Chapter 274: Luring The Snake Out Of Its Hole
Wangshu took the officers and arrested all the monks in the temple.
When those monks were escorted away, the vast team passed through the capital city’s streets, making a huge commotion.
“What’s going on?” someone in the crowd asked.
“I heard these monks aren’t honest. They appear to be monks on the surface, but they actually rob houses—they’re a group of bandits.”
“Isn’t this the master from Mingyin Temple?” a man said. “Cuihua from the neighboring village couldn’t conceive. She heard that the Bodhisattva at Mingyin Temple was very effective, so she went there every first and fifteenth day of the lunar month. Not long ago, she actually got pregnant. If these monks have problems and aren’t real monks, then the child in Cuihua’s belly wouldn’t be a bastard, right?”
“You can’t just say things like that recklessly. This concerns a woman’s reputation.”
“Let me tell you, this is absolutely not baseless. Cuihua’s man was injured a few years ago and has always been impotent, so Cuihua’s infertility isn’t her problem—it’s that man’s problem. They didn’t conceive for so many years, but after Cuihua started worshiping the Bodhisattva, she got pregnant. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
The crowd sighed endlessly.
Late at night, the temple.
Wolf howls came from the back mountain, sounding particularly frightening.
Many soldiers appeared here during the day. Now the temple is sealed, there are no more pilgrims, and even the Buddha statues seem somewhat desolate.
On such a quiet night, in this vast temple, dozens of black-clothed men suddenly rushed in.
They first conducted a series of searches in the temple, then opened the secret chamber and rushed inside.
“Oh no, we’ve been tricked.”
When the black-clothed men saw the empty secret chamber, they realized they had fallen into a trap and hurriedly came out of the secret chamber.
By the time they rushed out, many soldiers had already surrounded the outside. They held torches, encircling the black-clothed men.
“Take them alive.” Zhou Wangshu made a hand gesture.
The soldiers rushed over and fought with the black-clothed men.
Zhou Wangshu saw several black-clothed men swinging knives at him.
On this quiet night, the smell of blood spread in the air, and death was a mere thought away—one second alive, the next dead.
The black-clothed men thought he was a soft persimmon to pinch, so after he appeared, he became their main target of attack.
As Zhou Wangshu fought more and more recklessly, the black-clothed men struggled more and more, and in the end, only five were left alive. Only then did they realize this man was the most difficult to deal with.
“As long as you cooperate, I’ll leave you alive.” Zhou Wangshu said.
“We are under the control of the main family. Even if you’re willing to spare us, the main family won’t let us live.” Black-Clothed Man Number Seven said.
“As long as you cooperate and give me the information I want, I’ll get you the best doctor. Maybe we can even detoxify you.”
Pfft! Pfft! Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
A large number of arrows shot over.
“Be careful, protect Lord Zhou.”
The soldiers dodged the arrow rain, knocking down the incoming arrows. When the arrow rain finally stopped, they looked again, and those five black-clothed men were already dead on the spot.
The soldiers chased after those who shot the arrows.
“Lord, they escaped again.” The soldiers failed to catch up.
Zhou Wangshu pulled an arrow from the corpse and examined the material carefully, saying, “This is newly made. Investigate which blacksmith shop forged it.”
“Yes.”
Zhou Wangshu squatted down and pulled open the corpse’s clothes.
There was a totem on the corpse’s chest.
“Investigate what this totem means.”
“Yes.”
Zhou Wangshu worked until late into the night, but it was all for nothing, so he told everyone to call it a day and go home.
When he returned to Marquis Cheng’an’s Mansion, Su Yaoguang had already gone to bed. He stood by the bed, looking at the soundly sleeping Su Yaoguang, and chuckled lightly, “Such a bloody thing happened, yet you can sleep so soundly. Are you really that skilled and fearless, or just heartless?”
Zhou Wangshu lay down beside Su Yaoguang and held her tightly in his arms.
“Ah… Aaaaah…” In the quiet night, a terrified scream pierced the silence.
Zhou Wangshu heard the sound and covered Su Yaoguang’s ears.
Xia Zhen slept until midnight. When he turned over, he saw a woman without facial skin lying beside him. This stimulation made him burst out with energy, even more spirited than before.
The next day, as soon as Zhou Wangshu got up, he saw Su Yaoguang sitting at the dressing table doing her makeup. He put on his shoes and walked toward her.
