Meng Jian
There are only two or three floors between the top floor and the second floor. The goddess's room is not adjacent to other rooms. It is separated by a separate wall. Only by going up through a special passage can you reach her room.
The wooden staircase is hollow in the middle, so even if someone walks lightly, there will still be some noise.
The sound of the maid's footsteps going down the stairs gradually faded away. The goddess turned around and looked at the mirror in front of her again.
The woman in the mirror was incredibly beautiful, with a teardrop mole at the corner of her eye. If it weren't for the cold, decadent look, the senses wouldn't have felt so overwhelmed.
The goddess looked at her appearance in the mirror for a while, then smiled again.
A chilling, sinister and dejected feeling reappeared on her face. She stared blankly for a moment, then sneered and put the fingertips that were caressing her cheek back on the hem of her gorgeous skirt.
Forget it, it’s a blessing to be able to reach this point now. I wish I could escape from purgatory.
But there are still some obsessions that have not been completed.
It is too easy for one person to escape, but it is difficult for two people to escape.
Now...she is not yet at the point where she can cover the world with one hand.
The door of the top pavilion was opened, and the sound of footsteps came from far away and stopped not far from the goddess. Voices also came, interrupting the goddess's scattered thoughts.
"Still thinking about your brother?"
The voice of the visitor was warm and clear, and his tone was calm, with only a hint of levity at the end of his words.
The goddess tilted her head, her pupils moved to the side, and her eyes fell on the man's shadow. She smiled, her voice extremely cold.
"You and I are both pitiful, so you understand my feelings... Tell me, what do you want to tell me?"
Meng Jian's gaze fell on the goddess' dressing mirror, and a thoughtful look appeared on his face.
"Lu's whereabouts have been discovered. Has You made any moves recently? Have the butler keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't do anything that would draw too much attention."
The goddess paused as she began to dress herself again and said coldly, "You don't need to worry about my affairs. If you want to borrow 'Lu', then go ahead. This is not the first time you've done this."
Halfway through her words, she smiled, her face cold and charming: "It doesn't matter, once the leader has everything he needs, we can leave here."
Meng Jian stood straight, folding his arms and hooking his hands to his chin. There was silence in the room for a while. He stopped talking and turned around to open the door again.
"I'll be looking for the Oil Tank soon. I'll leave this place to you."
He placed his hand on the door, turned his head, paused for a moment, and continued: "After this is completed, it's time to be relieved-"
"I wish we will eventually gain that power."
The plain words were given a touch of warmth by this blessing, but unfortunately, this little warmth was also dispersed by the draft that blew open the door.
The goddess calmed down, picked up the eyebrow pencil again, and drew her eyebrows in front of the mirror tirelessly.
The maid who had been waiting for the two to finish their conversation waited until the right moment and immediately came up with a list with black words on a white background in her hand.
She carefully handed the list to the goddess, bowed to her, and lowered her head.
"Your Excellency, these are the names of the newly selected maids. Please review them."
The names and families are arranged concisely and clearly, and a portrait of each person's facial features is attached.
The goddess slowly put down her pen and looked at her makeup in the mirror for a while. When the maid's movements of bending over to hold the object began to become stiff, she reached out to take it.
The people on the list were all new faces she had never seen before. Her eyes slid from top to bottom until they landed on a girl from the Cui family.
The girl has gentle features, lowered brows and a pleasant look, and looks very well-behaved.
Although it felt familiar at first glance, the familiarity disappeared when I looked at it again.
Noticing that the goddess's eyes had been fixed on the list without a single word, the maid feared that she had made a mistake in her task. However, after waiting for a while and not hearing any questions, she cautiously asked:
"Your Excellency the Goddess, could there be any mistakes on this list?"
Coming back to her senses from the portrait on the list, the goddess returned the list.
"No, just follow the above preparation."
After receiving clear instructions, the maid quickly bowed again and left this dangerous place.
—
Youguan Mansion
No one had had a good rest these days. After counting among themselves, they found that Jiang Nian was the one who slept the most.
