Chapter 80 Chapter 80 "You are just a...
"You are just a guard, and you dare to meddle in the affairs of our eldest lady? " Jiang Wan frowned, but felt a little nervous.
The Marquis of Jing'an's eldest daughter was already asleep, so he certainly didn't dare wake her up to confront her. But if he continued like this, even if he let his guard down, he wouldn't necessarily let her in out of caution.
Sure enough, the person opposite pondered for a moment and said politely, "Miss Lanxiang, the master is not in the study, and I really dare not let you enter the room alone. If you have delayed the young lady's business, I will take the blame tomorrow, but...Miss Lanxiang? Miss Lanxiang?"
Before he could finish, Jiang Wan had already walked past him and headed towards the study.
The sword-wielding martial arts master's eyes flashed, and his figure floated. In an instant, he was in front of Jiang Wan and grabbed her wrist.
Her pulse was weak and she had no internal energy. It was obvious that she was a delicate girl who had never done any heavy work.
The little girl in front of him was especially frightened by his sudden action. When she turned around, her eyes were full of grievance and anger. She struggled twice but failed to break free. She stared at him angrily: "What are you doing! You're touching me!"
The martial arts expert's heart softened, and he subconsciously let her go. The little girl was free and went straight into the study.
"Hey—" The master touched his nose, feeling something was wrong, but he didn't know what. He stayed there for a while, put his sword on his back, and went back.
A delicate little girl, there shouldn't be any problem. He muttered as he walked, "The Marquis said there might be bad guys breaking in tonight, how come I didn't notice..."
After he walked away, Jiang Wan closed the door and looked around.
Unlike the plainness of the Wen Mansion, or the elegance of the Wenyuan Marquis's residence, the Jing'an Marquis's study was magnificent, highlighting his status as a royal relative. There were many locked cabinets in the study. Jiang Wan exchanged a "□□" from the system's tool box and opened each cabinet one by one to search.
Finally, in a secret compartment, she found the bank's roster and a number of letters written in Xiongnu language. Although she couldn't understand Xiongnu language, Jiang Wan remembered the signatures on the letters.
When the Wu and Hu peoples met, the same words were engraved on the sword of the Xiongnu King Youguli.
Xiongnu warriors liked to carve their names on their beloved swords, expressing their determination to survive as long as the sword survived, or die if the sword was destroyed. This means that these letters from the Xiongnu were likely sent by the King of Youguli.
How could the Marquis of Jing'an, who lived in Lin'an, have direct contact with the Xiongnu? And was he connected to the unjust case of Duke He?
Jiang Wan placed the letters into his personal space and searched through them again. The rest of the correspondence was normal correspondence between friends. There were also some family letters from Consort Xiande from years ago, stored in a separate box. Other than hinting at a close relationship between the siblings, there was nothing unusual about the contents. To avoid suspicion, Marquis Jing'an and the Third Prince had barely exchanged letters for two years.
There was also a letter from the Grand Tutor two years earlier, stored in a separate compartment. The contents were ordinary: condolences for the recently deceased Consort De, along with a few polite and courteous words of comfort. Atop the letter sat a pink jade pendant depicting a rabbit, a piece that didn't seem like a man's. It was placed there for unknown reasons.
Other than that, Jiang Wan didn't find anything suspicious. Seeing that the guards' next round of patrol was about to begin, Jiang Wan hurriedly locked the cabinet, threw the □□ into his personal space, and slipped out of the study.
She encountered a new problem - Marquis Jing'an returned home.
He also sealed the door of the mansion and was summoning everyone in the mansion for questioning.
The palace soldiers and guards ran around holding torches, lighting up the mansion as bright as day. The servants woke from their sleep and gathered in the front yard, yawning.
Jiang Wan mixed in with the maids, pretending to be sleepy and yawning, and asked the maid next to her: "What's going on? Why are you calling us here in the middle of the night?"
"I don't know. The Marquis was supposed to stay in the palace, but he suddenly came back," a maid said. "I heard he was going to arrest someone."
Jiang Wan imitated the maids, complaining while feeling sleepy, but her heart was in her throat.
Marquis Jing'an suddenly changed his schedule. Did he realize her plan? Or... had he let her know by spreading the news that he was staying in the palace?
Jiang Wan's brain was working rapidly, and suddenly he thought of something.
It had been a month since He Wanrong was captured, and the Marquisate hadn't taken any other action besides keeping her locked up. Furthermore, through the underground tunnel, Jiang Wan knew that the guards on her had been relaxed over the past few days, and that she had received more food and water.
Thinking about how Marquis Jing'an suddenly returned home to arrest someone today, Jiang Wan instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
After all the servants in the mansion arrived, Marquis Jing'an glanced at everyone's faces and then ordered a body search.
He went straight to the study with his personal servant.
About a quarter of an hour later, Jing'an Hou returned angrily, followed by his personal servant and the martial arts master. The master had his neck hunched, his head lowered, and a clear palm print on his face.
"Have you finished searching me?" asked Marquis Jing'an with a stern face.
The captain of the guards stepped forward and said, "We've completed the search. Nothing unusual."
As soon as he finished speaking, the captain was slapped.
"You bastard! I've lost an important letter. How could we not have noticed it with everyone in the mansion here?" Jing'an Marquis roared. "Search every room in the mansion immediately. Don't let a single ant go undetected. You must find the lost letter, or I'll chop off your head!"
