PDLP Chapter 67: One wrong step leads to the abyss
Chapter 67: One wrong step leads to the abyss
After finding an unused house that could be used and settling all the people, he went to the county government office to place the bodies of Shi Peng and others. Thinking that everyone needed to rest, he set the time for the court session for the next afternoon.
After confirming these, Yang Hancai proposed to send someone to send Xiao Yihuo back, but Xiao Yihuo politely declined.
When he was about to step out of the government gate, Lin Lezhi suddenly remembered something and hurriedly ran back and said, "You don't have to wait for me, I will go back by myself in a while."
Xiao Yihuo and Qingchuan thought that Lin Lezhi suddenly remembered something important to explain, so they decided to wait for Lin Lezhi at the gate of the government office.
It took Lin Lezhi half an incense stick of time to go back and forth.
Holding two packages in his hands, he trotted to the gate of the county government office.
Seeing that the two of them were still there, Lin Lezhi quickened his pace and said breathlessly, "Why are you two still here? Didn't I tell you to go back and rest first?"
Qingchuan looked very tired, but he still smiled and said, "We came here together, so of course we have to go back together."
"What is this you have?"
Lin Lezhi said "Oh" and responded calmly: "It's the clothes I changed out of before."
"........."
Qingchuan and Xiao Yihuo both fell silent at the same time.
Xiao Yihuo's eyes were filled with incomprehension, and he said in a somewhat tense manner: "You came back and forth, running out of breath, just to get a set of clothes?"
"What else!" Lin Lezhi responded as a matter of course: "If I don't take the clothes, what will I wear tomorrow!"
Qingchuan smiled and said to Lin Lezhi, "Brother Lezhi, you are really careful and prudent. This is the way it should be."
Lin Lezhi responded with an expression of a close friend, "Brother Qingchuan still understands me."
The two of them sang in unison and the conversation was very natural.
"You..." Xiao Yihuo opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. After a moment of silence, he said, "Forget it, let's go back."
In front of the inn.
Because it was still night and during curfew, the door of the inn was closed.
Lin Lezhi glanced in the direction of Xiao Yihuo and Qingchuan. Both of them were standing there as a matter of course, with no intention of going up to knock on the door. Qingchuan was even about to fall asleep on the spot.
In such a short period of time, he encountered so many things and could not relax mentally. Lin Lezhi did not feel very tired. Now he stopped, looked at the two people's listless appearance, and then looked at the moon hanging high in the sky. He could not help but yawn.
After three days of not having a good rest, even a body made of copper or iron wouldn't be able to bear it.
Qingchuan arrived at Yarenzhuang earlier than the other two, and had a hard time dealing with the bosses of Yarenzhuang.
Xiao Yihuo...
Forget it. Lin Lezhi became even more clear-headed and knew that he couldn't count on him.
If the stalemate continues, it will only waste my rest time.
Thinking of this, Lin Lezhi walked forward and knocked on the door. After a while, there was a sound of running in the inn, and the waiter's inquiring voice came through the door, sounding a little scared.
"It's so late, would you like to have a meal or stay overnight?"
"We are the residents here. We just came back from doing something. Can you please open the door for us, little brother?"
There was silence from inside the door for a while, then the waiter removed the bolt, opened the door a crack, held a kerosene lamp in his hand, and looked out doubtfully.
Lin Lezhi just raised his hand and was about to greet with a smile, when the door was closed with a bang.
Lin Lezhi's smile froze on his face. A voice full of disgust came from inside, saying bluntly: "You stinky beggar, you want to stay in a hotel, do you have money?"
The corner of Xiao Yihuo's eyes twitched slightly.
Lin Lezhi couldn't help but laughed secretly.
Before Xiao Yihuo's gaze could reach over, Lin Lezhi stepped forward and reopened the door before it was bolted again. The waiter wanted to close the door, but was no match for Lin Lezhi's strength.
After a while of stalemate, the waiter just wanted to give up.
"What on earth do you want to do? You have no money but you want to stay at the inn. You are dressed like this and there is blood on your body. Believe it or not... I will report it to the police!"
"There's no need to report to the authorities. We just came out of the government office."
Hearing this, the waiter's face was filled with fear. Lin Lezhi realized that his words were too simple and had caused misunderstanding. He quickly waved his hand and said, "No, that's not what I meant. We are here to help the government investigate a case, so we deliberately disguised ourselves like this. I promise that we are not suspicious people."
The waiter still had a look of doubt on his face and looked at the three people nervously.
