Chapter 534 Mislead Him!

He Lingchuan shook his head: "It's not good to compare like this. I have used all my tricks, but Commander Fan still has a trick up his sleeve."

Bai Ziqi stroked the deer mane and said: "You are a humble child, but you are too bold. You spent 50,000 taels at once. There are hundreds of teams picking lotus. How can you be sure that you can find the king lotus and win the first prize?"

He Lingchuan smiled slyly: "Of course I have some inferior means. How many people who have picked lotus chips in the past years really found them with their naked eyes and great luck?"

He later learned that there was a winner a few years ago. The way he won the championship was to release a nest of more than 2,000 bees to fly around the lotus palace to find the king lotus.

How can ordinary people compare with that kind of efficiency?

So after that session, Bai Shaju patched the rules and prohibited the release of group pets.

But the old saying is still valid:

The higher the virtue, the higher the evil.

Forever fairness, that is impossible.

Both of them knew that Bai Ziqi had something he didn't say:

Zhongsun Mou happened to be killed at that time.

But neither of them mentioned it, because it would not lead to any result if it was brought up.

Bai Ziqi said slowly: "You deal with Mai Xuewen the most. What kind of person do you think he is?"

He deals with Mai Xuewen the most? Is Bai Ziqi setting a trap for him? He Lingchuan shook his head repeatedly: "I just tracked down a few clues he left behind, and I can't say that I have ever dealt with him. Wu Kai should know this answer better than me."

But Wu Kai only saw the illusion created by Mai Xuewen.

Of course, Bai Ziqi also understood the implication: even the cautious and careful Wu Kai fell into his hands, so how could he, He Lingchuan, know Mai Xuewen?

But He Lingchuan still said: "But Mai Xuewen spared no effort to expose his old superior, and even kidnapped the inspector in public. He is no longer crazy. When chasing this man, be careful that he will do anything."

"But this man is not crazy at all, he is very organized."

He Lingchuan shrugged: "A madman can also be very organized, right? Bai Dushi has handled so many cases, what do you think?"

"This case is very complicated, I am afraid that the part buried underwater is even larger." Just Cen Boqing's identity made Fu Shanyue and Bai Ziqi feel tricky.

"Oh, by the way, I saw in the case file that the monster snail toad driven by Mai Xuedong once committed crimes on the southern border of Chiyan State?"

"Yes." The big-horned mountain goat who almost caught him at that time.

"When?"

"About forty days ago." He Lingchuan was alert and didn't mention that he and Fu Shanyue were at the scene. "A caravan lost two monsters, a cat monster and a hedgehog monster. After waiting for two days without seeing them return, we went to report to the authorities."

Fu Shanyue killed his brother in the ruins of Qianxing City. The King of Chiyan actually issued a gag order on this matter. No Chiyan people who were present at the time were allowed to mention it, let alone spread it. Of course, this order was also sent to the Shimen Chamber of Commerce, and Shi Erdang said he would abide by it.

"More than forty days ago?" Bai Ziqi seemed to be pondering something. "How could such a small matter attract your attention?"

"The prince ordered all places to report the disappearance of monsters. At that time, we had discovered that snail toads often appeared on rainy nights, and this incident happened just after a rainstorm. And the local townspeople said that monsters occasionally disappeared on rainy nights in the suburbs. First, there were not many monsters, and second, it was located at the border checkpoint. No one was sure whether the monsters disappeared or crossed the border on their own, so the local government did not pay much attention to it."

Bai Ziqi frowned slightly: "No eyewitnesses?"

It was a suspected case.

After all, the reasons for the disappearance of humans and monsters are really varied.

"Even if there was, it was eaten, right?" He Lingchuan smiled bitterly, "I saw that monster with my own eyes. It attacked from underground, which was really hard to defend against."

"That is to say, if this case was really committed by Mai Xuewen, he went north from the southern border of Chiyan to hunt monsters and get pearls. Hmm..." Bai Ziqi seemed to be thinking, "From the south to the north, it matches."

"Huh? What matches?"

"Nothing." Bai Ziqi smiled, "By the way, when you were collecting cases of missing monsters, did you notice the checkpoints at the junction of Twilight Plains and the southern border of Chiyan? Several officials probably disappeared at that time?"

He Lingchuan's heart skipped a beat.

How could he not remember? Those officials followed Zhongsun Mou to make trouble for Fu Shanyue, and used the excuse of looking for Wu Tong to dismantle and smash the goods of Shimen Chamber of Commerce. How could Fu Shanyue bear such a rage? He sneaked back a few days after entering the country. In addition to Zhongsun Mou's guards, he also killed all the officials who were present at the time to embarrass him, leaving only Zhongsun Mou.

As a result, Zhongsun Mou was eventually killed by He Lingchuan, which was regarded as revenge for Fu Shanyue.

He Lingchuan also asked about it, and Fu Shanyue said that he did not suck blood, but just killed the official and dragged him to the suburbs to bury him.

Why did Bai Ziqi go to Twilight Plains and why did he investigate these things?

He thought for a moment and shook his head: "This case is not in the case file sent to me by the prince, probably because the deceased is a human."

