Settled
After Mu Qing left, the monkey returned to the house and saw a mess of several men lying drunk on the floor, which made him press his forehead.
To get rid of the smell of alcohol, he opened the window.
A gentle breeze drifted into the room, seemingly silencing the snoring inside.
He was startled and walked towards the screen.
The chieftain slept on the couch behind the screen last night, and there was not a sound at all.
"I entrusted you with the care of the chieftain, but you let the young lady take him back," the strategist said, straightening up from where he had been lying on the table.
The monkey looked at him, feeling as if it had fallen into an ice cave, its face turning ashen.
Two men at his feet stopped snoring and jumped up.
The rest of the people are still fast asleep.
...
What is he talking in his sleep about?
In the dead of night, in the prefectural government office, the prefectural assistant on night duty looked at the person on the stretcher and asked the young doctor beside him.
The thief captured during the day was seriously injured and needed care. Doctor Hua had gone to rest, leaving his apprentice to guard the place.
The apprentice was a young physician. Hearing the thief on the stretcher muttering incoherently, he squatted down, checked the temperature of the man's forehead, looked at his complexion, and then returned to his chair.
"His speech was slurred and hard to understand, but he didn't have a fever and was in relatively good condition. If he continues like this until dawn, he will have survived the ordeal."
"That's good!"
The prefectural magistrate spoke with relief, but when he saw the young physician turn to look at him, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. "When he was impersonating the prefectural magistrate, he was actually quite good. He was both capable and slick, with no airs, and more approachable and polite than other officials. I never expected that he was a fake. Everyone hopes that he will wake up so that we can find out what kind of person he really is."
The young doctor was about to speak again when he suddenly heard a muffled thud from the roof.
The hall was brightly lit, and the fallen tiles and dust were clearly visible.
The prefectural magistrate immediately stood up, intending to call the constables guarding the gate, but heard a commotion outside.
He opened the door and saw a group of constables running out of the courtyard in the dark night. Captain Qian had changed out of his cloth clothes and put on leather armor, and was assigning soldiers to surround the place.
"My lord, what's going on?" the prefectural official asked.
"A daring thief broke into the government office at night and just now got onto your roof. Luckily, someone spotted him." Qian Lei, accompanied by a soldier, strode in. "How is the thief?"
The young physician in the hall bowed in response and repeated his previous opinion.
The person on the stretcher was still muttering in their sleep.
Qian Lei leaned down, listened intently, shook his head, and stood up: "Is he really alright?"
The young physician replied, "He looks lean, but his muscles and bones are unusually strong. His physique is better than that of an average person. Some of the arrows were deeply embedded, but they did not hit vital organs. My master is conservative and says that the chances of him dying are fifty-fifty, but in my opinion, it's at least sixty-fourths."
"What do you mean?" Qian Lei invited him to sit down and talk in detail.
The prefectural magistrate was also quite interested. There were soldiers guarding the door. He closed the door and saw the soldiers who had come in with him standing guard by the stretcher. He felt relieved and moved closer to the physician to listen.
As they were talking, the person on the stretcher suddenly shouted.
The young doctor went over and saw that the person on the stretcher was screaming in pain, but the body temperature was still normal.
He looked at the soldier standing guard beside him. "What just happened?"
The soldier was quite annoyed: "You're the doctor! How would I know? I didn't touch him at all, don't try to pin this on me!"
Qian Lei scolded, "Shut up! This is probably not a good sign. Hurry up and go invite the esteemed officials."
The soldier must have run out the door.
The young physician opened his medical kit and attempted to treat the patient with acupuncture.
As the needles were inserted, the person on the stretcher grew weaker and weaker. In the end, when he raised his head, it was a sign of his dying breath, and he was panting heavily.
The young physician sighed, leaned down to listen closely, and relayed the dying man's words: "He said, 'Young lady, I didn't...'"
The prefectural official exclaimed in surprise, "Young Miss? Are you sure it's not Xiao Taohong?"
The young doctor hesitated for a moment, then saw the person on the stretcher quietly lower their head and remain silent.
On the roof, someone lifted the broken tiles and saw this scene.
During dinner, Mu Qing heard from the maids that the thief impersonating the magistrate had been discovered in the street and shot with several arrows. Mu Qing was surprised and worried.
The monkey impersonated a prefect, and she impersonated Miss Lu; he was still considered her master. But impersonating an official was a serious crime, and once caught, one would not be easily forgiven.
He went to bed early and woke up in the middle of the night. He changed into night clothes and went to the prefectural government office.
Not knowing where the wanted criminal was being held, she looked around and when she came to the back hall, she saw someone lying on the roof. If she wasn't mistaken, judging from his figure and demeanor, he should be a soldier in disguise. He bumped into her in the darkness, jumped off the roof, and attracted a group of soldiers.
The constables and soldiers who had been chasing her out of the courtyard had already lost track of her.
She concealed her tracks and returned to this place.
Through the narrow opening in the roof, Mu Qing watched with bated breath as the doctor attempted to save the man, but to no avail. The thin man on the stretcher was confirmed dead, and Mu Qing's eyes welled up with tears.
He didn't... what?
A gentle night breeze blows, the moon hides behind the clouds, and no one comes to answer.
On the other side of the government office, a group of constables and soldiers continued their search. The wind rustled the leaves and the shadows of the trees in the garden, making it easy for people to hide. They lit lanterns and searched the surroundings.
Zhong Linlan was thus awakened.
He stayed in the backyard of the government office that night and learned that a nimble thief had broken into the government office at night. Without saying much, he rushed to the back hall of the government office.
