Chapter 85.
Zhou An tried to walk around for a bit and realized that he was perfectly fine.
Everything around him was lifelike.
This scene aroused Zhou An’s curiosity.
The current state was like watching an immersive movie.
Zhou An touched his hand on the tree beside him and passed through it with ease.
He remembered what Ye Frost had just said to him.
In this people’s memories, he was just a spectator and could not change anything.
Thinking of this, Zhou An gave up his curiosity to explore.
He gathered his gaze on the child in front of him.
The child didn’t look big, but he was holding a book in his hands, reading it attentively.
Next to the child, there were a few adults who were enjoying the cool air.
Zhou An heard the adults talking.
“Alas, the little doggie child holds a book and reads it every day, sooner or later he will read it and become a nerd.”
“Keep your voice down, this is something his father left him.”
“But his parents are dead, we can’t see him become a nerd.”
“No way, his father is a nerd, all rely on his mother to support, now his mother died of exhaustion, his father died of depression, we can only do their own strength.”
“Yes, his mother is quite good, children who grow up eating a hundred meals will grow strong in the future.”
These words of the adults came into Zhou An’s ears one after another.
Zhou An quickly sorted out the important clues.
First, this child’s parents died early, and his father was still a scholar.
Secondly, the reason the child was able to survive was entirely due to eating the hundred meals in the village.
Third, this child is the name that was scratched off the household register, Li Dogwa.
In this kind of era, the people in the village were very rustic, and it was normal for this to happen.
Zhou An continued to read on.
The child was reading seriously and mumbling, his serious appearance was heartbreaking.
Time gradually passed, and in the blink of an eye, it was afternoon.
Throughout the afternoon, the child did not move a bit, always staring intently at the book.
Until a man shook a bushel fan and called the child away.
“Dogwa, go home for dinner, go, don’t look.”
The man’s looks were a bit similar to the one Zhou An had picked, probably when he was younger.
Li Dogwa put down the book, gave a soft oh, pulled the man’s hand, and walked towards a family room.
Zhou An followed behind.
Soon, he arrived at a room.
The house was simple and poor.
The man and a woman were busy with their work.
In a short while, a few simple dishes were ready.
Besides the few of them, there was also a little girl sitting at the table.
The food could only be described as average.
However, Li Dogwa and the little girl ate very well.
“Dogwa, let’s learn farming tomorrow.” The man said as he ate.
Li Dogwa fell into silence.
The man continued, “Even though you’re not old, it’s not a big deal to learn a little, when you’re older, you can help share the load, don’t always hold onto a book, you can’t grow food inside a book.”
Li Dogwa raised his head and crisply said, “Uncle, I want to grow up and get a meritocracy.”
At these words, the room fell into silence.
After a while, the woman next to him shook her head.
“Your father failed the exam so many times, don’t think about it, that thing is not something we can play around with.”
Li Dogua fell into silence.
The little girl next to him interjected, “Father and mother, you let Brother Dogwa take the test, Brother Dogwa is different from us, he can read and write!”
“Alas ……” the woman sighed.
“Dogwa, you always have to grow up, you always have to recognize …… it.”
She was still planning to persuade, but Li Dogwa shook his head.
“I want to take the test.”
The tone was firm.
The two adults looked at each other, and in the end, no one said anything.
In front of Zhou An’s eyes, the scenery began to gradually change, and in the blink of an eye, he was no longer in the room, and once again appeared at the entrance of the village.
At this time, a man appeared in front of him, wearing a cloth coat and carrying a bundle behind him.
The man’s back was turned to Zhou An.
A woman was organizing the man’s clothes.
“Brother Dogwa, remember to come back after the exam, don’t be too late.”
Next to the woman, there stood a man and a woman, both of whom had entered middle age.
The man carrying a cloth bag nodded and directly left the village.
The woman looked at the man’s back and muttered to herself ……
“Brother Dogwa, you must pass the exam, and come to marry me when you do.”
The middle-aged woman walked up, put her arm around the young woman’s shoulder, and advised, “He’s taken the exam twice, don’t wait any longer, marry earlier.”
“You’re so stupid, doing farm work every day and buying him books, why bother?”
The young woman sniffed and shook her head.
“Brother Dogua has this talent, I don’t want him to be sad.”
The scenery in front of Zhou An’s eyes changed once more.
This time, it was no longer a sunny spring day, but an autumn day with a strong wind.
Something strange was happening in Qingliu Village.
The villagers were gathered in the open space in the center.
