Give you a spring

When the carriage was approaching the other courtyard, Ping Wei suddenly remembered about Li Huanyi - he had promised to talk to her family last night, so he couldn't help but stand up immediately, thinking of telling the driver not to go back first, and to go to Li Huanyi's house instead.

He Zhou held him back, "What's wrong? Why don't you go back and rest early?"

"No, I think of my parents who haven't seen Huanyi yet."

He Zhou quickly recalled the person in his words, "Just let Uncle Xu talk about it, why do you need to make another trip?" He put his arms around Pingwei's waist and dragged him back to his side, "They are all outside I have been running around all night and all morning, and my heart aches."

Ping Wei shook his head, "Go and see, have you guessed what happened to her?"

"Well, we seem to have met before."

"It was too late that time, but this time is different." Ping Wei sat back beside him and whispered, "You heard what the servant girl said last night. She said that there was nothing on Huan Yi's body except red marks."

He spoke very vaguely, but He Zhou understood what he meant, but he still didn't want to go to Pingwei. He checked the girl's address last night. It was in an alley southwest of Linjing City. It took more than half an hour for the carriage to pass by. He Zhou couldn't bear to run so far for Pingwei, he was almost home, he didn't sleep all night last night, and said he would go out again tonight.

He hugged her tightly, and said firmly, "I don't care what happens to that girl, anyway, you just want to go home and lie down on the bed to rest."

“…”

"After we finish dealing with Shi Qianlin, we will have time to go to Li Huanyi's house, and those people won't leave."

“…”

The two looked at each other.

"Okay," after all, Ping Wei was defeated, the carriage arrived at the other courtyard after a quarter of an hour, and they walked in together.

After entering the door, Uncle Xu said very discerningly, "Your Highness, that girl just had breakfast and is staying in the backyard."

Hearing this, Ping Wei walked quickly to the backyard, and sure enough, she saw a girl sitting on a stone bench basking in the sun.

"Huanyi," Pingwei called, and stopped half a foot away from her.

Li Huanyi turned to look at him, "Brother."

"Did you sleep well last night?"

"...It's okay," Li Huanyi hesitated for a while, then nodded lightly.

This is obviously not telling the truth, Ping Wei did not continue this topic.He Zhou was not by his side at this time, he seemed to have gone to the kitchen, Ping Wei ignored him.

After a while, Li Huanyi raised her head and asked, "The dead man last night..."

"Oh, I found out," Ping Wei walked over and patted her head, "The murderer should be caught soon."

"Ah."

"Huanyi, did you plan to escape from there last night?" Pingwei lowered his head and looked at the girl below. He originally wanted to say her home, but thinking about that ghostly place, she didn't deserve that word at all.

However, even though the words were so cryptic, Li Huanyi still shook violently, and replied, "Well, I can't take it anymore."

Ping Wei sat down beside her, thought for a while, and said, "Before you knew what I was doing?"

"What?" Li Huanyi turned to look at him.

Ping Wei whispered a few words in her ear, and the other party opened his eyes wide and asked in disbelief, "Is this true?"

"Yes," Ping Wei said, "so I guessed what you've been through not long after I saw you last night. Huanyi, you have to know that there are many people in the world who experience different things every day. Some are very ordinary, some are unbelievable, I understand that the previous experience will make you feel very painful, but..." He paused, "Those things have passed, Huanyi, even if you were unhappy before, now you Little by little, you can get back what you didn’t have in the past.”

"I promise."

Li Huanyi was silent for a while, then asked softly, "Did you come here too?"

At this time, He Zhou just came over with two bowls of noodles, Ping Wei glanced at the other party, and said, "I have never experienced such a thing."

"Then how can you feel my pain," Li Huanyi answered quickly.

"If you haven't experienced it, you can't understand it," He Zhou put down the bowl in his hand and stood beside Ping Wei, and asked back with a blank face, probably because the aura was too strong, Li Huanyi shrank back a little timidly.

He Zhou asked, "What do you want us to do? There is no real empathy in the world."

"..." Li Huanyi lowered her head, "I want to kill him."

"can."

He Zhou didn't wait for Pingwei to answer, and said, "But if you are caught by the government, we won't save you."

