When the book-traveling little detective meets the two-faced prince

As he spoke, the smile on Duan Hongzhi's face gradually grew bigger, then twisted, and he threw Cao An's thin body to the ground with force.

Cao An was thrown to the ground hard. He was dazed and couldn't react for a short period of time. Every joint in his body was in excruciating pain.

Just as he was about to get up from the ground, Liang Gaocheng beside him held his body down and he couldn't move.

Under the dim light, the knife shining with silver light was very clear. Duan Zhihong knocked on the knife and it made a crisp sound.

Crisp yet bone-chilling.

This sound is not pleasant, as it means that the sound of flesh being cut will be heard in the next second.

The small body was trembling slightly.

Duan Hongzhi squatted down in front of Cao An, pointed the knife at Cao An's face, and said with a smile: "You, a lowly creature, dare to talk to me like this. I will be merciful and let you know your place."

The sound of flesh being cut, connected to bones, creaking. No matter how stubborn Cao An was, he was still just a child after all. The pain drilling into his bones made him scream in pain that was unbearable and echoed throughout the room.

The devil's laughter pierced the eardrums, without any mercy. They looked at Cao An as if he was a toy.

But even so, Cao An did not change the stubbornness in his eyes.

Hearing Cao An's screams, all the children, including Shi Peng, closed their eyes, covered their ears, huddled together, and trembled.

No matter how hard you cover your fingers, the sound will still pass through the gaps between your fingers and enter your ears.

'How could I be so useless?', this was Shi Peng's inner thought.

Incompetence and self-blame swept through Shi Peng's heart, and his injured eye began to ache again.

I felt my flesh being cut by the cold blade, and the warm blood warmed the tip of the knife, making it not so cold anymore. It hurt so much that my entire forehead became numb.

Knowing that struggling was useless, Cao An gave up.

I couldn't tell whether it was blood or tears falling from the corners of my eyes because of pain. I could only feel liquid falling from the corners of my eyes.

I don’t know how much time had passed. It seemed as if the time had been stretched infinitely. I couldn’t hear what the people around me were saying, but they weren’t saying anything nice anyway.

Cao An's vision gradually became blurred and he gradually passed out.

The sound of sobbing woke up the unconscious Cao An. Under the dim light, he saw a familiar thin figure with his back to him, trembling constantly.

Cao An wanted to smile and tell him not to cry anymore, but just moving the corners of his mouth and forehead caused waves of pain, and in the end all that came out of his lips was a groan of pain.

Obviously Shi Peng also heard Cao An's voice and was stunned for a moment.

After a long while, he turned around. His childish face was filled with many emotions, including self-blame, regret, and helplessness. He did not dare to look at Cao An.

"I'm...I'm sorry...I...it's all my fault..."

For some reason, Cao An felt that he had to comfort Shi Peng first. After a long while, Cao An grabbed Yan Peng's hand and said with a smile: "At that time... you must have been in pain too..."

What was conveyed were not words of self-blame, but genuine empathy and warm words that made Shi Peng unable to hold back his tears any longer. However, he was afraid of waking up the bandits next to him, so he could only suppress his voice and cry silently.

It's so strange. I only have one eye left, but tears still flow all over my face.

A word "slave" was carved on Cao An's forehead. As the wounds from kowtow gradually healed and scabbed, they became more and more obvious, making his whole face look extremely terrifying.

Duan Hongzhi and Liang Gaocheng naturally would not let Cao An go easily. They made Cao An do the most tiring work every day, and beating and scolding were common occurrences. He suffered a lot.

Everyone was afraid of being implicated, so naturally no one dared to get close to Cao An.

Shi Peng only dared to approach Cao An when it was late at night and everyone was asleep.

As time went on, all the people who came at the same time were sold out, and only Cao An and Shi Peng were left coming and going. Because of their facial defects, no one was willing to hire people like Cao An and Shi Peng.

The two people who could not be sold had no value, so they naturally stayed in the mountains and worked as laborers for the bandits.

Whenever any of the bandits was unhappy, they would take it out on the two of them, leaving no one intact.

Life in the mountains is extremely hard, not much better than during the war. The only consolation is that as long as they work hard, they don't have to worry about dying tomorrow.

