Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 162 Being smart
Jia Chuan coughed lightly and said, "Judging from Zhao Dewen's efforts to conceal it and your silence, it means your identity is kept secret in the herb gathering bureau. In that case, after Zhou Cheng was poisoned, you should have hidden yourself and not attracted anyone's attention, especially not mine. But you insisted on coming up to me. Why?"

Gao Yuntian chimed in, "Yes, why?"

Mu Lian lowered her head, her mind in turmoil, completely at a loss for what to do, and had no idea how to answer.

Chen Mo said, "What else could it be? She and the people around her feel that it is both dangerous and an opportunity. Just like you said, they know you very well and know that you can speak up for the Emperor right now. And this case, no matter how you look at it, is inseparable from the Duke of Qian's mansion. If they were to be engaged to you, you would only try to find a way to protect them."

"This is only one aspect of the reason. Zhou Cheng was poisoned. The Herbal Medicine Bureau and the Duke of Qian's Mansion openly had dealings. Some medicinal herbs are only found in southern Yunnan. Every year, the herbs sent to the Herbal Medicine Bureau should have a list. Moreover, the Duke of Qian's Mansion may be more experienced or more likely to be experienced in dealing with poisons than the Herbal Medicine Bureau. This also shows that Zhou Cheng's death has nothing to do with them."

Mu Lian suddenly looked up, her eyes filled with complicated emotions, and asked Jia Chuan, "Since you know all this, why are you still making things difficult for me?"

Jia Chuan frowned, and Gao Yuntian grew anxious: "How can you be so unreasonable, girl? You came here on your own, and you said you could identify poisons. He just didn't agree to marry you yet, so how can you say he's making things difficult for you? If it were up to me, I should have arrested you the day you showed up, and I could have easily gotten the information I wanted by torture..."

"Dream on! I won't say that so easily, unless, unless he agrees..."

"You're a young woman, and you keep asking people to marry you. Don't you have any shame?"

Mu Lian blushed at Gao Yuntian's words and pursed her lips tightly.

Jia Chuan sighed and said, "The more you do this, the more it shows that you think this is the only way, or that you yourself think that the Duke of Qian will have a hard time getting away with it. But you need to understand one thing: only when the case is clear can I know how to help you. On the contrary, if you continue to be so stubborn, not to mention me, even if the Emperor is willing to protect you, I'm afraid that you will implicate the entire Mu family."

Upon hearing this, Mu Lian's eyes immediately reddened, and she asked, choking back tears, "How could I believe you could help me?"

Jia Chuan stood up, took a deep breath, and said:
"Yu Yan was the concubine of the deposed son of the Prince of Han. Calling her a concubine was a euphemism; she was merely a servant. At first, I assumed you knew her, implying you were also a servant. But your temperament tells me you aren't. Children from poor families… they already consider it a favor if you don't bully them. But you, you never want to suffer a loss, yet you act all high and mighty. Whether you speak up or not in this case has little impact on me. I only need the Duke of Qian to figure out how to explain to the Emperor… why the Mu family poisoned Zhou Cheng's servants?!"

Not only was Mu Lian staring at Jia Chuan in fear, but Chen Mo and Gao Yuntian were also speechless with shock.

But Jia Chuan turned and walked towards the door. After taking two steps out of the room, Mu Lian called out from behind, "I'll talk!"

……

In fact, Mu Lian didn't know much. Seven years ago, she was sent to the Herb Gathering Bureau. All she knew was that she was required to secretly observe whether the Herb Gathering Bureau would use Yunnan herbs to make some unspeakable secret medicines. At first, no one knew her identity. It was only when Zhao Dewen arrested her because of her bad temper and wanted to punish her that they found out who this person named Cai Lian was.

From then on, Zhao Dewen received an extra hush money every year. He was quite at ease with this money because he knew that Mu Lian was assigned to the herb-gathering bureau because Duke Mu Sheng of Qian was distrustful of it, and that this distrust was nothing but unnecessary worry.

Mu Lian knew that her father wasn't worried about the old prince. It was a long story. Mu Sheng had only heard that many pharmacists and physicians had come to the herb garden because of the old prince's writings and the garden he had built. Over time, the number of professionals in the herb-gathering bureau increased. The Mu family had some connections with the old prince and naturally trusted him. However, Mu Sheng was worried about the extra people around the old prince every year. Every year, herbs were sent from Yunnan according to the old prince's needs, but what were the real uses of these herbs...? The political situation was unstable, and Mu Sheng was uneasy.

