After this incident, Li Cheng'an's diligence surprised Fang Linyuan.

After having his wound bandaged and changing his clothes, he hurried back to Sijing Street, only to find that Li Cheng'an had tirelessly turned the entire Green Qi Building upside down, even inspecting the cellar where incense and aged wine were stored.

Fang Linyuan initially wanted to tell him that such thoroughness was unnecessary, but seeing his high spirits and the enthusiasm of the guards, he didn't want to dampen their morale.

In just one morning, the news of him risking his life to save a comrade spread among the sixteenth Guard. These usually pampered young masters seemed inexplicably moved to the point of being ready to pledge their lives to him.

Fang Linyuan found this amusing and let them continue their inspections.

Thus, by the afternoon, word had spread throughout Sijing Street.

It was said that the infamous playboy Li Cheng'an had inexplicably decided to crack down on Sijing Street, and several uncooperative foreign merchants were thrown into prison without question.

The shopkeepers and residents dared not provoke him. As soon as the sixteenth Guard arrived, they opened their doors wide, allowing them to inspect freely.

Fang Linyuan also specifically instructed them not to disrupt the shops and homes they checked and to offer compensation upon departure.

With this alternating approach of tough and soft tactics, the inspection of Sijing Street proceeded smoothly and quickly.

Li Cheng'an led the charge in the inspections while Fang Linyuan oversaw things from the sidelines. By the end of the day, he had heard a lot of gossip.

This was due to many shops and the most famous entertainment venue on Sijing Street displaying the sign of the Chu Trading Company.

When they arrived at a large mansion, Fang Linyuan noticed that the adjacent medical clinic also had a Chu Trading Company sign. He casually asked about it, and the nearby guards began to chat away.

It turned out that the owner of the Chu Trading Company wasn't actually surnamed Chu. Over the years, they had opened shops all over the capital and even along the Grand Canal to Jiangnan. By last year, the Chu Trading Company had even obtained a permit from the Ministry of Revenue to open a shipyard at the new ferry terminal along the canal.

Everyone speculated about which powerful figure supported the company. Some said it was backed by two princes, while others thought it was a renowned noble in the capital. Theories abounded, but unexpectedly, the company's owner mysteriously died overnight.

As it turned out, the owner wasn't some high-ranking noble but an overambitious merchant whose successful business had provoked the wrong people.

Just when everyone thought the Chu Trading Company would collapse, it remained rock solid in the capital despite the absence of its owner. Even the new shipyard at the ferry terminal was being constructed in an orderly fashion.

Fang Linyuan listened with great interest.

"So, does that mean there's another master behind this trading company?" he asked.

"We don't know," the guard replied. "Some say there's another person behind it, while recently there's been talk that the entire Chu Trading Company has been taken over by another wealthy individual. There are all sorts of rumours, especially since this new owner doesn't have the surname Chu."

"What surname, then?" Fang Linyuan inquired.

"Supposedly, it's Zhu," the guard said. "But from Jiangnan to the capital, we've never heard of any wealthy individual with the surname Zhu making such a significant move."

Fang Linyuan chuckled and nodded. "Maybe it's just an pseudonym."

"Could be..."

As they chatted outside the mansion, they saw Li Cheng'an coming out with the guards, looking perplexed.

"What is it?" Fang Linyuan stepped forward and asked.

Li Cheng'an glanced back and said, "It's a huge mansion, but there's not a single person inside. It's very strange."

Fang Linyuan frowned and looked at the mansion.

When they had arrived, no one had opened the door. The household was known to be that of a famous Turkic merchant who sold exotic fabrics, yet the shop had been closed for several days.

The situation was indeed odd. After some thought, Fang Linyuan agreed to Li Cheng'an's suggestion to break down the door.

There were no records of them visiting their shop or leaving the city, and it had been several days without any news. This was peculiar.

Moreover, in such a large mansion, there should have been at least a dozen servants. Even if the master was away, there should have been someone to guard the door.

"I'll take a look," Fang Linyuan said, pushing past the guards and striding inside.

