Chapter 35: Breaking the Greed "Does Your Highness like to eat too?"...
A corner of Beijing.
"You're just a guy carrying wooden boards, and you want my money!" The man was dressed in cloth, his face was full of anger. He swung the long knife in his hand in a rage, and in the blink of an eye he killed the man tied to the ground in front of him.
A head tumbled to the ground, its eyes wide open as it stared at the man, filled with resentment. Inside the room, the remaining people were tied up in a corner. Seeing the man's murderous eyes, they fell silent, not daring to move.
"Aye..."
Cui Lihua moved her feet, but for a long moment she didn't dare to move forward. She only spoke softly, "What should we do if the government comes?"
Cook Cui, whom Cui Lihua called "Aye," slowly turned around. He looked at his daughter and smiled. "Cui Susu is dead, and Aye has already taken a life. If we're caught by the authorities, with Prince Rong'an's methods, what difference does it make if I kill one or several? It's better to take a few more lives and pocket all the money."
"My dear, this... we can't just kill them all. There's a busy city all around here, where is the place to bury the bodies?" Sun Zhenbao's wet nurse said hurriedly, fearing that if she wasn't careful, Chef Cui, who had been married to her for many years, would kill all the people who helped them steal the treasure from the Sun Mansion.
"Yes, yes, Aye, what mother said is right. We should give them some. We can't spend all the money anyway."
"What do you two women know!" Chef Cui said viciously. "We must be wanted right now. I can't go back to Hua Man Lou. If I divide up all the stolen goods, how will I make a living for the rest of my life?"
After they got married, their daughter Cui Lihua was born. In order to earn money to support his family, he walked for three days and three nights to Beijing to become a cook in Hua Manlou. In the building, he happened to hear that the young master of the Sun family in the capital would be born next month, and □□ was ready to spend a lot of money to find a wet nurse. Chef Cui then hurriedly asked someone to bring his wife to the capital.
Fortunately, his wife had just given birth and had plenty of milk, so the Sun family immediately appointed her as the young master Sun Zhenbao's wet nurse. After that, the Cui couple made a living in the capital. As for their newborn daughter Cui Lihua, she naturally stayed in the countryside to grow up in hardship - how could a child from a poor family compare to a young official in the capital?
The days passed one by one. Because of his good cooking skills, many guests in Huamanlou would ask Chef Cui to cook for them, and then secretly give him some money as a reward. The Cui family's life gradually improved. Until the appearance of Cui Susu, a girl from the same village, Chef Cui began to have different ideas about other people's property.
Cui Susu was also a greedy person. Just because Li Qingqing, who was on good terms with her, was favored by the young master of the Sun family and had a bright future and fortune, she deliberately provoked the relationship between Li Qingqing and Zhao Mama, and privately instigated Zhao Mama to bully Li Qingqing. Later, Cui Susu even conspired with Zhao Mama to stage a drama, which led to the ending of "Double Phoenixes Entering the Sun Mansion" - Cui Susu and Li Qingqing were both taken into the backyard by Sun Zhenbao.
Seeing the girl from the same village transformed from a pheasant into a phoenix, Chef Cui felt more and more unbalanced. So one day when Cui Susu came back to Huamanlou to get something, Chef Cui took the opportunity to hold Cui Susu hostage with a knife and ordered her to transfer the property of the Sun Mansion out and then divide it equally between them.
"If we share the spoils with them, what if they change their minds suddenly after their appetites are worked up, like Cui Susu did?" Chef Cui's tone softened, probably because he was thinking of the day when he and Cui Susu had a conflict over the uneven distribution of the spoils, and then accidentally killed someone.
Since the ending is death anyway, it’s better to kill the person first.
"Father, right now our most important issue isn't dividing the spoils, but how to get these treasures out of the city and hide them..." Cui Lihua said anxiously, "I told you not to go into the city, but Father, you refused to listen. Now, there's no pawnshop in the capital that would dare to pawn these treasures for us!"
