Chapter 82 Never seen anything like this before
The black tea brewing on the copper stove had already gone through several rounds of boiling, and the steam carrying the aroma of tea filled the air, softening the expressions on everyone's faces.
But this gentleness shattered completely the moment Cui Yanwu said, "It's still in the shop that Xu Wangshi brought with her as part of her dowry."
Xie Ji was slumped in the chair, the back of his neck against the chair back.
Once he realized what was going on, he sat up straight with a "whoosh," the chair legs scraping against the floor tiles with a sharp, grating sound.
"In her dowry shop?" Xie Ji's eyes widened in surprise.
"Could it be one of the shop's employees?"
Cui Yanwu picked up his teacup and took a sip. "That's right, he's the shop assistant."
I was afraid they would recognize me, so I specifically sent my trusted confidants to investigate.
The shopkeeper said they were all long-time employees, the least one who had been in the shop for five years.
He put down his teacup and tapped his fingers on his sword.
"A five-year buddy of mine, surely he wouldn't go on a two-day journey to rob a road just to get another job and earn more money?"
Unless it was deliberately arranged by someone specifically targeting Xu Li.
Pei Zhiwei frowned as she listened.
Her mind raced through what Cui Yanwu had just said, and she felt there was something amiss.
If the Wang family wanted to target the Cui family, why would these people be shop assistants in Xu Wang's dowry shop?
These days, which family doesn't have a few secret guards or assassins?
Surely the Wang family wouldn't treat these people so poorly, putting them to work in the shop?
"Uncle, you just said that you encountered some things, so what else could be strange to you afterwards?"
Upon hearing this, Cui Yanwu remained silent for a moment. "Back then, the disaster had just passed, and the roads were in chaos. Encountering bandits robbing people and begging refugees was a common occurrence."
I remember passing through a village where several starving corpses lay at the entrance, and someone was crying while holding a child, saying that they had run out of food and wanted to give their child a different kind of food.
Even more outrageous, there were reports of people kidnapping little girls, saying they wanted to take them back to the village to "cook" them.
"What?!" Xie Ji was genuinely shocked and jumped up abruptly.
I know about the famine that happened less than three years ago!
The report submitted to the imperial court at the time only stated that some areas in Huainan were flooded, but the displaced people had been resettled; it did not mention that the situation was this serious!
Could it be that lower-level officials deliberately concealed this information?
No sooner had he finished speaking than Pei Zhiwei and Xiao Yunzhan exclaimed almost simultaneously, "That's not right!"
After they finished speaking, they both paused for a moment and subconsciously looked at each other.
Xiao Yunzhan looked surprised, then smiled and gestured for him to speak first.
Pei Zhiwei's cheeks flushed slightly. She composed herself and said, "Your Highness, when it comes to famine, officials would rather exaggerate than downplay it."
"Why?" Xie Ji frowned, looking puzzled.
"If the report is too serious, won't the imperial court send even more people to investigate?"
"What if it's discovered they've mismanaged the situation? Won't we be in trouble?"
“Because there are ‘benefits’,” Pei Zhiwei explained.
"The imperial court allocates grain and funds for disaster relief according to the severity of the disaster."
The more serious the report, the more relief you can receive.
These relief funds can be used to embezzle a lot of money if one is even slightly lax in handling them.
On the contrary, underreporting the situation not only means no profit, but if the displaced people cause trouble or the disaster worsens, they will really be unable to handle the situation.
Therefore, the most likely explanation is that someone is taking advantage of Cui Shibo, who, like Xie Shizi, is only focused on military affairs and has never seen anything like this before.
Pei Lin almost spat out the tea he had just drunk, so he quickly covered his mouth with a handkerchief and coughed lightly.
Pei Zhiwei then suddenly realized that it was extremely rude of her to say something like "unworldly" to Cui Yanwu.
She froze on the spot for a moment, and when she came to her senses, she hurriedly bowed to Cui Yanwu and said, "Uncle, I was rude just now and misspoke. Please punish me."
Cui Yanwu wasn't angry at all; instead, he burst into laughter and slapped the table: "You little lady, you're really something!"
What do you mean by rude remarks? This is simply the truth!
I was stationed at the border all those years ago and never went to provide disaster relief. I saw plenty of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, but I had never seen anything like this.
Those people deliberately put on a show for me. At the time, I only felt sorry for them. I never imagined there was something fishy going on behind the scenes.
"To be honest, it was my own ignorance that led to me being taken advantage of."
As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the hall relaxed a bit.
Xiao Yunzhan spoke up at the right moment, steer the conversation back on track: "Lord Cui, how did you later realize that something was wrong?"
Cui Yanwu's smile faded slightly, and his thumb unconsciously rubbed against the scabbard.
"I didn't notice it at first, until later, when they wanted to promote the people who were doing this job with me, they secretly investigated their backgrounds and connections according to the rules."
The investigation revealed a scout whose hometown was the same as Wang Heng, the deputy steward of the Xu household. Further investigation showed they were distant cousins.
"A scout?" Xiao Yunzhan asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Is that the one responsible for scouting and gathering information?"
Isn't it normal for scouts to discover something unusual on the road? Why would they suspect him?
“It’s precisely because it’s ‘too normal’,” Cui Yanwu snorted.
