Murder

Including the madam of Furongyuan, the mothers of Jinyanchi have no impression of Peipei.

"19 years ago... In 19 years, the people here have changed twice. Who remembers what happened 19 years ago?" The mother of Furongyuan was very dissatisfied. "I took over Furongyuan ten years ago. It’s even more impossible to know these things.”

The girls in Jinyanchi are not very old, and they started to find their own way when they were in their twenties. Now, no one here still remembers a girl who hanged herself to death many years ago. When asked, they looked at each other and said they couldn't help.

"Among the people who work in the Golden Mist Pond, who stayed here 19 years ago?" Sima Feng asked.

"That's true." The bustards dispersed after talking, and after a while, some elderly men and women were brought over.

These people are all people who have worked here for many years in Jinyan Pond, and two of them are actually midwives.The rest of the population couldn't find any clues, but two midwives mentioned something.

The two stayed in Jinyan Pond for many years, dispensing medicines for the girls to have babies or delivering babies. Most of the children they gave birth could not be kept, and they were all sent outside Jinyan Pond, or they would be sold when they were raised to a slightly sensible age. Serving as slaves in other houses.Both of them remember Peipei, because Peipei gave birth to a pair of twins at the time.

Although there are many women in Jinyanchi, very few of them can give birth smoothly.One is that the bustards and tortoise slaves are very nervous. Once they find any signs, they immediately call a midwife or a doctor to give them medicine to give birth. Second, the girls themselves know that most of the men who come here for sex are married, and they will do it even if they have children. Can't count.But Peipei fell in love with that man sincerely, and concealed it. When he was found out, he was unable to conceive and could only give birth to the child.The midwife stayed in Jinyan Pond for so long, and not many twins have been delivered. Peipei had a hard time giving birth, and it took more than a day, so the two wives remembered her firmly.

Peipei was a popular girl in the Furong Courtyard at that time, and the bustard kept guarding outside the room, and when the child came out, she immediately took over and gave it away.Peipei tried his best to leave only one, and was so angry that he smashed the bed and cried.

"To whom?" Chi Yebai asked.

"Some paihuazi are very well-informed. Baba guards the back door of the brothel. As soon as the child comes out, he takes away the child and sells it. It is said to be a gift, but it is actually sold elsewhere." , he can't remember either."

Another midwife interjected: "I just remember it was a boy, and there was no birthmark on him, so I can't get it back."

"What about the rest?" Chi Yebai put that one aside, and then asked about the other child, "Why did Peipei hang herself? Where did the child go after she died?"

"Peipei died because of her unbearable illness." The midwife whispered, her voice was a little sad, "After giving birth, her price dropped, and the mother in Furongyuan said that she spent a lot of money during childbirth. She picked up a lot of guests, and urged her to pick up the guests before she recovered. She came and went again and again, and there were some problems that couldn't be shaken off."

When Peipei died, he was as skinny as a stick, and had been driven by the bustard to stay in the woodshed in the backyard.The thin child has been by her side, not good at speaking, only used to timidly grabbing his mother's sleeve.

The Golden Mist Pond receives guests from all walks of life, there are those who spend money like water, and naturally there are also those who are poor.Every brothel has a row of firewood houses in the backyard. Sometimes there are sundries in the firewood houses, and sometimes there are girls like Peipei who can't sell them for a good price.Although the price is not good, people can use it—a man with little property can open the curtain and get into the woodshed if he generously spends a dozen or twenty Wen.Peipei lived in the woodshed for more than a year. She suffered a lot and cried day and night.She no longer needed to take medicine, and seeing herself getting weaker day by day, she finally put on the best clothes, shoes and socks, and died by herself.

"When Peipei picked up the guests, the child was playing in the yard outside. But some guests were so weird that they liked to bring the child into the room for him to watch. But if you spend money, you are the uncle. Who can say no?" The midwife whispered, "Peipei was the one who found out after she hanged herself. She couldn't speak anymore and kept standing in the yard crying. Oh, it's so pitiful."

But the midwife didn't know where the child went now, she only knew that the mother of Furongyuan also sold him.But the old bustard had passed away long ago, so I couldn't ask for details.

Sima Feng and Chi Yebai left the Golden Smoke Pond and walked together silently.

"Although Peipei sold herself to the Furongyuan, her life and death are still recorded in the household registration office, but her son was missed." Chi Yebai frowned, "I'll go to the household registration office to check, maybe there are some records I didn’t see it at the time, so I can’t remember it.”

He had exhausted too much energy last night, and had an extremely restless sleep. He kept hearing Sima Feng practicing sword in the yard while he was half asleep and half awake.Although he knew that he wanted to be with him, the sound of sword practice was really loud to Chi Yebai.But he didn't stop Sima Feng in the end, and just fell asleep in a daze until early morning.At this time the two were walking in the sunlight, Sima Feng saw that his face was a little pale, so he squeezed his hand.

"Don't worry, Gan Le is doing an autopsy and can find some clues. Go home and rest."

"I can't rest." Chi Yebai said.

The real reason why he couldn't sleep well was that once he fell into a dream, he would immediately return to that boundless black room.There was no Sima Feng holding a lotus lantern in the dark room, only a thicker and thicker black figure in the corner, silently opening his hands and rushing towards him.

He pressed the bridge of his nose, feeling irritable and uneasy.

