He looked up and said, "It's almost dawn, let's go outside first."
Sang Qian nodded, knowing this was no place to stay for long. When she saw Zu An carrying Qiu Yue on his shoulder, she was taken aback: "What are you doing?"
Zu'an replied, "This is the most crucial witness. If he stays here, he could be silenced by King Qi at any time. It's better to take him with us."
Sang Qian hesitated for a moment: "But having witnesses may not be enough."
She glanced at the coffin beside her: "It would be best to take the concubine's remains away; that way, there's a chance of conviction."
Zu An shook his head: "A maid is no big deal, but stealing the princess's body is a serious crime. If the conviction fails, I can't bear the blame from Prince Qi. It's just a case; there's no need to get myself involved."
Sang Qian asked suspiciously, "Why do I feel like it's more like you don't want to convict Prince Qi?"
"You're overthinking it. Let's go." Zu An smiled, but his heart skipped a beat. This woman was too clever. He really didn't want to make this case airtight, because then the emperor would have no one to check him, and he would be in even more trouble.
Of course, these thoughts couldn't be known to the Sang family. Although they claimed to be allied with him, they were, after all, a famous royalist in the past, and who knew what they were really thinking?
Having learned from their previous experience, and knowing that it was the time when people were sleeping the most, they left the Prince Qi's residence without incident.
"Where are you planning to put her?" Sang Qian asked curiously, glancing at Qiu Yue on Zu An's shoulder.
Zuan didn't answer, he just looked at her with a grin.
Sang Qian's expression changed: "You want to put it in our house? No way, absolutely not!"
Zuan said, "You know how many people are watching my residence right now. If I take it back, it will be discovered very quickly. I have nowhere else to go, so after thinking it over, I can only ask you for help. Aren't we allies?"
Sang Qian refused, saying, "There are many people watching our house too."
Zu An said with a smile, "That was before. Now the emperor has made your father redeem himself by appointing him as the Minister of Revenue. The people who were watching him have long since left. Sister Qian'er, do me a favor, and I'll give you a lollipop next time."
The Minister of Revenue was in charge of national financial statistics and expenditures. He was one of the Five Ministers, along with the Ministers of Personnel, the Three Dukes, the Foreign Affairs Department, the Carriage Department, and the Military Farms Department.
The functions of the Five Ministers of the Great Zhou Dynasty were similar to those of the Six Ministers of the previous history, but their power was much smaller. They were the busiest and most trivial departments in the Ministry of Works, and were subordinate to the Minister of Works and the Left and Right Ministers.
For example, Yu Xuanchong, the head of the Yu family, and Bi Qi, Bi Linglong's father, are their superiors.
"Don't try to bribe me with lollipops!" Sang Qian's face turned red and then pale, but she finally couldn't resist his persistent pleading. "Let me make this clear, this is a one-time thing, and there won't be any more. I've really fallen for your trick today."
Zu An laughed and casually put his arm around her shoulder: "Thank you, Sister Qian'er."
The two had been so close in the coffin that she had gradually gotten used to their contact, and she was also preoccupied with figuring out how to deal with the maid, so she didn't realize anything was amiss for the time being.
Back at the Sang family home, the two dared not disturb the servants, fearing that their secret would be revealed, and secretly sneaked in from the backyard.
Not long after they went in, a soft shout suddenly came from the side: "Who's there?"
Immediately afterwards, a gleaming sword thrust out from the side, and in the critical moment, Zu'an hurriedly reached out and caught the tip of the sword.
"Ah Zu?" The other person's voice turned to surprise.
The two turned around and saw that the beautiful woman in front of them was none other than Zheng Dan.
"Aren't you asleep yet?" Zu An thought to himself that he had almost been caught off guard. He had been fine in the heavily guarded Qi Prince's mansion, but he was discovered here. In the end, it was because the two of them had returned to the Sang family that they had subconsciously relaxed their vigilance.
"I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back asleep. Suddenly I heard some noise outside and thought a thief had broken in." Zheng Dan put away her weapon and smiled shyly. As a former gang leader, she was much more vigilant than the average person. In addition, she had some trinkets from the martial arts world set up around the area, so they were discovered as soon as they passed by.
She was quite pleased to see Zu An, initially assuming he was looking for her. However, she immediately noticed Sang Qian beside him, and her gaze fell on Zu An's hand resting on her shoulder. Her expression turned extremely strange: "You guys..."
Sang Qian finally came to her senses and pushed Zu An's hand away: "We just came back from investigating a case."
"Investigating a case, I've even changed my clothes," Zheng Dan said with a half-smile.
Sang Qian was immediately extremely embarrassed. The two of them were clearly innocent, but why did her words make it seem as if she really had something going on with Zu An?
She was usually quite eloquent, but she was a little stunned in front of her sister-in-law and hurriedly nudged Zu'an: "Say something!"
Zu An then said, "We did go to the Prince Qi's residence to investigate a case. This is a maid we brought back from the residence."
Zheng Dan was startled: "Quickly, go inside, don't let anyone see us."
Upon entering the house and smelling the faint aroma of tea, Sang Qian had to admit that her sister-in-law was truly a classically elegant beauty, a quality she often envied.
Zu An briefly recounted what had just happened, and Zheng Dan exclaimed repeatedly, "You guys are really bold! Once the people from the Prince Qi's mansion find out, you'll be in trouble."
"Don't worry, she only needs to stay here for one night. I'll take her away after tomorrow," Zuan replied.
Sang Qian immediately became wary: "You don't mean you're planning to stay here overnight, do you?"
Zu An stood up to take his leave: "I dare not trouble you. I will come again tomorrow."
It's no wonder the other party was wary; the Sang family has no male members now, making it inconvenient to keep guests.
Sang Qian breathed a sigh of relief, but felt a little embarrassed: "Be careful on the road. I'll go settle this maid first."
After Zu'an left, she bid farewell to her beautiful sister-in-law, hid the maid, and returned to her room.
Thinking that he had just been lying in the coffin for so long and was wearing the clothes of a dead person, he hurriedly asked the old woman in the mansion to prepare hot water so that he could take a bath and change his clothes.
The old woman laughed and said, "What a coincidence today, both the young lady and the young mistress want to take a bath in the middle of the night."
Sang Qian was taken aback: "Sister-in-law, you want to wash too?"
She wasn't in the coffin with the dead, so why should she be washed?
"Yes, she just told me to prepare hot water not long ago," the old woman replied, and then went to attend to her own business.
Sang Qian's expression changed slightly. She suddenly remembered that her sister-in-law had only been wearing pajamas, yet they had been chatting for so long, and she hadn't shown any discomfort in front of Zu An, as if she was already used to dressing like that in front of him. Sang Qian felt inexplicably irritated.
"Could it be..." Sang Qian glanced in the direction of Zheng Dan's room, gripped her sword tightly, and walked over with a somber expression.
That bastard, does he think our Sang family has no one left?
---
The two chapters have been combined.
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