Hearing this, Li Huanyi turned to look at Pingwei, who nodded and said calmly, "I can tell you how to kill and what sharp weapon is the most convenient, but if the government finds out later, I won't intercede for you. "This may be a bit cruel. Pingwei knows what happened to Li Huanyi, and he would have made the same choice himself. However-Li Huanyi is only 13 years old.

"Have you considered?"

He looked down at the girl.

Li Huanyi has thought about this question many times.

Her mother died early, and there are her father, younger brother, grandma and that old beast in the family. Her father has been drinking and neglecting affairs all year round, and grandma only cares about her younger brother and ignores her. As a result, that beast treats her every night...

A few ants crawled across the ground. Li Huanyi stared at them with her head down, her eyes were numb. To kill them, she only needed to lift her feet slightly and then put them down again.

Was it the same for the man who killed the woman in the alley last night?

Li Huanyi didn't see the murder process, she only saw the lifeless woman lying on the ground, and blood all over the floor.He then panicked and ran out of the street, bumping into the man in front of him.

She gave Ping Wei a complicated look.

"Why didn't you report to the official?" the other party asked.

"I tried, but they don't care about this kind of thing. I'm just a child. That person didn't take the last step with me, and he is my...relative." The hand hanging by the side was quietly clenched, Li Huanyi closed her eyes, and the last two words pierced her heart like a knife, making her feel sick just like every tormented night.

Ping Wei: "I can go to the Yamen and tell them to arrest him."

"No need," Huanyi turned her head to the other side, as if she didn't want others to see her in such a miserable state, "Arrest him, according to the law, he can't be beheaded. Besides..." She Word by word, "I want to solve it myself."

"That bastard is old and has bad legs and feet. I hide a knife in my arms and chop it off at the neck. I should be able to get it."

Li Huanyi raised her head and looked at him peacefully with burning eyes, "You won't tell others, will you?"

Ping slightly shook his head, "At least not until you get it."

That's enough, Li Huanyi breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, she didn't think there was anything wrong with the old bastard doing that kind of thing to her at the beginning. It was probably because she was too young and had never read a book. She just found it annoying and uncomfortable. Didn't realize that it was wrong.

Until a few years later, I ran into a gentleman on the street. He also noticed what happened to her as quickly as Pingwei, told her how serious it was, and asked her to report it to the police.

Li Huanyi did so, but...it didn't help, she was kicked out.

Then I tried to find that gentleman again, but he was no longer there, and it seemed that he only stayed in Linjing for a short time.

Huanyi has no choice. She has no money, is young, and has no other place to go. She can only go back to that purgatory.

"Do you want to prepare tools for you?" Ping Wei asked, looking at the alternating light and dark expressions on her face.

"No need," Huanyi slowly took out a kitchen knife from her arms, suddenly twitched, and said in a low voice, "I stole it from the kitchen when you weren't around."

Looking at her, Ping Wei felt a sudden pain in his heart, and subconsciously wanted to tell the other party that he could help her instead of going there himself, or that he could help her avoid the government's pursuit after she succeeded.However, He Zhou next to him stretched out his hand to stop him and shook his head - he is being stared at by countless people now, if he is caught by the First Prince or the Second Prince because of this matter, the consequences will be disastrous.

He Zhou said to Li Huanyi, "Go back to your room and think about what to do at night."

"Well," the girl looked at Pingwei, then turned and went back to the room.

The two stood in the backyard looking at her figure.

He Zhou: "Even if there is time this time, we still choose to die together."

"Yeah." Ping Wei took the hand hanging by her side lightly, "Do you think she never thought about killing someone?" It's just that someone died in the alley that happened to be in the alley she ran out of home last night. Only then did I realize that killing the hated person directly is also a solution to the problem.After all, the deadly wound on the neck was on the corpse, and Li Huanyi just said that he was going to slash the neck.

He Zhou looked at him, "Not necessarily. Killing someone is a big deal for her as a child. Maybe she has been thinking about it for a long time, and last night was just a trigger."

"Do you believe she had nothing to do with the case?"

"Does it matter? She will stay in prison in the end." Li Huanyi can kill people at most tonight, and she will definitely be found out by the government later. He Zhou doesn't care about Li Huanyi. In fact, he regrets letting her go Ping Wei brought the girl back. The two of them experienced something similar to Li Huanyi a long time ago, but what they saw were two dead bodies at that time, and they didn't know what happened until later.