Jiang Nian inexplicably felt like he was being lazy. Seeing that the topic was getting more and more off-topic, he took the initiative to bring the topic back.
"Let's not talk about this anymore. So, there's actually no daughter in the Cui family?"
Meng Zheng was not interested in the jokes of the crowd and only shifted his attention back when the topic related to the bishop was mentioned.
"Well, it's better to say that the Cui family's eldest daughter died young, and now there's only an empty tombstone."
It was the time of an epidemic, and Cui's eldest daughter was already weak and frail. She died not long after contracting the disease.
After all, she was related to the bishop, and Jiang Nian knew about Cui's general past, so he only asked the second half of Meng Zheng's question.
"What does an empty tombstone mean?"
Avoiding the noisy chatter of the crowd, Meng Zheng's voice came slowly across the air.
"Literally, if the remains remain, they will be criticized, and their true location is difficult to find."
Jiang Nian nodded, lowered his eyes to think for a moment in the chaotic and noisy room, and raised them again questioningly: "I've wanted to ask before. Although the remnants of the bishop are willing to surrender to the Wu Mi people, given the Wu Mi people's style of doing things, it should be difficult for them to accept this group of 'refugees'."
After all, they are on Huandu’s blacklist. If there is something that needs them to do, and they are caught by some patrolling soldiers as soon as they go out, wouldn’t they be gone in an instant?
Meng Zheng tapped the table and was about to say something when he was choked by the white choking smoke that suddenly floated up not far away. He tilted his head and covered his mouth and started coughing.
Ever since he fainted when he came to Cang County, Meng Zheng's servants and personal doctors have treated him like a princess, pampering him. They can't touch him or move him, for fear that he would break if he did anything too much.
Although the original intention was good, it also hindered the progress of Meng Zheng's investigation.
Therefore, his unique skill of changing his identity in the crowd appeared again, but this time it was not to get rid of the enemies who had ill intentions towards him, but to get rid of the elderly personal doctor at home and the servants who were afraid of being punished by Emperor Changde.
Having said that, Meng Zheng arrived on time this time and was able to get rid of the group of people from his family who followed him closely.
After finally stopping coughing for a while, he reached out and took the warm water handed to him by Qin Lan, who just came in from outside with a cup of water. He slowly took a sip, frowned again, and looked at the opaque cup.
"What's in this?" It tastes strange.
Qin Lan pulled a chair aside and sat down, looking at Jiang Nian who was lost in thought across from him.
"It's an improved herbal tea specially blended by Miss Jiang herself."
When the surrounding soldiers saw the Pavilion Master return to the room, they immediately calmed down and sat back in their original seats.
Before Meng Zheng and Jiang Nian turned their attention to them, Qin Lan turned around and looked at them.
"Is it planned? Who is responsible for which side?"
The Wing Division's troops raised their hands and pointed at the Armor Division. "They must be the ones pushing the bottle of incense. Leave the rest to the Feather Division. They have so much free time organizing intelligence all day anyway."
The soldiers of the military department sat on the chairs with their faces pressed against the table, squinting their eyes as if they had nothing to do with it.
"——What do you mean? Of the three departments, your Wing Department is the least busy, right? We just received a new mission last night and went to take over from Commander Yu. Anything related to Zuihualou should still be handled by you, right?"
The Wing Division's soldiers curled their lips and said, "Why? We still have to track down the Second Prince and recover all the previously leaked intelligence. Our work is the most important thing, don't you think it's easy to find the Second Prince? You don't know anything, it's really easy to talk without any pain."
Under the gazes of the other two departments, the Wing Division's troops paused, then began to point fingers again, looking away: "Anyway, you guys in the Feather Division should do more work."
""
—
It's about to begin again.
The endless and never-ending disputes among the three departments of the Intelligence Bureau.
Jiang Nian silently took a sip of tea on the table. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Meng Zheng had calmed down. He put down the teacup and calmly shifted his gaze away from the noisy side.
"Fourth Prince, I have thought about this and feel that the relationship between the Wumi people and the remnants of the bishop must be a one-sided exploitation."
