Chapter 109: Outer Room
A thousand truths are not as good as one fact.
Jiang Shu turned to the guards and asked them to buy a cart of grain and distribute it to the beggars in the five abandoned houses.
One cart of food is enough for them to eat for a month or two. It is the rainy season now, so no amount of food can be stored.
After temporarily solving the problem of feeding the beggars, Jiang Shu turned to Yu Zheng and asked, "What is the prince doing here?"
"Do some official business." Yu Zheng glanced at the beggars in the courtyard and asked the little monkey, "Do you know there is a woman named Li nearby?"
The information Zhui Yun found out was that the woman lived nearby, but she didn't know which household specifically.
Yu Zheng thought that Little Monkey and the others lived here and might know each other.
"Aunt Li? What are you doing with her?" The little monkey looked alert.
He really knew.
"We are here to help you. If you don't want to be hungry anymore, take us with you." Zhuiyun persuaded him kindly.
The little monkey hesitated for a moment, thinking that not only did they not beat them, but they also gave them money and bought them food, so they must not be bad people.
"I'll take you there, but don't hurt Aunt Li. She's a good person." The little monkey stepped out.
Yu Zheng and others followed him out of Beggar Alley and turned to another alley.
"Are you familiar with Aunt Li?" Zhao Manying inquired as she walked.
The little monkey said: "She often gives us food, even though her family is having a hard time."
“She shared almost all the food that was delivered to us every month.”
Zhao Manying grasped the key point: "Master Fu Yin also sends her food every month?"
The little monkey nodded: "Master Fu Yin said that Aunt Li was the widow of a government arrester. The arrester died in the line of duty, and it was not easy to leave Aunt Li orphaned and widowed. So she would also give them a bag of food every month, but Aunt Li would give them a bag of food every month. All were given to us."
"So, this Aunt Li is really a good person." Zhao Manying said meaningfully.
While talking, the little monkey walking in front stopped, pointed to the house in front of him and said, "This is Aunt Li's house."
"Thank you, please go back." Zhuiyun took out a piece of silver from his waist and gave it to the little monkey as a thank you gift for leading the way.
After the little monkey walked away, Zhuiyun stepped forward and knocked on the door.
Seeing how cautious they were, Jiang Shu asked anxiously: "Should we avoid it?"
"No need." Yu Zheng stared at the door in front of him. He already heard footsteps approaching.
"Who is it?" came the voice of a young boy.
Zhuiyun replied in a deep voice: "Master Zhao sent us here."
"Squeak--" The closed door opened, and a boy about fourteen or fifteen years old stuck his head out and looked at them curiously.
"What are you doing with all these people here?" The young man was a little wary.
There used to be only one or two people here, but why are so many here today?
"Is your mother here? Mr. Zhao has something to tell her." Zhuiyun asked without answering.
Listening to this foreign accent, the young man was suspicious: "Who are you? What are you doing with my mother?"
He is not a three-year-old child, so he is not that easy to deceive.
However, the person has been found and the door has been opened. It doesn't matter whether the boy is easy to deceive or not.
Zhufeng was too lazy to talk nonsense with him and just opened the door and went in.
"You guys do it..." The young man was about to yell loudly, but Zhufeng covered his mouth and grabbed his hands.
The group of people quickly entered the house and bolted the door behind their backs.
Entering the courtyard, Jiang Shu finally realized that Yu Zheng was doing something extremely important.
She was afraid that she and Tan Yu would ruin Yu Zheng's affairs, so she pulled Tan Yu to stand behind her and whispered to Tan Yu not to talk or move around.
Tan Yu was also frightened by this battle and nodded obediently.
"Xuan'er, who's here..." The woman cooking in the kitchen heard the noise and came out with a spatula.
He was dressed in coarse cloth, with a plain scarf on his head and an apron around his waist. Even so, the charm and beauty cannot be concealed.
When she saw Zhufeng covering the young man's mouth, and then when she saw Yu Zheng and his party, the woman was shocked.
