If you don't count, you will die

After dinner that day, Lin Mu took Shen Shen out of Yuezhu Forest and then left. Shen Mo handed over the investigation of Cao Heming to Su Yuanhuan and went back to the Hall of Peeping Ji.

On the second day, Su Yuanhuan came very early, and the early ones were not like him.

Su Yuanhuan didn't say much when he saw him, and handed him a booklet directly.

Shen Mo knew what it was, and immediately picked it up and looked it up. It recorded Cao Heming's life background and the people and things he had come into contact with in the past year. Everything was listed on it one by one. In just one night, Su Yuanhuan So he checked Cao Heming thoroughly.

The Cao family used to be a well-known scholarly family, but their parents died unexpectedly early, and the family fell into disrepair, leaving only a pair of brothers living outside. Teaching, raising adults, emotionally, it is considered half a son.

And Cao Heming himself valued love and righteousness, and never gave up looking for his younger brother over the years. These things are not difficult to find out, just ask in the Zhenggang Pavilion.

It should be noted that Cao Heming had frequent contact with people in the past year. Except for some doctors and patients, there was only one beggar, or more precisely, a thief.

A person with such an identity seems to have nothing to do with Cao Heming, but it seems to be closely related.

The thief was not very old, he was a habitual thief in Jiuchong Market, he idled around all day long, had no parents, begged for food when he was young, and stole when he grew up.

But it's not a big villain, he used to steal some food and change to satisfy his hunger, and occasionally went to the Law Enforcement Hall to be locked up for a few days, and Cao Heming had close contact with such a person.

The investigation revealed that Cao Heming often helped this person during this year, giving him some food, clothing and even money, but the thief was used to idleness, stealing became a habit, and he still lived a life of stealing.

This could also be regarded as Cao Heming's meddling and kindness, but the strange thing is that this thief disappeared.

Silence: "Missing? What do you mean?"

Su Yuanhuan frowned: "It is the responsibility of the Law Enforcement Hall to explain this matter in detail. You don't know that the Law Enforcement Hall has some secret rules, such as selling those condemned prisoners who are inconvenient to be executed publicly to those in need. , the money obtained belongs to the internal expenses of the Law Enforcement Hall, and the Emperor acquiesces in this matter."

Silence: "Sell to the needy? What to do? Be a servant?"

Su Yuanhuan shook his head: "Who would use those treacherous and evil people as domestic servants? I'm afraid there will be endless troubles. As far as I know, most of them were bought by some powerful medical clinics to test drugs. There are also some... Maybe some disgusting things have been done, but as long as these people will die within half a year, the Law Enforcement Hall will not ask more questions."

Shen Mo was not surprised, but just puzzled: "But this person is just a thief, how can he be treated like a death row prisoner?"

Su Yuanhuan's face darkened, and his complexion was a little gloomy. The always playful and smiling head of the law enforcement hall finally had some majesty that the head of the law enforcement hall should have. "This is the responsibility of the law enforcement hall as I said. I sent people to investigate overnight. But he didn't want to investigate deeper and deeper, implicating some filthy transactions secretly in the law enforcement hall, and this thief was secretly manipulated by criminals in the law enforcement hall who were open to money, and sold out under the identity of a death row prisoner. Because the buyer kept increasing the price, he was very eager to buy a healthy young man, and death row prisoners with special identities were not common, and there were no strong young men for a while, so the man boldly mixed the thief in, Sell ​​it to others, and swallow the money privately."

The internal affairs of the law enforcement hall have nothing to do with silence, but he needs to know, "Who did the thief sell to?"

Su Yuanhuan: "This is the strangest thing. The person who bought the thief is...Jing Bozhong."

Jing Bozhong... If so, this matter will be related.

The younger brother Cao Heming has been looking for is calculated to be as old as the thief. If the guess is correct, the thief should be Cao Heming's long-lost younger brother. His only relative was bought away inexplicably, and he is probably dead. It's not that Cao Heming didn't have murderous intentions.

As for what Jing Bozhong bought his younger brother for, I think of the knives that Jing Bozhong found someone to order, the "Biography of the Miracle Doctor" in his study, and what he told Jing Xingning that he had a cure for his heart disease...

No matter what era, without a large number of experiments as the basis, there will not be endless medicines and surgical methods.

Without a real experiment, how could Jing Bozhong dare to disembowel his closest relatives and loved ones?

This is the choice that led to Jing Bozhong's death.

Mo Mo slowly came to a conclusion in his heart, just waiting for the final verification.

