The courier ship that was responsible for transferring the birthday gifts was much bigger than she thought, the chests were kept in a room under the surveillance of guards stationed outside the door. According to Wang Fanxing, every two hours the guards by the door would be changed.
“The guards inside were not killed?” Jinxia was walking around asking questions.
“Nobody was killed, they all fainted on the floor.”
“Is it because of drugs? Or monsan medicine? Who was in charge of the food on board? Is the person still around?” She continued to ask questions.
The one who answered her was the banner-carrying officer. He glanced at Jinxia for a moment: she looked like a beautiful, young and naive girl, about seventeen or eighteen, but when she was asking questions, she sounded like an old woman. He did not dare to delay his answer: “Everyone on the boat eats the same food. After dinner, the guards were changed, then they didn’t eat anything else.”
There was a guard in front of them, lighting the path as they walked to the storage room. Jinxia walked slowly, while looking east then west, sometimes unhurriedly bending herself down to observe the path or stopping the steps of people, several times sniffing something. At last she happily said: “Da Yang, the smell of rice is pretty good, there’s a scent of green onion too, what do you think it is?”
YangYue joined in and sniffed: “They are having fried chicken eggs with leeks tonight.”
“Oh my, I’m hungry.” Jinxia suddenly realized.
“Are you not hungry?” YangYue teased her, as she entered the storage room where three or four guards were sitting on the floor: Their facial features were indeed indicating that they had been drugged.
Lu Yi entered after them, expressionlessly looking up and down the room: the room was less than three feet long, a width of approximately one foot, it had only one door and one window and the shape was the same as the other rooms on the ship.
“How many chests stored the birthday gifts?” He asked Wang Fangxing.
“In total, there were eight chests, not just gold, silver and other jewelry, but also paintings of calligraphy and silk clothes.” Wang Fangxing sighed, “Before leaving, Great General Qiu was constantly reminding me to be careful, this ship was only being used to transfer the gifts, there were no passengers, but who could have thought this thief so sneaky…”
Lu Yi ignored his complaints. He saw Jinxia squatting on the ground, her nails were scraping something on the floor, then she lifted it up to her nose to sniff.
There was wax oil everywhere on the ground. Evident footprints could be shown vertically and horizontally.
“Why is there so much wax oil?” Jinxia said to herself.
“Oh…this..is..” The banner-carrying officer quickly explained, “Because I was afraid that the calligraphy paintings, silk clothes and other items could not stand the humid air, so I deliberately used wax sealing, placing the wax oil along the sides of the chests. This matter was already reported to General Qiu.”
Wang Fangxing shook his head after hearing, “Yes, that’s right, the calligraphy paintings are very expensive, if there’s anything wrong with them it will be big trouble.”
“I can see that you guys are very careful.” Jinxia laughed a little; without even looking at them she took out of her pocket a small round transparent crystal plate and under the light of the fire she carefully examined the wax oil traces.
YangYue squatted down next to the fainted guards, leaning closer to their noses and mouths. After sniffing he felt disgusted and frowned.
Lu Yi raised one of the other guards’ arm, and placed his long, slender finger on the guard’s wrist, carefully checking his pulse and heart rate. Wang Fangxing’s face was full of worry and looked at Lu Yi, impatiently asking: “…How?”
After a few moments, Lu Yi put the guard’s arm down and said to Wang Fangxing: “His life is in no danger, wait another hour or two, he will wake up after the drug effect has passed.”
“Good, good.” Wang Fanxing was so tense that he clenched his fist, “Maybe they saw the thief, later they might be able to provide us some information.”
At this time, Jinxia had wiped away the wax oil sap; she then took a candle to light up the room and slowly stepped in, tilting her head a little to examine the scratches on the wall of the room and lowering to examine the floor carefully. Finally she stopped at the window, took the crystal plate out again and checked the thin window frames.
Wang Fangxing did not understand what the two constables were doing, seeing they were not moving fast nor slow but just wandering around, and not giving any instructions either. In his heart, he was panicking and being impatient: if Lu Yi hadn’t been there, he would’ve shouted at them and driven them out.
