The maid's road to success

The Minister of Justice Wang Huaian was indeed very angry about this matter and called everyone over to ask about the details of the matter. The yamen runners saw that the death of the man made the Minister so angry, so he bit his tongue to death and said that he had never left. The man bit his tongue to commit suicide when no one was paying attention. The Minister was not any easier to talk to than the boss just now.

He was directly held down and beaten with twenty sticks. Li Chang'an was also taken out on by the anger, but that was because he was an official after all, the third place winner of the imperial examination this spring. Even though Wang Huaian was angry, he did not dare to have Li Chang'an beaten. He told him not to be busy with cases recently and to learn the rules of the Ministry of Justice.

Li Changan made a bitter face as he looked at the yamen runners lying on the bench wailing. He then spent some money to have them sent back safely.

"Master Li, I have been in the Ministry of Justice for seven or eight years. I would like to remind you that you must not change your words and say that we went to rest. Otherwise, not only will we be punished for deserting our posts, but you will also be suspected again for being alone with that person."

Li Changan nodded. Seeing that he didn't seem to care much, the man reached out and held his arm.

"Listen to me, don't be careless. This time is different. That man harmed Lord Cheng'en. It seems that he stole Lord Cheng'en's bribe account book. The reason why Lord Cheng'en and the Minister of State didn't let him be killed is that they haven't found the account book yet, so they have been keeping a close eye on him. You were not the only one under surveillance before. The previous person in charge was also under surveillance, so he pretended to be sick and hid. That's why you are here. If people know that we left, you will be in more trouble than us."

Li Changan showed horror on his face, nodded solemnly, and stretched out his hands to bow.

"Thanks for the reminder, Li Changan will keep it in mind."

A few people relaxed and let others carry them away. They were lucky this time. They were beaten with twenty sticks and fined some monthly wages, but no serious injuries. However, if Li Changan told others about their departure because he was ignored, it would be more than that. Besides, what he said was right. As someone who had been alone with the man, Li Changan would be in greater danger. Now he could only bite himself to death. The man could not bear the punishment and bit his tongue to commit suicide when they were sorting out the torture instruments.

Li Changan sat in his seat. There were originally four or five colleagues. One was on leave, one was sick to avoid this matter, and the rest were out busy. Only Li Changan was left, holding the wall and going to the inner room. There was a kang for people to rest. Li Changan sat on it and gasped quickly, holding his chest.

The man actually told me the location of the account book, just because I fed him water twice? No, since the man could stay in front of Lord Cheng'en for such a long time, and quietly collected evidence of bribery and compiled the account book, his character was not comparable to that of ordinary people. Perhaps it was because the man knew that he would not survive, and he had no one he could trust. He was just trying his luck. If he was Lord Cheng'en's man, or the kind of villain who wanted to cling to power, he would treat this account book as a way to repay the kindness of the two books of water. If he was upright, or someone's spy, he could also use it to bring down Lord Cheng'en.

Li Changan picked up the cold tea on the table that irritated his throat and drank a cup of it. Only then did he calm down a little. Li Changan left the yamen without noticing that someone was following him. But to be on the safe side, he went to a restaurant to eat as usual and then went home.

Si'an was still communicating with Li Chang'an while drinking tea.

[Do you have any way to contact An Zizhong? ]

Si'an saw clearly and shook his head.

[After Master An asked me to follow him, I no longer belonged to Xishan.]

Li Changan was a little frustrated when he saw this. How could this happen? He couldn't rashly contact An Zizhong. After all, An Zizhong was now the son-in-law of the Grand Princess. His status was hostile to that of Duke Cheng'en. Even if he met An Zizhong normally, it would arouse suspicion. Duke Cheng'en must be furious now that he didn't see the account book being destroyed. He would definitely keep a close eye on all the suspects he could think of who knew the account book.

Li Changan tossed and turned, unable to sleep. If the account book was real, it must be very useful to An Zizhong. He also had the case of the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion under investigation. If Duke Cheng'en could not get the account book and really wanted to force a confession, he might be detained in the Ministry of Justice. By then, he would be killed with the confession from the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion on him.

[Master, I know a grocery store that I should be able to contact. I saw the waiter there before and he was a friend I trained with before.]

