Wishful Things

Hearing the light and subtle sound of footsteps, Wu Chao stopped, without turning his head, he only asked, "How is it? Are you able to identify it clearly?"

Sui Shan replied: "My subordinate has carefully identified this person. This person is indeed 70% similar to the man in black that my subordinate saw that day, but the other party was covering his face at the time, so this subordinate did not dare to make a judgment. Besides, this subordinate inspected the palm of the other party's hand, and it is indeed a person who is good at using bows and arrows."

Ordinarily, in such a face-to-face meeting, ordinary people would not even be able to tell the seven or eight points, but Suishan was born as a secret guard, and he has always been sensitive. He has a deep memory of those who want to hurt his master's life.

After hearing this, the slender and beautiful fingers that the young man carried behind his back tightened slightly.

After a while, he ordered: "Tell Sui Jiang that you must be more careful when exchanging news with people in Yingyue Tower in the future."

Sui Shan's eyes moved.

The young master is worried that the control in Yingyue Building is not strict. If there is a problem once, it is easy to have a second time?

Or do you have other thoughts?

But no matter what the reason, Young Master acted with his own consideration, so Suishan just agreed immediately.

Not far away, Xiao Qi walked over leading the horse, the young man took the reins and jumped on the horse's back, his tall and straight figure quickly disappeared at the end of the long street.

...

After the first month of the lunar year, spring is gradually appearing, and the weather is getting warmer day by day.

When the apricot blossoms are in full bloom, there is a sense of spring in and around the capital. The female family members put on light spring clothes. Today they go out of the city together for a spring walk, and tomorrow they will participate in a flower viewing party set up by a lady, chatting, laughing, talking about poetry and piano.

In comparison, Xu Mingyi's recent days have been much more monotonous.

She had few close friends since she was a child, and she never liked to deal with these occasions, so when she sent the post to the house, she probably found an excuse to decline it.

After a long time, when those people send posts, they also save the meaning of going through the motions. If she goes suddenly one day, it will surprise the hosts.

However, recently her only friend, Princess Yufeng, is obsessed with helping the victims outside the city.

Princess Yufeng was working outside, while Xu Mingyi was giving money secretly, but on the surface it was not appropriate to get involved too much, so he could only stay at home.

But she didn’t feel bored, practicing arrows and writing letters, or playing chess with her grandfather, or listening to her parents talking about the court and the back house. When she was really free, she would argue with Ming Shi and feed the big birds—this kind of time when the family stayed together in peace and stability was extremely precious to her.

The only fly in the ointment is that there is still one less person around.

On this day, the spring is bright and beautiful.

In the small garden of Xiyuan, a girl in a sky-blue shirt was lying on a deck chair basking in the sun. Half of her raven hair was tied up in a bun, and the other half hung behind her head, casually scattered on both sides of her shoulders, meandering, black and smooth, like fine silk. Under the moon white satin skirt, the clean and brand new taupe-color embroidered shoes with pearls inlaid on the upper gave off a faint halo in the sunlight.

The warm sun made people feel lazy even to the bone. The girl yawned, and simply turned the scroll upside down on her face to block the glare of the sun, and listened to the little maid on the side talking about the recent news in Beijing.

In recent days, there are actually two things that are the most hotly discussed in Beijing and China.

This first one is nothing more than this year's spring.

The apricot list has been released. After the palace examination, the emperor personally selected the top three among the tribute students. He just sacrificed to the Confucius Temple yesterday and walked across the street.

It is worth mentioning that this year's champion of the new division is a young man from a poor family who has just turned twenty, his name is Cao Lang, and it is said that he has not yet married.

After all, he is the number one scholar in the new department, so it is inevitable that many high-ranking officials who have unmarried daughters of the right age at home will be moved.

Xu Mingyi naturally thought of the Xia family.

In the previous life, the champion of this session was not named Cao, but Zhan.

And Zhan Yunzhu married Xia Tingzhen's youngest daughter, Xia Xi——

This time, the No. 1 Scholar has been replaced by another person. I wonder if the No. 1 Scholar's wife will also change her position?

Presumably, there will be a resolution soon.

Aoi talked about another thing.

