Both worlds are like dreams

After resting in the camp for a night, Xue Huang and Gu Qinglan set out for the quarry early the next morning. The Third Prince didn't say anything, but he sent one of his followers to follow them. It was obvious that he was worried about them, or he had other plans.

Because when we were having dinner together this morning, Wei Yunzhou mentioned another thing, that the dam in Guyan County was deliberately destroyed.

This dam is about 120 meters long. It was built with great efforts by Beiyuan, which had not yet been destroyed. It was made entirely of stone slabs as high as a person, and was later reinforced by Beiling. Although the recent rainfall has been heavy, it is not enough to destroy the foundation of the dam.

Wei Yunzhou found out that one night before the dam was destroyed, people who lived nearby seemed to see a fire on the dam, but it disappeared quickly due to heavy rain. They thought it was an illusion, but Wei Yunzhou and his team found some stones in the river downstream with traces of burning, which had not been washed away by the river because of the short time.

By comparing the material of the stones with those of the dam, it was proved that the burned stones came from the dam.

Wei Yunzhou suspected that someone had deliberately blew up the dam. Considering that all the lime in the city had been sold out in advance, this was most likely a setup, but the purpose was still unknown.

With this suspicion, Xue Huang and Gu Qinglan set off with a heavy heart. They thought it was just a simple flood control, but they didn't expect so much to be involved behind it.

When they arrived near the quarry, the convoy stopped and began loading stone slabs.

Xue Huang found an excuse to enter the county town, and Gu Qinglan stayed behind to cover for her. But as soon as she left, she realized someone was following her in the dark.

She nimbly turned left and right in the alley, easily shaking off the tail behind her.

But there was a question that she forgot to ask yesterday, which was which inn Xu Yao and Xiao Ling'er were in.

Xue Huang was very depressed. She had never been here before, and Xiao Ling'er didn't even tell her. How could she find it?

She sat at a deserted tea stall and drank a cup of tea, looking around aimlessly, wondering where Xuyao and the others were most likely to be.

But before I had sat there for long, these two people actually came to the door on their own initiative.

Xiao Ling'er was still dressed in black and sat down slowly. She was slender and graceful, and even with a veil on, her face must have been extremely beautiful. Although Xu Yao did not wear the scary mask, he wore a long hat that covered his entire head tightly.

Xue Huang thought: It seems that he also knows that wearing a mask is scary, so why not just take it off.

"It seems that you already knew it as soon as I entered the city." Xue Huang said with a smile.

"Why don't you go up?" Xiao Ling'er asked.

"Where are you going?"

Xiao Ling'er gestured for her to look behind her, and there was an inn not far away.

Xue Huang twitched her lips, feeling helpless. How could she have known that she had found their hiding place by accident? Pouring a cup of tea for them, Xue Huang sighed, "It's the same everywhere. Do you have any new news?"

Xiao Ling'er handed her a veil and said, "Cover your face, and let's go."

Xue Huang nodded, put on her veil, and followed the two of them to a relatively remote alley.

Although the location here is remote, the houses are built very elegantly.

Xuehuang stood at the door and was about to knock but hesitated. She had not yet figured out how to get this person to speak.

On the way here, Xue Huang had already briefly learned about the old man's situation. He had lived here alone for so many years and rarely went out. Now he was in his twilight years and had difficulty moving. The people had received his kindness and would occasionally visit him. He had a grandson who was doing business in another place and had tried many times to take him away, but he refused.

At this time, a little girl with a flower basket came over. Seeing the three of them standing at the door, she asked timidly, "Are you here to see the old man too?" She was probably only ten years old, and her big watery eyes looked at them curiously.

Xue Huang nodded, "We need to find him if we need anything."

The little girl nodded and knocked on the door, "Grandpa, I'm here to see you."

The door opened and an old man with a cane came out. "What did you bring me again?"

"These are the fish my father caught in the river." The little girl proudly held up the basket to show him.

The old man patted the little girl's head, turned around and saw Xue Huang and the others, his eyes were dark and unclear, "Come in."

