Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 61 Bad News

What does it mean to be embarrassed? What does it mean to find a hole to crawl into? Old Zheng felt this very deeply at this moment. He didn't even know where to look.

Jia Chuan was fine. He looked up at Gao Yunduo with no expression on his face. He was able to ask, "Is Yuanyuan's injury not serious?"

Gao Yunduo immediately felt a little regretful after she finished speaking, but when she heard what Old Zheng said, she had already reached the door and made a move to push it with both hands. Her mouth spoke the answer in her heart faster than her brain. If her brother was there, perhaps he could help her deal with it and she wouldn't be so embarrassed.

Unexpectedly, Jia Chuan was calm as if he didn't hear it. He asked about Dong Yuanyuan's injury and resolved the awkwardness.

"Fortunately, no bones were broken. Where's my brother?"

"He went back to the county government office to interrogate the man in black. He wanted to know if he had any accomplices." Jia Chuan replied.

"Oh." Gao Yunduo didn't know what to do. She couldn't leave. Where to go? With her brother away, she had to stay here. But staying wasn't an option either. Although they weren't alone, it was late at night and there were no one around...

"Just sit down. He should be back soon. He won't be able to find out anything during the interrogation."

"Why?" Gao Yunduo didn't bother and just sat down.

"A man with his skills doesn't have to be bribed, right?" Jia Chuan looked at Gao Yunduo and asked.

Gao Yunduo nodded and said, "There aren't many people with this kind of skills! My brother and I have been learning martial arts from our grandfather since we were young. He has also taken us to see some masters. These people are more or less aloof and want to be bribed..."

Gao Yunduo tilted her head and imagined if someone wanted to bribe her to kill someone, she quickly shook her head. She would never agree unless there was a blood feud. But even though she knew that Li Shun was her enemy, she did not dare to kill him rashly. Her brother said that they should wait for an opportunity and not implicate their family, as they also had their uncle's family to take care of.

Seeing Gao Yunduo suddenly fall into deep thought, Jia Chuan thought that she had thought of something crucial, so he waited.

Gao Yunduo figured it out and said, "The better the skills, the harder it is to bribe them, unless they are in a master-servant relationship. But I don't think that man in black is a servant."

"Yes, if they had such a person in their hands, why didn't they use him on me instead of hunting down the crown prince? Isn't that a bit... unreasonable?"

Old Zheng said hurriedly, "Really? Who do you think you are? Killing you would at most satisfy my grudge. I could just find a few desperate criminals to do it. There's really no need to find someone like this. You're not worth it."

"Although you are right, why does it sound so awkward to me?"

Old Zheng said with a wicked smile, "You still have time to be upset about a sentence?"

The awkward atmosphere that had just dissipated was brought back by Old Zheng. Jia Chuan's confused heart seemed to be twisted into a ball. He covered his chest and gritted his teeth and said, "Is there a corpse waiting for you in your room?"

"It's gone. They've all been taken away. I didn't have to bury them. The one brought back by the Inspection Office was taken away by the Jinyiwei. I wanted you to tell them that once the body leaves the ice, it will die in less than half a day..."

"You're old, it's not good to stay up late. Go back to sleep quickly. You can dream about anything."

Old Zheng stood up with a smile. Just as he was about to speak, Jia Chuan said hurriedly, "Sit down first. Wait until Gao Yuntian comes back, then you can leave."

Old Zheng turned his head to look at Gao Yunduo and asked, "Should I leave?"

Gao Yunduo's face turned red instantly.

Jia Chuan said anxiously, "You really have so much free time. If you have the time, why don't you help me figure out who wants to kill me?"

"Which people? Are you saying that you have offended more than just the prince?" Old Zheng asked in surprise.

……

That night, Jia Chuan persisted in the chaos until dawn. Gao Yuntian came back and finally went to bed.

He rarely dreams, but he had nightmares one after another. They were all dreams of being hacked to death at close range. In his dreams, Jia Chuan kept shouting, "Did I provoke you?! Is it really that serious?!"

Jia Chuan's behavior was largely due to what Gao Yuntian said after he came back from the interrogation. He said, "That man said no one was behind this. He was just here to help his friend solve a problem. You are that problem. I asked him who his friend was, and he said his friend had passed away, so it was better not to mention it. He was seriously injured, so I couldn't torture him, so I had to come back."

After hearing this, Jia Chuan was even more confused. Who was he a threat to?
Gao Yunduo did not leave and lived in the backyard. Gao Yuntian slept in the same room with Jia Chuan. He could not sleep well because Jia Chuan kept kicking and shouting, "Come here!"

The next day, several people got up one after another, and someone from the county government came to report: the man in black was seriously injured and died before breakfast.

After Jia Chuan found out, he rubbed his face and said nothing. For the next two days, the house was filled with yamen runners, and Jia Chuan rarely left the house. The county yamen leaders came in batches to express their condolences, and Old Zheng would come over to talk to Jia Chuan after dark.

The news of Jia Chuan's attack was reported early on. Cui Youzhi felt that the person who brought Jia Chuan to Beijing should have come in advance to take away this plague god. He counted the days on his fingers every day.