What Shen Mo could think of, Su Yuanhuan could naturally think of. Even though Su Yuanhuan didn't know that modern surgical techniques already existed, he still roughly guessed Jing Bozhong's intentions.Afterwards, Su Yuanhuan left first to arrest Cao Heming and bring him to justice.

After seeing Su Yuanhuan leave, Shen Mo also wanted to follow, but he didn't expect to be stopped by yesterday's female officer just as he reached the gate of the Hall of Peeping Ji.

The female officer was still dressed in green and saluted without saying a word, but her body firmly blocked the silence, refusing to back down.

"My lord, please practice the sacrificial dance seriously."

silence:"……"

Reluctantly, she was caught and labored by the female officer for a whole morning, until after lunch, Mo Mo escaped from the Hall of Observation and went straight to the Law Enforcement Hall, thinking that Su Yuanhuan had already arrested him to the Law Enforcement Hall at this time.

It's just that this time, Shen Mo didn't enter the inner hall as easily as last time, but was stopped at the door.

The black-clothed guard who stopped him showed no expression on his face, and just repeated over and over again: "Idlers are not allowed to enter the Law Enforcement Hall."

Silence: "I'm here to find Su Yuanhuan."

The guard didn't respond.

Mo Mo had no choice but to bring out his identity that he had never taken seriously: "I am the imperial teacher of the court, and I came to see Mr. Su."

The guard still didn't respond.

The two stood facing each other outside the law enforcement hall, until Su Yuanhuan's voice came from inside the hall, "Let Master Guoshi come in."

The guard took a step back and stopped blocking.

Mo Mo entered the Law Enforcement Hall, Su Yuanhuan was standing there waiting for him, and when he saw him stepping in quickly, he just said, "Come with me, Cao Heming is already in prison."

Silence: "So fast?"

Su Yuanhuan nodded: "Well, he confessed and admitted everything."

The two went directly to the prison. Cao Heming had already changed into a prison uniform and was quietly staying in a cell. When he saw Shen Mo and Su Yuanhuan, he got up and saluted.

"Lord Su, Master National Teacher."

Even though he was already in prison at this time, Cao Heming was still well-mannered and calm.

Silence asked: "Do you know why I'm here?"

Cao Heming's face remained unchanged: "Heming knows."

Silence: "You all pleaded guilty?"

Cao Heming nodded, "Heming pleaded guilty. It was Heming who committed treason and murdered his master who had nurtured and taught Heming. Heming deserved to die."

After the words fell, there was silence in the prison.

Shen Mo pursed his lips, and continued to ask for a while: "The thief in the market, Xiao Ergou, is your long-lost brother?"

Cao Heming nodded with sadness on his face, "It's my younger brother."

Afterwards, he came slowly.

"The Cao family's family has fallen, and my parents died when my brothers were young. My brothers were displaced and separated, and I was lucky enough to meet my master. The master took me to Zhenggang Pavilion and taught me medical skills. I raised him like my own son...I should have been filial to my master all my life, to repay his kindness of upbringing. It's a pity...it's a pity that God's will tricks people. A year ago I saw Xiao Ergou in the market, although several years have passed , but he is my closest brother. Although his facial features have grown a little, he can vaguely recognize his appearance when he was young. How can I not recognize him? But he was displaced since he was a child. In order to survive, he learned from beggars and thieves. He has a whole body of bad problems, even if I teach him repeatedly, it is useless, but it only annoys him. I asked him if he remembered his family, but he said that he had a high fever when he was a child, and he forgot everything after waking up."

"I was afraid to tell him directly that he would not be able to accept it, so I slowly approached him, helped him, and taught him. I have always wanted to get rid of his habit of stealing, but he has been doing it for a living since he was a child. If it grows crookedly, if it grows badly, how can it be corrected for a while?"

"I originally thought optimistic... As long as my younger brother is still alive... I have plenty of time to help him correct himself. Besides, the situation is not too bad, and he is not considered a villain. When the situation improves, then... Then I told him the truth, told him that I was his elder brother, and when we were reunited, our parents in heaven could smile..."

"But I didn't expect... I didn't expect..."

"I have known about Master's grandson having a heart attack since I was a child. As Xing Ning grew older, Master has become more and more anxious in recent years, and he has become more and more obsessed. He even began to believe that those streets and alleys are for people's entertainment. I believe in the story of heart-changing, heart-changing... so shocking, unheard of, how can I believe it? But the master believed it, and he believed it. He began to use knives on living creatures, from From animals to people..."

