Chapter 7: Time reveals a person's true character 3
Song Yiyue's face turned pale, she covered her chest and fell back, her body falling into a slightly cold embrace. A hoarse man's voice suddenly rose in her ear: "The Rebirth River allows people to see a magnificent scene. The person the princess hated most in her life died in such a tragic way. Isn't this a magnificent scene in the princess' eyes?"
Hearing this voice, Song Yiyue gradually came back to her senses. The body had been swollen beyond recognition after being soaked in water. If she hadn't hated him so much and remembered every inch of his face, she might not have been able to recognize him.
Song Yiyue waved her hand, and the maid stepped back. The hands on her arms loosened, and she pursed her lips and turned to face him. Without the light, he was completely blurred, and even his outline could not be seen clearly.
"You killed him?"
"Princess, you have known me for a long time. Have you ever seen me attack anyone?"
Indeed, there had not been one. Song Yiyue exhaled and asked, "Then what are you doing here?"
The man took out something from behind him, and the flame shone, illuminating his features for a moment. The tinderbox lit up, and the oil burned, revealing a Kongming lantern. He let go, and the Kongming lantern swayed and flew away in the wind.
"I have been Wan'er's husband for two years. Now that she is gone, I want to at least see her off."
Song Yiyue was stunned, her eyes turned red instantly, and she covered her mouth and sobbed uncontrollably.
The man seemed to sigh, and with a confused gaze he pinched her overly thin shoulder bones: "I promised the princess, and now I have done everything. The princess was able to escape, to protect herself, and to be free, but Wan'er... I calculated everything but could not predict your fate. From today on, the princess and I have nothing to do with each other. No matter what I do in the future, the princess does not need to care about me anymore."
"gentlemen……"
"Tonight is over, I hope tomorrow will be bright." He murmured and left as silently as he came.
Song Yiyue squatted by the river, hugging her knees with her arms.
It was probably at this time of despair that he showed up at the princess's residence to hire a teacher to teach Wei Wan. All the candidates were well-educated, but only he had a pair of eyes that had seen a lot. He avoided answering the question and said bluntly: "I can help the princess fulfill her long-cherished wish, but I only ask the princess to give me a place to live."
She wishes...
All she wanted was to leave Wei Youya, escape from the open and secret struggles, and live an ordinary life with Wan'er. But as a princess, it was more difficult than ever for her to achieve these things.
Somehow, she believed him. In the past two years, except for Wei Wan's sudden death, he had done everything for her. It was also his idea that she wanted to kill Huo Chi that day and then confessed everything when Cheng Jue came to her door.
He did make her get what she wanted, but in the end she was left alone, walking forward in boredom and loneliness.
"Princess..." The maid stepped forward hesitantly. Song Yiyue wiped her tears with her backhand and cast her eyes into the distance. "Send someone to the Dali Temple... report the case!"
The person on duty in the palace tonight was Deputy Commander Zeng Tai. He was sitting leisurely drinking tea, but he was startled by his subordinates' report and almost rolled off the stool.
"Who, who are you talking about?"
"Master Chengjue is already outside."
Zeng Tai immediately kicked him and said, "Please come in... Wait a minute, I'll go over there myself."
Outside Qing'an Gate, Cheng Jue and Zhou Zhenzhen waited for only a moment before someone hurried over. Zeng Tai saw the joy in Cheng Jue's eyes and asked, "Master Cheng, why are you here so late?"
"I have something important to ask for help from some of my Imperial Guard brothers. I wonder if General Zeng can help me?"
"It's convenient, it's convenient. How can it be inconvenient? Master Cheng, tell me, who do you want to find? I'll ask someone to come to you right away."
Cheng Jue came closer to him, lowered his voice, and read out seven names in a row. Zeng Tai thought for a moment and said, "Huh?" "How can it be such a coincidence?"
Whenever Zhou Zhenzhen heard the words "what a coincidence", she had a bad feeling, and sure enough, reality did not disappoint her.
"Master Cheng has been busy investigating cases these days, so he probably didn't hear about it. Yancheng was in turmoil a few days ago, and Duke Qing asked me to borrow some people to go there to quell the riots. Among them were the ones that Master Cheng was looking for. Master Cheng also knows that Duke Qing is a veteran minister of two dynasties, a high-ranking official, and the elder brother of the late queen. Although he has gone to Yancheng and doesn't care about court affairs, his influence is still there. Since he has spoken, I can't help but do it. Now that the Imperial Guards are under the control of Prince Min, I sent someone to the palace to inform the prince, and only after the prince's approval did I let them go to Yancheng. They have been gone for about three days, and will be back in another two or three days. If Master Cheng wants to find them, I will ask them to go to the Dali Temple as soon as they come back."
