"The daughter of Huayue Tower was riding in this carriage just now, right?"
"ah?"
The groom opened his mouth in surprise and stopped in a hurry.
"On the order of the prefect, I sent the girl's things. Where are the girl and the prefect?"
"Oh, she's in the official residence at the back, the prefect hasn't come yet."
"Yeah?"
The groom told him to go to the rear. Li Yuezhen passed by the building, crossed the corridor, and easily jumped over the railing of the corridor.
When entering the official residence, a domestic soldier ran over from the corridor.
"You, who are you?"
Li Yuezhen silently threw a concealed weapon at the soldier's chest. When the soldier fell to the ground, Li Yuezhen discovered that it was the soldier who had just drawn his sword to threaten the people.
Li Yuezhen had no time to pay attention to him. He opened the door of the next room, made sure that no one was inside, and kicked the unconscious soldier into the room.
Another soldier heard the noise and rushed over. Li Yuezhen knocked him unconscious twice and locked him in the room together.
Li Yuezhen walked along the corridor towards the direction where the two soldiers were running, and found a soldier standing at the door of a room.
When he saw Li Yuezhen, his eyes widened immediately, but before he could speak, he fell to the ground holding his stomach.
"..."
If there is a woman in the room, you should knock on the door before entering.
But Li Yuezhen knocked on the door twice, and the person who ran out to answer the door turned out to be the prefect's follower.
"Who are you?"
The attendant suddenly dropped his head and collapsed on the ground. Li Yuezhen immediately saw Cuihua appear behind him.
"...Ah! Guest, guest?"
"Hello."
"Why, why?"
"Sorry, I have something to take care of first."
Cuihua was shocked, and Li Yuezhen picked up the soldiers and servants in front of the door and threw them into the garden.
"Was...did you do it?"
"right."
"...Yes, yes."
I don't know if it was because Li Yuezhen's answer was too concise, Cuihua also shut up.
Li Yuezhen walked into the room and looked around, and found that there was a small table, a bench, and a bed in the room.
It should be the prefect's room.
"Uncle Shun and Sister Mu have already found the doctor, and Jueyang has gone to the Yushijian. I promised him that I will wait for him to come. Cuihua, please wait here a little longer."
"Censor? Are you looking for the censor? It's useless. The censor doesn't dare to disobey the eunuch."
"If the censor sees the prefect hurting someone, and the captives don't dare to resist, it doesn't matter that the Yuan Kingdom doesn't want them."
Li Yuezhen said, picking up the account book on the table.
It was the temporary tax account book that had been collected just now. When I opened it, I found that half of the names had been stamped. It was obvious that only half of the tax had been collected, but it was enough to serve as evidence.
"But if you do this, you will also..."
"I'm not a local, don't worry about me."
"Just because you are not a local, it will be a disaster if you are caught!"
Cuihua looked around at a loss and took Li Yuezhen's hand.
"Run away! I know you are very powerful, but if anyone knows that you came here, the prefect will arrest you. Hurry up and take advantage of now..."
"Jueyang will come to save you."
Cuihua looked up at Li Yuezhen, her eyes were red, and she didn't know how many tears she had endured.
"I have other tasks, so don't worry about me..."
"Task……?"
Li Yuezhen gently pushed Cuihua's hand away and put the account book into the wooden box.
Wang Hetong had illegally collected taxes twice before. If he left the account books, he couldn't put them in the prefect's palace. He should keep them with him so that they could be destroyed at any time...
Li Yuezhen sometimes looked under the bed, sometimes opened the sheets, Cuihua blinked.
"You, what are you doing?"
"I'm looking for something."
"...Who are you?"
The person who dared to open the bed board of the prefect's house was definitely not a businessman selling hairpins. Now that Cuihua found out, there was nothing he could do.
When Li Yuezhen felt a slight bulge on the bed board, footsteps were heard in the corridor outside. Someone pushed open the door, and a thin man walked in with a livid face.
"Yuan, Yuan Ming, here is someone..."
"..."
Li Yuezhen glanced at the thin man, then turned to look at Cuihua.
"Is he the governor?"
"Yes, yes!"
"Yeah?"
Li Yuezhen ignored the visitor and continued to open the bed board.
Wang Hetong screamed.
"No... you, who are you? Where is Yuan Ming? Cuihua... wait a minute! Stop!"
He must be frightened.
Although the young woman he robbed was in the room, there was no trace of his attendant, and there was also a strange man who rummaged through the cabinets in the room and found evidence of his crime.
Li Yuezhen picked up two account books from under the bed board and looked at Wang Hetong with eyes that could not read his expression.
