“Go ah!” Although Zhu Junyang didn't have much hope for the local authorities in making much headway on the case, it was still important for them to do what they needed to do.
“Master, out of these three groups of people, which one of them is the most suspicious ah?” Hou Xiaoliang was very confident in his master’s abilities. He had wracked his own brains and couldn’t come up with anything, so he could only look pleadingly at the imperial prince.
Zhu Junyang frowned. He seemed to be half replying to his question while also muttering to himself, “The armed goods courier group can be eliminated from the list…”
“Why? That group of criminals are very skilled. If they disguise themselves as competent armed goods couriers, wouldn’t that be a good cover?” Hou Xiaoliang was actually more suspicious of that group of people.
Su Ran glanced at him and scornfully said, “You’re an idiot ah!! Didn’t you hear that ‘Formidable Goods Courier’ had just come back from a job ah? Since their wagons and carts were empty, where would they possibly hide that lass Xiaocao and her two maidservants? Furthermore, if three weak women suddenly appeared within the ranks of the armed goods couriers, wouldn’t that tell everyone that there was something fishy going on? That being said, when the governor asked the gate guards earlier, they said that the armed goods couriers only had large and brawny men within their ranks. What do you think the princess consort would like if she was dressed in men’s attire?”
Hou Xiaoliang thought his mistress’s slender and delicate figure, uh…if she was clothed in men’s clothing, as long as one wasn’t blind, one would be able to spot her in a moment. As expected, his brains, compared to his master’s and Chief Steward Su’s, were no match for theirs.
It looked like the other two groups were more suspicious. Although no one had seen any sign of the women in the other two groups, they had come back with carts filled with goods. It wasn’t entirely impossible to hide three people in the mountain of stuff they brought back…
Just as the three of them were discussing which family to investigate first, Xiaocao and her two servants had been dug out of a pile of silk bolts and had been carried into the hidden room like a bunch of baggage. Following that, they had been thrown to the ground like garbage and they were now lying next to the feet of an old and weakly handsome looking man.
“Ouch!” Yu Xiaocao secretly rejoiced that her shoulder had hit the ground first and not her head. Otherwise, it was likely that her nose would be broken now.
“Mistress, are you okay ah?” Wutong heavily resisted the pain coming off her hands. After getting used to the dimness in the room, she wriggled mightily towards Xiaocao.
Why was she wriggling? That was because her arms and legs had been tied up, making her resemble a bundled up rice dumpling.
“Oh my goodness! How could you treat Her Highness, the Great Imperial Envoy, in such a crude manner? Go receive your punishments now!” The owner of the shrill yet gentle voice was a man of an indeterminate age with white hair. Although his white hair made him seem old, it didn’t match with the rest of his appearance. His face only looked to be around forty years old as he only had some fine wrinkles around the corners of his eyes.
A somewhat sickly handsome young man commanded the black-clothed experts within the room, “Why aren’t you guys releasing the Clerk of the Capital of the Grain?”
The black-clothed men didn’t move and they turned their heads to the white-haired eunuch. A bit of helplessness flashed through the sickly man’s eyes and he smiled faintly at the white-haired eunuch, “Eunuch Yuan, this official is talented and once the throne is retaken, we need people with talent serving us.”
Dissatisfaction flickered through Eunuch Yuan’s eyes. The other man was merely an invalid and a useless one to boot! If he didn’t have the blood of the previous dynasty flowing through his veins and didn't have some use, he would have killed the man instantly!
Was this guy’s head full of stinky dung? Who was the person in front of them? She was one of the pillars of the Great Ming Dynasty——Imperial Prince Xu’s princess consort. After their plans succeeded, they absolutely couldn’t keep Imperial Prince Xu alive. If they slaughtered her husband, did they really expect her to go along with them? He was truly too naive!
However, this wasn’t the time to broadcast his ambitions to the world. Eunuch Yuan shrilly shouted at the black-clothed men, “Are you all dead ah? Why aren’t you loosening the bonds on the great imperial envoy?”
After finally getting her limbs liberated, Xiaocao rubbed her shoulder. Luckily, she wasn’t hurt down to her bones. However, she couldn’t escape from having a nice bruise form there.
“Young Miss, are you okay ah?” Wutong accidentally used her previous form of address for her in her anxiety. Chunhua moved into a guarded position and stood in front of the two of them.
Yu Xiaocao noticed that Wutong was holding her left arm and had a face full of worry. She rushed over to look at the maid’s arm. She found out that it was only dislocated and maneuvered it back in with a practiced motion.
When Eunuch Yuan saw this, he raised a white eyebrow and smiled, “I almost forgot that the great imperial envoy is skilled at diagnosing and treating people. Everyone says that those skilled in medicine are also skilled in poison. In order to preserve my and my master’s safety, we will have to carefully search the great imperial envoy’s body. Please forgive us, your excellency!”
Eunuch Yuan didn’t deliberately ‘embarrass’ her and had a woman clothed in black search her from head to toe. Even the snack pouch at her waist had been searched through. This little activity truly did turn up a few interesting things.
Eunuch Yuan casually picked up a small bottle and read the label, “High-level wound balm——hm? There’s even a high-level wound balm? Ah, I know now. It’s the legendary wound balm that’s not sold to outsiders and it’s a holy medicine that’s only given to the people around you. Nine Turns Golden Elixir? Heals internal injuries and is even more effective than Medicine King Valley’s recovery pill. Was that brat Su Ran dragged back from the King of Hell after taking this pill?”
