Chapter 316 - Catch Something Big

Baili Junyi started to observe the officials more and more attentively. The more he scrutinized them, the more suspicious he became. There was definitely something that they did not know about Zhou City. This place was definitely strange!

The officials present were entertaining him wholeheartedly, so he allowed them to please him. At the end of the banquet, he even praised Zhou Da wantonly, as if he had forgotten the little episode in the middle of the banquet.

After getting on the carriage, the tipsiness on Baili Junyi’s face due to the alcohol disappeared completely. Shen Ninghua looked at him with a playful smirk. “You are really good at pretending. Those officials have all been fooled.”

Hearing this, Baili Junyi smiled, but his tone was particularly cold. “Zhou City has a strange aura everywhere. We will stay here for a while. Maybe we can catch something big.”

“How do you feel about Miss Zhou?”

“Miss Zhou? Who? Zhou Jingshu? What’s wrong with her? Do you think there’s something wrong with her?”

Not understanding Shen Ninghua’s implication, Baili Junyi assumed that she suspected Zhou Jingshu, so he carefully thought about it. “Yes, she is indeed a little weird. At the banquet, she has been carefully staring at me, as if she was plotting something. Ninghua, do you think that Zhou Jingshu is her family’s smoke bomb?”

Hearing this, Shen Ninghua gasped and quietly rolled her eyes before responding perfunctorily, “Maybe.”

“Yes, I think we need to check her out. Ninghua, Qing Que has cultivated many people, hasn’t she? Find someone suitable to keep an eye on Zhou Jingshu. Maybe she is a very good point to start with.”

“…Okay.” Shen Ninghua nodded, astonished at his obtuse. As she thought about it, realization dawned upon her. It seemed that Baili Junyi had always overlooked other women’s approaches, such as Sang Zhi the maid, and Consort Li’s niece Lin Feiran…

Thinking of this, she could not help but laugh. This kind of man was probably hard to find in the world.

When they returned to the mansion, Ye Yi had already returned. “Master, I followed the soldiers and sent the injured people to the medical center for treatment. After they were treated and bandaged, they left on their own. They did not speak a single word throughout the entire process.”

“Oh? Did you send people to follow them? Where do they live?”

“Yes, I did, but there is no news yet.”

Baili Junyi nodded. “Okay. Send our men out and investigate Zhou City thoroughly. I have a feeling that this place is unusual.”

“Yes.”

At this time, in Qilin Garden, almost all the people in the main hall had left, leaving only Zhou Da and Zhou Ziqing still sitting.

After Zhou Ziqing ordered his men to send Zhou Jingshu home, Zhou Da quickly walked in front of Zhou Ziqing and knelt on the ground with a thud. “Patriarch, I’m sorry for not handling the matter properly today, and I have to trouble you to stand out. I’m really sorry!”

The smile on Zhou Ziqing’s face disappeared. He lowered his eyes and stared coldly at Zhou Da. “Lord Zhou, have you forgotten what I said?”

A layer of cold sweat drenched Zhou Da’s back. “I will always remember your words, Patriarch, and I’ll never forget them.”

“So did you remember I said that starting from a few days ago, you are the highest official of Zhou City, while I’m just an ordinary Patriarch Zhou?”

“Yes, yes… I’m sorry. It’s hard for me to adapt…”

Zhou Ziqing stood up and looked down at him. “Did you fall because you hurt your leg? I’ll help you up.” He then bent down and helped Zhou Da up.

More and more sweat dripped from Zhou Da’s forehead. He felt that the arm that Zhou Ziqing held was as painful as a burning flame.

“Patriarch, do you think we have alerted Prefectural Prince Yi after what happened today? Should we find a way to execute those people?”

Shooting an eerily cold glare at Zhou Da, Zhou Ziqing hissed, his voice as sharp as the winter breeze, “Prefectural Prince Yi has already asked his subordinate to send those people to get treatment at the doctor’s place. If you execute them now, aren’t you telling him that there’s a problem?”

“But I saw that he was having a good time at the banquet as if he had long forgotten about the matter. As a Prefectural Prince, he’s just putting up a show to display his concern by sending his men to check on the people. I don’t think he really cares about the lowly citizens.”

“Fool!” Zhou Ziqing’s face twisted in a disdainful grimace. “If Baili Junyi were the same as the other princes, he would have stayed in the capital to fight for power, not appearing in Zhou City! I’ve said that he is extraordinary! He and Shen Ninghua are not easy opponents. We have to get our act together to deal with them. Did you turn a deaf ear to my warning?”

“N-No, I don’t dare to. I’m sorry, I’ve messed up. Those commoners…”

“They don’t care about their own lives and want to force their way out. Don’t they have families? I don’t believe that their families don’t fear death either.”

Zhou Da’s eyes darted around. “Yes, yes! You’re right. I’ll get the job done immediately.” As he spoke, he was about to call for his men when Zhou Ziqing retorted with a gloomy expression.

“What are you going to do? Capture their families?”

“Uh… Should I not?” Zhou Da shrank back with a confused expression.

“How big of a commotion are you going to make when you go to catch people? Forget it, you don’t have to worry about this matter. I will get someone to handle it. Go back quickly.”

“Yes, I’m sorry for your trouble, Patriarch.”

