The Prince Laughed Himself Silly: The Provincial Surveillance Commissioner's Children Were Both Bandits

Eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you.

"No, Your Highness, she'll steal it." Tiedan Dan pointed at Yun Shuyue with his greasy finger, "She steals my meat every day. Last time she took four pieces of ribs."

"That's because I'm afraid you'll overeat!"

"I could eat a whole cow!"

Yun Shuyue turned to look at Gu Moran, "Your Highness, look at him. This child is like this in the village, he doesn't respect anyone. I've been teaching him to read for three years, and he only knows seven characters."

"Heh, seven is quite a lot," Gu Moran said.

He recalled that he was also a little devil when he was a child, winning first place in drawing turtles and making many teachers faint from anger.

"... Seven is not too few?" Yun Shuyue raised her hand to indicate a number, "Three years."

Tiedan, gnawing on a bone, mumbled in response, "What's the use of studying?"

"How is it useless?" Yun Shuyue squatted down to meet his gaze. "Studying can make you a teacher, a bookkeeper, or an official."

"Being an official is nothing more than sitting and scolding people." Tiedan tossed the bone aside. "I see that scholar in the city wearing a blue robe; I heard he's quite well-educated, but he's still carrying manure every day."

Gu Moran out laughing.

He leaned forward and pressed his hand down on Tiedan's head.

"Your name is Tiedan?"

"Um."

"What's your full name?"

Tiedan shook his head. "I don't have a formal name. The chief said he'd give me a nice name, but other names are too hard to remember. I just like being called Tiedan."

Gu Moran looked at this brat.

I suddenly became interested.

He activated the [ Eye of Detection ] with his mind.

A screen of light unfolded before his eyes.

The first line is the name, and the second line is the age.

Suddenly, a line of red text appeared on the third line, so red it was glaring.

[Born of Yun Zhengze and the Lady Wang / Went missing at the Lantern Festival six years ago]

Gu Moran's hand stopped on Tiedan's head.

Tiedan, unaware of what had happened, looked up at him.

"Your Highness, do you have any meat left?"

Su Yao paused for a moment while making her abacus.

Liu Ruyan turned her face from the window and quickly gave Tiedan some more food.

Gu Moran's gaze remained fixed on the line of red characters. She read it three times from beginning to end, examining each character one by one.

The Yun Clan.

Yun Zhengze's son.

The one born to Lady Wang.

He slowly removed his hand from Tiedan's head, his face showing nothing, but he raised his eyes to look at Yun Shuyue.

" Yue'er."

"Um?"

" Tiedan, what year did you pick him up?"

Yun Shuyue was bending over to wipe the oil off Tiedan's chin when she heard this and straightened up.

Three years ago.

"Where?"

"The next county, what's it called, Cypress Village?" Yun Shuyue thought for a moment.

"On the side of a ditch outside the village."

There was a wealthy family there named Yang, with a lot of women. That day I went down the mountain to steal grain from their house.

As dawn approached, I heard a noise as I passed by the ditch. I went over to check and saw Tiedan.

Gu Moran tapped his finger on the edge of the couch.

"In the ditch?"

"He's as skinny as a kitten." Yun Shuyue frowned as she said this. "He's unconscious, burning hot, and you could practically fry a pancake on his forehead if you touched it."

His lips were cracked and bleeding, he wore a tattered shirt that looked like it had been ripped off, and he had no shoes.

Tiedan wiped his mouth with his sleeve and interjected, "I don't remember."

"You were delirious with fever back then, what could you possibly remember?" Yun Shuyue gave him a shove on the back of the head.

"I carried you back to the village, Auntie Zhao fed you rice porridge for three days before you finally opened your eyes."

After saying that, Yun Shuyue sighed.

"The fever must have been too high that time; when the child opened his eyes, he didn't remember anything."

Gu Moran sat on the couch, his thoughts racing.

I found him three years ago. He was unconscious, had a high fever, his forehead was burning hot, his tattered clothes had been stripped off, and he didn't even have shoes.

The system says that Tiedan went missing six years ago.

There was a three-year gap in between.

It's impossible for a one- or two-year-old child to walk to the ditch in the next county by himself.

Who controlled him during those three years? How many hands did he pass through? Why was he ultimately abandoned in a ditch?

I have no idea.

But two things are obvious.

First, the child had a high fever when he was abandoned.

Human trafficking dealers are most afraid of their goods getting sick. If they get sick, they lose money, and if it's not worth the trouble to treat them, they just throw them away.

Secondly, leaving him by the ditch meant they didn't intend for him to live.

Gu Moran clenched his hands on his knees.

Su Yao has been calculating the accounts of the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner's Office all month.

Yun Zhengze has the right to pass through the eighteen checkpoints in Jiannan Circuit, and he also has the original records of the old salt tax accounts.

This man is currently being held in check by the ledger that Yun Shuyue stole. He's cooperating, but his conscience is always on edge.

Gu Moran originally planned to use account books, engagement letters, and shares as a layer of pressure.

Now there's one more thing.

Yun Zhengze's son, who had been missing for six years, could not be found even after searching the entire Jiannan Circuit.

This is not a bargaining chip.

It's a hand that can lift Yun Zhengze up completely.

What's even more interesting is the Lady Wang.

Gu Moran recalled that day on the main street in the west of the city, the vermilion sedan chair, the thirty long sticks, and the words, "The legitimate daughter of the dignified Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, beaten for a few cups of sweet soup."

It turns out that Lady Wang's ability to act with impunity in the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner's office all these years was due to Yun Zhengze losing his own son.

She probably used this sore spot to suppress Yun Zhengze for six years, suppressing him to the point that no one dared to stop her from beating the eldest daughter.

But now, who raised her son for three years? Who carried him back to the village and fed him rice gruel for three days? And who arranged accommodation for him so he could go to school?

It is Yun Shuyue.

The "rebellious runaway daughter" whose spine was broken in the street by Lady Wang's men.

Thinking of this, Gu Moran couldn't help but smile.

Yun Shuyue raised her head.

"Your Highness, what are you laughing at?"

"It's nothing." Gu Moran pointed to the table. "Take the remaining half over there and let him finish it."

Tiedan's eyes lit up, and he reached out to pick up the plate.

"Slow down, don't fall." Yun Shuyue supported the plate with one hand and lifted him with the other, pressing him down to sit on the small stool by the window. "Sit down and eat, and don't wipe it with your sleeve again."

Tiedan sat down, swinging his legs under the stool.

Gu Moran looked at him.

A seven or eight-year-old child, holding a broken bamboo pole, was imitating a highway robber in the mountain village.

He himself didn't know that his surname was Yun.

He had no idea that his father was the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner.

Thinking of this, Gu Moran wanted to laugh again.

A high-ranking provincial inspector, yet both his children are bandits.

Gu Moran suppressed a smile and looked at Yun Shuyue.

" Yue'er."

"Um?"

When you picked him up, he had nothing on him.

Yun Shuyue thought about it for a long time.

"The clothes are torn, and there's a patch on the sleeve with very fine stitches," she said slowly. "Unlike the way villagers sew patches, who usually sew horizontal and vertical lines. This one is sewn in circles, very densely; it's clearly the work of someone with good embroidery skills."

Gu Moran nodded.

"Anything else?"

"... Yes." Yun Shuyue suddenly remembered, "There was a red mark on his neck, a rope mark. At the time, I thought he had been tied up."

Rope marks.

Gu Moran frowned.

It was tied up, got sick, and was thrown away.

He looked up at Liu Ruyan.

" Ruyan, come with me into the inner room."

Liu Ruyan stood up and followed him inside.