Jianming Chaos

That night, when the moon was dark and the wind was high, Zhiming came to the foot of Wuhu Mountain in night clothes, and approached Daozhuang step by step.

The surroundings of Daozhuang were dead silent and eerie; under the reflection of the night, the architectural style of the villa also looked very strange, and it looked like a large tomb.

Zhiming came to the gate.The door was locked tightly, as if a dark zombie was locked.

He looked in through the crack of the door, and vaguely saw lights in the room next to the courtyard.He jumped into the courtyard and walked through the courtyard to the outside of the house.The light on the paper window reflected the shadows of the three people in the house. Judging from their postures, they were discussing matters, and it seemed that the timing was just right.

Zhiming put his ear against the wall and heard the conversation inside the room clearly:

Master Daoren: "What will happen if you tell the prime minister about this?"

Shiqing: "I can't tell. Although he's not a good guy, he's not so bad that he doesn't care about the lives of his people, at least not in this matter."

Yuan Qing: "You must not let the prime minister know."

Master Daoren: "Shiqing, tell General Baimei tomorrow morning that we are almost out of stock."

Shiqing: "Yes, I will leave early tomorrow morning."

Master Daoren: "Yuanqing, you go to Hong Gui tomorrow and get our money back. He is a ruthless character, but after all, he is a subordinate of General Baimei. As long as the general is used to suppress him, he should not dare to make mistakes."

Yuan Qing: "Ghost Hong still lives in the Chijin Inn?"

Master Daoren: "Of course, otherwise where would he go?"

Yuan Qing: "Okay, I will go to him early tomorrow morning."

Master Daoren: "Be sure to get all the money back. This is the result of our hard work for nearly a year."

Shiqing: "Master, isn't it a bit..."

Master Daoren: "It's a bit wicked, right? After all, we didn't kill people and set fires, but we were forced by the troubled times and did it as a last resort; moreover, if it wasn't for the threat of General Baimei, we didn't plan to do it. You all know that guy We are absolutely invincible against the power of people. If we don’t follow orders, we will die. It is said that people who have taken the elixir will have an attack within a year and become crazy like a demon, so we can’t stay here for a long time. It will be troublesome if someone has an early attack. Remember, we must not let the fourth party know about our departure three days later, especially General Baimei, otherwise we will be killed."

Shiqing and Yuanqing: "Understood, Master."

Master Daoren: "That's the end of tonight's meeting. Alas, it's a pity that this mansion was built by him at the beginning, so I'm really reluctant....Let's not talk about it, go to bed early, so that we will be more energetic tomorrow work."

Lights went out.

From their conversation, Zhiming could tell that the "goods" they were talking about referred to the elixir, and the elixir was provided by General Baimei; Master Daoren obviously felt that this job could not last long, but he did not dare to follow General Baimei said bluntly that he was afraid of being silenced, so he asked his apprentice to deliberately go to the other party to get the goods, so that he would not be suspicious, and then tried to find a way to get the money and run away; and the money was in the hands of General Baimei's subordinate Hong Gui.Obviously, this so-called "elixir" is not a good medicine. People will have an attack within a year after taking it, and the final symptom of the attack is to become "crazy like a demon". As for the extent of the madness, it is not yet clear.He could have kicked open the gate and went in to interrogate the three of them—with his own martial arts, he could deal with them—but he was afraid of scaring the snake, and he couldn't find out the mastermind behind the scenes.

Since Yuan Qingming is going to the Chijin Inn to find a guy named Hong Gui, then start the investigation from this place, Zhiming thought.

He turned out of the yard, returned to the inn, lay on the bed and carefully recalled every word he heard tonight.

