Chapter 208 Zhao Shiqing: Tired (Two Chapters in One)

After a while, Zhao Shiqing got everything that had happened in the past few days from Xiuxiu.

That’s right, a condom was used. Xiuxiu told Zhao Shiqing everything about her two meetings with Yang Shengqiu.

Under the candlelight, Xiuxiu's face was rosy and her eyes were gentle. Dapang nestled in her arms, purring comfortably.

Everything is so beautiful, the candlelight, the girl, the fat cat.

But Zhao Shiqing's eyes became colder and colder. How could there be so many coincidences in this world?

Meeting the Ministry of Revenue officials when being abducted could be a coincidence, but meeting Yang Shengqiu again in the inn and rescuing him was definitely not a coincidence.

Zhao Shiqing's voice was icy: "Those kidnappers are habitual criminals. One of them even has a warrant for arrest. He's a wanted criminal. In their case, you're only an attempted kidnapping, the least of which is worth mentioning. The government has a basket of evidence against them. Any witness is stronger and more conclusive than yours. There's no need to mobilize officials from another government office to go out on the street to get your evidence.

Besides, the Ministry of Revenue is the busiest of the six ministries. During the first month of the year, all the other officials are taking time off, and all the errands are piled on the newly arrived Yang Shengqiu. How could he have so much free time that he would be interrogating witnesses for the Beijing government and then running to a small inn to save a beautiful woman?

With every word Zhao Shiqing said, Xiuxiu's face turned paler, but Zhao Shiqing did not show any mercy. One cannot feel pain unless the needle pierces the flesh. Xiuxiu has come through many storms, but she can still be fooled by such a loophole-filled trick. It can only be said that she is still protected too well.

When she was at home, she was protected by her parents. When her family was wiped out, her sister took care of her. When she fled thousands of miles away, Da Pang never left her side. Although she was busy from morning to night at Chef Zhang's place, Zhang Ye was secretly protecting her. Later, when she met Zhao Shiqing, she didn't have to use her brain anymore.

A knife will rust if it is not used or sharpened. The same is true for people. The brain will gradually become dull if it is not used.

Zhao Shiqing felt that Xiuxiu's brain had become dull.

Xiuxiu was timid, wanting to prove that she wasn't actually that slow-witted. "Ever since I met the kidnapper, I've been careful every time I go out. I haven't seen anyone following me. Really not. If Yang Zhuangyuan hadn't followed me, how would he have known I would go to Wenmiao Street and Fuping Inn?"

Zhao Shiqing looked at her: "You met a kidnapper when you came out of the paint shop that day. Your mule cart stopped at the entrance of Wenmiao Street, and the first shop at the entrance was the paint shop. Yang Shengqiu was able to pass the imperial examination and he was smarter than most people. Do you think he couldn't have guessed this?

And about the Fuping Inn, let me ask you, who told you that your uncle asked someone to bring you something?"

Xiuxiu's voice became smaller and smaller: "Yes, it's a child..."

"Is he a child from our alley? What's his name and where is he from?" Zhao Shiqing asked.

Xiuxiu shook her head: "He's not from our alley, and I don't know him."

Zhao Shiqing held up two fingers. "Two cents! Two cents to hire a child to deliver a letter. Two cents to trick a grown woman into falling into your trap. Don't you think it's worth it?"

Xiuxiu's face turned even paler. "How could that be? But that kid told me to go to Fuping Inn to look for Liu Ping from Qinghe. Qinghe is my maternal family's home, so no one would know about this, right?"

Zhao Shiqing snorted coldly, "Doesn't anyone know? The owner of the breakfast stall we often go to is from Qinghe. You even tried to make friends with him, saying that you grew up in Qinghe and that Qinghe is your maternal family. Every time we went there for breakfast together, the owner would give you two extra fried dough sticks. What, did you forget?"

Xiuxiu's face is no longer white, it's red!

She hunched her shoulders, wishing she could hide in her shell.

"Second Miss, am I stupid?"

Zhao Shiqing sighed: "Each of them is good at one thing, and your cleverness and agility are all in your hands."

Xiuxiu looked down at her hands, thankful for them, she was not a useless person.

But, is Yang Zhuangyuan really plotting against me?

Xiuxiu asked the question in her heart: "I am just an orphan, and my family is also ordinary people. What can I do that he, the top scholar, can plot against me?"

Zhao Shiqing asked, "Did he tell you about me?"

Xiuxiu slowly shook her head: "No."

Zhao Shiqing said, "I'll tell you next time."

Xiuxiu shook her head like a drum: "There won't be a next time, Second Miss, there really won't be a next time, I will never see him again."

When she said the last sentence, Xiuxiu's heart ached a little.

Apart from her elders, Yang Shengqiu was the only person of the opposite sex she had actually dealt with and had some affection for.

What? Loach, Shen Guanyue, and Shen Wangxing?

