[Baiyutang] Wind-dried clothes

Zhan Zhao is like a headless chicken in the city, looking for Ding Meng's figure from street to street.He wished he could walk faster and finish a street as soon as possible, but he was afraid of missing something, so he even got into the shops on the street to take a look before rushing out to continue walking quickly.

As he was walking, he raised his eyes and looked around, and found that he had entered a deserted alley.It was dark all around the alley, and the houses and trees were hidden in the shadows. Only the half-covered moon cast a little light, making the road paved with bluestone slabs shimmering.Zhan Zhao was eager in his heart, and walked forward with big strides, just wanting to get out of this alley quickly, go to the place where Yi Zangren is, and search again.

Suddenly, he stopped.

On the bluestone board in front, an embroidered shoe suddenly appeared.

Zhan Zhao's heart skipped a beat, he looked around, held his breath again, and listened to the movement around him. After realizing that there was no one there, he quickly walked forward, picked up the embroidered shoe, and held it in his hand to examine it carefully—it was true. , those are Ding Meng's shoes.He had seen her take this pair of shoes, the orchids on them had been embroidered for a long time, and the stitches were fine.Ding Meng likes to keep the thread inside the clothes, Zhan Zhao tore off the masking fabric on the embroidered shoes, turned it over and saw that a small thread ended on the tip of the orchid leaf.

What Zhan Zhao thinks in his heart is that this is probably the record left by Ding Meng, so as to lead him to find her.

He put the embroidered shoe close to his chest, and held it tightly, squeezing the palm of his hand.He stepped forward, knocked on the back doors of those houses, and asked them about Ding Meng's whereabouts one by one.The result disappointed Zhan Zhao, and the people here also unanimously said that they had never seen a woman passing by, and they had never even seen anything weird.

Losing his purpose, Zhan Zhao lingered in this alley for a while, then left in a hurry.

Seeing that the sky was getting brighter, the east was white, and the rooster was crowing from far and near, Zhan Zhao also bumped into some officials from the Kaifeng mansion on the way, and when he asked, he knew that they were called by Lu Bai. of.Although Zhan Zhao said that he didn't want to bother him, he also hoped that more people would help him. Since Bai Yutang and the other two called him to help him on a business trip, it wasn't considered his private use of public servants. Informed the patrol to search for the situation, there are no clues.After meeting for a short time, everyone split up to look for it.After a night of searching, Zhan Zhao has turned from anxious to disheartened.If there is no news of finding Ding Meng from the Kaifeng mansion at this time, then something really happened.

The bell rang in the city, Zhan Zhao sat on the steps of the back door, sat for a while, and then stood up leaning on Zhanlu.He used to be the most spirited and heroic, but now his eyes are covered with red silk, and his red robe is heavy with dust, and he looks a little precarious.He walked forward for a while, and suddenly, something hanging on the locust tree next to him caught his attention.

He stretched out his hand and tore off the thing, but it turned out to be half a skirt.Zhan Zhao clutched the skirt in his hands, and felt anxious all of a sudden.It was not someone else's dress, it was Ding Meng's, he was very familiar with it, he usually saw Ding Meng wearing this skirt, sitting on the couch and embroidering a handkerchief.He knew that although Ding Meng practiced martial arts since childhood, he has always considered himself a lady, if he wanted to leave a mark on him, he would have to pluck out a full head of beaded hairpins, and he must not tear off half of his skirt and hang it on the tree.

He only felt that his mind was in a mess, but he had no choice but to bite the bullet and move forward step by step.

After walking two steps forward, Zhan Zhao felt that he had fallen into someone's trap, so he hurriedly climbed a tree and jumped onto the roof of someone's house.The east gradually turned white, and the surrounding area became brighter.The street is cold, there are few pedestrians, there is already a puff of smoke on the roof of someone's house, it is morning cooking.Zhan Zhao looked around and around, but still didn't notice anything unusual.But he was convinced in his heart that there must be someone following him along the way, using Ding Meng's clothes to guide him to their predetermined direction.

Thinking of this, he simply sat under the tree and thought: If you dare to use this kind of trick to trick me, Zhan Zhao, then I won't follow your path to find it, and I can't easily do what you want.

After sitting for a while, he saw a man from the Kaifeng Mansion approaching the end of the road. Seeing Zhan Zhao sitting under a tree, he was puzzled, so he came up to him and asked, "Why is the guard Zhan sitting here and not looking for it? There is a sister-in-law." Any news?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head, his lips were dry, and he didn't want to say anything, only to hear the gentleman say hastily: "Guard Zhan, look - these are sister-in-law's clothes? I seem to have seen her wear them before. "

Zhan Zhao squinted his eyes, and saw the clothes in the man's hand, but it was the other half of the skirt.A chill ran down his spine, and he felt that the person behind him had sinister and sinister intentions, which he had never seen or heard before.He couldn't help thinking, how can a trickster get rid of just this skirt and an embroidered shoe?For women, nothing is more important than fame.Ding Mengsu regained her reputation, even if she could come back safe and sound, the clothes had already been seen and taken away by others, so she couldn't help pointing and discussing behind her back, for Ding Meng, this was more important than losing her life.And is he immune to such gossip?

He stood up abruptly, ignoring the surge of Qi and blood in his chest and dizziness in his head, he just asked the gentleman, "Where did you find this half of clothes?"

