317 — Gone Missing

After the big show in the palace had ended, Zhao Zhi left the palace and headed straight for the teahouse.

He recounted everything that happened, every detail and every implication to Song Caitang, Wen Yuansi and Qi Yan. If everyone put their heads together, they would be able to think of what to do next.

But nothing could be done in just one day and they had to just keep working on it. If there was a mental block now, they had to find a way to make a breakthrough. Since Zhao Zhi still had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right about the empress, he had to keep working on identifying the problem. So, before they could find something concrete, each of them had to continue their investigation work and follow the plan.

But before they could continue their investigation, something happened.

Song Caitang went missing.

Zhao Zhi’s heart nearly stopped when he heard the news.

So, the premonition he had about danger approaching wasn’t coming from the palace or anything political, but this?

His expression turned to one of horror as he flew out of his room.

Song Caitang had gone missing while shopping with Guan Wan just one day after the palace banquet.

News about how Prince Ling had made a scene at the family banquet and the results of the paternity test had spread to the court officials, so everyone was talking about it and that had to be taken care of. Zhao Zhi had been at the banquet, so he had to take some responsibility for this matter too. Also, because he just felt that there was something off about the empress, he kept thinking about how to keep tabs on the empress and was focused on that. Besides, he had just met up with Song Caitang the day before and there had been no signs of danger, so he did not think it was necessary to be too careful.

Wen Yuansi and Qi Yan were also still thinking about what to do next and had also seen Song Caitang just the day before, so neither of them expected this to happen.

All three of them rushed to the Guans’. Guan Qing had already sent many servants out to search for her, but had come back with nothing.

Guan Wan’s eyes were red and swollen from crying and looked very pitiful. “I…I had just picked the ingredients I wanted and went to look for her, but…but I couldn’t find her…”

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes and said rather threateningly, “Tell me what happened in detail.”

Guan Wan knew that he was just worried and not angry with her but she couldn’t help but shudder in fear.

Guan Qing patted her gently on the shoulder and looked at Zhao Zhi solemnly, “Wan’er and Caitang went out together today on a whim without telling anybody else, so nobody could have known beforehand that they were going out or where they were headed and lay a trap.”

Guan Wan took a deep breath and tried to stop herself from shaking. “Neither of us is interested in makeup and perfumes, so we brought along enough servants and could only head to the east market… I wanted to look at cooking ingredients, while she wanted to look at book and other novelties… I was very distracted by the new batch of ingredients in the shop and did not pay Cousin any attention… She walked into another shop herself because she knew I would take a long time to pick what I wanted… This was how we always went shopping together and we’re used to doing this… But this time, after I had chosen what I wanted and paid for it, I couldn’t find her at all. Many shops said that she had walked in earlier, but had already left, so I simply couldn’t find her…

Qi Yan was very anxious. “She suddenly disappeared?”

Guan Qing frowned slightly. “I sent some people out to search for her, and the last one to see Caitang said that she had gone back to the shop where Wan’er was, probably to look for Wan’er. But a new batch of ingredients had arrived at the shop and a lot of people had gathered to purchase items, so nobody noticed how long Caitang was there, when she left or how she left.”

Wen Yuansi gaze flickered. “During this time she was outside, did anything special happen to Miss Song?”

Guan Qing replied, “She gave money to two beggars, chatted for a bit with an older lady who happened to be in the same shop, helped a young woman who was being bullied by a hooligan, and…she also ran into Lu Yuxue.”

She turned to look at Zhao Zhi when she mentioned Lu Yuxue. “Caitang doesn’t do anything to provoke her, but Miss Lu never likes seeing Caitang around and always feels the need to make snide remarks whenever she runs into Caitang. This time was no different. But Caitang graciously just responded politely and walked away. They did not interact further after that.”

“Caitang is not someone who acts rashly or insensibly, so she can’t have gone missing just like that for no reason. But no matter how hard I try to think about what could have happened or how hard we’ve searched for her, we couldn’t find any other clues and had no choice but to call three of you for help.”

It was clear from Guan Qing’s pale face and clenched fists that she was anxious and worried, but she knew that she had to remain as calm and rational as she could in order to think of how to resolve this problem.

She could not let anything bad happen to her cousin!

“Could that hooligan have kept tabs on her after she taught him a lesson? Would he have kidnapped her so as to demand ransom?” Qi Yan paced the room anxiously.

