Playing bad and eating melons: The whole court is laughing? No, no

Chapter 422: Mountain Cabin

Cui Yuan led his men back to the woods to look for clues. The first thing they did was to follow the path where the cloth was found, but after a few steps, there was no road ahead.

But he found that the weeds in front of the trail showed signs of being trampled and some branches were broken.

Judging from the marks on the broken branches, they must have been broken not long ago, no more than a day ago.

Moreover, there was a silk thread hooked on one of the broken branches, the same as the silk cloth he had found earlier.

So he led his men to continue groping forward along these traces. The surrounding trees became more and more dense, and from time to time they could hear the strange calls of unknown birds.

As they walked, two roads appeared in front of them. Cui Yuan did not hesitate for a moment and split his forces to search for them.

He led his men along the relatively flat road on the left, while Constable Wang from the Dali Temple led his men along another rugged road.

After an unknown amount of time, Cui Yuan groped his way to a small mountain hut by following some clues he found along the way.

From a distance, he saw two people standing outside the hut. They were armed with swords and were obviously martial artists.

There was no village in front and no shop behind. In the uninhabited mountains, a small house suddenly appeared, and there was someone guarding outside the house.

His intuition told him that the clue he was looking for was inside the cabin.

But he didn't know if there were other people around, so he didn't dare to act rashly. After all, there were only three of them.

So he took his men and quietly sneaked to the back of the hut.

Looking inside through the narrow window, there was a man in white lying on the bed, but his feet were shackled.

Cui Yuan discovered that the piece of cloth he had picked up earlier was torn from the clothes the man was wearing.

At this time, a voice came from the front.

"What did you catch?"

"Two pheasants and a few rabbits, and some wild fruits."

"I'll give some wild fruits to the person inside first."

"Why are you in such a hurry? We haven't eaten yet."

"You want to die, don't you? If anything happens to that person inside, we'll all be held responsible."

"Tsk, he's nothing more than a concubine played by the princess. If the county lady hadn't gotten tired of playing with him, he would have died long ago."

"Speak less. If he hears, he'll tell the county lady. Who will die first, you or he? Besides, out of so many people, he's the only one who survived. That shows how powerful he is."

When Cui Yuan heard the word "County Lady", he knew he had found the right place, but there were no less than four people on the other side.

Three against four, it's hard for them to win.

The disdainful voice came again, "A grown man won't die from being hungry for a day or two."

"He's not like us."

A burst of laughter.

"With his weak appearance, I don't know how he can satisfy both the princess and the county lady at the same time."

"He wasn't that weak when he first arrived. Perhaps he was drained by the princess and the county lady in turn."

"I told you to keep your mouth shut, but you kept going on and on. Hurry up and get rid of the pheasant and rabbit. I'll send the fruit to him."

Hearing this, Cui Yuan hurriedly squatted down.

With a creak, the person guarding outside pushed the door open.

"Hey~ wake up."

The man lying in bed must have been awakened, and the man said, "The pheasant isn't ready yet. Eat some fruit first."

Then, the sound of a door closing was heard.

Cui Yuan slowly stood up and looked inside through the narrow window. The man inside was eating a green fruit.

Even from the side, Cui Yuan could clearly see the sharp light flashing in the man's eyes.

He also learned from the conversation between those people that Princess Yuehua had killed many people, and only the man in the house survived because he was favored by County Lady Wen'an.

Princess Yuehua must be unaware of this.

After all, since Princess Yuehua was able to decisively kill so many people, it is impossible for her to leave any trouble for herself.

The man inside is the evidence of Princess Yuehua's murder!

Thinking of this, Cui Yuan silently said to one of his men beside him, "Go find Constable Wang."

The subordinate nodded and left quietly.

***

Back to the princess's mansion, the people brought by Qin Shi searched the princess's mansion thoroughly, but except for a secret room, they did not find any suspicious things or places.

However, Qin Shi noticed that a maidservant beside County Master Wen'an had a strange look on her face. She always stole glances at him when County Master Wen'an was not paying attention, as if she had something to say to him.

So, he thought for a moment and said, "County Lady, I'm a little thirsty. Could I have a cup of tea?"

After looking at him suspiciously for a moment, Wen'an County Master ordered, "Taohong, serve tea to Qin Shaoqing."

"promise."

The maidservant responded and went downstairs to prepare tea, but unfortunately it was not the maidservant who had something to say to Qin Shi.

After the maidservant left, Qin Shi touched his belly and said, "County Lady, could you prepare some more food for me?"

This time, Princess Wen'an didn't agree. Instead, she said with a look of vigilance, "Qin Shaoqing has already searched my princess's mansion thoroughly. Isn't it time to leave?"

"Not yet. I need to check everyone in the Princess's Mansion one by one. Please call everyone here."

Upon hearing Qin Shi's words, Wen'an County Master's face darkened. "You want to interrogate the people in my Princess Mansion?"

"This is the necessary procedure for investigating a case." Qin Shi remained calm. "Her Royal Highness the Princess has previously stated that she will fully cooperate with my investigation. I'm sure she won't refuse."

The County Master Wen'an gritted her teeth and said, "Cooperate, I will definitely cooperate! But I must inform Mother first."

After saying this, regardless of whether Qin Shi agreed or not, County Lady Wen'an turned around and went to find Princess Yuehua.

"County Lady." Qin Shi called out to him.

"What? Qin Shaoqing wants to interrogate the people in my princess mansion, but he doesn't allow me to tell my mother?" County Lady Wen'an said in an aggressive tone.

"My Lord, you misunderstood me. I was just asking you to prepare some food for me. Interrogation is a very time-consuming process."

The Wen'an County Lady's chest heaved with rage, and she uttered, "Lü'e, prepare food for Qin Shaoqing."

"promise."

Seeing that the maid who responded was the one who had something to say to him, Qin Shi raised the corners of his mouth slightly.

However, although Princess Wen'an left, she still left guards here to watch over them.

He couldn't contact the maid under the guards' noses, so he could only wait and see if the maid would take this opportunity to pass on a message to him.

After a while, the maid who had gone down to prepare tea according to the order of Wen'an County Master came up with the tea.

Qin Shi drank two cups of tea in a row. He was not worried that there would be any problems with the tea. Princess Yuehua would not be so stupid as to poison him.

About half a quarter of an hour later, the maid named Lu'e brought over a plate of mung bean cakes and glutinous rice balls.

When arranging the snacks, the maid Lu'e kept pointing to the plate of glutinous rice balls with her eyes.

Qin Shi calmly picked up the glutinous rice balls and started to eat them, but he ended up eating nothing after eating three of them.

It wasn't until the fourth that he got a bite.

He took out a handkerchief to wipe his mouth, and took the thing out of his mouth without anyone noticing.

It was at this time that Princess Wen'an returned and brought Princess Yuehua with her.