She fell out after crying at the wrong grave

Dang County, Chengxi Posthouse.

It was getting late and the snow was too heavy to walk. Due to the weather, the streets were deserted early.

The shopkeeper had just closed the door and was about to turn off the lights and take a rest.

Who would deliver a letter at this time?

“Boom boom, boom boom—”

In the dim candlelight, the shopkeeper turned around and looked at the door that had just been locked.

A figure wearing a bamboo hat appeared on the silk tissue paper used to paste the window.

The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said, "Oh! We are closed, we are closed. Please come back tomorrow!" Someone knocking on the door so late must be about something urgent.

This is the Bird Post Station, where officials use hawks and civilians use pigeons. This is the rule set by the state government. It is not good to release hawks and pigeons at night. Even the adults who work in the office know this. It is unlikely that he is an official.

There is a horse post less than half a street away, and people who deliver letters at night will most likely choose that place.

But at this moment, curfew is approaching, and the opportunity to send the letter out of the city is very limited.

There are countless post houses like this in the main city of Kezhou and the counties of the three provinces, which are established with the support of the provincial government. All of them, flying in the sky and running on the ground, without exception, follow the rules of the provincial government.

At this time, unless someone is...

"Decline, decline, why not return?"

A hoarse voice came in through the door, every word was firm and sharp, and every word hurt the shopkeeper's heart.

He walked over quickly and opened the door again.

The black clothes did not reveal the bloodstains on the visitor's body. He subconsciously looked around, lowered the edge of his hat and walked straight into the door.

The shopkeeper also looked around and saw that the road was deserted and as quiet as usual. He locked the door and even closed the windows.

"Didn't I tell you that I have already paid off what I owe you! Why are you looking for me again?" The shopkeeper turned around, and even though he tried to lower his voice, the emotions on his face completely exposed him to the visitor.

"For the last time." Covering the wound on his chest, the man raised his head. It was the spy who had just escaped from the mountain.

The shopkeeper couldn't help himself and held his head with both hands, "Zhang Shiliu, just stop it! Every time you come, I always put my head on the belt to help you. My son was just born, I don't want to risk my life anymore!"

The spy's name was Zhang Shiliu. Four years ago, he saved a man named Zhao Zhuo from death.

Zhao Zhuo's family was convicted of a crime in his early years, and his family was destroyed. He started to do business with Hu merchants at an early age, and after saving some money by doing hard labor, he opened a small shop.

Unexpectedly, on the way to deliver the goods, Zhao Zhuo encountered a huge tiger strolling on the official road, which frightened him half to death. Zhang Shiliu, who was carrying a bow, saw it from a distance and calmly shot an arrow at the tiger's front leg.

Zhao Zhuo heard Zhang Shiliu yelling "Run!" and then he ran for his life. After that, his mind went blank and he was so frightened that he became unconscious.

Zhang Shiliu hired a doctor for him and let him live in the thatched cottage for a few days. After his soul loss was cured, the two became friends.

Zhao Zhuo's difficult business went bad within two years. In addition, he spent a lot of money on marriage and borrowed a lot of money from monks, so he ended up bankrupt.

This was the third failure in Zhao Zhuo's life.

When Zhao Zhuo returned to Dang County in despair, Zhang Shiliu suddenly showed him a way.

Zhang Shiliu said that his friend had opened an inn in the city and was worried about not having a job as a handyman because he couldn't offer a high salary and no one was willing to apply. If Zhao Zhuo didn't mind, he could give it a try.

These words were like a torch in the dark night, rekindling Zhao Zhuosheng's hope.

Of course he was willing, and soon he moved into Feiqin Inn with his wife.

Originally, he thought that it was just an ordinary post house, and with the government behind it, he should be able to live a stable life. But gradually, Zhao Zhuo discovered something was wrong.

There were about four or five times when Zhao Zhuo found that those with the word "北" embroidered on their clothes often came with blood and a brown cloth bag. And those with the word "邑" embroidered on their clothes would take the cloth bag away every time.

