Chapter 78 Ah Li, if you want to play, you have to hide well
"What's the rush?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the beggar looked in the direction of the voice.
After a while, a man came out from behind the screen. He had a handsome face, the posture of a crane and the shape of a mantis, and was wearing a black robe with dark patterns. He had an extraordinary aura and it was obvious at a glance that he was not an ordinary person.
The man in the black robe walked slowly to the armchair, lifted his robe and sat down, staring at the beggar.
"Tell me about her begging experience in Yuanzhou."
It was just an ordinary sentence, but it carried an inexplicable sense of oppression.
The beggar swallowed hard, not daring to meet the man's gaze. The girl who had given him the money hadn't explained her begging experience, so he had to make up a long story. The more he spoke, the more nervous he became, his tone like he was reciting something, and his words were full of loopholes.
"...This is what happened. The old man who took her in saw that she was beautiful and wanted to marry her to his stupid son. The girl kept shouting, 'Li Wuhui, come and save me!'"
Sometimes he was called "grandma," sometimes "old man," and even got his surname wrong. This beggar must have made up stories to defraud money.
Xuan Feng narrowed his eyes, sat back down, and said sternly, "I see there's no truth in your words. Come, drag him away and give him twenty lashes."
“Don’t!”
The beggar was so frightened that a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back. He knelt on the ground and trembled, begging for mercy: "Everything I said is true. I didn't lie to you, gentlemen!"
The government hall fell into silence.
After a long moment, the man in the black robe sitting in the armchair at the side spoke in a deep voice, "Then tell me, how tall is the girl in the portrait?"
"Probably... half a head shorter than me." The beggar gestured confidently.
The man in the black robe raised his eyebrows slightly, and his tone was so calm that no emotion could be heard: "It seems that you are not lying."
"Yes, yes." The beggar nodded repeatedly and breathed a sigh of relief.
I thought it was easy to pass on a message, but the official from the Pacification Office was too scary. He would beat me with a stick at any time. Fortunately, I got away with it.
"Xuanfeng, get ready and go to Yuanzhou to look for someone tomorrow."
Xuanfeng was stunned for a moment, then realized that His Highness said this on purpose, and immediately responded "Yes".
A quarter of an hour later, the beggar took the reward and left the Pacification Office, and was followed by the Jinyiwei.
"Why doesn't Your Highness just arrest the person directly?" Xuanfeng looked at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince standing on the stone steps, somewhat puzzled.
"Don't you think it's interesting? The person behind the scenes sent a beggar to spread false news, clearly trying to trick me out of the city. Yuanzhou and Kyoto are thousands of miles apart, and it takes more than a month to go back and forth. What does she want to do in such a long time?" Xiao Mingyi's eyes were gloomy.
"I am a foolish humble servant." Xuan Feng frowned, "But could the person behind this be Miss Ali?"
If it really is Miss Ali, she ran away and committed fraud. When His Royal Highness the Crown Prince finds her, he will give her a good lesson.
Thinking of this, he suddenly remembered that on the way back to the capital, Miss Ali led them in a robbery. Afterwards, the Crown Prince found out about it. That "lesson" was quite a big deal...
"We'll know if it's her once we find out." Xiao Mingyi curled the corners of his lips.
Ali, if you want to play, you have to hide well.
…
After the beggar left the Pacification Office, he turned left and right and entered an alley, completely unaware that someone was following him.
The alleys were interconnected and many families lived there. At the end of the alley was a carriage with a red tassel and a canopy.
The beggar hid the reward money in his coat pocket, then came to the side of the carriage and said, "I have done everything you asked me to do."
Hearing the sound, the car window was pushed open from the inside, revealing half of a beautiful profile.
The girl's voice was as cold and clear as jade: "It's really done. Do they have any doubts?"
The beggar hesitated for a moment, worried that the other party would not pay the other half of the reward, and then said with a smile, "No, no, after I finished speaking, the official from the Pacification Office became very worried and said that he would leave for Yuanzhou the next day to look for him."
The girl's eyes lit up, and she turned around and told Hongju to pay the other half of the reward.
Regardless, the news had reached her. Xiao Mingyi had dispatched the Imperial Guard to Jiuhua Mountain to suppress the bandits, and he had gone to great lengths to find her in the city. This time, he would most likely go to Yuanzhou as well.
Let’s take a gamble. We’ll know tomorrow whether Xiao Mingyi will go or not.
As long as he went, Wonju and Kyoto were thousands of miles apart, and the round trip, plus the search for the person, would definitely take a month and a half. He should use this time to arrange the marriage. Even if he discovered something was wrong later, it would be too late.
The beggar took the money, bowed repeatedly and expressed his gratitude, thinking that he was very lucky today as he had easily earned two large sums of money.
Soon, the carriage drove out of the alley and headed towards the Duke of Jin's Mansion.
The girl looked relaxed with a faint smile on her lips, but she didn't know that the Jinyiwei lurking in the dark had quietly followed her.
The carriage was dimly lit, and wisps of white smoke rose from the gilded incense burner on the side platform.
"Girl, why did you bribe that beggar to pass on the message?" Hongqi was curious and worried.
After all, they were the people the Crown Prince and the Pacification Office were looking for. If they knew that they were spreading false information, they might get into trouble.
"I can't tell you that yet." Song Lingyi was in a good mood. She picked up the grapes from the fruit plate and ate them slowly.
"But it's just a message. It can help the beggar make money, and it can also allow the people from the Pacification Office to give an explanation to the Crown Prince. It's simply the best of three worlds."
Hongqi pursed her lips, her heart suddenly tightening.
Last time in Jueshui County, the girl seemed very afraid that the people from the Pacification Office would see her face. Could it be that the person the Pacification Office was looking for was actually the girl?
…
As the sun sets in the west, smoke from cooking rises from the streets.
There was silence in the Pacification Office, with only the occasional cries of prisoners coming from the imperial prison.
A small flag officer hurried into the government hall and bowed to the man seated at the head of the table. "Your Highness, we followed that beggar to Wuyi Lane and discovered he was having an affair with a woman. The beggar was spreading false information at the woman's behest."
"Not only that, I and others followed the carriage and found that it finally stopped at the back door of the Duke of Jin's mansion. I also checked the people inside the carriage."
Xiao Mingyi slowly raised his eyes, and an answer seemed to be about to come out in his heart.
"Who is it?"
"Your Highness, it's the cousin of the Duke of Jin and her maidservant." said the flag officer.
Xuan Feng beside him was startled.
How could she be the cousin of the Duke of Jin? What is her relationship with Miss A Li?
"...I have another discovery." The small flag officer looked hesitant, as if he thought this discovery was absurd, but he had to say it.
"Speak." Xiao Mingyi's voice was cold.
"The cousin of the Duke of Jin's mansion bears a striking resemblance to the person His Royal Highness is looking for in the portrait."
Xuan Feng suddenly opened his eyes wide: "Am I seeing this right?"
The flag officer thought for a moment, then hesitated. "The distance was too great, and I wasn't able to take a closer look. But I did check, and the time the cousin arrived in Kyoto coincided with the time the person the Crown Prince was looking for went missing. Furthermore, the cousin was from Huaizhou City, and she came to the capital to visit her relatives."
The Pacification Office had been searching for the woman in the portrait, but no one expected her to be in the Duke of Jin's mansion. No wonder there had been no news for several months.
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