Every word of this sentence is true.

He is a foreigner and has no power in Chiyan. How can he collect cases from all over the country on his own? Isn't it that he looks at whatever the prince gives him?

Bai Ziqi also thought of this and stopped asking.

He Lingchuan's heart immediately settled down.

Although Fushan Yue and Zhongsun Mou had some conflicts in front of the checkpoint, the inspector abused his power, and such things would definitely not be recorded in the official archives. Local officials just pretended not to see it, and they might have been told not to make it public.

The checkpoints also did not record the information of every caravan in and out. Bai Ziqi might not be able to find it, as he and Fushan Yue had just passed the checkpoint in the south of Chiyan nearly forty days ago.

At this time, Bai Ziqi pointed forward: "Wu Kai's private village, is this the place?"

"East of Yaohu Lake, basically all white houses, with a ten-foot-high stone standing at the door." He Lingchuan remembered Wu Kai's description, "It should be here."

Twenty miles away from Baisha, there is plenty of land in the wilderness. The area of ​​land occupied by this village is not small, and even includes several ponds and a small hill.

Sitting on a mountain and looking at the water, the weather is good.

The houses in the private village are basically built on the hill, with two warehouses and several residential buildings.

Of course, in order to save manpower, there are also several large warehouses built on flat ground.

When He Lingchuan followed his father from Heishui City to Xiazhou, he saw many manors in the suburbs along the way. Because of frequent bandits and famine, private manors in this terrain would be robbed. As long as thick walls were built, chevaux de frise were set up, and some reliable strong men were hired to guard, this kind of manor would be similar to a mountain stronghold, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and one could live a happy life behind closed doors even in troubled times.

Of course, this was not needed in Chiyan.

Passing by a small house, the gatekeeper jumped out with an axe in hand and shouted: "Who!"

The official behind He Lingchuan showed his sign, and there was a faint yellow light in the darkness: "I am from the Baishazuo official office, accompanying the Lingxu City envoy to arrest Cen Boqing! Is he here?"

"Ah?" The gatekeeper was stunned. He might not see an outsider here for ten days or half a month. Why did the official and the envoy suddenly come? "Little, little man, I don't know."

"Waste!" The official passed him and hugged Bai Ziqi and He Lingchuan to the hill.

The crops in the fields have not yet reached the harvest time, but the cherry trees on the mountain have been harvested in early summer, and now is the slack season for farming.

Bai Ziqi and others rushed in all the way, and they didn't meet many people before and after, and they all knew nothing.

But there was one bad thing:

The hill was surrounded by flat farmland. Standing on the hill, you can see everything below.

The road up the mountain was relatively smooth, after all, it was convenient to transport materials up and down, but it was a little narrow, which was also intentional by the owner of the manor.

When they ran to the top of the mountain, there were four or five houses, and only one was lit.

Bai Ziqi waved his hand, and the officials immediately stepped forward and searched one by one.

No one.

There was no one in all the buildings.

But there were some discoveries in the lighted house.

Bai Ziqi and others walked in and saw that the windows were closed, the door was half open, the candle on the table was only half burned, and there were two wooden cups.

He touched the cup: "Warm."

The people in the house had just left.

"Maybe they found us coming." If Cen Boqing escaped here, he would undoubtedly be vigilant at all times. He Lingchuan pointed at the ground and said, "Does this look like a curse scene?"

There were a few bird feathers, a handful of straw, and yellow oil stains of unknown origin on the ground, mixed with a little light red silk, which looked sticky.

There were also traces of burning on the brick surface.

He Lingchuan knew at a glance that those bird feathers were from magpies. Magpie feathers always fell from his home in Panlong City because sparrowhawks always committed crimes there.

Strangely, the burnt smell left in the room actually had a little sweet fragrance, and it would make you dizzy if you smelled it for a long time...

He Lingchuan quickly opened the window.

Bai Ziqi took a straw and dipped it in a little oil stain, put it under his nose and sniffed it.

"Corpse oil, very pure." Everyone showed disgust, He Lingchuan was slightly shocked: "Did they really hide here just now?"

Bai Ziqi nodded: "Cen Boqing is also very cautious. If the officer Zhou Tailai is arrested and interrogated, his whereabouts will inevitably be revealed, so he took the time to go around and sneak out of the city to the west."

"It's windy tonight." He added, "This kind of spell must be performed in a quiet, sealed and windless environment."

So the two fugitives sneaked in here.

"But they just escaped, and we can still catch up."

The official who went to search around also came back and reported: "There is no path behind, but the mountain is not steep, and you can still climb down."

Bai Ziqi took out another candle from his arms.

Others were puzzled: There is a light in this room, why is he still lighting a candle?

He Lingchuan stood close and had good eyesight, and found that the white candle he took out was still tinged with a faint golden color, which seemed very high-class.

After the flame was lit, it was white light from inside to outside.

Bai Ziqi pinched the candle wick, and the small ball of flame stood firmly on his fingertips.

Only then did everyone see clearly that the flame had taken shape, with a head, a body, and two hands, but there was still a ball of light below the waist.

What is this, a ghost of light?