Chapter 542 - 203: Speculation
The moment he was out of the examination hall gates, De’an took off at a dead sprint. When he saw Zhao Jing and Chen Wanqing, he grabbed their hands and hurried them into the alley where the Zhao family lived.
Their hearts sank at the sight. Realizing something was wrong, neither of them dared to dawdle. They raced along with him, quickly entering the alley.
They still didn’t feel safe in the alley, so the three of them rounded another corner. Only when they were certain no one was following did they dare to stop and catch their breath.
Chen Wanqing was gasping for breath from running so fast.
But she was terribly worried about what De’an had run into at the examination hall. She anxiously grabbed his sleeve. "What happened in there? Why did you come out sprinting like that? Did you offend someone? Hurt someone? Is it serious? Do we need to help you clean up the mess?"
De’an was just as exhausted.
Whether from gulping too much cold air or from the shock, he started hiccuping uncontrollably.
Zhao Jing moved behind him and gave him a sudden smack. It hurt, and De’an was furious. He whipped around to confront Zhao Jing. "What are you doing? Are you trying to murder me?"
The burst of anger did the trick, however. His hiccups stopped, and he could finally speak properly.
Having caught his breath, De’an began to explain with wild gestures. "You’re not going to believe this. The deputy examiner for this Provincial Examination is a man named Xu Yanlin. I’m afraid his ’Xu’ is the same as our mother’s ’Xu’."
Chen Wanqing and Zhao Jing both froze, then stared intently at De’an. "What do you mean?"
De’an animatedly recounted everything that had happened in the examination hall. At the end, he told them excitedly, "It was like he was waiting there for me on purpose! He even asked where our mother is now, and why he hasn’t seen her. I was so scared I just bolted."
Chen Wanqing looked at her younger brother, starting and stopping. "You just left? Couldn’t you have tried to beat around the bush with him first, find out what you needed to, and *then* run?"
De’an pointed to himself. "Sis, do you have some kind of misconception about me? Sure, I can be a little clever, but do you really think my meager wits are any match for a man smart enough to be an examiner? Forget finding out anything about Xu Yanlin’s background—he’d have tricked me into spilling everything I know."
"You have a point there."
De’an was speechless. ’Ouch. That kind of stings.’
"But it would have been fine if you hadn’t run. The second you ran, it screamed that you have something to hide. Maybe Xu Yanlin wasn’t even sure at first if there was something strange about Mother’s situation. But you running away like that? You basically confirmed it for him."
De’an realized this too, and his head began to throb.
But at that critical juncture, the only solution he could come up with was to flee—to get away from that powder keg of a situation as fast as possible. He had been frantic, terrified that this Xu was connected to the people who harmed his mother. How could he possibly have dared to linger?
"But I’ve already run off! What do we do now?"
Chen Wanqing had no answer, so she could only look to Zhao Jing.
Zhao Jing gave a wry smile. "We’re past the point of simple solutions. Xu Yanlin is a deputy examiner. All he has to do is describe De’an to the clerk in the main office to find out his name and place of origin. With that information, he can go to the Rites Division at the government office and pull his file. Forget our address—he’ll be able to get information on our family going back three generations."
De’an remembered the information he provided during registration, and his face instantly turned ashen.
’This time, there was truly no escape.’
"But you don’t have to be so dejected."
Zhao Jing continued, "Xu Yanlin strikes me as an honorable man. He doesn’t seem like he’d be difficult to deal with. Besides, he’s only a few years older than us, so he definitely wasn’t the one who harmed Mother all those years ago. Even if he does come looking for us, we can explain the situation, lay out the pros and cons, and convince him not to spread the word just yet. Of course, it would be even better if we could get him to tell us what happened when Mother disappeared. That would help us narrow down the suspects and allow Mother to return to the capital and reunite with her family sooner."
Zhao Jing added, "Actually, deep down, I don’t believe the Xu family are the culprits who harmed Mother."
This piqued the interest of both De’an and Chen Wanqing. They asked him eagerly, "Why would you think that? Do you have some kind of proof?"
Zhao Jing replied, "Have you forgotten that the Chengyi Bo Mansion is also looking for Mother?"
Back when they had finished the prefectural examination and were preparing to return to Qingshui County, Chen Song had a long talk with Zhang Lanshan in a teahouse.
Using the excuse that he wanted to "earn some merit," Chen Song had managed to pry information about the Chengyi Bo Mansion from Zhang Lanshan.
At the time, the Chengyi Bo Mansion had sent an old steward to Heyuan Province to conduct the search.
The old steward’s full name was unimportant. As for the Chengyi Bo Mansion, Zhao Jing had happened to overhear after returning to the Prefecture that the family’s surname was Yan.