Ning Dao Covered with Snow

Chapter 109: Dream Butterfly Villa
Xiao Wang humbly asked: "Why do you think so?"

Yan Ciwan told his guess.

"On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, I sneaked into Haoyuezhai and met two men in the study. They were He Chunzhuo and Zhou Qi. From their conversation, I learned that they were both from the Changming Chamber of Commerce. Not only did they help Qi Ming cover up his crimes, they also knew that there was a secret room hidden in the study. This is enough to show that they have a very close relationship with the Qi family father and son."

Xiao Wang immediately remembered: "At the Mid-Autumn Festival dinner, Governor Qi once said that Qi Ming had a teacher named He. Could it be He Chunzhuo?"

Yan Ciwan said: "I once heard Qi Ming call He Chunzhuo Mr. He. They are probably a teacher-student relationship."

Xiao Wang was thoughtful: "Even if He Chunzhuo is quite talented, he is just a businessman. How could Qi Songsheng, as a governor, let his only son recognize a businessman as his teacher? Unless the teacher-student relationship is just a superficial appearance, and they have other plans in private."

Yan Ciwan continued to analyze: "There is a secret passage leading to the black market in the Ashun Bathhouse, and the Ashun Bathhouse happens to be opposite the Xuanji Medicine Store. I don't think this is a coincidence. Assuming that the black market was built by the Changming Chamber of Commerce and the Governor of Qi, then the Ashun Bathhouse is located opposite the Xuanji Medicine Store. It should be convenient for the people in the medicine store to keep an eye on the Ashun Bathhouse at all times. They can know who enters the Ashun Bathhouse, and if they find something wrong, they can respond immediately."

Xiao Wang nodded in agreement: "This makes sense now."

"It's a pity that Ah Shun died too quickly. If we could capture him alive, we could get the truth from him." Yan Ciwan felt very regretful, and then she remembered that she had taken a letter from Ah Shun.

She immediately took out her purse and pulled out a piece of letter paper folded into a triangle. Since receiving the letter last night, she has been busy with Xiao Wang's coma due to the poison and temporarily forgot about the existence of the letter, so she has not opened it yet.

Xiao Wang asked what this was?
Yan Ciwan briefly explained the origin of the letter, then unfolded the letter paper, which had only eight words written on it:

October 30th, Mengdie Villa.

The signature at the end is Mr. He.

She handed the letter to Xiao Wang across from her and asked, "Do you know where Mengdie Villa is?"

After reading the letter, Xiao Wang frowned and thought: "I seem to have heard the name Mengdie Villa somewhere before. It feels very familiar."

Yan Ciwan looked expectant: "Think about it carefully."

Xiao Wang soon remembered and said, "I once heard a story about a scholar who met a beautiful fox fairy. The scholar went to Chang'an to take an exam. When passing through Luzhou, he accidentally got lost in the mountains and came to a place called Mengdie Villa. He went to the villa to stay overnight and met a beautiful girl. He was bewitched by her and had sex with her day and night. He almost forgot his name until a Taoist priest came to the villa and killed the fox fairy, which restored his sanity."

Yan Ciwan pursed her lips and smiled: "I didn't expect that Xiao Liulang also likes to listen to these kinds of ghost stories."

Xiao Wang looked helpless: "It was Li Sanlang who liked it. At that time, we passed by a teahouse where a storyteller was telling this story. He insisted on going in to listen to the story, so I had no choice but to go in with him and sit for a while."

He returned the letter to Yan Ciwan and asked, "We will pass through Luzhou on the way to Chang'an. Do you want to visit this Mengdie Villa?"

Yan Ciwan folded the letter and put it in his purse, saying, "Since it's on the way, it wouldn't hurt to go and take a look."

Now the serial rape and murder case has been solved, the Qi father and son have been arrested, and the underground black market in Xiangzhou City has been shut down, but He Chunzhuo's whereabouts are still unknown.

Yan Ciwan wants to find He Chunzhuo. She wants to know whether He Chunzhuo knows her mother. Is He Chunzhuo related to her mother's sudden illness?

The letter was signed with a single word, “He” (congratulations). Perhaps the writer was He Chunzhuo.

She calculated the time. It was now August 29th, and there were still nearly two months until October 30th, so there should be enough time.

Yan Ciwan called the waiter to settle the bill. The meal plus tea cost fifty cents in total.

As soon as Yan Ciwan took out her purse, she saw Xiao Wang had already put a string of copper coins on the table.

He said, "This meal is on my table."

Yan Ciwan immediately stuffed the purse back into his sleeve pocket and thanked him with a smile.

Last night, she had spent almost all her money on buying things. Now, she only had three taels of silver and more than twenty copper coins. The journey from here to Chang'an was long, and this amount of money was definitely not enough. Now that Xiao Wang was willing to pay the bill for her, she naturally wanted it more than she wanted.

The two left the restaurant together.

It was a sunny and cool autumn day. Yan Ciwan, who had eaten and drunk his fill, was strolling on the street, surrounded by people coming and going. He felt very leisurely and comfortable.

She couldn't help but think of the Xiangzhou City she saw after she left her soul last night. It was a desolate and deserted city with people living in poverty. It was a far cry from the peaceful scene before her.

Yan Ciwan originally thought that after her soul left her body, what she saw was what was about to happen in the future, which was an advance prediction of the future.

But last night, after she left her soul, she saw not only the future, but also the past.

It was as if she had gone into another world.

In that world, she fell into the Xiangshui River and lost too much blood to struggle, and drowned in the water. It was precisely because she died early that she didn't get to know Xiao Wang, Zhao Lu and others. After that, Liu, Zhao Lu, Xiao Wang...they died one after another.

And there was my father, who started a rebellion and caused chaos in the country.

In the world that Yan Ciwan lives in now, she survived by chance, Liu and Chaolu also survived, and Xiao Wang had hope of being detoxified and would not die young at the age of twenty.

The fate of the two worlds was different, and because of her different endings, the future of others also changed.

So will my father raise an army again in the future?

Yan Ci Wan carefully recalled the past and thought about the variables that existed.

The King of Xizhou never avoided Yan Ciwan when handling official business, so she knew that her father's situation was actually not good. The King of Xizhou had 500,000 Zhenxi Army under his command, and they had made great military achievements in protecting the people in the border areas.

However, the saint did not trust the King of Xizhou very much, and he sent officials to Xizhou for inspection many times. Those officials seemed to respect the King of Xizhou very much, but in fact they repeatedly hinted that the King of Xizhou should hand over his military power, but the King of Xizhou dealt with them all.

The saint issued an edict to grant marriage between Yan Ciwan and the prince. It seemed like a reward, but in fact it was to cut off the retreat of the King of Xizhou.

Because the King of Xizhou had submitted a memorial to the Saint, requesting that Yan Ciwan be appointed as the Crown Prince.

If successful, she would be the first female crown prince in the history of Daye.

Although this move was shocking, a closer look revealed that there was no law in Daye that explicitly stipulated that the heir to the throne could not be a woman.

(End of this chapter)