Perfect Encounter

At this moment, Long Da took out a small jade waist card from his pocket, with the word "Dragon" carved on it. He put the waist card on the table, pushed it in front of An Ruochen, and said: "The main reason I want to find you is to give you this. When I am not around, if there is an emergency, remember, it is an emergency, no one But when you are in charge, you can use this waist card to command soldiers and generals."

An Ruochen looked at it in shock, this thing is so hot, how dare you want it.

"I hope you don't have to use it one day. After all, with your status, it's a lot of work to use this thing. If you don't use it well, it will be a joke, and it will be easy to cause trouble."

Yeah yeah. An Ruochen nodded sharply. It doesn't count if you cause trouble yourself, I'm afraid it will bring trouble to the general.

"How about the general give me something practical." An Ruochen said cheekily.

As soon as he finished speaking, Long stared at him: "Is this thing not practical?"

An Ruochen was so choked that he quickly flattered him: "Practical, practical. It's like the dagger the general taught me to use. If I practice it well, I can kill the enemy, but if I don't practice it well, I will also hurt myself." .”

"Then practice hard!" Long Da's face was dark.

"Oh." Just take it, no one is afraid that something good will fail. An Ruochen put the waist badge in his arms. After thinking about it, I was a little timid, "General, if this card falls into the hands of others, can they also use it to deploy troops?"

"Yes." Long Da glared at her deliberately.

An Ruochen's face suddenly wrinkled, so he was reckless and impulsive, is it too late to retreat now?

"What's your expression?"

I despise its expression, but unfortunately dare not say it. An Ruochen said: "Thank you, General, for your trust."

Long Da gave her a look of disgust, An Ruochen dared not object.

"You mean something practical, what is it?"

"What?" An Ruochen was still worried about the badge, and didn't respond for a while.

"You just said that it's better to give you something practical than to give you this. What do you mean?"

Can I change it? An Ruochen suddenly recovered. "General, I'm short of money."

Long Da: "..."

Seeing Long Da's expression, An Ruochen lost half of his energy. "Uh, I mean, I always need some money to get information to buy people's hearts or something. I've been here for a while, so I don't seem to have had a serious discussion with the general about money. Then Well, not only my monthly money, if you can give me more money, it will be more convenient for me to go out and do errands."

That's a good reason, General. An Ruochen looked at Long Da with piercing eyes.

Long Da is also glaring at her, the waist card can command and dispatch troops, it's worthless, isn't it? What she lacks is still what she needs to wear. By the way, he gave her money and clothing, but seeing how she dressed herself up, he endured and never said anything disgusting, but she was honest.

"It's getting late, it's time to go back to sleep." Long Da waved his hand and started to chase people away again.

An Ruochen was stunned, why didn't he talk anymore? I still have a lot to say. Will the money be given or not?

Long Da closed the door. An Ruochen stared at the door panel for a while, sighed, and strolled back to the room with her hands behind her back.

The heart of the general, the needle of the sea.

Early the next morning, when An Ruochen woke up, he heard Chun Xiao report many things.

One is that General Long left overnight last night.

Second, General Long ordered two carriages and two teams of guards for An Ruochen to dispatch last night. The captain of the guards had already come to An Ruochen's yard to say hello, saying that he was on standby for orders at any time.

The third is that the prefect sent someone to invite him early in the morning, saying that General Long explained yesterday that the details of the crime were investigated by the security officer, and the details will be reported by the security officer to assist in the investigation. So the prefect sent someone to urge An Ruochen to go to the prefect's yamen today.

Fourth, Mr. Accountant asked An Ruochen to go to the accountant to collect the money and check the accounts.

Fifth, Li Changshi asked An Ruochen to go over and complete the documents.

An Ruochen listened while having breakfast, and calculated the order of these matters. At this moment, Chunxiao added another item: "By the way, Aunt Lu, who delivered the vegetables, also left a message saying that the girl's second sister broke her ankle yesterday. But I heard that it's not a serious problem, and she is keeping it at home. Aunt Lu is afraid of the girl. If you miss it, leave a message."

An Ruochen stroked her forehead, she really forgot about her second sister. How could it fall?