This reasoning doesn't hold water with Jia Chuan. As long as the transactions are conducted openly, with records to follow and made public, the Duke of Qian's concerns are somewhat unnecessary. If something really happens, once the transaction is over, what does it have to do with the Duke of Qian's mansion?

Therefore, Jia Chuan felt that either Mu Lian was being presumptuous, or she truly knew very little.

This wasn't of much use to Jia Chuan at this stage, so he didn't interrupt Mu Lian.

Mu Lian had indeed received news a few days earlier that Jia Chuan and his party were coming to Kaifeng. The people from the Duke of Qian's mansion only said that the Emperor would not send Jia Chuan unless there was a major event, and told Mu Lian to be careful. It was at this time that Mu Lian learned more about Jia Chuan.

Mu Lian hadn't discovered anything in all the years she'd been there, but on the night Jia Chuan came to the herb-gathering bureau, she discovered something that terrified her. It was because of this incident that she took matters into her own hands without her family's consent, and of course, she didn't have time to wait for her family to give her advice.

That night, the moon was dark and the wind was high. Mu Lian got up to relieve herself. She usually slept through the night, but perhaps her stomach had caught a chill that day. She got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet. In the dark and quiet night, there seemed to be a light outside the courtyard wall, and there was a series of hurried footsteps. It sounded like there were quite a few people. Mu Lian was bold and outspoken by nature, and she immediately sensed that something was wrong. Ignoring her stomach's protests, she climbed over the courtyard wall and looked outside.

Mu Lian was a pharmacist, but because there were very few female pharmacists, and Zhao Dewen could not provide special care, Mu Lian lived with other female staff members of the herb collection bureau. However, there were fewer people in her room. The courtyard of the girls' dormitory was just like the boys' dormitory, and it was relatively remote, next to the north corner gate.

This area is considered remote and desolate within the herb-gathering bureau. It could be said that the bureau has not yet developed or utilized this area, only building some houses and courtyards to house the lowest-ranking members of the bureau.

Mu Lian climbed up the courtyard wall and saw a winding fire dragon heading towards the side gate. She didn't know how many people were there, nor did she have time to count them. Her gaze was drawn to the corpses that the people were carrying and lifting.

People carrying torches were positioned at the front, middle, and back of the line, but that didn't stop Mu Lian from seeing the dead people of all ages. The youngest child was being held by someone. What horrified Mu Lian was not the gruesome scene itself, but the manner in which those people died.

She didn't have a chance to see clearly, but it was as if God knew she had this need, or perhaps those people were in such a hurry that the body fell to the ground, and the torchbearer went forward to check...

Mu Lian recognized at a glance that it had been poisoned; the狰狞 face and the eerie posture...

"You mean there are older and younger people?" Jia Chuan interrupted Mu Lian with a serious expression when he heard this.

Mu Lian nodded emphatically and said, "At first I thought they were a family, but after thinking about it carefully, I realized that when I saw them, the people in front of them were almost at the North Gate. I only saw the last few people clearly. If they were a family, how many people would that family have? I don't know of any family like that in the herb gathering bureau."

Jia Chuan frowned and asked, "What came to mind?"

Mu Lian shook her head and said:
“At first I didn’t think anything of it, I was just quite scared, so I told my man to send a message to Yunnan as soon as possible. But the next morning, he came to me and said that Zhou Cheng was dead. I rushed over to take a look. It was chaotic. People were coming and going in the courtyard with panic. I squatted down and looked and I knew that Zhou Cheng had been poisoned by two kinds of poisons. One was Yunnan heat poison and the other was Red Beauty Death. I don’t know how these two poisons were made, but I know that some of the ingredients are only found in Yunnan. But I haven’t heard that my family has any plans for this. Besides, if we really find out what happened to Zhou Cheng, we can just tell the King of Zhou and he will take care of it.”

Jia Chuan stared at Mu Lian with a solemn expression, and Mu Lian unconsciously lowered her head under his gaze.

"You poisoned that servant," Jia Chuan said directly and firmly this time. Chen Mo drew his knife with a clang, and Gao Yuntian then drew his iron ruler.

Mu Lian looked at Jia Chuan with a questioning gaze, but not much fear: "How did you know?"

"Because Zhou Cheng was killed by this so-called servant, he could not have killed himself in this way, and his accomplices had no reason to kill him at that time, let alone poison him."

Gao Yuntian and Chen Mo exchanged a glance.

Why did you think it was me?

“I’ve already said that after something like this happened, you should have stayed away from me. Since you’ve come to my door, you must know something. You want to use me to clear the Mu family’s name and cover up your murder. You appeared at the wrong time and made a request you shouldn’t have. You also have the ability to identify poisons. And looking at the deaths of these two people, I would naturally think of you.”

