Hearing Yi Qing say this, Mu Lixue looked at her suspiciously. "Your family isn't..."
"What are you talking about?" Yi Qing rolled her eyes at Mu Lixue. "I'm just asking you."
"The mines belong to the imperial court. Illegal mining shows disrespect for the court. Whether the culprit wants to make a profit or hoard troops to rebel, once such a thing happens, regardless of the reason, the offender will be severely punished."
"You know quite a lot."
"Of course. Do you really think being the eldest young lady of the Mu family means nothing?" Mu Lixue said proudly.
"What if it was your father who mined the mines illegally?" Yi Qing asked tentatively.
Mu Lixue was immediately stunned.
"I'm just saying if, just if..." Yi Qing thought Mu Lixue couldn't accept it.
Suddenly, Mu Lixue got excited. "Then Deng Xiao and I can be together." She grabbed Yi Qing excitedly. "Think about it. If something like this happened to my family, at least we'd lose our status, position, and wealth. Then my father wouldn't say Deng Xiao is unworthy of me. Maybe my father would even want me to marry Deng Xiao to ensure my safety for the rest of my life."
"Cough, cough, cough..." Yi Qing was choked by Mu Lixue's words.
They had been cautious about how to tell Mu Lixue this, but they never expected this daughter who was so hard on her father to think like this. If they had told her earlier, she might have even set off ten - thousand - cracker firecrackers to celebrate.
"What's wrong?" Mu Lixue looked at Yi Qing's expression.
"Nothing. Your attitude is quite good. You can always find the silver lining. Then I won't beat around the bush. Your father was caught by the imperial court for illegal mining. He's willing to donate all his family wealth to atone for his crime..."
Mu Lixue suddenly grabbed Yi Qing's wrist. "What did you say? Say it again?"
Looking at Mu Lixue's expression, Yi Qing knew this was probably her real reaction. "It's true."
"So... you didn't let me go out these days because you didn't want me to know about this?" Mu Lixue's IQ suddenly returned.
"I was just afraid you..." Yi Qing wanted to explain.
Mu Lixue got up and ran. In the yard, she was stopped by Deng Xiao. She sized up Deng Xiao in his flying fish robe.
It was Duke Mu who begged the emperor to remove Deng Xiao's official position. Now that Deng Xiao was wearing the flying fish robe again, it proved that the Mu family had really fallen.
"Is what Lady Xiao said true?" Mu Lixue looked at Deng Xiao.
Deng Xiao nodded.
"Let's go." Mu Lixue grabbed Deng Xiao and left.
Yi Qing stood at the door with her arms folded, watching them leave. It's not painful for a person to go all the way on a single path. What's painful is that the person stops halfway and thinks they've given a lot while others have let them down.
Duke Mu still lived in the original mansion, but the main gate had been removed. Commoners weren't allowed to have such a grand gatehouse.
Mu Lixue stood in front of the house, watching the craftsmen working. She gave a bitter smile. The carriage she used to ride in couldn't even get through such a gate. "Are my parents okay?"
"They're fine. All this was Duke Mu's own will. The emperor didn't make things difficult for the Mu family."
"Then I may not have much dowry." Mu Lixue suddenly said.
Deng Xiao didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I'll support you."
The matters of Duke Xie and Duke Mu had been settled, but the real culprits who killed Xie Hongyi and Xie Hongning had never been caught. Wan'er had taken all the blame, but everyone knew there must be more than just Wan'er.
The emperor's intention was that since someone had confessed and the Guo family had suffered so much injustice, this matter should be let go. But Xu Maozhi was stubborn. He was determined to find out the truth.
"I found this on the corpses." Xu Maozhi took out a plain handkerchief, which wrapped several curved black things.
Yi Qing took it and looked. "Insect legs?"
Xu Maozhi nodded. "Yes. I don't know what kind of insect it is. Why were there insects?"
Something exploded in Yi Qing's mind. Before, she didn't dare to believe it was true. "Go to the vegetable market and find a butcher named Gan."
"A butcher named Gan?" Xu Maozhi thought for a while. "Gan Ermei's family?"
He knew that Gan Ermei, Yi Qing's former assistant, used to be a butcher.
Yi Qing nodded. Ordinary people couldn't be so clean - cut, but Gan Ermei was specially trained by her. She was definitely capable of it, and she had felt the wounds were somewhat familiar from the beginning.
"I'll go right away." Xu Maozhi took the handkerchief and ran out.
Yi Qing sat there in a daze for a long time. She didn't want it to be Gan Ermei. After all, in her mind, Gan Ermei and Wu Peng were in the Southern Border and couldn't be in the capital.
But the simultaneous appearance of insects and that kind of dissection technique made Yi Qing think of no one else but them.
There had never been many people in the Gan family, and now it was empty. But Xu Maozhi found a letter left by Gan Ermei.
Gan Ermei was the real descendant of the Guo family. Wan'er was Gan Ermei's former maid, and the two had a very good relationship. After the Guo family was exterminated, Wan'er was selected as a wine girl by the Sihe Wine House because of her age, while Gan Ermei was saved by the Gan couple because of her illness and had since become the Gan family's daughter.
She had been waiting. That's why she was so excited when she was able to enter the general's mansion, hoping to avenge the Guo family one day with the help of the general's mansion.
When she learned that the Xie family had fallen from grace, she and Wu Peng rushed to the capital to seek justice for the Guo family. But the petitions they secretly submitted disappeared without a trace. So they decided to take revenge on their own.
Wan'er was an accomplice. Xie Hongyi often went to the Sihe Wine House. Wan'er, taking advantage of her position as a wine girl, knew when Xie Hongyi would leave and quietly got rid of the Qing family's coachman. The coachman's death was really an accident.
They didn't want to frame the Qing family. They just wanted to delay the time. Later, when the imperial court issued a notice, Wan'er went to confess first to protect Gan Ermei.
Gan Ermei didn't want to shirk responsibility. She just didn't want those who died for her to have died in vain.
After reading the letter left by Gan Ermei, Yi Qing guessed that by this time, she and Wu Peng had already fled far away.
"What should we do?" Xu Maozhi never expected it to be like this.
"Do as we should. Issue a wanted order if necessary." Yi Qing knew that one thing was one thing. The Xie family should be punished, and the murderers should also pay the price. They could just be dealt with leniently because of the circumstances.
Xu Maozhi thought so too.
During this period, Yi Qing first attended her mother's wedding. Most of the noble ladies in the capital came to congratulate her. No one dared to say that there was anything wrong with Lady Di's actions.
Then she attended Deng Xiao's wedding. Deng Xiao's wedding was relatively simple. He didn't invite many people. But with Xiao Jinghan and Yi Qing present and the emperor's wedding gift, it was still grand.
At the end of the year, Xue Miao'er and Yuan Hecong got married. The Yuan family held a very grand wedding to prevent anyone from criticizing Xue Miao'er's status. With Yi Qing backing Xue Miao'er up, no one dared to say anything.
The only regret was that Wu Min was still unconscious. On New Year's Eve, Lu Tianxun came to accompany Wu Min after the reunion dinner. Thinking of the fireworks last year, it had been a year since they got together.
A lot had happened this year, and he had changed a lot. He had started to have expectations, expecting when Wu Min would wake up.