If nobody intervened, those people might not survive after being taken into the Prefecture Encampment.
“We can’t stand by and let this happen,” said Ling Zhang after a few moments’ silence. He had had no original intention of getting any innocent people involved, but he needed to figure out a way to stop Zhang Chong. “Those people have already been taken to the Prefecture Encampment. If, while they are in there, the burglar who ‘killed’ Lu Kui committed another theft, those people will naturally be cleared of suspicions.”
This would also be a delaying tactic. As long as they managed to delay Zhang Chong for a couple of more days, he would definitely be too occupied with saving his own life to investigate the murder case.
“It sounds like a pretty good plan. What are you going to do?” Yuwen Tong asked him.
“I’m afraid common people cannot endure the interrogation of Prefecture Guards…” Ling Zhang said after pondering for quite a while. “I’ll have Wang Dashan disguise as a burglar and come to steal from Ling family. Ask that guard who went to Lu family that day to leave some more footprints.”
Yuwen Tong smiled, “It’s okay to have him leave footprints, but if soldiers of the Prefecture Guards come here to investigate, they will find the secrets in Ling family.”
Ling Zhang was vexed. “I got anxious and forgot about this. Then what should we do?”
Suddenly his eyes lit up. “I can just ask Lord Tao to do me a favor.”
‘Isn’t a theft in the Prefecture Yamen far more serious than it’s like in my family?’ he wondered.
“There’s no need to ask him for help. If by any chance you disclose too much, Tao Feng will guess the secrets of Lu family. Just send someone to pay a visit to Prefecture Yamen.”
“How do you plan to do it?”
Yuwen Tong summoned his bodyguard and gave him some instructions.
The bodyguard answered, “I’ll go there right now.”
“There’s no hurry. Wait until after Zi Hour (23:00-01:00).”
“Those people will be tortured if we don’t take immediate action.”
Ling Zhang watched Yuwen Tong in confusion. Yuwen Tong explained in a calm tone of voice. “Rest assured, I won’t let them die. They will only have to endure some lashing or something like that. It’ll be more favorable for us if we make this bigger.”
Ling Zhang thought for a while but raised no objections.
Late that night. In Prefecture Yamen.
Except for Yamen runners on patrol and those on night duty, most people in Prefecture Yamen were asleep. It was very quiet and all areas beyond the lighting range of lanterns were pitch-dark. Tao Feng and all his family members lived in the rear yard of Prefecture Yamen, which Yamen runners on night patrol focused their attention on.
A Yamen runner on patrol let out a big yawn. It was very natural that people felt sleepy late at night.
The patrol team had just walked past the door at the corner of the rear yard. The door was tightly closed and locked from the inside. There was nothing unusual about it and Yamen runners didn’t pay any extra attention to it. They all believed that nobody would be so bold as to steal from Prefecture Yamen.
However, something beyond all their expectations was going to happen on this night.
The Yamen runner, who had just finished the yawn, was just about to lower his head when suddenly he saw a black figure flash across the corner of the walls of the rear yard. He gave an instantaneous shudder and yelled, “Who is it!”
All others were taken aback and on the alert. “What’s the matter?”
“A black figure jumped into the rear yard. I think it was a person,” replied the Yamen runner who had seen the black figure.
“What? Let’s go inside and check,” the leader of the patrol team hurriedly said.
“Chief, the door is locked from the inside. We can’t get in,” another man said.
“Knock the door!” ordered the leader of the patrol team.
Two Yamen runners immediately grabbed the knockers and started knocking. “Anybody in there? Open the door. A burglar intruded!”
They kept yelling for quite a while and finally someone woke up and lighted a lantern. A voice asked aloud, “Who intruded? The door is still locked.”
“We saw someone jump inside from the top of the wall!” said a Yamen runner anxiously. “Open the door immediately so we can go inside and catch the intruder.”
The voice of the man inside went nervous. “Wait a moment. I’ll get Supervisor Wang here to open the door.”
Yamen runners looked at each other in dismay, worrying that the burglar would have been long gone when the door was opened.
“What if the burglar intended to hurt Lord Tao?” someone asked in nervousness.
“Someone run to the front gate and tell the guard to report!” the leader ordered immediately.
“Yes!” A Yamen runner rapidly rushed towards the front gate.
Soon some others hurried over after hearing the noises. “What’s going on here?”
“A burglar jumped inside from the top of this wall. We’re waiting for someone to open the door,” replied the leader of the patrol team.
Right at this moment, the door was opened and Yamen runners hurtled inside.
Tao Feng had already been woken up by the noises. Hearing that there was an intruder, he was shocked. “Who was it?”
“Your Lordship, that person was wearing night suit and moved very quick. I didn’t see his face,” answered the Yamen runner who had spotted the black figure.
“Your Lordship, I brought bad news. There was a theft in the vault!” Someone came to report in haste.
Tao Feng’s face went cold. “What were stolen?”
“Several pieces of jade ware that you purchased at high prices are gone!”
Tao Feng went furious. “This is unbelievable! A burglar actually dared to steal from a county official. Search the city! Nobody stop until the burglar is caught!”
“Freeze!”
All of sudden, a commotion came from the front hall, mixed with constant footsteps and yelling.
Tao Feng’s countenance changed. “Go and check!”
When Tao Feng hurried to the scene, the burglar was already gone, while all Yamen runners had a strange expression.
“What happened? Where’s the burglar?!” thundered Tao Feng.
“That person’s lightness skills are very good. I regret to report this to you, but we failed to catch him. Head Constable Zhao has taken some men to go after him,” someone answered, “and…”
“And what? Keep talking.” Tao Feng’s eyebrows furrowed.
“That burglar was wildly arrogant. He said… He said…”
“He said what!”