"...temporary tax on river projects in Shenzhou and Wuzhou."
"You...could you be...?"
"What is levied today is a temporary tax for the Queen to build a palace... You actually dare to slander the Queen, who has always been thrifty. If the Emperor finds out, he will definitely chop off your head."
Wang Hetong screamed and rushed over, but Li Yuezhen easily tripped his feet and stepped on his back when he fell to the ground.
At this moment, Guo Abei arrived with more than a dozen censors.
After arresting Wang Hetong, Guo Abei looked back at Li Yuezhen.
"I've kept you waiting for a long time, the evidence..."
"I got them all. Thank you for your help. Take Wang Hetong to the Yushi Prison first, and keep him in a temporary cell until you receive the notice from the Ministry of Punishment. I will prepare official documents."
"yes."
Guo Abei breathed a sigh of relief, took out the hairpin from his arms and gave it back to Li Yuezhen,
"I understand that the plum blossoms and autumn chrysanthemum hairpins that bloom in early spring cannot be sold."
"Where is Jueyang...?"
"I asked him to treat his wounds first, but he insisted on coming with me. We came in the same carriage...ah, he arrived."
Cuihua, who stood among the censors coming and going with a confused look on her face, quickly looked back.
"Cuihua..."
Jueyang, holding a cane, leaned against the door, breathing heavily.
"Jueyang..."
Jueyang was about to collapse, Cuihua hurriedly ran over to hold his shoulders.
Jueyang may have run all the way with a tired look on his face, but he hugged Cuihua who was crying and nodded to Li Yuezhen.
"You arrived in time..."
"Thank you..."
"No, I just want to thank you for doing me a big favor... You can walk so many roads, you are definitely qualified to be the owner of the hotel."
"Now...I also think I can do it..."
Jueyang wrinkled his face, which was red and swollen from being beaten, and smiled.
There was a noise outside the house, and another group of censors arrived.
The middle-aged censor walking at the front looked left and right, then glared at Guo Abei.
"What's going on? How could you use so many people without permission, and also tie up the prefect... let the prefect go immediately!"
Li Yuezhen looked at Guo Abei and asked who the visitor was.
"This is the censor Zhongcheng of this censorship, and he is also my boss..."
"Hey! Guo Abei! How can you be so rude to the prefect?"
"How could I just arrest the prefect?"
Guo Abei replied impatiently, and the censor Zhongcheng became more and more excited.
"No matter what reason you have, let go of the prefect immediately! It's simply lawless..."
"He illegally taxed some residents three times in the name of temporary taxes."
Li Yuezhen interrupted him, and said calmly but word for word: "The Censor of the Capital City, Li Yuezhen ordered him to arrest the prefect Wang Hetong."
"...Capital City?"
Censor Zhongcheng shouted, and Cuihua turned back to look at Li Yuezhen.
"Censor...Li...Li Yuezhen...?"
"Before the Ministry of Punishment takes over, the censor Guo Abei is responsible for guarding Wang Hetong, and the censor Zhongcheng is not allowed to interfere."
Censor Zhongcheng was speechless. Li Yuezhen walked past him and stood in front of Cuihua and Jueyang.
Cuihua looked up at Li Yuezhen blankly with eyes swollen from crying.
"Thank you for taking care of me. Please express my gratitude to Uncle Shun and Sister Mu on my behalf."
"good……"
"I wish you happiness."
After Li Yuezhen finished speaking, he walked out.
The following aftermath will be handled by the censor here. As long as he goes to the prefect's mansion to write the official documents, the supervisory censor's work here is over. Next, he must quickly bring the evidence account books back to the capital.
"Cuihua..."
When Cuihua and Jueyang returned home in the censor's carriage, Mu Wan cried with red eyes and felt happy that they had returned safely. Shun Bo, who was already fine after receiving treatment, also showed a relieved expression.
However, Cuihua looked back and forth at her parents with a puzzled expression.
"...Dad, mother, the brother who fell into the swamp...isn't his name Yue Zhen?"
…
The blue thing flew away in an arc.
I tried my best to reach out but couldn't catch it.
Moreover, someone grabbed his hand and walked back.
It's my own thing, something I like very much.
I want to pick it up, I want to pick it up, but why does that hand keep grabbing me?
Familiar scenes gradually become distant.
Stretch out your hands hard.
Can't catch it, getting further and further away...don't...
He seemed to trip over something, his body shook hard, and Li Yuezhen opened his eyes.
He looked up blankly and saw that the sun had climbed higher than before.
