“Lu Daren! Lu Daren! Lu Daren…”
Jinxia raised her voice and shouted again, but it was useless. Feeling frustrated, she stopped calling and she started pacing back and forth in front of the prison door, constantly thinking of ways to go inside.
A moment later, she still hadn’t figured out a way but she saw YangYue approaching with big steps and she headed towards him.
“Turns out you’re here, what happened?” YangYue asked her.
Jinxia first glanced at the guard, then pulled YangYue aside and whispered, “How come you’re here too?”
“I heard an explosion, I went to look for you but you weren’t there, so I guessed you must’ve run here…What happened?”
“I can’t go in. What happened is still unclear, they say there were people who wanted to break into the prison… The horse stables were blown up first, then it was the turn of the prison door.” Jinxia looked at YangYue with a meaningful stare, “Lightning mines and a young master who is not short of money.”
YangYue, while listening to her words, had already understood the hidden meaning behind them. His eyebrows furrowed and after a moment he said: “This way… Isn’t it a bit excessive?”
Jinxia approached him, maintaining her voice low, “What’s worse is that, last year, this prison just added an iron door that was a few inches thick. The explosion might not have been able to damage it and the prisoner could have been locked in between.”
YangYue was shocked, “Then…”
“This is JinYiWei’s territory, we can’t enter, so we can only wait for Lu Yi to come and ask about the situation.” Just as he finished talking, Jinxia knocked on his head, “We can’t count on him, he deliberately didn’t bring me inside. He’s not going to tell us anything.”
“Is Lu Daren here too? You and Lu Daren came here together?” YangYue asked in surprise.
Jinxia waved her hand with impatience. “There’s no need to bring this up, right now. The point is that we can’t go in, standing here is also not a solution.” She stomped, then walked away.
YangYue couldn’t help it, so he quickly followed her.
The two of them walked around the walls of the provincial court prison. They didn’t have any knowledge of the prison layout but they could follow the gunpowder smell still lingering after the blast of the lightning mines, as well as the trail of the remaining smoke in the night sky for roughly pinpointing the location of the prison.
“It should be right here.” Jinxia frowned, looking at the high walls.
YangYue leaned against the wall and sighed: “There’s no need to think about it, you won’t be able to get in, you can’t afford to offend JinYiWei.”
“I know.”
Jinxia said the word under her breath. With the help of the moonlight, her eyes inspectioned the surroundings, looking for clues.
Not far away, there were many scattered arrows: the tip of her lips raised slightly, she laughed and snorted, “They didn’t catch anyone!”
YangYue picked up an arrow and examined it. He understood what Jinxia had meant: the one who broke into the prison had escaped for sure, JinYiWei was unable to chase him; that was why they had shot so many arrows.
Nearby, there was a flickering light. Jinxia brought her head closer to the light and squatted on the edge of the wall to check the object between the moss: it was a pearl, although not large, but perfectly rounded and shiny.
“Jinxia.” YangYue called her.
“Yes.”
That pearl felt a bit familiar to her and she continued to look at it without turning around.
“Jinxia.” YangYue called her again, his tone a bit harsh.
“Yes, yes.” Jinxia held the pearl on her fingertip and while standing up, she bowed her head to look at the object again with the utmost attention. All of a sudden she realized, “I remember it now, this is…”
“Jinxia!” YangYue called out to her in a higher tone of voice.
Surprised, Jinxia turned around and she freezed on the spot. Four cold JinYiWei stood there: YangYue had been pressed on the ground by them. She turned around again, and two other JinYiWei were now standing behind her.
“Brave thieves, you dare to come back! Arrest them!”
The leader’s hand waved firmly, without even questioning their reasons, and the two JinYiWei’s people behind Jinxia headed straight for her and bent her arms back. They held her with all their strength: Jinxia grimaced in pain.
“We are also officials, you’ve made a mistake, Darens.” Jinxia whispered, “We are LiuShanmen’s people from the Capital, we can show you our official plates. Da Yang, hurry and take out your plate!”
YangYue, whose head was pressed to the ground, lifted his head and said in a frantic voice, “I left in a rush, I didn’t bring it.”
“I have it, I have it. Daren, let go of my hands, I will show you my plate…” Before she finished her words, they put more pressure on her back, causing her more pain.
