Bloody Kyoto

The short man subtly sized up Li Nanle until the steamed buns and mantou were cooked and snatched up, before he left.

However, he asked Li Nanle one question before leaving.

"Ma'am, your steamed buns and mantou are selling so well, why don't you make more?"

"I'm all alone, I can't do that much."

"You can hire more people."

"For a small business, hiring more people would be too costly."

The short man looked at the bun in his hand, which was bigger than his palm, and thought to himself, "Don't be fooled by how good her business seems; she probably doesn't make much money at all."

That explains her reason for not hiring more people.

"Auntie, don't be too honest. When doing business, it's better to lose a little bit of your conscience."

After saying that, he took a bite of the bun and left.

Little did Li Nanle know that her heart skipped a beat when she heard his last sentence.

Is he praising her for being kind-hearted?

Zheng Jiaojiao's act of luring her out was a gamble on her conscience. If this short woman were to report that a steamed bun shop owner was kind-hearted, would she become suspicious of her?

Actually, she was wronged. The reason why these buns and steamed bread are so big and have so much filling is that...

It wasn't because she was kind-hearted, but because she bought the dough and meat for the buns for free in the apocalypse.

The flour all contained talcum powder, and the meat was all frozen meat from a cold storage facility.

To be honest, it's not anything special. Anyway, she hasn't eaten frozen meat since she got the space.

Such large-scale use and low-price sales are solely for the purpose of clearing inventory.

As I carried the steamer to the backyard, I wondered, "Maybe I should make the buns and steamed bread smaller tomorrow?"

She put down the steamer and shook her head again.

There's no need to be so easily frightened; deliberately changing things will only arouse more suspicion.

Besides, if she really did that, she would feel very uncomfortable. Because her superpower wasn't strong enough, she could only secretly cause them some trouble, which was already quite frustrating.

If she were to hide based on such a small speculation, it would make her seem too cowardly.

After washing the steamer, she closed the shop door and headed towards the princess's residence. She wanted to see how furious Ah Hui was.

Not far from the shop, a man was seen running and shouting in terror, "People are being burned! Many people have been tied up!"

A passerby grabbed the man and asked, "What do you mean by burning people? Explain yourself!"

Everyone else stopped and stared at the man.

The man, who had been running too fast, coughed a few times and swallowed hard before saying, "There are torches set up at the entrance of Princess Hui's mansion, and more than a dozen people are tied to them..."

Before the man could finish speaking, the crowd began to discuss it amongst themselves.

"Did those people do something wrong?"

"Not necessarily. Even if someone commits a crime, it would be dealt with privately. How could they possibly carry out a public execution by burning at the stake?"

"Yes! It's kind of like a deterrent."

"Ah, I remember now!" someone exclaimed. "A few days ago, Princess Hui was treating patients in front of the clinic when she was injured by a plant demon?"

The man lowered his voice towards the end, "Do you think today's events might be related to what happened the other day?"

Upon hearing this, everyone suddenly realized what was going on, and the various gossip experts began a new round of speculation.

After a while, everyone finished their discussion and then remembered to join in the fun.

"Hey, has the fire started burning at the entrance of the Princess's mansion?" A member of the crowd grabbed the person who had brought the news.

The man rolled his eyes. He hadn't even finished speaking when you all turned into marble officials and started discussing all sorts of things.

“No one was burned. Princess Hui wanted to find a person named Huo Lele, saying that if she didn’t show up within an hour, one person would be burned.”

After he finished speaking, the crowd started discussing again.

"Huo Lele? Isn't that a wanted criminal?"

"So, since the imperial court couldn't catch Huo Lele, Princess Ahui used this method to lure her out?"

"Could those people tied to the fire racks all be Huo Lele's relatives?"

"If so, then this move is ruthless and clever enough. Huo Lele, who is hiding, will definitely not stand by and watch her loved ones be burned to death. She will probably come out on her own."

"Not necessarily. What if Huo Lele is a heartless person? Wouldn't Princess Hui's plan fall through?"

"Wait, wait a minute. If I remember correctly, Huo Lele only stole the Fu family's valuables with a maid. Why do we need to make such a big fuss to lure her out?"

Everyone was stunned when they heard this. Yes! Why would a thief need to go to such lengths just to lure her out?

"They probably... stole something very, very important," one person said uncertainly.

The others nodded in agreement.

Li Nanle was right outside the crowd, so he heard everything everyone was saying.

She was genuinely curious about what kind of perception led her to have such a bizarre idea.

After walking for about half an hour, we arrived at the entrance of Wutong Alley, but we couldn't go any further in.

The entire alley was packed with people, a small number of whom were onlookers, but most were protesting against Zheng Jiaojiao's behavior.

After observing for a while, Li Nanle discovered that the group that was boycotting was organized.

She leaned against the wall at the alley entrance, quietly activating her supernatural ability. A flash of surprise crossed her eyes, followed by a smile.

Zheng Jiaojiao was really vigilant; she even cleared away the trees in the alley and the weeds in the cracks in the ground.

She searched carefully with her supernatural abilities, refusing to believe that even the weed seeds buried in the soil had been completely cleared away.

After searching for only a short while, her eyes lit up – she had found it.

With a slight activation of her supernatural power, the weeds grew a little larger, and she used one of these weeds as her eyes to see a few scattered images.

This weed is so small that all you can see are other people's feet.

However, that didn't stop her from knowing what was happening, because she could hear voices.

“Princess Hui, even if these people are servants, you cannot openly burn them to death here.”

The voice was angry, and it was familiar to Li Nanle.

"Zhao Rongyuan, it's not your place to tell me what to do. According to the laws of our dynasty, a servant is bound by a death contract and can be beaten or killed by his master at will."

As for the method of fighting, that's naturally decided by the master of the house; you're meddling far too much."

The voice belonged to Zheng Jiaojiao. Her voice sounded very weak. Because Li Nanle couldn't see her, she didn't realize that her face was as pale as a sheet of paper.

However, she knew from her words that the voice that had questioned her earlier was that of Lord Zhao, the Prefect of the Capital.

"Is Your Highness so cruel in an attempt to deliberately tarnish His Majesty's reputation?"

It was a familiar voice again. Li Nanle thought for a moment and realized it was Zhao Liangchen, the young man from the night before.

"What nonsense are you spouting? What does our princess's actions have to do with His Majesty?"

Upon hearing such outrageous words, before Zheng Jiaojiao could even get angry, the nanny beside her loudly questioned her in return.

"How can it be unrelated! Princess Ahui's title was bestowed by His Majesty. Her cruel act is telling the world that she dared to do it because His Majesty is supporting her behind the scenes."

As soon as Zhao Liangchen finished speaking, a few quiet discussions broke out in the crowd.

Apart from Zheng Jiaojiao, everyone else at the Princess's residence had a drastic change in expression. Although their princess hadn't meant it that way, being misinterpreted like this, no one knew what the higher-ups would think.

"The county master..."

Zheng Jiaojiao raised her hand to interrupt the people around her, her cold eyes sweeping over Zhao Liangchen, who had deliberately disguised himself as a middle-aged scholar.

"You wouldn't happen to be in cahoots with Huo Lele, would you! Men, seize him!"