Li Cheng'an followed him into the mansion.

The mansion was large, with multiple courtyards and spacious layouts.

This seemed to be a habit of the Turkic people. Even though private livestock were not allowed in the capital, they still left ample space for raising cattle and sheep.

"Was the door locked from the inside?" Fang Linyuan asked Li Cheng'an.

Li Cheng'an scratched his head and looked back at the wide-open door.

He had been so focused on breaking in that he hadn't noticed if the door was locked.

He craned his neck to look at the doorway, and Fang Linyuan gave him an exasperated glance. Following his gaze, he pointed to the door.

"You even broke the door latch. Doesn't that mean it was locked from the inside?"

Li Cheng'an had a look of sudden realization.

"If the door was locked from the inside, how come there's no one inside?" Li Cheng'an asked again.

"That's why this mansion is so strange," Fang Linyuan said as he stepped into the main hall.

He pushed on the cabinets and walls in the hall, finding them all solid. After inspecting them, he said, "Let's check the back courtyard."

"Are you looking for a hidden door?" Li Cheng'an asked.

"A hidden door might lead outside the mansion," Fang Linyuan said, frowning. "But given the strict regulations on roads in the capital, it's more likely that there's a secret room we haven't found."

Li Cheng'an's eyes lit up with interest.

Fang Linyuan raised his hand and called over two of the sixteen guards. He instructed one to go outside and notify the others to secure the mansion's perimeters tightly and the other to go to the government office to retrieve the records of this household.

Meanwhile, Li Cheng'an had already taken the lead with a team of people, entering the main house in the backyard to privately investigate.

Searching for hidden doors didn't require any special skill, only careful attention to detail. Seeing him looking like he was hunting for treasure, Fang Linyuan didn't stop him and let him search freely.

Meanwhile, Fang Linyuan himself circled around the house, and finally reached out and felt around on the table.

There was a thin layer of floating dust, indicating that the room hadn't been cleaned for many days.

Yet everything around was neatly arranged.

At that moment, a distant scream pierced the air, coming from Li Cheng'an.

Fang Linyuan looked up and saw Li Cheng'an stumbling out from a side room, pale as a sheet, trembling all over, unable to speak.

"What's wrong?" Fang Linyuan hurried over, frowning.

Next to Li Cheng'an, another guard came out, with a pale face, pointing towards the side room behind him.

"We found it... General, there's a shelf in there, and inside is a hidden door!" the guard said.

"What did you see?" Fang Linyuan walked straight over.

But Li Cheng'an grabbed his arm.

"Dead bodies!" Li Cheng'an stuttered. "Inside... it's full of dead bodies!"

*

The entire family of this Turkic merchant had been killed inside the secret chamber.

Fang Linyuan immediately summoned a coroner, who estimated that these people had been dead for about seven or eight days.

Seven or eight days, just a few days before the Flower Festival.

Could it be that the gang of Turkic bandits had kidnapped this family and used their mansion as a base? This seemed like a plausible explanation; the Turkic family was murdered, their mansion seized, and the gang used it as a stronghold to gather forces and cause chaos at the Flower Festival.

But...

Fang Linyuan pressed his fingers to his temples.

There were still many inconsistencies. If they killed the merchants, why would they bother preparing horses and clothes? And if they didn't seize the mansion, why would they kill their fellow tribesmen before the incident?

Moreover, since they left, the entire courtyard had been cleaned spotlessly, with even the traces of horse-keeping almost completely erased. Who could have done all this?

Fang Linyuan couldn't understand, while Li Cheng'an beside him was still vomiting uncontrollably.

"Get away from the scene if you're going to vomit," Fang Linyuan advised. "If you damage the evidence, are you going to compensate with your head?"

Li Cheng'an straightened up and looked at him with a look as if he was seeing a monster. "Aren't you afraid?" he muttered.

Fang Linyuan glanced at him.

"Didn't you inquire about how many Turkic people I've killed?" he asked.

Li Cheng'an couldn't say anything and mumbled, "Yan Wang" (NT: 阎王, or Yama, the King of Hell).