After leaving the hall, Zhou Da wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and checked his surroundings to make sure that there was no one around. Then, he left in big strides.

Zhou Ziqing tidied his attire and before striding out of Qilin Garden leisurely. Fifteen minutes after he left, a shadow came out from behind the reclusive rockery and disappeared with a few leaps.

In Hundred Flowers Garden, Shen Ninghua was playing with the two children when Qing Que walked in quickly from outside the door. “Miss, as you expected, the last people to leave were Zhou Ziqing and Zhou Da. The two of them talked alone in the hall for about fifteen minutes. When they left, Zhou Da looked stressful, and he kept wiping sweat off his face.”

With a nod, Shen Ninghua picked up the tiger doll that tumbled to the ground and put it into Baby Girl’s hands. “Okay. Find a way to approach Zhou Jingshu. We’ll start with her. Let’s see if there is anything off with the Zhou Family.”

“Yes, Miss.”

The next day, Baili Junyi and Shen Ninghua arranged their manpower and spread them out to every corner of Zhou City like a densely knitted web. After that, all kinds of news constantly came back and gathered in the hands of Baili Junyi and Shen Ninghua.

Baili Junyi’s face was calm, but boundless anger was brewing in his heart. Never did he expect the tiny Zhou City was as complicated as the capital.

Like an ancient tree, the Zhou Family had a solid foundation in Zhou City as their luxuriant roots were deeply rooted in the city, gripping the place with their vigorous power. In fact, the family was a local tyrant, and they even secretly controlled the selection of the officials here. No wonder oddity enveloped this place.

When the government wanted to block the street, no one dared to come out. When the government ordered the people to shut up, no one dared to speak up. The Zhou Family isolated Zhou City from the control of the Da’an Kingdom. If this was an ordinary city, the Zhou Family would not be able to make much of a difference. On the contrary, the location here was extremely important. It could even be said to be the bridge between the Da’an Kingdom and the Great Yue Kingdom.

Shen Ninghua brought Baili Junyi a cup of tea. “Calm down. We just happened to come here, so we might as well think of a way to solve the problem. Why are you so angry?”

Throwing the paper full of information into the brazier at the side, Baili Junyi fumed, “I’m just fearful of the situation. If we hadn’t come here, we wouldn’t have known about any of this. One day, when our country fights with the Great Yue Kingdom, we have to deliver food and supplies through Zhou City. When the problem erupts then, I can’t imagine what the consequences will be.”

“Who would have thought that a family could control an important city?”

There was a map beside Baili Junyi, which was the Da’an Kingdom’s geographical location map. He stretched out his hand and draw a straight line that connected the center of the Da’an Kingdom from Zhou City. “Yes. I don’t mind if they behave themselves. If they have ulterior motives, the Great Yue Kingdom can pass by Zhou City and directly go to the hinterland of our country. At that time, the people will be in great misery.”

Shen Ninghua frowned slightly when she looked at the map and pointed at the markings on the map. “Do these cities next to them belong to the Great Yue Kingdom?”

“They used to be a part of the Great Yue Kingdom, but they became Bu Tinghe’s dowry when she got married…” Abruptly, Baili Junyi stopped talking and looked at the map again. As he connected the locations of the six cities on the map with Zhou City, his expression became more and more serious. “What problems will these cities have…”

A flash of light reflected through his mind quickly, but it disappeared without a trace when he wanted to think carefully. It was difficult to accurately grasp the essence of it.

After staring at the map for a while, Shen Ninghua asked attentively, “Can these cities station troops?”

“The cities have already been formally handed over to our country. It is impossible for the Da’an Kingdom to station troops. Moreover, these cities are too far away from the Great Yue Kingdom. The reason why our two countries have always been peaceful was that these border cities are too poor to support the army’s food supplies and equipment other than some bandits, so…”

“What if we help the Great Yue Kingdom develop these places?”

“W-What?”

Shen Ninghua studied the map, her expression becoming colder and colder. “I remember that after taking over these cities, Father Emperor had been delighted, and he even specially transferred money over when he learned that the places were poor. In fact, he even supported the surrounding cities to interact with these places. I think the cities should be able to get rid of the poverty soon.”

“It shouldn’t be possible.” Baili Junyi muttered with a heavy tone of uncertainty. “If what you said is true, what is the Great Yue Kingdom’s intention?”

Under the candlelight, Shen Ninghua’s face became hazier and more beautiful. “This is where we come in. We have to investigate it. It’s no big deal if we take it too seriously, but if there really is a variable in this, we make the right decision of coming here.”

This matter was like a huge rock that kept pressing down on their hearts. After about five or six days, they sent out all the manpower and connections they had to form a dense web in Zhou City, and they finally found a clue.

On this day, without alerting anyone, Baili Junyi and Shen Ninghua changed into ordinary clothes and carefully disguised themselves. After that, they went out of Zhou City’s city gate and galloped towards the forest in the northwest direction.

To the north of Zhou City was a mountainous forest that stretched for hundreds of miles. It was already late autumn, and the trees were a bit bleak. In addition, the weather in the northwest was too dry, so the leaves and tree barks were yellow and dull.

After riding for about five or six miles, they became more and more serious. The trees around them had almost all been stripped of their bark, exposing their yellowish trunks. From time to time, they would find someone lying between the trees. They were as thin as firewood and their faces were horribly blackish.