Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

The person who was shocked was Shen Zheng.

She raised her hand to close the carriage window, her expression serious: "How did you know that I encountered trouble on my way to the capital?"

Even if the assassination was broken down into pieces and crushed into mud, it had nothing to do with that poor little Ah Wu, right?

Ah Wu knew that his bet was right, so he asked tentatively, "Has the murderer... not been caught yet?"

Shen Zheng's eyes darkened slightly, "What do you want to say?"

Ah Wu took a deep breath, as if he had made a great decision, and looked up and said, "I heard it a few months ago."

"..." Shen Zheng remained skeptical of her words. "If my guess is correct, the person who wants to harm me is a powerful official in the capital. How did you hear it? Did he tell your family when he passed by?"

Seeing that she didn't believe him, Ah Wu didn't get angry and said frankly: "I heard it when I went to the dock to steal something."

"Did you steal something?" Shen Zheng asked.

"The important thing is that I heard it when I was stealing." Ah Wu replied.

"..." After taking a sip of tea to calm herself, Shen Zheng began to take Ah Wu's words seriously. "When? Which dock? Ah Wu, you have to know that the other party is either rich or noble. If you are not sure, you must not casually accuse them."

"I understand what you are saying, and I also understand that you are worried that I might be involved."

Ah Wu seemed to have regained the calmness he had when he first got on the car.

"I originally wanted to exchange this bargaining chip with you after I got the files from the Ministry of Justice. But what you just said to me has never been told to me before, and we sisters have never figured it out, so I am very grateful to you."

"The fact is, I was hiding in a wrecked boat at Tongjin Ferry that night and heard them talking."

"Tongjin Ferry?"

After frowning and thinking for a while, Shen Zheng finally remembered that Tongjin Ferry was an old wharf in the suburbs of Beijing. It had long been abandoned and was rarely visited.

"It's Tongjin Ferry." Ah Wu was worried she wouldn't believe him, so he explained it in as much detail as possible. "Your Excellency knows that Tongjin Ferry has been abandoned for a long time. For many people, it's a place they would never set foot in. But for us poor people, it's a place to 'hunt for treasure.'"

Abandoned means ownerless.

No one else is there, which means you can search freely.

"Anything you find at the dock can be taken for yourself," said Ah Wu.

This was understandable, and Shen Zheng could understand it. If someone was cornered and didn't steal or rob, it was a sign of good manners.

"But you just said you were going to steal something." Shen Zheng found a contradiction in her words and asked, "Did you steal something from him?"

"I guess so..." Memories flashed through Ah Wu's mind like a kaleidoscope, capturing those scenes one by one.

"It was around the beginning of March, and the weather had just started to warm up, so I thought I'd try my luck at Tongjin Ferry and see if there were any items left on those wrecked boats. I'd also take a walk along the ferry, hoping I'd find a frozen fish that I could make a pot of fish soup to nourish Grandma."

She described it slowly and steadily, and Shen Zheng listened quietly.

"On the first day, I found nothing. Not to mention finding treasure or picking up fish, I almost broke through the ice and fell into the river, killing myself."

"The next day, I learned my lesson and didn't go near the thin ice anymore. I just took some rotten wood from the broken boat and carried it back home as firewood."

"On the afternoon of the third day, as I walked into the ferry, I noticed wheel tracks on the ground."

"Aside from the tire tracks on the ground, Tongjin Ferry seems unchanged. But people say we beggars have dog noses and can smell things. They're right. I walked and sniffed all the way until I finally smelled a scent that didn't belong to Tongjin Ferry."

"A boat arrived at the ferry, a boat that still smelled of tung oil. But the outside of the boat was tattered and looked almost broken."

"I approached the ship stealthily and lay in the weeds for half an hour. I didn't hear any human voices, so I got bolder and secretly boarded the ship."

"Unlike the outside, the boat was very new. But it was so new that there wasn't much to take. I walked around the boat carefully and finally found a lot of charcoal and rice in a secret compartment."

"The bad thing is, I can't carry all that charcoal and rice by myself."

Shen Zheng unconsciously put herself into the situation.

If it were me, would I take as much as I could, or would I run home to call for help and grab all the charcoal and rice?

Ah Wu, however, had already made her choice: "I was greedy, I wanted it all, so I filled a bag with rice, grabbed a few pieces of charcoal, and ran back home."

"It takes about an hour to walk from Tongjin Ferry to my home. If I run, it will take more than half an hour." Ah Wu said, "I regretted it halfway. What if the owner comes back? What if the boat is driven away? What if I take my sisters there and run into them?"

A struggle appeared on her face, as if she had returned to that time.

"I stood in the mud, looking at the road ahead and then back at the road I had come from, feeling completely torn. Lord Shen, you may not believe this, but that was the first major choice I had to make in my life. I didn't dare to choose, fearing I would make the wrong choice."

"You went back?" Shen Zheng guessed.

Ah Wu nodded. "I hid the rice and charcoal in a pile of rocks and ran back to Tongjin Ferry, intending to take them off the boat and hide them there. It was already dark by then. As I approached the boat, I heard the sound of wheels. Luckily, they didn't have torches, only two lanterns. In the moonlight, I hid on the wreck next door. They were very cautious and searched the area immediately after arriving, and even the wreck I was hiding on wasn't spared."

Shen Zheng suddenly felt like a thief who had been caught.

"How did you evade the search?"

Ah Wu subconsciously touched his arm and said, "There was a hole in the bulkhead of the broken ship. I'm small, so I could just squeeze out. After they finished searching, I squeezed back in."

After explaining the incident, we get to the point.

Ah Wu took a deep breath and said, "I heard them say that this time their master sent them out of the capital secretly, and that they must not reveal their whereabouts. They only need to ambush the enemy on their way back to the capital. They also said that their people have investigated the capital and found that the woman can't swim. If it's difficult to kill her, they will find a chance to get her into the water and then find a way to bring her back."

Shen Zheng frowned and thought for a moment, "These words... are too vague. How did you know that the 'woman' they were talking about was me?"

"Because before they left, they said they would make it impossible for women in the Great Zhou Dynasty to stand up again, and that woman would be used by their master."

Ah Wu looked at her, certain of his guess: "She originally lived in Shangjing, left Beijing some time ago, and later returned. She's a woman of great use... The second time I saw you, I was certain that the person they were talking about was you."

For some reason, the enclosed compartment was getting hotter and hotter.

Shen Zheng pulled her collar and opened the small window to let in some air.

Ah Wu's words almost made her overturn her previous guess.

Before, she had always suspected Gadber because he had sufficient motive to commit the crime.

If it was really Jiadebo, with his brain...how did he come up with the idea of sending people out from Tongjindu? Such a meticulous operation really doesn't seem like something Jiadebo would do.

Or does Gadber have smart people under his command?

Or...