“You came back very late last night, right? I waited for a while, but I was really too sleepy, so I didn’t wait for you. You should sleep more.” Su Yaoguang said while painting her eyebrows.
Zhou Wangshu took the eyebrow pencil from her hand and said, “I’ll do it for you.”
“You go sleep.” Su Yaoguang reached out to grab it, but he dodged with her eyebrow pencil, unwilling to give it back. “Fine, once you’re done, go back to sleep. You haven’t slept well, and that’s not good for your health.”
“Okay.”
Su Yaoguang closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and let Zhou Wangshu work.
The eyebrow pencil moved across her eyebrows, feeling itchy.
When Su Yaoguang did it herself, she didn’t notice these odd sensations.
She opened her eyes and looked at the handsome face right in front of her, staring at him blankly.
Zhou Wangshu was amused by her expression: “Am I good-looking?”
“Of course you are.” Su Yaoguang said, “Who doesn’t know I love pretty boys the most? If you weren’t good-looking, you wouldn’t have ended up in my hands.”
Zhou Wangshu kissed her red lips: “Such a sweet mouth deserves a good reward.”
“I’m going to Peach Blossom Workshop today to prepare for the new product event. Don’t tease me—give me the eyebrow pencil, I’ll do it myself.”
Zhou Wangshu didn’t give it and continued painting her eyebrows.
“Done.”
Su Yaoguang took the mirror and looked. The disaster she imagined didn’t happen—Zhou Wangshu’s handiwork was excellent, even more distinctive than her own.
“How is it?”
“Good-looking.” Su Yaoguang said, “You’ve earned my approval. From now on, you’re my eyebrow painter.”
Zhou Wangshu chuckled helplessly.
Mingxiu walked in from outside and said to Su Yaoguang, “Madam, the Second Young Master had an episode last night. He seems to have gone mad—completely insane.”
“His temper is volatile, and nothing pleases him. He’s harsh with the servants, but such a ruthless person would never let the world wrong him even if he wrongs everyone. How could someone like that go mad?” Su Yaoguang said in surprise.
“It’s absolutely true.” Mingxiu said, “Maybe it’s because he’s too evil—villains get their due from heaven, so he’s ended up like this.”
“What does the Marchioness say?” Su Yaoguang asked.
“The Marchioness has been keeping watch there since last night.” Mingxiu said, “If heaven wants to take him, even an immortal couldn’t cure him.”
No one had ever heard of mental illness being curable.
Su Yaoguang looked at Zhou Wangshu: “Did you do it?”
Zhou Wangshu didn’t deny it: “I just put Tong Qianbi in his bed so they could share it. Doesn’t he like abusing women? I’m being so considerate to him—where else could he find such a big brother?”
Su Yaoguang gave him a thumbs up: “You’re ruthless.”
Zhou Wangshu first took Su Yaoguang out of the mansion for breakfast, then sent her to Peach Blossom Workshop. Only after seeing her enter did he take the horse-drawn carriage to continue handling his errands.
Marquis Cheng’an’s Mansion was in chaos.
Xia Zhen was so frightened by Tong Qianbi that he lost his mind. Doctors came to see him, even imperial physicians were called, but the result was the same—no way to treat it. Unless he got some other stimulation, which might act like fighting poison with poison and restore him to normal.
The Cheng’an Marchioness was also quite something.
The doctor said fighting poison with poison was effective, so she directly beat Tong Qianbi and her servant to death in front of Xia Zhen.
That’s right!
Tong Qianbi had become a discarded piece, no better than an insect in the Cheng’an Marchioness’s eyes. Killing her was just a thought away.
Tong Qianbi had just woken up and learned she had no facial skin, reduced to a wriggling maggot of flesh. She was already on the verge of mental collapse. Now the Cheng’an Marchioness threw her out and had her beaten to death, completely discarding this rotten pawn. One can imagine her despair at that moment.
It could only be said, those who do evil bring it upon themselves.
The Cheng’an Marchioness and Xia Zhen had thoroughly reached a dead end.
“Madam, with the Young Master like this, I’m afraid…” the old wet nurse probed, “Should Madam still deal with the Eldest Young Master? Now there’s only the Eldest Young Master left as heir in the mansion. The Second Young Master is incurable, so the Eldest Young Master will be the marquis in the future, and the whole mansion will be under his control. Shouldn’t Madam start getting on good terms with him now?”