“You female thief, you’ve blown up the horse stable and the prison, what other tricks are you trying to play?”
It turned out that she was the one who used the lightning mines! Jinxia endured the pain coming from her back, still trying hard to explain, “If the Darens here don’t believe me, you can go ask Lu Yi, Lu Daren. We came here with him from the Capital.”
As soon as the two JinYiWei’s guards heard Lu Yi’s name, they started feeling doubtful and loosen their grip on Jinxia’s back a little.
Nonetheless, Jinxia and YangYue were being dragged inside the prison jurisdiction. Before reaching the prison, they ran into Lu Yi and Deputy Head Yin.
“Daren, report! These two were found sneaking around the prison in the southern alley, and their behaviour was suspicious. Our people are saying that they could be the accomplices of the earlier thieves.” The leader of the group of JinYiWei reported the situation.
“Lu Daren, it’s a misunderstanding, please explain to them who we are.” Jinxia quickly asked Lu Yi for help.
Lu Yi was still speechless. Deputy Head Yin already knew that Jinxia had come there with Lu Yi, therefore he shook his hand, signaling his people to release them.
“These two are police officers, Liu Shanmen from the Capital, and came to Yangzhou to investigate a case with me.” Lu Yi spoke up and explained to Deputy Head Yin.
“From the beginning, we’ve said everything was a misunderstanding. You guys were wrong.”
Jinxia rubbed her aching arms, annoyed, and looked at the JinYiWei next to her.
“However,” Lu Yi continued, “Those two are not my subordinates, I’m not familiar with them. If there is anything suspicious, do not hesitate to investigate it fairly.”
“Lu Daren! You…When the explosion happened, I was with you, how could I be the thief?”
Jinxia was about to spit blood. He turned his face faster than turning a page in a book. Just by having uttered those words, it already meant that he didn’t care about Jinxia and YangYue’s life.
“But what you did afterward, I don’t know. How could YangYue suddenly appear here?” Lu Yi’s facial expression was indifferent. He looked at her, a stare that both of them were very unfamiliar with, then he asked JinYiWe’s commander, “What is suspicious about the two of them in that little alley?”
“Reporting, Daren, the two of them…” The JinYiWei’s commander was a little hesitant, not sure of the relationship between them. He did not want to complicate the situation, “It turns out they are constables, then maybe they were investigating something. It’s just that one of the thieves was a woman, and there is also a woman here… It seems it was really a misunderstanding.”
YangYue’s head bowed so fast like a chicken pecking rice: “Misunderstanding, all of this is a misunderstanding. There was the sound of an explosion, then the light of a fire, hence we wanted to rush over here, in order to see if we could provide assistance.”
“Really, right, it’s a misunderstanding. The smell of lightning mines is very stinging, If I was the thief, surely I would have a residual smell of gunpowder on my hands. Just one sniff and you will know.” Jinxia made a signal to YangYue to raise his hands as well.
A JinYiWei’s commander approached and sniffed their hands, then faced the Deputy Head YIn and Lu Yi, shaking his head: “There’s no smell of gunpowder.”
“Why were you two in the back alley?” Deputy Head Yin asked.
“We heard there were thieves who broke into the prison, so we went to investigate in all areas, wanting to see if there were any clues.” YangYue answered.
“So, any hints?”
This question was asked by Lu Yi.
“…Nothing.” YangYue answered.
“Nothing.” Jinxia said while putting on a face of regret.
Lu Yi narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at her for a long while without saying a word. Under his gaze, Jinxia continued to hold up her regrettable face.
The JinYiWei’s guard, after hesitating for a moment, finally continued to report: “When the subordinate found them, it seemed she picked up something from under the wall.”
“This brother, you are… Truly thorough. Your future will be very bright!” Jinxia said while giving a dry laugh to cover up her guilt: “I, myself, almost forgot that I picked up a small item… I thought this object was useless.” Seeing the situation, she could not help but open her palm, and hand over the pearl.
Lu Yi took the pearl and stared at it for a moment. Jinixa peeked at Lu Yi to see his expression, but unfortunately it was plain dry. Even if a big storm passed by he would still be unaffected, making him unpredictable.