"Are you Aunt Li?" Zhuiyun asked.
With her son in someone else's hands, the woman didn't dare to lie and nodded with a look of fear on her face.
"Can you let my son go? Come to me if anything happens." Aunt Li begged in a trembling voice.
Zhufeng looked at the young man and warned, "I'll let you go, so don't yell."
The young man nodded and Zhufeng let go of his hand.
"Help……"
The boy went back on his word and started yelling as soon as he was free.
Zhufeng's eyes turned cold and he struck the boy on the back of the neck with his knife. The boy's eyes rolled back and he fainted.
"Xuan'er..." Aunt Li dropped the spatula in shock and ran over to hug the boy.
"Don't worry, he's fine. But if you don't talk nicely like him, then I can't guarantee it." Zhufeng took out the tiger head hook and held it in his hand as a threat.
Aunt Li was so frightened that she trembled: "Who are you? What do you want to do?"
"Don't be nervous, my master just wants to ask you a few words." Zhuiyun reassured.
Aunt Li's eyes were filled with anger and fear, and she said warily: "What do you want to ask?"
"Are you Zhao Renxian's concubine?" Yu Zheng asked.
Aunt Li rolled her eyes, thinking about how to answer.
Zhufeng played with the tiger head hook and reminded: "Think carefully before speaking, you only have one chance."
Aunt Li was so shocked that she broke into cold sweat and gritted her teeth and admitted: "Yes, I am Zhao Renxian's concubine."
After getting the answer he wanted, Yu Zheng asked again: "Are all the secret messages between him and others kept with you?"
After hearing this, Aunt Li finally understood what Yu Zheng and the others were here to do.
They are here to harm Zhao Renxian!
"I don't understand what you are talking about." Aunt Li subconsciously argued.
"Wrong answer." Zhufeng grasped the tiger hook tightly, pointed the tip of the hook at the fainted young man, and prepared to stab him.
Aunt Li's eyes were about to burst, and she said urgently: "I said it, I said it, it's here with me."
The tiger hook stopped just in time a few inches away from the boy's chest. Zhufeng withdrew his hand and said, "Next time, I'll stab him right in."
Aunt Li was frightened and frightened. She swallowed hard and wished she could faint.
But she didn't dare to faint. She was afraid that these people would really kill her son.
"Where is the money that Zhao Renxian has embezzled and bribed over the years?" Yu Zheng asked the last question.
From the first day he arrived at Lin'an Mansion, he sent people to secretly search Fuyin Mansion, but found no evidence or stolen goods.
At that time, Yu Zheng knew that Zhao Renxian must have hidden all these things elsewhere.
But Lin'an Mansion is so big, where can he find it?
When he had no clue, Zhao Manying came to him and said she wanted to make a deal with him.
He agreed to Zhao Manying's conditions, and Zhao Manying told him that Zhao Renxian had an outside room where he kept evidence and stolen goods.
As long as you find Zhao Renxian's outer room, you will be able to find evidence and dirt that Zhao Renxian has been embezzling and accepting bribes, and take him down in one fell swoop.
However, the information Zhao Manying knew was very limited. She only overheard a few conversations when Zhao Renxian was drinking with the governor of Jiangnan.
"You have to hide those things. If someone discovers them, both you and I will lose our heads." Jiangnan Governor reminded Zhao Renxian.
Zhao Renxian replied complacently under the influence of wine: "Don't worry, sir, I will put them in the outer room, and no one will know."
"Outer room? That widow named Li back then?" the Jiangnan governor teased.
Zhao Renxian said with emotion: "She has followed me all these years and gave birth to a son for me, who is now more than ten years old..."
The things were hidden in the outer room, where a widow named Li lived with her teenage son.
This is the information Zhao Manying provided to Yu Zheng.
In the past few days, Yu Zheng and Zhao Manying traveled all over Lin'an Mansion, looking for him secretly.
Finally, they found it.
