Daming Yinghua

Chapter 6 Someone in the house
Behind the kitchen, in the courtyard filled with the smell of swill, a shirtless bandit got out of the hemp tent, got off the bamboo couch, and lit an oil lamp.

He stared at Han Ximeng and Zheng Haizhu in surprise.

Like a toad in a mud pond staring at a pair of swans.

The mother-in-law rolled her eyes and said, "This is the rice seedlings collected by the first and second masters. They will be locked here first, and the house will be consummated in a few days. You open the door and escort them in. I will go to the stove to get some for them." children to eat."

The shirtless guy wanted to glue his eyes to the two girls.

After being dazed for a while, he seemed to understand his mother-in-law's order, sucked the saliva back through the leaky teeth, picked up the key chain at his waist, and opened the mottled door with a clang.

When the door opened, it was pitch black, and a smell of feces that was worse than that in the courtyard came to the face, and there were intermittent sounds of "wheezing, gurgling, bleating, bleating" in the depths of the darkness.

It turned out to be not a small barn.

The shirtless man picked up the oil lamp on the pottery plate, and illuminated the wooden boards in the corner raised by several stones: "You guys, sleep here."

After finishing speaking, he glanced at Zheng Haizhu's bound wrists, but after all, he didn't dare to do anything wrong, turned around and went out, and locked the door again.

There are two small skylights near the thatched roof of the shed.

The faint light of the starry night leaked into the shed, and it was better than nothing, helping Zheng Haizhu's eyes adapt to the darkness.

She tried her best to stretch her wrists a little to increase her mobility, then squatted down and untied the knots of the bundle, and shook out three or four robes from inside, knelt down on the dirty wooden board, and spread them out with difficulty.

Han Ximeng looked at her weakly.

Two hours ago, on the boat, after Zheng Shoukuan cut his own rope with the scissors he had hidden, Zheng Haizhu ordered the little nephew to jump into the water and escape without hesitation, to report to the police, while he stayed behind.

It has been half a year since Han Ximeng took in this pair of fujian aunts and nephews who came here with their skills.

When she was watching a dragon boat on the Dragon Boat Festival, she was pushed into the water on the bridge, and Zheng Haizhu jumped down with great agility to save her ashore, so she knew that Zheng Haizhu was very good at water.

But Han Ximeng is a landlubber.

Today, Zheng Haizhu did not abandon her.

At that time, after Zheng Shoukuan got out of the bamboo screen at the stern of the boat like a loach and slid into the river, Zheng Haizhu struggled to move his palms, fumbled out the menstrual belt from the bag, and found two dye porcelain bottles of water red and black blue, and poured them one by one. In the center of the piece of cloth, he firmly said to Han Ximeng, "I'll put it on for you."

Facts have proved that this trick has indeed deceived the bandit leader and bought time to protect Han Ximeng's innocence.

At this moment, Han Ximeng just silently looked at this maid who had not been married for a long time but had brought him a sense of security several times.

She didn't intend to ask the question "Can Ah Kuan call the officers and soldiers from the inspection department you directed?"

As a master, when waiting in a desperate situation, being quiet and strong is also an encouragement to loyal subordinates.

After Zheng Haizhu spread out the clothes, she turned to Han Ximeng and said, "Miss, let's take a rest first."

Han Ximeng sat up, moved in, leaned against the thatched wall mixed with yellow mud, and said softly: "You also lean on it like this, it's more comfortable. Don't sleep yet, didn't the woman say to give us Do you want to make food? We have to eat, otherwise we won’t have the strength to go out.”

Zheng Haizhu was quite relieved to see that she hadn't lost her spirit.

Then he also climbed up the wooden plank, closed his eyes and meditated for a while, and said: "Miss, I dare to ask, what villain has the Han family offended before?"

Han Ximeng understood what she meant, and agreed: "I also feel strange. When the one-eyed dragon robbed the ship, he broke into the cabin door and called out my boudoir name directly. But when my father was an official before his death, his official voice was clear, and my uncle always showed affection. Yu Danqing, why do you say that there are political enemies in the officialdom? Our family has never persecuted tenants or hired workers in the shop, so who can we offend?"

"Miss sneaked out this trip, apart from me and Shou Kuan, who else knows?"

Han Ximeng denied it: "How could anyone else know? If they report to my uncle and aunt, my uncle and aunt will definitely send the butler to catch us up when we arrive in Suzhou. The senior embroiderer has a bad temper and doesn't like this kind of momentum at all. But I was afraid that my uncle and aunt would be frightened and report to the officials, so I only left a letter, saying that I came to visit an expert in the Suhu area."

Zheng Haizhu nodded, and pondered: "In Gusu City, when we visited that senior, we also concealed our identity. Shoukuan kept his mouth very tight, and he helped clean the court every day in the embroidery workshop, so he wouldn't reveal anything. Ah yo... hiss"

Halfway through Zheng Haizhu's speech, she was suddenly bitten by a mosquito. The mosquitoes in Liqiu are as fierce as tigers, and the mosquitoes in this water pond are especially poisonous. sound.

Han Ximeng smiled wryly and joked, "The mosquitoes just fell for you? I've already been bitten several times."

The two were raising their hands to blast the mosquitoes, but they heard a man's voice from the other side of the sheep pen and pigsty: "You two, I will give you the mosquito net."

Rao had such a mellow and pleasant voice, and the two daughters Han and Zheng were really taken aback.

In this thatched shed, there is actually a man locked up?
……

There was a soft babbling sound in the depths of the shed, the man seemed to be stepping on the bamboo couch, and then, the sleeping sheep in the pen sensed that someone was passing by, and called out again.

The sound of iron chains came from far to near, and Zheng Haizhu could only see the general outline of the man when the figure walked near the skylight.

He is of medium build and wears the straight gown most often worn by men of the Ming Dynasty. He is holding a bunch of things in his hand, and sticks out a long pole.

The man stood still at a distance of seven or eight steps, did not come closer, and said slowly: "Just now, I was afraid that the two of you would be in a panic late at night, so I didn't speak up immediately. I thought I would say it at dawn. I really didn't intend to eavesdrop on your discussion." , Apologize and apologise. Miss Lao is here to fetch the hemp tent, and there are bamboo poles at the four corners of the tent, which can be inserted into the ground."

Han Ximeng saw that this man was also a prisoner with the same disease and sympathy, and his words were gentle, so he didn't want to please him, so he told Zheng Haizhu: "Go and thank this gentleman."

Zheng Haizhu hurriedly stepped forward, and when he took the hemp tent, he bowed to thank him, and asked curiously, "Those bandits gave Mr. a mosquito net?"

The man said: "It was brought by a young gangster during the daytime. I heard the guard call him the second boss. It is really strange. The gangsters who robbed me were all vicious, but the second boss I saw after I was locked up had a pleasant face."

Han Ximeng stood up, regardless of whether the other party could see it or not, made a blessing, and said, "Excuse me, sir, why were you captured by them?"

The man sighed and said, "They robbed my money and killed my servants, but they didn't kill me. Guess, it should be handing me over to the enemy. The next deadline is probably just a few days."

When Han Ximeng heard this, he couldn't tell whether it was the compassion for hurting others, or the chivalrous spirit in his bones that suddenly emerged in a dangerous situation, and said calmly: "Sir, don't give up on yourself, play by ear or you may escape. Even if misfortune happens to your husband, please tell us your identity right now. If you guess who the enemy is, you can tell me. If my maid and I can go out, I can inform my family and report to the officials for my husband."

(End of this chapter)