran thought she was going to say something else, she waved her hand like a fly, "Go in."
As he got closer, Lu Anran discovered that the navy blue door curtain was full of oil stains here and there. When he opened it without any expression, the unpleasant smell inside immediately rushed out.
Lu Anran's face didn't change color when faced with the stench of corpses, but the stench contained a hint of obscenity. Although it was not a loss of composure, she still couldn't help but frown.
When the woman saw it, she laughed and laughed: "It's new." She murmured in her heart: "Everyone has everything these days, and rich people know how to play." Girls go to shady brothels, hey!
Wu Fang pulled the doorcloth to let out his breath and said to Lu Anran: "Those who are in the black kiln business are the most tight-lipped and don't do much. For them, nothing is as important as making money."
When the two of them walked in, they saw that the room was small and could only accommodate a bed. There was a small table next to the bed, and there was no room for a chair.
Fortunately, there was a small window. Wu Fang quickly opened it, and the candle on the table was blown out by the wind with a slight 'squeak' sound.
Lu Anran glanced at the bed. The quilt on it was not very clean. He could only barely make out the background color.
I had no choice but to push the bed away. Fortunately, the floor underneath was clean. I asked the madam for a clean mat and sat on the bed directly.
When Wu Fang came back, she saw Lu Anran staring at the bed board in a daze. She went over and took a look and saw that there was a word crookedly carved on it, and she could vaguely recognize it as the word "Yu".
"This room belongs to a woman named Xue Qing. I don't know if she wrote it." Because he wanted to catch the old cat, Wu Fang came to say hello in advance and arranged for Xue Qing to live elsewhere.
Lu Anran rubbed his thumb over the traces of the engraving, "There are still wood chips that have not been removed, so it must have been carved by her."
Wu Fang stood straight in front of the window and looked outside, "Maybe it's her last name."
The surname is engraved on the bed board, I don’t know whether it is to miss it or to remind myself.
Lu Anran looked away for a while. She could redeem one Feiyan, but she could not save thousands of poor women in the world. And as Feiyan said, whether her life was good or bad, in the end she could only Go to the end by yourself.
The two of them waited until midnight, and the movement outside slowly became smaller, and the sound of sneaky footsteps came from the door.
Lu Anran was dozing off with her head propped up. As soon as Wu Fang moved, she immediately woke up and asked with her eyes - is the person coming?
Wu Fang nodded silently in response, and the next moment he quickly jumped out of the window.
Lu Anran only heard an "ah" sound, and then the sound of running footsteps, and then there was no sound. After a few breaths, the door was pushed open, and the old cat held his neck and let Wu Fangti slip in.
"Sign up in any of your circles. I have a hundred and eighty brothers on my path." Old Mao said with a gloomy face, "I'm just a prostitute. I'm not afraid of the government."
Lu Anran was sitting on the edge of the bed, with his hands clasped on his knees, his dignity naturally revealed, as if this was not a shameful black kiln, but an exquisite boudoir.
"You are really not afraid, then let's go talk to the Criminal Division."
The old cat looked at her in surprise, "It's you again!"