“Beizhe guessed that this pearl earring was dropped by a woman when passing by this place, so I didn’t consider it to be important.” She explained right away.
Lu Yi ignored her and turned to Deputy Head Yin, saying: “Sha Xiuzhu was caught by me, tonight, the thief came to save him. May Yan Yuan ask to be in charge of the handling of this case?”
“Of course.” Deputy Head Yin answered, “Don’t know if your subordinates are enough. If not, I can send some people to you.”
“Thank you Daren, I see this brother is quite meticulous and quick, I don’t know if he’s willing to help?” Lu Yi pointed to JinYiWei’s commander and asked.
“How can he refuse?” Deputy Head Yin commanded, “Gao Qing, from this moment on, you must listen to the orders of Lu Jingli, no slacking off.”
“Gao Qing understands.”
Deputy Head Yin went to Lu Yi and said: “He only has about five or six people, is it enough?”
“That’s enough,” Lu Yi said. “There are still two of these police officers, they’re here with me, so we will be doing a joint case investigation, even though their abilities still need improvement, for now I don’t need any more people.”
Hearing these two words ‘need improvement’, Jinxia had no power to curse him, but she rolled her eyes in silence.
“I see…” Although he didn’t understand why he wanted to use Liu Shanmen, Deputy Head Yin wasn’t going to continue to ask. “Later, if you need more people, tell me at once, don’t hesitate like between strangers.”
Lu Yi thanked the Deputy Head Yin again, bowed and left.
He walked two steps, stopped and looked back and said coldly to YangYue and Jinxia: “Why are you two not moving, planning to become spies in prison?”
“You…” Jinxia, who had been feeling mistreated, had lost her temper but she could only voice one word: ‘you’. After that she closed her mouth and walked along taciturn.
Beside her, YangYue didn’t forget his manners, saying goodbye to the JinYiWei guard that caught him, “You don’t need to escort me anymore, please stay, please stay…”
The JinYiWei guard looked at him blankly without taking a step.
When they returned to the post station, it was almost dawn. In a few hours, the sky would have been clear.
“Daren, if there are no more orders, Beizhe will leave first.” YangYue respectfully said to Lu Yi. Behind him, Jinxia was yawning all the time. She had no intention of saying empty words, she was too tired and just wanted to go back to her room now and sleep.
“Miss Yuan!”
Jinxia was still yawning, and Lu Yi increased his voice on purpose, startling her. “Daren, is there anything else?”
“Tomorrow you will go investigate Zhou Xian’s lover: when, where and how the two of them knew each other and how they were related, including the woman’s background, nature and character. The more detailed the better, everything needs to be investigated thoroughly.”
“Beizhe, Beizhe…” Judging from Lu Yi’s character, working with him was very intensive, and he was not a person who showed appreciation to others, causing her to feel distressed. “Beizhe’s ability is limited, Daren really doesn’t need to put up with my poor skills, especially since I still need improvement. It’s better to ask JinYiWei to do it, so it would not delay any important matters.”
After hearing her words, Lu Yi looked at her without saying anything.
YangYue, who was afraid of Lu Yi being offended by Jinxia, replied in her stead: “Tomorrow, I will go investigate and will definitely not disappoint Daren.”
“In Yangzhou there is a well-known orthopedic doctor whose name is Shen Mi. I have sent someone to inform him that he’s needed at the police station, so that he can check on Superior Yang’s leg disease.” Lu Yi said lightly, “Shouldn’t you be with your father?”
It was unexpected that Lu Yi had always remembered Yang ChengWan’s leg problem and even asked Shen Mi to see him. This was really surprising to both Jinxia and YangYue.
“Yes, of course you must.” Jinxia intervened. “Da Yang, you accompany the master and I will investigate the woman. Daren, do not worry, even if there were mouse holes in his house, I will investigate everything in detail, without missing the slightest clue.”
“As long as Miss Yuan can work with all her heart and concentrate fully,” Lu Yi was about to smile with an intention behind it, “for such a small matter, your abilities that still need improvement are sufficient enough to investigate.”
“Daren, no need for the praise…”
Considering that he called the doctor to look over the master’s illness, Jinxia was determined not to argue with him.
