catch the rabbit

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the weather in Beijing gradually cools down.

That day, Lin Baizhi came home from class and held out a big watermelon as if by magic.

"Brother, look, this is from Wen An's parents!"

Seeing this, Lin Wan frowned: "Why are you accepting other people's things again? Didn't you say that you are not allowed to take them?"

"But, they insisted on giving it to me." Lin Baizhi said aggrievedly.

Wen An was the child Lin Wanke rescued on the night of the Lotus Watching Festival. Since then, Wen An's family has always given them this and that, dried meat today and fresh fish the next. They are all ordinary people, and Lin Wanke accepts them. After a few times, they were embarrassed to take it again, so they changed their destination and sent Lin Baizhi instead. The children didn't know how to say no, and they didn't have time to see the delicious food and fun, so they all moved back home.

"This is the last time." Lin Wanke said, "Brother will buy whatever you want, and you can't always get it from someone else's house."

"Wen An's parents said they thanked us..." Lin Baizhi pouted, holding the watermelon and refusing to let go.

"That's not okay. Helping others can't always ask for something in return, understand?"

Lin Wan could see his younger brother's half-understanding expression, he sighed and took the watermelon.

"Brother, go and cut the watermelon, but you are only allowed to eat one piece. If you eat too much, you won't be able to eat later."

Lin Baizhi cheered, and followed him into the kitchen. As soon as he saw him under the knife, he quickly snatched the biggest piece.

Lin Wanke was angry and funny, seeing his younger brother eating sweet water, he took his sleeve to wipe him.

"It's so sweet!" Lin Baizhi yelled in satisfaction, "If Brother Xiao Jiang was here, he would definitely like it too!"

Lin Wanke couldn't help laughing when he thought of Jiang Tiaotiao, who loves sweets.

"Baizhi, this watermelon is so big, let's give half of it to brother Jiang and the others, okay?"

Lin Baizhi nodded while nibbling on the watermelon.

Lin Wanke divided half of the melon and cut it into slices, packed it in a food box and sent it to Yueranju.

When he walked out of the corner of Fushou Street, a small sedan rushed towards him and almost knocked him to the side of the road.

Lin Wanke hurriedly hid at the entrance of the alley, and after the sedan chair passed by, he said to himself: "Which family is this, why is it so overbearing?"

There are quite a few wealthy households in the capital, but it's really rare for them to rush around in sedan chairs like this.He looked down at the food box, luckily it was safe, but when he looked, he caught a glimpse of something that had fallen on the ground.

It was a small kit embroidered with peach blossoms.

Lin Wanke picked it up and opened it, and found a pair of very exquisite Mohele and a concentric knot with a jade pendant inside.

He had seen that pair of Mohele before, it was on the night of Chinese Valentine's Day, that playful young man in gorgeous clothes stuffed it for Roupu.

Because this thing is made very luxuriously, he is confident that he will not admit his mistake.

Doesn't that mean...the one sitting in the sedan chair is Rouge! ?

Lin Wanke recalled that the two porters were both big and fierce, probably not kind.

He was shocked and hurriedly followed.

The two bearers walked very fast, but fortunately they were not walking on the avenue but on the alley. Lin Wanke was very familiar with this area, so at least they caught up.

He saw the small sedan chair parked at the door of an abandoned house, a man walked out of the house, said a few words to the leading bearer, and then lifted the curtain of the sedan chair.

Because he was far away and not directly facing the sedan chair, Lin Wanke could only see him carrying a man out of the sedan chair. The man's hands were tied, and his back was facing him, only the corners of his clothes were crimson. It was the color of Rouge's usual clothes.

Lin Wanke covered his mouth, not daring to breathe, for fear of alarming the other party.

He was about to leave secretly, but he saw the person holding the rouge turned around, at this glance, he actually recognized him.

That person is obviously Xi Baiqing.

