But the bright moon shines on the ditch

There was a dead silence in the hall.

After Liang Peiqiu said those words, Xu Zhong thought there was something wrong with his ears. He touched the auricle with trembling fingers, trying to get closer to Liang Peiqiu to hear more clearly. Unexpectedly, as soon as he took out his legs, he trembled violently. , the person leaned straight back.

"W-what did you say?"

Does Liang Peiqiu need to repeat it again? With a sense of determination, she looked into Xu Zhong's heart, and Xu Zhong's swollen eyes gradually filled with tears. Ah Yao on the side covered his mouth tightly, with a mixture of joy and despair on his face.

It's better not to let them know, it's better to let him die in that fire, than to think of him thousands of times and wither again.

how so?

Why does God's will play such a trick on people?

If Zhou Qiguang were Xu Zhiliu, who would be able to say "die well"? Wang Yunxian, who had always regarded him as a thorn in his side, couldn't help but cursed loudly, "Who the hell is God playing a trick on!"

So frustrating!

Outrageous!

Fortunately, not long after, Dongfeng, who was more suitable than Zhou Qiguang, arrived in front of them. Those were the manpower Xu Zhiliu actually sent out after he went out on inspection with Sun Min. Fortunately, the other party lived up to his orders and brought back a few people for them.

A young couple, an infant baby, and an old woman.

Although she is said to be an old woman, she is actually in her forties. Due to years of hard work, her face is covered with weather and frost, making her look much older than her actual age.

Their heads were muffled and their mouths were gagged along the way, and they were driven along the carriage for several days. Finally, after going through twists and turns, they came to a house. They heard the voices of people disappearing in the distance, and then they were taken off the black scarves.

Fortunately, it was already dark at this time and there was no strong light. My eyes quickly adapted to the environment and could see the person in front of me clearly.

These people were all unfamiliar faces. The old woman scanned them one by one and did not recognize any of them. When she saw Xu Zhong on the main seat, her knees weakened and she fell to the ground subconsciously.

Xu Zhong was also shocked when he saw the old woman's face. Then he looked at the young man next to the old woman, tried his best to think about it, and said half-confidently, "Ms. Zhang?"

When the old woman saw that he recognized her, she trembled like chaff, murmuring, wanting to respond but not daring to do so.

This reaction, appearing here, was too clear-cut, and Xu Zhong suddenly looked at Liang Peiqiu. Liang Peiqiu nodded slightly, indicating that his guess was correct and that was what he thought.

Xu Zhong got furious and stood up violently. His body shook violently a few times, and he fell back down without waiting for Ah Yao to come over to help him. After being stunned for an unknown amount of time, he slowly spit out two words from his lips: "Zhang Lei?"

He smiled sadly, as if he suddenly realized, "My thief is actually Zhang Lei!"

Yes, the woman in front of me is Zhang Lei's wife, the young couple is their son and daughter-in-law, and the baby is Zhang Lei's golden grandson.

The baby was still rolling his eyes curiously, looking around, when he suddenly heard a loud slapping sound on the table, his little face wrinkled, and he immediately began to cry. The voice was no weaker than Xu Zhong's yelling and scolding, and he was crying and panting, almost tearing down the roof.

The young woman didn't know who had offended her family. Looking at Xu Zhongtong's appearance and the people around him who were all dressed in fine clothes, she thought that this would be a big trouble, so she kept begging for mercy while holding her child in her arms. Her husband was pulled by her to kneel aside and remained silent.

After everyone calmed down a little, Liang Peiqiu walked towards the woman and asked, "Do you know what your husband did in the Xu family?"

The old woman shook her head like a rattle and said she didn't know.

"In the years since he was in Yaokou, I have been living with my children in the countryside. We lived separately in the two places, and we rarely met together more than once a year. We didn't see each other more than two or three times a year. It was better in the first few years, but later on he became busier and busier. We haven't seen him for two or three years. If the fellow villagers hadn't brought him back some money and cloth during the holidays, I would have thought he died outside.

I have been taking care of my son since he was a child. He didn't even show his face when it came to such a big thing as marrying a wife and having children. He is not afraid to tell the truth. My son has resentment in his heart and has long refused to recognize his father. We have almost lost contact with him these years. , how do you know what he did? "

If she hadn't gone to Hutian Kiln with Zhang Lei once in her early years, how would she have recognized Xu Zhong?

She turned her head and kowtowed to Xu Zhong, "Sir, if he made any mistake, you can deal with it, but the children are innocent. We don't know anything, please let us go."

She spoke sincerely and cried extremely sadly. She and her daughter-in-law looked frightened when they were next to each other. It was obvious that she had suffered a lot along the way.

