Just when Mei Changsu, who was working hard, was sitting under the flower trellis and thinking deeply, the carriage carrying Meng Zhi and Xia Dong quickly drove to the prison. Outside the gate, everything still looks as peaceful as ever. Meng Zhi was the commander of the Imperial Army, and he used to visit Xia Jiang, Xia Dong and others from time to time. All the prisoners recognized him, and immediately someone came to greet him. ", into the women's prison.
Arriving in front of Zhuzihao, the head of the prison opened the door lock, nodded his head and backed out. After Meng Zhi glanced around quickly, he pushed open the cell door, bowed in from the low door with Xia Dong, and glanced around.
The cell was really empty, and there was no sign of Gong Yu. The two exchanged glances quickly, and only stayed for a moment, then drew back and rushed out. As expected, as soon as they walked to the exit of the prison corridor, a man with a sinking face stood in front of him. It was Cai Quan, the minister of punishment.
When they met on a narrow road, the air around them seemed to freeze in an instant, and the atmosphere was dark and silent. Cai Quan's burning gaze stayed on Xia Dong in disguise for a long time, and Fang sneered: "Forgive my clumsiness, I can't recognize who you are, can you show me your true face?"
Meng Zhi had a somewhat embarrassed look on his face, and took a step forward: "Meng Mou's move is for reasons that Mr. Cai has not yet understood. Please calm down, don't rush to make a judgment."
Cai Quan said expressionlessly: "Okay, I'll take it easy. Then please explain, Lord Meng."
"Actually... it's actually like this..." Meng Zhi is known to be not good at articulating and articulating, but at this time, his expression became more embarrassed, and his words flickered.
"Forget it, Lord Meng." Xia Dong wiped off the disguise on his face, revealing his true face, "Just tell the truth. Anyway, if you were caught on the spot, other than telling the truth. What else can you do."
"Xia Dong?" Cai Quan's pupils shrank slightly, and the fog in his heart thickened. He received a secret notice today and hurried to the prison for personal inspection, and found that Xia Dong himself was not in the room, and was very angry. He took Gong Yu to the interrogation room and asked Yan Jia for a long time, but he didn't even ask a word. Just as he was annoyed, the head of the prison rushed to report that Meng Zhi appeared again. He didn't have time to think about it, and rushed over to block it. Looking at it, in addition to Meng Zhi, there is actually Xia Dong himself, and I am even more puzzled.
"Master Meng, what are you still hesitating about?" Xia Dong ignored Cai Quan's scrutinizing eyes. With a sneer, "It's Mr. Cai who is now looking into the bottom line, and it's not that you are disregarding his face. With your Highness, you can't be blamed afterward."
"Your Highness?" Cai Quan's brows trembled slightly. Your Highness? "
"Which other His Highness can call us, the commander of the Imperial Guard?" Xia Dong said with a light smile. "Master Cai has a temperament that doesn't rub sand in his eyes. The reason why he is willing to calm down and listen to Master Meng's explanation. Isn't it because he thinks things are unreasonable?"
"Yes, I'm very strange." Cai Quan looked directly into Meng Zhi's eyes, "You have already successfully replaced Xia Dong, I just interrogated the fake prisoner in the prison, and she didn't confess that the matter was related to adults, I really I can't figure out why you brought the real criminal back by yourself. It's not common sense, and there are often extraordinary reasons. If Lord Meng can really justify it, you might as well listen to it."
Meng Zhi rubbed between his brows, his expression still a little hesitant, Xia Dong suddenly looked up to the sky with a smile, and said, "Looking at the Great Commander like this, I'm still afraid of His Highness's censure, then I'll tell you, maybe I'll say it more clearly. , Master Cai may wish to listen."
"You are a criminal, and I will not believe your words."
"Believe it or not, listen to it and then judge. Mr. Cai is a recognized expert in solving cases. No matter how well-crafted a confession is, it can't escape the eyes of the adults. Why bother to expose me Xia Dong again?"
Cai Quan stared at her for a long time, and finally nodded: "Okay, say it."
Xia Dong smiled and bowed, and said in a soothing tone: "Send me back to the prison. It is a fact that the person who was caught by you on the spot was Commander Meng. However, the person who quietly replaced me from the prison was It's not him, that's the truth."
Cai Quan raised his eyebrows, "It's so easy to say such an empty sentence."
"Although the prison is heavily guarded, I'm not the only one who can escape from it. Mr. Cai also made a confession for this and received a heavy punishment, so he must still remember it clearly, right?"
Cai Quan understood that she was referring to Xia Jiang, who escaped from prison, and his face suddenly became more gloomy.
"My master was rescued, and if he could escape quietly, of course I did too. And I was more clever than him. I brought someone in and put him in jail, hiding it from you for almost a month. Shouldn't Mr. Cai also use this method? A few words of praise?" Xia Dong giggled and laughed, not caring about Cai Quan's face like the bottom of the pot, "Aren't you praising? It's okay not to praise, anyway, I don't have anything to be proud of, I can only escape for this little time, just They were caught again."
