Jinghong Tower

Seeing that the time was almost up, He Ran decided to return to the capital. She called Zhou Jiong: "From now on, if you stay with me, when others ask, who are you to me, what will you say?"

Zhou Jiong blinked his bright eyes and said sweetly: "Sister."

He Ran nodded: "Yes, smart."

I haven't seen yet whether he is smart or not, but he is very good at observing people's emotions.

He Ran was satisfied with this child for the time being.

When they left Shunde Mansion the next day, the city gate was still searched. This time, even the men were searched. Fortunately, they were leaving the city and did not need to be searched.

He Ran smiled and said: "Isn't the female thief we want to arrest? Why do we even have to search men?"

Xiaoli said: "It is said that the female thief is good at disguising herself, but she has never been caught. We are worried that she disguised herself as a man and sneaked into the city."

Having said this, Xiaoli couldn't help but laugh. They, a group of women disguised as men, were strutting into the city at that time.

He Ran also found it funny and felt that the officials here seemed not very smart.

The next day, they returned to the capital. He Ran did not go to Jinghong Tower. She took Zhou Jiong directly back to Laomofang Alley. When she entered, Xiaoba was not seen again. Shoumei said helplessly: "It's my fault." , I shouldn’t have told it that you have to come back in nine days, I guess it counts as days.”

He Ran, I have reasonable suspicion that Xiaoba still has a home outside.

She asked Shoumei to take Zhou Jiong to the guest room: "Let's stay in the guest room first, and we'll change places to live in a few days."

Now that she has Zhou Jiong in her hands, it is inconvenient for her to live in the capital.

This time I returned to Beijing to deal with some trivial matters and take Xiaoba along with me.

"Where are Black Girl and the others? Have they ever come back?" He Ran asked.

"No, all four of them haven't come back. By the way, Prince Lu has been here and brought you this."

Shoumei pointed to a pot of hibiscus placed under the corridor, with two big red flowers on top.

"Prince Lu? Lu Zhen?" He Ran asked.

"Yes, I was thinking whether I should tell Mrs. Li the next time I see her." Shou Mei was really thinking like this. It was definitely not a good intention to send flowers to a young woman in a good manner.

He Ran laughed and said, "It doesn't matter whether you say it or not. It's up to you."

As for the two big red flowers, He Ran just looked at them and didn't take them seriously.

Before she came back, she wrote a letter to Wen Qiu, the shopkeeper of Jinghong Tower in Baoding, asking Wen Qiu to find a reliable teacher.

She thought it would take a few days to get a reply, but she didn't expect that on the second day after she returned to the capital, Wen Qiu actually brought the teacher to the capital in person.

The teacher Wenqiu brought here was named Bai Yan.

Wen Qiu asked Bai Yan to drink tea at the stone table in the yard first, and he went in first to meet He Ran.

This was the first time He Ran saw Wen Qiu. There was no trace of a businessman in Wen Qiu. He was elegant and handsome. No matter how you looked at him, he was a scholar.

He Ran was very satisfied with Wen Qiu in the past few things, so she didn't exchange too many greetings and asked directly: "Is this Mr. Bai trustworthy?"

Wenqiu said: "It's credible."

It turns out that Bai Yan is not from Baoding, but from Qingzhou.

Bai Yan only has one daughter. Although his family is not wealthy, the three of them love each other and are happy. On the Qingming Festival a year ago, the family went to the countryside to sweep graves, and happened to meet the King of Qi who was out for an outing.

King Qi and his entourage had many horses, and the people tried to avoid them. Bai Yan's nine-year-old daughter Dai Dai couldn't dodge and fell to the ground. Upon seeing this, King Qi dismounted his horse, picked up the little girl, and handed it back to Bai Yan and his wife. Thank you very much to Mr. and Mrs. Yan.

King Qi was approachable, noble and modest. He said that it was because of him that the little girl fell and he should apologize. He asked Bai Yan's home address in detail. Bai Yan didn't want to tell it at first, but King Qi's attitude was sincere, so he had to tell the truth.

After King Qi and his entourage left, the people praised King Qi for being wise. Even Bai Yan and his wife thought so.

After Bai Yan's family returned, a few days passed without anyone coming from Prince Qi's residence, so they just thought it was Prince Qi who asked casually and forgot about the matter.

No one expected that in the morning a few days later, after Bai Yan and his wife woke up, they went to wake their daughter up as usual, but there was no movement in the house. When his wife came into the room, she saw the quilt spread out on the bed, but Bai Dai was nowhere to be found. , but the shoes are by the bed.

At this time, Bai Yan and his wife felt a little headache, and even smelled the residual fragrance in their and their daughter's house. Only then did they realize that someone had used incense for them and then stolen Dede.

Bai Yan reported the matter to the police, and he and his wife searched everywhere, but after searching for a whole month, there was still no whereabouts of Bai Dai.

When Bai Yan went to the Yamen again, all he got was a cold word: "Go back and wait for the news."

Mr. and Mrs. Baiyan suspected that the Yamen was not looking for it. When they were helpless, their wife suddenly said: "How about we go and ask Prince Qi? He is so close to the people, maybe he can help us."

The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was intentional. His wife's words reminded Bai Yan of what happened during the Qingming Festival.

Isn't this all a coincidence?

He began to hang out in front of Prince Qi's Mansion from time to time, but soon he was discovered by the guards of Prince Qi's Mansion. He was expelled and once even received several sticks.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten days later, Bai Yan's wife Yu went outside the city to ask for a fortune and asked the Bodhisattva for guidance, maybe she would be able to find her daughter.

Many people went to offer incense that day. When they came back, a carriage accidentally trampled the crops on the roadside, clashed with the farmers, and blocked the road.

In desperation, many people had to take a detour.

There are two roads back to the city from here, one is the blocked one, and the other is through the mass graves. Therefore, no one will take that road unless they have no choice.

Fortunately, there were many people who came to offer incense today, so there was no scruple, and everyone walked together to the road to the mass graves.

The women were chatting and laughing. Mrs. Yu was worried about her daughter and was not in the mood to talk or laugh with others. She subconsciously looked towards the roadside and suddenly saw two little beggars having a fight. One of them took advantage of his height and lifted an object. Lifting it high, the other jumped to grab it.

The women covered their noses and walked faster subconsciously, for fear that the lice on the little beggar's body would jump to them.

But Mrs. Yu couldn't move her legs. She walked up to the little beggar and snatched the things from the little beggar's hand.

That's a jade lock.

Mrs. Yu's body swayed. There was a word "cypress" engraved on the back of the jade lock, and the knot on the jade lock was tied by her own hands. She was used to tying an extra knot on the knot, so she could recognize it at a glance. Come out, this knot was made by her.

"Where did you find this?" she shouted, grabbing the little beggar by the shoulders.

The little beggar called the mass grave: "Over there, on the dead people."

The body of Dede was found. The nine-year-old girl died of abuse. The body was dragged out of the pit by wild dogs.

He Ran asked in a deep voice: "Did King Qi do it?"

Wen Qiu nodded and said: "Mr. Bai's wife went crazy and jumped into the lake and died. Mr. Bai went to the Yamen again and was kicked out. He took his life savings and the money from selling his ancestral home and asked for help at Jinghong Tower in Qingzhou. .”