“Lu Daren! Lu Daren! Lu Daren…”
Jinxia raised her voice and shouted again, but it was useless. Feeling frustrated, she stopped calling and she started pacing back and forth in front of the prison door, constantly thinking of ways to go inside.
A moment later, she still hadn’t figured out a way but she saw YangYue approaching with big steps and she headed towards him.
“Turns out you’re here, what happened?” YangYue asked her.
Jinxia first glanced at the guard, then pulled YangYue aside and whispered, “How come you’re here too?”
“I heard an explosion, I went to look for you but you weren’t there, so I guessed you must’ve run here…What happened?”
“I can’t go in. What happened is still unclear, they say there were people who wanted to break into the prison… The horse stables were blown up first, then it was the turn of the prison door.” Jinxia looked at YangYue with a meaningful stare, “Lightning mines and a young master who is not short of money.”
YangYue, while listening to her words, had already understood the hidden meaning behind them. His eyebrows furrowed and after a moment he said: “This way… Isn’t it a bit excessive?”
Jinxia approached him, maintaining her voice low, “What’s worse is that, last year, this prison just added an iron door that was a few inches thick. The explosion might not have been able to damage it and the prisoner could have been locked in between.”
YangYue was shocked, “Then…”
“This is JinYiWei’s territory, we can’t enter, so we can only wait for Lu Yi to come and ask about the situation.” Just as he finished talking, Jinxia knocked on his head, “We can’t count on him, he deliberately didn’t bring me inside. He’s not going to tell us anything.”
“Is Lu Daren here too? You and Lu Daren came here together?” YangYue asked in surprise.
Jinxia waved her hand with impatience. “There’s no need to bring this up, right now. The point is that we can’t go in, standing here is also not a solution.” She stomped, then walked away.
YangYue couldn’t help it, so he quickly followed her.
The two of them walked around the walls of the provincial court prison. They didn’t have any knowledge of the prison layout but they could follow the gunpowder smell still lingering after the blast of the lightning mines, as well as the trail of the remaining smoke in the night sky for roughly pinpointing the location of the prison.
“It should be right here.” Jinxia frowned, looking at the high walls.
YangYue leaned against the wall and sighed: “There’s no need to think about it, you won’t be able to get in, you can’t afford to offend JinYiWei.”
“I know.”
Jinxia said the word under her breath. With the help of the moonlight, her eyes inspectioned the surroundings, looking for clues.
Not far away, there were many scattered arrows: the tip of her lips raised slightly, she laughed and snorted, “They didn’t catch anyone!”
YangYue picked up an arrow and examined it. He understood what Jinxia had meant: the one who broke into the prison had escaped for sure, JinYiWei was unable to chase him; that was why they had shot so many arrows.
Nearby, there was a flickering light. Jinxia brought her head closer to the light and squatted on the edge of the wall to check the object between the moss: it was a pearl, although not large, but perfectly rounded and shiny.
“Jinxia.” YangYue called her.
“Yes.”
That pearl felt a bit familiar to her and she continued to look at it without turning around.
“Jinxia.” YangYue called her again, his tone a bit harsh.
“Yes, yes.” Jinxia held the pearl on her fingertip and while standing up, she bowed her head to look at the object again with the utmost attention. All of a sudden she realized, “I remember it now, this is…”
“Jinxia!” YangYue called out to her in a higher tone of voice.
Surprised, Jinxia turned around and she freezed on the spot. Four cold JinYiWei stood there: YangYue had been pressed on the ground by them. She turned around again, and two other JinYiWei were now standing behind her.
“Brave thieves, you dare to come back! Arrest them!”
The leader’s hand waved firmly, without even questioning their reasons, and the two JinYiWei’s people behind Jinxia headed straight for her and bent her arms back. They held her with all their strength: Jinxia grimaced in pain.
“We are also officials, you’ve made a mistake, Darens.” Jinxia whispered, “We are LiuShanmen’s people from the Capital, we can show you our official plates. Da Yang, hurry and take out your plate!”
YangYue, whose head was pressed to the ground, lifted his head and said in a frantic voice, “I left in a rush, I didn’t bring it.”
“I have it, I have it. Daren, let go of my hands, I will show you my plate…” Before she finished her words, they put more pressure on her back, causing her more pain.