Si'an thought about it for a long time, and finally remembered that he had met a clerk in a cloth shop before, a partner he had trained with. If he came to Kyoto, it must be arranged by An Zizhong.

Li Changan excitedly dipped his hand into the teacup.

【Take me there tomorrow. 】

After finally coming up with a solution, Li Changan finally took a nap when it was still dawn. When he got up in the morning, there were indeed many more guards in the Ministry of Justice. His actions were also being watched particularly closely, and he did not even go to the toilet alone. However, not only himself, but also all the people who were trying the man were being watched.

"My Lord, what's wrong? Someone followed me when I went to get some tea or go to the toilet. Is it possible that the Lord Shangshu is suspicious of me?"

Li Changan pretended to be very uncomfortable and came to talk to his immediate superior.

"Don't talk about you. I'm not at peace either. Lord Cheng'en was very angry and scolded the Minister. The thing was lost, and Lord Cheng'en would be worried until he found it. It's okay. We are conducting a normal trial. They followed for a few days and left without finding anything."

Li Changan returned to his seat in frustration, picked up the Ministry of Justice's case trial rules and copied them word for word. Before the Shangshu gave the order, he did not have to manage any cases. Looking at his busy colleagues, Li Changan felt that this was like a reward.

During the lunch break, Li Changan explained to his boss that he had to go out to pick up the new clothes he had ordered for his wife. At this time, Li Changan was very grateful to Qi You for deliberately ignoring him and bringing people to the Ministry of Justice to quarrel with him, which made his boss sympathetic and helpless and asked him to go and come back quickly.

Li Changan came to the cloth shop and specifically went to the clerk that Si'an mentioned. The business in the shop was pretty good, with four or five people choosing cloth, but no one was paying attention to this place.

"I have something urgent to tell An Zizhong. Please contact him. My name is Li Changan."

This time, Li Changan was followed by a clerk, who was wandering on the stall opposite the store. He didn't dare to say much, and just said this. The clerk raised his head and glanced at Li Changan, then took a piece of cloth from the shelf behind him and put it in Li Changan's hand.

"Please elaborate."

Li Changan handed the cloth back and pointed at the goose yellow shirt behind the waiter.

"Someone is watching me. I can't stay here for long. Just help me pass the message. He knows what's going on."

The waiter handed the goose yellow dress to Li Changan, and Li Changan took out some silver from his pocket and gave it to her. The two of them successfully completed the conversation through these actions, and people around them thought they were talking about clothes.

Li Changan took the clothes and pretended not to notice the spy. He went to a pastry shop and bought a few squares of lotus cakes. He then went to a water shop and bought some rouge and eyebrow pencils. He returned to the Ministry of Justice with large and small bags of things. Looking at the teasing eyes of the people around him, Li Changan looked embarrassed.

"Look at this woman. She makes so many new clothes all year round that she can't even replace them all. She also needs to eat cakes and buy rouge. If she didn't have two shops, it wouldn't be enough."

Immediately someone agreed.

"Yes, you said that it is not easy for us to do our work in a day, and the women stay in the backyard to spend money. Every month, they buy some new clothes and jewelry. My wife recently saw a set of jewelry that cost 200 taels of silver, which is as much as the family spends in a year."

"Same, same. My wife is pregnant and has to eat sour plum and black cinnamon from Kouweizhai every day. A small bowl costs one tael of silver. It hurts my heart just looking at it."

Sure enough, men all over the world start to talk when they talk about their wives spending too much money on food and clothing.

After Li Changan went to rest and came back, he found that the things he had just bought seemed different. He used to tie the knot with the left side on top of the right side, and the square cloth that contained the clothes was now with the right side on top of the left side. Li Changan immediately realized that someone had rummaged through his things when he was not paying attention. Unfortunately, he did not take anything with him. These things were really bought with money, but they were not what Qi You asked him for.

Li Changan waited until the next day, when he went to the restaurant where he often ate after getting off work. There was a strange face in the restaurant. The young man came to him with a bowl of noodles and spoke in a voice that only the two of them could hear.

"The young master will see you tonight. Please ask Si'an to prepare the sleeping pills."

Then he left. Li Changan looked at the man's back and finally felt a little relieved.

