Sandalwood was burning in the room. Although the aroma was very light, only the rich could afford it.
There was aged bamboo leaf green wine on the table. Although this aged wine was only a little more mellow than ordinary wine, only the rich could afford it.
The same is true for everything else in this room. Every table and chair is of great value.
Logically speaking, people should feel happy staying in such a room, but the actual situation is not like this. The three people in the room are not happy. They have troubles and annoying worries.
"It's really bad. I like this flower-seeking path very much, but I didn't expect that an outsider would discover this secret." Luo Yuanwai was the last to read the letter, put the letter on the table, and looked around at the faces of the other two members. He followed
Zhang Yuanwai is of the same age, both in his forties, but he is relatively thin, with a yellowish complexion, slightly sunken cheeks, and slightly gloomy eyes.
"Since it's a secret, the fewer people know about it, the better. If someone who shouldn't know finds out, hey, hey, he has to give this person a small punishment." Zhou Yuanwai sneered and played with the money dart in his hand.
, this piece of money is sharpened, and it can be fatal if hit on a person. Among the three members, he is the only one who possesses martial arts. Moreover, he is the youngest and the most powerful.
"The problem now is we don't know who this person is, and we don't know how to find him out." Zhang Yuanwai shook his head. Behind him, Wei Buxiao stood tall, with a sinister face.
"The three of us have worked together to make several difficult deals. This little thing can't stop us." Zhou Yuanwai said confidently, his eyes as bright as the money in his hand.
"This matter is more difficult than business. He is hiding it and we are exposing it." Luo Yuanwai said gloomily.
"He claims to have discovered a secret passage under a dry well. We can go there first to look for clues." Zhou Yuanwai suggested.
"I just want to ask. What is the secret passage under the dry well? Why are there five corpses there?" Zhang Yuanwai interjected, with a casual sense of complaint in his tone.
"I sent people to kill those five people. They tried to escape before they could finish digging the secret tunnel, so I had to do something dirty." Luo Yuanwai replied with a frown.
"It's okay to kill people, but why do you want to bury the corpses where they are?" Zhang Yuanwai was the closest to the secret passage. Now when he thought about the five corpses buried next to the dry well, he felt a little cold in his heart.
"It's very troublesome to transport the corpses, and I think it would be a pleasure to bury those five people in the secret tunnel I dug." Luo Yuanwai continued to answer. Among the three people, he was undoubtedly the most evil, and he often did
Some things that make people feel numb, even when it comes to playing with women, his method of playing is the weirdest. He likes to burn women with fire. He can only laugh when the woman screams. On weekdays,
His smile is as little as Wei Buxiao's.
"Alas," Zhang Yuanwai shook his head, "In that case, why didn't you bury that secret passage properly? Now it's a good thing, that secret passage was discovered, and some of us were blackmailed."
"I have buried the secret passage with soil. I don't know why someone would find it there." Luo Yuanwai thought for a while and recalled, "By the way, there were six workers in charge of digging the secret passage, but my men
I failed in my work and let one of them escape. I was never able to catch this person again. Maybe this person leaked the news."
"Who is this person?" Zhang Yuanwai thought this was an opportunity and stood up anxiously.
Yuan Luo reported his name, then shook his head and said: "But even if you know this person's name, it is useless. He has no relatives and is living alone in the county doing odd jobs. After he escaped, all the clues were cut off.
, can’t be found at all.”
"It's all your fault for doing something bad that got us into trouble. It's up to you to come up with these ten thousand taels of silver." Zhou Yuanwai snorted from the side.
Luo Yuanwai was very unhappy when he heard this. He looked at Zhou Yuanwai deeply and said slowly: "Okay! I paid for this myself, but you two don't regret it." After that, he got up and left.
There was a lot of business dealings between these three people. It was really not worth it to have a conflict over ten thousand taels of silver. Zhang Yuanwai immediately stood up and acted as the peacemaker. He stopped Luo Yuanwai in some way and reprimanded the young man lightly.
Only a few words from member Zhou stabilized the situation.
The three of them sat down again, but this time they no longer complained about each other, but patiently discussed countermeasures.
"What do you two have to say about this matter?" Zhang Yuanwai asked.
"The riddle he wrote on this letter is very interesting. I don't know what the purpose is." Zhou Yuanwai held the money, tapped the letter paper on the table, and read, "Look at everyone's small things and win the trust of the world."
