CH 17

Missing

The heavy rain came down harshly and quickly. The pedestrians on the road thought that today would be a good day with the sun shining brightly, but they were caught off guard by the heavy rain, and so they hurriedly ran to the shops to take shelter from the rain, and the clever hawkers took out their oil-paper umbrellas to sell, thereby making small profits.

“A few days ago, the young lady of the Jiang family came out for sightseeing but didn’t return back that day. The Jiang family used their own forces to look for her all night. On the second day in the early morning, they reported the situation to the authorities, but it was already noon when the news reached the emperor.” Xie Zhaoxue poured half a cup of hot tea and passed it to Wen Chan’s table before continuing, “The emperor then ordered for a thorough search in the capital and ordered me to do this. After searching for two days, I found that there was a family named Wu near the He Yue house, and someone went missing from there as well. ”

“It’s the house of the old woman whom Liang Yanbei kicked today. She became a widow when she was young and has a son named Wu Qi. He is 31 years old now, and after interrogating their neighbors, we learned that he and the young lady of the Jiang family went missing on the same day and have not returned for four days.”

“Is it possible that the missing young lady of the Jiang is Jiang Yueying? ” Wen Chan asked after listening and thinking about it for a while.

“Exactly. ” Xie Zhaoxue sighed slightly, “This young lady Jiang was trampled on and broke her arm during the Shangyuan Festival. She has been training for a long time, and so a few days ago, Jiang Yueying became bored at home and wanted to go out for a walk. In the end, she went missing.”

Wen Chan said in his heart: “Finally, they found someone who is more unlucky than me.”

“Then do you know who the leader the old woman said was? ” He inevitably felt a bit nervous and lightly rubbed the fingers which were hidden by his sleeves.

“No, Liang Yanbei has already gone to the interrogation room, so he should be able to ask her something.” Xie Zhaoxue rubbed his eyes wearily. In order to track the matter of Jiang Yueyang’s disappearance, he hadn’t rested properly for the past few days.

Although the Jiang family was not very powerful. In any case, they were also the officials of the third grade. The disappearance of the daughter of the main wife in the capital is considered to be a major event, and the emperor would not allow such a thing to happen at the foot of the imperial city, thus placing a lot of pressure on Xie Zhaoxue.

Wen Chan didn’t continue asking questions, just sitting upright in his chair as he waited for Liang Yanbei with some anxiety in his heart.

After the rain gradually turned lighter, Liang Yanbei came into the room in a relaxed manner, in his hands, was some shaobing1, which he brought from somewhere. As soon as he opened the door, he caught sight of Wen Chan who was sitting there with expectation and impatience, and he couldn’t help being blank when he saw this.

Wen Chen stood up immediately when he saw him and walked towards him, “What did you ask? ”

Liang Yanbei was still chewing the sesame cake in his mouth and wondered in his heart why the Ninth Highness was so concerned about the young lady of the Jiang family?

“Speak ah.” When Wen Chan saw him daydreaming, he couldn’t help but to raise his voice which startled Liang Yanbei back to his senses. He looked at Wen Chan with a smile hooked upon his lips, and vaguely said, “Don’t worry, wait for me to finish this pancake.”

Upon seeing Wen Chan’s anxious appearance, Liang Yanbei just dilly-dallied even more. He sat down beside Xie Zhaoxue and chewed the pancakes comfortably with his one leg cocked.

Wen Chan knew that his small stature was not as tenacious as Liang Yanbei’s, so he took a breath in his heart, turned around, and returned to where he was sitting while cursing inwardly. Eat, eat and eat! May you choke to death on it!

When Liang Yanbei saw his facial expression of being so angry that his lips pouted yet still trying to act as if nothing happened, he indescribably felt it to be funny. He lazily said, “That old woman is a hard nut to crack. No matter how I threatened her, she refused to say even half a word. Lying there in the cell, she cursed my ancestors and descendants all over, and not a word was repeated.”

“Such pig-headed and wicked people should suffer physically.” Xie Zhaoxue wasn’t in a good mood.

“You didn’t ask anything? ” Wen Chan was greatly disappointed, and he had already begun to think about taking a trip by himself to see the old woman.

“Of course not. I still have some ways to deal with people like her. “Liang Yanbei denied with a smile.

Wen Chan almost rolled his eyes in anger. He raised his hand to slap the table, but he came back to his senses mid-air. He changed the direction of his hand abruptly, picked up the hot tea on the table, and delivered it to his mouth.

Little did he imagine that the tea would be scalding hot, even though it had been poured a while ago, he still couldn’t swallow it. Wen Chan’s head which was muddled by his anger didn’t expect this. He took a big sip in his mouth, and his lips and tongue suddenly started tingling. Wen Chan sprayed it out, not being able to endure it.

Xie Zhaoxue was frightened, “Come on, hurry up and serve him some cold tea! ”

Contrary to what one might expect, Liang Yanbei didn’t hold back his laughter.

Wen Chan covered his mouth and raised his head to glare at him, his big eyes were filled with tears caused by the pain, making him look really pitiful. Liang Yanbei looked very innocent, “Why are your highness glaring at me? It wasn’t me who made your highness drink the hot tea.”

Xie Zhaoxue hurriedly handed over the cold tea, “Brother Yanbei, don’t be rude! ”

Wen Chan snorted coldly and took a sip of the cold tea. The place which was moistened by the water began to feel numb. He placed the teacup on the table, looked at Liang Yanbei with a slight bulge in his cheeks, and motioned for him to continue.

Liang Yanbei finished the last bite and patted his palms to make them neat, “In order for the old woman to stand in the trial obediently, I asked someone to knock out one of her teeth, and then she stopped cursing. ”

“It deserves to be so.” Xie Zhaoxue agreed.

