Chapter 262 - The Delivery of Dowries & A Pair of Wild Geese (1/2)
“Marshal, we couldn’t find those men. They seem to have disappeared into thin air, but…”
Yao Yi broke off in the middle of a sentence. Yuwen Tong looked at him. “Anything you feel it inconvenient to talk about?”
Yao Yi hurriedly replied, “Not inconvenient. It’s just that I don’t dare say for sure. This morning, Xie s.h.i.+ had a message delivered here, which said that w.a.n.g Dashan and some others had been a.s.signed by Childe Ling to perform some kind of task and their whereabouts were unknown.”Update by ReadNovelFull.com
Yuwen Tong briefly paused, coming to understand what Yao Yi was implying. “Since when have w.a.n.g Dashan and his men learned how to slip away from under your noses without any of you noticing?”
“The ones who tailed them said that those men in black adopted some kind of weird method, that they unmistakably caught sight of them but the next moment they suddenly vanished.” Yao Yi was also very confused and had been wondering all along what had happened.
Something occurred to Yuwen Tong and he raised his eyebrows and said, “It seems that they’re quite quick learners.”
Yao Yi didn’t understand. “What was it that they learned?”
“Mr. Ji has been personally instructing them. As for what he is teaching them exactly, I have no idea either.”
Mouth hanging open, Yao Yi recalled the miraculous skill Ji Yin had displayed in the mansion that day, and began to worry. If all those security guards became so difficult to shadow, would they still be able to keep them under control with kung fu skills?
“Don’t you make me lose face,” added Yuwen Tong.
Yao Yi had no choice but to hurriedly answer, “I don’t dare, Marshal.”
Yuwen Tong flicked a glance at him and said, “Given that it was w.a.n.g Dashan and his men who did that, there’s no doubt they were following Brother Zhang’s orders. Stay out of this. Pretend you’re still investigating. Distract those performing the search when necessary.”
Yao Yi was totally unsurprised at Yuwen Tong’s decision. “Yes, Marshal.”
“Have you found anything out about what my uncle is up to?” Yuwen Tong started to ask about something else.
Yao Yi answered cautiously, “I noticed that every seven days Second Master’s old personal servant goes to a small teahouse located in the North Alley beside the second street in the east of the city to drink tea, and every time when the storyteller in the teahouse reaches the best part of his story and all customers’ attention is focused on the storyteller, he rises to his feet and goes to the privy without fail. At first I had a suspicion that he goes there to meet someone, which afterwards turned out to be untrue. Yesterday that old servant went to the teahouse as usual and when he was heading for the privy, someone b.u.mped into him and a bamboo tube slid out of his sleeve, which looked similar to the bamboo tube Second Young Master had carried with him in Tanyang.
Zhao Fugui once said that Second Young Master’s venomous snake was capable of delivering messages, so I immediately became vigilant. Pity I was unprepared. Even if that old servant sent out a venomous snake, for the moment there’s no way to find out where it went. We can only wait for him to do that again.”
A frown creased Yuwen Tong’s face. If that was the case, Yuwen Zhi must have been corresponding with someone in this way for a very long time.
Recollecting the layout of the surroundings of the North Alley beside the second street in the east of the city, pondering who this person that Yuwen Zhi had been corresponding with might be, Yuwen Tong eventually found that several of the residences closest to the teahouse belonged to courtiers. Another fact that rendered Yuwen Tong cautious was that this place was near the imperial palace.
That alley was only two north-south streets away from the wall of the imperial palace. At the foot of the palace wall was a broad thoroughfare paved with blue flagstones, which palace guards patrolled in s.h.i.+fts day and night. In order to prevent the air from getting dusty, gra.s.s seeds had been sowed in the soil in the gaps between blue flagstones of all main streets in the capital city. Though horses and pedestrians walked along them day and night, there was still green gra.s.s growing in those gaps, which made it very easy for a small snake to get cross the streets. Of course there might be other ways. After all, all they needed was a pa.s.sage wide enough for a small snake to go through…
He remembered that the place behind that palace wall seemed to be a utility room.
Faintly cold-faced, Yuwen Tong contemplated, hoping that he was merely overthinking it by making this speculation. It would take more time and patience to ascertain whom Yuwen Zhi had been contacting.
“Be cautious about this. Tell Xie s.h.i.+ to come back in a few days. I want him to personally go there and keep a close watch on that old servant.”
Yao Yi nodded. Xie s.h.i.+ excelled at detoxification and was more acquainted with that kind of venomous snakes.
“Have you found the merchant that provided these venomous snakes for my uncle’s branch of the family?” inquired Yuwen Tong.
“We’ve got a shrewd idea who he is. Pity people of south Xinjiang are very wary of outsiders and unwilling to disclose more details. Also, that merchant enters the capital city every three years. To find him, we have to either wait or go to south Xinjiang. I’ve already had a message delivered to our scouts there, telling them to keep their eyes peeled for him. Currently I’m waiting for their report.”
If the situation went urgent, Yao Yi would personally pay a visit to south Xinjiang, but he was Yuwen Tong’s right-hand man, and Yuwen Tong merely wanted to know who had provided his uncle’s branch of the family with that kind of venomous snakes, and had no intention to do anything to that merchant, so there was no hurry.
“Our first priority right now is finding out what that old servant has been doing exactly in that teahouse. Make sure he’s under constant watch.”
“Yes, Marshal.”
…
“Young Master, the dowry-delivering team of the Yuwen family has departed for Tanyang. They exited the city this morning. It was Yuwen Chi, Yuwen Han and Yuwen Jin who were heading the team.”
This day, Ling Zhang had just returned from checking the artisans’ progress in building the drill ground when w.a.n.g Dashan hastily entered and gave him a report with a delighted face.