This is not Cui Youzhi's fault. When Jia Chuan was attacked, he deduced that the arsonists should live nearby. But before Gao Yuntian took people to investigate, the men in black came to join in the fun, which delayed the whole night.

The next day, when Gao Yuntian got up and prepared to investigate, those people actually came to him on their own initiative.

These people have very different mindsets. They thought that living nearby would make it convenient for them to take action, but they never thought about whether it would be convenient to leave after taking action?

They rented a house in the same alley as Jia Chuan. Since there were only an old couple living there, there was indeed an extra room in the yard. However, no one could explain why the old couple agreed to let the three of them stay. When the three of them killed the old couple and were about to leave the alley, they were pinned to the ground by the yamen runners in the alley.

The Lijia stands at the entrance of the alley and can recognize who is a resident of the alley and who is a stranger at a glance.

When Cui Youzhi learned that someone had died again, his heart almost broke. How could he not hope that Jia Chuan would leave quickly?

Just as Jia Chuan deduced, these three people were just one link among several middlemen, and the lowest link at that. Nothing useful could be asked of them, and the only way was to follow the clues.

But why would Cui Youzhi accept such a task now? Anyway, he already had the confessions of these three people, and he would just submit them to the higher-ups and that would be enough.

Jia Chuan already knew that these three people were useless, so he naturally didn't care about them.

He also wanted to leave quickly. Waiting like this felt like having an abscess that got bigger the longer he waited. But no one came to pick him up, and he didn't dare to leave rashly... Would anyone really come to pick him up?
Gao Yuntian swore, "Since you didn't specify who will be escorting you, then someone must be coming to pick you up. You're different from officials returning to the capital to report on their work. They naturally know where to report first and where to stay afterwards. You don't know anyone in the capital except the emperor. Who else can others go to when they come to the capital? You can't just go to the emperor with your luggage, right? Besides, the emperor must be aware of your current situation. How could he let you go alone?"

Jia Chuan felt the same way and began to look forward to someone coming to pick him up soon. He felt that this house was like a cage. Not wanting to go out was one thing, but not being able to go out was another.

Gao Yuntian would still report to the yamen every day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. When he came back, he would tell Jia Chuan about what was happening in the yamen, such as the death of Sun Wang's child.

Jia Chuan was surprised: "Aren't you looking for the best pediatrician?"

"I heard the child was born with a disease, and the quack doctor who treated him only made it worse. If we hadn't made this trip and brought the child to the city for treatment, he would have died in a few months. It would have only added to his suffering."

"I don't understand! How come bringing him for treatment would kill him faster?"

"The clinic didn't want to admit the child. They said there was no hope of saving him, but they couldn't resist the mother's pleading and the constable's threats. They also said it was a bad omen up front. The child was weak and couldn't tolerate strong medicine. They tried mild medicine for two days, but it was useless..."

Jia Chuan understood: "The doctor in charge consulted with the child's mother and used strong medicine, but the child did not survive."

Gao Yuntian looked at Jia Chuan and said, "Well, after the child died, the mother was so upset that she hit her head against the wall..."

Jia Chuan's scalp was numb.

"Luckily, she was in the clinic. After being rescued, she is no longer in danger of death. Liu Liu and Liu Qi went to visit her and offered some words of comfort. The woman said that life was too hard. She couldn't rely on her family, and her husband's family was useless. She didn't even have an acre of land. She would just starve to death if she lived. It would be better for her to die early like her child and be reborn soon."

"She doesn't know that Sun Wang has committed a crime?"

"How could she not know? She hasn't been seen for days. Come to think of it, she has sick parents-in-law at home begging for food. Alas, how can she survive?"

"The land that Uncle Sun Wang bought..."

"I've already spoken to the county magistrate about this. He'll give some of the land back when he passes the sentence, but expecting a single woman to work and support a family is all I can do. The village head has promised to take good care of her. I've left all the remaining money from her medical expenses to her without your consent. I just hope she can get through this winter, and perhaps she'll feel better next year."

Jia Chuan nodded, feeling mixed emotions. He had wanted to investigate the case and seek justice for the deceased, but he hadn't expected to accelerate the collapse of the Sun family. He knew that even if they hadn't shown up, the child wouldn't be able to stay, and Sun Wang's family might not be able to survive, but... nothing he had heard in the past two days was good news, which made him feel the worst.

Dong Shuben had been on edge for the past two days. He had agreed to the marriage because of Jia Chuan's promises, but after waking up, why hadn't anyone mentioned it? He wanted to ask, but he could sense the atmosphere in the house wasn't conducive to such a question. He put it off for a day, only to find the mood was even darker the next day.

As soon as it got dark that night, Old Zheng came with his hands behind his back.

Dong Shuben, who had been waiting for a long time, was pacing in the yard. He felt that if he didn't mention his daughter's marriage, there would be no chance. When the person from the capital came to pick her up, they might just leave without saying anything. What would happen to his daughter?
So he followed Old Zheng into Jia Chuan's house.

(End of this chapter)