long moon smiles in the sky

Zhan Zhao led Zhang Long and Zhao Hu to rush outside the west city gate along with the yamen servant who came to report the letter. Bai Yutang had already entered the restaurant, but after thinking about it, he turned around and followed, "Cat, I'm going too... ..."

When I came outside the city gate, I saw that many spectators had surrounded there,

"Master Zhan." Chao Mahan had already arrived first, and ordered a few yamen servants to surround the small forest on the side of the official road.

"How is it?" Zhan Zhao stepped forward and asked.

"It's like a vendetta." Ma Han led Zhan Zhao into the woods.As soon as he entered the bamboo forest, Zhan Zhao smelled a strange smell and frowned slightly.Not far away, there were many corpses lying on the ground in disorder, all with swords sealing their throats, and interestingly, those who were killed did not seem to be good people, all of them were wearing night clothes and holding knives in their hands.

"Let's fight privately." A voice came, Zhan Zhao looked up helplessly, and saw Bai Yutang standing on the soft stem of a green bamboo above, looking down.

Zhang Long, Zhao Hu and others all opened their mouths wide to look at Bai Yutang, and it took a long time before they called out, "Fifth Master."

Bai Yutang smiled at them, looked at Zhan Zhao, "Mao'er, the sword technique for killing people belongs to Mohua Palace."

Zhan Zhao looked up at him in surprise, "How do you know? Besides, don't all Mohua Palaces use whips? They use swords instead?"

Bai Yutang winked at him and smiled, "Believe it or not is up to you."

Seeing Bai Yutang's mysterious look, Zhan Zhao nodded to Zhang Long and Zhao Hu, signaling them to look at the scene first, then jumped up, grabbed Bai Yutang and ran into the forest.

When they reached a place where no one was around, they landed, and Bai Yutang snatched back his clothes, "Take it easy, my sister-in-law made new ones, if I break them, I'll be miserable when I go back."

"Don't be a fool, tell me." Zhan Zhao glared at him, "How do you know that this sword technique belongs to Mohua Palace?"

After tidying up his clothes, Bai Yutang said nonchalantly, "It's a long story, isn't my sister-in-law already?"

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Sister-in-law had it half a year ago, and now the baby is almost born, why do you have to start so long?"

"What are you in a hurry for?" Bai Yutang stared at Zhan Zhao, "I'm almost getting to the point."

"Speak." Zhan Zhao picked up a rock and sat down while holding the giant que, waiting for Bai Yutang to speak.

"The eldest nephew will be born in two days, don't I want to give him a welcome gift?" Bai Yutang said.

"Nephew?" Zhan Zhao smiled, "Are you sure it's a boy?"

"Yes." Bai Yutang nodded, then gave Zhan Zhao another look, "Don't interrupt."

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows, motioning for Bai Yutang to continue talking.

"I went to Tianshan a while ago." Bai Yutang continued, "I want to catch two silver foxes and make a jacket for Zhen'er to put in a small bed, just in time for the winter."

"Zhen'er?" Zhan Zhao smiled again, "Lu Zhen?"

"Yeah." Bai Yutang nodded again, then stared, "Don't interrupt."

"How long do you have to get to the point?" Zhan Zhao was dissatisfied.

"Hurry up." Bai Yutang waved his hand, "When I was catching the silver fox, I accidentally broke into the forbidden area of ​​the Mohua Palace, and then I got into a fight with some Mohua Palace guards, and then a supervisor came, The skill is good, the sword technique he used can match the sword wounds on the bodies of the victims just now."

Zhan Zhao blinked, and Bai Yutang took a breath, and blinked at him too.

"No more?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Well, it's gone." Bai Yutang nodded.

"that's it?"

"that's it."

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang weakly, "Who is that person who fought against you? And why are you so sure about the same sword skills?"

"I didn't ask who that person was." Bai Yutang shrugged, "After two tricks, the owner of Mo Hua Palace came, and then he said it was a misunderstanding and left."

"The lord of Mo Hua Palace?" Zhan Zhao was interested, "Didn't you say that this person is mysterious? Male or female?" After thinking about it, he did not forget to emphasize, "This is the point."

"I don't know." Bai Yutang replied.

"Don't know?" Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang in surprise, "You can't tell the difference between male and female?"

"He's wearing a big cloak, with a white veil covering his face, and his voice is so low that he can't distinguish between men and women." Bai Yutang thought for a while, and said, "But I think it should be a man."

"How to say?" Zhan Zhao was curious.

