Records of the Cattle and Horses of Chang'an

Chapter 368 Zhang You6

A thin layer of water had accumulated on the ground, and as Cui Bianxu's footsteps lightly, drops of mud splashed on the faces of several people, and everyone who was awake was frightened.

For someone who almost thought he was going to die and finally saw hope of life, I tell you at this time - sorry to kiss you, you are going to die soon.

This is absolutely unacceptable.

He banged his head twice. “Only people who are put into this barrel will have their legs broken… The day before yesterday… The day before yesterday…”

“Ah! Could it be…?”

He suddenly raised his head and looked towards the passage Cui Bianxu had come from. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he said, "Yesterday, when I was sleeping, I seemed to hear these thieves say that the tiger outside was a reincarnated pig, and it secretly escaped from the cage and ate a corpse. After they said this, I was a little woken up. I dazedly heard them adding chains to the cage..."

There is also a chain of contempt among beggars. The beggars in Chang'an City are naturally at the top. They look down on beggars from other places and foreigners, and only accept charity from the people of the Tang Dynasty.

Among the beggars in Chang'an, there is also a chain of contempt. The further south the beggars go, the worse off they are, and the further north they go, the better off they are.

Especially in the bustling markets such as the East and West Markets, Pingkang, and Chongren, if you want to beg in these places, you not only need to be able to fight, but also have to have a good brain.

The beggar's name was Zhang Youliu. He was originally the sixth in the family. His family was so poor that even though boys could be laborers when they grew up, they had to be raised first, right? Finding wives for so many boys was a huge hurdle.

How could they afford to raise so many children? The Han people were different from the Yiluo people in the north. The Yiluo people had the custom of having the youngest son guard the stove, while the Han people valued the eldest son. Therefore, he went out to make a living at a young age and walked all the way to Chang'an.

After arriving, he knew that he had come to the right place. Chang'an is really great. He has never seen such a prosperous place in his life. Isn't this a paradise on earth?

With his experience and intelligence along the way, Zhang Youliu quickly gained a foothold among the beggars in Chang'an. He climbed up little by little and finally got to begging in Chongrenfang. For Zhang Youliu, this was an achievement that was enough to bring honor to his family!

Therefore, facing the death warning, the intelligent beggar Zhang Youliu's brain raced: "Mr. Cui, anyone with a broken leg must have gotten into this barrel. I've never seen anyone escape directly, but anything fished out of this barrel is fed to the worms..."

Only the dead can be unchained...

Cui Bianxu understood what he meant. If someone could escape from this place, it must be that the person in the wooden barrel was not dead and was thrown into the dark room where the mountain lion was imprisoned and escaped while these people were not around.

Although Zhang Youliu thought so, he couldn't figure out one thing: "Shaoqing Cui, if that's the case, how did that person escape?"

He has lost a leg and his physical condition is so poor. Where can he run even without the chains?

Cui Bianxu didn't say anything more to him. What could we come up with by discussing this here? It would be better to go over and take a look!

The tiger in the iron cage was already dead, and the large pool of feces and urine at the bottom of the cage gave off a strong stench mixed with the smell of blood, which was particularly pungent. Zhang Youliu bravely followed and saw the tiger's miserable state and couldn't help but exclaimed: "This!"

He was knocked unconscious and stuffed into the small cave. Although he had never seen the tiger in person, he could hear the tiger's roar every day. The deafening roar seemed particularly terrifying in the underground. Every time he heard it, he couldn't help but tremble in his heart.

I didn't expect to die like this...

It was self-evident who did it. Zhang Youliu looked at Cui Bianxu with eyes full of admiration.

Those who live in the underworld worship the strong.

With Cui Shaoqing's skill, he can get along well even in their mountain village!

"Young Master Cui is indeed unparalleled in bravery. Even if Lü Fengxian were reborn, he would not be one-tenth as brave as you." Zhang Youliu had never been to school. He had heard storytellers and opera singers sing about some great generals in the past who were extremely powerful. He thought it must be someone like Cui Bianxu.

Unfortunately, the flattery backfired. Cui Bianxu didn't think he was better than Lu Fengxian, nor did he think that being similar to Lu Fengxian was a good thing. He stared at him coldly for a while and stared back at Zhang Youliu's remaining inappropriate flattery. Then he began to check the dark room again, which he had just entered but didn't see anything unusual.

Apart from the table, this place only has an iron cage that holds the tiger. There is nothing above, below, left, or right that can be seen by the naked eye. How can there be any way out?

Zhang Youliu was wary of the cage. Even if the giant, ferocious beast of the forest were dead, its corpse would still be quite captivating. But he didn't stop, the threat of death weighing heavily on his head. He tried desperately to recall everything he had heard during the five days he had been imprisoned there.

"Shaoqing Cui..."

"explain."

"Among the people who died the day before yesterday, one seemed to have some connection with this place..." Zhang Youliu was not too sure, he just relied on his professional instinct to make his judgment.

"What's the matter? Be more specific."

"That man was already injured when he arrived, looking disheveled. People enter the barrel in the order they arrive. He arrived a day later than me, four days ago. I seemed to hear the thief cursing as he threw him into the hole: 'I told you to run! You earned this money to buy your life, and you still want to keep it?'"

"You earned enough money to buy your life, and you still want to keep it? You came one day later than you, but the day before yesterday..." This shows that these people are very anxious to kill this person.

Cui Bianxu repeated these words in his mouth over and over again, feeling that a clue flashed by but he didn't grasp it.

Zhang Youliu observed his expression and continued, "Those people aren't here all day. We'll chat with them when they're not around, but that person never talks to us."

He was inexplicably caught here and had to stay in a small cave all day with nothing to do. Every day he saw people dying in pain. A normal person would be terrified and would definitely say a few words, but this person was as motionless as if he were dead, and there was not even the sound of the chains rubbing against each other.

If he hadn't screamed when he was taken out and his legs were chopped off, Zhang Youliu would have thought he was dead!

Just as they were at their wit's end, the man Cui Bianxu had saved, who had nearly had his tongue cut off, came over and trembled, saying, "When he was taken out of the barrel, those people said that it took them over three months to find him. He was hiding like a rat."

Because Zhang Youliu was hungry, he relied on sleeping to conserve his energy most of the time. He heard these words in a half-asleep state but had already forgotten them. On the contrary, Gao Heng was so scared that he would wake up every time there was a little movement.