klisemfg Chapter 320
Chapter 320
Xie Zhiyan suddenly turned his head to look at her, his voice unconsciously rising, "Lord Junior Preceptor, are you saying that you have autumn sweet potato seeds there?"The few people who had already walked to the bottom of the hall's steps were only a few meters away from the main hall. Xie Zhiyan's words were naturally heard loud and clear by the Great Yan monarch and officials inside, led by Emperor Mingxi, all of whom wore exceptionally ugly expressions.
Emperor Mingxi stood up abruptly. Before he even arrived, his voice carried over, "Fuguang is here? Old Qian, why didn't you announce her arrival so I could welcome her in advance?"
Yue Fuguang looked at his hypocritical politeness and walked inside while saying, "Your Majesty, didn't you already have Old Qian go to the door to receive me?"
"Fuguang, it must be hot on the road. Come sit here quickly, it's close to the ice box and cool."
There were seven or eight ice boxes placed in the hundred-square-meter hall. As soon as Yue Fuguang walked in, she felt enveloped by a comfortable coolness.
Looking again at the twenty or so officials standing in the hall, all of their faces were covered in sweat. This was due to their internal anxiety and had nothing to do with the scorching sun outside.
As Emperor Mingxi spoke, he personally poured warm water for Yue Fuguang and handed it to her. This attentiveness left Qian Gui with nothing to do for a moment.
The officials also cupped their hands and smiled at her. Yue Fuguang nodded in greeting.
After sitting down and drinking some tea, she finally noticed a person kneeling straight on the right side of the hall.
He was in his twenties, still wearing a suit of soft armor on such a hot day. With sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, he embodied both heroism and nobility. His slightly dark face currently held an abnormal flush. Seeing Yue Fuguang come in, he swept a glance at her from the corner of his eye and didn't dare to look again.
Yue Fuguang also acted as if she had just seen him, asking despite knowing the answer, "Your Majesty, what is going on here?"
Emperor Mingxi followed her gaze and saw the person kneeling on the ground. He said with exasperation at his failure to meet expectations, "This is Shen Jian, the commander of the guards here. The seedlings in the imperial estate were destroyed, and he and his subordinates bear an undeniable responsibility."
"Then has Your Majesty found out the whole story?"
Emperor Mingxi seemed very angry, but if he really had to heavily punish his quite capable biological nephew, he would probably be reluctant to do so.
"Wei Ping, Cai Xian, you two come and explain to the Lord Junior Preceptor."
The miserable duo looked at each other, acknowledged the order, and stepped forward.
Seeing that it was these two in charge again, Yue Fuguang couldn't help but feel sorry for these two brothers in distress.
Ever since she started exposing secrets, these two hadn't had a single day of rest. They were either catching domestic spies or foreign spies.
They were either catching domestic imperial relatives and high-ranking officials or on their way to catching foreign princes and princesses.
For a brief moment, Yue Fuguang's conscience pricked her, wondering if she should treat them a little better in the future.
After all, even with her occasional feeding, while everyone else was glowing with health, these two were visibly aging day by day.
Cai Xian spoke first, "Reporting to Your Majesty and the Lord Junior Preceptor, the guards have caught three people in total. These three were originally instructed by someone to come here and gather information. For some reason, when one of them saw unfamiliar crops like corn and sweet potatoes, and realized they weren't the potatoes they were looking for, he feared he wouldn't get paid if he returned empty-handed. Thus, he acted maliciously and set fire to the fields."
"Minister Cai, are the identities of these three confirmed?"
Looking for potatoes but not going to Xuanwei Prefecture, and instead finding the royal estate, these people were not simple!
"Upon investigation, all three are scoundrels from nearby villages. They were bribed by someone with ulterior motives and sneaked into the imperial estate while the management was lax during the construction of the Autumn Sacrifice Lutai next door, attempting to find out where the potatoes are planted."
These people were idlers from nearby villages. Although the imperial estate's guards had been stationed here for a long time, they really didn't recognize them.
Moreover, because it was only the third day since the construction of the Lutai began, the guards hadn't fully familiarized themselves with all the craftsmen yet. Thus, the security was slightly relaxed, allowing these few to exploit the loophole. It was all a matter of fate and timing!
[Master, Cai Xian and the others were fooled!]
Cai Xian still kept his head slightly lowered, but his peripheral vision unexpectedly met Wei Ping's. Sure enough, from Lord Divine Artifact, they could truly learn some different information.
They had verified it; the identities of the three people were not an issue. But commoners, even reckless scoundrels, wouldn't be completely without fear.
These three, who usually had to bow and scrape when seeing the village head and whose highest official encounter was the county magistrate, how could they have the guts to burn the Emperor's estate?
Just because they drank a couple of extra cups of cheap wine at noon and drank themselves silly?
[Fooled by whom? Those three scoundrels?]
[Master, these three are indeed commoners from Shanqianba ahead, but among them, that Song Xiaoer, strictly speaking, is no ordinary scoundrel. Behind him is a boss named Hua Qian. Hua Qian and that Brother Wicked are good friends; they are both involved in the underworld.]
[Little Zhu, are you saying this matter is related to the underworld of Shangjing City? Is Hua Qian his real name? And was Song Xiaoer instructed by this Hua Qian?]
[Hehehe, the name is a bit weird, but it is indeed his real name. Hua Qian instructed Song Xiaoer, but the mastermind wasn't him, but his older brother Hua Rong. Master might not have heard the name Hua Rong, but you must have heard his other nickname, Black Widow!]
[Black Widow? Are you saying Black Widow is a man? And a local of Shangjing City?]
Emperor Mingxi and his officials also furrowed their brows tightly. The Drunken Rakshasa, Poison Young Master, and Black Widow had long made a name for themselves in the martial arts world.
They had only recently learned from the Junior Preceptor and her companions that these three notorious menaces were actually all members of Panshan.
The Drunken Rakshasa, whom they had captured not long ago, was indeed a person possessing both male and female traits.
Therefore, the Divine Artifact's claim that the famous, beautiful, and charming Black Widow was actually a man was not that hard to accept.
[That is right, the Black Widow was also a handsome young man in his early years. Later, he became romantically involved with a young and beautiful widow.
Who knew that the widow would later dump him and marry someone else.
Young and hot-blooded, Hua Rong slaughtered all five members of that family on a dark and windy night, and from then on, he became a fugitive in the martial arts world.
Later, through a series of twists and turns, he joined Panshan. When he re-emerged into the world, due to his early experiences, he had developed a twisted hobby. He loved preying on young widows the most, and he also enjoyed disguising himself as a young widow to seduce his mission targets. Hence, he earned the title of Black Widow.]
"So, you mean the mastermind behind today's incident is Panshan? How did they know potatoes were planted here?"
[They got the news from the Dongyi people. There are Panshan spies among the Dongyi as well.]
Yue Fuguang was a bit speechless. Just how many tentacles did Panshan have? Their people were everywhere. She wanted to uproot this organization completely, but today's incident further proved that it truly would not be that easy.
But looking at the whopping 58,000 mission points on the quest panel, it was truly tempting!
"Have you two lords thoroughly investigated the schemers behind this?"
The information has already been revealed to you, so hurry up and speak the truth!
As expected, Wei Ping did not disappoint her. He stepped forward on his own initiative and said, "To answer the Junior Preceptor, according to Song Xiao'er's confession, he was instructed by his boss, Hua Qian, who ordered him to secretly investigate the exact location where the potatoes were planted in the imperial estate.
And we found out that Hua Qian has an older brother named Hua Rong, nicknamed the Black Widow, who was once good friends with the Drunken Rakshasa currently held in the heavenly prison."