Nie Cong felt his scalp tingle under her gaze. He felt like he was being targeted.
Sure enough, Gu Yundong stood still and asked him, "Are you very eager to catch the criminal who led the rebellion in Qing'an Prefecture?"
"Of course." Nie Cong nodded affirmatively. At this point, his expression could not help but become a little serious. "This person is not a refugee at all. He's a bandit pretending to be a refugee. He deliberately incited the people to break into the city gate and took the opportunity to kill and earn money. He's guilty of a heinous crime. When he escaped after that, it was said that he even harmed the nearby villages. It's very likely that he came to our Xuanhe Province. If we don't catch this person as soon as possible, I'm afraid more people will suffer."
Gu Yundong was not a hero who enforced justice on behalf of the heavens. She would not have the strong desire to get rid of evil like Nie Cong did. At the moment, she could only take care of her small family. She only wanted to earn some money to use.
Therefore, she said very calmly, "If I help you capture criminals, will I be rewarded?"
Nie Cong was stunned. "Help? How can you help?"
"Will there be a reward?"
"…" Nie Cong's lips could not help but twitch. "Yes."
"That depends on how much help you can provide." Nie Cong was a little suspicious. He thought that she had also been escaping from the drought. Could it be that she had seen that person or knew where that person had appeared?
But Gu Yundong quickly disproved his idea. "Someone in your government office should have seen the criminal's appearance, right?"
"Yes, a squad under Commander Zhao that went to Qing'an Prefecture happened to face that person head-on, but unfortunately, he escaped."
"Then find a soldier that has seen him and describe the criminal. I'll draw him for you."
Nie Cong immediately lost interest. He thought it was something else. Just drawing a portrait?
There were many wanted posters posted at the city gate. They were all drawn by the best painters in the city according to the oral description. There were many of the posters, and she did not need to draw them.
Gu Yundong knew what he was thinking just by looking at his expression. She raised her eyebrows. "Touch your conscience and tell me. Do you think you can match the portrait on your wanted poster with the real person standing in front of you? Of course, I also know that you didn't arrest the criminal just because of the portrait. But you saw the situation of the young man being arrested today. Shopkeeper Pan is definitely not the only one who wants to use his position to take revenge on a fake case. After that, you can completely use the excuse of 'this person looks similar to the portrait' to avoid it. Isn't this causing trouble for you and wasting time and energy? Believe me, I can save you half the effort."
Nie Cong felt that what she said was wrong. Ordinary people were afraid of entering the government office. After all, there were very few people like Shopkeeper Pan who did not know the immensity of heaven and earth and thought that they had a backer.
However, he felt that what she said made sense. Although it was rare, wasn't there still some cases?
After some thought, Nie Cong saw how confident she was and said conservatively, "If you want to try, then try. However, you can't go to the government office. Let's draw it in private and take a look. If it doesn't work, pretend that nothing happened."
Nie Cong said that he would not go to his aunt's house. He was afraid of annoying her, so he went to a teahouse not far away.
Gu Yundong was worried about Madam Yang and the other two. She wanted to see Nie Cong's aunt first.
Hence, the two of them returned to the small courtyard first. When they entered, they happened to hear his aunt and Madam Yang talking. "…Get some water to wash up first. You guys are disheveled. Those who don't know better will think that a beggar has entered our house. Do you have clean clothes? If not, I'll go next door to borrow them for you. However, I have to tell you guys that you can't ruin the clothes, or you'll have to pay. Oh my, these two little darlings…"