The master said not to judge people by their appearance

"Master Hou, there is no trace of Yunxiu."

One night has passed, officers and soldiers have searched all over the city, but there is no trace of Yunxiu.

In a sense, this is good news, which means that she is still alive, and the snake has not attacked her for the time being, but it also means that her own clues have been interrupted again.

It was only a little bit short, and they could know the whereabouts of the person possessed by the demon from the cloud sleeves. Right now, they can only start from scratch. Even Xie Yunlan couldn't help sighing at this moment.

But he quickly pulled himself together and tried to catch some lingering clues.

From Yunxiu's reaction last night, we can know that Xie Yunlan's guess is correct, Luo Yong'an is indeed not dead, and he has met Yunxiu in all likelihood, so Yunxiu's statement is different from other people, she knows Ten years ago, Luo Yong'an did not escape, but was thrown into the Cangjiang River by Luo Hongyuan.

It's not that she can't lie and say the well-known answer like everyone else, but she probably doesn't want to slander Luo Yong'an like this in her heart, so she just said that she never saw her again, which made Xie Yunlan suspect her of falling in love with her.

Now that she has met, Yun Xiu is Caiyunfang's musician and rarely goes out, if Luo Yong'an meets her, most likely he will choose Caiyunfang.

But this brings up another problem. Others in Cangzhou may not remember Luo Yongan's face, but the girls in Caiyunfang should not forget. Those dancers can recognize the person in the portrait as Xu Liniang at a glance, and they must not forget that she is good friends with Xu Liniang The scholar, if he appears, will definitely attract everyone's attention and spread the news.

But Caiyunfang has never heard of Luo Yong'an's return, which means that Luo Yong'an must have changed his appearance to make himself look completely different from ten years ago, which is why he was able to hide in Cangzhou City for so long without being discovered.

Xie Yunlan thought for a moment, then called a few people to Caiyunfang, and asked Caiyunfang's madam, what guests Yunxiu had received frequently in the past few months.Yun Xiu knew about the snake transformation, and she may have provided some help to Luo Yong'an, she must have met Luo Yong'an more than once.

After sending people out, Xie Yunlan summoned a few more people to check Luo Yong'an's whereabouts, but there were still some things that had to be done.As usual, he inquired about the situation of the river embankment today. The gap the day before yesterday had been repaired under the leadership of Xu Xin, and the water level had risen a bit, but it was still some distance away from the warning line. According to the current rain situation, it would take about another month. It took seven or eight days for the river to overflow the cordon, endangering the safety of the embankment.

Seven or eight days... Xie Yunlan estimated it. This is just a good guess. In fact, they don't have that much time. The snake may harm people again at any time, and the rain may increase again at any time. There is not much time left for them .

Xie Yunlan redistributed the manpower. The people patrolling and guarding the river embankment in the city remained the same. He transferred another group of people to guard the prison.

After using Luo Hongyuan to trap the snake the day before yesterday, Xie Yunlan sent Luo Hongyuan back to the prison again, under strict supervision.But Xie Yunlan still felt that it wasn't enough. Keeping Luo Hongyuan was keeping the bait to trap the snake. Even if the investigation of Luo Yong'an's whereabouts failed, he could use Luo Hongyuan as a bargaining chip to restrain the snake.

So he sent more people to ensure that no one could enter the prison, and at the same time, Luo Hongyuan was not allowed to run outside the prison and touch all waterways and ditches.

After Yunxiu disappeared last night, Xie Yunlan stayed up all night. He still had no time to rest during the day. He had to take care of everything in Cangzhou. Xu Xin was very attentive and wanted to help. He went to the north of the city and continued to stare at the river embankment.

Around noon, several subordinates who went to Caiyunfang came back with the list provided by the madam. There were too many people on the list. Caiyunfang is the most famous brothel in Cangzhou City, and Yunxiu is the best musician among them. , a lot of regular customers.

Xie Yunlan skimmed through the list, picked out a few suspicious ones, took Shen Fan with him, and went to investigate in person, while the other subordinates also split up.

After a busy day, it turned into night in a blink of an eye, and the investigation of Luo Yong'an's whereabouts made no progress, and none of the people who were interviewed this day were either.

Returning to the prefect's mansion again, Xie Yunlan took advantage of the dinner time to rest for a while. At the same time, he listened to the news gathered by his subordinates. Today, three people in the city were affected by resentment. Fortunately, all of them were stopped. The rain did not increase, but At the same time, it did not decrease any further. Seven or eight days later, the river overflowed the warning line. By then, [-] people in Cangzhou would be exposed to the danger of the river embankment breaching.

