Madam, protect me!

In the small courtyard, Li Nuo walked behind the target and put away the arrow shot on the wall.

Although he has acquired Nightingale's superb archery skills, he still has to practice it himself in the future.

After all, apart from sleeping, this is one of the few opportunities to get up close and personal with your wife.

Through these few days of observation, Li Nuo roughly understood one thing.

In terms of pure archery, the lady is probably not as good as the nightingale.

The reason why she can shoot so accurately is because she is a warrior in the Object Control Realm. Her true energy is so vast that it can even extend to the position of the target, and she can forcefully pull the missed arrow back to the target.

This is why the lady can only teach him basic movements, but Nightingale can adjust the position of his arms so that he can shoot through the bullseye with one arrow.

At this point, Li Nuo had to complain again.

The women in Yuyin Pavilion are more abnormal and delicate than the other. They learn some art of war and archery. If you think about it carefully, Fenghuang is actually the most normal one among the three of them.

Li Nuo looked at the last page of the code.

There is exactly the picture of Phoenix.

As expected by Li Nuo, she indeed has special talents recognized by the code.

Li Nuo returned to the room and sketched on the paper for a moment, and soon several ink lotus flowers appeared on the paper.

He made a few more random strokes, and a few orchids, a plum blossom, and a few peonies appeared under the brush.

These flowers can be said to have both form and spirit, depicting the elegance of orchids and the beauty of peonies.

Han Zhuo is good at painting people, and Fenghuang seems to be better at painting flowers.

Of course, Phoenix's ability to draw figures was not bad either. Li Nuo picked up the pen again, and before long, the image of a woman appeared on the paper.

The woman in the painting has an extremely beautiful appearance and a voluptuous figure. She is glamorous but not vulgar, charming but not evil. There is a kind of nobility in her bones, just like the combination of orchid and peony.

Orchids and peonies are the perfect way to describe Phoenix.

Being able to draw Phoenix's appearance so closely is not impressive, but being able to draw her special temperament is not an easy task.

It can be seen from this painting that Fenghuang not only paints objects better than Han Zhuo, but also paints people equally well. No wonder she can confidently say that she is better than Han Zhuo.

Song Jiaren walked up behind Li Nuo, looked at the woman in the painting, and said, "The painting is very good, and it matches the girl's temperament very well."

This painting is indeed very good, even better than her two paintings.

Wow!

Li Nuo crumpled the painting in his hand, looked back at her, and said, "My painting skills have improved recently. I'll paint one first to get a feel for my hand. I'll paint two more for you and Mu'er later..."

…

Song Mansion.

Li Nuo was lying on a chair in the yard, gently rubbing his sore wrists.

In fact, he didn't mean to draw Phoenix. When he acquires other people's abilities, he also brings some of their habits. It can only be said that Phoenix probably likes to draw himself.

Based on Li Nuo's understanding of her, she is a bit narcissistic, so it is not surprising that she would do this.

Fenghuang's painting skills are indeed better than Han Zhuo's. This is a conclusion Li Nuo came to after painting three color paintings for his wife and Muer Ning'er.

As a result, his wrist was almost broken.

Lying in the yard, basking in the sun and resting with my eyes closed, I suddenly felt a darkness in front of my eyes.

Li Nuo opened his eyes and saw two undulating peaks.

Li Anning looked at him condescendingly and said, "Don't sleep. A murder occurred in Chang'an yesterday. Come with me to investigate..."

Although Li Nuo has not yet joined the Criminal Department, he is still considered to be half of the Criminal Department.

Li Anning took good care of him and came to the Song Mansion to look for him every three days, either to ask him to review the files or to take him to investigate the case. Li Nuo's life expectancy has increased these days, which is almost entirely due to her.

Hearing that a murder had occurred, Li Nuo immediately became energetic.

Li Nuo and Li Anning left the Li Mansion and took a carriage to the scene of the crime.

In the carriage, Li Anning saw him rubbing his wrists and asked, "What's wrong with his hands?"

Li Nuo said: "I practiced archery."

Li Anning didn't ask in detail and said, "Let me tell you about the case first..."

