The First Volume of Qīng Zhuàng Chapter 105: Li Dài Táo Jiāo

  "Toya, that's right, no matter what time it is, you can't forget that we are people of the grassland, we are people of the Harachin tribe, and we are descendants under the protection of Long Life Heaven. Brother and that noble guest have planned a big thing, if this thing succeeds, it will inspire the now fragmented tribes of the grassland to reunite under the great Khan's flag, reorganize their troops, and fight back to the Central Plains, at that time..."

  Just as he said that, a figure suddenly rushed over, snatched his basket and turned to run into the alley next door.

  "Ah!" Naina cried out.

  Just as Lakshen was momentarily stunned, the basket had been snatched away. Immediately afterwards, his sister let out a shrill cry. Lakshen hastily asked: "Sister, what's wrong?"

  Nanrentoya hugged her chest with both hands, her face red: "He... he touched me..."

  "This damn thing"

  Lakshen was really angry this time, and shouted loudly: "Little thief, don't run!" He then took off in pursuit down the alley. Passersby on the street saw the scene and gathered to chase after them into the alley. Naren Toriya was afraid that her brother would get hurt, so she wanted to hurry up and call out to him, but just as she took one step forward, her arm was tightly grasped by a sturdy and powerful hand.

  Nanrentoya turned her head and saw a big man wearing a woolen hat and a dogskin coat, with a curly beard under his chin, only revealing a pair of very good-looking eyes, with a slight smile said to her: "Miss, don't speak loudly."

  "You are... uh..."

  Naruto hadn't finished speaking when another hand clamped over her mouth, and she was dragged away at an incredible speed. The people in the alley who were watching the chase didn't notice a thing.

  Ximen Qing ran as fast as he could, with Lakshen hot on his heels, taking huge strides to catch up. Ximen Qing dodged and weaved through the streets, heading towards the more deserted areas. His appearance and behavior were exactly like those of a highway robber, and Lakshen had no doubts that he was chasing after a sly thief, eager to catch up with him quickly and teach him a lesson with his iron fists.

  But he chased and chased, and suddenly a person jumped out of the long corridor in front of him, lightly floating like a feather, letting West Gate Xing pass by, standing sideways, slowly raising his right hand, tightly holding a black leather scabbard, with an extremely fierce single-edged knife, on the hilt of which was a cat's eye, emitting a bewitching and intimidating light.

  Lakshen stood still: "Damn it, I've been cheated"

  The man with the knife spoke coldly: "Are you going to surrender quietly or do I have to take action myself?"

  Lakshen replied briefly: "Nonsense"

  He pulled out a gleaming curved knife from under his loose leather jacket and pounced on him with a fierce cry.

  This was a dilapidated mansion, at that time Beijing had not yet reached the point where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, and this house was originally located in a desolate area. After the family's downfall, others would have to clear out the damaged buildings if they wanted to buy the property, which was far less convenient than building on flat ground, so it had been left unsold for years. As time passed, only two rooms of the house remained standing, and the courtyard became overgrown with weeds, becoming a place where stray cats and dogs lived.

  In the courtyard, Xia Xiu stood there, in front of him were Peng Zikai and Xi Menqing, both with their heads bowed, the three of them silent for a long time.

  After a long time, Peng Ziqi finally summoned up the courage and said: "I... didn't kill him."

  "Xia Fu hummed and said: 'I know.'"

  Ximen Qing hastily said: "I didn't lay a hand on him."

  Xia Liu sighed: "I know he committed suicide, but what can we do now?"

  Ximen Qing said: "What's the big deal? He'd rather kill himself than be captured, it's clear he has a guilty conscience."

  "What kind of ghost is this? Do we know?"

  Ximen Qing rubbed his nose and didn't say anything else.

  The three of them were deep in thought for a long time, when Xia Jie's eyes suddenly moved. Peng Ziqi had been secretly observing his expression and immediately asked with a hint of hope: "Have you come up with a solution?"

  Xia Liu nodded and shook her head: "Let's try it out anyway."

  Nanrentoya was tied up in the only house that was still somewhat intact, and she was originally very frightened. But thinking of her identity, she calmed down again. That person didn't seem to be a lustful one, and she wouldn't suffer his insult. After figuring out her identity, he probably wouldn't dare to rob her either. The kidnapper of the Yan Wang Fu people, on this land of Beiping, did he still want to mix in?

  Naruto was comforting herself when she suddenly heard a hurried footsteps, accompanied by a humming noise, as if someone's mouth and nose were covered. The voice sounded somewhat like her brother's. Naruto immediately struggled to get up, but she was tied up and had a rag stuffed in her mouth, unable to call out.

