Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 188 Major Case

Yuan Qing comforted him, "People are different. We may not think that something will offend others, but they may find it offensive."

Song Ying was not comforted. She was very angry. "Why is she so stingy?"

After complaining, he glanced at Yuan Qing, and a flash of lightning seemed to flash through his mind: "Could it be because of you? She saw you teaching me to read, and she misunderstood that I treated you..."

At this point, Song Ying realized that it was inappropriate for a girl like her to talk about this, so she quickly swallowed the word "with intentions".

She glanced at Yuan Qing and found that his expression had also become unnatural.

She cleared her throat and pretended not to notice anything. She continued to analyze, "It doesn't seem right. It still can't explain how she knew that Yan Xing and I were selling herbs to make money."

Moreover, if He Tianyu really caught Yuan Qing teaching her to read in the woods and exposed the matter, it would be fatal to her and would also directly cut off the possibility of Yuan Qing being with her.

It doesn't make sense. Why go through so much trouble when there is a direct and deadly method?

It can be seen that Yuan Qing also wanted to end this topic as soon as possible. He said, "There is another possibility. She did go after you, but she didn't mean to target you. She really didn't know that you were hiding it from your family."

"This is impossible. She knows that we are making money by selling herbs, so how could she not know that we are hiding it from our family?" Song Ying felt that this analysis was ridiculous and not reasonable at all, and thought that Yuan Qing was just saying it casually to change the subject.

Unexpectedly, Yuan Qing said seriously: "She must have seen the two girls from your village chief's family and the girl who passed by before you. It is even very likely that those girls were asked by adults to sit down and talk with Miss He like you.

That is to say, Miss He not only met them, but also had a conversation with them. If she really wanted to expose your secret maliciously, she could have done so at that time. There was no need to wait for you to go."

"What if she wants to see how miserable I am with her own eyes?" Song Ying guessed.

"That's a possibility, but you can't rule out the possibility that it was an accidental slip of the tongue."

Song Ying thought about it seriously. Although this speculation was outrageous, he could not rule out the possibility.

She frowned and said, "Whether she did it intentionally or maliciously, the key question is, how did she know? No one in our village knew, so how did she, a person from the neighboring village, know about it?

Did my younger brother talk about these things in school?"

It has been so long since the incident, and she still hasn't had the chance to talk to Song Yuan about it, but after thinking about it, it seems that the only possibility is that it was leaked from him.

But Yuan Qing denied this possible guess, "No, at least as far as I know, your younger brother never talks about your affairs in school."

After a pause, Yuan Qing continued, "He is too young. There is a huge age gap between him and the students in the academy, so they can't play together."

Song Ying thought about it and realized that the students in the school were all in their teens. Before Song Yuan went there, the youngest was Yuan Qing, so it was indeed difficult for them to play together.

But this is currently the only possible reason for the leak.

Yuan Qing couldn't figure it out either, so he said, "I'll ask my sister if she knows anything when we get back."

As of now, that's all it can do.

After a whole morning's journey, Song Ying felt a little hungry, so he took out a wooden box from his backpack and opened it: "Have some Chongyang cake to fill your stomach. This is what the Shen government gave us."

Yuan Qing took a look and saw that although the wooden box was large, there were only a few pastries inside, but they were made very delicately.

"You can take this back for your grandma and the others to taste. We can just eat the shortbread."

As he said this, he was about to open the oil paper package containing the pastry.

Song Ying raised her hand to stop him: "It's okay, I bought other things. I ate two pieces this morning. This Chongyang cake is delicious, completely different from the ones you buy on the street. You can try it."

As she spoke, she picked up a piece and handed it to Yuan Qing.

Yuan Qingsheng couldn't refuse the invitation, so he had to take it and eat it. It was indeed very different from the ones bought on the street. It had a soft, sweet texture, not as greasy as those sold on the street. The osmanthus fragrance was not strong either, and it was barely noticeable under the fragrance of the lotus leaves.

While eating, Yuan Qing remembered something and said, "Do you remember those three fugitives? I never had the chance to tell you that something went wrong when we were escorting them to the capital, and the one named Tang Tingbin escaped."

"What! Escaped?!"

Song Ying was so shocked that he almost threw away the Chongyang cake in his hand, and his voice unconsciously became higher.

She quickly looked down the road to make sure no one was passing by, then she felt relieved and lowered her voice and said, "Hasn't he been arrested by the government?

How could they escape? What's wrong with those officers? With so many people, they couldn't even keep watch over three fugitives!"

It's no wonder that she was afraid. When the government interrogated them, they asked the three people why they followed them. That is to say, the three people might know that it was Song Ying and his companions who reported them.

A fugitive on the run, after escaping, will definitely hate the person who caused them to be caught.

They are just a few civilians without any protection. He will definitely want to take revenge!

Yuan Qing wiped the residue off his hands and said, "We can't blame the officers entirely. This matter involves a lot of water. The people being escorted had just left Shunqing Prefecture not far when they were attacked.

The thieves pushed a huge rock down from the top of the mountain, smashing Tang Tingbin's prison van into pieces. He took the opportunity to escape. At that time, everyone was busy escaping and had no way to chase him.

When they finally got out of the narrow mountain road, they ran into archers who had ambushed them there in advance. Except for the leading officer, all the others were shot dead, including Magistrate Hu and the other two fugitives.

"County Magistrate Hu and the fugitive are also dead?" Song Ying was so shocked that he couldn't recover for a long time. It took him a long while to react, "Are they trying to silence us?"

"Yes, it was to silence them. From the time they were arrested on the evening of May 14th, to the time Magistrate Hu was identified during the interrogation, to the subsequent rapid search and arrest, the government's actions were already very fast.

Prefect Shen and his colleagues also felt that the matter was very complicated and could not be delayed. After reporting it to the provincial government, they did not wait for a reply and hurriedly escorted him to Beijing at noon on May 17.

I didn't expect that the person behind the scenes was so well-informed and so quick to act, and had already set up an ambush on the road we had to take."

Song Ying took a deep breath. In less than three days, the news came out so quickly!

"The person behind this is probably from the government."

Tang Tingbin and his two companions committed a crime in Southern Yunnan Province and came to Jinchuan Province to escape for their lives. Having County Magistrate Hu as an accomplice was not enough, as the power of their other accomplices was no less than that of County Magistrate Hu.

This shows that the matters involving Tang Tingbin and the other two are not only related to the officialdom in southern Yunnan, but also have a great relationship with the officialdom in Jinchuan Province.

This is a major case involving officials from two provinces!

Yuan Qing nodded: "So this matter is very complicated."