Xiao Yao looked fiercely at Gu Yi again.
This time she didn’t hide it, and Song Wangyue saw it clearly and thought she was shocked at Gu Yi’s cleverness, so she took her arm and walked inside to distract her.
Gu Yi looked at her and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly as she followed the two into the hall.
Xiao Yao also returned to her senses, secretly admonishing herself to be careful in future and not to reveal her relationship with Gu Yi in front of Yue’er.
“Yue’er, what do you mean by asking that just now?”
“I think there is a fraud in this matter.”
“Huh?”
Xiao Yao’s mouth opened slightly in surprise.
“Think about it, Sister Xiao, if the person who threw in the letter was really the housekeeper back then, wouldn’t it be better for him to throw himself into the Xu House? Why did he choose to cast in to this side of the courtyard?”
“Perhaps because there are more people than over here, it would be easier for him to cast in to the courtyard without being noticed.”
“Sister Xiao has a point, but think about it, why is he afraid of being found out? Is it because he’s afraid of being silenced by Wen Zhong? If that was the case, he could have just gone to the Xu House. Although the Xu House is a house of literati, it is still more than enough to protect one person. Moreover, as long as he was willing to go to the capital to testify against Wen Zhong, his grandmother would have given him more silver, not to mention ten thousand taels. Instead, he didn’t go and instead threw the note into this side of the courtyard, there is only one possibility, he wanted to lure me there, in other words they wanted to capture me as a hostage.”
Xiao Yao was startled, “Absolutely not to go!”
“How can I live up to this calculation of the other side if I don’t go? Of course I have to go.”
“Yue’er ……”
Xiao Yao some panic, grabbed Song Wan Yue’s hand, warmly advised, “You listen to me, do not go, if it is really as you guessed, they must have ambushed a lot of people, in case you if ……”
Song Wan Yue patted her hand, “Sister Xiao don’t worry, I’ll be fine, I’ll have Xiao Si go and send a message to Uncle Shen later, so he can accompany us on the trip.”
Xiao Yao was still uneasy, “Or else I’ll go back to the house and call out to my father and ask him to accompany you guys as well.”
“No need, more people would rather arouse their suspicion.”
Outside the courtyard, a man who was mixed in the crowd of people buying pastries kept his eyes on the entrance of the courtyard, seeing that half an hour had passed and no one had come out, so he gave a wink to another man in the queue, who turned around and got into a carriage on the roadside, quickly moving away.
……
It was getting dark and there were no more people in line in front of the pastry shop, so the man closed the door and boarded it up.
Song Wangyue walked Xiao Yao out, glanced around unobtrusively and withdrew her gaze.
Watching Xiao Yao get on the carriage and walk away, she instructed Xiao Si, “Go and tell my parents that Gu Yi and I are staying over here tonight, so that they don’t worry, and by the way, tell my uncle about today’s events.”
Xiao Si answered, brought the carriage over and hurried to the Xu residence.
He had not gone far when a carriage followed him, not far behind him.
When he reached the entrance to the Xu residence, he stopped the carriage and walked in.
The carriage waited at a distance, and after waiting for about two quarters of an hour saw Xiao Si come out of the house and drive the carriage back.
He followed him all the way and watched as Xiao Si went back to the southern city, where he quickly turned his horse around and soon disappeared into the distance.
Xiao Si glanced back and parked the carriage.
Song Wangyue and Gu Yi came out of the courtyard and glanced at Xiao Si, who nodded slightly, and the two withdrew their gaze and got into the carriage.
Xiao Si drove the carriage slowly towards the northern city, walking unhurriedly on the way, waiting until they reached the agreed place in the northern city, a quarter of an hour before the eleventh hour.
Most of the people in North City were poor, and although it was getting dark, there were still many people running around on the road trying to make a living, unlike in South City where there were very few people walking on the streets at this time of day.
Gu Yi got off the carriage first and turned around to take Song Wan Yue next. The two of them arrived at the door and Gu Yi reached out to knock on the rickety door panel, which could fall down at any moment.
“Come in.”
An old voice came out from inside.
The two men cautiously pushed the door in. Inside, the mansion was even more dilapidated, with a total of three rooms, two of which had collapsed and the last one was tilted and surrounded by wooden sticks propped up, threatening to collapse at any moment.
The two men stood in the courtyard.
Song Wangyue said, “We have brought the silver, please come out.”
“Cough cough cough ……”
A violent coughing sound rang out from inside the house, and it took a long time before it stopped, and the old voice with ragged panting came out again, “You two, I am not well enough to get off the bed, so please come in again.”
“It’s not that we don’t want to go in, it’s really because this house of yours is frightening, like this ……”
The words did not fall, Song Wan Yue walked to the window, pulled off all the window paper that was fluttering with the wind, and looked at the old man inside, “We will stand here and listen to you.”
The old man did not expect her to make such a move, and after a slight daze, another violent cough erupted.
The corners of Gu Yi’s mouth hooked slightly as he walked over and stood beside Song Wan Yue, taking one of her hands in his.
“Bring the silver ticket over here!”
The old man gasped.
Song Wangyue took out a pile of silver tickets, “Eight of a thousand taels, the rest of a hundred taels, and fifty taels, now you can tell us what happened back then.”
The old man stretched out his bony hand, “I want to examine it.”
“Sorry.”
“What do you mean, girl?”
The old man was anxious.
“As the saying goes, you pay with one hand and deliver with the other, isn’t it a bit eager for you to examine the silver ticket before you’ve even said anything about this?”
“How do I know if the cheque is genuine or not? If you fool me with a fake one, I can’t even sue the government.”
Song Wangyue laughed quietly, her pretty eyes narrowing slightly.
Just when the old man thought she would give him the silver ticket, he heard her say, “Since neither of us trusts the other, it is better not to delay each other’s work.”
The look on the old man’s face changed for a moment, “What do you mean?”
“Literally.”
With those words, Song Wangyue put the silver ticket away and turned to walk out the door, Gu Yi following her lead.
“You guys come back, I’ll tell you, I ……”
Boom!
Song Wangyue’s eyebrows jumped and she hurriedly turned back.
Dust flew in front of her eyes, and the wall that had just been supported by the wooden stick collapsed down, smashing the old man buried right underneath.
Her heart sank sharply.
“Quickly ……”
Before the word go could be uttered, the door to the courtyard next to her was opened and a man stepped out, “What’s that noise this ……”
The words were not finished and his mouth opened wide in shock at the sight of the collapsed house.
Song Wan Yue grabbed Gu Yi’s hand and quickly walked to the carriage, before he could get on the carriage, the man came back to his senses and came forward to stop them, shouting at the top of his lungs, “Come on, come on, come on, Old Uncle Zhang was killed!”
The people around them came out of their homes at the sound of the voice and surrounded Song Wangyue and the two of them and the carriage.