  At this time, someone outside said: "Lakshen, what do you think we are? In the streets of Beiping, who dares to openly kidnap people on the street? What kind of person is that?"

  "Hmm, hmm......"

  The muffled voice suddenly became urgent, and then the man said: "That's right, we are from the Ministry of Punishment and Inspection, Madam. If your sister weren't a member of the Yanwang Fu, we wouldn't have to be so careful and disguise ourselves as Jianghu scoundrels. Lakshen, your case has been exposed, but now the official is giving you a chance to redeem yourself by telling us the whole story. If you cooperate, we'll let you off."

  You're just a small fry who runs errands for others, as long as we catch the real culprit, we won't make things difficult for you. Just look at how we're dressed and you'll understand. As long as you don't get in trouble with the law, you can do whatever you want. It's also a way for us to give some face to Yan Wangye from the Ministry of Punishment.

  Lakshen grunted heavily, still not speaking. The man continued, "Hmph, your mouth is quite hard, since you don't drink the wine of respect, then it's not my brother's fault. Come on, drag him into the courtyard and beat him severely. When he's willing to nod his head and confess, that's when we'll let him go."

  Nanrentoya listened anxiously, and in a moment, she heard a "puffing" sound coming from the courtyard, mixed with the changed tone of painful voices. The simple Nanrentoya believed everything she heard, she had entered the palace at the age of eight and was just a small maid serving tea and sweeping floors, occasionally going out of the palace to stroll around the market and see her elder brother, where would she know so many deceitful things?

  "What's big brother doing?"

  Nanrentoya anxiously thought, she vaguely knew that her brother's business was not something that could be seen by people, but although she had asked, her brother never wanted to talk about these things with her. She heard that her brother was beaten outside, and the sound of flesh hitting flesh pained her heart.

  "Brother is really something, brother has been talking about righteousness since childhood, would rather suffer himself than implicate others. Now being beaten so ruthlessly, in the cold winter, if he gets frostbite or chilblains and there's no one to take care of him, what will happen?"

  Nanrentoya was worried, when she saw the big-bearded man who had brought her back pull open the door and walk in, reach out to tear off the rag from her mouth. Nanrentoya immediately cried out: "Big brother, big brother..."

  "That man sneered and said, 'No need to call out, your big brother is very stubborn, he won't give in until he sees the real Buddha. Alright, let's just make him suffer for now, when he can't take it anymore, I'll stop and ask questions again. Miss, you are from the Yan Wang Fu, originally we wanted to let you off easy, us people who eat imperial rations don't want to deal with the phoenix and dragon sons either. But your big brother committed a crime, the judicial inspector has issued an order, if we can't crack the case on time, we'll get punished, no choice, sorry about that.'"

  "What do you want to ask my brother? What has my brother done?"

  "That person, accompanied by the dull 'humming' sound and painful groaning from outside the window, lazily snapped his fingers and said: 'It seems like you don't know anything at all? Then what's the point of me telling you?'"

  Nanrentoya suddenly remembered what her brother had said earlier and couldn't help but exclaim, "Could it be related to my brother's noble guest?"

  That person said with a seemingly smiling yet not quite smiling expression: "What noble guest is this?"

  Nanrentoya only had one relative, Lakshen. Her big brother was a man of his word, and she didn't want to get him into trouble for the sake of Jianghu's righteousness. So she hastily said: "I don't know either, my brother just told me that the person is from the grasslands, and also said that I saw him when I was young. My brother only said that he wants to do something big with that person, and also said that he needs my help, wants to take me home, and will tell me after meeting that person..."

  Nanrentoya said to this point, has been anxious to tears, choked: "Please, you, the officials, do not hit my brother again, he will not do anything that hurts heaven and reason..."

  Xia Yu observed her expression and thought to himself: "It seems that this little girl really doesn't know anything..."

  He immediately burst out laughing and changed his tone: "Of course, of course, we also know that your brother is actually just running errands, making some hard-earned money. If it weren't for this, we wouldn't have thought to investigate privately, and if we can let him off easy, then we will."

  But he doesn't know his place, since there's a case against him, even if the Yan Wang Fu finds out, they probably won't protect him just because of you, a small palace maid. Tell me everything your brother has told you, don't leave out a single word. Later we'll go and catch the person, as long as we capture the real culprit, your brother will be able to redeem himself, and it won't rely on your connections, there won't be any big problem."

  "Okay, I said, my brother said..."

  Nanrentoya recited to Xia Zhen what her brother had said, word for word. Xia Zhen thought for a moment and asked her some more questions. Nanrentoya answered without hesitation, confessing everything, then begged anxiously: "Sir, I've told you everything! Go catch that guest now, he's at my brother's house. Please spare my brother!"

