Chapter 7: Inescapable Madness
The burning torches made the entire Zhoujia Village as bright as day.
"Village head, where do these officials come from?" a villager asked anxiously.
Looking at the soldiers who had surrounded the entire village, the head of the village became panicked: "They don't look like the officials from Hezhou...!"
He had never seen the uniforms of those officers and soldiers before, but he felt that they all looked cold and stern, and seemed inviolable.
"Search every household, don't leave any one behind!"
Soon, the surroundings fell into unprecedented chaos.
There were sounds of dogs barking, crying, begging, pointing, and cursing mixed together.
The woman holding her daughter and hiding behind the gate, stared at the flames with wide eyes, as if she had glimpsed the dawn.
…
As the sky was about to brighten, the families of the governor's mansion in Hezhou City were awakened from their sleep.
"What are you yelling about so early in the morning? Are you crying?"
The fat and big-eared man stood up and sat beside the couch, cursing.
"My dear, something terrible has happened...!"
The man glared at the boy who was speaking: "What big deal can it be?"
This is Hezhou! His father is the governor of Hezhou!
The servant said in a trembling voice: "The capital...someone has come from the capital!"
The man frowned, stood up and put on his clothes: "So what if someone came from the capital? Father has people in the capital too!"
…
Zhao Fu, the governor of Hezhou, was walking quickly towards the front yard.
He didn't even know that the imperial court had sent an envoy to Hezhou! And they quietly found him through the business in Zhoujia Village, and surrounded his mansion with people before dawn! If it was okay for other things, he would at least not be completely unaware, but the other party started from Zhoujia Village, leaving him no room for reaction!
"The head of the family does not need to panic. Just deny it until you die..." the aide beside him whispered as they walked.
"I know what's going on, but I need to send a message to the capital as soon as possible!" Zhao Fu forced himself to calm down: "I have been dealing with him for many years, and we are in the same boat... He will never stand by and watch someone die!"
As he spoke, he suddenly asked, "By the way, do you know who the imperial envoy is?"
"This is still unclear. Not a single word of it has been leaked..."
As they were talking, they had already arrived at the front yard.
Outside the mansion gate, two teams of guards with swords on their waists walked in quickly. Between the two teams of soldiers, a tall figure walked.
The young man was wearing a wide-sleeved cloak and walked over with his hands behind his back. His deep eyes and eyebrows seemed to be tinged with the chill of early spring. When he spoke, his tone was casual and leisurely: "Long time no see, Governor Zhao."
The moment he saw the other person's face clearly, Zhao Fu paused, the color on his face faded, and his lips moved a few times: "Wei..."
This is the person who came!
…
The incident in the governor's mansion soon caused a sensation.
Early in the morning, not long after the inn opened, many people gathered in the hall, talking at once, with surprised looks on their faces.
After getting up early and washing up, the girl, who had been trying to practice morning exercises in the room for half an hour, opened the door and walked out when she heard the sound.
"My dear... you're up!" The boy who was standing in front of the fence and looking down at the hall heard the door opening, turned around and said in surprise: "They are talking about Zhoujia Village and the Governor's Mansion!"
The girl came to the fence and looked down at the lobby.
"The Zhou Family Village is full of beggars! I heard that they rescued more than ten of them last night alone!"
"We also dug up many unknown corpses..."
"Fortunately, the imperial court sent an imperial envoy here, otherwise, I don't know how many more would have happened..."
"Wait, wait, why don't I understand? What does this Zhoujia Village incident you're talking about have to do with the investigation and questioning of the governor's mansion? Could it be that -"
"Why do you think so? That Zhoujia villager has committed many evil deeds, but none of them have been exposed. It is because he is secretly protected by the governor's mansion!"
"This Governor Zhao... as a local official, how could he do such a heartless thing!" Someone slammed the table in anger.
"This Governor Zhao not only profited from this, but his son Zhao Dingxun also killed countless good women with cruel methods. He has a villa in the city, just across the street in Liuke Lane... Many evidences of his crimes are there!"
