She said with a smug look on her face. After hearing this, Cheng Xiran also pretended to be envious and said, "Sister Zhiyue and Young Master Gu have a stable relationship. I'm sure Mother can rest assured."
Mrs. Liu pursed her lips and smiled, then didn't forget to turn the conversation to the main topic. Cheng Xiran was too lazy to engage in small talk with her. She was still thinking about going to check on the newspaper office, so she just said some things that Mrs. Liu wanted to hear and endured her lecture for a while to comply with her wishes.
When she arrived at the newspaper office, it was almost lunchtime. The shopkeeper was busy with the trivial matters in the office. After repeated confirmations, Cheng Xiran was finally sure that Xue Lian and this guy had done a poor job. They said they would find concubines for her but didn't, and they said they would properly handle the matters with the yamen but didn't. She had to take care of everything herself.
So she went to the Drunken Immortal Tower with the shopkeeper. She casually ordered two small dishes. After lunch, she went straight to the yamen. After asking around, because her status seemed insignificant to them, they were extremely perfunctory in answering her questions, just like how she usually treated Mrs. Liu.
She had to bring up Helian Duo.
"His Highness the Prince was injured while suppressing the chaos yesterday. Although my relationship with him can't be described as a gentleman's friendship, I'm here today on his orders to conduct an investigation. If you're not willing to tell me the truth, I might as well invite him here."
With Helian Duo as a powerful backer, it was easy to find out what she wanted. Under her questioning, Cheng Xiran finally learned that those people yesterday were from the Jianghu, disciples of a sect called the Qingwu Sect.
As for why they spread rumors outside, they just said they did it out of boredom. After all, this sect had quite a large influence in the capital, and they hadn't caused any major trouble on weekdays. So the yamen officials released them after they couldn't get any useful information.
Moreover, she was a step too late. Those people had already left and disappeared without a trace.
"Miss Cheng, please rest assured. In the future, I will definitely send people to guard strictly and won't tolerate such things happening again."
Cheng Xiran didn't want to listen to a single word of the nonsense the official said.
She hated that she had gotten up late today. If she had come earlier, she might have been able to get some information from those people, instead of being so confused now. Although this matter had ended without a proper conclusion, Cheng Xiran's heart wasn't completely at ease.
The two of them returned home.
It was said that today's newspaper was still selling like hotcakes, and the story of Helian Duo and the female spy was very popular. What she didn't expect even more was that because of what happened yesterday, a trend of disguising as ugly people suddenly emerged in the capital.
No matter where Cheng Xiran went, even if she just strolled casually on the long street, she could see girls vying to look ugly everywhere. Some deliberately blackened their faces, some deliberately wore ragged clothes, and some exaggerated their makeup. In short, those women would do anything to look ugly.
It was heard that there were also many onlookers gathered in front of the Prince's Mansion, vying to wait at the mansion gate just to intercept Helian Duo and the female spy.
After hearing this news, Cheng Xiran could only smile bitterly and say, "I should congratulate Helian Duo. He might as well take this opportunity to make a good selection. Only in this way can he live up to my and those people's good intentions."
"Sister seems very unhappy," Chu Liyin said, hitting the nail on the head.
Cheng Xiran ate the osmanthus cake that Chu Liyin had specially brought. The cake was very sweet in her mouth, but this sweetness just couldn't reach her heart.
Even her eyebrows were tightly knitted.
"I'm not unhappy. I'm just a bit sighing..."