The master said not to judge people by their appearance

"Release!" Xie Yunlan quickly reprimanded her before her face turned red.

"Oh." Shen Fan obediently let go.

Xie Yunlan's embarrassing look of shame, in Shen Fan's eyes, was pure anger. He didn't quite understand. Xie Yunlan just didn't let him hug him when he slept, and he didn't say anything when he usually hugged his waist when riding a horse. Why did he want to hug him this time? angry.

After thinking about it, he took a piece of brown sugar rice cake and handed it to the other party.

Xie Yunlan was regretting whether his tone was too strong. When he saw the brown sugar rice cake he offered, even though he didn't like it, he took it awkwardly, put it in his mouth and took a bite.

"Master Hou, don't you not like cakes?" Wang Tai asked strangely.

Xie Yunlan couldn't remember when he didn't say anything, and he was stared at when he made a sound at this moment, why Shen Fan came to hug him suddenly, it must be because of what Wang Tai said.

"Are you idle?" Xie Yunlan said coldly, "If you are idle, go out and look for the snake when the rain stops!"

Wang Tai: "..."

The Cangjiang River is so big, and there are so many waterways in Cangzhou City. The officers and soldiers in the city searched for so many days but failed to find it. What's the use of having one more him?

Wang Tai felt that what Shen Fan said was probably right, he really made Lord Hou angry at some point, otherwise he would not have retaliated against him like this.

Thinking of this, Wang Tai decided to show a good performance quickly, and went to the river's bank with the local officers and soldiers in Cangzhou to look for traces of the snake.

Xie Yunlan and Shen Fan were left in the room, Xie Yunlan felt a little uncomfortable, as soon as he saw Shen Fan, he would think of last night's dream, and then became more uncomfortable, lest the other party would notice that absurd dream.

"Will it still rain today?" Xie Yunlan casually brought up a topic in order to avoid the atmosphere being too embarrassing.

"No." Shen Fan replied.

This is good news.Xie Yunlan breathed a sigh of relief, which meant that Shen Fan would no longer sleep with him with his pillow in his arms tonight. At the same time, it would be easier for officers and soldiers to search for snakes.

Speaking of the snake, Xie Yunlan frowned, the clues had been broken, the identity of the person possessed by the demon was a mystery, and the snake was hard to find, they fell into an extremely passive situation.

Before I had time to ask last night, Xie Yunlan asked now: "What are the characteristics of a monster like a snake? Is there any way to lure it out?"

"Snakes are transformed by resentment, and they are also the incarnation of demons. Those who can draw snakes out must be things that demon possessed people care about." Shen Fan said.

So we still have to start with the person possessed by the demon, who could it be?Xie Yunlan was pondering, and was about to go to the prison. He wanted to ask Luo Hongyuan some more questions. He had just walked to the gate of the other courtyard, and before he could get out, he bumped into Xu Xin.

"Morning thank you." Xu Xin greeted with a smile, and handed over a stack of papers. Xie Yunlan took it and saw that it was the confession that Xu Xin sorted out last night.

"Master Xie, can you see how this confession is written?" Xu Xin rubbed his hands and smiled flatteringly.

Xie Yunlan glanced at him. He actually didn't think the confession written by Xu Xin was useful. The other party had to beautify Luo Hongyuan's crimes, and in the end it was far from the truth.

But at this moment, after reading it word by word from beginning to end, I found that the confession was written to the point, except for a few good words for myself, there was nothing wrong with it.

And... Xie Yunlan looked at Xu Xin's bloated and ugly figure, and his words were like a person. Xu Xin had a fat head and brain, which made people bored, but his handwriting was neat and elegant, like a pine tree. Like bamboo, there is a hidden character under the elegant appearance.

The Cangzhou prefect finally had an advantage, although it was not of much use.

Xie Yunlan accepted the confession, nodded and said, "It's well written."

Xu Xin grinned: "It's good that Mr. Xie is satisfied. It's not in vain for the next official to light up the night battle. It took most of the night to sort it out."

After he finished showing his merits for himself, he remembered again: "By the way, where are you going, Mr. Xie?"

"Prison." Xie Yunlan said, "I still have something to ask Luo Hongyuan."

"Then I'll go with Master Xie!" Xu Xin said immediately.

Xie Yunlan agreed, and the two went to the prison together, while Shen Fan still stayed in the other courtyard. The smell of the prison was too bad. He didn't really want to go, and it wasn't a big deal that he had to go. What happened? Xie Yunlan came back naturally will tell him.

Several parties acted independently, and the whole morning passed, but there was no progress.

