Dragon Pattern Roll Set

It was heard that Tianmu was eating people again, so everyone had to put the meal aside and investigate the case first.

Zhan Zhao was hungry and took people out of the city, just like when he was in Kaifeng Mansion, except that when he went out to investigate cases in Kaifeng Mansion, if he didn’t eat, he could buy a steamed stuffed bun by the side of the road and eat while walking. The people in Kaifeng City basically liked him, Especially some aunts and mothers-in-law said that he worked hard, investigating the case while eating.

But it's different when the imperial envoys go on tour outside, everyone doesn't know him, he is not only Zhan Zhao here, but also an official from Kaifeng Mansion, he is investigating cases while eating, and it is not good if he is said to be an official in Kaifeng Mansion .Although Zhan Zhao doesn't care much about it, he still has a sense of propriety, so he had to endure it...he'll have a good meal in a while!

But in the woods outside the city where the body was found, Zhan Weiwei's stomach was no longer hungry, on the contrary, his stomach was overwhelmed... This scene really affected his appetite.

Zhan Zhao has been in the rivers and lakes for these years, and he has not had a long time handling cases in Kaifeng. He has seen a lot of dead people, but it is rare to see people who have been gnawed bloodshot.At this moment, the corpse in the woods has no head, and blood is all around the cavity, which is frozen. It seems that he has been dead for a while.The clothes around the corpse were in tatters, and the rest of the flesh looked like it had been twisted by a knife, bloody and bloody. If you look closely, there were teeth marks all over the body, and the white bones were sticking out.

Zhan Zhao frowned when he saw it—why is the hatred so tragic?Bitten by wolves?

Bai Yutang frowned even more when he saw it, he shook his head, turned around and walked out of the forest, thinking that he didn't know what was wrong, so he came to see this troublemaker.

Gongsun walked over and knelt down to examine the corpse. The fourth son sat on Zhao Pu's shoulders, put his hands on Zhao Pu's head, stretched his neck to look curiously, and sighed, "Ah, why did this happen?"

Zhao Pu looked up at him, "Aren't you afraid?"

The fourth son blinked his big eyes, "Is it a dead person, and it's not a ghost."

The corners of Zhao Pu's mouth twitched - dare to be afraid of ghosts but not of dead people.

Bai Yutang went to stand outside the forest, and was attracted by the footprints by the edge of the forest. He leaned against a tree and looked down at the footprints in the snow in a daze.

Taishi Pang stood outside the crowd, waiting side by side with Bao Zheng for the results of Gongsun's autopsy.

"Hey, old Bao." Pang Ji lightly touched Bao Zheng with his arm, "What kind of ecstasy soup did your Kaifeng mansion pour Bai Yutang into?"

"Ah?" Bao Zheng looked at him puzzled, "What?"

"I'm puzzled, look at Bai Yutang." Pang Ji admired while touching his beard, "Look at the way he leans against the tree."

Bao Zheng felt that there was something wrong with Pang Ji, but he followed his gaze... and saw Bai Yutang casually hugging and leaning against a pine tree outside the forest, his head lowered as if staring at the ground in a daze.

Bao Zheng didn't see why, and asked Pang Ji, "What's the problem?"

"It's a big problem!" Pang Ji exclaimed while rubbing his chubby belly, "Look at this noble man, who moves from head to toe, this is the best of nobles, the top of the best, and the tribute of the top! "

The corner of Bao Zheng's mouth twitched, "Don't you just have a daughter, and you are already married to be an imperial concubine, what do you want to do?"

"Go." Pang Ji pushed him, pointed to Bai Yutang and said to Bao Zheng, "Look at his outfit again!"

Bao Zheng glanced again, Bai Yutang was dressed in white, it was cold, and there was white fox fur embroidered on the collar of his clothes... His clothes were naturally elegant, they were all prepared by Chen Xing'er and Yue Ya'er, and everything was expensive Outrageous.But it's no wonder that the empty island is rich, and Bai Yutang's family is also rich in money and wealthy.

