The Prime Minister's Darling
Chapter 1281 - 1281 623 Defying Heaven Classmate (three updates)

Chapter 1281: 623 Defying Heaven Classmate (three updates) Chapter 1281: 623 Defying Heaven Classmate (three updates) Kidnapping someone and it turns out to be a classmate, who then recognizes you—this is truly a large-scale social death scene!

Gu Jiao didn’t understand how he had recognized her?

Though she hadn’t worn a mask, she had smeared a pound of wall plaster on her face; how could this not have covered her face?

What’s more, from start to finish inside the carriage, he seemed to have never looked up at her.

“Sit.”

Teacher Jiang said.

All the students sat down.

Gu Jiao and her desk mate also sat down.

It was now that Gu Jiao finally understood the sense of familiarity that came from Young Master Qingchen. Wasn’t it Mu Qingchen written on the fish talisman last night?

“Where is my fish talisman?” Mu Qingchen asked, taking out a book.

“Threw it away.” Gu Jiao said.

That was evidence, after all. She had thrown it away before exiting the inner city, in case she was stopped and searched by the soldiers as she left the city; would she deny it, or not?

“I knew it.” Mu Qingchen said.

Gu Jiao glanced at his waist and unsurprisingly saw a new fish talisman.

Gu Jiao didn’t believe it was the same one she threw away because she had thrown it into the brothel’s latrine; someone of his status surely wouldn’t pick something up from a latrine.

Without shifting his gaze, he looked toward the teacher lecturing in front and said, “Why? Want to snatch it again?”

Gu Jiao sat up properly, the very picture of a studious pupil, as if she hadn’t heard a word he was saying.

Gu Jiao felt him glance at her with the corner of his eye a couple of times, but adhering to the powerful belief that if she wasn’t embarrassed, then others would be, she proudly managed to not get distracted once throughout the entire class.

But indeed, it was thanks to Young Master Qingchen that their table became the focus of the entire Mingxin Hall, even Teacher Jiang sending over glances filled with surprise, joy, and pride every now and then.

So this gentleman must really rarely attend classes to cause such a stir.

Could there be some basic principles in life? If he didn’t come regularly, he should have just continued not coming—why start coming the moment she came?

It surely couldn’t be that he had recognized her as a new student of Mingxin Hall on the carriage yesterday and decided to come today especially for revenge.

After giving it some thought, Gu Jiao felt the likelihood of that was zero.

It was their first meeting on the carriage yesterday; the fact that he remembered her and recognized her today was somewhat plausible, but to say he guessed it yesterday night was preposterous.

He wasn’t a monster.

The entire morning comprised of Teacher Jiang’s lessons.

Gu Jiao was absolutely certain she hadn’t heard a single word, nor had the Young Master Qingchen beside her.

Yet the two of them managed to put on the air of top students whose awesomeness was off the charts.

After the morning classes ended, Mu Qingchen left amidst a chorus of envy and flattery.

Gu Jiao also planned to pack her things and find Gu Xiaoshun, but just as she was about to get up, six young classmates, around twenty, surrounded her with ill intent.

Several of them stood in front of her quite arrogantly, one with a square face even lifting his foot as if he wanted to put it on her desk.

But perhaps remembering that the desk also belonged to Mu Qingchen, his foot awkwardly froze mid-air for a moment before resentfully retreating.

The square-faced man said imperiously, “My name is Wu, from Yan Country. I hear you are a Zhan Country lad. In this day and age, even a lowly person from an inferior country is qualified to sit beside Young Master Qingchen? Step aside for me now!”

“Exactly! Someone like you doesn’t deserve to share a desk with Young Master Qingchen!”

“Overestimating yourself!”

There was a chorus of agreement as if Gu Jiao had committed an unforgivable crime, but on second thought, it wasn’t Gu Jiao who wanted to share a desk with Mu Qingchen. It was Mu Qingchen who, with so many empty seats, insisted on squeezing with her.

Did Mu Qingchen come over to help the poor because he saw her all alone?

Clearly not.

He had effortlessly drawn a lot of hatred her way without shedding blood.

“Zhong Ding.” Gu Jiao spoke.

Zhong Ding, who wasn’t far away pretending to be blind, flinched and, under immense pressure, walked over to Gu Jiao.

“Wha-what’s up?” he asked quietly.

“Does hitting people count as a demerit?” Gu Jiao asked.

Zhong Ding answered with a trembling voice, “It-it counts, why do you ask?”

Gu Jiao said regretfully, “What a pity.”

Then, resting her elbow on the desk and her hand against her cheek, she looked at them and said, “Fine, I’ll clear the space for you.”

The group was collectively taken aback.

Just like that she’s giving in?

Not even putting up a fight?

How pathetically lacking is the satisfaction o

…

The group started arguing heatedly. Gu Jiao leisurely packed away the books and, with an air of nonchalance, stood up and left through the back door.

Zhong Ding watched the six people about to come to blows and then turned to see Gu Jiao making her graceful exit, his face a picture of confusion.

