Daming Yinghua

Xiuwalou is a famous restaurant in Songjiang Prefecture.

People are used to names like "Zuixian", "Wanlong", "Heming" and "Baofeng", and at first they were quite curious about the word "Xiuwa".

The owner of the restaurant, surnamed Feng, said that he and his wife gave birth to three daughters in one go, which was the joy of Nongwa.He also said that each of his daughters was prettier than the other, hence the name "Xiuwalou".

Boss Feng is in his forties, with a chubby face, sallow eyebrows, a pair of gentle bull eyes, and a natural and sincere smile to welcome and see off. Instead, he asked the clerk to give him a bowl of rice, and even gave Xiao Huazi two Yexie soft cakes.

As time went by, the locals praised Boss Feng, who came from Jiangxi and worked hard as a shopkeeper since he was a child, and took care of his business one after another.

The year before last, Boss Feng tidied up the Xiuwa Building. In each private room on the second floor, there were three or five pieces of fine porcelain made by famous kilns in Jingdezhen, such as multicolored auspicious animal lotus petal goblets, blue and white peony pens with twining patterns Washing and the like are all appreciated by young ladies or literati when they are arty.

The story and style of the restaurant have been established, and the reputation has grown even more. Silk merchants and cotton merchants who come and go to Songjiang Prefecture also use this place as a good place to treat guests and discuss business.

On this day, the yamen of one prefecture and three counties were resting, and the weather in early summer was comfortable and pleasant. At noon, the Xiuwa Building was full of guests, and even the dozen or so private rooms on the second floor around the corridor were full of guests.

"A shad steamed with Wuzhou ham."

"One serving of stewed rice field eel with scrambled river prawns."

"Ten smoked silk."

"A plate of four-gill sea bass stuffed with bamboo shoots and minced meat."

The guys shuttled up and down, their voices were as clear as singing in an opera, shining one after another.

But no matter how lively the dishes are reported, it is not as lively as the guest officials talking about the current news in the city.

Boss Feng personally carried a pot of "smelly winter melon steamed with smelly amaranth stalks" and a pot of Shaoxing rice wine. After serving the guests in an elegant room through layers of noise and noise, he lifted his robe and went downstairs , came to the atrium of the restaurant where the pomegranate flowers were red, and the distinguished guests who had always been late and had to sit at extra tables confessed one by one, and ordered the staff to present some bad stewed side dishes.

"Boss Feng, the silkworm god punished the self-combed girl from the Han family, and almost roasted her into a silkworm chrysalis, have you heard?"

A diner picked up half a chicken foot with bad smell, sipped the dripping sauce, smacked his lips and chatted with Boss Feng.

"I'll know that day," Boss Feng poured a round of wine for everyone at the dinner courteously, and said calmly, "We are busy with business all day, so we are not lucky enough to watch the parade, but how can such a horrific thing be spread? Is it fast? But..."

Boss Feng turned around and ordered a waiter to quickly refill the hot tea in the private room upstairs, and then said to the old man who gnawed on the chicken feet: "However, I don't believe it, brother. It is said that Miss Zheng brought The weaving method of Zhangrong in her hometown, the handkerchief woven with silk thread and our Songjiang cotton cloth, the imperial court took a fancy to it, and decided to sell it to foreigners. Isn't this quite decent, the silkworm Goddess knows that the silk spun out by her descendants After all this use, you should be happy, what did you punish that self-combing girl for..."

Boss Feng hadn't even said the word "very" when mixed screams of men and women came from upstairs behind him. …

The old diner in front of him also showed panic in his eyes for an instant, and the chicken bone in his mouth fell to the plate with a clang, and he jumped up like a spring.

Boss Feng looked back and was stunned.

But seeing a private room on the second floor, the sky is bright and bright, but the flames are surging, like a huge red and dazzling lantern.

From the open door, it was like a red lantern had been breached, and a dazzling and fast-moving fireball rushed out.

It turned out to be a man on fire, howling and rolling in the corridor.

