Embrace the blade

Since you want to inquire about news, you have to pick a suitable person to start.

Qi Zhaoxi leaned leisurely outside the courtyard wall of the Qingshan School, and clearly heard Shen Shensi slamming the door after being angrily scolded, and after waiting for a while, he finally showed his figure and asked the Second Young Master Shen who was still standing in the courtyard. Hello.

Shen Zhiyan turned around to look, and gestured helplessly to the closed door: "I hope that Hero Qi will not be offended."

"What are you talking about? My apprentice caused a quarrel between the second son and his brother. I came here specially to make amends." Qi Zhaoxi walked into the courtyard.

Shen Zhiyan smiled and shook his head: "My eldest brother has this temper, he just gets angry and never holds grudges. Hero Qi doesn't have to take it to heart either."

The Second Young Master Shen was considerate and courteous, before Qi Zhaoxi could find any reason to procrastinate, he offered him a cup of tea first.

As soon as he entered the hall, Qi Zhaoxi's gaze was immediately attracted by a short table.A bowl of clear water was placed on the ebony low table, and a blood-stained jade pendant was placed on the white handkerchief beside it, which was exactly the one that was taken from Cheng Juxian's body.

"This is……?"

Shen Zhiyan smiled slightly: "I'm going to clean up Cheng Daxia's jade pendant as well."

"It's like removing the blood on that letter?" Qi Zhaoxi understood, "Then I'd better not drink this tea, so as not to delay Second Young Master's important business."

"It's okay, it won't delay." Shen Zhiyan didn't hide it, took out a small porcelain bottle with a fat belly from his bosom, and poured two drops into the bowl of water.He didn't know what kind of elixir it was, but the light blue liquid disappeared without a trace in the clear water, and he put the jade pendant into it again, a wisp of blood slowly rose and dispersed, and finally stained the whole bowl of water red.After only a while of pouring tea for Qi Zhaoxi, he took out the jade pendant and wiped it lightly on the white handkerchief, only to see that the jade was shiny and moist, and no blood stains could be seen.

"I didn't expect the Second Young Master to have such abilities. It's really admirable." The process was simple and quick, and Qi Zhaoxi couldn't help but sincerely admired it.

"It's ridiculous, this medicine didn't come from me." Shen Zhiyan rubbed his finger on the porcelain bottle, "Qingyao made it by mistake, and put it in and said that I would keep my clothes for washing blood."

Qi Zhaoxi heard the tone of his words and asked, "Is Qingyao your wife?"

Shen Zhiyan's eyes moved slightly, but he shook his head slightly without answering.

If you want to get closer to him, it's convenient to use clichés, and now is the breakthrough point.Qi Zhaoxi thought for a while, and then said: "Then I don't know where this person is now? If he is also in Juyizhuang, I really want to get acquainted."

Shen Zhiyan hesitated again and again before speaking: "She..."

"She's dead."

The two were taken aback at the same time, and turned to look at Shen Shensi outside the threshold.

Shen Shensi stepped into the hall, stared at Shen Zhiyan and said in a deep voice, "What's wrong? Didn't you see it with your own eyes when Prajna taught her to kill her?"

Shen Zhiyan didn't answer, and changed the subject with a smile, first explaining the purpose of Qi Zhaoxi's visit and then persuading his elder brother to calm down.It's just that he forgot to spread the space between his eyebrows, so the smile seemed a bit forced.

In the forest outside the village, a heavy rain really washed away all traces, and the grass leaves were still wet.Jiang Li followed his memory to the place where the last bloodstain was cut off, and was about to squat down to inspect it, when suddenly there was a silver light flickering in the grass not far away.Pushing aside the turbulent grass, I saw that the roots of the grass were entangled with a small object, which I couldn't find unless I looked closely.

He took it out, only to see that it was a thin rope braided with twine, no more than one wrist long, with a small round iron piece strung on it, which was covered with crystal clear rainwater.

Jiang Li wiped off the rainwater, and saw the three-petal flower marks etched on the iron plate.

Other than that, nothing was found.He wandered around in the forest, and a red sun slowly climbed over his head, so he had to go back to the village first.

In the blink of an eye, half a day passed, and although he hadn't found nothing, Jiang Li knew that this small piece of iron might not be able to provide any conclusive and reliable evidence.The key reason why Zhaoyue was so suspicious was Cheng Juxian's strange death, but it just couldn't prove where she was that night.

If he is still helpless after a day, is it possible that he took her away at night as Qi Zhaoxi said?

But in this way, wouldn't she be convicted of patricide?

It was rare for Jiang Li to walk on the street absent-mindedly, and he almost bumped into someone before he reached the gate of Juyi Village.He hurriedly backed away to apologize, and the other party stopped and smiled softly: "It's okay, but can you tell me, where is this?"

The street was full of people, no wonder they bumped into each other.In front of me was a girl in a light purple embroidered dress, with a gentle appearance, but her eyes were always closed, and she listened first when she spoke.

