The upright forensic doctor bumped into the drama prince

"Do you know why we didn't see a child or a woman along the way?"

Ji Linglan was stunned on the spot, staring at the man dumbfounded. A terrible conjecture emerged in his heart, but he didn't dare to think deeply about it.

Seeing Ji Linglan's expression, the man smiled dumbly, and said: "It's common to eat in exchange for a son, let alone a woman, hehe, human beings are no different from beasts in order to live."

Ji Linglan was shocked for a long time before she recovered, and said: "Didn't you receive any relief from the imperial court's distribution of relief food during the severe drought in Liaoyuan?"

"I received it, but I received it. On the surface, each family has one stone of rice. They distribute it during the day and pay taxes at night. What each family actually gets is only [-] catties, which is the next year's old rice mixed with gravel. Wash it out. It's only ten catties, how long can a family eat with so many mouths?" The man said dumbly.

"Pay taxes? There is a severe drought in Liaoyuan, and it is too late for the imperial court to provide relief, so how can they collect taxes?"

"Imperial court? Hehe, you are talking about the imperial court in Kyoto. This is Liaoyuan. The 'imperial court' in Liaoyuan is Liaoyuan Chief Secretary, and the 'Emperor' in Liaoyuan is Chief Secretary Gao Jin..."

"Presumptuous!" Zero Four couldn't help shouting.

Ji Linglan and the man looked at Zero Four at the same time, Zero Four's eyes flashed, and then he said: "You know that what you said and did just now is already a crime of contempt for the court. If it gets to the ears of the government, we will all be implicated by you."

The man looked at Zero Four and sneered, but didn't speak any more.

Ji Linglan opened her mouth, but didn't ask any more questions, and walked beside the man.

When he came to a house at the west end of the village, the man stopped in his tracks and said lightly, "One liang of silver for drinking water, one liang of silver for food, and one more liang of silver for lodging. Pay the silver first, and then enter the house .”

Ji Linglan looked at the house in front of her, and couldn't help being a little surprised. It had red bricks and blue tiles, a vermilion gate, and a courtyard wall about three meters high.

Ji Linglan took off her purse from her body, took out a tael of silver, and said, "Uncle, your place is too expensive, even more expensive than staying in a hotel, can you make it cheaper?"

The man glanced at Ji Linglan's purse, and said, "It's only three taels of silver, the same price."

Fu Nanling came out of the carriage and said, "A Ling, just two or three, give it to him."

Ji Linglan took out three liang of silver with some pain, handed it to the man and said, "Uncle, you have to prepare food and room, otherwise I will spend the three liang of silver too badly."

The man reached out and snatched the silver, and said impatiently, "Troubleshooting!"

The man took out the key and opened the door, Liu Xi protected Fu Nanling and Ji Linglan and walked in, while Zero Si went to install the carriage.

When everyone came to the yard, the man pointed to the surrounding rooms and said, "There are two guest rooms for the east and west. You clean them up yourself. I'll go buy some food."

Without waiting for everyone's reaction, the man took the money and left the yard without worrying that they would vacate his house.

Ji Linglan said amusedly: "Isn't this person afraid that we are thieves?"

Fu Nanling said with a smile: "A Ling, is there such a rich thief like us? What's more, you should know from his clothes. His family must be impoverished, and the only valuable thing is the house. Can't move away."

"As long as you are smart, it's done." Ji Linglan looked around and said, "Since you want to stay overnight, let's tidy up the room first. As for the next thing, we can talk about it after we settle down."

"Okay, I'll listen to A Lan."

Ji Linglan and Fu Nanling looked from room to room. Except for a bed in the east room near the hall, the other rooms could not find any furniture. window.

The room has not been lived in for a long time. Not only does it smell musty, it is also full of dust, and spider webs are everywhere.

Ji Linglan cried and laughed and said, "Didn't we enter Pansi Cave?"

"Pansi Cave? Where is this?" Fu Nanling looked at Ji Linglan curiously.

Ji Linglan was taken aback by the question, and then replied perfunctorily: "Pansi Cave is a place full of spiders, isn't it appropriate to describe this place?"

Fu Nanling looked at the scene in the room, and said seriously: "It's really appropriate."

Liu Xi came to the front, bowed and said: "Master, please move, wait for the subordinates to tidy up, and the master will come in to rest."

