Chapter 071 Why?
Jiang Mingyuan had a blank expression on her face, but her sudden rapid breathing showed that she was feeling uneasy at the moment.
He was clearly talking with Xuanji Wei in the abandoned mine before, but he lost consciousness the next moment, and when he woke up he was already here.
I don’t know what kind of medicine I was given, but I don’t have any strength in my body.
Zhou Yanqing placed the ginger soup on the table in front of her. The dagger he had searched from her body was about a palm's distance away.
Jiang Mingyuan's gaze followed it, it was right within her reach, but the irony was that she was now unable to pick up a weapon.
"Why don't you wash yourself? Look at you, you don't look like a girl anymore.
Not to mention we've known each other for many years, even I couldn't recognize you at first sight."
As he spoke, he took a linen towel, wet it, and wiped her face with his own hands.
Jiang Mingyuan pursed her lips tightly, but she had no strength to resist and could only let it be.
He wiped off the dried mud and deliberately smeared black ash bit by bit with gentle movements, rubbing it back and forth four times before it was roughly clean.
His eyebrows were like swords, and the peaks of his eyebrows were a light brown color from years of sun exposure.
Her eye sockets were slightly deeper than those of an average woman, her pupils were the color of ebony that had been dipped in a cold spring, and her eyelashes were dense but short.
Zhou Yan cleaned his hands and said, "This looks much more comfortable."
"You are in cahoots with them." Jiang Mingyuan finally spoke.
She should have shouted sternly, but when she opened her mouth her voice was light and airy, as if she was acting coquettishly with the man opposite her.
Zhou Yanqing raised his eyebrows.
Once upon a time, when her father was studying for the imperial examination at his classics school, Jiang Mingyuan always spoke to him so gently.
Later, Master Jiang was appointed as the magistrate of Chiyan County. He rushed to Fengjing to take the imperial examination and barely passed the second place.
Unexpectedly, the master passed away due to a sudden illness, and he took over the position of county magistrate.
Fate is truly wonderful.
"Don't worry, Yuan'er. I just don't want you to die in vain for the sake of the Master."
Jiang Mingyuan pursed her lips and stared at the man opposite her.
But she didn't know that his expression now didn't seem intimidating at all, but more like a gaze of deep affection.
"Can you tell me the truth? How did my father... die..."
Zhou Yanqing tapped the table with his knuckles. There was only a dim oil lamp in the room, illuminating his face in obscurity.
"Oh..." A long sigh.
Back then in the Sutra Library, Jiang Mingyuan's articles were far superior to his.
Especially the policy essays, which were well-articulated and cited extensively, always received A-level awards.
Your Majesty has established an imperial examination for women, and even he can get a second place. If Jiang Mingyuan chooses to take the imperial examination, she should be able to get a first place.
But she became a constable, and it turned out that she had been brooding over this matter.
"So, what did you find out?"
Jiang Mingyuan could feel his heart beating violently.
Perhaps she had revealed her true identity when investigating the bodies of the miners. She discovered that someone was secretly following her, so she managed to escape by transforming herself into a laborer to dig a ditch, waiting for an opportunity.
Although the development of things is unexpected, perhaps this is the best opportunity to get to the truth.
His eyes flickered, but he finally uttered four words: "Iron ore theft."
Zhou Yanqing's face turned ashen in an instant, and he narrowed his eyes and stared at the woman in front of him.
I had still some hope, thinking that it was just an accidental discovery of a corpse, but that hope was completely shattered at this moment.
No, in fact, I had suspected it from the very beginning and had noticed the clues a long time ago, but I just turned a blind eye to it and buried it deep underground.
The junior sister is indeed the master's proudest disciple, and she really found the key to the matter.
The room seemed to be weighed down by a thick, dark cloud, so gloomy that it could not be dispelled.
After pondering for a while, Zhou Yanqing reached out and picked up the bowl of ginger soup.
It was still warm at this time, just the right time to drink it, so I tilted my head back and drank it all in one gulp.
"You know..." He put down the porcelain bowl and glanced casually at the dark corner of the room.
"Master Jiang is well-educated, has good writing skills, and is a good calligrapher. He is also a good teacher, making him the most suitable candidate to be the headmaster.
Even if he wanted to become an official, he should have stayed in a place like the Hanlin Academy, but he chose to be a county magistrate..."
Zhou Yanqing shook his head and laughed, swallowing the second half of his sentence: He just happened to be the county magistrate of Chiyan County.
The teacher might be able to handle the affairs of an ordinary county.
If he plays to his strengths and avoids his weaknesses, seizes the opportunity of elementary education and the imperial examinations, he can gain a good reputation among the scholars and may even have the opportunity to serve as an official in the court.
But he happened to come to Chiyan County, or rather, he was chosen to come to Chiyan County.
Naive or righteous, fortunately he stayed true to his original intention, but unfortunately he died.
"Yuan'er, don't hide anything from me. Tell me what you found out."
"Answer my question first. How did my father die?"
"Haven't you already guessed it?" Zhou Yanqing raised his eyes, his gaze fixed on the other side. "No need to run away. It's just what you thought."
Boom! There was a thunderclap in my head.
Jiang Mingyuan's eyes were blank and his body was shaking.
After her father became a county magistrate, she went out to study, intending to gain some experience before preparing for the imperial examinations. However, when she returned home, she only received the news that her father had died of an acute illness.
Jiang Mingyuan has always been upset because he didn't even see her for the last time.
But her father has always been in good health, otherwise she would not have been able to travel so far.
Be it intuition or obsession, she gave up literature and took up military affairs, taking root in Chiyan County and exploring the truth bit by bit.
After finally finding some clues, a sudden flood drowned all hope, and now I got the result unexpectedly.
"Who is it? Who on earth is it!"
The sudden burst of emotions seemed to temporarily break free from the shackles of the drugs. Jiang Mingyuan looked ferocious and asked heartbreaking questions.
Zhou Yanqing's eyes were frighteningly cold, like a pool of water hidden in the mountains, the depth of which was unknown.
“What can I do even if I know?
Your father lost his life because he couldn't fight back then, I couldn't fight back, and you can't fight back even more."
He stood up, walked slowly behind Jiang Mingyuan, leaned down and whispered in her ear,
"Yuan'er, tell me what you found out. Only by telling me can I find a way to save your life."
Jiang Mingyuan practically gnashed his teeth as he demanded, word for word, "So, you're in the same boat with them!"
Zhou Yanqing sighed deeply.
The father and daughter are really alike, equally stubborn, and equally... naive.
The next moment, he suddenly pulled out the dagger on the table and stabbed it hard into Jiang Mingyuan's chest!
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