Chapter 12
"Hey, little shopkeeper, you guys are finally back. Are you tired? Are you hungry? Did they give you any trouble?"
Seeing Lin Xing get off the car, Liu Lian, who had been waiting outside the restaurant, stepped forward immediately. Verbal condolences were not enough, Liu Lian also pinched Lin Xing's face with her hand.
Lin Xing replied with difficulty: "I'm not tired. I'm going to a banquet, how could I be hungry? They didn't make things difficult for me. Don't worry, Sister Lian."
Liu Lian then let go of her hand, but suddenly shouted, "Little Shopkeeper, what happened to your clothes? You were wearing pink clothes when you left this morning. How did it become blue?"
"My original clothes got accidentally stained before the party started, so I changed into something more decent."
"You're still saying that I haven't been embarrassed. If you've been wronged, you must tell Sister Lian. Sister Lian will seek justice for you even if it costs her life."
"I'm really fine, Sister Lian."
As Lin Xing spoke, she turned around to show that she had returned intact without losing a single piece of flesh.
“Mr. Shen didn’t bully you, did he?”
Just as Lin Xing was about to answer, another voice interrupted, "Sister Lian, please let Sister Xiao Xing go to rest."
It turned out to be Lin Huan who came late. She saw from a distance that Liu Lian was standing there with Lin Xing asking questions. She was worried that Lin Xing was too tired, so she interrupted them.
"Why are you here, girl? Are you done with your work?"
"I'm done. If I hadn't come, I'm afraid Sister Lian would have kept Sister Xiao Xing chatting until tomorrow."
Liu Lian patted Lin Huan and said helplessly: "The child has grown up and dared to tease me. You should go back quickly with the young shopkeeper."
Lin Huan immediately went to hold Lin Xing's hand and took her away, not forgetting to turn around and smile at Liu Lian: "Thank you Sister Lian, then we will leave first."
After watching the two leave, Liu Lian turned around and asked Uncle Gui beside her, "Does the child think I'm too nagging?"
"no."
"yes."
At the same time as Uncle Gui's voice was heard by a waiter who happened to pass by. Liu Lian immediately pretended to kick him, and he ran away with his head in his hands.
Everyone who was still outside laughed at the same time, and some people even bent over with laughter.
Different from the warm atmosphere here, Yu Hang, who was still in Shen's house, was staring at Prime Minister Song in silence. Prime Minister Song invited him over but didn't say a word, and his teacup was almost empty.
When Yu Hang drank the last sip of tea in the cup, Prime Minister Song spoke.
"Inspector Yu, have you found anything unusual about the Shen Mansion in the past two days?"
"No, they were too cautious and destroyed all the key evidence."
"The crucial evidence was destroyed, but what about the irrelevant evidence?"
"We did find some, but these evidences cannot completely convict the Shen family."
"Yu, the emperor has only given us ten days to complete our mission. How are we going to report to him by then?"
"Don't worry, Prime Minister. I will speed up my pace and will definitely find evidence of the crime."
"That's right. Please send me the evidence you found earlier. I will keep it for now and present it to the emperor later."
"I'll give it to the Prime Minister later."
Prime Minister Song nodded, and seeing that the matter was over, Yu Hang bowed and said goodbye. When he reached the door, Prime Minister Song's voice came from behind him.
"Inspector Yu still hasn't obtained the evidence. I think he lacks a deputy. If you trust me, how about letting me arrange one for him?"
"It's all up to the Prime Minister."
Yu Hang did not turn around. He just wanted to get back to the restaurant as soon as possible, and Prime Minister Song did not even look up the whole time.
When Yu Hang returned to the restaurant, he went straight to Lin Xing's room. Just as he was about to knock on the door, he heard a conversation between two people inside the room, so he hid and waited for them to leave.
"Sister Xiao Xing, you don't know how nervous Sister Lian was at home when you went to the banquet. She went to the door at least ten times, and it was useless for me to persuade her."
"Huan'er, Sister Lian is also worried about me. If it were you, she would be so anxious too. Don't despise her, she cares about us."
"I can't even express my happiness today. Sister Xiao Xing, you should take a rest first. I'm going to get busy now."
After Lin Huan left, Lin Xing sat on the bed in a daze. She knew why Sister Lian was so nervous, but she did not tell the truth.
Liu Lian was a miserable person. Her family was originally quite wealthy and she was considered a half-rich lady, but she was seduced by a villain to elope and break up with her family. But that bitch was fickle and cruelly divorced Sister Lian when she was pregnant, completely ignoring the fact that Sister Lian was homeless. Sister Lian fainted on the side of the road and was rescued by Uncle Gui, but when she woke up, the child was gone.
Since then, Sister Lian has been staying in the restaurant. She is also afraid that Lin Xing will be seduced by Shen Ling into the mansion to be a concubine. After all, Shen Ling has a reputation for being a playboy, but who can blame him for having a good appearance?
The sound of knocks on the door interrupted Lin Xing's thoughts. She knew who it was without looking up.
"What are you doing here?"
"Hey, I missed you, so I came to see you."
Along with the sound came a bouquet of flowers, which was brought by Yu Hang to Lin Xing's eyes.
Lin Xing reached out to take the flowers, still unwilling to look up at him, but looked at the flowers in the vase, "Who told you to keep picking the flowers in my yard? You've picked all the flowers bald."
"Alas, it will still bloom even if it's gone, but if you keep ignoring me, I'll wither."
Lin Xing replied in a disdainful tone: "You're almost there, you're not as pretty as the flowers."