That black house was not something he had imagined, but had actually existed.And he tossed and turned last night, and vaguely remembered something.

He had a period of near-destruction when he was young because he couldn't process all the impressions he saw, heard, and smelled.Seeing that he was plugging his ears day and night, with his eyes closed tightly, not daring to look or listen, for fear of making a real noise, his parents hurriedly asked Sima Liang for help.Sima Liangren and Fu Guqing searched all corners of the country to find capable people and strangers to treat him, and took Chi Yebai to his home, and asked Sima Feng to accompany him.

He was blindfolded, the sea breeze and the sound of birds were gone, and the sound of people and carriages was also gone.Sima Feng stayed with him in the deepest yard of the house for three months.

Chi Yebai didn't dare to take a step when he was blindfolded, but when he heard Sima Feng's voice, he immediately opened his hands and grabbed him tightly.Sima Feng took his hand and took him step by step to familiarize himself with the courtyard.

After that, Sima Liangren brought back a person.Chi Yebai was blindfolded and couldn't see the man's face, so he followed Sima Feng and called the man "Sir".

The man took him into a room and taught him how to mentally organize the information he received.The house was full of tall bookshelves, and he touched them one by one, and when he felt flustered, he would turn around and call Sima Feng's name.

Sima Feng always followed behind him, almost inseparable.

Chi Yebai didn't know if that figure was that "Mr."He had never seen him before, and Sima Feng never mentioned it.Sima Liangren told him not to think about it, that expert purposely concealed his identity to help him.So Chi Yebai stopped thinking about it.

He was afraid that he would return to that state.

Every sound of seabirds whistling outside the window reminded him of the fallen ships on the sea, the sinking corpses, the clothes of the corpses and every expression on the corpses.The footsteps of the maid walking outside the door will instantly remind him of every day and night before, and every person who passed by his door. They raised their feet, landed, moved, ran and jumped, and their voices were as clear as in his ears. Writhing, he lay on the ground and cried loudly, and then immediately recalled the memory of how he cried because he fell, lost his toy, and temporarily escaped from his mother's arms.

He can't control it, his memory is exhaustive, and a seemingly irrelevant detail can recall all the things he has seen and heard.

Since Sima Liangren told him not to force himself to think about it, he didn't recall it.The memory that became blurred because of the intervention of "Mr." was the dividing line between his confusion and clarity.

Chi Yebai was indeed grateful to that "sir".If it weren't for him, I wouldn't necessarily be crazy.

"Sima, do you remember what happened when we were young?" Chi Yebai asked Sima Feng.

Sima Feng said of course he remembered. "You were very playful when you were young. You had a chubby face, and you could make a mark when you pinch it..."

"Then do you remember that 'Mr.'?" Chi Yebai said, "Mr. who treated me."

Sima Feng stopped talking immediately.He thought that Chi Yebai had remembered something, so he quickly grabbed his hand: "Do you remember him?"

"I remember a little... but not clearly." Chi Yebai saw that he was extremely nervous, and wanted to tease him in his heart, "What? What bad things did you do with that gentleman, so afraid that I will remember it?"

Sima Feng let go of his hand, squeezed his own fingers, with a strange expression: "Anyway, that guy is not a good person."

"He helped me." Chi Yebai said.

Sima Feng was angry: "Is the person who helped you a good person?"

"That's natural." Chi Yebai saw that he wasn't pretending, but was really a little angry, so he continued to laugh, "For example, you, you are a good person."

Although he knew that he was just talking casually for fun, Sima Feng immediately stopped being angry.Chi Yebai didn't laugh very much, so he was happy when he saw him smiling, and he would rather be squeezed out a hundred times than get annoyed.

"Speaking of good people, I've been thinking for the past two days why the murderer insisted on covering the body after the murder. Rongzhu was covered with a quilt from the alley, Xiaoyan was covered with a basket, and Chuntong was sealed with bricks. Sima Feng said, "The murderer is covering up the body, but the way of covering up is obviously not strict. He didn't cover it up to hide the body."

Chi Yebai asked suspiciously, "It's not for hiding, so why?"

"Guilty." Sima Feng rubbed his chin, "The guilt and remorse after the murder made him uneasy, so he clumsily covered up the corpse, which was an apology similar to compensation. I don't understand why he should feel guilty, but today I heard The midwife told this story, and I got a clue."

"Yes, we must find Peipei's child." Chi Yebai whispered, "He is too suspicious."

The two turned a street corner and were about to go to the household registration office while they were talking, when they suddenly saw someone pushing a cart in front of them.A few slop buckets were placed on the cart, which seemed to be unstable.The person pushing the cart parked the cart and moved the cart with a few buckets. Seeing that everything was stable, he pushed the cart forward again.The man was thin and shriveled, and he seemed to have little strength. The tool used to lift the bucket was interesting: the tool looked like a handle, and the switch was held in the hand of the cart pusher. When he squeezed the switch hard, the handle at the front opened. , firmly grasped the handle of the bucket.

Sima Feng took two steps, stopped suddenly, and looked back at the back of the cart pusher.

He remembered what Ah Si said yesterday: the person who poured Ye Xiang in the golden smoke pool had injured his left hand tendons and couldn't lift heavy objects.

"Can't lift heavy things..." He looked at Chi Yebai, and said without a word, "How did he pour Yexiang?"

Chi Yebai: "?"