This case was a burglary and murder case.

The two deceased were a couple from a wealthy family in Chang'an.

The couple opened a restaurant in Chang'an. Because it was located in a prosperous area, the restaurant's business was pretty good. Over the past few years, the two had accumulated a lot of wealth and purchased a large house in Chang'an.

This morning, the servants of this family found that the master and mistress did not get up. After entering the room to check, they saw them dead in the room.

At the same time, some precious belongings in the room also disappeared.

Li Nuo followed her there, mainly to find out whether the murderer was someone close to the deceased.

Li Anning usually intervenes directly in murder cases that occur in Chang'an. When the two came to this house, people from the Criminal Department had already cordoned off the scene.

Li Anning walked into the room, checked the bodies of the two people, and observed the crime scene. After a while, he walked out and said: "One of the two deceased was stabbed in the neck with a sharp weapon and died of excessive blood loss. They were hit with a blunt instrument on the back of the head and should have been killed on the spot. Judging from the traces at the scene, they had a brief struggle with the murderer before they died. There was only one murderer. He might have some superficial martial arts skills, but his cultivation level was not too high. Gao, maybe just an ordinary person..."

When it comes to investigating the crime scene, Li Anning is much more professional than Li Nuo.

The owner of the murdered family was named Huang, and all the servants of the Huang Mansion were summoned here.

Li Anning looked at the housekeeper of the Huang Mansion and asked, "There are traces of a struggle in the room and a broken vase. Didn't you hear any unusual noises last night?"

The housekeeper sighed and said: "The master and his wife live in the upper room of the inner house. They are far away from the lower room of the outer house where the servants live. Even if there is any movement, we can't hear it..."

Li Anning looked at Li Nuo, who shook his head slightly.

The two of them had developed a tacit understanding while investigating cases together. Li Nuo shook his head to mean that he didn't find anyone suspicious among the people present.

Generally, in this type of murder, the first step is to verify whether an acquaintance committed the crime.

The deceased was killed last night. It has only been a few hours since the incident. If it was done by a servant of the Huang Mansion, the code will give a reminder to Li Nuo.

There was no movement in the code, indicating that the murderer was not at the scene.

Li Nuo asked the housekeeper: "Are all the servants of the Huang family here?"

The steward said: "The thirteen servants in the mansion are all here."

After ruling out the suspicion of being a servant of the Huang Mansion, it was the thief who broke into the house and was discovered by the owner. He simply refused to do anything, and the possibility of killing someone at the last minute was the most likely.

This greatly reduces the possibility of detecting the case.

If an acquaintance commits a crime and the murder is intentional, the identity of the murderer can often be quickly determined by following the clues.

But if it is a random theft, coupled with impromptu murder, and the murderer escapes after killing and stealing, the hope of catching him is very slim.

The detectives from the Criminal Department carried out the two corpses covered with white cloth.

"master!"

"lady!"

"You guys died so miserably..."

The servants of the Huang Mansion fell to their knees and cried together.

Li Anning walked up to the housekeeper of the Huang Mansion and asked, "Think carefully, do your master and his wife have any enemies or business rivals..."

While Li Anning was asking questions, Li Nuo walked into the room where the crime occurred.

There was a lot of blood on the floor of the room, and the whole room was turned into a mess.

The tables and chairs were overturned, the wardrobe was wide open, and clothes were scattered randomly on the floor.

According to the servants of the Huang family, the family's belongings are stored in the room of the master and mistress. They never let servants in the house enter this room, and even clean it themselves.

The people from the Criminal Department did not find any property in the room. They must have been taken away by the murderer.

Judging from the scene, this is undoubtedly a typical robbery and murder case.

Unless Li Nuo happened to pass by the prisoner while wandering the streets in the next few hours, trying to catch him would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Li Nuo checked the door.

Although the door latch is old, there is an obvious new mark in the middle.

This is the mark left by the thief using a knife to open the door latch and enter the room.

This confirms Li Anning's judgment just now. The thief is not a high-level martial artist. Even if he has practiced martial arts, he will only be in the second level or even the first level at most.

