[75] Zhao Yan falls into a dream

With this clue from the Taoist priest, the Kaifeng Mansion immediately arranged for an investigation by the city gate guards.After questioning, it was said that no one saw the old-fashioned person. Watching the night slowly fall, there was still no news from the city gate.Mu Yan looked at the child's clothes at home and couldn't help crying, if she didn't let that monster come to the house to do it, maybe the child would not be lost.The more Mu Yan thought about it, the more she blamed herself, but on second thought, maybe even if there was no such thing, she would not be able to keep the child.Losing so many children these days, if this incident is not accidental, then this old Taoist priest must have a purpose for wanting so many children, and Mu Yan must know this purpose.

When Mu Yan arrived at Kaifeng Mansion, it was already time to hold the lanterns.Master Bao is also worried, not only for Brother Huanxi but also for the lost children.Master Bao was not surprised to see Mu Yan coming, but he was very surprised that Mu Yan could calm down so quickly.

"Master Bao, the first task now is to know why the old Taoists want children?" Mu Yan thought for a while and asked Mr. Gongsun if he knew of any Taoist spells that needed children.

"Is there anyone who needs a child, but there are those who need the blood of pure yang and pure yin, but those are extremely insidious spells. Why do you ask such a question?" Mr. Gongsun asked Mu Yan suspiciously.

"There is a book in our place that records these sinister practice spells. I always thought it was a legend. So many children have been stolen now. I don't think it was accidental, and I think these children must still be in the capital." Mu Yan Said, thinking about the possible harm to the child, tears welled up again.

"You're right. Maybe both the child and the criminal haven't left the city yet, and he can't go out with so many children. Since the child was lost, the city gate has been very strict, especially those who bring the child. I guess he is not so Hurry up and get out. Mu Yan, don't worry too much." Although the words were weak, but the words of comfort were still spoken.

"The government will solve the case as soon as possible and bring the criminal to justice." Lord Bao said in a heavy but firm tone.

"My lord, is it possible that the child was stolen by a snake? I think the sweeping traces are very similar to the traces of a snake swimming, and it is the snake that Zhiyan Laodao carried. And there may be more than one snake. If there are two If there is a snake, it is easy to explain the loss of the child." Mu Yan spoke slowly, as if stating something that had nothing to do with her, but who knew that her heart was like frying oil.But she couldn't be excited, she was afraid that once excited, the train of thought in her head would be broken, and the child would lose its vitality.

"How do you say? What is the relationship between snakes and children?" Master Bao and Mr. Gongsun were quite puzzled.The ancient Chinese had no experience in raising pythons, and they didn't know that pythons could be domesticated and raised, let alone how some countries rely on pythons to take care of their children.

"In our era, there were people who raised pythons, and some indigenous people in some tribes relied on raising pythons to protect their children. I think that demon master knows this skill. He also trained snakes to steal children skillfully, just to commit crimes in my house. In other words, he should let one of the snakes hide in the well first, and then catch it out. Make the front yard messy, and take advantage of the time when the girl notifies me to go to the front yard. Find a chance to let one of the snakes steal Brother Xi first, and take advantage of it. When the girl and nanny were in a mess, she let go of the boa constrictor that had been tied up and stole brother Huan. Then she took advantage of the chaos and ran away." Mu Yan's analysis did not have any flaws, but Bao Zheng and Gongsun Ce couldn't believe it. .

"If you follow what Mu Yan said, would those snakes have already taken the children out of the city? Although the city gates are heavily guarded, they are indeed guarded against people. Who would think of preventing snakes? If they leave the city, they will place the children Where is the problem?" Mr. Gongsun frowned, and his beard was deep in thought.

"I thought of it!" Ma Han suddenly said.Everyone was taken aback.All eyes in the room turned to him.

"I suddenly remembered that when Zhao Hu and Zhao Hu were on business, I saw a deserted Taoist temple outside the North City Gate. The two of us hid from the rain there. Would we hide there? It's a good place for Tibetans. The place is surrounded by mass graves, even if the child cries, people will think it is haunted." Ma Han asked the government servant to find Zhao Hu, he has always been not as good as Zhao Hu, so in order to ensure a proper time, let him come to confirm one time.

