"There are really too few clues." Jiang Yushu held her chin in her hand and thought.
Guo Honglei took a sip of tea and said, "The mastermind behind this is truly cautious and cunning."
"How can we investigate the clues provided by Qian Laoliu?" Jiang Yushu racked her brains, but could find no solution. Frowning, she said, "'Short, thin, and hoarse'? There are countless men like this in the vast sea of people. We can't just investigate every one we come across."
Guo Honglei chimed in, "Furthermore, since we recaptured Yongzhou, more and more merchants, and even people of all stripes, have flocked to the northwest to do business or make a living. It's bustling with activity, and it's a mixed bag. Not to mention we're short-staffed, even if we had enough, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to investigate."
"Then, what should we do now?" Jiang Yushu was at a loss.
Guo Honglei was determined. He replied resolutely, "No matter what, we must not forgive the enemy! We will continue the interrogation and investigation to see if Qian Laoliu can provide any more clues. Don't worry, I've already informed Brother Pei. Before returning to camp, I will take the suspect to the authorities. Brother Pei will take over and do everything possible to clear my cousin's name. We will then find other charges and severely punish this heinous criminal. We won't worry about publicizing our family scandal, lest you be frightened."
"If they hadn't been caught by us, they would have committed countless evil deeds, defrauded countless people, and according to the law, they would undoubtedly be sentenced to death!"
Guo Honglei nodded and thought about countermeasures silently.
"Strange, my cousin's private money was all divided up by Chen Xijin and Qian Laoliu, and the mastermind didn't get a penny. So, what was he trying to achieve by deliberately harming others?" Jiang Yushu was full of doubts and asked hesitantly, "Could it be that he was actually coming for us?"
Guo Honglei came back to his senses, "It's possible."
Jiang Yushu suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. Her thoughts raced as she muttered, "We hold official positions, and in the officialdom, among colleagues, disagreements are inevitable, arguments, and even rivals becoming enemies... Perhaps someone secretly resents you or me, and the resentment is growing. In a fit of rage, they've taken their anger out on the innocent and hired someone to plot against my sister-in-law, to achieve—what purpose?"
"Have you made the Guo family a laughing stock? Have you made us so overwhelmed that we can't focus on official business?"
Guo Honglei shook his head. "That's an unreasonable assumption. If they were planning to deal with us, why would they go to all that trouble to plot against my cousin? Why not just go after you? If anything were to happen to you, how could I remain calm? In my anger and impulsiveness, I'd probably be fooled into giving them a hard time."
"That makes sense."
Jiang Yushu slapped her forehead and said, "Oh, my head hurts! I'm starting to have all sorts of random thoughts!"
The next moment, the trusted guards asked to see him.
Guo Honglei put down his teacup and asked, "What's the matter?"
The guard bowed and reported: "Sir, I found some more things at Qian Laoliu's place."
"Have you found any clues?" Jiang Yushu was full of hope. She couldn't rest easy until the hidden dangers were eliminated.
The guard replied awkwardly, "We are investigating, but we haven't found any useful clues yet."
Guo Honglei stood up and said, "Let me take a look."
"I'm going too!" Jiang Yushu followed curiously.
A moment later, the wing room
There were two large round tables, on which were placed many items: night clothes, masks, scimitars, daggers, drugs, knockout drugs... all kinds of sachets, purses, saddle bags, jewelry... silver bills, silver ingots, small change, etc.
At first glance, it looks like a grocery store.
Before this, Jiang Yushu was busy taking care of Wang Qiaozhen's funeral and preparing for her mother-in-law's birthday banquet. She was busy day and night and only had some free time today.
Guo Honglei informed: "The one on the left belongs to Chen Xijin, and the one on the right belongs to Qian Laoliu."
"Hmm." Jiang Yushu glanced around and subconsciously moved closer to the table on the left. She bent down and stared at the exquisitely embroidered sachets and purses inside. After a while, she sighed.
"What? What did you find?" Guo Honglei was sitting at the table on the right, busy looking through the new things he had collected.
Jiang Yushu straightened up, pointed at the sachet and purse, and whispered, "I recognize these. I saw my sister-in-law embroider them last year. She said, 'I'm bored, embroidering makes me feel better.' It turns out they were gifts for Chen Xijin."
"I know." Guo Honglei whispered, "A few days ago, I asked my cousin's maids to come and identify them, and they recognized the two items on the spot."
"Alas," Jiang Yushu sighed sympathetically, continuing to observe. After a moment, she walked over to the right table, pointed at the nightgown and other items, and said with disgust, "Look, look, a nightgown, a love potion, a dagger—humph, this Qian Laoliu has all the tools he needs to do evil!"
