Chapter 37 Chapter 37 Bathing Together

The charcoal ashes floated in the air. The moment their eyes met, Qiao'er immediately looked away. She fanned the fire faster and faster, and the flames below swayed everywhere.

Qiao'er lowered her head and looked around in panic.

"The fire is going out."

"ah!"

Qiao'er was so frightened that her face turned pale. The fan in her hand was thrown to the ground. She looked terrified and it took her a long time to recover.

"Please forgive me, sir... I... didn't sleep well last night..."

She picked up the fan on the ground, and accidentally revealed a purple mark on the cuff of her sleeve.

Hezhou pointed at her arm: "What's that on your arm?"

"Nothing..." Qiao'er bit her lip, speaking with difficulty like squeezing toothpaste: "Just... a fall..."

She pulled her sleeves down hard, and the clothes shook, revealing the area under her neck. Her collarbone was also red and swollen, obviously because something had hit it.

But Qiao'er's movements became more and more flustered, and her hands became more and more violent, leaving deep red scratches on the back of her hands with her nails.

Hezhou became more and more certain that he had not seen it wrong. He had seen the marks on Chunjuan before. They were pinch marks. For a moment, he didn't know whether to say hello or not.

If Qiao'er was suffering from long-term bullying and her superiors had not sent her any instructions to prevent her from hallucinating, then the case would have been solved quickly.

He saw Qiao'er's movements becoming more extreme, and just as he opened his mouth to warn her, he was interrupted.

"What?"

Li Erniu walked over and said, "Tsk! Didn't you know the water is boiling? Go make some tea for the adults!"

"Why."

"No need, I'll just ask a few questions and then leave. This is a girl's place. I'll come back tomorrow during the day." Hezhou waved his hand.

He frowned and looked at Qiao'er who was hiding behind him. He sighed and pointed at her arm: "Pull up your sleeve."

"Sir..." Qiao'er lowered her head even more and buttoned her sleeves tightly.

"What are you hesitating about?" Li Erniu walked up to her and pulled her sleeve open viciously, revealing a patch of bruises underneath.

Before they could say anything, Qiao'er's tears started to flow, her voice choked with sobs: "Sir, it wasn't me... it wasn't me who poisoned... Sir... I'd rather die of illness! Brother Erniu didn't say that before... before he came..."

She cried like she was free, and Li Erniu didn't react at all, just letting her fall into his arms.

"Why are they being bullied again? Didn't I warn them?"

Li Erniu frowned, and said in a slightly relaxed tone: "Don't cry..."

Hezhou didn't get anything out of the question in the end. Li Erniu was trying desperately to get Qiao'er to cooperate, but Qiao'er just couldn't stop crying.

The girl who came over to pour tea said that Qiao'er was isolated because she rarely had hallucinations before. Fortunately, she and Li Erniu were old acquaintances, and she used her connections to move to the Chen Mansion.

Not long after he left, it was reported that the guard had also had a hallucination. The man in question was Qiao'er's lover, but he had slipped and fallen into the river.

It was rumored that Qiao'er had died once and was looking for a scapegoat. She was unlucky and was driven back a few days ago.

After she came back, she was treated even less well. Some of the more irritable people said that it was Qiao'er who brought bad luck and that she should die with those two people.

After hearing this, Hezhou wanted to wait for Qiaoer to finish crying before asking a few more questions, but Qiaoer fainted from crying, and no matter how Li Erniu shook her, it was useless.

Li Er angrily threw the man onto the bed and said, "Sir, what do you think we should do?"

"What should we do? Can't we just come back tomorrow?" Hezhou stood by the bed and looked at the things in the room. The layout was similar to the previous room.

The items on the table also overlapped to a great extent, and there was also an incense burner in the room, emitting a faint fragrance.

Hezhou approached the incense burner and smelled it. The smell was the same as outside, so the suspicion of the spice was eliminated.

"Li Erniu, can we go to see where the guards live tomorrow?" Xie Xunzhi asked.

Li Erniu refused outright at first, then he lowered his head and hesitated for a long time: "That's fine, but I want to accompany you the whole time. Can't you watch it here? Do we have to go to the Chen Mansion?"

Xie Xunzhi laughed coldly: "What are you thinking about? This is the essence of investigating a case. The poison was administered here, so what about the guards is particularly prominent? It will make it easier to investigate."

He paused. "Besides, didn't you say someone wrote about the descent of bones? How come they're nowhere to be found now? Then you have to explain how the bones died. Your brother said you ordered them to be dug up. How did you know where Wang Wenliang died?"