A man was standing in front, ringing a bell in his hand.
“From now on, Li Dogua was lost when he was small, and you have never seen him since then.”
As the man spoke, he shook it, the sound of the bell, passing through Qingliu Village.
Among the villagers, the women’s eyes grew more and more confused.
Until finally, all the villagers fell into a stupor.
The man put away the bell and sighed.
He slowly turned around.
At this time, Zhou An finally saw the man’s face clearly.
When he saw this face, his entire body froze as if he was struck by lightning.
If one added a dash of beard to this face and aged this face slightly, he would look like a human being.
–Chen Magistrate!
At this moment, it was as if Zhou An thought of something and strung everything together.
The person behind the scenes was County Magistrate Chen!
“In that case, everything makes sense.”
“Why I was transferred to Spring Dawn House that night, he deliberately lured me away.”
“Also, why the theater troupe found its way to Anding County is also related to him.”
Zhou An was like a patient who had suffered from rhinitis for many years and suddenly had a sense of relief as if his nose had been cleared.
But it wasn’t enough, he was going to keep watching.
After Magistrate Chen had done this, he came to the young woman’s side and touched the young woman’s face.
“Little Flower, I’m sorry.”
He muttered to himself.
Just then, several figures flashed by.
Three women appeared behind Magistrate Chen.
These three women each had their own demeanor.
Two of them Zhou An recognized, the Praying Fire Master and the Bug Master.
Zhou An guessed that the other woman would be the Original Mate.
The Original Mate had a hint of pity on her face, while the other two had a cold face.
The Fire Prayer Master sneered, “You are now a County Magistrate, and you still have your eyes on a peasant woman?”
County Magistrate Chen turned around and was silent.
The Bugmaster said, “If it weren’t for the Great Lady’s side-conceit, all of these people should have been killed.”
The original wife known as the First Lady clenched her teeth, “Husband has already accomplished his heart’s desire, so let’s not make any more killings that will hurt heaven and peace.”
What the other two women said didn’t make Magistrate Chen open his mouth, but only after the First Lady’s words were spoken, Magistrate Chen spoke.
“Not enough, far from enough!” Magistrate Chen’s tone was somber.
The First Lady hesitated, “Husband, never indulge further.”
“You don’t understand!” County Magistrate Chen’s tone grew more and more somber.
“This world is unfair!”
“If I don’t continue, how will I move up the ladder?”
“You all saw the imperial examinations this time, my talent is far better than the others, it’s just that I didn’t cross the threshold of being a scholar and was transferred to this remote county.”
“That fool, instead, went to a prosperous place!”
Magistrate Chen took a step forward, his face sinister.
“Having ambitions that fill the sky, but no platform to display them, only by constantly improving my strength will I be recognized by the emperor and be able to display my ambitions!”
The First Lady did not say a single word, obviously knowing that speaking any more at this time would cause even more conflict.
Seeing this scene, Zhou An could not help but clap his hands.
“Good fellow, now the purpose is there.”
It turned out that after becoming an official, Magistrate Chen was just an ordinary person.
Moreover, from the time of the imperial examinations, he had never competed against those who were true scholars, and thus harbored hatred and learned the Water Burial Method to simulate the abilities of a scholar.
Zhou An understood everything.
In front of his eyes, the scenery changed again for a while.
This time, everything was restored.
Zhou An opened his eyes and realized that he had come to the cell.
Next to him, the talisman paper in Ye Frost’s hand burned out.
Zhou An realized that Zhang Si Xian and Sheriff Xie were both staring at the sky above, and subconsciously looked to see the last scene dissipating.
“So you guys are still watching the scene.”
Zhou An was speechless.
It was good that he did not do anything out of the ordinary in there.
As Zhou An awoke, Zhang Si Xian and Sheriff Xie also returned to normal.
“Now, everything is revealed.” Zhou An said.
Zhang Si Xian was silent for a long time and turned around, ready to leave.
“Going for what?” Zhou An asked.
Magistrate Zhang took a deep breath, “To be able to cultivate the Water Burial Method to such a level, there are quite a few human lives in his hands, not to mention, more than twenty children died in Qingliu Village.”
“This is a blood debt, I don’t want to wait any longer, I have to let him die without a burial place.”
Zhou An gave a wink to Sheriff Xie, “Stop Lord Zhang.”
Sheriff Xie did not know how, and ghostly stopped in the middle.
Zhang Si Xian frowned.
He could not figure out what Zhou An meant.
