Volume 2: Forbidden City, Jianghu and Imperial Court Chapter 2: Catching the Thief
The Snake King sat there in a daze, with a look of despair on his face, as if he didn't hear Fang Yunhan's question at all.
Fang Yunhan raised his eyes and looked at the person on the bed: "Then you go first, start with your name."
"I'm Xue Bing."
Even though this woman was controlled by someone, she still had a sense of pride when she said her name while lying on the bed, as if she thought that as long as she said these two words, the other party must have heard of her and knew her identity and background. But then, her expression was filled with gnashing of teeth, "That man is called the Snake King, and he is a scumbag. Lu Xiaofeng treated him as a friend, and I thought he was trustworthy. But he deceived Lu Xiaofeng and plotted against me. He is the Embroidered Thief."
The Embroidered Thief should be the most prominent person in the underworld recently. No one knows his true identity. At that time, it was said that he was involved in sixty or seventy major cases in a month. The most famous ones were stealing eighteen buckets of pearls from the royal palace, robbing 800,000 taels of silver from the Zhenyuan Escort Agency, and stealing 90,000 taels of gold leaves from the Jinsha River.
Every time he committed a crime, he used an embroidery needle as a weapon and left a floral embroidery at the scene, hence his nickname.
Even Jin Jiuling, who is known as the best master and the best detective of the Six Gates, has no clue about the criminal's case, so he has to turn to the most nosy person in the martial arts world today - Lu Xiaofeng for help.
Although Lu Xiaofeng is not very old, his martial arts, connections, and wisdom are unfathomable. Since his debut, he has often been able to solve the mysteries he has come across. Not long ago, he also thwarted a major conspiracy of the dreaded Qingyi Tower. He is currently in the limelight, so asking him for help is definitely a wise thing to do.
These things are well known to everyone in the Ming Dynasty today, so Xue Bing didn't say much.
Fang Yunhan did know these things, but he did not learn them from the martial arts world here, but from the novels in his previous life.
I read so many martial arts novels in my previous life, but I didn’t have the chance to use them when I traveled through time last time. This time it seems that they can finally be of some use.
Fang Yunhan patted the Snake King on the shoulder and said, "She said you are the Embroidery Thief. Do you have anything to say?"
The snake king was silent.
Xue Bing frowned and said, "Don't you think he is not the Embroidery Thief?"
"The Embroidered Thief has blinded everyone he has met several times, right?" Fang Yunhan said, "But you are not blind. Besides, since he has plotted against you, why didn't he do anything to you?"
"You mean, he is waiting for someone, and the person he is waiting for is the real Embroidery Thief." Xue Bing has calmed down. She is actually a smart person.
"So, who is the real Embroidery Thief?" Fang Yunhan lowered his head, looked at the pale face of the Snake King, and said, "If you don't want to tell me, then let me tell you a story."
Fang Yunhan took his hand off the snake king's shoulder and started to walk. Now in this room, the other two people had their acupuncture points sealed, and he was the only one who could move freely.
"There is such a person in the underworld. When he was young, he joined the civil service and solved many cases. At that time, he felt that those criminals were too stupid. If it were him, he would definitely be able to solve a big case perfectly. But at that time, he was still young and had a bright future, so there was no need to do so."
Fang Yunhan walked around the table and grabbed an unlit candlestick by the window.
Every piece of furnishing in this room exudes a sense of luxury, even the candlesticks are finely carved from gold.
"This person likes to enjoy life very much. His food, clothing, housing, transportation, and everything else must be of first-class quality, so he needs a lot of money. Because he is both civil and military, and has solved many major cases, he soon gained real power in the government. He is well-connected in both the black and white worlds, so naturally he has no worries about the source of money. But how can a person who pursues enjoyment like this be willing to work in the government for his entire life? When he gets older and wants a more comfortable life, he needs to completely quit the government."
"But once he completely stopped caring about things and really retired from public service, his words would no longer have such an impact on the black and white worlds, and most of his ways of making money would be cut off, so at this time he had the motive to commit a major crime."
Tap!
Fang Yunhan placed the candlestick on the table, making a slight sound.
The snake king sitting opposite the table pursed his lips tightly, revealing a nervous look involuntarily. When he suddenly heard the noise, he seemed to be a little frightened. It was obvious that his spirit was gradually tense to the extreme.
In fact, Fang Yunhan had been observing him secretly, and seeing this, he was basically certain that the case of the Embroidery Thief was not much different from the plot of the novel "The Legend of Lu Xiaofeng".
"So the person you are talking about is the real embroidery thief." Xue Bing said coldly. She already had some guesses.
"Yes." Fang Yunhan continued to circle around. "He wants to live an easy life. Not only does he need a lot of money, but he also wants to ensure that the crimes he committed cannot be attributed to him. So he has to frame these cases on other people first, but it would be best if the scapegoat is not caught by himself. He wants to ."
