Cui Jintang stood still, her knuckles turning white from clenching.
There seemed to be a blazing fire in her eyes, which startled even Cui Zhu into silence.
She let out a cold laugh and directly confronted Pei Zhaolin.
"Sir Pei, you're welcome to try. Let's see if you can take her away today."
Pei Zhaolin looked at her intently.
Based on his years of experience interrogating criminals, Jiang Wu's anger towards him at this moment was not feigned.
And beside them, Cui Zhu had already slumped to the ground, her face full of despair.
— This didn't seem fake either.
It seemed that she had truly lost hope of survival because of Jiang Wu's final verdict.
Could it be that Jiang Wu was really the master Cui Zhu had mentioned?
But Cui Zhu's blurted-out question of "Who are you?" had also been genuine.
He had also heard that some extraordinary people could disguise themselves as others with just their hands.
Thinking about the last two times he had seen Jiang Wu, when her appearance had changed slightly each time...
Pei Zhaolin lowered his eyes and simply said, "According to the law, even the head of a household has no right to take someone's life at will."
He slowly raised his eyes, his expression cold and calm. "Moreover, this person just said that you're not the master."
Anger welled up in Cui Jintang. She stared at Pei Zhaolin, her eyes like knives scraping across every inch of his face.
Suddenly, she sensed something was wrong!
With a glance from Cui Jintang, Steward Li immediately covered Cui Zhu's mouth with a rag and dragged everyone out.
Only then did her rationality kick in. "So you deliberately said you wanted to keep Cui Zhu just to see me panic and expose myself? Just to find out if I'm really the master she mentioned?"
Pei Zhaolin remained motionless, his eyes as deep as a stagnant pool. "You can tell me now. Are you?"
Cui Jintang suddenly stepped forward, her fingertips almost poking into his chest. Her voice was barely above a whisper but trembling with every word.
"Pei Zhaolin, if you really believe her nonsense, then I've been blind. Once..."
She suddenly stopped, clenching her back teeth and swallowing the words "Once you never doubted me" back down.
Pei Zhaolin's eyes flickered, as if stabbed by her slip of the tongue, but he still pressed on. "Once what? Madam Jiang, don't tell me you've known me for a long time."
But Cui Jintang suddenly took half a step back, let out a cold laugh, and turned away, refusing to look at him again. "If you want to keep her, then keep her. Do as you please."
She turned around and ignored all of Pei Zhaolin's words.
Cui Jintang walked quickly. At the corner, she bumped into Brothers Zhu Er and Zhu San, who were carrying a medicine box.
Zhu Er was carrying the medicine box, smiling cheerfully. "Miss! Has Sir Pei rested? It's time for Zhu San to change his dressing..."
Before he could finish, Zhu San grabbed his sleeve.
Zhu Er was stunned and only then noticed her cold and fierce expression.
Zhu San asked小心翼翼, "Miss, what happened?"
They saw Cui Jintang raise her hand to cover her eyes, her knuckles still trembling slightly.
The two brothers exchanged a look and thought that the miss wasn't scared.
It seemed that she was... angry?
Cui Jintang took a deep breath and then lowered her hand, her eyes sharp. "Pei Zhaolin suspects me."
Zhu Er panicked and almost dropped the medicine box in his hand.
"Does Sir Pei suspect the miss's connection with the Cui family or the identity of Jiang Wu?"
Cui Jintang sighed, her eyebrows knitted tightly. "It's Jiang Wu."
"That's okay, that's okay..."
Under Cui Jintang's glare, Zhu Er immediately shut up.
"That's not okay! Not okay at all!"
Zhu San looked at her and then at Zhu Er, who was shaking his head vigorously. He asked slowly, "How did Sir Pei start to suspect the miss?"
"Because of a single word from Cui Zhu!"
Zhu San suddenly understood. So the miss was angry because Sir Pei had so easily suspected her.
Zhu San continued slowly, "It's just a false identity. It doesn't matter if he suspects you. Miss, forgive my rudeness, but isn't the imperial examination coming up after the autumn study?"
"If you don't want to accept the recommendation of the clan elders to send a maiden into the palace, you should focus more on the imperial examination."
"Have you seen the students sent by the Cui Academy this year?"
Just thinking about this gave Cui Jintang a headache.
A bunch of good-for-nothings who only knew about women and money. If such people could become officials in the court, wouldn't it be the common people who suffered?
After the entire autumn study, not a single one of them had left even the slightest impression on her.
Zhu San was silent for a moment and then said, "Has the miss considered that since the Cui family can't produce a top scholar, why not make the top scholar come from the Cui family?"
Cui Jintang looked at him. "You mean Chu Yingfeng and Chen Mingyuan?"
Zhu San gave her a simple and honest smile.
The encouraging meaning behind it was self-evident.
Cui Jintang was a bit hesitant. She stepped out of the corridor. "I'll think about this."
The two brothers followed her closely.
"Miss! I also have something to report."
"Speak."
Zhu Er said, "We bought some information from the Jinyu Workshop. Three days before the student Zheng Ting died, he had a meeting with Steward Liu, who had come out of the palace to make purchases."
She remembered Xu Tao saying that this Steward Liu was someone from her elder brother, the emperor.
Cui Jintang glanced at him sideways. "You mean Zheng Ting was the emperor's man?"
No wonder the emperor had been so eager to order a joint trial by the three judicial departments after hearing about Zheng Ting's death.
"The Tiger Ben Army Camp has been abandoned for a long time. The secret hall has sent three groups of people to investigate, but there have been no abnormalities, and they haven't encountered any assassins."
It was likely that the Tiger Ben Army Camp had been cleaned up long before the day Pei Zhaolin was assassinated.
All these things seemed to point to the current emperor.
What on earth was he up to?
Cui Jintang suddenly stopped and looked back at the guest courtyard where Pei Zhaolin was staying.
It was as if she had accepted Zhu San's words "It's just a false identity. It doesn't matter if he suspects you."
The restlessness in Cui Jintang's heart gradually calmed down.
She thought that she shouldn't meet Pei Zhaolin as Jiang Wu for a while.
Cui Jintang walked out of the manor. Steward Li had already prepared a horse.
She mounted the horse.
Cui Jintang glanced at Steward Li.
Steward Li quickly said, "Don't worry, miss. Cui Zhu has been properly安置, and she definitely won't appear in front of the honored guests or you again."
Cui Jintang nodded and whipped the horse towards the capital.
Zhu Er immediately followed behind.
Zhu San picked out a bottle of medicine from the medicine box and gave it to Steward Li.
"This is the medicine for Sir Pei's dressing change. Apply it twice a day. I've already given the prescription to the medicine boy. If there are any abnormalities, send a message to me immediately."
Steward Li agreed to everything.
Just as Zhu San was about to mount his horse, he seemed to sense a sharp gaze behind him. Startled, he instinctively turned his head.
There seemed to be someone standing under the corridor!
Pei Zhaolin seemed to have emerged from the night silently, standing there with a gloomy look in his eyes.
Zhu San wiped his face —
He wasn't sure if this Sir Pei still remembered his face!