Recently, the unmarried girls in the capital are more or less uneasy. The reason for this is that "flower pickers" have repeatedly committed crimes near the capital——

At first, no one knew about this matter, until a Yuanwailang in the west of the city brought the matter to court—this Yuanwai had only one daughter in his family, who was as painful as a jewel, and after being defiled by the thief, she hanged herself the next day.

In consideration of his daughter's reputation, Yuan Wai didn't want to report it to the officials at first, but seeing his daughter's death, he couldn't care less. He just wanted to seek justice for his daughter who died in vain, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

After this member, the same thing happened in another family.

Moreover, the same plum blossom marks were left in the boudoirs of the two girls. After analyzing the details of many signs, the government finally concluded that the two cases were committed by the same person.

Afterwards, rumors of their daughters being involved in the family spread faintly from several other families, including the family of officials.

Not every family has the courage to choose to report to the government. Those who care about their reputation may not even have time to cover up the matter. The reason why there are rumors spread is that this flower picker not only robs sex, but also robs money.

After committing the crime, he will empty out all the belongings in the girl's boudoir, including some personal accessories——

And after he took it away, he would distribute it to some poor families inside and outside the capital. When many people opened their doors early in the morning, they would find some broken silver and jewelry in the yard.

Some of them were really short of money, and they couldn't manage much, so they took the jewelry to pawn.

But there is no impenetrable wall in the world, and there are many such things, which arouse the attention and discussion of others.

The government summoned the people who pawned and sold jewelry for interrogation, and they understood what was going on.

And because someone recognized who some of the jewelry came from, the rumors spread.

Some were really guessed, and some were accidentally injured by rumors. All in all, the people involved in this matter have been very restless recently.

"...the money was robbed and distributed to the poor people. Many people outside said that this flower picker is a character who is both righteous and evil." Ah Kui said while kneeling on a mat beside her, making tea for her daughter.

Hearing the faint approval in the little maid's tone, Xu Mingyi tore the book off his face, revealing a pair of slightly frowning eyebrows.

"Where is it right? Just because he distributed the stolen things to other people, is it right?"

And this is not the same as robbing the rich and helping the poor in a simple sense. If those who rob corrupt officials and distribute money to the common people can barely be called a chivalrous character, then this flower picker is an out-and-out beast.

Regardless of whether he distributes money to the people out of so-called pity, enjoys the sense of superiority that he can do whatever he wants with impunity, or wants to use it to offset his own crimes, but this will not change the fact that he is evil.

After all, what's wrong with those girls?

He lost his innocence, lost his personal belongings, and wanted to keep his reputation, but he was still forced to show his scars to the world because of these jewelry-but in the end, this might be the last straw that crushed those poor girls, but it also became a stepping stone for what he called both good and evil?

In a few years, won't he forget all about his abuse of women, and only remember that he gave money to the poor, and this will become a "beautiful talk" again, right?

If you ask her to tell you, this kind of person is obviously not enough to die a hundred times.

Seeing that her daughter was very upset, Ah Kui thought about it seriously, and suddenly said: "That's right...the money is not his at all, he stole it, and the member who had an accident at home is a well-known good man!"

The little maid figured this out, so she showed a look of disdain.

She was almost misled by those rumors outside.

Of course, it wasn't just the rumors that led her astray, but also the various rumors of thieves written in those scriptures, sometimes just looking at it.

Xu Mingyi also thought of the scriptures he had read in the other courtyard in Yangzhou in his previous life.

"In some scriptures, those flower pickers are written about how suave and charming they are, how gentle and considerate they are to the victimized women, and even caused countless women to look forward to his appearance every night, and they have not been punished until the last page...Is this something written by people?"

She was so angry that she gritted her teeth and tore up the book on the spot. She couldn't eat for a long time, so she almost found the person who wrote the book and had a good reasoning with him.

It doesn't mean that villains can't have a good side, but they must not be confused. A crime is a crime, and beautifying a crime is a secondary injury to innocent victims.

Aoi was dumbfounded.

My God, has the girl secretly read such a script? !

Could it be that it flowed out from her... If Madam finds out about this, I'm afraid she will be beaten to death with a stick?

She must pay more attention when selecting scripts in the future!

Seeing that the girl who didn't feel that she had exposed anything was still angry, Akui, who was secretly startled, handed over a cup of tea: "Girl, drink your saliva to calm yourself... Such a villain will definitely be punished."