  Xia Jiang shouted: "Halt the punishment, stop beating!"

  Outside the window, Ximen Qing, drenched in sweat, took off his outer garment and wrapped it around his arm, practicing "Big Smash Boulder Hand" on a half-broken stone mill. As he smashed and made oinking sounds, he heard Xia Chuo's words and let out a long breath, plopping down onto the millstone with a thud.

  Xia Liu said in the room: "Alright, we'll go catch the real culprit now. Once the murderer is caught and presented to the Surveillance Commissioner, we will release you siblings."

  Xia Xuan turned to leave, but Naren Tuo suddenly called out to him again. Xia Xuan hummed in response and raised an eyebrow at her. Naren Tuo said somewhat bashfully: "Officer, can you please not let my brother know... that it was me... who told you? He's a man who values fraternal loyalty..."

  Xia Yu looked at her for a moment and said slowly: "Don't worry, I absolutely won't tell him about this."

  "Things have gone back to normal."

  Xia Liu smiled wryly and said, "Lakshen invited his sister out, indeed wanting to pull her in to help them. The problem is, what do they want to do? This Natalya girl doesn't know at all, not even the identity of that person. She only knows that she knew him when she was young. We've been busy for thirteen years, but we still don't know what they're going to do."

  Ximen Qing also furrowed his brow: "This matter is troublesome, we've driven Lakshen to death, but we can't run to Lakshen's house to catch people. In a moment, the officials from the Northern Peace Prefecture will be all over the streets catching us. If you ask me, let's not bother with other people's business and hurry up and leave."

  Xia Liu gritted her teeth and said: "I won't give up. If I can't solve this mystery, I won't be able to sleep well for the rest of my journey."

  Ximen Qing glanced at Peng Zhiyuan standing beside him and coughed: "That's also to be expected..."

  Peng Ziqi didn't understand Ximen Qing's words, and only said to Xia Liu: "The problem is that we are now in a stalemate. Lakshen is dead, but it may not necessarily stop their plan, while we don't have the opportunity to figure out what they want to do. Looking at Lakshen's resolute appearance when he was about to be captured and immediately killed himself with a knife, those people are probably all desperate characters. Even if we catch another one, it's unlikely that they will confess."

  "It's precisely because of this that we can see they must have a major sinister plot."

  Ximen Qing's eyes rolled around, and he suddenly said: "How about that lovely silly girl in the house? If we can persuade her to do things for us, go and get those people's true intentions?"

  Xia Yu slowly said: "If Narenotoya went, but her brother didn't show up, how can we explain it? Except that he's already dead, there's no other reason that makes sense. Narenotoya is young and naive, just now she was deceived by us, if we want to make her do things for us, won't we let her see what happened to her brother with her own eyes? If she really saw her brother, wouldn't she hate us to death, would she still be willing to do things for us? Moreover, the corpse is left on the road, not in our hands, even if we want to pretend it's just unconscious and try to deceive people, it won't work."

  Ximen Qing glanced at Peng Zhiyuan again and said, "You just said that Na Ren Tuo Ya entered the palace at the age of eight. Except for her brother, she has never seen another member of her clan?"

  "Yes."

  Ximen Qing rolled his eyes and said, "A woman changes eighteen times, let alone when she was eight years old, still a little yellow-haired girl from the grasslands. In these years at Prince Yan's mansion, even if you don't say that she lived a life of luxury, it's still incomparable to her past. The change is enormous, which means those Mongolians waiting foolishly in Lakshen's house wouldn't recognize her appearance, right?"

  "What did you say?"

  Ximen Qing's eyes glanced at Peng Zhiyuan again, and Xia Bian immediately shook his head and said, "No."

  Peng Ziqi also understood and said resolutely: "Let me go, as long as I'm careful, there won't be any danger."

  "This isn't a matter of danger, but rather you're simply not good at deceiving people. Your brother just died, you should be overcome with grief, you should be frightened and panicked, can you really pretend to be like that? Suddenly seeing someone from your childhood, even if you don't recognize each other's appearance, once you exchange names, shouldn't there be some kind of reaction? You need to come up with a way to proactively get them to talk, participate in their plans, and extract their plot. This ability to think on your feet, speak to people in their own language, speak to ghosts in the language of ghosts... do you have it?"

  Xia Liu suddenly fell silent as he spoke to this point, his eyes fixed straight ahead without saying a word, as if possessed by an evil spirit.

  Peng Ziqing and Ximen Qing anxiously asked: "What's wrong with you?"

  Xia Liu said slowly: "I suddenly thought of a... super big scammer, maybe... she can do it..."

  PS: Still 95 votes short, haha, we are one step closer to that precious "Three Little Chrysanthemum", come on!