Perhaps because Jiang Lingyao and Duan Nanqi both looked serious and spoke in firm tones, Aunt Xinghua's sadness eased a little. She sobbed a few times, but eventually stopped crying.
"Thank you, my Lords," Auntie Xinghua asked, choking with tears, "Xiaozhen has no relatives. I want to go see her. I don't want her to be alone."
Jiang Lingyao thought for a moment and said, "Auntie Xinghua, Xiaozhen is now in the mortuary at Shuntian Mansion, and there is a coroner guarding her. It would be best if you could go there. You can also identify the deceased and confirm whether it is Xiaozhen."
When Auntie Xinghua heard this, her red eyes suddenly lit up, and she said quickly, "I can go right away."
"Don't worry, auntie. I want to ask where Xiaozhen likes to go on weekdays. Besides the new friend she mentioned, does she have any other friends?"
Auntie Xinghua sighed, "Xiaozhen doesn't like to talk. Because she can only rely on herself to make a living, she is very hardworking. A thin little girl, she also learned to go fishing on her own. Although she is not as strong as those men, she is also very good. She always feels lonely and helpless, so she never plays. Every day, she only fishes and weaves fishing nets. She can't go to the county once a month."
"If we talk about friends, she is closer to my family. My daughter is 13 or 14 years old now, and she will occasionally go to play with me. No one else is close to her."
Jiang Lingyao asked, "Auntie, where is your daughter? May I ask?"
"Speaking of this, it's really unfortunate. If my Yaya was here, she would have gone to look for Xiaozhen every day, so how could she not know that she was missing?" Aunt Xinghua's lips drooped. "On the second day after the Dragon Boat Festival, she went to her aunt's house in the county to accompany my niece who was getting married. She was in Wanping all this time, not in the village."
Jiang Lingyao and Duan Nanqi looked at each other, Duan Nanqi nodded slightly to Jiang Lingyao, and Jiang Lingyao stood up and said, "Auntie Xinghua, let's go check on Xiaozhen's boat first, and then we'll pick you up to go to the county government office after we've checked it out, okay?"
Auntie Xinghua wiped her tears and said, "Okay, Xiaozhen's shed is at the easternmost end, and it is not connected to any other shed. There is a peach tree planted outside the shed. She must have locked the door. I have the key."
After getting the key, Jiang Lingyao and Duan Nanzhu went to the east of the village. This fishing village was the quietest in the afternoon. Walking in it, besides the moisture surging from the Baihe River, there was also the fishy smell of fishing nets drying outside every household.
Jiang Lingyao looked at the endless boats and said, "I didn't expect Baihe Village to be so big."
Duan Nanqi said: "The trickling Baihe River nourishes the people on both sides of the river and also brings Baihe Village to Wanping. In the early years, disasters continued and many disaster victims poured into Yanjing. In the end, they all stayed in Wanping and gathered along the Baihe River. It took decades for the village to become as lively as it is today."
It took several decades of recuperation and development to achieve today's prosperity.
A shed boat and a fishing net can support a family of young and old, ensuring that they have enough food and warm clothes and will not suffer from hunger or cold.
The two walked slowly in the village. Since there were only sheds and shed boats on both sides, the paths in the village were all made of wooden boards. The creaking sound when walking on them was very harsh in the quiet village.
Jiang Lingyao was not a weak daughter of a noble family. Although her skills were not as good as Shen Suning's, her steps were strong and she walked surprisingly steadily on this rugged path.
Duan Nanqi lowered his eyes and glanced at him, then said nonchalantly, "Master Qiao has a solid foundation, so he can go smoothly on this journey."
Jiang Lingyao was very polite: "No, no, I am not as good as Lord Duan, please forgive me, Lord Duan."
The two exchanged a few polite words before arriving at the easternmost side of the village. As expected, there was only a dilapidated shed boat parked there. The shed boat was patched up and nailed, and the wood planks were of varying shades of light and dark. It was obviously abandoned and then picked up and repaired, and it looked battered.
The shed boat is slightly larger than an ordinary boat, and has only a wooden shed in the boat. Because the shed boats in Baihe Village are mostly used for living, doors and windows are added to the shed of this shed boat.
As a refugee and an orphan, the villagers were obviously unwilling to spend more time with Xiaozhen, so she lived alone in the eastern corner of the village, surrounded by no other villagers except for other abandoned sheds and boats.
The two of them walked quickly to the shed boat. Just as Jiang Lingyao was about to climb up along the stones piled beside the boat, Duan Nanqiao reached out and stopped her.
Duan Nanqiao didn't look at him. He took two or three steps onto the deck of the shed. Then he turned around to look at Jiang Lingyao and stretched out his arms to her.
"Be careful."
Jiang Lingyao pursed her lips, but still held his arm and got on the boat.
Although Xiaozhen's shed boat is old, she keeps it very clean. The fishing nets are drying on the deck, and five or six back baskets and fish baskets are piled in the corner, making it look very tidy.
Jiang Lingyao walked to the door holding the key and gently unlocked it.
As the copper lock was removed, the light wooden door creaked open. In the bright afternoon light, the two of them could see into Xiaozhen's shed at a glance.
The shed was very small, so small that it could only fit a wooden bed, a square table and a small box.
Everything is old.
The bedding was old, and the four legs of the square table were of different sizes, looking like they were put together. Only the wooden box looked more regular, but it could only hold some miscellaneous items.
The room was low, and it was difficult for Duan Nanqi to enter, so Jiang Lingyao said, "My lord, please wait outside. I will go in and take a look."
Duan Nanqi hummed and warned, "Be careful."
