Li Yuezhen walked to the Yushi Prison with a heavy heart and found that his colleagues all looked in a hurry.
"……What happened?"
"Oh, Li Yuezhen..."
The elder censor scratched his head with a deep frown.
"It's really troublesome. Wei Qiude, who was conducting a secret investigation in Yinzhou, has found out the clues and can bring the greedy prefect to justice, but he is injured and cannot continue the investigation."
"Brother Qiude is injured..."
"I heard that I sprained my foot and had to use a cane to walk."
It seems that we must urgently dispatch additional personnel to continue the undercover investigation.
"...Where in Yinzhou?"
"Minghai County. The house leaked and it rained all night. We didn't have enough manpower..."
"I go."
The older censor looked at Li Yuezhen with his mouth wide open.
"Hey...you, didn't you just come back yesterday?"
"I can go, give me the materials. I will leave at noon and arrive at Minghai County the day after tomorrow. Could you please help me contact the various government offices."
"If you are willing to go, of course it will be of great help...but are you okay?"
"no problem."
This is...escape.
Although I had to apologize to Chunxiang, I didn't dare to face her, so I used work as an excuse to escape.
I really am not qualified to marry her...
I hope that the next time she returns to the capital, she will marry a man who is the right match for her. She will definitely marry next time, next time, next time...
While making preparations for departure, Fubo's words kept lingering in his mind.
…
"It's so rare. Why are you back?"
Hearing her sister's voice, Chunxiang slowly raised her head from the bench where she was lying.
Her eyes were red and swollen.
"Because I can't cry there..."
"You ran home and cried secretly? What happened? Did the queen bully you?"
"On the contrary, the queen is so nice that I can't cry in front of her, lest she worry..."
"You mean, no one in our family is worried about you?"
My sister laughed, pushed Chunxiang's feet away, made room for herself and sat down.
"Everyone is busy in the store, so no one pays attention to me..."
"Yes! So, even if I run back to my parents' house, I can still live there comfortably. It's really reassuring."
My sister got married on a blind date last year. She often quarreled with her brother-in-law. After the last big quarrel, she moved back to her parents' home.
"What happened?"
"Sister, don't worry about it..."
"I'm so bored!"
"It's too much..."
"Then let me guess...have you fallen out of love?"
"..."
"Oops, you hit the mark with just one guess?"
So annoying... Chunxiang muttered, lying on the bench and holding her head.
"You are so stupid that you ran back to your parents' house because of a broken love. If your father found out, wouldn't he immediately ask you to go on a blind date with the person from last time? Doesn't the other person like you very much?"
"I don't like that kind of man who thinks he's great..."
"Then don't run home and cry. Stay in the palace and let the kind-hearted queen comfort you. I won't tell dad, so go back to the palace as soon as possible!"
Chunxiang sighed and stood up. She couldn't even cry properly at home.
“…how can I give up?”
"If you are thinking about this problem, it means you can't give up yet."
Although my sister's words were cruel, she was probably right.
Chunxiang blew her nose.
"I can only tell you, no matter how much you feel sorry for yourself, don't marry a man you don't like. Otherwise, it will be even worse in the future."
"Since you understand this truth, why did you marry someone you don't like?"
"I neither liked nor disliked him at first! When I disliked him, I came back to my parents' house!"
"..."
Such a simple reason is indeed in line with my sister's character.
"elder sister."
"What's wrong?"
"...I'm sorry, I stole the shell you had before."
"ah?"
My sister looked back at Chunxiang, tilting her head and wondering.
"That shell that Uncle Liu gave you! I said I wanted..."
"...I don't remember. Is there such a thing?"
"Of course! I was six years old then...and I threw the shell into the well."
My sister crossed her arms, looked at the ceiling and thought for a long time, and finally shook her head.
"I don't remember it at all, why are you saying this all of a sudden?"
"I just want to apologize..."
"Then I accidentally broke your hairpin once, so I had to secretly take it away and throw it away."
"Ah? When?"
"When I was about seven or eight years old, I had a red hairpin with butterflies on it. I accidentally stepped on it and broke it, so I threw it away secretly. You later looked for it desperately, but I pretended not to know."
"I do not remember……"
Chunxiang didn't even remember that she had such a hairpin.
