When Xue Rui saw Yu Shu standing at the door, he thought he was seeing things.
Why is she here?
"Big Brother." Yu Shu had been on the road for the whole night, but she was full of energy. She looked at Xue Rui from head to toe as she entered the door. She could tell that he hadn't rested well for the past few days. It was almost dawn, but his clothes were still neat and tidy.
She couldn't help but tease him, "You're up early."
Xue Rui didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He scolded Hōtoku in a low voice, "I told you to go back and deliver the letter, but you brought him here directly."
Hōtoku felt wronged and helpless. This person insisted on following him. What did it have to do with him?
"It's not his fault. I insisted on coming." Yu Shu walked to the table and put down the box. She pointed at Hōtoku and said to Xue Rui, "This guy is really tight-lipped. No matter how I asked, he refused to tell me. What happened?"
Hōtoku scratched his head and looked at Xue Rui.
"Alright, you can go now. Get someone to boil some water and make something to eat."
Xue Rui sent his men out and closed the door. He turned to look at Yu Shu, who had rushed to find him overnight. He thought that she was worried about him. The exhaustion from staying up all night disappeared without a trace.
The two of them sat at the table. Xue Rui told her about the murder that happened in this restaurant not long ago. "Half a month ago, His Majesty sent the Imperial Censor, Zhou Qing, to investigate the two provinces secretly. A group of people passed by here and stayed in this restaurant for the night. The next day, the guards found Zhou Qing dead in his room. His head was separated from his body and was missing."
Yu Shu was shocked. No wonder Xue Rui rushed to Pei County. The person who died was actually an imperial envoy!
"The horoscope that Big Brother gave me belongs to the deceased Magistrate Zhou, right?"
"Yes." Xue Rui nodded. "I have doubts about the cause of Zhou Qing's death, so I wanted to ask you for help. I want to see if your divination can help me calculate some useful clues."
Yu Shu's Time of Calamity Law could deduce the time of death of a dead person and the cause of death. If the deceased was murdered, she could even deduce the identity of the perpetrator.
"I've calculated everything on the way here …" Yu Shu reached out to the box, opened it, and rummaged through it for a while. Finally, she took out a few pieces of paper. When they were in the carriage, even though it was bumpy, she still calculated the eight characters of the deceased to save time.
She lowered her head and looked at the scribbled words. She told Xue Rui the information that she found useful from her calculations, "I've calculated the disasters that happened to Lord Zhou in the past month when he was still alive. On the eighth day of this month, this man offended a villain, and the root of the disaster was Xiao Hou. "On the ninth day, he touched the spirit of Nan, so he shouldn't go south. On the tenth day, there was a bloodbath. "
She looked up at Xue Rui. "Magistrate Zhou was murdered on the tenth day of this month, right?"
"Yes." Xue Rui clasped his hands together and twirled his thumbs. His eyes were deep in thought. "Zhou Qing received the imperial edict on the eighth day of this month. Not many people knew about it. He left on the ninth day. On the tenth day, he died."
He reached out for the pieces of paper that Yu Shu had given him. "Let me see."
"My calculations are too messy. Look here …" Yu Shu pointed at a few dates. As for the dense Arabic numerals and arithmetic symbols on the paper, she was not worried that Xue Rui would be able to understand them at all.
Xue Rui pondered for a moment and said, "Zhou Qing just happened to have committed a despicable act on the day he received the Emperor's decree. This so-called despicable scheme ought to be the person behind the scenes of this murder. The person that the other party planned to kill wasn't Zhou Qing, but this imperial envoy that was heading to the Guangxi and Guangxi Provinces. It looks like someone in the capital doesn't want Zhou Qing to go to the two provinces. "
"Does that mean that the mastermind is this Xiao Hou?" Yu Shu asked.
Using the Law of the Time of Calamity to predict people's misfortunes had a very subtle aspect to it.
If it was a bloodbath or a quarrel, then the culprit would be the one who had direct contact with the victim. For example, in Zhou Qing's case, the pig that Yu Shu had predicted was definitely the murderer.
But if it was a villain, then the villain corresponding to the root of the misfortune would be the mastermind, and not the one who had direct contact with the victim.
"Xiao Hou …" Xue Rui's gaze settled. After a while, his eyes suddenly sharpened. He laughed coldly. "That's a good plan."
Yu Shu saw that he seemed to understand, but she was confused. She asked curiously, "Big Brother, do you know who it is?"
Xue Rui returned to his senses and looked at her before he said, "I roughly know what's going on. But there's one more thing that needs to be confirmed before we can come to a conclusion. "
Yu Shu's eyes lit up. "Tell me quickly."
At this moment, because Xue Rui came to an understanding in his heart, the pressure he'd been feeling for the past few days disappeared. It was already daybreak outside, and the morning light shone through the window. When he saw the red strands of exhaustion in her eyes, his heart softened, and he said, "After you've eaten breakfast later, go take a nap first. I'll talk to you once you've rested well."