Jiang Lingyao bent down and entered the shed boat. She was slightly taller than the average woman, so when she stood up straight on the shed boat, she always felt that the ceiling would touch her head, which was quite oppressive.
"The deceased was about five feet tall, a few inches shorter than me, so it seems that this shed is still habitable."
Jiang Lingyao first turned over the bed, then looked at the square table, and finally opened the box.
There were only two old clothes and a thin winter quilt in the box, nothing else.
This shed was completely bare, without any valuable items. If there was anything special about it, it was only a paper lantern on the table.
The room was filled with old things except for the paper lamp, which was brand new. It had six sides, and each side was painted with a cluster of embroidered ball flowers, which looked extremely delicate.
Jiang Lingyao picked up the lamp and looked around inside and outside, but could not find any craftsman's mark on it. She turned to Duan Nanqi and asked, "Master Duan, this is the only special lamp in the house. Why don't we take it back to the county government as evidence?"
Duan Nanqi squinted his eyes and looked at it, then said, "Yes."
After the two of them got out of Xiaozhen's boat, Duan Nanqi said, "I saw Auntie Xinghua and felt that she was too sad about Xiaozhen's death. Although Xiaozhen was saved by her family, she had no relationship with them and they had not been in contact every day for the past two years. But Auntie Xinghua cried so hard that she couldn't stop, and repeatedly said that it was her fault. It was quite intriguing."
There were countless prisoners under the Jinyi Guards' trial. No matter whether they were suspects, prisoners or witnesses, he could always see the flaws in them at a glance, just like Aunt Xinghua, who was too sad, and had a flaw that was different from that of ordinary people.
Jiang Lingyao paused for a moment, but she frowned slightly, not agreeing with Duan Nanqi's words: "I think it is very common to sympathize with the weak and feel sad for the dead. Shouldn't Aunt Xinghua be sad about Xiaozhen's murder?"
Duan Nanzhu also stopped, and the two looked at each other in the quiet fishing village.
Jiang Lingyao's eyes are narrow, long and gentle, with slightly drooping eyelids and upturned eye tails. When she smiles, there is a glittering glow in her eyes, but when she doesn't smile, she is so calm and firm.
At this moment, she stared at Duan Nanqi, with the look of disapproval in her eyes extremely obvious.
Duan Nanqi was not angry about this. On the contrary, he kept smiling, even his peach blossom eyes were smiling, and he seemed not to care at all about Jiang Lingyao's rebuttal.
He said: "Ordinary people should be sad, but Aunt Xinghua is a little too sad. To ordinary people, she is just a little bit out of the ordinary."
"Why is Lord Qiao angry about this?" Duan Nanqi looked at Jiang Lingyao with a smile, "I think we should ask Aunt Xinghua again to see if she has any other stories that she hasn't told. Is that okay?"
Although Duan Nanqi was not angry with Jiang Lingyao, as a member of the Imperial Guard, he must have the Imperial Guard's way of being an official and the Imperial Guard's way of interrogation. It was precisely because the person who refuted him was Jiang Lingyao that he made an explanation.
This was his biggest concession.
It was the first time that Jiang Lingyao saw Duan Nanqi being so persistent. His determination and rationality seemed to be engraved in his bones. Under his playful appearance, he was extremely rational and indifferent.
She knew that Duan Nanqi must have been in Jinyiwei for quite some time, but she just couldn't imagine that Duan Nanqi could be so cold and sober. He evaluated everyone with his many years of interrogation experience in Jinyiwei. Even when Aunt Xinghua cried for Xiaozhen, she was even more sad and cried uncontrollably, which could be used as a reason for Jinyiwei to interrogate the case.
Other people's deep emotions and uncontrollable pain all became suspicion to Duan Nanqi.
But was he wrong? Jiang Lingyao didn't know how to refute him.
Deep down in her heart, she felt a little uneasy. She didn't know whether it was right or wrong for Duan Nanqi to continue like this. She also didn't know if she would become like him in the future.
Jiang Lingyao looked at him in silence. She didn't know how to answer, nor did she know whether to answer. She suddenly realized that even though the two of them could now solve cases side by side and seek justice for the deceased together, they were still just strangers.
They may not become fellow travelers.
Jiang Lingyao's silence made Duan Nanqi's smile fade slightly. He looked at Jiang Lingyao deeply, decided not to bother with her about this matter anymore, turned around and strode forward.
A breeze blew, brushing across Jiang Lingyao's slightly warm cheeks, and also brushing away the irritability in her heart.
Jiang Lingyao heaved a long sigh of relief, and without dwelling on the matter, quickly followed.
The two were still talking and laughing when they came, but were indifferent when they left. When they returned to the village entrance, Jiang Lingyao was about to call Duan Nanqiao and ask him if he was still going to pick up Aunt Xinghua, but she heard Aunt Xinghua crying from a distance.
Her crying sounded unusually harsh in the quiet village. The grief in that voice did not seem hypocritical; it was sobbing and extremely painful.
Jiang Lingyao could only hear her crying and saying, "It's all my fault, it's all my fault."
Jiang Lingyao looked carefully and saw Aunt Xinghua leaning outside the patrol shop. A young patrolman was standing beside her at a loss, trying to neither persuade nor comfort her, and was sweating profusely.
Before the two of them could come forward, the young policeman saw the bright red flying fish suit and was immediately frightened and pale: "Sir, I didn't mean to tell her the case, but she was so pitiful, I... I couldn't help but tell her."
Without waiting for Duan Nanqi to ask, the policeman confessed: "I only said that the deceased died in the flower bed, and Aunt Xinghua started crying."
"I didn't say anything else."
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