Late at night, in the south of Dingzhou City, Pinglai Inn.
The waiter carefully carried a pot of mutton sprinkled with green onions, walked into the lobby, quietly placed the mutton on the table, turned and walked away.
There are several figures already sitting in the lobby, including a tattooed man with a blue tattoo on the corner of his forehead, a young man wearing half a ghost mask, a scholar holding a book and reading silently, a Confucian scholar with his eyes closed to recuperate, and a girl wearing a veil...
.
Pat.
The tattooed brawny man picked up his chopsticks, tapped them on the table, and ate the hot mutton expressionlessly.
In the whole inn, there were only the sounds of eating and the sound of scholars turning the pages of books.
Bang!
The door of the inn was pushed open heavily, and the miserable wind and rain blew in.
With a flash of thunder, a figure in a bamboo hat and coir raincoat appeared outside the door.
Tap tap tap.
Li Ang, or Mo Si's clone, strode into the inn, carrying the rain all the way, sitting in the corner of the lobby, and slapped the certificate given by Wang - a jade plaque on the table.
‘There are quite a lot of people.’
Li Ang looked around and saw a familiar figure - Scholar Jade, who had appeared in the Huairui incident in Shengyefang, was also here.
‘Did he also accept the reward from the Taiyuan Wang family?’
Li Ang thought casually. Scholar Yu is a private monk. It is normal for him to accept high-value commissions for money. Moreover, he seems to have never mentioned to outsiders that he has met Bateman.
Otherwise, he would have been regarded as a suspect by the Zhenfu Division and arrested.
While Li Ang was looking at the others, everyone in the hall was also observing him calmly, presumably guessing his origins and strength.
Squeak——
There was a sound of wooden flooring on the second floor of the inn, and a man dressed as a butler came downstairs and asked Li Ang with a smile: "Is this Brother Luffy?"
"..."
Li Ang looked up at him and nodded silently.
"In this way, everyone is here except those two."
The middle-aged butler walked down the stairs and said to everyone: "Let me introduce you, I am the butler of Room 11 in the North Capital of the Wang family in Taiyuan. This commission was issued by my master Wang Bojian."
The Wang family ranks among the top five surnames in the family. Their flourishing family is divided into direct and collateral lines, and different families are divided into different families. According to their status in the family, they enjoy different levels of resources. p>
For example, distant descendants of the family can only serve as local officials, or do business, and work in Wang's firm.
As for the main direct line, they are born to be superior to others and receive the best education since childhood.
Famous poets from the Yu State such as Wang Zhihuan, Wang Changling, Wang Wei, and Wang Bo are all members of the Wang family in Taiyuan - achieving great achievements in a certain field is also the best way to enhance the family's status in the entire family. p>
The ability to gather so many monks shows that Wang Bojian, who issued the reward, has a high status among the Wang family in Taiyuan.
"Mr. Chu, who disappeared this time, is the husband chosen by my master for his daughter. He will be getting married in half a year."
The housekeeper said calmly: "Chu Langjun was once a student of Luli Academy, and he liked to study epigraphy.
That is to study ancient bronzes, stone tablets, bamboo slips, oracle bones, jades, bricks and tiles, sealing mud, military symbols, Ming vessels and other cultural relics, verify historical materials, and verify the classics and supplement history.
A month and a half ago, when he was visiting folk stone monuments near Dingzhou, he accidentally disappeared along with the two guards accompanying him.
His life light showed that he was still alive and still in Dingzhou, but we couldn't find him.
According to the divination calculations of the elders in the clan, he should be involved in some kind of [strange] change."
Li Ang raised his eyebrows when he heard this. There are four kinds of strange changes in monsters. Monsters are biological abnormalities, demons are humanoid abnormalities, strange things are inanimate objects, and strange things are those alienated objects that are extremely complex and cannot be easily classified. They are often also
The most dangerous and deadly.
"As for why we should hire you... Ahem, Chu Langjun's father is a life-and-death friend of my master, and we made a baby wedding arrangement a long time ago.
But within a few years, Chu Langjun's parents unfortunately passed away due to a fire. Chu Langjun was also taken to Taiyuan.
So..."
The butler looked embarrassed and didn't tell the whole story. The meaning was already obvious.
Although Wang Bojian was a very honest man and did not break up the baby's marriage, Chu Haoman took over and raised him and gave him the best educational conditions.