All of a sudden, the whole restaurant yelled, and the sound of broken dishes rang out.The guests on the second floor rushed down, and the guests on the first floor rushed out, just for the word "escape".

Boss Feng shouted: "Pump, pump, put out the fire."

As if waking up from a dream, the guys went to the corner to get the bamboo water gun-style fire-fighting tool "pump", and rushed to the water tank.

Their movements are swift, but when they fill up with water and turn

When running towards the fire, the man on fire who was screaming and running madly towards the stairs a moment ago had already collapsed on the stairs.

The guys divided into two groups, three of them sprayed water on the man on fire and the stairs, and the other seven or eight went to put out the fire in the private room.

The fire at the back was not strong, and soon died down, but the fire on the guest's body was like a maggot attached to the bone, stubbornly resisting the water column, until the victim's head, face, limbs, and bones were scorched black, and the flames turned into Martian, eventually extinguished.

Boss Feng sat on the ground with his ass on the ground, his teeth chattered a few times before he realized it, and said in a trembling voice: "Report, report to the officer, report to the officer quickly!"

An older guy ran out, but the two cooks who came from the back kitchen exclaimed in surprise: "Why are there bamboo foil sheets on the table? Oh, every table has it, and there are words written on it. Chicken at two o'clock. What do you mean?"

……

In the evening, the clouds in the sky are brilliant.

In the garden of Han Mansion, Zheng Shoukuan was talking with Han Ximeng and Zheng Haizhu.

During the days when Zheng Haizhu was recuperating at home, Shoukuan went to school every day as usual, took care of school affairs with Cao Guanshi, followed up the progress of clothing and embroidery orders with Tailor Fan, and attended classes with the children.

"Auntie, everything in the school is as usual. A few young men sent by Catcher Liu patrolled the surroundings from morning to night, and found nothing unusual. Mr. Yao refused to go home and rest, saying that she was an official paper, and there was nothing wrong with her." She is in the school, the villains in the dark should not dare to do anything wrong with the school, otherwise if she is hurt, Zhuang Futai and Master Huang will definitely investigate thoroughly."

Han Ximeng looked at Zheng Haizhu, and praised sincerely: "Azhu, you have good eyesight. When I saw Mrs. Huang, this beautiful wife, I just thought it was no different from the young lady who lingered in the back house and admired pearls and jade. I didn't expect her to be with you. Going out to do things, unexpectedly has a bit of tenacity and courage.”

Zheng Haizhu pursed her lips and smiled.

At the beginning, she was only based on one experience, and she fell in love with Huang Zunsu's wife, that is, a promising child has a high probability of having a good mother. Huang Zongxi's mother should have a "magic value" that can be expected.

Of course, there are many counterexamples in reality, so Zheng Haizhu felt that he was lucky, and Yao Shi was really capable of handling things.

Han Ximeng asked again: "Shoukuan, Mr. Lu and Second Brother, have you been to Sheshan?"

Shou Kuan nodded: "Mr. Lu said that Young Master Gu took him to visit all the mulberry gardens and the shops of the white horse floats. The master said that to make sulfur and charcoal into soup, it takes extremely high Therefore, Young Master Gu went to find out if any of these people were blacksmiths or kilns..."...

Just as Shou Kuan said this, there was a scream of a maidservant in the front yard.

Then came the shouts of Steward Peng and a group of servants.

"Block the door, lock the door!"

Amidst the sound of ping-pong, the servant girl ran to the backyard in a panic, protecting the mistress Qian.

Han Ximeng stood up suddenly: "Second Aunt, what's the matter?"

These days, the Japanese and Korean second masters go to Suzhou to discuss business, and the second grandma Qian is the backbone of the family.

At this moment, she tried her best to show a calm demeanor, and instead of answering her niece, she said to Zheng Shoukuan in a deep voice, "Ah Kuan, you run out from behind and call people, Gu's Mansion, Dong's Mansion, and the county government. Grandfather and son, surrounded our house, and later said that there are still people coming, and they want to arrest Ah Zhu and burn them. Let the officials and servants come to save lives quickly."