Guo Honglei revealed: "According to his confession, if the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will be crooked. He is 'the son who follows in his father's footsteps' and has been defrauding people for more than 20 years. He has no other skills except harming people."
Jiang Yushu spitted and cursed, "Shameless and immoral, with no conscience at all!" She found it disgusting, so she picked up the fan next to her, estimated the silver notes and ingots, and sighed, "At least a thousand taels. I wonder who is so unlucky and got cheated of his money." She fiddled with the fan aimlessly, and suddenly, a purse came into her sight.
"Huh?" She bent down, her eyes wide open in surprise, and bent over to examine:
A leather purse, off-white, palm-sized, half-opened. Inside the open half, a few messy red marks and a half-cut comb mark were visible.
Guo Honglei glanced over, realizing he had misunderstood. He couldn't help but get angry. "Could it be that my cousin also gave that to Chen Xijin? And then Chen Xijin gave it to Qian Laoliu?"
Jiang Yushu answered firmly, "Impossible! My cousin is sincere to Chen Xijin. This purse is too shabby for her to give away."
"Let me take a closer look." She couldn't believe it, not caring about the "dirt". She reached out and took the purse to examine it carefully. Her mind raced, and she suddenly became excited and asked excitedly:
"This purse belongs to Qian Laoliu? From the beginning to the end, my cousin only had contact with Chen Xijin, right?"
Guo Honglei nodded, "Yes. Chen Xijin is a pawn, and everything he does must be under Qian Laoliu's command."
Jiang Yushu opened the purse completely and examined the inside. After a long moment, she dismissed the servants, smiled wryly, and said solemnly, "I don't know who made this purse, but I recognize this small piece of fabric."
"What?"
Guo Honglei frowned in surprise, his mind blank for a moment, and asked in surprise: "Cloth, cloth...what's going on?"
Jiang Yushu took a deep breath and explained in detail: "During the New Year in Tuning, you asked me to arrange for someone to send the medicinal herbs back home, that box of ginseng and snow lotus. Coincidentally, I went to the cloth shop that day to buy fabrics. I wanted to prepare a new set of clothes for Ye'er as a first birthday gift. Tuning's leather fabrics are of good quality and inexpensive, so I simply picked out a few pieces, kept them for myself, and asked someone to transport the rest back to Heqin along with the medicinal herbs."
"Who would have thought that that evening, when Madam Nanny asked, 'Which ones are for the old lady?' I turned around, and within a short moment, Ye'er was causing trouble again!"
Guo Honglei understood what he heard. His brows knitted in confusion as he stared at the stain on the purse. "Could it be that Ye'er had stained it?"
"That's right."
Jiang Yushu briefly explained, "At the time, I also bought rouge, osmanthus oil, and a new comb. When I was packing up, I put them on the table on the kang. Ye'er saw it and, being naughty, secretly opened the lid and played with the rouge. He dipped the comb in it and smeared it everywhere until the rouge bottle rolled off the kang and stained the fabric. Only then did he urge me to pick it up."
"The nurse tried to coax the child to let go, but he refused and kept pulling at it. The comb flew out and fell into the pile of off-white sheepskins on the table beside the kang."
Guo Honglei was silent for a long time, unable to accept it. He asked word by word, "So, this piece of material belongs to our family?"
"Unless there is an identical coincidence in the world." Jiang Yushu was confused.
Guo Honglei's face turned pale. He clenched his fist around his purse, his knuckles turning white. He suppressed his anger and said, "Let's go home and check immediately. Let's see who the material was allocated to!"
"It has stains, so the old lady and the others definitely won't want it. In all likelihood, they will give it to the servants." Jiang Yushu guessed.
Late Night · Guo Mansion
As a result, Jiang Yushu guessed wrong.
Guo Honglei's jaw tightened. "He actually gave it to her?"
"I thought it was given as a reward to the servants." Jiang Yushu shuddered at the thought.
With the series of incidents happening one after another, Wang was terrified. She lowered her voice and asked sternly, "Are you sure? This is a serious matter and there is no room for error!"
The trusted maid nodded rapidly, raised her hand in a gesture of oath, and whispered, "It must have been given to Madam Gong! Not only this old servant, but also Mrs. You and Ping'er witnessed it with their own eyes. Our Madam made the decision, ordering that the—ah, the dirtiest—piece of white sheepskin be given to Madam Gong."
"As for the rest, I don't know."
