Chapter 1472: Unreasonable

He Xiao's words were always on point; following He Xiao, he always had good luck.

In his mind, He Xiao had long been unfathomable.

Listening to He Xiao's words wouldn't be wrong.

The carriage arrived at the Sanmentou Post House, Fan Shuang sent He Lingchuan off, and then drove away.

￥￥￥￥￥

General Chongwu had also just returned to his mansion in Tianshui City.

When he was a deputy general, he spent a huge sum of money to buy this mansion in Tianshui City; the original owner was a bankrupt merchant who used the house to pay off debts.

He originally thought this mansion was quite good, but recently, for some reason, it felt smaller and smaller, and less and less grand.

Should he buy another large mansion? After all, his status and position were different from before.

He walked into the garden while pondering, and the servants hurriedly saluted him, their waists bent to ninety degrees, no longer lazy as before.

At this time, the old servant hurried over and said: "General, there is a guest in Siyuan Hall."

General Chongwu's footsteps stopped: "Siyuan Hall? Who?"

This old servant had been by his side for more than ten years and was very measured in his actions; since he led the guest to Siyuan Hall, it meant the guest was very important.

"They wouldn't say; you'll know when you see them."

General Chongwu immediately quickened his pace and headed towards Siyuan Hall.

The hall was dimly lit, the windows and doors were half-closed, and there were no servants. When General Chongwu walked in, he only saw a person in green sitting at the table, wearing a veil hat.

Seeing him come in, the person in green didn't get up, just sat still, only saying one sentence: "Close the door."

This voice, this voice—he didn't hear it wrong, did he? General Chongwu steadied himself, closed the doors and windows tightly, set up a barrier, and then strode to the side of the person in green, bowing respectfully:

"Palace Master! How did you come here!"

This person took off the veil hat, revealing a gorgeous face that was white and red.

It was Qingyang.

Usually, Chongwu went to visit her; how could he have expected that Qingyang would condescend to come to his mansion?

Qingyang put the veil hat on the table and folded it gently: "You didn't tell me the truth before."

General Chongwu was greatly surprised: "How would I dare to deceive you!"

"That night in Zhuo'an, your tribute was clearly stolen; why did you tell me nothing happened?"

General Chongwu immediately said: "A small matter, I thought it was not worth mentioning at the time, and didn't want to disturb you. How, how did you know?"

"Your Sovereign expanded the scope of the investigation; the teams within fifty or sixty miles of Mangzhou that night will all be visited and questioned!" Qingyang said coldly. "More than one person spoke of the accident at that inn that night, and more than one person spoke of you leading the team out to catch thieves!"

"What could be the problem with this?" General Chongwu's mind turned, and he suddenly shivered. "They wouldn't think I killed Xue Zongwu, would they?!"

The big event that happened that night was nothing more than this.

"What do you think?" Qingyang said coldly. "You left the inn before dark and were outside all night. Who knows where you actually went!"

"I was in the suburbs of Zhuo'an, and it was raining heavily that night; how could I have rushed to Mangzhou?"

"You have a divine steed; the Yao King remembers it better than you."

Chongwu was shocked: "Even if I rode Mobei, it would be very difficult to go back and forth to Mangzhou overnight. Not to mention, I had to kill the country's important general on the way..."

"Going back and forth is difficult?" Qingyang raised her eyebrows. "Can you or can't you?"

"..." Chongwu hesitated, and Qingyang was displeased. "Still keeping things from me?"

Chongwu could only say in a low voice: "Barely able to make a round trip. But there was absolutely no time to kill anyone."

His Mobei could travel eight hundred miles at night; the key was its excellent night vision, which allowed it to see things as clearly as in daylight. So darkness and heavy rain were actually difficult to hinder its actions.

When Chongwu first brought it into Tianshui City, he wasn't a general, just the son of a Pisha chieftain. An official's son took a fancy to Mobei and wanted to buy it by force, which caused many disputes, so this good horse wasn't unknown. Later, General Chongwu gradually became famous and was promoted, and more people called it a famous steed.

Thinking of this, Chongwu felt a chill down his back.

"Trouble." Qingyang let out a breath. "This will amplify your suspicion. Think about how many people are dissatisfied with your promotion; they will definitely speak ill of you behind your back. Not to mention that the Yao court can't catch the murderer now, and they won't let go of any clues."

General Chongwu lost his voice: "But I was just going to catch the thieves who stole the tribute..."

"Caught red-handed, the tribute was retrieved, right?" Qingyang had read the confession records.

"Yes."

"Two small thieves stole from six or seven teams and hid a pile of stolen goods in a deserted village?" Qingyang said calmly. "What did they use to transport the stolen goods, and how did they avoid your pursuit? You can track even a three-tailed fox demon, but you couldn't catch two small thieves until dawn. If I were the Yao King, would I think such a confession is reasonable?"

She didn't wait for Chongwu to answer, and then added: "You were traveling with over a hundred elites; how could the escorted tribute be stolen by two small thieves? What was the cultivation level of those small thieves?"

"Local petty thieves." General Chongwu broke into a cold sweat as he listened. "They had no cultivation and no background; they were just agile and often committed crimes in that area."

"Did they confess?"

"I interrogated them; they broke into the inn to commit crimes, but insisted that they hadn't stolen my tribute..."

Qingyang interrupted him: "What exactly did they say?"

"They stole some personal belongings from a few guests, then returned to the deserted village to divide the loot, and then fell unconscious. When they opened their eyes again, there were several large boxes of stolen goods in the room for no reason, and I arrived." General Chongwu answered truthfully. "After retrieving the tribute, I was in a hurry to get on the road, so I sent them to the county government."

"I also felt they were framed at the time, but there were six merchant teams stolen from in the same inn; I thought the real thief wanted to steal from them, so they used a diversionary tactic. Plus, the tribute had been retrieved, so I... I got on the road."

Qingyang's face was gloomy.

Chongwu's thoughts and actions were reasonable at the time. He didn't have the "Heavenly Eye," so how could he know what happened dozens of miles away?

But the problem was that the officials sent by the Yao King to investigate would make unnecessary associations.

After all, the explanation Chongwu gave did have suspicious points. For example, if his tribute was really stolen, why would the other party frame two small thieves and return it to Chongwu in disguise? There were large areas of wild land and vast lakes in the suburbs; why couldn't they just throw it anywhere? Why would they risk being caught and lead them to a small deserted village? It didn't make sense, so he would be suspected.

Chongwu said in a low voice: "Please guide me, Palace Master!"

If the Palace Master didn't care about this matter, why would she come in disguise?

Qingyang said clearly: "The Yao King sent someone to question you; you must still answer truthfully and cannot conflict with the statements of others. In any case, you were in Zhuo'an that night, not Mangzhou; this should have been the best alibi." ===== CHAPTER 1473 =====