The Regent Princess has run away again

Chapter 128: Strange Stories

After the few of them had eaten and drunk their fill, Mu Xingchen glanced at Mo Chenru who was still lingering beside them, frowned slightly, but quickly relaxed his brows and simply turned his head to look out the window.

"Isn't Mr. Mo's clinic busy recently?"

Mo Chenru could tell that Xue Zhiyu had a hidden agenda in her words. She was simply asking him when he would leave, but he was indeed quite free recently.

"Miss Xue, you are joking. The clinic will continue to operate normally without Mo. Thank you for your concern."

Xue Zhiyu really wanted to roll her eyes in public. Who wants to bother with his affairs? She just wanted him to go back earlier.

Mingzhi seemed to have no idea what was going on between the two of them, and from time to time he would sigh at the decoration of the room or the dishes here.

"Tsk, no matter how good the food here is, it's not even a bit better than my junior sister's, don't you think, Master?"

When Xue Zhiyu was about to make a few jokes, she heard the person who was looking out the window at the scenery hum. She felt a little embarrassed to speak and swallowed the original joke back.

After the Medical Skills Competition, Xue Zhiyu suddenly remembered that she had not been to Penang for a long time. Although she could receive 40% of the territory's income every month, she still needed to go there in person to check out the situation.

Originally, the territory was required to hand over about 70% of its income, but Xue Zhiyu now has no shortage of this income. Instead, she used the money to subsidize the territory's school and poor households.

She felt that since the emperor had given this place to her to manage, whether it would be taken back in the future was none of her business, so education must be given top priority. In her territory, she wanted to make sure that all the children were at least literate and knew basic abacus.

Thinking of this, she had already started a series of plans in her mind.

........

"I said, should Mr. Mo go back?"

Xue Zhi couldn't bear it any longer and spoke up. The space in the carriage that was originally quite comfortable for the three of them seemed a little narrower because someone suddenly joined.

Mo Chenru really carried his thick skin through to the end. He stretched lazily, put one hand under a tree, felt the sun, and then said slowly: "Don't worry, someone will continue to take care of the clinic."

Xue Zhiyu didn't know what to say after seeing this. It wasn't a big deal anyway. She then looked at Mu Xingchen and Ming Zhi and said, "Master, Senior Brother, are you willing to go to Penang with me?"

"Okay, let's go."

Hearing Mu Xingchen say this, Mingzhi shrugged indifferently, "I don't care either."

"Me too!" Mo Chenru also responded.

Soon, the four people left the border of Yuzhou Kingdom. After all, they were in a hurry, so when they successfully entered the border of Yan Kingdom, it was almost evening.

A few people stayed in a nearby inn and went to Penang after breakfast.

When it was dawn, Xue Zhiyu woke up so early for the first time. She lay on the bed and stared at the sky outside the window, already planning her itinerary in her mind.

After thinking for a while, she quickly got out of bed, washed and dressed, then went downstairs to meet up with the others.

"Good morning, I thought I should be the first one."

Xue Zhiyu was surprised to see that the three people were already downstairs. She walked over to say hello, then sat down and took a bite of a bun.

Well, it’s her favorite meat and vegetable buns.

Mo Chenru and Mu Xingchen also nodded and said good morning, and then said nothing more.

After Mingzhi finished drinking the soy milk in the bowl, he joked: "The sun is rising from the west today, it's rare for Junior Sister to get up so early."

Xue Zhiyu simply blocked out his words and pretended not to hear them. She pretended to be confused and said, "Tsk, why do I hear those annoying flies buzzing again, disturbing my breakfast."

"Puchi, hahahahahahaha," Mo Chenru almost spit out the soy milk in his mouth. His shoulders were shaking with laughter. It was really funny to watch the two of them bickering.

After the three of them finished their breakfast, Mu Xingchen took out a string of copper coins from his sleeve and handed it to the waiter. Before the waiter could ask for the change, he had already walked out.

Xue Zhiyu had of course seen the price tag and knew that her master's string of copper coins was enough for an ordinary family to have breakfast for a whole month. When she saw the waiter holding the remaining copper coins, she was at a loss.

She walked over and said, "Give me the remaining change."

The waiter recognized her as the girl sitting next to the man who had just paid, and handed the remaining copper coins to her with a smile, "Your table has a total of ten copper coins, and here are 190 copper coins left, you can count them."

"Well, thank you."

Xue Zhiyu also walked out of the inn with the copper coins, got on the carriage, and drove away.