"Say it! Look at the government servants in your Kaifeng Mansion again." Pang Ji curled his lips.

Bao Zheng's eyelids twitched, "What happened to the people in my Kaifeng Mansion?"

"Alas..." The Grand Master shook his head with a sad face, and gestured, "You Kaifeng Mansion and Bai Yutang, Bai Yutang and Kaifeng Mansion... people who are completely in two realms, do you understand?"

"I don't understand." Bao Zheng squinted at Pang Ji.

"Even... the money of the yamen servants in your Kaifeng mansion is not enough for this young master to buy a shirt for a year, do you understand?" Grand Master Pang explained to Bao Zheng, "He eats abalone and shark's fin, you try to eat pork head meat with pickled vegetables Yes, do you understand?"

Bao Zheng made Pang Ji laugh angrily, "What's wrong with eating pork head meat with pickled vegetables? Didn't you say you want pork head meat with wine two days ago?"

"I'm not joking that you are poor in Kaifeng." Pang Ji patted Bao Zheng's shoulder to express his comfort, "I just don't understand, the mountains are high and the roads are far away, and he doesn't care about the Jiangnan Water Village, and the leader of the Tianshan School of martial arts is not rare. , I don’t want to be an official and I don’t need money, let the young master not do it, and come to this poor country with you, you look at him and look at the corpse, and I’m going to put money in it for you to investigate the case of Kaifeng Mansion, what is he trying to do? ah?"

Master Bao scratched his head after hearing Pang Ji's long speech, "Is this..."

"There is more." Pang Ji seemed dissatisfied with holding his arms, "I don't see him talking to others, just squinting at your Kaifeng mansion, and even Tianzun came... That's Tianzun, does Tianzun know!"

Bao Zheng looked at the sky and rolled his eyes, "I said, do you understand, fat man, I have a treasure in Kaifeng Mansion!"

Pang Ji was slightly taken aback, "What treasure?"

Bao Zheng smiled proudly, "My Kaifeng mansion not only has treasures, but also cats. Do you have any? Do you have any?"

After finishing speaking, he looked up to the sky and smiled, and went into the woods.

Pang Ji gritted his teeth angrily in the back—Si Heizi, having a cat is amazing, who doesn't have a cat in a house!

At this time, Gongsun's preliminary autopsy was over, and he stood up and told everyone, "Well...he died last night, it must have been five or six hours since he died. It was a terrible death, and he felt like he was bitten. I couldn’t tell whether it was bitten by a human or a wild animal, because it took too long and the footprints around were covered in heavy snow, so I couldn’t tell whether it was a human or an animal.”

Everyone frowned - evil door!

Zhan Zhao looked around and saw that Bai Yutang was not there, so he looked for it...

"Hello." After finding Bai Yutang behind a tree, Zhan Zhao stepped forward and patted his shoulder, "What are you looking at fascinated by?"

Bai Yutang looked back at him, and pointed to the ground where he had been staring at before, "There are footprints."

Zhan Zhao went over to have a look, and saw two footprints beside the poplar tree, which were very clear.

"Only two?" Zhan Zhao felt strange.

"There is still half of it behind. This place is just blocked by leaves, so it is not covered by snow, but this side is also blocked by trees, but there are no footprints."

Bai Yutang pointed to the path, "It feels like..."

"Someone stood behind the tree for a long time, then left." Zhan Zhao looked carefully at the footprints, "The snow had stopped in the morning, but the footprints left were covered by snow, which means that person came at night , I left at night. In the middle of the night, what are you doing standing behind the trees in the barren mountains and wild forests?"

"Maybe he saw the process of Tianmu eating people." Bai Yutang said, pointing to the back... Behind the tree is exactly where the corpse is lying, and the tree is relatively thick, so it has good concealment.

Zhan Zhao frowned, "This place is some distance away from the place where we camped last night, no wonder we didn't hear any movement yesterday, but who would pass by here in the middle of the night... Guess if Qin Lisheng came and went last night, would he have noticed? What?"

