eye-catching

"Your Majesty, Lin Xie has sent a message!"

The old emperor took Eunuch Li's letter and read it under the light.

Someone followed the prince and tampered with the carriage this morning.

The old emperor took the letter and burned it on the lamp. The warm yellow flame instantly became fierce when it touched the paper, licking it, and there was still a trace of black air around it.

"Your Majesty, do you want to send someone over there?"

Eunuch Li is worried about the prince.

The old emperor laughed: "Fu Yi Fu has a great life, and he cannot die."

Eunuch Li stopped talking and stepped aside.

The old emperor looked at the flickering candle, his eyes shone brightly.

After the prince and his party traveled for a few days, they finally arrived at the magistrate's mansion in Yangzhou.

Since the magistrate knew that the prince wanted to see Hu Ruhai, he hastened to keep Hu Ruhai who was about to leave, and quickly sent someone to the market to find a good bird, brought it to the mansion, and even brought the county magistrate here. Just wait for the prince to come.

The prince and his party have not had any accidents since that time when the horse knelt on the ground, and they arrived at the mansion safely all the way.

The leader saw it, and hurriedly dismounted to wait for the prince, Yuan Qi and Lin Xie got off the road, opened the curtain, and let the prince follow.

The prince raised his hand to cover the sun a little, and then he saw clearly that he had already arrived at the gate of the mansion.

There were two rows of servants standing in front of the Yangzhou magistrate's mansion, all waiting for the prince's arrival. The magistrate himself stood in front of the door, rubbing his hands, with a smile on his face, watching the prince come down, and hurriedly led the people to kneel down down.

The row of people in the back knelt down again, and the battle was very powerful. The moment they knelt down, the dust on the ground rose up, and there was a feeling of galloping on the battlefield.

The prince glanced at him, raised his foot and asked, "Where's Hu Ruhai?"

Hu Ruhai, who was kneeling beside him, raised his head and responded, "My lord, I am."

The prince glanced at him and said, "Get up, let's talk in the room."

Lin Xie followed in and heard a lot of news.The most important witness is here, so you can't let him say a word, even his expression, he can see it in his eyes and remember it in his heart.

"Who are you traveling with?"

"It was with the two brothers of the Zhang family, Zhang Jiyao and Zhang Jiru."

The prince took a sip of tea and said, "Both of them disappeared?"

Lin Xie raised a question: "My lord, it seems that there is only one person surnamed Zhang missing in Yangzhou."

The prince thought for a moment, nodded, and said, "I remember the same one, why, they both disappeared?"

Hu Ruhai was astonished, and replied: "My lord, when I woke up, both of them were indeed gone."

The county magistrate interrupted and said, "My lord, I remember that there is only one surnamed Zhang and the other is Jiao."

The prince flipped through the scroll in his hand, frowned, and said, "It's clearly written that the missing person is Zhang Jiyao, why is there another person named Zhang missing? No one came to report the case?"

In this case, first of all, the family members of the missing person found out that their son had gone to take the imperial examination, and all the companions came back, but his son did not come back, so they thought of reporting the case. Unexpectedly, there were similar cases in other areas, which caused the yamen to complain. Notice.

The county magistrate hurriedly explained: "My lord, this family had a lawsuit with the local landlord. The Zhang family lost the entire house, and their parents died, leaving only their two brothers."

Lin Xie asked, "Who discovered that Zhang Ji Tiao was missing?"

The county magistrate explained: "The report in Yangzhou was relatively late, so we started to investigate when we found out that a scholar was missing. However, among those who took part in the imperial examination, we found that Zhang Jiyu did not come to the exam, but Zhang Jiru was late, so we I thought that only Zhang Jiyao was missing."

Hu Ruhai said: "During the exam, I didn't see Zhang Jiru either."

Lin Xie chuckled: "It's not that you were too absorbed in answering the paper and didn't notice it, did you?"

