Two hours later, the five of them turned from the official road onto a small road. After walking for another half an hour, a small village appeared in front of them.
After getting off the horse at the entrance of the village, Zhou Shang was about to lead the horse into the village when Han Cheng suddenly said: "Wait a minute, please wait here for a while."
After saying that, a man entered the village.
Zhou Shang looked at Wu Chengsi and gritted his teeth: "You don't believe me?"
Wu Chengsi said slowly:
"When I was marching and fighting in the past, whenever I came to a territory, I would have people survey the situation in advance. This is a habit left in the military camp. Please forgive me, girl."
Hearing this, Zhou Shang was no longer angry and nodded: "No wonder you can win so many battles."
Soon, Han Cheng came out of the village and nodded to Wu Chengsi.
Without saying much, Zhou Shang led a few people into the village and arrived at a farmhouse.
After stepping into the farmyard, she called out: "Sister-in-law Wang."
As soon as he finished speaking, a little girl ran out of the house, hugged Zhou Shang tightly, raised her head and said, "Sister Zhou, you are back."
When Wu Chengsi and the other four saw the little girl, their expressions changed.
I saw that this little girl had an extremely big head and short limbs. She was actually a deformed child.
When the little girl saw the four people staring at her, she hid behind Zhou Sang in fear.
Zhou Sang asked: "Xiaohua, where is Mrs. Wang?"
"She, she went to work in the fields." The little girl timidly said, "I said I would help her, but grandma wouldn't let me go."
Zhou Shang nodded and said to Wu Chengsi and others: "Please come inside to talk."
He led the little girl into the main room.
Wu Chengsi and others followed them in. The room was very simple, with only two wooden chairs beside the table. Zhou Shang went to the yard to move a few wooden stakes, and then the four of them sat down.
"Xiaohua, go and pour four glasses of water." Zhou Shang ordered.
The little girl nodded and ran out of the house quickly.
Although her arms and legs are short, her body is very flexible, and her movements do not seem to be too affected by this deformed body.
Zhuge Nan was the most impatient and said: "Okay, we are not here to drink water. Please tell me who Wu Wei is and why he sent a killer to kill you?"
Zhou Shang walked to the door and looked at the little girl fetching water from the well. A smile appeared on her face. Then the smile turned to sadness and she said in a low voice:
"It starts with Xiaohua."
Di Renjie suddenly said: "Her deformity is probably not congenital, right?"
Zhou Shang glanced at him in surprise, nodded and said, "How did you know about it?"
"I saw that the little girl seemed to have practiced some rudimentary martial arts. I guess it was because her limbs were short and weak and she had difficulty walking, so someone taught her martial arts to help her overcome this effect."
"What does this have to do with whether it is a congenital deformity?" The questioner was Zhugenan. He asked while staring at the little girl.
"If it was a congenital deformity, this girl must have practiced martial arts since she was a child, otherwise she would not be able to walk at all, and her hands and feet would also degenerate." Di Renjie added.
"How do you know she hasn't been practicing martial arts since she was a child?"
"You can tell by looking at her palms. The calluses on her hands are very new. She has been practicing martial arts for no more than a year!" Di Renjie replied.
Zhugenan scratched the back of his head and didn't ask any more questions.
Zhou Shang was silent for a while and said slowly:
"Xiaohua is a child from our village. She was originally a healthy and lovely child. But because she got sick last year, her family took her to the city to see a doctor. As a result, she became like this after taking the medicine from Hengwutang."
"Hengwu Hall?" Wu Chengsi raised his eyebrows.
"The Hengwu Hall was opened by Wuwei, and Wuwei is a descendant of the Wu family." Zhou Shang said in a low voice.
Wu Chengsi's heart trembled, and he finally understood why the other party came to find him.
Just then, the little girl came in holding an old teapot in her left hand and four overlapping bowls in her right hand.
She placed the four bowls side by side, poured water for the four of them, and whispered: "Please drink."
When Zhuge Nan saw her well-behaved appearance, he suddenly became angry and said loudly: "It's so unconscionable. That drugstore actually sells this kind of medicine. Then wouldn't there be many people in the city like her?"
His voice was so loud that the little girl was so scared that she hid behind Zhou Shang.