“If I get on good terms with him now, can we pretend the previous things never happened? And back then… don’t forget. If he finds out, do you think he won’t strangle me? So even if Zhen’er loses his eligibility to inherit, I can’t let him take this position. There are so many suitable candidates in the imperial clan. I’d rather adopt one from outside than ever let the title go to that Zhou Wangshu.”
“The Marquis doesn’t think that way.”
“Of course he wants his biological son to inherit the title. But he doesn’t think that if that wolf cub recovers memory, given what he’s done as a father, that wolf cub might not honor him. And because of the Great General Who Protects the Nation, he might even make us pay the price. If he’s reluctant, then make Zhou Wangshu lose his value, leaving him no other choice. As long as Zhou Wangshu has no chance at inheriting, the other imperial clan sons will have their opportunity.”
For those imperial clan members, this was like pie falling from the sky.
They could strive their whole lives without climbing to a marquisate, yet the main house clearly had heirs, but both suffered mishaps, forcing them to adopt an imperial clan son into the marquis manor.
“Then what about the Second Young Master?”
“Send a few people to serve him!” The Cheng’an Marchioness was exhausted. “If I’d known he’d end up like this, I should have disciplined him strictly from the start.”
She had only this one son, whom she normally wanted to give the stars and moon, yet she raised him like this.
Zhou Wangshu arrived at the yamen and found the coroner who was examining corpses, asking about the bodies of those black-clothed men from yesterday.
“These black-clothed assassin corpses have no other clues besides that mark on their chests. Speaking of which, this mark seems familiar, but I can’t recall.”
Zhou Wangshu said, “You examine corpses often and have seen many bodies. Since you have an impression, it must be something memorable. Think carefully again.”
“I remember it’s some family’s totem.” the coroner said, “But it definitely wasn’t recent. If it were recent, I wouldn’t forget. I’m getting old and can’t remember things well. Lord Zhou doesn’t need to rush—give me time to think, and it might come to me anytime.”
“Then I’ll trouble you, senior.”
The coroner was the lowest status in the yamen—normally even officers bossed him around. Now such a high official politely called him senior, which improved his impression of him even more.
“No trouble, it’s what I should do.” He had been half-hearted before, but after such polite words, he was eager to find the clue right then.
His subordinate returned from outside, holding that arrow.
“We’ve found out which blacksmith shop made these arrows.” the subordinate said, “But the buyer was very mysterious—only came to buy arrows and never showed their face.”
“How many did they buy?”
“Ten thousand.”
“Ten thousand?” Zhou Wangshu frowned, “That’s not a quantity that can be completed in a short time, right? Even the largest workshop couldn’t take on such a large order.”
“The blacksmith shop said this group started buying arrows from them half a year ago.” the subordinate said, “These ten thousand are the quantity for half a year.”
“Have they delivered all ten thousand?”
“Speaking of which, you guessed right, Lord. There’s still a batch undelivered, so the buyer will contact them again.”
“But now we’ve alerted them, so they might not show up. How many do they still have left to deliver?”
“One thousand.”
Zhou Wangshu understood.
One thousand wasn’t a small number either.
Since they had paid, they would definitely take the goods. As long as they watched the blacksmith shop people, they could follow those people to find clues.
“Send people to watch the blacksmith shop folks. Arrange two to blend in without being noticed.”
Zhou Wangshu arranged his subordinate’s tasks, stayed a bit longer with the coroner, and seeing the clues cut off with no other leads for now, went to find Su Yaoguang.
His subordinate reported that Tong Qianbi had been beaten to death with clubs and thrown into the mass grave.
“The people we placed in the mansion passed word that the Second Young Master’s condition is very bad. However, the Cheng’an Marchioness locked him up and isn’t managing him anymore.”
“Even for mother and son, in their kind of people’s eyes, it’s all about value. Xia Zhen was the only child in Marquis Cheng’an’s Mansion before, treated like gold and jade—not even to be touched—so he developed that lawless temper. Now that Xia Zhen is mad and has no chance at the title, of course the Cheng’an Marchioness won’t pamper him anymore. Pampering him further brings her no benefit as the marquis manor madam.”
“After all, he’s her son. Doesn’t she feel heartbroken seeing him like this?”
“People like them only care about benefits, not true heart. Not just her and Xia Zhen, but also my good father. Why do you think he’s so eager for this son of his to appear? Of course, it’s so someone can clean up his mess. He’s been basking in my father-in-law’s name for a while, now it’s time to pay up.”