In Xiuxiu's eyes, they are not opposite sexes, they are just children.

As for Xiao Zhen, Xiuxiu had never even seen his true face. In her opinion, this person was not a normal person.

Yang Shengqiu is the breeze, the bright moon, and the whitest handful of snow on the branches in winter.

Xiuxiu lowered her head even lower.

A few months ago, Zhao Shiqing definitely didn’t understand Xiuxiu’s thoughts, but now, she understood.

However, Xiuxiu’s thoughts can be directed at anyone except Yang Shengqiu.

Zhao Shiqing said, "You know about the Crown Prince being deposed, right?"

Xiuxiu nodded. Everyone in the capital knew about this.

"Then let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a little princess..."

In this story, the princess did not marry her beloved prince and live a happy life from then on.

The princess in the story was sent to a temple, where she took off her beautiful dresses and put on the most tattered clothes. She chopped wood, washed clothes and dug wild vegetables every day. She was not well fed or clothed, and was still regarded as a slut by everyone.

The prince in the story did not inherit the throne. He was framed by a villain and banished to a remote place, where he lived in pain day and night.

However, the princess's beloved man was favored by a big shot after sacrificing the princess, and almost became his son-in-law.

Xiuxiu felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar. She stared at Zhao Shiqing with a dull gaze. After a long moment, she said, "Yang, Yang, will that person really come back to me?"

Zhao Shiqing nodded: "Yes, and he will ask you about me..."

That night, Xiuxiu tossed and turned, her mind torn between conscience and desire, and she didn't fall asleep until almost dawn.

Zhao Shiqing got up early in the morning. She changed into men's clothes, took Niu Qiu and Ling Bo with her, and quietly went out.

They walked around the street for a long time until almost noon, and then they went to Prince Liang's Mansion.

After the first month of the year, Zhao Tingxuan will return to Liangdi. In the last ten days or so, Zhao Shiqing doesn't want him to cause any trouble.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Tingxuan was not in the palace. After asking, I found out that he had gone to Qishixuan.

Zhao Shiqing knew Qi Shixuan. Many people thought that the real owner of Qi Shixuan was the Second Prince. However, Xiao Zhen said that the owner of Qi Shixuan was Prince Chu. However, Prince Chu was a hostage and did not want people to know about this, so he secretly made some arrangements to deliberately make people mistakenly believe that this was the Second Prince's business.

The entrance fee to Qi Shi Xuan is three thousand taels of silver. Three thousand taels can be exchanged for a badge, which allows you to enter and exit Qi Shi Xuan, participate in gambling on stones, and make friends with the most powerful and influential children in the Dayong Dynasty.

Xiao Zhen got to know many people through Qishixuan.

As a wealthy and foolish prince, it was no surprise that Zhao Tingxuan owned the Qishixuan brand. But what puzzled Zhao Shiqing was that the Second Prince had just gotten into trouble. Wasn't this the perfect time to give Qishixuan a wide berth? Why was Zhao Tingxuan going to Qishixuan at this time?

Did he also know that Qi Shixuan was not the Second Prince's?

However, Zhao Shiqing immediately figured out what was going on.

The news of the second prince's accident has not been reported yet.

Even the news of his death, Yan Xia said, would not be announced to the world until after the first month of the lunar year.

In other words, except for the emperor and a few other people, no one else knows that something has happened to the second prince.

Zhao Tingxuan didn't even have a friend in Beijing to play with, so it was even more impossible for him to know about this.

Zhao Shiqing breathed a sigh of relief. As long as this idiot wasn't being plotted against and was about to be killed, it would be fine.

She put a collar on the little demon and placed a note in the bell of the collar. In the blink of an eye, the little demon disappeared over the high wall of the palace.

Zhao Shiqing took Lingbo and Niuqiu to the shop where he had met Zhao Tingxuan several times.

The three of them sat in the shop for two hours, and even went out to eat. Zhao Tingxuan finally arrived. As soon as the carriage stopped, Xiao Yao jumped out of the carriage, went up to the second floor with ease, and threw herself into Zhao Shiqing's arms.

Zhao Tingxuan saw his younger sister and said ingratiatingly, "I saw a cat from a distance and recognized it as the one you raised right away. Little sister, does my second brother have good eyesight?"

Zhao Shiqing snorted: "The little demon scratched you, it would be strange if you don't remember it."

Zhao Tingxuan smiled awkwardly and asked hurriedly, "Little sister, I thought I wouldn't see you until the Lantern Festival. Why are you here today?"

Zhao Shiqing asked, "When will you leave the capital? Has an auspicious time been set? Have you submitted any memorials?"

Even though Emperor Yongjia had already ordered Zhao Tingxuan to leave Beijing, he still had to submit a memorial before leaving, and only after Emperor Yongjia approved it could he leave. Although this was just a formality, it was necessary.

Zhao Tingxuan said hurriedly, "It's settled. The Chief Secretary has already submitted a memorial on the fourth day of the second month."

