In the Prefect's Mansion of Qiling County.

The secret guards' report astonished Gu Yunxi.

It made sense that a man broke his arm and head due to the slippery road, but he wouldn't change his disposition no matter how badly he fell.

Therefore, her conjecture was right.

Who was this fake Prefect Feng?

Leng Qingtang remained silent. Eyes closed, no one could see anything from his imperturbable face.

"Have you been to the post house and Feng's Mansion?"

A secret guard answered, "When I arrived at the post house, the manager told me that the post house is not open to the public because of the imperial envoy. I'm afraid of being spied on, so I didn't contact the third captain and the tenth captain to not alert them."

"Well done!" Leng Qingtang praised the guard without lifting his eyes.

Another secret guard replied, "I watched carefully outside Feng's Mansion. It was weird that the gate was closed and there were no guards on either side of it. I'll infiltrate into Feng's Mansion with our people and report the situation to you."

Leng Qingtang shook his head and declared,

"No need. They won't wait till nightfall before they attack us."

He opened his eyes and waved to the secret guards kneeling on the ground.

They saluted to Leng Qingtang again and got up. They looked warily around the moment they opened the door and then disappeared in the doorway as fast as lightning.

"Master!"

"Master..."

Standing by Leng Qingtang's side, Lu Rong and Gu Yunxi spoke anxiously at the same time, looking at him on the wing chair worriedly.

"Don't worry..."

Leng Qingtang kept composed. He stood up and paced to the door with hands behind his back, speaking calmly,

"There's still some time before nightfall."

Gu Yunxi could no longer keep calm. She rushed to Leng Qingtang and asked angrily,

"Master, are these people the accomplices with the people who attacked us in Fanyang?"

Leng Qingtang shook his head and answered calmly,

"I'm not sure. Maybe they are in a league, but we have to identify the genre of their martial skills."

Lu Rong stood behind Leng Qingtang and asked seriously,

"Master, what should we do next?"

"Let your men get in touch with Zhao Wuji and others in the post house. At nightfall, if the conflict is provoked here, they can cooperate with us to catch Feng Yunheng."

"I can't wait to see who the hell is this fake prefect and what he intends to do to intercept the imperial envoy from the Eastern Depot!"

“Yes, Master." Lu Rong saluted and bowed to Leng Qingtang to obey his order.

Leng Qingtang thought with his head aslant and added,

"Go to have a rest. I'll wait for Ai Qing here."

"Yes, Master."

The room quieted down after Lu Rong's leave.

Gu Yunxi lifted her eyes and saw Leng Qingtang walking towards her with a bright smile on his handsome face. She blushed out of shyness and expectation, glanced around, and pouted her pink lips,

"How many enemies do you have? Look at how many conflicts we've experienced all the way!"

"Are you regret being with me?"

Leng Qingtang asked as he stopped in her front, putting his arms around her waist, smiling.

She didn't know that he was teasing her, so she hurriedly leaned backward to look up at him, answering with a serious and firm expression,

"Master, I've never regretted from the moment I made up my mind to be with you! Now I'm not scared for myself, but your safety. I don't know what's going to happen, nor can I clear the air of misunderstanding about the Eastern Depot. However, I will face and share every burden with you no matter what happens in the future!"

They looked at each other in silence. Both the tall one and the short one stood still.

There was something bright in Leng Qingtang's obsidian-liked eyes, and he gazed at the girl's earnest pretty face.

Concentrated on explaining herself, her voice was not mellow. But in Leng Qingtang's ears, it was like she was confessing her love to him, and he was moved at once.

His heart was as calm as the surface of a lake rippled. At this moment, he was deeply touched by her persistence. Waves of emotions kept surging in his heart.

Today, at this moment, he actually felt loved, which was so wonderful.

It was like when he was experiencing the most tired and lonely moment on a rugged path through the thorns, he turned his head and found someone holding his hand.

Even though her hand was weak and small, her very strength to hold on to him really brought him warmth and hope.

His lips kissed on Gu Yunxi's forehead. After this deep kiss, he held the back of her head gently, leaning her head on his chest.

The night wind blew in the dim twilight outside, while great tenderness between lovers pervaded in the room. In the world, the perfect match leaned harmoniously against each other.

Rumbling of the stomach interrupted the cozy atmosphere.

"Master, you haven't had enough for lunch. Let me make some dishes for you."

Gu Yunxi chuckled. She knew that Leng Qingtang was impossible to fill up simply on cabbages.

As soon as she had left Leng Qingtang's embrace, he seized her.

"Well, just make do with it. It's a mess out there. You can't get out."

She didn't mind it at all. She raised her eyebrows and gave him a confident smile.

"As long as there is a kitchen with ingredients, I can make good dishes. I just want to use the kitchen of the Prefect's Mansion, can Feng Yunheng be too mean to lend it?"

"I'll send someone with you."

Leng Qingtang was still worried.

"No, no, no. It's not the time. We'd better not to alarm Prefect Feng. I'll go by myself. You have strength when you are full, so you can win in a fight."

Gu Yunxi joked in a low voice and walked to the door.

"Be careful."

Leng Qingtang pushed the door open, swept around, and watched her away.

Not long after Gu Yunxi's leaving did Ai Qing came to see Leng Qingtang.

"How is it going? What did you get?"

Leng Qingtang closed the door and sat down, asking.

"Master, I searched the whole mansion carefully but didn't find the evidence of Feng Yunheng's exploitation and corruption."

Ai Qing answered with fact. There were self-accusation and guilt on his square face.