Xie Yunlan has a guess that the person possessed by the demon may have nothing to do with Xu Liniang, but he must be someone who has a grudge against Luo Hongyuan. The act of turning a snake into Xu Liniang's appearance and killing Zhang Li is a deliberate misleading , wanted to use the name of Xu Liniang's revenge to torture and intimidate Luo Hongyuan, making him terrified all day long.

But Xie Yunlan questioned him all morning, and there are quite a few people who have feud with Luo Hongyuan. This bastard is rampant in Cangzhou, bullying men and women a lot, but Xu Liniang is the only one who insists on saying that there is such a big hatred. and Luo Yongan.

But these two people are already dead, who else?

Xie Yunlan walked back in deep thought, halfway, suddenly felt a coolness on his face, looked up, it was raining again.

Xie Yunlan was a little surprised. When he returned to the other courtyard, it was raining heavily. Seeing Shen Fan watching the rain on the porch, he wiped the water from his clothes and said, "Didn't you say it won't rain today?"

He was joking, and it was no big deal if he said something wrong.

But Shen Fan frowned slightly, he stared intently at the rain clouds in the sky, and said, "That's not right."

"Why not?" Xie Yunlan asked.

"There is resentment in the rain." Shen Fan stretched out his hand into the rain to catch the falling raindrops, and said, "This is the wind and rain summoned by the snake."

Turn into a snake?Xie Yunlan was stunned for a moment, and then said: "Can a snake turn into a wind and rain?"

"It couldn't before, its power has become stronger." Shen Fan said, "It's stronger than before."

"Can one person's resentment give it such a big improvement?" Xie Yunlan also frowned. Since the last time they fought against the snake, only one Zhang Li died in the Cangjiang River, and Zhang Li's resentment can make the snake's injury Back to the original, and even get such a big increase?

"No..." Shen Fan carefully discerned, "Not just one person died."

Xie Yunlan was taken aback again. It was clear that there were no other murders in Cangzhou City, so it hadn't been discovered yet, or...wasn't in Cangzhou?

Xie Yunlan thought for a moment, and was about to ask someone to check the surrounding towns.

"And..." Before Shen Fan finished speaking, he murmured to the dark clouds in the sky, "In addition to resentment, there seems to be another force mixed in the rain, like..."

"What is it like?" Xie Yunlan asked.

"Like Longli." Shen Fan looked at him and said.

Dragon force?Where did the dragon come from?Xie Yunlan's mind was spinning, and he suddenly thought of something.

At this moment, a person rushed into the courtyard in the rain. It was Qiao Zhen, who was sent by him to Huaizhou three days ago to visit Zheng Rui, the former prefect of Cangzhou.

Qiao Zhen hurried all the way, not daring to delay at all, and brought the news from Huaizhou to Xie Yunlan. He told Xie Yunlan, "My subordinates are one step late. Mr. Zheng drowned to death together with the whole family two days ago!"

"Drowning?" Xie Yunlan asked eagerly, "How did you drown!"

Qiao Zhen said: "Two days ago it happened to be Master Zheng's birthday. He rented a cruise ship and took his family to enjoy the scenery on the upper reaches of the Cangjiang River. However, the cruise ship suddenly sank in the middle of the river. Except for a few good boatmen , Master Zheng’s family of more than 20 people, none of them survived!"

None survived...

The sound of the wind and rain grew louder, Xie Yunlan remained silent for a long time amidst the sound of the rustling rain.

night.

Wang Tai and the Cangzhou officers and soldiers who had been looking for traces of the snake these days returned to the prefect's mansion, but as in the previous few days, there was no trace.

It is almost impossible to find the snake in this huge Cangjiang without taking the initiative to show up.The death of Zheng Rui's family brought Xie Yunlan back to his initial suspicion that this person possessed by a demon must be avenging Xu Liniang, otherwise why would he go all the way to Huaizhou?

Longjiao may be one of the reasons. Qiao Zhen visited Zheng Rui's family specially after he learned of the death of Zheng Rui's family, but he didn't see any trace of Longjiao. Reminiscent of the dragon power in the rain that Shen Fan said, it was probably because of the power of his heart. The possessed person took it away.

But if it's only for the dragon horn, why bother to destroy Zheng Ruiman's family?The boatman who was on the same boat as Zheng Rui escaped by chance, presumably it wasn't because the snake was unable to drag them down to drown, but because it didn't want to attack the other party.

Everything that Hua Snake has done so far is extremely targeted.

Who would have such a big hatred?And who has such a deep affection for Xu Liniang, which has not faded for ten years?

Xie Yunlan looked at the rain curtain outside the house and thought for a long time, then suddenly turned to Shen Fan and said, "Let's go to Caiyunfang again."

Shen Fan replied: "Okay."

