Quick Transmigration: Why did you provoke him? He's love-struck!

Chapter 320 Towards the Golden Palace (24)

Xie Zhao's expression changed slightly.

Then, he smiled slightly: "I see. I was mistaken. Lord Xue, Madam Xue, I have offended you greatly."

After saying that, he cupped his hands in a respectful gesture to the two of them.

Xue Lin smiled magnanimously: "It's alright."

Xie Zhao left quickly.

His figure disappeared at the end of the corridor for quite a while, and Xue Lin still kept his arm around Yan Zhen's shoulder.

Yan Zhen glanced at him sideways: "Aren't you going to let go?"

Xue Lin seemed to only then realize what was happening, and awkwardly lowered his hand.

Yan Zhen glared at him and whispered, "I'll deal with you when we get back!"

Xue Lin lowered his head and dared not utter a sound.

The moment Yan Zhen turned to leave, he raised an eyebrow slightly, revealing a smug smile.

On the other side, Xie Zhao returned to his seat and sat for a while. Not long after, he left Wanlin Garden under the pretext of being unable to hold his liquor.

Upon returning to the Xie residence, Meng Zhenyue greeted him with a smile as usual, thoughtfully offering him a hangover tea.

Xie Zhao had no interest in dealing with her tonight, and made up an excuse that he still had official business to attend to, so he hurriedly returned to his study.

Only one lamp was lit in the study. Xie Zhao sat at the desk, one hand supporting his temple, his brows furrowed.

Luo Yun is still alive!

He was certain that the woman was Luo Yun.

Although her figure and temperament have changed a lot, he would never mistake her for someone else after sharing a bed with her for several years and having given birth to a son and a daughter.

He hadn't expected her to still be alive.

Three years ago, he waited in the capital for Cheng Qingshuang and their two children, but they did not come. He sent someone back to Ningzhou to investigate and found out that they had an accident on their way to the capital.

The guards and coachman were dead, Luo Yun went missing, and Cheng Qingshuang and her two children were rescued by a passing caravan.

According to Cheng Qingshuang, she got into an argument with Luo Jun in the car, and Luo Jun slapped her in a fit of anger, knocking her unconscious.

When she woke up, Luo Jun had disappeared, and two corpses lay outside the carriage.

Xie Zhao guessed that Luo Yun must have realized that the guards intended to kill her, which is why she fled in a hurry.

To prevent Luo Yun from leaking the secret, he sent people to search carefully within a hundred miles of the incident site and in Luo Family Village. He also spent a sum of money to check the travel permit records for entering and leaving Ningzhou.

But to no avail; Luo Yun seemed to have vanished into thin air.

There is only one explanation for this situation—Luo Yun is dead.

Come to think of it, how could she, a village woman who had never even left the town and was illiterate, survive without them?

Xie Zhao decided to leave her to fend for herself outside, which saved him the trouble.

But now, the person who was "dead" has returned.

Not only did she come back, but she has also changed so much, even becoming the top scorer in the national college entrance examination!

What exactly happened in the past three years?

Moreover, why did she appear so conspicuously at Wanlin Garden, deliberately show herself in front of him, attract his attention, and then deny her identity?

Xie Zhao's intuition told him that the visitor was up to no good.

Luo Yun is probably here to get revenge on him.

After pondering for a while, Xie Zhao took out a stack of silver notes from a hidden compartment, left the mansion under the cover of night, and headed straight for the "Tianji Pavilion" in the city.

Tianji Pavilion is an intelligence gathering center disguised as a restaurant. As long as you pay enough money, you can find out any information you want.

Upon meeting the person in charge of Tianji Pavilion, Xie Zhao explained his purpose and paid the money.

"A woman named Cao He is by the side of the newly appointed top scholar Xue Lin." The person in charge accepted the silver note. "Come back in ten days to collect the intelligence."

-

After the banquet at Wanlin Garden, Yan Zhen continued his daily routine, going to Jinyulou or Caoji Restaurant during the day.

Six or seven days passed in this way. On this day, she and Manager Gao returned to the Cao residence from Jinyulou. The horse stopped at the gate of the residence, and Manager Gao, who got off the carriage behind, walked to her side and whispered, "Manager, someone is following us."

Yan Zhen wasn't surprised at all, and straightened his clothes: "I know."

That person has been secretly following me for several days.

The butler was taken aback and asked, "It was him?"

"Hmm, do you know what that means?"

"Does he care about you a lot?"

"Not so," Yan Zhen said with a smile. "It shows that after six years, Xie Zhao is really not doing very well in the capital. He is an official of some rank, but he still has to personally handle things like tracking people. This shows that either he can't afford to hire someone, or he doesn't have enough connections."

"..." the butler asked, "Are you just going to let him follow you like this every day?"

"It's alright, he'll come looking for me sooner or later."

He knew exactly what Xie Zhao had done. The person he had "killed" three years ago had reappeared in front of him, and he was bound to feel a sense of crisis.

It's not his character to sit back and wait for death.

If she wasn't mistaken, Xie Zhao's silence during this period was likely due to his investigation into her identity as "Cao He".

Once he has investigated, he should confront her and get to the bottom of things.

-

Ten days later, Xie Zhao appeared at Tianji Pavilion as promised.

Upon receiving the intelligence, he immediately tore off the sealing wax and quickly scanned the contents of the envelope. The more he read, the more his brows furrowed.

Intelligence indicates that Cao He suddenly appeared in Yinzhou three years ago, making his fortune in a business called "soap." He then expanded rapidly into various industries, becoming the richest man in Yinzhou in just three years, with a net worth of tens of millions of taels of silver.

Further investigation into the person "Cao He" revealed that, according to travel records, she first appeared in Ningzhou, where she was a distant relative of a local farmer.

The farmer admitted that three years ago someone gave him a sum of money to act as a guarantor for a travel permit.

Cao He was Luo Yun!

After reading the intelligence, Xie Zhao felt a mix of emotions, but also a sense of relief.

He never expected that Luo Yun, who couldn't read a single character, would actually be the richest woman in Yinzhou. How could she possibly be in business when she couldn't read a single character?

Could it be that I got incredibly lucky and encountered a master who gave me guidance?

Regardless, with this intelligence, he now had leverage over Luo Yun.

Using a fabricated identity to obtain a travel permit is a serious crime, punishable by up to three years in prison for serious offenses.

If Luo Yun dares to harbor any thoughts of revenge against him, he will expose her false identity.

If she were smart, she wouldn't have let the two of them end up in a lose-lose situation.

Recalling the woman with extraordinary bearing whom he had followed and seen these past few days, Xie Zhao's heart skipped a beat, and a smile appeared on his lips.

However, Luo Yun's elaborate appearance before him may not necessarily be motivated by revenge.

He plans to meet her formally tomorrow.

-

Cao Mansion.

Early in the morning, Yan Zhen received a message that Xie Zhao had sent her a visiting card, inviting her to meet him at the Zhenxiu Pavilion at noon.

After the steward finished reading the formal visiting card, Yan Zhen pondered for a moment and then instructed the steward: "Send someone to invite Madam Meng to Jin Yu Lou. Also, have the young master come over."

Xue Lin joined the Hanlin Academy a few days ago as an eighth-rank scribe. He was not required to attend court early in the morning, but he had to report to the Hanlin Academy every day.

For a low-ranking official like Xue Lin, who was just starting out in the bureaucracy, the court would only provide a fixed monthly salary, and would not provide food or lodging.

Many poor scholars who passed the imperial examinations and became officials in the court were too poor to afford expensive houses in the city and could only rent houses outside the city. They had to get up at dawn every day and walk into the city.