Chapter 263

Yin Suqin's stinky mouth was famous for liking to tell stories, and now he was telling ghost stories, and he was energetic, so he temporarily restored some of his previous demeanor.

After he finished speaking, he suddenly reacted to who was opposite, and immediately closed his mouth, took a step back, and fell silent.

Li Miao didn't look at him, just twisted his fingers and pondered secretly.

This Xue Bangzhu they talked about...

How should I put it, it's a bit like shooting an arrow and then drawing a target.

First, look at the appearance, if only the eyebrows are similar, thousands of people can be found in the entire Kaifeng Prefecture, which cannot be counted as evidence. And the things the two said later, in fact, cannot be counted as how seamless.

First of all, the big thief who destroyed her family back then, this kind of person rarely appears in front of people, and it is easiest to die quietly, just relying on this point to say that Xue Bangzhu is a hidden expert is a bit far-fetched.

Even if this point is skipped, the righteous village matter is also a bit unreasonable. If Xue Bangzhu is an expert, even if she is sixty or seventy years old, she has a foundation, how could she be pushed and fainted by a few commoners?

Furthermore, Yingzhou has been hunting Penglai people, and killed Zheng Yi's mother ten years ago. Logically speaking, these Penglai people should be the least willing to attract attention. But this Xue Bangzhu made such a big noise that even the storyteller knew it, is she not afraid of Yingzhou people coming to the door?

Moreover, the second half of this story was inquired from the storyteller, and its authenticity needs to be considered.

Cao Hanyan and Yin Suqin are not fools, they will not fail to notice these. I think they were forced by this "three-day" deadline, so they had to bite the bullet and come to Li Miao to hand over the task.

Thinking of this, Li Miao looked at the two with a smile that was not a smile. Sweat appeared on the foreheads of the two immediately, and there were awkward and pleasing smiles on their faces.

"Forget it."

"It's idle anyway, no matter what the origin of this Xue Bangzhu is, just for the fun of this haunted place, I have to go and see it."

Li Miao stood up, raised his hand and handed the paper the two gave him to the two maids: "I don't need you to serve here, go and hand these things to your Prefect, check the case files of the merchant disappearance, and see if there are any records in the criminal case files."

These two maids were sent by the Kaifeng Prefect to serve Li Miao, so they nodded and left.

Li Miao pointed at Yin Suqin.

"You don't be idle either, go to the righteous village and step on the spot."

Yin Suqin's face turned white, gritted his teeth, and turned to leave, but was pulled by Cao Hanyan, and the two tore for a while. Cao Hanyan turned to Li Miao and begged.

"Lord Li, he really just drank too much and made a slip of the tongue... it's not enough to take his life! If it really doesn't work—I'll go with him!"

Li Miao laughed when he heard it.

These two still remember the finger Li Miao pointed, plus the three-day deadline mentioned before, so they thought they would only live for three days. Now Li Miao sent Yin Suqin out, and he thought he was going to let him fend for himself.

Both of them are quite righteous, Yin Suqin turned and left, fearing that he would implicate Cao Hanyan. Cao Hanyan pulled Yin Suqin and begged Li Miao for mercy, and wanted to go to die with Yin Suqin.

Li Miao looked at them tearing for a long time with a smile that was not a smile, and didn't stop until the two noticed something wrong and stopped.

"When did I say that you would die in three days?"

The two were stunned.

After a while, Yin Suqin said with a sad face.

"Lord Li, Senior, Ancestor... give me a clear word, whether you want my life or not..."

"How many days can I live... let me be a clear ghost, is it okay?"

In Yin Suqin's pleading voice, Li Miao turned back to the room without looking back.

A mischievous smile appeared from the crack of the door.

Then "bang" closed the door.

————————

That evening.

Abandoned righteous village.

Yin Suqin and Cao Hanyan were fiddling with the campfire, and suddenly, Yin Suqin let out a long sigh: "Sigh—"

"Brother Cao, sorry."

Cao Hanyan shook his head.

"'Friends are cut and cut', I knew Brother Yin had this bad habit but couldn't persuade him, instead I kept leading you to talk, it is appropriate to be taught by Lord Li."

"Let's not talk about this—what should we do now?"

Yin Suqin smiled bitterly.

"Don't know."

"You and I have been here since noon, and we have turned this righteous village over, but if there is a loose soil, we have all dug it open, where is there any ghost?"

Yin Suqin looked left and right.

This righteous village was originally a broken shed built in a mess, far from the official road, and abandoned for several years, it was already crumbling.