"So he invited Lu Xiaofeng, who has a wide network of contacts in the martial arts world, a good reputation, and is the best at solving crimes and mysteries, to investigate the case. As long as he can successfully mislead Lu Xiaofeng, he can not only completely get out of this case, but also enjoy a sense of accomplishment for surpassing Lu Xiaofeng in intelligence and strategy."
"So, he colluded with the Snake King and kidnapped me here, which was also part of his attempt to mislead Lu Xiaofeng." Xue Bing's face was as cold as ice. "Then why didn't he kill me?"
Fang Yunhan ignored her and reached out to open the door of the cabinet.
The cabinet contained not clothes and bedding, but swords, spears, halberds, double hooks, chain guns and other weapons, just like an armory.
The most eye-catching one is a large iron hammer that looks like a hammer and an iron whip.
Fang Yunhan picked up the weapon and played with it for a while.
The Snake King finally spoke: "Because he is not only a person who pursues first-class quality in food, clothing, housing and transportation and likes to enjoy life, but also a person who likes beautiful women."
The snake king couldn't turn his head, he just squinted at Xue Bing, "He certainly won't kill a beauty like you so easily."
Xue Bing finally determined who that person was. She spoke angrily, enunciating each word.
"Jin, Jiu, Ling."
…
Jin Jiuling was sitting in a soft and comfortable sedan chair, heading to his secret residence.
The flawless case he had planned was already halfway completed. Under his guidance, Lu Xiaofeng had begun to suspect that Gongsun Da Niang was the Embroidery Thief.
Being able to watch a very smart person like Lu Xiaofeng step into the trap he set step by step is already an ultimate enjoyment, and now he has to get another kind of enjoyment.
Xue Bing.
Xue Bing is one of the four great beauties in the martial arts world, and the jewel in the crown of Madam Xue, the master of acupuncture.
She admired Lu Xiaofeng, and more importantly, Lu Xiaofeng also had a special feeling for her. The latter reason almost moved Jin Jiuling more than Xue Bing's appearance.
He was almost anxious, and he wanted to see Xue Bing right away and have a good time...
Don't be anxious, you need to be calm to accomplish big things.
Jin Jiuling knew this very well, so he calmed his mind and began to divert his attention and think about other things.
He took out a ribbon of unique material from his sleeve. The material of this ribbon was the same as the one tied on the hilt of Gongsun Da Niang's sword, and it was not easy to obtain.
Next, in addition to also wants to use this ribbon to kill the Snake King.
Because the Snake King had to betray Lu Xiaofeng and cooperate with Jin Jiuling for the lives of his brothers. This kind of person cannot be fully trusted and must die. Moreover, his death will also allow Lu Xiaofeng to go one step further on the path of being misled.
At this time, Jin Jiuling's sedan had arrived at a deserted and dilapidated street.
There are only six or seven shops on this street, all of which are very old and dilapidated, and there is no intention to repair them. Most of the people in the shops are also very old and have various disabilities or diseases.
Usually, there are very few people coming here, and along the way Jin Jiuling came here, there were at least seven or eight secret sentries to ensure that he was not noticed or followed by anyone.
By the time they entered the street, Jin Jiuling had already left the sedan chair.
The people carrying the sedan chair left immediately.
Jin Jiuling came alone to the door of a mounting shop. An old man who was half deaf and half blind inside immediately opened the small door that had been half eaten by termites and led him in.
There were several half-mounted calligraphy and paintings in the store. Jin Jiuling lifted up one of the landscape paintings hanging on the wall and pressed a brick. Immediately, a narrow secret passage appeared. After he walked in alone, the secret door of the secret passage closed automatically.
After passing through the secret passage and another secret door, and walking a few more steps, the daylight shone in front of us, and we saw a refreshing courtyard.
The yard is not big, but every blade of grass and every tree has been carefully designed, and there are three or five fine houses standing in it.
Two maids with bright eyes and charming looks knelt in front of the steps to greet them.
Jin Jiuling stopped, opened his arms, and let the two maids help him take off his casual clothes and put on a more comfortable new brocade robe.
"coming."
The two maids nodded, "Yes, two people, a man and a woman, both are the same as the portraits we showed them to us before."
"Yeah." Jin Jiuling narrowed his eyes. He would not let other people know about this place.
But it doesn’t matter, those two will be dead after today.
Jin Jiuling dismissed the two maids and walked towards the room specially decorated for the beauty he had captured.
When he was about ten steps away from the room, he stopped and used his hearing ability, which could detect and shoot thirty-seven kinds of hidden weapons in the bamboo forest on a rainy night, to confirm once again the breathing and heartbeats of only two people in the room.
His caution has really reached an outrageous level.
All the steps were flawless and completely in line with his expectations. Only then did Jin Jiuling step forward and open the door.
As soon as the door opened, his face changed drastically.
There was a third person in the room.
