Cui Yuan led his men back to the woods to look for clues. The first thing they did was to follow the path where the cloth was found, but after a few steps, there was no road ahead.
But he found that the weeds in front of the trail showed signs of being trampled and some branches were broken.
Judging from the marks on the broken branches, they must have been broken not long ago, no more than a day ago.
Moreover, there was a silk thread hooked on one of the broken branches, the same as the silk cloth he had found earlier.
So he led his men to continue groping forward along these traces. The surrounding trees became more and more dense, and from time to time they could hear the strange calls of unknown birds.
As they walked, two roads appeared in front of them. Cui Yuan did not hesitate for a moment and split his troops into two groups to search for them.
He led his men along the relatively flat road on the left, while Constable Wang from the Dali Temple led his men along another rugged road.
After an unknown amount of time, Cui Yuan groped his way to a small mountain hut following some clues he found along the way.
From a distance, he saw two people standing outside the hut. The two men were armed with swords and were obviously martial artists.
There was no village in front and no shop behind. In the uninhabited mountains, a small house suddenly appeared, and there was someone guarding outside.
His intuition told him that the clue he was looking for was inside the cabin.
But he didn't know if there were other people around, so he didn't dare to act rashly. After all, there were only three of them.
So he took his men and quietly sneaked to the back of the hut.
Looking inside through the narrow window, there was a man in white lying on the bed, but his feet were shackled.
Cui Yuan discovered that the piece of cloth he had picked up earlier was torn from the clothes the man was wearing.
At this time, a voice came from the front.
"What did you catch?"
"Two pheasants and a few hares, and some wild fruits."
"I'll give some wild fruits to the person inside first."
"Why are you in such a hurry? We haven't eaten yet."
"You want to die, don't you? If anything happens to that person inside, we will all be held responsible."
"Tsk, he is still a concubine played by the princess. If the county lady hadn't gotten tired of playing with him, he would have died long ago."
"Say less. If he hears you, he'll tell the county lady. Who will die first, you or he? Besides, among so many people, he's the only one who survived. That shows how powerful he is."
When Cui Yuan heard the word "County Princess", he knew he had found the right place, but there were no less than four people on the other side.
Three against four, it's hard for them to win.
The disdainful voice came again, "A grown man won't die if he starves for a day or two."
"He is not like us."
A burst of laughter.
"With his weak appearance, I don't know how he can satisfy both the princess and the county lady at the same time."
"He wasn't that weak when he first came. Maybe he was drained by the princess and the county lady in turn."
"I told you to stop talking, but you kept going on. Hurry up and take care of the pheasants and rabbits. I'll send the fruit to him."
Hearing this, Cui Yuan hurriedly squatted down.
With a creaking sound, the person guarding outside the house pushed the door open.
"Hey~ wake up."
Perhaps the man lying on the bed was awakened, and the man said, "The pheasant is not roasted yet, eat some fruits first."
Then, the sound of a door closing was heard.
Cui Yuan slowly stood up and looked inside through the narrow window. The man inside was eating a green fruit.
Even though it was just a side profile, Cui Yuan could clearly see the sharp light flashing in the man's eyes.
He also learned from the conversation between those people that Princess Yuehua had killed many people, and only the man in the house survived because he was favored by County Lady Wen'an.
Princess Yuehua must be unaware of this.
After all, since Princess Yuehua was able to decisively kill so many people, it is impossible for her to leave any trouble for herself.
The man inside is the evidence of Princess Yuehua's murder!
Thinking of this, Cui Yuan silently said to one of his men beside him, "Go find Constable Wang."
The subordinate nodded and left quietly.
＊＊＊
Back to the princess's mansion, the people brought by Qin Shi searched the mansion thoroughly, but except for a secret room, they did not find any suspicious things or places.
However, Qin Shi noticed that a maidservant beside County Master Wen'an had a strange look on her face. She always stole glances at him when County Master Wen'an was not paying attention, as if she had something to say to him.
So, he thought for a moment and said, "County Lady, I am a little thirsty. Can I have a cup of tea?"
After looking at him suspiciously for a moment, Lady Wen'an ordered, "Taohong, serve tea to Qin Shaoqing."
"promise."
The maid responded and went downstairs to prepare tea, but unfortunately she was not the maid who had something to say to Qin Shi.
After the maid walked away, Qin Shi touched his belly again and said, "County Lady, can you prepare some more food for me?"
This time, Princess Wen'an did not agree, but said with a vigilant look: "Qin Shaoqing has searched my princess's mansion over and over again. Is it time to leave?"
"Not yet. I still need to check everyone in the princess's mansion one by one. Please call everyone over."
Hearing Qin Shi's words, County Lady Wen'an's face darkened immediately, "You want to interrogate the people in my princess's mansion?"
"This is the necessary procedure for investigating a case." Qin Shi said calmly, "Her Royal Highness the Princess has previously said that she will fully cooperate with my investigation. I'm sure she won't refuse."
The Princess of Wen'an gritted her teeth and said, "I will cooperate, of course! But I must inform my mother first."
After saying this, without caring whether Qin Shi agreed or not, County Lady Wen'an turned around and went to find Princess Yuehua.
"County Lady." Qin Shi called him.
"What? Qin Shaoqing wants to interrogate the people in my princess mansion, but he won't allow me to tell my mother?" County Lady Wen'an said in an aggressive tone.
"My Lord, you misunderstood. I wanted you to prepare some food for me. Interrogation is a very time-consuming task."
The Princess of Wen'an was so angry that her chest kept rising and falling, and she squeezed out the words from between her teeth, "Lue'e, prepare food for Qin Shaoqing."
"promise."
Seeing that the maid who responded was the one who had something to say to him, Qin Shi slightly curled the corners of his mouth.
However, although Princess Wen'an left, she still left guards here to watch over them.
He couldn't contact the maid under the guards' noses, so he could only wait and see if the maid would take this opportunity to pass on a message to him.
After a while, the maid who had gone downstairs to prepare tea according to the instructions of County Lady Wen'an came up with the tea.
Qin Shi drank two cups of tea in a row. He was not worried that there would be something wrong with the tea. Princess Yuehua would not be so stupid as to poison him.
About half a quarter of an hour later, the maid named Lu'e brought over a plate of mung bean cakes and glutinous rice balls.
While arranging the snacks, the maid Lu'e kept pointing to the plate of glutinous rice balls with her eyes.
Qin Shi calmly picked up the glutinous rice balls and started to eat them, but he ended up eating nothing after eating three of them.
It wasn't until the fourth that he got a bite.
He took out a handkerchief to wipe his mouth, and took the thing out of his mouth without anyone noticing.
It was at this time that Lady Wen'an returned and brought Princess Yuehua with her.
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