After investigating with Blade, he goes to the guards in their headquarters, to ask them to share the information they uncovered from their own work with the people involved in those specific crimes.

What he finds out is:
• The man who tried to poison the river is from Wutian and got paid by a mysterious, rich and foreigner man to do that job. As the person had big gambling debts, he accepted the offering without many questions.
He also poisoned the well at the military camp, sneaking in together with the suppliers when they came to bring the goods.
• The woman who survived the poisoning of the two families said to have bought meat from one of the various meat merchants from the Great Huang. Although she is suspected to have purposely poisoned the meat, the guards were unable to find any connection between her or her family with any person of the other family that fell victim to the poisoning.
• The merchant from Great Huang who sold the meat was promptly arrested and he swore that he took the meat from the usual, government-controlled warehouse from which he has always taken it from. He swears he is totally unaware of any poisoning and doubts that the meat could have gotten spoiled, as it was conserved like every other stock and nothing out of the ordinary happened during the journey. (Although there is open trade between Lianxi and Great Huang, there is no portal between them and the merchants from both sides have to travel by ship. Great Huang main export product is meat, as that's the only thing they have in big abundance, beside ore.)
• The case of disappearance of women extends to all cities. It wasn't a huge number of women going missing, about 3 each city. Furina is among the women who went missing in Guyun.
• Mass poisonings happened in Zae and Youling too, in the same exact circumstances, but not committed by the same person.
• A large amount of food supplies (mostly cereals, rice and legumes) were stolen from the public granaries in Hunai, several suspicious southern men were seen embarking on a Great Huang ship in Wutian, carrying large sacks they acquired through unknown means.

All this following a very extended silence from the Imperial Family, as they haven't sent any messanger or emissary in months, which is out of the ordinary.

After hearing everything, Jing Yuan's worries became stronger, but at the same time, he is finding the situation strange, on a strictly military strategic point of view.

Jing Yuan himself writes a detailed report to summarize his finding, leaving it for Zhongli in the throne room, with a high priority seal on it, so that it will be the first thing he sees when he comes back from Teyvat.

The next day, right before they prepare to leave for Fontaine, he goes to Zhongli, asking for a portal back. He received a call from LianSul concerning some troubles at the camp, with many of the soldiers who live there having fallen sick for unknown reasons.
As he finds it quite worrying, he decides to hurry back to help LianSul and conduct proper investigations on the issue.

As Zhongli and Xianyun return, they brief the others about what they found out in the mausoleum. They agree that they should regroup as soon as possible, to avoid unnecessary risks, and proceed with their plan.

A group goes with Xiao to Sumeru city to retrieve the children and, if possible, try to document themselves about those obelisks and King Deshret in the House of Daena.
As they arrive at the Inn room where Xiao left them, though, they find that the little boys aren't alone. A little girl is with them, being completely friendly and chill with them, so much that even WooPil is not acting too upset because of her presence.
Nahida has been waiting for the return of the adults who accompany the children, since she knows what's going on with Cyno and needs to tell them something.

He is warned that the trio is going to be sent to him to volunteer with patrol duty in the army. In the previous days, he has been taking that role by himself, which has made things pretty difficult. One can't simply be both the general and the whole army at the same time, but he couldn't send inexperienced recruits or weak auriold to their certain death, either. This is definitely a good opportunity for everyone to fix some damaged relationship and to soften the old man up.
And obviously he knows that they got released from prison by Ziqun, which makes all of WonPil's worries towards him even dumber.

In the morning, he waits for his new squad by the gates of the city. Even Hudie could be with him, since he'd gladly take the boy along, as he surely proved to be a mighty warrior already.

Now that he cooled down, he feels pretty sorry and bad for how he spoke to Miko. As he mentioned to Zhongli, he decides to write her a letter, since not even he can ignore Ziqun's rules over the prison and can only meet prisoners in the established days. Ziqun doesn't grant anyone a privileged treatment, he wouldn't not even to Zhongli himself.

| Dear Miko,
I hope this letter doesn't find you too unwell, although I understand that the circumstances are far from pleasant.
I write to you to express my sincere apologies for my harsh words and rough behaviour, the other day. My misbehaviour has no justification. It was never my intention to disregard your feelings. But just as any other person, I too make mistakes and sometimes let my feelings take over my better sense. Old age is not the cure to all recklessness, it seems.
Regardless of our ages and status, we all make mistakes and we admit them, even if we may fail to see the wrong behind them right away.

It truly pains me how things have turned between us all. For how I see it, this situation is only causing grief to both sides and it would be for the best if we could try to at least open up to dialogue. A conversation where we all can share our points of view and feelings on what happened could open our eyes on many details, that we may fail to see, from our own perspectives alone. We are very different people, after all, and that's why speaking of things can be very enlightening and the key to start fixing.

But for now, just think about the matter. You have to take care of yourself and stay strong.
I'll try to come in visit, when Ziqun allows, should my duty not take over my entire time.
Best regards,
— Jing Yuan.

Ps. You don't need to reply to this letter. I just hope that you'll read it and see the sincerity of my words. |