If we leave those remnants behind, they might be caught by patrols if they do anything, and if they don't, it will waste resources. We also have to worry about whether they will leak secret information within the Wu Mi people. It's a loss no matter how you look at it.
But if the Wu Mi people unilaterally agree to them...
Meng Zheng did not give a direct answer. After he recovered, the corners of his eyes were slightly red, probably because he was tired from coughing. At this moment, he supported his head with one hand and pointed at the porcelain cup under his eyes with the other hand.
"No matter what, they are definitely cooperating now, but we just need to break up their cooperation——"
"It's time to completely disperse this chaotic mess of loose sand."
His voice was still a little hoarse, but from his expression, one could tell that he was very calm at the moment. Nothing could make him happy or angry. He was just talking about the facts.
Jiang Nian withdrew his gaze and made up his mind about his attitude towards Meng Zheng.
She lowered her eyes and touched the still slightly cool scented tea in front of her, then slowly brought up her discovery from yesterday.
"Well, the sooner the better. Yesterday, when I went to the Huachao Club to look for 'Lu', I happened to find a clue. Why don't you listen to it, Fourth Prince?"
Meng Zheng lifted his eyelids, glanced at Jiang Nian's gentle smile, slightly shifted his gaze, and then agreed: "Well, after today, I will go back to the capital, and we can go check it out together then."
The longer the death of the eldest princess is delayed, the more detrimental it will be to the investigation. Moreover, it has been almost ten years now. Such an investigation would be difficult in modern times, let alone in this era.
Jiang Nian nodded and briefly summarized what happened the day before yesterday and yesterday, picking out the key points. Finally, he asked, "Did the Fourth Prince see any clues?"
Meng Zheng caught a glimpse of Xiao Yingzhu's shadow in his peripheral vision, and the words were on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them back.
He really hated to mention the eldest princess in front of this person.
Before he had to ask, but now he had the choice.
Hiding the disgust in his heart, Meng Zheng smiled at Jiang Nian, and his sickly face was glowing again.
"Not yet. I'll go back and check. As for the thief—"
Ai, who was eating dumplings at the side, raised his head, his cheeks bulging, and looked at them questioningly.
Jiang Nian glanced at her and couldn't help but laugh: "Don't worry, I have arranged for someone to investigate."
"That's good."
Meng Zheng chuckled softly, and as he stood up, he said, "The herbal tea is good," and left the conference room.
The entrances and exits of the conference hall were the same, and when Xiao Yingzhu entered and Meng Zheng left, they happened to be shoulder to shoulder.
Feeling Xiao Yingzhu's cold gaze falling on him, Meng Zheng turned his head and smiled faintly at him.
There is irony hidden in the smile.
—
After walking out of the door and out of the courtyard of the Youguan, Meng Zheng stopped and raised his hand to rub his dizzy head.
The moment he saw Xiao Yingzhu just now, his suppressed annoyance suddenly rose up uncontrollably, and the back of his head felt like it was hit by lightning, and it hurt so much.
Thinking of the other party's calm expression, as if treating him as a stranger, Meng Zheng couldn't help but feel his blood pressure rise and his chest tightness and shortness of breath.
Knowing that such emotions were bad for his body, he opened his lips and took a few slow breaths before calming down.
The servant who had been waiting outside saw him and immediately ran over, raising his hand to help Meng Zheng calm down.
After Meng Zheng got into the car with a gloomy look on his face and took a few sips of the bitter medicine prescribed for him by the Chinese doctor, the attendant observed his expression and spoke carefully.
"Master, as you instructed, we have found some letters in the attic that you have not read before. Some of them involve old matters."
"Look, these letters—"
Meng Zheng had a weak spot in the past, and those things must never be mentioned directly, but he had to do this job. The servant looked at him carefully and took a step back.
Meng Zheng glanced at his movements, then looked at his own hands which had little strength and blue veins showing. He felt a little tired for a moment and leaned his head against the wall of the carriage.
"Don't move. I'll watch it tonight."
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