Chapter 206: Denial

Chapter 206: Refusing to Recognize

The day after the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tang Jinshuang couldn’t resist asking Meng Wan for time off. He staked out the government office for an entire day, but unfortunately, the judge’s young wife didn’t show.

He waited two more days but still caught no trace of the judge’s wife. Unable to contain himself, on the third day he secretly followed the judge to his home.

Meng Wan didn’t know the specifics, only that Tang Jinshuang came back that day totally devastated.

Meng Wan asked if she was his lost sister, and he said yes. But then, with a pained expression, he added, “She refused to recognize me.”

That was beyond Meng Wan’s ability to help. Not knowing what had happened between the siblings, he could only console, “At least now you’ve found her, and you know she’s doing well… Did you ask about the others’ whereabouts?”

Tang Jinshuang and He Niang had shared the same fate; how could he only care about himself? Of course he asked.

“Rou Niang said that when she was captured and taken away, she was supposed to be given to some big shot by Brother Hei and his men. But on the way, they ran into bandits, and she jumped into the water. She was rescued by Zhang Wenxuan.” Zhang Wenxuan was the judge of the prefectural office.

Tang Jinshuang didn’t know about the rest, but his sister said it was absolutely impossible to find He Niang’s younger brother again. Because just a few days after they were captured, that little boy died from a high fever.

Meng Wan and Tang Jinshuang both fell silent. Everyone knew how important family was to these people exiled to Lingnan—it was their only reason to keep going through all the suffering. If they found out the relative they’d been searching for had died long ago, anyone would fall apart.

Meng Wan pursed his lips. “Don’t tell He Niang about this.” Now that her life was finally looking up, this news would be like a knife to the heart that can never be pulled out, tormenting her day and night until she’d wish she were dead.

Even if Meng Wan hadn’t said it, Tang Jinshuang had already thought the same. Selfishly speaking, the master was right—at least he knew his sister was alive, right under his nose, and doing well—which was more than most could say.

After returning from Tang Jinshuang’s place, Meng Wan told Song Tingzhou that the judge’s wife, Tang Jinrou, was Tang Jinshuang’s long-lost sister.

They ended up talking about Chen Yunmo and Chen Chong, whom Song Tingzhou had also brought to Lingnan. Besides them, there was the brother-in-law of the county magistrate of Heiye County and the group of thugs who’d caused trouble at the lotus workshop; Song Tingzhou had sent them to repair roads.

Meng Wan lay on the bed, counting on his fingers. Chen Chong and his men had been locked up long enough, and the dungeon wasn’t a comfortable place. “Ever since you entered the capital, we’ve been busy and never had a chance to deal with them properly. Should we ask them again now? Will they tell us the truth?”

Song Tingzhou lay on the outer side, reaching out to embrace him. “No guarantee.”

Meng Wan half-crawled on top of Song Tingzhou and whispered, “In a couple of days, I’ll go to the jail and try to get some information.”

In the prefectural jail—

As Meng Wan had expected, Chen Yunmo and Chen Chong were nearly driven mad by confinement. The jail was dark and sunless, constantly damp and stifling. Their sweat dried and soaked again; they were covered in filth and stank so bad they wanted to puke.

“Brother Chong, when will we be rescued? Have they given up on us?” Chen Yunmo sat weakly in a corner of the cell, while Chen Chong was in a similar state on the opposite side, separated by some distance.

“Impossible!” Chen Chong quickly retorted.

He didn’t know if he was trying to convince Chen Yunmo or himself, muttering, “Impossible. We have crucial things in our hands. How could they abandon us?” Coming to Xiwu was better—it offered a better chance to escape than Heshan.

At night, each of them got a bowl of coarse rice porridge and a bowl of boiled cabbage. Though tasteless, their hunger didn’t allow them to be picky.

Chen Chong was bigger than Chen Yunmo and got hungry faster. As he wolfed down his food, his face suddenly changed, and he went stiff, fell to the ground, and started convulsing.

This terrified Chen Yunmo, who was still drinking his porridge. He didn’t even check on his cousin; instead, he vomited everything in his mouth with a loud retch, then frantically stuck his fingers down his throat to throw up whatever he’d eaten.

The cell already smelled foul, and now the added stench of fermented food made it unbearable. But Chen Yunmo no longer cared; the will to survive consumed his mind.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chen Chong stop convulsing and lie still. His fear reached its peak, tears, snot, and sweat mingling into a mess on his face.