So Pingwei guessed what Li Huanyi had experienced, and learned from the maid that there was nothing wrong with her except for the red marks, thinking that the matter was not as serious as it was back then, and it could be recovered, and it would not be the worst. the point.

However.....

Perhaps some things are doomed from the moment they begin.

"It's so annoying," He Zhou said suddenly.

"Huh?" Ping Wei looked at him, and the other party pulled him to another stone table, put two bowls of noodles on it, handed him chopsticks, and said, "The noodles are all mushy, if I knew it, I wouldn't have let you take Li Huan Bringing Yi back, made you so sad," My heart ached to death.

Ping Wei ate the noodles obediently, "I'm fine."

Yeah?He Zhou looked at him, and wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by the other party - "Let's eat first."

Ping Wei ate the noodles in one gulp, after that he had a lot of things to do, he had to fill his stomach first before he could deal with the messy things.

After eating, the two took the bowl to the kitchen, but halfway there, they met Qi Zheng.

"Did you find out?" Ping Wei remembered what he had ordered in the morning.

Master Qi nodded, Ping Wei handed the bowl in his hand to He Zhou, and went to the back hall.

Last night, Qi Zheng asked which workshops the women had gone out and did not return. This morning, he asked the bawdy of the workshop to go to the yamen to identify the body. One of the bawds really said that this is her girl named Lin Xiu.

Ask her if she remembers who she went out with that night.

The bustard said that it was Shi Qianlin, the son of Shifu.

Then asked her to go to Lin Xiu's room to see if there was anything missing, such as hairpins.

"Your Highness," Qi Zheng took out a squarely folded piece of paper from his pocket, "This is what the hairpin looks like."

Ping Wei took a look, "Okay, did you ask someone to draw more pictures?"

"no, what happened?"

"It's okay," Ping Wei said casually, he wrote down the appearance, and he can draw it for He Zhou later.

"Okay," Qi Zheng said again, "By the way, the arrester who is in charge of keeping an eye on Shifu came over and reported that Shi Qianlin was definitely inside."

"See him?"

"No, but they heard the servants who were out discussing Shi Qianlin, saying that the young master came back in a hurry last night, and then hid in the room and didn't come out. I don't know if he did something again. Those people were probably a little afraid of him. .”

"Let them keep an eye on it."

"His Royal Highness thinks that the official needs to bring someone in. Is there that hairpin in Shi Qianlin's room?"

"The risk is a bit high. Now we only have the witness of the madam. It is not certain that Shi Qianlin is the murderer. If the hairpin is not found in his room, he will not only offend Lord Shi, but also alarm Xie Shi."

Not worth it, Ping Wei thought.

"Are we just waiting like this?" Qi Zheng was a little anxious, "Last night, Your Highness refused to let us clean up the blood in the alley. Many people saw it today, and everyone is talking about it. If this continues, I'm afraid something will happen to the officials. "

"What happened?" Ping Wei said calmly, "Don't worry, after tonight we will know if Shi Qianlin did it."

"Why?" Qi Zheng asked subconsciously, Ping Wei didn't speak, and he remembered that the other party asked him just now if he had another painting that looked like a hairpin, "Aren't you planning to..."

He looked at each other in surprise and suspicion.

Ping slightly nodded his head.

"... Are your guards going?" Qi Zheng asked.

"And the second son of the Liang family."

who?Qi Zheng was stunned for a while, then his eyes widened after he realized, "Your Highness still wants to drag General Liang into the water?!"

"It didn't get into the water," Ping Wei explained in a gentle voice, "You forgot, the daughter of Lord Liu of the Ministry of War died in that case last year. If Shi Qianlin did it last night, with Liang Jingzhao around, he will definitely be with you in the future. His father said that if General Liang knew about it, Master Liu would also know about it. He would definitely think of his daughter, who was forced to 'let her go' last year. This time, with the murder in Xiangzi, he will never let her go lightly. Shi Qianlin, and everyone in Linjing is talking about it, so even if Shi Zongxi wants to ask the eldest prince to intercede for his son, it will be very difficult."

Listening to what he said, Qi Zheng looked up at the other party. When Ping Wei said these words, there was no expression on his face, and his face was very flat. Qi Zheng sighed, "Your Highness is really calculating..."

