The Little Lucky Girl

Seeing Yan Hong crying so sadly, Ming Youyou couldn't help but step forward to comfort him, but Zheng Huan stopped her and said, "Let him cry. He will feel better after crying."

Yan Hong cried even louder, and everyone stood by quietly.

After a while, he wiped his tears, stared at the Qi countryman with his red and swollen eyes for a long time, then turned to Ming Youyou and begged, "I remember some of that person's features. Please make the painting more like him."

He gritted his teeth and said fiercely: "I must find him and ask him why he did this to us. My father is his savior. Is he a black heart?"

Ming Youyou nodded seriously. She had just smuggled a small pencil from the mall and covered it with her hand so no one could see it. Using it with the charcoal stick would allow her to handle the details better.

The old painter was also an emotional person. He shed a few tears and promised to use all his skills to paint.

After a meal's time, the portrait was completed again, and this time it was about 70% close.

Everyone was very satisfied, and they handed it to the yamen runners to send it back to the county government office without stopping. When Magistrate Tao received the portrait, he was surprised and said to Master He, "Why do I feel like I have seen this person before?"

Master He had an excellent memory. After thinking carefully, he said, "He does look familiar. He seems to be the man who assassinated Prince Xiao. My Lord, do you still remember him? That man was unlucky and jumped into the guards' yard and was caught red-handed."

"Look, it says next to it that this person has a mole behind his ear and a scar on his arm from being bitten by a wild boar. These features all match up. It must be that person."

"So it's him." Magistrate Tao said suddenly. This case was the first big case he handled since he took office as the magistrate of Chang'an County. It also involved affairs with the State of Qi. He handled it with great caution and was very impressed.

That man was quite tough. He was tortured for a long time by Prince Xiao's retainers, but he refused to say anything. Finally, he was thrown into the Chang'an County Government, where he has been detained ever since.

"If nothing unexpected happens, that person will probably be imprisoned until death," Master He suggested, "Why not bring him to Yuqing County? Even if there is no breakthrough, we will have fulfilled our promise to the village."

"Okay, then I'll trouble you to help me draft the document."

Magistrate Tao was popular in the court, and his work had attracted the attention of His Majesty. As soon as the memorial arrived in the capital, it was handled with special care, and the prisoner was sent over in less than half a month.

They originally just wanted Yan Hong to come over first to identify the identity, but when the news reached the village, all the older people came over.

A group of people rushed into the prison, and Ming Youyou and a few others also slipped in to take advantage of the situation.

The prison cells in Yuqing County were not as sophisticated as those in the capital. After all, there was no chance of detaining court officials or playboys. There was a mess inside, and old bloodstains were everywhere. Zheng Huan and others immediately covered Ming Youyou's eyes with their hands, for fear of scaring her.

Ming Youyou tried hard to create some distance and looked out curiously through the gaps between her fingers.

Yuxiang's second uncle was walking in front. He pushed away his son's hand and strode to the door of the cell.

He looked at it carefully over and over again, gasping for air and shaking as if he would fall down at any time.

Just when Ming Youyou was worried that he would faint and took out his needle bag to give him a shot, his second uncle finally asked in a trembling voice: "You, are you Cheng Lin?"

Because they knew that they would come to identify the person today, the bailiffs had already helped to clean up the prisoner in advance.

His hair was cut short and combed, and his shaggy beard was shaved off, revealing clear facial features, but he was very thin and looked very old.

He had looked at the person who came into the cell indifferently before, and his eyes changed only when he recognized his second uncle, but he quickly returned to normal and pretended not to hear his second uncle's questions.

The people in the village had already recognized him, and Yan Hong shouted excitedly, "Dad, it's him, it's him, the unfaithful man who killed my sister."

He hurried forward a few steps, grabbed the prisoner through the bars with his right hand, and was about to hit him with his left fist.

The yamen runners nearby were startled and rushed to stop him. In a panic, Yan Hong's fist landed on the fence. With a loud bang, a thick piece of wood that Ming Youyou could not even hold with both hands was broken.

Although Magistrate Tao had heard that the people in the village were very strong, he did not expect them to be so amazing. He could not help but admire them in his heart, and hurriedly advised: "Don't worry, now that the people have been found, we can talk slowly if we have anything to say."

It was difficult to disobey the county magistrate's words, so Yan Hong loosened his hand and deliberately threw the prisoner with force, and the prisoner fell to the ground like a rag.

Perhaps the pain from the collision stimulated him, or perhaps he finally realized something. He raised his head, looked at Yan Hong with cloudy eyes and said, "Yuhua, what happened to her?"

The words came out one by one, with a strange tone, as if the speaker had not spoken for a long time.

"How is Yuhua? You still have the nerve to ask," Yan Hong's eyes were red with anger, "She died because of you."

"Because you haven't come back for a long time, she is worried that you will be killed by your enemies, and she is also afraid that you will never come back. She is frightened every day, and she secretly goes to the holy mountain to pray for you without telling us."

Yan Hong cried and said, "My sister used to be such a cheerful woman, but she became so haggard because of you. She was in that state and had a difficult birth, so she didn't make it in the end."

He slammed the bars hard, and the whole cell shook. "It's all your fault. You killed her."

From the moment the prisoner heard the first sentence, he stood as motionless as a statue, with only big drops of tears silently flowing down his cheeks.

After a long time, his soul seemed to come back, and he finally spoke: "I thought that as long as I stayed away, I would protect her and the village, but I didn't expect that I would hurt her in the end."

"I didn't expect it. I really didn't expect this to happen." The prisoner slapped his chest hard.

"If I had known this would happen, I would have avoided everyone and died alone outside the village."

"Yuhua, my wife, I'm so sorry. I will go and apologize to you right now and stay with you and our child." The prisoner's expression became crazy and he struggled to stand up.

"Not good, the prisoner wants to commit suicide." Magistrate Tao immediately made a gesture, and a master from the imperial palace who was hiding somewhere quickly flashed to the front and stopped the prisoner from biting his tongue to commit suicide. Then he cut the back of the prisoner's neck with a palm, successfully making the prisoner faint.

"The prisoner is too excited right now and is not suitable for questioning. There is still a lot of time, so you may stay in the county government office and we will retry him another day." Magistrate Tao invited the elders of the village.

The criminal was finally found, and the elders, who had recovered from their anger, noticed that they had actually entered the county government office and ended up in jail.