Xue Huang and the others followed them in. The old man told them to sit wherever they wanted, and then he poured the fish the little girl brought into the basin, and then he grabbed a handful of fruit for the little girl. "Take it and eat it."

"Thank you, grandpa." The little girl skipped away.

The old man brought them another plate of fruit, then sat down and said, "Recently, many people have come to see an old man like me. I can probably guess why you are here."

"Then can you tell us?"

The old man sighed, "I really don't know what I can say."

“If you don’t know anything, why have you been guarding here for so many years?”

“I want to seek the truth.”

"I can tell you the truth," Xue Huang said. "The theft of the disaster relief funds was indeed planned by Shen Congfeng."

The old man sighed, as if he had unloaded a burden, and he felt relieved. "It is indeed him. I have waited for 19 years and finally heard the answer." After a pause, he continued, "Since you already have the answer, why are you asking me again?"

"I have only confirmed the result, but I don't know the process yet. In other words, key evidence is missing. So we wanted to ask you if you can tell us something else."

"Then tell me first, who are you?" asked the old man.

"We just want to understand what happened here nineteen years ago."

The old man smiled and said, "Then let me ask directly, were you sent by the Second Prince or the Fifth Prince?"

Xue Huang was a little surprised when she heard this. This was a bit too direct.

"I can sense that you are not from Shen Congfeng's party. After all, their style of doing things is very cold-blooded, unlike you. I can sense that the people who have approached me these days have no ill intentions."

Xu Yao said, "I didn't expect that you, a person who doesn't care about the outside world, know so much about the current Beiling court."

"I don't know," the old man shook his head, "I just heard about it. The only thing I know is Shen Congfeng's methods. After all, I have worked in Shangyang City for a year, so I know what kind of person Shen Congfeng is."

Xue Huang raised an eyebrow, "We are here on the orders of the Fifth Prince."

"The man who is in charge of building the dam?"

Xue Huang nodded.

"I met him once from a distance, he seems like a nice guy."

"Since you mentioned Shen Congfeng, can I understand that what happened back then was related to him? Otherwise, why are you so taboo about him?"

"In fact, I don't know if it has anything to do with him. I only know that his subordinates were responsible for escorting the disaster relief silver, but it was never delivered."

"Because when we reached the dam, the relief money had already disappeared. They said it was stolen by the river god."

The old man laughed mockingly, "I led people to wait at the city gate for a whole day but there was no sign of them. Children as young as six or seven also waited with us. They refused to go back even when they were dizzy from the sun, waiting for the relief money to buy food. But he made up a story about the river god appearing and embezzling the money. It was all a cover-up. It was obvious that Shen Congfeng and his gang didn't care about the life and death of our Guyan County. But what could I, a small county magistrate, do to them? I could only keep this matter to myself, hoping that someone would find out the truth and bring Shen Congfeng to justice. But I have been holding it in for seventeen years, and gradually I became more and more disappointed, so I don't want to mention what happened that year. This is all I know, and I don't know if it's of any use to you."

Xiao Linger looked at Xue Huang and found that she was actually in a trance. She shook Xue Huang and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Xue Huang frowned, looked at the old man and asked, "You just said you waited at the gate of the county town for a whole day?"

The old man nodded.

"There was nothing unusual about the levee that day?"

"No."

"sure?"

The old man was a little puzzled. "I'm sure. It was the only sunny day in Guyan County after it rained for several days in a row. I remember it very clearly. The sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly. I heard that the relief money would also be delivered on that day, so we all thought that day was a good day."

"What's wrong with you?" Xiao Ling'er asked Xue Huang in confusion.

"According to the records I found in the inner court, on the day when the relief silver was stolen, when the convoy reached the dam, the entire Bishui River was filled with white fog, covering the sky and blocking out the sun. When the fog dissipated, the relief silver disappeared, and only a vague giant object disappeared in the fog. It took only half an hour, so there is a legend that the river god appeared. Because in such a short time, who can transport 200,000 taels of silver without leaving any trace?"

