The two brothers exchanged a glance, both feeling somewhat guilty, and hesitated to step forward.
"Hurry up, don't let anyone see us," Lan Yamei urged. Even though it was a desolate place, she felt that she couldn't be seen by anyone.
But should Er Gou and his wife just die without knowing why?
Since the conflict points to Wutongling, it is necessary to clarify the situation.
The two brothers had no choice but to bite the bullet and proceed. With a series of loud bangs, the coffin was opened.
But! But! But it's empty inside! There's no black bodily fluid, and no bones.
The new cotton quilts used for burial were still there, neatly arranged, and the place was completely empty! There wasn't a trace of a body lying there.
"How is this possible?" Qiu Kongkong exclaimed first.
"Someone stole Master's body?" Qiu Zeyu asked, his voice filled with fear and suspicion.
There are no corpse-stealing enthusiasts in this era! There's only one possibility: Wu Tongling is still alive!
Back then, some people used extreme measures to deceive everyone for a certain purpose.
“He’s definitely not dead! He killed Er Gou and his wife. And it’s certain that he was acting under someone’s orders!” Lan Ya Mei said, looking at the empty coffin.
"How is that possible?" Qiu Zeyu almost laughed in anger, retorting, "He passed away from illness back then, and our family handled the funeral arrangements ourselves. I personally saw my master being placed in the coffin and buried in the ground! How could he still be alive?"
"Yeah, it's impossible for both of us brothers to be blind!" Qiu Kongkong quickly composed himself, refusing to believe the truth.
"You two need to calm down! Don't let personal feelings get in the way. Please deal with this fact rationally." Lan Yamei looked at the two of them firmly and said, "The fact is that your master faked his death and deceived everyone. He must have some ulterior motive. Whether it was for himself or for someone else, we must find him as soon as possible so that the truth will come out."
The two brothers exchanged a glance, finally accepting the reality and calmly discussing it.
"Is it possible that someone hid Master's body to smear him?" Qiu Kongkong said.
“That’s possible!” Lan Yamei affirmed first, then asked, “Then how do you explain ‘a single sword to the throat’?”
The two brothers exchanged a glance and finally lowered their heads. At this moment, they were convinced that their master, Wu Tongling, was still alive and had killed Er Gou and his wife.
If their master was alive, why was he blown up? Was there really some unspeakable secret? The two brothers silently began to have doubts.
"Did your master have any close friends or relatives during his lifetime?" Lan Yamei's mind raced. Since it was a long-planned scheme, there was no way they wouldn't make contact.
"A close friend? Master always preferred solitude and never spent time socializing with others except for practicing martial arts. However, I seem to recall meeting someone whom Master treated quite specially. He was a delicate-looking scholar who would occasionally compose poems with Master, drink wine, and watch the clouds. Whenever this happened, Master would give us a day off. Although Master was a martial artist, he seemed to have a particular fondness for refined things, and his house was always kept impeccably clean," Qiu Zeyu recalled.
"Now that you mention it, I remember. I've met that scholar before. Whenever he came, my master would prepare fine wine and meat to entertain him, and he would also send us away." Qiu Kongkong also remembered.
"Besides him, who else could it be?" Lan Yamei dared not make a definitive judgment.
The two shook their heads. "That's it! It seems like he was the only one who interacted with Master. Oh, right, something's strange. After Master died, he didn't come to mourn. It's like he just disappeared."
"That doesn't make sense! They were such good friends, why didn't anyone come to pay their respects?" Lan Yamei had her eye on this person.
The two thought about it carefully, then frowned, shook their heads, and said with great certainty, "Master, he doesn't have many friends, but he has a good reputation in the martial arts world. Many people have come to pay their respects, but we haven't seen that scholar show his face."
“It seems that your master’s affairs must be related to him. We must find him!” said Lan Yamei.
“But we don’t know his name or where he came from. We haven’t seen him since our master died. Searching for him is like looking for a needle in a haystack!” Qiu Kongkong said bluntly.
The three fell silent for a moment. The whole situation had reached a dead end, with countless threads of information yet no clear direction.
Lan Yamei leaned against the tombstone of Wu Tongling, closed her eyes and began to ponder rapidly.
Wu Tongling was a well-known figure in the martial arts world. If he were alive, why would he assassinate two ordinary people?
The Er Gou brothers are his followers, so they must be after him! Who sent them?
Before her rise to power, she was just a barbecue girl at the ghost market, never having met any important figures, nor could she have had any grudges against them. Therefore, she was definitely not someone she had known before.
Even though his father was Wu Tongling's top disciple, he had lived peacefully for so long without any martial arts feuds coming his way, which showed that it wasn't because of that relationship.
Ever since they moved from the ghost market to Longyang Town and bought a shop on the street, and their lives were getting better and better, these messy things started to happen.
Could it be that someone is jealous of my getting rich?
Upon thinking of this, Lan Yamei immediately thought of Hua Yuhe! She muttered to herself, "Could it be her?"
"Whom do you suspect?" Qiu Zeyu asked.
"Could it be Hua Yuhe?" Lan Yamei blurted out her guess.
"Her? How is that possible?" Qiu Kongkong was somewhat incredulous. Leaning against the grave mound, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, he spat it out and said, "A woman from the pleasure quarters, could she have this ability? To send a highly respected figure from the martial arts world?"
Qiu Zeyu slowly said, "Hua Yuhe is no simple woman! Back then, she was only ten years old, and I don't know what methods she used, but she brought down Aunt Guan, who had been in charge of Hua Man Lou for more than ten years. In recent years, she has kept a tight grip on Hua Man Lou and made it thrive. Now, not to mention Lin'an, even big places like Xiangyang, Luoyang, and Baotong have close ties with her."
"And another thing! She sent people to hunt down Wang Fengyang's family. Logically speaking, she's just a brothel madam who runs a sex business, yet she's also committing murder and robbery! Merchants value profit over parting. She must be doing someone else's bidding!" Lan Yamei poured out all her doubts.
"So, her taking back control of Hua Man Lou was just a convenient cover-up," Qiu Zeyu said.
"Now that you mention it, I've made a discovery too." Qiu Kongkong scratched the back of his head a little embarrassedly and said, "A while ago, I stayed at Huamanlou for a period of time. A girl became attached to me and insisted that I redeem her from her servitude. I was just playing around; how could someone of my status marry her! So I ran away. But that girl was really beautiful, and I only started doing wood carving at home to calm myself down."
Before he could finish speaking, Qiu Zeyu flicked him twice on the forehead: "You were freeloading off that girl again, weren't you?"
Qiu Kongkong chuckled: "We're in love, what's the point of money? That's so vulgar."
Lan Ya Mei rolled her eyes at the sky, too lazy to pay attention to them, as they kept going off on a tangent.
Suddenly Qiu Kongkong turned to me and said, "That girl told me that there is a secret room in Hua Man Lou that is a forbidden area, and anyone who sneaks in will die! One of her sisters wanted to go in to steal money and run away, but she disappeared without a trace."
Lan Yamei asked, "Where do I put the money?"
Qiu Zeyu said, "Impossible. Large sums of money are kept in banks. Keeping them on your person could easily lead to your death. Nobody is that stupid."
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