Although Su Yan did not know what the Dark Moon Pavilion was planning in Suizhou, she was certain that Li Qingming's death was due to discovering something.
Now that the case file has been tampered with and Shi Zhongyu has distanced himself from the investigation and refused to cooperate, it is extremely difficult to find out what Li Qingming actually discovered.
Shen Yao looked at Su Yan, whose face was full of worry, and asked, "So what do we do next?"
Su Yan thought for a moment. The current clues had been deliberately altered. If she wanted to find out the truth, she had to continue focusing on Li Qingming.
“I know that Li Qingming comes from a poor family. His parents died early, and his wife died prematurely. Now he should only have a ten-year-old daughter to depend on. Shen Yao, have you noticed that since we entered Huai’an Prefecture, Li Qingming’s daughter seems to have never appeared?”
“Indeed, it seems like she has never appeared before. It’s a pity that it’s just the two of us now, and we haven’t even met Li Qingming’s daughter. How can we continue the search?”
Su Yan thought Shen Yao's words made a lot of sense. It was impossible for two people to find a little girl in such a large place as Suizhou, not to mention that Shi Zhongyu would definitely not get involved in this case.
“The wind leaves its sound, the wild geese leave their traces, but people can’t just disappear into thin air. Let’s go back to the county office and investigate everyone who has a relationship with Li Qingming.”
"good……"
Su Yan looked at the corpse lying in the stone coffin and said thoughtfully, "Let's leave Prefect Li's body here for now. Bringing it back rashly might alert the enemy."
Shen Yao agreed with Su Yan's suggestion and pushed the coffin lid back.
Soon after completing the autopsy, the two left the cave.
Led by a servant, they left the Luo residence.
As soon as I stepped out of the gate, two horses were waiting at the entrance.
Su Yan was the first to mount her horse, while Shen Yao stared thoughtfully at the plaque of the Luo residence.
Su Yan saw Shen Yao staring blankly and called out to him a few times, "Shen Yao, Shen Yao... what's wrong?"
Shen Yao snapped out of his daze, looking somewhat puzzled. "You are Losang and Ma Er, but why would he deliberately approach us?"
Su Yan shook her head, indicating that she couldn't figure out what Losang was up to either.
However, it seems that Lausanne has no obvious malicious intent.
"Stop thinking about it, let's investigate Li Qingming's case first!"
After saying that, Su Yan flicked the horse's rump with her whip, and the horse started to run.
Seeing Su Yan ride away, Shen Yao quickly mounted his horse and chased after her.
…………
In the days that followed, Su Yan and Shen Yao investigated Li Qingming's colleagues and acquaintances.
I discovered that everyone had mixed opinions about him.
Overall, Li Qingming is a very stubborn donkey. He is inflexible, inflexible, and has a personality similar to Shen Yao's. Moreover, as a prefect, he lives a very frugal life.
To the common people, Li Qingming was indeed a good official.
However, within the officialdom, Li Qingming was an unpleasant colleague and superior.
Unfortunately, Li Qingming was not Shen Yao and did not have a prominent family background to support him, otherwise he would not have been exiled to the desolate and hopeless Suizhou.
As for his daughter, Li Changyan, no one has ever seen her.
Finally, Su Yan traced the owner of the courtyard house that Li Qingming rented.
That person was Li Qingming's neighbor, and the two families were fairly familiar with each other.
Therefore, Su Yan and Shen Yao arrived at the house Li Qingming rented early in the morning to inquire about the situation.
"You mean he had already sent Li Changyan away a week before Prefect Li's incident?"
The landlord nodded. "That's right. It was early morning, before dawn. I saw Li Qingming take his daughter out of the city in a carriage. When Prefect Li returned in the afternoon, I didn't see Changyan anymore."
Su Yan frowned. It seemed that Li Qingming must have realized that his death was imminent, which was why he sent his daughter away.
"Was there anything particularly strange about Prefect Li at that time?"
The landlord pondered for a moment, then suddenly thought of something. “Prefect Li himself is not particularly strange, but after he died, your men would come and search his house every few days, not even sparing the mud bricks on the ground.”
"Is there anything else besides that?"
The landlord thought for a moment, "The government officials searched the place, and then they searched it again at night."
Do you know who it is?
The landlord shook his head, his expression filled with fear. "To be honest, sir, if a high-ranking official like Prefect Li were to suddenly be imprisoned and die in jail, how could I, a commoner of low status, dare to look around? And I have no idea who broke in at night."
Su Yan understood the landlord's actions. After all, when faced with a situation, most people would be afraid of getting into trouble and would choose to stand by and do nothing, which is only natural.
"Do you still remember what Prefect Li's daughter, Li Changyan, looks like?"
The landlord nodded. "Of course I know. Changyan is very well-behaved. Our whole family loves Changyan."
Su Yan looked at Shen Yao beside her.
Shen Yao instantly understood and took out the brush and ink he had prepared in advance, spreading them out neatly on the table.
Su Yan sat down, picked up the pen and ink, and said, "Speak..."
Soon, based on the landlord's description, Su Yan drew a picture of Li Changyan's appearance.
A well-behaved and adorable little girl floated on the paper. The landlord stared in horror upon seeing it, praising her repeatedly.
"It's so similar, it's really so similar."
After finishing the portrait, Su Yan and Shen Yao left the landlord's courtyard and headed towards the house where Li Qingming lived.
Just as the landlord had said, they even pried off the bricks on the ground.
The entire house was completely empty. Not only was there no evidence, but even the planted flowers, trees, and shrubs had been uprooted, leaving the house even more deserted than if it had been looted by bandits.
Su Yan didn't expect to find anything in the house, so she wandered around the courtyard.
Finally, my attention was drawn to a relief sculpture on the wall.
Suizhou is the territory of the Qiang people, who love to carve on stones. Most of the stories in the carvings are about mountain spirits and monsters, or myths and legends. However, Su Yan found the relief in front of her extremely strange.
It was completely different from the stories depicted by the Qiang people that she had read.
Seeing Su Yan staring blankly at the relief sculpture, Shen Yao walked over and asked, "What are you looking at?"
Su Yan pointed to the relief on the wall, "Chen Yao, don't you think this relief is strange?"
After looking at it for a long time, Shen Yao shook his head helplessly. He had lived in Chang'an as a child and later went to the frontier. He was completely clueless about customs and culture.
However, Su Yan is different. Although she has lived in Chang'an since childhood, she has the original owner's memories in her head.
Although the original owner was from Daliang, he had been exposed to a lot of Qiang culture since childhood.
The relief sculpture in front of us tells a beautiful love legend of the Qiang people.
Legend has it that a man cultivated himself into human form for a hundred years at Tianchi, a sacred site for the Qiang people, and fell in love with a Qiang woman.
The two fell in love at first sight and entrusted their lives to each other, but the Qiang woman had been betrothed since childhood.
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