Fu Nanling nodded, pulled Ji Linglan out of the room, and said, "A Ling, leave this to Zero Four, let's go around and see if it's true that there are no women or children in this village as the man said."

"No!" Ji Linglan directly denied Fu Nanling's thoughts, and said, "You also heard what that man said. Everyone in this village who survived has eaten people, and their hearts are hard. I don't know how crazy they will be." You are too valuable to take risks. How about this, you stay here, and Brother Liu and I will go."

"Can……"

Ji Linglan interrupted Fu Nanling's words, and said: "No, but just stay here obediently."

This time Fu Nanling didn't agree meekly, but stepped forward and grabbed Ji Linglan's sleeve, saying: "If I don't go, then Ah Lan is not allowed to go either, let Ling Qi go by himself."

Without waiting for Ji Linglan to speak, Liu Xi answered in a timely manner: "Alan, let me go. I don't feel at ease if you stay with the master and leave Zero Si here alone."

Ji Linglan looked at Fu Nanling, then at Liu Xi, and said helplessly, "Well, brother Liu, please be careful, you must not have the intention to harm others, and you must have the intention to guard against others."

"Don't worry, Ah Lan, I will." Liu Xi smiled knowingly, the more she got along with Ji Linglan, the more she understood why Fu Nanling treated him differently.

Liu Xi bowed towards Fu Nanling, turned and left the house.

Ji Linglan looked at Fu Nanling, tugged at his sleeves, and said amusedly, "Can I let go now? I'm going to help Zero Four tidy up the room."

Fu Nanling let go with a smile, and was about to speak when Ji Linglan interrupted him, saying: "Yes, you rest under that sycamore tree, if you don't make trouble, I will be Amitabha."

Fu Nanling said aggrievedly: "Alan, I know that I may not be able to do these things well, but I just want to help you..."

Knowing that he was pretending to be pitiful, but Ji Linglan just couldn't see his appearance, sighed helplessly, and said: "You sit over there for a while, and Zero Four and I will clean up the dust in the room Later, I will ask you to help me."

Fu Nanling, who was wronged just now, immediately smiled and said: "Okay, then I will wait."

Seeing this, Ji Linglan couldn't help crying or laughing for a while, and couldn't help but reflect deeply in her heart: Why was she helpless against Fu Nanling alone?

Ji Linglan picked up a piece of rotten cloth in the corner, tore it into several pieces for later use, found a basin from the kitchen, fetched a basin of water, and then entered the only room with a bed.

"Cough cough, cough cough", as soon as he entered, Ji Linglan backed out again, and said dumbfoundedly: "Brother Gao, wait a moment, sprinkle some water in the room before cleaning, there will be no floating dust."

"Cough cough, cough cough, good." Gauss jumped out of the room with a disheveled face, more embarrassing than fighting with someone.

Seeing this, Ji Linglan couldn't help but slander: They are both shadow guards, why is there such a big gap?Both Lu Jiu and Liu Xi are good at housework, and they can even cook. Although it's not very delicious, at least they won't starve, but this Gauss...

After working for half an hour, the room was finally cleaned up, and the job Ji Linglan assigned to Fu Nanling was to clean the windows, but it turned out that there were only window paper with holes in it, and in the end only the window frame remained.Ji Linglan watched and sighed, while Fu Nanling stood aside with a guilty conscience, like a child who has done something wrong and is waiting for an adult to teach him a lesson.

"Alan, I... I just thought the window lattice was dirty, so I used more water. I didn't expect the oil paper to be so fragile..."

"The window paper was already in dilapidated condition, how could it stand up to you..." Ji Linglan thought about Fu Nanling's identity, and said helplessly, "Forget it, anyway, it's summer now, it's very hot, and it's not a problem without the window paper."

Fu Nanling nodded hastily, and said, "Yeah, so you don't have to open the window to sleep at night."

At this moment, the courtyard door was opened, and the man came in from the outside, carrying a lot of things in his hand, the most eye-catching one was the jug of wine.

Ji Linglan hurried forward and said, "Uncle, it's been so long since I came back, and I bought some delicious food. I'll help you."

The man was not pretentious, he handed the things in his hand to Ji Linglan, except for the wine jar in his hand.

Seeing the man's movements, Fu Nanling frowned slightly, and then thought of finding out the situation in Hong County from him, so he didn't say anything.

