midnight.

Chen Ji woke up from his dream and sat up slowly.

In the simple apprentice's bedroom, Liang Maoer, She Dengke, and Liu Quxing were sleeping soundly. Liang Gouer was still lying around and didn't come back at night.

The cats and dogs, who are usually inseparable, have not gone out together today.

Chen Ji moved out of bed with difficulty and walked carefully into the yard. He wanted to find out whether Wu Hongbiao was lying.

In the empty yard, only crows were left standing on the branches of the apricot tree.

Chen Ji turned his head and looked at the courtyard wall where the ladder was built.

No one stepped on his brother's shoulders and poked his head out of the eaves of the wall. No one was shaking his sister across the wall.

The prince and Princess Baili suddenly stopped going out to play, or no longer borrowed the way from the clinic, and Taiping Medical Center returned to its former tranquility.

Chen Ji took some leftover rice and water from the kitchen, turned around and wanted to walk outside the clinic, but the crow blocked his way and pointed outside the clinic.

"Uncle Crow, what do you want to say?" Chen Ji was puzzled.

The crow spread his wings and gestured, pointed at the clinic first, and then pulled the knife from his waist.

Chen Ji was stunned: "Do you want to say that Taiping Hospital has been monitored?"

The crow nodded with relief.

Chen Ji's heart was stormed: "Uncle Crow, who is monitoring the clinic? If it is the spy department, just blink. If it is the Military Information Department, just blink."

The crow blinked three times...

Chen Ji: "..."

The crow grinned, as if mocking Chen Ji for the coming of disaster.

Chen Ji frowned and thought, why did these two parties monitor him, and what went wrong?

Moreover, these two parties are monitoring each other at the same time, how should I go out to see Wu Hongbiao?

The crow stopped laughing at Chen Ji. It waved its wings to signal Chen Ji to follow, and then flew to the roof of the main hall of the clinic.

Chen Ji brought a ladder and sneakily followed the crow to climb up the roof.

At midnight, a man and a crow poked half of his head out of the roof and secretly looked at the shop opposite the main hall.

The two sides are separated by Anxi Street, and the dark night is hazy and unreal.

The crow pointed to the second floor of the third shop on the right, and the room was pitch black, but the windows were opened in a gap, just in time to see the entrance of Taiping Medical Center.

The crow pointed to the second floor of the second shop on the left, and the window was also cracked, facing the main entrance of Taiping Hospital.

Both sides seemed to be observing who was entering and leaving the clinic.

Chen Ji muttered: "Fortunately, the same room was not rented on both sides..."

The crow laughed silently.

Chen Ji retracted his head back behind the roof and asked in a low voice: "Uncle Crow, how many people on the right?"

The crow blinked three times, three.

“Where is the left?”

The crow blinked three times, and there were three.

Chen Ji felt a strong sense of crisis. If only one person was sent to a normal surveillance behavior, if three people were sent at the same time, they were preparing to arrest or kill people.

Fortunately, Uncle Crow helps...

Chen Ji turned his head and smiled at the crow, "Thank you, Uncle Crow, for helping me again... Why are you willing to help me?"

The crow laughed silently without answering.

Chen Ji asked again: "How should I go around to the cloth store?"

The crow flapped his wings and walked around behind.

Chen Ji followed the crow's guidance and followed the shadows between the buildings on Anxi Street and flipped into the backyard of the cloth shop.

Not only that, Uncle Crow was even responsible for the aftermath. After Chen Ji entered the yard, it stopped on the wall to guard the yard.

Hearing the noise of climbing over the wall, Wu Hongbiao, who was originally lying on the ground, sat cross-legged: "I finally waited for you. Are the Military Information Department and the Secretariat Department still arresting me?"

Chen Ji said: "I'm still catching it, but they have been taken to the West Market. I heard that the cloth shop is going to be sold out recently, and this is not a place to stay for a long time. Someone may come to see the shop at any time."

Wu Hongbiao thought for a while and said, "Then I will clean the place tomorrow. If someone comes, I will first go out of the yard and wait until they leave before turning in."

“It’s not safe anyway.”

Wu Hongbiao thought for a while and said, "Have you found Si Cao's true identity?"

Chen Ji was silent for a moment: "You can answer some questions from me first and help me do something before I can answer my questions."

Wu Hongbiao looked at Chen Ji carefully: "You have changed."

Chen Ji leaned against the door frame, allowing the moonlight to lengthen the shadow. The former good brothers, one stood at the door and the other sat on the ground, and one was more embarrassed than the other, as if they were in trouble together, but they kept a safe distance.

Wu Hongbiao whispered: "You did not receive long-term hard training and were very cautious. Of course, this is also related to the environment in which you grew up. We were conquered into the most bitter military camp in the north at the age of twelve in Jingchao. We were trained in bitter and cold places since childhood. It was winter for half a year. There was only so much food in the military camp. If you were not good enough, you would go hungry and you would be frozen to death if you were hungry. There, if you wanted to have a full meal, you would have to plot against each other."

