When the book-traveling little detective meets the two-faced prince

Cheng Su closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if he was suppressing his anger. The muscles on his face twitched slightly, and no one present dared to say a word.

Slowly, Cheng Su calmed down his emotions, opened his eyes, looked at Chang Feizhang and said, "You said you wanted me to help you, are you trying to blame me for everything that happened in Pinghai Town?"

"I have absolutely no such intention!" Chang Feizhang was extremely frightened and immediately kowtowed and apologized.

"I have no such intention!" Cheng Su repeated Chang Feizhang's words in a tone of great disbelief, then snorted coldly and said, "If you really have no such intention, just submit your resignation to the Ministry of Personnel. Why do you need me to help you?"

"I..." Chang Feizhang wanted to say something.

Cheng Su did not give Chang Feizhang a chance to speak, and continued: "You keep talking about your own faults, but the people of Pinghai Town all know that I asked you to issue this order, and the Lantern Festival was held as scheduled after I agreed to it at your request. Now you kneel in front of the people again and say that you are trying to shift the blame onto me."

"You have saved your reputation and pushed the responsibility away. This is a really good move. Before now, I really thought you were a coward who couldn't handle the overall situation. It seems that..." Cheng Su's eyes darkened, staring at Chang Feizhang and said coldly: "County Magistrate Chang, I really underestimated you."

Chang Feizhang waved his hands quickly, looking panicked, and said incoherently: "General Cheng, I have absolutely no such intention. This matter is indeed caused by my incompetence. Please believe me, I have absolutely not…"

"Enough!" Cheng Su didn't want to see Chang Feizhang like this anymore, so he stopped him and said, "You are not from Qujiang County, you receive salary and food from the court every month, the suffering of the people has nothing to do with you, you can just walk away."

"But the people of Qujiang County make their living by the water. When such a big incident happened, you did not investigate it thoroughly, but instead ordered the boats to be closed because of a trumped-up letter. Two months after the incident, not only did you fail to find out the truth, but you also allowed the situation to escalate further, causing the people of the town to panic and live in misery. From this point of view, you are indeed incompetent as an official."

Cheng Su tried hard to suppress his unhappiness, calmed his tone, and said, "The case of the disappearance of the entire Huaifeng Village has not been solved since you took office in Qujiang County. Now the case of Wu Sanshan is even more shrouded in mystery. As the county magistrate, you are to blame, but you want to escape from the battle."

"If the officials are so weak, how can they redress the injustices for the people?" Cheng Su pointed to the corpses not far behind Chang Feizhang and said, "You do this because you want to watch these implicated people die innocently!"

Chang Feizhang was speechless after hearing what Cheng Su said, and the self-blame in his eyes deepened.

After hearing Cheng Su's words, the people looked at their dead relatives, cried even more heartbreakingly, and shouted: "Oh my God, what have we done wrong? Why are we so cruel——!"

Cheng Su took a deep breath, retracted his gaze, looked at Chang Feizhang and said seriously: "Chang Feizhang, I don't care what you want to do, but there is one thing you must not forget. Today, you are still the county magistrate of Qujiang County. Even if you want to resign, you should take responsibility before that and do what you should do."

Cheng Su's words had made it very clear that Chang Feizhang should wait until the case was fully solved before resigning.

On the surface, Cheng Su seemed to have softened his attitude, but in fact he had made it clear to Chang Feizhang the interests involved and the difficulties Chang Feizhang had caused to the people, successfully arousing public indignation.

To some extent, this can be considered a threat.

If the truth of this case cannot be uncovered, Chang Feizhang will never be able to resign peacefully, regardless of the public resentment or his dereliction of duty as a county magistrate.

At the beginning, as a general, Cheng Su would not be held responsible even if he could not find out the truth in the end.

But now the matter has become a big deal, the case has not been fully investigated and someone has died. Chang Feizhang wants to drag Cheng Su into it, but it is obvious that Cheng Su is not a pushover. Now the two of them have become grasshoppers in the same boat, and only by finding out the truth can the public anger be calmed.