“You female thief, you’ve blown up the horse stable and the prison, what other tricks are you trying to play?”
It turned out that she was the one who used the lightning mines! Jinxia endured the pain coming from her back, still trying hard to explain, “If the Darens here don’t believe me, you can go ask Lu Yi, Lu Daren. We came here with him from the Capital.”
As soon as the two JinYiWei’s guards heard Lu Yi’s name, they started feeling doubtful and loosen their grip on Jinxia’s back a little.
Nonetheless, Jinxia and YangYue were being dragged inside the prison jurisdiction. Before reaching the prison, they ran into Lu Yi and Deputy Head Yin.
“Daren, report! These two were found sneaking around the prison in the southern alley, and their behaviour was suspicious. Our people are saying that they could be the accomplices of the earlier thieves.” The leader of the group of JinYiWei reported the situation.
“Lu Daren, it’s a misunderstanding, please explain to them who we are.” Jinxia quickly asked Lu Yi for help.
Lu Yi was still speechless. Deputy Head Yin already knew that Jinxia had come there with Lu Yi, therefore he shook his hand, signaling his people to release them.
“These two are police officers, Liu Shanmen from the Capital, and came to Yangzhou to investigate a case with me.” Lu Yi spoke up and explained to Deputy Head Yin.
“From the beginning, we’ve said everything was a misunderstanding. You guys were wrong.”
Jinxia rubbed her aching arms, annoyed, and looked at the JinYiWei next to her.
“However,” Lu Yi continued, “Those two are not my subordinates, I’m not familiar with them. If there is anything suspicious, do not hesitate to investigate it fairly.”
“Lu Daren! You…When the explosion happened, I was with you, how could I be the thief?”
Jinxia was about to spit blood. He turned his face faster than turning a page in a book. Just by having uttered those words, it already meant that he didn’t care about Jinxia and YangYue’s life.
“But what you did afterward, I don’t know. How could YangYue suddenly appear here?” Lu Yi’s facial expression was indifferent. He looked at her, a stare that both of them were very unfamiliar with, then he asked JinYiWe’s commander, “What is suspicious about the two of them in that little alley?”
“Reporting, Daren, the two of them…” The JinYiWei’s commander was a little hesitant, not sure of the relationship between them. He did not want to complicate the situation, “It turns out they are constables, then maybe they were investigating something. It’s just that one of the thieves was a woman, and there is also a woman here… It seems it was really a misunderstanding.”
YangYue’s head bowed so fast like a chicken pecking rice: “Misunderstanding, all of this is a misunderstanding. There was the sound of an explosion, then the light of a fire, hence we wanted to rush over here, in order to see if we could provide assistance.”
“Really, right, it’s a misunderstanding. The smell of lightning mines is very stinging, If I was the thief, surely I would have a residual smell of gunpowder on my hands. Just one sniff and you will know.” Jinxia made a signal to YangYue to raise his hands as well.
A JinYiWei’s commander approached and sniffed their hands, then faced the Deputy Head YIn and Lu Yi, shaking his head: “There’s no smell of gunpowder.”
“Why were you two in the back alley?” Deputy Head Yin asked.
“We heard there were thieves who broke into the prison, so we went to investigate in all areas, wanting to see if there were any clues.” YangYue answered.
“So, any hints?”
This question was asked by Lu Yi.
“…Nothing.” YangYue answered.
“Nothing.” Jinxia said while putting on a face of regret.
Lu Yi narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at her for a long while without saying a word. Under his gaze, Jinxia continued to hold up her regrettable face.
The JinYiWei’s guard, after hesitating for a moment, finally continued to report: “When the subordinate found them, it seemed she picked up something from under the wall.”
“This brother, you are… Truly thorough. Your future will be very bright!” Jinxia said while giving a dry laugh to cover up her guilt: “I, myself, almost forgot that I picked up a small item… I thought this object was useless.” Seeing the situation, she could not help but open her palm, and hand over the pearl.
Lu Yi took the pearl and stared at it for a moment. Jinixa peeked at Lu Yi to see his expression, but unfortunately it was plain dry. Even if a big storm passed by he would still be unaffected, making him unpredictable.
