70 Ye Yunzhao is imprisoned
◎Could it be that the adults are trying to force a confession out of me?◎
A rather luxurious carriage swayed slowly towards Yuezhou City. Ye Yunzhao, who was sitting inside, touched the cushion under him, looked at the incense, and gently lifted the curtain in disbelief. The mountains outside quickly receded.
Ye Yunzhao glanced at the yamen runner sitting across from him and chuckled, "I never imagined that my first time riding in this fine carriage would be like this."
The bailiff held the knife and stared at her intently without saying anything.
"Where do you live, brother? How much is your salary?" Ye Yunzhao deliberately asked, "Who do you obey? If you tell me the truth, I will reward you handsomely..."
As soon as she finished speaking, a sharp blade was placed on her shoulder, and the bailiff said coldly, "Shut up!"
Ye Yunzhao's left shoulder sank and shook uncontrollably. He raised his right hand and gently moved the official knife on his shoulder.
She smiled sheepishly, her eyes fixed on the official sword, and said, "I apologize for being rude."
The bailiff snorted coldly and put the knife back.
Ye Yunzhao also slowly closed his eyes. Although his expression was unrevealed, his heart was filled with turmoil.
This official sword had a slightly curved blade, a wide blade, and was extremely heavy. But the previous official sword had a shorter blade and a slightly wider blade, and only the tail of the sword was upturned. Clearly, it wasn't the same type of official sword...
However, both blades bear official marks, which cannot be forged by ordinary blacksmith shops.
But if the person threatening him wasn't someone from the government office, then who could it be? And why would he threaten him?
Ye Yunzhao closed his eyes and frowned, as if in deep thought, but the answer was unknown.
"Get down!" A fierce voice sounded in front of her.
Ye Yunzhao opened his eyes suddenly, and was pushed by this person, half falling and half stumbling out of the car.
She looked around and found that the carriage did not stop in front of the government office, but went into the backyard.
"What are you looking at?" The bailiff pushed her. "Let's go! The master is waiting!"
Ye Yunzhao had no choice but to walk in the direction indicated by the yamen runner.
Sitting in the middle of the room was a man in a green official uniform with a xi chi embroidered on his chest. He looked to be no more than thirty, but there was a cruel look between his eyebrows and in his eyes.
Ye Yunzhao was about to step over the threshold when the man suddenly said, "Stop, just stand outside and talk."
She had no choice but to retract her foot and made a formal official gesture: "Your humble servant greets the prefect."
"Oh?" The new prefect said with some interest, "Interesting! How did you know I was the new prefect?"
He changed the subject, looked at the yamen runner beside him, and said in a deep voice: "Did you tell her?"
The bailiff fell to his knees and stammered, "I...I wouldn't dare..."
Ye Yunzhao lowered his eyes and said in a deep voice, "It has nothing to do with him. I have heard that the prefect is quite capable in Jiangnan. Now that I see your official uniform, I dare to make a guess."
The prefect looked down at his official uniform, which was embroidered with a brocade ornament specially embroidered on the uniforms of seventh-rank civil officials. He smiled and said, "You don't have to flatter me... However, when I first arrived in Yuezhou, I heard that the new magistrate of Lingnan County was quite intelligent. Now that I see him in person, I can see that the rumors are true."
"I dare not." Ye Yunzhao bent down and lowered his head.
After that, there was no sound in the room for a long time.
The sun was shining brightly today, and the warm winter sun shining on one's body was a real treat. However, Ye Yunzhao was preoccupied with something, and she was standing with her back bent and her head lowered. After a short while, a few traces of sweat appeared on her back.
Ye Yunzhao looked down at the sunlight beneath her feet. The low threshold blocked the sunlight. Now she understood what the prefect had meant.
"You—" the prefect pointed at the yamen runner kneeling on the ground beside him, "I clearly told you to go and invite County Magistrate Ye. It's early winter now, why don't you let County Magistrate Ye get some clothes? Go, bring two charcoal basins, so County Magistrate Ye won't freeze."