Mu Lian closed her eyes, feeling all the strength drain from her body. She slumped into a chair and said in despair, "I poisoned that servant, but this matter has nothing to do with the Duke of Qian's mansion."

“Tell me the truth. If it really has nothing to do with the Duke of Qian’s mansion, I will explain it to the Emperor. I also believe that the Duke of Qian, who is stationed in Yunnan, has no reason to get involved in these matters.”

Mu Lian took a deep breath and said:
“I saw that servant huddled in a corner of the room, pretending to be scared. He could fool others, but he couldn’t fool me. I went up to him intending to ask him some questions, but I smelled something on him… I just frowned and sniffed a few more times, and he immediately changed his expression. Luckily, my men were nearby. At that moment, there was no one in the courtyard; everyone was blocking the gate. My men then took him to the side room, and I found two kinds of medicine on him…”

"Your person is your...cousin?"

Mu Lian nodded.

"You saw that Zhou Cheng was killed by that servant, and your men had already subdued him and handed him over to the government. Why did you still kill him?"

"He said that as long as he said he was involved with the Mu family, the Mu family would be buried with him. Right now, the only thing to do is to stand with him and deal with the people in the court. His meaning is that as long as you leave, everything will be fine."

"Does he know you're from the Mu Prince's Mansion?" Jia Chuan asked.

“I told him what kind of poison he used, and he knew I was from the Duke of Qian’s mansion.”

Jia Chuan frowned and said, "He said you are from the Mu Prince's Mansion, not the Duke of Qian's Mansion."

"it's the same."

"It's different!" Jia Chuan took a deep breath and said, "Putting that aside, he threatened you, so you killed him? Where did you get the poison?"

“He has it on him. He knows I’m from the Duke of Qian’s mansion. If we don’t kill him, the Duke of Qian’s mansion will really be implicated.” A resolute glint flashed in Mu Lian’s eyes.

"Let me recount what happened that day. You discovered that Zhou Cheng's cause of death was two poisons, both of which were related to Yunnan. So you wanted to ask the servant some questions, because you knew that no one in the Mu family would do such a thing, nor would they need to. However, the servant was very wary and, realizing that you might have discovered something, tried to run away. You and your 'cousin' subdued him and took him to the side room. In order to force him to say something, you cleverly revealed your trump card first, saying what kind of poison he used. He then deduced that you were from the Mu family. You immediately became clever again and found the poison on him, killing him."

Mu Lian frowned as she listened. After Jia Chuan finished speaking, she asked, "Why did you say I was being presumptuous? Did you mean to keep him around so he could frame the Duke of Qian's mansion?"

Jia Chuan sighed and said, "So what if the poison is really as you say, and the main medicinal materials come from southern Yunnan? Does only the Duke of Qian's mansion have the right to collect herbs? Similarly, if you know which two poisons he used, he knows who you are. He was just bluffing you, but you actually revealed your identity, and then you killed the only person who could prove that this matter had nothing to do with the Duke of Qian's mansion. Once this case is investigated and it is found that you killed that servant, how can the Duke of Qian's mansion escape responsibility? Aren't you just being clever for your own good?"

Mu Lian asked anxiously, "How can only he prove that the Duke of Qian's mansion is unrelated to this case?"

Gao Yuntian hurriedly asked, "Do you know who his accomplices are?"

Mu Lian shook her head, then said urgently, "You can investigate!"

"Where does the North Gate lead?" Jia Chuan asked seriously, as if remembering something.

“The back gate of the Herb Garden is just outside, separated only by a narrow alley,” Mu Lian replied.

Jia Chuan raised an eyebrow and looked at Chen Mo, saying, "Gather some people and come with me to the Grass and Tree Garden to dig up the body. Hand her over to Duo Duo to look after."

Mu Lian said urgently, "I take responsibility for my own actions and don't need anyone to watch over me. I'm not going anywhere. You still haven't answered me why only that servant can prove that this case has nothing to do with the Duke of Qian's mansion?"

"With your brain, you wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you. Just wait and see. It would be best if I could make a gain today, otherwise no one can save the Duke of Qian's mansion."

……

Jia Chuan first ordered his men to arrest the gatekeepers of the Herb Garden. After asking around, he learned that no one was guarding the back gate, just like the side gates of the Herb Gathering Bureau, which were usually locked.

Jia Chuan then asked who had the key. The answer was: Many people.

(End of this chapter)