good season

Of course, Master Yan had no idea that the young master Zhen, whom he felt a sense of familiarity with, was none other than the long-deceased Xiao Zhen.

As an observer, Zhao Shiqing knew long ago that Xiao Zhen admired Yan Xia. You see, Xiao Zhen was arrogant inside and out, but he never gave Yan Xia a bad review.

If Zhao Shiqing hadn't learned about Yan Xia's character from Xiao Zhen, she wouldn't have willingly called Yan Xia "brother-in-law".

At this moment, Zhao Shiqing looked at the two people who seemed to appreciate each other, and the little devil in her heart was laughing. If Yan Xia knew that this so-called Young Master Zhen was actually Xiao Zhen, she wondered what his expression would be.

Even the skilled criminal investigator Yan couldn't tell that the person in front of him was wearing a fake face.

However, Zhao Shiqing still sensed from Yan Xia's words that Yan Xia was hiding something from them.

For example, when talking about Lin Xian's case, he was clearly not telling the truth.

As for the reasons, Zhao Shiqing understood them. Before the case was solved, everything had to be kept secret. If she hadn't been a witness, Yan Xia probably wouldn't have even revealed Lin Xian's amnesia.

Just then, Yan Wu's voice, as loud as a broken gong, rang out from outside: "Dinner's ready! Dinner's ready! Big brother, big brother, dinner's ready!"

The sound was so awful that Zhao Shiqing instinctively wanted to cover her ears.

Xiao Su's voice was also quite unpleasant for a while, but Yan Wu's was even better.

There were many people eating, so two tables were set up. Apart from Yan Er and Yan San, the rest of the Yan family members filled one table. Zhao Tingluo also squeezed in. Before long, a fight broke out at that table over meat, and the weapon they used was chopsticks.

Yan Xia invited Young Master Zhen, Zhao Shiqing, and the Broken Stone Brothers to sit at another table. After a few drinks, everyone started chatting. Zhao Shiqing, however, took a glass of water to the children's table, squeezed in in front of Zhao Tingluo and Yan Jiu, and asked, "Little Luoluo, your brother has something to ask you."

Zhao Tinglu: "Brother, don't call me that in public, it's embarrassing. You can call me Sang Biao."

"Okay, Biao Biao."

Yan Jiu laughed so hard he almost spat out the meat in his mouth. Zhao Tinglu made a throat-slitting gesture at him, then turned to face Zhao Shiqing, putting on an innocent smile again.

"Brother, what do you want?"

"Have you ever lost a younger brother?" Zhao Shiqing went straight to the point. If it were an adult in front of her, she certainly wouldn't ask such a question, but facing the clever Zhao Tingluo, it was best not to beat around the bush.

As expected, Zhao Tingluo was not offended; clearly, for him, this was not a wound that could not be reopened.

"Yeah, my brother has been missing for years. Brother, do you have any leads?"

Zhao Shiqing hurriedly asked, "Did your family offer a reward?"

Zhao Tingluo: "There is no public reward, but if my brother can be found, my family will definitely reward him handsomely."

Zhao Shiqing had no doubt that Zhao Tingluo's promise of a large reward was an exaggeration; the Prince of Fu's mansion was indeed wealthy.

Zhao Shiqing said, "As you know, I haven't been in the capital for long and don't know much. Could you tell me in detail how your brother went missing?"

Yan Jiu pointed to his nose: "I remember now, I was the one who told Brother Bao."

Zhao Tinglu put his arm around Yan Jiu's neck and said to Zhao Shiqing, "Well, it's a long story. My brother is my younger brother; we came from the same mother."

When my mother was pregnant with my younger brother, Consort Gu in the mansion was also pregnant. Later, my mother gave birth to my younger brother, but Consort Gu miscarried. Then, when my younger brother was four months old, my uncle got married, and my mother went back to her parents' home. My younger brother was still young and only went for half a day, so my mother didn't take him with her, only me.

But during that half-day, Aunt Gu ran into my mother's courtyard and tricked the wet nurse, saying that the old lady wanted to see my younger brother and that she was going to take him away. The wet nurse was worried and insisted on going with her.

As soon as we left the courtyard, Aunt Gu pushed the wet nurse down, snatched my younger brother, and ran away.

The wet nurse shouted and ran back into the courtyard to call for help. By the time the maids and servants chased after her, Aunt Gu had already run quite far away.

They chased after her, and Aunt Gu, carrying my younger brother, ran to the lakeside and jumped in!
At that moment, some old women who knew how to swim jumped in to rescue her. Aunt Gu was already dead when she was pulled out, but my younger brother...
The baby that Aunt Gu was holding tightly in her arms was not my younger brother at all, but a fake baby in swaddling clothes!

That swaddling cloth wasn't the one my brother used at all. The maids and servants were just busy chasing after him and didn't notice that Aunt Gu was holding a completely different swaddling cloth!