At this time, Zhou An spoke, “Then what, you find your way over there and fight him in the downtown area, it’s fine if he can beat you, if he can’t, and randomly carries out a killing spree within the city, can you stop him?”
Zhang Si County fell into deep thought.
Indeed, as Zhou An had said, a person who did not take human life seriously would hold other people’s lives hostage.
Most of the people who were able to enter the Zhen Gui Si were reckless people from the Jianghu, with the bloodthirsty nature of Jianghu people.
Just now, Zhang Si County’s anger and blood filled his brain and he wanted to get rid of this scum, so he didn’t calm down, luckily he was stopped by Zhou An.
Zhou An slowly said, “To deal with him, the first thing to do is to lure him away.”
“How to lure?” Zhang Si Xian asked.
He also knew that after luring him away, he could let go of him, but the question was how to lure him away.
Magistrate Chen had never taken a step outside of Anding County.
Especially at this extraordinary time, how could one lure away?
“Isn’t that just a strip of bait?” Zhou An looked towards a cell.
Inside the cell, there was a woman cowering in the corner, full of fear.
Ye Frost saw this scene and said coldly, “So shady.”
The corner of Zhou An’s mouth rose as a plan formed in his mind.
Time gradually passed, and in the blink of an eye, a few more days passed.
In these few days down the line, Zhou An had been living according to a routine.
Every day was about livering proficiency, ordering, eating, dispersing values, continuing to liver, and sleeping.
It was as if nothing had happened that night.
In fact, Zhou An had a plan long ago.
But it had to be slowed down for a few days, after all, he had only just come out of the Zhen Gui Si, and the plan was implemented, then it was out in the open.
Hit the snake, can not hit the grass.
In the past few days, that is, in yesterday’s time, the Zhen Gui Si released the people from Qingliu Village.
The reason used, was that no clues were found.
And Zhang Si County apologized step by step, making it known to everyone in Anding County.
Zhou An heard the news and knew that everything was progressing steadily.
He waited patiently, like a hibernating hunter.
During this recent period of time, his Butcher’s Knife Technique had also made considerable progress.
[Butcher’s Blade Technique (Speed +2, Accuracy +2) lv.4: 3158/60,000]
Of course, these elations were small, and he waited for the big surprise at the end.
“The news, it should have gotten through.”
Zhou An put down the long sword in his hand, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes.
Two more days passed.
Inside the county office of Anding County.
The inner courtyard was where the county magistrate lived.
At this moment, Magistrate Chen was holding a piece of paper in his hands, trembling slightly.
The content on the paper was only one sentence.
“Brother Dogua, I seem to remember a lot of things, I miss you.”
County Magistrate Chen’s eyes were evasive.
Looking at the words on it, he thought of many things.
Especially thinking about that tiny village and his own childhood.
“It seems that although the people from the Zhen Gui Si didn’t probe for information, they seem to have revived some of her memories.”
Magistrate Chen burned the paper in his hand into ashes, looking at the rising smoke, a fierce color appeared in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, I love you very much, but the selection is coming up soon, I haven’t participated in it for several years, just so that others can’t see the Water Burial Method, this time I mustn’t give up.”
He took a deep breath, looked out the window at the night, and went out the door.
Qingliu Village.
As usual, nothing had changed here.
But in the shadows, Zhou An, Ye Shuang, Sheriff Xie and Zhang Si Xian were quietly standing guard.
“Zhou An, how can I not think that he is a lover, otherwise he wouldn’t have married so many people, he won’t come tonight, right?” Zhang Si Xian looked up at the moon in the dark clouds and asked.
They had been waiting here for a long time, just the four of them.
The others didn’t come out, in order to not let County Magistrate Chen see anything unusual.
If there were more people, it would be easy to cause a break.
After waiting for so long, and still not waiting for anyone, Zhang Si Xian had this question.
Zhou An strangely said, ”Who said he is a love child? If he was really a love child, he wouldn’t have laid hands on his original spouse.”
“Then you still ……” Zhang Si Xian said strangely.
“His identity is about to be exposed, painstakingly making all kinds of layouts, wanting to hide his history, but now the history can’t be hidden.”
Zhou An explained.
“Think about it, if it were you, would you want to make a move? Besides, does he still have the manpower now?”
“Taking a step back, another other person, wouldn’t that be a replica of Zhang Xiu Xiu, we can hook fish bait again.”
Zhang Si Xian thought about it, it seemed right to say so.
He said no more and waited patiently.
Just at this time, a figure appeared at the entrance of the village.