Bai Yutang thought for a while, but he wasn't sure, "But he seems to have no reason to hide behind the tree and peek. He can't see anything, and I didn't hear him mention it this morning."

"Don't talk about this morning." Zhan Zhao seemed to be thinking about it, and he was a little puzzled, "Chen Mo was clearly bitten, Gongsun even said that his injury was a bite, but he refused to admit it, insisting that it was a scratch , why hide it?"

Bai Yutang shook his head, it was indeed suspicious.

Gongsun had someone collect the body and bring it back to the Yamen for an autopsy with the woodcutter who died before.

Zhao Pu carried the fourth son and Gongsun back together, and took the fourth son who was hungry to eat first.

According to the usual practice, Zhan Zhao leads people to look for clues around, and he can't leave right now, the heavy snow may have covered many clues, so he needs to check as soon as possible.

Together with Zhan Zhao, several yamen servants swept away the snow in different directions, hoping to find the missing clues.

This job is more detailed and requires patience, Bai Yutang frowned slightly, he wanted to help, but Zhan Zhao pushed him aside and asked him to find a quick-drying place to stand and stop his boots from getting wet.

Bai Yutang had no choice but to follow behind him, "Why don't you go eat first, aren't you hungry?"

Zhan Zhao waved his hand, "It will be troublesome when the snow melts and washes away, let's see..."

Before he could say the last word "look", Zhan Zhao stopped, squatted down, carefully pushed aside a layer of snow, and reached out to pick up something.

Bai Yutang also squatted down, looking at the things in his hands.

"Does it look familiar?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang.

I saw that he was holding a small mirror in his hand, a bit like a dressing mirror that a girl carries with her. It has a copper mirror surface, surrounded by a circle of mahogany, carefully carved with a pattern of flowers, and a mahogany handle underneath. A pattern of a hundred birds facing the phoenix.On the back of the mirror, there are a few words engraved - Demon Appears.

"Is this the demon mirror?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao took out the mahogany talisman he picked up earlier, and the mahogany sword that Long Miaomiao picked up, put them together with the mahogany mirror, and asked Bai Yutang, "Does it look like a set?"

Bai Yutang took it over and looked at it, indeed... no matter in terms of the color and shape, the texture of the peach wood, and the carving technique on it, it seems that it is really the same.

"What do you mean?" Bai Yutang asked puzzled, "It was left behind by the mother of heaven, or left by a monster catcher, but it doesn't look like a coincidence..."

"Master Zhan."

At this time, I saw Zhang Long running over in a hurry, beckoning to Zhan Zhao, "We found something."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang got up and followed Zhang Long to the other side of the forest.

"We found some bloodstains under the snow layer. We followed the bloodstains and found this." When we came to a bush, we saw Zhao Hu and Ma Han digging through a large bush, and there was some mud not covered by snow inside. land.This area is yellow mud, the ground color is relatively light, and it is relatively dry, and there is a clear blood footprint on the ground.

The most interesting thing is that this bloody footprint is not the shadow of a human foot, nor is it a horseshoe print, but a clear, plum blossom footprint that is bigger than a human hand.

"Paw prints?" Zhan Zhao was surprised.

"It looks like a tiger." Several older yamen servants in Kaifeng said, "Wolves and dogs don't have such big feet, and neither do leopards. Bears don't have this shape. They look like the paw prints of a colorful tiger."

Zhan Zhao stood up and frowned, "Is there a tiger in the Yanzhou capital?"

Zhao Hu asked the yamen servant who came with them from the Yanzhou government, and the yamen servant also looked blank, "No, rabbits are rare in this forest, where did the tiger come from?"

Zhan Zhao stared at the tiger paw print for a long time, and asked Zhao Hu to make rubbings of the same size. When he went back, he asked Wang Tiande to find a local hunter to investigate. If there is a tiger, it is impossible that no one has seen it.

"If there really are tigers, it is indeed impossible to live here." Bai Yutang raised his eyes to look at the woods, and concluded, "There are no deep mountains and old forests here. The forest is still an official road through the forest. Tigers live here without food or food. It’s unreasonable to have no caves to live in.”