"The Zhao family father and son are worse than beasts!"
"This is truly a great shame for Hezhou!"
The girl leaned against the fence and listened. She felt relieved and nodded as she heard the people in the hall praising the imperial envoy.
She thought she would have to wait at least three to five days.
Unexpectedly, when she woke up, Erlang of the Wei family had resolved everything in just one night.
This Erlang of the Wei family is useful.
She was applauding in her heart, and everyone in the hall became more and more curious about this decisive imperial envoy. They surrounded a scholar who was considered to have some knowledge and began to question him.
The scholar's tone was full of admiration and yearning: "Speaking of which, this Lord Wei is truly extraordinary. He was born in the mansion of Duke Zheng, a prominent family in the capital. However, he was able to enter the court as an official not because of his family's influence. At the age of seventeen, he was already the number one scholar selected by the emperor. He is the youngest number one scholar since the beginning of the imperial examination!"
Hmm? The girl, who was about to return to the guest room, paused and frowned slightly in confusion.
How could she not know about this? Not to mention Wei Yu, when had Dasheng ever had a seventeen-year-old champion? Her first reaction was that the scholar was exaggerating to attract attention.
The exclamations in the hall continued——
"Now, he is only in his early twenties, but he has already entered the Ministry of Personnel and has been promoted to the position of Dongtai Shiwang... With such talent and good fortune, it is really hard for us to even dream of him!"
The girl's brows furrowed even deeper.
Why doesn’t the official position match?
Someone suddenly realized after hearing this: "I have heard about this before. It turns out that the person who came this time is the rumored only son of Duke Zheng - Wei Shuyi, Minister Wei!"
"That's right!"
The girl turned around abruptly upon hearing this.
"The imperial envoy—" She stared at the waiter who came upstairs to deliver food: "Wei what?"
"Why..." The guy reacted for a moment, then smiled and said, "To get rid of harm for the people!"
"..." The girl asked tentatively: "...Is the imperial envoy from the capital called Wei Yu, or?"
This is really important to her.
"Wei Yu...you mean the second master of the Wei family?" With a family as powerful as the Wei family, any one of them is an important figure. Moreover, the capital is only a thousand miles away from Hezhou. The waiter knows a lot about welcoming and seeing off guests in the inn. At this moment, he smiled and said, "Didn't you hear the guests downstairs say that the one who came this time is not the second master of the Wei family, but his nephew, the son of Duke Zheng, and the Minister of Dongtai, Wei Shuyi!"
“…”
The waiter went off to do his own thing, leaving the girl standing there like a petrified man.
After a while, she raised her hand stiffly and carefully compared the height of the fence in front of her.
——Wei Shuyi?
——That little brat who, relying on his talent, has been bullying people indiscriminately since he was three or two years old?
now……
She raised her hand higher and higher until it was above her head, and it seemed as if the young man who had come out of the teahouse yesterday was standing in front of her.
Now——it has suddenly become so big?! Under the huge impact, the girl's face became even more expressionless.
She turned slowly and walked into the room.
She needs some quiet time.
She needs to sort it out.
Otherwise, if the situation continues to develop like this, she might lose control of her mind and go crazy.
…
Seeing the girl return to her room and close the door, the boy looked confused but did not dare to disturb her.
Inside the room, the girl sat in front of the mirror, staring at her face in the mirror.
If Wei Shuyi has grown up and is over 10 years old, then...
She raised her hand and gently pressed on the red mole on her chest.
Then, Ah Li should be the same age as shown in the mirror.
The girl in the mirror frowned.
The child she had saved was kidnapped at such a young age.
Her emotions were surging like waves caused by a hurricane. She closed her eyes and many complicated images flashed through her mind.
She only knew that she had luckily come back to life, and that the world was still the same, but she had never thought that today was no longer the same as yesterday, and that everything that happened yesterday had become a thing of the past.
At this time, a group of people dressed in dark blue clothes entered the inn and quickly went up to the second floor.
Today, our heroine finally has a nickname to use...
(End of this chapter)
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