At noon, Xu Zun and his party entered Yonghui City through the East City Gate.
The so-called city gate is just a long wooden fence.
Although guards were arranged, the guards were sleeping nearby with their spears in their hands, and no one cared about them, and they could come in and out at will.
After entering the city, what we saw was indeed very different from the prosperous Shangyuan City. Especially near the city gate, there were dilapidated houses everywhere, and there were even particularly primitive thatched houses.
There were quite a few people coming and going, but most of them were dressed in shabby clothes and looked unkempt. Everyone looked like a beggar.
Because of this, when seeing Xu Zun and other well-dressed people entering the city, they immediately surrounded many children in ragged clothes, carrying rice bowls and begging.
Seeing these poor children, Xu Zun deliberately wrote food for them, but when he looked around, he found pairs of hungry eyes staring at them.
At this time, once you show your kindness, it will inevitably cause more trouble.
So, at Xu Zun's signal, the guards coaxed these begging children away, while Liu Dong raised his whip and speeded through.
Walk along the road and cross a stone bridge. After crossing the stone bridge, the surrounding buildings gradually get upgraded.
Going deeper, you can finally see some taller pavilions and courtyards.
Although there is a river running straight through Yonghui City, the city is still dusty, and many places are covered with thick dust.
The dust mixed with the unmelted ice and snow formed an extremely ugly slush.
Xu Zun didn't stay long. Following the guidance of Hou Zhen and Ashuzai, they quickly arrived at the bank of a wide river.
This river is called the Bitter River and is one of the three rivers flowing through the Yonghui area.
Because the water in the river is bitter, it is called the Bitter River.
The Bitter River is the only water source in Yonghui City, and the people living here have long been accustomed to the taste of the river water.
For some unknown reason, the Bitter River never freezes, no matter how cold the winter is.
The same is true at this moment. The river is fast and the river is wide, bringing a touch of aura to this lifeless city.
The restaurant where the accident happened is located at the best location of the Bitter River Pier.
Because there was a murder in the wine shop, and it was caused by a ghost that everyone feared, the wine shop had already been sealed, with a seal on the door and several county officials guarding it.
Seeing this, Xu Zun simply found the largest restaurant across from the wine shop and went in.
It was mid-morning and he was a little hungry.
There were not many customers in the restaurant, only two tables, but the diners at both tables were all discussing the big case of leopard ghosts eating people that happened across the street.
There were more than a dozen people in Xu Zun's group. If entering all at once was too eye-catching, Xu Zun asked the guards to separate. He only took Zhao Yu, Huo Anu, Hou Zhen and A Xiuzai in with him.
As for Liu Dong, A Ni and Ku Niang, they simply stayed in the car and sent someone to deliver food to them later.
After all, this Ani is too pretty to be seen in public.
Xu Zun was not short of money, so he immediately ordered the most expensive dish in the restaurant, which made the shopkeeper very happy. Due to the incident of leopard ghosts eating people opposite, his business also plummeted and was greatly affected.
"Sir," Hou Zhen continued as soon as he sat down, "there are many people in Yonghui area who believe in primitive religion. In their religion, there are six evil ghosts transformed into beasts, which require people to make offerings every year.
keep us safe!"
"Yes," Ashui added, "The 猄鬼 is one of them, and the other five are the 猜鬼, 猑鬼, 猋鬼, 瞽鬼 and 狋狊鬼!"
Since Asiu Zai was not very fond of articulating his words, Xu Zun felt as if these ghosts all had the same name.
"Local residents have portraits of these six evil ghosts," Ashuzai continued. "Witnesses said that the ones who attacked Yan Sen and Tao Lang were the legendary ghosts!"
"Humph," Xu Zun smiled faintly, "Putting aside whether it's ghost or not, there's only one thing that's strangest to me right now!"
"Oh?" Hou Zhen and As Xiuzai asked, "What's the matter?"
"Ahem..." Zhao Yu cleared his throat and said, "There were so many people in the wine shop at that time. Why did this ghost only attack Yan Sen and Tao Lang?"
