Liaozhai: A scholar should draw a sword

Chapter 131 Poisonous Corpse
The next day, the news reached the town.

After hearing the news, Zhou Yu and his wife immediately rushed to Ergou Village, which was more than [-] miles away from the village.

After inquiring about the situation last night, the couple found a charred zombie in a ravine outside the village.

"Husband, as you guessed, it's really not a zombie..."

Bai Min'er stepped forward to examine it carefully and came to a conclusion.

Regarding this matter, the husband and wife sorted it out carefully based on what the shopkeeper and his wife had said, and in the end Zhou Yu thought that it was probably not a zombie.

In his mind, it was unreasonable for so many zombies to appear in a short period of time, and it was probably a trick of some charlatans.

"If it's not a zombie, what is it?"

"As far as I know, some evil people in southern Xinjiang like to refine poisonous corpses, soaking living people in special venom...

The resulting poisonous corpse is extremely poisonous, invulnerable, and looks like a zombie.

The charred corpse in front of him contained a lot of toxins, so it should be a poisonous corpse. "

Having said that, Zhou Yu couldn't help but suddenly realized.

"That's right, that's how it should be. No wonder there are always villagers missing, presumably they were arrested to refine poisonous corpses.

And these poisonous corpses killed people, or the people behind the scenes were afraid of the government's full investigation, so they deliberately did it, making people think it was zombies. "

Bai Min'er nodded: "Well, it's possible."

"Min'er, since we have encountered this matter, we can't just ignore it. We must find out the person behind the scenes who refines the corpse."

Bai Min'er smiled: "Whatever my husband says, so be it."

"Hahaha, okay, then let's sit on the sidelines!"

What Zhou Yu said about sitting on a tree and waiting for a rabbit is to squat in Ergou Village.

Thinking about it, it was not easy for the other party to refine poisonous corpses, but now that one of them was burned to death by the villagers, he must be very angry in his heart.

Since the other party can use living people to refine poisonous corpses, how can he be a good person?Thinking about it, he will definitely take revenge on Ergou Village.

Therefore, Zhou Yu and Bai Min'er returned to the inn first, and explained to the shopkeeper, but did not mention the poisonous corpse, so as not to leak the news and let the other party take precautions in advance.

"Treasurer, judging from the incident in Ergou Village, the zombies are not invincible.

You must overcome the fear in your heart, unite as one, and prepare more torches, tung oil, etc..."

Next, under Zhou Yu's command, the people in the town took action to set up various traps. Even if they couldn't kill the zombies, they couldn't sit still.

When it was dark, Zhou Yu and his wife went to squat near Ergou Village.

It's really unexpected...

On the first night, the other party might be preparing, but he didn't show up.On the second night, it finally appeared...

"Husband, look, someone is coming!"

Bai Miner whispered something.

Zhou Yu took a closer look, and couldn't help but wonder: "Huh? Why is there only one person? Didn't he bring the poisonous corpse?"

"Strange, he didn't go into the village, but up the mountain."

"Something's wrong... This guy's skills are not ordinary. There must be something wrong with his sneakiness. Min'er, you stay here and watch, I'll follow up and take a look."

"Okay, be careful."

"Don't worry..." Zhou Yu smiled, hugged Bai Min'er into his arms and kissed him affectionately, then quietly followed.

Soi Ying is a man of about thirty years old with a rogue-like face.

This guy is also careful, walking all the way to see if anyone is following him.

It's just that he couldn't find Zhou Yu's whereabouts at all, so he went around and finally came to a small pool halfway up the mountain.

This small pool is formed by the water leached from the mountain, and flows through the edge of the village, which is the source of water in the village.

Walking to the edge of the small water pool, the man took out a small bottle from his arms...

Seeing this, Zhou Yu couldn't help being surprised.

He finally understood this guy's intention, which was to poison the water source.Although I don't know what kind of poison it is, it is definitely not a good thing.

As a result, Zhou Yu naturally couldn't tolerate this guy's mischief.

So he coughed lightly.

"Who?"

The man froze for a moment, then subconsciously looked around.

Zhou Yu walked out slowly, and said coldly, "You want to poison the people in the village?"

The man frowned, and asked back, "Which way is my friend? We don't seem to know each other?"

"You guys did the zombie thing, right?"

"What zombie? I don't know what you're talking about..."

The man categorically denied it, and at the same time turned around...

In the end, he suddenly raised his hand and threw the bottle in his hand towards the pool, then turned around and ran wildly.

Fortunately, Zhou Yu was well prepared, grabbed the bottle in his hand, and chased after him.

After not chasing very far, a figure descended from the sky, before the man came back to his senses, he was kicked to the ground.

It was Bai Min'er who came.

"This guy is going to poison the water source."

Zhou Yu said something hastily.

"hateful!"

