Chapter 106: Your humble servant is stupid
Xie Chengyan ignored him and turned away. Xie Chengyuan hurriedly followed him, shouting, "Fourth brother! Where are you going?"
"I'll find a quiet place to stay. If I stay with you, people will think I'm stupid too."
Xie Chengyuan heard that his fourth brother was scolding him, but he couldn't think of what he had said wrong. He was about to ask, but when he looked up again, his fourth brother had disappeared.
The Pei Mansion was big enough, otherwise they would not have chosen to hold the banquet in the mansion. Xie Chengyan followed the corridor inside the mansion to the backyard of the Pei Mansion, and sure enough, he saw a familiar person at a corner.
Yang Zheng served in the same cabinet as Pei Yuanzhong, and was considered Pei Yuanzhong's student, so his presence here was not surprising. Yang Zheng was not wearing official uniform at the moment, only a plain shirt, which was quite different from the attire of the other nobles today.
He came from a poor family and relied on himself to reach his current position step by step. Such people are really rare.
Seeing the newcomer, Yang Zheng chuckled, "I didn't expect to meet His Royal Highness Prince Rui here."
"Yang Zhengyan, stop pretending with me. How could the Pei family's wedding banquet not invite the Tian family?" As he spoke, he did not stop and led Yang Zheng to a secluded place in the backyard, "Excuse me for a moment to talk."
Yang Zheng didn't refuse. He turned around and looked outside the courtyard, then followed Xie Chengyan and asked gently, "Your Highness, is there anything you can't say openly?"
"You should know why I came here."
Yang Zheng knew he had come regarding the late emperor's remains. Out of kindness and to protect the court from further turmoil, he had told him the emperor's remains were not in the royal mausoleum's coffin. He knew Xie Chengyan had connections throughout the capital, both in the underworld and underworld. While the stolen remains would be difficult to find, it wouldn't be a problem for Xie Chengyan.
He came to find me, most likely because he had found the body and came to call me to account.
Yang Zheng said, "Since the prince's matter has been resolved, why bother looking for me again? Is the cause more important than the result?"
"Of course," Xie Chengyan replied immediately. "The late emperor's body was eventually captured by a group of escorts from Nanyang. However, those escorts were so well-trained that they committed suicide on the spot. Not a single one of them survived. I'm simply curious: who could have stolen the late emperor's body and sent it all the way to Nanyang? And what was their purpose?"
Yang Zheng raised his head, staring into Xie Chengyan's eyes beneath the brocade cloth, and whispered, "Of course it's for the autopsy. The late emperor died in mysterious circumstances, and the murderer holds a high position of power in the Shangjing area. If we can use this as a gimmick to get rid of the murderer, then no matter how long it takes, it will be worth it."
When he mentioned the "murderer", he deliberately slowed down his tone, looked at Xie Chengyan with a slight smile, did not say it clearly, but seemed to have said everything.
Xie Chengyan didn't try to beat around the bush with him and asked directly, "Then who do you think wants to get rid of me?"
Yang Zheng did not deny his words. He lowered his head and said, "I am stupid and don't know."
Xie Chengyan scoffed. If he was stupid, then there would be no smart people in the world. He asked, "Is it Xu Surong?"
As soon as these words were spoken, there was a long silence. There were many people in Pei Mansion at the moment, but they were all in the front hall. Only faint noises could be heard in the backyard. In comparison, the whistling sound of the windows caused by the wind was more noticeable than the human voices.
"Empress Dowager Xu's mother's family is in Nanyang—"
Not without suspicion.
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