Hu Ruhai paused and lowered his head to think.

The prince seemed quite interested, and said: "Then where is this Zhang Jiru now?"

Lin Xie added: "His younger brother is missing, and he didn't come to report the crime?"

The magistrate shook his head.Obviously, if Zhang Jiru could be found, he would be able to know how his younger brother disappeared, but judging from the situation, even he might have disappeared.

The prince stroked his beard and tapped his fingers rhythmically on the sandalwood table, as if he was thinking about something.

Lin Xie asked: "Is Zhang Jiru still able to find someone?"

The prince sneered: "If you know that your brother is missing, do you still have the mood to hide in the market and eat steamed buns?"

Lin Xie quickly apologized.

Then, there was silence among the few people, and no one asked questions, but at this time the prefect and county magistrate were even more nervous.

The next day, missing person notices were posted everywhere in Yangzhou City.The most striking headline above is:

A huge reward is offered to find important clues in the case of ten missing persons: Zhang Jiru

Below is his portrait, including his introduction.Everywhere, there are groups of ordinary people watching the stickers and discussing together.

Not long after, people came to the yamen one after another, saying that they had met Zhang Jiru.Lin Xie collected all their confessions, and then sorted them out for the prince to read.

"My lord, this piece of Ji Ru seems to be back after finishing the exam."

According to several people, someone once saw him after the scientific examination, and he came back earlier than other scholars. According to him, because he knew that he was going to the county for the examination, he thought it was strange that he came back so early, and asked him, But he only said that he had no hope of passing the exam, so he came back early to pack up and go to the capital to do business.

So, at this time, he clearly knew that his younger brother was missing, but he didn't report the crime, but was about to abandon his younger brother and go to the capital to do business. There was only one possibility——

"His younger brother is dead, and Zhang Jiru saw him dead."

Lin Xie spoke out what was in his mind, but was cast a blank stare by the prince.

"Since we all know he's dead, why don't you report it? Seeing his brother die, don't you want to seek justice?"

"However, someone did watch him enter the capital afterwards." Lin Xie recalled, "It seems that he should be in the capital now, but why didn't he come to the Yamen to explain the situation?"

The prince said coldly: "You never thought that someone would kill him?"

Lin Xie paused.

If he escaped by luck, but saw the process of what happened, naturally if he is hated by others, such people who know too much generally don't live long.

The prince said: "I'm afraid this person is gone."

The significance of the sticker is whether Zhang Jiru's recent whereabouts can be found, but it turns out that he went to the capital for business two months ago, and after that, he is probably gone.

The prince suddenly got up and shouted: "Yuan Qi!"

Yuan Qi came in without hesitation, knelt down in front of the lord, and said, "Your lord, the servant is here!"

While the prince picked up the rice paper, he picked up the brush and began to brush.

"You ask someone to go to the capital and hand over what I wrote to the emperor."

After speaking, just finished writing, the prince folded and glued the paper, handed it to Yuan Qi, and said: "The sooner the better."

"Eh!"

Yuan Qi responded and hurried out.

Lin Xie asked: "My lord wants the emperor to find Zhang Jiru?"

The prince glanced at him, his eyes were full of sarcasm, and he said angrily: "How can the emperor have the time to find someone on behalf of the king?"

Lin Xie was too frightened to speak.

"This king wants the emperor to know that the person this king is looking for is by his side!"

He still can't believe that the old emperor didn't move at all!

Lin Xie was sweating, it seems that the prince didn't want the emperor to help him, he just wanted to be arrogant...

But according to the emperor's temperament, after receiving the letter, he should start to help the prince find someone.

The prince got up and said: "It's almost here, who reported Jiao Chengkai's disappearance?"

"I heard that two people came here together. Hearing that the prince wants to ask questions, they are waiting in the yamen right now."

Lin Xie didn't dare to disobey the prince's thoughts, and said, "My lord, are you going to the Yamen Mansion to interrogate people now?"

