Tai sui

King Zhuang is a medicine jar, he goes to bed early, and now he has to make a scene when he goes to the palace, Xi Ping doesn't want to disturb his third brother's sleep for two days, thinking that Lord Hou's anger should have subsided, so he went back to his home.

As soon as he turned into the south entrance of Danguifang, he bumped into a carriage. Seeing the word "Dong" written on the lantern hanging on the carriage, Xi Ping knew that it belonged to Mr. Dong, the minister of Honglu Temple.

Dong's family is a scholarly family, and they look down on the "good luck" of their neighbor Yongninghou, so although the two families live together in Danguifang, they don't communicate much at ordinary times.Xi Ping couldn't make the mistake of leaning over to make people suspicious, so when he met him on the road, he waved his hands perfunctorily and missed, walking in a hurry without looking back.

He passed by like a gust of wind, the people in the carriage probably didn't hear clearly, and wanted to ask who it was, so they knocked lightly on the door.

The old coachman looked up and saw that Xi Ping had already turned into the alley and entered the Hou Mansion through the corner gate, so he replied slowly: "Master, the one who just passed was..."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a roar fly out from the closed backyard of the Hou Mansion——Xi Ping had just slipped into the corner door when he met his father's angry roar: "Close the door! Hold it down! Don't let him run away! "

In response, a dozen big men jumped out from left and right, some jumped at him with ropes, and some locked the door, chasing and intercepting him.

With rich experience, Xi Ping dodged left and right, aiming for an empty space, and forced his way through the tight encirclement, like a vigorous weasel.

While running towards the inner courtyard, he howled without any rain: "Master Hou, spare your life! Spare me! My son knows his mistake!"

Marquis Yongning was on top, and he was fooled by accident: "Where did you go wrong?"

Xi Ping seized the quarrel, waved the shit bowl and slapped his father on the head: "I wish I had known that you always favored the lover girl, and no matter what, I couldn't go on stage in person that day, and help Jiang Li fight against you." !"

Hou Ye just knelt down for his wife for a long time last night because he went to Zui Liuhua, and almost didn't kneel out of his old legs. He was blacked out by this stolen goods--unlucky boy, the bad luck came out!

"Catch this rebellious son into the stable for me, and beat him up!"

On the small road separated by a wall, Dong's carriage rumbled past, and heard the ugly old coachman of the Hou's family laughingly said: "Hey, you heard it, it belongs to the Hou's family in Yongning."

But the "eldest young master" in the carriage didn't respond, and kept knocking on the door.

The knocking sound was even and mechanical, hitting the slightly damp wood, making a gloomy muffled sound.

Tuk - tuk tuk -

"Master?"

Tuk - tuk tuk -

The coachman sensed something was wrong and stopped the car: "What else can you tell me? We'll be home soon."

Benedict!

The knocking on the door stopped abruptly, and the surroundings were completely silent, except for the faint noise in the courtyard of Yongning Hou Mansion not far away.

The coachman turned around slowly, seemed to hesitate for a moment, and put his hand on the car door, but before he could pull the door, the car door was suddenly pushed open from the inside.

The coachman couldn't sit still and fell down. Immediately afterwards, a large pile of white paper money flew out of the carriage. Like a ghost, he jumped at the sight of a living thing and covered the coachman's head and face.

The paper money was covered in blood, and it was written in a line of birth and date.

The tangy smell of blood rose into the sky, and a hoarse howl came from the car: "Lift up the coffin, the two sheds—"

The weird paper money kept burrowing into the old coachman's skin, where it got rotten.

The coachman seemed to be covered with white ringworm, screaming and rolling all over the ground, but rolled more paper money on his body, and dark red flowers burst out on the festering flesh, and the old coachman rotted peaches all over his body. Same, soup is flowing out!

The quiet night of Danguifang was shattered by the wailing sound, and the wind lamps in South Street were lit up in patches, and the pale steam was stained with blood.

Just as Xi Ping was about to climb over the wall and enter the inner courtyard, when he heard the movement, he sat on the wall and looked back subconsciously.

At first, he didn't realize what the white ball rolling on the street was. He only saw the paper money kept flying out of the carriage without wind, and almost filled the whole street. He wondered: Where did it come from? There are so many moths, it looks disgusting.

Then he saw those white paper money entangled with each other, gathered into a human shape with a head and feet, stepped forward, and "walked" towards the place with a door.

