[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for completing the side quest. A reward of 5,000 taels of silver will be issued. Please click "Confirm" to receive the reward.]
Jiang Ling took a nice hot bath, and after changing her clothes, she asked Hu Hu, "Can it be silver notes? Silver is too conspicuous."
Foxy spun around, his eyes sparkling, "Of course!"
After Jiang Ling clicked "Confirm", a stack of banknotes appeared in his hand.
Jiang Ling counted them excitedly several times.
Sure enough, counting money is always a pleasant thing no matter what time it is.
The side quest was completed, and Jiang Ling was very happy. He hugged the quilt and happily went to play chess with Zhou Gong.
On the other side, in the Prime Minister's Mansion, candles were still burning in Zhou Jing'an's Xibaoxuan.
He sat behind the desk, his fingers gently looking at the table, listening to Xiang Feng's report.
"They confessed to trafficking children, but they didn't say a word about the people above them."
Xiang Feng's face looked unhappy. After interrogating them for such a long time, he still couldn't find out who was behind them.
However, we did find out about their trafficking of young children.
In recent years, they have specifically targeted children from families with official positions, regardless of gender. After abducting them, they were all sent to Linjiang County in Ezhou for unified education and domestication.
Among these children, they would select some with good comprehension, obedience, and easy discipline, teach them poetry, songs, music, and even martial arts, and then provide them with special training.
What to cultivate?
Cultivate people like Shen Qingru.
After they abducted the daughter of Chen Gu to Linjiang County, they gave her some drugs, hypnotized her and educated her, turning her into an obedient and useful pawn that they then sent out to carry out missions.
"Shen Qingru" was a very useful chess piece they had cultivated, so she was sent to the capital to ambush in the Shangshu Mansion, waiting to be used later.
The real Shen Qingru was tamed by them and sent to Chuzhou. Her new identity was Zhang Muyao, the daughter of Zhang Cheng, who served as Sima of Chuzhou.
When Zhou Jing'an sent people to look for her, he learned that she had died of illness three years ago.
Whether she died of illness or something else, there is no way to know.
They are accustomed to using some coercive means, such as torturing people's minds, domesticating and brainwashing, or forcing and threatening them.
The children of the abducted officials were reshaped, their identities were exchanged, and they were then recognized as their relatives in order to achieve the purpose of placing pawns.
Xiang Feng said in a deep voice: "For those children who are disobedient or want to escape, they will poison them to control them."
Zhou Jing'an paused, raised his eyes, and asked, "What kind of poison is it? Is it the same poison Shen Qingru was poisoned with?"
"Yes." Xiang Feng nodded, "They are all bone-dissolving grass."
When they caught Shen Qingru and her personal maid, they kept them under strict surveillance. After a careful examination, they found that both of them had been poisoned for quite some time.
The poison came from the deep forests of Nanzhao, from a rare poisonous grass whose juice could be made into pills. If taken for a long time without a short-term antidote, the body's functions would decline until the bones softened into mud.
For important chess pieces like Shen Qingru, they always use special means to control them just in case.
Zhou Jingan nodded, "How many chess pieces did they confess?"
"Lin Cuiman said that a total of twenty were sent out, and now, including Shen Qingru, only nine are still alive."
"Send someone to bring them back." Zhou Jing'an frowned slightly, feeling a little complicated.
These pawns were originally the children of officials. They should have grown up safely, studied literature, practiced martial arts, or gotten married. In short, they should have had an ordinary and smooth life. However, now they are controlled by others and used as pawns of treason.
Xiang Feng agreed, then hesitated and said, "Then their original parents..."
The moon was at its zenith, but the originally bright moon was blocked by clouds, with only a little light leaking through.
The study was silent for a long time. Zhou Jing'an sighed softly, "After the dust settles, I will listen to the emperor's decision."
How should they tell them that their children who had been missing for a long time had actually been exploited for many years and were doing evil things for others, while the children who had returned home to be reunited with their relatives were actually pawns set up by others.
Just like the Shen Gu couple, who went crazy searching for Shen Qingru after hearing she was missing during the autumn hunt, not knowing that the daughter they were looking for was actually a stranger who had been lying in ambush for years, waiting for an opportunity to escape.
But their biological daughter had already passed away.
Zhou Jing'an stood up and looked at Xiang Feng's leaving back in silence.
The candlelight flickered, stretching his shadow very long.
There was silence all around, except for his soft sigh.
I felt like there was a stone weighing on my heart, hitting it and making me feel stuffy.
-
On the first day of February, Jiang Ling woke up from a nap and took a carriage to the gate of the imperial city with sleepy eyes.
As soon as she got off the carriage, she saw many ladies and gentlemen waiting at the palace gate.
"Ling'er!"
As soon as Jiang Ling turned around, she was dazzled by Cheng An's bright smile, and she flew into her arms like a fluttering butterfly.
"Xiao Anan is dressed so cutely today." Jiang Ling raised the corner of her mouth and touched her cheek.
Cheng An snorted lightly, frowned and said helplessly: "My mother insisted that I dress like this."
He simply wanted her to show her face and meet a handsome man.
Cheng An felt annoyed when he thought about this. He waved his hand and didn't want to talk about it anymore. Instead, he began to admire Jiang Ling.
Today she was wearing a red Shu brocade dress embroidered with large peony flowers and a rabbit fur cloak. It was the birthday gift Meng Wanjie had given her on her birthday. She had sewn it by hand and it was very comfortable and warm to wear.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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