Since that night on the Xinfeng bridge, hearing Jinxia revealing the clues about the fortune-teller’s nail, especially now that he knew she was Yang ChengWan’s disciple, Lu Yi was eager to see for himself their tracking skills, so he was not in a hurry and patiently let the two of them slowly inspect the room.
The more things Jinxia looked at, the more doubts appeared in her eyes. After looking at YangYue for a while, she kind of understood why Yang ChengWan kept reminding them “don’t speak carelessly”. If the case had just been like that, it would have been boring. She stood up straight, with her mouth tightly closed, thinking if she should just go back to her room to sleep.
“Did you two discover something?” Lu Yi continued to observe, without revealing his expression.
“This…” Jinxia looked at YangYue, then slowly said: “the thief did not leave much clues, it seems we can’t help much.”
YangYue stood beside her and nodded, it was not clear if he nodded in agreement or was praising her for speaking up.
Wang Fangxing waved his hand, from their expression he seemed to understand: “This is not an ordinary case like catching chickens, but if you cannot investigate, it’s not a surprise, from the beginning I did not have any expectation from you.”
Jinxia yawned, feeling exhausted, not planning to argue with him who knew nothing of this, she pulled YangYue, planning to leave, but Wang Fangxing started talking to Lu Yi.
“I know for a fact that all cases in the capital are handled by JinYiWei and Liu Shanmen does not give any contribution, only in name, keeping a bunch of people who are unable to investigate and pushing every case onto you…”
Hearing his words, Jinxia immediately stopped, and turned her head facing Wang Fanxing, “Although I am not talented, it’s not that we do not have clues, but I’m afraid that Canjiang Daren cannot handle them.”
Wang Fangxing, from the beginning until now did not have a good impression of her, so he dryly said: “Those are funny words you said. I am a border guard, I have the ability to kill barbarians, isn’t it illogical to say I won’t be able to handle lowly thieves? You are just a small constable, don’t brag, if you have information, say them.”
“This chest is a black painted Zhangmu [ancient rectangular box]: 2.8 feet in length, 1.6 feet in width, and 2.1 in height, right?” Jinxia raised her eyebrows slightly while looking at him with a smile.
Wang Fangxing along with the flag bearer was momentarily stunned.
“Have you seen the chest?”
“Just making a speculation. There are many traces of wax oil on the ground, it’s hard to pretend not to know.” Jinxia continued to talk, “I said Canjiang Daren could not handle it because this group of thieves have help, are very arrogant, fearless and did not put Wang Fangxin and his army in the eye.”
*[Not respecting them or don’t care to, TN]
“How can you be sure?” Lu Yi observed her and asked.
Jinxia pointed at the scratches on the wall: “The walls of the room were scratched to that extent: it is clear such scratches were made while moving the chests, therefore, they could only do it with someone inside helping them.”
“How do you know these scratches were caused by the thieves? It could be from moving the chests inside the storage room.”
Jinxia gave Lu Yi the round crystal plate in her hand, gestured to him to see it for himself, then continued: “The direction is not the same, the scratches would not be the same either, look carefully at the subtle scratches.”
Lu Yi took the round crystal plate from her and accidently felt her warmth left on the object. He looked down: the crystal plate was of a nice small shape, the center of the sunken side protruding. Placing the crystal above the scratches, it magnified them so that they would appear bigger. In a point of a small scratch were the remnants of sawdust; the direction turned out to be correct as she’d described: it was pointing up, that stroke should have been from lifting the chest.
YangYue loudly coughed, signalling Jinxia to stop talking, after that he said: “Although we found some clues, this case is rather complicated, we are just small constables, lacking in skills, this seems to be done by a bunch of Jiangyang thieves, the number of people may range from four to six. Their work is proficient, it should be a recidivist, afraid of getting off the boat and going far away, not being taken over.”
Jinxia glared at him, then refrained herself from talking.
Wang Fangxing, who had been quietly listening, now finally spoke his thoughts, while continuing to nod his head: “This river has many branches, if the thieves have come down from the ship, how can they be traced? Now that the birthday gifts have been robbed, and the thieves can’t be traced, it’s really shameful to go back and see the general.”