When the "paper money man" came across the door, he patted the door lightly. While patting, the paper money on his body fell down rustlingly, and stuck to the door panel and the cracks of the door silently.

Tuk - tuk tuk -

The screams in the middle of the night startled more than one family, and soon the porter who guarded the corner door opened the door and looked out thinking it was concealed.

But even a pupil-wide slit is enough for paper money to slip through.

The first concierge who opened the door saw the whiteness outside, thought it was the thick smoke from the street lamp blowing up, and was about to call for someone, when a piece of paper money fell through the opened door.

The concierge looked down at the thing clearly, cursed "unlucky", and planned to kick it away with his feet.The paper money suddenly flew up from the ground, and flew towards his face in a flash!

The porter suddenly seemed to be splashed with a bowl of boiling oil head-on, and fell on his back with a loud cry.The door was knocked open from the outside, and more paper money swarmed up, swallowing the concierge whole!

Xi Ping, who witnessed the whole process from tricking the door with paper money to "cannibalism", was stunned.

At this time, the paper money in the carriage finally flew into the air, and the lantern with the word "Dong" faintly opened, illuminating the half-open door.

Xi Ping glanced in Xunguang, and all the foul language he had heard in his life suddenly flooded his mind.

I saw a man... The male corpse was sitting in the carriage, with a large area of ​​festering on his face and a mask of corpse spots on his facial features, making it difficult for people to see who this man was before he was alive. It was facing Xi Ping!

The male corpse seemed to feel his gaze, and his dead fish-like eyes turned towards him, as if he wanted to smile at him, the corners of his mouth trembled, and a piece of skin from his face was squeezed out, and his mouth was still sloppy. Singing: "Stop the spirit... for seven days, the avenue leads to the sky to send you home... don't linger, for the rest of your life... sorrow and joy are like bubbles...go west...go west..."

This situation is definitely not a picture of the world, Xi Ping's brain froze.

And at this time, the corner door of Hou Mansion also rang!

He saw those moth-like paper money piled up three feet high at the door of his house, coveting the fresh flesh and living people in the yard, knocking on the door of their house!

"Don't open the door! Outside...damn it!" Xi Ping yelled and slashed his throat in desperation, forgetting that he was still hanging on the wall, and fell headfirst.

"Master!"

When he came back to his senses, he was already surrounded by a group of people, and he was about to "slap" him just now. His master stroked his back and asked repeatedly: "Did you fall? Where did you hit?" Did you kowtow? What did you see...Father is here, don’t be afraid——Le Tai, tell someone to see what’s going on outside, who is knocking on the door in the middle of the night?"

As soon as the housekeeper Wu Letai answered "Yes", Xi Ping jumped up with a dizzy head.

He didn't care about explaining, he broke away from Master Hou, and with a limp in one leg, he limped up the wall: "Dudu... get up for me, don't stand by the door! Don't look out! Who has the fire? Give me!"

As he said, he rolled up his sleeves and was ready to fight those monsters and goblins: "I can't burn you to death!"

"What are you doing? I didn't beat you up just now, did I? You give me..." Hou Ye was confused, and was about to order his hapless son to come down when he heard a rush of bells.

Marquis Yongning looked at Xun Sheng and was taken aback.

The bell came from the Qinglong Spica Pagoda in Tianji Pavilion!

Among the seven Azure Dragon Pagodas, Spica Pagoda is located in Danguifang.

Danguifang is close to the root of the imperial city, "fear to frighten the heavenly beings". The buildings here are no more than three stories high, so the six-story Spica Pagoda in the northeast corner is particularly abrupt.At night, people who live in Danguifang look up in their courtyards to see how many floors the moon is hanging on the tower, and they can roughly estimate the time.

The outer eaves of the Spica Pagoda are covered with nine-inch-six-inch-long bronze bells, but unlike ordinary bird frightening bells, these bronze bells do not have copper tongues, and the bells are always heard but not heard.

Hou Ye has lived in Danguifang for more than 20 years, and this is the first time he heard a copper bell without a tongue!

The ringtones were high and low, mixed together, like a noisy whisper.Then the top of the Spica Tower released a cluster of dazzling white light, brighter than the lighthouse in the maze, piercing through the fog in the air, and falling straight on the place where the screams sounded.