Zhiming's analysis: Since the mastermind behind the scenes is called "General" and the incident happened in the capital, it is most likely someone from the court.There is a possibility that this is a conspiracy that General Baimei has planned for a long time, but he has never had the chance to realize it. He happened to see the three Master Daoren come to the capital to cheat, so he used this opportunity to threaten them and ask them to follow his instructions , and promised to give them a certain reward.Of course, the three mages resisted at the beginning. After all, they just wanted to make a living and didn't think about doing such an outrageous thing. It's just that they were afraid of the power of General Baimei, so they had no choice but to give in.So, they worked like this for almost a year, because they knew that the onset of the elixir was coming soon, and they had no choice but to plan to escape for fear of something serious.General Baimei was not a fuel-efficient lamp, he sent his subordinate Hong Gui to seize part of their due rewards, and firmly grasped their weakness that money is their life.However, time does not allow the three of them to wait any longer, they must try to get back the remaining money as soon as possible, and then fly away.At present, the only breakthrough in the investigation is Hong Gui who lives with him at the Chijin Inn.

He decided not to sleep tonight, and followed the only clues so far to find out.

Before dawn the next day, Zhiming went to the corridor to watch.The inn has not yet opened for business, and there is silence from top to bottom.

He yawned deeply, wishing he could jump on the bed and fall asleep with his head covered, but he restrained himself in the end.

Soon, a sleepy-eyed fellow opened the door of the inn.It was just dawn, the man stretched himself, and went back to his room.

After a while, the old shopkeeper walked into the counter humming a tune, swept the dust with a feather duster in the same way, sat down, and prepared to welcome the guests of the new day.

Soon, a person walked in, it was Yuan Qing.The old man stood up with a smile on his face and asked, "Good morning, guest officer, are you here for morning tea?"

Yuan Qing looked around and said, "No, I'm here to find someone, and his name is Hong Gui."

"...Oh, it's him." The old man was deeply impressed by the name.He took out the roster, turned to the "silver room", found the name, and pointed it to Yuan Qing.

"That's right, it's him. I'm his friend, which direction is his room?"

The old man showed him the way.Yuan Qing thanked the old man and walked up the stairs.

Seeing him coming up, Zhiming quickly hid in the room.It turned out that Hong Gui lived next door!This is convenient for Zhiming, he saw Yuan Qing go to Yinzi No. [-] room and knock on the door through the crack of the door.

"Who?" asked a gruff voice from within the room.

"It's me, Yuan Qing." Yuan Qing whispered, "My master told me to come to you to get something."

"...Wait a minute." The people in the room were obviously just woken up, unprepared, and flustered for a while.

After a long time, the door opened.As soon as Yuan Qing entered, the door was quickly closed.

Taking advantage of the fact that there is no one around now, Zhiming carefully put his ear on the door, and the content of the conversation inside was clearly reflected in his ears:

Yuan Qing: "This money..."

Hong Gui: "Don't worry about it, or I'll kill you!"

Yuan Qing: "This is what General Baimei promised to give us extra!"

Hong Gui: "That's right, he agreed at first, but have you guys earned less during this period? You have already received the corresponding rewards, and this money should belong to General Baimei!"

Yuan Qing: "Do you dare to disobey the general's order?"

Hong Gui: "What disobeys orders? This is the general's intention. I just follow orders. Don't forget, if there is no general, you three are still moving bricks on the street!"

Yuan Qing: "Nonsense, this is not what the general meant at all, you made it up! Take me to see him!"

Hong Gui: "It's not necessary, the general won't discuss this matter with you again!"

Yuan Qing: "You... I understand, you want to take the money for yourself! Didn't we make an agreement before? Do you want to go back on your word?"

Hong Gui: "You... you go back and tell that stinky Taoist priest to pack up and leave Xuchang quickly, and stop worrying about money, or you will end up dead!"

Yuan Qing: "How dare you! Well, if this is the case, I will tell the prime minister about your conspiracy!"

Yuan Qingchao came to the door, but Hong Gui stopped him.Zhiming realized something was wrong, and quickly hid in his room.

Yuan Qing didn't expect Hong Gui to make such a response at all, and said angrily: "Go away, I will make the scandal you have done public!"

"Hush! Don't be so loud, this is a public place!"

"Why? Are you afraid that others will know?"

"Don't you guys have a part in this matter? Besides, you think anyone can enter the Prime Minister's Mansion casually? One last piece of advice, before I get mad, go back and get out with your master!"