Ji Linglan took the big and small bags of things, carried them to the stone table in the yard with some difficulty, put them down slowly, opened them, and looked at them. There were roast chicken, pig's trotters, sauced knuckles, a bag of peanuts, a raw Fish, some vegetables, I bought quite a lot.

The man stepped forward, stretched out his hand and tore a chicken leg, took another pig's trotter, and peanuts, and said, "I bought something, and the kitchen is there. If you want to eat, you can cook it yourself."

After the man finished speaking, he returned to the main room with his things, and closed the door with a bang.

Seeing this, Ji Linglan smiled wryly, and said, "Okay, I have enough food and clothing by myself, you just wait, I will clean it up."

"Alan, I..."

Seeing that Fu Nanling wanted to help again, Ji Linglan hurriedly stopped her and said, "Master, ancestor, please stay here, I'm afraid you'll burn the kitchen."

Gauss lowered his head, not daring to make a sound. He knew his craft well, and it was not up to him to say whether it could be eaten, let alone for Fu Nanling to eat.

Fu Nanling also knew how much he had to do with housework, so he said wittily, "Then I'll stand by the door to accompany you."

"There's a fire going on in the kitchen, and it's noon again. I don't want you to suffer from heatstroke again. Just go and stay in a cool place." Ji Linglan finished speaking in a low voice, and looked in the direction of the main room remindingly.

Fu Nanling also took a look, reluctantly agreed, walked to the big tree in the courtyard and sat down.

Gao Si looked at Ji Linglan, then at Fu Nanling, feeling a little embarrassed.Fortunately, Liu Xi came back in time and helped Ji Linglan prepare lunch.After a meal, Ji Linglan was sweating profusely, and the three layers of clothes on his body were wet, while Liu Xi was only slightly sweating, which made him want to practice martial arts again. .

Because there were outsiders, the four of them sat around the stone table regardless of their dignity, finished their meal quietly, and cleaned up briefly before returning to the guest room.

Ji Linglan looked in the direction of the main room, reached out to close the door, looked at Liu Xi and asked, "Brother Liu, have you gained anything from this journey?"

Liu Xi looked at Fu Nanling and replied, "As the man said, there are indeed no women or children here."

"Really not!" After the matter was confirmed, Ji Linglan still couldn't accept it.

"I went to the woods where I was just now, and went to the depths of the woods. There were densely packed with graves. I checked, and most of them were the graves of women and children."

"Sure enough, there are no women or children in this village..."

Hearing what Liu Xi said, apart from grief, Ji Linglan was more horrified. People often say that "a tiger's poison does not eat its children". He never expected that the people in the whole village would be like goods in order to survive. After selling her own wife and children, and still knowing their fate, Ji Linglan really couldn't imagine the tragedy.

Everyone looked at each other, unable to speak for a long time.

Liu Xi broke the silence and said, "The villagers here don't look right. Master, for safety's sake, we'd better leave as soon as possible."

"Brother Liu, did you find something wrong?"

Liu Xi frowned slightly, and said: "Their eyes are insensitive to people, like wild animals staring at their prey. Maybe it's because of the previous tragedy that made them lose their humanity."

"In that case, let's leave first and make plans later."

Fu Nanling's status is special, his health is not good, and Ji Linglan himself is a useless half-grown child. If he really does something, he can only be a burden. There is still some self-knowledge in this.

Fu Nanling pondered for a while, and said, "Even if we have to leave, it's not now. I want to see what they can do."

"No. Although Big Brother Liu and Big Brother Gao are highly skilled in martial arts and are not afraid of anyone, but as the saying goes, 'Two fists are hard to beat with four hands', not to mention we have to take care of us. We can't take risks if we are not completely sure."

"Well, listen to A Lan, but it's best not to alarm others when we leave, we'd better wait until nightfall. This will allow Ling Qi to turn back again, and secretly observe whether they really have evil intentions."

Ji Linglan thought for a while, then nodded and said: "That's fine, I think they will have some scruples."

Everyone made up their minds to stay in the room and wait for the night to fall.

There was a sound of "squeak", everyone heard the sound, Liu Xi came to the door to have a look, and said: "That man came out, he seems to be drunk."

Fu Nanling frowned slightly, and said, "Don't worry about him. Zero Si, go and see if the carriage is still there."

"Yes, master." Gauss then pushed open the door and walked out.

