Later, they found many books that could be found everywhere and tried to decipher the code in this way, but they all failed.
Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao were a little discouraged. The former narrowed his eyes and said, "Ning Yan, you're suddenly not smart."
He could clearly feel that Xu Qi 'an's thinking activity had seriously declined and was not as sharp as before.
Xu Qi 'an raised his head and stared at the crisscrossed beams. He said angrily, "Was your friend also very listless when she was not in good health?"
"Why, why did you mention my friend again …" Song Tingfeng was a little embarrassed.
"Hehe." Xu Qi 'an thought, I haven't slept for thirteen days. How fast do you expect my brain to work? Susu is useless. She can't even refresh herself. What's the use of raising her?
However, the advantage of this Mei was not the core, but the matching shell.
Raising a Mei was equivalent to raising a fish pond. It was much easier than raising spare tires like Huai Qing, Lin An, Fu Xiang, and Caiwei.
At that time, the owner of the fish pond, Xu Qi 'an, would hold a steel fork and stab the fish he fancied.
"Why don't we take a break?" Song Tingfeng suggested.
"Let the courier send some sweets over." Xu Qi 'an said.
The best way to fight against brain fatigue was to consume sugar. Sugar was the only energy that the brain could use. Most people liked to eat sweets, not because they were delicious, but because the brain urged the body to consume sugar.
Xu Qi 'an needed sugar now.
The courier made them longan egg drop sweet soup, raisin cakes, almond tofu pudding … sweet.
Xu Qi 'an chose the longan egg drop sweet soup and pushed the almond tofu pudding to the squinting eyes. Song Tingfeng suddenly became happy and said with a smile, "Ning Yan, how do you know I like sweet tofu pudding?"
Because you look like a heretic … Xu Qi 'an smiled and said, "Because we are brothers. Seeing you wash your face with tears, I'll give you some tofu pudding to sweeten your heart."
Who washed their face with tears? Song Tingfeng rolled his eyes, knowing that he was hinting at Susu.
"Speaking of which, Miss Susu is really wonderful. She's a rare girl who can fight with me for 300 rounds …" Song Tingfeng thought of the ecstasy that happened in the private room of the teahouse today.
"You won't understand. You are a prodigal son, but I am not." Song Tingfeng shook his head and sneered.
"In the past, when you first joined the night watchmen, I advised you to marry the Lü Qing Constable Lu, but you hesitated and didn't agree. Then, you turned around and got together with Fu Xiang. At that time, I knew that you were the same kind of person. If Arrester Lu were to marry you, it would be like a fresh flower stuck in cow dung. "
The image of Lü Qing's valiant and heroic appearance flashed across Xu Qi'an's mind. He snapped, "Although Constable Lu isn't as pretty as Fu Xiang, aren't you going too far by calling her cow dung?"
"I didn't say she was cow dung, I said you."
"Then what do you mean by 'fresh flowers stuck on cow dung'?"
"…"
After eating dessert, because the famous detective Xu Ningyan was not in a good state, Song Tingfeng took the initiative to assume the responsibility of reasoning. He cleared his throat and said,
"Let's put ourselves in Zhou Min's shoes. If I were Zhou Min, I would definitely hide the codebook in a place where the inspection team could find it at any time, but it wouldn't attract attention."
"Yes!" Xu Qi'an nodded.
"We have checked Zhou Min's residence, and there are no hidden compartments or suspicious things. We have just compared the books he left behind, "Zhu Guangxiao said.
Song Tingfeng thought for a moment and touched his chin. "… Maybe, it's not necessarily a book? Zhou Min is a meticulous person. If others can think of it, he can definitely think of it too.
"Let's change our way of thinking. It might be a book with words on it, but it's not a book? Ning Yan, do you think it's possible? "
"Very good, Tingfeng, your intelligence and wisdom have successfully attracted my attention. You are a genius who was delayed by the women of the Musical House." Xu Qi'an flattered him and asked,
"Then what do you think it could be? It's not a book, but it's in Zhou Min's belongings. And it must be of considerable thickness … "
Xu Qi'an suddenly paused.
"Is it an almanac?!" Song Tingfeng shouted first.
Honest Zhu Guangxiao, who was immersed in his work, accurately found a thick almanac in the relics. "Is it it?"
"Yes!" Xu Qi'an exhaled the turbid air in his chest, and his eyes were full of excitement.
It was both a book and not a book. It was both eye-catching and ordinary. According to the speculation and analysis of Zhou Min during this period, Xu Qi'an was very sure that this was Zhou Min's style.
The three couldn't wait to open the almanac, and starting from the first word, they counted to the 162nd word: Day!
The "day" of Yi Mao Day.
