Records of the Lost Cases of Helaitang in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 101 Wanhu Village

Under the blue-grey sky, Wang Heng walked on the mountain road with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

The old man driving the car was right. The road ahead was blocked by a stone wall. There was another path along the stone wall winding southward and leading up to the mountainside.His boots are very thick and can withstand rain on mountain roads. Thinking of this, he can't help but feel proud. He is indeed a scholar who has traveled thousands of miles. If it were anyone else, he would have given up long ago.

After walking a few hundred steps, the lights suddenly brightened in front of me, and a huge blue-black thing suddenly appeared. Such a huge fort relied on the mountains, rolling up and down, and it could not be seen to the side at a glance.

Wang Heng was astonished. He imagined that Wanhu Village would look like a garden house like Nanyuan, or a Jiangnan village house similar to Zhuge Village. He never expected that it would be such a huge Wubao.

Wang Heng stood there for a moment, and then he had no choice but to move closer to the light. However, the man on duty at the Wubao gate tower had already spotted him and shouted, "Who is he?" This sentence was in Mandarin.

Wang Heng was overjoyed and replied: "Xiaosheng is a student of Ziyang Academy. He is a classmate and friend of Huang Yuntai, the uncle of your house. He came here to visit you."

After a while, the corner door of the gatehouse slowly opened, and a boy servant in green clothes and a small hat was waiting at the door with a lantern. Wang Heng was glad that the raindrops were very small and did not splash mud all over him. At this moment, he could put on the scholar's style and walk around. Follow the boy servant into Wubao step by step.

The boy servant led him inside, and stopped at the eastmost building about a light of tea hour, and invited him to rest in the flower hall downstairs. A servant woman had already come with a fragrant tea and some fine tea.

Wang Heng politely sat down on the Grand Master's chair, took out the greeting card and gave it to the boy servant, saying: "Go back to your uncle quickly, tell Brother Yuntai that I am here, and ask him to come out and see you soon."

The boy servant took the invitation and bowed: "Your honor, please sit down for a moment. My uncle has not returned from his visit to Mingyue Bay today. He is probably staying overnight with Li Xiucai from Mingyue Bay Village. I will report to the housekeeper. Please use it first." Some pastries.”

Wang Heng's mind was spinning rapidly. Seeing the natural expression on the boy's face, he couldn't tell whether it was true or false for a moment. He had no choice but to enjoy the cakes in peace and recuperate his energy, so that he would have the strength to fight with wits and courage.

For a long time, no one came to the flower hall, and no one came to invite him to dinner. Wang Heng ate all the pastries on the coffee table, opened the window and took a look.

I guessed that the time at this time was no more than the end of Youshi (before seven o'clock in the evening). It was already dark outside as if it were midnight. It was hard to see what was going on inside the fort. The cold rain was falling non-stop, and the rain seemed to be stronger than before. Be bigger.

After waiting for a long time, the fragrant tea had reached the bottom. There was a sound of "tap, tap, tap" footsteps on the corridor, and two men came face to face. A middle-aged man walking in front was wearing a fox fur and a slight short mustache. , the eyebrow peak is interrupted, giving people a fierce feeling inexplicably.

The old man in the back seemed to be a respectable manservant. He was a little fat, his eyes were cloudy, and his steps were sloppy. He was over sixty years old.

The old man rushed forward and saluted: "Master Wang, this is the second master of our family and his uncle."

Wang Heng made a full posture, bowed his head to the end, and said respectfully: "Xiaosheng is a student of Ziyang Academy. I have met Mr. Huang." Mr. Huang put his hands on his hands and said, "I don't dare to take it seriously. Mr. Wang came to Han's house to visit Yuntai. Well, this kid from Yuntai has been out all day since he came back from the city, and I don’t know where he went today.”

After the guests and hosts were seated, Mr. Huang Er chatted for a while, and then began to quietly interrogate Wang Heng, the commander of the county, his family background, and his ranking. Wang Hengzhi knew that it was because of the greeting card that although the Huang family was wealthy and lived in a remote mountain village, they had no information about the temple. They were not well-informed. Apparently they thought this greeting card was of high quality, but they did not realize that it was a greeting card from Ge Laofu.He briefly talked about the elders of the family and created an image of Taicang's family of petty officials and squires with a slight background. Although his father, Mr. Wang San, was an official, he was still a figure for the rich locals in the countryside.

Wang Heng also pretended to reveal inadvertently that there was another clan brother who was also a student of Ziyang Academy and had a good relationship with Huang Yuntai. He had to stay in the city for something. Otherwise, he would also come to Xishan to visit friends. This is what Wang Heng figured out. The trick was to let Mr. Huang Er know that someone knew that he had arrived at Wanhu Village. If Mr. Huang Er had evil thoughts, he would never be able to do so unnoticed.

After a detailed discussion, Master Huang became more and more polite and asked Wang Heng to stay in the village first. It was cold, windy and rainy, so Huang Yuntai probably stayed at a friend's place and would definitely return to Zhuangzi during the day tomorrow.

He also asked the old man, Huang Yuntai's housekeeper Lao Yan, to arrange Wang Heng to the VIP room in the south building. Lao Yan said that the south building had always been neglected and the bedding and bedding were not very clean. The west wing on the second floor of the main building was originally Even if you are planning to have relatives and close friends come to stay for a while, it is better to invite the Seventh Young Master Wang to live in the west wing. When the uncle returns to the village tomorrow, he can see the Seventh Young Master immediately.

Mr. Huang Er waved his hand to Lao Yan to make arrangements, asked Haosheng to wait on him, and then left.

The west wing on the second floor of the east building includes a large activity area, with two light and one dark layout. The bedrooms are gorgeously furnished, the study is elegant, and there is also an independent living room. The maids took away Wang Heng’s slightly wet coat. , and asked him to put on a clean leather robe. The leather robe fit unexpectedly. Huang Yuntai was slightly taller than Wang Heng. This robe might be his previous clothes.

Wang Heng suddenly went from the cold outer room to the warm inner hall, and saw that the room was decorated with brocade, bead curtains and embroidered curtains, and a light fragrance smelled really good.I sighed secretly in my heart, and felt the aura of wealth and honor in my face. This is probably what the poem said, "The brocade quilt has no smoke in the incense burner."

Wang Heng had never lived in such a gorgeous room before, and he felt a little restrained for a while.

After thinking about it, I blew out the candles and clothes early and went to sleep.He had something on his mind, wondering what had happened to Huang Yuntai, whether he really went out to visit friends or had been placed under house arrest by his enemies. He planned to go downstairs later at night to check when people were asleep, but he was afraid of alerting others and being exposed by the Huang family's servants. I found out and took precautions.

After thinking about it, he didn't know whether he was tired from traveling during the day or the bed was too comfortable, so Wang Heng fell into a deep sleep.

The next day I woke up feeling refreshed. I opened the curtain and saw that the sky was light and the rain had stopped.

Wang Heng washed up and was about to go out. Suddenly he found a piece of paper lying under the door between the living room and the outer stairway. He picked it up and looked through it, and saw that it was Huang Yuntai's handwriting, "Brother Wang's Taiwan Jian: Brother yesterday The rain has not returned, so I was unable to talk with my brother at night. I am very sorry. I have to stay for a few more days to fulfill my friendship as a landlord. Yuntai nodded."

Unconsciously, Wang Heng felt happy and pushed open the door. As soon as he took a few steps outside, a servant woman came up to bless him and said in a low voice: "Seventh Young Master Wang, please come this way." She led him downstairs.

(End of this chapter)