Hidden Identity

After Zhao Zhi was done questioning Lu Yuxue and left Prince Ping’s residence, he did not return to Qingxian immediately. He went to visit the crown prince and questioned his head administrator, Qiu Wenkang, again.

After that, he secretly entered the palace.

The emperor dismissed everyone, leaving Zhao Zhi in the main hall alone with him for two whole hours. It was only when he started coughing non-stop and had to take some herbal soup that Zhao Zhi finally left.

What happened during this time, what they said, what they did or what arrangements they made were completely secret.

After that, Zhao Zhi had to attend to other matters pertaining to work, so by the time he left Bianliang again, it was already close to dawn. The first gongs of the day were sounded and the gate to the city was opened.

Those who got up early moved very quickly. A lot of people left the city first thing in the morning, so it was too crowded to ride a horse. Zhao Zhi had no choice but to get off his horse and lead it through the crowd.

The road leading out of the city was long and it went past the Guans’ residence.

He happened to look at the house and spotted Guan Qing outside the main gate.

Because of Song Caitang, he couldn’t help but keep tabs on the Guans as well. He didn’t know Guan Qing personally and had never spoken to her, but he knew about her personality and her experiences. Guan Qing was a talented businesswoman whose stare and stance was just as fierce and confident as a man’s, a smart and shrewd woman in a league of her own. Even in an industry where many intelligent men struggled to keep afloat, she was able to navigate with ease and protect her entire family well.

It was very early in the morning and she was surrounded by several managers outside the gate. She also seemed a little angry. What was going on?

It wasn’t appropriate for him to approach her without Song Caitang around, but he was a skilled martial artist with heightened senses, so he just had to walk a little more slowly and he could pick up their conversation.

“…Apparently Prince Ling’s residence is having a party tomorrow and they’ve bought way too many things, so it’s taking up half the freaking street. The process of just delivering and receiving goods is going to take at least until noon…”

“If the party’s tomorrow, then they could always just make an order now and get the goods delivered over the course of the day. Would it kill them to get the stuff a little late?! Everyone’s busy delivering goods at this hour! Yet he’s being so unreasonable and has blocked everyone’s way!”

“Eldest Young Mistress, we can’t do anything about a prince’s residence carrying out instructions and we can’t fight them, so we can only go around them… What do we do now? Is there any other route we can take? We’ve promised to deliver some of these goods by a certain time today. If we’re late, we’ll have to compensate the customers according to the contract!”

It was very common for problems to crop up at the last minute like this in Guan Qing’s line of work and she was very used to it after working for so long. She would even find it weird if too many days went by without a hitch. That was why she could still remain calm as she quickly tried to think of a way to solve this issue.

She started thinking through all the places in Bianliang she was familiar or unfamiliar with, how many connections she could make use of, what resources she could move around…

It didn’t take long for Zhao Zhi to understand the situation. He knew that Guan Qing was capable enough to come up with a solution by herself, but since he had found out about her problem, he felt that he ought to help where he could.

So, he gave one of his guards some instructions and the guard nodded before running off to carry out those instructions without interrupting the meeting outside the Guans’.

Zhao Zhi too, went on his way after giving instructions and did not turn back at all.

The Guans’ house was considered a little small and plain compared to the luxurious mansions of Bianliang, so it didn’t look like it belonged to a wealthy merchant family at all.

But this place was Song Caitang’s home.

There was a point in time when Zhao Zhi couldn’t understand how Song Caitang was able to live so harmoniously with the family and build such strong bonds in such a short time even though she did not live with them from a young age.

On the contrary, despite growing up with Lu Yuxue, he only saw through her this year…

Time could be a wonderful thing, because one could enjoy and gain many things. But time could be a cruel thing too. There were things that others would not talk to you about. Things that they would just cast aside when they wanted to.

Thankfully, he never had any romantic feelings for Lu Yuxue at all.

He finally made it out of the city gate. He got back onto his horse and cracked his whip to make the horse gallop quickly back to Qingxian, leaving a trail of dust behind.

He wondered how far along Song Caitang was with her skull restoration…

His girl always had new and clever ideas that made him look at her in a new light.

As he thought about Song Caitang, his lips couldn’t help but curl upward into a smile.

While Zhao Zhi was busy, Wen Yuansi and Qi Yan didn’t just sit around and do nothing. They used the methods they knew best to get more information.

Everything continued to revolve around the secrets in the Count of Peace’s household, including how the fierce mistress of the house dealt with the concubine who was desperately trying to escape.

Most people were excited to hear and talk about the scandals of these prominent families, so even though several years had passed, a lot of people could still remember. While some of the details they remembered might be untrue or highly exaggerated, there was no smoke without fire. If one was careful enough, you’d gather some clues.

Wen Yuansi was more focused on Zeng Deyong. Zeng Deyong was a count, but Wen Yuansi was also an official now, so it didn’t seem strange for him to ask about the count.

He recorded everything he remembered about Zeng Deyong. What he did, when he did them, what expressions he had, when he was happy and when he was angry… After that, he analyzed the details slowly to pick out anything that stuck out and investigated those parts.

In this process, he found something really important.

The box with secret drawers.

He had a good memory and remembered the Lu Guangzong case he worked on with Song Caitang back in Luanze. That case involved not just the current victim, Fourth Missy Gan, but also another person – Niu Xingzu.

Niu Xingzu had passed away quite young and his involvement in this case was rather unique. He was a carpenter with excellent skills and he had made a box for Lu Guangzong. That box looked pretty from the outside, but it actually had hidden drawers inside. Only the one who designed it or had the design would be able to find what was hidden in the drawers.

Lu Guangzong was the one who commissioned Niu Xingzu to make this box and he provided Niu Xingzu with the design too. Fourth Missy Gan was in a relationship with Niu Xingzu back then, which was how she knew about the existence of the box as well as the existence of its blueprint.