Lin Lezhi pushed Xiao Yihuo forward and said, "Don't you recognize him? He is your Tianzihao tenant. Didn't the official come to see him a few days ago? Why don't you take a closer look?"
The number one tenant.
Government official.
These few short words seemed like a secret code and successfully calmed the waiter down.
The waiter held the kerosene lamp in his hand towards Xiao Yihuo.
After reporting to the official, the waiter put the kerosene lamp in his hand close to Xiao Yihuo's face. After observing carefully, he finally recognized that it was the sponsor who lived in the Tianzihao guest room.
His expression changed faster than turning the pages of a book, and he said with a smile: "Look at me, I am short-sighted. I hope you will forgive me. Please come in and take a rest in your room. I will go and boil a few buckets of hot water for you and send it to your room."
Hearing this, Xiao Yihuo's originally sullen face finally softened and he said slowly: "Okay, thank you very much."
Back upstairs, Liu Yunhe heard the noise of someone coming upstairs and immediately ran out of the room. After seeing Xiao Yihuo and Qingchuan, he could not hide his joy on his face.
"My Lord, Master Qingchuan, you are back!"
However, when he saw Lin Lezhi, he didn't say anything, but nodded at him symbolically.
Lin Lezhi had long known that Liu Yunhe was wary of him, and always looked at him as if he were a ghost. This behavior did not surprise Lin Lezhi, and he patted Xiao Yihuo on the shoulder and said, "You two can talk about the past slowly, I'll go back to my room first."
After walking a few steps, Lin Lezhi fell back and threw a package in his hand to Xiao Yihuo, saying with a smile: "This is yours, no need to thank me."
Xiao Yihuo's eyes were a little surprised. He opened a seam of the package and took a look. It was his own clothes.
This time when Lin Lezhi went back, he not only took his own clothes.
After washing and getting ready, I felt that all the fatigue in my body had been reduced a lot. I looked in the mirror and saw that I was a handsome young man again.
With nothing to do, Lin Lezhi turned off the lights, lay on his back on the bed bored, and then buried his head in the quilt.
At this time before, he would probably still be browsing on his phone or playing on his computer.
When you come here, time seems to slow down.
From a physical and sensory perspective, Lin Lezhi felt that he had been here for a long time, but if he really counted the days, he had been here for less than half a month.
Lin Lezhi poked his head out from under the quilt. The moonlight outside the window shone into the room through the thin window paper. From where Lin Lezhi was lying, he could see the peace knot on the dirty clothes by just turning his head.
Looking at the peace knot, a complex emotion arose in Lin Lezhi's eyes.
Since the day he arrived, Lin Lezhi has been wondering why he came here. There was clearly no mention of Jiang Lian'an in his crappy novel.
From the people's mention of Jiang Lian'an and the looks that Xiao Yihuo and the others gave him, Lin Lezhi knew that the body he was occupying must be related to Nan Rongyi.
Xiao Yihuo and the others were unwilling to tell the truth, and Lin Lezhi would not force himself to ask for the answer. If he really went to ask, and the emperor of Northern Qi found out that Nan Rongyi was still alive, it would be tantamount to committing suicide.
But... do I really have to live as Jiang Lian'an from now on?
What about himself?
Does Lin Lezhi no longer exist?
If he continues to live with his current identity, will it be fair to Nan Rongyi and Jiang Lian'an?
After all, I don't know anything about them.
Lin Lezhi withdrew his gaze, his eyes darkened, thinking about the day he was leaving. There were some things he still had to find out clearly by himself.
When this body came, there was a wound on the back of its head.
Although no one knows how the injury was caused, since the owner of this body, whether it is Nan Rongyi or Jiang Lian'an, did not die in the fire, there is even less reason for them to seek death.
Who is the one……
Or is it really as what the broker Zhuang Da said, it is not just one person, but many people who want to take Jiang Lian'an's life.
As he was thinking, Lin Lezhi couldn't stand the tiredness anymore, closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Before he completely lost consciousness, Lin Lezhi still thought jokingly that maybe when he woke up tomorrow morning, he would find himself back in the modern world.
Just thinking about this, a faint smile appeared on Lin Lezhi's lips.
But whether this smile was because he truly had hope of going back, or because his own thoughts were too stupid, even Lin Lezhi himself didn't know.
On the other side, Xiao Yihuo washed himself from head to toe several times before finally smiling with satisfaction.
She came out from behind the screen wearing only an inner garment, and saw Qingchuan, who had already washed up and was sitting at the table drinking tea, with fatigue in his eyes.