Upon hearing this, Chef Cui nodded in agreement. He had originally planned to pawn the treasures in the capital for silver, but who knew that all the treasures were marked with the word "Sun". If he pawned them rashly, the government would be able to track them down in less than half a day.
"My dear, please listen to my advice. Why don't we just do it as before..." the wet nurse said.
"But this trick has been used twice, once by Cui Susu and once by me. If the soldiers at the city gate still remember us..." Cui Lihua asked.
"Stop arguing!" Chef Cui waved his hand and said loudly, "This time, let's try a different approach."
*
On the outskirts of the city, two carriages slowly drove towards the capital.
Luo Qingling sat in the carriage, the cups and glasses swaying in front of her eyes, and she felt a little nauseous - this road was too bumpy, and it was very uncomfortable every time she passed by.
The young man before him leaned against the car window, his head tilted back, eyes closed, dozing. The curtains flickered in the winter sun, casting shadows on his face, making his features appear even more delicate. From Luo Qingling's perspective, Qin Yanheng's nose was high, and the shadows of his long eyelashes fluttered under his eyes. He was truly a handsome young man.
No wonder so many noble ladies in the capital want to marry him. Luo Qingling thought to herself, I heard that Qin Yanheng had reached the age of twenty last year. I wonder if he has a young lady he likes... He must have one, otherwise why would he reject the portrait of a noble lady of marriageable age in the capital?
In her trance, she didn't notice the pair of phoenix eyes slowly opening and staring at her without blinking.
"What are you looking at?"
Qin Yanheng's voice was a little hoarse, and he spoke suddenly, which scared Luo Qingling so much that she opened her eyes wide.
Seeing this, Qin Yanheng tilted his head back and couldn't help but chuckle. After that day, he felt more and more that Luo Qingling was a white and tender jade dumpling. Her red lips, slightly parted in surprise just now, were like the plum blossom mark on the jade dumpling, making him salivate.
"Your Highness is awake?" Luo Qingling deliberately changed the subject to hide his embarrassment.
"I'm not asleep," Qin Yanheng lowered his head, raised his hand to straighten his slightly messy hair, and said nonchalantly, "You kept looking at me and scared me so much that I couldn't sleep."
Is this human language?
Luo Qingling's eyes, which had been about to close, opened again. She stared at the shameless young prince in front of her, unable to utter a single word of rebuttal for a long time. Not for any reason, but simply because she had indeed been looking at him just now.
But why does he keep dwelling on this matter?
While Luo Qingling was thinking, Qin Yanheng, who was sitting opposite him, had changed his posture at some point. He held his chin with one hand and looked at the jade ball in front of him which was gradually turning red, and smiled silently with the corners of his mouth.
"Do you like eating jade dew dumplings?" Qin Yanheng asked suddenly.
Um?
Why was she suddenly bringing up Yulu dumplings… Even though she did love them, before she came to the capital, she'd been pestering her father to go to the street to buy them. Could it be that this young prince had checked her out? Otherwise, why would he suddenly ask this question?
"I like it," Luo Qingling said, feeling uneasy, but still speaking the truth. "Does your Highness like it too?"
After hearing these words, Qin Yanheng was stunned for a moment. He silently looked away, put his fist to his mouth, and then deliberately coughed lightly and said no more.
This made Luo Qingling even more confused.
She always felt that Qin Yanheng had been a little abnormal these past two days. Luo Qingling couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was, but she was just a little different from before - anyway, it was all because of the portrait. In the final analysis, she shouldn't have sent the portrait to his palace.
Her thoughts drifted further and further away. Luo Qingling didn't want to recall the past, feeling rather awkward. She blinked and deliberately changed the subject: "Didn't the young prince say he wanted to look for the Sun Mansion's treasure? Why did he have to go into the city... Those thieves couldn't bring their stolen goods into the capital so brazenly, right? Shouldn't we look for them in the suburbs?"