*

The guards who went to the yamen quickly returned.

Sijing Street was under the jurisdiction of the Upper Shanging Prefecture yamen. Upon receiving the news from the Sixteenth Guard, the yamen immediately dispatched an official with all the documents related to this household to Fang Linyuan.

While the coroner was still examining the bodies, seeing the official looking solemn, Fang Linyuan followed him to the front hall, sat down at the table, and opened the documents brought by the official.

"These cloth merchants have been in the capital for over thirty years," the official said, pointing to one of the documents for Fang Linyuan to see. "Their entry permits, business certificates, and annual tax payments are all recorded here. I personally checked before sending them over, and there are no discrepancies."

Fang Linyuan carefully examined the documents and found them to be as the official described.

The next document was a collection of all the records about this merchant family in the yamen. As Fang Linyuan opened it and read, he found that in over thirty years, there were only a few minor disputes related to business transactions, such as incomplete payments, which were all trivial matters.

"So it seems that their family has been operating legally for many years?" Fang Linyuan noted.

The official smiled. "We have always strictly supervised Sijing Street, so there shouldn't be any problems."

But then Fang Linyuan asked, "Did they have any dealings with the Turkic side?"

"Not really," the official explained. "There was only one relative who came from the Turkic side a few months ago, and there's a record of it in the yamen."

Saying this, the official took out another document and handed it to Fang Linyuan. "Please have a look, General."

Fang Linyuan took the document and saw the name, age, and circumstances of the relative recorded on it. The young man, thirty-two years old, named Wu Liqi, came to seek refuge with his relatives after his parents died in a snow disaster on their pastureland.

Fang Linyuan furrowed his brows, feeling that something was amiss.

"Is there anything else?" Fang Linyuan asked.

"The rest are just some trivial matters. Their family is large, and they have opened several shops in recent years. But due to the strict control over foreign merchants in the capital, many businesses were not allowed, so there are some pending cases piled up in the yamen..."

Fang Linyuan took the stack of documents.

He flipped through page by page, and finally stopped at a page of documents rejected by the yamen.

Carriage and horse business.

It was a document from this merchant family to the yamen, applying for a certificate to open a carriage and horse business in the capital.

It stated clearly that they already had fifty carriages and horses prepared. The number of horses needed for fifty carriages was exactly enough for them to escape on horseback that night.

Fang Linyuan immediately sent someone to investigate.

Soon, the Guards who went out to investigate came back with news, saying that half a month ago, this family bought a horse ranch in the capital and stored many carriages there. And the one who paid for the horse ranch was precisely Wu Liqi, who had travelled a long distance to seek refuge with his relatives.

However, the horse ranch he bought was now empty, with only a few old horses and broken carriages scattered around.

Fang Linyuan understood where the strangeness lay.

It was common for Turkic pastures to suffer snow disasters, but when he returned to the capital last year, there hadn't been any snow in the northern border.

Turkic people always had the ability to deal with snow disasters. The number of people who died due to snow disasters in a year was not many, especially for someone who could buy a horse ranch so easily.

At that moment, the coroner came out.

"How many bodies in total?" Fang Linyuan asked him.

"General, a total of forty-one," the coroner said.

Fang Linyuan's brows furrowed slightly as he picked up the documents from the table.

The entire family, including servants and maids, totalled forty-one.

But Wu Liqi, the one who bought the horse ranch, was not among them.

*

The palace soon received the news. In the evening, a eunuch came to invite Fang Linyuan, saying that the Emperor wanted to see him.

Fang Linyuan followed into the palace. As he arrived at the door of the Imperial Study, a eunuch who was guiding him smiled and said that His Majesty had been waiting for him for a long time.

Fang Linyuan entered the hall.

The Imperial Study was filled with the faint fragrance of golden-silk Canaan incense. The palace attendants and maids around were as still as statues, and in the vast hall, Emperor Hongyou was flipping through memorials.

Fang Linyuan entered and paid his respects. Just as he was about to kneel down, Emperor Hongyou said, "Sir Fang, please rise. Someone, fetch a seat."

