When the book-traveling little detective meets the two-faced prince

Chapter 63 A Place to Stay and a Place to Return

Shi Peng slumped on the ground, his whole body seemed to be strangled, and he couldn't come back to his senses for a long time.

Just like when he was on the mountain, Shi Peng covered his ears and closed his eyes desperately.

Hopefully, this will block out all the noise.

But the voices of gossip and slander from the people around him, like a loudspeaker, all crowded into Shi Peng's ears.

impossible!impossible!

Shi Peng wanted them to shut up and shouted desperately in his heart, but no syllable came out of his mouth and he even forgot to breathe. It was not until he was about to run out of oxygen that Shi Peng took his hands away from his mouth and breathed in deep gulps of air, his chest rising and falling.

A few days ago, Cao An told me that this host's house was a good place to live and he also asked me to come. A good person like Cao An would never do anything to harm others.

Absolutely not!

Shi Peng rolled his eyes desperately, thinking in his mind what Cao An would do if he died.

Correct!

Shi Peng opened his eyes and looked at Cao An's body.

He couldn't let Cao An die unjustly like this. He had to find a way to prove Cao An's innocence. He had to take Cao An away from here.

Shi Peng raised his head and looked at the crowd around him, then thought about Duan Hongzhi and the other two outside the mansion. If he took Cao An away now, he would definitely be discovered by them.

Shi Peng's gaze finally fell on the newly dug hole.

Shi Peng struggled to get up from the ground, tried hard to walk on his feet, and left the mansion step by step.

When leaving the mansion, Shi Peng looked again in the direction where they had just stood.

At this moment, the person who conspired with them and the executioner had disappeared, leaving only Duan Hongzhi and Liang Gaocheng. The two were looking in the direction of the mansion and talking in low voices.

Shi Peng's eyes darkened, filled with hatred. The two of them would never appear here out of thin air. Cao An's death must be related to them.

He returned to the shabby courtyard where he lived, took out all the money he had saved, went to the coffin shop to buy a clean straw mat, and planned the road from the mansion to the cemetery in advance.

At dusk, Shi Peng, with his frail body, dragged a straw mat and walked towards the abandoned house. However, he did not go to the main gate of the house. Instead, he chose a sparsely populated road and went to the entrance of the cave where Cao An died.

He sat down against the stone wall outside the cave entrance, waiting silently for the onlookers to leave.

As the night darkened, the candles in each household went out.

Shi Peng looked up at the starry sky above his head. The night sky was particularly beautiful tonight, and the stars were shining brightly, but there was no familiar and reassuring figure by his side.

There will be no heartwarming words reaching your ears.

As night fell and curfew approached, there were fewer and fewer pedestrians on the road. With the sound of a night watchman, Shi Peng came to his senses. He was alert to the situation around him and lay on the ground looking inside from the cave entrance.

There was no one in the mansion now, there was no light, and it was pitch dark.

Shi Peng crawled in through the hole that had been dug, and pushed Cao An's headless body out of the cave little by little.

Then he turned his attention to Cao An's head.

When Shi Peng was doing these things just now, he didn't dare to look into Cao An's eyes. He was not afraid, but he just didn't want to accept the fact that Cao An was dead.

Not long ago, Cao An smiled and told me that he would take me to visit his hometown.

Shi Peng crawled all the way to Cao An's side, and with trembling hands, he gently held Cao An's head in his arms, not caring even though the blood stained his clothes.

When it was cold at night before, the two of them hugged each other like this.

"If I hadn't seen that little bastard here, I would have almost forgotten about him. He actually dared to run down the mountain during the chaos."

Suddenly a voice came from the corner. This voice was engraved in the bone marrow, and even if it turned into ashes, it could still be heard. It was Duan Hongzhi.

"Brother, now that you mention it, it seems like he wasn't the only one who ran away at that time. There was another one who ran away," Liang Gaocheng continued.

"The guy who usually follows Cao An around timidly and doesn't even dare to raise his head?" Duan Hongzhi cursed and continued, "If I see that bastard, I will send him to report to the King of Hell together."

After saying this, the two of them laughed unscrupulously.

In the silent mansion, it was unusually clear.

When the two men turned the corner, Shi Peng just happened to be holding Cao An's head and crawled out of the cave.

Liang Gaocheng held up the lantern and looked at the ground at the entrance of the cave, but the corpse was gone.