Xu Zhong couldn't help but feel a little angry. He felt that they were implicated by Zhang Lei and were really innocent. Just when he was about to speak, Liang Peiqiu said: "When was the last time you contacted me?"

The old woman cried for a moment, then thought about it and answered vaguely: "It's been a while, I can't remember clearly, about, about a year ago?"

"What's the matter?"

"It's nothing. It's the same as before. He gave me some money and asked me to repair his son's new house."

"you're lying!"

This time, without waiting for Liang Peiqiu to ask again, Ah Yao rushed out: "Obviously at the beginning of this year, I saw him running errands for Zhang Lei and delivering things to his home, including rice, flour, grain and oil, as well as tiger-head shoes, rattles and other children's toys. . The things set off with the caravan freight, occupying half of the car space."

At that time, she still lamented to Shi Nian that Zhang Lei was responsible for all the affairs of the Hutian kiln and was so hard-working that he couldn't even spare time to go back to his hometown to see his wife and children. Thinking about it afterwards, I still felt indebted, so I proposed to Zhang Lei that he and his family should be brought to live in Jingdezhen.

Zhang Lei said that they were used to living in the countryside, and they would inevitably not adapt to the city. She refused repeatedly, but she didn't force it.

"It's only been half a year, how can I not remember clearly?"

Hearing Ah Yao say this, Zhang's daughter-in-law looked surprised and asked her mother-in-law: "What kind of rice noodles, why haven't I seen it before?" Then she looked at her husband next to her, "Didn't you say that you asked someone to bring you the tiger-head shoes and rattle?" Are you back?"

Seeing that both of them were speechless, the daughter-in-law seemed to understand something, her face suddenly turned red: "You are guarding me!"

"No, no." Mrs. Zhang quickly reassured, "We are not guarding you, we are really..."

What it really was, Mrs. Zhang couldn't think of it for a moment, her tongue was tied, and she looked at her son for help. Zhang's son had a sullen face, and a fierce look flashed across his face. He stood up and interrupted, "What exactly do you want to ask?"

Liang Peiqiu had been staring at him from the moment he walked in. It was obvious that this young man was the one who really called the shots in the family.

"The address where Zhang Lei asked people to bring things back to his hometown is several hills and dozens of miles away from where you live now. I guess he ordered you to hide, right?"

"There are few people on the mountain. We live there because we like it to be clean. There is nothing to avoid."

"Then when did you move to the mountains?" Liang Peiqiu added, "Don't lie. Since I can find you, it will not be difficult to find out when you moved."

Zhang's son became angry and turned his head: "Wan Qing's eleventh year."

"What month?"

"I can't remember clearly, it was probably autumn."

Liang Peiqiu raised her eyebrows and asked Zhang's daughter-in-law: "What do you think?"

Mrs. Zhang quickly stopped her: "She wasn't married yet, so I don't know."

"Who said I didn't know?" Zhang's daughter-in-law finally figured it out. The mother and son really hid some ulterior secrets. They were so stubborn when someone came to visit them, "Your family obviously moved in the spring of the twelfth year." On the mountain.”

She didn't know that a young master of Hutian Kiln died in the winter at the end of the eleventh year of Wanqing. At that time, she was about to get married, and she was happily waiting to become a bride the following spring. Who would have thought that as soon as he entered the house, he would be coaxed up the mountain by his mother-in-law and husband, and he would not be able to eat fine noodles a few times throughout the year. How could he live in such poverty?

She didn't know until today that her father-in-law in Jingdezhen sent things home every year, but they told him that he was a heartless man and had died outside long ago. Not only that, the neighbors also think so.

While they were in contact with their father-in-law, they told him that he was dead. Even ghosts wouldn't believe it if there was nothing weird here!

"What do you mean by moving to the mountains where there are no neighbors to disturb you and your life is cleaner? Damn, but you did something bad, right?"

In this way, Liang Peiqiu can basically be sure that it is Zhang Lei.

Originally, she was afraid of guessing wrong or misunderstanding him, but the reaction of Zhang's mother and son was obviously not right. It happened that the bride was in a hurry to move as soon as she entered the house. The time was right after Xu Zhiliu's death. What else could it be if she didn't have a guilty conscience?

Liang Peiqiu felt tired and unable to deal with it anymore, so she got straight to the point: "Tell me, does Zhang Lei have anything that you can keep for your safekeeping?"

The hall between Yunshuijian is not big, with only one lamp. Occasionally, a cool breeze comes through the hall, and the flames sway, as if the ghosts on the walls can be seen. She stood under the hall with her hands behind her hands. Her face was fair and her features were elegant. She seemed peaceful, but there was a sharp edge between her brows.

