Caught A Big Fish
In Zhou Clan’s manor.
Zhou Yuanzhi was having breakfast while listening to the butler’s reports on the major events that had taken place in Jinling City the day before.
This was Zhou Yuanzhi’s habit. As a top-notch merchant, he must constantly take note of the movements amongst the upper echelon in Jinling City. Only by finding valuable information would one be able to strike it rich.
“They are all looking for a big-boobed girl?”
Zhou Yuanzhi was stunned. “What’s her background?”
“I don’t know!”
The butler shook his head.
When the number of people working on a matter increased, there’d definitely be people who slipped and leaked out some information. However, what these people knew wasn’t much. They only knew that they had to look for a girl. If it was in the past, they’d have to remember a lot of content, including the girl’s age, appearance, and background. However, there wasn’t a need for that. It was because her boobs were too big. Just this characteristic alone was sufficient for their search.
“Hehe, by the looks of things, it couldn’t be that a princess has gone missing, right?”
Zhou Yuanzhi guessed, gloating a little over this. (These high officials and nobles often put on great airs. You’ve finally faced a setback now.)
However, he reckoned that the girl probably hadn’t gone missing. She must have had too much fun with a wild guy from somewhere and ended up not returning for the night.
“No matter who it was who had done this, they’ve really stirred up a hornets’ nest.”
The butler also smiled along when he saw that their Old Master’s mood was quite good.
“Who cares about them. We’ll just focus on earning money in peace.” After Zhou Yuanzhi was done with his meal, he still hadn’t seen his son and was a little displeased about that. “Where’s Zhou Yong? Did he spend the night at Concentrated Fragrance Brothel again?”
“No, Young Master had just gone out a moment ago.” The butler reported.
“It isn’t proper for a young man to be sleeping in every day.”
Although Zhou Yuanzhi said this, his countenance improved a little. Sleeping in was better than spending a night fooling around at a brothel.
Sun Mo knew that it was a waste of time for him to search aimlessly. Therefore, he didn’t sleep for the entire night and continued to draw Lu Zhiruo’s portrait.
Knock knock! Knock knock!
Knocking sounds rang out. Seeing that Sun Mo didn’t show any reaction, Ludi walked over to open the door. When he saw that the person standing outside was Wang Su, he was instantly surprised. “Vice-headmaster… Vice-headmaster Wang!”
Ludi was extremely nervous, even stuttering as he spoke. He subconsciously turned to throw a glance toward his bed. Sigh, if he had known this would happen, he would have folded his blankets and put aside his dirty laundry. “Is Teacher Sun in?”
Wang Su asked.
“Yes!”
How could Ludi possibly dare to stop Wang Su from entering? He quickly made way for him. “I’ll pour water for you!”
When Ludi was doing this, he threw a glance at Sun Mo, his heart filled with envy. Wang Su just called Sun Mo, ‘Teacher Sun’.
And Ludi, as an intern teacher, didn’t have the right to use this form of address.
“Teacher Sun, I heard from Headmaster An that your personal disciple has gone missing?”
Wang Su didn’t like to bother about the civilities and thus went straight to the topic. “Have you found her yet?”
“Not yet!”
Sun Mo wasn’t in the mood to attend to Wang Su and didn’t even greet him. He just kept on drawing portraits.
“Is this that student’s portrait? Give me ten pieces. I’ll get people to help search for her.”
Wang Su walked over and saw Sun Mo’s drawing. His eyes immediately lit up. (What a good art piece. The girl’s disposition is brought out well through the paper!)
Wang Su assessed Sun Mo in surprise. He couldn’t tell that Sun Mo had talent in this field!
Ding!
Favorable impression points from Wang Su +15. Neutral (65/100).
“Then I’ll have to thank Teacher Wang. I owe you one for this favor!”
Sun Mo was extremely grateful. Who was Wang Su? He was a 4-star great teacher, and he had come so early in the morning just to help him out. This was too great of a favor.
“What are you talking about? I’m Central Province Academy’s vice-headmaster, and that girl is considered my student as well. Searching for her is something I should be doing.”
Wang Su spoke in a stern tone, “Why hadn’t you told me about this earlier?”
“I apologize.”
To speak the truth, Sun Mo had underestimated how broad-minded Wang Su was. Although he was fighting against An Xinhui for the position of the headmaster, he had strong feelings for this school unlike Zhang Hanfu, who was purely acting out of his own interests.
Wang Su took the portraits and left.
“Teacher Sun, who has gone missing?”
Ludi asked, also wanting to help out. He then started to feel envious again. Look at how outstanding Sun Mo was. Even Wang Su had taken the initiative to come.
“Lu Zhiruo!”
Sun Mo said.
“It’s this girl, right? I’ll help you look for her as well!”
Ludi took a portrait. He planned on helping Sun Mo to search for the girl today. Of course, this time around, he wasn’t planning on bootlicking Sun Mo. He was purely worried about the student’s safety.
“Thank you!”
Sun Mo didn’t stand on ceremony either.
At noon, Sun Mo made another trip to the female dorm. Lu Zhiruo still hadn’t returned, and he hadn’t received any other news as well.
“Teacher, have some food and take a break.”
Li Ziqi tried to persuade him. She was worried that Sun Mo would fall sick from the anxiety.
Sun Mo waved his hand and started to analyze if Zhou Yong had been the one who did it. It shouldn’t be, right? He couldn’t be this crazy, right?
This was a crime. If he was caught, he’d be exiled to the borders to become an army slave. Rather than taking this risk, he might as well spend money to get people to break Sun Mo’s legs.
