Xuanyuan Jue

Chapter 53
"Okay," Zha Wuzuo nodded, "Master Feng...please help me a little more...I haven't calmed down yet..."

Feng Shen smiled, stepped forward to support Zha Wuzuo, and came to the signing room.

After taking a few sips of hot tea, Zha Wuzuo's expression softened a little.After Feng Shen refilled him with the pot, he patted Zha Wuzuo on the shoulder again.

"What?" Zha Wuzuo asked, "Is it ashes?"

"There's not much dust, just a few dusty feathers stuck to it." Feng Shen raised his hand and pointed.

"Father?" Zha Wu was taken aback, and quickly looked down, "Oh...it's probably pigeon feathers. When I was born, a pigeon flew from nowhere, flapped around me a few times, and then flew away. ...Alas...it's all because of my disappointment...If it's normal, I can catch it and roast it for a meal of pigeon meat!"

"Yo? Master Zha, do you still have the ability?" Feng Shenqi said, "When this case is over, I'll bring you two to roast? To tell you the truth, I'm really good at it..."

"Your Master Feng has already spoken, can I not agree?" Zha Wu made a wry smile, "But... let's not talk about eating now... I haven't eaten anything seriously since morning until this hour... My stomach is rumbling , After drinking the tea... the hungrier I get..."

"That's fine! Let's talk about something serious!" Feng Shen took a sip of tea and lowered his voice, "By the way, Mr. Cha, about Lu Bantou...how much do you know?"

"Lu Bantou?" Zha Wuzuo rubbed his belly and asked cautiously, "Master Feng...what do you mean?"

"Yes!" Feng Shen said decisively, "Anyway, it's only in front of you...then I don't shy away from it. Master Cha...you don't think Lu Bantou is suspicious?"

Zha Wuzuo looked out first to make sure that there was no one around, and then nodded heavily: "I have long thought that something is wrong with him! Not only today, but also all the previous behaviors are always puzzling!"

"That's right," Feng Shen sighed, "This Lu Bantou is really weird. Before, I thought that because I recommended him for a job, he was biased... But in the next few cases, I feel that it's not just that! Don't talk about anything else. , just say that he suppressed the case and failed to report it today, it is very doubtful!"

"That's right!" Zha Wuzuo frowned, "When we tried the 'made animals' before, he almost beat the criminals to death...Now we are going to investigate the corpse case, and he pushes back and forth...I'm afraid he is really a bit tricky But let's talk about it, we didn't get him... It's useless to doubt."

"We can only be on guard first," Feng Shen nodded, "Master Cha, you have known him for a long time. What is the origin of this man?"

"Actually, I don't know him very well," Zha Wuzuo thought for a while before he said, "When I entered Shuntian Mansion, he was working here. It seems that he was born in martial arts, but he has two arms. For some reason, I’m still a bachelor up to now... Sometimes, I’m also mysterious, and I don’t see anyone for a few days... I don’t have much contact with him, that’s about all I know..."

Feng Shen let out an "oh" and stopped talking.

Zha Wuzuo drank a few more sips of tea and said, "By the way, Young Master Feng, anyway, I sent someone to investigate, why don't you go back to the house first and settle down the funeral affairs of Mr. Xia Tian? If you get busy again, don't delay it... ..."

Just as Feng Shen was about to speak, there was a sudden commotion outside.The two looked at each other and hurried out of the signing room to see what happened.

As soon as he went out, he saw Lu Bantou walking towards the signing room with several yamen servants.

Lu Ban's face sank like water, and his face was full of anger.As he walked, he complained:

"What did I say? How did you find the ones with no beginnings or ends? I searched outside for a long time, but I didn't find a single one except for the stinky sweat!"

Seeing this, Feng Shen hurriedly smiled: "Lu Ban has worked hard."

Lu Bantou "hummed", without even saying a word, bypassing Feng Shen and Zha Wuzuo, and went straight into the signing room.

"Hey?" Zha Wuzuo was a little anxious, "I said Mr. Lu Ban, isn't it your job to find the murderer and investigate the robbers? You show your face, who is this for?"

Lu Bantou picked up the teapot on the table, poured a few sips into the spout, wiped his mouth and said, "Love so and so!"

Just as Zha Wuzuo was about to say more, Feng Shen hurriedly stopped him: "Master Zha, wait for the news first!"

As a result, several people stopped making a sound and waited in the signing room.

After a while, the servants sent out came back one after another.Except for those who went to Mengjiacun and Yizhong to collect evidence, the other teams did not find any useful information.

Seeing that the golden wu was sinking, the last few yamen servants rushed back with a young man.

Everyone thought they had found a clue, and they all gathered around in unison.

"Who is he?" Zha Wuzuo looked at the young man and asked puzzledly.

"It's from Chenjiawan," said the leading yamen servant, "when we found it...we heard him say 'walking corpse', so we brought it back."

Feng Shen took a look at the young man, and saw that his clothes were rustic and his expression was dull.

"I... I didn't do anything harmful..." Facing this scene, Hou Sheng seemed a little nervous.