The Yan brothers clearly already knew the inside story, but this was the first time Zhao Shiqing had heard the truth about it.

She paused, then said, "So Aunt Gu had accomplices? While the wet nurse went back to call for help, her accomplices switched the baby's swaddling clothes with Aunt Gu? Hmm, logically speaking, when a child is snatched away, shouldn't the wet nurse's first reaction be to chase after the child immediately? Why did she come back to call for help? I don't know the situation in your Prince Fu's mansion, but I know that in other princely mansions, you can see servants just a few steps away. So, if the wet nurse just shouted, someone would come over, right?"

Zhao Tinglu snorted: "Brother Bao, you figured it out too, didn't you? Heh, back then, no one in my family bothered to investigate this wet nurse. All our attention was focused on Aunt Gu's maid, Chunxiang. By the time we found Chunxiang in a corner of the mansion, my brother was already gone. Chunxiang wasn't involved in this at all; she was deliberately sent away by Aunt Gu."

Two or three days later, our family finally found out who the wet nurse was.

It turned out that the wet nurse's younger brother was in debt from gambling, and he was a hopeless gambler. The wet nurse had given most of her money to her brother.

The family had checked the family background and character of the wet nurses they found for their children. However, at the time, they only checked the husband's family and did not know that she had a gambling brother. If they had known, they would have definitely expelled her from the family.

Aunt Gu then used this incident to threaten the wet nurse, forcing her to cooperate, so the wet nurse could only watch helplessly as Aunt Gu took my younger brother away.

Zhao Shiqing asked, "And then what? Since the baby that Aunt Gu was holding when she jumped into the lake was a fake swaddle, what about your younger brother? He should still be in the manor. A four-month-old baby would cry if he was hungry, right? Didn't anyone hear the baby crying?"

Zhao Tinglu slowly shook her head: "It's been more than four years. Our family has been searching, but it's all been like throwing stones into the sea. My brother just disappeared into thin air."

Zhao Shiqing then asked, "I'll ask something I shouldn't, please don't mind me. Is Aunt Gu's child your mother?"

Zhao Tingluo didn't hide anything: "Yes, it was my mother who did it. Later, my younger brother went missing, and my father blamed my mother, saying that my mother had accumulated no good deeds and that the retribution was on my younger brother. My mother scratched my father's face and, while my father was away, sold off both of his other concubines. My father wanted to divorce his wives, so my mother complained to the Empress and kept me in the palace, saying that she was worried that my father would take his anger out on me."

Zhao Shiqing sighed. The infighting among the wives and concubines of the Prince of Fu's mansion had affected their children. One child was aborted before birth, and the other, who was originally a precious young master, was now missing.

Aunt Gu is dead, so there is no way to verify this matter.

"Hey, I have a friend who found a baby four years ago." Zhao Tingluo suddenly stood up: "Brother, are you serious? Where did he find the child?"

Zhao Shiqing hurriedly said, "Don't worry, the child isn't in the capital right now, but I can write a letter and someone will bring him over. He was found outside a brothel in Rouge Lane. The little clothes he was wearing at the time were made of three-loom cloth, which is even more expensive than silk."

Zhao Tinglu stared blankly at Zhao Shiqing, then suddenly began to undress.

"Hey, let's talk this out. Don't start taking off your clothes over a disagreement!"

Yan Jiu lunged forward to hug him, but Zhao Tingluo pushed him away forcefully and continued to take off his clothes. He took off his outer coat and then his inner silk-padded jacket, revealing his snow-white undergarment.

“Brother Bao, look, is this the kind of three-loom cloth? My mother said that children’s skin is delicate, and three-loom cloth is the softest.”

Before she could finish speaking, a shadow fell over her head, and then Zhao Tingluo's small body was wrapped in a thick cloak.

He looked up and saw Young Master Zhen looking down at him.

"You're ten years old, and you still take your clothes off all the time. Aren't you ashamed?"

Zhao Tinglu pouted and suddenly burst into tears. Zhao Shiqing was taken aback. From the very first meeting, this child had seemed like a seasoned old fox; she hadn't expected him to cry.

She glared at Xiao Zhen, then pulled Zhao Tingluo aside: "Good boy, don't cry, be good."

With a soft "pfft," someone couldn't help but burst out laughing first, and then everyone roared with laughter, completely disregarding Zhao Tingluo who was still crying.

Zhao Tinglu wiped away her tears: "You bad guys, I'm crying and you're still laughing. Humph, I'm not crying anymore."

When Zhao Tinglu left the Duke of Wei's mansion, he did not return to the palace or the Prince of Fu's mansion. He shamelessly followed Zhao Shiqing home, wanting to find Niqiu and ask him about Xiaobao.

Zhao Shiqing dropped him off at the door and asked Lingbo to take him inside to find loach. Then she went to Ruyi Pavilion with Xiao Zhen.