The waiter felt that the girl looked very familiar when he saw her just now, but he couldn't remember her all of a sudden. He scratched his head and stopped thinking about it.

When they entered Penang, Xue Zhiyu said, "Let's go to the governor's mansion to find Governor Jiang."

"Why would you go to the governor's mansion for no reason?"

"I have something important to discuss with Governor Jiang. It's about Penang. I think I have to start managing it properly."

When the constable of the yamen saw the carriage stopped in front of the government office, he was about to go forward to ask some questions, but when he saw the person getting out of the carriage, he was overjoyed.

"My Lord, you are finally here!"

Xue Zhiyu had just got off the carriage. When she heard one of the constables say this, a hint of confusion flashed in her eyes. Why did these words sound so strange?

"What happened?"

Another constable also said quickly: "Please follow me, Princess. The governor has been waiting for a long time."

Although Xue Zhiyu had a lot of questions in her mind, she didn't plan to ask them all now. When she was about to go in, she suddenly heard the voice of the constable behind her trying to stop her. She quickly explained, "These are my friends. Let them in together."

After hearing what Xue Zhiyu said, the constable felt relieved and let the person in.

After the few of them entered the prefect's residence, Xue Zhiyu successfully found the prefect's study according to her memory and knocked on the door politely.

"Master Jiang, are you in there?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the door suddenly opened, and a slightly haggard man was seen. When he saw Xue Zhiyu, he was as eager as a traveler walking in the desert seeing an oasis.

"Princess, you are finally here. Things have been giving me a headache lately. The letters I sent to the Prime Minister's Mansion said that the princess was temporarily out of town for something. I was so anxious. Now, finally, you are here."

Xue Zhiyu also roughly understood the situation, frowned and asked, "What happened?"

When Governor Jiang was about to speak, he glanced at the three people behind her and asked, "Who are they?"

"They are my friends, just tell me what you want to say."

After hearing what Xue Zhiyu said, Governor Jiang stopped worrying about other things. He rubbed his temple and said slowly, "A few days ago, when I went on patrol as usual, I found a place where several people died every few days. I specially strengthened the night patrols of the constables there, but I didn't find any suspicious people. The autopsy results handed over by the coroner showed that it seemed that some kind of poison was planted, but it didn't seem to be from Yan Country."

"Where was it found?"

"Yuyang County."

Xue Zhiyu's expression became even more serious. Yuyang County was the most populous place in Penang and also a place with a relatively low cultural literacy rate compared to other counties. Yet, such a terrible virus broke out there.

A guess suddenly occurred in her mind that there had been an outbreak of an infectious virus in the world that could be spread through droplets.

But she couldn't make a judgment yet. Just when she was struggling, Mu Xingchen said slowly, "Let's go to the morgue and take a look."

"Okay, Lord Governor Jiang, thank you for leading the way," Xue Zhiyu said to Lord Governor Jiang after hearing what Mu Xingchen said.

Governor Jiang also wanted to quickly resolve this thorny issue, so he hurriedly led the way, walked out of the governor's mansion, and everyone got on their own carriages and headed for the morgue.

However, because they were afraid that problems would occur in other counties, the bodies of the people who died in Yuyang County were all parked in a very remote place.

In the carriage, Xue Zhiyu expressed her doubts, "What kind of poison do you think this is?"

This was also the first time Mo Chenru had seen this kind of poison, but he still guessed, "Could it be Green Poppy?"

"No, I think it's the blood seal."

The three of them subconsciously looked at Mu Xingchen, who closed his eyes and rested as soon as he got on the carriage, expecting him to say something.

Unexpectedly, Mu Xingchen said calmly, "Let's talk about it when we get there."

"Oh, okay," they just shut up.

Arriving at the outskirts of Yuyang County, after stabilizing the carriage, Governor Jiang got off the carriage first, pointed to a house not far away and said to the people behind him: "That's the morgue."

"Well, let's go in and take a look."

Although Xue Zhiyu had never seen a cadaver teacher in the real world except for dissecting bullfrogs and white rabbits, she silently said "excuse me" and then followed him.

As soon as she entered, Xue Zhiyu frowned so tightly that she could pinch a fly to death. Because the weather was hot, the smell was quite strong. She had to suppress her nausea and watched the coroner performing the autopsy next to her.

She noticed that in addition to the corpse spots, the corpse also had some unusual dark red patterns on its body, densely covering the entire body.

Xue Zhiyu couldn't help but be a little surprised. This was the first time she had seen this. It was really strange.

"This is Manjiko."

After Mu Xingchen finished speaking, he walked over, took a quick look and quickly came to a conclusion.

