After a pause, the young man said, "On the second day, that is, during the day of the 17th, I received Su'e's third letter. The letter asked me why I had broken the covenant, but he did not mention the symbolic secret covenant. This was already a little suspicious, but I was carried away at the time, and I couldn't think of the misunderstanding here. She also told me to drop the reply letter to her house in person, and I thought that since I had no chance to give the letter in person, I might as well simply throw my promise orb into her house. So I took a piece of blue silk and wrote a few words on it—the handwriting was so small that I would not see it for the sake of secrecy. Then I wrapped the blue silk in beads and enveloped it in an envelope—the envelope did as she intended, and nothing was written at all, so as not to reveal any flaws. ”

Jing Mo took the opportunity for the child to take out a white towel to wipe the fine sweat on the tip of his nose, glanced at Nie Xiaoman, and said, "There was handwriting on the blue silk, but Yan Dachuan didn't see it. ”

Nie Xiaoman nodded, looked at Meng Zheng again, and motioned for him to continue. The young man put down his white scarf and continued to explain.

"Later, I took the opportunity of my father and mother to go to the opera garden, so I went back to the Putty Pavilion around the end of the day, and put the envelope containing the beads into the mailbox of the seventh family. At that time, I saw only the shadow of a young girl in the window, and my heart was so confused that I didn't have time to look at the door number. I secretly wondered, could it be that her parents have gone out? But at that moment, I suddenly heard someone coming down the stairs inside, but the shadow on the window was still there, and it was not Su'e who came down. So I didn't dare to stay any longer, so I hurriedly turned around and fled. ”

Because of Tian Mengzheng's supplement, Jing Mo has already understood the suspicions in the inside story of the case. However, there is still the mysterious symbol that cannot be fully understood. Jing Mo was about to ask a question, but Nie Xiaoman nodded to the kid again.

"And what happens after that?"

Tian Mengzheng said: "What happened in the future is exactly the same as what the adults said. For I received a fourth letter from Su E on the afternoon of the 18th, in which I was asked why there was no news, and carefully explained the address of her house, which was at No. 17 of the Putty Court. I realized that I had made a big mistake! What I did in the future, the adults really seemed to have opened their eyes, and they were already completely clear, so I don't need to say more. ”

Nie Xiaoman picked up the pu fan again and shook it gently. There was a smile on his lips, too. Jing Mo didn't know what Xiaoman's smile meant? Did the boy praise him for his natural vision? Or is there something else going on?

Tian Mengzheng was a little impatient, and asked, "My lord, you promised the villain, you can get the real pearl back for me." Now can you make good on your promises? ”

Nie Xiaoman still replied with a faint smile: "Well, do you want to retrieve that real pearl?" Yes, it really matters. But since you have given away this precious thing gently, why are you in a hurry now? I ask you: What does that one stroke and one stroke, like a figure eight, mean? ”

This question was originally what Jing Mo wanted to raise after thinking about it for a long time, but Nie Xiaoman said it on his behalf, and Jing Mo was naturally secretly happy.

Unexpectedly, Tian Mengzheng suddenly became embarrassed again, his face turned red, he lowered his head, and replied slowly: "This strange symbol is a secret mark of the two of us. The cause of our knowledge occurs from this symbol. ”

"It's funny. Please be clear. ”

"When we were on the riverboat, I happened to pick up a bird on the outboard of the boat. It was like a beautiful bird spreading its wings on a branch, and there were a few ruby embedded in it, which was obviously a woman's ornament. When I picked it up, I looked up and saw three or five paces away a plump and beautiful girl looking out over the railing. I walked up to her and whispered to her if she had lost anything. She put her hand on her head, smiled back at me, and said, 'Ouch, I lost it!' I respectfully returned the step, and received a few cheerful words of thanks from her. And so our friendship began. ”

"On the day we came ashore, I heard my cousin Wen Kai say that after receiving my father's letter, he had booked a room for us at the Tongfu Inn. Because there was a bird on her step, I had said to her, 'I would like to be a branch on the ground,' and I drew it on a piece of paper as a secret sign for her to identify me, and I left my address, not daring to name it below, but added one of them, and quietly threw it into her cabin. ”

Nie Xiaoman gently shook the pu fan and smiled at Jing Mo: "Jing Mo, you can judge, the structure and twists and turns of this story, how about comparing the stories of the son and the young lady in those dramas?" And in "Red Line Girl", the green cloud girl broke into the heavily walled Jiedu envoy's mansion alone, and unknowingly stole a treasure box containing the golden seal of the Jiedu envoy Tian Chenghei from the bedside of the Jiedu envoy? How about this amorous son? ”

The story told by Xiaoman is that one night in the late summer and early autumn of the middle year of Zong Jian in the Tang Dynasty, a girl dressed in a dark green night suit quietly came to Weizhou City, broke into the palace of the Jiedu envoy with strong barriers, and stole a treasure box with the golden seal of the Jiedu envoy from the bedside of the old and cunning Jiedu envoy Tian Chenghe, thus cleverly stopping an imminent war. After this incident spread, it was deduced into the story of "Red Line Girl Weicheng Treasure Thief Box", and the red line girl, a box thief girl with superb martial arts, was even regarded as a chivalrous girl who looked like a god and a fairy.

A few years ago, there was a genius in Kunshan, named Liang Chenyu, who compiled this story into the Kunqu opera "Red Line Girl" and sang it everywhere, and Xiaoman and Jingmo naturally watched it.

The young man knew the story, and bowed his head shyly, and the red on his face gradually spread to the base of his ears.

After joking for a while, Nie Xiaoman asked again: "One more point, how did you get the beads?" ”

"I—I took it out of the box myself." The boy's head was still sinking.

"Does your mother know that?"

"I don't know. The day after we arrived in Jinling, I took advantage of the free time to take it out. ”

"How did you get it? Do you have another key? ”

"No, I haven't used the key. I saw that my mother didn't lock the lock after opening the box, so I took the opportunity to take it out. My mother was a bit sloppy, and that was often the case after unpacking. ”

Nie Xiaoman nodded and said. "Well, this is very possible, Ji Shaoquan had doubts before." After speaking, Xiao Man's eyes looked at the ceiling for a long time, as if he had forgotten everything in front of him, and after a long time, he said again.

"Children, you have read some books, and you always know about men and women, and you always ask for the orders of your parents and the words of matchmakers. So at your age, it's too impatient to go behind your back on both parents and make a private decision for life. And this kind of stealing and snatching, young people can't do it! Why don't you make it clear to your parents? ”

Tian Mengzheng said hesitantly: "Master Nie, you don't know that my father has always been very stubborn, but whenever I say that I want the east, he will definitely go west, and he will say some inexplicable truth, just to show his authority as a father, it is very ridiculous, he ......"

The sound of the word "he" had not yet been fully pronounced, the door of the study was slammed open, and a short and fat man strode in, but Wei Pu followed behind the comer, and the three of them all looked up in surprise!