Guided by the attendants, Fang Linyuan sat down on the side. He saw Emperor Hongyou put down the memorials and smiled at him. "Thanks to you, in just a few days, the mastermind behind these barbarians has been identified."

"This person could travel a thousand miles from the Turkic lands to the capital, gather the bandits with great effort, and must have been directed by someone else," Fang Linyuan said upon hearing this.

But Emperor Hongyou nodded with a smile.

"You need not worry, Sir Fang," he said. "When this person entered the capital, each pass through the cities was recorded in the registries of various prefectures. I have sent messengers to relay his information to all the relay stations. As long as he appears again within the territory of Daxuan, he will be captured on the spot."

Fang Linyuan nodded in agreement. "Your Majesty's wisdom."

"Now that this case has been understood, the people of the capital can finally live in peace," Emperor Hongyou said with a smile. "Sir Fang, this is all thanks to your efforts!"

Fang Linyuan quickly stood up.

"Your Majesty overpraises. This humble is unworthy of such honour," he said respectfully.

"Please sit down," Emperor Hongyou smiled. "I originally invited you into the palace to receive a reward, but it seems I've ended up restraining you instead."

With that, he raised his hand, and Huang Wei, who was beside him, carried a tray covered with red silk and smiled as he walked to Fang Linyuan's side.

"General, please," Huang Wei smiled with joy all over his face.

Fang Linyuan looked up and saw Emperor Hongyou nodding at him with a smile. He reached out and uncovered the red silk on the tray.

The shining gold ingots almost dazzled Fang Linyuan's eyes.

He quickly stood up and knelt down, bowing to Emperor Hongyou, "How dare this humble accept such a valuable reward from Your Majesty!"

Judging by the weight of the tray, there were at least a hundred taels of gold ingots on top. If he had won a great victory or defeated enemies, receiving such a reward would be reasonable. But for such a small case in the capital, why would Emperor Hongyou reward him like this?

But Emperor Hongyou said, "When I say you can accept it, you can naturally accept it."

"But..." Fang Linyuan was about to decline, but Emperor Hongyou interrupted him with a smile.

"I originally had something to entrust to you, but if you refuse, it would be difficult for me to ask," Emperor Hongyou mentioned.

Fang Linyuan looked up at Emperor Hongyou.

Emperor Hongyou continued, "Now that the whereabouts of those Turkic bandits are unknown, I can't rest easy until they are captured. I was thinking of letting you continue to serve as the General of the Sixteenth Guard to guard the capital for me. When everything settles down, I can rest assured. By then, it won't be too late for you to leave."

*

But he couldn't leave.

As he left the palace, Yan Ting, who was carrying a large tray of gold, was smiling happily, while Fang Linyuan, riding on his horse, couldn't smile.

Pushed and pulled, he was starting to feel like he would never leave the capital for the rest of his life.

Back at the Fuguang Pavilion, Yan Ting asked Fang Linyuan whether he wanted to put these rewards in his private treasury or in the mansion's storage. Fang Linyuan touched the shiny gold ingots on the tray and asked after a moment, "Is General Zhuo going to bid farewell tomorrow?"

Yan Ting nodded, "General Zhuo is leaving tomorrow."

Fang Linyuan nodded and said, "Leave ten taels to send to Sister-in-law Chang's place, and pack up the rest. Tomorrow, let General Zhuo take them to Yumen Pass."

"General?" Yan Ting looked puzzled. "Aren't you keeping any for yourself?"

Fang Linyuan shook his head.

But after a moment, he remembered something and sighed resignedly.

"Leave another ten taels for the Princess and send them over tomorrow."

Early the next morning, Zhuo Fangyou came to the Anping Marquis's Mansion to bid farewell to Fang Linyuan.

Meeting him in the main hall of the mansion, Zhuo Fangyou couldn't help but sigh when he saw the white bandages wrapped around Fang Linyuan's hands. "It seems that the dangers in the capital are almost the same as those outside the passes."

