Xu Qian's hand holding the hairpin was trembling, and her eyes were scanning the crowd, hoping to find someone willing to help her.
Seeing that she was distracted, the officer stepped forward and snatched the hairpin away, looking at her like a murderer.
"Why on earth? Why do you want to arrest me, a lady in the boudoir?" Xu Qian was frightened by the officer's gaze and fell to the ground. It took all her strength to ask such a question.
At this moment, two women came to the courtyard carrying a maid.
Xu Nuo squinted and looked over there, with an arc at the corner of his mouth.
"It's her, it's her! She gave our wife a tea group, and our wife was poisoned to death by her!" The maid was originally dragging the mother-in-law on her back, but when she saw Xu Qian, she stood up as if she had been beaten to death. Just rush forward.
When Xu Qian heard this, she immediately understood what was going on. She was thought to be the one who killed Mrs. Wu!
When the officials saw it, they immediately shouted: "Why are you here? Master Tongpan is still waiting for witnesses in the government office!"
"After you guys entered the Sicheng Mansion, this little girl said she wanted to get out of the car to relieve herself. Who knew she would run into the mansion as soon as she got off the car? Our legs and feet can't compare with that of a half-grown child like her. We chased her for a long time. Arrived. We took care of the little hooves. Aren’t you ready to go out? Who knew you were going the wrong way?”
The mother-in-law spoke vividly, Xu Nuo sneered, and made no comments about it, but kept her hand on Xu Pingyi, who was always ready to get up.
Xu Pingyi didn't know why Xu Nuo kept holding him down, but his consistent trust made him choose to believe her and not interfere.
"Then, let's go together." After hearing the mother-in-law's explanation, the officer was no longer annoyed and motioned for one of them to come over and catch Xu Qian.
Xu Qian shook off her mother-in-law's hand and sneered: "Who asked you to come? Madam Wu's death has nothing to do with me. You can't even think of framing me."
"It's not up to you. You'd better follow us obediently and you won't end up making crazy remarks." The mother-in-law said. At the same time, he tried to pull Xu Qian's arm.
Xu Qian continued to shake him off, her teeth were almost broken. She would rather be called crazy than be arrested and imprisoned.
That kind of stigma cannot be washed away no matter how hard you wash it off...
She didn't want to.
After a stalemate for a while, Yan Shu couldn't stand it anymore and said: "Go find your magistrate and ask him to take the fourth mother of the Xu family away. You should go back for the time being. If anything happens, we will talk about it later." The first half of his words were for the officials. The second half of the story was told to the ten gentlemen in the flower hall.
Looking at Xu Qian sitting in the courtyard, disguised as a man, the ten young men had different thoughts, but at this moment they all nodded and prepared to leave. Don't get involved in this kind of thing.
"Xu Dalang, you are not allowed to leave! As a brother, can you bear to let me be taken away?" Xu Qian got up on her knees and shouted in the direction of Xu Pingyi.
Xu Pingyi had no intention of leaving and was still standing in the distance. Looking at Xu Qian, the pity in his heart faded a bit.
at this time. There was movement outside again.
Yan Shu's steward came to report that the governor of Yingtian Prefecture and the Minister of Works had arrived.
Xu Nuo raised his head, his father and the others were here.
Then, the people from the head of Jiaren County should be here too.
Several teenagers who were about to leave. After hearing the steward's words, he put his feet back again. Lu Yijian and Xu Gucheng were famous for their talents, and they each held important official positions in the court. It was good to show their faces in front of them.
After a while, two people wearing official robes arrived.
Xu Qian hurriedly shouted: "Father, uncle..."
He didn't say any unnecessary words, he just lowered his head and wiped his tears with his sleeves.
This look of grievance. It's really heartbreaking to see.
Xu Gucheng already knew who Xu Qian was, and he just looked at her with disappointment and did nothing else.
Instead, Lu Yijian asked the mother-in-law beside her to help Xu Qian get up.
this time. Xu Qian did not shake off her mother-in-law's hand and stood up very obediently.
Lu Yijian looked at Xu Qian and sighed heavily. Then he asked the officer: "When did you come here?"
"Zhizhou, young one..." The official started talking and spoke humbly to Lu Yijian for a long time.
Xu Nuo stood expressionless in the flower hall, seemingly lifeless but she kept paying attention to the official's expression when he spoke. She had learned micro-expressions and could tell that the official was talking nonsense at the moment.
Lu Yi Jian has read countless people, and although he doesn't understand micro-expressions, he can still tell that the officials are hiding something from him.
He got the news from Xijing this morning, and discussed the matter with Xu Gucheng after going to court. The two returned to the Xu Mansion and planned to find Xu Qian to find out the situation before making a decision, but they searched the Xu family and found no trace of Xu Qian. .