Jiang Li hesitated and said, "You..."

"I can't see it."

Jiang Li nodded and said the name of the place. Seeing the girl's expression was even more confused, he asked, "Did you get separated from the person next to you?"

"Yeah. Just now there was a noise on the street over there, and many people were crowded to watch the fun, so I got separated from them, and I wanted to go to a quiet place." She was not in a hurry, and smiled again, "It seems to be walking It's a little far away."

"Then I'll take you back."

"Okay, thank you." She announced the name of an inn, and said with a smile, "My name is Rourou."

"Jiang Li."

He reached out his hand to grab her, but he didn't know where to touch the girl's house.Rourou immediately understood his pause, and stretched out her hand to grab Jiang Li's sleeve: "Let's go."

In fact, he hadn't been out much since he arrived in Dongting, and the name of the inn sounded very strange, but he couldn't leave this girl alone, so he paid attention to the market signs on both sides while walking.

He was always silent, but Rou Rou thought of something, and said: "Stop when you get near the inn, you just go back, I will go in together when the maidservant arrives. In case my brother finds out that they are not optimistic about me, definitely will scold."

"Okay." Jiang Li said, "But I'll wait with you."

"Don't underestimate me just because I can't see it." Rou Rou understood his thoughts and said with a smile, "I can hear you clearly, even if there are thousands of people coming together, I can still distinguish the sound of brother's footsteps at once. .Do you know that sometimes the eyes can be deceiving, but the ears can't."

Sometimes eyes can be deceiving.

As if a ray of spiritual light broke through the chaos, Jiang Li couldn't help being taken aback.

At this moment, two people who looked like maidservants rushed over from the crowd, and hurriedly checked whether Rourou was injured, they were both surprised and happy, and almost cried: "It's fine if you're fine, it's fine if you're fine! Otherwise, the servant will die!"

Rou Rou groped and took their hands: "Brother doesn't know?"

"I can't find you, how dare the servants go back..." As she spoke, the servant girl almost knelt down in the street when she saw Jiang Li.I don't know who the elder brother is in her mouth, so scary.

Naturally, the maidservant took her back.Jiang Li turned around and rushed to Juyi Village, he wanted to catch a ray of light in his mind and ask Qi Zhaoxi first.

Unexpectedly, this cheap master was not in the courtyard, and the tall figure slowly came back at a later time.

"Hey, you don't know how magnanimous Mr. Shen is. I just mentioned something vaguely. He just took out all the information collected in the past few days. If he knew it earlier, he wouldn't have to spend so much effort." Qi Zhaoxi will A letter was thrown on the table, "It's really careful enough, and I even wrote it down when a little maidservant in the west courtyard fell asleep watching the night."

He took out the pair of emerald jade earrings and put them on the table, "I also asked about this. It is Mrs. Cheng Juxian's jewelry. It was originally pawned in a pawn shop, but I don't know how Wei Min recognized it, and gave it to Cheng Juxian. In the past. Cheng Juxian was naturally very grateful, and Wei Min also promised to help him find the whereabouts of his wife and daughter, and the two had a relationship. I guess it was because of this favor that Cheng Juxian agreed to attend the ceremony without saying a word. Sword Conference."

Zhaoyue mentioned that her mother sold her jewelry just to ask her master to teach her martial arts.

It turned out that the words of the busy schedule were not to coax her, he had indeed been looking for the whereabouts of their mother and daughter.

Jiang Li looked away from the earrings and saw Qi Zhaoxi staring at him, thinking he had something to say: "What else?"

Qi Zhaoxi said solemnly: "And you didn't say anything?"

Jiang Li nodded: "Master has worked hard."

"That's the end of it, why don't you beat Wei Shi's legs?"

Jiang Li said, "No."

Qi Zhaoxi smiled and shook his head, but Jiang Li took out a thin rope with iron pieces from his sleeve and handed it to his eyes, his expression changed slightly: "This thing...you found it in the forest?"

"Master recognizes it?"

He took it over and looked at it for a while, then said as if nothing had happened: "I know. The Prajna Sect divides people into thirteen grades, with flower marks as the distinguishing marks. The higher the status, the more complicated and colorful the flower marks, and the materials used are different. Silver, and copper and iron. You probably belonged to someone who was just promoted. Although it is made of iron, there are only three flower marks, and judging by the degree of wear and tear, it is also an old item."

Qi Zhaoxi threw the iron piece back to him, and said, "That's great, it's useless at all. If you show this to the Qingshan sect, then you should find a way to prove that Zhaoyue has nothing to do with the Prajna sect."

"I want to ask one thing." Jiang Li said, "Is there anyone in this world who can disguise the real one?"

"Do you think someone Yi Rongcheng Zhaoyue killed Cheng Juxian?" Qi Zhaoxi tilted his head and thought for a while, and his smile deepened, "It's possible that the Qingshan faction doesn't know about Yi Rong, but do you know why no one thinks about it? ?”