The Spica Pagoda reacted faster than the Xinsu Pagoda at the Huafang Ferry the day before.

As soon as the bronze bell on the eaves of the tower moved, three figures in blue clothes flew out with the white light, and they had already reached South Street after a few ups and downs.

At this time, the South Street of Danguifang was in chaos, and there was almost no place to set foot.The corner gates and back gates of several yards had been knocked open by paper money, and the servants and guards were like sheep chased away by hungry wolves.Those who shouted, those who chanted mantras, and those who held kerosene and torches and threw them directly on the ground... The ominous flames rose, and four or five people had already fallen to the ground, wrapped in paper money, and they didn't know whether they were dead or alive.

Several men in blue landed on the surrounding courtyard walls and high street light stands. The leading man was dressed slightly differently from the others—a silver belt embroidered with dark patterns of cranes was added around his waist.

Because the Jiaosu Tower is close to the imperial city and is an important place in the capital, the tower guards are all big figures in Tianji Pavilion.

The one who guarded the Spica Pagoda that night was none other than Pang Jian, the right deputy commander of the Tianji Pavilion in the capital.

Huge man with broad shoulders and narrow waist, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, his face is covered with bronze-colored wind and frost, even the solemn sapphire blue robe can't suppress the wildness on his body.

He doesn't look like a Taoist half-immortal, but a wandering swordsman.

Glancing at the paper money on the ground, Pang Jian took out a whistle from his bosom. It was a small whistle, but the sound it blew was lower than that of a horn, rumbling like thunder.Before the whistle sounded, another group of men in blue followed the sound from the Spica Tower.

In a blink of an eye, six human beings gathered in the alleys of the South Street of Danguifang—it is said that there are only seven people staying on duty at night in each Qinglong Pagoda.

Xi Ping, who was about to climb along the inner courtyard wall to burn paper, was stunned, watching the people in blue clothes form formation, his eyes unable to keep up with the walking people who were about to become phantoms.

Pang Jian pulled out a two-foot-long flag and hurled it to the ground.

With a "choke", I don't know how strong he is, the wooden flagpole is like cutting tofu, directly penetrates the bluestone floor tiles, and stands firmly.

With the flag as the center and the location of the six people as the basis, a huge "whirlwind" circle formed on the ground, and all the surrounding paper money was swept in.

As soon as the paper money was drawn into the formation, it immediately ignited, and they flew to the distance as if struggling for their lives, sawing for a long time, and finally were sucked back by the "whirlwind circle".For a moment, the sky was full of fire butterflies, dancing wildly for a while, and finally turned into ashes and fell.The originally colorless and invisible whirlwind wrapped countless paper ash and smoke, and turned into a big chimney reaching the sky, making the whole Danguifang as smoky as the factories outside the southern city.

It took a full moment for the paper money scattered all over the street to be burned, the mighty wind stopped, and the howling corpse in the carriage shut up at some point.

With a "plop", the corpse fell out, face down, and fell into the dust on the floor.

Truly, he has "ashes to ashes and ashes to ashes".

There was no sound in South Street, as if the group had been dragged into a bizarre nightmare, except for the eldest son squatting on the wall in the courtyard of the Hou Mansion, no one dared to show their heads, no one dared to make a sound.

Only the extravagant wind lanterns in Danguifang are as bright as daylight, and they have silver-plated the broken corpses and rotten flesh on the ground.

There was no sound from the painting boat that night, Jinping was silent, and the distant and vague sound of clappers came from the other side of the Lingyang River.

It's two days.

Pang Jian glanced at Xi Ping, and with a flick of his sleeve, he scraped him off the wall: "Whoever's heartless bastard will watch any excitement."

He took the lead in jumping down from a high place, and took the flag with a gesture of his hands—the little light yellow flag was blackened to charcoal, and there was still a whole piece of paper money glued to the flag.

Like a vigilant beast king, Pang Jian sniffed the paper money, and then flicked his fingers in the air, and the last trembling paper money turned into ashes and fell from the flag.

Pang Jian put on a pair of cicada-like gloves on his hands, and turned over the people who fell on the ground one by one for inspection.After a moment, he shook his head.

Not to mention alive, there are very few people on the ground who maintain a complete shape, and the parts will be messed up when they are turned a little bit.