"Don't even think about it! If you want to leave, you have to get back our shares first! If you have the guts, kill me, or I will report!"

"It's really toasting and not eating fine wine! You said this, don't regret it!" Hong Gui made a move.

The next door fell silent.Zhiming felt strange, and just about to go out to find out, the door over there opened suddenly, and the lock fell off——Hong Gui broke the lock in a panic.

From the crack of the door, Zhiming saw a bearded, round guy coming out.Hong Gui pretended to close the door, and hurried downstairs with a burden on his back.

Zhiming came to the corridor and saw Hong Gui talking with the old man at the counter, as if he was checking out.He gently pushed open the door and took a look, and as expected, Yuan Qing had been murdered!He touched his neck, and the neck bone was broken—a one-shot kill.

"One move is fatal, this person is a professional killer!" Zhiming hurried to the corridor to see that Hong Gui had already left.

Zhiming understood. It turned out that General Baimei had promised Master Daoren that he would give them an extra reward, and Hong Gui would hand over the money on his behalf.Before, Master Daoren had made an agreement with Hong Gui that he would give him a small part of the money as a thank you.Unexpectedly, Hong Gui was greedy and wanted to swallow all the wealth without the knowledge of General Baimei, so the above scene happened.

Zhiming quickly locked the door and chased him out. He expected Hong Gui to go to Master Daoren first.

Sure enough, after Hong Gui left the inn, he went straight to Wuhu Mountain.He is going to warn Master Daoren and persuade them to leave Xuchang immediately, otherwise they will end up in the same way.Hong Gui knew in his heart that once General Baimei knew about his misappropriation of wealth, he would be punished by the organization.

Hong Gui was walking fast, he knew that Yuan Qing's body would be found soon, so it was better to leave early.

After leaving the city, Hong Gui instinctively sensed that someone was following him.Professional killers have very keen intuition and can judge whether they are in danger at any time.

The stalker's footsteps came closer; he pretended not to know, and walked on.Daozhuang is just ahead.

When he was more than 100 meters away from Daozhuang, Hong Gui suddenly turned his head, saw a person standing not far behind him, and asked, "Boy, who are you and why are you following me?"

The stalker froze for a moment and said, "When did I follow you? I go my way and you go yours. Why do you say I follow you?"

"Stop pretending! Tell me, why are you following me?"

"You are so unreasonable. I am also going this way. Why do you insist that I follow you?"

"There is only one place to go, where are you going?"

"I'm going to find Master Daoren."

"...What are you looking for him for?"

"I want to consult him about the truth about the elixir that cures diseases and saves lives." The stalker said unhurriedly.

Hong Gui was taken aback and asked, "Who are you? Why do you care about this?"

"I'm your neighbor."

"Neighbor?"

"I live in Room No. [-], Yinzi, on the third floor of Chijin Inn. Hong Gui, you killed Yuan Qing!"

Hong Gui took a step back involuntarily, and asked, "Are you Prime Minister Cao's spy?"

"No, I don't know any prime minister at all. You are General Baimei's subordinate. You are here to help Master Daoren in name, but you are actually monitoring them. Those elixirs were provided to them by General Baimei!"

"You... what else do you know?"

"You are not satisfied with the small money Master Daoren gave you, you want to take all their rewards for yourself, and even pretend to be General Baimei!" Zhiming said straight away.

Hong Gui was speechless for a moment.The two confronted each other for a while, and suddenly, Hong Gui burst out laughing.

"What are you laughing at?" Zhiming asked.

"I laugh at you for not knowing good and bad, meddling so much at such a young age, you're really impatient!" Hong Gui said viciously.

"I've revealed your secret, what can you do to me?" Zhiming didn't fear him.

"You... so arrogant! Do you dare to fight with me?" Hong Gui didn't take him seriously at all.

"Let the horse come here!" Zhiming provoked.

Hong Gui was so angry that his face was flushed, he never thought that a yellow-haired boy would dare to talk to him in such a tone.He dropped his burden, shouted, and rushed over...