Jiang Lingyao and Shen Suning sorted out the files of Tianyou's sixth year together. After confirming that there were no clues, they decided to start reading from Tianyou's seventh year tomorrow.
The more Jiang Lingyao read the files, the more she felt that Li Hong might really be able to find clues, and even Xiuhong could be found. The county magistrate of Wanping at that time must have been a capable person who focused on writing books. The files for several consecutive years were clean and beautiful. Even the county annals were very detailed. Even a simple embroidery union was recorded, and even the name was recorded.
The two were looking through the files and talking in low voices. At this moment, Duan Nanzhi suddenly came in from outside, causing the Jinyiwei guards in the room to stand up and salute him.
Duan Nanqi glanced at Jiang Lingyao casually, nodded at her, and then strode towards the Jinyi Guard.
Jiang Lingyao's heart, which had just been hanging in the air, finally settled down again and she breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, Zheng Feng rushed in. As soon as he came in, he bowed to Duan Nanqi and said, "Sir, Qian Da has been arrested, but Zhou Sen is nowhere to be found. We only found Zhou Sen's daughter."
Jiang Lingyao and Duan Nanqi stood up together and looked at Zheng Feng with sharp eyes.
Zheng Feng felt a chill on his back for no apparent reason. He said, "Sir, according to the records of the Huazhou Society, Zhou Sen lived at No. 27, Jiaoye Lane. He had a lantern shop at home, and the people nearby all went to his house to buy lanterns. But when we went there, his door was locked and the shop was not open. When we asked the neighbors, they all said that Zhou's house had been closed three days ago and no one had come in or out since then."
The more Zheng Feng spoke, the uglier his expression became. He frowned and said, "Sir, the neighbors said that Zhou Sen does not live alone. He has a child..."
Zheng Feng said in a deep voice: "He has two daughters."
Jiang Lingyao's eyes widened: "What?"
Zheng Feng said, "Master Qiao, you heard it right. The neighbors said that Zhou Sen has a pair of twin daughters. They are just thirteen this year. The eldest daughter is Zhou Ru and the second daughter is Zhou Yi. One of the sisters is lively and the other is well-behaved. They are both good girls. They have been helping Zhou Sen manage the lantern business at home, and their craftsmanship is also good."
"With this clue, we broke into Zhou Sen's house. There was no one else in the house, and Zhou Sen was not at home. However, we found the dying little girl in the woodshed and brought her back to the county government office."
When Jiang Lingyao heard that a girl had been rescued, she couldn't help but feel relieved, but in a flash, her heart was lifted again.
"What about the other one?" she asked. "Isn't she a twin sister?"
Zheng Feng looked bitter. He shook his head and said, "I haven't found it yet."
Jiang Lingyao took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.
At this time, Nanxi spoke up: "Have you asked for other clues?"
Zheng Feng said, "Sir, there are other cavalrymen who are inquiring with the neighbors and will be back soon."
Duan Nanqi frowned slightly and looked at Jiang Lingyao: "Let's go, let's go see Zhou Sen's daughter."
Jiang Lingyao nodded and said, "I can only ask her."
Zhou Sen's daughter has been in a coma. She has been locked up for at least two days. Not only is she frightened, but she has not been able to eat or drink, so she is very weak.
After the Jinyiwei brought her back, they placed her in the back room of the county government office, where Chu Shuinian was taking her pulse.
Duan Nanqi and Jiang Lingyao entered the back room and saw Chu Xiunian giving acupuncture.
The little girl lying on the bed didn't look short. She seemed to be half a head shorter than Jiang Lingyao. She had an innocent face and childishness between her brows. She looked like a little girl who had never experienced the world.
There were scratches on her face, obviously she had a very hard time in the past few days.
At this time, she was given an injection and seemed to be trying to struggle to wake up. She looked extremely uneasy, with her lips tightly pursed and mumbling inaudible words.
Chu Xiunian was an extremely skilled doctor. In just a cup of tea, he used a needle to wake the unconscious girl up.
Everyone saw her brows twitch slightly, and she was about to open her eyes.
Jiang Lingyao was afraid that she would be scared, so she and Shen Suning hurried forward and stood in front of Chu Xiunian: "Miss, we are government officials. We have rescued you from your home. Don't be afraid."
The little girl from the Zhou family only then trembled and opened her eyes. Her dark pupils instantly fell on Jiang Lingyao, and she seemed to have no idea where she was.
The next moment, she screamed in shock, shrank into the corner of the bed, and shivered under the thin quilt.
Tears as big as beans rolled down her eyes, making people feel heartbroken.
Jiang Lingyao spoke softly, and she coaxed gently: "Miss, I am a magistrate in the government, my last name is Qiao, we have rescued you from your home, can you answer my questions?"
The little girl looked at her timidly, her big eyes full of fear and pain, but she still wiped the tears from her face with her hands and nodded to Jiang Lingyao: "My lord, please ask."
Her voice was thin and soft, like fragile cattail, which seemed like it could be blown away by the wind.
Jiang Lingyao sat on the edge of the bed and motioned Pei Yu to start recording his testimony.
She asked, "Are you Zhou Sen's daughter? The eldest daughter or the youngest daughter?"
Hearing the name Zhou Sen, the little girl couldn't help but shiver again, but she quickly calmed down and said to Jiang Lingyao: "I am, I am the eldest daughter Zhou Ru, sir..."
As soon as she said her name, tears started to flow again: "Sir, my father...my father took my sister away, please save my sister."