“Beizhe guessed that this pearl earring was dropped by a woman when passing by this place, so I didn’t consider it to be important.” She explained right away.
Lu Yi ignored her and turned to Deputy Head Yin, saying: “Sha Xiuzhu was caught by me, tonight, the thief came to save him. May Yan Yuan ask to be in charge of the handling of this case?”
“Of course.” Deputy Head Yin answered, “Don’t know if your subordinates are enough. If not, I can send some people to you.”
“Thank you Daren, I see this brother is quite meticulous and quick, I don’t know if he’s willing to help?” Lu Yi pointed to JinYiWei’s commander and asked.
“How can he refuse?” Deputy Head Yin commanded, “Gao Qing, from this moment on, you must listen to the orders of Lu Jingli, no slacking off.”
“Gao Qing understands.”
Deputy Head Yin went to Lu Yi and said: “He only has about five or six people, is it enough?”
“That’s enough,” Lu Yi said. “There are still two of these police officers, they’re here with me, so we will be doing a joint case investigation, even though their abilities still need improvement, for now I don’t need any more people.”
Hearing these two words ‘need improvement’, Jinxia had no power to curse him, but she rolled her eyes in silence.
“I see…” Although he didn’t understand why he wanted to use Liu Shanmen, Deputy Head Yin wasn’t going to continue to ask. “Later, if you need more people, tell me at once, don’t hesitate like between strangers.”
Lu Yi thanked the Deputy Head Yin again, bowed and left.
He walked two steps, stopped and looked back and said coldly to YangYue and Jinxia: “Why are you two not moving, planning to become spies in prison?”
“You…” Jinxia, who had been feeling mistreated, had lost her temper but she could only voice one word: ‘you’. After that she closed her mouth and walked along taciturn.
Beside her, YangYue didn’t forget his manners, saying goodbye to the JinYiWei guard that caught him, “You don’t need to escort me anymore, please stay, please stay…”
The JinYiWei guard looked at him blankly without taking a step.
When they returned to the post station, it was almost dawn. In a few hours, the sky would have been clear.
“Daren, if there are no more orders, Beizhe will leave first.” YangYue respectfully said to Lu Yi. Behind him, Jinxia was yawning all the time. She had no intention of saying empty words, she was too tired and just wanted to go back to her room now and sleep.
“Miss Yuan!”
Jinxia was still yawning, and Lu Yi increased his voice on purpose, startling her. “Daren, is there anything else?”
“Tomorrow you will go investigate Zhou Xian’s lover: when, where and how the two of them knew each other and how they were related, including the woman’s background, nature and character. The more detailed the better, everything needs to be investigated thoroughly.”
“Beizhe, Beizhe…” Judging from Lu Yi’s character, working with him was very intensive, and he was not a person who showed appreciation to others, causing her to feel distressed. “Beizhe’s ability is limited, Daren really doesn’t need to put up with my poor skills, especially since I still need improvement. It’s better to ask JinYiWei to do it, so it would not delay any important matters.”
After hearing her words, Lu Yi looked at her without saying anything.
YangYue, who was afraid of Lu Yi being offended by Jinxia, replied in her stead: “Tomorrow, I will go investigate and will definitely not disappoint Daren.”
“In Yangzhou there is a well-known orthopedic doctor whose name is Shen Mi. I have sent someone to inform him that he’s needed at the police station, so that he can check on Superior Yang’s leg disease.” Lu Yi said lightly, “Shouldn’t you be with your father?”
It was unexpected that Lu Yi had always remembered Yang ChengWan’s leg problem and even asked Shen Mi to see him. This was really surprising to both Jinxia and YangYue.
“Yes, of course you must.” Jinxia intervened. “Da Yang, you accompany the master and I will investigate the woman. Daren, do not worry, even if there were mouse holes in his house, I will investigate everything in detail, without missing the slightest clue.”
“As long as Miss Yuan can work with all her heart and concentrate fully,” Lu Yi was about to smile with an intention behind it, “for such a small matter, your abilities that still need improvement are sufficient enough to investigate.”
“Daren, no need for the praise…”
Considering that he called the doctor to look over the master’s illness, Jinxia was determined not to argue with him.