"There are no pawnshops in the suburbs of Beijing," Qin Yanheng's brief answer left Luo Qingling somewhat puzzled. He glanced at her furrowed brows and patiently explained, "If these treasures aren't exchanged for silver, they can only be used as ornaments. So, Madam Luo, do you think Cui Lihua and the others want silver or something they can only see but can't spend?"
"If we pawn it as treasure, we can track them down directly." Luo Qingling always felt that Cui Lihua and the others were not that stupid.
"Yes," Qin Yanheng nodded seriously. "So any normal person would think that the thief would never dare to pawn the treasure in a pawnshop in the capital, and then rule out the possibility that the thief is hiding in the capital. It is often because of this seemingly impossible thinking that we take a detour when solving the case."
"So what your Highness means is..." Luo Qingling seemed to understand, "Cui Lihua and the others are in the capital?"
Luo Qingling was met with a moment of silence. Qin Yanheng sat across from her with his eyes closed, seemingly pondering the question as well. She was about to ask further questions when the carriage slowly stopped and a voice reached her.
"Welcome Prince Rong An."
The sound of soldiers sheathing their swords was remarkably clear; they must have reached the city gate. The carriage slowly moved forward, then suddenly braked. Luo Qingling suddenly lunged to the side, and Qin Yanheng, standing before him, also opened his eyes.
Before the two of them could ask what happened, they heard the sound of gongs and drums not far away. When they listened carefully, they could hear crying and shouting, which was a bit creepy.
“Mother…Mother!”
The woman's voice was childish, and she sounded about the same age as Luo Qingling, a young girl who had just come of age.
"Mother..."
The sound of the young girl's sobs grew closer, accompanied by the clatter of gongs, making Luo Qingling's head buzz. She raised her hand to open the carriage curtain and saw several people carrying a black coffin, preparing to leave the city. The girl in the lead, crying, pulled a document from her sleeve and tremblingly handed it to the soldier for identification.
It sounded like a relative had died. Luo Qingling thought of her father, who was seriously ill far away in the frontier. She wondered if he could hold on until the day he was transferred back to the capital. If… if he couldn't hold on any longer, she was afraid she would be like the girl in front of her, crying her heart out.
Thinking of this, Luo Qingling's eyes couldn't help but tear up. She was so worried about her father-in-law. She had clearly come to the capital to find someone to transfer her father-in-law back, so she had thought of climbing up the "high branch" of Qin Yanheng. But who knew that not only did she fail, but she was even laughed at by the people of the capital! It was really disheartening. After she resolved Cui Susu's issue, she would definitely find a way to ensure her father-in-law's smooth return to the capital.
"Mother! Please don't leave... Mother, please don't abandon your daughter!"
The girl's voice resonated deeply in Luo Qingling's ears, and her sorrow moved her somewhat. She secretly wiped away her tears, turned her head to look at Qin Yanheng, and said reluctantly, "Young Prince, we are not in a hurry. It is better to let them pass first. Let the deceased rest in peace."
Hearing this, Qin Yanheng also nodded.
The carriage stopped at the city gate, leaving a wide passage for the coffin bearers.
The gong sounded, white paper filled the air, and the leading girl, wearing a white silk scarf, led the way crying. Luo Qingling turned away, unable to bear to watch. With her seriously ill father at home, she simply couldn't bear to watch this scene.
Across from him, Qin Yanheng had already noticed Luo Qingling's abnormality. He frowned slightly, feeling somewhat puzzled. He turned his gaze to the half-open car window behind Luo Qingling. Through the gauze curtain, he could hear the mournful voice of the crying girl, yet for some reason, Qin Yanheng felt it was unusually strange.
Luo Qingling sniffed, with traces of tears in the corners of her eyes. The tails of her eyes were not slightly upturned like before, but instead had a hint of red, which made her look particularly pitiful.
The girl outside the window, although her voice was sad, did not show any sadness on her face... On the contrary, Luo Qingling, who had nothing to do with the deceased, showed the pain of losing a loved one.
Qin Yanheng seemed to have thought of something. He suddenly lifted the curtain and jumped out of the carriage.
There is definitely something wrong with those people carrying the coffin!
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