Not caring about Wang Fangxing’s words, Jinxia joked a little: “Wang Daren should be more open-minded, must not do anything suspicious, otherwise it would be a shame for that thought of yours.”
“You… what do you mean?” Wang Fangxing looked at Jinxia, his eyes widened in anger.
“What she meant was, Wang Daren can work and be a subordinate of General Qiu, it’s like having a treasure and it’s not easy. We are very jealous, very jealous.” YangYue quickly opened his mouth to neutralize the situation, facing Wang Fangxing, “We are not talented and unable to help, I’m also asking for your forgiveness.” The implication of his words was for them to leave.
Because of them, Wang Fangxing seemed to have exhausted his patience. With a bit of annoyance, his eyes followed Jinxia and YangYue as they exited the room, then he faced Lu Yi and laughed dryly: “You see, these Liu Shanmen people? One eye full of excuses, and one eye only speak flattering words [on one side they come up with reasons while the other side they are being all nice], they couldn’t even finish this little work ”
Lu Yi coughed lightly, and bowed to Wang Fangxing, “Daren, don’t have to worry too much, wait for these guards to wake up, maybe they can turn things around.”
Wang Fangxing continued to put on a sad face, after respectfully instructing the flag bearer officer to take Lu Yi off the ship.
Back to the courier ship, the foggy and white marbled morning let out a chilly breeze.
“Huh! Master Xia, let it go for once, he thinks we’re vegetarians [weaks or easy to bully]!” Jinxia, in the cold air, pulled her neck and angrily said, “No respect for anyone!”
YangYue turned around and looked at the courier ship, then faced her: “Father repeatedly said not to talk carelessly, what did you say? Thankfully, I fixed the wordings, or else we’ll be in trouble.”
“Simple, because I can’t stand cheap morals but trying to sell kindness” [pretend to all high and mighty to them, but being all soft in front of other people], Jinxia very dissatisfied said, “Okay, other things don’t need to be brought up, but for no reason, they disturb my good sleep and make a big fuss dragging everyone to become his witnesses!”
How could YangYue not know Wang Fangxing’s intentions? But they were just low ranking constables, even if all the water was flushed back [it’s like even if the sky fall down], meeting high ranking officials like this, they could only laugh and be patient, like a deaf and dumb person.
“Master Xia, wait until one day you get promoted to be the police assistant, then you will be able to show your ability… Shanmen’s salary is not great, but at least it is silver.”
YangYue poked her head.
“I get it, I’ll be more patient next time, for the sake of silvers.” Jinxia said helplessly.
They returned to Yang ChengWan’s room and reported the entire incident on Wang Fangxing’s ship.
“The guards that were guarding the birthday gifts were unconscious because of monsan medicine not because of inhaling the smell of drugs.” YangYue reported to his father.
Jinxia did not waste any word, immediately reporting: “The footprints in the room were all made by the guards, absolutely no outsiders – it is clear that Wang Fangxing is intending to keep the birthday gifts. Thieves are screaming to catch thieves.”
Yang ChengWan, after listening, he didn’t seem surprised, and slowly said: “Maybe not, I can see that he was panicking, it doesn’t seem like he was pretending. The officer next to him, the banner-carrying officer, is there a problem with him?
“Banner-carrying …”
“You guys didn’t pay attention to him?”
“I felt he was a little strange, I noticed that there was a lot of wax oil on the hem [bottom folding edge] of his robe… I thought it was strange, later I saw a lot of wax oil in the room and I understood the reason” Jinxia thought, “it looks like there’s nothing else.”
“Father, you mean, he stole the gifts? But where would he put them?” YangYue asked.
“They should be still on the boat.” Yang ChengWan looked a little disappointed at them, “The two of you, when you returned, did you not pay attention to the waterline of this ship? From the beginning until now, the waterline has not changed.”
Jinxia fiddled with her tongue, then realized: “The wax oil! Not to prevent the humid air, but to prevent water, I understand now! He put the chests underwater. Surely he felt these items were better placed under his eyes to feel at ease.”
Hearing her eagerness to do something, Yang ChengWan looked at her and warned: “Qiu Luan’s household has nothing to do with us.”
“Oh..”
Jinxia and YangYue agreed, then left.