Lin Wanke knew that Xi Boqing was a retainer in the prime minister's mansion, and the more he thought about it, the more weird he felt, but he couldn't save Yanpu by himself, so the most urgent thing to do was to go to Yueranju and tell Jiang Tiaotiao and the others.

Lin Wanke made up his mind and was about to turn around quietly when a voice sounded in his ear.

"Brother Lin, what are you doing here?"

Lin Wanke was startled, and without looking at who the other party was, he grabbed the man's hand and dragged him out of the alley. He ran wildly all the way until he reached Wan'an Street before stopping to catch his breath.

"It's fine and no one is chasing you, why are you running?"

He collected himself for a look, only to find that the person who spoke was Jin Xiu, and hastily let go of her hand.

"I'll just say hello to you, as for being afraid of this." Jinxiu was also blushing, with a thin layer of sweat on her forehead.

"Sorry, I didn't see it was you."

"Did you drag someone to run together without seeing it?" Jin Xiu smiled, "Brother Lin, why were you so engrossed in watching just now?"

How could Lin Wanke tell her the truth, he could only be vague: "I, I saw that house, but I have never seen it before..."

"That's the old house of our skillful shopkeeper Zhuang Fu. It's been rented out to others. It's an old house. How come I haven't seen it?" Jinxiu said, "Brother Lin, do you have something to hide from me?"

Seeing that Lin Wanke hesitated to answer, Jinxiu smiled and said, "I'm just kidding you."

Lin Wanke could only laugh, but he still had business to do, so he could only apologize, "Miss Jinxiu, I still have things to do, so I'll take my leave first."

"Lin—" Before Jinxiu finished her sentence, Lin Wanke had already left.

He rushed to Yueranju in a hurry, rushed in with one stride, and almost bumped into Huang Cai who was about to go out.

After seeing who bumped into him, the unhappiness on Huang Cai's face was about to overflow.

"Brother Lin, you are so free."

Huang Cai stood in front of the gate intentionally or unintentionally, clearly not wanting him to enter.

"Where is Tiao Tiao? I have something urgent to find him!"

"Urgent matter?" Huang Cai's eyes fell on the food box in his hand, "Are you here to deliver the endless buns again?"

"No!" Lin Wanke flushed with anxiety, "Young Master Huangcai, is Roupu alive?"

"Jumping and fluttering for a while, who are you looking for?" Huang Cai frowned.

"Rouge might have been taken away!"

Huang Cai snorted and said, "How is that possible."

"Really! I saw with my own eyes that someone kidnapped Rouge and locked her in the alley behind Fushou Street!"

"Who is it?"

"This..." Lin Wanke thought about it carefully, "I don't recognize the others, but there is one person who is the magician Xi Baiqing in the prime minister's residence."

"We have never had any contact with the Prime Minister's Mansion, you must be foolish."

Seeing that Huang Cai still didn't believe it, Lin Wanke took out the little kit.

"I picked it up on the ground."

Huang Cai took a look and said with a smile: "It's indeed rouge, but he stayed in Yueranju, don't believe me, you can see for yourself."

Lin Wanke looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, he saw Roupu sitting in his usual place drinking.

"This……"

Lin Wanke stared at him in astonishment, but Yanpu was indeed safe and sound. Could it be that he was really wrong just now?

"How? I'll say you're delusional." Huang Cai said.

"I'm sorry." Lin Wanke apologized.

"It's okay. Brother Lin, if you have nothing else to do, please go back."

Just as Huangcai was about to turn around, Lin Wanke said again: "Wait a minute, this is a watermelon for Tiaotiao, please help me pass it to him. If Mr. Huangcai doesn't mind it, please try a piece."

Huang Cai took the food box and said lightly, "Thank you."

Seeing his indifference, Lin Wan couldn't help wondering where he had offended him. In his impression, he didn't have a good face towards himself, but he didn't expect to make friends with such a noble young man. I don't care about it after thinking about it.

However, the matter of Rouge still disturbed him.

Lin Wanke always felt that it was impossible for him to read it wrong, and that kit was absolutely true that it fell out of the sedan chair.