"Could it be raised by someone?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Raising tigers... is not without it." Bai Yutang frowned slightly as if he suddenly thought of something.

"What's the matter?" Zhan Zhao was keenly aware of the change in Bai Yutang's expression, and asked with a smile, "Thinking of an acquaintance who raises tigers?"

Bai Yutang was silent for a moment, then said, "Qin Lisheng..."

"Does he have a tiger?" Zhan Zhao was surprised, and thought that Qin Li had a gentle voice, and he had never heard of him raising a tiger.

Bai Yutang waved his hand, "No, I met him because I bought tiger bone wine."

"Tiger bone wine?"

"Many guys in the empty island work on the water. The humidity on the boat is heavy all the year round, and many of them have rheumatism. Every time the crew goes to sea, they will bring some tiger bone wine. It is the best treatment for rheumatism and gout. Originally, I bought tiger bone wine They are all from a familiar shop, but later the boss wanted to close the business, and before he left, he introduced him, saying that the tiger bone wine in Baigui Mountain Villa is very good, and the quantity is also large. It was many years ago. At that time, he introduced Qin Lisheng to The second brother knew each other, and we always talked about buying wine with him. Once the second brother happened to be away on business, so I went to talk about it, and we have known each other since that time." Bai Yutang said, looking at Zhan Zhao, " I have heard, of course it’s just a rumor, that Baigui Villa used to buy tiger bones from hunters to make wine, but was cheated by a few hunters with fake bones and suffered heavy losses. So they raised tigers in the villa.”

"Is that so..." Zhan Zhao stroked his chin in thought, "Then if it was a tiger raised in Baigui Villa, one of them didn't pay close attention, and was killed by a ferocious beast..."

"Do you think that Baigui Villa was afraid of taking responsibility, so it made up the theory that Tianmu cannibalism, so Qin Lisheng reported the case?" Bai Yutang quickly understood Zhan Zhao's meaning, "Then Chen Mo was also killed by the tiger last night. Attacked, he didn't say it, was it to protect the interests of the villa?"

"It's really reasonable." Zhan Zhao nodded, "But Chen Mo's kung fu is not weak, it shouldn't be difficult to deal with a tiger... It's hard to imagine that he was almost killed by a tiger, and Long Miaomiao is so smart. Seeing a woman instead of a tiger..."

"Perhaps the tiger is a female and has become a spirit." Bai Yutang half-seriously half-joking, "A tiger cannibalism is better than a heavenly mother cannibalism. I would rather believe the former."

"If it's really just tigers eating people, then the case would be easy." Zhan Zhao was quite happy to find this clue, "It's much more reliable than Tianmu." He said, shaking the mahogany mirror in his hand again , "But I always feel that it is not that simple."

Bai Yutang nodded - that's right.

"I'm starving to death." Zhan Zhao said something for no reason. Seeing that everyone had almost done the investigation, and had checked everything in the woods, he clapped his hands, "Let's go eat..."

As soon as Zhan Zhao uttered the word "ba", Zhao Hu ran over, "Master Zhan, there are a few farms in front of us. I heard that someone has been lost. It may be the corpse."

Zhan Zhao looked up at the sky, "Then let's go to the farm and ask... have all the people in the farm eaten?"

Zhao Hu tilted his head in confusion, but Bai Yutang expressed helplessness.

The farm is not far away, a small village, people in twos and threes are outside the house, a few are sweeping snow, most of them gather together and chat about something.

Seeing a yamen servant coming, they all surrounded him.

An old man, everyone called him Qiao Bo, who seemed to know a Yamen servant in Baozhou Prefecture, came up and asked, "Have you found the second shopkeeper?"

The yamen servant didn't know what to say, so he looked back at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao stepped forward to greet him briefly, and then asked, "What exactly happened."