"'The rats in the official warehouse are as big as a fight. They won't leave when they see people open the warehouse. The healthy people have no food and the people are hungry. Who will send the imperial court to the king's mouth', haha, haha, it’s really unfair, God is unfair!"

A man's voice came from outside the door, and one could tell from the tone of his voice that he must be drunk.

Ji Linglan was taken aback, and whispered, "This man seems to have read a book."

Fu Nanling nodded and said: "There are ink stains on his clothes, it should be caused by writing, he should be a scholar before."

"Scholar? How did you survive?" Out of professional habits, Ji Linglan subconsciously became suspicious.

It's not that Ji Linglan is suspicious. In such a year of cannibalism, those who survive are ruthless people.However, scholars who are accompanied by books all the year round are not on the same level as those who do physical work all year round, and their chances of surviving are much smaller.

"To be able to survive in that environment and keep this house is enough to prove that this person is not simple." Fu Nanling said with a smile: "Alan, you are so lucky that you can meet such a person by chance. "

Ji Linglan choked, and couldn't help but think of the people he ran into these days, it seemed like what Fu Nanling said, he was really lucky.

Ji Linglan pointed to the door, and said, "A Ling, do you think he is really drunk, or fake drunk?"

Fu Nanling smiled, and said: "If he is a man with deep thoughts, he will definitely not let himself get drunk when there are others at home."

"So what's his purpose for acting like this?" Ji Linglan looked thoughtfully at the drunken man outside the window, and murmured, "Pretending to be drunk to attract our attention and make us doubt his identity is good for him ?”

Fu Nanling said calmly: "Maybe he is testing our identities."

"You mean our identities have been exposed?" Ji Linglan looked at Fu Nanling nervously.

"If he is deeply scheming, it would be normal for him to have doubts about our identities, especially Alan's seemingly intentional or unintentional inquiries about the drought that year, and the overreaction of Zero Four at that time, will make him suspicious. But let him No matter how smart he is, he will never guess our true identity, what he is trying to test is whether we are accomplices with Gao Jin."

Seeing Fu Nanling, who was harmless and soft on the surface, talk with eloquence, Ji Linglan was a little dazed, and when she came to her senses, she couldn't help but smiled wryly and said, "A Ling is the one who is really smart."

Fu Nanling switched in seconds after hearing the words, and his wise appearance instantly became soft and cute, saying: "Alan, I also made a guess following your thoughts, so the one who is really smart is Alan."

"You, stop coaxing me." Ji Linglan rolled her eyes angrily, and continued: "If it's as you said, then this person should not belong to Gao Jin, then I can feel relieved."

"How does Ah Lan know that he is not Gao Jin's?"

Ji Linglan was stunned, and then said: "If he is Gao Jin's person, why bother to test him, if he has doubts, then report it. Anyway, Gao Jin's power is spread all over Liaoyuan, and we will be arrested and interrogated severely. knew."

"Ah, I didn't even think of that, Ah Lan is so smart!"

Only then did Ji Linglan come to her senses, looking at the smiling Fu Nanling, she couldn't help crying and saying, "Are you treating me like a child?"

"Alan is younger than me, hehe, speaking of it, Alan still calls me 'brother'."

Ji Linglan's expression froze, he had always treated others as children, completely forgot that his body was only 14 years old, two years younger than Fu Nanling.Even so, if he was asked to call a 16-year-old child 'brother', he would not be able to call him, especially if the other party looked soft and cute.He said bluntly: "Children from poor families head home early. Although I am physically younger than you, I am older than you in mental age. You should be called brother."

"Alan, how can you do that, you..."

"Stop, want me to call you brother, unless the sun comes out in the west tomorrow."

The man outside the window went back to the main room after drinking madly, and didn't come out until the evening.

Seeing this, Ji Linglan greeted her, and said with a smile: "Uncle, are you sober?"

The man glanced at Ji Linglan lightly, and said, "Where are you from and where are you going?"

Ji Linglan smiled and replied: "Uncle, didn't I tell you? My family is in Ancheng, and I came here to find relatives. If my young master hadn't suffered from heatstroke, he wouldn't have stayed here."

"Looking for relatives in Hong County?" The man's eyes were numb, without any emotion.

"Yes, my wife's sister married to Hong County. The two families had a close relationship before. Since the disaster, there has been no news. My wife has not been feeling well recently, so I ordered the young master to come and look for relatives."