Bai Min'er was so angry that she rushed forward, aimed at that guy and kicked him several times...

After all the tricks, no matter how stubborn that guy was, he finally confessed everything obediently.

Unexpectedly, things were far more complicated than the couple imagined.

It sounds like this guy is just a young man who doesn't know much inside information.However, just based on the tip of the iceberg he confessed, it is already shocking enough.

According to that guy, they have a stronghold near Xigou Village, and more than a dozen disciples are responsible for cultivating poisonous people.

At present, there are almost forty poisonous people cultivated in the stronghold...

And their stronghold is only one of the points of the sect, and it is unknown how many other places are distributed.

As for the ultimate use of these poisonous people... they don't know very well, but according to gossip, it seems to be related to the Zhennan Palace.

"Zhennan Palace?"

After finishing that little guy, Zhou Yu couldn't help but frowned and muttered to himself.

"Husband, what is the origin of Zhennan King?"

Zhou Yu explained: "King Zhennan is the uncle of the current emperor. It is said that he secretly competed with the former emperor to fight for the throne. Later, seeing that the situation was over, he voluntarily left the capital and applied to fight the chaos in the southwest.

After the first emperor ascended the throne, he was canonized as the king of Zhennan, and he was ordered to stay in the southwest of Yongzheng, and he was not allowed to leave the jurisdiction without decree.

In fact, this is a disgrace in disguise, allocating a fief to the King of Zhennan to appease him, lest he cause more troubles and affect the rule of the former emperor.

Now it seems that the King of Zhennan is afraid that he is unwilling to collude with the warlocks..."

Bai Min'er couldn't help but ask, "Husband, what should we do?"

Zhou Yu thought for a while: "This is just the gossip that guy heard, and the truth needs to be verified. In this way, let's not disturb that stronghold for now.

If it is really related to the Zhennan Palace, then the local government probably knows the inside story. "

"Husband means to go to the county to investigate?"

"Well, you can try it out first."

……

In the evening of the next day, the couple arrived in the county seat.

The size of the county is very small. After all, the terrain is remote and the population is small. There is only one main street and a few alleys.

There were not many inns in the city, only a few, and Zhou Yu chose a clean one to stay in.

After choosing the room, Bai Min'er stayed in the room to adjust his breath, and Zhou Yu went to the front hall alone to drink...

It's not that I really want to drink, but I mainly want to inquire about some news.

"What would the guest want to eat?"

The guy enthusiastically stepped forward to ask.

"Have a jug of wine, and you can eat and drink as you like."

"okay."

The man responded and left.

"What kind of world is this? Where is the law of heaven and where is the law of the king?"

At the next table, a man with the appearance of a scholar seemed to have drunk too much, so Zui Xunxun yelled alone.

It seems that the family background should be relatively poor, and the clothes are tattered and patched a few times.

"Dog officer, dog officer..."

At this time, the shopkeeper couldn't help frowning and walked over, persuading: "Luo Xiucai, don't drink, go home quickly."

"Where did I get a home? I don't have a home... Bring me wine, bring me wine..."

Luo Xiucai shook the jug, and found that there was no wine in it, so he yelled loudly with drunken eyes.

The shopkeeper said with a dissatisfied face: "Luo Xiucai, I sympathized with you and gave you wine on credit, but you come every day and owe it all the time. There is no such reason in the world."

"Hahaha, reason? In today's world, where is the place to be reasonable? Everyone said, where is the place to be reasonable?"

"Shopkeeper, tell him to leave quickly, if you let him continue to make such a fuss, our store will definitely be implicated."

Having said that, the shopkeeper's expression changed, and he hurriedly asked Luo Xiucai: "You go, go home and rest."

"No, not going back..."

"Don't use alcohol to pretend to be crazy..."

"Shopkeeper, how much does he owe for the wine?" At this time, Zhou Yu asked.

"I owe... almost a tael of silver."

"Okay, charge it to my account, and I'll pay together later."

"Ah?" The shopkeeper was stunned.

"Afraid I don't have the money to pay?" Zhou Yu smiled, took out a small ingot of silver and put it on the table.

The guy's eyes lit up, he quickly stepped forward to pick up the silver, looked at it, and put it in his mouth to bite...

Many common people identify silver in this way, because silver is softer than other metals, and those that can be bitten with teeth marks are generally not fake.

After biting, the man nodded to the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper immediately smiled: "The guest officer is really a kind person..."

"In this way, you open another room and prepare some food and drinks to the room. I want to have a few drinks with this brother..."

Speaking of this, Zhou Yu smiled at Luo Xiucai: "I don't know what you want, brother?"

"This...how is this so embarrassing?"

Although he drank a bit too much, Luo Xiucai still did not forget the etiquette, and gave a polite sentence.

"Hehe, you don't have to be polite, brother, I just like dealing with scholars."

