Minghua Qiushi

Just as I was talking, I suddenly saw a few people wearing Miao Jiang clothes at the counter of the inn arguing with the shopkeeper. Like? Dare to take money from me? Don't kill me!" After saying that, he was about to hit him with a punch.

Seeing this, Wang Qiu yelled: "Stop!"

Those people turned their heads, and the leader glared and said: "What? There are still people looking for a beating? Brothers, let's beat them together!"

Pingxuan and the others didn't even bother to take out their swords, they just used the scabbard to block those Miao people to the ground.The leader got up, picked up a pot of hot red oil hot pot on the table, and poured it towards Wang Qiu and the others, Yuhua grabbed Wang Qiu into his arms, and turned around again, just in time to avoid the splashed red oil.My goodness, it doesn't look good in the face.It's strange that Wang Qiu is not used to being protected by Yuhua, he used to always protect him behind his back, but now this person is taller than him and his shoulders are wider than him, but he is protecting him instead.

The hall was in chaos, when suddenly a group of patrolling guards entered, led by a handsome young man, who immediately ordered these Miaojiang people to be tied up.The man stepped forward and cupped his hands and said, "You are the Taoists of the Qionghua Sect? Qi Lian is a subordinate of the city lord of Jincheng and is responsible for the security of Jincheng. Today I heard that the Taoist priests of the Qionghua Sect came here to help investigate the case. I feel disappointed. What a disrespect. Recently, a group of people from Miaojiang came to Jincheng to make troubles and disturbed all the priests. It is my dereliction of duty, and I hope to make amends."

Wang Qiu sees that this person handles things neatly, is well-mannered, and looks refreshing, and secretly praises him in his heart.I only heard Pingxuan said: "Master Qi is polite, the general situation of the case has been explained to me by the disciples stationed there, and I just want to ask Sir Qi to assist in the investigation of the case. I am waiting for a visit at home, and I just happened to meet here."

Qi Lian said: "I have been investigating this case, but I have no clue. With the help of all the priests, I will be able to eliminate the harm for the people in one fell swoop. Taoist, please tell me this way." Qi Lian found a clean place The tables and chairs invited everyone to sit down, and Xiaoer was served tea before telling the case one by one.

"The thing is like this. From about two months ago, seven people disappeared every ten days in Jincheng, and now there are forty missing people. I have already checked all the local hooligans in the city, as well as the surrounding mountains. None of the thieves and robbers found anything suspicious, because our city lord always pays attention to law and order, and these people who may commit crimes are usually registered and closely monitored, and they dare not act recklessly. Moreover, it is indeed strange that such a big case has no clues. " Qi Lian said.

"Are there any witnesses?" Ping Xuan asked.

"No, the missing persons all disappeared suddenly at night, and the perpetrators acted very fast. Usually, it took several hours for someone to disappear. Moreover, most of the missing persons were ordinary people, and their identities and ages were different, and there was no pattern. , Jincheng has a population of 10, so it's really not easy to monitor." Qi Lian said.

Yuhua heard the words and asked: "Master Qi, you just said that forty people have disappeared, and seven people disappeared every ten days. This is a strange pattern. I wonder when someone disappeared recently?"

"Five people have disappeared in the past two days, so we have also been on strict alert recently."

Yuhua said: "Young Master Song, our investigation time must be very tight, maybe someone will go missing soon."

Ping Xuan nodded in agreement, "Master Qi, may I ask who are the five people who disappeared recently?"

Qi Lian said: "A rich merchant, a butcher, a pharmacist, a woodcutter, and a scholar."

Ping Xuan said: "Do these people know each other? Or is there any connection?"

Qi Lian frowned and said, "These people live in scattered places. Due to time constraints, I was busy on patrol, so I haven't had time to investigate in detail. But judging from the disappearances in the past, there is no connection between the missing people worth paying attention to. "

Wang Qiu said: "Senior brother, it's not too late, why don't we go to these people's homes to investigate and see if we can find anything suspicious, how about it?"

