Chapter 41 Chapter 8: Game of Death and Life

"Yuan Qing, be careful." "If this person wants to kill us, he would have had many opportunities just now, so there is really no need to go to such trouble. Since he is willing to go to such trouble, he won't let us die so easily." Lu Yuanqing held Shen Bai and walked quickly, "We'll do as he says." Go along the stone wall and turn to the right, there is indeed a depression sheltered from the wind.Lu Yuanqing lowered his head and touched it, and sure enough, there were fire pockets and oil lamps prepared. Lu Yuanqing lit the torch, and then lit the oil lamp.Shen Bai stood back to back with Lu Yuanqing tacitly.By the light of the oil lamp, this dark place was finally glimpsed.It was precisely because they finally saw the whole picture of this place that Shen Bai and Lu Yuanqing were extremely surprised.

The stone wall just now, the damp here, the traces of erosion... all kinds of things, I guessed again and again in the dark, and I would never guess that this place looks like a farmhouse. No matter where this place is or what it should have been, what Lu Yuanqing and Shen Bai are facing at this moment is a well-decorated farmhouse. There are wooden beds, stone tables and benches, longbows for hunting in the mountains, and bamboo baskets for washing rice and vegetables... Lu Yuanqing glanced from the wooden bed in front of him to the longbow hanging on the wall, and finally his thoughtful gaze stayed in front of the bed On a white coat on a low stool.

While Lu Yuanqing was observing the underground stone chamber, Shen Bai found the skull of the man he touched just now.Against the dim, floating flames, the skull looked ghostly.It stared at Shen Bai strangely with two black holes that devoured people. Lu Yuanqing went to the low stool, picked up the white coat, and slightly opened the inner pocket, and there were shocking spots of blood on it, ranging from shallow to deep. "I'll give you a cup of tea to guess what happened in this room. If you guess right, I will offer you the key to the next step. If you guess wrong, I just need to gently Move your fingers, and this stone room can instantly crush you into meat paste."

This is indeed a cage full of organs.Shen Bai flicked the hollow nasal bone of the skull, and fixed his gaze on another corner of the wall, where there were two human skulls.Shen Bai frowned and approached, and found that these two skulls were bigger than the one he held in his hand. "People are swordsmen, I'm fish. I'm afraid it won't work if we don't agree at the moment, but I don't like people watching eagerly when I'm thinking about things, so I still invite this... let's call it Mr. Please avoid this gentleman temporarily." Lu Yuanqing pinched his bloody coat and said, "I know that all of you in this stone room can see it. Although you are not in this stone room, it is not difficult to see the ingenious structure and layout of this place. It's obviously a big agency camp, we can't get out without the owner's permission, can't we?"

The voice sneered for a while, "Forget you are sensible, okay, I will give you a little time. After a cup of tea, I will come to see you two, but if I see your dead body or a living person, then I will not That's easy to say." "Don't bother Your Excellency." Shen Bai said coldly. It was so quiet that one could hear each other's breathing.Shen Bai and Lu Yuanqing looked at each other for a moment before saying, "Yuanqing, what do you think of this matter?" Lu Yuanqing shrugged, "He obviously waits for work with leisure, and waits for us to come with confidence, what else can we do? Now let's start watching the scenery and making up stories."

"En." Shen Bai nodded, "Story-making is your strong point, I'm a little glad that I brought you along on this trip." "My lord, I'm so proud of you, but if your lord stays on the sidelines this time and doesn't intervene, I'm afraid we will end up in the same place." Lu Yuanqing joked with Shen Bai while observing the bloody coat, without any sign of panic. Shen Bai smiled sullenly, "Yuan Qing, I prefer the same quilt for life rather than the same acupuncture point for death." "Your Excellency is indeed as unrestrained as Feng Yanqiu said, and you can still make these romantic jokes at this moment. I am interested." Lu Yuanqing finally finished studying the bloody coat in his hand, and turned his attention to the skull in Shen Bai's hand, "The skull in the hand of your lord Great, did you find anything?"

"The bloody clothes in Yuan Qing's hands are made of high-quality fabrics? Are you so fond of them?" Unexpectedly, Lu Yuanqing nodded, "Yes, my lord is indeed well-informed. Not only is the fabric of this bloody dress expensive, but it is also made in the capital." "Ah?" Shen Bai was surprised, and stepped forward a few steps, "How do you know?" "The silk weaving technique is exquisite, the cloud brocade is stacked neatly, and the tentacles of the horizontal and vertical double needles are extremely light. Except for the palace, there is really no one else who dares to wear such a silk shirt, so the owner of this bloody coat is either rich or expensive, but merchants The family cannot wear silk, so this person is an official, and his rank is not low, but he walks in front of the emperor."

