Gui Yuan

Chapter 21 Secret Letter

The two main prisoners died suddenly on the way, and the accompanying officers and soldiers were so frightened that they lost their minds. After a little thought, they decisively led the troops back to Xuanzhou.The person who reported the letter had notified the news back long ago, and it was already too cold when the person sent it back, and it would be useless to check it again.

Ning Qing opened the burial cloth, but the people who accompanied him did not dare to move, so that Du Yuan still kept his appearance when he died, his eyes were wide open, the surprise before death seemed to be reflected in his eyes, and he didn't know what was going on in his mind at the moment before he died. What are you thinking.

Ning Qing let out a long sigh, covered the cloth back, turned and left.Slowly passing through several cells to the one in the corner, Lin Ruode was devouring meat buns, which was his reward for leading the way.When he saw Ning Qing, he put down his hand holding the steamed stuffed bun, leaned his whole body on the cell door and said happily, "My lord, why are you here?"

Ning Qing suddenly said, "You still have something to say?"

Lin Ruode was stunned for a moment, shrugging his face in great embarrassment: "My lord, please forgive me. You have already taken away what you know, so there is nothing else."

In fact, Ning Qing is not sure at this time, but he is not reconciled to the hard work of these days in vain.

"Du Yuan is dead." The tone was flat, without any waves.

Lin Ruode was shocked: "What? Wasn't he escorted to Beijing?"

"Last night, another Nanban prisoner assassinated him with a poisonous needle, and then committed suicide. The body is now parked next door."

Lin Ruode was obviously frightened, and the bun in his hand dropped to the ground regardless.He muttered to himself: "It shouldn't be, how could this happen."

"Your master is a ruthless character, without leaving any flaws." Ning Qing laughed, and Lin Ruode heard a piercing chill, "Do you think he would kill a decisive person like him? Put poison in your bun?"

As if being stabbed by a needle, Lin Ruode threw the two buns in the bowl out of the cell, even the one that fell on the ground.He took a few deep breaths, and suddenly looked at Ning Qing: "No, you are bombing me, I am a small county magistrate, I only have contacts with Du Yuan, and I don't even know who is behind him!"

It turned out that Ning Qing didn't hold out hope, but seeing Lin Ruode's appearance seemed to be interesting, he suddenly had a plan.

He breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good. If you really don't know anything, people will definitely not have this idleness to motivate you. I can finally put you in Beijing tomorrow with peace of mind. You know, just you three big prisoners, now Two of them died, and if you have any problems, we won’t be able to report to the imperial court.”

Lin Ruode swallowed, and looked at him cautiously: "Really?"

"Of course." Ning Qing smiled, "If it's true, it's troublesome. The evidence is actually a reminder. Have you seen Du Yuan's fate? We can't pry his mouth open. He is so loyal. It’s silenced, but if someone really has the evidence, can they pay it back?”

Ning Qing spoke vigorously and poured out bitter water: "The people behind Du Yuan must be extremely powerful if they can do this. The few of us were ordered to investigate the grain draft. If the grain and grass are recovered, the merits and virtues will be complete. Who would like to live with a bright future? .A single carelessness will not only ruin your official career, but you will never know when your life will be lost.”

Lin Ruode was stunned for a while, frowning and thinking hard, it seems that there is a battle between heaven and man in his mind.

Ning Qing glanced at him and waved his hands casually: "I'll go first, and I'll drag the jailer tonight and add two chicken legs to you, so we can go on the road tomorrow morning."

Lin Ruode suddenly came back to his senses. Ning Qing had disappeared. He hurriedly stuck to the prison door, his hands fluttering like a dying person, and shouted: "Come back, my lord! I have something to say!"

He yelled a few times, but no one answered, and he collapsed on the ground, wanting to cry, "I have something to say! Why are you walking so fast, boy?"

"Who do you call boy?"

Lin Ruode raised his head when he heard the words, it was Ning Qing!He didn't care about anything else, grabbed Ning Qing's collar and said happily, "No, no, I...I have something to say!"

Ning Qing struggled to break his hand away: "Don't drag me, I won't leave."

He flicked his wrinkled collar and asked, "What do you want to say?"

"Me." Lin Ruode looked around, mysteriously asked Ning Qing to come closer, and whispered, "I have evidence."

Ning Qing's disbelief made him flustered, and he hurriedly said: "Really! It's a letter in the hidden compartment of my desk. I only know that he communicated with the person in the imperial capital by letter, and those letters are all After reading it, I burned it immediately. Only once, a letter was mixed in a pile of waste paper. I secretly took it out while he was unaware. At that time, I just wanted to prevent accidents. "

Ning Qing looked at him suspiciously, Lin Ruode nodded anxiously.

After returning to the inn, Ning Qing told everyone about it, and Wei Yao immediately ordered Zhao Min to take a few people to Lin Ruode's mansion, hand in the small treasury that Lin Ruode recruited, and look for the letter while searching the house, so as to deceive others.

Zhao Min came back when the sky was turning yellow in the distance: "Lin Ruode is really humble, if it's called 'Little Treasury' we can only be regarded as beggars."

After everyone closed the doors and windows, Zhao Min carefully took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Wei Yao.

This letter looks like an ordinary letter, but there is a unique tiger-stripe stamp on the wax paint, which can be regarded as a little different.Wei Yao took out the letter paper and opened it, but both sides were empty!