"What do you mean... You were taken back by him?" Cai Quan glanced at Meng Zhi with the end of his eyes, obviously disbelieving.
"Commander Meng is serving Yu Qian, how can you come and catch me?" Xia Dong's mouth curled slightly, "I was caught by others, and Lord Meng just sent me back."
"No matter who captured you, you should be escorted directly to the yamen of the Punishment Department, instead of quietly stuffing it back," Cai Quan slashed Meng Zhi's face back and forth like a knife, "Such a strange behavior, always There must be a decent reason, right?"
"Master Cai is so forgetful," Xia Dong leisurely brushed his long hair from his ear and laughed, "Do you still remember how His Majesty's punishment edict to you was written after my master escaped from prison? ?"
Cai Quan's heart suddenly froze, and the words in the edict, "If there is another loss, the crime will be increased, and the resignation will be investigated and dealt with" flashed through his mind instantly, making his throat tighten.
"The person who caught me happened to be the subordinate of the new master of the East Palace, Mr. Chitose, and I was naturally escorted to him first." Xia Dong stared at Cai Quan's eyes, "Your Highness is right. You know how much you appreciate the importance of love, Mr. Cai. If you bring me back in public, it will be like announcing that the Ministry of Punishment has gone astray again, and it has not been investigated for a long time. This crime is detained. Even if someone intercedes, even if he does not get fired, That demotion is always unavoidable. But some people are reluctant to even let you demote. So I had to trouble the Lord Meng, who is often in and out of the prison, and take me on this trip. it is good… "
Cai Quan's face was blue and white, he gritted his teeth and pondered for a while, his eyes were fixed again, and he asked sharply: "If it is according to what you said. You were captured after being assisted by an accomplice to escape from prison, then you should be very happy to see Mr. Meng. He was misunderstood by me, how could he defend him?"
Xia Dong smiled miserably, raised his thin chin, and sighed deeply. "Because my position has changed..."
"position?"
"Yes. My purpose of escaping from prison is different from that of my master. As long as I think of Chi Yan's rebellious criminals who have not yet been able to kill my husband with a knife, I will feel uneasy. So I want to escape to find my master and ask him how he will kill the guard. Zheng hid somewhere, but I didn't expect the master to find it yet. Instead, he fell into the hands of the former commander of Prince Jing's mansion and was brought before the Prince's Palace." Xia Dong's eyes shifted, and his tone changed to a low voice. "In the East Palace, His Highness told me some things. Some old things that he has been tracking down for a long time and very clearly. As a result, I was persuaded. I began to wonder if my hatred over the years was really in the wrong place... Xia Dong He is not a person from both sides. Since he has decided to believe His Highness, and promised him to return to the prison to wait for the truth, of course, he will not see Commander Meng being misunderstood by you, and will not say a word, but what I said, Master Cai, you Believe it or not, I don't care."
Cai Quandi's eyes slowly rolled twice, his expression still deep: "I don't know what His Highness told you, that would change your attitude so much?" Xia Dong smiled lightly and said in a low voice, "Master Cai, Can't you guess what I mean by the old things? With all due respect, this is too heavy and heavy, and it is appropriate for you to forget it after hearing it, and you shouldn't ask any more questions."
Cai Quan suddenly remembered the conversation with Shen Zhui on the carriage that day, and the bloody storm thirteen years ago, and immediately pursed his lips.
Meng Zhi has been listening silently by the side, and at this time he also stepped forward and said, "Mr. Cai, although you and I don't have a deep relationship, I have always respected your gentleman. What is lacking the most is a good minister like your lord. Since there is a heart of love and maintenance under the East Palace, why should your lord stick to the old-fashioned and live up to his good intentions?"
Cai Quan lowered his eyes and seemed to have some activity in his heart. Xia Dong and Meng Zhi also stopped talking and pressing, leaving him to think about it himself. After a long while, the Minister of Punishment raised his eyes again with a solemn expression: "If everything you said is true, then who is the person who Feijian told me today?"
His words were far beyond their expectations. Xia Dong and Meng Zhi did not hide the surprise on their faces, and snorted in unison.
"Flying Arrow's secret report?" Meng Zhi said in surprise, "His Royal Highness's insiders are all honest people, and besides, I am sending Xia Dong back, not kidnapping her out, although there are violations of national law, but it is not What a big thing, who will come to tell it?"