"Master is close to me, and never hides anything from me. I know that he bought people from the Law Enforcement Hall to conduct experiments, but the people sold by the Law Enforcement Hall are treacherous and evil. I don't think I am a compassionate person. It never stopped..."

"Thousands of calculations... but I didn't expect my brother to be sold out as a death row prisoner!"

Speaking of this, Cao Heming's eyes were already red.

He raised his head and stared fiercely at a corner, as if there was his enemy there, and after a long time he breathed steadily and continued: "Suddenly one day, the master rushed over madly and told me that he had taken a young heart, You have also mastered the method of changing hearts, and you can change hearts for Xingning immediately."

"I have studied medicine with my master for many years, but I didn't expect that one day the master could really master the magical method of changing hearts, so I asked the master to take me to see... At that time, my younger brother had disappeared for a few days, but I thought he was annoying. I nagged and hid away, but I didn't expect goodbye to be like that..."

"Master never hides anything from me, and he trusts me a lot. When I opened my mouth, he really took me to see it."

"That place is conveniently located in the basement ice room on the back mountain of Jingfu. I was excited, but I didn't expect to see my brother who hadn't seen him for a few days lying on the cold ice bed with wide eyes, a big hole in his chest, and his veins His internal organs were exposed and his heart was frozen away."

"Master was very excited. He pointed to my younger brother's heart and said to me, Heming, look, this heart can save Xingning's life."

"Save Xingning's life... Do I have to exchange my younger brother's life for saving Xingning's life? I pointed to my younger brother who was still dead and asked him. Said that this person is just a thief, a young thief... I thought that the master didn't know, and those who don't know are innocent..."

"But I didn't expect... I didn't expect the master to say that he knew..."

"I still had extravagant hopes, I didn't want to... But the master said he knew... He said that this person had been struggling to beg for mercy before he died, that he was just a thief, that he was wrong, and that he begged him to let him go ..."

"The master said, so what, stealing is also a crime. It is worthwhile to exchange the life of a thief for the life of his grandson Xingning. The thief may also thank him for letting him go. His heart can live on in his talented grandson..."

"I know that in the eyes of adults, human life is like duckweed, but my brother deserves to die..."

"I even...even in the end I was so cowardly that I didn't tell him that I was his elder brother...Tell him that he is not called Xiao Ergou, he has a name, his name is Yanti, Cao Yanti, what a nice name... ..."

For a moment, there was silence in the prison, except for Cao Heming's heavy breathing, looking at Cao Heming's red eyes, he couldn't help but look away.

Until there was a muffled sound, Mo Mo looked up suddenly, and saw that Cao Heming had already collapsed by the wall, while Su Yuanhuan quickly opened the cell door and rushed in.

Su Yuanhuan checked Cao Heming's breath and said, "I'm out of breath."

Silence froze for a moment, looking at Cao Heming who was lying limp on the ground, he couldn't react.

He should have thought that Cao Heming's confession so straightforward was that he didn't want to live in the first place, but he didn't expect that he would hit the wall and die at this moment.

A huge flower of blood exploded on the wall behind him. It must have taken so much strength and determination to hit it.

Shen Mo walked over and squatted beside Cao Heming, and asked softly, "Did you deliberately stand next to the straw man several times?" He deliberately let him see that every straw man in his pharmacy had a silver needle inserted into the big hole on his vest. .

But Cao Heming has closed his eyes permanently, and will not answer him.

For a moment, there was a slight shock in my mind, the scarlet letter disappeared, and a line of words appeared in the exchange record, "The water and fire are not in order, and the exchange life will be one year."

The law of heaven is ruthless, one murder case, three lives, but in exchange for a year of silence.

That Jing Bozhong thought he had mastered the method of heart-changing, but heart-changing is also very risky in modern times, not to mention the ancient times where the conditions are extremely backward?

Even if Jing Bozhong survived, Jing Xingning might not survive.

What happened to the two brothers of the Cao family made Shen Mo feel strange, and couldn't help but recall some things from his childhood.

Silence is not born to parents today, but adopted.

Before he came to the Shen family, he was about seven or eight years old, and he had no memory of before that.

Shen Mo's current parents didn't hide it from him. After he got older and started to look more and more like a normal person, they told him all about it. The parents who adopted him believed that his lack of childhood memory was due to autism After all, when Shen Mo was first adopted, Mo Mo was dumbfounded and unresponsive, which was a symptom of innate autism.