Jiang Yushu was not surprised at all, and thought to herself: My sister-in-law has always disliked Liao Xiaodie. She is usually sarcastic or deliberately makes things difficult for her, but she is not out of line. She is often like how she is mean to me, and she is always serious about trivial household chores... A host and a guest, a quarrel between two women, wouldn't she take revenge cruelly?
Wang was stunned, her heart pounding. She asked in a trembling voice, "Honglei, have you investigated everything? Was this purse really handed over to the scammer by the mastermind?"
Guo Honglei replied solemnly, "After repeated interrogation, it turns out that this was used to hold the reward. The mastermind behind this was probably careless and gave this item to Qian Laoliu by mistake, leaving us with a clue."
"Could it be, could it be that Xiaodie, she—she—can't? Even if Qiaozhen occasionally plays tricks on her, the Guo family has kindly taken her in many times, all together for almost ten years. She married into the Marquis of Jingyang's mansion!"
Wang felt as if she were falling into an icy cave. "How dare Xiaodie be so vicious and repay kindness with enmity?"
Guo Honglei's face darkened as he stood up abruptly. "There's no definitive conclusion yet. Mother, please don't make any noise. I'll find a way to verify this and won't wrongly accuse anyone who's innocent."
Jiang Yushu forced herself to cheer up. "I have an idea, but I don't know if it will work."
"Tell me about it, let's discuss it together!"
The next day, afternoon
After Wang Qiaozhen passed away, Wang fell ill and Guo Yu could not concentrate on his studies. The originally naughty boy seemed to have grown up overnight: he was silent and sat in a daze during the day, and hid in his grandmother's arms and cried at night.
Jiang Yushu was unable to take care of both official duties and housework, so Liao Xiaodie volunteered to help with the chores.
That day, Liao Xiaodie took two maids out.
"The old lady said that Yu'er suddenly wanted to eat candied haws." Liao Xiaodie stepped out of the shop door and said distressedly, "It's not difficult to make candied haws, but the difficulty lies in the fact that there are no hawthorns at this time of year!"
The two maids, each carrying a basket of fruit, were also distressed. "He has an appetite, and the old lady is so happy. Even if there are no hawthorns, we have to find a way to make 'candied haws' to please the child."
In order to please the Wang family's grandparents, Liao Xiaodie was very motivated and said, "I can only try using sour pears and pears."
"We really have no idea, please give us some advice." The old woman said respectfully.
Liao Xiaodie smiled happily, "What are you afraid of? Just do your best, the old lady won't blame you."
As I walked, I saw a busy shop diagonally opposite.
The two maids followed the advice, rolled up their sleeves, and shouted, "Look, there might be other fruits in that shop!"
"Just buy a few more and take your time choosing when you get back."
Liao Xiaodie readily agreed, "That makes sense."
"The shop is crowded. Please wait a moment. We will be back soon."
Liao Xiaodie naturally didn't like crowds, "Go."
"Hey!" The two old women turned around, walked quickly into the shop, mixed into the crowd, and pretended to be choosing.
In the hot summer, the sun is scorching.
Liao Xiaodie stood in the shade of a tree, waiting. She took out her handkerchief and wiped the sweat off her face when someone behind her suddenly said:
"Mrs. Gong, long time no see."
"Ah!" Liao Xiaodie was startled and turned around hurriedly -
Qian Laoliu clutched his ribs, limped closer, and demanded, "Back then, you kept saying no one would hold us accountable after this was done, and yet, Xiao Chen and I were tracked down! We had to hide here and there, and we nearly got caught several times!"
"Tell me, did you betray us?"
When Liao Xiaodie saw Qian Laoliu, she was like seeing a ghost. Her eyes widened, her heart pounding, and she shouted in fear, "Who are you? Go away! I don't know you!"
Qian Laoliu sneered, "Tsk, why are you playing dumb? Back then, you were disguised as a man. Although your voice was gruff like a man's, your figure and demeanor were clearly that of a woman. I was paid to do the job, so I was too lazy to expose you. Do you really think you're flawless?"
"You lunatic, you're talking nonsense! I don't even know you!" Liao Xiaodie tried her best to remain calm. "Get out of here! If you keep causing trouble, I'll call for help!"
Qian Laoliu was calm and composed. "Shout, shout, go ahead. I was curious and secretly followed you before, but today I dared to take the risk and block you. If you don't agree to my terms, I will report this to the Guo Mansion immediately!"
Liao Xiaodie's face suddenly changed, cold sweat dripped down her face, her fingertips trembled, and she blurted out, "What do you want?"
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