Jiang Mingyuan's face remained expressionless, but her sudden rapid breathing revealed the turmoil within her.
Just moments ago, he was talking to Xuanji Wei in that abandoned mine, but the next moment he lost consciousness and woke up here.
I don't know what kind of drug I was given, but I have absolutely no strength left in my body.
Zhou Yanqing placed the ginger soup on the table in front of her, about a hand's width away from the dagger he had taken from her.
Jiang Mingyuan's gaze followed the weapon, which was within her reach, but ironically, she was currently powerless to pick it up.
"Why don't you clean yourself up? Look at you, you don't look like a girl at all."
"Even though we've known each other for years, I didn't recognize you at first glance."
As he spoke, he took a fine linen towel, wet it, and personally wiped her face.
Jiang Mingyuan pursed her lips tightly, but she couldn't muster any strength to resist and could only let them do as they pleased.
I gently wiped away the dried mud and the deliberately applied black ash, scrubbing back and forth four times until it was roughly clean.
His eyebrows were like swords, with the peaks bearing a light brown hue from years of sun exposure.
Her eye sockets were slightly deeper than those of an ordinary woman, her pupils were the color of ebony that had been soaked in a cold spring, and her eyelashes were fine but short.
Zhou Yan cleaned his hands. "This looks much more comfortable."
“You’re in cahoots with them.” Jiang Mingyuan finally spoke.
She should have been sternly questioning him, but instead, her voice was light and airy, as if she were flirting with the man opposite her.
Zhou Yanqing raised an eyebrow.
Once upon a time, during the period when her father was studying for the imperial examinations at his private school, Jiang Mingyuan would always speak to him so gently.
Later, Master Jiang was appointed magistrate of Chiyan County. He rushed to Fengjing to take the imperial examination and barely passed, ranking second.
Unexpectedly, a sudden illness caused the teacher to pass away, and he took over the position of county magistrate.
Fate is truly a wonderful thing.
"Yuan'er, don't worry. I'm just doing this for the sake of the teacher, not wanting you to lose your life in vain."
Jiang Mingyuan pursed her lips tightly and stared intently at the man opposite her.
But she didn't know that her expression now had no intimidating quality; it was more like a loving gaze.
"Can you give me the truth? How exactly did my father die?"
Zhou Yanqing tapped his knuckles lightly on the table. Only a dim oil lamp illuminated his face, making it indistinct.
"Sigh..." A long sigh escaped her lips.
Back in the academy, Jiang Mingyuan's essays were definitely superior to his.
In particular, his policy essays, with their insightful interpretations and extensive references, consistently earned him top marks.
His Majesty has established a civil service examination system for women, and even he managed to achieve a second-class ranking. If Jiang Mingyuan were to choose the path of the civil service examination, she should be able to achieve a first-class ranking.
However, she became a constable, revealing that she had truly harbored resentment about this matter all along.
"So, what did you find out?"
Jiang Mingyuan could feel her heart pounding.
She probably slipped up while investigating the corpse in the pit, and discovered that someone was secretly following her. So she used a clever trick, disguised herself as a laborer digging ditches, and waited for an opportunity.
Although the turn of events was unexpected, it may be the best opportunity to uncover the truth.
His eyes flickered uncertainly, but in the end he still uttered four words: "Illegal iron ore mining."
Zhou Yanqing's face turned ashen instantly, and he narrowed his eyes, staring at the woman in front of him.
He had still held onto a sliver of hope, thinking it was just an accidental discovery of a corpse, but that hope was shattered at that moment.
No, actually I had suspected it from the very beginning and had already noticed the clues, but I just turned a blind eye to them and buried them deep inside.
My junior sister is indeed the master's most proud disciple; she really found the key to the matter.
The room felt as if a thick, dark cloud was pressing down on it, the somber atmosphere so intense it seemed impossible to dissipate.
After pondering for a while, Zhou Yanqing reached out and picked up the bowl of ginger soup.
It was still warm, just the right time to drink it, so I tilted my head back and drank it all in one gulp.
"You know what..." He put down the porcelain bowl, his gaze casually drifting to a dark corner of the room.
"Master Jiang is knowledgeable, writes well, has beautiful handwriting, and is good at teaching students. He is most suitable to be the headmaster."
Even if he were to take up an official post, he should be in a place like the Hanlin Academy, but instead he became a county magistrate…
Zhou Yanqing shook his head and chuckled, swallowing the rest of his sentence: "But he happens to be the magistrate of Chiyan County."
The Master might be able to handle the administrative affairs of an ordinary county.
If one plays to one's strengths and avoids one's weaknesses, and focuses on early education and the imperial examinations, one can gain a good reputation among scholars and may even have the opportunity to become an official in the court.
But he happened to come to Chiyan County, or rather, he was chosen to come to Chiyan County.
Whether naive or righteous, he was fortunate to have stayed true to his original aspirations; the unfortunate thing was simply that he died.
"Yuan'er, don't hide anything from me, tell me what you found out."
"Answer my question first: how exactly did your father die?"
"Didn't you already guess?" Zhou Yanqing raised his eyes, his gaze sharp as he looked across at the other side. "No need to run away anymore, it's exactly what you thought."
Boom! A thunderclap seemed to strike my mind.
Jiang Mingyuan's eyes were glazed over, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
After her father became the county magistrate, she went on a study tour, intending to gain experience before taking the imperial examinations. However, upon returning home, she received news that her father had died suddenly from an illness.
Jiang Mingyuan remained deeply resentful that she hadn't even seen him one last time.
But her father had always been in good health; otherwise, she would not have been able to travel so far.
Whether it was intuition or obsession, she abandoned her literary pursuits for martial arts, settling down in Chiyan County to uncover the truth bit by bit.
Just when they had finally found some clues, a sudden flood drowned out their hopes, but now they have unexpectedly received the results.
"Who is it? Who on earth is it?!"
The sudden surge of emotion seemed to temporarily break free from the shackles of the drug; Jiang Mingyuan's expression turned fierce, and she questioned him with heart-wrenching intensity.
Zhou Yanqing's eyes, however, were frighteningly cold, like a hidden pool in the mountains whose depths were unknown.
"What good will it do to know?"
Your father lost his life trying to fight back then, I couldn't fight back, and you certainly can't.
He stood up, slowly walked behind Jiang Mingyuan, leaned down, and whispered in her ear.
"Yuan'er, tell me what you found out. Only if you tell me can I find a way to save your life."
Jiang Mingyuan gritted her teeth and asked fiercely, word by word, "So, you're in cahoots with them too!"
Zhou Yanqing sighed heavily.
The father and daughter are really alike, equally stubborn and equally... naive.
The next moment, he suddenly pulled out the dagger from the table and stabbed it fiercely into Jiang Mingyuan's chest!
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