Chunxiang leaned back on the chair and exhaled heavily.
"Sigh... I should have done more bad things if I had known earlier..."
"What are you talking about?"
Chunxiang felt that if she had committed a crime, Li Yuezhen would not hold her head high in front of her, but she racked her brains and could only think of this level of evil deeds.
…but that’s definitely not the problem…
Li Yuezhen can't forgive himself... He can't forgive his past self.
"That person... rarely smiles."
"……Um?"
"He had been severely traumatized before... He seemed not to let himself laugh..."
Even so, you will know it when you meet.
No matter how boring the content of his words is, he will listen quietly with gentle eyes, that is...his smile.
"I really hope he can smile more..."
Li Yuezhen probably doesn't want to talk about the past.
If you let him talk about the past that you don't want to mention, and if you say those words and cause him trouble, he will definitely hate himself completely.
Sister patted Chunxiang's back gently.
"It's almost time for you to go... everyone will be back after the store closes."
"Um……"
Chunxiang blew her nose again and stood up suddenly.
"I want to live for the Queen all my life..."
"That's not bad. I really want to work. Are there any vacancies in the palace? It would be best if I could get a chance to meet a good man."
"Sister, you don't want to live for work at all..."
"I want to fall in love, fall in love."
…
Chunxiang lied that she had something urgent to do at home and needed help, so she had to take leave to go home, so she couldn't return to the palace too early and could only go to the market to kill time.
...should I apologize to him properly?
Although I thought so in my heart, I didn't have the courage to see Li Yuezhen.
After crying, my mood calmed down a little, but I was still very depressed.
Now that I'm back in the palace, even if I can hide it from the other maids, I can't hide it from the Queen.
She was walking aimlessly on the street when a man wearing official clothes quickly passed her.
When the person passed by, Chunxiang found that the person looked familiar, and the other person stopped and looked back at her.
"Ah, you are the Queen's Empress..."
"Uh... you are?"
"I am Li Yuanliang, Censor Li Yuanliang."
"oh!"
Chunxiang remembered that he was Li Yuezhen's colleague.
"Hello."
"Hello...eh? Are you... today?"
"I am on a day off today."
After Li Yuanliang answered, his eyes suddenly opened wide.
"……Are you free right now?"
"ah?"
"I have something to ask of you, and it's Li Yuezhen's business."
"..."
If she was asked to see Li Yuezhen now, she planned to refuse.
"He went to the field."
"What? Didn't he just come back yesterday?"
Moreover, I just saw him this morning.
Li Yuanliang scratched his head with embarrassment and said in a low voice: "Because someone was injured during the unannounced visit, he was temporarily sent to provide support."
"when……"
"We've already set off. We'll leave at noon."
Chunxiang looked around, but of course it was impossible to see Li Yuezhen's figure.
Moreover, if he had set out at noon, he should have left the capital by now.
"Yeah……?"
"I'm going to his rented place now."
Li Yuanliang told her that because Li Yuezhen left in such a hurry, he set off directly without having time to go home.
Single censors who often go out often put valuable things in the censor's prison. There will still be some things in the rental house that are not valuable but are important to the person involved, so Li Yuanliang is going to help him pack them up.
"But won't the landlord collect it for him...?"
"That's logically true, but his landlord is..."
Li Yuanliang repeatedly asked her to accompany him.
Because he was Li Yuezhen's colleague, Chunxiang agreed.
Together they came to a house near the market that looked a little dirty.
There was an old woman sitting on the terrace in front of the house, and her clothes were a little dirty.
Li Yuanliang introduced her that the old woman was the landlord Wang Po.
"...That's the situation. Mother-in-law, please help Li Yuezhen clean her room."
"Since he's not here, there's no way he could have made the room dirty. Look, it's very clean!"
"Let's see..."
Li Yuanliang looked embarrassed and turned to look at Chunxiang.
"You see, this lady hates cleaning. Even if Li Yuezhen returns home all the way, the house will be full of dust..."
"Didn't I say? The room is very clean."
"Wang Po, you are the only one who feels clean."
"...So, if I come and clean, the problem will be solved?"
Li Yuanliang put his hands together and asked Chunxiang.