Yu Shu protested. "How can I sleep if you don't finish your sentence? No, you have to tell me clearly first."
However, Xue Rui ignored her protest. As he tidied up the divinatory box that she messed up, he said to her kindly, "Even if you're not going to sleep, I have to sleep as well. I haven't slept for three days because of this case."
Hearing this, Yu Shu immediately shut her mouth.
Xue Rui smiled and naturally held her hand on the table. He said, "I haven't been in the capital for a while. Did you cause any trouble?"
Yu Shu raised her eyebrows and said, "Don't worry. I'm in the limelight now, and no one dares to provoke me. It's just that there are people sending gifts to my house every day. It's annoying."
"Isn't it good to have gifts?" Xue Rui touched her hand. He was in a good mood at this moment.
Yu Shu grinned, and she couldn't help but want to laugh when she thought of the house full of good things that she'd gathered recently. However, she still had to put on an act in front of Xue Rui. "What's so good about it? It caused me to have to be sneaky even when I returned home, and I had to wait for the sky to turn dark."
Xue Rui knew that she was stingy and a money-grubber, so he did not expose her. It was just that he had not seen her for ten days to half a month. Now that he heard her lively tone of voice and looked at her cunning eyes, his heart was slightly itching.
"Then, did you miss me?" He suddenly changed his tone and asked.
Yu Shu glanced at him. She was used to his cheeky face from time to time. So, she calmly asked, "Did you miss me?"
Xue Rui nodded without hesitation. "Yes."
After that, he turned around and patted his thigh. "Come and sit here. Let me hug you."
"…" How thick can this person's face be?
When Xue Rui saw that she wasn't moving at all, he pinched her hand. His peach blossom eyes were alluring as he said, "What's wrong?
Yu Shu rolled her eyes and pulled her hand back. She wasn't tempted. She firmly said, "Did you forget what I said last time? The matter between you and Miss Rui is over. Don't think that I will get close to you. "
Hearing this, Xue Rui immediately put away his joking expression. He didn't play around with her. He seriously said, "When this case is solved, I will talk to grandfather when I return to the capital."
Previously, Xue Rui didn't directly refuse Xue Lingnan's arrangement. On one hand, he didn't want to have a conflict with the old man. On the other hand, he wanted to repair his relationship with Yu Shu. He was worried that Xue Lingnan would know his thoughts and stop him.
In any case, his relationship with Yu Shu couldn't be put on the table for the time being. It could only be used as a cover-up, so it wouldn't be a problem for him to refuse the marriage with the Earl.
Even if Yu Shu didn't say anything, he felt that it was inappropriate for the two families to misunderstand each other.
While the two were talking, Hōtoku knocked on the door and brought in hot water and breakfast.
After eating breakfast, Xue Rui arranged for Yu Shu to live in the empty room across from him. He also assigned two more guards to guard the corridor. He also went back to his room to catch up on sleep.
.....
This sleep lasted until the afternoon. Yu Shu woke up before Xue Rui. It was not a good feeling to stay up late on the road. She didn't feel it in the morning, but when she woke up, she felt dizzy. Staying in the room was stuffy, so she wanted to go out for some fresh air.
She changed her clothes and walked out of the room. Seeing that the door across from her was closed, she knew that Xue Rui was still asleep. She didn't knock on the door and was about to go downstairs.
The guards standing in the corridor didn't stop her. When they saw her going downstairs, they sent one of them to follow behind her.
This restaurant was more imposing than Forgetful Airport, but it was not small. It had three floors. There was a hall in the front and two floors.
Because Xue Rui ordered the local government to close the door, there were no guests inside or outside. The door downstairs was closed. Yu Shu came down from the corner of the stairs. Looking around, there were only empty tables and chairs.
"Where are the people working in this restaurant?" Yu Shu turned to ask the guard who followed her.
"They are all in the backyard. His Excellency has ordered that they are not allowed to walk around."
Yu Shu nodded. She picked a seat by the window and sat down. Pointing to the closed window, she asked, "Can you open it? Let me look at the street. "
It was dark when she came. She had to sit in a carriage to cross the street in the city, so she didn't know what Pei County looked like.
The guard didn't hesitate and went forward to open the window for her. This was because Lord Xue had instructed him in the morning to make things easier for this young lady.
As soon as the window was opened, her eyes lit up. The noise of people talking on the street rushed into her face. The afternoon sun was especially bright. Yu Shu squinted her eyes for a while before she could see the lively scene on the street downstairs.
Smelling the fragrance of food drifting upstairs, Yu Shu's stomach growled.
"Young lady, are you hungry?" The guard was smart. "Sit here and wait. I'll go get you some food from the back."
Yu Shu nodded and thanked him.
After the guard left, Yu Shu waited for a while, but he didn't come back. She was so hungry that she got up and went downstairs.
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