The evidence they worked so hard to obtain was in vain, and the faces of several people were not very good-looking.

Wei Yao thought for a while, took a lamp, lit it, and baked the white paper over the fire.Some secret letters need to be baked for a while before the words can be displayed.Everyone stared at the paper for a while, but unfortunately, it was just a blank piece of paper.

Fei Tian sat down angrily, poured a glass of water to put down the fire: "His grandma, Lin Ruode is unreliable!"

Ning Qing sighed lightly, then thought something was wrong again.This kind of secret letter will definitely cause an uproar if it is in the hands of others. How could someone as cautious as Du Yuan make such a mistake?

"Could it be that Du Yuan asked Lin Ruode to take it away on purpose?"

Zhu Yu asked: "Why?"

"Lin Ruode is a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death. Du Yuan must know better than us. If Du Yuan wants to leave evidence, it is better to put it on someone who has no connection with the people behind the scenes than to put it on himself." The more he thought The more he felt that it made sense, his eyes lit up, "Because Du Yuan was killed during the escort process, Lin Ruode was anxious to throw this hot potato out, and then told us, now it seems that Du Yuan may have expected this step a long time ago." .”

It is indeed possible to hear what Ning Qing said, but there are still doubts.

Zhu Yu asked: "If Du Yuan really left the evidence, why didn't he say a word during the interrogation? Could it be that his loyalty is just pretending? If it is true, isn't it contradictory?"

"No, it's not an act." Wei Yao opened his lips lightly. "When life is threatened, all illusions can be destroyed. Du Yuan didn't die on Luoxia Ridge because he was needed to destroy the evidence. All the evidence After they are all destroyed, it will be his turn."

Wei Yao said: "He just kept this letter because he didn't want to say it. As for himself, maybe he knew his end from the beginning."

Zhu Yu suddenly said: "You mean..."

"Tian Cheng and the others didn't find his family members when they went to Du Yuan's residence. According to people in the residence, he was always alone."

Du Yuan is already determined to work for his family, even if he was given a chance, he still let it go, it seems that he is stubborn to the extreme.For what purpose did he leave the evidence? Perhaps it was a bit of conscience accumulated when he saw those desolate people again and again, or maybe he had doubts about the Lord's family for a long time. In any case, the truth has long since followed. The body was wiped out.

The human heart is indeed the most elusive thing.

Ning Qing said: "Although I don't know Du Yuan's purpose for leaving this letter for the time being, it must be useful. Fei Tian, ​​please put it away first."

Fei Tian responded, folded the yellowed paper, put it back in the envelope, and put it in the bag.

-

The matter did not end satisfactorily, and a series of mysteries became a knot in Zhu Yu's mind.

Lin Ruode became the only remaining prisoner, and the imperial court ordered troops to escort him all the way into the imperial capital.

Before getting into the prison van, Lin Ruode didn't forget to buy some peace of mind: "Masters, I shouldn't be guilty of death. You said you would protect me, but you can't say nothing."

Ning Qing is very good at this kind of scene, nodded readily and said: "You can rest assured and go on the road, we have specially sent additional people to take you to Beijing."

Lin Ruode turned his head to look, finally felt relieved, and obediently followed them into the prison car.He used to yearn for traveling with hundreds of people, but he didn't expect that once he became a prisoner, his dream would come true.

After the convoy started slowly, they turned back. Fei Tian asked him, "Lin Ruode has committed a heinous crime. Do you really beg the emperor not to kill him?"

Ning Qing seemed to have heard something funny: "How can it be, so they are all destined for death, and now he is the only one left. Why doesn't the emperor put all his anger on him?"

Only then did Fei Tian understand, and said with a smile, "The two of you are so delusional and talk about everything, it turns out it's a hoax."

Ning Qing and Zhu Yu looked at each other, and smiled implicitly at Fei Tian's innocence. Zhu Yu held it up, and didn't say it directly, while Ning Qing was just the opposite: "How can it be called a lie? Can he feel better along the way, and you don't let people rejoice for ten days? Look at you, tsk tsk."

Fei Tian was speechless, and followed Ning Qing with a smile: "What about me, you are the originator of the mountain..."

Wei Yao walked slowly behind and looked at them, with a natural smile on his face.

When Fang arrived at the inn, they dragged the waiter and ordered a bunch of things, and the table almost couldn't fit.It was a rare indulgence, several people drank some wine and were in good spirits, Ning Qing and Fei Tian chatted and chatted, in short, it was a great time, Zhu Yu and Wei Yao also had some fun listening.

Zhao Min knocked on the door and entered the room, his complexion was not very good, he leaned into Wei Yao's ear and covered his voice: "Bei Di..."

Ning Qing was sitting next to Wei Yao, and after hearing a few words, he turned to him and asked, "What's the matter?"

Wei Yao got up: "It's nothing, it's just some official business."

Zhao Min followed him out of the room, and continued: "The king of Beidi has been in close contact with the king of the Nanman these few days. The battle for the throne between the second prince of Beidi and the third prince has intensified, and trouble may arise."

Wei Yao looked outside the fence, although it was already night, the street was still lit, and the cries of hawkers kept coming and going like daytime, and the lights of thousands of families in the distance were reflected in Wei Yao's eyes, he said: "The king of Beidi is not peaceful at all. I'm afraid I'm tired of the ordinary days."