"The accusation of the whistleblower is that you replaced another criminal, and he did not say that you would send the person back..." Cai Quan said while thinking, "Perhaps someone knew that Xia Dong escaped from prison, and that Lord Meng would often enter by order. Heavenly Prison, so I combined the two and wrote that secret letter. Of course I had to check the letter after I received it. After checking, of course I found that Xia Dong had really been replaced. Not many people came in and out of Heavenly Prison. Letter, the suspicion of Lord Meng is naturally the most serious. It’s just that they didn’t expect that Xia Dong, who had escaped, would be brought back by chance today…”
Xia Dong giggled and said, "Sir Meng, it sounds like it's coming for you, think about what enemies you have."
"Speaking of this," Cai Quan, who was serious about his actions, turned his attention back to Xia Dong, "I'm afraid you still have to explain how you escaped." Do you want to make up for the loopholes in the prison? "Xia Dong smiled so easily." It's actually very simple. The head of the inner prison will not stay here forever. Just find a cell head who loves wine, send someone to invite him to drink, and replace him when he gets drunk. Clothes, disguised as him, and when it was a little late and the light was dim, he quietly came in under his name, and the guard at the gate saw that he was the head of the prison, and would not check carefully, there is a high probability of successfully entering the gate..."
Cai Quan snorted coldly, "But there are two keys, so both prison heads must unlock the lock at the same time."
"Who said that? It's fine for a prison head to hold two keys." Xia Dong said lightly, "You can't take the keys out of the prison, so the first time I came in in disguise, I just printed a key mold here and went out. Another match, don't do anything else. After the prisoner who was drinking alcohol woke up, he didn't notice anything different. Then in a few days, he would do the same strategy for the second prisoner again. Two good wine prisoners? "
"It doesn't matter if you're not good at drinking. If you hit the back of the head with a big stick, the effect is the same as being drunk." Xia Dong said to himself, as if he didn't see Cai Quan's increasingly gloomy face, "Of course, pretending to be When the second prisoner comes in, he has to bring the person to be replaced by his side. Of course, it will be more difficult to bring in another one, but it is not impossible to find an excuse. For example, this fake prisoner was asked by a friend to bring in. Visiting the prison, because it's an entry rather than an exit, so the guards usually give this favor. At this time, the fake cell leader has two sets of keys in his hand, and he can go to the cell to change people in the dead of night, and then take me out, as long as the last When the guard came out of the gate, he didn't find that the fake cell head brought in and out of the same person, and the matter was successful. Even if the cell head who was knocked unconscious felt wrong after waking up, he might not be sure that he was beaten with the sky prison. Moreover, there are so many prisoners in the prison, and there is no shortage of people. He can't find out what is wrong, so how dare he shout casually? If you are lucky, you may be able to stay like this forever, if you are unlucky, it will be at least the next day. Being noticed, I have already come out anyway, who cares?"
"You came out on your own, what about the people who are for you?" Cai Quan snorted coldly, "What does that Gong Yu from Miaoyinfang have to do with you?"
"Master Cai," Xia Dong gently pushed his forehead to the back of his head and said, "You don't know that there are hidden piles in the Xuanjing Division, right?"
The muscles on both sides of Cai Quan's cheeks twitched violently, "Is Gong Yu your secret?"
"That's right. The identity of Xuanjing Division's Anzhuang is secret, and no one knows about it except the first one and Anzhuang's own contacts. I saved Gong Yu's life before, and she was willing to do anything for me. One of the dark piles I use the most."
"No wonder," Cai Quan seemed to be muttering to himself, "a musician, the chief inspector actually said that she has martial arts skills and is not weak..."
Meng Zhi took the opportunity to say: "Master Cai, since Xia Dong has returned, the real crime has not been lost, naturally everything can be concealed. I don't think that Gong Yu needs to be tried, isn't it the old department of the Xuanjing Division, so I will leave it to me. Take her away and deal with her, and let her stay in the punishment department, it's not easy for you, my lord."
Cai Quan didn't answer immediately, but calmed down and thought carefully about what the two had said from beginning to end. He didn't find any loopholes, so he snorted and said, "Okay, wait for Xia. After Dong is imprisoned, I will hand Gong Yu to you."
Xia Dong smiled nonchalantly, followed behind a prison officer designated by Cai Quan, and entered the prison door without looking back. Cai Quan felt uneasy after thinking about it, and went in personally to watch the handcuffs and locks, and gave him a stern warning before he came out and ordered someone to lift Gong Yu.
Maybe it was because the trial time was not long, maybe because Cai Quan was not someone who abused torture tools, Gong Yu was just unkempt, and there was no obvious trace of abuse on his body. Take a breath.
After wrapping the young girl from head to toe with the cape that Xia Dong had just put on, Meng Zhi said goodbye to Cai Quan briefly, and walked out with Gong Yu. Seeing that he was about to leave the door, Cai Quan behind him suddenly called out: "Wait a minute." Meng Zhi's heart skipped a beat, his footsteps sank, and at the same time as he slowly turned around, his true qi had secretly filled his body.
"Please, Lord Meng, express my thanks to His Highness on my behalf." After a faint smile, the Minister of Punishment said.