“Let me out!”

“Murder!”

“Help! Murder!”

“Tell Lord Song—I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!!!”

In the assistant prefect’s office where Song Tingzhou worked, a drenched Chen Yunmo knelt before him. The bailiffs had just poured several buckets of well water over him outside, and he was now shivering uncontrollably, whether from cold or fear.

Song Tingzhou sat on a chair, looking down at him from a height. His voice was indifferent. “Chen Yunmo, tell me everything you know.”

Chen Yunmo was like a startled bird. He looked around nervously. “You… first make everyone else leave.”

Without hesitating, Song Tingzhou ordered the bailiff, “Take him back to the cell and keep him locked up.”

“No! I won’t go back to the cell! I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” Chen Yunmo quickly shook off the bailiff who tried to grab him. “But after I speak, can you guarantee my life, Lord?”

Song Tingzhou cast a sidelong glance at him and said in a steady, reassuring voice, “As long as you’re under my authority, I can guarantee you won’t die.”

Chen Yunmo gritted his teeth. “Fine, I believe you, Lord.” He had no choice anyway—either die or rot in jail for life.

“My cousin and I were originally exiled to Lingnan because my uncle was convicted, and the whole family was sent to work in a tin mine in Shakeng County. The mine was grueling and miserable; back home we were spoiled playboys, so we couldn’t bear it. Brother Chong was clever, so he found a way to bribe the guards…”

Chen Chong was ambitious. Before his father fell from power, he’d used his father’s connections to network with nobles. Though those fair-weather friends scattered after the family’s downfall, two were actually willing to help and introduced him to some bigwig.

Song Tingzhou’s eyes narrowed. “What bigwig?”

Chen Yunmo clearly knew less than Chen Chong. “I don’t know who it was, but he ordered us to select handsome young boys and girls to present to him. We would deliver them to a designated spot, and his people would pick them up. I never saw that person—only Chong-ge dealt with him…”

“He said his name was Yan.” Chen Chong, pale as a ghost, barely holding on, spoke weakly to Meng Wan, who stood by the doorway.

Meng Wan leaned against the door, lost in thought. “Yan? Did you see what that person looked like? Male or female?”

Chen Chong took two short, rapid breaths. “I only saw him once, but he wore a hooded veil, so I never saw his face. Yan’s voice wasn’t a woman’s, but it was softer than a man’s—he must be a ge’er.”

Meng Wan turned Chen Chong’s words over in his mind and asked again, “Yan only wanted handsome young boys and girls. Then what about He Niang and Tang Jinshuang and the rest?”

Chen Chong didn’t reply. He lowered his head and wiped the water from his face. Before being carried to the Song family’s woodshed, he had also been splashed with water.

A cold glint flashed in Meng Wan’s eyes. He understood now. Tang Jinshuang, He Niang, and the others were all poor souls manipulated by them for their own selfish ends. They constantly felt guilty for involving their own relatives, but in fact, it was the opposite—Chen Chong and his men had kidnapped their younger siblings and used that as leverage.

No wonder it was all so coincidental. The ones Tang Jinshuang and others controlled all had younger siblings. Those without ties could be sold directly, while Tang Jinshuang and his group served both as cash cows and as insurance policies and good-luck charms.

Xue Sheng stood guard beside Meng Wan. Meng Wan propped his leg against the doorframe and asked again, “You said that person named Yan only met with you once, and the rest of the time you were told to bring the children to the very northern edge of Xiwu Prefecture?”

Chen Chong didn’t dare meet Meng Wan’s eyes. “Yes. Someone would come to pick up the children.” And he would be handsomely rewarded.

Based on the information from Chen Chong, Meng Wan could now make a bold guess: that Yan probably wasn’t even in Lingnan. He only came once, possibly because he had many underlings like Chen Chong working for him, or because the journey was too far for him to come personally.

Meng Wan thought both were true. In this old feudal society, all sorts of dirty dealings were common. They went to such trouble to abduct children either to serve as toys for the corrupt upper class or to train them as assassins.

But the second possibility was slim, because these were officials’ children, pampered from birth and weak-willed. If they wanted to train death warriors, they’d be better off raising starving street kids.

Considering all the conditions, only the prosperous Jiangnan region and the capital, Shengjing, had the means for such evil practices. And among them, the Luo family and Prince Lian could be involved…

“Lin’an Prefecture?” Meng Wan said tentatively, and sure enough, he saw Chen Chong’s shoulder twitch involuntarily.

