Jiangshan Fengwuzhi

Chapter 51: A Hero's Cutoff (Part )

Kaipingsi Yamen.

The door of the office was pushed open. Yi Yan turned her head and glanced. Seeing that it was Wang Qinghe who came, she lowered her eyes, and seemed to want to say something but stopped herself. In the end, she turned around without saying a word and continued to take off Zhang Fan's clothes.

"But Dian Yin Yi Yan?" Wang Qinghe asked.

"Ah."

"I have something to ask you." Although Wang Qinghe was polite, he was a little arrogant in his bones. He said to Zhang Fan, "You go down first."

"Yes."

Zhang Fan had just taken off the makeup on his left face, and the two sides of his face showed completely different ordinary looks, which were quite unique. He did not dare to offend Wang Qinghe, so he bowed and retreated.

There were only two people left in the government office. Yi Yan lowered her head to tidy up the bottles and jars on the table without ever looking at Wang Qinghe.

"Has Yi Dianyin dressed up as Chao Heng recently?"

"According to Kaipingsi rules, I can't say it."

"I advise Yi Dianyin to tell the truth." Wang Qinghe's tone was still warm, but there was an added sense of intimidation unknowingly.

Yi Yan shook her head and said, "I don't know who Chao Heng is. Please don't embarrass me, Wang Jishi."

"Okay, remember what I said today, and don't let me find out that you are helping others impersonate Chao Heng."

Wang Qinghe left a domineering word, stopped pressing, and turned and walked out.

Yi Yan maintained the same action as before, wiping the porcelain bottle in her hand again and again.

After a long time, someone came out from behind the curtain of the side room, and the bronze mirror on her desk reflected Chao Heng's profile.

This "Chao Heng" walked to the door, bolted it, came back and sat down next to her. He turned around and the other half of his face looked like Gu Jingnian.

Gu Jingnian had taken off half of his clothes when Zhang Fan happened to come, so he hid behind the curtain used for changing clothes.

Wang Qinghe pushed the door open without saying hello, catching everyone else off guard. As a result, they didn't expect that the person he was looking for was so close.

"continue."

Yi Yan reacted, put down the shiny porcelain bottle in her hand, took out a bottle of extremely smelly potion, smeared it on half of "Chao Heng's" face, and took a small basin to collect it underneath.

Gu Jingnian felt more and more that the makeup on his face was a living thing, which was driven away by the stinky potion.

"Even if you weren't here just now, I wouldn't have told him." Yi Yan said, "I know the rules."

"Thank you."

Neither of them said much and remained silent for a while until their eyes met again.

Gu Jingnian didn't move and asked, "Can I learn how to disguise myself from you?"

For him, an outlier living in Zhongzhou, disguise is extremely useful. It is a skill he wanted to learn after trying it once.

"I only recognize a foreigner who learned disguise from the Yi family."

"Is it Luo Quan?"

"he died."

“I still want to learn.”

"Your face is too handsome, it doesn't suit you, your eyebrows are high, your nose is straight, and the biggest problem is that your eyes are too bright."

"Your eyes also have spirit."

“I can be godless.”

Yi Yan closed her eyes, and when she looked up again, there was only a faint sense of death in her eyes.

After another moment of silence, Gu Jingnian asked, "You seem to like Wang Jishi?"

Yi Yan was stunned, looked at him in surprise, lowered her head, and remained silent for a long time.

She didn't deny it.

A person who is good at disguising himself couldn't even hide the fact that he liked someone.

These days, Gu Jingnian rarely meets such a stupid person.

"It seems like he likes it very much."

"How did you know?"

"I'm very sensitive."

Gu Jingnian was born in a prisoner-of-war camp and was later taken to the Gu family. He grew up observing other people's faces and was very sensitive to these emotions.

Yi Yan asked, "Do you have someone you admire too?"

"No, I think love is the most useless thing."

"You are really understanding."

Perhaps she had been suppressing her worries for too long, and it was rare for her to meet someone she could talk to. Yi Yan did not hide the secrets and whispered, "I met him a few times when I was sixteen, and later, I joined Kaiping Division for him."

"It sounded like you two weren't familiar with each other?"

"Well, he didn't even recognize me." Yi Yan was a little sad.

Gu Jingnian said: "Maybe it's because you have been in disguise?"

"No, I just look like this, not good-looking... I know I'm not good-looking, but I can dress up very beautifully. As long as there is beauty in the world, I can achieve it."

"I will help you pursue Wang Jishi, and you teach me how to disguise myself." Gu Jingnian proposed a simple exchange that seemed a bit joking.

Sure enough, Yi Yan did not agree and shook her head.

"I don't want to pursue him. He is engaged. My admiration for him is my own business. It seems... it has nothing to do with him."

"Understanding."

Yi Yan said, "But I can teach you how to disguise yourself."

Gu Jingnian asked in surprise: "Why?"

"You're the first person I met in Kaipingsi who I can talk to." "Where's Luo Quan?"

"He is my third uncle's disciple." Yi Yan said, "Then you will also be my disciple from now on. You don't have to call him Master, just call him Sir."

"it is good."

Gu Jingnian wanted to learn how to disguise himself, and was willing to accept such a master.

“Do you need a gift of apprenticeship?”

"Let me think about it. I don't lack anything... I have never been out of Shuyang City. I heard that the scenery west of Zhenyun Pass is very different. If you have the chance, take me to see it when you go to Xiaoyi Army."

“There may not be a chance, but I’ll make a note of it.”