"Ah?" Zheng Shoukuan was taken aback, "Second Mistress, why did you burn my aunt?"

Qian just pushed him away: "I will tell your aunt, you go now, don't let anyone block you."

Zheng Shoukuan woke up, ran away, and after a while, ran back with the maid who had passed by, panting, and reported: "Second Mistress, Ah Kuan has gone out, after a while, it seems that a man is swearing and outflanking from the front, just smashing the door. Kuan was not caught."

Qian frowned even tighter, and said briefly to Han and Zheng, "The silkworm farmers said that in the Xiuwa Building on the other side of the city at noon, a merchant from Ningbo bought some shady purses embroidered by Ah Zhu. He was burned to death by the sky fire by Empress Can. It was exactly the same as the fire that burned Azhu that day. Empress Can also left a bamboo foil in the restaurant, pointing to a Zheng character. I and Lao Peng do not believe this kind of nonsense. But the silkworm farmer Like crazy."

Zheng Haizhu thought, what a mess,

Have I ever sold purses to Ningbo merchants?What the hell are you talking about?

But she quickly exchanged a glance with Han Ximeng.

The two tacitly said: the wonderful scene is coming.

However, at this moment, it is still necessary to hide it from everyone in the courtyard, especially that stupid and vicious girl in Sanfang.

In order to act realistically, the kind-hearted Second Mistress can only suffer from fear for a while.

Zheng Haizhu then expressed urgency and said: "Second Grandma, miss, don't guess who framed me. Let's go to the cellar to hide, and it will take a while."

Mrs. Qian nodded, and supported by Han Ximeng, she walked towards the kitchen in the side courtyard, while ordering the women and maidservants: "Go to the east courtyard quickly, and let the third grandma and Ah Ying come over."

……

Although the space buried underground is dark, it blocks the hustle and bustle and violence on the ground, but it is warm and quiet, making people suddenly feel safe.

Han Ximeng and the two women sat in the corner with the second grandmother.

Zheng Haizhu leaned against the bolted door of the cellar, pressed his face against the crack of the door, and stared at the movement outside.

It was already the end of the unitary year, and there was no lamp in the kitchen, so it was very dark.

The door of the cellar faced several steps of stairs, and a few rays of twilight filtered in from the small window by the chimney and fell on the wooden steps.

Soon, the little maid who was guarding the door of the kitchen shouted "Miss is here", the door opened, and Han Xiying's voice said, "Close the door quickly, and watch out for those people to rush in."

Immediately, Han Xiying's embroidered shoes appeared on the wooden steps.

"Second Aunt, Eldest Sister." Han Xiying's trembling voice sounded. …

Zheng Haizhu could feel the fine steel chisel in her sleeve, but her hand was still wrapped in gauze. If the wrong person came in, she would not be able to use the short blade as flexibly as before.

Zheng Haizhu gritted his teeth, lifted the wooden latch, and opened the cellar door.

In the dim light and shadow, behind Han Xiying, three rough and cold faces of men appeared.

Han Xiying saw that it was Zheng Haizhu who opened the door, and immediately cried out, "Don't kill me, don't kill me."

At the same time, the shouting and cursing of the three men covered up Han Xiying's artificial crying.

One of them stretched out his hand, dragged Zheng Haizhu up the stairs, and pressed him against the stove.

The other two pounced on other women.

Han Xiying cried on her face, smiled in her heart, and ran up the stairs, suddenly the man who should have violated Zheng Haizhu appeared in front of her.

She was startled, but before she could react, the man had already restrained her with his backhand, tied her up with a cloth belt, and said to Zheng Haizhu who got up from the ground: "Look at her, I'll help us one hand."

Then rush into the cellar.

In the cellar, the situation a moment ago quickly reversed.