Cheng Jue's expression became increasingly cold, and Zhou Zhenzhen understood that those seven people would never come back .
Even if they rushed over now, it would be too late to stop those seven people.
The clues were cut off again, and the case became a complete mystery.
Although it was late at night, Cheng did not want to go home. After leaving the palace, Zhou Zhenzhen saw his expression and knew what was going on. Before he was about to send her back to the Full Moon Teahouse, she said, "If you don't go back, I won't go back either."
Cheng Jue's expression softened when he heard that. He glanced at her and said in a brisk voice, "Before, you said in the Dali Temple that you had been interested in me for a long time, but I didn't believe it. I thought it was just an excuse for you to fool me. Now it seems that what you said is true. You really want to stay by my side all the time and never leave my side. Am I right?"
Zhou Zhenzhen didn't expect that he remembered this matter again, but since the words had been spoken, she could only give up.
"Your Excellency is wise, so, can you take me back to the Dali Temple with you? If you want to find something at the moment, more people can help."
She couldn't see clearly in the dark night, so Cheng Jue raised his lips wantonly, but his voice was flat: "You are right. Since you insist so much, I can't reject your good intentions anymore, or people will say that I, Cheng Jue, treat my subordinates harshly."
Zhou Zhenzhen: ...Why does she feel like something is wrong?
The two returned to the Dali Temple and ran into the Prime Minister who was rushing out as soon as they entered the door. Upon seeing the two, the Prime Minister immediately stopped and said, "Master Cheng, something happened again."
Cheng Jue walked in. There were two maids standing in the side pavilion. He had seen one of them several times. She was the personal maid of Princess Changping Song Yiyue. She leaned over to Cheng Jue and slowly told him the whole story.
Cheng Jue immediately ordered someone to fetch the coroner from the Dali Temple from his home, and selected a few more people to go to Shenghe.
"grown ups……"
"You don't have to go, just wait for me here." Cheng Jue interrupted Zhou Zhenzhen who was eager to try. After walking a few steps, he seemed to remember something and went to the office to get a fox fur cloak. It was tailored according to his body shape and could wrap her up completely.
"If you feel sleepy, take a nap and don't catch a cold."
Zhou Zhenzhen felt warm in her heart and nodded obediently.
The Detective Department was usually noisy, and Zhou Zhenzhen sometimes felt annoyed. But tonight she was alone, and she was not used to it.
Too many things have happened recently, and she has no sleep at all at this moment. She put her hands in her cloak, paced around, and imitated the way a man made a decision, choosing a quiet place to think about the case.
Now all of this must be related to the Qingzhou case in the 26th year of Yuanqing, but she carefully read the files and found that all the people who were investigated at that time had been executed. Who on earth had the position and ability to go to great lengths to set up this big situation, and what was his purpose?
After thinking about it, she still had no solution. She sighed and muttered, "I'm still not half as smart as Mr. Cheng... But who in the world can compare to him?"
Zhou Zhenzhen lit a few more lights to illuminate the room, and chose a seat by the window to sit down, so that when Mr. Cheng came back, he would be able to see her inside at a glance.
On this table were randomly placed the four treasures of the study, and two small ornaments from Huo Chi. Lin Yuxiao always lazily fiddled with the mechanism of the little rabbit, watched it jump around, and laughed and called Meng Fan to imitate the rabbit's call to cooperate, which always made Meng Fan blush with anger.
Zhou Zhenzhen chuckled, her fingers unconsciously stroking the table, and suddenly felt a scratch. She moved a lamp, bent down and looked up from the bottom. There were many "正" characters engraved on it.
"Lord Lin's days in the Dali Temple are so long that he almost counts them."
She sighed and wanted to get up, but then she felt something was not right, as there was more than one row of the word "正" carved on it.
"Thirty-two, seven...what does that mean? Did you win any money?"
It was almost dawn when Cheng Jue returned to the Dali Temple.
Zhou Zhenzhen hurriedly brought a bowl of hot tea and went over to ask about the case.
"Ever since Wei Youya stopped being a consort, he has been constrained in everything he does. Others may not know this, but I know Prince Min best. He is soft-hearted and affectionate, but he doesn't talk much. He uses Wei Youya because he is the husband of his eldest sister and he can't bear to see his brother-in-law doing nothing all day. But in this situation, how can he be willing to treat him sincerely? Wei Youya knew that Princess Changping would go to the Rebirth River today, so he went there first, wanting to make peace with the princess. He also remembered the legend of the Rebirth River and that tonight was Wan'er's birthday, so he dripped blood into the river..."