“He said that if Your Lordship kept investigating the murder of Lord Lu, he would come back here and apart from stealing things, he would also… he would also cut your head off.”
“Outrageous!”
Tao Feng’s face changed drastically, fury and alarm bubbling up inside him. “How dare a mere burglar threaten me!”
Everybody kept silent for fear of angering Tao Feng further.
“Pursue him. Send out more men to hunt him down. Nobody come back until you get him!”
“Yes, Your Lordship!”
There were a lot of noises in Prefecture Yamen, and Yamen runners also made quite some noises during the hunt for the burglar late at night. Though residents who heard the commotion had no idea exactly what was going on, it did come to their knowledge that something had happened and Yamen runners were hunting someone.
These days, there had been a string of crimes in Tanyang, and the murderer of Lu Kui was still at large. It had been a few days after the murder, and residents had just let down their guard somewhat when Yamen runners were dispatched to hunt a burglar at night. All people tightly closed their doors and windows, too afraid to go outside.
The city gate was shut. All Yamen runners intended to catch the burglar before daybreak when the city gate would be opened, but the hunt lasted a full night yet the burglar was still at large.
That burglar had tricked Head Constable Zhao and his men into running around for a whole night and they had actually been to every corner of Tanyang, but they hadn’t even once approached the burglar. Head Constable Zhao’s face was dark with rage.
What they found more annoying was that they could no longer find any traces of the burglar when the dawn was about to break, as if he had vanished into thin air.
Head Constable Zhao and his men searched every inch of the area where the burglar’s figure had been last seen. They even intruded into civilian dwellings but still found nothing.
“Damn it. The burglar ran so fast. He was literally toying with us!” said a Yamen runner who had been chasing the burglar all night with Head Constable Zhao.
“No wonder we had never found any clues to the identity of the murderer after investigating for such a long time. Head Constable Zhao, that burglar is a kung fu expert!”
“I thought that the murderer had already fled from Tanyang. It never crossed my mind that he’s still in the city. This guy’s unbelievably arrogant!”
Other Yamen runners were also very indignant and started cursing.
Face dark with anger, Head Constable Zhao brought his men back to the Prefecture Yamen and gave an account of the hunting process to Tao Feng, who listened with anger bubbling beneath the surface.
“So you failed to catch the burglar?” asked Tao Feng flintily.
“Please punish me for my incompetence, Your Lordship,” replied Head Constable Zhao with a sulky face, head lowered.
Tao Feng was consumed with rage. He had never expected that some burglar would act so boldly as to threaten him in Prefecture Yamen, which was an unmistakable indication that the burglar showed total disregard for his authority.
“Continue the investigation and bring me the burglar or see yourself relieved of your position!”
Head Constable Zhao involuntarily tensed his back and answered in a deep voice, “Yes, Your Lordship.”
As soon as Head Constable Zhao left, Tao Feng rose to his feet. “Prepare the palanquin. Let’s go to Ling family!”
After Lu Kui’s “death”, Ling Zhaowen had once asked Tao Feng to help him delay Jia Zhong and Zhang Chong and prevent them from taking advantage of this event. Though having no idea exactly what was going on in Lu family, Tao Feng had an intuition that people of Ling family knew something about it, but now a burglar had intruded into the Prefecture Yamen and threatened him right in front of him!
Early in the morning, Ling Zhaowen met Tao Feng and was very surprised to hear what had happened in the Prefecture Yamen. “A burglar intruded into yamen?”
Tao Feng stared at Ling Zhaowen. After he confirmed that Ling Zhaowen was not affecting that expression, his face grew slightly milder. “That burglar has never left Tanyang. Last night, he boldly came to yamen and made threats against me. Tongzhi Ling, do you by any chance know anything? Is the matter of Ling family really as simple as it seems?”
The night before, Ling Zhang had informed Ling Zhaowen of his plan. Ling Zhaowen knew very well that Tao Feng would surely become suspicious, so he had already thought of an idea how to deal with Tao Feng.
He feigned a shocked expression and then replied with affected grief that he didn’t feel, “Your Lordship, had I known anything, Lord Lu wouldn’t have been murdered. I just feel that the timing of the murder was too coincidental – I was about to be promoted to the Left Tongzhi, and Lord Lu was about to be promoted to the Right Tongzhi, but suddenly he was murdered by a burglar, one who was familiar with his study. I’m just worried that the burglar was hired by someone.”
“By ‘someone’, are you referring to… Zhang Chong?” asked Tao Feng.
Ling Zhaowen gave a bob of the head. “Exactly. Jia Zhong had always been coveting the post of Tongzhi. During this appraisal concerning official promotion, the competition between Jia Zhong and Lord Lu had been very intense, but regrettably, he still lost to Lord Lu. How could he have been convinced? In the last appraisal, after he lost to me, people of Jia family made several attempts to frame my family, which made it very difficult for me not to suspect Jia family and Zhang Chong of the murder of Lord Lu.”
Tao Feng had already believed Ling Zhaowen’s words. After all, Lu Kui had indeed died. Since Ling Zhaowen and Lu Kui had always been close friends, he believed that Ling Zhaowen wouldn’t keep anything back about the murder of Lu Kui.
At this time, Ling Zhaowen said through gritted teeth, “It never crossed my mind that the burglar has been staying in Tanyang all along, watching us as we searched every inch of this city. I can only imagine how many times he laughed at us. This goddamn burglar. Incidentally, Your Lordship, have you been informed that Prefecture Guards arrested several people last night?”
Tao Feng had been having headaches for a whole night due to that burglar, so he had paid no attention to this matter. Hearing that Prefecture Guards arrested some people, he knitted his eyebrows. “Who did they arrest?”