After the clue that Yunxiu was kidnapped last night was interrupted, Xie Yunlan was thinking about whether to transfer the people in the city ahead of time.He was not sure that he would be able to stop the snake. Cangzhou City was already shrouded in a rain cloud of resentment, and the people staying here for one more day would be more dangerous.

But with so many people, can the transfer be completed in seven or eight days?And where can it be transferred?The breach of the Cangjiang River affected the entire Jiangnan, and the surrounding towns were too busy to take care of themselves and could not accept so many refugees.What's more, for such a big matter, Xie Yunlan took the liberty to make a claim. In the end, the Cangjiang River really broke its embankment, and he could still explain it. If it was a false alarm, he would bear the consequences for all the deaths, injuries and grievances that occurred during the people's migration.

Xie Yunlan was not afraid of taking responsibility, but this move involved too much. He was not the only one who could make the decision. He needed to contact all parties. In such a short time, the letter might not even reach Beijing.

"What are you eating?" Shen Fan's voice suddenly came from beside his ear.

Xie Yunlan regained consciousness from his thoughts, only then did he realize that he was making the movement of eating with his hands just now, but in fact there was nothing in the bowl. From Shen Fan's point of view, it seemed like he was eating air.

"Missed." Xie Yunlan rubbed the center of his brows, there were too many things to think about, and he didn't have the heart to eat at all.

Shen Fan looked at him for a moment and said, "Don't worry."

"I'm not in a hurry, but it's raining non-stop." Xie Yunlan looked out the window, the sound of the rain was like a reminder to him now, making him dare not relax for a moment.

"Get rid of the demons, and the rain will stop naturally." Shen Fan said lightly.

Xie Yunlan: "Do you have a solution?"

Shen Fan: "No."

Xie Yunlan: "...Then you said there is no need to rush?"

"It's useless to be anxious." Shen Fan said, "Success or failure, life or death are all predestined by fate."

"Then according to what you said, just sit and wait and do nothing. Anyway, destiny is doomed. If destiny thinks that the inner demon can succeed, it will definitely succeed. If destiny thinks it will fail, even if we do nothing If you don't do it, it will definitely fail for some messy reasons." Xie Yunlan made a joke.

But Shen Fan nodded seriously, and said: "You can choose this way, your choice itself is also a part of destiny."

Xie Yunlan was dumb for a while, and after a while he asked: "Then how do you choose?"

Shen Fan was silent for a while before saying, "I don't know."

Xie Yunlan didn't know how to choose the right one, but he couldn't sit still, no matter what the outcome of destiny, he would always fight for it.

But being interrupted by Shen Fan, Xie Yunlan's flustered mood eased a bit.After eating something to fill his stomach, he walked to the window, and while looking at the rain outside the house one day, he thought that the relocation of the whole city is not feasible, so should he use Luo Hongyuan again to lure the snake out.

But just suffered a big loss, will the snake take the bait again?

While he was thinking about the feasibility of this plan, the rain outside the window suddenly increased. It was just a drizzle before, but now it is pouring like a river of heaven, and the rain is pouring down.

Shen Fan also walked to the window, and murmured: "What a heavy resentment."

Xie Yunlan's thoughts changed sharply, he was about to send someone to investigate the situation in the prison, but at the same time, a person ran into the courtyard in the rainstorm, and he was the subordinate he arranged in the prison.

The subordinate said anxiously: "Master Hou, Luo Hongyuan is dead! He drowned in the dung bucket!"

Xie Yunlan's expression changed suddenly, the news of Luo Hongyuan's death was no less than a thunderbolt, which meant that his side lost the last bargaining chip to contain the snake.

"Master Hou, what should we do now?" the subordinate asked.

Xie Yunlan didn't speak, even though he had experienced many battles like him, he didn't know what to do next.

In the confusion of thoughts, someone ran into the courtyard again, and before he could wipe off the rainwater that dripped down his hair and almost covered his eyes, the person came eagerly said: "Master Hou, the water level of the Cangjiang River has soared, and it has almost reached the warning line." !"

Xie Yunlan took a deep breath and ordered: "Go tell the people in the city to retreat to the heights immediately! Officers and soldiers go door to door to notify and investigate, no one is allowed to be missed!"

