Catching Monsters

Chapter 26 What? (Seeking follow-up reading)
A horse-drawn carriage was swaying along the official road of Nanzhou.

Although it was an official road and was quite spacious, it was just a muddy road, shaky and not very comfortable.

Qian Buchou was sitting inside and complained, "Brother Jiang, it only takes an hour for us to get from the city to Beihu County by fast horse."

"I'm afraid the carriage won't arrive until 3 p.m."

Jiang Yun, who was in the carriage, thought to himself, if I really had to ride with you for an hour, I would probably have to do nothing and just faint for the whole day.

"Who is this?" Qian Buchou's gaze fell on Xu Xiaogang. He had never seen him before and didn't know where he came from.

However, since he is a master invited by Jiang Yun, he must be very powerful.

Inside the carriage, Xu Xiaogang closed his eyes and said calmly, "Xu Wuchang."

Qian Buchou looked at Jiang Yun beside him with a puzzled look.

"He's a Jinyiwei from the capital, Xu Suwen's younger brother." Jiang Yun explained casually.

"hiss."

Hearing this, Qian Buchou almost jumped up from his chair. He quickly flattered him, "I was wondering why Lord Xu had such a noble air and sharp eyes. It turns out he is a master of the Jinyiwei."

Xu Xiaogang did not open his eyes, but just said two words lightly: "Noisy."

“Yes, yes, yes.” Qian Buchou nodded repeatedly and smiled: “I talk a lot.”

Then, Xu Xiaogang slowly opened his eyes and looked at Qian Buchou: "Thirsty."

"I want."

"Drink water."

Qian Buchou quickly took out the cowhide water bag, handed it over, and asked Jiang Yun in a low voice: "Brother Jiang, what happened to Lord Xu? Is his throat not so good?"

Jiang Yun understood what Xu Xiaogang was doing and explained, "What do you know? Experts always speak in short sentences."

Qian Buchou nodded and said, "That's right."

Finally, at noon, the shaky carriage finally arrived at Beihu County.

The streets of Beihu County are crisscrossed, covered with green trees, and lined with eaves of houses, presenting a quaint and tranquil street scene.

The county has a population of about 100,000, and its prosperity is far from comparable to that of the provincial capital.

There were few pedestrians on the street. Occasionally, they were seen walking quickly, hurrying along, busy with their livelihoods.

It is very different from the leisurely and carefree life of those people in the provincial capital.

"Brother Jiang has lived in the capital for a long time, so he probably rarely comes to the county below, right?" Qian Buchou said with a smile, "I heard that Beihu County was quite wealthy many years ago, but now it is not so prosperous anymore, it is very poor."

"It's only because we are near the official road and there are caravans passing by frequently that we can barely make ends meet."

"But in recent years, people have often disappeared inexplicably."

"The caravan has been lost several times. Now they would rather take the long detour from the official road in the south than pass through this county."

Sitting in the carriage, Xu Xiaogang, who had a calm face, suddenly opened his eyes and asked, "It's been so long, and you, Nanzhou Prefecture, haven't been able to find out the reason?"

Qian Buchou laughed awkwardly and said, "Although Beihu County is under the jurisdiction of Nanzhou Prefecture, they also have constables under them. We can't just skip work unless they ask for permission."

At this moment, the carriage passed the corner of the street and saw that the relatively open ground in front was surrounded by a large number of people.

Even in winter, these people were wearing thin clothes, and many of them were young children.

Many people were standing barefoot on the snow, queuing.

"Are these disaster victims?" Jiang Yun asked puzzledly.

Qian Buchou carefully glanced at Xu Xiaogang, and remembering his identity as a Jinyiwei, he laughed: "Brother Jiang, you are really a joker. Our Great Zhou Dynasty is prosperous, the weather is good, the country is peaceful and the people are safe. There are no disaster victims."

"These are just poor families outside the county. They can't get enough food, so they run to the county to wait for the Tang family to give them porridge."