This matter was settled so easily, and Yi Yan's purity made Gu Jingnian feel unreal.

But the two of them did grow up in completely different environments. Yi Yan had never suffered any hardship since childhood, and when she grew up she got a stable job in Kaiping Division, and getting along with others was simple.

Gu Jingnian believes that human nature is evil, and the most rare thing in his life is this kind of simplicity...

After taking off his disguise and making sure there were no birds or spies outside, Gu Jingnian left Yi Yan's office.

After passing through several gates and turning around the corridor, I suddenly saw a man standing there, holding a book and reading it attentively. It was Wang Qinghe.

When they met on a narrow road, Gu Jingnian simply stepped forward and said, "Wang Ji Shi."

"You're welcome. Just call me Brother Wang. Where are you from?"

"Yi Dianyin's courtyard." Gu Jingnian admitted openly, "This time, two of my men were hiding in disguise. I was impressed by them and wanted to learn this skill from Yi Dianyin."

Wang Qinghe had been staring at him just now, and only saw Gu Jingnian come out but didn't see him go in, so he guessed that he was probably already at Yi Yan's place.

But this doesn’t mean anything, it just means that Gu Jingnian didn’t show up just now.

"I see." Wang Qinghe asked tentatively, "But he is dressed as Chao Heng?"

"No, I just pretended to be two peddlers."

"It's your first job, don't worry."

Wang Qinghe glanced around and saw that both of Gu Jingnian's hands were fine. He didn't want to say more to him, so he smiled, made way, and went back to reading the book in his hand.

After a while, Wang Qinghe heard that the pacification envoy Min Yuanxiu had returned, so he ordered his men to continue watching while he went to meet Min Yuanxiu.

He told the details of the case, and at the end, he said: "I went to Chao's house and opened the secret room in Chao Juzhi's study. I found the hand. The nails were very short, which matched the body of Chao Heng. But it still didn't fit."

"What's wrong?"

"The dead maid Qiao'er was strangled to death. Judging from the strangulation marks on her neck, the hands that strangled her had nails, and Chao Ju's father and son cut their nails very short. In other words, what Li Ji said might be true. The murderer pretended to be Chao Heng and killed someone. Afterwards, he cut off Chao Heng's hand and threw it in the secret room, and took his own severed hand away."

Wang Qinghe explained it in a complicated way.

Min Xiuyuan responded simply, "So what?"

"I originally thought that Pei Nianwei did this to close the case as quickly as possible, but after investigating, it doesn't seem like that." Wang Qinghe said, "It's more like Chao Juzhi's mastermind is killing people to silence them. If we continue to investigate, we may be able to find evidence of Zheng Kuangfu's crime. Chao Juzhi was his disciple, so he must be involved!"

"Haste makes waste, so let's end the case as Chao Ju did."

"Pacifying envoy, this is a godsend opportunity to deal with Zheng Kuangfu." Wang Qinghe said, "Now that the Southern Court has purged Liu Jikun, we should make a concerted effort..."

"With Liu Jikun gone and Mei Chengzong here, it's all the same."

"Why should the pacification envoy take her seriously as a womanizer, who is all alone in the Southern Court?" Wang Qinghe said disdainfully.

"Don't underestimate him." Min Yuanxiu said, "I once fought alongside him. In terms of combat power, he is only slightly weaker than me."

When Wang Qinghe heard this, his pupils trembled and he was a little bit unbelievable.

"That bitch, actually..."

"Let's close the case."

With this final word, the Wanchun Palace case was completely over on the surface. Chao Juzhi, the Minister of Works, became the biggest mastermind behind the case. After his death, the Kaiping Division quickly collected all the evidence of his crimes.

For example, a secret room was found in Chao's study, which contained a large amount of stolen goods, as well as documentary evidence that made it easy for the traitor to raise evil spirits.

In just two days, a major case was concluded.

Pei Nian happened to be clearing leeches outside the city these days. Before she returned, You Gui, who was in charge of the case, had already been credited with a great achievement and received many rewards.

You Gui is usually very stingy, but at this time he was not stingy and gathered all his subordinates to share the rewards.

"Brothers, you have all worked hard. After these few days, let's have a celebratory drink at Juying Tower... Tingqiao Bing, Gu Jingnian, you two stay."

"Yes."

The others left, but Tingqiao Bing had a bitter look on his face.

Gu Jingnian's disguise as Chao Heng could be concealed from others, but the captains and detectives in charge of the case could not be unaware of it.

"Is this how you handle cases? You pretend to be Chao Heng and kill Chao Juzhi, then kill him and then look for evidence. This is too sloppy!"

Ting Qiaobing apologized: "Your humble servant..."

"That's all my idea." Gu Jingnian said, "I thought that was the style of Kaiping Division."

"If I had done this to the Gu family, would you be satisfied?"

"It was my first time handling a case, and I was careless."

Although You Gui was unhappy, the two inspectors were satisfied with the result this time. He couldn't do anything to Gu Jingnian either. He scolded him a few times and finally said, "This is your first case. I'll give you credit for your achievement."

"I dare not accept it. Yi Dianyin deserves the most credit."

Gu Jingnian didn't care about his career in Kaiping Division. This time he had temporarily gotten what he wanted, a chance to catch his breath.

He went from being the prey being watched to being a hunting dog.

After cleaning up the mess, he now has only one goal, to catch the great pharmacist.

Perhaps, as Feng Niang said, he will see the other person again soon.

(End of this chapter)