Snowy Chang'an Road

At midnight, two men in black covered their faces and sneaked out from the back door of the Peking Palace, and they went on foot.

Pei Ying looked for that house based on his impression, but it was too dark and the people's houses were all the same. The two of them turned around many times but could not find it.

Currently in embarrassment, Pei Ying thought of a sentence: he would die before he left the army.

But this death is not death, but death from embarrassment.

Seeing that she was anxious, Wei Shao comforted her: "It doesn't matter, think about it again, we will just do this tonight, so don't be in a hurry."

Wei Shao's kind-hearted comfort gave Pei Ying an even more headache, and she couldn't help but add a lot of pressure to her heart.

She closed her eyes and carefully recalled the road she walked behind Ban Zhuo this morning. She also specially selected a few memory points at that time, and now she still has some vague impressions in her mind.

"Wei Shao, can we go back to the street and walk again?"

"can."

Wei Shao was not impatient at all, and took Pei Ying's hand back to the street. Pei Ying began to recall those memory points in his mind, and it really worked.

When she found the stones she had placed, Pei Ying breathed a sigh of relief and felt relaxed.

Wei Shao was just about to jump up the wall when Pei Ying grabbed his sleeve.

"what happened?"

"It's not this family, it's that family."

"Which one?"

Wei Shao looked in the direction of Pei Ying's finger and saw the house opposite.

Seeing her naive look, Wei Shao couldn't help but want to laugh. Pei Ying really didn't play by the rules.

Wei Shao walked to the door of the house opposite and asked again: "Are you sure it's this house?"

"One hundred percent sure."

"Okay, you wait for me outside first, pay attention to safety."

"it is good."

"Is the dagger here?"

"exist."

Before Pei Ying could see Wei Shao's movements clearly, he had already jumped onto the wall and disappeared from Pei Ying's sight in the next second.

Wei Shao entered the courtyard. His eyes had gradually adapted to the dim light at night. This was an ordinary house. There were several shelves set up in the middle of the yard, with some herbs drying on them, and firewood piled under the eaves.

Wei Shao came to the window of the room, poked a small hole in the window paper, and then blew a burst of incense into the room.

After a while, Wei Shao covered his mouth and nose and entered the room. A thin man was lying on the bed. Everything in the room was normal, just like an ordinary people's home.

He looked around other rooms and still found nothing unusual.

Pei Ying stood waiting outside the door boredly. When she heard a "squeak", Wei Shao opened the door from the inside.

"Come in."

Hearing this, Pei Ying's heart beat wildly. It turns out that this is how it feels to be a thief with a guilty conscience.

The two came to the room and checked carefully, but found nothing unusual.

"This is an ordinary family's home. What is Ban Zhuo doing here?"

"Did you see the wrong person?"

"How could it be? When we went south, Ban Zhuo had been with us for so long. How could I not recognize him?"

"Then let's look again and see if there's anything suspicious."

"Okay." After rummaging around and still finding nothing, Pei Ying walked out of the room, looked at the cook in front of her, and walked over unconsciously. Wei Shao also followed her into the cook.

Staring at the neatly arranged cooking utensils in the kitchen, Wei Shao glanced at them and said, "This is just an ordinary family's chef, nothing unusual."

Pei Ying said nothing. She always felt something was strange, but she couldn't explain it.

Seeing her deep in thought, Wei Shao didn't say anything and just waited quietly beside her.

"I see."

"what do you know?"

"No wonder this chef looks so strange. Wei Shao, have you ever seen such a clean chef?"

Wei Shao glanced at the chef in front of him again and said, "Aren't the chefs in the palace also so clean?"

"It's not that clean. There are no vegetables, no salt, no flour, nothing in this kitchen, but it is very clean. If this person doesn't cook, he will definitely not enter the kitchen. Logically speaking, it should be dusty. But this place is so clean, as if someone is cleaning it every day, don’t you think it’s strange?”

"Maybe this guy just likes to be clean."

"That's wrong. The essence of human nature is laziness. There is something fishy about this cook."

Pei Ying started to look around. She always felt that there was a special smell floating in the air. She had never smelled this kind of smell before, but she was sure that it was definitely not the smell of food.

After checking for a long time, he still found nothing unusual. Wei Shao said, "Stop looking. Since we have concluded that there is a ghost, I will wake up the man now and we will find out in the first trial."

Pei Ying raised her head and looked at Wei Shao and said, "What a good idea."

Wei Shao picked up a bowl of cold water, returned to the room, and poured it on the man's face, but there was no reaction.

He shook the man's body, but there was still no response. Is the effect of this incense so powerful?

At this time, Pei Ying walked in with a candle. Wei Shao took the candle and got close to the man's face, only to find that the man's face was pale and the blood at the corner of his mouth had solidified. He tested the man's breath to confirm that he was dead.

The man's death turned the original suspicion into certainty.

"What should we do now?"

Wei Shao examined the man's body and initially judged that he might have died of poisoning.

"Since he is dead, the murderer must have destroyed the things we are looking for. It is too late now. Let's go back home first and check again tomorrow."

"it is good."

After only sleeping for less than two hours, Pei Ying had been sleeping restlessly. Wei Shao saw her tossing and turning and stretched out his hand to comfort her.

When the two came to the house again, they searched again and discovered something strange.

"There is dust everywhere in this man's room, which proves that he has not cleaned it for a long time. There are also many weeds in his yard. It seems that he is not a diligent person. However, the chef is so clean that he must be fishy."

But there was nothing in the kitchen except for the cooking utensils. Pei Ying originally thought that he would find some mechanism, but after repeated searches, he still found nothing. The smell, although weaker, was still there.

After finding nothing, on the way back home, Wei Shao asked, "Do you want to report to the official?"

"No, don't alert the enemy."

"The clue is broken, what should we do now?"

"Should we visit Ban Zhuo's house?"

"Okay, it's just that we have never had any contact with him. If we visit him rashly, I'm afraid it will arouse his suspicion."

"Since there is no intersection, let's create some intersection."

Wei Shao was a little confused, and Pei Ying said, "We went to a restaurant a few days ago. Did we meet Ban Zhuo?"

"Yes."

"He is an unlearned and unskilled person. He hangs out with the officials who have been kicked out of the harem all day long. If we create some trouble for him, help him, and then offer to go to his house, I guess he will not reject."