Holy crap—he’s still hiding stuff! That reaction proved Meng Wan’s guess was correct, and Chen Chong knew Yan was in Lin’an.

Meng Wan had Xue Sheng lift Chen Chong’s head and, looking straight into his evasive eyes, said word by word, “It’s true that the main branch of the Xiangge Luo family, the head of the southern noble houses, is based in Yangzhou. But that was a later move. Their ancestral home is in Lin’an Prefecture. Lin’an is close to Yangzhou, and it’s completely under the Luo family’s control. Also, I’ve seen your case file—your father served in Lin’an, didn’t he? As a place where you grew up, it must be very familiar, right?”

Meng Wan narrowed his eyes and sighed as if in admiration. “Really a perfect place to do dirty work and have someone else take the fall!”

Meng Wan watched his expression crumble for a moment. "You're a smart person. You know the principle that the more you know, the sooner you die. So after you caught Huang Ye and his group back then, were you trying to break free from Yan's control? Qinzhou borders the frontier; it's the most chaotic place in all of Yu, and also a place with many opportunities. So you intended to run to Qinzhou, make a fortune, and buy a new identity to start over?"

Chen Chong's expression was numb. One wrong word, and every step was wrong. He had completely lost the initiative and could only be manipulated by Meng Wan at will. If he had known, he would have been better off staying in the prison cell; at least there would have been a glimmer of hope.

He said, sounding defeated, "Even if you know all this, it's useless. Their silence for so long proves they have abandoned me. The little I have in hand is not enough to use as evidence to report them." In his heart, Chen Chong understood. If before the prison break he still had a faint hope, after half a year of no activity, he had already sensed it faintly, but he was unwilling to admit it to himself.

Meng Wan's expression was not as dejected as Chen Chong had imagined. "Heh, while there is life, there is hope. Having no way now doesn't mean there will never be a way. You don't need to worry about that."

Xue Sheng dragged Chen Chong back to the prison cell, startling Chen Yunmo, who had just finished his own interrogation inside.

"Brother Chong? You... you... you're not dead?"

Chen Chong didn't want to talk much at the moment. All his secrets had been exposed, and the Luo family had abandoned him. A useless person is as good as dead.

Chen Chong didn't say anything, but Chen Yunmo suddenly figured it out and slapped his thigh. "That Song guy tricked us!"

Seeing Chen Chong with his eyes closed and an exhausted expression, Chen Yunmo comforted him, "It's okay, Brother Chong. Lord Song said that as long as we are under his protection, he can guarantee our lives. Here in Xiwu, we might be safer than if we had been taken away."

Chen Chong let out a heavy sigh. He didn't regret getting involved with the Luo family, nor did he regret doing so many bad things. What he regretted was that he was one step behind—if only he had run to Qinzhou earlier, instead of encountering such a meticulous official as Song Tingzhou and his demonic husband.

In the evening, after leaving the office after the day's court, the couple Song Tingzhou and Meng Wan combined all the information they had gathered so far and basically pieced together the whole story.

Prince Lian had an ambiguous attitude toward the Luo family. The Luo family was amassing beautiful young boys and girls. On the surface, they were still a trustworthy, highly renowned century-old clan, but in reality, they sent people like Yan to go out and do dirty work.

There must be more people like Chen Chong and Chen Yunmo. The Lingnan region was rugged and poor, with many poor families, so losing a few children was not conspicuous. By bribing corrupt officials like Hu Ti, and then threatening and bribing their superiors who had no backing, basically no one dared to interfere with the Luo family's affairs.

Song Tingzhou had just gained a foothold in Xiwu, and his reach truly could not extend to Lin'an Prefecture. For now, all he could guarantee was the safety of the people in Xiwu Prefecture; the rest would have to be planned gradually.

Chen Yunmo's relief didn't last long. Knowing that he and Chen Chong were now useless, Song Tingzhou, who had just sworn to guarantee his life, promptly sent people to escort him back to He Mountain. He instructed the county magistrate of He Mountain County to write a memorial along with Hu Ti of Shakeng County to file a report, and then he forwarded the memorial from Xiwu Prefecture to the Provincial Administration Commission.

This time, sure enough, no one obstructed it, and the memorial was smoothly delivered to the capital Shengjing.

At the beginning of November, the memorial with imperial approval, along with the craftsman from the Guanyu Bureau that the Crown Prince had found for Meng Wan, arrived in Xiwu Prefecture.