The streets in autumn are a bit more desolate. Even the pedestrians on the road are much fewer, only a few people. The autumn wind blows, the willow branches on both sides of the road sway, and the dry willow branches seem to have
Lost vitality.
It was almost afternoon, and several wild dogs had been waiting outside Zhang Yuanwai's house early, eagerly waiting for the bucket of leftovers to appear in front of them. If you count them carefully, you will find that there are fewer wild dogs today than yesterday.
I lost one, but who cares about such a small thing?
The back door of Zhang Yuanwai's house opened on time. Two servants in black were pushing the cart expressionlessly. The huge wooden barrel exuded the smell of leftover food. This smell is not pleasant to people, but for people
For those wild dogs, they are already attractive enough.
Several wild dogs barked and waggled their tails.
These wild dogs are so ugly, and most of them have diarrhea, that even beggars are unwilling to eat them. It is precisely because of this that they can keep their humble little lives and live tenaciously in this world.
It was difficult for the two servants to have a good impression of such a wild dog, so they remained expressionless.
At this moment, something happened that broke the calm. A belated wild dog jumped out of the alley and joined the ranks of its kind.
The appearance of a wild dog is not enough to attract attention, but this wild dog is a little special today. There is a white envelope threaded with thread hanging around its neck.
The two servants looked at each other and realized something was wrong. One of them leaned down and took off the envelope from the wild dog's neck. They saw that the envelope was sealed with mud, and the cover of the letter was written with the words "personally addressed by Zhang Yongling" in elegant handwriting.
Gentle and gentle, it is obviously the handiwork of the daughter's family.
Zhang Yongling is none other than the name of the owner of this compound, Zhang Yuanwai. The writer calls Yuanwai Zhang by his first name, which is quite rude.
In ancient times, there were not many people who knew how to read and write. If you could read and write, you were already a scholar, and no one dared to look down upon you.
When the two servants saw that this was a letter written to one of their own members, they didn't dare to neglect it. They immediately returned to the courtyard with the letter in hand, handed it to their superiors step by step, and sent it to Zhang Yuanwai.
Zhang Yuanwai had just finished eating at this time. He had a fat belly and was picking his teeth with a toothpick in his hand. Behind him stood Wei Buxiao, the head nurse. Whenever he was at home, he liked to let him
Wei Buxiao, a master of the third heaven, stood behind him, which made him feel even more proud and gave him a great sense of satisfaction.
He is obviously a martial arts master with lightning-fast legs, but he has to serve an ordinary person like him, who is old and fat. This is such a pleasant thing.
In fact, Wei Buxiao was not willing to serve Zhang Yuanwai. He did this just to repay his kindness. He started practicing martial arts when he was a child and had some success. However, because he was young and energetic, he offended his superiors and was deposed.
He lost his arms and became disabled. At that time, he fell in a pool of blood on the street, dying, and his life was hanging by a thread. Thanks to Zhang Yuanwai's wife, who passed by, rescued him and sent him to the hospital, where he found a doctor to save his life.
After that, he vowed to repay this life-saving grace.
The pain of a broken arm did not defeat him. He lost his arms, so he practiced kung fu on his legs. After several years of hard training, he finally developed a pair of whip legs, and he kicked off the willow tree in his backyard with one leg.
.After that, he recommended himself to the Zhang family and became the head nurse of the Zhang family to protect the safety of the family.
His original name was Wei Xiao, but since his arms were crippled, he had never laughed again, so he changed his name to Wei Buxiao. For him, there is nothing worth laughing about in the world.
The letter arrived, from the conscientious old housekeeper, who presented it to Zhang Yuanwai with both hands.
Zhang Yongling personally initiated it.
What a loud tone.
The person who came here is evil. This was Zhang Yuanwai's first thought after seeing the letter. He put down his toothpick and frowned on his round face. Since the person who came here was evil, he had to be treated with caution. Although he was not a member of the martial arts world, he heard that the person who came here was evil.
There have been many rumors that many people can manipulate letters and hide poisons and even hidden weapons in thin envelopes.
Zhang Yuanwai, like all wealthy people, is cautious and will not open such a letter from an unknown source rashly. He gestured to Wei Buxiao behind him and asked Wei Buxiao to open the letter.
A letter. A dangerous letter must be opened by an expert.
"Throw the letter up." Wei Bu smiled.
The so-called old butler was someone who knew the family better than Yuan Wai himself. Of course he knew Wei Buxiao's abilities, so he did not hesitate and obeyed Wei Buxiao's request and threw the letter into the air.
Wei Buxiao stepped forward quickly, raised his leg to hook the envelope, and adjusted the envelope to a more suitable position. Then he retracted his leg, accumulated strength, and kicked out again. He hit the center of the envelope with his kick, and the internal force was poured into it. Just listen to "pop"
With a crisp sound, the envelope turned into pieces and fell, like pieces of white leaves.
The envelope was shattered, but the letter remained unscathed. It was not easy to do this, and it required a lot of skill when making the move.
Wei Buyiao retracted the kicked leg, rotated his body with the help of the force, kicked out the other leg, swept the fallen leaves with a move, and swept the letter onto the table. He completed the action of opening the letter with his feet, and the movements were completed in one go.
In the eyes of Zhang Yuanwai and the old housekeeper, Wei Buxiao was like a strong wind. When the strong wind blew up, the envelope shattered.
The letter paper fell on the table, spread out quietly, and the words were clear.
