Jin Yiwei is on duty, signing Fengshen Legs at the beginning

“General Xiao, are you still remembering something?”

Seeing Xiao Qiuyue coming to the mansion again with a school captain, Magistrate Lu raised his hands in surprise and asked.

Xiao Qiuyue said: “We would like to ask if any strangers have visited your house recently?”

Magistrate Lu thought about it: “In the past month, no strangers have come to the humble house. Only a few relatives and friends occasionally come to sit in the humble house. I wonder if the question asked by the general banner is related to the flower picker?”

Xiao Qiuyue nodded slightly: “We suspect that the flower-picking thief has visited your house before, or has met your daughter-in-law. Mr. Lu, please call out your daughter-in-law and the maids around her. I want to question them.”

Magistrate Lu sighed with a look of embarrassment on his face: “My little girl was defiled by a thief. She is in great pain. She has been crying all day long. I’m afraid she won’t come out to see people anymore. I hope you can forgive me!”

After saying that, he bowed his hand to Xiao Qiuyue.

Xiao Qiuyue is also a woman, so she can naturally understand Miss Lu’s mood at this moment.

So she nodded slightly: “Then ask her personal maid to come over!”

Magistrate Lu ordered his servants to call the lady’s two personal maids.

After a while, two maids aged sixteen or seventeen came to the hall with sad faces. They were obviously also sad about their young lady’s tragic experience.

Magistrate Lu said to the two maids: “This is Mr. Xiao Qi from Jinyiwei. You must answer truthfully whatever she asks.”

“I’ve met General Xiao Qi!”

The two maids quickly saluted Xiao Qiuyue Yingying.

Xiao Qiuyue asked: “Have you ladies seen any strange men in the past few days?”

The two maids looked at each other, then shook their heads one after another.

A maid said: “Our young lady rarely leaves the house. In the past few days, she has stayed in the house as a female worker and has not gone out anywhere.”

Huang Shaojie interjected: “Think carefully, have any strangers come to the house in the past few days, or are there any sellers hawking outside the house?”

After hearing Huang Shaojie’s question, the two maids thought for a moment and nodded immediately.

“A seller did come the day before yesterday. One end sold rouge, gouache, etc., and the other end sold pineapple fruits.”

“Yes, the salesman was shaking his drum and shouting very energetically. When our lady heard this, she took the two of us out to buy some rouge and two pounds of pineapples.”

After hearing what these two maids said, Huang Shaojie and Xiao Qiuyue couldn’t help but look at each other, and both of them couldn’t help but feel happy.

Xiao Qiuyue asked: “Do you still remember what this salesman looks like?”

The two maids thought for a while and said respectively:

“Yeah, dark and thin, probably thirty or forty years old.”

“She is very short, not taller than me, and her face is full of pockmarks. She looks very ugly, but she speaks well and keeps praising my lady for her beauty.”

Xiao Qiuyue took a look at the maid and estimated that she was about six feet seven or eight feet tall. Today, Huang Shaojie deduced from the footprints that the adulterer was probably less than seven feet tall. From this point of view, it was in line with Huang Shaojie’s speculation.

From this point of view, this salesman is probably the flower-picking thief.

Xiao Qiuyue then asked some other information about the salesman, but neither of the two maids could answer.

Xiao Qiuyue took Huang Shaojie out of Lu Mansion.

The two came to the houses of several other victims.

After some questioning, the clues were all consistent. A day or two before the incident, a dark-looking salesman appeared, and these ladies also took their maids out of the house to buy from the salesman. something.

Return to Jinyiwei Yamen.

“Huang Shaojie, your guess is indeed correct. This salesman must be the flower-picking thief who pretended to be here.”

Xiao Qiuyue praised Huang Shaojie with a happy face.

“Thank you, Mr. Xiao!” Huang Shaojie cupped his hands and asked, “Sir, how do you plan to catch this salesman now?”

Xiao Qiuyue put her hands behind her hands and pondered for a moment, then said: “Immediately call all the brothers and ask all the wealthy officials and daughters in Suzhou City to see if they have encountered that short black salesman hawking outside the house in the past two days.”

“If any beautiful lady encounters this salesman in these three days, then she will be our key protection target tonight!”

…

After an afternoon of inquiries by more than fifty Jin Yiwei, it was determined that a total of 16 ladies had seen the short black salesman in the past three days.

After screening by Xiao Qiuyue and Huang Shaojie, three young ladies among them were of good looks and were listed as key protection targets.

At the end of the afternoon, Xiao Qiuyue summoned everyone to issue orders.

“Tonight we will start guarding the flower-picking robbers. No one is allowed to go home.”

“Li Xiaoqi, you take the captain of our team to Yuan Zhao’s mansion in Mihang, west of the city. You are responsible for guarding the safety of Miss Zhao. Once the young master appears, kill him.

Capture. ”

“Follow the order.”

“Lu Xiaoqi, take the captain of our team to the Zhang County Lieutenant’s Mansion. If the flower-picking thief appears, he must be captured.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Zhu Xiaoqi, you take the captain of our team to Shopkeeper He’s house in Huayi Cloth Village. You are responsible for protecting the safety of Miss He’s family. If the flower picker appears, he must be captured.”

“Yes, sir.”

There are about seventeen or eight school captains under a Xiaoqi, and their martial arts skills are generally between the acquired third level and the acquired sixth level.

Most of the martial arts cultivation levels of Xiaoqiguan are at the peak of acquired skills, or at the first or second level of innate skills.

There are so many people squatting to arrest the flower picker. As long as the flower picker is not very skilled in martial arts, there shouldn’t be much problem in arresting him.

Huang Shaojie belongs to Zhu Shi’s subordinates. He originally thought that he would follow Zhu Shi to stay at He Mansion tonight, but Xiao Qiuyue glanced at him and said:

“Huang Shaojie.”

“My subordinates are here.” Huang Shaojie held up his hands and stepped out.

Xiao Qiuyue said: “You and our general banner will patrol these three places tonight. If you hear an alarm sound from somewhere, go immediately to support.”

“Follow the order!” Huang Shaojie said with cupped hands.

The three courtyard houses are one or two miles apart in the close ones, and four or five miles apart in the far ones. If you knock gongs and shout at night, you can definitely hear them.

With Huang Shaojie’s Qinggong, it only takes one minute to reach a distance of four to five miles. If he stays in the middle, he can reach any house faster.

One night passed, but the flower-picking thief did not appear.

Xiao Qiuyue ordered everyone to go home and sleep during the day and continue to stay at night.

After squatting for three days, the flower picker still didn’t show up.

On the night of the fifth day, after the third watch.

A black shadow silently jumped into He Mansion.

The black shadow avoided several servants who were watching the night, and came to the window of the west wing of the backyard of He Mansion. When he was about to take out a bamboo tube and blow smoke into the wing, the dark shadow suddenly realized that something was wrong and jumped to escape.

“Where can the bold thief escape?”

Zhu Shi shouted loudly, raised his knife from the rockery, and slashed at the masked man in black.

More than a dozen other captains also rushed out from the darkness with swords and guns, and attacked the masked man in black.

One of the captains holding a gong struck the gong vigorously and shouted:

“The flower thief has appeared. Come to He Mansion to catch the flower thief!”