Ping Xuan said: "I also have that intention."

A group of people were going to go out, Qi Lian was with Yuhua and the others, another patrol member was with Pingxuan and the others, Wang Qiu naturally wanted to go with Yuhua and the others, causing Pingxuan and Qingyu to look sideways again.

When I came to the scholar's house in the east of the city, the family seemed to be quite poor. I saw an old woman sitting on the ground crying, crying, "My poor son! Your life is so miserable." ah!"

Wang Qiu went up to help the old woman up, and asked: "Ma'am, we are here to investigate the case, Lord Qi is also here, can you tell us about the situation?"

When the old woman saw that it was Qi Lian, she knelt down and said excitedly, "My lord! My lord, I beg you to save my son!"

Qi Lian said, "Get up and speak slowly."

After consoling the old woman for a long time, she stabilized her mood and said, "Yesterday, when the results of the imperial examination were announced, my son knew that he failed the exam again. I saw that he was in a bad mood, so I didn't bother him. But when I got up in the morning, I found that he was gone. .My son has been smart since he was a child. He studies very hard and is filial to us. It’s just that the imperial examinations have not been smooth. I failed the exam three times before. I thought it would be no big problem if I failed the exam this time, so I didn't care too much about his bad complexion yesterday, but he disappeared today! My son couldn't think about it, right?" After saying that, he started crying again.

Qi Lian said: "Don't be sad, old man, we will investigate clearly."

In the next family, this family lived in the outskirts of the city, and the missing owner made a living by chopping firewood.Seeing people from the patrol team bringing cultivators to this ordinary house, a few neighbors who love to watch the excitement came to watch.The woodcutter lived alone, with no one at home.Qi Lian went over to ask the neighbors who were watching the fun, and one of them said, "Speaking of which, I don't know whether it's good luck or bad luck."

"How do you say that?" Yuhua asked.

"Yesterday he went up the mountain to cut firewood and accidentally fell off the cliff, but he was slightly injured when he fell from such a high cliff. He was lucky enough, but he disappeared today. See, the unlucky ones will be unlucky in the end." , who will God spare?"

The last family Wang Qiu and his team investigated was the butcher, but no one opened the door no matter how hard they knocked, so Wang Qiu had to ask the neighbors again.

"Master Qi, is this Wang Si really captured by a monster?" said one.

The other muttered in a low voice: "That's not necessarily true. Could it be that he fled in fear of crime?"

"That's right, murder pays for life, if he doesn't run away, he will definitely be beheaded!"

"Did you say he killed someone?" Wang Qiu asked.

A bold one came up and said: "Yes, yes, just yesterday, Wang Si was selling pork in the market, but he got into an argument with someone for some reason. I don’t know who made the first move, but he stabbed the man to death! Many people in the market saw it! This Wang Si must have been frightened, so he turned his face and ran away. Isn’t this absconding in fear of crime or something?”

Everyone was chattering, some were describing the tragic state of the murdered man, some were talking about how nasty the two quarreled and scolded each other, gossip endlessly.This investigation took two hours. Seeing that it was getting late, Wang Qiu and the others hurried back to the inn to meet Pingxuan and the others.

After returning to the inn, they saw that Pingxuan and the others had already returned, so they sat together and discussed their findings. Ping Xuan investigated the rich businessman and the shopkeeper of the pharmacy, "There is nothing suspicious about this rich businessman, but the shopkeeper of the pharmacy disappeared yesterday. A few people from Miaojiang smashed up the shop before, and today we also saw that those people from Miaojiang were very arrogant and domineering. I am afraid that they did it, so we followed a few of them, but these people seem to be some rascals in the market, and they are not Find something unusual."

"We've paid attention to these Miao people a long time ago, and they are indeed just mobs," Qi Lian said.