Upon seeing soldiers guarding the outside of the hall, Zhong Linlan paused. He clearly remembered that a few hours earlier, when he left this place, Prefect Liu had only arranged for yamen runners to guard it, after all, this was the prefect's yamen.
From inside the hall came the loud question from Captain Qian: "What was the cause of his death?"
The medic inside said in a trembling voice, "If the injury had worsened, he should have developed a fever, but he didn't..."
"Enough with the nonsense, just get to the point." Qian Lei urged. Hearing someone coming from outside the door, he turned around, quickly bowed, and said, "Imperial Censor Zhong arrived quickly, but he was still a step too late. This thief has just died."
Zhong Linlan stepped forward and saw that the fake Wang Qi on the stretcher was indeed dead.
The prefectural magistrate on night duty recounted what had happened and pointed to the crack in the roof.
The roof was very high, and the opening was inconspicuous.
Zhong Linlan nodded slightly and asked, "Why did Commander Qian bring troops here tonight?"
Qian Lei said, "The moon is bright tonight. Some of my men spotted a suspicious figure on the roof of this back hall, so I led them here."
Zhong Linlan pressed further, "Who discovered it?"
Qian Lei called in a soldier, who bowed and said, "When I got up in the middle of the night, I saw someone on the roof. She was agile and quick, and judging from her figure, she should be a female thief."
“Then it matches up.” The prefect pointed to the person on the stretcher. “Just now, this fake Wang Qi was calling out for the runaway prostitute Xiao Tao Hong before he died. Maybe it was her.”
Qian Lei gasped, "A runaway prostitute, capable of scaling walls and leaping across rooftops?"
The prefectural magistrate said, "Even the magistrate has an imposter, so Xiao Taohong could also be an imposter, a female thief. Otherwise, how could she have escaped during the manhunt?"
Zhong Linlan remained silent, thinking about what she had heard during the day: the woman with red rashes on her face, the pearl that was rarely seen on the market, and the agility of her movements. How could everything point to her?
He ordered someone to bring a ladder, and he took his servants to the roof to inspect it, but apart from the damage, they found no other traces.
The suspect died in the prefectural government office. To avoid unnecessary rumors in the city, Prefect Liu held court early in the morning to publicly try the case of the murder of Imperial Censor Qin.
The coroner examined the suspect's body in court. Prefect Liu invited several people to testify in turn, recounting the details of the case. He determined that the suspect was a bandit who had committed two major crimes: impersonating an official and murdering a court official. He died from his injuries after resisting arrest. The prostitute Xiao Taohong, who had close ties with him, was suspected to be a thief in disguise and had now fled. Anyone with information about her could come to the government office to claim a reward.
Among the onlookers, a round-faced young man arrived early and left late. Hearing the last part, he was about to leave in a hurry when someone stopped him.
"Aren't you a waiter at Yiyeju?"
The round-faced young man was Zhou Xiaoyi. He turned around and saw that the person who had struck up a conversation with him was a loafer who often wandered the streets.
He scoffed, "Yes, our boss runs a teahouse business, so of course he needs to be well-informed. That's why he sent me to find out."
The idler leaned closer to him, looked around, and whispered, "I know that the thief's lover, Xiao Taohong, secretly visited your Yiye Residence before she disappeared."
Zhou Xiaoyi chuckled, "Our Yiyeju is a place for making friends, and there are quite a few people coming and going. Uncle, you seem to know Xiaotaohong quite well."
Seeing his nonchalant smile, the idler was taken aback. "I've only happened to see him a few times," he said, and then slunk away.
Zhou Xiaoyi spat at him and cursed him for being unlucky.
After the fake magistrate was exposed, Xiao Taohong did go to Yiyeju to see the owner. More than one person knew this, and he had to go back and remind the owner.
Yiyeju tea house was not crowded with customers; business was not as good as it had been a few days ago.
After the city gates were opened wide, the merchants and travelers who had been staying in the city left overnight, and the common people who had free time rushed out of the city to enjoy the spring scenery.
It was springtime, and the faint sound of a zither emanating from the backyard of Yiyeju exuded a vibrant vitality.
Zhou Xiaoyi listened by the courtyard wall and recognized it as a new piece composed by the musician. It was melodious and cheerful, like the singing of orioles and the dancing of swallows, and it made him happy just by listening to it.
He walked briskly to the front of the pavilion of Yiye Residence, where he saw the owner looking out the window, his robes fluttering in the wind. Although he was dressed as a man with his hair tied up, from behind he was neither male nor female.
Zhou Xiaoyi, facing the retreating figure, recounted the details of the court hearing at the government office.
After saying that, and receiving no response for a while, he added, "Master, I've finished speaking."
Ye Yu turned around and glanced at him, "Xiao Yi, am I very cold?"
Zhou Xiaoyi asked cautiously, "Why does the master ask such a question?"
Ye Yu beckoned, "Come and take a look."
Zhou Xiaoyi walked to the window and looked in the direction of the long, slender hand. He saw several people in official uniforms walking along the main street of the city, beating gongs. In the middle of them was a man holding a long pole with a head hanging on it, swaying back and forth.
At the morning court session, the prefect, in accordance with the law, sentenced the offender to be beheaded and his head displayed to the public.
Ye Yu said softly, "If he were someone you've known for many years, and you knew he might end up like this, would you have helped him?"
Zhou Xiaoyi thought of Xiao Taohong, who had come to see the master before, and suddenly understood. He said, "No, everyone has their own destiny. It's not easy to protect oneself, let alone bear so much."
Ye Yu let out a sigh of frustration; Zhou Xiaoyi's words always pleased her.
When Imperial Censor Zhong investigated the murder case and almost uncovered old secrets, it was only natural for her to sever ties with the monkey to protect herself.
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