But the result of this was that Chu Haoman became a live-in son-in-law. He grew up in the Wang family in Taiyuan throughout his childhood. As a person with a foreign surname, he was subject to gossip, so he went to Luli Academy in Jiangnan Road to study.
.
Now that he is missing, the monks from the Wang family in Taiyuan are naturally unwilling to take risks themselves and help him - he is just a unmarried son-in-law. If he is gone, he will be gone, and he will be replaced by another one.
Because of this, Wang Bojian would spend a lot of money and entrust outsiders to help.
"As long as the money is in place, everything will be easy."
The tattooed brawny man waved his hand, not interested in the entangled relationships in the big family, "Where is the location of the mutation?"
The housekeeper nodded and said: "It's in the forest forty miles west of Dingzhou City. According to divination, you can get in using some special methods.
At that time, I, the monk Wang Linian from the Wang family in Taiyuan, and the monk Ji Xingwang from Luli Academy will lead you there."
Wang Linian is a taciturn middle-aged man in the crowd with a long sword tied to his waist. He must have been sent by the Wang family of Taiyuan to monitor everyone.
And Ji Xingwang is the gentle-looking Confucian scholar.
"Ji Xingwang?"
Hearing this name, everyone present was a little shocked, and Li Ang also narrowed his eyes.
In addition to Shan Changlu Qingya, who is a world-famous monk in the Zhuxiao Realm, Luli Academy also has several doctors with high reputations - Ji Xingwang is one of them. It was he who wrote and published a paper on telescopes some time ago.
,replacing the Eagle Eye technique.
Ji Xingwang nodded to everyone present. He was Chu Haoman's mentor and an intermediate monk in the Xunyun Realm. The girl wearing a veil who came with him was Chu Haoman's junior sister who possessed innate divination.
Hexagram ability.
After him, everyone in the hall introduced themselves.
"Liao Kaifeng, a warrior the day after tomorrow." The tattooed man said calmly.
"Yan Yan. Listen to the Rain Realm Master." The young man wearing half a ghost mask adjusted the mask on his face.
"Scholar Jade, he knows some dirty tricks." The scholar closed the book and said with some embarrassment.
"Luffy, the warrior the day after tomorrow." Li Ang waved his hand.
Bang!
The door of the inn was pushed open again, and two young men with the same appearance walked in, arm in arm, and introduced themselves carelessly: "Yu Yong."
"Yu Yuan."
The two of them spoke in tacit understanding.
"The two of us are puppet masters."
"Sorry for being late. I just went to the Qihuai Empress Temple outside the city, which I heard is very spiritual, to worship. The result of the draw——"
"When a tree dies, there is little in the way of spring; when a lonely boat encounters a strong wind, it has nothing to rely on to set out. Nothing is going well."
The two puppet masters, who looked a little unreliable, looked at each other and exaggeratedly said: "It seems like someone is going to die this time."
"It won't be me who dies."
"Not me either."
"Who could it be?"
The twin brothers looked at the people in the lobby and rubbed their chins.
"..."
The tattooed strong man named Liao Kaifeng was indifferent and asked coldly: "Are you the puppet master brothers of Lingnan Road?"
Yu Yongdao: "Do you recognize us?"
Yu Yuandao: "Hey, are we so famous? We can meet admirers in Taiyuan? Brother, have you brought a piece of paper? Let's sign it for him."
The tattooed man's eyes twitched, "No, the rumor I heard is that the two of you brothers cheated money in Lingnan Road and were sexually inclined. You couldn't stay there anymore, so you ended up near Luoyang."
When Yu Yong Yuyuan heard this, his expression changed suddenly, and he said sternly: "My dear fellow, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't talk nonsense."
"It's okay to say we cheat money, but cheating sex?"
"If you are referring to the female cave master from Wuwu Liao, she will need to lie on a stretcher and let a dozen people carry her before she can leave again."
"She also wants to have one daughter and two husbands, and accept us as her husbands at the same time. This is impossible."
"If you live at night, wouldn't it be like a blind man trying to grasp an elephant?"
The two brothers were talking to each other, and their voices were extremely noisy.
Ji Xingwang saw this, rubbed his forehead, and stopped him: "Just be quiet, everyone. Since everyone is here, let's set off without further delay. We can arrive at dawn."
The employer's words were an order. Everyone packed up their belongings, left the inn, and headed southwest of Dingzhou.