"Before you guys came, I thought about it for a long time, but I never had a clue." Zhang Yuanwai shook his head.
"Perhaps you can only guess the meaning after arriving at Flower and Bird Street." Zhou Yuanwai said.
"That makes sense, we have to go to Flower and Bird Street in advance to take a look." Zhang Yuanwai said.
"Not only the Flower and Bird Street, but also the dry wells in the south of the city and the area near your home need to be investigated carefully. I think this is good. The three of us will be divided into three groups and act separately. You can ask around your home if anyone has seen the wild man.
I will take this letter and go to Flower and Bird Street to look at it and try to figure out the answer to the riddle in the letter." Zhou Yuanwai looked at the sullen Luo Yuanwai, "As for Brother Luo, I will condescend to you.
Just go to the dry well in the south of the city, you should be most familiar with it, after all, you buried corpses there."
"Okay, let's do it this way. The three of us will go our separate ways and then come back to my place to gather before nightfall." Zhang Yuanwai agreed.
Without saying a word, Yuan Luo acquiesced to this plan.
In this way, the three members went to different places for the same thing.
Three people and three places naturally have to be told separately.
Let’s talk about Zhang Yuanwai first. Without telling the yellow-faced woman at home, he sent a few of his confidants to spy on the person who tied the letter around the wild dog’s neck. However, after several hours, he could not find out any useful information. That one
A person is like a shadow, leaving no trace behind.
Then talking about Luo Yuanwai, he first returned home, then took two of the most capable guards and went straight to the dry well in the south of the city. He first took people down to the dry well to investigate, and found that the secret passage was tightly sealed, and he dug
After opening it, the five corpses inside were gone. There were traces of sweeping on the ground of the secret passage, which had wiped out all the footprints. This shows that the person who discovered this secret passage was very thoughtful.
Even details like footprints have been taken into consideration.
It stands to reason that Luo Yuanwai should lead someone to ask around and ask if anyone has been down a dry well recently. However, such a big move will definitely arouse suspicion and lead to more people becoming interested in the dry well. This will only
This made things worse, so after exploring the dry well, Luo Yuanwai took the people away, leaving one person behind to keep a lookout near the dry well.
Finally, Yuan Wai Zhou, with the blackmail letter in his sleeve, went alone to the only Flower and Bird Street in the city, patrolling back and forth, silently reciting the phrase "seeing the small things in everyone's eyes, and winning the trust of the world" in his heart as he walked.
When the vendors on both sides saw that he would not stay for a long time, they thought he wanted to buy some flowers, birds, fish and insects, so they kept chatting with him, making him tireless.
"These little people doing small business are really annoying. Even if you sell those flowers, birds, fish and insects to me, how much money can you make?" Zhou Yuanwai secretly despised him, shook his head, and suddenly an idea flashed in his mind.
, "Little people, small people, when you look at everyone, they are small. How can you see how small everyone is? Of course, only those who stand at a high place will feel that the people below are all small people!" He understood the first half of the sentence in the riddle and was very excited.
He immediately raised his head and looked around, looking for the highest place on the street.
It is not difficult to find the highest point on a street, and Zhou Yuanwai quickly found this place.
Manhua Building, the tallest building on Flower and Bird Street, has four floors in total. The building specializes in flowers. It is relatively deserted at this time of year, but business is very good in spring and summer. There are many flowers and bonsais in the building. Entering it, your nose is full.
The fragrance of flowers makes you feel like you are in the fairyland of Qionglou during your stroll.
Zhou Yuanwai doesn't know anything about flowers, doesn't like flowers, and doesn't grow flowers, so he's not familiar with this store. He stopped in front of the flower-filled building, looked up, and thought about the answer to the second half of the riddle.
To win the trust of the world, what can win the trust of the world?
Zhou Yuanwai didn't expect it, but he saw it.
Just on the roof of Manhua Building, there is a birdcage. If you don't look carefully, it is easy to miss this birdcage. Only those who look up can see it.
This birdcage brings many clues. Firstly, only warriors can go to such a high place, which proves that the blackmailer possesses martial arts. Secondly, the bird in the cage is singing and making a cooing sound, which obviously sounds like the call of a pigeon.
If it is a homing pigeon, it will naturally be able to gain "trust" from all over the world. This is the answer to the second half of the riddle.
Flower-filled building, rooftop, carrier pigeons.