Compared to Xu Zhong, who is obvious at a glance, this person is even more unfathomable, and Zhang and his son do not dare to underestimate him. "I do not know what you're talking about."

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you don't have it."

Zhang's eyes flickered, and she heard her say again, "It's enough to threaten him with you."

Zhang's son immediately asked cautiously: "What are you going to do?"

"Zhang Lei betrayed his employer for glory, causing his employer to be persecuted and died in a sea of ​​fire... Do you know what it feels like to be burned alive by a fire?" Liang Peiqiu approached them step by step, her steps were gentle and her tone was gentle, "You, or Zhang Lei , there must be someone who tastes that feeling, so that I can relieve my anger."

"You, you, you, you dare?"

"I've kidnapped you all, so what's there to be afraid of? Besides, you live in the mountains, and no one will know if you die." Liang Peiqiu curled her lips and smiled, her eyes wandering around the four members of the Zhang family one by one, and finally asked the old woman, "You decide, should you burn your son or your grandson first?"

The old woman cried bitterly, her palms and backs were full of flesh, how could she give up? The daughter-in-law there was different. She jumped up and cursed: "They are hiding everything from me. I really don't know anything. If you want to kill them, just kill them!"

As she spoke, she hurriedly opened the baby's swaddling clothes and pulled out an envelope with a lot of stuff stuffed inside.

She threw it to Liang Peiqiu like a hot potato, "I, I am illiterate and don't know what's inside. I have always carried the children with me when they were born. Even if I want to throw them away, they won't let me throw them away. They even threaten me if I don't take good care of them. The whole family will be in trouble." , I think, this should be something important, right?”

"You crazy woman, who allowed you to take it out? Do you want to die?"

Zhang's son saw this and went to grab it. As soon as he stepped forward, Wang Yunxian kicked him in the knee. He fell forward in pain and took out his anger on his wife, "He was just trying to scare us. How could he have the guts to kill people? Don't you have any brains? You believe everything they say. I was killed by you, you bitch." woman!"

The wife also had a fierce temper and retorted: "What shame do you have to scold me? Your family has done such evil things. Not only did you plead guilty to Master Qingtian, but you also used dirty money to marry your daughter-in-law. I have been unlucky for eight lifetimes." Marry into your family! If it had been me, I would have been scaring myself to death with nightmares every day. It would be better for you to keep talking about how precious your grandson is, but in the end, you just put the dirty things in the child's swaddling clothes to see if he will attack the child. ? How dare you? How dare you! You have treated my child so viciously, why do I care about your life and death! "

The couple just started fighting, and Wang Yunxian watched from the side. From time to time, he would deflect and beat Zhang's son severely. Seeing that her son was being bullied, Ms. Zhang rushed over to harass her, and the situation became chaotic for a time.

Liang Peiqiu turned a deaf ear to this and opened the envelope carefully. Inside is a stack of letters about the thickness of a fingernail, most of which are secret letters from Xu Zhiliu and Xia Ying.

Looking at the powerful handwriting on it, the long-lost and familiar feeling gradually filled her heart, and Liang Peiqiu's eyes turned red again.

It was only then that they got a glimpse of the true truth of the matter.

Many years ago, a young man came to Jingdezhen from Yaoli carrying a blood feud. When he was ridiculed as a poor relative who came from the countryside to enjoy the autumn breeze, a middle-aged man who was originally just the housekeeper's attendant came to his aid.

The young man was helpless and bullied. Seeing that he was alone, the middle-aged man took care of him. He not only left food and medicine for him, but also carefully taught him how to go in and out of the kiln with the housekeeper.

In the years that followed, as the boy grew up day by day, there was a man's gaze in every corner that his uncle had never seen. Either gentle words, silent, sighing, or frustrated, every face of the man flows in the young man's heart.

When a young man becomes full-fledged, the first thing he does is to recruit a man to his side from his uncle and entrust him with important responsibilities.

The young man thought that after his father, there would be no one in the world who could compare to that man.

He was precocious and wise. He had been living under others' roofs for many years. It was rare for him to fully trust a person. Even Xu Zhong was only in the ear of his uncle. But to that man, he gave all his sincerity and sincerity, but he did not expect that his close relatives Raise the knife, the knife is ruthless.

Without him, it's just because all the good things a man does to him are just for show.

From the beginning to the end, Zhang Lei was Sun Min's person.

I don’t know whether it was for self-protection or to prove his guilt, but Zhang Lei wrote down the entire process. It turns out that Sun Min had known about Xu Zhiliu's plan in Dalongtan and did not stop him. He wanted to use Xu Zhiliu to check and balance An Jiu.

It wasn't until Xu Zhiliu began to investigate the Wending Kiln Snowflake Silver case and connected the Xu Yourong case that Sun Min, who thought he was in control of the overall situation, finally had some fluctuations.