Eunuch Yuan narrowed his eyes. It looked like they really did need to leave this particular official alive. It wasn’t because she had skills in planting and raising crops but because she could make these medicines.
“I heard that you were preparing to concoct a life-elongating ‘prolonging life pill’, is that right?” Eunuch Yuan arrived in front of Xiaocao and looked at her with great interest. His cold eyes seemed to be slithering around her like a disgusting snake and Xiaocao couldn’t help but feel goosebumps rise on her arms.
“That’s right.” Xiaocao had always thought that people with something missing were never truly right in the head. Naturally, her Sir Su was an exception to the rule. Thus, she didn’t believe that being confrontational with Eunuch Yuan was the right choice. Before her husband found them, she needed to keep herself very safe, so she replied in a very obliging manner.
Eunuch Yuan asked with great interest, “When do you plan on concocting this? How long will it take? How much life can one pill give?”
“The efficacy of the prolonging-life pill naturally depends on the rarity and value of the ingredients used. For example, if you use some ordinary ginseng and reishi mushroom compared to using hundred year old or even thousand year old variants, there would naturally be a big difference between the two. The more inferior types can only prolong life by about three to five years. The better types can give a person one to two more decades without any issues!” Yu Xiaocao threw out a bait. She needed to preserve her safety first before making other plans.
Eunuch Yuan’s eyes lit up. He only looked to be around forty but his head full of white hair revealed his true age. He was one of the great experts of the previous dynasty and was even older than the emperor emeritus. He was getting close to eighty.
In this era, he was already considered quite long-lived. After all, those who practiced martial arts kept their bodies in tip-top form. However, time eroded all things, including the body. Eunuch Yuan was well aware of this reality.
He was wildly ambitious and desperately wanted to recover the previous dynasty so that he could be the power behind a puppet emperor. Unfortunately, time was not on his side…if he could extend his life by another twenty years, he would be able to reach his cherished goal. Eunuch Yuan’s heart became more excited at this prospect.
“If all of the ingredients are prepared for you, how long will it take for you to make?” Eunuch Yuan’s power had flourished all these years, so he naturally ended up with quite a number of good things in his hands. Even if he couldn’t take any out now, with his connections and wealth, it’d be very easy for him to come up with a full set of ingredients for the prolonging-life pill.
“A total of forty-nine days!” Yu Xiaocao saw that Eunuch Yuan’s face had twisted and hurriedly added, “The more precious a pill, the more time it needs to be made. Just think, one needs to purify the medicinal ingredients, make sure the ingredients are harmoniously incorporated together, shaping the pill…all of these require time. If someone told you that you can get it in three to five days, they were definitely trying to trick you!”
Eunuch Yuan wasn’t well-versed in making meds, so when he heard her explanation, he was mollified. He even told her to give him a list of ingredients and then had his subordinates go prepare what was needed.
“Chief Steward, a group of authorities are here. They say that they are searching for a group of criminals and need to go through our residence!” The door to the hidden room opened and a very ordinary looking person in nondescript clothing entered. The expressions and mannerisms of this person were not any different than those of ordinary servants in ordinary households.
Eunuch Yuan revealed a scornful smile and replied in a gentle voice, “Then allow them in to search around! We are law-abiding citizens and will cooperate fully with the authorities.”
Outside the hidden room, Zhu Junyang took a group of soldiers and entered into Jinling’s largest silk merchant’s residence, which was owned by the Chen Family. They began to search the area from top to bottom.
Governor Fan ordered, “Everyone keep their eyes open and search carefully. You can’t let a single corner off!”
Chen Guang, the head of the Chen Family, was a middle-aged man in his fifties with a long beard. When his two sons got the message, they hurried over and personally escorted the authorities along to every corner and cranny of the Chen Family’s residence. All of the male servants had also appeared in the outer courtyard.
Chen Guang and his descendents all had the proper reaction to this situation. All of them were a bit anxious but none of them seemed to be hiding anything more. They resembled the other families who had gotten their homes searched. They had the right level of nervousness but nothing else.
Other than the head of the Chen Family, Chen Guang, no one else in the family knew about the secret room in their warehouse. Furthermore, none of them had an inkling that all of the recent scary events were related to their family. Except for a select few that were carefully chosen and trained, the rest of the servants were all clueless and in the dark.
The people of the inner residence were also fooled! Even Chen Guang’s wife of decades didn’t even know that her husband was a secret supporter of the previous dynasty. This truly showed just how much he had endured and disguised himself. Thus, Zhu Junyang and Governor Fan were destined to fail here.
“If you discover any suspicious people, you need to report it immediately. Recently, make sure the guards patrol a bit more around the residence. That group of criminals only targets families who have a bit of wealth and status!” Governor Fan couldn’t help but leave a parting warning as he took his officers out.
The head of the Chen Family gratefully said, “Thank you, Your Excellency. This commoner will definitely have the guards patrol the area. If anything happens, we will immediately report it to the authorities!”
“Master, this is the last family! Did we get tricked by the tracks in the beginning?” After searching frantically for an entire day, they still had nothing to show. Hou Xiaoliang had become quite fretful.
