The Nine Guards subordinates dispatched to track that group returned, saying the opponents were extremely skilled at concealing themselves and were quickly lost.
Tie Ci thought about Feiyu’s earlier hand gesture, hoping there was more to this matter, and could only set it aside for now to summarize recent developments with Xiahou.
Xiahou said: “We’ve been stirring up trouble for the Xiao family’s second branch – releasing snakes today, adding bugs to their rice tomorrow, disturbing them constantly. We made the second branch feel they were being tormented by Fourth Master, and since they were already discontented, they’ve built up quite a belly full of anger. Eighth Master Xiao’s leg improved somewhat, so he went to the county to relax. We arranged for some fun-loving brothers to accompany him and play, extracting quite a bit of information, all recorded here.” He smacked his lips regretfully. “Originally wanted to incite him to go to the capital to accuse his uncle of being heartless, but this kid has some brains and didn’t agree. In the end, he only made trouble at home – too cowardly.”
The newly promoted deputy commander stepped forward, saying: “Those children from the orphanage have all been placed. Of the abandoned infants taken in, the attractive ones were kept while the unattractive were sold directly. Those kept were well-trained, and once trained were sent to various officials and wealthy gentry – some locally, some to the capital. We’ve recorded those sent locally and preserved evidence, just waiting for your word to intercept them. Those sent to the capital travel far with complex handovers. A secret letter just returned today with the receiving residences.”
Xiahou laughed: “So this isn’t an orphanage but a high-class child brothel.”
The deputy commander said: “More than that. There are also those infants sent to the capital. The recipients’ identities are even more secretive. We’ll report together when we hear back.”
Tie Ci had already learned about the infant bone cauldrons from Dan Shuang and felt reality truly challenged human moral boundaries. She had originally thought this orphanage was just a human trafficking and prostitution training ground, hoping only to gather evidence, find opportunities to expose the Xiao family’s true face, and rescue these children. She never imagined there would be such abhorrent things as infant bone cauldrons.
When those high court officials ate human flesh and drank human blood, didn’t their consciences ache?
Too bad the Poison Maniac was dead – otherwise capturing that old monster would have been ready-made evidence. Who was the person who killed the old monster? His head and face were tightly covered, and Tie Ci hadn’t had a chance to notice his appearance earlier. But clearly the opponent was very hostile toward her, stealing everything from the old monster while still thinking about taking her life. Unfortunately, he escaped.
Tie Ci ordered investigations into that poison-covered black-clothed person, and someone accepted the mission and left.
Tie Ci looked back at the great river with its rolling waves and sighed: “Pity about the embankment and fishing tax matter – we couldn’t preserve evidence. Otherwise, whether the Xiao family or the local government officials colluding with them, we could have rooted out a whole bunch of malignant tumors.”
Suddenly footsteps approached from behind, and someone said slowly: “That’s not entirely true.”
Tie Ci turned around, saying joyfully: “Xiaoxiao, you’re alright!”
Seeing Gu Xiaoxiao approach, everyone familiar with his nature scattered in all directions. Only then did Gu Xiaoxiao relax completely, raising his head and pulling out a ledger from his robes to hand to her.
Tie Ci took it and flipped through, her expression surprised and delighted.
“You actually…”
“Since the Harbor Office people deliberately acted as if they trusted me, they inevitably had to let me handle some affairs. I recorded their purchasing procedures, cash flows, amounts, personnel, etc. during that period, and calculated the number of Patrol Office and Battalion soldiers participating in the dredging. I discovered both the Patrol Office and Battalion in Dongming were significantly over-staffed, and the silver needed to support these extra troops seemed to match the fishing tax discrepancy. Not to mention the county office and Harbor Office used every possible means during tax collection – using heavy weights to collect more, tampering with scales. For example, for one tael of complete silver, they openly demanded one tael and two qian for smelting loss, but secretly used heavy weights to add two more; or they overpriced silver currency – one tael of silver should convert to 800 wen of coins, plus maximum smelting loss should be around 920, but Dongming calculated it as 1,000…”
Listening, Tie Ci wasn’t particularly surprised – manipulating taxes was already a chronic disease of every dynasty. But today she felt her eyes opened wide to things like defaults, delays, recording large bills as small receipts, privately increasing smelting fees, measuring grain with pointed tips and kicked bushels, local chiefs and security heads seeking private profit during collection, adding various water fees, shoe fees, food fees, deity fees… extracting every drop of marrow, using every possible means.
Gu Xiaoxiao magically produced another ledger, quietly slipping it to Tie Ci. When she saw the cover, her eyes narrowed.
“The fishing tax register! Wasn’t this torn up!”
Gu Xiaoxiao bloomed with a shy yet proud smile: “When they captured me earlier, I saw Fourth Master Xiao’s chest bulging as if stuffed with account books or such. I had a flash of inspiration, pretended to stumble into him, and felt this ledger out. As for what’s on him, that’s an account book I carry with me – they’re all standard government-issued ledgers that look pretty much the same…”
Tie Ci clutched the ledger, elegantly and joyfully applauding him.
Only Gu Xiaoxiao, who had grown up with ledgers and abacuses and was incredibly familiar with such things, could have such keen perception.
She had thought the fishing tax register was destroyed and didn’t regret it – after all, people were always more important than anything else. Who would have thought there would be another village after the dark willows and bright flowers.
But for Gu Xiaoxiao, who would never approach within three feet of others, to actually steal something from someone’s robes – what difficult struggles must he have gone through.