"Please! You must also feel that Li Yuezhen is very pitiful, right?... Mother-in-law, is it okay to let this young lady help Li Yuezhen clean up?"
"As you wish."
Wang Po drank the contents of the big bowl indifferently, not knowing whether it was wine or something else.
Chunxiang followed Li Yuanliang to the room on the second floor.
"..."
The room was not messy. On the contrary, because there were too few things, it was impossible to be messy. However, due to poor lighting, closed windows, and poor ventilation, the whole room was filled with a damp musty smell.
Even if I return to this kind of home, I can't relax.
"Would you feel bad if you lived in a place like this? No one wants to rent a room here."
"...Has Mr. Li Yuezhen always lived here?"
"No, he lived elsewhere before, but because the landlord stopped renting, he moved here yesterday. He may not want to live here, so he went out to work as soon as he came back."
Li Yuanliang smiled and pulled out the clothing box from under the bed, opened the lid, and kept saying: "I found it, I found it."
"……What's this?"
"Is this? It's...his amulet."
Li Yuanliang put a children's shoe sewn with cloth into Chunxiang's hand.
It was originally supposed to be blue, but it was worn everywhere, torn and dirty.
Upon closer inspection, I found the words "Li Yuezhen" embroidered on the inside.
"You have to use a pseudonym during an unannounced visit, so you can't bring anything with your real name on you."
"...Is this sewn by hand?"
"Listen to him, maybe his mother did it for him."
"but……"
Li Yuezhen said before that his parents were both thieves. Would he sew shoes for the kidnapped children? Chunxiang looked carefully and found that they should be worn by children of two or three years old.
"Oh, it's his biological mother..."
Chunxiang blurted out and quickly covered her mouth, but Li Yuanliang was not surprised at all. He tilted his head and asked, "Huh? You already know his life experience?"
"Ah...yes..."
"That's right, his biological mother should have made it for him. He wore it on his feet when he was kidnapped."
Li Yuanliang put the clothes box containing only two casual clothes back under the bed and said calmly.
"I went to the Yushi Prison with him, so I once heard him talk. He said that thanks to this shoe, he knew his own name, but after checking for a long time, he still didn't know where he lived or whose family Li Yuezhen was.
.”
"..."
"Although there are many people who became censors after taking the examination, half of them...had a disgraceful past before becoming censors and starting a new life. The so-called "people who are close to evil" are evil because they have gone astray in the past.
, so I also understand those who do bad things very well.”
Chunxiang raised her head, and Li Yuanliang smiled at her with concern.
"Isn't he a very industrious person?"
"..."
"He is stupid. He thinks he is the worst in the world. Even though he has arrested many people worse than him, he still thinks so."
Li Yuanliang's relaxed tone made Chunxiang's expression relax.
"He is very honest."
"To put it nicely, although I am dishonest, I am smarter than him, so I am already married to a wife."
If she had heard this sentence a day earlier, Chunxiang might have taken it as encouragement.
It has ended……
"...Is this the only thing you want to take?"
"Yes. Of all the things left at home, this is the most important."
The only important item is a small shoe.
"Put it at your place first."
"this……"
"The Censor is going to be doing a lot of cleaning recently. If you accidentally throw it away, it will be a big problem. When Li Yuezhen comes back, I will tell him, so I'll leave it to you."
Even if there is a general cleaning, the censor's personal belongings will not be lost.
Chunxiang knew that Li Yuanliang was lying, but couldn't find a reason to shirk it.
…
At the checkpoint on the border between Shenzhou and Yinzhou, Li Yuezhen met with Wei Qiude, the supervisory censor who had made an unannounced visit before.
Wei Qiude was previously investigating the matter of Wang Hetong, the governor of Minghai County in Yinzhou, who collected taxes under a false pretense and diverted them for personal use.
"Li Yuezhen, I'm so sorry. I heard you just returned to the capital..."
"No. Are you okay?"
Wei Qiude's left ankle has been fixed with a wooden stick.
"It's okay, I'll be fine as long as I rest for a while, but I can't continue to monitor... Are you going to pretend to be a jewelry vendor this time?"
"Yeah, there's nothing we can do about it, the environment is like this..."
Wei Qiude looked at the wooden box Li Yuezhen was carrying and couldn't help laughing.