When Xu Yourong was beaten in court, Sun Min was among the crowd watching outside. He witnessed Xu Yourong go from being admired by thousands of people to being despised by thousands of people, and trampled him into the dust with his own hands. He showed his unwillingness and resentment at being subordinated to others for many years. A little rehabilitated, it was at that time that he saw the young man and the reluctance and resentment similar to his own in the young man.

I thought about taking action, but I was somewhat reluctant, but I was afraid of causing trouble in the future, so I thought about it, and finally just placed an informant next to the young man.

I didn't expect that the eyeliner would bring such news.

"If I had known that he was like his father, I shouldn't have been soft-hearted in the first place. Forget it, since he is looking for death, just give him a ride."

At that time, there were people who wanted Xu Zhiliu dead more than Sun Min, so several secret letters and a jade buckle were sent to An Jiu at the same time.

From the beginning to the end, Sun Min did not take any action. He only watched from the sidelines and used the knife to kill people.

Didn't Xu Zhiliu think about it? Every time in his dream of being swallowed up by tongues of fire, he would always shout someone's name. He tried to make the man hear him so that he could come and save him, but he shouted at the top of his lungs and the man didn't show up.

Where did it go? How could someone kill him silently in Hutian Kiln? There must be someone inside, right?

How could it be him?

How could it be him!

That is the person he regards as his father!

The admiration for Ru Ru for more than ten years flashes back in my mind like a revolving lantern of scenes. Love, hate, strong, bitterness, waiting and hopelessness are intertwined and pulled, tearing him apart and reforming again and again. , over and over again, until the fireworks disappeared and he was alone in the world.

/

Regardless of anything else, with the communication with Xia Ying, Xu Zhiliu Mei can at least be cleared of the injustice of flattering the eunuch, right? Ah Yao was the first to think of this, and couldn't help but happily pulled Liang Peiqiu's sleeve and shook it.

But then she thought of something, and her expression changed again, "There has been a lot of commotion at home these days. Others may not be aware of it, but if it is Zhang Lei, I'm afraid...I'm afraid I can't hide it from him."

Ever since they knew there was a ghost in their home, she and Xu Zhong had been extra careful. In order to avoid dragging down innocent people, even Shi Nian was kept in the dark about this matter, but Zhang Lei was different. Everyone saw Xu Zhiliu's reliance on him, and Xu Zhong even felt bitter about it several times.

No matter how many times they screened out the ghosts in the family, they still didn't suspect Zhang Lei at all!

"It's not your fault."

He didn't tell Xu Zhong and Ah Yao, just because he was afraid that they would reveal their flaws and arouse Zhang Lei's suspicion, "I was careless. I should have warned you when I went to see Uncle Xu last time."

Ah Yao also sighed: "It's hard to guard against house thieves day and night, let alone him. How can we guard against him?"

Fortunately, the people Xu Zhiliu sent out came back in time. Now that they had conclusive evidence, it was enough to hold Zhang Lei's fate in check, so what are you waiting for?

Liang Peiqiu and Xu Yao looked at each other and understood.

No longer pretending, the two of them immediately returned to Hutian Kiln, not wanting to be told by the concierge that Zhang Lei was not in the house and had just left the house not long ago.

When asked where he was going, the concierge shook his head blankly.

How dare he ask about the whereabouts of the chief steward? But seeing the anxious look on his aunt's face, he still tried to think about it and said hesitantly: "It seems, it seems that we are going to the Li family's wild rice shop, right?"

Ah Yao glared at him angrily: "Didn't you just say you didn't know?"

The porter scratched his head and scratched his head: "I also heard that the Li family accidentally fell down and the piles of large porcelain bowls with wild rice noodles were broken. They asked people to come over and ask what to do. They said they would board the ship in the afternoon, so I thought , Manager Zhang should be doing this when he goes out."

Liang Peiqiu asked: "Is he alone?"

The concierge nodded: "Yes." He shook his head again, "No, no, it seems that Shi Nian followed him later."

"Time?"

"Yeah, the chief manager just went out, and he also went out. He looked like he was going in the same direction, but they didn't go together."

Liang Peiqiu suddenly had an ominous premonition and her throat tightened: "Does Zhang Lei have any luggage on him?"

This time the concierge did not hesitate, nodded vigorously, and gestured with his hand: "Such a big baggage!"

Liang Peiqiu's face suddenly darkened.

It is estimated that Zhang Lei noticed something and planned to abscond while Xu Zhong and Xu Yao were not at home today, and Shi Nian probably discovered something.

She said to Ah Yao: "Take everyone with you and go to the ferry immediately." (End of Chapter)