The courier ship that was responsible for transferring the birthday gifts was much bigger than she thought, the chests were kept in a room under the surveillance of guards stationed outside the door. According to Wang Fanxing, every two hours the guards by the door would be changed.
“The guards inside were not killed?” Jinxia was walking around asking questions.
“Nobody was killed, they all fainted on the floor.”
“Is it because of drugs? Or monsan medicine? Who was in charge of the food on board? Is the person still around?” She continued to ask questions.
The one who answered her was the banner-carrying officer. He glanced at Jinxia for a moment: she looked like a beautiful, young and naive girl, about seventeen or eighteen, but when she was asking questions, she sounded like an old woman. He did not dare to delay his answer: “Everyone on the boat eats the same food. After dinner, the guards were changed, then they didn’t eat anything else.”
There was a guard in front of them, lighting the path as they walked to the storage room. Jinxia walked slowly, while looking east then west, sometimes unhurriedly bending herself down to observe the path or stopping the steps of people, several times sniffing something. At last she happily said: “Da Yang, the smell of rice is pretty good, there’s a scent of green onion too, what do you think it is?”
YangYue joined in and sniffed: “They are having fried chicken eggs with leeks tonight.”
“Oh my, I’m hungry.” Jinxia suddenly realized.
“Are you not hungry?” YangYue teased her, as she entered the storage room where three or four guards were sitting on the floor: Their facial features were indeed indicating that they had been drugged.
Lu Yi entered after them, expressionlessly looking up and down the room: the room was less than three feet long, a width of approximately one foot, it had only one door and one window and the shape was the same as the other rooms on the ship.
“How many chests stored the birthday gifts?” He asked Wang Fangxing.
“In total, there were eight chests, not just gold, silver and other jewelry, but also paintings of calligraphy and silk clothes.” Wang Fangxing sighed, “Before leaving, Great General Qiu was constantly reminding me to be careful, this ship was only being used to transfer the gifts, there were no passengers, but who could have thought this thief so sneaky…”
Lu Yi ignored his complaints. He saw Jinxia squatting on the ground, her nails were scraping something on the floor, then she lifted it up to her nose to sniff.
There was wax oil everywhere on the ground. Evident footprints could be shown vertically and horizontally.
“Why is there so much wax oil?” Jinxia said to herself.
“Oh…this..is..” The banner-carrying officer quickly explained, “Because I was afraid that the calligraphy paintings, silk clothes and other items could not stand the humid air, so I deliberately used wax sealing, placing the wax oil along the sides of the chests. This matter was already reported to General Qiu.”
Wang Fangxing shook his head after hearing, “Yes, that’s right, the calligraphy paintings are very expensive, if there’s anything wrong with them it will be big trouble.”
“I can see that you guys are very careful.” Jinxia laughed a little; without even looking at them she took out of her pocket a small round transparent crystal plate and under the light of the fire she carefully examined the wax oil traces.
YangYue squatted down next to the fainted guards, leaning closer to their noses and mouths. After sniffing he felt disgusted and frowned.
Lu Yi raised one of the other guards’ arm, and placed his long, slender finger on the guard’s wrist, carefully checking his pulse and heart rate. Wang Fangxing’s face was full of worry and looked at Lu Yi, impatiently asking: “…How?”
After a few moments, Lu Yi put the guard’s arm down and said to Wang Fangxing: “His life is in no danger, wait another hour or two, he will wake up after the drug effect has passed.”
“Good, good.” Wang Fanxing was so tense that he clenched his fist, “Maybe they saw the thief, later they might be able to provide us some information.”
At this time, Jinxia had wiped away the wax oil sap; she then took a candle to light up the room and slowly stepped in, tilting her head a little to examine the scratches on the wall of the room and lowering to examine the floor carefully. Finally she stopped at the window, took the crystal plate out again and checked the thin window frames.
Wang Fangxing did not understand what the two constables were doing, seeing they were not moving fast nor slow but just wandering around, and not giving any instructions either. In his heart, he was panicking and being impatient: if Lu Yi hadn’t been there, he would’ve shouted at them and driven them out.