But Shen Mo doesn't remember these things. His memory only slowly began to grow after being adopted for half a year. He sometimes doubts that maybe he is really born with autism.

Silence shook his head, throwing away these useless thoughts.

At this point, the water and fire are not in the end.

But between Jing Bozhong and Cao Heming, who is right and who is wrong, and who can tell clearly?

At this moment, it is only four days away from the canonization ceremony of the national teacher.

For the next three days, Shen Mo spent his days under the roof of the Court of Rites, practicing sacrificial dances and etiquette.

It wasn't until the day before the canonization ceremony that several palace people brought the sacrificial clothes that they needed to wear tomorrow, that Shen Mo's face changed.

Inside the brocade box, looking around, a piece of bright red cloth was actually tomorrow's sacrificial attire.

Shen Mo casually picked up a corner of his robe and asked, "Why is it red?"

The official was puzzled: "In all dynasties, sacrificial clothes are all red."

Silent and in a trance, I remembered what Lin Mu said, most of the national teachers of Tianmu Kingdom are canonized and married.

But what about the last national teacher of Zhantian Kingdom?The national teacher who was skinned by the emperor did not have any extra relationship with the current emperor. Could it be that his sacrificial uniform is also red?

It was useless to resist, the next morning, before dawn, countless palace guards poured into the usually silent Hall of Observation, Silence was grabbed from the bed, bathed and changed.

Because he was young and hadn't reached the crown yet, he only tied up his hair with a brocade headband. The end of the headband was extremely long, and it fluttered behind his back. Looking at him silently, he saw that even the headband was red. .

In the end, even the black cloth that Shen Mu used to blindfolded was taken away by the palace servants and thrown aside, and then a red gauze was covered in front of his eyes, and the world in front of his eyes changed from a dimness to a deep red.

After finishing the rectification, Shen Mo was brought downstairs.

This canonization ceremony was held outside the hall on the first floor of the Hall of Observation. At this time, the hall was full of people. There were 99 steps, and there were a few people kneeling respectfully on each step.

Today Di Junzhan stood far away on the side of the altar, holding a cane carved with dragon and gold patterns, standing more firmly and upright than anyone else.

When people outside the hall saw someone coming out from the Peeping Hall, they looked up one after another.

I saw the palace people who went ahead spread out layer by layer, revealing a young man in bright red, black hair and gorgeous clothes inside.

The boy's eyes were covered with a thin layer of red veil, through which he seemed to be able to vaguely see a pair of indifferent black eyes.

Shen Mo looked at the battle in front of him, and his heart was calm. At this time, a gust of wind blew by, and it was extremely warm. The breeze picked up Mo Mo's hair, entangled the crimson hair band, and slowly brushed Mo Mo's cheek, like a light kiss.

Shen Mo retracted his gaze, stared forward, and walked forward slowly.

He kept in mind the etiquette he had been told by Li Ge in the past few days, even though he was dressed in rich and heavy clothes, he walked in an extremely stable and dignified manner.

Following the silence to the altar, some palace people sang loudly: "Welcome to the national teacher, and worship the sky!"

As the words of the palace people fell, there was a melodious sound of music. Accompanied by the music, Mo Mo walked up the altar slowly along the steps, turned to face the direction of the emperor, nodded in salute, and then raised his hand, and the bright red sleeves were smooth. Sliding his wrist down slightly, he pointed to the sky, then suddenly withdrew his hand and sideways, and kicked his legs with full strength.

The female officer standing on the outermost side paused for breath, unbelievable that Silence actually changed the gentle sacrificial dance into a martial arts move, not even the slightest sense of femininity.

Since ancient times, the purpose of sacrificial dance has been to sacrifice to the heavens. Naturally, its movements are not as beautiful as ordinary dances, but they are also soft.But at this time, surrounded by music, the sky was clear, and the young man in a complicated red dress and black hair with a straight face, waved his palms and kicked his legs, his movements were swift and unsloppy, like a young man who had just learned martial arts.

Such a change made many people sweat, but the emperor only focused on looking at the altar, not distinguishing between happiness and anger.

This sacrificial dance lasted for almost half an hour, and many civil servants who were not working hard had already begun to beat their legs secretly, but the emperor still stood upright, not showing fatigue.

In fact, Dijun can sit down and watch the ceremony, he has such a right, but for some reason, Dijun Zhan abruptly stood up for the whole sacrificial dance, as if to support the newly appointed little national teacher.

