Chapter 65 Search
It was noon, and the empty street was lined with low stone houses on both sides. The icicles on the eaves were dripping water under the sunlight.
Jinwu Town, which has already entered the twelfth lunar month, is so deserted. There are almost no pedestrians on the streets. Everyone is huddled at home to hibernate, and no one wants to go out.
At this time, a team of twenty or thirty people were knocking on doors every house on the street.
"Open the door, open it quickly, or I'll tear down your house."
As soon as the door was opened a crack from the inside, it was kicked open from the outside, and the person inside was knocked out by the door. He lay on the ground, covering his head and screaming, but he dared not resist.
They looked with horror in their eyes at the men rushing in with axes.
"Have you ever seen a little boy of seven or eight years old, wearing a round felt hat, with a chubby face and very white face?"
The owner was so scared that he quickly shook his head and said, "Uncle, we haven't seen any. We haven't been out of the house all day, let alone seen any children."
"Have you really never seen it? If you dare to deceive your Lord Tiger, be careful or I will chop your entire family into pieces and feed them to the tiger." Jiang Hu warned sternly.
"Sir, even if you give us a hundred courages, we would not dare to lie." The man almost knelt on the ground and swore.
At this time, another twenty or thirty people came hurriedly from another direction, stood in the middle of the street and shouted, "Brother Hu, we didn't find the young master, but we heard that a carriage left the town today."
Jinwu Town was not very big, with only five or six streets in total. It took less than an hour for so many people to search the entire town. It turned out that no one had hidden the child, and no one had seen the child.
Jiang Hu came out of the house, took a look at the time, and cursed: "Damn it, if we can't find the young master today, you and I will be in trouble. The master will chop us all up and feed us to the wolves."
"Brother Hu, should we go out of town to have a look? The sun is shining brightly today, and the carriages leaving town will definitely leave traces. We can follow the traces and maybe we can find clues. This town is only the size of a palm, and our people have turned it upside down, but no one has seen the young master."
Jiang Feng was also sweating and scratching his head anxiously.
"Crazy, think about it again. Apart from the carriage that left the town, is there anything else in the town that was missed?"
Jiang Feng lowered his head and thought seriously for a while, then suddenly his eyes lit up and he said, "The mayor's house!"
But then Jiang Feng denied his own guess, "But the mayor shouldn't be so stupid, right? Would he dare to kidnap my cousin? I don't think he has the guts to do this."
Jiang Hu said solemnly, "No, we'd rather kill someone by mistake than let him go. As long as there's a glimmer of hope, we have to search. The mayor is an old fox, snobbish, who knows who he works for? It's hard to say. Jiang Feng, you take people to search outside the town immediately, and I'll take people to search the mayor's house. We'll split into two groups. I'm afraid you can't control that old fox, so I'll go meet him."
"Okay, I'll send someone back to you as soon as I have any news." Jiang Feng said, waved his hand, and rushed towards the town entrance with more than 20 people.
Jiang Hu led the remaining thirty or forty people and ran quickly towards the mayor's house.
The mayor's house is at the easternmost end of the town. The house and courtyard are like an isolated island, out of tune with the surrounding low stone houses.
The yard is surrounded by lush jujube trees and ancient willow trees.
When Jiang Hu and his men arrived at the mayor's house, they saw that under the gatehouse, which was carved with complex and exquisite patterns, two heavy wooden doors were tightly closed.
"Go and knock on the door." Jiang Hu gave an order, and immediately two men came out, one on the left and one on the right, knocking on the door.
Soon an impatient voice came out from inside, "Who is it? How can you be so blind? You won't let me sleep well in the middle of the day, are you calling for my soul?"
A yawning servant wearing a round hat and a gray cotton coat pulled the bolt and opened the door a crack, revealing a pair of triangular eyes. He glanced with dissatisfaction at the person knocking on the door.
"Scream your mother's legs, get out of the way for your grandfather."
Jiang Hu, filled with anger, strode forward and kicked the door open. The heavy door knocked the servant to the ground, causing him to fall on his butt. But this was not the end yet.
Jiang Hu stepped over the high threshold, walked quickly to the servant, and kicked him in the chest. The servant immediately spit out blood.
