Chapter 82: Silencing

"The shopkeeper of Li Ji Clothing Shop, did you see any Jianghu people running out of Red Clothes Alley last night?"

"Yes, sir, those four Jianghu people seemed quite suspicious, they were in a hurry."

The accumulated snow in Luoyang City had not yet melted.

A cold wind howled close to the ground, making the swaying torches flicker. The light shone on the hands of the secret agents as they suddenly gripped the handles of their waist knives, and on the white mist exhaled from beneath their conical hats, like hungry beasts discovering new prey.

The secret agents subconsciously looked towards Chen Ji, waiting for him to make a decision.

Chen Ji's face was covered with a gray cloth, and he lowered his head in thought.

As the saying goes, three strikes kill the spirit, and beating destroys Jianghu righteousness. Three pages of confession, every sentence implicates brothers.

These few Jianghu heroes were not hard nuts to crack in the first place. If the Secret Agents Bureau caught them, it would inevitably involve the Crown Prince and the White Carp.

But if he deliberately did nothing, Xi Feng was not a fool either.

In the flickering firelight, the oilcloth of the torches was burning and melting, with fiery drops falling onto the bluestone paved road.

Suddenly, the wind stopped, and the firelight no longer swayed.

Chen Ji raised his head to look at the secret agent who had reported the message and said calmly: "Bring the shopkeeper of Li Ji Clothing Shop here for questioning."

In a moment, a middle-aged man dressed as a servant came forward with a fawning smile: "Greetings, sirs, my name is Li Bing."

Chen Ji glanced at the other party and asked calmly: "Where did you see those Jianghu heroes? Tell us in detail."

Li Bing quickly replied: "Sirs, when Red Clothes Alley was sealed off, they just escaped from the back alley of Red Clothes Alley. One of them even dropped his knife on the ground in fright. He ran a couple of steps, then turned back to pick it up."

Chen Ji frowned and said disappointedly: "This kind of coward doesn't act like a Jing Dynasty thief."

Xi Feng was also a little disappointed: "Although the Jing Dynasty thieves are hateful, each of them is skilled. They are definitely not these petty thieves."

Li Bing suddenly added another sentence: "Oh, by the way, there seemed to be someone in the back alley at that time calling them to help climb over the wall. One of them went to help, but before he could help the person climb out, he just escaped and told his companions 'leave quickly, we can't save them, they are surrounded by six people'. When they spoke, they passed by me, and I heard it clearly."

Xi Feng's face changed, and he looked at Chen Ji: "Sir, those who surrounded them should be our colleagues. The killer made a move to cover the people in this backyard. Although we don't know who was surrounded, they must be very important."

Chen Ji silently took a deep breath.

This shopkeeper was listening too carefully, he couldn't even cover it up deliberately: "Shopkeeper Li, where did you see them run?"

"Along Luoyi Street towards the west, but I don't know where they ended up going!"

Chen Ji breathed a sigh of relief again. It was not easy to find four people in the vast Luoyang City, at least it could buy some time.

However, at this moment, Li Bing spoke with a gasp: "But I know where they live."

Chen Ji: "Oh?"

Li Bing quickly said: "These four Jianghu people came to Luoyang City half a month ago. I have an impression of them because they were clearly wearing ordinary and worn-out clothes, yet they were very generous. As soon as these four came to Luoyang City, they each custom-made two sets of clothes in my shop. They were all stand-collar overlapping front styles commonly worn in autumn, and they even chose the exquisite mud gold claw rat pattern."

Li Bing continued: "After these four people were measured, they left and instructed me to send the finished clothes to Fu Lai Inn on the west side."

The so-called mud gold claw rat pattern is a kind of embroidery pattern on the sleeve edges and collar edges. The embroidery technique is complex and highly favored by officials and nobles, and the price is not cheap.

The more Li Bing said, the heavier Chen Ji's mood became.

He had seen these four people before.

Among the twelve people he saw in the embroidered building in Baiyi Alley that day with Commander Liu Hang, besides Chen Ji, the Crown Prince, White Carp, She Dengke, Liu Quxing, Liang Gou'er, and Liang Mao'er, there were these four people.

At that time, these four people were wearing stand-collar overlapping front clothes with mud gold claw rat patterns embroidered on their cuffs.

Moreover, their arrival time in Luoyang City also matched. These four people were originally poor, and their lives improved after they met the Crown Prince.

But even though the Crown Prince treated them so well, when they encountered danger, they still abandoned the Crown Prince and the White Carp.

Xi Feng looked at Chen Ji's profile from the side: "Sir, what do we do?"

Chen Ji's voice was as still as an ancient well: "Surround Fu Lai Inn and arrest them."

All he could hope for now was that these four people were not that stupid and would still foolishly return to the inn after escaping from Red Clothes Alley.

Outside Fu Lai Inn, several dozen secret agents with knives hanging from their waists, in just over ten breaths, had completely surrounded Fu Lai Inn with light footsteps.

The backyard, left and right sides, stable, not a single place was missed.

If those four Houtian realm Jianghu people were still inside the inn, it would be difficult for them to escape, even with wings.