Leng Qingtang thought it over and looked at him, saying,

"Feng Yunheng has been the prefect of Qiling for five years. He has accumulated a huge amount of wealth, which are people's flesh and blood. He must have a secret room in the Prefect's Mansion or his mansion to hide this property. Now that this room is not in the Prefect's Mansion, send secret guards to search the Feng's Mansion."

"I was going to investigate into Feng Yunheng's corruption in the name of disaster relief, but now someone went a step ahead of us and solved the case..."

Sitting on the chair, Leng Qingtang spoke without haste, dusted the sleeves of his robe, and let out a sneer.

Ai Qing was nervous at Leng Qingtang's words. He looked glumly, and sweat beaded up from his temples,

"If the Feng Yunheng we saw is pretended by someone else, what happened to the real Feng Yunheng? Is he dead?"

Leng Qingtang nodded.

"The top priority is to search again! We have to find him, dead or alive!"

"Master, how about we take advantage of striking first?"

Ai Qing was a little overanxious. He clenched his fists, and his eyes set alight with fierce anger as if they were going to burst out sparks.

"Take it easy. I'd like to see what they are going to do next. You've done a good job, Ai Qing. Have a rest. Tonight we will take action. Keep alert."

Then Ai Qing asked no more questions.

He had understood Leng Qingtang's meaning, so he saluted him and left the room in quiet.

...

Gu Yunxi walked against the hard wind to the gate of the Prefect's Mansion.

Crows flocked on the tall, half-withered parasol trees in the yard, fluttering and vying with each other. Caws rose here and there, adding to the weird and depressing atmosphere in the Prefect's Mansion.

Gu Yunxi looked up to the sky, narrowed her eyes with agitation, thinking,

"Where did so many crows come? What bad luck!"

She was stopped by two guards at the gate.

"Lord Feng ordered us not to let you envoys out just after the snow disaster. If you must go out, we have to report it to Lord Feng and wait for his decision."

What Leng Qingtang had expected happened. They were put under Feng Yunheng's close surveillance.

Gu Yunxi didn't really want to go out. She just made a pose to test the reaction of the guards.

She rolled her eyes and looked at the guards with a spurious smile, speaking humbly,

"Would you kindly make an exception for me, bros? Our Master didn't have enough for lunch and is hungry now. He asked me to buy some food on the street."

A guard looked sidelong at her and twitched his mouth, satirizing,

"The official from the capital is not the same as us small potatoes in the boonies! You can't even swallow the white steamed buns and sugar rolls that the poor can't afford!"

Another guard was comparatively polite,

"To tell you the truth, bro. Unlike the other five counties, there are more farmers and fields in Qiling, and few shops here were all affected by the disaster that they're still closed. You can't buy anything even if you have money!"

"Since that's the case, could you lend me the kitchen here? I'm going to make some snacks for our Master."

Gu Yunxi gave up and made a new request.

"Well..."

Both guards paused as they heard Gu Yunxi mentioned "kitchen". They looked at each other with fear. Gu Yunxi was confused at their embarrassed looks.

"Why? Even this is not allowed?"

Their declining with all kinds of excuses finally provoked Gu Yunxi. She raised her eyebrows and stared angrily at them, eye wide-opened. She spoke with a full measure of impatience,

"What do you mean? The Commander-in-chief is the imperial envoy appointed by His Majesty. He has never been entertained with cabbages and plain porridge during his inspection of the five counties in Jiangan until today! He understands that Qiling is hard now, so he ate what you ate and made do with it. Now he is hungry before dinner time, and you don't even allow me to use your kitchen to make some snacks!"

After a constant chatter and criticism, Gu Yunxi patted her chest and spoke arrogantly,

"Listen! I can cook! I don't need your chef! What's more, you can keep an account of the ingredients and I'll pay you!"

The guard who satirized her was pissed off. He came up to argue with Gu Yunxi, but his colleague pushed him away.

Anyway, this little guard was reasonable. The superiors could do as they liked. The Commander-in-chief of the Eastern Depot was a rank-second officer, so even his subordinates thought nothing of a rank-fifth prefect.

Since she just wanted to use the kitchen, they could permit her. Otherwise, if they had alarmed that eunuch and screwed up their leader's plan, they would have been done.

Thinking of this, the guard that pretended to be polite forced a smile and bowed to huffy Gu Yunxi,

"Don't be angry, bro! You are welcome. You don't have to pay for this. Let's go. I'll show you the kitchen. Come this way, please."

"Humph!"

Gu Yunxi reached her goal but kept putting it on. She hummed and threw a sharp eye of discontent to another guard and walked away with the polite one.

They headed north, entered a corner gate, and went through a yard before they arrived at the kitchen.

Gu Yunxi walked into the kitchen. When she was going through the ingredients, the guard stood in the doorway, carefully watching her every movement.

She must say that the Prefect's Mansion was indeed poor. The only food in the kitchen was nothing more than common food, including red beans, soybeans, rice, flour, and sticky rice flour.

She looked to the west. There were several cabbages, two crisp carrots, and a few dry yams lying disorderly on the chopping board.

On the other side were seasonings, including white sugar, salt, sesame oil, vinegar, and soy sauce.

The only things that could be called "meat" were a piece of lamb liver and a salted fish hanging by the window.

She frowned and let out a deep sigh.

It was the most miserable kitchen she had ever seen!

So, Feng Yunheng didn't mean to treat the imperial envoy discourteously. The kitchen was lack of food, so it was really hard to make a delicious and hearty meal.

Looking at the only ingredients on the chopping board, Gu Yunxi considered carefully and came up with a solution.