Then it was the 347th word, the fourth word, the first word, and the second word.
Combined together: Silent Day Ding Yiwu!
Obviously, this was wrong.
Then they adopted the second method, taking the number of pages instead of the number of words.
If they took the number of pages, then each word corresponded to a day in the calendar. The combination was as follows:
Silent, 6th of April, 15th of January, 29th of January, 25th of January, 26th of January.
"Damn, wrong again." Xu Qi'an threw the almanac aside and cursed. "This idea is wrong. Let's start again."
"Maybe we can solve the word 'silent' first, because it is the only word, and it is the first one." Zhu Guangxiao suggested his idea.
The meaning of the first one was very important.
Xu Qi'an pinched the space between his eyebrows. "Then do you have any ideas?"
Zhu Guangxiao shook his head.
Xu Qi'an asked again, "The word 'silent' doesn't have any special meaning in our yamen, does it?"
Song Tingfeng muttered, "The Imperial Inspector and Jiang Jinluo have already studied the secret code. If the word 'silent' points to a secret code in the yamen, Lord Jiang and the Imperial Inspector should be able to discover it."
"What can the Imperial Inspector discover? He is only good at guessing puzzles. "Xu Qi'an curled his lips. The next moment, he was stunned.
Inspiration burst forth in his exhausted mind, flashing like a flash of lightning.
He remembered that when he was still in the police academy, a professor who studied criminal psychology once said that a person's behavior was closely related to his habits.
When analyzing and profiling a target, the first thing to do was to collect as much information as possible about the target and understand the target's habits.
No matter how cunning a criminal was, his behavior pattern was traceable, and that was his habits.
What was Zhou Min's habit?
It was a puzzle!
Yang Yingying once said that Zhou Min liked to play guessing puzzles with her when he was drinking … So, when Zhou Min was thinking about how to hide the evidence and leave clues, he would habitually approach the direction of the puzzle … From this, it could be inferred that the only word in the two sets of secret codes was also a puzzle. Xu Qi'an's thoughts became clearer and clearer.
Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao looked at each other and tacitly maintained silence. Just now, Xu Ningyan's state had returned, and he was as wise and focused as when he was investigating the Sampo Case.
"Silence," Xu Qi'an pinched the space between his eyebrows and asked, "I remember my colleague who went to Huangbo Street said that it was the dog market?"
Song Tingfeng said, "Yes, it is the dog market. Why?"
Xu Qi'an said, "The word 'Silence' is separated into 'Black' and 'Dog.' The information in Huangbo Street is the clue left by Zhou Min in the previous puzzle. I think we can match it now."
"You think the secret code points to the dog market?" Song Tingfeng frowned. "Then what does' Black 'represent? Isn't it too arbitrary to determine that the secret code points to the dog market with just 'Dog'? "
"I have an idea." Before Xu Qi'an finished speaking, he went out and called for a courier.
"Sirs, what can I do for you?" the courier asked.
"How much do you know about Huangbo Street?" Xu Qi'an asked.
"Huangbo Street. That place is chaotic. It's quiet during the day, but at night, it's full of all kinds of people. But when night falls, there are all kinds of people there. Thieves, Jianghu tourists, and even mountain bandits from outside will go to that street, "the courier replied.
"Is it selling dog meat or some other kind of meat?" Xu Qi'an thought. "Mountain bandits and jianghu tourists won't go there just to eat a bite of dog meat, right?"
"Of course not. On the surface, Huangbo Street sells dog meat, but it's actually a black market. What he sells are shameful things, doing shady transactions, "said the courier.
"Have you been to the black market?" Xu Qi'an asked.
The courier suddenly looked ashamed and mumbled, "I've been to buy dog meat."
There was no need to make an awkward expression when buying dog meat … Xu Qi'an frowned and said, "Speak human language."
The courier whispered, "I've been to a prostitute at Shop Xin No. 6. That's what I meant when I said I bought dog meat."
"He's too young. He's so shy even when he's looking for a prostitute …" The three shook their heads and sighed.
"Xin No. 6?" Xu Qi'an asked.
"The black market is named after the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches." The young courier blushed, feeling like he was being publicly executed.
Xu Qi'an nodded. "Got it. You can go now."
After the courier closed the door and left, Xu Qi'an heard his footsteps fading away. He shrugged. "The situation is very clear. Black Dog refers to this black market where dog meat is sold."
As for why there was such a place in White Emperor City, it was not strange that such shady deals were made under the noses of the government.
Even the most benevolent city in the world had many black markets.
Huangbo Street was not far from the courier station, but it belonged to the outer city, so there was no curfew at night.
