Being annoyed at Leng Qingtang's words, Prefect Feng looked bewildered and frustrated that the flabby muscles on his mouth corner twitched. He squeezed out a fake smile with his square face.

"Oh, you're quite welcome. It's not a big deal. At the beginning of the disaster, heavy snow crushed many houses. My subordinate and I came to the scene to help rescue the victims from the collapsed houses. I guess our clothes were worn by bricks, tiles, and timbers... and something like that."

"Oh?"

Leng Qingtang narrowed his eyes, shrewd. An ironic smile appeared at a corner of his lips imperceptibly.

His straight sitting posture and appearance that as handsome as an immortal, together with his light blue official suit embroidered with four pythons, made up an elegant picture, provoking boundless imagination.

Worn by bricks and timbers? Well, he wasn't born yesterday.

In fact, as they were entering the gate of Qiling, Leng Qingtang noticed the anomalies of their official suits.

Instead of wear marks, the holes and rents were obviously puncture marks and cuts made by something sharp.

Prefect Feng was lying! Leng Qingtang knew it very well but didn't show on the face.

His deep eyes suddenly changed as he met Gu Yunxi's clear eyes.

She kept silent, too. Rashness faded, and nothing revealed on her delicate face.

After the meal, Prefect Feng reported his work on relief to Leng Qingtang. Then they all got up to go to their rooms to rest.

Gu Yunxi trotted with her head down. She lost her balance when passing by Prefect Feng and tumbled on him.

"Lord!"

"Watch out."

Two guards came up, stretching out their arms to protect their master as Gu Yunxi got up from Prefect Feng.

"Oh, sorry! Please forgive me for being so clumsy..."

Gu Yunxi stepped back a few steps from Prefect Feng. A bewildered look appeared on her pretty nervous face. She looked straight at Prefect Feng, hiding a sneer in her bright eyes, and saluted,

"I didn't mean to offend you, Lord. I lost my footing just now. I'm sorry. Please forgive me..."

Stiff-faced, Prefect Feng held his injured left arm with another hand, staring at that obnoxious young guard without a word. Intense hatred leaked from his wide-open eyes.

The guards beside him also looked harsh, spoiling for a fight, as if they would dive for Gu Yunxi to teach her a lesson as long as Prefect Feng gave them an order.

Leng Qingtang stood at the doorway of the dining room, looking on them indifferently and laughing in his beard,

"Cunning girl. That's the way my student is. You're so smart..."

Leng Qingtang put it on and reprimanded,

"Yun Guaner, how can you get drunk before you drink? Make amends to Lord Feng!"

"Please forgive me, Lord. Please don't be mad at me."

Gu Yunxi saluted again and bowed low to Prefect Feng.

Although Prefect Feng was unreconciled, he had to accept her apology. He twitched his mouth,

"It doesn't matter. Master, you can have a good rest after this hard journey. I'll prepare dinner for you."

Leng Qingtang raised his eyebrows and gave him a meaningful smile,

"Thank you, Lord Feng. I have just arrived at Qiling, but I shouldn't sit around. Instead, I'd like to take a walk, having a look at the situation of people. Lord Feng, will you go with me?"

"Why wouldn't I? It's my duty. Master, you first, please."

Prefect Feng raised his right arm to make a gesture of invitation.

After Leng Qingtang walked out of his sight, Prefect Feng drew back his eyes. He squinted and revealed a vicious look with his wrinkled old face.

...

Leng Qingtang, Gu Yunxi, Lu Rong, and men of the Prefect's Mansion went out of the mansion.

After a short walk, they entered a long narrow lane. Similar to what they had seen when they first entered Qiling, most of the houses here had been repaired, and there was no serious trouble in people's lives.

When they passed by a house, a grey-haired old man knelt in front of the door, saluted to Prefect Feng in the head of the team, and cried,

"Lord Feng, you are my lifesaver!"

Prefect Feng looked surprised. He came up quickly to support that old man with his right hand, speaking,

"Don't do that, sir! Get up! Get up, please!"

The old man hunched over and got up trembling, gazing at Prefect Feng with tears in his cloudy eyes,

"Lord, I have lived by myself for years without a child. If it were not for you, I wouldn't have survived the snow disaster!"

His crying drew the attention of the crowd. When they saw Prefect Feng, the crowd couldn't stop talking about him,

"Lord Feng is a good official! He sent us grain and money this time. Were it not for him, we can't have celebrated the spring festival!"

"Yes, you are right! My house was collapsed by heavy snow. It was Lord Feng and his men who sent us coal and led us to live in the temple for the mountain god. That's why my whole family didn't freeze to death on the side of the road. It won't be long before my whole family moves into a big house built by bricks and tiles!"

"Lord Feng is a kind man..."

The crowd gathered around them ring upon ring, praising. Some people's eyes shined with excitement, and some shed tears out of gratitude.

Leng Qingtang and Gu Yunxi both shocked at the scene. Meanwhile, the doubt that lingered in their minds met its answer during this visit.

They went back to the mansion, and Leng Qingtang asked Gu Yunxi to his room.