In the current situation, if two more charcoal basins were added, Ye Yunzhao would definitely faint from the heat. She hurriedly said, "Thank you for your concern, my lord. I have cotton clothes to protect me, so I am not cold."
"It's winter now, how can it not be cold? County Magistrate Ye, there's no need to be polite to me." The prefect said with a smile, "Why don't you go now!"
The yamen runners who received the order quickly brought the charcoal braziers over and placed them on her left and right.
In just a short while, Ye Yunzhao was roasted to the point of dizziness and staggering.
Only then did the prefect stand up and said word by word, "You have nothing to say to me about the prefect's tragic death?"
Beads of sweat streamed down his cheeks, soaking his clothes. His inner garments were tightly clung to his body, making him feel very uncomfortable. Ye Yunzhao said weakly, "Your humble servant... Your humble servant does not know... what your Excellency means..."
"I don't know?" The prefect laughed. "If you tell me now, I can pretend this never happened. But if you insist on not telling me, once the evidence is presented, I won't be able to handle this anymore."
Ye Yunzhao's heart moved and he guessed what he meant. Perhaps the new prefect wanted to find a scapegoat for the prefect's tragic death, or just find a murderer to settle the case.
But Ye Yunzhao didn’t understand—why himself?
She forced herself to speak: "I really don't know what to say... I don't know what you want to hear... Could you please tell me clearly..."
The prefect approached her, lifted her chin with his folding fan, and their eyes met. "Don't know? Think about it again."
Ye Yunzhao said: "I really can't remember."
With a rustling sound, he opened his folding fan, shook it a few times, and reminded her, "You can't forget it. I advise you to remember it as much as possible, otherwise... you'll have to find another place to think about it."
Ye Yunzhao bravely said, "I really have nothing to do with the prefect's murder. Could it be that you are trying to force me to confess?"
"Confession under torture?" Hearing this, the prefect couldn't help but laugh. "Look at the charcoal brazier next to you. I was worried that County Magistrate Ye would be cold, but I never thought that County Magistrate Ye would slander me for having confessed under torture."
This method is really powerful. It is clearly torture, but others cannot find any fault with it.
Ye Yunzhao's face was red from being roasted. She had been seriously ill before and although she had recovered, she was still a little weak. Now she was wearing cotton clothes and was being roasted and exposed to the sun.
With a loud bang, she fainted and fell straight to the ground. Her right wrist hit the burning charcoal brazier. When the prefect ordered people to drag her into the prison, her wrist was already red with burns and had three or four blisters.
When Ye Yunzhao woke up, it was already late at night.
She felt a piercing pain in her right wrist. She struggled to stand up and looked at the scene in front of her, only then did she realize that she had been thrown into prison.
With the moonlight coming in from the window, Ye Yunzhao raised her hand slightly and found the burn marks on her wrist. She blew towards that place, and the cool wind hitting the burned area finally relieved some of the pain.
At this point, she actually chuckled, feeling lucky that it was early winter and the burns would not easily become inflamed. If it were summer, even if the burns did not kill her, the inflammation it caused would be enough to make her very sick.
Ye Yunzhao sat on the straw, looking at the dark and damp cell, wondering why he was so unlucky. On the first day he came here, he was threatened with a knife by a mysterious man, and the mysterious man had not been found yet, and now he was in prison again.
She leaned against the wall, feeling filled with sadness. After seeing this today, she realized that the new prefect was no good. Ye Yunzhao was naturally familiar with the ancient detective techniques. This time... there was a high probability that she would die here.
But even today, she's still worried about the mushrooms the Xixiang people are growing. This is their first time growing them, and there's a high chance many unexpected problems will arise. Now that she's been captured, she's afraid they won't know how to respond...
After coming back to his senses, Ye Yunzhao sneered at himself in his heart. It was already such a situation, why was he still thinking about those irrelevant people? The most important thing right now was how to clear himself of the charges.
Ye Yunzhao recalled what he had seen with the prefect today and closed his eyes in deep thought. Although the man in his memory mentioned evidence, his tone was extremely firm. Perhaps he already knew something. What was it?