Wu Hongbiao continued: "You grow up in the Ningchao in the southern part of the sing of birds and flowers. Here are beautiful dancers and singers, as well as suave scholars and scholars. You can take a boat and a light on the Qinhuai River. You live here naturally...a little weaker."

Chen Ji asked calmly: "What about now?"

Wu Hongbiao answered seriously: "It's different now. Although I don't know what you have experienced, you are more like a qualified soldier now. Although you will feel a little disappointed if you are not trusted, I am happy for you from the bottom of my heart. Only with this kind of you can last until the day when you and I meet again."

Chen Ji lowered his head: "Then you have been betrayed by Jing Chao. Have you ever considered joining the Secretariat Division?"

But Wu Hongbiao looked solemn: "It's not Jing Chao who betrayed me, but Si Cao who betrayed me. I have told you before that I will never shake my faith because of the political filth of some people. I also believe that your uncle and others will definitely make a comeback and pacify the sluts of the court. My Jing Chao people have suffered enough, and I will not betray my motherland just because of a few villains."

Chen Jiran said that this was the first time he heard the word "faith" after he came to this world.

He didn't want to worry about this question and asked the question he wanted to ask the most: "You said that Si Cao, who wears a green-faced and fanged mask and is good at using swords, wants to kill us, why do you say that?"

Wu Hongbiao said strangely: "Si Cao is Si Cao, why did you add so many adjectives? Si Cao has only this one."

Chen Ji shook his head: "You answer my question first."

Wu Hongbiao recalled: "The person who came to kill me first lied to me that Si Cao had orders and transferred me to the Cao Gang in Dongshi to receive a batch of goods. I am a pigeon-level spy detective. In addition to you, Zhou Chengyi and Si Cao are qualified to know my information in the entire Luocheng. In addition, on the day the killer came, I also asked them to show Si Cao's token, and they also showed it."

"What is Sicao's token?"

"The Luocheng Zhi" with a special seal stamp printed with 'Rongbaozhai', the corner of the seal stamp is knocked off from the upper right side, and it cannot be imitated."

Chen Ji finally understood that Wu Hongbiao actually didn't know that there were other Si Caos, nor did he know that the new Si Cao arrived in Luocheng and excluded the original Si Cao.

So, according to my own inference, the one who wanted to kill them was the manager Yuan, not the coachman Si Cao.

However, Chen Ji must verify that Wu Hongbiao is not lying.

He said after a long silence, "I need you to do one thing."

"What's up?"

"See Si Cao."

Wu Hongbiao looked shocked.

...

...

In the early morning, Luocheng Prefecture Office.

A plaque with golden paint was hung on the yamen, "Luocheng Mansion Office". The officials at the yamen hurriedly came to the scene. A minor official lowered his voice and said, "Go away quickly, if you go late, you will be hanged by Tongzhi."

As they were talking, a carriage engraved with canary patterns slowly stopped at the entrance of the government office. The officials didn't care about it and stopped and bent down to salute.

The coachman lifted the curtain and hung the hook on the body of the car, picked up a stool and placed it next to the carriage, and then whispered: "Second Master, I'm here."

Liu obviously wore a blue official robe, black gauze on his head, a jade leather belt on his waist, and a black-faced soap boots on his feet, slowly walked off the carriage.

"Hello, Lord Tongzhe."

"Hello, Lord Tongzhe."

Liu Xian huhed out of his nose, and the officials dared to stand up and hurried to the government office.

According to the rules, Liu obviously did not have the qualifications to ride in this canary carriage, but Liu Ge Lao of the Liu family was in a high position and Yuzhou was the private land of the Liu family, so naturally no one dared to say anything.

When Liu Xian entered the yamen, the coachman drove the carriage aside, took a hat and squatted at the door, and chatted with other coachmen and sedan chairmen.

The coachman asked with a smile: "Erniu, did your master go out again last night?"

Erniu smiled and said, "Hey, my master won't go out for a leisurely day? He went to the Baiyi Lane Embroidery Building last night and was said to have seen Liu Xingshou."

The coachman exclaimed: "Now the men in Manluo City all want to see what leader Liu Xing looks like. What does your master say?"

Erniu said honestly: "My master said that Liu Xingshou is really a wonderful person. Unfortunately, the other party is protected by the Xu family, so no one dares to do anything to her."

The coachman paused for a moment and then asked, "Old Li, what about you, what did you do last night?"

"What else can you do?" Old Li yawned: "Last night, a group of secret spies came to the craftsman's prison, saying that they wanted to check the craftsman's warehouse account book. My master stayed in it all night and couldn't leave for half a step. So, he was released this morning. The master didn't even return home, so he came here directly."

The coachman smiled and said, "Then you are so miserable. Go back and ask your wife to massage your back."
To be continued...