Border Cook

Chapter 655 Murder and Silence

The life of the Cui and Wen families...

It's not easy.

Xia Mingyue smiled and said, "The mood of the two families depends on what the emperor wants at this moment."

The events of the past few days, especially the many details therein, can be said to have been seen clearly and understood by Xia Mingyue, who also thought about them very thoroughly.

There cannot be two tigers in one mountain, no one is allowed to sleep soundly in front of the bed, and the imperial power cannot be questioned.

The emperor has a clear mind about all matters, and his wisdom and strategy are beyond the imagination of many people.

The Cui and Wen families were often too clever for their own good and overestimated the capabilities of their families and the power they could hold.

"My lady is wise." Lu Qiyan nodded with a smile, and his eyes were full of tenderness and doting when he looked at Xia Mingyue.

Almost stringy.

The degree of drawing is comparable to lotus root silk and spider silk!

Xia Yunji complained in his heart for a while, but while Lu Qiyan and Xia Mingyue were talking, he made a trick of replacing the day with his black pieces and Lu Qiyan's white pieces.

He even tugged at Lu Qiyan's arm, "Brother-in-law, it's my turn to get off. You watch over me!"

If he makes this move again, he will definitely win!

"I don't need to see it. Just exchange your child with mine first." Lu Qiyan replied faintly.

Xia Yunji, "..."

Can this be discovered?

Xia Yunji pouted, "It's just that Wu Jin's tail was wagging and bumping into the chessboard, so the pieces on the board got messed up. I sorted them out a bit and put one in the wrong place."

Wu Jin: "..."

Can this pot be put on me?
Damn it, it will live in the kitchen tonight and spend the whole night eating up all the food in the kitchen, leaving you hungry tomorrow morning!

"Just change it back." Xia Yunji reluctantly changed the chess piece.

As expected, this game of Go was completely lost.

Xia Yunji was very unwilling to accept this and pulled Lu Qiyan to continue.

It was supposed to be just a short break to digest their food, but because of Xia Yunji's damn desire to win, it lasted until late at night.

The original sleepiness disappeared completely and I became more energetic.

Xia Mingyue was no longer sleepy, so she went to the kitchen to make a simple midnight snack for the two of them.

The small glutinous rice dumplings with fermented glutinous rice wine have a strong aroma of wine. The dumplings are soft and glutinous, and the black sesame filling is fragrant and sweet. A steaming bowl of them can nourish the stomach and warm the body, which is very comfortable.

At this moment, Wen Yongze and others were also having a midnight snack.

The table was filled with minced meat and rice porridge, exquisite side dishes, and various pastries, which was a very sumptuous feast.

But Wen Yongze had no appetite at this moment, and even the soup spoon in his hand was stirring the bowl in front of him again and again.

The spoon and bowl, with their soft texture and bright sky-blue color, collided with each other, making a slight tinkling sound. At first it was gentle and pleasant, but soon the tinkling sound became loud and rapid, obviously reflecting Wen Yongze's mood at the moment.

Wen Liyan and others didn't dare to say a word at this time.

The rumors were extremely unfavorable to the Wen family, and the eldest prince was very anxious. Today, he came to the Wen family again and scolded them harshly, not caring at all that Wen Yongze was his grandfather.

The people Wen Liyan sent to deal with Ruan Zhiheng failed, and it is said that they left a survivor. Now there is no other news, and no one knows what happened to that survivor.

If it is revealed that the Wen family was responsible...

After Xiao Luoan returns to the capital, if Ruan Zhiheng wants to drag the entire Wen family down with him, Wen Yongze can't imagine what the emperor's attitude will be.

What kind of rumors will his Wen family face?

The porcelain spoon in Wen Yongze's hand fell into the bowl with a clang. Wen Liyan's expression changed, and he lowered his head and whispered, "Father hasn't had a good meal all day. He should eat something, otherwise it will hurt his body."

"How can you have the heart to eat at this time?" Wen Yongze glanced at Wen Liyan, "You have a good appetite. Even the failure of Ruan Zhiheng's matter has no effect on you."

Wen Liyan bowed even lower, "It's my fault, but don't worry, father. I have already sent five times more people, and this time there will be no mistakes."