And unlike his reputation as an upright official, Lu Guangzong turned out to be a corrupt official who took bribes and had a secret stash of wealth that he secretly shipped elsewhere. There was definitely something bigger going on and the mastermind was definitely someone very powerful.

His rank was too low back then to conduct any further investigation on this matter, but it was a fact that Lu Guangzong was in cahoots with someone, and this box and its blueprint were important evidence.

Back then, Zhao Zhi had taken the little box. And now, it turned out that Zeng Deyong had the same little box!

What did that mean?

Zeng Deyong had proven to be nothing like the laidback count who only indulged in pleasures all day that everyone thought he was…

Was he also a member of this group?

Wen Yuansi didn’t want to end up accusing an innocent party, so he checked again and again several times with many different people to confirm that this was indeed a very special box that was very difficult to make. Zeng Deyong had to look for several people before he found someone who could make it.

“Count Zeng… Who in the world are you, exactly? And what have you done?” A cold glint shone in Wen Yuansi’s eyes as he narrowed them slightly.

While he was still thinking about that, Qi Yan returned. His brows were raised and he had a grim look on his face. He also seemed rather angry as he slammed the table hard with his palm. “That Sang Zheng isn’t some good guy at all!”

Wen Yuansi asked, “Why do you say that?”

“Do you remember the case we worked on together in Luanze?” Qi Yan picked up the teapot on the table and downed the entire pot. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and continued, “The one with Lu Guangzong?”

Wen Yuansi narrowed his eyes. “Of course I remember.”

He was just thinking about it because he found a connection between Zeng Deyong and that case. And now, Qi Yan was mentioning it too? Could it be…

“Sang Zheng has something to do with that case?”

Qi Yan snorted. “I don’t know if he had anything to do with the murder, but he has something to do with the gold pieces!”

“The gold pieces?” Wen Yuansi raised an eyebrow. “The truckloads we dug out from Lu Guangzong’s private pond?”

“That’s the one!” Qi Yan narrowed his eyes. “Back then, we couldn’t find any more clues beyond the gold pieces. We didn’t know if that was the first batch or if there had been more batches, who the gold was going to or how it was being shipped. Later on Brother Zhi mentioned that it might have been shipped via maritime routes, so it could be connected to the Green Gang or the salt shipment routes used by the government…”

“In any case, we still haven’t gotten to the bottom of this matter so I don’t have much information on it, but I’m somewhat friends with the current leader of the Green Gang and it’s not hard to get some of the workers on the routes to talk if you have a bit of money. No matter how low profile that Sang Zheng might be, he’s a human who needs to eat and shit too. As long as he’s appeared somewhere, others would notice him and I’d get information!”

Wen Yuansi cut in, “So, you managed to ask about—”

“That’s right!” Qi Yan patted his own chest. “I asked about every detail! Every truth! As clear as can be! Five years ago, Sang Zheng came to Qingxian very quietly. He didn’t seem to be here to do anything, but actually, he was here to send a shipment off, or perhaps he was helping to make sure it passed through without a hitch… Either way, a large ship went through Qingxian and that ship was filled with gold pieces! Someone even spotted Sang Zheng secretly carrying a few large pieces to his base in the night, to keep them for himself!”

“There were other foreigners on that ship and they spoke a different language, so the locals couldn’t understand!”

Qi Yan’s palm hurt from how hard he was slamming the table repeatedly. “Something’s wrong somewhere! Someone might have really betrayed the country!”

Wen Yuansi raised an eyebrow and muttered, “This Sang Zheng might be a coordinator of sorts…”

The two men exchanged angry looks.

A huge amount of money and foreigners? Was someone trying to milk this country dry?!

Qi Yan raised his suspicions, “Perhaps that Fourth Missy Gan knew too much, so she was silenced?”

She had been part of the Lu Guangzong case and she was also part of this case. It would be strange not to kill her, in fact.

Wen Yuansi nodded as he clasped his hands together. His thoughts went further than Qi Yan’s.

If there was a bigger picture than what they could see, then what was the role of the body buried in the yard?

This man had been well trained, extremely resilient, and was hunted down without mercy… He probably wasn’t part of this conspiracy.

Qi Yan scratched his chin and frowned. “But there’s only so much Fourth Missy Gan even knows. Brother Zhi, you and I, have done all the questioning. She seems pretty removed from this matter…”

“We can’t just stop at ‘seems’. If we can’t figure it out, it just means we haven’t found enough clues.”

After he said that, Zhao Zhi walked in.

Qi Yan leaped up immediately. “Brother Zhi, you’re back! I found new clues! And they’re really important ones!”

Zhao Zhi stared expressionlessly at him. “I overheard your entire conversation earlier.” He turned to Wen Yuansi, “It’s not just Sang Zheng, right? There are issues with Zeng Deyong too, right?”

“Yup,” Wen Yuansi nodded. “Remember the little box with secret drawers in the Lu Guangzong case? Zeng Deyong has one too.”

Qi Yan almost leaped through the ceiling. “What?! He’s connected to this too?!”

“There’s one more thing I want to tell you guys,” Zhao Zhi held Qi Yan down to stop him from hopping about, then placed his notes on the table. “18 years ago, a lot of people were around during that bandit raid on Beiqing Mountain.”

“Besides Zuo Xiuwen and the person Lin Feizhou is looking for from the previous case, Fourth Missy Gan, Zeng Deyong, Sang Zheng, Madam Wei, Qiu Wenkang were all there too.”

The entire room fell silent for a moment.

Qi Yan was shocked. He scratched his head hard. “But… but why? Why? What’s going on? Wasn’t it a bandit raid?! Why would the wife of a rich man like Madam Wei be there?!”