In the middle were a few long tables, which should have been used for stopping corpses before, and they were also covered with a thick layer of dust, and there were thick layers of corpse oil and blood stains under the dust.

The door panels were removed by people, the wind blew through the hall, and any things that could shake in the house were creaking. The firelight jumped wildly on the wall.

With this atmosphere, people with small courage don't need to prepare a night pot if they sleep here for one night—they will wash their pants when they go home the next day.

But the two sat until midnight, but didn't even see a ghost hair.

The two were at their wits' end, so they took Xue Bangzhu's matter to hand over the task. The more they sat, the more panicked they became—with Li Miao's methods, if there was nothing here, who knows what kind of suffering they would have to face later?

After pondering for a while, Cao Hanyan stood up first.

"Brother Yin, you are injured and inconvenient to move, just sit for a while, I will go to the back of the righteous village and turn it over."

After saying that, he turned and walked out of the shed.

Behind the shed was a dilapidated thatched cottage, which should have been Xue Bangzhu's residence back then, even the roof was gone, Cao Hanyan carried his sword and walked in.

He looked around.

He had been here during the day, the things in the house had been picked up by people, the house was empty, leaving only a soil bed mixed with mud and stone, and some rotten dry grass on it.

You can see it clearly at a glance.

To say the only place that hadn't been turned over—Cao Hanyan thought for a while, drew his sword with a clang, and stabbed it into the soil bed with a hiss.

As soon as the sword went in, Cao Hanyan frowned.

"Not enough to the bottom?"

This soil bed was also a foot high, his long sword was two feet long, and it went in to the root, but it didn't touch the bottom.

Cao Hanyan scraped off the weeds on the soil bed, and stabbed it in again and shook it, opening a mouth on it.

As soon as this mouth was opened, a foul smell rushed out from inside, the taste was simply like someone reaching into Cao Hanyan's nostril with his hand, slapping Cao Hanyan's brain hard, forcing him to retreat a few steps, and swallowing a few mouthfuls of saliva.

Disgusting is disgusting, but Cao Hanyan's face showed a touch of joy—this taste is corpse stench.

He found the main owner.

Cao Hanyan took out a fire folder from his arms, lit it, and threw it in along the gap.

According to his thought, this Xue Bangzhu could be found by Li Miao, and she must not be a simple character. This place is not a secret passage, hiding something amazing.

He threw the fire folder in, one is to explore whether the air below can be inhaled, and the other is to see how deep it is below.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the fire folder went in, only a "hiss" was heard.

It went out.

He didn't even have time to lean over and take a look.

It seems that the hollow under this soil bed is not very deep.

Cao Hanyan frowned and slashed horizontally!

Only a "hiss" was heard, and the long sword was like cutting tofu, entering from one side of the soil bed and coming out from one side.

Cao Hanyan stepped forward and patted the edge of the "lid" he had cut out, with a bang, the soil bed was lifted, revealing the things inside.

"Brother Cao! What's wrong—ugh!"

Yin Suqin ran over when he heard the sound, and was topped out by the foul smell as soon as he entered the door, eased for a while, then covered his nose and walked in, looking at Cao Hanyan.

Cao Hanyan was standing by the soil bed, neither speaking nor moving.

Yin Suqin looked in the direction of his gaze, only feeling a chill: "Brother Cao, this is!"

After this soil bed was lifted, the hollow below was revealed. It was not big, just tilted and extended downward for two or three feet from the ground, with a large mouth and a small bottom, rectangular, and the bottom was only a foot square.

In this foot-square space, a corpse bone was stuffed "full".

In such a small space, even a young child couldn't lie down, but this corpse bone was clearly the size of an adult—the head was folded behind, only the broken neck could be seen, the hands and feet were twisted in a circle, as if tied in a knot and entangled on the chest. The waist was folded in half, and the whole person was stuffed into it full.

A pool of black water accumulated at the bottom, mixed with the filth analyzed from the corpse, and when reflected by the moonlight, it reflected an oily light that made people feel nauseated.

The extinguished fire folder floated on this black water.

In the Great Shuo, I'm afraid that except for those who have seen witchcraft, few martial artists have seen such a cruel and strange picture. Cao Hanyan tried his best not to speak, Yin Suqin was already cursing.

"Your mother—what kind of thing!"

"This, what kind of hatred, what kind of resentment! Killed is killed, what is the purpose of trampling on the corpse like this! What kind of demon is this Xue Bangzhu!"