Zhang Yuanwai didn't praise Wei Buxiao because Wei Buxiao didn't like to be praised, and it wasn't the first time Wei Buxiao showed off his leg skills, so there was no need to be surprised.
Wei Buxia retracted his legs, and the sleeves on his arms hung empty. He still had no hands, and he still didn't smile.
Zhang Yuanwai walked to the table and looked intently.
I saw the letter written on it:
I had no intention of looking for a secret passage and five corpses in the dry well in the south of the city. I was curious for a while, and after investigation, I found that there was something else and a deeper secret passage. I visited you privately at night and accidentally bumped into you and your friends. I eavesdropped and found out that this secret passage is
Looking for flower paths.
You should clarify for yourself the purpose of opening this path and the origin of the corpse. If you do not want this secret to be made public, please quickly raise 10,000 taels of silver and send it to Flower and Bird Street at noon tomorrow.
"See everyone's small things at a glance, and win the trust of the world."
After arriving at Flower and Bird Street, you will know who to hand over this riddle to receive it.
If the money arrives in full, I promise to keep the secret strictly for the few members, let them rot in their stomachs, and never reveal a word to outsiders.
If you are not satisfied after noon tomorrow, don't blame me for having a leaky mouth.
Obviously, this is a blackmail letter, and a blackmail letter does not need to be signed. There are no extra words after the content of the letter.
Zhang Yuanwai looked at the contents of the letter, and his rosy face suddenly turned the color of pig liver. He quickly walked to the table, grabbed the letter, folded it several times, and stuffed it into his sleeve. When he turned around, he saw that
The old housekeeper had a confused look on his face, probably because he hadn't read the words in the letter, but Wei Buxiao had a gloomy face and cold eyes.
Wei Buxiao's eyes were so fast, he must have seen the words in the letter, but it didn't matter, because Wei Buxiao had known about it for a long time.
Wei Buxiao knew something that even the old housekeeper didn't know, because Wei Buxiao was responsible for killing the workers who dug the Flower Path. At the beginning, Zhang Yuanwai promised Wei Buxia that once the Flower Path was dug,
He stopped quarreling with his wife. Wei Buxiao didn't like seeing his former benefactor at odds with her husband, so he agreed to help.
A person without arms must be very ruthless, so those workers died miserably.
After the workers died, Zhang Yuanwai ordered people to smuggle them out of the county and bury them in mass graves. He would not let the corpses stay in the flower-seeking path, because it would make him fearful when walking in the underground world.
As for the five corpses under the dry well, they were not killed by his orders. They were probably the work of two other co-conspirators. Although they jointly dug the flower-seeking path, they did not have the habit of reporting how many people they had killed.
Not a pleasant topic.
Although the three of them hid the secret very deeply and even killed some people for it, they didn't expect that the secret was still leaked out.
If the blackmailer makes this matter public, not only will he lose a good way to find prostitutes, but it will also cause him to fall out with his wife, which he absolutely does not want to see.
In order to keep this secret, he was willing to bear the pain and pay these ten thousand taels of silver. Although ten thousand taels was a lot, it was spread equally among three people, which was barely acceptable. The worst he could do was to spend less money in the past six months. It was terrible because he was afraid of extorting money from others.
After receiving the money, he refused to keep his promise.
People are always worried that someone will break their promise, so they kill people and silence them.
Rather than paying 10,000 taels of silver, Zhang Yuanwai was more willing to silence the blackmailer directly. This plan was more economical and safer.
This is not the first time he has done this kind of thing, and it will definitely not be the last time.
"Where is the person who brought the letter now?" Zhang Yuanwai raised his eyebrows. The person who sent the letter is obviously a very useful clue. If you grasp this clue, you can hope to find the mastermind behind the scenes.
"Reply to the Master, this letter was not sent by a human, but was sent tied around the neck of a wild dog. As for who the sender is, I'm afraid no one knows." The old housekeeper replied respectfully.
"What?" Zhang Yuanwai was shocked when he heard this. He didn't expect the blackmailer to act so carefully. He even thought of using wild dogs to deliver the letter without leaving any clues!
It seems that this blackmailer is not an easy person to deal with. With a wild dog, it is impossible to find out who this person is. If you want to silence him, you can only do it while the money is being paid. However,
Since this person is so smart, he must have kept something in mind when handing over the money, so I'm afraid it won't be easy for him to do it.
In the second half of the letter, there was no detailed mention of how to pay the money, it was just left a mystery.
What is the answer to this mystery?
Who is the blackmailer?
How did he discover this secret passage?
Is he alone or in a group?
Why do you have to choose to pay at Flower and Bird Street?
Various problems came one after another, leaving Zhang Yuanwai in a fog. He did not think that this was something that he could solve alone. Since he could not solve it, it would be better to call in the other two builders of Xunhua Trail. After all, there were more people and more strength.
big.
Zhang Yuanwai took a deep breath, waved his hand and said, "Send someone to Zhou Mansion and Luo Mansion to ask Zhou Chen and Luo Ming to come over. They said I have something important to discuss with them."
"Yes, I will invite the two officers to come over immediately." The old housekeeper followed the order and left.
There were only two masters and servants left in the room. Wei Buxiao said: "This person is not very courageous. He only extorted ten thousand taels from you. He must be a young man. Don't worry too much. When the money is paid tomorrow, I will
I will help you kill him. This secret must continue to be kept, and you must continue to get along well with Madam."
"Okay!" Zhang Yuanwai's face softened slightly, "With your words, I feel relieved."
Wei Buxiao said no more. Not only did he not smile, he also rarely spoke.