Is that even possible?

A path paved with blooming flowers lay between Gu Xiaoshun’s Mingyue Hall and Mingxin Hall. As Gu Jiao walked along it, a squad of armored guards marched toward her, full of imposing grandeur.

Accompanying them was a teacher from the Academy, not Teacher Jiang, and Gu Jiao did not recognize who it was.

Beyond them, there was a garishly dressed brothel owner.

“Officers! It’s him!”

Gu Jiao quickly realized the brothel owner was pointing at her.

She was familiar with this brothel owner, having visited her brothel the night before.

What’s going on?

She had disguised herself so well, yet they could still recognize her? More importantly, how did they track her down to the Academy?

“Are you sure it’s him? Are you certain?” the head officer asked.

The teacher added, “Yes, this is a student from our Tianqiong Academy. Don’t falsely accuse him!”

Waving her handkerchief, the brothel owner insisted, “I could never mistake him! That birthmark on his face can’t be hidden, even with a thick layer of plaster!”

Oh, the birthmark.

So Mu Qingchen recognized her by her birthmark back in Mingxin Hall too?

But how did the brothel owner manage to follow her here?

Pointing at Gu Jiao, the brothel owner said, “Officers, this is the person who brought Young Master Qingchen’s token to our brothel last night! Young Master Qingchen is such a handsome, almost celestial figure, whom I have never met but have heard of! I knew it wasn’t the real Young Master Qingchen the moment I saw him!”

Gu Jiao asked, “Then why didn’t you report it to the authorities?”

Clutching her handkerchief, the brothel owner replied, “I… I thought you were a friend of Young Master Qingchen?”

Gu Jiao pressed, “Then why did you report it afterward?”

The brothel owner huffed, “You threw Young Master Qingchen’s token into the privy! What kind of friend does that? I made up my mind; this person must have stolen Young Master Qingchen’s token!”

Gu Jiao: I threw something in the privy and you actually dug it out, what kind of fetish is that!

Gu Jiao said, “Then how did you know I was from Tianqiong Academy?”

The brothel owner’s eyes flickered, “It was, it was something he himself let slip!”

Gu Jiao hadn’t let anything slip, and to conceal her identity, she hadn’t carried anything related to Tianqiong Academy with her.

Everything the brothel owner had said could have been true, but this last claim was definitely a lie.

If it wasn’t something she had said and not something the brothel owner discovered, then there was only one possibility—there was someone at the brothel last night who knew of her identity as a Tianqiong Academy student.

Gu Jiao quickly turned to look at the teacher who had come with the brothel owner.

Ah, she recognized him now.

Wasn’t this the same teacher who had helped her and Gu Xiaoshun complete the enrollment process at Qingzheng Hall yesterday?

So the teacher and the brothel owner pretended not to know each other, with one playing good cop and the other bad cop. It turned out they had informed the brothel owner of her identity from the beginning.

The teacher, feeling Gu Jiao’s gaze, became visibly flustered.

“Is visiting a brothel illegal?” Gu Jiao asked the officer in charge.

He replied, “Visiting a brothel is not illegal, but you are suspected of attempting to assassinate His Highness the Crown Prince, a most heinous crime! Furthermore, you insulted the Crown Prince’s maid, bringing shame upon the entire royal court!”

So the curfew last night was because of this?

Gu Jiao calmly said, “You say I am an assassin, do you have any evidence?”

The officer in charge responded, “We do! A maid from the royal court caught a glimpse of the assassin’s face, which bore a red birthmark, specifically on the left side!”

Damn it!

Could she really be this unlucky?

To think that a birthmark on her face could be implicated as well!

She seriously doubted whether Xiao Liulang’s identity was cursed by fate!

“Is the maid still alive?” Let the maid see for herself, and she should realize that Gu Jiao was not the assassin from last night.

“She has already taken her own life,” said the officer in charge.

Gu Jiao: “…”

So, even the witness who could have cleared her name was gone?

Xiao Liulang, oh Xiao Liulang, your identity is toxic!

Gu Jiao asked, “The assassin had just fled from the royal court, and you imposed a citywide curfew right away?”

The officer in charge replied, “Of course! We signaled the curfew with fireworks, citywide.”

Fireworks too, truly befitting of Shang Country.

She didn’t see the fireworks because at that time, she was most likely hiding under that middle-aged man’s blanket.

The murderer had two key characteristics—an obvious birthmark on the left side of his face and he was male.

There were two ways Gu Jiao could prove she wasn’t the murderer—first, by revealing her true identity as a woman, which would result in her expulsion from the Academy and end her stay in Yan Country.

The second way was to get an alibi from Mu Qingchen.

Though she did not know the location of the royal court, it was unlikely to be close to the street where she had been at that time, considering it was a bustling area.

She had gotten into Mu Qingchen’s carriage right as the curfew started, so she couldn’t have had enough time to commit the crime.

The only issue was, having robbed Mu Qingchen, would he still be willing to provide her with an alibi?

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