Ming Dynasty Detective 1546

Chapter 11: Casting stones to ask for directions
'This woman is indeed beautiful.'

Haiyue looked at the second suspect with bright eyes, white teeth, and snow-white skin. Even with his hair loose, he looked even more pitiful.

No wonder Bage felt that the other party was using the beauty trap to seduce the students of the academy to help her poison and harm Prince Annan.

To be honest, if the Annan delegation stayed in Dongpo Academy for two or three months, Haiyue really suspected that with their appearance, they would be able to make the students jealous and devoted to her, and even dare to kill people.

But just a few days is too short...

What's more, when this woman was arrested, she not only cried out that she was innocent, but also said something very strange.

"Prince Annan was not murdered!"

This sentence gave Haiyue a guess, but she was still not sure whether the other party really knew the secret or was just making a mystery to disrupt the situation.

Thoughts raced through her mind, her face still filled with anger. Hai Yue took a step forward and pressed forward: "Are you the real murderer?"

"No! It's not!"

The woman spoke, her voice soft and pleasant, though her accent wasn't standard: "How could a weak woman like me possibly have the power to murder an envoy who was protected by so many guards?"

Hai Yue said coldly: "Prince Annan died of poisoning."

The woman said, "That's even more impossible. I just heard that the Annan delegation is staying in the county school. They haven't even been allowed to enter the academy. How could they have poisoned them?"

In the blink of an eye, Hai Yue was already in front of him, looking down at him condescendingly: "Then why were you imprisoned? Were you also accused by Ruan Zhengyong?"

The woman, shrouded in the shadow of the towering figure, breathed rapidly. She thought quickly, "Are you Young Master Hai? Rumors are circulating that Young Master Hai was about to abandon his Journey to the West story, and when the Annan envoy urged him to, he angrily killed him!"

"what?"

Haiyue's face suddenly darkened: "Nonsense, absurd!"

Isn't it just a new adaptation of Journey to the West that ends at the 30th chapter? Is it necessary to spread such rumors?
That day, I also completed the difficulty of Baoxiang Kingdom!

"I empathize with Mr. Hai's injustice. We are both wanderers in this world, suffering from injustice, yet no one is willing to believe..."

The woman had a chance to catch her breath and said tearfully, "Those people attacked me without explanation, leaving me speechless. It's really hard to express my suffering!"

"My brother whipped me with the steel whip...my younger brother called the man...I came up with the idea..."

Haiyue observed the other person and took a step back.

He had been approaching her, and the woman's body had been shrinking into the corner. Only when she saw him retreat did she obviously breathe a sigh of relief.

"Hmm! I don't think you are the murderer..."

Haiyue's anger seemed to dissipate, and her tone softened: "May I know your name, young lady?"

"Girl?" The woman was stunned.

Haiyue said, "This is the name we call young ladies in our area. The girl has a certain accent... Could it be that she's not a local?"

Before the Ming Dynasty, "girl" was a general term for older women. It was a combination of "gu" and "niang". In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it was gradually used to refer to young women. In the Qing Dynasty, it became a name for young women, especially unmarried women.

In fact, Qiongshan still calls young women "niangzi" instead of "girl". However, the woman was an outsider and of course she didn't know this. Her momentum weakened and she whispered, "My little girl is Fanglian, I come from Annan."

"Fanglian? Such a pseudonym doesn't really have any sincerity..."

Haiyue frowned secretly.

In ancient times, when a woman was introduced, she would give her surname and her family order. Her maiden name could not be told to outsiders casually. A well-educated and well-mannered lady would not let her husband know her name before marriage. Only after they became a real family would she tell him her full name.

But since she hadn't even gotten her surname yet, and it wasn't appropriate to ask any more questions, Hai Yue took two steps back and bowed, "I'm a descendant of the Qiongshan Hai family, a student at Dongpo Academy. My surname is Hai, my name is Yue, and I'm thirteenth in the family. Nice to meet Miss Fanglian."

The woman slowly stood up from her crouch in the corner, brushed her sleeves lightly, and carefully straightened her disheveled clothes. She bowed with a dignified manner, "Fanglian greets Master Hai."

After greeting, Hai Yue couldn't wait to say, "Since you and I are both wronged, let's clear our name and get out of here! Do you have any acquaintances in Qiongshan?" The woman shook her head gently, "No... I've only been in this precious place for a short time, and I was thinking of doing some spice business..."