When one reaches the True Qi realm, one can draw the True Qi out of the body and easily open the door latch.

When you reach the Object Control Realm, you can even open the door from a distance.

Even in the Inner Breath Realm, he can be regarded as a small master. Killing two ordinary people will not make the scene a mess, so the murderer either only knows a little bit of superficial martial arts, or he is just an ordinary person.

Li Nuo closed the door and found that the two doors fit tightly together, with an extremely small gap in between.

An ordinary knife cannot go through the crack in the door.

What the thief used was a special knife as thin as a cicada's wings, specially designed to pass through this kind of door gap.

This is a thief who breaks into a house and steals it by using tools to unbolt the door.

The smaller the door gap, the more difficult it is to remove the blockage.

The crack in the door is only a few hairs wide, and the thief's skills are extremely high.

Not only that, the door is bolted from the inside, which means the owner is inside.

Dare to steal when the owner is in the room, which shows that the thief is not only skilled in craftsmanship, but also very courageous.

Li Anning walked into the room and asked Li Nuo: "Did you find anything?"

"He was a highly skilled thief who came in from the outside. He wanted to steal the Huang couple while they were sleeping, but he accidentally woke them up and killed them..."

Li Nuo told her the clues he saw and asked, "Did you find out anything?"

Li Anning said: "The steward of the Huang Mansion said that the master and his wife usually have no enemies, but they have a few business competitors. I have asked them to go to the Ministry of Punishment to cooperate with the investigation. You and I will go to the Ministry of Punishment later." have a look……"

Li Nuo nodded and said: "There is nothing to see here, let's go to the Criminal Department."

If they were really business rivals, paid to kill someone, and disguised it as a burglary, even if they didn't do it themselves, they wouldn't be able to escape the perception of the code.

He was about to leave when he glanced away inadvertently and suddenly stopped in his steps.

Li Anning took two steps and saw that Li Nuo did not follow. She turned back to look at him. Seeing that his expression was different, she immediately asked: "What's wrong? What's wrong? What did you find?"

Li Nuo looked at a wall on the right side of the room, where a painting hung.

A landscape painting.

Li Anning came over and asked, "Is there anything wrong with this painting?"

Li Nuo said: "This painting is very good, very good."

Li Anning rolled her eyes at him. This was the scene of a murder, and he actually admired the painting?

Her Royal Highness doesn't know how to draw. It's not his fault.

But Li Nuo understands.

In fact, it is not him who understands, but Phoenix.

Li Nuo at this moment is not the usual Li Nuo, but a combination of Li Nuo + Nightingale + Phoenix.

Of course, he and Nightingale can be ignored, the main thing is Phoenix.

Phoenix's painting is higher than Han Zhuo, and is recognized by the code.

But when he looks at this painting from the perspective of Phoenix, he still feels that it is unattainable.

Whether it is the composition, color, or brushstrokes, this painting is perfect, and there is no problem at all. This is undoubtedly the pinnacle work of a master of painting.

He looked at the signature of this painting, and a look of realization appeared on his face.

At this time, Li Anning grabbed his wrist and said, "Don't look at the painting for now. Investigating the case is more important. Let's go..."

Li Nuo did not leave, but pointed to the signature of the painting and said, "Look here."

Li Anning looked over and asked, "Gu Youzhi, what's wrong?"

Li Nuo looked at Li Anning and said in surprise, "You haven't heard of Gu Youzhi?"

Li Anning scratched his head, with a suspicious look on his face, and murmured, "It seems a little familiar. Is it an official in the court?"

Li Nuo finally found another common point between Li Anning and his wife.

Uneducated.

If you know a little about painting, it is impossible not to have heard of Gu Youzhi's name.

And like them, ladies of the family, noble ladies of the royal family, it is impossible not to learn piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.

But Li Nuo thought about it, it seems that no lady of the family and noble ladies of the royal family are law-abiding, and they cannot be required by the standards of ordinary women.

If her breasts were smaller, she would definitely be a good friend of my wife.