Since that night on the Xinfeng bridge, hearing Jinxia revealing the clues about the fortune-teller’s nail, especially now that he knew she was Yang ChengWan’s disciple, Lu Yi was eager to see for himself their tracking skills, so he was not in a hurry and patiently let the two of them slowly inspect the room.
The more things Jinxia looked at, the more doubts appeared in her eyes. After looking at YangYue for a while, she kind of understood why Yang ChengWan kept reminding them “don’t speak carelessly”. If the case had just been like that, it would have been boring. She stood up straight, with her mouth tightly closed, thinking if she should just go back to her room to sleep.
“Did you two discover something?” Lu Yi continued to observe, without revealing his expression.
“This…” Jinxia looked at YangYue, then slowly said: “the thief did not leave much clues, it seems we can’t help much.”
YangYue stood beside her and nodded, it was not clear if he nodded in agreement or was praising her for speaking up.
Wang Fangxing waved his hand, from their expression he seemed to understand: “This is not an ordinary case like catching chickens, but if you cannot investigate, it’s not a surprise, from the beginning I did not have any expectation from you.”
Jinxia yawned, feeling exhausted, not planning to argue with him who knew nothing of this, she pulled YangYue, planning to leave, but Wang Fangxing started talking to Lu Yi.
“I know for a fact that all cases in the capital are handled by JinYiWei and Liu Shanmen does not give any contribution, only in name, keeping a bunch of people who are unable to investigate and pushing every case onto you…”
Hearing his words, Jinxia immediately stopped, and turned her head facing Wang Fanxing, “Although I am not talented, it’s not that we do not have clues, but I’m afraid that Canjiang Daren cannot handle them.”
Wang Fangxing, from the beginning until now did not have a good impression of her, so he dryly said: “Those are funny words you said. I am a border guard, I have the ability to kill barbarians, isn’t it illogical to say I won’t be able to handle lowly thieves? You are just a small constable, don’t brag, if you have information, say them.”
“This chest is a black painted Zhangmu [ancient rectangular box]: 2.8 feet in length, 1.6 feet in width, and 2.1 in height, right?” Jinxia raised her eyebrows slightly while looking at him with a smile.
Wang Fangxing along with the flag bearer was momentarily stunned.
“Have you seen the chest?”
“Just making a speculation. There are many traces of wax oil on the ground, it’s hard to pretend not to know.” Jinxia continued to talk, “I said Canjiang Daren could not handle it because this group of thieves have help, are very arrogant, fearless and did not put Wang Fangxin and his army in the eye.”
*[Not respecting them or don’t care to, TN]
“How can you be sure?” Lu Yi observed her and asked.
Jinxia pointed at the scratches on the wall: “The walls of the room were scratched to that extent: it is clear such scratches were made while moving the chests, therefore, they could only do it with someone inside helping them.”
“How do you know these scratches were caused by the thieves? It could be from moving the chests inside the storage room.”
Jinxia gave Lu Yi the round crystal plate in her hand, gestured to him to see it for himself, then continued: “The direction is not the same, the scratches would not be the same either, look carefully at the subtle scratches.”
Lu Yi took the round crystal plate from her and accidently felt her warmth left on the object. He looked down: the crystal plate was of a nice small shape, the center of the sunken side protruding. Placing the crystal above the scratches, it magnified them so that they would appear bigger. In a point of a small scratch were the remnants of sawdust; the direction turned out to be correct as she’d described: it was pointing up, that stroke should have been from lifting the chest.
YangYue loudly coughed, signalling Jinxia to stop talking, after that he said: “Although we found some clues, this case is rather complicated, we are just small constables, lacking in skills, this seems to be done by a bunch of Jiangyang thieves, the number of people may range from four to six. Their work is proficient, it should be a recidivist, afraid of getting off the boat and going far away, not being taken over.”
Jinxia glared at him, then refrained herself from talking.
Wang Fangxing, who had been quietly listening, now finally spoke his thoughts, while continuing to nod his head: “This river has many branches, if the thieves have come down from the ship, how can they be traced? Now that the birthday gifts have been robbed, and the thieves can’t be traced, it’s really shameful to go back and see the general.”