"Manjizi?!"

Compared to the excitement of Mo Chenru and Xue Zhiyu, Mingzhi guessed what the pattern was the moment he saw it. Seeing how surprised they were, he added, "This kind of pattern will only appear on the body of someone who has taken Manjizi. However, it is rare for something like this to happen every day. After all, Manjizi doesn't grow in Yan Country, but Yuzhou Country and Huangyi."

Xue Zhiyu pondered for a moment, then looked at Governor Jiang and asked, "Can you tell me in detail?"

"I sent people to investigate the diet of the people in Yuyang County, but there were no problems. I also patrolled the surrounding environment and found nothing unusual. But the strange thing is that the number of deaths per day is not that high, and the time and place of discovery are very different."

Xue Zhiyu's mind was working frantically. She nodded and said, "Okay, please ask Governor Jiang to send someone to find an inn nearby for the four of us to stay in. This is indeed not an easy task."

Mo Chenru naturally also wanted to see the source of this matter. After all, he had never seen Manjizi before, especially what would happen after taking Manjizi?

Mingzhi had seen this kind of scene before, but he was still very curious about where this Manjizi was used in the first place, and how it could cause deaths one after another.

Governor Jiang nodded to show that he understood, then waved his hand and asked the captain of police to do it.

Xue Zhiyu looked at Mu Xingchen as if she wanted to say something, but the latter walked past her, stopped and said, "Follow me."

Mo Chenru also followed shamelessly until Mu Xingchen stopped. The two people behind him then stuck their heads out, looked at the corpses parked on both sides, and gradually discovered something was wrong.

The longer the corpse was left, the darker the pattern became. Xue Zhiyu couldn't help but get goose bumps. This poison was too weird.

"Let's go, let's go to the county."

When Governor Jiang heard this, he said worriedly, "I'll send you a few more detectives so that you can investigate more easily."

Xue Zhiyu had a good understanding of Mu Xingchen's personality during the not-so-long time they spent together. She shook her head and declined politely, "We appreciate your kindness, but in order to avoid alerting the enemy, the four of us will go."

"Then if you need anything, I'll send another detective over."

After the few of them settled down in the only inn nearby, Mu Xingchen looked at the endless forest outside, a dark light flashing in his eyes.

Mo Chenru didn't bring anything with him, so after sitting in his room for a while, he came to find them.

"Let's go check it out now so as not to waste too much time."

Xue Zhiyu looked at his impatient look and couldn't help but sigh again in her heart, no wonder he is the Medical Saint Qi Yue, he is really obsessed with medicine.

Mingzhi sat back on the recliner like a master and glanced at Mo Chenru at the door. "Why are you in such a hurry? Sit down for a while before you go."

Seeing this, Mo Chenru had no choice but to shut up and find a seat to sit down. However, the burning look in his eyes made Xue Zhiyu feel very uncomfortable, so she simply turned her head and ignored him.

After about a cup of tea, Mu Xingchen finally said, "Let's go and check the situation."

They got on the carriage again and turned back to Yuyang County. No one spoke along the way.

Arriving at Yuyang County, Xue Zhiyu lifted the curtain and looked outside.

From time to time, one could hear people sighing on the streets, and the worry on everyone's face never disappeared. The breath of death shrouded Yuyang County, and even the livestock raised at home were sick.

The people in the carriage looked at each other, asked the driver to park the carriage, and then walked towards the old woman who was preparing to go home.

Xue Zhiyu took the lead and walked up to the old woman, saying hello, "Hello, can you give us a bowl of water? We are so thirsty."

The old woman paused and looked at the people behind Xue Zhiyu. Seeing that they seemed a little tired, she sighed and said lightly, "Come in with me. I'll pour you some water."

"Okay, thank you very much."

As soon as they entered the house, Xue Zhiyu was attracted by the jar facing the door.

It was a pottery jar with colorful patterns all over it, which was out of tune with the surrounding environment and stood quietly on the wooden table.

Obviously, other people also noticed this pottery jar. Mo Chenru couldn't help but ask curiously: "Excuse me, what kind of pottery jar is this?"

The old woman took out the clean bowls and was pouring water for them. When she heard Mo Chenru's question, she said without even raising her head, "You are talking about the colorful pottery jar, used to ward off evil spirits."

Xue Zhiyu frowned and looked at the pottery jar from left to right but there was nothing special about it. When she was about to continue asking, she noticed that Mu Xingchen had been frowning since he came in.

Then she leaned over and lowered her voice and asked, "Master, do you see what's wrong?"