Chapter 184 Return to Beijing

When that person saw that it was gold, his eyes lit up.

But he was stopped by another person, who stared at Shen Anan warily, "Why are you asking about this?"

"To be honest." Shen An'an's eyes dimmed, "I came all the way here to look for my relatives, but my cousin despised my poor background and was unwilling to take me in. I had no choice but to find a way to leave in the next two days. If I don't find out clearly and offend the adults, wouldn't I lose my life here?"

"So that's how it is." The man quickly stepped forward and took the hairpin from her hand, saying, "I'm just a little girl, it's okay for me to tell you.

The one who is coming is the county governor who is in charge of several nearby counties, Lord Cao. This superior is coming to inspect, and the girl should understand what to pay attention to... ”

"I see. So that's how it is. Thank you very much, sirs. I'll take my leave now."

Shen Anan lowered the car curtain, and the gentle smile on her pretty face disappeared instantly, like a magic trick.

The carriage continued to move away from the group of officials. Li Huaiyan then spoke, "Why did the governor of Cao suddenly come to inspect at this time? Could it be that he doesn't know about the chaos in Tianshui City now?"

Shen Anan shook his head and asked, "Do you have any impression of that Cao County Magistrate?"

"I know." Li Huaiyan frowned, "He was just an unknown scholar before, but later he seemed to have made a great contribution. Even the emperor knew about it, and he was summoned to the palace and given an official position by imperial decree."

"What merit did you accomplish?"

"Then I don't know. It's been a long time. He is probably older than my father now. I was just a kid back then. I only heard about it."

Seeing Shen Anan lowering her eyes and not speaking, Li Huaiyan frowned and asked, "What's wrong? Is there any problem?"

"I'm just wondering if Lord Cao knows that the magistrate of Tianshui City is colluding with the bandits, or if he is involved in it."

"Probably not." Li Huaiyan shook his head. "A county governor would not be constrained by a group of bandits and would not take small favors seriously."

"Really? But I feel like everything is just too coincidental."

If she remembered correctly, the brother and sister surnamed Cao mentioned in Uncle Zhong's letter, the elder brother who was promoted to a high official, was surnamed Cao, and unsurprisingly, he was the Magistrate of Cao County.

He was promoted by the emperor himself. There were many talented scholars in Daliang, and the imperial court was definitely not so eager to recruit talents. Therefore, it was very likely that Lord Cao was just taking advantage of the situation to get promoted.

Whose wind to borrow? Apart from his sister who went to Beijing to take the imperial examination with her fiancé, Shen Anan couldn't think of anyone else.

"What coincidence?"

"Nothing. Things seem to be more complicated than we thought. You need to do what I just told you as soon as possible."

——

"Miss, you are finally back." Mo Xiang was sitting in the corridor, and when she saw Shen Anan, she immediately went to greet her.

"Has Uncle Zhong written to you again?"

"No, but there is a letter from Princess Hua Sheng," Mo Xiang opened the letter and handed it to Shen Anan.

The whole page was filled with a lot of words, but they were all about trivial matters. There was only one serious matter: she was going to get married in a month, and he urged her to go back early.

Shen Anan picked up a pen and wrote her a reply, telling her that she would rush back after finishing her work.

That gentle and sentimental girl finally succumbed to reality and fate.

On the second day, martial law was imposed in the city. No one was allowed to leave or enter the city, and even going out to buy things would result in being driven away.

"With such a big show, what are they guarding against?" Qingfeng was puzzled.

"Haven't the government and those bandits been in cahoots for a long time? Are you still afraid that those bandits will come out and do bad things?"

Li Huaiyan sat on a stone chair. Even with a few cushions, he still felt cold. He urged Mo Xiang to add more. "It may be to protect them, but it may also be to protect others."

"What's the meaning?"

Shen Anan, who had been silent, slowly raised his head and said, "It means that it is possible that the bandits are in the city. He doesn't let the people go out because he is worried that the people will run into them and cause trouble."

After all, the collusion between the government and bandits cannot be made public.

"Mo Xiang, go call Chen Tian over."

After a while, Chen Tian was brought over by Mo Xiang. He hung his head and looked a little depressed. "Girl."

"If you saw Gu Tan, would you recognize him?"

Chen Tian's eyes lit up. "He has a mole on his face. I should be able to recognize it about 80% of the time."

Shen Anan narrowed her eyes slightly, “But didn’t you say before that you didn’t know who Gu Tan was?”

Chen Tian scratched his hair. "It was only when the girl mentioned it that I suddenly remembered that I had seen Lin Hengsheng dating a man before. That man should be Gu Tan."

Shen Anan stared at him for a while and nodded, "Okay, follow Qingfeng these few days. If you see the man named Gu Tan, report to me immediately."

"Yes." Chen Tian looked very happy.

Chen Tian followed Qing Feng and was about to leave when Shen Anan's deep voice suddenly rang out, "Chen Tian."

He took several breaths before he suddenly stopped and turned around, "Miss, you called me?"

"Nothing, the streets are strictly checked, please be careful."

"Yes." He turned around and quickly followed Qingfeng.

Li Huaiyan drank tea leisurely. He waited until the others disappeared completely in the yard before slowly putting down the teacup and looking towards the door following Shen Anan's line of sight.

"Tell me, if there is someone who can hinder Xiao Yuan, who would that person be? And who knew that I would come to Tianshui City and set up defenses in advance."

Li Huaiyan did not respond and said, "The emperor has returned to Beijing from Xiangjue Temple."

Shen Anan tilted her head to look at him.

No wonder Xiao Yuan hadn't sent me a letter in the past two days. It turned out that he had run into a more difficult problem. "What's the situation in the capital now?"

"Xiao Ze and Duan Mengmeng were having an affair in the emperor's side hall, planning to usurp the throne. The emperor overheard them, and they completely lost their power."

"only……"

"The emperor still has no intention of handing over the throne to Xiao Yuan, and is even trying to check and balance his power." Shen Anan continued.

Li Huaiyan frowned, "I can't figure out why this is happening. Xiao Yuan is the only prince left now, why is he doing this? Is he trying to sharpen him?"

"What if the emperor has other sons?"

Shen Anan tilted her head and looked at Li Huaiyan, but her words without any ups and downs made Li Huaiyan stunned.

"How is that possible? It's absolutely impossible." Li Huaiyan shook his head. "I grew up in the capital. How could I not know how many princes there are in the royal family..."

In the end, even he himself became unsure.

"Whether it is true or not, we will know in three days."

The Magistrate of Cao should be able to bring her the answer she wants.

"No, we won't investigate anymore. I'll take you back." Li Huaiyan stood up without further ado. "If anything happens to you, I can't take the responsibility."

Shen Anan's brows slowly furrowed.