Zhao Hu is the youngest of several guards in Kaifeng Mansion.On weekdays, she and Mu Yan are the best, all day long the sister-in-law and the sister-in-law are very affectionate, and because of the previous cases, she also admires her very much.It is often said that she and Zhan Zhao are a natural match, they are both experts in handling cases.Now the two little nephews are missing, Zhao Hu is also busy, and now he is called back by Ma Han full of complaints.

"I'm interrogating the guards at the city gate, what did you ask me to do?" Zhao Hu asked Ma Han angrily when he came in.Seeing Mu Yan was there, he stopped talking, and looked at her apologetically: "Sister-in-law, I've been asking around for nothing, but I didn't find anything."

Mu Yan forced a smile: "Ma Han asked you where you held a Taoist temple, do you still remember?" Zhao Hu looked at Ma Han suspiciously: "Which Taoist temple?"

Ma Han thought for a while: "Huzi, do you remember when we were on a business trip about half a year ago. One day we missed Sutou, and then we passed a Taoist temple surrounded by graveyards?" We suspected that the Taoist priest was hiding in the There, you have a good memory and let us think about where it came from.

Zhao Hu patted his head and thought for a long time before saying: "Is it the way we still say this is a good place to commit murder?" Ma Han nodded hastily, that's it.

Zhao Hu cursed and was about to go out to look for it, but Master Bao stopped him: "You remember the place?" Zhao Hu nodded and said that he still had a memory but he had to look for it.

"I'll go with him!" Mu Yan also asked to go together, Mr. Bao looked at Mu Yan's firm gaze, knowing that she couldn't stop her, so he could only acquiesce.He also arranged for a few yamen servants with good archery skills to accompany him, so as to be safe.

With the rustling autumn wind, more than a dozen fast horses filed out from the north gate of Kaifeng Mansion and disappeared into the vast night.Under the leadership of Zhao Hu, Mu Yan and his party rushed to the broken Taoist temple, hoping to buy back some time for those poor children.

When I arrived near the Taoist temple, I saw graves of various sizes in a radius of about one mile. It was quite strange for a Taoist temple to stand alone among the graves.The sky has not yet fully brightened, and the early morning mist makes the surroundings look ghostly.

A group of people got off their horses, and the horses and everyone hid in the woods. Ma Han quietly approached the Taoist temple.Before he had gone too far, Ma Han turned his head back with an extremely ugly expression.

"Madam sister-in-law may be right. I saw a snake. Is it black and yellow? There are three of them, and they are sleeping together. I was afraid that they would retreat first if they were alarmed." The lightness of flying, if you get too close, you will be noticed, it is better to bypass this section and enter from the side.

After discussing with each other, Zhao Hu and Ma Han took a few yamen servants with bows and arrows on their backs, walked around the snake pile and walked in from the side.Mu Yan and the remaining three yamen servants stayed put and stood by. Just in case, the remaining three are good archers. If the python explodes and hurts people, shoot them.

Fortunately, Big Snake slept soundly, and there was no sign of waking up until Ma Han and Zhao Hu came back one after another. "Sure enough, there was a child crying inside. But I don't know, it feels like the sound is coming from underground." Ma Han talked about his speculation, and Zhao Hu nodded in agreement.

There is no way for a while, but to wait.Until about Chenshi, I saw a person walking out of the pole haystack in the graveyard.Do you seem to be holding something in your hand?They got closer and closer, and the martial arts practitioners had very good eyesight. Ma Han and Zhao Hu covered their mouths before the visitor came into Mu Yan's sight.

Mu Yan only saw that the man threw something into the grass, and the grass turned for a while, and everything returned to silence in an instant. "What did you see?" Kai Muyan asked puzzled.

"Nothing! Nothing!" Ma Han hurriedly answered, feeling very guilty.Zhao Hu on the side didn't even dare to lift his head, and even turned his head to wipe his face, as if wiping tears.

"Tell me what did you see?" Mu Yan was a little annoyed, they were too suspicious. "He just lost the bodies of three children." Under Mu Yan's questioning, Zhao Hu revealed the truth.

Mu Yan felt dizzy when she heard it.Fortunately, Zhao Hu gave her a hand so that she would not fall down. "Don't worry, it's definitely not them." Zhao Hu said this without confidence.

A group of people hide in the woods and wait for the opportunity, every moment is torture.It wasn't until after noon that the old man left with two big snakes, and the other one was still coiled in place.

