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Chapter 256 Zhou Family Collection

At the front of the team was Qin Ze.

He volunteered to lead the way.

Zhoujiaji is 120 miles away from the canal and only 50 miles away from Champa.

And this town is right next to the official road.

We rode at full speed and arrived in more than half an hour.

This was originally just a small village, but after the official road was built, it spontaneously formed a "big market" every two weeks.

People from the surrounding villages who don't have the trouble to go all the way to the city for their daily shopping can get their supplies at this market.

The town is several times larger than Qihetai, after all, it is close to the provincial capital.

When we were three or five miles outside the town, we could see dead snakes broken into two pieces on the road from time to time.

At first glance, they were all broken by wheels.

Di Youzhi sneered, "Most of the people traveling on this official road are merchants, and their carriages are extremely heavy. Crossing this road through the ruts is really courting death."

As a result, after walking a little further, we saw seven or eight large snakes stretched out their bodies, lying across the middle of the road.

Qin Ze shouted "Go!" and urged his horse forward. Without saying a word, he controlled the horse and stepped on all the snakes to death.

Qin Ze thought he was very skilled in archery and horsemanship, and he controlled his mount in a show of skill, and every time his hoof landed, it landed right on the snake's head.

With a few snapping sounds, the snake's head was crushed to pieces, and a fishy smell wafted away.

Di Youzhi couldn't help but curse: "We are investigating a case, stop playing around!"

"Hahaha!" Qin Ze laughed triumphantly.

The team continued to move forward. Everything in the town was normal, and the roadside shops were open to welcome customers.

Some nearby villagers also came with their loads and set up shop on the street to sell their own products.

A group of naughty kids shouted "Oh oh oh" and ran past the team.

The child in the front was about seven or eight years old. He was holding a bamboo pole with a dead snake tied to it.

It was obvious that he had not passed the boy's test.

Xu Yuan called out to the naughty children, "Don't run away. I have something to ask you. Whoever answers it will be rewarded with a big penny."

The naughty boys were a little afraid of the official uniforms they were wearing, but they were greedy for the copper coin, so they stopped about ten feet away.

"Where did you find this snake?"

The leader tilted his head and thought seriously: "It seems to be in the cracks next to the old well..."

But he scratched his head again and said, "No, the one we caught yesterday was by the well. This one we caught today should have been caught on the haystack at Wang Xiaoya's house."

The children around started to make a noise: "Oh, oh, oh, you're peeping at Wang Xiaoya again, are you trying to get her to be your wife?"

"I didn't!" The leader blushed and yelled, refusing to admit it.

Xu Yuan asked again: "Are there a lot of snakes in the town recently?"

"Yes, a lot. We've been playing for several days."

"How many days exactly?"

"This..." He scratched his head, looking a little confused.

Xu Yuan took out five copper coins and said, "Think carefully. If you answer correctly, these five coins are all yours."

The boy tried hard to recall: "Six days! Yes, that's six days."

Xu Yuan gave him the copper coins and said, "Go and play."

The naughty boys picked up the snakes again and ran away shouting "Oh, oh, oh".

Qin Ze said: "Six days, it should be not long since Fu Chongjiu arrived."

"He arrived in Champa and openly ordered Tiebei Gai to plot against us, but secretly he was arranging this matter?"

Xu Yuan remained silent and asked, "Where is the man who bought the evil spirit from the Fishing Gang?"

"It's Doctor Zhao from the south end of town. I saw those dead snakes outside the town yesterday and felt something was wrong, so I asked the brothers to wait outside. I took off my official uniform, changed into casual clothes, and went in to take a look. I think I didn't alarm that guy."

Di Youzhi pretended to be surprised and said, "Wow, Old Qin, you actually have some brains."

Qin Ze rolled his eyes: "I'm much smarter than you!"

"Hey!" Di Youzhi laughed out loud.

Xu Yuan waved his hand and said, "Go get Doctor Zhao."

……

Doctor Zhao is an old man in his fifties.

He was short and thin, with a goatee. He tried hard to look like an immortal, but he looked rather shabby.

When the captains of the Extermination of Filth Division broke in, the old man was so frightened that he almost wet his pants.

"I'll take anything!"

Without the need for torture or coercion from the Quhuisi, he knelt on the ground and spoke repeatedly.

This guy said he was a doctor, but in fact he just read a few medical books and started to treat patients tentatively.

After these decades, I can barely be considered a barefoot doctor.

His affairs were clarified in just a few words.

He did buy a demon from the fishing gang.

It is a one-eyed water snake. If you stare at it for a moment, you will be "bewitched".

Evil spirits have entered the brain.

He was so confused that he couldn't tell north from south and might easily fall into the river and drown.

But this evil spirit has no other abilities.

The fishing gang covered it with a black cloth hood, wrapped it with a torn fishing net, and handed it over to Doctor Zhao.

The price is ten taels of silver.

Doctor Zhao sold it to a stranger in the town.

Fifty taels!
Doctor Zhao treated patients all his life and only saved twelve taels of silver.

And it was the outsider who came to buy this evil spirit.

Doctor Zhao had long known that the fishing gang was secretly doing this business.

But I've never touched it - and there's really no need for it.

Unexpectedly, this "big deal" would fall on his head.

He never thought that this matter would be exposed, because in Doctor Zhao's "vision", the Fishing Gang was a formidable force.

Since they dare to do this business, they must have made arrangements from head to toe to ensure there is no room for error.

Unexpectedly, he was arrested by the Extermination of Filth Division just a few days after receiving the silver.

"When did the out-of-town visitor come to you?"

"Six days ago," Doctor Zhao answered honestly. "The next day I gave him the one-eyed water snake."

For Doctor Zhao, this was enormous wealth, so he did things very efficiently.

Xu Yuan waved his hand and said, "Let's go to the inn."

There was only one inn in the town. Quhuisi broke in and Qin Ze dragged the owner out like a wolf or a tiger, like an eagle catching a chicken.

The owner trembled all over and muttered to himself, "I knew that this town was not peaceful anymore. There are snakes everywhere..."

Xu Yuan asked, "Bring out the guest registration book."

The host immediately went behind the counter to find it, and after asking the host a few more questions, he confirmed that the guest was staying in room number four in the east wing of the inn.

The registered name is "Zeng Youben", a native of Hue City.

It's all useless information.

I checked out and left the day I got the one-eyed water snake.

The host recalled carefully, "...He was very tall, with a mole under his left eye, but otherwise unremarkable. He acted normally, saying he was here to collect mountain produce. I see at least eighty, if not a hundred, of these people every year."

Everyone was in a bad mood, so there was no need to investigate this person.

Xu Yuan then asked the landlord, "You said the town is not peaceful?"

The host immediately said, "Yes, you can encounter a snake every two steps... Oh! That's right, it really started on the day the foreign visitor arrived.

And as the number of snakes increased, thunder seemed to increase as well. There were constant thunderstorms in the West Mountain, but no rain..."

Just as he was saying this, he heard a thunder and the ground shook slightly.

Xu Yuan and his companions' faces changed, and they immediately rushed out and looked towards the mountains to the west.

Fire could be seen faintly rising from the mountain.

"Let's go and have a look!"

Everyone jumped on their horses, rushed out of the town and reached the foot of the west mountain. Halfway through the rush, the horses could not go any further, so everyone got off their horses and climbed up the mountain together.

A huge fire had already started in the valley below, and dozens of large trees were on fire.

Suddenly, a huge snake jumped out from the fire. It had two heads and two tails, a circle of red hair on its neck, and a pair of twisted black horns on its head!

(End of this chapter)