It turns out that people in this village rely on the nearby forests for food.Every summer and autumn, they go to the mountains to pick velvet fruit and log. The velvet fruit is similar to a kind of mushroom and can be used for cooking. It is very popular in the south.The main timber for logging is supplied to Baigui Villa, and the villa comes to collect them twice a year.In the cold winter, they would go to the mountains to collect snow flame beads, buy them in small shops in the city, and the shops would make them into ornaments and sell them out.

Because they all work together in this village, it is led by the chief shopkeeper and the second shopkeeper.The first shopkeeper is Qiao Bo, who is responsible for negotiating prices with the merchants, while the second shopkeeper is Liu Zhong, 35 years old, with good physical strength and has been a hunter for several years. He is familiar with the nearby mountains and forests. He is responsible for assigning everyone to work in the forest.

It is said that Liu Zhong went into the mountains to check yesterday, intending to find out the area with snow flame beads, and then notified the villagers to pick them up... But Liu Zhong didn't come back after he left.This morning, the shopkeeper sent someone to search in the woods, but found a lot of yamen servants. He had a premonition that something was wrong, so he reported it to the official.

It's a pity that the corpse was so bloody and bloody that it was impossible to recognize it, and Zhan Zhao didn't know if it was the second shopkeeper that the villagers said.

"You have been in the mountains for many years, right?" Zhan Zhao asked Qiao Bo, "Are there any beasts in the mountains? For example, tigers..."

"No!" Qiao Bo kept shaking his head, "How could there be tigers?"

"I heard a tiger barking last night."

At this time, a voice came from below...

When everyone looked down, they saw that it was a four or five-year-old girl with these two braids, very cute.

"Niuniu, what are you talking about?" The doll's mother came over and asked her, "You slept like a piglet last night, where did you go to listen to the tiger?"

"Did I hear that? It's like that." The little girl was very serious and imitated the tiger and barked twice.

"When did it happen?" Zhan Zhao saw that the girl was chubby, and felt that her face was like a bun, so hungry...

"Hmm..." The little sister raised her face and thought for a long time, "At night, when it's dark!"

Everyone looked at each other helplessly.

The aunt embarrassedly hugged her daughter and explained to everyone, "Maybe the child is dreaming at night, don't take it seriously."

Zhan Zhao asked the yamen servant to take the family of the second treasurer to the yamen to identify the corpse, while he led people around the village.

In a cowshed, Zhan Zhao found something.

Zhan Zhao came to the cowshed because there was a newborn calf in the cowpen.Zhan Zhao was so big, it was the first time he saw a newborn calf, and thought it was cute, so he went over to take a look, but at the entrance of the cowshed, there was a paper lantern that attracted his attention.

The lantern is small and odd-looking.

Zhan Zhao reached out to pick it up. The handle of the lantern was made of peach wood, and a centipede was engraved on it, wrapping around the long handle.Half of the white candle inside the lantern has been extinguished, and the lantern is not broken. On the lampshade, a faint gold lacquer has painted a Buddhist "卍" character.

Zhan Zhao shook the lantern, there was a string of tassels under the lantern, white, with two mahogany beads in the middle, one engraved with Maitreya, and the other engraved with Bodhisattva...

Zhan Zhao shook the lantern and asked Bai Yutang, "Another peach wood treasure."

Bai Yutang could also tell that this item was unusual, it was something from an exorcist or a temple, and it was not owned by ordinary people.

The yamen servants found the owner of the house. Coincidentally, there were three members of the family, a middle-aged man, his wife, and a four-year-old girl—the girl named "Niu Niu" who said she heard a tiger barking in the middle of the night. baby.

"Does this lantern belong to your family?" Zhan Zhao asked the host.

Niuniu's father looked at it for a while, wondering, and asked his wife next to him, "Did you buy it for Niuniu?"

The daughter-in-law shook her head and said she hadn't seen it.

When Zhan Zhao asked Niuniu again, she saw her holding a lantern and said, "It was left by an older brother."

"Which brother?" Zhan Zhao was curious.

"Well, I don't know her, she's not from the village." Niuniu's words startled her parents.

Her father hurriedly asked, "When did you meet a stranger? Why are you still taking things from him?"