Zhou Shang lowered his eyes and said:
"That's not the case. Only a very small number of people will get sick after taking their medicine. In addition, in another large medicine hall in the city called "Xinglintang", there will also be cases where people turn into small flowers after taking medicine.
."
Zhuge Nan gritted his teeth and said: "Then there must be a problem with both pharmacies, and they are working together to harm people!"
Zhou Shang shook his head and said:
"These two pharmacies are rivals, and the owner of the other pharmacy is a well-known good person in our county. He should not collude with Wuwei."
Di Renjie asked: "Then how do the people there view this matter?"
Zhou Shang's eyes dimmed and he said: "Everyone says that in a situation like Xiaohua's, it's because it's stained with unclean things, so it's necessary to ask a mage to exorcise evil spirits."
Zhuge Nan hummed: "That's nonsense. There is no evil in this world. There must be something wrong with the medicine hall."
Wu Chengsi stared at Zhou Sang and said: "Since you believe that there is something wrong with Wu Wei, you should have other discoveries, right?"
Zhou Shang gritted his teeth and said:
"Yes, at first my father and I both thought that Xiao Hua was really possessed by evil spirits, but until one time, when my father and I were chasing a wanted criminal, we found a strange... cabin on the beach."
When she mentioned the hut, her body trembled slightly.
Wu Chengsi said in a deep voice: "Is there anything wrong with that hut?"
"When...it was already late at night, and when we entered the hut holding a torch, we found..."
"What did you find?" Zhuge Nan asked anxiously.
Zhou Shang took a deep breath and said: "We saw a roomful of corpses piled inside...all the corpses were like Xiaohua, and their bodies had become deformed!"
Wu Chengsi, Di Renjie, Han Cheng and Zhuge Nan are all very courageous people, but when they heard this, they got goosebumps all over their bodies.
"My father and I were shocked and hurried to the government office to report the crime. However, it was already getting late, so we could only wait outside the government office until dawn. When we arrived at the hut with the police officers, we found..."
Zhou Shang suddenly closed his eyes, his expression full of fear.
"What did you find? Tell me quickly?" Zhugenan urged.
Zhou Shang took a few deep breaths and said slowly:
"The cabin has completely changed its appearance. There is an extra bed in it... and a lot of fishing equipment... but all the corpses and blood stains are gone!"
Zhuge Nan said anxiously:
"Did someone move the bodies after you left? There are so many bodies, and the blood stains cannot be removed overnight. Have you checked carefully?"
Zhou Shang looked pale and said:
"Even if I didn't check carefully, my father is an old man, so he can't find anything. That house is nothing like the houses we have been to before!"
Wu Chengsi frowned and asked, "Is there a similar house nearby?"
Zhou Shang shook his head: "Of course we have searched nearby, but there is only this one house near the entire coast."
"There's a ghost here!" Zhugenan shouted, "Could it be that you're just being blinded?"
Zhou Shang said calmly:
"At that time, my father and I went through the red leaf forest to chase the wanted criminal. Some people said that my father and I saw hallucinations because we entered the woods and bumped into unclean things."
"Then what do you think?" Wu Chengsi asked gently.
Zhou Shang gritted his teeth and said: "Like my father, I believe in my own feelings. The corpses we saw that night were all real and can never be wrong!"
Di Renjie suddenly said: "Is it possible that after you left, someone destroyed the original hut and built a new one?"
"Dad and I have also thought about this possibility, but we have checked it and judging from the traces of that hut, it is definitely not new!"
Zhugenan scratched his head and said, "Then how do you explain the disappearing corpses and blood stains?"
Zhou Shang lowered his gaze: "I still can't figure it out, but there is one thing we found out quickly."
"What's up?"
"The owner of that hut is Wu Wei!"
Wu Chengsi pondered: "So you think those corpses were all caused by Wu Wei?"
Zhou Shang said coldly:
"Since it is his hut, he must be involved in this matter. My father and I once stopped him in the street and questioned him about the matter, but he asked the government officials to arrest us. Isn't this a guilty conscience?"
Di Renjie touched his chin and said, "So you have no evidence?"
Zhou Shang was immediately furious:
"You, like the Taizhou officials, like to use evidence as a prevarication to achieve the goal of your officials protecting each other. The matter is very obvious. Wuwei sells fake medicines and harms people, so what kind of evidence do you need?"