"See? The one distributing porridge in front is the eldest daughter of the Tang family in Beihu County. Her name is Tang Wanxin, and she is a well-known kind girl."

Jiang Yun looked towards the person who was distributing porridge and saw a beautiful girl standing in front of the crowd.

She was wearing a white mink coat and had a pretty face. She had her hair tied up. Even in the middle of winter, she rolled up her sleeves and was not afraid of the cold at all. She gave porridge to the poor people.

Jiang Yun couldn't help but nodded, and couldn't help but sigh: "She is really a beautiful girl, beautiful and kind."

"Huh." Qian Buchou asked in confusion: "Where is Lord Xu? He was here just now." While the two were talking, Xu Xiaogang in the carriage disappeared.

Jiang Yun shook his head and said calmly: "It's okay, he probably ran away and hid somewhere again."

Jiang Yun was not surprised by this.

It was freezing outside. Jiang Yun tightened his cotton coat and felt extremely cold even when sitting in the carriage.

In the crowd, many children were even standing barefoot on the snow, which made Jiang Yun frown.

Qian Buchou smiled and said, "Brother Jiang, you have read a lot of books by sages. They talk about many great principles, but they rarely mention food, clothing and daily expenses."

"Gentlemen who can read will never have to worry about food and clothing."

"You two brothers and sisters live in the capital city. You can earn three meals a day by mending clothes for your neighbors, and you can even have some extra money for you to study and write. Your life is actually pretty good."

"The people outside this city are having a hard time."

"Seventy percent of the arable land in Beihu County is occupied by large households. Farmers who are lucky enough can work as long-term workers for them and still have enough food and clothing."

"More farmers can only rent land from large farmers to grow crops."

"You also need to borrow food rations, seeds, wheat seeds, and cattle equipment."

"After a busy year, we can barely get by with enough food to survive."

"If there's a natural disaster or a bad harvest, we'll have to go hungry and freeze."

"It's common for people to starve to death."

Listening to Qian Buchou's words, Jiang Yun frowned and sighed: "The evil feudal landlord class."

Qian Buchou asked: "What class?"

Jiang Yun shook his head: "It's okay, let's go to the place where the nearest missing person is."

Qian Buchou reminded quietly: "How about we go to the county government office first? I guess the county magistrate has already prepared a table of good wine and good food to welcome us."

"Drink a pot of hot wine, have a good night's sleep, and check it out the next day."

Jiang Yun: "Let's find out first."

"Okay." Qian Buchou muttered, and then took out a case record that was sent by Beihu County earlier.

Many disappearances were recorded.

"These disappearances are not complicated. There is a Qing Lake in the north of Beihu County, and the county is named after it."

"The missing people are mostly around Qinghu Lake. This year, a total of 132 people have disappeared."

"They say there's a monster in Qing Lake, so no one dares to get close to it."

Qian Buchou originally wanted to find a local to lead the way, but unexpectedly, when the local heard that they were going to Beihu Lake, they shook their heads again and again.

I don't dare to go there at all. It's useless to give silver even if I have no money.

However, the locals also said that if you leave the county town and keep walking north, you will soon find Qinghu Lake.

The two of them rode in a carriage and headed north out of the city.

After walking for half an hour, fog started to appear during the day. The further we went, the thicker the fog became.

Soon, visibility was less than ten meters and the temperature slowly dropped.

The horses also became a little restless and stayed where they were, looking anxious and unwilling to move forward.

Qian Buchu on the carriage looked outside and felt a little nervous: "Brother, I think this place is very evil. Let's stop here today and find Lord Xu. Come back tomorrow."

Jiang Yun knew what was going on, but he was not in a hurry. He smiled faintly and said, "Don't worry, he is following us."

"He is in the dark, and he is eager for us to be in danger soon."

"The words I gave him will come in handy."

Qian Buchou was stunned and asked, "What did you say?"

"you guess?"

　Guess what Jiang Yun wrote~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)