The postmaster had indeed laid out a table full of delicious food and wine in the room. The aroma of the food and the wine filled the air, and just looking at it made one's appetite grow.
Wei Min untied the belt of his cloak and handed it to A Ruan beside him, signaling him to take the luggage back to the inner room first. Then he naturally adjusted his sleeves until it covered most of his hands, and said to the postmaster with a smile: "I am new here and I am treated so well. I really trouble you, sir."
The postmaster smiled politely and extended his hand to Wei Min, inviting him to sit down.
After Aruan carried his luggage into the inner room, he never came out again.
Seeing Wei Min sitting down, the postmaster glanced towards the inner room, hesitated and sat down as well, and asked tentatively: "Should we invite you to sit down with us? Or should we have someone bring in some food?"
Wei Min waved her hand to indicate that it was not necessary, and her tone showed her feminine power. "We are just talking and drinking, why should we call a man?"
As he spoke, he raised his hand to pick up the wine pot, added wine to the postmaster's glass, and said, "It's better for you and me to eat happily together."
Wei Min, who only had eyes for food and wine, looked like a young man who was new to the world and credulous. The postmaster felt that Wei Min's maturity when she was standing outside the door just now was just an act of pretending to be impressive in the dark.
After all, she is still young. But after being coaxed with sweet words and lured with delicious food, didn’t she believe her?
The postmaster's mind had been spinning for a long time, but his face looked honest. After hearing what Wei Min said, he immediately showed admiration and respect, "Your Excellency is really good at controlling your husband."
When the postmaster saw Wei Min standing up to pour her a glass of wine, he stood up in a hurry and said flatteredly, "I am really embarrassed. My Lord, please put it down and let me do it."
As he said this, he reached out and took the wine jug from Wei Min.
Wei Min did not force it and handed the wine jug to the postmaster.
When their hands passed the wine jug, the postmaster seemed to feel Wei Min's gaze lingering on her knuckles for a moment, and then moved away as if nothing had happened.
Her movements were extremely natural, and the postmaster was unsure whether Wei Min was deliberately leading him to take the wine pot just to see something, or whether it was purely unintentional.
After pouring the wine, the postmaster calmly placed his hands under the table, propped up his thighs, leaned over to ask Wei Min with a look of consolation, "I see that you are so young, why do you want to come to this Bamboo City? Why not ask someone to send some money to you and go to another state to be an idle county magistrate? After three years of peace and tranquility, if there is anyone in the capital by then, you can go directly to the capital after the assessment and become an official in the capital, wouldn't it be wonderful?"
Wei Min waved his hands and glared, looking disapproving. "I don't understand what you are saying. If all the officials in the court think this way, then what should be done with Zhucheng? What about the people of Zhucheng? Everyone wants to go to a better place, so who will govern here?"
He was the newly crowned number one scholar and should have been appointed as a member of the Imperial Academy, where he would have risen to a high position in the imperial court. However, he was demoted to a dangerous place called Zhucheng by an imperial decree, where his future was uncertain and there was no chance of promotion. Either way, it should be a sad thing.
But the postmaster did not see any sadness or dissatisfaction on Wei Min's face. On the contrary, she had the unique enthusiasm and passion to realize her ambitions that belonged to a young person like her who had just entered the officialdom.
The postmaster thought to himself that if he didn't die, who would?
The postmaster showed an excited and grateful look on his face. He stood up and bowed respectfully to Wei Min, saying, "On behalf of the people of Zhucheng, I would like to thank you, sir."
Wei Min smiled and took the postmaster's wrist, asking her to sit down. As if trusting her, he leaned over and asked, "You also said before that Zhucheng is not a good place to go, and my colleagues in the capital even said that Zhucheng is a den of dragons and tigers.
I didn't believe it at first, but today, before I even entered Zhucheng, you, a postmaster, were waiting outside, as if you had predicted that I would arrive tonight. How did you know? ”
"This..." The postmaster hesitated, not wanting to say it, "Your Excellency should not ask about this matter."
Wei Min frowned, thinking she was hiding something, and said, "Just tell me what happened. I'm here to help you."
She showed her side as an official with enthusiasm but no brains, and even said to the postmaster without hesitation: "To be honest, the emperor sent me here this time, not only to appoint me as the magistrate of Zhucheng, but also to find out whether the previous magistrate died in an accident."
