Shengjing Noble

Chapter 248: Aboveboard

"She came back a year later, but she was holding a child. I guess she had the baby with the other man."

"Oh, right. She was very mean to the youngest daughter and often abused her, but she was very kind to the eldest daughter. So, the jade ring must have been left to the eldest daughter!"

Su Lanxin asked immediately after hearing this: "Where is her eldest daughter?"

The old woman pursed her lips, her eyes full of hints, and she deliberately hesitated to speak.

Seeing this, Liu Ruyan threw a piece of silver with disdain and said coldly: "Hurry up and tell me!"

The old woman quickly took the silver with both hands, put it in her mouth and bit it, making sure it was real, then she continued with a smile on her face.

"Oh, this eldest daughter is naturally with Widow Li's parents-in-law in Qiu County. Let me think... It seems to be in some alley. Wait, I will go back and ask my son!"

As he said this, he started to walk out. Su Lanxin and Liu Ruyan were so excited that they quickly followed him.

……

Now on the other side.

Following the instructions on the map, Su Lanyin and Su Shengming finally found the cave before they became exhausted.

The two men leaned against the cave entrance, gasping for breath.

"I'm so tired... How did the previous county magistrate transport the food here? I'm really impressed!"

Su Lanyin looked at the map, and countless brilliant lights flashed in her eyes.

"The really difficult thing to deal with is probably the traps in the cave. The map shows that there are dozens of traps of varying sizes after entering the cave. If you make a mistake, you could end up dying here."

"Is he sick? Is this to prevent those who embezzle disaster relief grain or to prevent tomb robbers?" Su Shengming couldn't help but complain.

Su Lanyin smiled and put the map away.

"This was originally an underground tomb. I don't know how the previous county magistrate discovered it. However, he must have hated the person who threatened him from behind, so he went to great lengths to hide the relief grain here to prevent that person from getting what he wanted."

"Then how do we transport the food out?"

"It's definitely not possible with just the two of us. We have to wait for my second brother to arrive and lead the county officials here. Then, under the witness of the people, we can take out this batch of disaster relief grain openly and transport it back to Qiu County. Only in this way can we completely put an end to the intentions of the people behind this." Su Lanyin said.

"Then what do we do now?"

"Of course I'll go in and take a look first. What if it turns out to be a mistake and there's no food at all? Wouldn't that make me get slapped in the face?"

"That's right, let's go in quickly."

"Let's go."

The cave was pitch black, but fortunately Su Lanyin brought a brighter night-shining pearl to illuminate the way.

According to the map, the brother and sister avoided all the traps and finally arrived at the final tomb.

After pushing the mechanism and opening the stone door, they found the disaster relief grain from the imperial court inside, without even the seal being removed.

Su Lanyin opened a box at random, checked it, and then closed it again.

"Now it's confirmed, let's go."

"Wait, this tomb looks a little strange."

Su Shengming looked at the sarcophagus in the center and couldn't help but get closer to take a look. He brushed off the dust on it and saw several lines of unfamiliar text.

"Yinyin, what country's language is this? Why can't I understand it?"

Su Lanyin leaned forward to take a look and said in confusion: "I don't understand it either, but... it looks a bit like the Mongolian font."

"Mengguo? How do you know?"

"I……"

She couldn't say that she had seen Song Rui communicating with Mongolian spies in her previous life, right?

That’s right, in the previous life, Song Rui colluded with Su Yongcheng by sucking her blood and sold out a lot of information about the Sheng Dynasty to the Mongolian Kingdom.

She wanted to expose it, but at that time she no longer had the ability to resist.

"I've seen it in a book before."

"So that's how it is. If it's a Mongolian tomb, why was it built in our Sheng Dynasty?" Su Shengming was puzzled.

"Perhaps the owner of this tomb was a Mongolian, and later settled in the Sheng Dynasty. After his death, his relatives buried him here according to the Mongolian tomb standards."

"This explanation does make sense."

"Alright Third Brother, let's go quickly. This is someone else's territory after all. We shouldn't disturb them."

"Well, A'mo and Xiaoyu are at the city gate distributing porridge. Let's go and help."

After talking, the brother and sister hurriedly left the tomb and returned to Qiu County.

……

Qiu County, Douzi Hutong.

Su Lanxin and Liu Ruyan found Widow Li's in-laws' home according to the address given by the old woman, but unfortunately the door was locked.

But the two were still unwilling to give up, so they tried knocking on the door, but no one answered.

"Could they all have left Qiu County to escape?" Su Lanxin felt a little discouraged.

Liu Ruyan shook her head and said, "Impossible. If they were fleeing, then no one would have lived here for a long time. But there is no dust on the lock. It's obvious that it was just locked."

"So, they went out for something? But what could they be doing at this moment?"

The mother and daughter were wondering when they saw an old man in the yard next to them walking out in a hurry with a cane.

Su Lanxin hurriedly stepped forward to stop him, and then asked unceremoniously: "Old man, let me ask you, where did this family go?"

Seeing her being so rude, the old man waved his cane rudely.

"Get out of the way! Don't block me, an old man, from going to the city gate to get porridge!"

"Hey you..."

Su Lanxin was forced to step aside, glaring at the old man with anger in her eyes.

Liu Ruyan's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly said, "Could it be that this family also went to the city gate?"

"Yes! That must be the case. Let's go and look for it!"

“But we don’t know what they are called!”

Having said that, Su Lanxin looked at the old man again, and immediately took out a string of copper coins and shook them in front of him.

"Old man, let me ask you a question. If you answer it truthfully, I will give you this string of copper coins. How about that?"

The old man was immediately attracted by the money and nodded quickly: "Okay, okay, go ahead and ask."

"What is the name of this family? Is there a little girl around ten years old?"

"Yes!" The old man nodded his head. "This family's surname is Ma. They have a little granddaughter. She seems to be eleven years old this year. Her nickname is Tongtong."

After getting the clear information, Su Lanxin curled the corners of her mouth, put away the copper coins, turned around and left.

The old man immediately grabbed her and said, "Don't leave! You said you would give me money!"

"I lied to you, what can you do? Get away from me, you old man!" Su Lanxin kicked him away in disgust.

"Ouch..." The old man fell on his butt, grimacing in pain and unable to get up for a long time.

Su Lanxin immediately pulled Liu Ruyan onto the carriage and rushed towards the city gate.

But as soon as they left, Fu Wuyang walked into the alley.

He immediately saw the old man fallen to the ground and hurried forward to help him.

"Uncle Zhang! What's wrong with you? Are you okay?"

The old man called Uncle Zhang cried out in pain, then managed to stand up with the help of his father.

"Why did you come out? Didn't I tell you to stay home and recuperate because of the chaos outside? I promised mother to take good care of you, but you have to listen to me too."