Not long after, the man took the two of them into a guest room, and then brought some food and wine.

Zhou Yu poured a glass of wine and put it in front of Luo Xiucai, and raised his hand: "Brother, please!"

"Many...thank you, brother..."

After drinking a few cups, Zhou Yu asked, "By the way, I heard brother say that there is no reason for heaven, and you scolded some dog officials. What's going on?"

When this matter was mentioned, Luo Xiucai couldn't help gnashing his teeth, and after scolding the dog officer a few times, he explained the reason intermittently.

He and his wife Fang Shi have been married for several years. Although they live in poverty, they are still loving and harmonious.

Unexpectedly, misfortune fell from the sky.

One day, a young man from a rich family in the city bullied the people on the street. Luo Xiucai couldn't stand it and said a few words of justice, but in the end he was hated by the other party.

Within a few days, Luo Xiucai suffered a lawsuit for no reason.

He was stopped on the street, insisting that he stole the money bag.Coincidentally, there was a yamen servant nearby, who immediately rushed up to search him, and indeed found a money bag on Luo Xiucai, which matched the characteristics and the number mentioned by the other party.

Now, Luo Xiucai couldn't speak clearly, he knew that he was framed by someone, and the other party must have put the money bag on him on purpose.

Moreover, he also saw the mocking smile of the rich young master surnamed Chen in the crowd.

Obviously, this is the young master of the Chen family's revenge.

Luo Xiucai was escorted to the county government office. The county magistrate Zhao Yongguang couldn't explain it, so he ordered someone to hit him with a board on the spot to force him to confess.

This is against the rules and against the law. After all, Luo Xiu has the reputation of being a scholar. According to the law, even if he commits a crime, he should be imprisoned first, and no punishment should be used.

If you want to use punishment, you can only report to your superiors first, and you can only go to punishment if you lose your reputation as a scholar.

Obviously, the other party had communicated with the county magistrate a long time ago, and wanted to make Luo Xiucai beat him up.

However, Luo Xiucai can be regarded as tough, although his body is thin, but he just gritted his teeth and did not plead guilty.

His wife, Fang Shi, then rushed to the prison to visit her husband. Seeing that her husband was being tortured so badly, she couldn't help crying, and advised her husband to let it go, and to suffer less.

At worst, she will be closed for a few years, and she will definitely wait for him to come home.

Luo Xiucai disagreed, saying that once he pleaded guilty, his reputation would be ruined throughout his life, and his career would definitely be cut.

Even if he suffers a little crime, he has to endure it, and then try to reverse the case.

That being said, in fact, Luo Xiucai knew very well in his heart, how easy is it to overturn the case?
He was just not reconciled.

Fang didn't want her husband to be tortured to death, so she lowered her face and collected a little money to see the county magistrate Zhao Dezhu, hoping to bail her husband out.

It's just that the mere taels of silver she collected was not enough for Zhao Dezhu to stick between his teeth, so how could he catch his eye?

At first, Zhao Dezhu was too lazy to see him.

Later, when the yamen servant said that Mrs. Fang was quite good-looking... the old guy's heart moved, and he ordered Mrs. Fang to be called into the inner courtyard.

As soon as they met, there was indeed a bit of charm, so Zhao Dezhu began to threaten Fang, saying that if he didn't beheaded, he would not run away after ten years in prison.

Ten years in prison, how many people can survive?Not to mention ten years, even one year can kill many people.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Zhao Dezhu pretended to be kind again, and put forward a condition, saying that he could release Luo Xiucai, but Fang must stay by his side voluntarily, and set her free after two months.

If Fang does not agree, then wait for the body to be collected.

In order to save her husband's life, Fang could only endure the humiliation and bear the burden to stay...

"Tell me, what kind of man am I? I can't even protect my own wife. I know she was bullied and humiliated by that dog official, but I can only drink alone..."

Hearing what happened to him, Zhou Yu couldn't help but secretly sighed.

On the surface, Luo Xiucai was indeed too incompetent to be able to endure such a shame.

But what can he do?
Could it be possible to burn down the county government with a torch?
"That dog official has been in office for three years. I don't know how many women have been ruined and how many people have been forced to death..."

Zhou Yu couldn't help asking: "Since that's the case, no one went to the government office to sue the officials?"

Luo Xiucai sneered a few times: "Don't mention it, but whoever goes to the mansion to file a complaint, none of them will end well, and the world is as black as crows.

This dog official used to be a servant of the Zhennan Prince's Mansion, but for some reason, he became the dignified seventh-rank county magistrate..."

"Oh? You said the county magistrate used to be a servant of the Zhennan Palace?"

Luo Xiucai nodded: "That's right, everyone knows about this, it's a groom..."

Zhou Yu couldn't help pinching his chin. It's a bit interesting for a groom to become a parent officer...

(End of this chapter)