"That scout was named Wu Xing. He was usually very efficient and never made a mistake in scouting or delivering messages."
He was the first to notice most of the situations that occurred on the road.
At the time, I just felt that he was doing his best, and I didn't think much of it.
It wasn't until later, when I learned about his relationship with Wang Heng, and then, together with those people pretending to be bandits, that I started to think things through and realized something was definitely wrong.
Xiao Yunzhan frowned: "And then what happened?"
"Whether it's those people pretending to be bandits or this Wu Xing, how did you deal with them?"
"I've never been sure what they're trying to do."
"Are they here for Xu Li, or for me?"
Or perhaps they want to use me to do something else?
Cui Yanwu spoke extremely frankly.
"So I didn't dare to make any rash moves and could only send my trusted confidants to keep an eye on them."
The original plan was to remain inactive until the situation became clearer.
Xiao Yunzhan and Xie Ji both frowned and pondered. The main hall fell silent for a moment, with only Pei Lin sipping tea with a relaxed air.
Pei Zhiwei, standing beside him, had a big question in her mind. She wanted to ask, but she swallowed the words back.
I've already said the wrong thing and offended someone, and besides, the things I'm about to say shouldn't be asked by a junior like her, especially a young woman.
If this offends Cui Yanwu again, how will things end?
After hesitating for a long time, she finally secretly gave Pei Lin a wink.
Judging from what Uncle Cui said when he first entered the house, he and her father had been friends since they were young.
It would be much safer for her father to ask these questions than for her to ask them herself.
But Pei Lin seemed not to see her at all, slowly sipping his tea, his eyes darting left and right, up and down, refusing to respond to her.
That look clearly showed he was deliberately pretending not to see.
Pei Zhiwei was both angry and anxious, and couldn't help but glare at her father.
What's wrong with Dad? He always teaches me to focus on the key points when investigating a case, but now that the key points are right in front of us, he's just shirking his responsibilities!
Cui Yanwu watched the father and daughter's eye contact for a while with a leisurely air, and felt that this young lady was really to his liking, so he took the initiative to speak up and help her out of the predicament.
“My dear niece, just ask whatever you want. You don’t need to wink at your father.”
Your father is a heartless man.
Even if you punch a hole in his teacup, if he wants to pretend he didn't see it, he can still hold the broken pieces and drink his tea.
Pei Lin then put down his teacup, smiled, and glanced at his daughter: "Didn't I just say that you were to ask about this case?"
You're not getting any younger; how can you always rely on others?
Pei Zhiwei felt her face flush with embarrassment after being told that, and decided to just give up.
Since I've already been rude once, it won't be a big deal if I'm rude again!
She took a deep breath, looked up at Cui Yanwu, and was ready to risk it all: "Uncle, is it possible that you saved Wang Shi back then, which is why Wang Shi fell in love with you?"
Or did you always know that she was in love with you?
So that's why you later changed your usual behavior and started avoiding the Xu family and the Wang family so much?
As soon as these words were spoken, the hall fell so quiet that you could hear someone breathing.
Xie Ji was taken aback at first, then his eyes lit up like two lamps, and he leaned closer and drawled out, "Hey...hey?"
His face was so excited, it was like he'd discovered a pig had climbed a tree.
"Uncle, is that true? I've never heard of it before!"
Cui Yanwu's face was already tanned from years of military life, and now it looked even darker.
He cleared his throat, picked up the tea on the table, took a sip, and mumbled, "Uh, more or less."
"About how much difference is there?"
It wasn't that Pei Zhiwei was being unreasonable, but rather that such behavior was simply unacceptable at this time.
Cui Yanwu was stumped by her question and sighed helplessly, "That was all in my youth."
I was only fifteen or sixteen years old at the time, and I saved her on the streets of Beijing.
She treated me differently after that.
But not long after, I ran away to join the army, and I lost contact with her.
He lowered his eyes, looking at the pattern on the sword sheath that his thumb had traced. "When I saw her again in Yangdu, she had already married Xu Fengyan and become the matriarch of the Xu family."
Furthermore, the Xu family is not only imperial merchants, but also the richest family in Daliang.
As the military governor of Huainan, I command a large army. Even a minor local gentry, let alone someone as wealthy as him, should be avoided by me.”
Pei Zhiwei carefully examined Cui Yanwu and was quite certain that, if he were to rate the matter out of ten, he would only have given one tenth of the credit.
"Uncle Cui, when you were young or when you met her again later, did you ever reject her feelings?"
Cui Yanwu: "If we don't count the Xu family coming over to say they wanted to repay my life-saving grace, then there isn't one."
Pei Zhiwei pondered for a moment, then changed the subject and returned to the case: "Uncle, where is Wu Xing, the scout who is related to Wang Heng?"
Did the people you sent to keep an eye on him notice anything unusual?
“He’s in the West Camp outside the city.” Cui Yanwu answered readily when asked about this person.
"He hasn't seemed out of the ordinary, but ever since I found out he was related to Wang Heng, I've felt something was off about him."
Although he wasn't kept close by, he wasn't allowed to go too far either; he was kept in the military camp outside the city.
He was ostensibly promoted, but in reality, I trapped him in military affairs, preventing him from leaving or communicating with anyone.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com