It turned out that he was sitting in the carriage and fell asleep without knowing it.
After arresting Wang Hetong, he immediately left Minghai County and stayed near the checkpoint at the state border that night. He immediately sent someone on horseback to deliver the report to the Yushi Prison. He planned to continue pretending to be a businessman and return to the capital.
During the break, I went to a restaurant and happened to sit at the same table with a man who went to the capital to sell dried meat.
The man talked about his wife asking him to buy hairpins or hair accessories to go home. Li Yuezhen sold the hairpins to him at a lower price than in the market in the capital. The man invited Li Yuezhen to ride on a loaded carriage to the capital to express his feelings.
Thanks.
Therefore, Li Yuezhen arrived in the capital one day earlier than the return date reported to the censor.
...Maybe it's to punish me for evading...
He held the wooden box in which the account books were hidden and sat among the boxes containing dried meat, curling his lips slightly and showing a self-deprecating smile.
Jueyang could never make up his mind to stay with Cuihua for the rest of his life, but he stood up resolutely despite being injured all over his body, and when others told him it was too late and advised him to give up, he pursued Cuihua for Cuihua.
The figure of the carriage clearly appeared in front of Li Yuezhen.
It was indeed too late by then.
If he walked to the prefect's mansion alone, he would only be beaten out again, but because he was lucky enough to meet Li Yuezhen who was making an unannounced visit, he was able to rescue Cuihua in time.
...But no matter what, Jueyang rescued Cuihua in time...
Although Jueyang wanted to rescue him himself, he decided to follow Li Yuezhen's suggestion and go to the Yushi Prison.
The carriage rolled over the gravel on the roadside and swayed, moving forward smoothly.
The sound of a man selling dried meat could be heard humming from the front.
The man said that he planned to enter Beijing before dark, and maybe he could arrive early.
Li Yuezhen touched her chest unconsciously.
What is now on my chest is not the little shoe, but the light red shell hairpin.
"..."
Jueyang saved the relationship in time...because he didn't give up.
You will regret losing someone... Mu Wan's voice sounded in his ears.
...Even if I regret it, there is nothing I can do about it...
You must bear your sins for the rest of your life.
Unlike Jueyang, I cannot have extravagant hopes or desires.
Now that I have decided so, I must give up...
"Man, we'll be there soon!"
Li Yuezhen held her breath when she heard the cry of the man selling dried meat.
Arrived so soon...
……give up……
He hurt Chunxiang and made her sad. She definitely didn't want to see him.
This is reason enough to give up.
Looking back, I saw the gate of the capital appeared in the distance in the sand.
…
The floor has been swept, and the bookshelves, tables and chairs have been mopped.
The weather was getting colder, but the sheets on the bed were too thin, so Chunxiang brought two more sheets to cover them, and also put on a thick quilt.
"Next...what else are you going to do?"
Chunxiang looked around Li Yuezhen's simple room, thinking about what else to add.
Li Yuezhen will return from Yinzhou tomorrow. Chunxiang asked for leave from the palace after noon and came here to clean for Li Yuezhen.
She had come to clean it twice before, so it wasn't too dirty, but Grandma Wang really didn't open the windows at all. In order to eliminate the musty smell in the room, she just burned incense here.
"Ah, candles...and something we can eat right away."
Chunxiang couldn't solve the problem of poor lighting here, so she brought candlesticks. However, she forgot to buy candles on the way when she came just now.
Chunxiang walked down the stairs and looked into Wang Po's room. Wang Po was eating snacks and chatting with an old woman nearby.
Chunxiang said hello to her and said she was going to buy something, but Wang Po ignored her and probably didn't hear her.
Chunxiang sighed softly and walked out of the house.
The dry wind blew up the dust.
...I wonder if he will be angry?
Although Chunxiang was asked to come here to clean, she entered his room without permission when Li Yuezhen was not around. She was worried that Li Yuezhen would be unhappy.
Besides, I was already embarrassed to meet him in the first place...
Be sure to speak clearly!
Chunxiang decided to speak out her inner feelings.
She shook her head, as if she wanted to drive away the cowardice in her heart, and then walked towards the market.
…
"Li Yuezhen, thank you for your hard work. You are really helpful."
The elder censor took the account book that became evidence of the crime and patted Li Yuezhen on the shoulder.
"Your Majesty has read your report...the result..."
"I can imagine the emperor's reaction..."
Zhuge Qing may have become the emperor's punching bag.
"The formal report can wait...but when are you going to report to the Emperor? The Emperor has just returned to Chunying Palace. Do you want to go there and report to the Emperor?"