Chapter 548： homicide

Chapter 548 Murder

"Hey, son, your horse doesn't eat meat, you don't even look at it."

The store clerk walked into the store with a small piece of fat, and complained to Zhu Pingan with a displeasure on his face.

"Oh, it's fine if you don't eat." Zhu Ping'an nodded very calmly, calmly and calmly.

"what?"

The shop clerk opened his mouth wide, and then took another look at Zhu Pingan. He saw that Zhu Pingan was baking his clothes on a wooden stick indifferently. , and suddenly realized.

The curious people who went out with the shop assistants to watch horses eat meat just now are back now, with all kinds of complaints and humiliations in their mouths, such as "how can there be any horses that eat meat, it's really ****" and so on, but When I came back now, I saw Zhu Pingan baking clothes with a calm face. When some of them squeezed in but couldn't squeeze in to warm up, I realized it later.

The clothes were relatively thin, and Zhu Ping'an dried them after baking for a while. The shop assistant also delivered the meal that Zhu Ping'an had ordered. It is a kind of enjoyment to be able to eat a hot meal when the wind and rain are precarious. I took out the tender cucumbers that my mother Chen's pickled, and ate them deliciously.

While Zhu Ping'an was eating, another person entered the store in the rain, and his whole body was soaked. This person should be a peddler on his way, carrying two baskets of goods on a pole, and hurried into the shop. Walking into the store, the salesman tried to squeeze into the firepit to warm up. The clothes, especially the goods in the baskets, needed to be dried to reduce the loss caused by the wet goods.

However, just like when Zhu Ping'an first came in, the salesman squeezed a few times but couldn't get in. It was windy and rainy day, the temperature was more than ten degrees lower than usual, but people's clothes were as thin as usual, and it was rare to rely on the firepit for warmth.

The salesman looked at the goods in the basket distressedly, dejectedly.

"Come here, my clothes have been baked." Zhu Pingan, who was eating, found out and reached out to the shopkeeper.

"Thank you, son." The salesman thanked Zhu Ping'an with joy.

"You're welcome, it's just a little effort." Zhu Pingan shook his head with a slight smile, packed up his things, and went to the vacant place near the door.

The salesman thanked Zhu Pingan again and again, and when he arrived at the fire pit, he laid out the goods in the basket to bake. Fortunately, the baking was done in time and the loss was within an acceptable range. He was even more grateful to Zhu Pingan in his heart.

The day of May, Sun Monkey’s face changed as soon as he said it. Zhu Ping'an had just finished his meal when he noticed that the rain outside was getting smaller and smaller. By the time Zhu Ping'an arranged his salute and changed his clothes to dry, the rain outside had already stopped.

Good people are rewarded with good rewards. Looking at the weather outside, Zhu Pingan slightly hooked the corners of his lips. After paying the 28 Wen for the meal, Zhu Pingan left the store with his luggage. Put the salute back on the horse's back, and after the horse drank enough water, set foot on the road to the north again.

Fasting on, before sunset in the afternoon, Zhu Ping'an arrived at the pier by the Yangtze River and caught up with the last passenger ship that dropped anchor from the pier.

There is a shed on the boat for livestock, and horses can also board the boat, but you need to pay an extra fare. Zhu Pingan paid two fares for the boat, and led the horse to board the boat. The sailors led the horses to the livestock shed, and Zhu Pingan carried the luggage into the arranged cabin. There was already one person in the cabin, an old man who was visiting relatives in Nanjing. Zhu Pingan came in and said hello to the old man, then put the salute under the bed and settled down.

Dropped anchor and set sail, all the way down the river, because it had just rained, the air was damp and slightly cool, and the cool breeze was blowing, making it very comfortable to lie on the cabin bed.

It was already sunset in the evening when we dropped anchor and set sail. Although it had just rained heavily, the precipitation along the Yangtze River has been scarce recently, and the waterline of the river is much lower than in previous years. Many reefs along the way have surfaced or have not surfaced. It also caused hidden dangers to the navigation of ships. Considering these circumstances, the speed of ships sailed much slower than in previous years.

This also strengthened Zhu Pingan's idea of ​​riding a horse to Beijing after arriving in Nanjing.

After a short rest, the exhaustion from riding the horse all the way was swept away. Except for the sound of water, it was very quiet outside. Zhu Pingan turned on the oil lamp in the cabin, and took out a pen, ink, paper and inkstone from the luggage. While riding a horse on the road, Zhu Pingan revisited the matter of impeachment and murder, as well as similar allusions and documents that he had seen in modern times in his memory, and summarized the key points. Now, with the light of the oil lamp, Zhu Pingan sorted out the summary on rice paper.

"Young man, did you go to Yingtianfu to take the hospital exam?" The old man in the same cabin asked Zhu Pingan in an affirmative tone as he saw Zhu Pingan splashing ink on the oil lamp.

"I" Zhu Ping'an stopped writing, thinking about how to answer the old man.

"I have a nephew who, like you, also went to Yingtianfu to take the entrance examination, but he had already left a few days ago." Before Zhu Ping'an could reply, the old man classified Zhu Pingan among those who took the entrance examination.

"Where is the young man from?" the old man asked again.

"I'm from Anqing Mansion." Zhu Pingan replied.

"How is Anqing Mansion, one of you got the first prize, have you heard?" After hearing that Zhu Ping'an came from Anqing Mansion, the old man nodded repeatedly.

"Yeah." What else can I say, Zhu Ping'an had no choice but to hum and nod.

"This is the first time for you to participate in the hospital examination. It's a little late to start, but the first time to participate in the hospital examination is to accumulate experience. This is the third time for my nephew this year. I have prepared his luggage. I Let me tell you, you have to prepare a hollowed-out inkstone and writing brush to take the college exam.” The old man is more talkative, and even gave Zhu Pingan several college exam experiences.

Zhu Ping'an had no choice but to listen attentively, occasionally humming, the old man chatted vigorously, until the night was quiet outside, in the middle of the moon, the talkative old man couldn't stay up all night because of his age, and finally fell asleep.

After the old man fell asleep, Zhu Ping'an continued to splash ink, sort out and summarize relevant information, and did not blow out the oil lamp until midnight and went to sleep.

Woke up the next morning, around five or six o'clock, the passenger ship had already sailed to Dangtu County, Taiping Prefecture, and it was only an hour or two away from Nanjing. After getting up and washing, Zhu Ping'an fed the horse with water plants, went back to the cabin to pack his luggage, and prepared to disembark when the boat arrived at Yingtianfu.

Zhu Ping'an just finished cleaning up here, when he felt a commotion outside the boat, and soon the boat stopped by the river.

"Official envoys handle the case, please make it easier for everyone, and we can go on the road after disembarking at the shore and waiting for the officials to finish their errands." The owner of the passenger ship informed the cabin one by one to plead guilty.

When disembarking, Zhu Pingan heard that a murder case seemed to have occurred here, and the county magistrate was leading the officials to handle the case.

(end of this chapter)