“It has been four hours since it happened,” Guan Qing shook her head. “If that was what the other party was after, a letter demanding for money would have arrived by now. But we haven’t received anything.”

Wen Yuansi nodded. “Besides, most of these hooligans would rather steal, scam or extort from others. Very few would kidnap someone like that. It would be hard for them to survive here if they were found out.”

In other words, the chances of that happening were almost zero.

He was more worried about a different sort of person who might bear a grudge, “The authorities often offend others when they crack a case, and they could be really terrible criminals. After a case is cracked, they’re not angry with themselves for committing such crimes, but they’re angry with the people who cracked the case…”

Could someone be taking revenge against Song Caitang?

Guan Qing pointed at Guan Wan and said, “My younger sister is young and the most simple minded among the three of us. I’m worried that someone might have fooled Caitang into thinking that something bad had happened to Wan’er and walked away with that person.”

If someone lied to Song Caitang and said that Guan Wan was in danger, it was possible that Song Caitang might have been overcome with worry and make an illogical decision.

But Zhao Zhi shook his head. He was fairly confident, “She wouldn’t be so irrational. If someone tried to use Guan Wan to sway her, the first thing she would do is confirm how Guan Wan is.”

But then again, she did return to the first shop to look for Guan Wan… So that was actually possible.

Qi Yan suddenly spun around. “And that Lu Yuxue! She ran into Tangtang coincidentally again? Why is she everywhere!”

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes slightly. “Alright, let’s not waste anymore time. Let’s split up to look for her and keep each other updated.”

…

Bianliang was the capital city of the country, so while it wasn’t like nobody locked their doors or people just left things anywhere, in general, the city was a safe one. The residents could go out anytime they wanted, and the rich and influential often brought along a lot of servants and guards just to show off, or because they needed manpower for running errands or shopping. Very few felt that their lives could be in danger.

But as the saying goes, some people are thieves all year round, but nobody deliberately protects themselves from thieves all year round. Few people thought they’d definitely get themselves killed if they went out and made sure they brought a lot of guards along. So, similarly, Song Caitang and Guan Wan often went out with just a large group of ordinary servants.

Zhao Zhi had sent some men to remain by Song Caitang’s side at all times. What happened at the Night Sanctum had terrified him, so he sent some of his guards to protect her in secret. But later on, Song Caitang asked him to take them away, so he did.

She had allowed the guards to follow her around for a very long time and had given Zhao Zhi sufficient time to get used to the idea that she was not in danger. She wanted him to see that there was no point in getting these men to follow her around all day. There were so many cases to investigate and so many complicated matters to look into. That was what these elite soldiers should be doing, not following her everywhere for nothing.

They talked about this for a long time. Song Caitang was insistent that it was not necessary and Zhao Zhi did feel that he was overreacting, so he recalled his guards. Who knew…

Zhao Zhi shook his head hard to shake off these thoughts and focused on searching for her.

There were no clues and very few traces to follow. The last place where Song Caitang was seen was indeed that ingredients shop. She had tugged on a pearl flower in her hair and left it in a corner as a sign that something had happened to her.

That flower was small and the shop was full of items, so nobody noticed it at all.

At that time, a huge batch of fresh ingredients had just arrived, so a lot of people had rushed forward to pick the best stuff. It was very crowded and nobody had the time to notice anything else. Nobody could remember when Song Caitang appeared and when she disappeared.

“You don’t know when a customer walks in and when a customer leaves? What if someone just walks out without paying?” Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes and glanced at the entrance. “Surely there would be someone watching at the door, right?”

When it came to things like this, the storekeeper was naturally nervous and quickly replied, “Yes, we had someone there. The people standing at both the front and back doors are my staff, but I’ve already asked them very seriously about this and they really didn’t notice the young lady you’re talking about… Miss Guan told us what she was wearing, and while she wasn’t wearing anything that would stand out, everything on her was of the highest quality, so anyone who had seen her would not forget…”

Anyone who had seen her wouldn’t forget? Then what if nobody had seen her?

Zhao Zhi paused, then turned to look at the cashier. “There were a lot of people at that time, and once a huge crowd has gathered, it’s not possible to look at everyone, right?”

The storekeeper wiped his sweat away. “That…is correct.”

“So, once someone has made payment, you stop watching them, correct?”

“You are indeed a very wise man. That is correct.”

Zhao Zhi then guessed that the person who took Song Caitang away had brought something to the cashier and paid for it first. “Bring me your ledger books.”