"only……"

Wen Liyan hesitated to speak, and Wen Yongze was a little impatient, "Just what?"

"But Xiao Luoan is a prince after all. If we really want to get rid of him, will it be possible..."

Bring about fatal disaster.

After all, in addition to human lives, the reputation of the royal family is also involved. If the emperor is furious and is determined to deal with the Wen family, will the Wen family really be doomed?

"What are you afraid of?" Wen Yongze disagreed. "First of all, the Third Prince is just a pawn and has no status in front of the Emperor. Besides, the First Prince has done this before, and he is just doing it again."

"But the Emperor..."

"So what?" Wen Yongze snorted coldly, "There is no evidence, and suspicion is just suspicion, just like the rumors outside now, they are just rumors. Emperors come and go, but the family remains forever. The reason why our Wen family has been able to stand for a hundred years is not because of kindness."

Whatever you do, you must consider the word "profit".

Only by getting rid of Xiao Luoan as well can the crime be pushed onto the bandits and the Wen family will have a chance to defend themselves.

After all, no one could have imagined that the Wen family would dare to kill again after the rumor that they had assassinated the third prince spread.

Even if they could take the opportunity to blame the Cui family and the second prince for their own mistakes, it was not impossible.

In everything, you need to be bold so that you can catch anyone, including your opponents, by surprise.

"Yes, father." Wen Liyan nodded solemnly.

Wen Yongze lowered his eyes and said, "The day after tomorrow is the New Year's Eve banquet. It would be best if this news could reach the emperor's ears by then."

He wanted to see how the emperor would react.

Moreover, if the emperor really wanted to inquire about this matter, he would be present and would certainly ask in person, which would be much better than asking others behind their backs, and there would be more room for rebuttal.

"Yes." Wen Liyan responded again.

"Have the people sent back left?"

"Reporting to father, we have already set out. If we hurry up, we will be able to bring the person back in seven or eight days at most."

"Yeah." Wen Yongze nodded, "It's time for old friends to meet each other."

After all, after such a long separation, no matter how strong the blood relationship is, it will become much weaker, and when you meet again, you will feel a little bit of affection, and all the regrets and debts of the past will come to your mind.

In this way, some people also know what they should do next.

In this way, if there is any disturbance in the Wen family, he can also help a lot. "Yes." Wen Liyan responded, raised his eyes to look at the sky outside, and his lips moved slightly.

Judging from the time, it’s about time for them to take action.

At this moment, near Buffalo Town where Xiao Luoan and others were staying in the inn, a group of people were quietly approaching.

They were dressed in black, with black scarves covering their faces, and were neatly dressed, heading towards Buffalo Town.

On the way, the leader, named Ma Liu, waved his hand, called everyone to stop, and warned, "In this operation, you must be fast, accurate and ruthless. Don't leave any survivors, and don't leave any clues. Otherwise, kill them without mercy!"

"Yes!" Everyone responded and continued to remain silent.

In the darkness, only the sound of horse hooves remained.

The group quickly arrived at Buffalo Town, near the only inn in the town, and prepared to approach quietly according to the clues and topographic maps they had already obtained.

But as the group got closer, they were all shocked when they saw the scene in front of them.

Because at this time, the Tongfu Inn in Buffalo Town was already a sea of ​​fire.

The fire was so huge that the flames shot up into the sky, illuminating almost half of the town in a sea of ​​red.

Such a fire even attracted many nearby residents to wake up late at night and come to put out the fire with buckets, wooden basins, and water guns made of bamboo tubes.

But even so, the inn continued to burn, and even the main beams of the house were burned and burned, and with a loud bang, it collapsed completely.

"With such a big fire, I'm afraid we can't put it out!" The people who came to put out the fire were extremely regretful.

"Yeah, I don't know what happened to the people inside..."

"It's strange. From the time we started putting out the fire till now, no one has come out. Is it possible that no one is staying in this inn today?"

"I'm afraid that's not the case. Look over there..."

While everyone was pouring water to put out the fire, they also opened their eyes wide and looked inside. They saw that there seemed to be quite a few people in the houses of the inn that were collapsing one after another.

Those people were lying all over the place, some were lying on their backs, and some were sitting crookedly against the wall, and they were all burning along with the house.

