Princess Promotion

Elder Xiao stared at the letter on the desk with a frown on his face.

Since they parted at the border, Lord Xiao and Yan Mingzhe have always kept in touch through letters.

Counting on my fingers, it has been more than a month since the last letter. According to common sense, Yan Mingzhe should have arrived in Yundu by now to prepare for the imperial examination.

However, not only has the person not arrived, there is no news at all.

Moreover, the last letter from Yan Mingzhe that Lord Xiao received clearly indicated that he was on his way to Yundu City.

In the letter, the two also agreed to have a drink and chat together after Yan Mingzhe arrived in Yundu City.

After thinking about it, Lord Xiao felt more and more uneasy. Yan Mingzhe has always been calm and methodical in his work. If he was delayed on the way, he would definitely write to inform me.

It is impossible to disappear without a trace without saying a word.

Elder Xiao pondered for a long time and finally decided to send someone to ask Fu Hongxuan, who had just arrived in Yundu City, whether he had any news about his master Yan Mingzhe.

At this moment, a servant walked into the study in a panic and reported, "Master, something terrible has happened!"

Elder Xiao was startled, stood up suddenly, and said in a deep voice: "Tell me quickly!"

The servant said, "Mr. Yan was originally returning to Yundu City from the border with Commander Fu. However, when they checked into an inn, a fire broke out and Mr. Yan mysteriously disappeared in the flames. Commander Fu has sent people to search for him within a hundred miles, but there is no trace of him."

Elder Xiao was horrified: "How could a perfectly normal person disappear for no apparent reason?"

Elder Xiao was restless, feeling that this matter was not simple. How could a living person just disappear out of thin air?

I wanted to send someone to look for him, but then I thought that if Yan Mingzhe was simply lost in the fire, with Fu Hongxuan's ability and means, he should not be able to find him.

It seems that things are probably not that simple, and some unexpected situation must have happened.

However, Lord Xiao couldn't figure out what exactly had happened for a moment.

After thinking about it, this matter was weird from beginning to end.

Lord Xiao walked to the desk, picked up his pen and wrote a letter to Yu Zhijian, asking him to find out the whereabouts of Yan Mingzhe.

It just so happened that Yu Zhijian was at the border, and Yan Mingzhe also disappeared not far from the border.

A few days later, Yu Zhijian received a letter from Lord Xiao.

Mr. Xiao is my mentor, so I will do my best in everything he entrusts me with.

Yu Zhijian had also heard of Yan Mingzhe, a famous scholar and the current patriarch of the Yan family in Youzhou.

The possibility of such a person suddenly disappearing mysteriously is too low to be an accident.

But before understanding the specific situation, Yu Zhijian couldn't jump to conclusions.

It just so happened that he had almost dealt with the rebellion on his side, so he took Yunyue and Wu Qi and set off for the town where Yan Mingzhe had the accident.

When Yu Zhijian and his group arrived at the inn, it was already in ruins, half of it had been smoked to charcoal.

Seeing the half-burned inn, there was a lot of wood piled up next to it. It seemed that they were preparing to demolish and rebuild it.

Next to the burned half of the inn, there was a pile of wood, obviously someone was planning to demolish and rebuild it.

Yu Zhijian asked the innkeeper to come over and ask, "Boss, it looks like this inn needs to be rebuilt."

The shopkeeper nodded with a bitter face and said, "That's right. This fire started for no reason and burned most of my wealth."

Yu Zhijian looked around, finally landing on the section of the inn that was most severely damaged, and asked, "But when the kitchen fire was turned off, I didn't notice that sparks flew out in the middle of the night and ignited the straw?"

The shopkeeper denied it repeatedly, "That's impossible. That's the horse trough over there, and the kitchen is next to the well in the backyard. They're not even remotely related."

Yu Zhijian nodded thoughtfully and continued to ask, "Does the innkeeper still have the guest register for that day?"

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper first looked up at the several constables standing next to Yu Zhijian, knowing that this man was not someone he could afford to offend.

So the shopkeeper nodded and bowed hurriedly and replied, "Yes, yes, I will go and get it for your inspection."

After saying that, the shopkeeper turned around and hurried into the house. After a while, he came out trotting with a booklet and handed it respectfully to Yu Zhijian.

Yu Zhijian flipped through the booklet and saw on the last page that the person staying at the inn was a man named Song.

According to what Yu Zhijian has learned so far, Fu Hongxuan and his group checked into the inn that day. So where did this guy surnamed Song come from?

The innkeeper was not very clear about the specific situation, but his inn was first booked by a young man named Song.

It was heard that Mr. Song was a student going to Yundu City to take the imperial examination. In order to study and rest in peace, he specially booked the entire inn.

In the afternoon, when the city gate was about to close, another group of people entered. Their words and actions were unusual, and no one knew what these people said to Master Song.

In the end, all these people moved in and asked the shopkeeper to prepare several tables of food and wine for them.

But all these accounts are registered under the name of Mr. Song, who is a kind-hearted man.

Even when the room caught fire, he did not cause trouble for the inn, nor did he ask the owner to refund the room fee. He even gave the inn a sum of money for repairs before leaving.

The shopkeeper naturally praised Mr. Song highly.

Yu Zhijian didn't say anything after hearing this, and then asked which room Mr. Song lived in.

It was discovered that the room where Young Master Song lived was the half of the inn where the fire broke out.

After sending the shopkeeper away, Yu Zhijian immediately asked Yunyue to go to the secret guards to investigate this Young Master Song.

Yun Yue asked, "Do you suspect there's something wrong with this Young Master Song?"

Yu Zhijian: "I'm not doubting it, I'm certain there's something fishy about this Song guy, and he's inextricably linked to Mr. Yan's disappearance."

Yun Yue raised an eyebrow in surprise and asked, "How can you be sure?"

Yu Zhijian closed the booklet in his hand and said slowly, "Everyone's money is hard-earned. I almost died in the fire at the inn where I stayed. Not holding the inn responsible is already magnanimous. Even giving them a subsidy is really too much."

In Yu Zhijian's opinion, there are only two possibilities for such abnormal behavior.

One possibility is that Mr. Song is truly a compassionate person who sympathizes with the people of the world and is extremely kind-hearted.

Another possibility is that this Mr. Song is the instigator of this arson!

Since he had set the fire himself, he naturally would not deliberately pursue any responsibility or fault on the part of the inn.

Not only that, in order to calm the situation and avoid causing too much trouble and attention, Master Song even used silver to subsidize the inn.

Most people would not have thought that someone would deliberately set fire to an inn and then take the initiative to pay silver as compensation.

Such a contradictory behavior. If someone finds out that the fire was caused by humans, they will definitely subconsciously exclude Mr. Song from the cause.

If we analyze this fire in conjunction with the disappearance of Mr. Yan, Mr. Song is highly suspected.