The man let out a chuckle and said, "It's been three years since the drought, and I just thought of looking for relatives? I'm afraid I won't even find a few bones."

"Uncle, I think you are not young, and you are very polite to you, how can you make such bad words?" Ji Linglan pretended to be angry and said.

The man looked at Ji Linglan silently, with complex emotions flashing through his empty eyes, and said: "In the entire Hong County, there are tens of thousands of people, and only [-]% of them survived. Do you think I'm scaremongering?"

"Thirty percent..." Ji Linglan listened to this figure, completely unable to imagine what a tragic scene it was.

"Corpses are strewn all over the field, starved to death, and howls of pain can be seen everywhere. Do you think it's just talk?" The man smiled sarcastically, and said, "The wine and meat of the Zhumen stinks, and there are 'starved' dead bones on the road. It couldn't be more appropriate."

"Then why don't you go to the capital to sue the imperial court and report their evil deeds?"

"Sue? There are so many roads to the capital, but there is no way out, how can I sue, how can I sue?" The sarcasm in the man's eyes was even worse.

Ji Linglan opened her mouth, but she didn't know what to say. In this day and age, communications and transportation are extremely underdeveloped. If Gao Jin blocks the road leading to the capital, then for these poor people, there is really no There is no way out.

Seeing that Ji Linglan didn't speak anymore, the man said lightly, "I'm going out to buy some food."

"Oh, good." Ji Linglan responded subconsciously.

The man suddenly stopped in front of the gate, and said without turning his head: "It's dark, there are evil spirits haunting, if you don't want to see the King of Hades, just stay there."

Ji Linglan frowned as she watched the man leave, thinking about the meaning of his words.

"Alan." Fu Nanling walked out of the room, walked to Ji Linglan's side, and said, "What did you guys talk about?"

"A Ling, he said that less than [-]% of the tens of thousands of people in Hong County survived."

Fu Nanling sighed deeply when he heard the words, and said: "Father received the report that less than a thousand people died due to drought in Liaoyuan."

"The difference of more than ten times does not represent those cold numbers, but the fresh lives. Why didn't the imperial court send someone to check? The relief food funds were allocated so reassuringly? Or is it the person in charge of disaster relief? Officials, have you been colluding with Gao Jin for a long time?" Ji Linglan's mood was extremely complicated, with anger and grief, but more helplessness.

Fu Nanling understands Ji Linglan's mood. Compared with his mood, as a native of Fu country, Fu Nanling feels more anger and grief in his heart, but he also deeply understands the suffering of those in power, so he couldn't help but defend Fu Lianchao: "Gao Jin deceived the top and the bottom, colluded to bribe disaster relief officials. His father was in the capital, so it was understandable for him to go in without knowing it. What's more, at that time, Lan Kingdom and Linguo were stalking the frontier and constantly harassing the frontier. After all, the father had limited energy and no time. take into account."

Ji Linglan understands that this is caused by the feudal social system. The modern society he lives in has only reached a highly civilized modern society after thousands of years of long development. to the thing.

"A Ling, I'm sorry, I lost control of my emotions just now."

"I understand that it's hard for anyone to hear about it."

"Just now he reminded me before he left. He said, 'It's dark and there are evil spirits haunting us. If you don't want to see the King of Hades, just stay there.' I think he probably doesn't want to harm us."

Fu Nanling nodded, and said, "I'm more curious about who the 'evil ghost' he is talking about? Why won't anything happen if you don't go out here?"

Ji Linglan said with some amusement: "What you should think about now is what he said, how much is true and how much is not."

"What does Alan think?"

"If he is not Gao Jin's person and reminds me again, I would rather believe his words."

"Then how about we watch a show here tonight?"

Seeing the excitement in Fu Nanling's eyes, Ji Linglan poured cold water on her and said, "Watching a play is more important, or is life more important? I can't gamble with your safety."

If you lose the bet, it is not a matter of life. I am afraid that Hong County, which is already riddled with holes, will be bloody again.

"Alan..." Fu Nanling looked at Ji Linglan, both heartbroken and helpless.

The author has something to say: the rats in the official warehouse are as big as a bucket, and they will not leave when they see people open the warehouse. The healthy children have no food and the people are hungry, who will send the imperial court to the king's mouth——[Tang·Cao Ye "Official Hamster"]

This is the original text. I changed 'frozen' to 'hungry'. The author of this poem is Du Fu.