Zhao Shiqing nodded and asked, "What are you doing at the Qishi Pavilion? Are you going there to gamble on stones?"

He was about to leave and there was no possibility of making friends, so he could only go to Qi Shi Xuan to gamble on stones.

Zhao Tingxuan was a little embarrassed: "It's not me who's going, it's my cousin from the Fan family. He came here before the New Year. He doesn't know many people in the capital. He heard about Qi Shi Xuan and asked me to accompany him to see the world."

Zhao Shiqing was stunned. Cousin from the Fan family? Where did this cousin come from?

But she quickly realized: "You're talking about Fan Qiujun's brother, right? He's in Beijing? Do you know him?"

Zhao Tingxuan said hurriedly, "I didn't know him at first. He came to give me a New Year's gift before the New Year, and then I knew that the Fan family had come to the capital. I returned the gift at that time. Yesterday, he came to see me and said that he wanted to go to Qishixuan to see the world. But Qishixuan is not a place that anyone can enter with silver. Even if ordinary people took out three thousand taels, they still couldn't get a Qishixuan sign. He paid the money and borrowed my identity, so it wasn't a difficult thing. Besides, we are relatives, so I agreed. Today, he picked me up and we went to Qishixuan together."

Zhao Shiqing didn't know what to say to him.

When we met for the second time, he agreed to borrow my identity, and when we met for the third time, he really brought people to get the license.

Zhao Shiqing said, "Did you know that the Nie and Fan families wanted to marry Fan Qiujun to my eldest brother?"

Zhao Tingxuan was stunned for a moment, then shook his head. "Is there such a thing? I didn't know. I only found out from my cousin Fan that Fan Qiujun was a court lady in the palace."

Seeing that he knew about Fan Qiujun's service as a court lady, Zhao Shiqing continued to throw bombs everywhere: "You should also have heard about Feng Ke's daughter falling into the water and almost becoming the Fifth Prince's concubine, right?"

Zhao Tingxuan nodded, wondering what this matter had to do with the Fan family.

Zhao Shiqing: "The Fifth Prince and Fan Qiujun did this together."

Zhao Tingxuan opened his mouth wide: "Huh?"

Zhao Shiqing continued to throw bombs: "Do you know why Fan Qiujun became a female official, and in Concubine Qiao's palace?"

Zhao Tingxuan continued to shake his head: "Why?"

Zhao Shiqing: "Because she and the Third Prince have a secret affair, but the Third Prince, due to the power of the Feng family, dare not openly choose his own concubine. She entered the palace so that she could have a secret meeting with the Third Prince and then find an opportunity in the future, and then the Emperor would issue an order to give her to the Third Prince."

Zhao Tingxuan's mouth opened even wider. Zhao Shiqing couldn't bear to watch and said, "The Fan family has been wavering between the Third Prince and the Fifth Prince. Now that the Fifth Prince has fallen, they have completely stood on the Third Prince's side. Second brother, you have also seen that Cousin Fan wants to make friends with the powerful and build connections in the capital. He is aiming to become the imperial concubine's family. You lent him your identity. Are you trying to let the emperor know that our Liang Wang Mansion will also support the Third Prince's ascension to the throne?"

Zhao Tingxuan stood up and wanted to say something, but fell back into his chair with a thud.

Zhao Tingxuan was about to cry, not caring about the pain from the fall. "Little sister, Second Brother really didn't know this. I saw that Cousin Fan was elegant and handsome, and his words were meaningful. I thought he just wanted to experience the splendor of the capital. I never expected that the Fan family had a relationship with the princes. I... I really didn't mean it."

Seeing such a grown-up person saying "I really didn't mean it" after doing something wrong, which is something only a child would say, Zhao Shiqing didn't know what to say.

The fact that my second brother is still alive in the capital must have been because my father begged for him in his grave.

"When you return to Liangdu, go burn some more gold ingots for your father. He needs them to run the underworld. Alas, I don't know if the ones I burned before are enough. Maybe your father has already borrowed money from loan sharks. Your father is a dignified prince, but he still has to rely on debt to survive in the underworld. Doesn't he care about his reputation?"

Zhao Tingxuan was stunned. What his little sister said was really a lot. He seemed to understand it all, but also seemed to understand nothing.

Zhao Shiqing asked, "Who did you meet when you went to Qishixuan with him today? By the way, is Qishixuan open during the day?"

Zhao Tingxuan said hurriedly, "This is my first time there too. I didn't expect it to be open so early in the morning. I only found out when I got there that Qishixuan had just received a batch of stones yesterday. As soon as the news got out, many people came early this morning. Cousin Fan must have heard the news, so he chose to come today.

Those who went today included the Prince of Dingguo, the two sons of the Marquis of Baoqing, and, yes, the eldest son of Zhen, and the third master of the Deng family, the younger brother of Deng Cifu.