Jiang Li shook his head.

"How can anyone in this world really become another person?" Qi Zhaoxi said, "There is no difficulty in changing appearance. It's just a skin. The difficulty lies in how to be lifelike. You must know that all living beings are different in every way, walking posture , speaking tone, not to mention glance and smile, if you don’t know the other person very well, how can you imitate them? But even so, some people can tell them apart at a glance, such as parents and relatives. Therefore, no matter how powerful a master of disguise is, he will not try to deceive Others are close relatives."

Qi Zhaoxi sighed: "But think about it carefully, Cheng Juxian and Zhaoyue are said to be father and daughter connected by blood, but they are really facing each other, and what is the difference between them and two strangers? He can't tell the difference."

For the dead Cheng Juxian, it was Zhaoyue who killed him out of hatred.

Jiang Li was silent for a while, and Qi Zhaoxi said again: "You better hope that you guessed wrong. If someone really changed his face, then anyone who saw it would be Zhaoyue's doing. How can you clear her of her grievances?"

There was no answer for a long time, Jiang Li frowned and thought about it, sorting out the clues over and over again, but still couldn't come up with a good solution.The sunlight that fell into the house urged silently, moving footsteps inch by inch, from west to east, trekking into the dusk of old age.

Qi Zhaoxi leaned on the table, suddenly said: "That's right," beckoning to Jiangli, "Come here."

When Jiang Li stood in front of him in bewilderment, Qi Zhaoxi took out another flat porcelain jar. When he opened it, the scent of the medicine was savory. He dabbed some light blue ointment on it, and as soon as he raised his hand, Jiang Li backed away.Qi Zhaoxi's free hand pressed his shoulder involuntarily, "tsk", and said, "The little thing reacts quite quickly. Why are you hiding, can I still bite you?"

Jiang Li froze and did not move, allowing him to smear the ointment on his forehead.

There is a whitish scar on his forehead, which is not very obvious, and you can't see it until you get close.

"How did this scar come about?"

When the ointment first touched the forehead, it was cool and cool, but after Qi Zhaoxi's fingertips slowly pushed it evenly, it became warm.

Jiang Li hesitated for a moment, then replied, "I accidentally bumped into the wall."

Qi Zhaoxi said: "It's really amazing."

Jiang Li: "..."

The two of them are a little close.Qi Zhaoxi stared intently at his forehead but didn't feel it, instead it made Jiang Li feel uncomfortable, especially his eyes were nowhere to rest, like a bird hovering for a long time, and finally closed its wings and landed on the eyebrows of the person in front of him.

Jiang Li hadn't looked at Qi Zhaoxi carefully before, but only now did he realize that his appearance was extremely handsome. Perhaps it was just the right time for twilight, and his expression was so focused that there was even a touch of tenderness in his eyes.

"Does it look good?" Qi Zhaoxi asked casually.

Before Jiang Li could prepare an answer, he answered first, "Of course it looks good, and I didn't bump my face against the wall."

"..." Jiang Li stared at him expressionlessly.

Qi Zhaoxi withdrew his hand, and smiled even more heartily when he saw this, and stuffed the medicine jar into his hand: "Here, once in the morning and in the evening."

"Do not……"

Qi Zhaoxi interrupted: "Xue Le asked me to give it to you, I don't want to return it myself."

Jiang Li held the slightly cool porcelain jar, and could only say, "Thank you so much."

Tired after standing for a long time, Qi Zhaoxi was about to sit down and take a good rest, Jiang Li watched his movements, and suddenly a thought flashed out, so he quickly reached out and grabbed him, "Wait a minute."

"Ok?"

Jiang Li stood in front of him, made a gesture of holding a sword, and raised his hand to his chest.Qi Zhaoxi was slightly stunned, and then heard him say: "If this sword pierces through, it should be straight in and out, corresponding to the front and back?"

Qi Zhaoxi responded inexplicably, "Yes."

"It's the same with the chest sword on Cheng Juxian's corpse. It goes straight in and out, back and forth, but you are similar in stature to him, and Zhaoyue is not as tall as me." Jiang Li looked into his eyes, and tapped his heart twice with his fingers. Next, "If Zhaoyue really killed him, the sword that pierced his chest should have been slanted upward."

"Don't knock randomly." His heart skipped a beat for no reason, Qi Zhaoxi took his hand and moved away, before saying, "Can you convince everyone with this sword?"

"One sword may be hard to determine, but what if it's twelve sword wounds?" Jiang Li said slowly.

What could be more convincing than a dead body?

Qi Zhaoxi looked at him, and Jiang Li said, "I'll ask the Qingshan School to allow me to open the coffin for an autopsy on tomorrow morning."

"Cheng Juxian will be buried tomorrow." Qi Zhaoxi laughed, and raised his chin towards the stretch of night behind him, "What are you waiting for? Are you afraid of encountering ghosts at night? Let's go."