“Sir, that’s…that’s not possible,” the storekeeper wiped away more sweat, “I sell so many small items in small quantities, so I wouldn’t keep records of every transaction. Unless the customer has a huge order…”

In other words, there were no records.

Zhao Zhi frowned.

He went to look at the back door of the shop and found that it led to a fairly secluded path. There were wheel marks next to the wall, so someone had parked here before. The marks looked new, and it seemed to coincide with the time Song Caitang went missing…

But Zhao Zhi wasn’t the only one on the case.

Wen Yuansi rolled his sleeves up and brought some people with him to walk through Song Caitang’s route several times. Each time he ran into a new person, he would ask them questions and get as much detail as possible.

Qi Yan was good at gleaning gossip and eavesdropping on others, so he tried to find out where Song Caitang might have gone from the people along the streets.

Guan Qing wasn’t just sitting around either. She spent a lot of money to use every connection she had to search for her cousin. Cao Zhang did the same thing by using every legal and illegal connection the Green Gang had to search for Song Caitang.

Even Old Madam Bai, Guan Wan, Ji Yuanjia, Guan Song and Guan Lang were checking the streets, the river and absolutely anywhere they could get to, leaving no stone unturned.

Possibly only Madam Zhang remained calm. Or perhaps she wanted to laugh but didn’t dare to and suppressed her laughter.

So many groups of people were running around tirelessly and quickly, not stopping to rest even when they let exhausted…

They had almost ransacked all of Bianliang. All the residents were very curious. What in the world was happening?

…

When Song Caitang woke up, she found herself locked inside a room. Her hands and legs weren’t tied up and there was even tea and snacks on the table. Besides the fact that the door was locked and the only windows were too high and too small for her to look out of, it seemed like…she wasn’t being treated too badly?

The room wasn’t very big and it was furnished very simply, but the table and chairs were made from fairly high quality materials. The wood was good wood, but they had been used for a long time and had gone through quite a bit of wear and tear. The tea set was plain with no design and did not look special, but the shine it had and the smoothness of the porcelain told her it was not ordinary ceramic…

Song Caitang slowly scanned the room and fell into deep thought.

Even the substance that was used to knock her out earlier was not some cheap stuff.

The person who kidnapped her was not poor at all.

The room was very clean but not the most comfortable. It was also a little cold. Thankfully, it wasn’t winter time, so there was still sufficient sunlight coming in from the windows and she wasn’t going to freeze to death without a blanket at night…

She got up and walked around.

She didn’t feel unwell and nobody came in even after she made a bit of noise.

Why?

There had to be a reason why someone would want to kidnap her. They must want something from her.

Since nobody came despite making noise, she stopped wasting her energy and sat down at the table, closed her eyes and waited.

Two hours later, a deaf and mute servant came in. She couldn’t hear or speak, and no matter what Song Caitang said or did, the servant refused to look at her and just focused on the task at hand.

She came to deliver food to Song Caitang and clear the toilet behind the screen.

And when nobody had come even after the sun had set, Song Caitang figured it out.

Someone was trying to test her resilience.

This was the first time something like this had happened to her. But instead of feeling afraid, she felt rather curious. Usually, the target would be locked in a dark room, but this room was clearly not dark enough! The other party had underestimated her.

Were they trying to pique her curiosity? Make her anxious? Make her feel afraid?

Song Caitang smiled faintly as she straightened her dress out.

Alright then, she thought. We’ll see if you’re good at this, or if I’m better at holding out.

Since there was nothing else to do, she decided to run through and summarize all the cases she had been through so far, from the cases in Luanze to the cases in Bianliang, especially anything that was linked to the traitor they were looking for. When everything started, which part was connected to where… Every lead they had missed, every detail they might had overlooked, she sorted through them all and tried to see if she could find any other connections or possibilities.

She wasn’t worried for her safety.

The person who kidnapped her clearly didn’t want to kill her, so she would be fine for the time being. She knew her friends and family wouldn’t give up on looking for her and she believed in their abilities as well. She was sure that they would be able to find her, even though everything happened very quickly and she hadn’t been able to leave a lot of traces behind.

She was afraid that her emotions would affect her analysis, but she decided to relax and stop thinking about anything else besides the cases, and she slowly found that her head felt lighter and her thoughts became clearer. It was as though she could playback her memories and everything she had seen and heard appeared vividly in her mind.

The smile on her face slowly broadened.

Being imprisoned here wasn’t all that bad after all. The quiet environment was very helpful for thinking.