"spices?"

"My family has been in the spice business for generations, and my ancestors were once prominent, but in recent years our fortunes have fallen. When the Annan delegation first arrived in Qiongshan, their lavish spending attracted the attention of the city's merchants. I thought that since we were from the same hometown, if we could do some business, it might help alleviate our family's financial difficulties, so I went outside the academy to inquire about the situation. But unfortunately, I happened to encounter the murder of the Annan prince. I guess this aroused suspicion, and I was taken to the government office..."

"Hey...are you a real Annan merchant?"

Hearing this, Haiyue laughed in her heart and didn't believe a word of it.

But since the other party had said so, he took the opportunity to ask, "Miss Fanglian, do you know that the Annan envoys originally stayed at the government office, and the reason they left and went to Dongpo Academy was because a government official stole the tribute agarwood, and a dispute arose between the two sides?"

The woman asked, "Agarwood for offering as tribute? 'Nha Trang incense'?"

Haiyue said: "I don't understand fragrance, I don't know if it is true or not, I just know that it was stolen."

The woman said slowly, "The Annan delegation came across the sea, and they wouldn't have brought much as tribute. 'Nha Trang Incense' is certainly valuable, but it seems unnecessary for your officials to steal it. After all, Qiongzhou is the home of agarwood. 'Lidong Incense', for example, is a treasure highly sought after by the nobles in Annan."

Hai Yue asked curiously, "'Lidong incense'? Can it be compared with the tribute-worshipping 'Nha Trang incense'?"

The woman said, "Each type of agarwood has its own unique qualities! 'Nha Trang' has distinct layers of aroma, starting with a crisp, clear scent that gradually becomes mellower, leaving a long, lingering aftertaste. 'Lie Dong' is even more unique, as thin as a cicada's wing yet sinks instantly into water. The best quality is the inky black, with the golden-yellow agarwood being second best."

"Hey! Does this woman really understand fragrance?"

Hai Yue was a little confused for a moment. After waiting for the other party to finish, she concluded, "So, Miss Fanglian is saying that the Annan delegation slandered the government officials? The government officials wouldn't dare to touch the tribute presented to His Majesty for a small profit?"

The woman's eyes flickered for a moment, and she whispered, "I dare not speak nonsense."

"Okay! It's my turn!"

Haiyue recounted in detail what had happened since Li Weining arrived at the academy until the banquet that evening. Finally, she said, "That guard commander, Ruan Zhengyong, accused me of murder with conviction. I'm certainly innocent, but I can't figure out how the murderer poisoned the person at the banquet that night. Miss Fanglian, as an outsider, can you explain it to me?"

The woman listened carefully, but in the end, she just shook her head: "Since the poison was not administered by the young master, that... Envoy Li should not have been poisoned. I can't think of it, but..."

Haiyue only heard the following words and said quickly, "Miss Fanglian, please feel free to speak!"

The woman hesitated for a moment, then slowly said, "Sir, have you ever considered that Envoy Li was poisoned at the banquet and died of the poison at night? The whole thing was just his side of the story. Perhaps... those guards weren't telling the truth at all!"

'really! ’

Haiyue's spirits lifted, but she hesitated as she spoke, "Miss Fanglian, do you think the Annan guards were deliberately deceiving us? Are they trying to shift the blame onto our Daming students because they failed to provide adequate protection? Or... is there something else going on?"

The woman fell silent, her hands clenched tightly in her sleeves. After a moment, she said, "I don't know. It's just a guess. I hope you can forgive me."

"What are you talking about!"

Hai Yue smiled. "Since we're gathering ideas, we should speak freely. Our goal is to find flaws, uncover the truth, and clear our names! Miss Fanglian's suggestion that the Annan guards lied is indeed a brilliant idea, but we're both imprisoned, making it difficult to verify... Does the young lady have any other insights?"

"Gone……"

The woman shook her head.

Obviously, both sides do not trust each other.

This is normal.

Normally, strangers who just met would not talk too much, let alone two people who were in custody because of the same case.

Since this is the case, Haiyue is ready to take the initiative and test the waters.

He put his hands behind his back and paced around the cell for a short while before suddenly saying, "What Miss Fanglian said just now really gave me some inspiration. Why do I feel that the murdered Prince Annan doesn't look like a Prince Annan?"

(End of this chapter)