If it wasn't Rouge who was in the sedan chair, who would it be?

He was puzzled, but then he thought about it, Xi Baiqing might be secretly working for the prime minister, if he disturbed the people in the prime minister's office, he would really be the one who committed the crime and asked for trouble.

Thinking of this, Lin Wanke felt a little relieved.

Even so, he decided to go to Yueranju again at night.

***

Most of the alleys behind Fushou Street are old houses that have been around for a long time, and most of the people living there are ordinary people who came to the capital from other places to do small business.

In the evening, the place is filled with the aroma of all kinds of food chowder, which is not attractive, but it can arouse the appetite of every passerby.

People here are busy every day, and dinner is the most leisurely time of the day.

They often sit at the door of their house with bowls in hand, chatting while eating, talking about the rare things they encountered during the day.

"Do you know who I saw here today?" A woman selling bowl cakes said mysteriously, "Xi Baiqing, Xi Renxian from the prime minister's residence!"

"It's a lie, how could such a person come to our place." Some people didn't believe it.

"I've seen it for sure, it's in the old house of the Skillful Hand Workshop over there. But I had a business at that time, so I couldn't go over and take a closer look."

"Don't you dare?" The others laughed together, "He is a celebrity in front of the prime minister, he has status and ability, if you pass by like this, who will take a look at you?"

The woman blushed and said, "It's fine if you don't believe me."

Those people laughed for a while and stopped talking about it. They changed the topic and chatted in full swing.

None of them noticed that a small golden feather floated across the sky, swaying unsteadily, and fell in front of an unremarkable old house in the depths of the alley.

The golden light flashed, and the feathers disappeared.

Huangcai appeared, and with a little skill, he removed the lock on the door of the old house.

Jiang Tiaotiao followed behind him, seeing this, said: "This is it?"

"From what those people said just now, it shouldn't be wrong." Huang Cai pushed open the door and walked in. The dampness on his face made him frown.

"Xiao Lin said that Yan Pu was captured by Xi Boqing?" Jiang Tiaotiao looked around carefully.

"Although he said that, I still can't be sure whether it's true or not, so I used illusion to make him think that Roupu is still living there." Huang Cai said, "And it doesn't look like anyone has been imprisoned here."

"Xiao Lin won't lie to people about this." Jiang Tiao jumped.

Huang Cai snorted, and bent down to look at the rotten straw rope on the ground.

"A Ling said that she saw Yanpu go out early in the morning, and she hasn't come back yet. But if Xi Baiqing really captured Yanpu, what was he doing?"

Huang Cai said: "That bastard Li Zing must have come up with the idea."

"He wouldn't do that to Rouge," Jiang Tiaotiao affirmed.

"That's why Xi Boqing lost to Chengju last time, and he was unwilling to take revenge so he waited for an opportunity."

"Even if he knew the relationship between Chengju and Yueranju, he wouldn't deal with Yanpu because of it. Xi Baiqing is not this kind of person."

Huang Cai said: "In your eyes, there is no one who is a bad person. Anyway, I can't figure out what happened, so why don't you tell me what to do now?"

Jiang Tiaotiao thought for a while, and said, "How about... let's go to the Prime Minister's Mansion to look for it?"

***

Prime Minister Li Liangzhen is an important minister in the court with one person under one man and over ten thousand people. For such a person, the mansion is naturally luxurious.

Jiang Tiaotiao and Huang Cai came to the Prime Minister's Mansion quietly, and saw that the whole mansion was magnificent with magnificent pavilions and terraces, and there were countless maids and servants. The miserly prodigal son of the world.

There are many courtyards in the mansion, and it is not easy to find someone.

Jiang Tiaotiao and Huang Cai drew the Celestial Eye Curse and searched from room to room, but they didn't see Rouge.

When Jiang Tiaotiao was about to jump off the roof when he found a garden, a flash of lightning suddenly erupted under his feet. Huang Cai's sharp eyes quickly pulled his sleeve and retreated a few feet, landing on the roof of the veranda.