At first I suspected it was the guest's special way of contacting others, but as an innkeeper I believe in not asking or investigating, so I stopped paying attention to it.

Until one night later, the shopkeeper brought in a dead body, scratched the face of the corpse, and asked Zhao Zhuo to go with him to the mountain in the middle of the night to dig a hole and bury the body.

Zhao Zhuo was terrified. He had never seen the shopkeeper look so ferocious. Zhao Zhuo was afraid of being killed, so he followed suit.

A few days later, he saw Zhang Shiliu again, and found that Zhang Shiliu was also holding the same brown cloth bag. So he finally couldn't help it and stopped Zhang Shiliu to ask.

This question put him in a sea of ​​fire and swords.

Zhang Shiliu confessed that he and the shopkeeper were both working for a gangster organization, and that they were all exchanging information about the gangsters. Then he used persuasion and offered a high reward to try to get Zhao Zhuo to join the gang.

Zhao Zhuo is a timid person. Especially after experiencing all kinds of ups and downs in his life, he dare not do anything big easily.

So he rejected Zhang Shiliu and decided to leave Dang County.

He originally wanted to go to Kezhou to seek refuge with his distant cousin. It was said that the man who worked as a soldier in Kezhou must be from a well-off family. But after borrowing money to get to Kezhou City, he heard that the soldier surnamed Zhao had died of a sudden illness.

During his lifetime, he owed a huge debt to Huajiulou. After his wife and children pawned their belongings to pay off the debt, he left Kezhou and disappeared.

This is the only way out, and it has been blocked.

Zhao Zhuo returned to Dang County again in despair. His wife was already pregnant and weak, so she had to go to the pharmacy every day to get medicine to protect the fetus. But the family didn't have much money saved, so this made things even more difficult.

Zhang Shiliu found him again.

This time Zhao Zhuo had no choice but to agree.

But what he knew and what Zhang Shiliu said were far from being dangerous.

Not long after, the shopkeeper went on a long journey and never came back. Zhao Zhuo asked Zhang Shiliu and found out that the shopkeeper had died in Pingchuan.

Pingchuan, born beside the river, is a crossroads of several states. In the days when the news of the shopkeeper's death came, the secretary of the Central Secretariat was attacked on the way to investigate for the emperor. The assassin died, but the assassinated secretary of the Central Secretariat luckily saved his life and returned to the capital overnight.

Putting the two things together, it was hard for Zhao Zhuo not to think too much.

Afterwards, Zhao Zhuo became the new manager of Feiqinyi. And he finally realized that this so-called underworld organization that infiltrated the state government was not that simple at all.

Its name is "Beitang", which means both spying on the secrets of the imperial court and assassinating officials. The embroidery on the clothes that Zhao Zhuo saw before, the combination of the characters "Bei" and "Yi", is exactly the character "Bei".

The bloody storm is just the tip of the iceberg.

After several missions, the person Zhao Zhuo took over was Zhang Shiliu.

A few days ago, he heard that a soldier from Yuanzhou had died in the mountain, so Zhang Shiliu came in a hurry and took away all the luggage that had been deposited there.

Zhao Zhuo trembled and asked Zhang Shiliu if he had killed them. Zhang Shiliu shook his head. His mission this time was to find out the cause of death of Yuanzhou Sibing.

Bei Tang's superior said that You Tong was carrying a secret that his master wanted to obtain. This was not a difficult task, but Zhao Hou and the Yuanzhou envoy entered the villa without stopping, and brought fierce soldiers to surround the villa.

That's why Zhang Shiliu took the risk and sneaked into the villa, but he failed and was captured. Fortunately, he heard the conversation of several people in the yard, and when he checked the body, he found that what they said was true.

He was determined to die, but it was a pity that he couldn't pass the message on. But he had a chance to escape, so whether he wanted to or not, he had to meet Zhao Zhuo.

