Chapter 61
Chapter 61
“What, are you not human anymore?”
Jiang Yunsui covered her little mouth, her big eyes darting around. She looked exactly like a guilty little thing thinking, Oh no, I’ve been exposed.
Ji Yan’an pinched the little topknot on her head. “What manner of demon are you? Reveal your true form at once.”
Jiang Yunsui pouted. “Don’t meddle in a monster’s business.”
She couldn’t even turn into a little mushroom anymore!
Just thinking about it made her so mad.
Her mushroom form might not have had feet, but she could run really fast.
After teasing the little girl for a while, Ji Yan’an had the carriage head to the place where the human traffickers were being held.
As for those who had been captured by the traffickers, his men would verify their information and send them home.
“Young Master, among the people captured by the traffickers, seven are from the Jie Tribe. There are men and women, and one child.”
The Jie Tribe. The moment Ji Yan’an heard those two words, he guessed where the traffickers had intended to send them.
Disgust flashed through his eyes.
Those useless wastrels in the Central Plains.
Jiang Yunsui wanted to wander around and have a look on her own, but she remembered she had to inform Ji Yan’an first, or she would get spanked.
“Can I go look around by myself? I won’t run outside.”
Little Mushroom obediently asked Ji Yan’an for permission.
“Mm.”
At least she knew to ask now. That was progress.
Once she got his approval, Jiang Yunsui bounced away.
Little Mushroom lowered her presence and, with her small hands clasped behind her back, strolled all the way to the prison cells.
She curiously glanced at the prisoners locked inside. Some of them were still weakly crying that they had been wronged.
“How were you wronged?”
The curious Little Mushroom walked up to one prisoner’s cell and asked in a small voice.
The prisoner was leaning against the cell door, feebly shouting when the voice that suddenly appeared scared him half to death.
“A ghost!”
Jiang Yunsui stretched out her little neck and looked all around. “Where, where? Where’s the ghost?”
Let Little Mushroom see it for herself.
The man pointed at Jiang Yunsui.
“Y-y-you…”
Jiang Yunsui tilted her head. “Me? I’m not a ghost.”
She propped up her little chin and sighed. “It’d be great if there really were ghosts. Then I could see Aunt Chen. I definitely wouldn’t be scared of her. She liked me the best.”
Seeing that Jiang Yunsui truly did not look like a ghost, the man shuffled closer and reached out, wanting to touch her to see if she was warm.
Jiang Yunsui looked at his filthy black hand and took a huge step back in open disgust.
“What are you trying to do? Your hand is so dirty.”
Fan He: “…”
His hand was indeed very dirty, but the child’s retreat and blunt disgust still wounded his heart.
Fortunately, his heart was still quite strong.
“You still haven’t said why you were wronged.”
Fan He sighed. No longer caring whether she was a ghost or not, he sat back down where he had been and began to tell his story with righteous indignation.
As it turned out, Fan He was the county magistrate of Liaoyang County in Mobei. The Late Emperor had loved jade, which had made jade fashionable and caused its price to soar.
Liaoyang was rich in jade. Fan He had discovered that the Li Family of Liaoyang controlled a jade vein and had captured countless villagers to use as forced labor. They paid them no wages, gave them only one meal of coarse grain a day, and made them work from dawn to dusk. When anyone died, their corpses were thrown into a pit.
“A few laborers and I finally managed to find evidence against the Li Family. I originally intended to come to Beizhen City and file a complaint against them, but I never expected Beizhen City to be under that man Wang’s control.”
His voice was filled with grief and anger. “I didn’t dare trust Commander Wang, so I tried to disguise myself and leave Beizhen City. But who would’ve thought that before I even got ten li away, I would be captured?”
“Fortunately, I hid all the evidence. Since they couldn’t get their hands on it, they didn’t dare kill me, but they’ve kept me locked up here all this time.”
“Child, how did you get in here? Hurry and leave. If Commander Wang catches you, things will be terrible.”
