Chapter 125: Expressing Sincerity
“Put down the weapons.”
Accompanied by the female voice, the sound of weapons dropping rang out around them.
Seeing her like this, the old man also waved his hand and shouted. In the narrow passage outside the collapsed wall, more shadows threw down their weapons.
“Young lady, every time you all strike first and don’t give us a chance to speak,” the old man said.
Yang Luo said indifferently, “That’s because your sincerity is insufficient.”
The old man smiled and bowed, “It was our rudeness.” He straightened up and called out, “Take good care of those three noble guests.”
Affirming voices rose from outside.
The old man looked at Yang Luo again.
“We wish to meet your young master.”
Yang Luo glanced at him, “Who are you people?”
The old man smiled, “Young lady knows, people like us can’t be seen in public.” Without waiting for Yang Luo to ask further, he continued, “But our master is someone willing to assist your young master, and capable of assisting him.”
Yang Luo said “oh,” “Thanks.”
Her attitude was very good, but her expression showed no concern. The old man wasn’t angry and continued with a smile, “Your young master was betrayed by too many people before and won’t believe such words, but in this peaceful world under heaven, my master chose not to report your young master to the officials but to invite him, which shows sufficient confidence and conviction.”
Yang Luo nodded, “Good, I will relay it to my young master.”
The old man looked at her, “Why not have your young master come with us? As soon as he meets my master, your young master will know my master’s words are true.”
Although they had put down their weapons, it was clear they wouldn’t let them leave easily today.
“I know your young master is very cautious, but please believe me, where my master is is the safest place for your young master.”
Hearing him say this, Yang Luo raised an eyebrow.
“Since you know my young master is very cautious, why not have your master inquire,” she said, pointing at herself, “about my current identity.”
Her current identity?
The old man frowned slightly. They had already investigated clearly; she was a maidservant of a young lady from Duke Ding’an’s Mansion.
This was very common; in wealthy families, being a slave or maidservant was the best identity disguise.
So what if she was a young lady’s maidservant?
It wasn’t as if she was the master of Duke Ding’an’s Mansion.
Besides, Duke Ding’an’s Mansion sounded prestigious, but it was actually nothing, not worth mentioning.
Although he didn’t say it, his expression revealed everything. Then he saw the young girl in front of him smile, a smile she couldn’t hide her pride in.
“Then your master doesn’t seem omnipotent or omniscient, and not that impressive,” Yang Luo said. “Have your master inquire again, and he’ll know how formidable my current identity is, and how safe the place where my young master is.”
With that, she lifted her foot and stepped forward.
The old man hesitated, and Yang Luo stopped in front of him.
“I remind you, if you don’t leave now, the ones who come won’t be my people, but the government’s,” she said softly.
After she said this, she saw the old man across from her narrow his eyes, as if thinking of something. His hesitant expression faded, and he stepped back.
Although she didn’t know if he was truly frightened by her words, Yang Luo hurriedly stepped forward again.
“You struck first today, so you handle the aftermath,” she said. “Next time we strike first, we’ll handle the aftermath. That’s called sincerity.”
The old man nodded: “Good, with the young lady’s words of give and take, that’s enough.”
With that, he bowed.
“Then please have your young master see our sincerity,” he said. “This bookstore will cease to exist, and there will be no more espionage from us nearby.”
He raised his hand in salute, then let out a whistle toward the outside.
Accompanied by the whistle, the above shook, emitting crashing sounds.
“Run—”
“The bookstore collapsed—”
…….
…….
The bustling street market was now even more bustling.
But the civilians were all blocked outside the street by officers, pointing at the collapsed small building.
“How many died?”
“No one died.”
“No one died? Then what’s all the commotion?”
“The young lady from Duke Ding’an’s Mansion says her maidservant was injured and is making a big fuss.”
“How badly injured?”
Hearing the discussions around them, the officers looked helplessly at the young lady sitting on a broken wooden beam, applying medicine to her maidservant.
Her hand shook, the medicine was applied, and the already shallow wound on the maidservant’s hand back became invisible.
If this young lady had arrived a bit later, there wouldn’t even be a wound to apply medicine to.
“This isn’t about the injury.”
The young lady seemed to see their inner grumbling and looked up to say.
“This matter is of great importance and related to treason.”
With that, she glanced at the bookstore’s shopkeeper and shop assistants on the other side, herded together by the officers.
Hearing her say this, the shop assistants, dirtier and with more serious injuries on their faces and hands than this maidservant, immediately wailed.
“Young lady, we’re innocent.”
“Young lady, we’ve said we’ll compensate. You can’t bully us like this.”
“Officer, we’re honest business people. This Linjiang Bookstore has been here for decades…”
“Everyone knows what our owner and shopkeeper are like.”
“I want to report to officials too!”
Wailing or angry commotion rose again.
On the other side, a few more injured people spoke up.
“We don’t know about treason, but this shop is a black-hearted one!”
“Right, printing errors, and threatening people, using portraits to threaten us, asking if we know who their backer is!”
“Even with a backer, they can’t miswrite the sage’s words!”
“I want to report to officials too. Investigate them properly.”
The officers felt splitting headaches and banged their weapons on the ruins, “Silence!” “Silence!”
…
…….
When the building collapsed, they were nearby in the street market and rushed over immediately.
The collapse wasn’t severe, just as the shop people said; the shop was decades old, with seriously rotten wood and stone.
Books were displayed outside, few customers inside, no deaths, seven or eight injured not seriously.
The matter was originally simple, until this young lady rushed in from outside the crowd.
“I’m a young lady from Duke Ding’an’s Mansion, my maidservant is inside! My maidservant is inside!”
The officers parted to let her in.
This Miss Yang rushed in, glanced at the injured maidservant, asked nothing, and directly shouted at the officers to seal the place and arrest everyone.
“There are treasonous thieves here!”
She shouted so loudly the officers were stunned.
They thought this young lady had gone mad.
They originally didn’t want to pay attention, but this young lady brought up Wei Jiao.
“Have you forgotten, last time Captain Wei checked and killed Sun Shu’s remnants at night, I was there too.”
They had forgotten this young lady from Duke Ding’an’s Mansion was there, only remembering Wei Jiao’s great merit.
This was indeed true. They hesitated and although didn’t arrest everyone here, sent people to inquire with the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
“The Embroidered Uniform Guard is here—”
Inside quieted, outside came clamor. Accompanied by the clamor, the blocked crowded crowd parted chaotically, and a team of Embroidered Uniform Guard like dark clouds arrived.
The officers exchanged glances, expressions shocked.
They really summoned Wei Jiao.
Could it really be related to treason?
Not only the officers were surprised; in the surrounding crowd, many had flickering gazes, watching the Embroidered Uniform Guard heading that way.
They couldn’t help exchanging glances.
This young lady from Duke Ding’an’s Mansion really could summon Wei Jiao at will.
It seemed what that maidservant said was right; they really needed to inquire more.
They withdrew their gaze and unobtrusively retreated from the crowd.
…
…….
“Miss Yang, I hope next time I’m called because of you, I see you as a corpse.”
Wei Jiao rode on horseback, stopping only before the ruins, looking at the young girl running toward him, and frowned.
“Otherwise, being called repeatedly without incident, I’ll start suspecting whether others want to kill you, or you want to kill others.”