Although Cao An is smaller than Shi Peng, he is much stronger than Shi Peng. He is afraid that Shi Peng may get hurt easily because he cannot see with his left eye, so Cao An always walks on the left side of Shi Peng.

Whenever Shi Peng secretly sobbed, Cao An would comfort him and say, "It's good to have these scars. This way we can stay together forever and never be separated again."

The two men did not give up hope. They took advantage of the time they spent chopping wood in the mountains to observe how the bandits went up and down the mountain. If there was a chance, they decided to escape together.

Every day when they went up the mountain to chop wood, they would find a secluded place, pick herbs, and heal each other's wounds.

In fact, they don’t know which herbs are effective, they just think that applying the cool herbal juice on the body will relieve some pain.

One day, the two men hid in a secluded place as usual, grinding the herbal juice with stones, and then lifted up their clothes to reveal their scarred skin, preparing to smear it on each other's bodies.

There was a rustling sound in the bushes.

The two of them immediately lay on the ground vigilantly, not daring to say a word.

Through the gaps between the leaves, the two could just see the man's appearance. Even if they didn't speak, they could recognize that they were Duan Hongzhi and Liang Gaocheng.

Duan Hongzhi’s favorite thing on weekdays is the knife, and he likes to play with it in his hands when he has nothing to do.

After making sure there was no one around, the man said, "Are you all ready?"

The man was not tall, but his voice was very intimidating and he had a big beard on his face.

Duan Hongzhi said confidently: "Don't worry, everything is ready. We can do it tonight." As he spoke, Duan Hongzhi made a gesture of wiping his neck with a ferocious expression.

"That's good. Once the matter on the mountain is over, you can find a chance to go down the mountain."

"Okay, wait for our good news tonight at midnight!" Liang Gaocheng replied with certainty.

The two didn't know what they were talking about, but it was definitely not a good thing. On this day, for the first time ever, Duan Hongzhi and Liang Gaocheng did not come to trouble them. They were very vigilant the whole day and secretly talked about something with others.

No one knew where the bandit leader's close associates had gone.

The two men exchanged glances, their eyes full of determination. They felt that today was the chance to leave, so they took a gamble and did not return to the place where they were imprisoned, but hid in a more secluded place.

Sure enough, no one cared whether they went back or not.

At night, when it was time to sleep, fires broke out in the mountains, the sound of swords and knives could be heard everywhere, and shouts and screams resounded throughout the entire forest.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the two men ran all the way down the forest. They didn't care about their clothes being torn by the grass branches in the mountains, and they didn't dare to look back. They ran as fast as they could until dawn, and only stopped in Zhouqing Town.

The two of them found a place where they could see the rising sun, lay on their backs, looked at the rising sun, took a long breath, and then smiled at each other.

Fortunately, it is summer, and my body is warm from running, so there is a hint of warmth even in the early morning.

The morning sun sparkled in their eyes.

In order to survive, the two men covered the scars on their faces with their hair and found a courtyard full of beggars and refugees to live in.

Although I could only do the lowest level of work and still had to go hungry, I was very happy and content as I no longer had to live in fear.

Occasionally have a night talk.

The two of them sat among the grass, with beautiful flowers growing all around them. When they lightly touched the leaves of the grass, tiny sparks of firefly flew out from the bushes.

Cao An looked at the plants and trees nearby, his eyes sparkling, and said with hope: "When we save more money, I will take you to Yunqiang Country. It is a very beautiful place."

Shi Peng looked at the stars in the sky and said, "Can we really go?"

"Certainly possible!"

Cao An suddenly thought of something, looked at Shi Peng and said, "I heard that a family just came to town, and they are currently recruiting servants, and they said that they don't care about background. I want to give it a try first."

There are very few jobs that don't care about one's background. Shi Peng didn't believe that such a good thing would happen, but he believed in Cao An and nodded with a smile.

Cao An continued, "If possible, once you finish your work, you can come with us so that we can continue to keep each other company."

"it is good."

Cao An is always like this, always walking in front of him. It seems that as long as Cao An is there, he has the courage to go anywhere.

The owners of this house had not been in Zhouqing Town for long, and few people in the town knew their names.

The matter of recruiting servants was handled by the young master of that family. The next day, Cao An walked into the family's courtyard with trepidation.

Although Cao An had a scar on his forehead, it did not affect his work. In addition, the young man was kind-hearted, so he stayed in the mansion.