"What are the other codes?" Song Tingfeng asked himself and answered, "They should be telling us who to look for in the black market, or how to look for them."
"The answer is in the almanac." Xu Qi'an said with certainty.
"We've just checked it." Zhu Guangxiao looked at him.
"The idea of the almanac is correct, but how could Zhou Min leave the important clues in the relics?" Xu Qi'an said.
"It's the almanac of previous years, not this year."
"Which year?" Zhu Guangxiao asked in a low voice.
"Guangxiao, you're obviously not as smart as Tingfeng today. There are so many almanac of previous years, but it's been 600 years since Daibun was founded. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack to find the right almanac. Zhou Min is not that stupid. Since it's not this year's almanac, I guess that almanac has some unusual meaning for him.
"Of course, the almanac doesn't have any special meaning, but the year does, such as the date of birth, the wedding, etc. If I'm not wrong, it should be the almanac of 14 years ago.
"Because that was the beginning of Zhou Min's appointment to Yunzhou."
The almanac of 14 years ago was also gone. Only the yamen and the bookstore remained. In order to keep a low profile, Song Tingfeng didn't go to the yamen, but to the bookstore.
In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he rode his horse back with the old calendar.
Xu Qi'an found a pen and paper and spread it on the table. Thinking that his calligraphy was not elegant, he pushed Zhu Guangxiao to be the official.
They used the previous method, using the method of "number of words" to decrypt the almanac, but found it was still wrong. The words they copied did not match.
Then they used the "page method". Page 162 was May 12th, suitable for: opening the market, marriage, entering the house, and going out.
Avoid: praying for blessings, opening warehouses, and digging wells.
"Open the market!" Xu Qi'an captured the key information, "It should be that we go to the black market after the market opens at night."
Song Tingfeng agreed with his statement.
Then came the second set of codes: 340742.
Xu Qi 'an turned to page 347. This page was dated January 15th. He glanced at the almanac for that day, and finally, he had a sudden epiphany. He said,
"I get it!
"162 and 347 refer to the number of pages, and four, one, and two refer to the number of words. Tingfeng, look, what does the fourth, first, and second word on this page mean when they are connected? "
Song Tingfeng squinted and read, "D15 …"
Thinking of the information that the courier had just said, he blurted out, "The black market shop, D15?"
The puzzle was finally solved …
Xu Qi'an and Song Tingfeng were relieved. They leaned back in their chairs and let out a long sigh.
Zhu Guangxiao also put down his pen, feeling relaxed.
Xu Qi 'an walked to the table and took a closer look. With a shocked expression, he said, "Guang Xiao, your handwriting is so ugly."
Song Tingfeng ran over to join in the fun, and shouted, "It's not pleasing to the eye, not pleasing to the eye …"
Zhu Guangxiao was not convinced, "Is your handwriting nice?"
Song Tingfeng said proudly, "My handwriting is not worse than a scholar's. When I was a child, I saved money to buy ink and paper to practice."
Xu Qi'an said, "When I was a child, my family was poor. In order to practice, I dipped a brush in water and practiced in the yard for twenty years."
Zhu Guangxiao glanced at them suspiciously, and handed the pen over, "Then write a few for me."
Xu Qi'an and Song Tingfeng turned around tacitly, and put their arms around each other's shoulders.
"Let's go back to our room and rest. Calligraphy is not for show."
"I think so too."
Looking at the backs of the two leaving, Zhu Guangxiao opened his mouth and looked down at his own calligraphy. He secretly decided that from now on, he would also start practicing calligraphy hard. He could not fall behind in this small team.
Back in the room, Xu Qi'an took off his shoes and went to bed to meditate to make sure that he was in a good state when he went to the black market at night.
Perhaps his brain was too tired, and he had not entered the state for a long time. His thoughts were uncontrollably scattered and difficult to control.
"Calculating the time, Huaiqing and Lin An should have received my letter soon … I hope that the letter can make Huaiqing happy, although I don't know what I have done to offend her … That silly girl must be very moved. She is easier to flirt with than Chu Caiwei …"
As for whether the two princesses would exchange letters in private or be seen by others, Xu Qi'an thought it was impossible.
First, the relationship between Huaiqing and Lin An was not good, so there was absolutely no possibility of exchanging letters. Moreover, the letter he wrote was a bit ambiguous. Girls in this era were too embarrassed to tell such a letter to others.
Second, Huaiqing and Huaiqing were mature princesses. They were mature enough to be pregnant, and they had the freedom and power to send and receive letters. The emperor and his concubines would not ask, and others did not dare to open the princesses' letters.
There was almost no possibility that he, a little gong, wrote ambiguous letters to the two princesses.
Gradually, Xu Qi'an entered the state of visualization.
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