The kneeling officials at the bottom of the 99 steps were all silent, and they had their own guesses.

With the last beat of the drum, the sacrificial dance ends.

The next step is to worship the king.

Shen Mo came down from the altar, panting slightly, with a few strands of hair sticking to his forehead with sweat on the corners of his forehead.

He looked at the emperor with a strange mask in front of him, and walked over slowly.

Until he came in front of the emperor, silently bent over and lifted his robe and knelt down.

The female officials in the Court of Rites were in panic, hoping that the emperor would not blame the sacrificial dance just now.

After all, the emperor's temper has been known to everyone in the seven years since the war against heaven, and it is the emperor himself who treats human life like nothing.

But one breath, two breaths...

Shen Mo still knelt there, unscathed.

Dijun Zhan didn't seem to be angry, he waved his hand to signal for Shen Mo to get up, then took the wine glass held by the palace man beside him, and handed it to Shen Mo.

Shen Mo stretched out his hand to take it, but Dijun raised his hand to avoid it, and saw him personally lift the glass of wine to Shen Mo's lips.

Silently drooping eyes, the wine glass is not big, but the wine inside does not know how to make it. It is as red as blood. blood in general.

Seeing Shen Mo's hesitation, the emperor seemed to have run out of patience, with his arms forward, the cold wine glass had already touched Shen Mo's lower lip, and his eyes outside the mask stared coldly at Mo Mo, this was persecution.

Mo Mo couldn't help but opened his mouth slightly, and the glass of wine was forcefully poured into Mo Mo's mouth by Dijun.

A trace of wine was too late to swallow, and it slipped down the chin along the corner of Shen Mo's lips, and finally dripped between Shen Mo's collarbone, staying there peacefully without falling, reflecting the warm sun, like a bright red mole.

Shen Mo thought that the wine would be as fishy as blood, but he didn't expect it to be sweet and mellow in the mouth, with a bit of fishy smell at the end, which was not bad to drink.

The emperor threw down the wine glass casually, and with a crisp sound, his body was smashed to pieces.

Immediately, he raised his hand, his thumb lightly wiped past Shen Mo's lips, his fingertips moved down, and stopped on Shen Mo's collarbone, and after a short pause, he wiped off that drop of dark red wine.

The palace servants who were almost frightened immediately shouted: "Licheng! The emperor and the national teacher patrol the city!"

After saying that, a strong bodyguard brought the chariot over, Shen Mo followed the emperor and got into the chariot, and then the guard carried it down the steps, tied the horses after going down the steps, and drove slowly out of the palace.

Shen Mo had seen the emperor patrolling the city before, so this time is no different from the last time.

It's just that the last time the emperor toured the city was for demonstrations, and blood was everywhere all the way, but this time it was for the canonization ceremony of the national teacher.

Sitting in the luan car, Shen Mo was far away from Dijun.

When the luan chariot left the imperial palace, the people in Jiuchong had already heard the news and knelt on the ground, looking sideways in silence, they were all black heads.

The luan chariot walked very slowly, got up too early in silence, and danced the sacrificial dance for nearly half an hour, feeling a little exhausted, leaning on the back of the luan chariot, a little drowsy.

He looked sideways slightly, looking at the silent emperor beside him.

I saw him also leaning on the back of the chair behind him, his eyes under the black mask were closed, his breathing was steady,

Could it be... fell asleep?

Silently thinking together, evil came from the side of the guts, the body gently rubbed over, raised his hand and slowly approached the black mask that the emperor wore on his face.

With the heavy curtains, the palace people and common people outside the Luan chariot could not see the scene inside the Luan chariot clearly. Of course, even if they could see clearly, no one had the courage to look at it blatantly.

The mask Dijun wears is very strange. There are no straps around it, but it can be firmly attached to the face without falling off.

Silent approached slowly, held his breath, stretched out his fingers, touched the edge of the mask, and buckled it lightly.

Did not buckle down.

He pursed his lips, moved closer, changed the angle, and buttoned it lightly again. The mask seemed to be firmly on Dijun's face without loosening.

Suddenly a cool wind blew past my ear, "If you move again, I will chop off your hand."

Shen Mo was startled by the breath sprayed on his face, and when he raised his eyes, he looked at the emperor with deep black eyes. He was so close to the emperor unknowingly, and immediately backed away when he heard this, as if there was nothing Situ generally sat back, rubbed his way out to distance himself, his small face was tense and expressionless.

The heart couldn't help but pounding.

He reached out and pressed his chest, feeling very strange.