Not caring about Wang Fangxing’s words, Jinxia joked a little: “Wang Daren should be more open-minded, must not do anything suspicious, otherwise it would be a shame for that thought of yours.”
“You… what do you mean?” Wang Fangxing looked at Jinxia, his eyes widened in anger.
“What she meant was, Wang Daren can work and be a subordinate of General Qiu, it’s like having a treasure and it’s not easy. We are very jealous, very jealous.” YangYue quickly opened his mouth to neutralize the situation, facing Wang Fangxing, “We are not talented and unable to help, I’m also asking for your forgiveness.” The implication of his words was for them to leave.
Because of them, Wang Fangxing seemed to have exhausted his patience. With a bit of annoyance, his eyes followed Jinxia and YangYue as they exited the room, then he faced Lu Yi and laughed dryly: “You see, these Liu Shanmen people? One eye full of excuses, and one eye only speak flattering words [on one side they come up with reasons while the other side they are being all nice], they couldn’t even finish this little work ”
Lu Yi coughed lightly, and bowed to Wang Fangxing, “Daren, don’t have to worry too much, wait for these guards to wake up, maybe they can turn things around.”
Wang Fangxing continued to put on a sad face, after respectfully instructing the flag bearer officer to take Lu Yi off the ship.
Back to the courier ship, the foggy and white marbled morning let out a chilly breeze.
“Huh! Master Xia, let it go for once, he thinks we’re vegetarians [weaks or easy to bully]!” Jinxia, in the cold air, pulled her neck and angrily said, “No respect for anyone!”
YangYue turned around and looked at the courier ship, then faced her: “Father repeatedly said not to talk carelessly, what did you say? Thankfully, I fixed the wordings, or else we’ll be in trouble.”
“Simple, because I can’t stand cheap morals but trying to sell kindness” [pretend to all high and mighty to them, but being all soft in front of other people], Jinxia very dissatisfied said, “Okay, other things don’t need to be brought up, but for no reason, they disturb my good sleep and make a big fuss dragging everyone to become his witnesses!”
How could YangYue not know Wang Fangxing’s intentions? But they were just low ranking constables, even if all the water was flushed back [it’s like even if the sky fall down], meeting high ranking officials like this, they could only laugh and be patient, like a deaf and dumb person.
“Master Xia, wait until one day you get promoted to be the police assistant, then you will be able to show your ability… Shanmen’s salary is not great, but at least it is silver.”
YangYue poked her head.
“I get it, I’ll be more patient next time, for the sake of silvers.” Jinxia said helplessly.
They returned to Yang ChengWan’s room and reported the entire incident on Wang Fangxing’s ship.
“The guards that were guarding the birthday gifts were unconscious because of monsan medicine not because of inhaling the smell of drugs.” YangYue reported to his father.
Jinxia did not waste any word, immediately reporting: “The footprints in the room were all made by the guards, absolutely no outsiders – it is clear that Wang Fangxing is intending to keep the birthday gifts. Thieves are screaming to catch thieves.”
Yang ChengWan, after listening, he didn’t seem surprised, and slowly said: “Maybe not, I can see that he was panicking, it doesn’t seem like he was pretending. The officer next to him, the banner-carrying officer, is there a problem with him?
“Banner-carrying …”
“You guys didn’t pay attention to him?”
“I felt he was a little strange, I noticed that there was a lot of wax oil on the hem [bottom folding edge] of his robe… I thought it was strange, later I saw a lot of wax oil in the room and I understood the reason” Jinxia thought, “it looks like there’s nothing else.”
“Father, you mean, he stole the gifts? But where would he put them?” YangYue asked.
“They should be still on the boat.” Yang ChengWan looked a little disappointed at them, “The two of you, when you returned, did you not pay attention to the waterline of this ship? From the beginning until now, the waterline has not changed.”
Jinxia fiddled with her tongue, then realized: “The wax oil! Not to prevent the humid air, but to prevent water, I understand now! He put the chests underwater. Surely he felt these items were better placed under his eyes to feel at ease.”
Hearing her eagerness to do something, Yang ChengWan looked at her and warned: “Qiu Luan’s household has nothing to do with us.”
“Oh..”
Jinxia and YangYue agreed, then left.