The captain of the guards trembled with fear and quickly led his men to search the mansion. Jing'an Hou examined the servants and asked, "Who is Lanxiang? Come out!"
Jiang Wan took a deep breath, walked out of the crowd, and pretended to be scared, her voice trembling: "My Lord, this servant...this servant Lanxiang."
"Raise your head." said Marquis Jing'an.
Jiang Wan looked up and met his gaze. It had to be said that the Marquis of Jing'an, despite being nearly fifty, had maintained himself remarkably well, with few wrinkles on his face. His features were regular and gentle, a look that was more in line with the aesthetics of the Lin'an nobility. If it weren't for the letters she'd seen in the study, if it weren't for the fierce, savage look he'd been facing, she might have mistaken him for just an ordinary, wealthy, idle individual.
"He certainly doesn't look like someone who knows martial arts," Jing'an Hou observed for a moment, then asked the martial arts master with a face covered in slap marks, "Don't you have Qinggong?"
A martial arts expert said, "My Lord, I've checked her pulse and she's definitely not good at martial arts. Judging from her physique, she probably doesn't even know Qinggong. Furthermore, martial arts require talent, and this woman's foundation isn't suited to it, and she's still young..."
Marquis Jing'an glanced at her and called over an old maid: "Search her again. Make sure you search her thoroughly and don't miss any part of her."
Jiang Wan took a deep breath to calm himself, pretended to be scared, and let the nanny search him.
The nanny was indeed very careful. She searched everywhere and finally helped her straighten her messy clothes, standing beside her with her hands hanging down.
"Master, nothing suspicious was found on Lanxiang. Could the letter you're looking for have been taken out of the house? Or did the person read it and eat it?"
"Impossible! I secretly ordered people to surround the entire mansion before entering the palace. No one has ever left," Jing'an Marquis shook his head. "There are dozens of letters. I definitely can't finish them."
At this time, the captain of the guards who had been searching the mansion also returned: "My Lord, we have searched the entire mansion, but we haven't found what you mentioned."
Marquis Jing'an nodded: "That should have nothing to do with Miss Lanxiang. I don't think Chen Jianqing would send a woman with no martial arts skills to steal things - has anyone else been to the study today?"
Seeing that the other party began to interrogate other servants, Jiang Wan breathed a sigh of relief and retreated into the group of servants.
Judging from this situation, it was clear that Jing'an Hou had already known about their plan. Thinking back, he might also have known about their digging a tunnel to meet He Wanrong.
It can even be said that bringing He Wanrong to the Marquis's Mansion and even the things He Wanrong found in the Shangshu Mansion - all may have been deliberately arranged by Marquis Jing'an.
As long as they catch the person who sneaked into the Marquis' Mansion tonight, Wen Shen and Shen Jianqing will not be able to shirk the charges of privately investigating the convicted case of He Guogong and trespassing into the First-Rank Marquis' Mansion.
Jiang Wan broke out in a cold sweat at the thought. If they hadn't suddenly changed their plan and she had entered the mansion disguised as a maid, it's doubtful she would have been able to get the things in the study, but she would have been unavoidably tricked by Marquis Jing'an.
The guards were now checking the identities and portraits of the people one by one with the list. Fortunately, "Lanxiang" did exist and was indeed a maid in the courtyard of the eldest daughter of the Marquis's mansion, but she was from the outer courtyard, not a personal servant.
During the day, Wen Shen knocked out Zhen Lanxiang who was out shopping. Jiang Wan changed into Zhen Lanxiang's clothes, and then the talented people in the Jinyiwei helped her change her appearance.
Although there were still slight differences in their body shapes, the light was dim at night and everyone was too flustered to notice anything unusual.
Jiang Wan cooperated with the guards to verify his identity and report his whereabouts. But at this time, a servant who worked under the eldest lady of the Marquis' Mansion and the same servant as "Lanxiang" spoke up.
"Well...our eldest lady usually sends Miss Zhuyun to deliver something to the Marquis," he stammered. "And tonight, the lights in the eldest lady's room were turned off at 11:00 PM, an hour earlier than usual. Why would Miss Lanxiang be sent to deliver something at 11:00 PM?"
The guard who was recording with his head down suddenly raised his head and looked at Jiang Wan.
"Lanxiang, how do you explain it?"
Jiang Wan: What can I explain? I don’t know why your eldest daughter suddenly went to bed two hours earlier.
According to the intelligence from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, this young lady usually rests at 11:15 PM on weekdays, and the time is basically fixed with few exceptions.
I didn't expect that today would be an exception.
At this point, Jiang Wan could only bite the bullet and make up a lie: "Brother Guard, after the lights in the young lady's room were turned off today, Sister Zhuyun went back to rest. An hour later, the young lady suddenly called for help. I happened to be in the courtyard at the time, and she ordered me to deliver the food box to the master's study."
The guard nodded, seemingly not noticing anything wrong, and recorded it as usual without asking any further questions.
I thought I could get away with it, but I didn't expect that Marquis Jing'an would notice this after reading the records.
He called the old maid over and said, "Go ask the young lady if she sent anyone to deliver something to me tonight. Ask her who sent it, what it was, and when it was delivered. You must find out exactly."
The lights in the front yard were blinding. Jiang Wan strained to look towards the brightest spot. Jing'an Hou stood with his hands behind his back, his entire figure gloomy and unspeakable. Even in the bright light, he looked chilling and chilling, making the hairs on his back stand on end.
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