It seemed as if Wei Min did not notice the flash of surprise in the eyes of the postmaster when he said this. His tone was slightly proud, as if he was shouldering a great mission, and he straightened his back as he spoke.
The postmaster waited for Wei Min to finish speaking, then showed just the right amount of surprise on his face, then slapped his thigh and sighed, "It was said that County Magistrate Yang was about to be promoted, but he fell off his horse and died out of nowhere. I had always suspected that someone had done it, but it turns out there was another reason..."
The postmaster lowered his head and sighed, hiding the murderous intent in his eyes.
I had originally planned to see if this person was a new puppet, but I didn't expect that she not only wanted to clean up Zhucheng, but also wanted to find out how Yang Cheng died.
It seems that this person cannot be kept.
Wei Min thought that the postmaster was feeling uncomfortable, so he raised his hand and patted her shoulder heavily to comfort her.
Logically speaking, as a scholar, the postmaster would show some pain on his face after she slapped him so hard, but he just sighed without changing his expression, as if he didn't feel the force on his shoulder.
Wei Min calmly withdrew his hand, and while the postmaster lowered his head, he picked up the wine glass on the table, covered his face with his sleeve, and poured all the wine into his sleeve.
Seeing her drink, the postmaster also drank a glass, then picked up the wine pot to refill Wei Min's glass, and said, "The news of your coming to Zhucheng has long been known in the city. I was afraid that you would have an accident, so I waited at the door to greet you. Who spread this news specifically..."
The postmaster shook his head, "It's impossible to say. I just suspect it, but I dare not prove it." She only said half of the sentence, leaving people in suspense, but she was unwilling to say more.
Seeing that the postmaster really couldn't speak, Wei Min didn't make things difficult for her. Just as he was about to pick up the second glass of wine, he saw A'ruan coming out from the inner room.
A'ruan didn't come out early or late, but came out just when Wei Min hadn't touched the food and was about to drink his second glass of wine.
There was a hint of anger on his face, as if he was dissatisfied with Wei Min drinking again. He walked to her side, reached out and pushed her shoulder, glanced at the inner room, signaling her to stop drinking and go to make the bed and go to sleep.
Wei Min looked at the postmaster with embarrassment, then angrily rebuked A Ruan, "What a shame! You want to control my drinking? What's wrong with women drinking a few glasses together? Go back to the house!"
Ah Ruan seemed to be startled, his eyes red with grievance, he stomped his feet angrily and turned into the house. Not long after, the sound of teacups being broken was heard from the house.
The postmaster was forced to watch the household affairs, and his expression was a little uncomfortable. He took the initiative to forget that he had praised Wei Min for her husband's skills before, and acted as a peacemaker to persuade her, "Young couple, quarrel at the head of the bed and make up at the foot of the bed. As a woman, don't bother with men. Go back to the room later and pretend to apologize, and then you can make peace again."
Wei Min seemed to have not heard what the postmaster said. He frowned and listened to the "crackling" sounds in the room with an impatient look on his face. Then he slammed the wine glass he was about to drink on the table with a "bang" and snorted, "Men are always annoying. I just drank two sips of wine and you're not happy again."
Wei Min looked as if he had been humiliated by his husband. He bowed to the postmaster with an unpleasant expression and said in an unnatural voice, "Thank you for the hospitality. I've made a fool of myself. Let's stop drinking today. I'll go in and take a look."
As she spoke, she bowed slightly apologetically to the postmaster, who immediately stood up and returned the greeting, saying, "No, no, your husband is more important. Go and have a look."
The welcoming banquet ended in a bad mood.
The postmaster asked someone to take the food away and stood beside the table without leaving in a hurry. He pricked up his ears and listened to the inner room for a while.
Then Wei Min's voice, suppressed with anger, came out, "It's fine if you make trouble at home, but why don't you give me some face when we go out? You are embarrassing your woman in front of outsiders!"
The man in the room didn't cry even after being scolded.
"Whenever I say something to you, you hide under the covers and cry. Do you think I said anything wrong about you?"
Only then did the postmaster realize that the man had his face buried in the quilt, no wonder there was no sound.
Afterwards, she heard Wei Min mumbling a few words, and then she began to coax her husband in a sweet voice.
Upon hearing this, the postmaster could not help but sneer, mocking Wei Min for being a spineless guy, saying that all his previous prestige had gone down the drain along with the wine.