Jiang Lingyao said softly, "Okay, Zhou Ru, do you know where your father took Zhou Yi?"
Zhou Ru shuddered again, but she still clenched her fists firmly. She said, "My father has a warehouse by the Baihe River, five miles west of Baihe Village. He should have gone there."
Duan Nanqi glanced at Zheng Feng, and Zheng Feng immediately retreated.
Jiang Lingyao was relieved when she heard that she had found her sister. She comforted Zhou Ru, "Don't be afraid, Xiaoru. With the Jinyi Guards here, we can definitely rescue your sister. Do you... do you know why your father locked you up in the woodshed?"
When Zhou Ru heard this, the tears that she had held back with great difficulty began to flow again.
She pursed her lips and then said with a sob: "I know... I know everything."
Zhou Ru cried heartbreakingly: "My father is a bad man. He killed people."
Jiang Lingyao took a deep breath and looked up at Duan Nanqi. Duan Nanqi nodded at her. Jiang Lingyao continued to ask: "Xiaoru, the questions I'm going to ask you later may make you uncomfortable. Do you want me to ask you now, or wait until you feel better?"
Just then, a captain brought some porridge over. Jiang Lingyao took the bowl and gently placed it in Zhou Ru's hand.
She found that Zhou Ru had a lot of silk coils on her hands, as well as scars from knife cuts that had healed. Apparently what the neighbor said was true. The sisters often helped their father make lanterns, and they had scars on their hands.
Zhou Ru held the bowl of porridge in her hand. She couldn't help but wolfed down a few mouthfuls, then whispered, "Sir, please ask. I want my sister to come back soon."
Jiang Lingyao didn't ask from the beginning. She asked, "When did you know that your father had killed someone?"
Zhou Ru's face turned pale, but she still held the bowl of porridge tightly, lowered her head and said, "My father's legs are not good. One of his feet is a little sloping, and it is very difficult for him to walk. The day before yesterday, he said he was going to the warehouse and would be home in the afternoon, but my sister and I waited until the evening and didn't see him. I was very anxious, so I asked my sister to look after the house and hurried to the warehouse."
"My family's lantern business is sometimes good and sometimes bad. It's probably because my mother died young and we were very pitiful. We relied on the help of our neighbors. I never understood why my father didn't rent out the warehouse, because we couldn't sell that many lanterns at home."
Zhou Ru spoke more and more smoothly, but her eyes were dull and lifeless. She lowered her eyes and just looked at the bowl of porridge in front of her, looking extremely pitiful.
"I asked my sister to look after the house while I rushed to the warehouse. It was my first time there and I searched for a long time before I found it in a field of reeds. But as soon as I walked in, I smelled blood."
"I was very scared at the time and worried that my father was injured, so I ran over and opened the door."
"Who knows, who knows," she stammered again, "Who knows that the person injured behind the door was not my father, but... a strange girl."
"The scene was so scary that I fell to the ground. My father was very angry when he saw me and asked me why I went to the warehouse."
Zhou Ru buried her face in her knees and cried bitterly: "I don't want to go either. I don't want to know. It would be great if I had never been to the warehouse."
Seeing the little girl in so much pain, Jiang Lingyao slowly reached out her hand and gently patted her on the back.
Zhou Ru's body stiffened at first, but when she saw it was her, she relaxed and let her comfort her.
She said, "I only saw the girl's back was covered in blood, so I asked my father to let her go and not do such a heinous thing, but my father disagreed."
"I remember him saying," Zhou Ru said in a harsh voice, "He said that the person was already dead, and the evil things he had done had already been done, and he couldn't turn back."
"Sir, did my father really kill someone?"
Perhaps because she still had hopes for her father, the little girl still refused to believe that her father had killed someone, and not just one person.
Jiang Lingyao gently patted her frail back and comforted her: "Whether your father has killed anyone or not, we still have to find him and interrogate him to find out."
When Zhou Ru heard this, her eyes seemed to brighten up, but then she lowered her head and whispered, "Sir, you are such a good person. I know my father killed someone. Killing someone means paying for it. This is the law of nature."
Zhou Ru murmured, "I found out about my father. He was very angry. He knocked me out and took me back home."
"When I woke up, I was in the woodshed. I heard my sister outside asking him why he had locked up my sister. My father just said that I was disobedient and wanted to punish me."
"My sister is always brave and she is very dependent on me. She came to the woodshed in the middle of the night and asked me what I had done wrong and asked me to apologize to my father."
Zhou Ru's tears kept falling, but they just couldn't stop.
"I wanted her to go back quickly and not make Daddy angry, but Daddy still found her. Then I saw Daddy covering her mouth and dragging her away."
"Sir, tell me, is my little Yi still alive?"
Zhou Ru's pale face was covered with tear marks, her lips were dry, her eyes were dull, and she seemed to have no hope for the afterlife.
She said, "I was born without a mother and have been dependent on my sister. I don't want to lose her."
Zhou Ru's cry was soft and weak, but it made people feel sad from the bottom of their hearts: "Daddy killed someone. He is no longer my original daddy. I only have Xiaoyi left."
"Sir, please promise me that you will rescue Xiao Yi, okay?"
Jiang Lingyao felt a little depressed. It looked like Zhou Yi was in danger.
The incident happened two days ago. During these two days, Zhou Sen has not returned to Banana Leaf Lane. He even placed Xiaozhen's body in the Quiet Night Garden, which shows how determined he was to kill.
But looking at Zhou Ru who had collapsed, Jiang Lingyao still comforted her: "We will try our best to save everyone."
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