Yan Liqiang went inside and before he even reached the central room, he heard a woman’s faint sobs. It was Xu Enda’s younger sister crying in the room beside the central room.
“Brother Liqiang, please don’t be alarmed. My older sister is upset by the matchmaker’s harsh words…” Xu Enci explained to Yan Liqiang in embarrassment.
“No worries, just ignore those people from now on. Oh right, what kind of person is Old Master Zhu?” Yan Liqiang asked while they walked.
“Old Master Zhu is the owner of the Yuean Textile Shop in Prosperous Spring Square. My sister went there to shop before and that was when he had his eyes on her. To think that he sent a matchmaker here…” Xu Enci huffed and shook his fist.
“That man looks no different than a pig. He’s already in his fifties with two wives at home. When my brother was still around, Manager Zhu was still courteous to us and he didn’t dare to harbor any inappropriate thoughts about my sister. Little did I expect he would strike the moment something happened to my brother. I will never forgive him! If he dares to come again, I’ll risk my life and set his textile shop on fire! I will never allow him to bully my sister…!”
“Enci, you’re still young so you should stay out of troubles like these. Now that something has happened to your brother, you must stay safe at all costs. Don’t worry, I guarantee that Manager Zhu won’t disturb both of you again…!” Yan Liqiang reassured Xu Enci. The existence of a slightly wealthy textile shop owner was nothing more than an ant in Yan Liqiang’s eyes. He had his ways to make people like him give in, and that involved only a word.
“Have a seat first, Brother Liqiang. I will inform my sister about your visit…”
“Alright, go…” Yan Liqiang took a seat in the central room as he waited for Xu Enci to call his sister while observing the decorations in Xu Enda’s home.
There was a pine painting hanging in the central room and the room was decently furnished. Although the room wasn’t filled with expensive furniture, it was neat and tidy. Xu Enda’s residence was originally an old shabby courtyard, and Yan Liqiang had been here before. As Xu Enda moved up the ranks in the newspaper office and got higher income, the old shabby courtyard was renovated.
Although it was still nothing compared to those wealthy manors in the Imperial Capital, the white walls, green roof tiles, newly-painted windows, garden, and central room were decent to look at. It was a house that befitted an average family in the capital city and their quality of life improved significantly since then. No one expected something would happen to Xu Enda, leaving his younger brother and sister with no one to rely on.
In the blink of an eye, Xu Enda and a young lady walked into the central room. She was none other than Xu Enda’s younger sister. The last time Yan Liqiang saw her, she was only eleven or twelve years old. Back then, she was the one who served Xu Enda his medicine. After not seeing her for a few years, the obedient little girl had turned into a young lady of fourteen or fifteen years old. She had grown taller and bigger, and she had a pair of attractive eyes on her lovely face. She was indeed a real looker.
“Greetings, Brother Liqiang…” Xu Enda’s younger sister had met Yan Liqiang before. Although her eyes were reddened from crying earlier, she didn’t forget her manners as she hurriedly bowed to Yan Liqiang when she saw him.
“Come now, don’t be a stranger! Let’s sit down and chat…!”
“My brother has been taken away. We haven’t received any news about him. Please find a way and rescue my brother, Brother Liqiang…!” Xu Enda’s younger sister sat down and her eyes turned red again as soon as Xu Enda was mentioned.
“Don’t worry, nothing will happen to your brother. I just arrived at the Imperial Capital today and knew something happened to the newspaper office. Can both of you tell me how your brother got taken away?”
“We don’t know what happened either!” Xu Enci shook his head. “Three months ago, my brother went out as usual and never came back. He had never done that before. If he had to go somewhere far, he’d inform both of us. My sister and I felt that something was off, so we asked around and eventually found out that something had happened at the newspaper office. My brother was taken away!”
“What happened to the newspaper office?” Yan Liqiang asked.
“I have no idea either. We only heard that about thirty people from the newspaper office, including my brother, Brother Little Wu, and Manager Fang, were arrested!”
Yan Liqiang instantly creased a frown. From the looks of it, not only one or two people were arrested — nearly the entire group of people he left in the newspaper office was arrested. How strange. When he left, the ownership of the newspaper office had been transferred to the Emperor and it would be managed by Eunuch Liu. Out of respect for him, Eunuch Liu probably wouldn’t deliberately make things hard for Fang Beidou and the rest. When he fought against Lin Qingtian, Fang Beidou and the rest weren’t arrested. So how did something happen to them now that Lin Qingtian was no longer in the picture?
Yan Liqiang pondered for a while, then asked, “Do you know on whose command were they arrested? Did you hear any relevant information?”
“We asked around and gathered that they had been arrested by people from the Imperial Cavalry Unit. No one from the Law Enforcement Office intervened. The person who commanded it was the person in charge of the Grand Secretariat, Grand Secretary Sun Bingchen…”
Yan Liqiang felt a jolt. Sun Bingchen had commanded the arrest? What was the meaning of that? That couldn’t be…
Xu Enda’s brother and sister didn’t know any inside stories — all they heard was some common news. Even so, it was enough for Yan Liqiang. After talking to both of them, he managed to verify much of the information and had a vague idea of the current situation in the Imperial Capital.
According to both of them, things started changing in the Imperial Capital following the arrest of Fang Beidou, Xu Enda, and the rest. Both ‘The Great Han Times’ and the other competing newspaper established by Lin Qingtian’s party started publishing articles that dismissed the prophecies written on the back of the stone turtle as complete nonsense that were unreliable, and assured the masses that the situation was perfectly fine in the Great Han Empire. Anyone who dared to talk about the prophecies on the stone turtle’s back was arrested as rumormongers.
Xu Enda’s brother and sister were prepared to leave the Imperial Capital with him at first, but all of a sudden, the bureaucracy no longer allowed commoners to leave the Imperial Capital. Those who wished to leave would need to obtain a travel pass issued by the bureaucracy.
Yan Liqiang only stayed at Xu Enda’s residence for less than an hour. Seeing that it would get dark soon, he left two thousand taels of silver for them then took his leave.
As soon as he made it out of the small winding alley in Prosperous Spring Square and came to the main street, four people dressed in official uniforms approached and surrounded him.
Yan Liqiang frowned slightly as he looked at the men through his narrowed eyes.
One of the men cupped his fist respectfully at Yan Liqiang then said, “Lord Sun ordered us to bring you to meet him as soon he found out that you were in the Imperial Capital…”
Yan Liqiang combed through his memory and realized that he had exposed himself by showing his identity pass to the bailiffs earlier. In any case, he was also thinking of paying Sun Bingchen a visit, so he nodded to them. “Alright, lead the way…”
One of the men waved. A black four-wheeled carriage nearby came over and stopped in front of Yan Liqiang.
“Please, Lord Yan…”
Yan Liqiang calmly got onto the carriage…