Yuhua said: "When we investigated these three people, more or less unfortunate things happened to them, and the shopkeeper of the pharmacy you investigated, Mr. Song, did the same. Could this be the common point?"

Qing Yu said: "That's not true, the missing rich businessman just married his daughter-in-law yesterday, his son is still a fool, he waited for several years to find a woman willing to marry into their family, he was just happy for a day, and disappeared last night. "

Wang Qiu said: "This is strange. These people don't know each other, and they didn't offend anyone together. If it's evil spirits, why do they pick seven people every few days? I really have no idea."

Yuhua said: "It's not all clueless. Before these people disappeared, they all experienced happy or sad or terrible things. Maybe this is the law."

Qi Lian said: "What this young master said is very true. We have never thought about it before. Now that I think about it, the missing person is also in the same situation. I will come to ask for advice after I go back and check the files." He bowed his hands and said goodbye, and hurried back.

In less than an hour, Qi Lian came back around the evening, and he had already listed the results on the paper. The identity, age, and what happened to each batch of missing persons were listed on the paper. There are six batches of five people missing this time, which is very clear.Wang Qiu secretly praised this person in his heart, although he is not good at analyzing and judging cases, but he is very capable in handling affairs. I hope that the city lord has such a talent by his side, and it is also a good way to employ people.

Several people looked at the information listed on the paper and thought about it, Wang Qiu said: "According to this rule, there will be two more missing persons in this group, do we have to investigate all the people in the city who have experienced great joy and sorrow?"

Yuhua rested her chin on one hand, thinking: "No, the same pattern can be summed up in the events of these six groups of missing persons, which may help us narrow down the scope."

"What rule?" Qi Lian asked.

"Seven emotions."

"Yuhua, are you talking about the seven emotions and six desires?" Wang Qiu asked.

"It's the seven emotions of joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear, and shock. Just take the five people who disappeared recently. The idiot of a rich businessman married for joy, and the shopkeeper of the drug store was smashed for no reason. Failure to succeed after repeated trials is a cause of worry, a butcher who kills someone by mistake is a cause of fear, and a woodcutter who does not know how to fall off a cliff is a cause of shock, so the remaining two are just thoughts and sorrows. You can see that the previous five batches of missing persons can all be matched. This law." Yuhua pointed to the paper and explained.

When everyone thought about it, it was indeed the case, and it was really not easy to find out if there was no comparison.Qi Lian said: "It's not very easy to investigate, but it's okay to be sad. I'll go and investigate to see which family in the city died accidentally in the past two days."

Wang Qiu said: "The murderer's purposeful arrest is probably because he is practicing some kind of evil skill. It is probably not done by ordinary people."

Ping Xuan said: "It is very likely that evil spirits are causing the trouble." When everyone heard the words, their faces were solemn.

While Qi Lian went to the city to investigate, everyone went back to their rooms to rest.Seeing Yuhua sitting alone in the room drinking tea, Wang Qiu went in to talk with him. "What are you thinking about?"

Seeing Wang Qiu coming, Yuhua quickly poured him a cup of tea and said, "It's nothing, just thinking of some old things."

Wang Qiu saw that his hair was slightly disheveled, since Yuhua suddenly grew into an adult in Baicao Mountain that day, he never tied his hair, and never lived with him again.I always feel that I can't be as unscrupulous as before, but instead have a sense of distance.Maybe it is such a person who makes people feel that they can only be watched from a distance and not played with, forgetting Qiu Xindao.

Seeing him in a daze, Yuhua handed him two things, a leaf and a crystal-like bead.

"what is this?"

"This is my leaf. Putting it on your body can communicate with me. The Jincheng incident this time is extraordinary, so you must take it with you just in case. This is the spirit of Andrographis, a veteran of the demon spirit clan. You can use it to Know what other people are thinking, and you put it on your body for emergencies." Yuhua said.

Seeing his concerned expression, Wang Qiu hurriedly hid the leaves and essence close to his body.