In the car, she talked about Lin Xian and expressed her suspicions: "Master Yan must be hiding something. I'll have to ask him about it later. I wonder if Lin Xian's cousin has been found. And Yang Shengqiu, I wonder if he's investigated him."

When Xiao Zhen heard Zhao Shiqing mention Yang Shengqiu, he said, "Yang Shengqiu is now in the Ministry of Revenue. He went there before the New Year. The people in the Ministry of Revenue love to bully newcomers. He's new here, so he must be very busy these days. If Yan Xia wants to investigate him, he'll probably have to go out of the city."

"What? He went to the Ministry of Revenue?" Zhao Shiqing was surprised, not because Yang Shengqiu went to the Ministry of Revenue, but because she had heard about the Ministry of Revenue several times in the past two days.

Xiao Zhen nodded: "He was the top scholar in the imperial examination, went through the formalities at the Hanlin Academy, and there was the matter with Feng Yalan. It was only natural that Feng Ke would place him in one of the Six Ministries. Why are you so surprised?"

Zhao Shiqing: "I'm not surprised that he went to the Ministry of Revenue. As you said, he was the top scholar in the imperial examination and he's good at currying favor. I wouldn't be surprised if you told me he went to the palace to become a eunuch, let alone the Ministry of Revenue."

Miss Xiao Zhen, you really worry yourself sick over Yang Shengqiu.

Zhao Shiqing continued, "It's Xiuxiu. You don't know, but the day before yesterday, Xiuxiu was almost kidnapped by human traffickers. Fortunately, she was rescued by the yamen runners from the Ministry of Revenue. These past two days, I've kept hearing Xiuxiu say that she wants to go to the Ministry of Revenue to thank them. Now that I've heard you mention the Ministry of Revenue again, that's why I asked."

Xiao Zhen frowned: "Xiuxiu was almost kidnapped by human traffickers? Right under the emperor's nose, in the capital city, these people are really bold. What about those human traffickers? Have they been handed over to the authorities?"

“They were handed over to the authorities. Xiuxiu said that the yamen runners took the traffickers to the capital government office.” Zhao Shiqing said.

Xiao Zhen nodded slightly: "I'll have Fatty Si investigate and see how the capital's government is handling this."

Thinking of what Xiao Zhen was planning, Zhao Shiqing held back, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she asked, "Was the death of the Second Prince unexpected?"

"Yes, I didn't expect that person to send someone to kill his own son in a fit of rage, but thinking about it carefully, it is indeed something he is capable of doing."

When Yan Xia brought up this matter, Xiao Zhen offered an explanation for Emperor Yongjia, revealing the truth behind Emperor Yongjia's "putting righteousness before family."

Zhao Shiqing chuckled twice: "Hehe, that person would never dream that someone knows him so well."

Xiao Zhen thought to himself, "I've studied him for two lifetimes. If I still can't figure out his methods, then I've truly wasted my rebirth."

However, this time, even Xiao Zhen did not expect that Emperor Yongjia would actually kill the Second Prince.

Understanding is one thing, not being able to guess is another.

Zhao Shiqing knew that Xiao Zhen would be busy again. She counted: "The eldest is useless, the second is dead, the fifth is half useless, and of the adults now, only the third and fourth are still able to get by."

Xiao Zhen's voice was cold: "One day, I will make him know what backlash is. The evil deeds he has committed will eventually come back to haunt him."

Zhao Shiqing thought of her parents, grandmother, and adoptive father, and remained silent.

"If that day ever comes, remember to call me. I'm going to cut off his nose!"

In situations like Xiao Zhen's, isn't it usually a matter of cutting off heads? What kind of style is cutting off noses?
Zhao Shiqing: That's my style, that's why I'm different from everyone else!
"Alright, I'll leave the nose to you then. Even if he's buried in the imperial mausoleum, I'll open the coffin lid and let you cut off the nose."

"And then, with the coffin lid already open, do you have to close it again?" Zhao Shiqing asked curiously.

Xiao Zhen smiled and said, "Whether to cover it or not is up to A-Yue to decide."

Zhao Shiqing thought about it and agreed. Besides her, Xiao Yue was also a victim. She was only responsible for cutting off his nose and the physical labor of crushing his bones to ashes. She could leave that to Xiao Yueyue.

Thinking this way, Zhao Shiqing became happy again and unleashed a torrent of words at Xiao Zhen.

"The children in the Yan family are all so interesting. I think the Wei State Duke's family has a very good family tradition. It's good that my sister married into the family. Also, there are no concubines in their family, so all the children are legitimate. Look at little Luoluo, how pitiful she is. If her father only had her mother, there wouldn't have been so many problems, and her younger brother wouldn't have been lost. By the way, in the life you dreamed about, did her younger brother get found?"

Xiao Zhen shook his head: "No, I haven't paid attention to this matter. These kinds of things happen in the inner quarters of a household, it's not unusual. However, Zhao Tingluo is an only child, he only has cousins, no younger brothers, so he probably hasn't been found yet." (End of this chapter)