“Xiaoxiao, you should return to the capital quickly. The Xiao family has suffered this loss and will definitely make trouble for your father. You need to hurry back to be a witness.”
Gu Xiaoxiao nodded, then said regretfully: “Unfortunately, when that merchant sent people to deliver bluestone, though I kept signed evidence, I imagine it won’t be of much use. This matter will probably still be used by the Xiao family to make articles… I was too trusting.”
“Even if you had kept evidence, the Xiao family could say you had colluded with them. Those in power have plenty of reasons for fabricating evidence.” Tie Ci flipped through that stack of evidence, thinking she would continue investigating afterward. She currently didn’t plan to return – these matters needed to be entrusted to reliable and capable people in the capital to follow up. Give them to Gu Xiaoxiao?
He had already been troubled enough, and she had dragged him and the Gu family into this face-to-face conflict. She really shouldn’t drag people in too deep.
But Gu Xiaoxiao actively reached out to take those things: “Since I’m returning to the capital, let me take these. Whatever needs to be done afterward, you say it and I’ll do it.”
Tie Ci pulled back her hand when suddenly Xiahou strode over, saying: “There’s a carrier pigeon message from the capital.”
Tie Ci opened it to see extremely beautiful handwriting – muscular like Yan Zhenqing’s yet graceful like Liu Gongquan’s, with free-spirited charm. Only a few brief words: “If you trust your teacher, hand over everything.”
Tie Ci raised an eyebrow.
So Master He had sent a letter.
She hadn’t even become his disciple yet, but he was already boldly calling himself her teacher.
Tie Ci thought this person was truly unscrupulous. Setting aside his grudges with the iron-surnamed imperial family, his own entanglements with Lingquan Village, and how Lingquan Village seemed connected to Tong Rushi, while Tong Rushi’s identity and position were clearly opposed to the imperial family – with so many ambiguous unclear connections, he actually dared to volunteer.
Dan Shuang vaguely knew about these complications and said hesitantly in a low voice: “Master…”
Tie Ci smiled, gathered all the evidence together, wrapped it properly, and handed it to Xiahou, saying: “Highest classified urgent delivery to the capital. Along with those prisoners, all to be handed over to Master He.” She also handed him a diagram and a package, “Help me make something roughly like this too.”
Xiahou Chun glanced at her, weighed the small bundle, and left.
Meeting Dan Shuang’s somewhat uneasy and confused gaze, Tie Ci smiled.
Trust those you employ, don’t employ those you can’t trust. As a superior, being hesitant and suspicious was not a good quality.
She considered herself fairly decisive, except for one matter…
Tie Ci stood up, gazing at the red sun about to burst forth on the horizon, and let out a long breath.
Feiyu – feather of heaven, freely soaring.
What kind of face and heart do you have?
…
Before a campfire in a dense forest, Feiyu sat with his head bandaged, drying his clothes, having already changed back to men’s clothing.
Zhao San and Mu Si had already reunited with him and were reporting on their journey’s circumstances. He also briefly described what had happened tonight. Hearing that his male disguised as female had been exposed, Mu Si couldn’t help clicking his tongue: “What did she say? Wasn’t she furious? Didn’t she kick you to death on the spot?”
“How could she bear to?” Feiyu said smugly. “She couldn’t pity me enough.”
Mu Si said coldly: “If you’re not afraid, why did you pretend to be dead and kidnapped to escape?”
Feiyu sneered at his debunking guard: “What do you know? This is precisely the most awkward and conflict-prone moment. Better to avoid it for now – when we’ve both calmed down somewhat, it won’t be too late to face each other again.”
Mu Si: “Right, continue deceiving to gain her sympathy and worry, to dilute your guilt.”
Zhao San chuckled.
He could see through his master’s thoughts – wasn’t he just afraid that confronting her in her anger would hurt their relationship? So he used this self-harm stratagem to escape first. Under her pity and worry, her concern would gradually exceed her anger and dissatisfaction. Once her anger subsided, this cunning person would reappear.
Truly wicked.
Feiyu’s face was expressionless as he mentally considered 108 ways to slaughter guards, saying: “What guilty conscience? Didn’t she deceive me too!”
Zhao San also marveled: “It’s not like we haven’t seen women disguised as men before. No matter how well they disguise themselves, their gaze, gait, and various details inevitably have flaws. With careful observation, you can discover them. After all, they’re women – their performance in many things differs from men. But this one – forget about gaze, gait, and ear piercings – her tone of voice, manner of conduct, she’s exactly like a man! I never even thought in the direction of women.”
Feiyu sighed: “I even touched her chest. At the Li residence in Ziyang, I was puzzled why she wasn’t affected after being drugged, but that chest was flat and hard. That person acted with such masculine vigor that I automatically explained it as her holding her breath and not taking the drug. Now thinking back, obviously it was because the drug doesn’t work on women.”
Mu Si: “No need to be envious – you disguised as a woman and fooled her just the same, taking plenty of advantage too.”
Feiyu: “…”
After a long moment, he said ominously: “Better than someone who cuts holes in walls at night to peep at young ladies.”
Mu Si: “…”
After a moment, he stood up, kicked aside the obstructing Zhao San, and left.
With the annoying argumentative guard gone, Feiyu lay back comfortably, his head still dizzy with the world spinning. He dreamily wondered: what would she look like in women’s clothing?
Author’s Note: We won’t be separated for long – after all, there’s still wife-chasing to do.
The first update was already posted last night due to the mix-up.