The man who had just thrown Han Ximeng down was subdued by his two accomplices in an instant, tied his hands and lifted him to the ground.

Han Ximeng stood up and said to the shocked Qian and his mother-in-law, "Don't be afraid, those two are not villains, they were sent by Ah Zhu's fellow Fujianese in Nanhui."

She and her mother-in-law helped Qian out of the cellar and into the kitchen.

The tied gangster yelled at the two men: "Which side are you from? Didn't someone pay us to play with these two little girls? If we succeed, we will double the price."

He turned his head and stared at Han Xiying again: "Little ****, didn't you let me in?"

Han Xiying burst into tears: "You are talking nonsense, you are talking nonsense."

This time I really cried.

Qian Shi was completely confused, and looked at Han Ximeng and Zheng Haizhu: "What's going on?"

But he heard footsteps outside the door, and an old yet majestic voice said: "Open the door."

……

It was late when Huang Zunsu came back from Fanjiabang to inspect the flood control embankment.

He hurriedly ate a bowl of noodles in the duty room, and then came to the mortuary with two tolerances.

On the way back to the city, he heard that a merchant was burnt to death in Xiuwa Building, and the condition was extremely tragic.

In the mortuary, Wu Zuo was picking up the corpses pulled from Xiuwalou.

It is more accurate to say that it is a corpse.

Because there were not a few taels of meat left.

Wu Zuo looked fearful: "Master, this is really a fire from heaven, I have never seen it burned like this in just a few breaths."

Huang Zunsu had heard from his wife that Zheng Haizhu was almost burned to death when he prayed to God a few days ago, and later he learned about the mulberry leaf spell from the market.

Like his wife, Yao Shi, he firmly believed that someone was pretending to be a ghost. Knowing that Lu Xiangsheng and the second young master of the Gu family were both investigating, Huang Zunsu did not eagerly use the power of the government to participate in the investigation.

At this moment, Huang Zunsu said to Wu coldly: "This man, do you have any belongings?"

Wu Zuo pointed to a large bamboo box brushed with tung oil: "Master, except for the two strings of copper coins in the bones and a few pieces of broken silver, this box is intact. The boss of Xiuwa Building said that this merchant brought it upstairs and put it away. Those in the private room did not start a fire.”  …

Huang Zunsu went over and opened it.

There is a pile of embroidery, colorful.

He picked up two pouch-like ones, looked at them under the lamp, and couldn't help hissing.

Wu Zuo and the two tolerances peeked from the side, not daring to speak up immediately.

They have already seen it.

In fact, the boss of Xiuwa Building, the diners who came back to watch the excitement after fleeing for their lives, and the passers-by who heard the news, have all seen it.

It's not a pornographic picture, it's a war.

What's terrible is that whether the man who is pressing the woman inside or the man who slashes and kills with a knife, they all have the appearance and attire of Japanese people with hair and short shirts, while the woman who is raped, or the man begging for mercy under the knife, It is Ming hair style, helmet and clothing.

Huang Zunsu threw the purse back into the box.

Then the tolerance said cautiously: "Master, this silk is a high-quality item, and it is printed with the name of Han's tailor shop. The common people said that it was Miss Zheng from Han's family who ordered her to embroider it. Outside Rumor has it that this merchant from Ningbo, like Miss Zheng from Fujian, is a descendant of the Japanese who stayed in Daming."

"fart."

Huang Zunsu scolded angrily.

Tolerance shrank his neck in fright.

Although Huang Zunsu was usually unsmiling, he never beat or scolded them, and never said any rude words.

Wu Zuo secretly gloats, telling you to be talkative, you forgot, we all discuss in private, Master Huang must have taken a fancy to that little girl surnamed Zheng, maybe he will let her in.

Just at this time, a person hurried in outside the door, it was Liu Butou.

Liu Butou was sweating all over his face, but his expression was excited.

He grinned and said, "Master, the murderer has been found out. In front of the hall, Mrs. Miao from Gu's mansion brought many people to wait for the master."