"We will act when he is farther away." Ma Han instructed Zhao Hu, and waited for about half an hour.It is estimated that the demon way will not turn around.Ma Han led half of the people to deal with the python. The strength of the crowd was great. Although the python reminded him that it was difficult to deal with, he was still killed.

At the same time, Zhao Hu Muyan took the rest of the people around to the Taoist temple, and after some searching, he finally found the place where the child was hidden in a secret tunnel behind the temple.

The tunnel is very spacious, with a large cauldron in the shape of a pill furnace standing in the middle, under which a charcoal fire is burning.A smell of blood mixed with traditional Chinese medicine made people sick.

"What is this?" Zhao Hu couldn't help being amazed. Just as he stepped forward to take a look, he heard a low voice from behind: "Who are you? How dare you destroy my elixir?"

A few people turned their heads and saw that it was indeed Zhiyanzi of the Yaodao.Mu Yan wished she could peel him alive, she gritted her teeth and asked, "Yaodao, where is my child?"

"Who are you? How do you know my methods." Zhiyanzi walked around with the python and no one ever noticed his method of instructing the python to steal the child.I didn't expect to be exposed by a woman this time, and I was surprised.So ask this question.

He stole children before, but not so frequently. This time, it was because the day of the evil moon was coming soon. It was the most cloudy day that only took one day in ten years. According to ancient books, only the pills refined on this day could become immortals.In order to gather the hearts of seven or 49 infants and children as an introduction, they began to commit crimes frequently in the bustling place of Kyoto.

Hearing Mu Yan's question, the old Taoist smiled strangely: "I've already thrown them into the alchemy furnace, you're late. Hahahaha" the demon Taoist laughed wildly while talking.

"Then you can be buried with him." Ma Han rushed over with the yamen servant, just heard his words, and said angrily while being annoyed.

"Hurry up and capture the demon, we have killed all your snakes, so you can use any means you can." Then he signaled a group of yamen servants to surround the old man.

"Impossible, those are spirit snakes that I raised carefully. How could they be killed by you ordinary people?" Zhi Yanzi's face was ashen.He doesn't know kung fu, and he has only relied on his family's python taming skills to run rampant all these years.These three snakes were all raised by him since he was a child, and they have a high degree of tacit understanding with him. They didn't expect to be killed so easily, and suddenly felt that the situation was over.

The yamen servant tied up Zhiyan Yaodao tightly, and opened the mechanism in the corner under his signal, and the child's crying suddenly became louder.Zhao Hu hurriedly dodged in, and after a while, Zhao Hu shouted in surprise: "Sister Yan, the children are all here, Brother Huan and Brother Xi are here. There are still many children." Mu Yan heard the cry and rushed to the In the secret room, seeing Brother Huan in Zhao Hu's arms and Brother Xi beside him, he couldn't help but feel relieved, and his eyes suddenly went dark and he lost consciousness.

When she woke up leisurely, she was already in Zhan Zhao's room in Kaifeng Mansion Confucian Academy. Seeing her wake up, Qiu'er was overjoyed. Before she could speak to Mu Yan, she went to invite Mr. Gongsun. After Mr. Gongsun's diagnosis, it was confirmed that nothing happened. Mu Yan got out of bed and walked around.Mu Yan learned that she had been in a coma for a day and a night, Yaodao Zhiyan had been taken into custody, and she could be convicted and sentenced after the court trial. It is estimated that the death penalty has not escaped.

The child was carried by the nanny, looking at the sleeping soundly child, Mu Yan's heart was really put into her stomach.Put the children on the bed, look at their rosy faces, and listen to Qiu'er tell what happened after she passed out.

It turned out that after she was in a coma, she couldn't get them back after seeing so many children, so she had to ask for help.The yamen servant continued to walk more than ten miles before finding a village. He asked the dibao and the village head to get a bullock cart and pulled the child and Mu Yan back together.In addition to brother Huan and brother Xi, there are more than ten children, but Kaifeng City alone has lost more than 20 children these days, and the rest have been ruined.

Mu Yan doesn't think she is a fragile person, but when she heard Qiu'er say that more than a dozen children have been murdered, she still burst into tears. Maybe one night, her own children will die.Fortunately, the murderer has been taken into custody, let's wait and see the result of the trial tomorrow.