"Brother, where is the boy's body? We have been guarding the door of the mansion today, but no one has come in."

Duan Hongzhi took the lantern over. The bloodstains on the ground showed signs of dragging.

Liang Gaocheng suddenly felt something was wrong, so he lay down on the ground and stuck his head into the hole. However, because he was too big, he could only stick his head out of the hole.

There was no one outside the cave.

Shi Peng dragged Cao An's body and hid in a corner. Afraid of making a sound, he held Cao An's head with one hand and covered his mouth with the other blood-stained hand, looking anxiously in the direction where the sound came from.

After reading it, Liang Gaocheng retracted his head, stood up, and said cautiously: "Brother, should we send someone to look for it, just in case..."

At this time, there was a sound of dog barking outside the yard.

After the war, refugees were left homeless, countless people were killed or injured, and it was normal for their bodies to be taken away by wild dogs without anyone to take care of them.

This is why the stray dogs on the roadside are fatter than humans.

Duan Hongzhi yawned sleepily and waved his hand nonchalantly, "It's curfew at this time, how could there be someone outside? Don't be so nervous all day long. His body is so close to the cave entrance, I think it was probably taken away by a stray dog ​​on the roadside."

"Besides, he's just a little bastard. He's dead now. What can he do? It also saves us from collecting his body. The most important thing now is to find the kid who escaped from the Xing family."

Duan Hongzhi patted Liang Gaocheng on the shoulder and said, "Okay, it's getting late, let's go back to sleep. We will both be proud of ourselves in the future!"

Liang Gaocheng looked at the cave entrance with some doubt, but he didn't say anything else. He withdrew his gaze, and the two of them left this corner.

When there was no more sound from the cave, Shi Peng let go of his hand that was covering his mouth. His blood-stained hand left clear palm marks on the skin near his mouth.

The cemetery is outside the town, and there will be night patrols on the road after curfew.

Shi Peng did not dare to wait any longer, and quickly rolled Cao An's body in a straw mat. According to the route planned in advance, he went out of the town through a dog hole and dragged the straw mat all the way to the mass grave.

Because he couldn't see with his left eye and he walked in a hurry, his left arm was badly injured. Shi Peng covered his left arm with his hands and pursed his lips into a straight line.

before……

Cao An was afraid of getting hurt, so he always stood on the left side of his body.

The mass grave was filled with corpses and the stench of decay was overwhelming, so most people just threw the bodies away and left. The better ones would just wrap them in a straw mat, and very few would bury them properly in the ground.

There were wild dogs gnawing at the corpse nearby.

For fear that Cao An's body would be eaten by wild dogs, Shi Peng temporarily placed it in a safe place.

They chose a relatively clean place, moved the corpse covering the body away, dug a hole of sufficient size in the ground, and placed Cao An's body in it.

Before covering the tomb, Shi Peng finally opened the straw mat and looked at Cao An for a long time. Afraid that the dirt on his hands would dirty Cao An, Shi Peng wiped it on his body for a long time before closing Cao An's open eyes with his hands.

Cao An's face was very bright, without a trace of temperature, and it couldn't be warmed up no matter what he did.

Shi Peng also wanted to bury Cao somewhere else, but at the moment burying him in a mass grave was the safest option.

When he makes money and clears Cao An's name, he will move Cao An's body out.

As Cao An said, go back to his hometown.

Thinking of this, Shi Peng's suppressed inner depression finally burst out at this moment. From noon until now, Shi Peng had even forgotten to cry.

Tears fell one after another. She wanted to cry out loud, but she was afraid of attracting wild dogs nearby, so she suppressed her voice. Her little body kept shaking.

Yes, I agreed to go back to my hometown with you.

How come I'm the only one left now?

He still had a lot of things in his heart that he hadn't said. He hadn't had time to tell Cao An that he was neither a friend nor an enemy. In his heart, he had already regarded Cao An as a family member.

A feeling of grievance and resentment swept through Shi Peng's heart. His left eye, which had not felt pain for a long time, began to ache again. Shi Peng clenched his palms so tightly that he didn't feel any pain even when his nails dug into his flesh.

How could Cao An die?

Why wasn’t I the one who died!

Shi Peng cried for a long time, and even cried until his dirty hands were clean. Shi Peng wiped his hands on his body, hooked Cao An's little finger with his little finger, and then with tears in his eyes, he said firmly: "I will definitely take you home!"