After thinking it through, Li Nuo took the initiative to explain: "Gu Youzhi was a painting saint five hundred years ago. There are not many of his authentic works in existence, and each of them has extremely high value. If this "Mountain Dwelling Picture" is Gu Youzhi's authentic work, it is a priceless treasure, enough to buy this street..."

An authentic work of an ancient master in later generations costs hundreds of millions.

Those people are not worthy of the title of painting saint.

Gu Youzhi is a recognized painting saint, and this is undisputed in all countries on the mainland.

In the past, there was even a small country with a good painting, who wanted to exchange a city for an authentic work of Gu Youzhi.

Later, because of this incident, he was united by many domestic forces and overthrown the regime in the name of "punishing the tyrant", and it even became an allusion.

This shows the value of Gu Youzhi's authentic work.

Li Anning was surprised and said: "How could the Huang family have such a valuable thing? It should be a fake, right?"

Li Nuo himself really couldn't tell whether the painting was a fake.

But now he and the phoenix are one.

Li Nuo said confidently: "It's authentic."

Although this painting has nothing to do with the case, it is not normal for Gu Youzhi's authentic work to appear in the home of a small businessman.

It's like a beggar begging with a golden bowl in his hand.

This description is not even accurate enough, it should be a beggar begging on a golden mountain.

This thing is not something a businessman can have, let alone in the home of a small businessman, even if he saw this painting in Prince Chun's mansion, Li Nuo would be a little surprised.

Li Nuo asked the housekeeper of the Huang Mansion, but the housekeeper couldn't tell the origin of this painting. He only remembered that this painting was hung here when he first arrived at the Huang family.

Li Anning glanced at Li Nuo and asked, "You wouldn't mistake a fake for the real thing, would you?"

Li Nuo said slowly, "Even if it is a fake, a fake that can be imitated to this extent is inestimable in value. At least, it is more than enough to buy this house..."

Li Anning was a little surprised. Although this house is not in the core area of ​​Chang'an, its value will not be less than three thousand taels of silver.

If what Li Nuo said is true, then the thief last night was too stupid.

Even if it is a wealthy family, it is impossible to keep property worth three thousand taels of silver at home. It is better to steal this painting than to kill two people and rob some property.

It seems that even if you are a thief, you have to be a thief with broad knowledge.

However, how did Li Nuo know these things?

Before leaving the Huang family, Li Nuo asked the people of the Ministry of Justice to seal up the Huang family first to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the situation.

The Huang couple had no children, and how to distribute the Huang family's property after their death was also a problem.

When leaving the Huang family and getting on the carriage, Li Anning took the initiative to sit next to Li Nuo, touched his shoulder, and asked: "Hey, are we friends?"

Li Nuo said: "Of course."

More than friends, to be honest, Her Royal Highness the Princess should be his best friend.

Li Anning looked at him and asked: "Since we are friends, I will ask you a question, tell me honestly."

Li Nuo said: "Ask it."

Li Anning thought for a while and asked: "Have you never been stupid at all? The previous news that you are a fool is just a rumor deliberately spread by your father..."

A fool, who has only been cured for two months, how could he play the piano so well and understand painting so well...

Li Anning has suspected this for a long time.

He doesn't look like someone who has been stupid before. On the contrary, he is smarter than anyone else.

Li Nuo certainly can't explain the truth of this question.

He didn't look at Li Anning, but looked forward and nodded slightly.

After getting the answer from Li Nuo, Li An Ning patted Li Nuo's thigh proudly and said excitedly: "I knew you were pretending!"

Li Nuo silently moved her hand away from his leg. Li An Ning remembered something and asked again: "You play the piano and practice archery, are you going to take the imperial examination?"

Li Nuo nodded again.

Li Anning asked: "If you win the Jinshi, which yamen do you plan to go to?"

Li Nuo had already considered this issue and said without thinking: "Ministry of Punishment."

Others may think that it is most appropriate for him to go to Dali Temple.

But even if he doesn't go to Dali Temple, he can still mobilize the resources of Dali Temple.

The best choice is to be in the Ministry of Punishment and command Dali Temple.

Li Anning patted him on the shoulder happily and said, "Take the exam well and then come to the Ministry of Punishment openly and see what else they have to say!"