Before the words fell, a lazy voice suddenly came from outside.

"Cursed too early."

The two recognized Li Miao's voice and hurriedly bowed and let them aside.

Li Miao walked in, walked to the corpse pit by himself, glanced into it, and sneered. Zheng Yi followed in, also frowning at the foul smell.

Yin Suqin hesitated and asked timidly.

"Lord, what do you mean by 'cursed too early' just now?"

Li Miao reached out and pointed, and Zheng Yi took out a stack of paper from her arms and handed it to Yin Suqin.

"This is the case file sent by the Kaifeng Prefect."

"This Prefect does things carefully, knowing that I want to check this Xue Bangzhu, so he organized all the case files about her, and even sent the old yamen runners who handled the case back then."

Li Miao looked at the corpse and said.

"The first page records the disappearance of the merchant. It matches what you two said, and there is a piece of news you didn't inquire about—a passerby passed by the righteous village that night and vaguely smelled a bloody smell."

Yin Suqin looked up suddenly.

"Then Lord, this Xue Bangzhu really—"

Li Miao waved his hand.

"Look at the second page."

Yin Suqin hurriedly looked. The second page of paper recorded an extermination case that happened in the neighboring prefecture, the details were extremely detailed, hundreds of words.

Before he finished reading, Cao Hanyan on the side pointed to the last sentence of the record: "Brother Yin, look here."

Yin Suqin looked at it, and this last sentence was written in the tone of the official handling the case, only one sentence: "The method of this case seems to be the same as the extermination case in Kaifeng Prefecture last month, it should be done by one person."

Below was the date—Jiajing year four, September 8th.

Yin Suqin turned back to the first page, which recorded the date of the extermination case of Xue Bangzhu's husband's family—Jiajing year four, August 12th.

Yin Suqin widened his eyes.

"This 'No Leaving', didn't die back then!"

Li Miao nodded.

"At least in the few days when Xue Bangzhu disappeared, he was still alive. And he had the mind to destroy another family's door in the second month, and then completely disappeared."

Yin Suqin was silent.

Since "No Leaving" was still alive, there was no basis for Xue Bangzhu knowing Wu Gong.

But he was still puzzled, so he asked.

"Then, where did this Xue Bangzhu go in the two or three days she disappeared, and ran back with blood on her feet? What is her origin, and how to explain the things that happened in the righteous village?"

Li Miao didn't answer, and pointed to the stack of case files.

"Third page."

Yin Suqin hurriedly looked.

This third page recorded the confessions of the servants who survived Xue Bangzhu's husband's family back then, as well as the neighbors' testimonies.

After Xue Bangzhu disappeared back then, the yamen suspected that Xue Bangzhu colluded with outsiders to murder her husband and then fled. Although it was left unsettled later, this confession was extremely detailed.

Yin Suqin scanned it up and down, but didn't understand. Because the things recorded on it were no different from what he inquired about, he didn't know what Li Miao let him see.

It was Cao Hanyan who spoke.

"Brother Yin, look at the servant's confession."

"What we inquired about is that Xue Bangzhu returned as usual, and after finishing the ritual, she moved to the outside of the city—but what is written here is that Xue Bangzhu was silent after returning, as if she couldn't speak because of sadness."

"And here, the person handling the case back then recorded Xue Bangzhu's appearance in detail, including the length of the limbs and the thickness of the waist, it should be to fear that she would disappear again."

Li Miao raised his eyebrows, turned to look at Cao Hanyan, and smiled: "You are a smart one, um, the martial arts foundation is also firm. How about it, are you interested in working under me?"

Cao Hanyan was silent for a while.

Li Miao waved his hand, didn't care, and looked at Yin Suqin who was still pondering with a smile.

"How about it, do you see it?"

Yin Suqin shook his head.

Li Miao smiled and pointed at him.

"You are much worse than your friend, you only know how to play with your mouth, and I don't know why you can be mentioned with Little Anzi."

"Look at the numbers recorded on this arm length, restore her stature in your heart—don't you feel familiar?"

Li Miao stood with his hands behind his back and looked into the corpse pit, where the corpse was "stacked" in a mess, and said indifferently.

"You ask where Xue Bangzhu went in the few days she disappeared after finding out her family was destroyed, I don't know. But where she is now, it is clear."

In Yin Suqin's astonished gaze, Li Miao pointed to the corpse in the corpse pit.

"That Xue Bangzhu, isn't she lying in front of you?"