Xiao Yihuo sat down beside him and said bluntly, "Weren't you very sleepy just now? Why aren't you sleeping yet?"
Qingchuan blinked, put down the teacup in his hand, and then looked at Xiao Yihuo with curiosity in his eyes. He smiled and said slowly: "I am very sleepy, but I am more curious about how you met in Yulong Village."
A trace of surprise flashed across Xiao Yihuo's eyes, and he asked in amazement: "How did you know that I have been to Yulong Village?"
Because he was afraid of being exposed in front of Yang Hancai, he didn't have the time to tell Qingchuan that he had also been to Yulong Village.
Qingchuan responded with a matter-of-fact look, smiling: "Ahuo, we are friends, how could I not understand you."
"That night, after you saw those carved bones under the banyan tree, you looked at each other. Am I right?" Although Qingchuan asked a question, his tone was affirmative.
Xiao Yihuo recalled it and it seemed to be true.
"This action is enough to prove that not only Brother Le Zhi, but you have also seen that scar. Brother Le Zhi has lost his memory again. After he woke up from losing his memory, he only went to Yulong Village and Yaren Village. If Yaren Village was the second time he saw it, then the first time could only be in Yulong Village."
"And even though Brother Le Zhi has lost his memory, he is still a smart person. If he hadn't intentionally helped you cover up many times, I'm afraid this side of you would have been exposed long ago."
Qingchuan noticed that every time Jiang Lian'an would find an excuse to help Xiao Yihuo cover up his past.
In the woods outside Ya Ren Zhuang, next to the bodies of Yan Jingyi and the second in command, Lin Lezhi did not reveal the identities of the first and third in command as bandits in front of everyone.
On the one hand, it was to protect the people present, and on the other hand, it was to help Xiao Yihuo conceal his identity.
Combining these two points, we can conclude that Xiao Yihuo and Jiang Lian'an had met before in Zhouqing Town.
"Sure enough, I can't hide anything from you."
Xiao Yihuo smiled calmly, and then said truthfully: "That day, I heard Yun He say that you went to the mountains near Yulong Village to help me find medicine. I was worried that you would be in danger, so I asked Yun He to pretend to be me and stay in the inn room."
"When I was about to leave, I saw a wisp of green smoke rising from Yulong Village. I thought it might be the letter cigarette you lit, so I went to look for it..."
Xiao Yifu told Qingchuan everything that happened in Yulong Village.
After hearing this, Qingchuan said thoughtfully, "I heard that Jiang Lian'an did appear in this area. If that's the case, Brother Le Zhi was most likely following that wisp of green smoke and rushing to Yulong Village. However... when Brother Le Zhi arrived, I happened to be leaving, so we only met once."
As he spoke, Qingchuan had a hint of doubt between his brows. Then, he looked at Xiao Yihuo with worry and said, "I just said that Brother Le Zhi is a smart person, but since he has lost his memory, why did he deliberately help you hide your identity? Are you really sure that Brother Le Zhi has really lost his memory?"
Xiao Yihuo's figure froze for a moment, and a complex emotion flashed in his eyes, a mixture of doubt and worry.
Afraid of exposing the emotions in his eyes, Xiao Yihuo stood up, turned his back and looked out the window, and said calmly: "The night I met him again, he looked at me with no strange expression, and he did have an injury on his head. After our contact during this period of time, I think he was not pretending."
Xiao Yihuo thought he covered it up quickly enough, but Qingchuan, who knew Xiao Yihuo well, knew what he was thinking the moment he stood up without even looking at his expression.
Qingchuan smiled faintly.
I'm afraid Xiao Yihuo himself doesn't even know that he has been speaking for Jiang Lian'an unconsciously.
After a moment of silence, Qingchuan's eyes alternated between light and dark, with a hint of self-blame hidden in them, and he slowly said: "I know you feel guilty about him, and so do I. We shouldn't have involved Brother Lezhi."
"Although I don't know what Brother Le Zhi's purpose was in approaching us, no matter what, it is a blessing for us that Brother Le Zhi is still alive. You should relax a little."
Xiao Yihuo tightened his fists at his sides and said nothing.
After a long while, Qingchuan slowly stood up, walked to Xiao Yihuo's side, patted Xiao Yihuo on the shoulder, and said comfortingly: "The past can't be changed, and how can we not be in this game? If we take a wrong step, the abyss will also be waiting for us."
Hearing this, Xiao Yihuo's eyes became even more worried.
Qingchuan was right. Right now, he couldn't even take care of himself and couldn't afford to make any mistakes...