A small cry of surprise came from outside: "Young Master Wang is dead?"

Li Erniu walked quickly to the door, his eyes fierce as he shouted, "What are you doing here? Have you packed your things? If the case isn't solved within three days, you'll all be gone!"

After he finished yelling, he started coughing again, and the saliva he spit out almost splashed onto Xie Xunzhi. Xie Xunzhi walked to Hezhou in disgust and wiped himself with a handkerchief.

"Master Xie really wronged me. The white cloth was right there at the scene, and they burned it because they thought it was bad luck. How could I not want to solve the case? My life depends on it."

Hezhou looked out the window as the sky darkened and said, "Let's come back tomorrow. I'm afraid it will rain again soon."

As Hezhou expected, it started to rain heavily as soon as they stepped into the yard.

Chunjuan knew their habits, so he boiled hot water early, but he didn't know when they would come back, so he didn't boil much water, and some of the firewood was not covered in time and got wet.

Xie Xunzhi had just been annoyed by Li Erniu, so he followed Hezhou's suggestion, picked up a double bathtub, and started bathing together.

Hezhou felt completely relaxed while soaking in the hot water: "It's so comfortable. Come on, the water will get cold soon."

"Yeah." Xie Xunzhi took off his underwear and went in. It was inevitable that two grown men would bump into each other when squeezed in the mandarin duck tub, but neither of them noticed anything was wrong.

It must be said that before, Hezhou only thought that Xie Xunzhi was white, but now that they met honestly, he found that Xie Xunzhi was white all over, so white that it looked pink.

There were quite a few knife wounds on his body, some of which were even two inches long. Xie Xunzhi never took off his clothes when he slept before, and this was the first time Hezhou saw it.

He covered the wound and felt a dull pain in his body.

"Is it ugly?" Xie Xunzhi froze. He leaned against the bucket with nowhere to hide, and the croaking of frogs in his ears was infinitely amplified.

"No." Hezhou shook his head, his eyes soft and full of pity: "Does it hurt?"

"I've forgotten all about it. I used to avoid you when I changed clothes because I was afraid you'd see me and think too much."

"What are you thinking about?" Hezhou's fingers wandered over the wound on his waist. It was very long, almost two inches, but not deep. If it was deeper, he might not be able to see Xie Xunzhi now.

"Don't you think I'm weird? I'm not afraid of corpses, I know some court affairs, and my origin is unclear." Xie Xunzhi closed his eyes, his eyelashes fluttering nervously: "I can even climb over the wall... I don't look like a good person at all..."

Hezhou stood up and squeezed next to Xie Xunzhi: "What's so strange about this! Didn't you lose your memory? The fact that I found someone as amazing as you when I lost my memory can only be said to be God's arrangement. I'm not destined to die. To be honest, if it weren't for you, I would have been eaten to pieces in the temple case."

He grabbed Xie Xunzhi's hand and spoke sincerely, his eyes full of smiles: "What else? You said I was holding back everything, but in fact, I am also a taciturn person."

"No way... I just have normal suspicions..."

"No, last time we went to the fields together, you even said I was having an affair with a bandit."

Hezhou curled his lips: "My bandit brother..."

Xie Xunzhi pinched his mouth and squeezed him tightly against his body. The splashes of water flowed down his chest and finally disappeared into the water.

"Stop talking! The water's getting cold!"

"Li... Mei... shallow..."

Hezhou's mouth became like a duckbill, and he could only mumble and speak without being able to speak. He could only blink his eyes and hug Xie Xunzhi with his arms.

"I'm going to let go. Don't mention what happened before!" Xie Xunzhi pinched his mouth and nodded up and down.

As soon as Hezhou was released, he started talking again. The two of them didn't finish washing until the water got cold.

He could only wash briefly, put on his clothes and come out to boil water for Xie Xunzhi, then change into his own bathtub for a bath.

When Xie Xunzhi finished cleaning up and came out, the food was already on the table. Hezhou was reading a book called "The Complete Book of Solving Cases" seriously.

"Look at this, can you eat?"

"I need to study, you don't understand!" Hezhou put away the book and placed it carefully on the table.

"The Complete Book of Solving Crimes" was placed at the very edge, with the exposed corner shaking. He held it down with his arm, feeling a little guilty.

"What kind of storybook is this?" Xie Xunzhi waved his hand: "Let me see, I've seen it before. It has a sheep's head on the cover, but it sells dog meat inside."

"No need? You...don't you know all these?" Hezhou hid the book under his arm and retreated little by little.