Groups of officers and soldiers ran along the street in this heavy rain, and the news of the emergency on the river embankment quickly spread throughout Cangzhou City. Although there was guidance from the government to lead the people to retreat to a higher place, panic was still unavoidable, and this panic And fear intensified the influence of resentment. Xie Yunlan soon heard the news from the front that someone in the evacuated crowd suddenly went crazy and jumped into the river to drown.

This time the news can no longer be concealed, so many people have seen with their own eyes that a good-looking person suddenly lost his mind and jumped into the river like crazy, thinking that after so many days in the city, he would drag people into the water Everyone immediately guessed the reason for the drowned monster, the panic spread rapidly, more and more people died, and the torrential rain became heavier and heavier.

Xie Yunlan stood in the room, constantly receiving the news from the front, all of which were bad news. His body was already tired after being sleepless day and night. Under the double impact, he suddenly felt a trance, as if there was an inexplicable impulse, Want to find a river bank, jump down, sink into the cold river water.

Shen Fan took Xie Yunlan's hand, lit a flame with his index finger, and tapped the other's forehead.

"Don't panic," he said.

When the fire light entered it, Xie Yunlan felt a warm force filling his soul in an instant, dispelling the chill brought by the rain, and waking him up from that trance.Only then did he realize that he had already run outside the house, with half of his foot already in the rain.

Xie Yunlan stared blankly at Shen Fan for a moment, as if he had been comforted by those indifferent black eyes, he finally calmed down again.

The two returned to the house. After the episode just now, Xie Yunlan calmed down completely. He realized the current situation. It is absolutely too late to evacuate the people, and it is useless to reinforce the embankment. As long as the rain continues, the embankment will collapse sooner or later. The only way to turn the tide , is to find the snake, and find the mastermind behind all this.

Xie Yunlan analyzed the matter from the beginning, trying to find some clues.

"The snake first appeared three months ago, and it used threats to coerce the people of Hekou Village to present a groom for it." Xie Yunlan analyzed, "That means Luo Yong'an returned to Cangzhou about three months ago?"

"Not necessarily." Shen Fan said, "The demon fled eight months ago. It takes time for the demon to find a suitable host. Luo Yong'an may have been in Cangzhou all along, but he didn't have the ability to take revenge before he was possessed by the demon."

Xie Yunlan thought for a moment, then agreed with Shen Fan's statement, and he said again: "The second time the snake appeared underwater outside the Heshen Temple, because we destroyed its plan, it killed He Zhu to create panic... "

As Xie Yunlan was talking, he suddenly thought of a question. They still don't know how the snake transformed He Zhu from the prison in the prefect's mansion. They can walk out of the city by water, but the distance from the prison to the outside is that it is How?

"Is it because of the ability to transform into a snake and charm?" Xie Yunlan asked.

Shen Fan thought for a while, and said, "It's not very likely, the Transformation Snake wasn't very strong at that time, so it shouldn't be able to do this."

This is very strange.Xie Yunlan suddenly thought of a possibility: "Could it not be done by turning into a snake? It's Luo Yong'an?!"

He said to himself: "If this is the case, then Luo Yong'an must be a member of the government, who can take He Zhu away quietly..."

With a flash of inspiration, Xie Yunlan suddenly realized that the answer was actually very obvious, because someone had done the same thing.Many fragments emerged in his mind, and the details that he hadn't noticed in the past are quickly being connected together at this moment.

He has a good literary talent, good calligraphy and painting, he often goes to Caiyunfang, and is a frequent visitor of Xu Liniang... Xie Yunlan's thoughts finally settled on the list provided by the madam, that familiar name.

Xie Yunlan murmured: "It's him..."

On the tower in the north of the city.

Xu Xin is here alone. He has neither an umbrella nor a coir raincoat. His bloated and ugly body is exposed to the heavy rain without any cover.

He stood with his hands behind his back, standing in the rain, quietly watching the chaos in the city.

I don't know how long I looked at it, but suddenly there was a sound of footsteps behind me, and someone was quickly climbing up the tower.

Xu Xin's expression didn't change, as if he had expected it long ago, when he saw Xie Yunlan and Shen Fan who were panting because of running too fast, he just smiled slightly: "Master Xie, Master Shen."

Xie Yunlan's expression was full of dignity, he called the other party's name: "Xu Xin, no, I should call you..."

Xie Yunlan paused every word: "Luo Yong'an."