The prince glanced at him, and said: "This king wants to go to the yamen, where everyone sleeps with their salaries. This king is going to rectify the atmosphere!"

"Hey!" Lin Xie hurriedly followed.

The people in the yamen mansion heard that the prince was coming, so they hurriedly performed their duties, returned to their work and worked hard, creating an illusion that the yamen mansion was thriving.

"Are you so busy that you don't even have time to sweep the bird droppings at the door?"

The prince looked around at the huge Yamen Mansion, and couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. Although this Yamen Mansion is a central organization, it doesn't need to spend so much money, right?The big and small houses are more lively than the East and West Market in the capital.

After the county magistrate invited him in, the prince went straight to the subject: "Where are those two people? Call them over, I want to ask questions."

I heard that the prince was going to interrogate people, so early, the county magistrate arrested those two people, and they are waiting in the lobby now.

Wang Ye looked at those two people, one of them looked good, but he was cowering, kneeling on the ground and his legs were still trembling, the other was fearless, kneeling on the ground as if he was standing, with a serious expression on his face.

"This king asks you, how did Jiao Chengkai disappear at that time?"

The man who knelt straight replied: "My lord, when we were attacked by surprise, all three of us fainted, and when we woke up, there were only two of us left."

Lin Xie asked, "Then did you see the face of the person who attacked you?"

The man shook his head and said, "No, they are covering their faces, but they must be men."

The prince glanced at Yuan Qi, seeing that he was still standing there in a daze, and said, "Have you seen Jiao Chengkai since then?"

"Yes, my lord."

Lin Xie glanced at the prince and said, "Then did you find anything unusual before? Or was it a sudden attack?"

"The three of us have no opponents, so naturally no one wants to kill us."

"That's weird." Lin Xie faced the prince and said, "There is no reason for it, so what is the purpose?"

"Pass--"

With a sound, Yuan Qi suddenly fell on the spot. Everyone's eyes turned to this side in an instant, with a look of surprise on their faces. How could this living person fall down so suddenly?

The prince frowned, with an unnatural expression on his face, without hesitating for a moment, he said, "Lin Xie, move him away."

Lin Xie received the order, although he was puzzled, he hurried over to help Yuan Qi up.

Apparently he was in a coma.It's just that it's so good, how could it suddenly become comatose?Lin Xie remembered the prince's expression just now, it should not be a new thing.

This Yuan Qiyi was in a coma, but the prince didn't take it seriously, and continued to interrogate.

"So, the person who attacked you was completely unintentional, and he just watched Jiao Chengkai look so handsome?"

The prince pondered for a moment, then said: "Then, is this the case for other people too?"

The county magistrate said, "Yes, that's what they all said."

The prince stroked his beard with a solemn expression, and said to himself: "Then why?"

At this moment, Lin Xie came back, leaned close to the prince and asked, "My lord, Yuan Qi..."

"It's okay, just let him fall asleep."

The prince waved his hand and said, "That's all you know?"

"My lord..."

The timid person suddenly spoke up, and said: "My lord, I also know that after those people knocked us out, I woke up not long after, and I heard in a daze that they seemed to be discussing how to make Jiao Cheng lucky." Go to the capital..."

After hearing this, the prince frowned, and said loudly, "Are you sure you heard it right?"

The man was so frightened that he kowtowed first, then nodded, and said: "That's right, my lord, I did hear that, after that they moved people away, and I didn't hear the rest clearly."

Lin Xie also had a serious face, thinking about what he just said.

If these people were transported to the capital, it is not close from Yangzhou to Chang'an!It took almost a month even for him and the prince to come here. How long would it take if they transported people there and had to cover their eyes and ears and take an unusual path?

The prince nodded and said, "Is there anything else?"

"No, no more."

The prince called the two of them back, lost his serious expression just now, stood up, shook his sleeves, and asked, "Which room is Yuan Qi in?"