It was too boring for her to be alone in the Criminal Department, and the officials around her were all very rigid.

It's still fun to be with him.

After the two returned to the Punishment Department, they sat in the government office for a while. Several restaurant owners from Chang'an were then taken to the Punishment Department.

"Sir, this is unfair!"

"With ten courages from ordinary people, ordinary people will not dare to kill Shopkeeper Huang!"

"Please be more careful, sir!"

…

These people were nothing more than businessmen with a little money. When they entered the courtyard of the Ministry of Justice, their legs went weak and they knelt down, shouting that they were wronged.

Li Nuo walked past them, and as expected, there was no reaction from the code.

This case is actually very clear, and calling them here is just for verification out of caution.

In the business world, it is normal to use some dishonorable means, but generally one would not have the courage to kill someone.

Li Nuo shook his head slightly at Li Anning, and then walked into the government office again.

After a while, Li Anning also walked in, sat opposite Li Nuo, and said, "It seems that this case will be difficult to solve..."

In such accidental cases, nine times out of ten the murderer will not be caught.

A murder case requires at least ten days of life, but Li Nuo is still unwilling to give up easily.

He thought for a while, looked at Li Anning, and said: "Ordinary little thieves only dare to interfere in stealing bags. There are very few people who dare to break into a house. Even if they break into a house, they will wait for the owner to leave the house and there will be no one at home." When the time comes, the master of the house is still alive, and he dares to openly break into the house, steal property and kill people. He is definitely not a petty thief. There are not many such big thieves in Chang'an..."

Li Nuo was once considered a half-thief, and he knew the rules of this industry.

The key to burglary is to be silent.

Be proud of not being discovered and be ashamed of being caught red-handed.

To put it bluntly, this business relies on craftsmanship. Those with superb craftsmanship can steal from ordinary people, even if they steal from strong martial arts masters, the other party will not notice.

When someone is caught stealing, there is no need to worry about anything else. It’s just that the person is not good at his craft and needs more practice before he is released.

The best thieves can steal property without the owner being aware of it, and then leave in style.

Being caught stealing is a shame among thieves, and killing someone after being discovered is even more shameful. They will be kicked out of the house and become despised by everyone like a rat crossing the street.

Li Anning touched his smooth chin and nodded: "What you said makes sense. If we arrest all those people, maybe we can find the murderer, but thieves don't write the word "thief" on their faces. If you know that there is such a thing, Jiangyang thief, the government has been here for a long time..."

Li Nuo naturally knew this.

If a thief who breaks into a house and kills someone is caught, he will definitely be beheaded in public.

Those who were not caught simply had no clues.

But as far as he knew, the thieves were also organized. Without entering their organization, everything they investigated would be in the dark. But if they could successfully break into their organization, they would be able to find out a lot of useful information.

That's what circles are for.

These fragmentary information were all obtained by Li Nuo from the goatee thief last time.

The question is, how can we break into them?

After all, the Thieving Sect is not a serious organization. If it is discovered by the court, it will undoubtedly be taken down.

Therefore, they are extremely cautious and generally have one-way internal communication. If people outside the circle want to join the circle, they must have an introducer, otherwise they will not be able to find a way at all.

Li Anning looked at Li Nuo thinking seriously, leaned back comfortably on the chair, leaned back, put his legs on the table, picked up an orange on the table, and started peeling it.

Whenever she encountered any case in the past, she always tried her best to solve it.

Since having Li Nuo, everything has been different.

She could finally rest down there.

It feels so good not to have to use my brain.

She just liked the feeling of lying still.

After eating a few orange slices happily, she saw that Li Nuo was still thinking seriously. She was a little embarrassed and handed a peeled orange slice to Li Nuo's mouth and said: "Think slowly, eat an orange first, then." Oranges are very sweet..."

A head of the Criminal Department walked in from the outside and saw this scene. After being stunned for a moment, he immediately squinted his eyes and said, "I suddenly suffered from an eye disease and I can't see clearly three feet away. I would like to ask for three days' leave from your highness." Take a day off to recuperate…”