"Don't panic, little brother," Feng Shen said kindly, "We just want to ask... what is the 'walking corpse' you mentioned?"

"It's bluffing!" A gleam of fear flashed in the young man's eyes, "In the evening... I went to pick up dung on the side road... I saw a group of people walking from a distance... At that time, I thought it was people who were going early. But later, I felt that the way those people walked was not right...so I sneaked forward to look..."

"And then?" Feng Shen asked, "What did you see?"

"Dead people!" The young man's voice was trembling, "The ones walking... look like some dead people!"

Hearing the young man's words, all the people around gasped.

"Little brother!" Feng Shen pressed Housheng's shoulder, "Are you serious?"

"I won't lie to you," the young man was still a little shocked, "those people's faces are ashen... Some of them even have rotten cheeks. By the way, there are yellow paper symbols on their heads... When they walk, they still jump One jump!"

"How many people are there?" Feng Shen asked, "Do you still remember?"

"Seven or eight... or five or six?" The young man held his head and thought about it for a long time, and then said with a bitter face, "I was so scared that my legs went limp at the time... I can't remember at all... Anyway, I am not old or young."

"Okay then," Feng Shen asked again, "Just now you said that those people all have yellow talismans on their foreheads? What kind of talisman is that?"

"It's far away, so I can't really see it clearly," the younger generation thought for a while, and said, "Our village prayed for rain last year and invited a Taoist priest... That talisman is similar to the 'ghost painting talisman' used by Taoist priests..."

As soon as the words fell, Zha Wuzuo asked the young man again: "Are those people you saw all lined up?"

"That's right!" The young man nodded again and again, "It's really lined up. The official...you saw it too?"

"I wasn't there at the time, so where will we meet?" Zha Wuzuo said, he ignored the young man, turned to Feng Shen and said, "Master Feng, this sounds like..."

"Hurry up the corpse!" Feng Shen said straight away, "It's very similar to the spell driving away the corpse in the Wu Chumiao Gu!"

When it comes to "driving corpses", everyone has heard a little bit.This kind of magic of exorcising corpses came from the western side of Xiangxi.Earlier, boats and vehicles were inconvenient.If you encounter those dangerous mountains and bad waters, it will be even more difficult to move forward.Once a foreigner dies in the deep mountains, it is extremely difficult to transport the body out.

Most of those who died were traveling merchants.Originally planned to carry cloth, salt, sauce, vinegar and other seasonal needs to buy some mountain products from the mountain people, but he didn't want to fall into the cliff and die because of the rough mountain road.The local mountain people couldn't bear his dead body in the wilderness, so they built a righteous village to stop those traveling businessmen who died.

There is an old saying that "leaves fall and return to their roots". The family members of the deceased intend to transport the remains of their loved ones back to their original places for burial, but they can only trek on foot in the deep mountains, without horses or carts.

At this time, the "mortician" came to the door and was entrusted to drive those dead people out of the Yizhuang, and drove the corpses with secret methods, climbed mountains and waded, and brought them back to their original places.

"Dead corpse craftsman", that is what outsiders call it.To avoid taboo, they call themselves "walking fairy".This kind of person is generally bold and ugly, with strange skills.When walking, I wear a black belt and wear a pair of old straw sandals.If there are many corpses to be chased, the walking immortals usually work in twos, one old and one young, one in front and one behind, sandwiching the corpses in the middle.The corpse leader in front rang the soul-destroying bell.And the supporting corpse at the back is carrying the corpse town banner on his shoulder.

Those corpses were all covered with long robes and large sleeves, one by one, with the "Chenzhou Talisman" attached to their foreheads and faces.As long as the leader of the corpse rings the bell, the corpse will seem to be alive, jumping and moving forward.

In order to avoid vitality, walking immortals generally drive away the corpse at night or at night.If you pass by the densely populated town, the walking foot fairy will hurriedly sound the Yin gong, shouting "Yin people pass by, Yang people avoid", and notify in advance.As long as they heard the sound of the Yin gong, the people would close their doors one after another, lest they would offend the undead and cause bad luck.In addition to being able to exorcise corpses on their own, the Walking Immortal also has secret techniques that can keep corpses from smelling and rotting.

Later, many ministers from Hunan and Chu came to Beijing as eunuchs, and when they died at the end of their lives, they had to return their coffins to their hometowns.But if the weather is hot, the corpses in the coffin will often rot before they get home.There is no other way, but to invite the walking fairy from his hometown to drive the corpse back to his hometown.

As a result, the reputation of "walking fairy" and "mortician" spread among the court and the public.Although people were curious, but the exorcism of corpses was really treacherous, so the common people were only talking about guessing, but no one dared to take a peek.

So when the younger generation talked about the situation at that time, everyone immediately thought of Xiangxi to drive the corpse.

Feng Shen pondered for a while, then said: "I'm afraid this matter... has something to do with the corpse robbery case..."

"Nothing!" Before Feng Shen finished speaking, Lu Bantou shouted loudly, "One is a corpse chaser and the other is a corpse stealer. What is the relationship?"

(End of this chapter)