Xu Yao said calmly, "The files can be forged. Since they want to embezzle the disaster relief money, they will naturally make all the necessary preparations."

"The files can indeed be forged," Xue Huang frowned, "but memories cannot be faked. Not all of the people who escorted the relief money were Shen Congfeng's confidants. The thick fog was witnessed by everyone in the team."

Xiao Ling'er looked at the old man, "Are you sure? There was nothing unusual about the water surface near the dam that day?"

The old man shook his head. "I am sure that the sky was clear that day. It was impossible for it to be foggy. And how could the fog dissipate so quickly in just half an hour?"

"Do you remember the exact day?" Xu Yao asked.

The old man thought for a moment and said, "It is the 764th year of the Liuyun calendar, summer, the 15th day of the sixth lunar month."

Xu Yao looked at Xue Huang again, "What date is recorded in the file?"

Xue Huang recalled, "It was also fifteen."

"The exact time."

"The exact time... I don't know. There aren't that many details in the file."

They were all silent. How could this happen? It was impossible for so many people to lie at the same time, otherwise it would be easy to reveal the flaws.

"If there is no appearance of the river god and what they said is true, then there is only one possibility." Xu Yao said.

"What is it?" Xue Huang raised her eyebrows.

"Their memories have been tampered with."

"How is this possible?" Xue Huang was surprised. "How can memory be false?"

"I tend to believe that what he said is true," Xu Yao glanced at the old man, "Then the ones with memory problems are the escort team. Maybe there's something wrong with the white fog, or maybe someone made them think that they were trapped in the white fog for only half an hour, when in fact it might have been a long time."

Xue Huang thought about it for a while and nodded, "That's possible, but it's impossible to see the environment clearly in the white fog. How did they take the disaster relief silver away?"

Xu Yao was silent for a moment, and his tone was slightly low. "There is a kind of poison that can make people hallucinate. Sometimes they can't tell reality from illusion, and it can also confuse people's memories. The people in the white fog may have been hallucinating at that moment, and the people who ambushed them took this opportunity to transfer the relief money. When those people woke up, the relief money had actually been transferred quietly. But in their memory, only half an hour had passed."

Xue Huang was a little bit unbelievable, "But is there any evidence to prove that they are hallucinating? Is there really such a poison?"

"Yes." Xu Yao said in a strange tone, then he stood up and went out.

"What's wrong with him?" Xue Huang asked.

A sigh flashed across Xiao Ling'er's eyes, "He has come into contact with that kind of medicine."

Xue Huang was stunned for a moment, "When?"

Xiao Ling'er remained silent.

Xue Huang glanced at the old man and said, "Thank you for your help, old man. I think I have found the key to the problem. Leave the rest to us."

"I hope this can really help you." said the old man.

"Goodbye." Xue Huang said with a smile. "If you want to go find your grandson, I can have someone escort you there. What's happening here has nothing to do with you anymore."

The old man smiled and said, "It's time for me to leave, but don't bother, I can go by myself."

"See you later." After Xue Huang said that, she pulled Xiao Ling'er and chased after him.

Xuyao disappeared without a trace.

Xue Huang looked around but didn't see him. She followed Xiao Ling'er back to the inn, but didn't see him come back. She thought that Xu Yao's tone seemed a little low just now. Could it be that the poison had some other meaning to him?

"You just said that your master had come into contact with that kind of poison. What's going on?" Xue Huang asked.

Xiao Ling'er sat by the window, looking into the distance, with a trace of sadness in her expression, and sighed: "That was a long time ago."

"May I know?"

"He should have told you that he was captured by Mo Yunchen."

Xue Huang nodded.

"After being captured, he was imprisoned for a long time. Mo Yunchen used a poison on him. Its name should be Nightmare Fragrance, which would make people recall the past. The owner would repeat his experiences over and over again in his dreams. Sometimes when he woke up, he couldn't tell whether those memories were reality or a dream. But every time he opened his eyes, he would suffer more. This torture lasted for a long time and almost made him unrecognizable."

"Fragrance of Nightmare?" Xue Huang frowned slightly, "This name sounds familiar."