Just as the two of them were puzzling over the problem, they heard the sound of a dizi being carried over by the wind.
The mournful sound of the dizi was sometimes slow and gentle, sometimes hurried. It hit both high, clear notes, and low, solemn tones. The music sounded like rage, mixed with tones of admiration, and pleading cries.
Anyone who heard it would resonate with the richly-described sadness within.
Who would think that such an elegant and talented man would be linked to the thieves that stole the disaster relief funds?
The dizi music continued for a long time, and Wen Xian only left after the sky started to darken.
Jing Rong and Ji Yunshu also returned to Anchang Court.
After an entire day of surveillance, they had gained nothing useful other than that. That night, Lang Po also infiltrated the Si Residence, using the cover of darkness to search room by room, to no avail.
Over the next few days, Ji Yunshu and Jing Rong continued to tail Wen Xian. That fellow would go to the Flying Crane Teahouse early in the morning, then collect his prescription at the pharmacy, go home, then to the lake… And repeat.
One day, the two of them were following behind Wen Xian at a moderate pace when he exited the pharmacy. Suddenly, a group of children ran out from nowhere in Wen Xian’s direction, bumping into him as they rushed past. The string on those packets of herbs in his hand came undone as they fell and spilt on the ground.
Wen Xian didn’t appear perturbed. He merely bent down to pick up the packets, leaving the dirtied herbs where they lay, then walked away nonchalantly.
When she saw the scattered and dirty herbs, Ji Yunshu stopped and gathered the herbs into a handkerchief, wrapping it up securely.
“Why did you pick up those herbs?”
“I’ll bring it back for Mo Ruo to take a look so that he can check what medicine is so important that he must collect it daily.” Ah!
When they returned, Ji Yunshu brought the herbs to Mo Ruo. “What medicine is this?”
Mo Ruo was lazing in the courtyard, weaving something with strips of bamboo. He glanced at the packet of herbs. “You brought this back after following that fellow for so many days? It’s just a bunch of ordinary herbs.” His disdain was obvious.
“Ordinary herbs? What are they used for?”
“To nurture and nourish the body.”
“Just nourish?”
Mo Ruo frowned and his hands stopped moving. He exclaimed archly, “I can tell what these herbs are even with my eyes closed! What are they used for? Just nourishing the body! No doubt about that.”
Ji Yunshu was speechless.
Mo Ruo continued, “Actually, you don’t need to worry either. This medicine should be for Wen Xian’s personal use.”
“For himself?”
“When I saw him on the night of the assassination attempt, I noticed that his complexion wasn’t that good. He obviously has an internal condition that he was likely born with. Someone like that would have a frail body and be prone to weakness from birth, so long-term use of nourishing herbs would be expected.”
“Ah!” So, in other words, the only glimmer of a clue that they have found was useless? She really had wasted these few days of surveillance. They didn’t uncover the slightest hint of a clue!
Lang Po was also back to report on his findings over the last few days. “I’ve searched through every square inch of the Si Residence, but couldn’t find any trace of a secret passage. After that black-clothed man entered, he never came out either. It is as if he had simply evaporated from existence.”
By now, Lang Po had also begun to doubt himself. Could he really have seen wrongly? Otherwise, how would an entire living person disappear just like that?
Jing Rong pondered for a moment. “There must be some hidden mechanism in the Si Residence that we do not know about. Since they were able to transport the disaster relief funds from the metal-walled storeroom without a single trace, the ability to hide a person within a seemingly ordinary room would be an easy feat for them.”
“Does that mean that the Si Family has some mysterious escape ability?”
Jing Rong still had the niggling feeling that there was something strange going on, but was unable to pinpoint where it was. A moment later, he smacked the table with a hand. “Could it be that there’s a problem with the storeroom at the relay station?”
“But didn’t Your Highness already see that the storeroom’s walls are all made of metal? There’s no entrance or exit other than that door. Even a mosquito would not be able to enter.”
Jing Rong stood up, eyes gleaming with excitement. “To the relay station.”
……
At the relay station.
When Officer Lin saw the people that had arrived, he shivered involuntarily before he walked up to them. “Your Highness, why have you come?”
Jing Rong led his group straight through the station without replying, and headed towards the storeroom, where he sent orders to open the doors. As they opened, the metallic smell of iron and rust assaulted their noses. He strode in and circled the room, knocking several times on the iron walls. There’s no such thing as magic!
“Dismantle this storeroom.”
Ah! When he heard the order, Officer Lin quickly spoke up, “Your Highness, you can’t do that! This storeroom is specially set aside to store the disaster relief funds disbursed by the imperial court! If it were dismantled…”
“The disaster relief funds?” Jing Rong shot him a cold look. “Have you seen a single tael from the disaster relief funds in the last few years?”
“This…” He certainly hasn’t!
“What are you keeping a useless room for?”
Officer Lin had nothing he could say to counter that. He worried at his lips but didn’t continue obstructing them.
Jing Rong barked out the order, “Start!”
Thus, Lang Po called for his own men, and worked together with the relay station staff to start the dismantling process. They used every tool they could find: chains, crowbars, hammers, and shovels.
Luckily, the buildings in ancient times didn’t have metal reinforcement posts, so tearing the room apart was relatively easy and didn’t take long under the coordinated ‘attack’ of so many people. Soon enough, only a single wall was left.
“Your Highness!” Lang Po yelled, “there’s a hidden compartment in this wall.”
Jing Rong went to take a look, and discovered that some mechanism must have been triggered to reveal a large square opening that looked almost like a window. And the other side of the wall was an ordinary room that was used to house merchant goods. “As I thought. There really is a secret passage.”
Lang Po was shocked. “Who was the one who designed this secret compartment? There was no sign of it from the wall, neither do we know how the opening mechanism works.”
Jing Rong questioned Officer Lin. “What’s going on?”
“This lowly officer has no idea.” He was dumbstruck at this discovery. His whole body started to shiver as he looked at the opening that had just appeared on the metal wall.
“It seems that this was how the thieves stole away the disaster relief funds.”
“Your Highness, this really has nothing to do with this officer!” Officer Lin exclaimed frantically. “I beseech Your Highness to investigate clearly!”
“Then how would you like to explain why there is a hidden compartment in this wall?”
“This…” He thought back frantically. “This storeroom was built by the best craftsmen in Yufu. I really do not know how there could be a hidden compartment in this metal wall. This lowly officer would never dare to do that even if I had ten heads to spare.” He was so scared his arms and legs shook.
Jing Rong looked at him, clenching his hand into a fist. “Who are the people who built this? Round them all up.” It was an order!
The craftsmen and workers who built that storeroom were quickly gathered. When they saw that there was actually a square hidden compartment on the metal wall they had worked on years before, they looked at each other in shock.
Officer Lin introduced them, “Your Highness, since this storeroom was meant to store the disaster relief silver, the craftsmen that we hired to work on this are the best in their field, with clean backgrounds.”
Jing Rong ignored him and looked at those craftsmen. “You were the ones who built this storeroom years ago. Is there nobody that could tell this prince who was the one that designed this hidden compartment?”
Nobody made a single sound.
“This matter involves the disaster relief funds and the imperial court. Aren’t you going to speak?!”
They all quickly kneeled on the ground in fright.
One of them raised their head and spoke, “Your Highness, we were definitely not responsible for creating this hidden compartment. We really don’t know anything!”
Lang Po stepped forward. “You better be honest. Otherwise, you won’t be able to keep your lives once we find evidence.”
“That’s unjust! We built this storeroom honestly and have no idea how this hidden compartment came to be!”