On the way back, Li Changan told Si'an about this matter. Si'an thought about it for a long time and felt that he couldn't use drugs, because it would directly expose Li Changan that he had discovered someone was watching him and would focus more attention on him. After thinking about it, he locked himself in the room and fiddled with it for more than half an hour before he came to the study with a bowl and a cup.

[Take the detoxification pills. This medicine gives you headaches and diarrhea. It's very effective. ]

Li Changan's eyes lit up. Why didn't he think of this trick? As long as those people felt uncomfortable, they couldn't monitor him all the time. This was much safer than using drugs.

But fortunately, there was only one person watching me. It would be abnormal if two people had headaches and diarrhea at the same time.

At the beginning of the night, the door of the study was opened. Li Changan immediately sat up and watched three masked men walk in. An Zizhong was standing in the middle.

"The person who was monitoring him was knocked unconscious?"

An Zizhong asked in a low voice. He waited for a long time but did not receive a reply from Li Changan. He sent someone to inquire and found out that a prisoner had died in the Ministry of Justice and Li Changan was under surveillance. Since he took the initiative to contact him, it meant that he had gained something.

"Si'an was drugged. He must have gone to the bathroom again."

An Zizhong nodded, and Zhuhai and Zhuhe stood guard at the front door and back window to prevent anyone from suddenly rushing in.

"This is a book of offerings. I took it out and have been carrying it with me."

An Zizhong took the purse, put it in his arms and prepared to leave. He couldn't stay here for too long. It would be bad if the secret guard came back and found out.

"Don't worry, I'm not looking for you for this matter. The prisoner who died in the Ministry of Justice was a former staff member of Lord Cheng'en, a spy hidden in the palace. He compiled a bribery account book of Lord Cheng'en, which was discovered by Lord Cheng'en. He was thrown into prison and tortured. Before he died, he told me that the account book was hidden under the floor tiles of the land temple. You arrange to get it. I'm afraid I can't move around freely."

An Zizhong raised his head and stared into Li Changan's eyes, with many emotions flashing in his eyes.

"Why do you know where the account book is hidden?"

How could Li Changan not tell that An Zizhong was really doubting him? He smiled bitterly and looked at An Zizhong with red eyes.

"Zi Zhong, you are from Huaiyuan Marquis's Mansion, right? You can actually trust me. Although I value power, we have relied on each other for these years. I am closer to you than to my own brothers. I guessed your identity and went to read the confession book of Huaiyuan Marquis's Mansion. It records the crimes you have suffered. The prisoner suffered the same thing as you did before. It seemed to me that you were framed and bullied. I fed him water and medicine. Maybe because there was really no one else to tell, he told me and then committed suicide."

Li Changan grabbed An Zizhong's arm very hard. He could feel the raised scars on An Zizhong's forearm through his clothes. When he saw the prisoner, he could imagine what An Zizhong had gone through. How much torture must have happened to turn the once unrestrained dandy into what he is now.

"If the account book is real, you can better implement your goal. If you don't believe me, just leave it there until I can get rid of my control and get it for you."

An Zizhong shook his head, looked into Li Changan's eyes, and silently said "I believe it"

Li Changan smiled happily. An Zizhong couldn't delay any longer, so he told him to be careful and followed Zhuhe Zhuhai to leave Li's house. The secret guard who was monitoring Li Changan just climbed in from the alley, took two steps, covered his stomach and squatted down with a frown, and there was an awkward puffing sound from behind, and it could be vaguely felt that there was something mixed in. A foul smell came, and the man had to climb out again and find a corner to solve the problem. The hem of his clothes was torn off and used. The whole man was in tattered clothes and exuded a foul smell. People would believe that he was a beggar.

After the last pull, the man no longer had the strength to climb back over the wall, so he just held onto the wall and left the Li family. The next day, a man delivering vegetables to the backyard kitchen before dawn stepped on a soft mass of something in the alley. The stench immediately reminded him of what he had stepped on, and his face turned black. He looked at the piles of various shapes and sizes in front of him, and he felt sick and almost vomited. He cursed.

"Damn you, what did you eat to grow up? You poop on the road, you son of a bitch..."

The servants who woke up early heard it, and some even came out to take a look, and suddenly there was one more person cursing.