Last time I went back to Caiyunfang, I didn’t want to disturb too many people, so I pretended to be ordinary guests to inquire about the news at night. Now the story of turning into a snake has been spread all over the city, and the story of Luo Hongyuan being forcibly taken away yesterday was especially seen by many people. I realized that many people have already thought of the old incident ten years ago based on the previous case in Hekou Village.

After Xie Yunlan and Shen Fan arrived at Caiyunfang in the carriage of the prefect's mansion, they directly ordered to see Yunxiu.The old bustard already knew their identities after what happened last time, so she didn't dare to be negligent, so she hurriedly called Yun Xiu over, opened a private room for them, and prepared tea and snacks.

"Thank you sir." Yun Xiu probably also heard the news, she sat down and said at this moment, "I heard some rumors that there is a monster in the water that looks like a woman with a snake tail and a human body, could it be..."

"It's Xu Liniang." Xie Yunlan said directly, "I asked you about Xu Liniang last time because of this snake."

"Snake..." Yun Xiu'e frowned slightly, she muttered puzzled, "How did Liniang turn into a snake?"

"Of course it was created by someone. Someone used Xu Liniang's resentment from drowning to create these monsters. So far, they have murdered no less than thirty lives." Xie Yunlan said.

"Thirty lives..." Yun Xiu was stunned, as if he couldn't believe it.

"The ten people in Hekou Village, Zhang Li who died just the day before yesterday, and the former prefect of Cangzhou, Mr. Zheng, have a family of more than [-]. As long as the snakes are not caught, the number will continue to increase." Xie Yunlan looked at her and said, "I am this time I came to see you again because I want you to think about it, who else has a close relationship with Xu Liniang and might avenge her?"

Yun Xiu seemed to be unable to receive so much news at once, so he paused before saying, "Revenge? Mr. Xie is saying that the river god's apparition ten years ago was instigated by someone?"

Xie Yunlan: "Yes, I have already found out that this matter was deliberately retaliated by Luo Hongyuan and ordered Zhang Li to do it."

"It really is him..." There was no unexpected expression on Yun Xiu's face. Many people had suspected Luo Hongyuan ten years ago, but there was no evidence. Besides, this is the eldest son of the Luo family, and he really did it. , so what?

Yun Xiu pondered and said: "The person who has the closest relationship with Liniang is naturally Liniang's best friend, Luo Yong'an."

"Aside from that?" Xie Yunlan asked, "Is there anyone who admires her very much? Or has an unusual feeling for her?"

"This..." Yun Xiu wondered, "Liniang was a famous oiran in Cangzhou at the beginning. Many people liked her, but they didn't pursue her explicitly because they didn't dare to compete with Mr. Luo. But from time to time, some people would give her some Gifts, too many, I can't remember."

"Then write down the name you remember first." Xie Yunlan spread out the prepared paper, put the pen holder on Shen Fan's side, and Shen Fan picked up the pen and handed it to Yun Xiu. Instant contact.

Yun Xiu glanced at Shen Fan in a daze. The moment she took the pen, she felt that Shen Fan touched her hand, but it was separated quickly. It was between deliberate and careless, which made her a little uncertain.

She must have thought too much.Yun Xiu looked at Shen Fan who was eating pumpkin pie again, and shook his head in his heart, this young man is only interested in dim sum, he doesn't seem like the kind of person who would take advantage of the opportunity.

She rolled up her sleeves and wrote down a few names while thinking and recalling.

It was very slow to recall the past ten years ago, Xie Yunlan didn't rush, and waited patiently aside, he exchanged a look with Shen Fan when Yunxiu lowered his head to write.

Shen Fan took a bite of the pumpkin pie and shook his head at the same time.

After about two or three cups of tea, Yun Xiu finally put down the pen, handed the paper to Xie Yunlan, and said, "Master Xie, I will remember these for now."

"Okay." Xie Yunlan glanced roughly, and folded the paper up and put it away after the handwriting was dry.

He stood up with Shen Fan and said goodbye: "Then let's not bother, if the girl still thinks of anything, please go to the prefect's mansion and let us know."

Yun Xiu got up to see her off, and the questioning was finally over. The expression on her face unconsciously relaxed a little, and she replied: "Okay, I will pay attention."

Xie Yunlan watched Yun Xiu's expression change, he had already pushed the door open, but turned around abruptly, and asked, "By the way, do you know that Luo Yong'an is not dead?"

Yun Xiu was stunned, she asked after a while: "Is Luo Yong'an dead?"

Xie Yunlan stared at Yun Xiu for a long time with eagle-like eyes, then suddenly smiled: "Maybe."

He took Shen Fan away without staying any longer.

Yun Xiu looked at the two people's backs in the room, unconsciously clenched their fingers tightly, and did not let go for a long time.