Wei Youya saw Wei Wan’s smiling face from the water. She was the only pearl he had ever cherished in his life, but he was unable to see her for the last time.
He jumped into the water eagerly, wanting to keep her, wanting to ask God for some more time to make up for his mistake. He fell into that fantasy dream and never came out again.
Cheng Jue sighed softly, "Princess Changping hated Wei Youya so much that she refused to let Wei Wan be buried in the Wei family cemetery. Even if he died because of Wei Wan, it is destined that they will not be reunited in the underworld."
Zhou Zhenzhen thought of Song Yiyue's always pale face and her always sad and misty eyes. She waited for hope in despair, but the terrible thing was that she no longer had the strength to embrace hope.
No matter how many people tossed and turned sleeplessly that night, the sky was still as bright as before, driving away the darkness of the night.
The detectives arrived at the yamen on time, and even someone like Lin Yuxiao, who was always late, yawned and stepped on time. Huo Chi opened the door, and when he saw the situation in the room, his expression cracked a little, then he stepped back and closed the door, coughed lightly, and said, "It's not convenient for us to go in now."
"What's inconvenient about this? How can someone be so affectionate in there? What kind of place is this? This is the Dali Temple..." Meng Fan kicked the door open with a righteous tone. Several tables in the room were put together to form a simple bed, on which two people were lying, covered with a fox fur cloak.
Hearing the noise, Cheng Jue woke up first. The person nestled in his arms frowned as if she was about to wake up. He patted her back to comfort her. She sniffed and burrowed deeper into his arms. He wrapped the fox fur around her and turned his head to glare at Meng Fan.
That look was filled with murderous intent, and Meng Fan shuddered and immediately closed the door.
The Detective Department was occupied by someone else, so the three of them could only move to the side hall pitifully, with a bowl of hot water each, and no place to put tea leaves.
Meng Fan was a little worried: "Under the leadership of Mr. Cheng, our Dali Temple has always been clear about the separation of public and private affairs. I dare not even think about a scene like today. But I feel sorry for Zhenzhen. How could such a good girl fall into the hands of Mr. Cheng? In fact, I also..."
Lin Yuxiao had his eyes closed to rest, but when he heard this, he opened his eyes and looked over at him quietly: "What about you?"
"That's it... that's it... Hey, why should I tell you!" Meng Fan could still remember the slightest emotion, but later he realized that Cheng Jue's intention was too obvious and he didn't care about it anymore. If he wanted to snatch someone from Master Cheng, he would want to die.
Meng Fan sometimes has simple thoughts. When Lin Yuxiao saw him like that, he knew what he was thinking. A smile appeared between his eyebrows again: "Actually, this is a good thing. Firstly, Master Cheng will be able to restrain his temper in the future. After all, Zhou Zhenzhen and I are in the same boat. Secondly, when they get married in the future, we can save some money on the gift."
Meng Fan and Huo Chi both gave a thumbs up.
Huo Chi was silent for a long time before he looked into the distance: "In the future, will Master Cheng bring his son to the yamen..."
Meng Fan: …
Lin Yuxiao: …
I can’t even imagine it, this is such a magical scene.
The three of them were silent when Cheng Jue walked in from the door with no expression on his face, as if he had just arrived and heard nothing.
Meng Fan hid his fear and stood up. Cheng Jue stood with his hands behind his back and said in a deep voice, "Wei Youya drowned in the Wangsheng River last night. I have checked and it is true that he fell into the water because of his love for his daughter. I have also found key clues in the Ruan Wenqing case. We are just waiting for an opportunity to reveal the truth."
Before Meng Fan could be shocked by Wei Youya's death, Cheng Jue's words made him feel anxious: "What time?"
Cheng Jue curled his lips slightly and uttered two words: "Yancheng."
Lin Yuxiao's eyelids moved, and he placed a booklet next to Cheng Jue: "Master Cheng asked me to look up the information of all the people in the Ruan family. This took me a lot of effort, and my eyes are so tired that they are not clear. When the case is over, Master, please let me go back to the Hanlin Academy. If I continue to stay in the Dali Temple, I am afraid I will age prematurely."
"Let's talk about it after the case is settled." Cheng Jue rolled up the book and walked out. He stopped at the door and said, "By the way, when I get married in the future, you have to give two portions of the gift money."
Meng Fan: …
Huo Chi: ...
Lin Yuxiao: …
