“This…” Shuangxi, who had never been very tight-lipped, suddenly tightened his mouth after hearing the words and then faced Wen Mingtang. He waved his hand, said “I can’t say” several times, and then ran away.
He can’t say it…then forget it! Wen Mingtang was not as curious as Liu Yuan and others, so she went out with the packed dàn juǎns.
When she saw Liang Hongjin outside the Tongming Gate, Liang Hongjin had a sweat towel hanging around her neck. It seemed that she had just finished practicing. At this time, her whole body was steaming, and she wiped the sweat with the sweat towel.
She could already smell the rich milk and egg fragrance through the oil paper bag.
“It’s dàn juǎn, isn’t it?” Liang Hongjin apparently had tasted this before, took the oiled paper package and opened it, then picked up a stick and put it in her mouth, sighing, “Ever since Xiao Mingtang left the palace, it’s rare to have things like dàn juǎn, lǜdòu gāo1, dànhuáng sū2, and the like.”
“Next time I will make dànhuáng sū for you to eat.” Wen Mingtang said with a smile.
That was pretty much it! Liang Hongjin saw that Wen Mingtang had heard what she meant, and nodded with satisfaction. Then she heard Wen Mingtang say: “There is a bag inside for Zhao Sishan.”
Liang Hongjin said “Hmm” and patted Wen Mingtang. Looking over his shoulder, he said: “I, Liang Hongjin, am not someone who waits to eat alone. I didn’t forget her when you made lǜdòu gāo last time, and I won’t forget her this time either.”
Hearing this, Wen Mingtang nodded with a smile and looked around. Seeing that there was no one around, she took a step forward and asked Liang Hongjin in a low voice: “She…has she been in contact with anyone recently?”
Liang Hongjin, who was casually holding a dàn juǎn in her mouth and eating it, was enjoying the deliciousness. When she heard this sentence, she immediately paused, then looked down at Wen Mingtang, and whispered a name, “Qiu Ning?”
Wen Mingtang nodded. When the name was mentioned, the girl’s eyes darkened significantly: “That’s her.”
She encountered more than just various difficulties and trials in the palace. Although enduring a blunt knife’s cut was hard, it wouldn’t immediately lead to death. This indicates that poison that seals the throat with blood can deliver a deadly blow in an instant.
She met the palace maid named Qiu Ning when she was in Ye Ting. Once, she was scolded by the palace servants who made things difficult for her because she failed to clean the entire hall in one day. Also scolded was Qiu Ning. Wen Mingtang was not a bad person, but she knew in her heart that the harsh criticism was caused by herself, so she took more care of Qiu Ning after that incident, and Qiu Ning often came to look for her.
Although it was not possible to develop a deep friendship, her relationship with Qiu Ning was indeed good during that period.
Until one day, Qiuning brought a cake from outside, saying that it was brought in by a friend from outside and she wanted to share some with her.
At that time, Wen Mingtang, Liang Hongjin, and Zhao Sishan opened a stove in the cold palace and ate some roasted sweet potatoes. She was full, so she didn’t touch it and planned to wait until later to eat.
But when she returned to the house later in the evening, she saw a poisoned mouse next to the pastry. She was immediately startled and soon understood what was going on.
Later, Liang Hongjin took the cakes and the dead mouse to ask Qiu Ning what happened, but Qiu Ning insisted that she didn’t know. Although Wen Mingtang forgave her on the surface, she stayed farther and farther away from her behind the scenes.
“I’ve inquired about it. It wasn’t supposed to be her cleaning the main hall at that time. I don’t believe in such coincidences,” explained Wen Mingtang to Zhao Sishan and Liang Hongjin. “Moreover, a palace maid reduced to cleaning the main hall must have a rough time in the palace. How could she have so much free time to come looking for me to play?”
Qiu Ning’s method was not too clever, but Wen Mingtang didn’t think too much about it at the time.
“Same old story, neither good nor bad, I haven’t seen her interact with anyone,” Liang Hongjin said, reaching out to pat Wen Mingtang’s shoulder, reassuring her, “Don’t worry! I’ll keep an eye out for you.”
Wen Mingtang thanked Liang Hongjin and exchanged a few words with her. Seeing that the time was almost up, she went back to Dali Temple to prepare for the evening meal.
There was still a lot of muddy lotus root from yesterday. Wen Mingtang looked at the extra lotus root and the pork meat that was delivered today and decided on the meat dish for dinner today – the zhàǒu hé3.
When she was dragging the cart of muddy lotus roots to wash them, she bumped into Liu Yuan who was coming back from outside with many files in his arms.
Seeing Liu Yuan, Tangyuan reminded him: “Liu Sicheng, don’t forget a dàn juǎn!”
This little girl was so stingy! Liu Yuan replied helplessly: “I understand, little aunt, please let me go find Lin Shaoqing first and then return you the dàn juǎn?”
That was almost the same! Tangyuan nodded when she heard this, waved her hand in an old-fashioned way, and said, “Okay! I won’t disturb you anymore in catching the painted-skinned monster!”
There was still a painted-skinned monster here! Liu Yuan shook his head when he heard this and went to find Lin Fei with the files transferred from the Chang’an government office.
“Lin Shaoqing, I went to the Chang’an government office to borrow the files on the cases of missing young men in the past five years!” Liu Yuan placed the pile of files on Lin Fei’s case and said, “In addition to the ones that have been recovered, there are also those who are dead. They’re all here.”
Missing cases occur more often among abducted children and people who are unconscious or sick.
It was not uncommon for a strong, healthy young man in his prime to disappear. However, although it was not very common, it was not unheard of.
Liu Yuan pointed to the pile of files that he had roughly thumbed through and said: “Although most of them have reported to the yamen, their families feel that they ran away from home on their own. So they go to the Yamen every month to ask about their situation. Some of them had unsatisfactory lives and couldn’t bear it anymore, so they left the whole family behind and ran away. Others were young and good-looking, and their families suspected that they had gone out to have a good time!”
Lin Fei said “Ok”, opened the file, and read it quickly.
After Liu Yuan said this, he stopped talking and walked away to wait. He only saw Lin Fei flipping through the files quickly, flipping through some files and putting them aside, while others were kept.
Since he only flipped through it roughly, Lin Fei flipped through it very quickly. He finished flipping through the file in less than half an hour.
After flipping through it, Lin Fei pointed to the files he put aside and said to Liu Yuan, “Send these back tomorrow!”
Liu Yuan responded and looked at the files Lin Fei left behind.
The files were unfolded and laid out on the case one by one. Liu Yuan took a cursory glance and discovered that the files left by Lin Fei had something in common – they were all young and decent-looking scholars.
Liu Yuan counted more than ten people.
Had so many young scholars disappeared in recent years? However, if spread over the years, it would only be two or three per year, which was not a large number.
“Come and take a look!” Lin Fei pointed to the cases where young scholars were found missing and said, “Can you see what these missing cases have in common?”
“A scholar, hm? Their common ground lies mostly in their fondness for books. What’s so special about it?” Although Liu Yuan was somewhat puzzled, he still picked up each document and began to read them carefully, one by one.
(End of chapter)
Translating one chapter one day at a time 
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