Chun Xiao beamed brightly and said: "I asked carefully. It turned out that Miss An Er ran to the Yamen to report to the officials yesterday. She shouted for help and rushed all the way. A group of people followed her. They didn't know who to save, so they followed her to watch the fun. As a result, others saw it and said that the people behind were bullying Ms. An'er, so they yelled and stopped. In short, there was a mess. Then Ms. An'er fell before she could run to the Yamen. Her foot was sprained and she couldn't get up. The others asked What happened to her, she said to report to the police to save people. When people asked who to save, she pondered for a long time and said to save my sister. Then they asked where your sister was, but she couldn't tell where the house was, so she said it was Zhaofu Restaurant back."

Chun Xiao puts herself into the role, playing multiple roles. Seeing that, An Ruochen laughed.

"Later, someone kindly offered to report to the messenger for her, and hired a sedan chair for her, and let her go back to the house. I heard that it was quite embarrassing and embarrassing for everyone to see." Chun Xiao said: "In this way, the second sister is not a girl. Too bad."

An Ruochen smiled and asked if Aunt Lu was still there? Chunxiao went to see it, but when she came back, she reported that she hadn't left yet. So An Ruochen went to see Aunt Lu, told her that she heard about the second sister, and asked her to help send a safety talisman to the second sister, and thanked her. Chunxiao giggled beside her, saying that the girl went to the temple to pray for blessings from time to time, which would come in handy. When An Ruochen took advantage of Chunxiao to help her fetch the sachet and talisman bag, she told Aunt Lu a few words about Li Xiuer. Aunt Lu also took the opportunity to say that Ms. Cui had been observing around the Zhaofu Restaurant, and saw a peddler who had been selling goods next to the restaurant, and when she saw a bell on the window when she left the stall early in the morning, she hurried away. Miss Cui followed all the way to Dingsongpo in the east of the city. I saw the shopkeeper hanging four bells on the four corners of the pavilion on the top of the slope. Then the salesman returned to the restaurant and continued to set up a stall, and there was no other abnormality after that.

An Ruochen knew that Miss Cui was actually an old beggar who was active near Zhaofu Restaurant. "Miss Cui, did you see someone coming to fetch the bell or come to observe?"

"No. I went to see it before I came this morning. The four bells are still hanging on the corner of the pavilion."

An Ruochen nodded. She was thinking before, Liu is the owner of the restaurant, he can see the bell hanging in his restaurant, but what about the person who connects with him? You can't come to the restaurant by the clock every day to see if there is a bell.

On the day when the news of Zhao Jiahua's death was announced, the bell hanging in the restaurant changed, which was a signal from Liu Ze. Later, she also confirmed to Liu Ze that he didn't know where Mr. Min was, and Mr. Min had always been looking for him.

An Ruochen had agreed with Aunt Lu from the very beginning, to find a suitable person to observe the restaurant, to find the person who hung the bell, or to find out a way to deliver the news. Although Mr. Min's whereabouts have not been found yet, but the method is known - Liu Ze hung up the bell, and the shopkeeper went to send a message.

While talking, Chunxiao trotted back with her things. An Ruochen said to Aunt Lu with a pun, "Then please trouble Auntie."

Aunt Lu nodded knowingly and agreed.

Chunxiao was still a little dissatisfied, and really wanted to send the second girl off by herself, and see for herself how embarrassed the second girl was.

"It's not too bad for you to praise my second sister." An Ruochen frowned. Recently, she felt that her brows were more flexible.

Chun Xiao grinned: "It's not too bad and it doesn't take too long to see her."

An Ruochen sighed on purpose: "It seems that the second sister is the one who attracts people's attention. You are thinking about her falling, and you don't think about me falling too. Help me go to the kitchen and talk about it, make some soup to mend my legs and feet."

"Ah." Chun Xiao seemed to remember that her housekeeper really fell, "I'll go now." He ran to the kitchen, ran for a while and then turned back: "Girl, in this way, you are really sisters. "Laughed and ran away again.

An Ruochen sighed in his heart, yes, they are really sisters.