He's just a man. At worst, he can divorce him and remarry. How can you scold him and then have a stern face to coax him? You deserve it when a man doesn't take your face seriously. If it were her, she would have slapped me in the face. What right do you have to care about my drinking?
When the postmaster heard no movement from inside, he guessed that after the quarrel the two were either rolling together affectionately or packing up for bed.
The postmaster immediately went out and went straight to the kitchen, saying to the servants who were waiting for her to come back, "Wait a minute, we will do it in the early morning."
The guys in the kitchen looked a little strange. They were not wearing aprons, but were dressed in black from head to toe, with a piece of cloth covering their faces, leaving only their eyes exposed. Instead of holding a spatula in their hands, each of them had two oil drums at their feet.
Among the guys, there was one with particularly sharp eyes. If you took off the black scarf on her face, you could see a pair of cute dimples on her face and a small canine tooth on one side of her mouth...
…
A'ruan, who should have been hiding in the quilt crying in the room, was now leaning against the wall of the inner room, listening to the noise outside with her ears perked up.
Wei Min, who was furious with him, stood alone by the bed and loudly scolded A Ruan who had already made the bed.
After Ah Ruan heard someone close the door and go out, and there was no movement in the main room, she walked over and gently patted Wei Min's arm, indicating that she had left.
Wei Min then turned around and held A Ruan's shoulders, smiled and lowered his head to kiss him on the forehead, and whispered: "Thank you, Mr. Lang, for putting on a good show with me."
Her eyes were full of tenderness and smile, without any trace of the anger she had just shown during the quarrel.
Ah Ruan shook his head, raised his hand uneasily and "asked" Wei Min:
——Is she really not the postmaster?
Before getting off the carriage, his wife said to him, "We'll know whether it's a human or a ghost after we take a look." Then, the postmaster came out to greet him. Before getting off the carriage, his wife whispered something in his ear, asking him to cooperate in performing a good show.
Late in the evening, the postmaster came out to greet her in person. Wei Min guessed that she might use the excuse of a welcoming banquet, so as a precaution, he asked A'ruan to come out and get angry with her when she was about to drink.
After all, she was a newly sent official by the court. If she died just after arriving in Zhucheng, the court would definitely send an imperial envoy to investigate.
Therefore, Wei Min was not worried that the postmaster would poison her so that her body could be identified after her death. Wei Min was afraid that she would put something drug-induced intoxicating in the food and wine to numb her vigilance at night.
Wei Min then glanced at the postmaster's knuckles calmly. There were obvious calluses on her knuckles that could only be caused by someone who held a knife. Although they were not obvious anymore, they were still there, showing that before she became the postmaster, she often held a knife.
Afterwards, Wei Min found an opportunity to hold the postmaster's wrist. He could feel from her wrist that this was not a strength that a thin scholar should have.
Finally, the slaps on the Yicheng's shoulders confirmed the information she had received earlier.
This postmaster is not a real postmaster.
Before she came to Zhucheng, she received a note at the last post station. On the clean white paper, there was a sentence written: "Zhucheng Postmaster disappeared six years ago."
Wei Min carefully opened the note and found that there was not even a signature, which immediately made him suspicious. She thought that this was a clue given by the person sent by Jiang Wuque to protect her, but the other party did not leave any hints in this regard.
So when Wei Min believed the note, he still carefully verified it, and the result was indeed as written on the paper.
This postmaster must have killed the previous one and replaced him. The reason why she did this was to use herself as the eyes and ears of Zhucheng, watching the people entering and leaving Zhucheng, and listening to the news outside Zhucheng.
At the banquet, Wei Min demonstrated his image as a brainless newcomer to officialdom in detail, just to lower the guard of the postmaster and lure her into taking action tonight.
Wei Min asked A'ruan to get two quilts from the cabinet, rolled them into two long strips and placed them on the bed, then covered them with the quilts, pretending that they were both fast asleep. Then he lowered the bed curtains and took A'ruan to hide in the cabinet, waiting quietly.
Sure enough, when he heard the sound of the third watch stick, Wei Min saw a figure flash outside the window through the gap in the cabinet, and then he heard the sound of the bolt on the door outside being pushed open by something.
The author has something to say: Yicheng: Oh, what a pair of acting geniuses_(:зゝ∠)_
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