"There's a magic circle here, and I'm a monster, so I can't get in." Jiang Tiaotiao looked down, but luckily he was only burned to the corner of his clothes.

"It's okay, just break it." Huangcai gathered a divine fire in his hand, and was about to destroy the array, when a clear voice came from below.

"Visiting the prime minister's residence at night, the two of you are really in a good mood."

Xi Boqing took a volume of books and was smiling at them with his head up.

It turned out that they found Xi Baiqing's residence, no wonder they were blocked by the magic circle of suppressing demons.

Jiang Tiao jumped and said, "Xi Renxian, we don't have any malicious intentions, we just came to find a friend."

"But that little flower demon?" Xi Baiqing said, "He's not in the prime minister's residence."

"Then where is he now?" Jiang Tiaotiao asked anxiously.

"You come with me."

After he finished saying this, the black clothes on his body suddenly opened up, and he turned into an eagle and spread his wings away.

Jiang Tiaotiao and Huang Cai followed the eagle, and they didn't stop until they reached a towering giant tree.

The eagle was gone, Xi Baiqing turned into a human form, smiled at them and said: "The Prime Minister's house is too strict, you have to use this method to get in and out every time, it makes you laugh."

He said and pointed to a small wine stand not far away, "How many drinks should we have together?"

The three found a place to sit down, and Xi Baiqing ordered two pots of wine and a few dishes of side dishes, as if they really came for a drink.

Huang Cai couldn't bear it anymore and said, "Xi Boqing, what on earth did you do with the rouge?"

"Don't worry, don't worry." Xi Baiqing said, "If I'm not mistaken, the two are the best friends of the adult immortal, Young Master Jiang and Young Master Huang Cai, right? Actually, I've heard of these two names for a long time. , I am truly honored.”

"Everyone, each other." Huang Cai's words were sarcasm, but he didn't seem to hear it, and there was still a smile in his words.

"Actually, the situation is like this. The young master of the Li family has reached the age of marriage, so the prime minister has found a famous lady from the capital for him. The wedding date has been fixed and everything is ready, but the young master said that he has someone else in his heart and refuses to get married."

"Whether he gets married or not has nothing to do with Rouge." Huang Cai said coldly, "Could it be that Rouge is not successful in his heart."

"Exactly."

When Xi Baiqing said this, Jiang Tiaotiao and Huang Cai couldn't help but look at each other.

"I know you don't believe it, but I don't really believe him either." Xi Baiqing smiled wryly, "But he seems to be serious this time."

"So what if he's serious, he's a human, Rouge is a demon, after all, he's a human being and a demon, irreversible. Go back and persuade him to calm down and stop thinking about it."

When Jiang Tiaotiao heard Huang Cai say this, he felt uncomfortable for a while.

Xi Baiqing continued: "You and I understand this, but the prime minister doesn't know about it. Speaking of which, among the Yingying and Yanyan that the young master provoked before, there were also those who made him fascinated and clamored to marry him, but it turned out that they were all prime ministers." The adults came forward to quell the incident, or threatened or lured them, and if they met stubborn ones, they would be tied up and sent away, and the young master would get angry for a few days after he found out, and it would pass."

"But this time," he said with a soft sigh, "he refused to get married no matter what he said, which naturally angered the Prime Minister, especially knowing that the other party was not a girl... To be honest, the Prime Minister moved this time. Killing Heart, I originally wanted to send someone to kidnap Yan Pu and kill him—"

Seeing the faces of the two people opposite, Xi Baiqing said hastily: "But I went together, and I already let Roupu go away, and I didn't touch him at all."

Huang Cai sneered, and said: "What is the prime minister, Yan Pu is really annoyed, and it's no problem to blow up his entire mansion."

Jiang Tiaotiao worried: "But Yanpu has never returned to Yueranju."

"He must be looking for something." Xi Baiqing said, "When I sent him away, he said he had something very important to return to the young master, but he lost it on the way."

