Chapter 283 The mastermind behind it all wasn't Marquis Anping
"Your Highness, please calm down. The fire inside is too big. We've tried, but we really can't get in!"
Two servants, one holding Li Mu around the waist and the other grabbing his arm, were holding him back tightly to prevent him from rushing inside.
"Let me go! My mother is still inside!"
"I need to save my mother!"
Li Mu struggled with all his might, desperately trying to move towards the fire.
The flames cast a crimson glow in his eyes.
One step, two steps!
He was incredibly strong; even with two servants holding him, he was still getting closer and closer to the fire.
"Two more people, hug the prince!"
Two more people ran over and each grabbed one of Li Mu's legs.
Li Mu roared angrily, "Get out of here! All of you, get out of here!"
The servants held on tightly and refused to move.
Li Mu struggled but couldn't move an inch; the heat from the flames scorched his face.
Tears welled up in her eyes and she could no longer hold them back.
"mother!"
Li Nanke stumbled over, her eyes already blurred with tears.
The scene from her dream, in which her grandmother was beaten to death by the yamen runners while protecting her, kept replaying in her mind's eye.
Why?
She had already changed the fate of her whole family, so why did a fire still happen?
No, she couldn't let her grandmother die like that.
Li Nanke gritted his teeth, got up from the ground, grabbed a basin from the bucket next to him, scooped up a basin of water, and poured it over his head.
The icy cold sensation sent shivers down her spine. She grabbed the soaking wet sheet next to her, wrapped it around herself, and prepared to run inside.
She's going to save her grandmother!
"Ke'er!"
When Li Mu saw Li Nanke rushing into the fire without regard for anything else, his eyes widened in fury.
Before Li Nanke could even rush into the fire, he nearly collided head-on with Nangong Qiang, who was rushing out of the fire.
Before I could react, I heard Nangong Qiang's usual cold voice.
"Get out of the way!"
She instinctively moved to the side.
Nangong Qiang rushed towards the bucket like a gust of wind.
Her legs, clothes, and hair were on fire.
Even the bedsheets covering him were on fire.
bed sheet?
Li Nanke then noticed that Nangong Qiang's back was bulging, as if she were carrying someone on her back.
A thought struck her, and she instantly came to life.
She ripped off the cold sheet and used all her strength to pat the fire off Nangong Qiang's body.
"Quick, water it!"
She called out urgently.
Li Mu and his servants also realized what was happening and hurriedly picked up buckets of water to pour on Nangong Qiang.
The flames on Nangong Qiang's body were extinguished instantly.
She untied the sheet from her body, and the person inside the sheet slumped down.
"mother!"
Li Mu was both surprised and delighted, and hurriedly caught He Shi.
Seeing that her eyes were closed and she was not moving, he was so frightened that his face turned pale. He reached out to check He's breathing.
Nangong Qiang said, "He's alive, he just fainted."
Li Mu breathed a long sigh of relief, and tears welled up in her eyes.
That's great, his mother is still alive!
Seeing that her grandmother was alright, Li Nanke instantly felt much better.
She looked up at Nangong Qiang with concern.
"Thank you, Master Nangong, for saving my grandmother. Are you alright? Are you burned?"
Nangong Qiang glanced at herself and shrugged indifferently.
"A minor burn, nothing serious."
Looking up at the fire, I saw, "There was still one person inside. He had already died from smoke inhalation when I went in."
She used the last of the tea leaves to wet a handkerchief and held it over your grandmother's mouth and nose, otherwise...
Otherwise, Grandmother wouldn't have survived until Master Nangong rushed in to save her!
Li Nanke felt a lump in her throat.
"It was Grandma Sun. She followed Grandma her whole life and protected Grandma's life until the very end."
Grandma will be heartbroken to learn that Grandma Sun is gone.
Nangong Qiang looked down at her sad little face.
She was really bad at comforting people, so she asked a dry question.
Are you cold?
Li Nanke then realized that he was soaked to the bone, and the cold wind made him shiver.
Li Mu handed He Shi over to the servant.
"Take the lady and young lady to Fanghua Courtyard immediately. The rest of you, come with me to put out the fire!"
He then solemnly thanked Nangong Qiang and asked her to hurry back to change her clothes and apply the medicine.
Nangong Qiang didn't linger and turned to leave.
Li Nanke, accompanied by two servants, carried Madam He back to Fanghua Courtyard.
Song Yi had already received the news and had ordered people to make ginger soup and summoned a doctor.
A doctor examined He Shi, and Li Nanke changed out of his cold clothes, drank a bowl of ginger soup, and then went to find Song Yi again.
At this moment, Tao's mother arrived with a group of people to report.
"The arsonist has been caught."
Song Yi's face was cold and stern.
"Bring it up immediately!"
Two servants entered, their hands and feet bound, and a wad of cloth stuffed in their mouths.
Song Yi stood up in surprise.
"Chang Rui? It's you?"
Chang Rui was Marquis Anping's personal attendant.
Madam Tao said, "When I led people to seal all the doors in the house, this boy was trying to crawl out through the dog hole under the wall behind the northwest gate."
The servants caught him red-handed; he had a strong smell of pine resin on him, and his clothes were stained with pine resin.
"I asked the steward, and he said that pine resin was sprayed around the main courtyard. Otherwise, the fire wouldn't have suddenly grown so big and become so difficult to extinguish."
Song Yi gritted her teeth in anger and ripped the rag out of Chang Rui's mouth.
He asked angrily, "Did the Marquis order you to set the fire?"
Chang Rui vehemently denied it.
"No! It has nothing to do with you, Lord Marquis!"
Song Yi didn't believe a single word of it.
"Men, beat him! Beat him hard! Beat him until he confesses!"
This was the first time Song Yi had given orders to beat someone up since she started taking over the household management.
It's clear he was furious.
Li Nanke held her hand.
“Mother, we don’t need to interrogate him. Let’s hand him over to the Bianjing Prefecture. A few strokes of the cane from the Bianjing Prefecture’s yamen runners and he’ll tell the truth.”
"With such a big fire in our house, it's no surprise that people from Bianjing Prefecture will arrive soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, the butler's voice rang out from outside the door.
"Lady, the Prefect of Bianjing has come with a group of men to inquire about the fire."
Li Mu was still directing his men to put out the fire.
Song Yi had no choice but to take Chang Rui to see Lord Wei.
Li Nanke said, "I went with my mother. We even made them busy on New Year's Eve. Mother, please remember to give them some money for tea."
"I know."
The mother and daughter went to the front yard.
Wei Yan led a whole team of yamen runners from Bianjing Prefecture.
The yamen runners were already quite resentful that they had to work on New Year's Eve and couldn't reunite with their families for a drink.
When they arrived at the Marquis of Anping's residence and saw how large the fire was, half of their resentment disappeared.
Upon seeing the generous payment for tea from Song Yi, the other half of his complaints vanished.
They even offered to help put out the fire.
Wei Yan smiled and sent some of the constables to put out the fire, leaving only two constables behind, pointing at Chang Rui, whom Song Yi had handed over.
"No need to take him away. Just try him here. His Majesty will definitely question him about such a major arson case first thing tomorrow morning."
"You lot are all experts in interrogation. In the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, pry his mouth open!"
The two constables under Wei Yan were very capable; in less than half an incense stick's time, Chang Rui confessed.
Surprisingly, the mastermind behind it all wasn't Marquis Anping!
Instead...
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