"Call someone from the imperial forest army to help, and then go to Xinsu Tower and call Zhao Yu over." Pang Jian ordered, while stepping over the rotten meat, he walked to the corpse that fell out of the carriage, and turned the corpse over. Come over, "Male, in his twenties...he has a private stamp on his body, engraved with...'Dong Zhang', who is this, do you know him?"

"He is the eldest son of Honglu Temple Minister Dong's family, and the nephew of the virtuous concubine in the palace." A man walked forward and said in a low voice, "Cross a street and you will arrive at Dong's Mansion."

"It's a pity that you are young," Pang Jian nodded, and then said, "Come here, report the funeral at the house...be careful with your speech, and don't irritate them."

After finishing speaking, he stood up, and ordered the remaining two blue clothes: "You two go to the house and report to the house, and say that the evil spirit that caused the disturbance has been eliminated, and those whose family members have been victimized, please forgive me, but don't move the corpses yet, we will Come and deal with it. By the way, ask if you have noticed anything unusual."

The Imperial Forest Army came very quickly and surrounded the southern half of Danguifang with three floors and three floors outside. Under the command of Pang Jian, they cleaned up the scene, collected the corpses and exorcised evil spirits in an orderly manner.

After a while, Zhao Yu from Qinglong Xinsu Pagoda also rushed over.

"Dutong, I heard that another person has been robbed of their yin relatives? This..." Zhao Yu was startled by the corpses all over the place, "How many people died here?"

"That's the one who died from robbing the yin relatives." Pang Jian pointed to Dong Zhang's body, "In addition to him, there was also a cart of paper money soaked in corpse poison in the carriage. .Fortunately, it is night and there are few people in Danguifang. If it is in the downtown area in the east under blue sky and daytime, there may be big troubles.”

While speaking, the Imperial Forest Army had carefully dismantled the carriage of the Dong Mansion, and there was something painted with blood on the roof, but it was hard to tell what it was, with entangled lines like a poisonous snake, staring at it for a while would make people dizzy , straight to nausea.

"Flying Peng Curse," Pang Jian glanced at the still fresh blood with his hands behind his back, "I guess it's about the same—the paper money was driven by the deceased...Dong Zhang before he died."

Zhao Yu's expression froze: "Ordinary people don't know how to draw evil spells."

"Naturally," Pang Jian said, "it was the evil spirit who robbed his relatives to manipulate him into painting."

"But Dutong, just letting someone sing before death is not the same as manipulating him to kill someone with a curse."

"Well," Pang Jian nodded thoughtfully, "In this way, the evil spirits who snatch Yin relatives must have at least the middle stage of foundation establishment, and the corpses used to write the 'Death Marriage Letter' cannot use new corpses, at least use secret methods It has been practiced for more than 50 years... It's weird, it's too expensive for this person to kill."

50-year-old wine is rare, not to mention 50-year-old corpses, Dong Gongzi's father is probably not even 50 years old-who would kill a weak young man at such a high price?

As for Dong Zhang's small body, which is not as thick as a palm, why can't he die with a single stabbing?

It took such a lot of trouble, is it possible that it was just to let him mourn himself before he died, and then take away a few coachmen and servants?

"Dutong," at this time, a blue-clothed man who went to listen around came back and reported, "The mansion of Duke Li rested early. The old man is getting old and can't stand this in the middle of the night. The people in the mansion haven't dared to disturb him yet. There were casualties in the mansion of Sun Shilang of the Ministry of Rites and Master Lu of Dali Temple. The corpses have been moved out, and a magic circle has been set up for them to expel evil spirits, and a charm to calm the gods has been left. The Yongning Hou Mansion was not open at that time, but his family's eldest son just happened to Just after I came back, I went to meet up with the car of the Dong Mansion, just now by chance, I witnessed a murder with paper money..."

Pang Jian and Zhao Yu spoke at almost the same time, Pang Jian: "The two hundred and five who were riding on the wall just now?"

Zhao Yu: "From the Marquis of Yongning?"

Pang Jian glanced at him, Zhao Yu hesitated for a moment, then thought that it would not be difficult to investigate, and it would be useless to conceal it, so he said, "Yesterday, the last person I met at Huafang Ferry before he died was also Prince Yongning. I just went to see him this morning. Once."

"Go, let the Shanghou Mansion make a notification," Pang Jian said, "This is a big matter, please come out and see me."