After several days of observation, Cao An found that the owners of this house were indeed kind-hearted people, especially the young master of the family. Although he was a young master, he did not have the temper of a young master at all.

When he saw the servants in the mansion working, he would help them as long as he had free time. He was also willing to mingle and chat with the servants, and the servants also had their own residences in the mansion.

Recently, the young man from that family met a very learned scholar. The scholar's life story was also very pitiful because his parents died in the war, leaving him alone.

The young master thought that he was knowledgeable, and the two of them had similar personalities and chatted happily. Before long, they became friends and the young master was willing to pay to help him pass the imperial examination.

Cao An told Shi Peng about everything that happened in the mansion when he had some free time.

Shi Peng couldn't help but yearn for that mansion.

He planned to go to the mansion with Cao An after finishing the work on hand.

After wandering for so long, it would be a good place to call home if I could have a stable place to spend the rest of my life.

But... after Cao An went out this time, Shi Peng never waited for Cao An to come back, but instead waited for bad news.

"Oh no! I heard that everyone in that nameless mansion disappeared overnight. They are nowhere to be found in the entire Zhouqing Town. Could it be a haunted house?"

"It shouldn't be a haunted house. It seems that someone in the mansion colluded with the thieves outside and dug a hole in the corner of the house in an attempt to seize the property of that family. They have been caught by the government and executed on the spot."

At first, Shi Peng just listened to it as a story. After the war, such things were very common, so he did not stop working.

At this time, a beggar who was passing by said: "I heard about this too. I heard that it was a child with a word carved on his forehead. That scene..." The beggar shook himself and said with a look of fear: "It's scary to think about it. I'd better not go there recently."

With a 'clang', the swill bucket in Shi Peng's hand fell to the ground.

He didn't even care about the insults coming from behind or the possibility of losing his job. He ran forward and quickly grabbed the beggar passing by. He was trembling with fear and asked anxiously: "That little... little kid, what is the word... on his forehead?"

The beggar looked a little embarrassed, scratched his head and said embarrassedly: "This... I can't read, how about you ask someone else?"

Shi Peng held the beggar's hand tightly and did not let go. Although Shi Peng was not thirsty, his throat felt tight. After swallowing a mouthful of saliva, he trembled and made a sound with difficulty.

"How is he...how is he?"

Hearing this, the beggar was stunned for a moment, then he sighed and shook his head, saying, "Dead."

Shi Peng stood there in a daze for a long time, his hands hanging limply on both sides of his body. He was unable to recover for a long time, and only two words kept repeating in his mind.

"died……"

It's impossible. How could such a strong person like Cao An die?

It must be someone else!

Yes, it must be someone else!

They have survived through such hardships, Cao An, will surely live up to his name, be blessed with good fortune, and live a safe and long life!

"No...It's impossible. He will never die!" Shi Peng said in panic, as if he was possessed by a demon.

The beggar next to him wanted to leave, but in the end he patted Shi Peng on the shoulder and comforted him: "That child looks about your age. Maybe he is not the one you know. His body is in that house. You can go and have a look."

"But..." The beggar felt a little reluctant, but still said truthfully: "But the scene is not very good. If you want to watch it, you have to be mentally prepared."

Shi Peng certainly didn't believe it and ran towards the house madly, but when he got closer he slowed down and walked towards the house step by step, shaking his body.

The house was crowded with people watching the fun, and among the crowd there were a few familiar figures, including Duan Hongzhi, Liang Gaocheng, and the man who had conspired with them.

But now he has disguised himself as an ordinary citizen.

The government executioner was also there, and blood was dripping from the long sword.

The people around would give way when they saw it.

Afraid of being recognized by them, Shi Peng hid and squeezed into the mansion. Finally, he found the body in a quiet and deserted corner of the abandoned house. Behind the body was a hole that was only big enough for a child to squeeze through.

You can tell at first glance that it was newly dug.

The head of the unclaimed body rolled to the side, with its eyes facing outwards.

Shi Peng covered his mouth to prevent himself from screaming, and stared into the wide-open eyes quietly. His legs lost the strength to support him, and he slid down to the ground, leaning against the wall behind him.

Those eyes that should have been bright now lost their focus and became empty.

This is a fact that Shi Peng is unwilling to believe.

Cao An is really dead...