For the next few days, Xingxing sent people to search for Prince Cheng, but neither the fishing village nor the government could find him.
Since no one has been found, they probably escaped. But no one has been found at other prefectural cities or docks either. Now, Prince Cheng is gone, and the prefect of Anyang Prefecture is also dead.
If the prefect is gone, a new official can take office, but Prince Cheng is irreplaceable, after all, he is of imperial blood. Since the fake one has been eliminated, the real one must be brought back.
Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to explain to the emperor. They knew that Japanese pirates were impersonating Prince Cheng, but others didn't. Now, they didn't even know if Prince Cheng was alive or dead, which was a very troublesome situation.
"Oh dear, where am I supposed to find them? How come there's not a single clue? Give me at least a hint!" Xingxing tapped her head, genuinely getting anxious.
Zhu Lin grasped her hand, stopping her from knocking any further. "We'll find someone eventually. Prince Cheng wasn't exactly a good person; someone that bad shouldn't have died so quickly."
They say good people don't live long, but evil people live for a thousand years.
I thought it would take a lot of time to deal with Prince Cheng, but I didn't expect him to kill someone directly. Now the mansion is empty, and only a group of outsiders live there. It's really ridiculous.
The new prefect of Anyang Prefecture took office soon. He was a county magistrate under Anyang Prefecture. This county magistrate had a good reputation and was capable. Xingxing sent people to investigate him and found that he was a person who could be trusted. So he brought him over to temporarily serve as the prefect.
The official transfer documents will be completed later. She has already written to the emperor to request an imperial decree appointing her, so this matter is relatively easy to resolve.
However, other problematic officials also had to be dealt with. One of them, a county magistrate and a head constable, personally participated in the massacre of the villagers in the fishing village. Ah Hui was a witness; she saw them bring soldiers to massacre the village that night.
At first, the county magistrate and the head constable denied it. Zhou Erfu used a trick to get several county yamen runners drunk and trick them into talking. Those runners usually liked to drink and talk big and boast. After drinking a few pounds of yellow urine, they forgot who they were.
Not only did he clearly explain the details of the crime that night, but he also pressed his fingerprint on the confession paper. After sobering up, it was too late for him to go back on his word. The county magistrate and the head constable are now both imprisoned.
After several days of interrogation, unable to withstand the beatings, he confessed everything: the county magistrate had secretly led the head constable to massacre the fishing village without the magistrate's knowledge, and the mastermind behind it all was Prince Cheng.
"It really is Prince Cheng," Xingxing sighed, rubbing her forehead in exasperation. "But where is Prince Cheng?"
"Princess, you must uphold justice for the villagers! My parents and sister have all been killed by the government officials. These corrupt officials have ruined the fishermen's lives!" Ah Hui knelt before Xingxing, begging her to help.
Xingxing helped the man up and gently comforted him, "This matter is not as simple as it seems. Prince Cheng is in trouble, and we must find him. However, it may take some time. These officials who aided and abetted the evil will be beheaded, and their heads will be used to appease the dead fishermen."
"Thank you, Princess." Ah Hui sobbed uncontrollably.
"You should go back and rest first. We might have to go out to sea in a few days. We don't know much about the sea, so we'll need your help." After comforting him, Xingxing let out a heavy sigh of frustration.
"You've been frowning a lot these past few days. I heard that if you're in a bad mood and always have a tense face, it can make you look older. Be careful not to become ugly." Zhu Lin teased her with a slight smile, her peach blossom eyes seemingly glistening with tears.
"If I really get old, will you stop caring about me?" Xingxing asked him, squinting her eyes.
Zhu Lin blinked, her tone sounding quite innocent. "How could I dislike you? If anyone should dislike someone, it's you who dislikes me. I'm the one who should be worried. I'm five years older than you, that much older."
"Good to know. I didn't even think you were old." Xingxing was satisfied with his answer, so she didn't press the matter further. However, she stopped thinking about Prince Cheng with a bitter face and hurriedly went back to her room.
Then she stood in front of the bronze mirror to see if she had become ugly. After looking for a while, she was relieved to find that her face was still rosy and tender and that she had not grown a single wrinkle.
"I'm only fourteen years old, I haven't grown up yet, I'm still a young girl, how could I be old? Aren't I still very pretty?" Xingxing muttered a few words of scolding to herself.
A young man in white, with sharp ears, overheard this and chuckled to himself. This little girl couldn't stand being taken advantage of at all.
On a deserted island, Yokoyama Chiyo stood on the shore watching a small boat approach. A pirate dressed as a fisherman quickly rowed the boat to shore and casually pulled the wet people ashore with him.
"Cough cough... Sister, save me, save me..." Yokoyama Ichiro's face was pale with a bluish tinge and his lips were purple. He had been in the sea for a day after being wounded by a sword before being pulled onto the ship by Yokoyama Chiyo's men. After being pulled onto the ship, his wounds were not treated.
Five days have passed since he was injured and fell into the sea. It is truly remarkable that he survived. The pirate didn't care whether he lived or died. Without Chiyo's orders, the pirate would not have rescued him on his own.
Chiyo Yokoyama stood before him, looking down at him as if he were an ant. "I worked for a whole day and night without rest to give you a new face, all for the sake of a successful surgery, and this is how you do things? You've been Prince Cheng for less than a year, and you've already gone out to massacre a village, attracting the attention of the imperial court."
"You not only attracted people here, but you couldn't even hold them off, almost leading them all the way here. If I hadn't acted quickly and immediately evacuated the forest, all our plans would have been ruined. What's the point of your brain?"
"Save me, save me..." Yokoyama Ichiro felt his life slipping away. He didn't want to die; he wanted to live. At that moment, he couldn't hear what the woman in front of him was saying. He just wanted her to save him.
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