This didn't sound like a compliment, Ping Wei was not annoyed, just patted him on the shoulder and asked, "Master Qi, can you answer me a question?"

"Please speak, Your Highness."

"If an eleven or twelve-year-old child has suffered some abuse from his family, and there is no real evidence, will you help if he reports to the police?"

Qi Zheng thought for a moment, and his face showed embarrassment, "If there is no definite evidence, it will be difficult for us to arrest people, but if there is evidence...it will be difficult to convict." He lowered his voice, "What His Highness said, my next The officials have seen many of them over the years, and Daqi’s current law does not clearly state this aspect, so it is difficult for the officials to convict. Besides..."

"Is this someone else's business?"

"Yes," Qi Zhengdao, "If His Highness encounters such a thing, the lower officials can make an exception to help, but..."

Always helped one, not all.

Ping Wei didn't make things difficult for him, "Master Qi, have you seen many?"

"Well, when I was young, I was an official and stayed in some places. This kind of thing is very common in remote mountain villages," so even though Ping Wei said it very cryptically, he still understood it all at once.

A strange light flashed in Pingwei's eyes—he suddenly realized that Qi Zheng was a little different from what he had imagined, so he said, "I went to a place called Taojia Village a long time ago."

"Ok?"

"I wanted to find someone, but when I got there, I found that they were already dead, and there were still two. I also encountered the same thing, and chose to die with the other party."

"..." Qi Zheng fell into silence, "To be honest, very few people would choose such a drastic approach, and most of them refrained from speaking, this counts..."

"Is it good or bad?" Ping smiled, his eyes were a little cold, he looked at the sunshine outside, and thought of the scene of Li Huanyi basking in the sun before, "I thought that such things would be rare in the capital, after all, the emperor Underfoot, I didn’t expect it to be the same.”

"It's the same everywhere, Your Highness," Qi Zheng looked at him, "I met a little girl here about four or five years ago, and she was also raped by her family... The girl was still very young at the time, and everyone I don’t know that it’s wrong for me to be treated like that, I wanted to help her very much, but when I encountered something, I had to leave the city immediately to deal with it, and when I came back, I couldn’t find anyone, and I don’t know what happened to her.”

"I hope she's okay," Ping Wei lowered his eyelids, knowing in his heart that it's impossible for her to be okay.

The conversation between the two was a bit heavy, Qi Zheng stopped as soon as he saw it, and He Ping sat down slightly, and when he saw He Zhou approaching, he got up and said goodbye.

"What are you talking about? Master Qi's face doesn't seem quite right," He Zhou asked with his head down.

"Talk about what you don't like about what I said," Ping Wei looked up at him, rubbing his face against his hand.

"Li Huanyi? Or the one from Taojia Village before."

"All."

"..." He Zhou pondered for a moment, "Then why don't I help her tonight?"

"Let me think about it again," Ping Wei stopped, then looked up at the other party as if asking questions, and asked softly, "Do you think there are any ways that can kill people and get rid of us?"

He Zhou shook his head silently, "In the final analysis, this is a matter of the law. No matter how you say it, if you kill someone, you have to pay the price. If the government can't give Li Huanyi the result she wants, she will use her own method to do it." , which makes sense."

After hearing this, Ping Wei raised his eyebrows, "I didn't expect you to say such a thing, didn't you take these rules seriously before?"

He Zhou smiled, "I think of myself as you. I really don't care about these things. If someone treats me like this, I just kill him." But He Zhou is different from Li Huanyi, he has enough skills to make others I can't find myself.

Ping Wei said "um", leaned on the other party, his eyes were a little empty, "You know that before this, even before the day His Majesty called me into the palace, I thought that I was different from the past. I became a prince. With rights, you will make different choices when encountering certain things. But no..."

"It turns out that even with rights, some things cannot be changed."

Ping slightly lowered his eyelids, and after half a quarter of an hour, he stood up.

"What?" He Zhou looked at him.

"Help me get the paper and ink. Qi Zhenggang found out that the person who died in the alley last night was called Lin Xiu, and he also drew the appearance of the murder weapon."

"The hairpin?"

"Yes, the madam of the workshop where Lin Xiu worked said that a hairpin was lost in her room, and that might be the murder weapon." Ping Wei's eyes were clear, and the previously depressed mood was wiped away.