"He is very rude to me." Bai Yutang said, "No woman in this world would treat me like that."

Zhan Zhao rolled his eyes, "Not necessarily, maybe the girl is jealous that you look better than him?"

"Dead cat!" Bai Yutang hated people to say that he was beautiful, that he was like a woman, and would hit him whenever he felt uncomfortable.

Zhan Zhao saw that Bai Yutang had turned his back on him, so he quickly dodged two moves, "Are you kidding me, what about the sword skills? Let's talk about the case."

"...I remember the moves." Bai Yutang gave Zhan Zhao a squinting look, picked up a bamboo branch and gestured to Zhan Zhao twice, "When they use their swords, their movements are very strange. There’s a checkmark ticked backwards.”

Zhan Zhao nodded thoughtfully after listening, "Hmm...it's really weird to say that."

"I'm leaving." Bai Yutang turned to leave.

"Ah... Yutang." Zhan Zhao stepped forward and pulled Bai Yutang back, seeing his complexion, he said, "Angry? I'm kidding you, women are not as good-looking as you are, er, no, you are prettier than women There are too many... Regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, you are the prettiest!"

Bai Yutang made Zhan Zhao laugh angrily, but seeing Zhan Zhao pretending to be joking and really apologizing, he couldn't be any more angry.At this time, Zhang Long ran over, "Master Zhan, we found something strange."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, and walked back together. When they reached the corpse, Wang Chao and Ma Han pointed to a corpse lying on the ground. open.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at it and then frowned, and saw that under the torn clothes, that is, on the back of the deceased, there was a tattoo of an unfolded eagle, where the eagle's head was, but a snake's head.

"Snake Eagle Sect?" Bai Yutang was surprised, Zhan Zhao also frowned deeply, and turned to ask him, "Brother Bai, how much do you know about Snake Eagle Sect?"

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, "I know it's a demon sect that specializes in evil... But hasn't it been active in the Mobei area? Why did you come to Kaifeng and be slaughtered?"

"My lord, don't you care about this matter?" Zhao Hu turned his head and glanced at Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao also understood in his heart that it is difficult for the government to intervene in general vendettas, not to mention that the Snake Eagle Sect was originally a harmful cult that the court ordered to eradicate. .

"Well, take them all back and let the adults decide." Zhan Zhao waved his hand to everyone, signaling to carry all the corpses back, while he and Bai Yutang started turning around in the forest again.

"The horses seem to have run away." Bai Yutang looked at the messy horseshoe marks on the ground, and said, "These people seem to be on their way, and then they were ambushed."

Zhan Zhao looked down at the ground carefully, and said, "It feels like there is only one person fighting against them."

"Yeah." Bai Yutang also agreed, and when he turned around, he felt something flash in the grass not far away. Bai Yutang walked over and pushed the grass away, "Cat!"

Zhan Zhao turned around and saw Bai Yutang squatting beside the grass.

"Look what this is." Bai Yutang pointed to the grass, and Zhan Zhao lowered his head to get closer, and saw a tiny jade stone in the grass.Reaching out to pick it up, the two of them took a closer look and saw that it was a jade hand as big as a finger.

"It seems to have fallen from some kind of jade carving." Bai Yutang took the exquisitely carved jade hand and looked at it, "The top-quality Hetian jade, let alone the sculpture itself, is probably worth the price of just this small piece of jade hand." Not cheap."

"The shape of the hand is so strange." Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, "It looks familiar."

Bai Yutang also stared at that hand in a daze, "Yeah... where did you see it?" He saw that jade hand was white and round, it seemed to be a woman's hand, the hand and half of the forearm were plump, and the style was like The strangest thing about the jade carvings of the Tang Dynasty is that there is an eye on the palm of the hand...

"Ah!" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang yelled at the same time, remembering—"Avalokitesvara!"

"Wow, cat." Bai Yutang looked left and right while holding the jade hand, "This jade hand is worth at least 100 taels of gold, and the thousand hands are not 1 taels of gold, and that doesn't even count as the Bodhisattva."

Zhan Zhao couldn't help crying and laughing, took out a handkerchief to hug Yushou, and stuffed it into his bosom, "Just say it, be careful Bodhisattva will accept you."

The two turned around a few more times, but found nothing, so they left the woods and walked back. It was already noon.

"Cat, are you going to eat?" Bai Yutang asked.

"I want to take this jade hand back to Lord Bao first." Zhan Zhao said.