Silently, Chen Ji was the first to step over the inn threshold.

He saw that the first floor of the inn was a simple wine shop.

It was closed at this time, the wooden chairs were all wiped clean and placed upside down on the tables.

Behind the counter, a young attendant was sleeping soundly on an abacus, with an oil lamp lit beside him.

Chen Ji came to the counter and gently patted the attendant's shoulder.

The attendant raised his head with sleepy eyes and said in his sleep: "Do you gentlemen want to stay at the inn? A Heaven character room is one hundred and forty wen a night, an Earth character room is forty-five wen a night, and the stable is twelve wen a night."

As he spoke, the attendant saw Chen Ji's covered face and the several knife-wielding secret agents behind him, and suddenly sobered up.

He trembled and said: "Sirs, I, I haven't committed a crime."

Chen Ji asked: "Don't be afraid, I just have one question for you."

"Please ask, sir."

"Do you have four Jianghu people carrying knives and swords staying here?"

The attendant quickly replied: "Yes."

"Are they still inside the inn?"

The attendant answered one by one: "Yes, they said they wanted to go to Red Clothes Alley yesterday to have some fun, but they came back early before midnight, looking flustered. Afterwards, these four people all ordered wine and food to their rooms and didn't come out again."

This was the answer Chen Ji least wanted to hear.

He was silent for a moment: "Which guest room are they staying in?"

The attendant pointed to the stairs: "The third room on the right after going upstairs, the Heaven character room, with a 'Spring Water' sign hanging in front of the door."

Before Chen Ji could give an order, Xi Feng gave a secret signal to the secret agents, and several of them immediately drew their waist knives and cautiously crept up the stairs, bending at the waist.

Chen Ji also wanted to follow, but Xi Feng stopped him by pressing on his shoulder: "Sir, Sir Jinzhu said that you have no martial arts, and specially instructed us to protect you well. This kind of dangerous matter is fine for us to handle, you must not put yourself in danger."

Chen Ji sized up the other party's expression under the conical hat. It was serious and earnest, with unmoving eyes: "He didn't suspect anything, Jinzhu instructed him this way."

He sighed in his heart, and stood by the counter without moving: "You all be careful."

The secret agents suddenly kicked open the door of the Spring Water room. The secret agents holding long knives filed in, their killing intent soaring.

However, the next moment, someone suddenly shouted: "Sir, come and see quickly."

Chen Ji was the first to grab the oil lamp on the counter and rush up.

He pushed aside the secret agents in the corridor and came to the room door. He raised his head to look towards the beam and suddenly held his breath.

He saw that on the beam, the four Jianghu people they were looking for were hanging neatly from the roof, their necks strangled by four strips of white silk.

Not only that, the skin on the faces of the four people had all been cut off, leaving only bloody facial muscles exposed to the air, which was extremely horrifying.

The secret agents' expressions were indifferent, they seemed to have seen much of this kind of thing.

But a chilling sensation suddenly surged up in Chen Ji's heart. These four people were silenced beforehand.

He endured the discomfort in his heart and went forward to check the corpses.

The corpses were cold and stiff, the stiffness had spread throughout their bodies, they had been dead for at least two hours.

Chen Ji came to the edge of the door, the door bolt was not damaged.

He came to the edge of the window again, and saw that the copper piece used to close the window had been cut off by a sharp weapon. The killer had entered through the window.

"Take them down and strip off all their clothes."

Chen Ji said in a cold voice.

The secret agents used their bodies as ladders and took the four corpses down onto the bed.

After the clothes of the four people were stripped off, everyone saw by the moonlight outside the window that each corpse had a copper nail nailed to its chest.

The copper nails were stabbed cleanly and neatly, without a single drop of blood flowing out.

The dead did not cry for help. The person who killed them must be an expert among experts, not even giving them an opportunity to react.

Chen Ji then pried open the mouths of these four people and saw that a short copper nail was also nailed to the tongue of each person.

"This is not silencing, it is a judgment."

"Someone is punishing them."

Xi Feng's face was solemn. They had just found a new clue, but before they could be happy, the clue was broken again.

Chen Ji looked at Xi Feng: "Have you ever heard of this kind of judgment method?"

Xi Feng seemed to be in thought: "There seem to have been two such cases in Jianghu, but the specifics can only be known by checking the case files in the inner prison. Sir, there is something strange about this matter. The people they abandoned earlier must be very important, so much so that they didn't hesitate to kill them to silence them forever. Moreover, the killer specifically cut off their facial skin to prevent us from finding people who were familiar with them to testify. Who do you think did it?"

"Who did it? Simple, whoever benefits the most, that's who did it."

Chen Ji stood in the dim room, still holding the oil lamp in his left hand.

He recalled the Crown Prince's bold and bright smile, and found it hard to believe that such a deep and vicious scheme was hidden behind the other party.

Moreover, if the Crown Prince had such an expert clean things up on his side, why would he have had to save himself last night?

But if it wasn't the Crown Prince who did it, who else could it be?

Chen Ji's brilliant impression of the Crown Prince in his memory suddenly blurred, as if a layer of gloom was gradually covering the Crown Prince's face.

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