Shen Bai flipped through the bloody clothes, it was indeed so. "Look at this again." Lu Yuanqing turned his wrist and pointed to the position of the back waist on the outside of the bloody coat, "I was hit here with a sharp edge. It is difficult to draw such a mark with a sword, so the sharp edge may be a knife. It is very flexible. However, it is difficult for ordinary knives to have such a thin cut, so this is a special kind of knife, such as the straight knife used by the Japanese, the machete used by the Mongols, and... the Xiuchun knife used by the Jinyiwei However, whether it is Japanese or Mongols, it is very unlikely that they can kill people on the border of Biancheng, which is so close to the capital.”

Lu Yuanqing turned over to show Shen Bai the inside of the bloody coat, "There is still this blood. From shallow to deep, what does this mean? It means that the knife penetrates very quickly, and it is done in one go without any resistance in the middle, but the knife is drawn out slowly. , very, very slowly, why so slow? I think it was blocked by an external force. Judging by the traces of blood splatter, the resistance is very likely to come from the owner of the blood clothes. From this, it can be concluded that the owner of the blood clothes was stabbed It was not in a coma when he entered the lower back. This person was conscious but was attacked from behind like this, and he didn't resist at all. It can only explain two points: one is that the blood-clothed master does not know martial arts, and it is difficult to defend; It's too late, the blood-clothed owner was plotted against by an acquaintance, and he never thought of taking precautions. And judging from the strength of the knife, the person holding the knife should be a man."

Lu Yuanqing pointed to the sleeve of the bloody coat again, "And here. There are two thick brown stains here. I just smelled it. It smells like soup. It should be left when the owner of the bloody coat drank the medicine himself or was fed by others. Yes, then if the blood-clothed owner can still drink medicine by himself or be fed medicine after suffering such a severe knife wound, it can only be said that he has a lot of life, but he didn't die." Speaking of this, Lu Yuanqing looked around the stone room again, "The furnishings here are like a farmhouse, so the benefactor who saved the blood-clothed owner should be a villager, and the presence of bamboo baskets for washing rice and vegetables means that the villager is located The village can grow vegetables and cultivate crops, but there is a longbow for hunting on the wall, which means that the village is built on the mountain or in the middle of the mountain... Guanlan, a village hidden in the mountains, can grow vegetables and land I have only seen one place that is self-sufficient and isolated from the world—Tang Ancient Village.”

"Then what do these skulls mean?" "This is a human skull." Lu Yuanqing frowned, "Our ancestors used to count with animal bones. Since this ancient village retains the ancient customs, perhaps this skull is similar to the ancestors who counted with animal bones. Three skulls It refers to three people. According to the size and shape of the skull, it should mean one woman and two men. There were three people in this room, and something happened between them... Yes, it should be like this. "So the outline of the story came out. An emperor's close minister was assassinated from behind by someone he knew when he passed by the ancient village. The assassin used a knife with a thin blade, and it was probably a royal guard. Jinchen Mingda did not die, but was rescued by a girl in Danggu Village. This girl took the injured Emperor Jinchen back to her home, which is this farmhouse, and then fed him medicine to save him , but it is a pity that the emperor's close minister died in the end." Shen Bai seemed to be immersed in the story Lu Yuanqing told, and he was startled when he heard this, "What?" Lu Yuanqing shook his head regretfully, "The living will not leave their own blood clothes, only the relics of the dead will be collected so unscrupulously, the blood on the blood clothes has long since dried up and turned black, it can be seen It's been a long time, and the bloody clothes left after such a long time are either used to mourn the dead, or to remind myself not to forget something." The sparse clapping of applause echoed in the hollow and damp stone chamber, like the wail of death dancing. "I thought you were a flirtatious young lady from some men's shop. It seems that I guessed wrong." The cold and strange voice suddenly sounded again, making one's throat twitch uncontrollably. Lu Yuanqing straightened his sleeves, bowed his hands politely and said, "Your Excellency is too flattering, how can I be such a young lady with such an appearance? Lu Yuanqing, the master of the Biancheng County Yamen, is my servant." "You're really good at guessing stories." "A fluke." "Then you can continue to guess what happened after the death of the blood-clothed owner." Lu Yuanqing raised his head in surprise and said, "Isn't this the reason why Your Excellency led us to the Ancient Village? I always thought that Your Excellency wanted to say something to us personally." The sound disappeared suddenly, and the damp breath in the stone room drifted away soundlessly, just like the naturally drawn stone pattern holes on the stone wall, which is lingering but hard to find. "Officer Dog, what you are holding in your hand is my sister." When the voice sounded again, one couldn't stop trembling, but the most frightening thing was the meaning of his words. Shen Bai only felt his fingertips go cold, and the slightly smaller skull that he had been holding in his hand fell to the ground with a bang. The room was silent, but there was a trace of death.