Seeing Zhao Yu say what he was thinking, Xu Zun gave him a thumbs up gesture.
"Oh..." Hou Zhen and the other two nodded, "Indeed, it is said that there were many witnesses at that time, including those who drank with shopkeeper Yan, the waiters at the wine shop, and later the county government officials. They all saw the ghost!
"
"Anuche," Huo Anu suddenly sighed and said, "If it was really a ghost, why did it come out of the water? Isn't it better to just transform it?"
"Then..." Ashuzai murmured, "Maybe it's a water ghost?"
"I understand what you mean!" It was obvious that Hou Zhen was more shrewd than As Xiuzai. He immediately stood up and said, "I'm going to investigate the relationship between Yan Sen and Tao Lang."
"Don't worry!" Xu Zun signaled, "Yonghui City is so big, we will figure it out, don't be in a hurry for this meal."
As he was talking, the waiter had already brought several plates of side dishes and several pots of hot wine.
After the waiter put down the plates, Hou Zhen quickly took out a silver needle and tasted the dishes from plate to plate to prevent anyone from poisoning.
"Hehe..." Zhao Yu praised, "You are still professional in internal security!"
After saying this, he suddenly felt inappropriate and hurriedly picked up the soy beef with chopsticks and blocked his mouth.
Huo Anu, because he was feeling depressed, immediately picked up the wine bottle, raised his neck and took a big sip.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, there was a sudden commotion outside the restaurant.
Everyone looked back and heard shouts of killing coming from outside, as well as the sound of weapons clashing. It was obvious that someone was fighting.
Xu Zun grabbed a cucumber, stood up and went to the door to see the excitement.
Unexpectedly, before he could leave his seat, he saw a man covered in blood rushing in from the door. The man covered his bloody belly. After entering, he failed to stand still and fell on the nearest dining table.
Seeing this scene, Hou Zhen and As Xiuzai immediately stood up and protected Xu Zun.
"This..." Xu Zun patted them both on the shoulders and said, "You are blocking me because of the trouble!"
Looking over their shoulders, I saw the man fell to the ground, vomiting blood from his mouth, and seemed to have been seriously injured.
Immediately afterwards, another man wearing purple clothes and holding a sword rushed into the door.
"You... you are unreasonable, oh..." The man who fell on the ground pointed at the man in purple and shouted angrily, "That was originally our big warehouse..."
Whoosh!
Unexpectedly, before the man finished speaking, the man in purple came down with his sword and stabbed the man in the chest.
"puff……"
After the sword was drawn out, the visitor spat out another mouthful of blood and fell dead on the spot.
"Hey?" Xu Zun couldn't stand it now, and immediately complained to Zhao Yu and the other two, "You two are only interested in eating and drinking, why didn't you stop us?"
"What?" Zhao Yu and Huo Anu turned around and asked Xu Zundao, "You didn't let us stop you either?"
At this moment, Xu Zun noticed that the man in purple was killing people in public, but neither the waiters in the store nor the diners at the table next to him turned a blind eye.
Especially the diners at the two tables were still eating. It seemed that such killings were commonplace and not surprising.
"Hmph, what is yours?" The man in purple wiped the blood on the sword blade from the corpse and said fiercely, "From now on, it's all ours!"
After saying that, he turned around and left!
"Hey?" Xu Zun was even more unhappy now. He immediately stood up and shouted, "Wait a minute, why are you going?"
Hearing Xu Zun's roar, the man in purple stopped, turned his head and looked at Xu Zun carefully, and asked curiously:
"Are you talking to me?"
"You kill people in public, do you understand that murder is illegal?" Xu Zun pointed at the corpse and said righteously, "Follow me back to the Yamen for trial!"
Just as Xu Zun finished speaking, he saw more than a dozen people rushing in from the door of the store, all wearing purple clothes and holding swords with blood on them.
Everyone looked at Xu Zun first, and then asked the man in purple: "Brother, what's wrong?"