Xu Mingyi took the tea and took a few mouthfuls.

At this time, Ah Zhu came over.

"Girl, Mrs. Yong'anbo Shizi and two cousin girls are here. Madam asked someone to invite the girl to talk with her."

Cousin Wei and Cousin Qing are here?

Cousin Qing hasn't been out for a long time since Xia Han's incident last year, and this is the first time she has come to Zhen Guogong's mansion since then.

Xu Mingyi put down the teacup and got up from the reclining chair.

After tidying up for a while, he took Aoi over there.

In the Shiziyuan, Guo saw that Mrs. Wen and her two daughters were sitting in the inner room talking to Mrs. Cui.

The cousins ​​greeted each other.

Xu Mingyi looked at the two cousins ​​with a smile.

It has to be said that since Mrs. Yong'an passed away, the clothes and jewelry of the two cousins ​​are much more refined than before.

Besides, Cousin Qing's spirit is better than the last time I saw her, she finally has some flesh on her face.

It's just that Xu Mingyi quickly discovered that the atmosphere was slightly wrong.

There was only one big maid, Qing Ying, in the room, and everyone looked a little strange.

Xu Mingyi was puzzled, sat down and waited for them to speak.

Sure enough, Wen said hesitantly: "There was an accident at home last night, and I didn't know what to do for a while, so I came to the door to bother, and I wanted to hear what Eldest Sister and Miss Xu think..."

Because Cui Yunqing was rescued by Xu Mingyi in the previous accident, this made Wen's heart always have an unspeakable gratitude and trust for the girl in front of him.

And because her husband is really useless, listening to him is a waste of life, so she has developed the habit of coming to Cui for advice when she encounters problems.

"I don't know what happened to your residence?" Xu Mingyi asked seriously.

Wen Shi looked at his daughter.

Thinking of what happened last night, Cui Yunqing's face paled a little. She looked at Xu Mingyi and said, "Cousin Zhaozhao, last night... I seem to have seen the flower picker that has been rumored recently..."

Xu Mingyi's eyes suddenly changed.

"Did he hurt his cousin?"

She was able to ask so bluntly precisely because she felt that Cousin Qing could visit the door so calmly today because she hadn't encountered anything too embarrassing to tell.

Cui Yunqing really shook his head.

"not at all……"

She said in a low voice: "I sleep very lightly at night now, and I would wake up when there was a slight disturbance in the wind... At that time, I faintly felt that someone was outside the window, so I sat up and looked. When I looked up, I saw a black shadow outside the window!"

At that time she screamed out.

Because the shadow from before was still there, her voice was terrifying and loud enough, and immediately woke up the maid and sister who were on guard at night—since she had an accident, she often had difficulty sleeping at night, and Cui Yunwei, as her elder sister, would often come to sleep with her.

The person outside the window probably didn't expect her to be so vigilant, seeing that the situation was not good, they quickly ran away.

And because of his haste to escape, he left something under the window sill.

After Cui Yunqing told the story, Wen took out something from his sleeve and handed it to Xu Mingyi.

Cui asked her daughter from the side: "Zhaozhao is the most well-informed, can you see what this is?"

Xu Mingyi has long been accustomed to her mother's never-stingy compliments on her, but why does everyone look like she must recognize this thing?

Could it be that in everyone's eyes, she is still a person in the world?

However, she did recognize it.

Xu Mingyi looked at the bamboo tube in his hand, and said, "It's filled with drugs. When lit, it will form smoke. If you enter a room with closed doors and windows, you will fall into a coma—"

It's just obvious that the one in her hand has not had time to ignite.

"I knew it was a drug!"

Cui Yunwei frowned and said: "There are rumors everywhere in the city, saying that the usual method of this flower picker is to stun people first, and then—"

After all, it was a little girl, her face turned red and white when she said this.

"According to this, is it really...?" Wen's voice trembled a little, both scared and annoyed.

Why let her Qing'er encounter such things again and again? !

Fortunately, Qing'er was vigilant enough, otherwise, she really didn't know how her daughter, who was just getting better, would be tortured...

And this time I escaped by luck, will there be a next time?

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(Today is two chapters in one, good night.)