Records of the Lost Cases of Helaitang in the Ming Dynasty

A few hours ago, the streets and alleys in front of the house were blocked, but quiet returned after dawn.

After the uprising crowd dispersed, the people of Suzhou went home, worked hard, opened shops, and more often found a tea shop to talk about the victory.

Wang Heng and the other three slowly followed the crowd. They were still far away from the inn and had to walk a long way.

When passing by Panmen, Wang Cai's stomach growled a few times at the right time, and he sighed with emotion: "The life of the poor is also life."

Fei Yue'er didn't know why and said, "Brother Xiaocai, what does this mean?"

Xiaocai pointed to Zhu Hongji Noodle House in front and said, "We are returning from the uprising. Shouldn't we have a bowl of noodle soup in the morning?"

Because they couldn't get up early, they stayed in the academy for a year, and they had never had soup noodles. Fei Yueer lived in the hall and did embroidery, and she was not lucky enough to have soup noodles.

After a night of ups and downs and constant walking, the three fresh noodles and rice dumplings with fermented glutinous rice had already melted into nothing. Now looking at Zhu Hongji's shop sign, the three of them were like greedy insects trying to crawl out.

"You can't miss it if you're passing by. Come on, let's go in together." Wang Heng, who was carrying some scattered silver, patted his chest and said, "It's all on Brother Yueting's account. I'll pay him for it later."

Xiaocai chuckled and said, "Seventh brother is very generous."

After entering the shop, he picked a seat at the door and sat down. Fei Yue'er ordered eel noodles, Xiao Cai ordered braised pork noodles, and Wang Heng ordered fried fish noodles.

The waiter shouted: "Here you go, a bowl of eel noodles, wide soup, no green soup, heavy pouring, cross the bridge."

"Here you go, a bowl of braised pork noodles, a wide soup, heavy greens, heavy oil, light pouring."

"Here you go, a bowl of fried fish noodles, a wide soup, heavy greens, heavy oil, light pouring, and cross the bridge."

It was very early in the morning, and there were no other diners in the restaurant. In a short time, the waiter came on top, and everyone was gone in a hurry.

Xiaocai burped and saw Fei Yue'er frowning and looking out at the door. Suddenly Yue'er said: "Last night, I saw a person in the patrol guard. He was Cheng Xiucai from our Taiping Town."

Yue'er pointed to the Panmen City Gate: "Just now, I saw Cheng Xiucai walking to the Panmen Gate entrance with a two-carriage sedan."

Wang Heng looked up and saw a small sedan with a roof parked at Panmenkou. Next to him was a young man, who seemed to be discussing something with the old guard guarding the city gate.

What happened last night was so strange that Wang Heng was always suspicious. After finishing their meal, the three of them walked out of the shop and walked towards the city gate.

The young man was still talking, but the old guard kept shaking his head.

The young man opened the sedan curtain, took some things from inside and gave them to the old guard.

The old soldier put it in his pocket, thought about weighing it, and said with a smile: "Since the female family member of the house is seriously ill, it is not impossible to be accommodating. Saving one life is better than building a seven-level pagoda."

After saying that, he winked at the other gatekeepers, and the city gate creaked open.

The pair carrying the sedan chair and the young man left the city immediately.

It was still early at this time, and it was about half an hour before the city gate was opened. The gatekeeper opened the city gate. Seeing that there were other people at the city gate, he stopped closing the city gate. They thought they were buying and selling frequently, and Don't take it seriously.

Wang Heng lost consciousness for a while and said to the two people on his left and right: "There must be something wrong with Cheng Xiucai. Let's follow up and talk about it later."

The sedan in front left the city and walked very quickly. The three of them were empty, so they could still keep up.

"Cheng Xiucai said that the female family members were ill and had to leave the city. This is very unreasonable. Only those who are sick come to the city to see a doctor, and there are no people who go out of the city to the countryside. This is nothing more. Maybe it is an excuse. He was patrolling the guard just now. In the blink of an eye, he took the female family members out of the city. Where did this female family member come from? There is another doubt. He was talking about the female family members at home, not his wife or his mother, right?" Fei Yue'er said: "As far as I know , Cheng Xiucai is not married yet."

Wang Heng said: "What's terrible is that he just went to the sedan to get the silver. Which scholar's wife doesn't have a maid and mother beside her, so let an adult man get into the sedan to get the silver?"

"What exactly is being carried in this sedan? Could it be stolen goods? Or abducted women?" Wang Cai asked.

Wang Heng nodded slightly and said, "This is exactly what I suspected. Is Cheng Xiu the most powerful thief?"

After walking for a long time, the sedan in front suddenly moved very fast and rushed to the river port in one breath. There was a boat waiting there. As soon as the sedan got on the boat, the boatman immediately stood up and rowed southward from the canal like lightning.

Wang Heng and others were confused. They were looking for Miss Ye San, so they paid more attention to the unreasonable things. They were following her out of curiosity. Unexpectedly, the sedan suddenly went on the waterway. At a loss, they all ran towards the river port.

The river pier was desolate, deserted, with thatched grass growing to the sky, and a long stick blocked their way.

"Why are you so sneaky in broad daylight?" It was Cheng Xiucai who spoke, but he didn't even get on the boat.

"Who is so sneaky? How dare you tell me what you are carrying in that sedan chair?" Xiaocai said sternly.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiucai turned around and left. He untied the cable at the river dock, rowed a small boat and left.

Everyone thought he had a guilty conscience and ran away. When they saw the boat just leaving the shore, Fei Yue'er rushed onto the boat and reached out to pull Wang Heng and Xiaocai onto the boat. Unexpectedly, Cheng Xiucai, as light as a swallow, turned around and fell into the river with the oar. On the edge of the reef, he took the boat to the center of the canal with an oar, and he actually walked ashore and walked away.

The three of them were stunned and shouted that it was terrible.

There is no oar in the boat, so there is no danger for a while, but we can only drift with the tide.

Unfortunately, this is a canal with a wide water surface, not a stream in Nobang. Even if Yue'er has great martial arts skills, she can't fly on water. It would be too embarrassing to swim back into the water.

The weather was quite good today, the wind was calm, and the boat had been spinning in the middle of the water for a long time without landing. After less than half an hour, a fisherman suddenly swung his boat to the middle of the water.

Xiaocai hurriedly shouted: "Boatman, boatman."

But he saw the fisherman taking off his bamboo hat, and it turned out to be Cheng Xiucai.

Cheng Xiucai cupped his hands across the water and said, "Brothers, I have offended many generals."

As he spoke, he threw the oar over, and the two boats docked one after another.

Cheng Xiucai smiled and said: "My surname is Cheng. I don't know what the brothers call me. How did you discover the mystery of my little sedan?"

Both were from Taiping Town. Fei Yuer knew Cheng Xiucai, but Cheng Xiucai did not know Yuer.

Wang Heng and others saw that he spoke straightforwardly, so they also revealed his true name.

Xiaocai said: "Of course you have a deer head and rat eyes. You don't look like a good person, so we can see through it at a glance."

Cheng Xiucai bowed and said, "Mr. Xiao Wang is joking. There is a woman in that sedan chair. Someone paid me to take her out of the city from the front of the house and leave Suzhou by boat here."

"Mr. Cheng deceived us into playing in the middle of the river before. What a scoundrel. How can he be willing to tell the truth now?" Xiaocai said.

Cheng Xiucai smiled bitterly and said: "Someone pays me to do something. What I sell is my skills. I see that you are all gentlemen. How dare you harm them? You will definitely come to rescue them. I am just selling my skills, not my body."