Later, his subordinates reported to him that Tongpan had sent people to Yan Shu's Mansion to arrest people. Only then did he find out that Xu Qian had secretly disguised herself as a servant and came to Sicheng's Mansion, but Tongpan got the news from somewhere and sent people to Sicheng's Mansion.
They got the news late, so they hurriedly arrived just now.
The others didn't know about Jiaren County Lord's conspiracy, but there was nothing wrong with it. However, Xu Nuo and Xiao Yuan saw clearly that Yingtian Mansion's general judge was probably bribed by Jiaren County Lord, and so did the official women in the courtyard. They are all judgmental people.
"Uncle, I have never poisoned Mrs. Wu." Xu Qian was as gentle as a willow at the moment, holding on to the hand of the woman beside her to barely stand. However, when she spoke, she looked confident and confident, which made people feel pity and admire her even more. .
Lu Yijian looked at her for a moment, then turned to Yan Shu and asked, "Yan Si Cheng, can I lend you a guest room?"
There are many people here and it is obvious that they want to question Xu Qian alone.
Yan Shu glanced at Xu Qian out of the corner of his eye, pursed his lips and nodded, called the housekeeper standing aside with his hand, and said a few words in the housekeeper's ear.
Xu Qian's panicked eyes suddenly lit up, she put aside her mother-in-law's hand and walked towards Lu Yijian.
The butler stretched out his hand to invite them and led the two of them to the east wing.
The housekeeper just opened the door, but before the two of them entered the room, someone else ran in and informed Yan Shu that there was a distinguished guest who wanted to see him.
Xu Gucheng's expression changed and he said to Yan Shu: "Master Si Cheng, can you and I go and meet together?" Due to various coincidences, he had already noticed that something was wrong. At this moment, he wanted to give Lu Yijian some time, so he proposed to work with him. Yan Shu met this visitor together.
"Okay!" Yan Shu was friends with Xu Pingyi and colleagues with Xu Gucheng. If he said this, he would naturally agree.
"Alang, I'm afraid it's too late. When the little one comes in, they will rush in. I'm afraid it's almost here." The boy who reported the news said anxiously.
Sure enough, as soon as the boy finished speaking, he could see several people passing through the round door and coming this way.
Over there, Lu Yijian saw that there was no time, so he asked Xu Qian emphatically: "Have you ever sent a tea group to Madam Wu?"
"I brought the tea group to Mrs. Wu for someone else, but it wasn't the one I wanted to give."
"who?"
"I can't tell you."
"On what day was it delivered? What did the tea group look like? What kind of tea was in it?"
"It's the middle of the month, I can't remember the specific day."
…
The distinguished guest mentioned by the young man was the head of Jiaren County. Not long after she came in, the general magistrate of Yingtian Mansion also arrived, and with him came Mrs. Wu's cousin and sister-in-law. The two of them were crying and talking as they walked. The look of grief.
Except for Xu Pingyi and Xu Nuo, the only person in the flower hall was Xiao Yuan, and everyone else walked out.
Xiao Yuan leaned lazily on the desk, supporting his head with one hand and playing with the paperweight with the other. He asked Xu Pingyi with a joking smile: "It seems that your Xu family is in trouble, why don't you go out and take a look?"
"It's useless to go out." Xu Pingyi said lightly, holding on tightly with his hands.
Seeing Xu Pingyi's shoulders move slightly, Xu Nuo glared at Xiao Yuan angrily.
Xiao Yuan smiled and asked: "Since you are useless, Dalang Xu, why not let this useful person behind you go out and see if you can save some face of the Xu family. Liu Niang, everyone is here, it's your turn."
"You..." Xu Pingyi didn't expect Xiao Yuan to recognize Xu Nuo. As soon as he said a word, he found that the hand that had been pressing on his shoulders was loosened, and when he looked up, he only saw Xu Nuo's back.
He stretched out his hand to grab Xu Nuo, but he didn't expect someone to be faster than him.
Xiao Yuan came out from behind the scenes, took Xu Nuo's wrist, and said in her ear: "It's better for me to do this kind of publicity thing. You can just sit here and watch the show."
Xunuo glared at Xiao Yuan and snorted: "Do you know what I want to say and how I want to say it?"
"I know." He pushed Xu Nuo back with a smile and walked toward the crowd.
Xu Nuo stood there with his mouth raised.
"Liu Niang, are you familiar with Xiao Silang?" Xu Pingyi and Xiao Yuan are in the kind of relationship where they wouldn't say hello when they meet face to face. But just now they saw that they were very familiar with each other. Liu Niang didn't reject Xiao Yuan when he grabbed her wrist. , which surprised him.
"I recognized him when I was in Suzhou, um...probably not long after I lost my memory." Xu Nuo replied with a smile, and his originally indifferent eyes gained a glimmer of light. (To be continued ~^~)
ps: Thank you sidneyliu, zhimuqd, and Du Huaying for your red envelopes. Thank you.
