Looking at the huge hole in the door, Tang Chen was silent: "...What should I do?"
Wang Yanzhou sighed slightly. It was just a door. Nothing to worry about. "Put it on my account."
"Okay, I have no objection." After the matter of kicking in someone else's gate was resolved, Tang Chen looked around the yard. Apart from some funeral supplies, there seemed to be no sign of a living person: "Is anyone there?"
The people in the inner room heard the commotion in the yard and hurried out: "I'm coming, who are you looking for?"
Tang Chen looked at the frail old man in his sixties who came out of the house and asked, "Um, who are you?"
The old man said, "Everyone calls me Old Man Wu. Who are you two?"
"A naughty kid smashed my window, so we ended up here. Sorry to bother you," Tang Chen said as Wang Yanzhou took out the purse and handed it to his father-in-law. "Please use this to fix the door. I'm really sorry. The extra money is a small donation from my husband and me to the charity cemetery."
Old Wu looked at the heavy purse in his hand, then looked up at the two men leaving. Suddenly, he remembered something and chased after them: "Stay!"
Tang Chen looked at Wang Yanzhou doubtfully before asking, "Is there anything else, father-in-law?"
When Old Wu's cloudy eyes looked at the plum blossom hairpin in Tang Chen's hair, they suddenly seemed to brighten a little: "Are you, Miss Tang Chen?"
Tang Chen nodded without saying anything. Old Wu hadn't expected that Tang Chen would appear at the charity cemetery at this time, just as the painting said. "Come on, sit inside, sit inside. I've been waiting for you for a long time!"
Although Tang Chen and Wang Yanzhou didn't look like he was a bad guy, they still kept a wary eye on him. After following the old man into the charity cemetery, they didn't touch the tea or food.
After Old Wu asked the two to sit down, he hurriedly walked into the inner room. When he came out, he had a porcelain jar with a name on it in his hand. After seeing the name written on the jar, Tang Chen almost fell off his chair.
After carefully wrapping the porcelain jar in an old cotton cloth, Old Wu handed it to Tang Chen. He had now fulfilled his promise to someone else: "Miss Huaping asked me to give her ashes to Miss Tang, saying that she hoped to be buried with her daughter."
Tang Chen looked down at the cloth bag in his arms. After a moment, he asked, "...did she say where she buried her young lady?"
The old man shook his head and sighed deeply: "Well, she still had time to say it. Then, she was sent to the guillotine..."
When Yue Sheng passed away, she had entrusted Huayue Tower and Huaping to him. The scene of Huaping leaving Qingliang Valley with her ashes seemed to have happened just yesterday.
Tang Chen felt a mixture of emotions. She shouldn't have just listened to Huaping's words that she could handle everything herself and neglected everything in Wujiang. If she hadn't done that, Huaping and everyone in Huayue Tower wouldn't have died tragically at the hands of the butcher.
"Thank you, father-in-law."
Old Wu quickly helped Tang Chen up and said, "Alas, Miss Huaping and Master Yue have always been kind and generous, and we don't want to believe that they would do such a treacherous thing."
Old Wu's words revealed that he knew some details about the matter. Rather than waiting for others to investigate later, he would rather ask now: "Father, can you tell me everything you know about this matter? I want to seek justice for her."
The old man said solemnly: "I don't know much..."
According to my father-in-law, a group of serious criminals had escaped from the Ministry of Justice's prison. After their escape, according to reliable sources, they hid in Huayue Tower, which happened to be hosting a group of guests from other places. When officials searched Huayue Tower, they didn't find the escaped prisoners, but they did find the prison uniforms they'd worn in the woodshed. Since Huayue Tower couldn't turn anyone over, the government accused them of harboring criminals and charged everyone there with that crime.
But my father-in-law also said that those so-called outsiders were just merchants from Qinghe County, and everyone knew this. In addition, everyone heard that the prisoners had escaped, and they were also afraid.
So after Huaping and the others were executed, everyone searched every possible avenue for information, fearing that those vicious individuals might one day reach the Wujiang River. However, in reality, the final result was that after the execution of the death row prisoners mentioned by the Ministry of Justice, no one ever went to look for them again after their crimes were brought to justice at Huayue Tower.
After hearing this, Tang Chen flew into a rage and slammed the already wobbly table in the charity cemetery. "This is a false accusation, a blatant false accusation! Didn't the government send anyone to conduct a thorough investigation? If they had, they would have discovered the flaws!"
Old Wu, though old, was still clear-headed. In the decades he'd spent at the charity cemetery, he'd witnessed countless lives, deaths, joys, sorrows, and reunions. There were things that even an old man like him couldn't see through. "Why are you still investigating? The people are gone. I heard a few yamen runners spill the beans after a few drinks. They said the government office was under orders from above."
During Huayue Tower's heyday, most of its guests were high-ranking officials and dignitaries. They had also bought information from them and had evidence against them. To some extent, Yue Sheng had made quite a few enemies. It was likely that some powerful figure, fearing that they might leak something dirty, had taken such drastic action.
However, speculation is still speculation after all. Tang Chen's mind is in a mess right now. She is afraid that if she thinks about it any further, she will do something rude. "...Father-in-law, I thank you on behalf of Huaping and Huayue Tower. Don't worry, we will definitely seek justice for the deceased."
After exchanging a few more pleasantries with his father-in-law, Tang Chen and his companions set out on their journey home. Tang Chen, holding Huaping's ashes, walked along the road with heavy steps. After sorting out his chaotic thoughts, Tang Chen began to analyze: "When Huaping left Qingliang Valley, she said she would take Sister Yue back to Huayue Tower. Now that Sister Yue's remains are missing, the most likely place is Huayue Tower. Huaping must have wanted us to find something in the tower, including the letter. She must have noticed something and was afraid of being read, so she wrote that way."
Wang Yanzhou didn't participate, only nodding in agreement. Tang Chen continued walking down the Silk Road, and everything seemed to have returned to the starting point. "The painting screen asked us to see the pearls, the pearls... Could the mastermind behind this be coming for the pearls?"
"It's possible." Not many people knew that Black Pearl was in Tang Chen's possession. Aside from those close to her, only those who frequently had their every move investigated knew. If it were truly those people who did it, given their usual style, they would have come directly to her, not taken such a long detour. Combined with what my father-in-law had said, the scope of this case was quite large.
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