Fang Linyuan didn't say much. He handed over the border strategy he had written a few days ago and the letters from his father and brothers to Zhuo Fangyou.

"These are loaned to you. Feel free to look through them, but when I return to Yumen Pass, you must return them all to me without missing one," Fang Linyuan said seriously.

Zhuo Fangyou knew that most of these were relics from Fang Linyuan's father and brothers and didn't dare to be disrespectful. He solemnly replied, "Rest assured, even if I lose my life, I won't lose any of these documents."

"Don't speak ill omens," Fang Linyuan said, then handed a heavy box to Zhuo Fangyou.

As soon as Zhuo Fangyou opened it, he was dazzled by the glittering gold inside.

"You... so much money, you dare to give it to me but don't dare to take it yourself!" He was startled and quickly pushed the box back.

"It's not for you," Fang Linyuan said. "There are many refugees at Yumen Pass, and it's almost spring. Take it and exchange it for silver to buy seeds and farming tools for them."

Zhuo Fangyou sighed and took the box of gold ingots from Fang Linyuan's hands. "Rest assured, I will make sure this money reaches the hands of the people at Yumen Pass on your behalf. But... does your wife know about such a large sum of money? Will she agree?"

Fang Linyuan twitched his lips.

He was about to answer when, at that moment, a maid's voice came from outside the door, announcing, "Princess is here."

Zhuo Fangyou hurriedly hid the box behind him as if he were a thief.

Fang Linyuan was a bit speechless. "What are you hiding? Did you steal it?"

As they spoke, Zhao Chu had already entered the room. Surrounded by maids, ‘she’ looked radiant. Fang Linyuan saw Zhuo Fangyou blush immediately and hurriedly lowered his head, too embarrassed to look at Zhao Chu.

So spineless. Fang Linyuan thought. When Zhao Chu's identity is revealed, you'll be scared out of your wits.

"Bow to Princess," Zhuo Fangyou hurriedly greeted Zhao Chu.

Zhao Chu smiled faintly. "General, please rise." His voice was calm, like the morning dew on peonies, without a trace of a man's voice.

"I heard that General is leaving the city, so I came to send him off," Zhao Chu continued, glancing at the side.

He saw a maid holding a small wooden box and walked forward, handing it to Zhuo Fangyou.

Zhuo Fangyou dared not reach out to take it.

Fang Linyuan looked at him, feeling a bit disappointed in his weakness. He reached out and took the wooden box from Zhao Chu, then opened it to find a stack of silver bills inside, with the top one being a thousand taels.

Fang Linyuan looked at Zhao Chu in surprise.

Zhao Chu 's eyes were slightly lowered, silent. It was Juansu next to her who spoke up, "Princess has heard about the cold border and the hardships of the people, so she wanted to do her bit. Whether it's for building houses for the people or providing food, I'm sure our Marquis's 'Thirteen Strategies for Border Stabilization' has made it clear. So, we leave it all to General for disposal."

Zhuo Fangyou next to them was dumbfounded.

Fang Linyuan was also shocked and took a long time to come back to his senses.

This stack of silver bills amounted to tens of thousands of taels no matter how you looked at it. Yet, Zhao Chu gave them away so casually?

But Zhao Chu just quietly looked up at him, their eyes meeting for a moment, and then he showed a faint, perfectly timed smile.

"Marquis, please give the silver to General quickly," he reminded.

Only then did Fang Linyuan snap out of his daze and handed the box of silver bills to Zhuo Fangyou.

Zhuo Fangyou held the small box in his hands, staring at Fang Linyuan for a moment, tears shimmering in his eyes.

"What a virtuous couple, truly virtuous!" he exclaimed, turning around to bow deeply to Zhao Chu, his voice ringing out loud.

"I thank Sister-in-law on behalf of the people and soldiers of Yumen Pass!"

 

--

The author has something to say:

The highest affirmation from Zhuo Fangyou: Sister-in-law!

Fang Linyuan: From now on, you'll be more prominent than me as a brother! ← conspicuous ←

 

Translator : DarNan