Gu Yunxi could see guards of the Prefect's Mansion hovering outside the window from time to time. Their dark shadows, two or three, cast vaguely on the thin white window paper.

Gu Yunxi cautiously moved her chair to Leng Qingtang without making any noise. She asked in a low voice,

"Master, are we monitored?"

Leng Qingtang rolled his eyes with disdain. He threw a glance at the swaying shadows outside and smiled. Then he looked at Gu Yunxi seriously, replying in the same low voice,

"This trip in Jiangan is very dangerous. Are you afraid?"

Gu Yunxi smiled. She lowered her head a bit and shook her head, slightly blushed.

Leng Qingtang was moved. Forehead against hers, he held her little hand with his two large hands, transferring warmth from his palms to hers as if telling her,

"Don't be afraid, girl. I'm with you..."

"Come and tell me, on the way here, what did you find out about the guards when you got off the carriage on purpose?"

Gu Yunxi was surprised. She opened the distance between her and Leng Qingtang and sighed with amazement,

"You, you already knew that?"

"I'm your tutor. Of course I know what you were thinking about."

They looked at each other. Leng Qingtang narrowed his eyes to give her a faint smile of complacent.

Then Gu Yunxi looked to the outside, very alert.

There was nothing unusual except for the two or three people hanging around. With her head aslant to Leng Qingtang, she told him her thought,

"Master, I doubt that those guards are not the real guards of the Prefect's Mansion."

Leng Qingtang turned his head sideways to listen to her attentively. Then he gave her a smile of praise,

"Go on..."

"Before we come here, we got information that Feng Yunheng is a corrupt official despised by everyone. However, the Feng Yunheng we saw today is a benevolent man who is deeply admired."

"The information network of the Eastern Depot is of high precision unless Feng Yunheng had already known our arrival, and what we've seen today is a play put on by him and local people!"

Gu Yunxi kept analyzing sedately and confidently, but she looked confused when she came to an end.

It was not that she was oversensitive.

Many local officials indulged in entertainment and lived a luxurious life. They never cared about the life and the death of common people.

And when the imperial envoy came to have an infrequent inspect, the local officials used to play a perfunctory effort to buy common people's support with money and show the imperial envoy a false but touching drama.

After the drama ended and the envoy left, all of them got back to their old ways.

The officials put on the dog and common people earned their tucker. Everyone hoed his own potatoes.

Leng Qingtang nodded at Gu Yunxi's long and reasonable analysis and comforted her as she frowned,

"Don't worry. We will know if he's a fake one when secret guards come back. Continue."

Gu Yunxi nodded and went on speaking solemnly,

"At first, there were two reasons for my doubts about Prefect Feng's true identity. First, the guards have worked for the Prefect's Mansion for many years, so their official suits should be made according to their body sizes. A well-fitting suit is not what we saw."

"Second, during the meal, I collided with Prefect Feng to check his injured left arm. A man who broke his bones would tense his muscle and feel painful at once if his wound was hit against."

"However, instead of tense and painful, he looked angry at me. It reminded me that perhaps his wrapped arm... was unwounded!"

As she let out her last sentence, Gu Yunxi suddenly narrowed her eyes, and her eyes turned cold.

She calmed down and settled her eyes on Leng Qingtang, waiting for his evaluation.

He was gazing at her. She could see obvious gratification from his face.

As their eyes were locking together, Gu Yunxi saw her reflections in his obsidian-liked eyes. The two small reflections of her face were clear and charming.

A slight tremor climbed on her body. She minced her words, red-faced,

"If... If there's anything wrong, just point it out..."

Leng Qingtang smiled softly, took her little hand, and held it with his own. He spoke to her in a gentle voice with excitement and favor,

"You are right! I'm delighted that you have improved so much in half a year. So I wasn't wrong about you when you were in the Garden. You will achieve great success in the future!"

"It's because you taught me well."

Gu Yunxi turned her face aside in shyness. When she moved her lips and was about to say something, a knock came from outside the door.

"Master, it's me, Lu Rong."

The second captain spoke his name before Leng Qingtang asked.

"Come in."

Leng Qingtang let go of Gu Yunxi and spoke aloud at people outside the door with hands behind his back.

Lu Rong came in with two other people. They were secret guards who disguised themselves to nose around.

Before removing the camouflage props such as false beard and wiggery, they bent their knees to salute Leng Qingtang.

"Master, we visited several key roads of Qiling respectively and got some information."

"Speak." Leng Qingtang closed his eyes to listen carefully, leaning one elbow against the tabletop,

One of the secret guards replied,

"Master, I asked some people and proved that Prefect Feng Yunheng did plunder and victimize many people under his rule."

As he had just finished his words, another secret guard continued,

"However, when the snow disaster attacked Qiling County days ago, leading to collapsed houses and destroyed fields, Prefect Feng led the officers and guards of the Prefect's Mansion to come up to the streets each day and gave money, coal, and rice to every household. People laughed that Feng Yunheng must have broken his arm as well as his head when he fell. That's why he suddenly changed and became a benevolent charitarian."