"Did you see grandpa's face clearly? Can you recognize him next time?" Jiang Hu bent down and grabbed the front of the servant's shirt and lifted him up. The servant's feet left the ground instantly and he kept flapping his feet.
The servant then saw that the other person had an axe on his waist. He didn't expect that he was a member of the Golden Axe Gang. The servant's face changed drastically and he quickly begged for mercy.
"Brother Hu, I don't know gold and jade, so don't bother with me. Are you looking for our master? I will go and inform him right away."
Jiang Hu then let go of the servant. Without support, the servant fell to the ground. Regardless of the pain, he got up and ran towards the yard.
This was not the first time Jiang Hu had come to the mayor's house, so he was familiar with the layout of the house.
Jiang Hu watched the servant run around a tall stone wall in a hurry, and his figure disappeared behind the stone wall.
In the middle of the mayor's yard is a spacious main hall with a bluestone floor. The hall is filled with exquisite furniture, each piece of which exudes an antique and gorgeous atmosphere.
On both sides of the main hall are side rooms, which are equally spacious, with white paper pasted on the wooden window frames.
Soon the servant followed the butler out.
The butler was a middle-aged man with a goatee and a thin build. He did not look like a local, but rather someone from the south of the Yangtze River, with a delicate and refined look that was typical of a southern Chinese.
"Yuan didn't know it was the leader of the Golden Axe Gang who came here. Please forgive me, please forgive me."
Jiang Hu really disliked the mayor's housekeeper. He felt that he lacked masculinity, had a sissy tone, and spoke in a flowery manner, which made people feel uncomfortable. A rough man like him couldn't even understand the scolding, so Jiang Hu didn't even plan to greet Yuan Zhong and directly told him the purpose of his visit.
"My cousin is missing. We have been ordered to search the entire town, including the mayor's house. You'd better cooperate with us, otherwise I will not be polite."
Yuan Zhong looked unhappy when he heard this. He looked down upon Jiang Hu in his heart: This warrior has no brains at all, and he wants to break into a private house? He dares to tamper with the Tai Sui, he really has no idea what he is talking about.
"Master Jiang, you are trespassing into a famous house. If you enter without the county magistrate's search warrant, don't blame me for turning my back on you."
Jiang Hu sneered, not taking Yuan Zhong seriously at all. He waved to the people behind him, and dozens of people came and surrounded Yuan Zhong and the servant in an instant.
Yuan Zhong narrowed his eyes, his face was a little gloomy, and his voice was a little sharp. He asked: "Master Jiang, what do you mean by this?"
"It doesn't mean anything. I've just told you why I came here. Sorry for the offense."
Jiang Hu waved his hand and shouted, "Search for me, don't miss any corner."
"yes."
The group of people dispersed and soon dispersed around the mayor's house.
Yuan Zhong looked at Jiang Hu fiercely, wanting to tear Jiang Hu into pieces. The anger in his heart surged up, and he clenched his hands on both sides into fists, gritted his teeth and said word by word: "Jiang Hu, you'd better keep being arrogant."
Jiang Hu raised the corners of his lips in a mocking smile, without responding at all. That expression deeply hurt Yuan Zhong.
Jiang Hu belongs to the Golden Axe Gang, which is in charge of all fur trade in this border area. The leader of the Golden Axe Gang is the cousin of the prefect, and the prefect's wife and Lu Jingyu's mother are sisters.
This time, Lu Jingyu came to the border to study with his uncle. Due to the chaos at the border, Lu Jingyu's mother wrote a letter to her sister asking her to take care of him.
When the prefect's cousin learned about this, he took the full responsibility and guaranteed that no one in the border area would dare to touch a hair on the young master.
The Golden Axe Gang has such a strong backer like the prefect, so of course they won't take the mere mayor seriously.
Just as Jiang Hu and Yuan Zhong were secretly competing, the mayor hurried in from the backyard.
He was just taking a nap with his eighteenth concubine in his arms, but he didn't expect a group of people to suddenly break into his house, act wildly and deliberately break many of his good things.
Mayor Wang Xingwang walked out angrily while tying his belt.
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