Wen Chan didn’t want to hear about the brave process of him fighting wits with the old woman at all. He just wanted to know if Liang Yanbei was able to get any useful information. But he couldn’t do anything about it, so he pressured himself to listen to his gags.

“But even if one of her teeth was knocked off, she still looked like she would rather die than give in, and ignored me as if she was deaf. So I brought her little grandson to the prison and placed a knife on the tiny neck. This made her confess everything.” Liang Yanbei sighed helplessly, “She was truly not ready to shed a tear until she saw the coffin2.”

Wen Chan swallowed the tea in his mouth and asked, “What did she confess? ”

On seeing that he was really anxious and was about to suffer from internal heat and that he asked the same question three times in a row, Liang Yanbei slowly said, “There are only three people in the old woman’s family. She herself, her son, and a little grandson who is more than ten years old. They are all believers of Shengui Sect.”

The three words “The Shengui Sect” exploded in Wen Chan’s ears, and his heart slammed down with a “thump” . It really was the Shengui Sect!

Liang Yanbei saw that Wen Chan’s expression looked a little wrong and he continued, “They joined the Sect three years ago. They said that the Shengui Sect would hold an apprentice meeting on Wuyue island every three years. As long as each person paid two coins, they could enter the sect. ”

“What does this sect do?” Xie Zhaoxue was hearing about this sect for the first time.

“The old woman said that the leader of the Shengui Sect was an immortal who has returned from the underworld and that he will save any of his believers who are living a hard life in this mortal world. As long as you pray with all your heart, all your wishes can be fulfilled.” Liang Yanbei said disdainfully. He obviously didn’t believe these words.

“An immortal? Are there really immortals in this world? “Xie Zhaoxue’s face was filled with confusion.

“Yes.” Wen Chan murmured in a daze. Of course, there are immortals in this world. But the leader of the Shengui Sect was not. Wen Chan knew that the leader of the Shengui Sect was a real demon. Because he saw the leader turning into a huge monster with his own eyes, his deadly claws taking out Zhong Wenjin’s fervent heart.

Liang Yanbei and Xie Zhaoxue saw the dazed expression of Wen Chan, and they couldn’t help but become suspicious. Liang Yanbei said, “Your Ninth Highness, could it be that you know something?”

He called back to his senses by this voice. Wen Chan’s face gradually calmed down, “She just confessed this? ”

“En. That’s it. “Liang Yanbei nodded, “After that, no matter how much I asked her, she didn’t say anything and she finally fainted from the pain.”

It was enough to ask this much. Wen Chen stood up and said to the two of them, “You two, take a good look at Miss Jiang’s case. I will go back to the palace first. ”

Wen Chan inexplicably requested to come to the Yamen, asking a few questions anxiously and leaving the moment he finished asking the question. It all felt a bit strange to the Liang Yanbei and Xie Zhaoxue who were left behind. Wen Chan inexplicably asked to come to the Yamen, and asked some questions anxiously, and after asking his questions, Wen Chan walked for a while without stopping. Liang Yanbei and Xie Zhaoxue felt strange, and after sending Wen Chan away, they had different thoughts in their minds and went to do different things.

He didn’t realize when the rain outside stopped, and, taking the three subordinates who were waiting outside the door, Wen Chan returned to the carriage with a heavy heart and ordered them to return to the palace.

As soon as the carriage started moving, the sound of hawking on the side of the road reached Wen Chan’s ears and interrupted his train of thoughts.

“Selling shaobing! Delicious shaobing! ”

Wen Chan suddenly recalled the shaobing that Liang Yanbei was holding in his hand, and there was a lingering pain on the tip of his tongue. He opened the curtains and stretched out his head. He saw a middle-aged man who was yelling hard to hawk about his pancakes. There were a few shaobings arranged by the side. There were long ones, short ones, round ones, and flat ones, and one of them was exactly the kind which was eaten by Liang Yanbei just then.

He stretched out his hand and pointed at the middle-aged man, “Hey, you selling the shaobing over there! You are gonna push away your shaobing stand to the next door right now! If I see you still in front of the Yamen next time, I will smash your shaobing stand! ”

The middle-aged man was frightened by this sudden threat. He looked at the other party who was sitting in a luxurious carriage. The driver’s eyes were penetrating. He froze for the moment and stopped his hawking halfway through his sentence.

Wen Chan saw him looking dumbfounded and he said fiercely, “Didn’t you hear me! ”

The middle-aged man immediately nodded repeatedly and quickly tidied up the stall.

Wen Chan felt an evil scent on seeing him like this. He sat back in his carriage and shouted to Qin Qi and Shu Hua to continue driving the cart.

After Ah Fu sat by his side and watched this, he said, “How did the shaobing seller make Your Highness angry? It’s better to let Qin Qi find someone to teach him a lesson.”

“No need.” Wen Chan refused, how could a shaobing seller provoke him? The person who really made him angry was probably busy having fun at this time.

After a moment of silence, Wen Chan suddenly stopped the carriage. He asked Ah Fu to open the carriage’s curtain and said to Qin Qi, “You go and buy me a piece of shaobing. It should be from the stall of the man to whom I asked to get lost.”

After thinking for a while, Wen Chen added, “The shaobing should be round. ”

Translator’s corner

Our first volume ended with the discovery of an evil sect which attracts our Wen Chan and with the teasing of Liang Yanbei.

Our Wen Chan has a bad record of destroying public property. And as his stepmother, I am gonna get my slipper ready.

Btw guys, don’t forget to take a good look at our Liang Yanbei [Again].

baked sesame seed-coated cake

lit. not to shed a tear until one sees the coffin (idiom) / fig. refuse to be convinced until one is faced with the grim reality