Chapter 365 Mason
This logical and reasonable route was played out several times, centered around the grocery store.
Like a drop of water merging into a river, it doesn't create even a ripple.
At the hour of Xu, dusk fell.
A sturdy man with a wooden box on his shoulder, which contained tools such as trowels and plaster boards covered with plaster.
His face was covered with rough red marks from years of wind and sun, and he was a bricklayer.
In one hand he held a small wine pot, and in the other he held a bag of Qiang boiled lamb wrapped in lotus leaves.
I walked home unsteadily, humming the folk songs that were popular in Fengjing City.
"In August, the sweet-scented osmanthus smells sweet, and the young lady opens the window to look at her lover..."
The cool evening breeze of early autumn blows on my face, bringing with it the fatigue after work and a rare sense of relaxation.
However, when he walked to the gate of his own courtyard, his eyes fell on two clear horizontal lines, one long and one short, on the wall beside the gate.
The smile on his face seemed to be frozen by ice, and instantly became stiff and solidified.
The humming of the tune suddenly stopped, as if something was blocking my throat.
After pausing for three breaths, he silently pushed open the creaking wooden door, closed it behind him, and bolted it.
The heavy tools were gently placed in the corner of the yard, and a low elm table and bamboo stool were placed under the old locust tree in the yard.
The courtyard is not big, but it is kept tidy, with some bricks and tiles piled in the corner.
A small oil lamp was placed on a low table, and the bean-sized flame jumped, stretching his shadow into a long and slender one, casting it on the mottled earthen wall.
I usually can't afford to buy the Qiang boiled lamb at twenty cents a palm.
He was familiar with the head and asked the shopkeeper for the fat and tender part of the waist and ribs.
Add freshly dug purple garlic, a little pepper, and mixed sauce of Polygonum multiflorum juice...
Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. It is a perfect dish to go with wine, and it is emitting a rich aroma at this moment.
But now, I have no interest at all.
He was an intelligence point buried by the Cui family in Fengjing.
But a few days ago, the Xuanji Guards launched a thunderous raid, wiping out both his upper and lower lines.
Like a kite with a broken string, it has become a dead chess piece that no one knows about.
As far as he knew, many strongholds, both overt and covert, had been completely destroyed.
But he was like dust forgotten in the corner and escaped by luck.
These past two days, I've felt like my heart was burning in oil and I've been in a state of panic all day long.
However, the major case in Jingzhao Prefecture was concluded and announced yesterday, and today the whole city is excited about the supplementary enrollment for the provincial examination.
That panic gradually turned into a secret ecstasy, a long-hidden hope in my heart that grew wildly:
Perhaps he could continue to live a stable life as a bricklayer in this small courtyard in the city that he had long been accustomed to and even had some attachment to.
After settling in Fengjing for so many years, he was already tired of those days of anxiety and was exhausted.
So tonight, he specially bought the Qiang boiled lamb that he usually didn't want to eat, just to secretly celebrate this "new life".
However, the two cold scratches on the courtyard wall shattered all his fantasies.
The torment, fear, luck, and ecstasy of the past few days...
All his emotions instantly turned into stones, blocking his chest and making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
He pulled up a bitter smile, reached out to pull out the cork from the wine jug, tilted his head back and took a big gulp.
The wine was spicy and stinging, and overflowed from the corners of his mouth.
It slid across his rough cheek and dripped into the dust, leaving a wet mark.
He didn't even touch the bag of fragrant Qiang boiled lamb.
At the entrance of the alley, under the shadow of an old locust tree with lush branches and leaves, Yinzhe leaned against the rough trunk, closing his eyes to rest.
Even if passers-by pass by, they will not notice that there is a person hiding in the shadows.
Wang Chong, who was in the Jingzhao prison, hadn't caught any fish yet, but things were starting to get ripples on Chen Yu's side.
So Yinzhe made a prompt decision.
He ordered someone to give Wang Chong some medicine to make him have just the right fever and become unconscious, and he quickly withdrew to Chen Yu's side to support him.
Dou Zuan is still guarding Chen Yu in secret, but she is more powerful and has more sophisticated concealment methods, and is responsible for tracking the clues brought by the note.
Her perception was like an invisible spider web, spreading out quietly and freely.
This is not the fluctuation of true energy, but a more ingenious use of the "momentum" flowing between heaven and earth.
This level of investigation is extremely difficult to detect unless one is a top master in the third level of the Divine Martial Realm.
From the moment the note was dropped, everyone who handled it, passed it on, or even just accidentally approached it was under the surveillance of her invisible perception network.
Throughout the entire day, what I saw and heard was like a broken intelligence network being sorted out and reconnected in an extremely covert manner.
The indiscriminate attacks carried out by Xuanji Guards a few days ago almost destroyed all recorded intelligence nodes.
However, the aristocratic families have been operating for generations, and their roots are complicated. Even a centipede is still alive after death, so there must be some hidden fish that have slipped through the net and some hidden lines.
The "arrival of new dates" and the subsequent series of actions are more like a cautious test.
The person behind the scenes is naturally not an easy person to deal with, and it is normal for him to have some means and patience.
The provincial examination is approaching, let’s see who has more patience.
Whoever gets anxious first is more likely to reveal flaws.
The lights in the backyard room of Qingjianzhai Bookstore were bright.
The shopkeeper Shen Yuanzhang was sitting alone behind a rosewood desk, leisurely sipping the amber wine in his glass.
On the table stood an exquisite gilded and engraved silver cup, with a few delicate side dishes beside it.
This was his only hobby: he would have a sip of wine at noon to relax himself, and at night he needed to drink some good wine to fall asleep.
A dark shadow appeared behind him like a ghost, knelt on one knee, and said in a very low voice:
"The scattered nets in the east of the city have been activated. The marks at the masons have appeared, and no unusual movement has been observed."
Shen Yuanzhang didn't even raise his eyelids, but just waved his hand casually.
The black shadow understood and retreated silently, blending into the shadows.
Disrupting the women's provincial examination was a death order from above, and Shen Yuanzhang had to carry it out.
Taking advantage of the fact that the whole city's attention was attracted by the preliminary test today, he finally completed the test and reorganized the scattered intelligence points.
Everything was calm and smooth, which was reassuring.
However, the string in Shen Yuanzhang's heart became even tighter.
The more intelligence nodes there are and the longer the transmission chain, the higher the risk of exposure will naturally be.
There are only two possibilities for why he is still safe and sound.
Either that, or the Xuanji Guards hadn't noticed Wang Chong from the beginning, and the Chengyuan raid was just a coincidence;
Or, they have already discovered it, and their appetite is even bigger, so they are spreading an invisible giant net waiting for him to fall into it.
The two possibilities are diametrically opposed, and Shen Yuanzhang cannot judge which one is reality.
In any case, all the people who were activated today have been branded as abandoned in his heart.
Even if it is used again, it will only be a deliberate attempt to confuse people.
Shen Yuanzhang raised his head and drank the wine in the glass.
Under the dim light, there was no sign of drunkenness in his lowered eyes, but instead a sharp gleam flashed in them.
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