Otherwise, if the matter gets out of hand and reaches the emperor's ears, neither of them will be able to escape responsibility.

but……

Lin Lezhi lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, then turned his gaze back to Cheng Su.

Lin Lezhi always felt that Cheng Su and his team came here for more than one purpose, otherwise why would he loudly announce that he was investigating a case while asking his men to act with caution?

It is understandable that he did it for the sake of the people and did not want to make them worry, but if that were the case, wouldn't it be safer to hide his identity as a general from the beginning while investigating the case?

This is really contradictory.

and……

This feeling of disharmony is not only reflected in Cheng Su.

In fact, everyone present was.

Someone was chasing him, but Jiang Lian'an appeared in front of everyone.

In order to prevent the situation from escalating, Chang Feizhang ordered the ships to be sealed on the grounds of ensuring the safety of the people.

Guo Yong and his group, who have been hiding in the mountains and hunting for many years, insist on going to the island to explore the secrets.

Wu Sanshan said he went out to look for medicine, but actually hid corpses in the basement.

and also……

Lin Lezhi turned his gaze to Xiao Yihuo.

Why did Xiao Yihuo not stay in his fiefdom, but came here hiding his identity?

Xiao Yihuo noticed Lin Lezhi's gaze and looked at Lin Lezhi. Their eyes met briefly, and Lin Lezhi immediately looked away.

After all, my purpose of coming to Qujiang County is not just to sell books.

There is something, although it is just some vague ideas now, without any basis, and even I can't say for sure, but I still want to find out.

The wailing of the people and Cheng Su's words made Chang Feizhang feel ashamed. His body kept shaking and his head was buried deeply in the ground.

After a long while, Chang Feizhang raised his head, clasped his fists and said, "General Cheng is right. I am really ashamed. I will investigate these two cases thoroughly, even if I die!"

Cheng Su didn't look at Chang Feizhang again, but turned to Hong Mingxu and said, "Mingxu, go to the camp to get money and distribute it to these suffering people. Burn the sunken ship and return them a new one."

"Yes!"

After receiving the order, Hong Mingxu immediately walked towards the tent in the camp.

Then, Cheng Su looked at the soldier beside him and said, "Are these the only things in the bottom cabin?"

The soldier immediately clasped his fists and said, "General, this is only a part, not all. For the rest...the rest...please go and see it yourself."

The more the soldier spoke, the more panicked he looked, as if there was something terrible in the cabin.

Seeing that everyone was about to walk towards the wreckage, Guan Ziheng swallowed his saliva, grabbed Lin Lezhi with a fearful look on his face, looked at the burnt wreckage and whispered: "Lezhi, the fire has stopped now, and no one should need to be rescued. If there is nothing else, I will withdraw first."

Lin Lezhi grabbed Guan Ziheng. When he helped Guan Ziheng up, he found that Guan Ziheng's palm was injured. Although it was a small scar, the pain was not pleasant.

"Here you go. Remember to treat your wounds when you get back."

Lin Lezhi took out the bottle of medicine for treating injuries given by Qingchuan and placed it in Guan Ziheng's palm where the abrasion was less serious.

Guan Ziheng held the medicine bottle in his hand, looked at Lin Lezhi solemnly and said, "You must come back safely!"

Seeing Guan Ziheng's eyes full of worry, Lin Lezhi couldn't say anything else. He smiled lightly and said, "Okay."

Because the dock had burned down, the only way to get to the wreckage was to row a boat.

The ship was badly burned, with damage to the cabins and decks extremely severe. Because the bottom hold was soaked in water and then flooded, most of it was preserved.

As they got closer to the wreckage, the water in the lake turned redder and a horrifying scene gradually unfolded before everyone.

The partitions in the bottom cabin were originally designed to be stable and prevent water from entering, but now the partitions were filled with blood, and floating on the blood were body parts that had been cut into more than a dozen pieces.

Just like the severed hand, blood was still gushing out, staining the entire lake surface.