"Yesterday." Niuniu thought for a while, "In the evening, my mother was cooking, and I came to feed the cows. I saw a little brother in gray sitting next to the cowshed."

"Did you talk to him?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Well, he wears so little, he must be freezing, his face is white!" Niuniu replied, "I went to get him a cup of hot tea, he drank it, and said he wanted to sleep in the haystack at night. Just go and tell me not to tell my parents and others."

Everyone asked the little girl speechlessly, "So you agreed?"

"Yeah." Niuniu nodded, "Is he just sleeping, and he's not a thief."

……

Niuniu's parents were also a little helpless, Zhan Zhao asked him which haystack he was lying on, and Niuniu pointed to the back of the cowshed, where there was a small wooden shed with a lot of hay piled up, which was used to store the fodder for cattle and sheep in winter The place is dry and warm.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked in, and found some bloodstains in the haystack in the corner.

"Blood..." Zhan Zhao knelt down and looked.

"If his face is pale, he must be injured." Bai Yutang asked Niuniu, "What exactly is he wearing? Did he bring anything?"

Niuniu described it in detail—he is a tall and thin young man in his twenties, with a white jade crown on his head, his hair tied up in a bun like a siu mai, and a gray robe with a white collar and a white belt. He was holding a bundle in his hand, and he was carrying a pannier behind him, and this white ponytail with a handle was inserted behind his back.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other—white ponytail, whisk?

"I heard you're dressed like a little Taoist priest?" Bai Yutang shook the lantern and asked Zhan Zhao, "No wonder there are things to exorcise ghosts, but Taoist priests should belong to the Taoist school. Why do you have things from the Buddhist school? Are you a traitor?"

Zhan Zhao spread his hands, and he noticed that the little Taoist's bun looked like siu mai... siu mai was also good.

After learning about the situation in the village, Zhan Zhao left some yamen servants behind and told Qiao Bo not to go into the forest in the near future, pay attention to safety at night, and contact the military camp ahead if there is any danger.

When everyone returned to Yanzhou Mansion, it was no longer time for lunch, but it was almost time for dinner.

Zhan Zhao hurried back to the yamen, and told Bao Zheng all the clues he had found. The clues were there, but the case was not clear, but it became more complicated and confusing.

Bao Zheng asked Zhan Zhao to rest for a while, and went to eat quickly. He went to Baigui Mountain Villa in the evening to investigate the tiger breeding in the mountain villa.

Zhan Zhao dragged Bai Yutang out in big strides, this time he could finally have dinner!

In the yard, I met the fourth son, and the fourth son jumped over to tell Zhan Zhao that the pork with preserved vegetables in the restaurant in front was delicious, and it was as good as the Shaoxing mansion.

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao became even hungrier, and ran out with Bai Yutang. As soon as he reached the door, he saw a yamen servant rushing back, his face was so pale, and he shouted, "Your Excellency Zhan!"

Zhan Zhao's eyelids started to twitch - so what? !

The yamen servant ran too fast, tripped and fell to Zhan Zhao's feet, and shouted, "There's a fierce tiger ahead!"

Zhan Zhao blinked and pulled out his ears, "What's in front?"

Bai Yutang also asked uncertainly, "Is there a tiger?"

"Yeah, wandering around the city, a big black tiger, so big!" The yamen servant pointed behind him.

Zhan Zhao touched his chin, turned his head, and yelled, "Zhao Pu? Ouyang? Do you want to catch the tiger?"

……

But he shouted and no one answered, the yamen servant told him, "The Ninth Prince and the others have gone to the barracks and haven't come back yet."

Bai Yutang patted Zhan Zhao, "Go and eat, I'll catch..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhan Zhao rolled up his arms and sleeves, and walked forward aggressively, "This tiger is so ungrateful, it won't come out sooner or later, come out now, catch it! Stew it!"

The yamen servant took two steps back, looked at Zhan Zhao's back, "Good guy, Lord Zhan's eyeballs are green!"

Bai Yutang didn't know whether to laugh or cry—that's right, this cat will eat his own family if it's so hungry.