"Then I'll go to the first-class building and ask for a private room." Bai Yutang said, "You can find me there after you finish your business."

"Okay." Zhan Zhao nodded, and the two headed to Kaifeng and Yipinlou, and they split up after entering the city gate.

Zhan Zhao returned to Kaifeng mansion with that jade hand, saw a big sedan chair parked at the door, thought for a while, and went in through the side door.

"Where's your lord?" Zhan Zhao asked Zhang Long and Zhao Hu who came out of the study.

"Master Liu from the Privy Council is here, and the two are chatting." Zhang Long whispered to Zhan Zhao, "These corpses are said to be handed over to the Privy Council."

Zhan Zhao frowned slightly when he heard this, "Isn't the Privy Council in charge of the imperial guards? It's also in charge of investigating cases?"

"I heard that a new martial arts champion named Deng Jie was recently admitted. The emperor admired him very much and sent him to command a secret guard of the Imperial Army. He is a member of the Privy Council and specializes in investigating the Snake Eagle Sect." Zhao Hu said, "Snake Eagle Cult has acted a little arrogantly recently, endangering the village and colluding with local officials... The emperor seems to want to eradicate them."

"Oh..." Zhan Zhao nodded, "Why are you two so clear?"

Zhang Long and Zhao Hu looked at each other, and said with some embarrassment, "We go to court with your lord every day, and we always wait at the gate of the palace. People there talk a lot, and we hear a lot."

Zhan Zhao nodded and asked, "Where is Mr. Gongsun?"

"In Wu Zuo's room." Zhao Hu said, "He said to look at the corpse first."

"I'll go find him." Zhan Zhao turned around and went to Zuo Zuofang.

The Wu Zuofang of Kaifeng Mansion is on the west side, basically not in the government office, but in a small room next to the prison of Kaifeng Mansion, surrounded by several layers of courtyards.

Zhan Zhao was still thinking that Bai Yutang was waiting for him at the Yipin Building, so he didn't bother to walk on the flat ground, so he went straight to the roof of Wu Zuo's house with a few vertical jumps, and jumped down immediately.

Just at this time, someone came out of the room, seeing Zhan Zhao, he jumped off the roof violently, that person took a step back in shock, only then did he see clearly that it was Zhan Zhao, and heaved a sigh of relief.

The person in front of him was wearing a green shirt, and he looked to be in his 20s. He had a clean and handsome appearance, but he looked sickly and cold.

"Sir." Zhan Zhao smiled apologetically at Gongsun, "Scared you?"

Seeing that it was Zhan Zhao, Gongsun also smiled at him and asked, "In such a hurry?"

"Hmm." Zhan Zhao asked, "Is there anything wrong with the corpse?"

Gongsun shook his head lightly, "It's just a sword wound... the murderer is the same person, and his martial arts skills are very strong."

"Oh." Zhan Zhao nodded, and stretched out his hand to show Gongsun the jade hand in his bosom, "Sir, let's see what it is."

Zhan Zhao knew that Gongsun was well-read and knowledgeable, so he wanted to ask him if he recognized it. Gongsun took the jade hand and looked at it. He was slightly taken aback, and asked Zhan Zhao, "Where did you get it?"

"In that dead man's forest." Zhan Zhao said, "Yutang found it in the grass."

"Bai Yutang is here?" Gongsun looked at Zhan Zhao with a smile, "No wonder you're in such a hurry."

Zhan Zhao's face was slightly embarrassed, and he said, "Just two drinks..."

Gongsun walked into the courtyard, raised his hand, and held that jade hand up to the sunlight. In an instant, through the eyes of that jade hand, colorful rays of light shone...

Zhan Zhao was dumbfounded, and asked Gongsun, "Sir, what kind of jade is this, so magical?"

Gongsun shook his head lightly, and said, "This jade is indeed a good jade, but what is even more impressive is the craftsmanship of the carving."

"Can you see where it came from?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously, "It looks like it came down from Avalokitesvara."

"It does." Gongsun nodded, and just as he was talking, Wang Chao ran over, "Sir, my lord is looking for you."

Gongsun put the jade hand back into the veil, and said to Zhan Zhao, "You go to eat, I will give it to your lord, anyway, this case is going to the Privy Council, so you don't have to worry about it."

"That's fine." Zhan Zhao turned over on the roof, turned to Gongsun and said, "Sir, I'm leaving, I'll bring you some snacks when I come back!" After speaking, he left the courtyard wall and hurried to Yipin Building.