She sighed, but that man looked like a mean person. If he knew that the so-called "evidence" was useless, would he let her go? Ye Yunzhao didn't know.
*
"What did you say? Master was arrested?" Madam Cuihua slammed the table and stood up suddenly.
Liu Dazhuang quickly pulled her and whispered, "Madam, please speak softly. Don't let others hear you."
Hearing this, she quickly raised her hand to cover her mouth. She had been busy with the tofu business in Yuezhou City all day and had planned to go to the county government office to see County Magistrate Ye early the next morning, but she never expected that she would be arrested!
"Do you know why our master was abducted?" Madam Cuihua pressed. "Such a serious matter, yet when I returned home in the evening, I didn't hear anyone in the village talking about it. You're really not making this up."
Liu Dazhuang sighed softly. Although he wasn't good at expressing himself, he was always grateful to County Magistrate Ye. He said worriedly, "My dear, how could I lie to you about this? Didn't you ask me to make a small clay stove for County Magistrate Ye a few days ago?"
As he spoke, he placed the small clay stove on the table and said, "Today, I saw that it was dried, so I thought of taking it to the county government office to give to County Magistrate Ye. However, when I went there, County Magistrate Ye was not there. I wanted to leave, but unexpectedly, the yamen runner Liu stopped me and discussed with me the matter of expanding his house.
At that moment, more than a dozen yamen runners came to the county government office. I was curious about what they were talking about, but I never expected that half an incense stick later, when County Magistrate Ye came back, they actually took him away.
Madam Cuihua breathed a sigh of relief: "You idiot, you really scared me to death. Master is the county magistrate. Who knows, it might be another official who wants to see Master and sent someone to pick him up..."
Before she could finish her words, Liu Dazhuang grabbed her arm and shook his head. "Those yamen runners all held knives to County Magistrate Ye's neck and forced her into a carriage. I was hiding in Runner Liu's house at the time, and I only heard the words 'it's related to some case' from afar. Then Runner Liu repeatedly warned us not to disclose this matter to anyone."
Madam Cuihua stood up suddenly and paced back and forth worriedly: County Magistrate Ye was arrested in the county government office. If that was the case, County Magistrate Han and everyone in the county government office must have known about it, but they didn't let it be made public. Could it be that they didn't intend to find a way to save her?
"Have you told anyone else about this?"
Liu Dazhuang said quickly: "Of course not."
The more Cuihua thought about it, the more scared she became. She had to find someone to save her master, but who should she find? Who should she find?
She closed her eyes and pondered. If the people in the Lingnan County government office were unwilling to rescue her master, she would have no choice but to go to Yuezhou City to ask for help. However, she was just an ordinary citizen and couldn't even enter the gate of the Yuezhou City government office...
Suddenly, a person appeared in front of her. Madam Cuihua opened her eyes suddenly: "I want to find Brother Jingshan! Now!"
"Now?" Liu Dazhuang was startled. Lingnan County was still far away from Yuezhou City. "It's already dark now, and the mountain roads are rugged. It's really unsafe to travel on them at night. Madam, let's wait until tomorrow morning!"
Madam Cuihua shook her head: "No, if Master comes back a moment later, she will suffer a moment more. She has just recovered from a serious illness, how can she withstand anything else? Go to the headman's house now to borrow an ox cart and tell him... tell him..."
She paced back and forth, her face heavy. "Just say I didn't know I was pregnant, and now I'm bleeding. I need to go to Yuezhou City to see a female doctor! Go quickly!"
【Author’s words】
My Lords, please stay! I have a favor to ask of you. I have just come across a delicately crafted envelope, and would like to present it to you. Its lines are meticulously drawn, a true treasure.
The book cover requires 500 moonstones to display, but I am short of money. If the county magistrates are willing to help, you can reward me with some moonstones at the [Airdrop Moonstone] on this book page on the [Mobile Web Version] or [PC Version].
If you would like to see my humble work in the future, I am willing to write it down every day to serve you. I have heard that the magistrate of Jinjiang County loves the people like his own children and is kind and generous. I am sure he will not let me down. I thank you all in advance. [Poor]
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