Chapter 68 Taking advantage of the situation
Zhang Ergou was still chattering there, trying to persuade Chen Huaian to let him go.

Chen Huaian became impatient and slapped him a few more times. It was clear from the situation in the room that Chen Huaian had no intention of showing mercy to a murderer.

After being slapped several times, Zhang Ergou broke down and burst into tears.

Wang An frowned when he saw this, and Chen Huaian immediately raised his hand and was about to hit him again.

When Zhang Ergou saw this, he immediately stopped crying and said, "I'll tell you, sir, please stop hitting me!"

It was only then that Zhang Ergou suddenly saw Wang An standing next to Chen Huaian, and he immediately exclaimed in shock: "Prince!"

Wang An frowned. The person in front of him seemed to know him, and then he also felt that the other person seemed somewhat familiar.

After thinking about it carefully, he immediately remembered the day when the people of Baicheng and the returnees from Yueya Mountain almost fought over the purchase of affordable grain.

At that time, Wang An stepped forward to mediate. There was a man dressed as a shop assistant who was fanning the flames in the crowd. Wang An even asked Xu Huang to catch the man and scold him.

Looking at it again now, isn’t the person in front of me the guy from that day?

"Are you that fellow?" Wang Anqi asked, "Whose house is this, and why did you kill someone?"

"Love killing, revenge killing?"

Zhang Ergou began to stammer when he heard this.

Chen Huaian became impatient and slapped him a few more times. Maybe he was hit too hard, and this time even some of his teeth were knocked out.

"When the prince asks you a question, you should answer it. If you dare not to be honest, do you believe that I will beat you to death here?"

Zhang Ergou dared not hide anything immediately, and told him how Lu Guancheng framed the concubine on himself, how he came to his house every day to have secret meetings with the concubine, how the concubine looked down on him, and how he accidentally killed someone.

Wang An was slightly disappointed when he heard this. In fact, when he heard Zhang Ergou say the name Lu Guancheng in the yard, he thought the time had come to deal with Lu Guancheng. He didn't expect it was just a case like this.

After all, it wasn't Lu Guancheng who committed the murder. Although he had an affair with someone else's wife, it could only be considered as a lack of personal morality. It is obviously unrealistic to bring him down in one go because of this.

Just as he was about to ask Chen Huaian to bring Zhang Ergou back to the government office for interrogation, he suddenly had an idea and remembered the letter.

Wang An reached into his bosom, took out the letter that Zhang Ergou had dropped, shook it, and asked, "Whose letter is this? Don't tell me it's yours. The wax on this letter is definitely not something that ordinary people would use."

When Zhang Ergou saw the letter, he immediately fumbled around in his arms. When he confirmed that the letter that Lu Guancheng gave him was indeed lost, Zhang Ergou was immediately disheartened.

Killing Xiaoyu was enough to get me beheaded. If Wang An found out that I was delivering a letter to the White Tiger Mountain bandit camp, even ten heads would not be enough.

But on second thought, isn't this the best opportunity to make a contribution?

Thinking of this, Zhang Ergou immediately turned over, knelt down and kowtowed to Wang An: "Your Majesty, I want to redeem myself for my crime!"

Immediately afterwards, regardless of whether Wang An agreed or not, Zhang Ergou told Wang An how Lu Guancheng had instructed him to deliver a letter to the bandit camp in Baihu Mountain, hoping to collude with the bandit leader Yizi'er and take the opportunity to rob the Tiger Tooth Company on their way back from Qingzhou after buying grain.

The more Wang An listened, the more frightened he became. Although he had long felt that Lu Guancheng was not a good person, he had never expected that he would be so bold as to collude with the bandits and rob his grain transport team.

Seeing Wang An's gloomy face, Zhang Ergou thought that the other party didn't believe it, so he quickly pointed at the secret letter and said, "If Your Majesty doesn't believe it, just open the secret letter and you will know!"

Wang Any opened the envelope as instructed and read it briefly.

The content on the envelope was indeed written by Lu Guancheng to Yizi'er, the bandit camp of Baihu Mountain, and in the letter, he instructed Yizi'er to rob Xu Huang's grain transport team. However, what shocked Wang An was not only that, from the tone and words used by Lu Guancheng when speaking to Yizi'er in the secret letter, it was obvious that a superior was giving orders to an inferior.

This is definitely not a simple collusion with bandits. Wang An vaguely feels that this bandit in Baihu Mountain has a great relationship with Lu Guancheng.

Zhang Ergou saw Wang An's face change after reading the letter, and asked anxiously, "Your Majesty, I was forced to do this. Please understand!"

"The woman on the bed was killed by me accidentally because she was having an affair. Your Majesty, please show mercy and give me a lighter sentence!"

Wang An came back to his senses, handed the secret letter to Chen Huaian and asked, "Is there any way to restore the wax on this letter?"

Chen Huaian's expression changed, he took the secret letter with both hands and nodded, saying: "I can't do that...but the maidservant beside the young lady is from the secret guards, her methods are complicated and treacherous, maybe there is a way."

Wang An nodded, then looked at Zhang Ergou and said, "Jizhou is my fiefdom. If I say someone is guilty, then he is guilty. If I say someone is not guilty, then he is not guilty... Do you understand?"

Zhang Ergou had been a busy man in his early years and was quite clever. Hearing this, he raised his head and looked at Wang An. After a moment, he nodded vigorously and said, "I understand. As long as the prince can spare my life, I am willing to do anything!"

Wang An nodded and said, "You are not destined to die."

After that, Wang An said to Chen Huaian: "Let's go back to the government office first."

...............

Government office, backyard.

Wang An knocked on the door of the main room. It was already pitch dark, and there was only dim candlelight reflected on the window paper in the room.

Cao Yunmeng's voice rang out from inside the door: "Who is it?"

"It's me, Wang An!" said Wang An.

However, after he finished speaking, there was no sound of the door opening, but Cao Yunmeng could be heard yawning faintly, and then he asked impatiently: "Why are you looking for me in the middle of the night?"

Wang An shook his head helplessly and replied, "I'm looking for Xiao Zhao."

"Looking for me?" Xiao Zhao's surprised voice came from the room.

Then there was the sound of footsteps approaching the door, but before they took two steps, Cao Yunmeng's voice came: "Wait."

Then another sound of footsteps came closer and closer, and then the door creaked open, revealing Cao Yunmeng's pretty and somewhat lazy face behind the door.

However, this pretty face was full of contempt at the moment, "If you want to find me, just say so. Why do you say you are looking for Xiao Zhao? You are not like a man at all."

Wang An sighed helplessly, his eyes swept over Cao Yunmeng's shoulder and fell on Xiao Zhao behind him. Ignoring Cao Yunmeng's sarcasm, he stretched out his hand and waved to Xiao Zhao.

Xiao Zhao pointed at his nose. He didn't expect that Wang An was really looking for him.

Cao Yunmeng was furious when he saw this. He put his hands on his hips and said, "Wang An, are you doing this on purpose to get my attention?"

Wang An was completely speechless about this rich lady, and said helplessly: "Miss Cao, I really came here to look for Xiao Zhao! Could you please make way for me?"

(End of this chapter)