However, at a time like this, he’d have to consider all possibilities. Should he go lay an ambush or keep on surveillance?
No, he mustn’t do such things. It was because he wasn’t proficient in it. It’d be troublesome if he were to alert the other party. It would be better for him to look for Old Wolf Ren. They were the professionals.
Sun Mo returned to the dorm and brought out a potted plant.
If one wanted their horse to run, then they must feed the horse until it was full first. Sun Mo didn’t have much money on him, but this potted plant was very valuable and would work as well.
However, just after Sun Mo went out, he met the triangular-eyed guy. “Teacher Sun, we might have found your disciple.”
The triangular-eyed guy was clearly a lot more respectful than he had been last night.
“Where is she?”
Sun Mo grabbed onto the triangular-eyed guy’s hand.
“Jinling eastern suburbs, Three Purities Temple!”
The triangular-eyed guy’s hand was hurting as Sun Mo was clenching onto it tightly. However, he didn’t dare to cry out.
“Bring me there!”
Sun Mo urged. Li Ziqi quickly followed.
After heading out of Jinling City’s eastern gate, 30 li eastward, there was a Daoist temple.
It was said that 500 years ago, a white-haired priest had come to this place while riding on a crane. He saved a woman who had jumped into the river, and after asking, he found out that she was despised by her mother-in-law as she was unable to give birth.
The priest chuckled, took out a medicinal pill, and gifted it to the woman. Half a month later, the woman was pregnant.
Thereafter, the child that this woman gave birth to was very smart and hardworking. He passed the imperial examinations at the provincial level, followed by the highest imperial examinations, and then became a prime minister.
After the prime minister had returned to his hometown in glory, he recalled this story that his mother had told him before and thus built this Daoist temple to commemorate the priest who had rode on a crane.
Jinling was an ancient city and there were far too many well-known mountains, big rivers, Buddhist temples, and Daoist temples. Therefore, this Daoist temple that was located in the middle of a mountain usually didn’t have many visitors.
Even if there were any, they’d just be women who had just gotten married or wanted children. They wanted to offer their prayers and get some good luck.
Old Wolf Ren hid amongst the dense grass, chewing onto a blade of grass and wearing a solemn expression.
He might have just caught a big fish. Old Wolf Ren had his capabilities to be able to become the best informant in Jinling City, trading information for a living. When he saw that there were so many influences looking for Lu Zhiruo, he didn’t rush into joining them but started to analyze the situation instead.
These were all great powers. Therefore, he should start searching for places that they might have missed.
This managed to save him a lot of time and energy.
Usually, if men had gone missing, they were basically killed. However, if women or children had gone missing, there was a high possibility that they had been abducted and trafficked.
Therefore, Old Wolf Ren started to tackle the case from this angle, arranging for his men to follow a few people whom he had long since suspected that they were human traffickers.
Old Wolf Ren didn’t check out the known human traffickers. It was because he believed that the big powers would have gone to visit them at the very first instant. They might have already been caught and imprisoned in the Jinling government office, being put through torture and interrogation.
(What? You’re saying that there’s no evidence? An important character’s beloved girl has gone missing; they don’t care about the evidence. They’d just catch and interrogate anyone suspicious.)
Old Wolf Ren’s plan was a success. Amongst the few guys whom he suspected were human traffickers, one who had gone out at night two days ago and hadn’t come back until now.
He continued to investigate this and realized that the guy had left from the eastern gate while driving a carriage.
After Old Wolf Ren received the report from his subordinate, he was worried that they might not do things well and thus went out personally. Relying on his excellent tracking skills, he found his way to this Daoist temple.
This might be a human trafficking base.
Old Wolf Ren recalled that in the recent few years, quite a lot of young married women had gone missing in Jinling City. He then thought of the reason why this Daoist temple had a bit of fame. Wasn’t it because a woman had given birth to a prime minister?
Who wouldn’t want to get a child if they prayed for one? Who wouldn’t want their children to have a bright future?
“They are god-damned sinister!”
Old Wolf Ren cursed. He looked down on human traffickers the most. It was because they destroyed families. However, as he tracked them down, he started to feel worried as well. They must have a great background to have been able to carry human trafficking activities without being discovered for several years.
If he were to offend them…
(Wait a minute, why the hell am I being scared? Given the great storm that teacher has brought up this time around, unless this group was backed by a member of royalty, they’d all be dead meat.)
Sun Mo had come. As he was worried that he’d be discovered, he had taken another small path.
Li Ziqi, who had extremely bad physical capabilities, had it really bad.
“Ahh!”
Li Ziqi let out an agonizing cry. She had stepped onto a piece of rock with her right foot and slipped. She even scraped her skin.
“I’m really stupid!”
Li Ziqi cursed herself for how useless she was. However, she quickly smiled and explained to Sun Mo, “Teacher, I’m fine. Don’t need to be worried about me.”
She mustn’t let her teacher be distracted in a time like this.
“I’ll carry you on my back!” Sun Mo didn’t care about Li Ziqi’s objections and carried her on his back, continuing to climb the mountain. Little sunny egg had come, and it was out of concern for her junior martial sister. Thus, Sun Mo would definitely not blame her for being a hindrance.
At this moment, Tantai Yutang was supporting himself with a stick while heading to the Daoist temple that was located halfway up the mountain. He was panting vigorously.
“Your body is really in bad condition!”
Xuanyuan Po frowned. “Should I carry you on my back?”
“No need!”
Tantai Yutang couldn’t afford the embarrassment.
“Are you certain that it’s here?”
Jiang Leng frowned.
