Nie Cheng felt uneasy under her gaze, as if he was being scrutinized.

Sure enough, Gu Yundong stopped and asked him, “Are you eager to catch the leader of the rebellion in Anqing Prefecture?”

“Of course,” Nie Cheng nodded firmly, his expression turning serious. “That person is not a refugee at all; he’s a thief pretending to be one, deliberately inciting the people to break into the city gates and seizing the opportunity to kill and loot. His crimes are heinous. It’s said that he also caused trouble for nearby villages when he fled. There’s a good chance he’s headed to our Xuanhe Prefecture. If we don’t catch him soon, more people will suffer.”

Gu Yundong wasn’t a righteous hero. She only cared about her own little family for now, and she just wanted to earn some money.

So she calmly asked, “If I help a little in your capture operation, will there be a reward?”

Nie Cheng was taken aback. “Help? What can you do?”

“A reward?”

Nie Cheng couldn’t help but twitch at the corner of his mouth. “Yes.”

“How much?”

“It depends on how much help you can provide.” Nie Cheng was skeptical. Did she perhaps know the person or where he had been?

But Gu Yundong quickly dispelled his thoughts. “Don’t you have people in your yamen who have seen the suspect’s appearance?”

“Yes, a squad of soldiers went to Qing’an Prefecture to reinforce under Commander Zhao’s command, and they encountered the suspect head-on. Unfortunately, he managed to escape.”

“Then find one of the soldiers who saw him, describe the suspect’s appearance, and I’ll draw it for you.”

Nie Cheng immediately lost interest. He thought she was going to do something more substantial, but she just wanted to draw a portrait?

They had plenty of wanted posters posted at the city gates, all drawn by the best artists in the city based on descriptions. There were plenty of them; they didn’t need her drawing.

Gu Yundong could tell what he was thinking from his expression. She raised an eyebrow. “Tell me honestly, do you think you can recognize the suspect if he stood in front of you based on those wanted posters? I know you don’t rely solely on the portraits to catch criminals, but you saw how that young man was arrested today. Surely there’s more than just Pan the shopkeeper wanting to settle personal scores by making false reports. Afterward, they could easily use the excuse of ‘resembling the suspect in the portrait’ to escape responsibility. Wouldn’t that cause confusion and waste time and effort? Trust me, I can save you half the trouble.”

Nie Cheng felt her words didn’t make sense. Ordinary people were afraid to go to the yamen. People like Pan the shopkeeper, who didn’t know their place and thought they had backing, were very few.

But there was some truth to what she said. Although rare, weren’t there such cases?

After some thought, Nie Cheng, seeing her confident demeanor, said somewhat conservatively, “If you want to try, go ahead. But don’t go to the yamen. Let’s draw it privately first and see. If it doesn’t work, forget about it.”

“Okay.”

Nie Cheng didn’t want to trouble his aunt, so they went to a nearby teahouse.

Gu Yundong was worried about Yang Shi and the others, so she wanted to see Nie Cheng’s aunt first.

So the two of them returned to the small courtyard first. As they entered, they heard Nie Cheng’s aunt and Yang Shi talking. “…Go wash up first. With your dirty appearance, people might mistake our house for a beggar’s den. Do you have clean clothes? If not, I’ll borrow some from the neighbors, but I have to warn you, don’t tear them, or you’ll have to compensate. Oh my, you two…”