Chapter 339: Huge Conspiracy
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Ge Lihua did not believe it at all. There were at least forty to fifty girls, and most of them were at their best age. How could they all be ruined by a beast?
She calmed herself down and squatted down, asking a girl beside her, “Little girl, don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you. Tell me, is what he said true?”
The little girl, who was pregnant, cried when she heard that. “Yes, what he said is true. Sister, can you save us?”
“Of course I have to save you. Can you tell me what happened?” Ge Lihua helped the little girl up and let everyone get up.
The little girl’s tears fell like broken beads. “Tao Pengnan knows the human traffickers. He got them to leave him those good-looking girls who are unyielding by nature. Once there is such girls, he will buy them home and rape them.”
“Not only did he rape them, but he also gave them to his subordinates. He is an extremely twisted person. He likes to watch men force women. As long as he is in the mansion, he will watch it every day…”
After hearing this, Ge Lihua patted her chest. Her stomach churned and she felt like vomiting.
Chu Xujin couldn’t stand it anymore and left. It was better to leave this group of girls to Lihua for questioning. He would investigate something else.
As soon as he left the hall, he bumped into the head constable. “Xujin, we found Tao Pengnan’s corpse.”
Tao Pengnan told two people about him wanting to fake his death. One was the old man who opened the door, and the other was a servant girl.
The old man took so long to open the door just now because he went to deal with the corpse.
He did not trust the servant girl. After Tao Pengnan took the pill, the old man sent the servant girl away and went to hide Tao Pengnan. Then, he planned to take the corpse he had prepared in advance to replace Tao Pengnan.
However, just as he hid Tao Pengnan, the officials came.
This was all the old man’s own idea. Tao Pengnan didn’t let him do it.
There was another secret… This old man was actually Tao Pengnan’s biological father. No one knew this secret, including Tao Pengnan’s mother.
He was afraid that his son would suffocate to death if buried underground, so he thought of finding a corpse to replace him.
Tao Pengnan’s body was hidden in the barrel in the kitchen.
The old man was quite smart, but he didn’t know that Tao Pengnan had been poisoned to death by the servant girl from the beginning.
The constable moved Tao Pengnan’s body out of the barrel and laid it on the ground. The body was still warm, so it was obvious that he had not been dead for long.
Chu Qingzhi rushed to the kitchen first. She checked Tao Pengnan’s corpse. “He died of poison. There are no external injuries. Take a look and see if there are any tattoos on his body.”
After checking, they found out that Tao Pengnan also had a rice grain tattoo on his body.
Chu Qingzhi’s expression turned serious. “Looks like he’s really the recipient. Let’s go to the study to take a look.”
Chu Qingzhi met Chu Xujin halfway. “Third Brother, Tao Pengnan has a rice grain tattoo on him. Even if he’s not the recipient, he must have a deep relationship with those three merchants.”
She suddenly felt that there might be another reason as to why that merchant called Tao Pengnan’s name before he died.
Chu Xujin frowned and said, “The clues are cut off!”
Chu Qingzhi said, “Let’s go to the study to take a look.”
The group walked towards the study.
The study was very clean and simple. It was brand new, as if no one had used it.
Chu Qingzhi walked in front. “There must be a secret room in this study. Everyone, look for it.”
Then, she told Chu Xujin the methods to find secret rooms. After that, she asked Chu Xujin to find it.
There were many cases like this. She couldn’t help with everything. All she could do was tell Chu Xujin her experience and let him grow.
Chu Xujin was quick on the uptake. After hearing Chu Qingzhi’s words, he found the mechanism to the secret room quickly.
As soon as the mechanism was activated, the huge painting on the wall rolled up, revealing a round stone door.
Chu Xujin was about to go forward to open the stone door when Chu Qingzhi stopped him. “Everyone, step back!” Then, she threw a brush at the stone door.
When the brush hit the stone door, sharp arrows immediately shot out from the wall. The entire door was covered by arrows. Even if the person who opened the door was an expert among experts, it was inevitable that he would be injured.
Chu Xujin and the constables immediately broke out in cold sweat. They looked at Chu Qingzhi with even more admiration. If not for her, they might not have died tonight.
Chu Qingzhi walked forward and pushed open the stone door.
Holy sh*t!!!
Chu Qingzhi narrowed her eyes. There was a wall made of gold bricks inside the stone door. The two lamps shone brightly, illuminating the entire room. The people behind her were petrified. Was this gold?
In the middle of the secret room was a wide table. On the table were stacks of letters.
Without waiting for Chu Qingzhi to instruct them, everyone immediately opened the letter and read it.
Chu Qingzhi also picked up a letter and opened it. There was only one sentence on it. “Bring the salt to the black market. Someone will buy it.”
Black market? Where was the black market?
She showed the letter to the head constable. The head constable had worked for more than ten years and already knew some jargon.
After the head constable read the letter, his expression changed slightly. “The black market is in the capital. I don’t know the exact location. If you want to go to the black market, you have to get someone’s permission.”
Chu Qingzhi asked, “Who?”
The head constable didn’t hide anything. “He’s someone known as ‘Third Master Lu’. He wears a mask all the time. No one knows his true identity.”
Chu Qingzhi thought for a while and really didn’t have any clues. “Read all the letters and look for clues.”
There were a total of 150 letters, and all of them were very vague and hard to decipher. However, one conclusion was that someone was plotting a huge conspiracy that involved the eastern border and the Imperial Court.
Chu Xujin said, “Everyone, go back and rest first.”
It was already midnight and everyone was exhausted.
“Okay.”
In the hall, Ge Lihua listened to all the girls’ complaints alone and felt a headache coming on. “Now that Tao Pengnan is dead, what are your plans?”
The little girl burst into tears again. “We’re all women he bought. Other than this place, there’s no place for us. We don’t know what to do.”
Ge Lihua sympathized with these girls. If they weren’t settled properly, their life in the future would be very miserable. “Let me think about what to do..”