Shengjing Noble

Chapter 243 Solved

At that time, he was determined to live a free and easy life in the world, neglecting the affairs of the palace and even leaving his adopted daughter to be raised by a wet nurse.

As a result, the greedy wet nurse took advantage of the opportunity and not only stole a lot of gold, silver and jewelry, but also took away his daughter.

Back then, he deliberately broke the jade ring into two pieces, wearing one half on his adopted daughter and the other half on her.

I think the wet nurse was only trying to make money and didn't know the true origin of the jade ring, otherwise she wouldn't dare to take it.

As for kidnapping his adopted daughter, it might have been just to keep her as a hostage so that she could have some bargaining chips to exchange for her life in case she was caught.

However, over the years he sent people to search all over the Sheng Dynasty, but found no clues.

The wet nurse must have changed her appearance, otherwise how could she not be found?

……

Su Lanyin had nowhere to go for a while with the map in her pocket.

King Xiaoyao will not give up so easily. He will definitely search for his whereabouts in the city.

Once daybreak came, she would have nowhere to hide and it would only be a matter of time before she was caught.

Even if her second brother and his men rode at full speed to Qiu County, it would take at least five days. She was afraid that she would not be able to wait until that time.

Right now, the most dangerous place is precisely the safest place.

That’s the county government office!

King Xiaoyao would never have thought that she would be hiding in the county government office.

Thinking of this, Su Lanyin immediately returned under the cover of night.

At this time, the fire had been put out and everyone was busy dealing with post-disaster affairs, and no one had noticed anything unusual.

Su Lanyin lay on the roof and observed quietly until half an hour later, when Su Shengming and Wang Tao walked drunkenly into a yard.

"Oh, Mr. Lu, you look young, but I never thought you can drink so much! Hahaha..."

"It's just so-so. I play drinking games a lot every day, so I've mastered it. But those girls these days are really not that good. Each one is older than the other!"

"Well, just make do with it. The beautiful young people in our city have all left long ago."

"Run away? Why?"

"It's all because of the famine. Look, there aren't many people left in this city."

Su Shengming's eyes flashed with coldness: "The imperial court has issued disaster relief grain, why do the people have to leave their homes?"

Hearing this, Wang Tao sobered up instantly. He opened his eyes wide and covered his mouth with a guilty expression on his face.

Obviously, he realized that he had just given the cat out of the bag.

So he quickly put on a smiling face again and laughed and fooled around: "Oh, I was just joking, hahaha, the relief grain must have been distributed, otherwise the people in this city would have starved to death long ago, hahaha, and besides, didn't you see a lot of people on the street just now?"

This is true, and Su Shengming began to feel confused.

There was clearly no disaster relief food, but why were the people of Qiu County still alive and well and not starving to death?

This point was very puzzling to him.

Although the people on the road just now were all walking on their own, everyone had a blank expression on their face, as if... they were being controlled by someone, without any feeling, wandering on the streets like zombies.

Could it be that the people he saw were not ordinary people at all, but people arranged by Wang Tao and others?

In that case, he would go door to door tomorrow to check.

If we really want to find someone to act, we can't really fill up all the houses in the city, right?

Thinking of this, Su Shengming calmly let Wang Tao change the subject.

"It's getting late, Mr. Lu, go to bed early. I won't disturb you."

"Take care, Captain Wang. I won't see you off."

"Please stay, please stay..."

Wang Tao backed away while smiling, until the moment Su Shengming closed the door, the smile on his face instantly fell, and he turned and left without hesitation.

Su Lanyin waited for a while, and after making sure that there was no one around, she jumped from the roof to the window at the back.

As soon as Su Shengming lay down, he heard someone knocking on the windowsill three times. This was the secret signal he and Su Lanyin agreed upon.

So I got up immediately and ran to open the window.

Su Lanyin jumped in.

"Third Brother!"

"Yinyin, are you okay?"

"I'm okay."

"What's the situation over there?" Su Shengming asked anxiously.

Su Lanyin first found a place to sit down and drank some water, then said, "I was locked up in a dungeon by those people, just under a rockery to the west of the county government office."

"Dungeon? They didn't hurt you?"

"Don't worry, thanks to you, there isn't any for now."

"My blessing?"

"Well, with you delaying Wang Tao, he naturally has no chance to take action."

"Then how did you get out?"

"I have my own way of dealing with this, but I have something very important to tell you."

"Don't be impatient, speak slowly."

"I got something from the secret compartment in the county government's study. Look."

Su Lanyin took out the map in her arms and handed it to Su Shengming.

The brother and sister then looked carefully under the candlelight, and then found a name "Zhang He" in the lower right corner.

"If I remember correctly, Zhang He should be the name of the previous magistrate of Qiu County."

Su Lanyin had read the files about Qiu County before, so she knew some things.

"So, this treasure map should have been left by the previous magistrate of Qiu County?" Su Shengming asked.

"Well, that must be the case. Then the cause of his death probably makes sense."

"What do you mean? Did he embezzle the disaster relief funds and get killed by the people behind him?"

Su Lanyin looked at him with some regret: "Third brother, you really don't use your brain. Think about it, if he wanted to keep the map for himself, he should have given it to his family. Why would he leave it in the county government office?"

"That's true... who does he want to leave it to?"

"Naturally, the next person to live in the county government office is the next one!"

"Second brother?"

"Ok!"

Su Shengming suddenly realized: "So, Zhang He is a good official. He did not go along with the corrupt officials and did not embezzle the disaster relief funds. He hid all the money for the people of Qiu County and then drew a treasure map and hid it in the county government office?"

"Yes, if I guess correctly, it must be so!"

"That's great. As long as we wait for our second brother to come and give this to him, everything will be solved."

"Third brother, the situation is urgent and we may not be able to wait for the second brother to come."

"What do you mean?"

"Half of Qiu County's people are held hostage in the dungeon, so you can control the other half of Qiu County to act in front of you."

"What? How dare they do this?"

"Yes, you are in a very dangerous situation now. They have already made preparations to cut off the source of the trouble in order to conceal the embezzlement of disaster relief funds. So, in a few days, they will find a way to get rid of you and then massacre the city."

"Massacre the city? Are they crazy? There are at least several thousand people in Qiu County!"

"They won't leave anyone alive. As long as there is one person alive, it can prove the crimes they committed here. If the emperor hears about it, he will investigate it thoroughly. So the person behind this will be eradicated."