"It's enough that you are prettier than flowers. Don't you like it?"
Lin Xing didn't expect him to say that. Her face turned red all of a sudden. "Who would like chrysanthemums? Especially white ones."
Yu Hang didn't respond and just smiled foolishly. Lin Xing looked into his eyes, which were bright and only belonged to her.
She suddenly liked chrysanthemums.
Lin Xing thought of Yu Hang's sudden disappearance today. She wondered what he was doing secretly in the Shen Mansion and decided to interrogate him.
"What did you do today? You were so elusive. Did you complete your mission?"
"No, it will probably take some time to complete. Let's not talk about me. How do you feel about attending the banquet today?"
Lin Xing shook her head. "I can't sense anything. It's just a party. What I saw was just an act."
"So what do you think of Prime Minister Song?"
"He's quite good at acting, especially when he plays the good cop and the bad cop with Master Shen. If I were a naive little girl, I would have been fooled by him."
Yu Hang nodded frequently beside him, praising Lin Xing's wisdom.
"Did he say anything to you?"
Lin Xing fell into recollection. She thought about today's experience from beginning to end, and finally her memory froze on the lakeside.
"He really did say that. He asked me if I wanted to be an official in the court, and told me that if I wanted to, I could just give it to him. Does he, as a prime minister, have such great power?"
Lin Xing looked at Yu Hang in confusion, waiting for his reply.
Yu Hang suddenly slammed the table and said, "Of course not. Of course the emperor has to give the order. Who the hell is he?"
"Don't be so excited. Can you tell me what's going on?" Lin Xing handed the flowers in her hand to Yu Hang to prevent him from suddenly slamming the table again.
Yu Hang took the flowers and touched them.
"Haven't you guessed it yet?"
"I guessed a little bit. You came here with Prime Minister Song. Prime Minister Song must know that you are here too. But you asked me to help you get an identity to sneak into the Shen Mansion. Did you go to collect evidence?"
"Wow, you guessed it right."
Now, when Lin Xing hears his words again, she can continue speaking without any expression on her face.
"So I guess the emperor sent you two here together. As for why she wanted to chat with me, maybe she wanted to win me over? But I'm just a restaurant owner, I don't know what her intentions are."
"I reported the experience of the bank to the emperor truthfully, and he heard about it. And you are not ordinary at all, isn't it normal for him to want to win you over?"
After listening to Yu Hang's supplement, the puzzle in Lin Xing's mind was finally completed. This incident was so shocking that Lin Xing didn't speak for a long time.
The Prime Minister is definitely not a good person.
"What do you think of him now?"
"I don't want to judge, just let me calm down."
Yu Hang put the flowers in a vase and carefully left the room, leaving Lin Xing disheveled in the wind.
So, Prime Minister Song and the Shen family are in the same group, so he will definitely protect Master Shen, but why did Shen Ling remind her to change clothes?
Lin Xing thought of the pink dress she was wearing today. In fact, there was nothing wrong with the dress, it was just sprinkled with some pollen. If she never wears perfume in modern times, they wouldn't have noticed it at all. They might not have thought that Lin Xing was so sensitive to scents.
"Young shopkeeper, something bad has happened, something bad has happened!"
Sister Lian's loud voice came suddenly, and both the content and the sound scared Lin Xing so much that she ran to open the door.
"What's wrong? Sister Lian. Did something happen in the restaurant again?"
"That's not the case. I just heard that there are many refugees coming to Nanru County. They are fleeing from the plague in the south."
"Plague? Why have I never heard of it?" Lin Xing tightened her grip on the door.
"We also didn't hear about the flood in the south a few days ago. The plague is inevitable. However, we haven't heard about the flood since we sent the relief supplies. We thought everything was fine, but something like this happened."
Liu Lian had never seen such a scene before. She was so panicked that she didn't know what to do. She could only tell Lin Xing first, but Lin Xing had never experienced this either.
"Are there any guests in the restaurant?"
"No, they all ran back home after hearing the news."
"That's good. We'll close the restaurant first to ensure everyone's safety. Where is everyone now?"
"Lobby."
"Then let's meet up in the lobby."
Lin Xing and Liu Lian quickly ran to the lobby. Lin Xing originally thought this distance was quite long, but today she finished it quickly.
As soon as the two of them pushed the door open, everyone in the lobby looked over and everyone fell silent. After all, Lin Xing is the shopkeeper, and at times like this the shopkeeper is everyone's backbone.
"Everyone, I have heard about this. For everyone's safety, the restaurant will be closed for the next few days. I will prepare face coverings for everyone later. No one is allowed to go out unless necessary. If you go out, you must inform me in advance and wear face coverings when you go out."
"Everyone go back and rest. Just think of this as a vacation for everyone. Don't be too nervous."
Seeing that the shopkeeper had spoken, everyone dispersed. Soon, only Lin Xing, Liu Lian, Gui Shu and Lin Huan were left in the room.
"It happened suddenly, so don't worry too much, boss. We are at the foot of the emperor, and I believe it won't take long to resolve."
Uncle Gui had the most experience among the four, so he naturally began to comfort everyone. He didn't expect that this sentence would make Lin Xing even more worried.
Such a thing could happen right under the feet of the emperor, and it was obvious how shaky this dynasty was. They didn't know, but Lin Xing knew very well that the prime minister was also in Nanru County now. It was too much of a coincidence.
Lin Xing is a little worried about Yu Hang now. She wonders if he knows the news. It's really one thing after another.
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