Moreover, those people were holding weapons such as swords in their hands, and beside each person, there were large and small pools of blood that had been burned black, but could still be identified...

After killing someone to silence him, burn the body to cover up all traces?

Terrible thoughts popped up in everyone's mind, and everyone's expression changed.

"Go and report to the police!" Someone squeezed out these words from between his teeth, and then his legs went weak and he collapsed to the ground.

There were also people who had been very active in putting out the fire. They threw away the buckets in their hands, ran home in a hurry, slammed the door shut, and then crawled into bed, covered themselves with the quilt, and shivered.

Such a massacre happened in the inn. Who knows if those people came for revenge or if they were killing indiscriminately. After killing the people in the inn, would it be the turn of ordinary people like them?

In a short while, most of the people who were busy fighting the fire near the inn dispersed, leaving only those residents who were close to the inn, who were still fetching and pouring water to control the fire and prevent their homes from being affected by the fire.

"Boss, what should I do?"

Someone among the men in black asked.

Ma Liu pondered for a long time, and even poked his head out to look around, and then said, "Help put out the fire first, and go in and take a look before the officials come."

Identify the identities of the dead people in the inn.

If it was someone else, then they would have to think long and hard about it. But if those people were the ones the master wanted them to get rid of...

Then this matter will be easy to deal with.

"Yes!" Seeing that Ma Liu had spoken, the servants quickly took off their night clothes.

Night clothes are designed to hide one's whereabouts in the dark, but ordinary clothes are worn underneath, so that if one cannot escape successfully, one can blend into the crowd to achieve the effect of hiding in the woods.

In a short while, the group of people transformed themselves into ordinary people and mingled among the common people to help put out the fire.

These men were strong and agile, much more agile than ordinary people, and they quickly put out the fire.

This made the people who were fighting the fire express their gratitude repeatedly, but when they saw that these people were all strangers and it seemed they had never seen them before, they became very curious.

"We are just passers-by, and we wanted to stay at the inn, but we didn't expect..." one of them explained, "Since we have encountered such a thing, there is absolutely no reason for us to stand by and watch!"

This answer has been recognized and appreciated by many people.

Seeing that the others had no doubts about them at all, after the fire in the inn gradually died down, several people entered the inn first to check the burning of the bodies.

Judging from their body shape and the condition of their teeth, most of them were young and middle-aged men, and they soon found a man curled up in a corner with shackles on his hands.

It is speculated that his age is very similar to Ruan Zhiheng.

In another room, a thin young man was found. Although all his clothes were burned, one could vaguely see from the remaining corners of his clothes that the material was high-quality silk mixed with silver thread.

The corpse was holding a sword of extremely high quality in its hand and wearing a fine jade disk around its waist. The most important thing was that next to this corpse, there were several other corpses, one of which seemed to be a female.

As far as they know, the third prince has an extremely skilled female guard by his side...

In other words, the corpse dressed in gorgeous clothes should be the third prince.

After thinking for a moment, Ma Liu pulled the jade disk off the corpse, put it in his arms, and then led his people away quietly.

It was not until they were alone that Ma Liu took out the jade disk and rubbed it in his hand for a long time.

"Boss, what should we do?" the subordinate asked.

"Go back and report!" Ma Liu put the jade disk back into his arms.

The group mounted their horses and headed towards the capital.

They rode at full speed all the way and arrived in the capital at the exact time of noon on New Year's Eve.

Ma Liu met Wen Yongze and presented the jade disk to him.

Wen Yongze narrowed his eyes when he saw the jade disc.

He had seen this jade disc before, because Xiao Luochen also had one, which was exactly the same as this one.

If we can get this jade disk back, it means everything went well.

Wen Yongze smiled and threw the jade disk aside. "You did a good job. Go find Li Yan to claim your reward later."

Ma Liu was stunned when he heard this, but after a moment, he bowed and thanked him, "Thank you, Master."

It is obvious that this jade disc belongs to Xiao Luoan, and the corpse must be Xiao Luoan himself.

And since Xiao Luoan is dead, it doesn't seem to matter who the murderer is.

What matters is that in the eyes of the family owner, he completed the task, and that is enough.

Ma Liu happily went to find Wen Liyan to see what kind of reward he would get after accomplishing this great thing.