After Jiang Yunsui heard his story, she said, “Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. That Commander Wang has been arrested.”
“What?!”
Fan He shot to his feet, so worked up that his booming voice made all the other prisoners around them look over.
It wasn’t that no one had noticed Jiang Yunsui. It was just that these people were all numb, their eyes utterly lifeless, so naturally they had no interest in her presence.
“Y-You… are you telling the truth?”
Fan He wondered if his ears had failed him.
Jiang Yunsui nodded firmly, planted her little hands on her hips, and began telling her own story.
“I’m telling you, that day…”
Her childish little voice babbled on and on, with special emphasis on how she had discovered the secret chamber and even fought the vicious dogs.
“Anyway, right now it’s my master, Ji Yan’an, who’s managing this city.”
“Good, good, good! Hahaha… So Wang Hu has finally met this day too. Serves him right! Pah!”
He looked a little deranged, which made it obvious just how much he hated Wang Hu.
“I’m innocent! I’ve been wronged! Sir, I want to see Young Master Ji! I am the Magistrate of Liaoyang County. I have important matters to report to the Young Master!”
Fan He shouted with such agitation and heart-wrenching desperation that Little Mushroom was startled.
His voice was going to turn hoarse at this rate.
A jailer came in, just about to teach him a lesson, when he suddenly saw Jiang Yunsui.
Wasn’t this the child who followed beside the Young Master? How had she gotten here?
What were the gatekeepers doing?!
“Has the Young Master given any instructions?”
The jailer’s expression changed, and he carefully asked Jiang Yunsui.
Fan He was also staring at Jiang Yunsui with shining eyes.
“Little girl, please help me deliver a message to the Young Master. Please tell him he must see me!”
Jiang Yunsui pretended to nod calmly, though in truth she was dying of nerves from being stared at by so many strangers.
“I… got it!”
“I’m leaving now.”
No more exploring, no more exploring. She was going to find Ji Yan’an.
The jailer personally escorted her to the entrance.
Jiang Yunsui quickly said, “I’ll go back by myself.”
After saying that, she ran off like a puff of smoke.
When she returned to the room from before, she didn’t see Ji Yan’an. She scratched her head and continued searching.
Then she caught Ji Yi hiding in the shadows.
“Yi Yi, where is Ji Yan’an?”
Her sweet little childish voice was almost sugary.
Ji Yi: “…”
He was truly curious how Jiang Yunsui managed to find him every single time.
“Yi Yi, over there, and over there-who are those people?”
Jiang Yunsui pointed at two hidden spots.
She hadn’t seen them before, and the clothes they wore were different from Ji Yi and the others.
Ji Yi looked in those directions, a sharp glint flashing through his eyes. “The Young Master is in the fifth room on the left. Go find him.”
Damn it. Flies had actually managed to sneak in.
Jiang Yunsui gave an “oh” and didn’t insist on asking who those two people were.
After she left, Ji Yi immediately led two hidden guards toward the directions Jiang Yunsui had pointed out.
Those two were highly skilled, and their ability to conceal themselves was even more impressive. Even they hadn’t discovered them at once.
So how exactly had Jiang Yunsui noticed them?!
Truly, it was such a waste that a child with her talent for hiding and finding people wasn’t becoming a hidden guard.
He almost wanted to ask her to take him as a disciple.
Following Ji Yi’s directions, Jiang Yunsui arrived at the fifth room.
“Is anyone here? Is Ji Yan’an here?”
When the people inside heard that childish little voice, aside from those already familiar with Jiang Yunsui, everyone else looked shocked.
No, who was this? She actually dared to call the Young Master by name?!
Most importantly, the Young Master wasn’t even angry.
Then they looked at the criminal on the floor, sprawled there like a lump of rotten mud. No mistake about it-this was still that same ruthless man.
“Little Ancestor, why did you come here? This is the interrogation room.”
Nanshu came over to open the door.
Jiang Yunsui walked in. “What interrogation room?”
She didn’t know. She had only come to find Ji Yan’an.