It turns out that the person collecting the money is not a person at all, but a carrier pigeon! As long as you tie the banknote to the carrier pigeon and then let go, the carrier pigeon will fly away and deliver the money to the blackmailer!
Pigeons can fly, but people can't. No one can catch up with pigeons, not even horses.
Although extremely high-level warriors can catch up with homing pigeons, it is impossible for the three of them to hire such an expert for a mere ten thousand taels of silver. What's more, even if they are willing to do so, there is no such expert in Qibao County.
They please.
If they go to other places to invite experts, they will run out of time. The blackmailer only gave them one day. Once tomorrow noon passes, the news about Xunhuajing will spread throughout the streets and alleys, causing trouble for the three of them.
Endless troubles.
Now it seems that if the three of them are not willing to let the secret of Xunhuajing be made public, they have no other choice but to pay the money.
It's impossible for them to uncover the blackmailer behind the scenes. This is a perfect game.
"Wonderful, wonderful!" Zhou Yuanwai smiled instead of being angry. Although he was the loser, he had to admire the blackmailer behind the scenes. With these ten thousand taels of silver, he had to admit defeat, and he couldn't deny it.
After a lot of effort, Zhou Yuanwai jumped up to the roof step by step along the window sill of the Manhua Building, and got the birdcage in his hand. The pigeon in the cage cooed, as if laughing at him. On the pigeon's feet
There was a roll of paper tied around it. When I opened it and looked at it, it read: "Please tie the silver note to the feet of the homing pigeon and let it fly. I will be able to get the silver note with it. Thank you for your help today, and I hope you will have a good time."
You can take care of yourself from now on."
"Ten thousand taels of silver, this is not a small amount, it is really heartbreaking." Zhou Yuanwai smiled bitterly, and then returned to Zhang Yuanwai's home with the birdcage.
After the three people arrived, Zhou Yuanwai explained the answer to the mystery and the matter of the carrier pigeon, and then said: "We can't escape this money, let's discuss how much each person should pay."
Officer Luo stared at the homing pigeon in the cage fervently, and said fiercely: "I really want to kill this pigeon and eat it right now."
Wei Buxiao also showed a cold gaze. He originally wanted to kick the blackmailer to death when he handed over the money, but he didn't expect that the person responsible for delivering the money was a carrier pigeon, which completely ruined his idea.
"I advise you not to do that, otherwise there will be endless troubles." Zhou Yuanwai smiled bitterly again.
"It's acceptable to give him ten thousand taels of silver, but I'm afraid that after I pay him, he won't keep his promise and will still tell the story about Xunhuajing." Zhang Yuanwai said worriedly.
"There is no other way. If you have a better idea, I am willing to listen." Zhou Yuanwai spread his hands. He thought he could deal with the blackmailer before, but now he knows how terrible the blackmailer is.
Zhang Yuanwai opened his mouth and then closed it obediently. When it came to intelligence, he thought he was not as good as Zhou Chen. Since even Zhou Chen couldn't do anything, there was nothing he could do.
The three of them had no choice, so they had no choice but to pay the money obediently. The ten thousand taels of silver were shared equally among the three of them. Because it was Luo Yuanwai who leaked the secret of Xunhuajing, he split a little more and paid four thousand taels.
Since they had decided to pay, there was no need to wait until tomorrow. The three of them tied the money bills to the pigeons and prepared to release them.
But at this moment, Zhou Yuanwai suddenly shouted: "Slow down!"
The other two members were stunned, and Zhang also took hold of the carrier pigeon's hand and took it back.
"Although the money must be given, we can do some tricks on the money and leave a mark. In this way, we can use the mark to find the blackmailer." Zhou Yuanwai smiled, this time he was proud.
smile instead of a bitter smile.
A banknote of ten thousand taels is by no means a small amount, and is very rare near Qibao County. As long as someone is sent to tell the banks in Qibao County and surrounding towns to notify them immediately if a marked ten thousand tael banknote is found.
We can get clues about the blackmailer and figure out the identity of the mastermind behind it.
The other two members clapped their hands and praised the success. They immediately followed the instructions, took off the banknote, left a mark on an inconspicuous place with a pen, then tied the marked banknote to the homing pigeon and released it again.
The homing pigeon flapped its gray and white wings and disappeared into the darkening sky.
…
Manhualou, Manhualou, I would like to pay tribute to the late Mr. Gu with this name.