When it was almost dawn, Shi Peng finally buried Cao An's body, and then pulled corpses from nearby and covered the mound with them.

Looking at the rising sun, the sunlight reflected in Shi Peng's eyes, but there was not a trace of joy.

In order to remind himself to avenge Cao An, whenever Shi Peng saw a new coin with "the seventh year of Chengjing" engraved on it, he would keep it carefully and put it in a hidden place.

A few days passed in Zhouqing Town.

The mansion where someone had died became bustling again. Many people lived in it, which was very different from the previous owner's family. Whenever people passed by the mansion, they would speed up their pace or take a detour.

Shi Peng had seen all the people living in the mansion in the mountains.

Duan and Liang became the owners of that house. They were no longer called Duan Xiaogou and Liang Erniu, but changed their names to Duan Hongzhi and Liang Gaocheng.

At first, Shi Peng thought about reporting to the police, but people like them would be kicked out before they even enter the court, let alone complain. Shi Peng had no choice but to observe Duan and Liang's every move in secret.

A year later, the refugees in the abandoned house heard while working outside that Duan Hongzhi had taken a fancy to a girl from the village and wanted to marry her into his house, even threatening the lives of the girl's parents.

I heard that the woman already had someone she loved and would never get married.

One night a few days later, when Duan and Liang were out, Shi Peng sneaked into the mansion through the small hole while everyone was asleep, hoping to find the girl's room in advance, hoping to help the girl leave when she was forcibly brought in.

Even if it costs my own life.

There were no lights or red silk decorations in the mansion, so Shi Peng didn't know where the room was. After walking a few steps in the mansion, he found that all the bandits in the mansion were not asleep and were walking around the mansion freely.

Shi Peng thought he was discovered by them and tried to run away, but there was no sound of them chasing him.

Looking back, they seemed to be drunk, walking unsteadily. Even if they noticed Shi Peng, they acted as if they didn't notice him.

Can't recognize people.

At this time, Shi Peng asked, a strange smell could be smelled everywhere in the mansion. Seeing this, Shi Peng hurriedly covered his mouth and nose with his sleeves. When he heard a strange sound, he covered his mouth and hid in the dark.

Shi Peng saved his life by hiding.

Under the moonlight, he recognized the man's voice. It was the man who was talking to Duan and Liang in the forest.

Because Shi Peng was lying very low, he could see that the man was wearing a pair of shoes that were different from those of ordinary people, with very high soles. Next to him was the executioner who killed Cao An, who was killing everyone one after another with the long knife in his hand.

Those drunk people lost their lives without even a cry of pain, and their bodies just lay in the mansion until they rotted and stank.

After that night, Duan and Liang never came back, so Shi Peng took the lead and moved into the abandoned house and moved the bandits' bodies to the mass grave.

Over time, the abandoned house became a shelter for refugees, and word spread that the house was haunted.

Since then, no one dared to buy this house anymore, and there was no news of Duan and Liang.

Later, one day when Shi Peng was begging and passing by the county government office, he saw someone getting off a sedan chair. Only then did he realize that the person who conspired was actually the magistrate of Changluan County, Yan Jingyi.

Although the bearded man had disappeared, Shi Peng remembered him so clearly that he would not forget him even if he turned into ashes, so he recognized him at the first sight.

Several months later, he heard the names of the first and third bosses from the refugees, and immediately went forward to ask, only to find out that Duan and Liang were now in Yaren Village.

Once, someone mentioned Cao An's name. Shi Peng ignored the looks of others and stared into the person's eyes and asked like a madman.

It turned out that it was the person who had been protected by Cao An in the mountains.

Yes, Cao An should be remembered.

It is precisely because of this that Cao An’s story spread among the refugees and gradually became the belief of the people in the abandoned house.

Whenever someone found a copper coin with the words "Chengjing Seventh Year" on it, they would naturally hand it to Shi Peng.

For a word that they all knew was impossible.

The seeds of a plan that would last for more than ten years were thus planted and took root in everyone's heart.

In order to be able to imitate Yan Jingyi's voice, Shi Peng would find time to practice every day.

At first, Shi Peng didn't know the secret of Yaren Village. He just wanted to have a road leading to the outside so that all the people who came in to help could evacuate safely.

Later I discovered that there was a mystery in the Ya Ren Village.

This digging lasted for more than ten years. The left eye covered by long hair was no longer opened. It was hidden very well, and the boy he once was was no longer the same.