An Ruochen dismissed Chun Xiao and went to the West Court Wing. After discussing with Zhao Jiahua, he went to the Prefect's Mansion. The prefect Yao Kun stayed up all night, trying the case continuously, his face was tired, but when he saw An Ruochen came, he still warmly received her.

Just one day later, the attitude is really different. An Ruochen was flattered, but cautious. I'm afraid that if something goes wrong, it will cause trouble for Long Da.

Yao Kun explained the case to An Ruochen in detail, saying that he had sealed off the four city gates and strictly checked the people entering and leaving. Long Da told him about Young Master Min last night, he had ordered officials to interrogate the shopkeeper of the restaurant and the surrounding merchants, and there was indeed a regular customer of Young Master Min, but unfortunately no one knew his origin and where he lived. He had someone draw a portrait and posted it all over the city, wanting to arrest him.

An Ruochen looked at the portrait, and it did look a bit like it. But this Mr. Min has no obvious features, and it may not be easy to recognize him even if he is dressed up. But since many people recognize him, he will not dare to roam the streets like before.

An Ruochen hurriedly reported: "My lord, I heard Zhao Jiahua say that she tried to track down the person who hung the bell, but unfortunately she couldn't find it. But she saw a peddler near the restaurant behaving strangely, and he might be spreading news for Mr. Min." .” She described the vendor’s stall and characteristics in detail, and Yao Kun immediately sent someone to arrest him.

Yao Kun asked An Ruochen some more questions, and mentioned the arson case of Jiang's clothing store. An Ruochen said: "Li Xiuer is indeed Xu's matchmaker's informant, and she has contacts with Zhao Jiahua. When news of Zhao Jiahua's death comes, she will panic. So I ran away. Now that my lord has solved the case, if Li Xiuer hears the news, she will definitely come back and surrender. I also hope that my lord thinks that she has contributed to providing clues and has never done anything wrong before, so she will be given a light sentence."

Yao Kun frowned. Seeing this, An Ruochen hurriedly said: "Your Excellency, give her a light sentence, so I can persuade other girls who were used by Matchmaker Xu to find out what news they reported to Matchmaker Xu."

As soon as Yao Kun heard that it made sense, he nodded in agreement.

Not long after, the salesman was escorted back. He heard about the tragedy in Liu's house yesterday, so he didn't dare to leave the stall, so the police quickly found out where he lived and arrested him. The salesman was already trembling with fright, but unfortunately he didn't know much. He said that it was Liu who gave him the money and asked him to see the bells hanging on the windows of the restaurant, so he went to Dingsongpo to hang red bells on the four corners of the pavilion. Just hang it up and don't worry about anything else. He didn't know what these bells were for, as long as he hung them up, he could get money, so he did it. He had been doing this for nearly three years, and he had done nothing but hang the bell.

"What's so special about these bells?" An Ruochen asked.

The shopkeeper shook his head and wondered. He only knew that if there were blue and red bells hanging on the windows of the restaurant, he would ignore them; if there were other colored bells, he would go to the pavilion and hang four red bells as well.

Yao Kun ordered the peddler to be detained, and said to An Ruochen, "It seems that he is just a messenger. Liu uses different colors and numbers of bells to indicate different messages, and this peddler is just going to inform Mr. Min or someone else. Liu has new news."

An Ruochen sighed: "Unfortunately, we don't know who and where the other party is."

Yao Kun said: "It's near Dingsongpo. It's the place with the highest terrain. Bells are hung on the pavilion, and those who live nearby can see it by raising their heads. Since Mr. Min doesn't want others to know where he lives, why not?" If he wants to get news, he has to find a way to see the news. When he sees the bell, it means that Liu has something to look for, so he won't miss it when he goes to the restaurant again."

After Yao Kun finished speaking, he called Butou and Du Weihou Liliang, and asked them to lead people to surround the area around Dingsongpo and search for Mr. Min from house to house.

The prefect is so witty and decisive, which made An Ruochen change his previous impression of him and admire him. Sure enough, it must be some ability to be able to secure this official position. Whether he does something or not depends on whether he wants to do it or not. Meng Jiayue is indeed his pulse door.