"You found it in the warehouse, right? The previous county magistrate did nothing, didn't even write county records, so how could he read any good books?"

Hezhou's face gradually turned red. He picked up the book and ran out. When he came back, there was a streak of soot on the back of his hand.

"Throw it away, it's not a good book."

Xie Xunzhi was confused. It was not that he did not allow people to read, as long as the books were not too vulgar.

Let me see what's wrong. I'm not a thief. A feeling of depression slowly rose in my heart, but as soon as I saw Hezhou, the anger disappeared.

Peanuts were being cooked in the kitchen, and the copy of "The Complete Book of Solving Crimes" on the stove below was being eaten away bit by bit. The rising flames first burned the surface, revealing the colorful cover underneath.

Fengyue...Yang...Ji...

The drizzle kept falling intermittently, and Hezhou went to bed early, ready to sleep in the warmth.

The night was long and the scenes he had seen during the day were too thrilling, so he couldn't fall asleep for a while.

Out of boredom, I found another agricultural book to read. It was not as concise as the professional books, and some of the content was even wrong.

He held the book in one hand and a pen in the other. When he saw a mistake, he would pick up the pen and correct it.

The candlelight was not as bright as the light bulb, and he was sleeping inside, so he could only lie on Xie Xunzhi to read.

As he looked, his eyes turned to Xie Xunzhi, and his hands also became dishonest, touching the place where he remembered the scar through his clothes.

"If you don't want to watch it, I'll blow out the light and go to bed."

"Is this light left for me?"

Xie Xunzhi nodded: "I was worried that you would dream about the daytime events and that it was too dark to sleep, but... now seeing you..."

Hezhou swayed and found a comfortable position to lie down. "It's actually okay. I might have been afraid when I was little, but I was always alone, so I was fine. Before I went to bed, I would think, 'If you have the guts, kill me, and I'll be fine the next day and not afraid of the dark anymore.'"

"Now..." He chuckled foolishly, "It always feels unreal..."

————————

The black chickens didn't crow this morning, and Hezhou didn't get up until the sun was glaring, and the warmth around him had long since disappeared.

His hair was loose and his head was still dizzy and he couldn't speak. The weather outside was still cloudy and the cold wind made him shiver.

"Spring rolls! Spring rolls!"

"Hey! Sir, you're awake!" Chunjuan came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of scallion pancakes.

"My Lord, please eat it now while it's hot."

Hezhou rubbed his solar plexus, making sure that he had not said anything stupid under the influence of that crappy book last night.

When he picked it up from the ground, it was so dusty that he couldn't see its shape clearly. Only the word "solve the case" made him a little interested.

I didn't expect that when I opened it, it was full of romantic stories about men.

"What time is it now? Where is Xunzhi? Has he gone to school?"

"My lord, it is now the Si hour. Master Xie has gone to see the coroner Song. He has instructed you to get up and eat first, and wait here for him to come and find you." Chunjuan handed the pancake to him.

The cake was still steaming and smelled delicious.

Hezhou lowered his eyes and looked at her: "Did Xunzhi eat before he left? Come and help me tie my hair."

He packed up as quickly as possible, ate a few bites, and then ran all the way to Mr. Song.

The two sides are actually close to each other, but Hezhou ran so intensely that he almost vomited what he had eaten in the morning.

There were still water droplets on the wall from last night, and he left a wet handprint on the wall.

“Ugh~”

The food he had just eaten seemed to be stuck in his throat, making him feel nauseous. He didn't know if it was because he was too close to the coroner's room, but he seemed to be able to smell a faint smell of blood.

"Why are you here?" Xie Xunzhi came out with a case file and was a little surprised when he saw Hezhou.

"Come and vomit~ I'm here to vomit with you..." Hezhou felt like he was about to vomit before he finished speaking.

Xie Xunzhi anxiously brought out a stool from the house and asked Hezhou to sit down.

"Lotus! Bring me a bowl of hot water!"

Hezhou covered his sleeves and waved his hands: "It's okay, it's okay, I just ran too fast."

He didn't know what was wrong. When he didn't see Xie Xunzhi this morning, he felt extremely panicked and felt that he couldn't leave Xie Xunzhi for a moment.

In an instant, countless things flashed through my mind, and the final thought settled on one: Is it possible that the most important thing about traveling here is...

Let him meet a confidant like Xie Xunzhi.

Somehow, this thought became stronger and stronger, and what followed was a feeling of emptiness for not seeing Xie Xunzhi. Feeling uncomfortable, he ran over without caring about what Xie Xunzhi said to stay.