The gentleman hurriedly took him to the place where he found the clothes, pointed to the eaves on the house, and said, "Just hang it here."

At this time, another man from Kaifeng mansion came around the corner not far away, holding half of a sleeve in his hand, not Ding Meng's but someone else's.

Zhan Zhao only felt that his liver and gallbladder were torn apart.He said to the two gentlemen: "The clothes may not belong to my wife, maybe the thief used the same clothes to lure us into the bait, you must be careful in everything. If anyone finds the clothes again, they will come to Zhan." "

The two gentlemen nodded and said: "Guard Zhan is right, these clothes are just like sister-in-law's."

After that, as Zhan Zhao expected, people brought clothes one after another, and Zhan Zhao had no choice but to follow.These clothes seemed to appear one after another, as if someone was leading them forward.There is also tolerance to record the location of each piece of clothing, and after connecting them, it turns out that the other party is just teasing them to go around in circles.But this is the only clue that has been found so far. Although everyone is well aware of this kind of trickery, the other party is keeping secrets and knowing, so they have to spend time with them.After such a waste, it was noon.

Following the scattered clothes, Zhan Zhao gradually walked to Dongcheng Cross Street. Looking up, he could see a green flag picked out from the tea house, with two large characters of "Zeng Ji" written on it, filled with smooth ink.Zhan Zhao once came here to patrol the streets, and was also invited to drink a few cups of tea in the teahouse.He walked slowly on this long street. Pedestrians came and went on the street. There were fortune-tellers and businessmen on the side of the street; Voices, cursing, talking, and shouting are intertwined, and the smell of rouge, spices, wine vinegar, and sesame oil is mixed together, and it is still the usual Fusheng population.

After losing his trace, Zhan Zhao was about to turn around and leave, but he heard someone in the teahouse scolding: "It's really bad luck—I saw someone pick this thing up on a flagpole early in the morning!"

Zhan Zhao had a bad intuition in his heart, so he walked forward quickly, wanting to find out, but saw that the clerk of Zeng Ji Teahouse was holding a ball of moon-white cloth in one hand, and the other hand was holding the scented drink sold downstairs. The aunt of the son scolded: "Did you hang it up by your old godmother? Bah--how shameless!"

The aunt raised her hand and slapped the guy in the face with an ear scraper, snatched the cloth from his hand, rubbed it in her hand for a look, and cursed back: "Your mother wears this!" superior.The ball of fabric slipped to the ground, but it was a woman's skirt.The two started fighting in the street.Others came forward to watch and laugh.

Seeing Zhan Zhao next to him, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.He didn't dare to step forward to stop him, his legs were trembling, and he stepped back step by step.

At this moment, Zhan Zhao suddenly felt someone tugging at the hem of his clothes.He shot like a thunderbolt, and immediately clamped the outstretched hand.I just felt that the hand was covered with calluses and was as skinny as a stick.

When I followed my gaze, I saw a ragged beggar sitting cross-legged on the ground, one wrist was caught by him, grinning his teeth in pain, while pointing to a box on the ground with the other hand, he asked: "Officer, if you don't want this box, just give it to the villain. It looks like a treasure, maybe it can be used as two or three copper coins."

Zhan Zhao looked at the box, it was square and square, but the top seemed to be scratched with a knife, with mottled marks, and black dye was brushed on it, a copper-yellow circle protruded from the junction of the lid and the body of the box, The style is not like that of the Central Plains.

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In addition, Bai Yutang and Lu Caichun didn't find any women's clothes, they just searched slowly in their own way.At first, there were only a few hidden roads in the city, and it was not too difficult to walk along them, but I didn't encounter any strange things along the way.

But the closer you get to the surrounding area of ​​the city, the fewer people there are, and the paths that no one walks become denser.Since most of the officials in Kaifeng Mansion searched for Ding Meng's clothes under Zhan Zhao's instruction, there were only three taels of errands available to help Lu and Bai.There are fewer people and more roads, so it becomes more and more difficult to find it. If you go down like this, the sky will gradually dawn.In the early morning, there was a sleepless night, and everyone was exhausted.

Lu Caichun rubbed his dry eyes, and said in a hoarse voice: "Fifth brother, do you still remember that in the Biliu case, after Qian An killed someone, he left the body in the firewood room and said that someone would clean it up—no need to guess, clean it up." The person in the corpse is the ghost face. He wants to transport people silently to the western outskirts of the city, is he the same as the person who kidnapped Sister Ding, and he also chooses to go to this secluded place?"

Bai Yutang shook his head, and said: "If they want to deal with the aftermath, they can just find an oil-painted truck and transport the body out. It doesn't have to be like kidnapping Sister Ding. They have to find a deserted path first, and go to a secluded place. place, then loaded it into a truck and transported it to an unknown place to hide.”

Lu Caichun sighed and said, "I haven't slept all night, my brain is not very bright."

It was getting brighter, and the shouts of vendors came from the alley.Lu Caichun looked around, only to feel that the scenery in front of him was somewhat familiar.She bent her fingers, rubbed her temples, and asked, "Isn't this the west of the city?"

Bai Yutang nodded slightly, his face became serious.Both of them thought of the ghost face last time at the same time.

Suddenly, a gentleman walked over quickly, saw Bai Yutang and Lu Caichun, and hurriedly shouted: "It's not good! Bai Shaoxia, Miss Lu, something happened ahead!"