So when Zhao Zhuo opened the door, the person covered in blood turned out to be Zhang Shiliu.

The code word "shi wei shi wei" is exactly from a poem in Bei Feng among the Three Hundred Poems.

"I don't know if it's worth it for you to do this." Zhao Zhuo looked at the bloody hands, which were even trembling as they held the cloth bag, and felt sorry for them. "But you are my lifesaver, I can't refuse you."

He turned his eyes away and no longer looked at the scars all over Zhang Shiliu's body.

Zhao Zhuo took the cloth bag and took out two bottles of trauma medicine from the wooden cabinet and stuffed them into his pockets, whispering, "I'll take care of it. Now is the time before anyone catches up with you. Run away."

Zhang Shiliu was stunned, clutching the two small porcelain bottles. He grinned, looking particularly desolate under his pale face, "I will share my clothes with you even if I have no clothes. If I can survive, I will come to find you."

Zhao Zhuo's eyes felt sore, and he covered his eyes with his sleeves for fear of not being able to hold back his tears.

When he looked up again, there was no one in the room. The doors and windows were all closed, as if he had never seen Zhang Shiliu tonight.

Zhao Zhuo forced himself not to think about the whole matter anymore. He quickly hid the cloth bag in the old place and prepared to go upstairs to sleep.

His youngest son was also weak and often cried at night, but somehow he managed to sleep well tonight.

This was a relief to Zhao Zhuo.

But before this comfort could reach my heart, the life-threatening knock on the door rang out again.

……

Outside Dang County.

In a grove just a few miles away from the city gate, a young marquis was sitting cross-legged, waiting for his opportunity.

His eyes, like the deep water of a cold pond in the dark night, quietly stared at the bonfires at the city gate.

After chasing the spy out of the villa, Hengzhi first followed the spy for a while. When the spy's physical strength began to decline, Hengzhi consciously slowed down. One reason was to let the other party relax his guard, and the other was to save his own physical strength.

Finding that he was left some distance away, the spy hesitated for a moment and went towards Dang County.

Seeing that his idea coincided with his thoughts, Hengzhi gave up following into the city and instead stayed outside the city.

The geographical location of Dang County is different from other counties. Behind it is the Wuling Mountain, and in front is a flat road. There are sentries on the mountain, and in winter and at night, the security is even stricter.

He had just come down the mountain, so he couldn't possibly go back the way he came to escape, not to mention that he had to deliver a message. So Hengzhi took a gamble, betting that he would be able to sneak out of the city by tomorrow morning at the latest.

But this all-nighter didn't work out.

The curfew had already been declared and the city gates were about to be closed, but suddenly, right under his nose, the tranquility of the curfew was broken with a bang.

The sound of reckless horse hooves was like thunder that broke the blue sky, heavily thumping the ground that was mixed with mud and snow.

Hengzhi sprang up like a bowstring and passed through the forest.

It turned out to be a spy who had changed his attire. His right arm, which had been broken by the lieutenant, was still hanging strangely by his side. He controlled the horse with his left hand, and rushed forward crookedly.

A person suddenly appeared in the darkness, and the horse was startled and raised its front hooves high.

Although it seems unreasonable for a person to block a horse, the desired effect is to frighten the horse and make the person fall off the horse.

Zhang Shiliu was so startled that he didn't have time to tighten the reins, and both he and his horse were thrown to the ground.

But the sound of horse hooves has not stopped yet.

Suddenly, a horseman rushed out from the half-closed city gate, and the sound of his horse galloping loudly echoed in front of the thick city wall.

Hengzhi smiled slightly and looked at the person reining in his horse in front of him.

Compared with Zhang Shiliu's clumsy left hand, this kind of riding skill seems like a swimming dragon.

The girl on the horse had her ponytail tied high and had a determined look on her face, like a female general from an ancient legend.

Unexpectedly, the rabbit he was guarding tonight unexpectedly had a companion rabbit that could act as a good hunter, his own.

(End of this chapter)