Jiapingguan Chronicle

Chapter 2844 Master Qingsong 62.0
"What is that?" Jin Miaomiao reached up and picked at her ear, then shook her head, looking at Song Yaojia with a puzzled expression. "Your Highness, what did you just say?"

"Don't doubt your ears, there's absolutely nothing wrong with them, you didn't mishear." Seeing her reaction, Song Yaojia smiled helplessly. "Your reaction is the same as mine. When I first heard it, I also thought it was absurd. A fraudster telling a genius Taoist master that his forehead was dark and that he was in big trouble was a joke."

"Yeah, how could you say that?" Jin Miaomiao shook her head in confusion. "Ignorance is bliss!"

“Who says otherwise!” Song Yaojia looked at Shen Haolin, then at Shen Cha. “What are you two thinking? Aren’t you going to say something?”

"What are you talking about?" Shen Haolin chuckled. "These people can only move around in the vicinity of the West Market, which is a certain distance from the Prince's Mansion and the Earl's Mansion. Why did those two leave the Prince's Mansion and instead go to the West Market for a stroll?"

“Brother is right!” Shen Cha nodded to Shen Haolin, then turned to Song Yaojia and said, “I was just thinking the same thing. Is there anything they need to specifically look for?” She thought for a moment and said, “I have a guess. Perhaps Master Qingsong didn’t come here simply to attend the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet?”

"Dealing with smart people is very worry-free; they can grasp the key points immediately."

Song Yaojia snapped her fingers, looked at Shen Cha with admiration, then glanced at Shen Haolin beside her who had no reaction, and sighed helplessly. It wasn't easy to make this guy panic. Back then, the Duke's Mansion, the Marquis's Mansion, and the Shen Family Army all suffered major changes at almost the same time, and he wasn't particularly shocked. She wondered what could possibly make him change his expression.

"Then let me guess again, was Gongsun Yue doing it on purpose? Or were both of them doing it on purpose?"

"Xiao Cha, what do you mean by 'deliberate'?" Jin Miaomiao asked, puzzled. "They went to the West Market on purpose?"

“Yes!” Shen Cha nodded. “Although I have never met Gongsun Yue, I have heard that he is usually unkempt. He is not the kind of person who is slovenly and doesn’t care about cleanliness. After all, the Imperial Observatory has to bathe, burn incense, and pray before doing anything. He is certainly clean. He probably doesn’t care about his clothes and dresses casually. He is not the kind of person whose status can be easily identified at a glance, right?”

“Yes, that’s the idea.” Song Yaojia nodded. “Gongsun Yue said that linen clothes are the most convenient. If they get rubbed or scratched, it won’t hurt. After all, the Imperial Observatory sometimes has to go out to explore mountains and such, so it’s not good to wear too nice clothes.”

“So, aside from going to court, visiting government offices, and meeting with colleagues and relatives, he always travels in linen clothes. But this time, he was going to the Prince’s Mansion to pick up Master Qingsong, so naturally he had to change into clothes appropriate for his status. But dressing like this and deliberately taking a detour through the West Market, there must be a deeper meaning behind it, right? That’s why I said he was probably doing it on purpose.” Shen Cha stroked his chin and exchanged a glance with Shen Haolin. “Master Qingsong was also very cooperative with him, so he must have known something beforehand. Or rather, the Master’s trip to Xijing City that time was mainly for Gongsun Yue. No, to be precise, it was for those newly arrived sorcerers in Xijing City.”

“That’s right.” Song Yaojia nodded approvingly. “Any other ideas?”

"Hmm," Shen Cha smiled, "I just had a really bold idea."

"What is it?"

"Could someone from the Yun family be involved too?" Shen Cha looked at Song Yaojia. "I have some basis for this guess. After all, whether it's a family of celestial masters or a family like the Gong family that started as tomb raiders, not everyone in the family has this talent. Or rather, not everyone can do this kind of work. There are geniuses like Master Qingsong, and there are ordinary people who can't do anything or learn anything. I don't know what the Yun family is like, but the Gong family's attitude towards those ordinary people shows how much pressure ordinary people face in a family full of talent." "That's true." Jin Miaomiao nodded in agreement. "Smart people, or geniuses, think these things are easy to learn. They don't understand why some people spend so much effort and days trying to learn things that they can understand in half a day but still can't. And when ordinary people face these smart people and geniuses, they will unconsciously feel ashamed. Over time, it will make them very strange, and some people will be provoked to do unimaginable things."

"for example?"

“Some people might feel resentment and anger out of jealousy and envy, which could lead them to take action against those geniuses and eliminate them completely,” Jin Miaomiao sighed. “Or, for example, they might kill those who constantly criticize them for being inferior to those people, or…”

"Get rid of yourself."

“Yes!” Jin Miaomiao nodded to Shen Haolin and Shen Cha, who had said the same thing at the same time. “There is another option.”

"What choice?"

“Completely break away from this oppressive environment and do something else.” Jin Miaomiao shrugged. “It’s either kill someone else or kill yourself; there’s no other choice.”

“Then my guess is very likely correct.” Shen Cha thought for a moment, “The so-called ordinary people of the Yun family have no connection with the Yun family, but they have come out to cheat other people. The reason why Master Qingsong agreed to attend the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet is because he knew that the Yun family members had done bad things outside, so he came specifically to clean house.”

“That’s right.” Song Yaojia nodded. “This is also why Gongsun Yue invited him here. Gongsun Yue’s initial target was the Yun family’s swindlers, but unexpectedly, he didn’t encounter the Yun family’s people, but instead ran into the hotheads from the Gong and Ma families. Seeing that they were dressed in fine clothes, he came straight to their door.”

"They didn't arrest them immediately?"

“Of course, it’s impossible to arrest them immediately.” Song Yaojia chuckled. “If we did that, we could only catch one person, and we wouldn’t be able to follow the trail to the others. So, when they heard the swindler say that their faces were dark and that something bad was going to happen, they tacitly made contact with them and took them to the teahouse next door, pretending that they wanted to hear his detailed explanation and seek a solution.”

"So? What did they talk about?"

"This time, the ones they ran into happened to be the least capable families, the Gong and Ma families. They kept repeating the same story. Then, the funniest thing happened. The swindler said that he couldn't solve their problem because he didn't have the ability. So, he wanted to introduce someone who could solve their problem, but that person was very expensive, and he didn't know if they could accept it."

“If it were an ordinary person, they might have fallen for it, since many people believe in this stuff.” Jin Miaomiao stroked her chin. “They wouldn’t go that far, would they? I mean Gongsun Yue and the advisor; they’re top experts in this field, I think.”

"Since they wanted to arrest people, they naturally had to lure out the big fish behind them. So, they agreed to the swindler's suggestion and spent one hundred taels to hire that so-called expert to come forward."