Jiang Tiaotiao heard the words and handed over the peach blossom kit: "Is this it?"

Xi Baiqing took it and opened it, then sighed, "I'll just return it on behalf of Rouge."

He put away the kit, poured a glass of wine and drank it all down: "Actually, Roupu is really sensible. No matter how powerful the prime minister sent him, he was no more than a mortal. If he wanted to leave, who could stop him? But he didn't Resistance, when I let him go, he didn't ask any more questions."

Speaking of this, Xi Baiqing was also a little helpless: "If he is an ordinary person, how wonderful it would be."

Both Huang Cai and Jiang Tiaotiao remained silent.

Xi Baiqing drank another glass, put down the money and stood up.

"It's getting late, I should go back too. Farewell."

Jiang Tiaotiao suddenly remembered something, caught up a few steps and shouted: "Wait a minute."

Xi Baiqing turned around: "Young Master Jiang, is there anything else?"

"I...I've always wanted to ask you." Jiang Tiaotiao hesitated for a moment, but still asked, "Why did you give in to Chengju in that competition?"

"Oh, he said that I let him go?" Xi Baiqing lowered his head and straightened his sleeves, as if he didn't care about this question, "Cheng Chengxian is young, so he should let him go."

"Are you much older than Chengju?"

Xi Baiqing just smiled and said nothing, in fact, most of his face was hidden under the mask, and he really couldn't tell his age just by his voice.

Jiang Tiaotiao wanted to ask again, but Huang Cai called him behind him.

"Jump, come over here!"

Jiang Tiaotiao had no choice but to turn around and go back.

At this time, it was completely dark, and the lights of the small wine stalls were dim, illuminating the drinkers in twos and threes like shadows.

A petite girl stood beside Huangcai at some point, wearing a lotus-like ornament on her head, and her eyes were watery and clear.

When she saw Jiang Tiaotiao, two blushes flew up on her face, as if she couldn't even speak.

"Jiang, Mr. Jiang...my name is Ah Lu..."

"Are you the lotus demon in Lianxin Lake?" Jiang Tiaotiao said warmly, "Is your injury healed?"

Her face became redder when she heard the words, and her voice was as soft as a hum: "Okay."

This girl is the lotus demon Ah Lu rescued by Jiang Tiaotiao and Huang Cai before. She was broken by the shopkeeper Mu of the vegetarian restaurant. Fortunately, she was rescued in time.

"I...I'm here to deliver a letter for Ah Rou." She had never talked to the monsters outside Lianxin Lake before, and she was extremely shy at the moment, "There is a peach blossom demon named Roupu, is your friend? He... ...He has been sitting at the Huxin Bridge for almost a whole day, and Ah Rou just told you, and I'm here..."

It turned out that Rouge was in Lianxin Lake, and Jiang Tiaotiao and Huang Cai were relieved to learn that he was safe and sound.

"Thank you." Jiang Tiaotiao smiled at Ah Lu, then turned to Huang Cai and said, "I'll go and see him, you go back to Yueranju first, so that Ah Ling and the others won't worry."

Huang Cai nodded in agreement, and Jiang Tiaotiao and Ah Lu went to Lianxin Lake.

Ah Lu propped up a lotus leaf boat, led him to the bridge in the middle of the lake, pointed to a figure beside the bridge and said, "He's right there."

Jiang Tiao jumped and said, "There is Miss Lao Alu."

He lightly stretched the sleeves of his robe, jumped over clusters of lotus flowers, and landed on the bridge lightly, without even disturbing a single leaf.

Ah Lu was still standing on the boat, watching him quietly.

A crisp voice came from the side: "You stupid girl, why don't you say thank you to him for such a good opportunity."

Pushing aside the lotus leaves with one hand, Ah Rou, the carp spirit, poked her head out of the water, half complaining and half regretful.

"It doesn't matter if I don't talk about it, I can see him and help him a little bit, I am very satisfied." Ah Lu said sincerely.