Chapter 174 - Beacon in Troubled Times 24 (1/2)

The several a.s.sa.s.sins were arrested. Qin Rui and the third young lady hadn’t expected Yu Hanjiang and his team to come to the forest and glanced at each other. In any case, Yu Hanjiang was the prefectural magistrate of Jiangzhou and it was hard to pretend not to see him. Qin Rui had to step forward and grip his fist in one hand toward Yu Hanjiang. “Yu daren, why did you come here?”

“Naturally, I was tracking the a.s.sa.s.sins and happened to come here.” Yu Hanjiang saw that he was dressed in black like the surrounded shadow guards and became clear about something. “Are you also a shadow guard?”

Qin Rui nodded. “Yes.”

Since the shadow guards were usually dressed in black and masked, they didn’t know each other. It was understandable that Long Sen didn’t recognize him.

In this way, everything that happened in Jiangzhou was clear to the emperor in the capital. Perhaps His Majesty suspected there was an a.s.sa.s.sin and intelligence organization in Jiangzhou for a long time. Thus, he asked the prince to put on a good show and lead all the a.s.sa.s.sins out.

Yu Hanjiang and Long Sen exchanged a look and Long Sen immediately flew over to take off the a.s.sa.s.sins’ hats. Sure enough, it was the girls from the Fragrant Sky House. Aunt Qing wasn’t present. The ones who came today were those who were rescued from the prison last night.

The a.s.sa.s.sins thought that the second young lady was too careless to take precautions. She left Jiangzhou City and ran to the forest where people were rarely seen… they hadn’t expected it to be a trap.

After realizing the plan, the girls were about to bite the poison in their teeth and commit suicide. Long Sen, Mo Xuemin and Xiao Lou were quickly to use their hands and held the mandibles of the girls.

Xiao Lou glanced at Yu Hanjiang. “I will pull out the tooth with poison. Then you can take them back for interrogation.”

Xiao Lou had long been familiar with teeth extraction. The previous hunters liked to commit suicide after their mission failed. Xiao Lou always had experience. The girls in the Fragrant Sky House had eyes wide in disbelief. They saw Madam Yu look calm as she put silk thread into their mouths and neatly pulled out the poisonous teeth, without a breath of martial arts at all. All the poisonous teeth in the girls’ mouths were dealt with by Madam Yu.

The girls, “……”

All of them had dead faces.

The third young lady and second young lady stared at each other.

The frightened Ninth Princess was also relieved at this time. She looked at Qu Wanyue beside her with fright. “Madam Yu doesn’t only do autopsies but also pulls out teeth? What is her origin?”

Qu Wanyue thought that Professor Xiao could do even more. He could also use the compa.s.s to make a brazier. Unfortunately, the compa.s.s couldn’t be used in this world and Professor Xiao could only exert 30% of his strength.

Facing the curious eyes of the Ninth Princess, Qu Wanyue had to say in a perfunctory manner, “This subordinate doesn’t know. You’ll have to ask Yu daren.”

The Ninth Princess had a complicated expression. It wasn’t good for her to cheekily ask Yu Hanjiang, ‘What is your wife doing?’

“Madam, you worked hard.” Yu Hanjiang walked to Xiao Lou’s side and gently hugged his shoulder, acting as a loving couple in front of the crowd. Then he looked at the a.s.sa.s.sin who had fallen to the ground and ordered, “Bring them back to the prefectural magistrate’s office for interrogation.”

The third young lady suddenly cried out, “Wait!”

Yu Hanjiang looked back. “Third young lady, do you have any questions?”

The third young lady frowned. “The a.s.sa.s.sins were caught by us. I want to take them back to the prince’s mansion. How can it be possible for Yu daren to take them away?”

Yu Hanjiang gazed calmly at her and spoke lightly, “Did the third young lady forget that the prince has given me full power to investigate and deal with this?”

The third young lady, “But…”

Yu Hanjiang interrupted her. “As the prefectural magistrate of Jiangzhou, the a.s.sa.s.sins were seized in Jiangzhou and should be interrogated by the government. The prince didn’t ask about political matters so you don’t have to bother the prince about this matter. I will try to find a report as soon as possible and report it to the prince.”

The third young lady still wanted to speak but Yu Hanjiang waved his hand. “Take them away!”

Long Sen immediately tied up the a.s.sa.s.sins and prepared to take them back to the Jiangzhou bailiffs.

Yu Hanjiang told her, “The princess is kind.”

He nodded to the princess, turned and took the a.s.sa.s.sins back to Jiangzhou.

There were a total of six a.s.sa.s.sins caught this time. Yu Hanjiang locked them in the woodshed, sent Long Sen to personally guard them and then called Ye Qi to recognize the people. Ye Qi quickly said the names of the girls. They all took on names such as Hong Mei (Red Plum), Xiang Ning (Fragrant Attention), Zi Tian (Red Sandlewood), etc. Ye Qi didn’t know what their real names were.

Xue Yan and Aunt Qing weren’t present and might have other tasks.

Yu Hanjiang called these a.s.sa.s.sins one by one to question them. “Are you from the Yan state?”

The girl was pale but refused to nod.

Yu Hanjiang continued coldly. “Where did Aunt Qing and Xue Yan go? Who is the ‘master’ you talked about? Who is giving orders behind the scene?”

However, there were no responses, just like stones sinking into the sea. Since these girls were willing to leave their hometown to do intelligence collection and a.s.sa.s.sination work, they must’ve been prepared to die a long time ago.

Yu Hanjiang tried for an hour but couldn’t pry their mouths open. Every girl’s eyes were extremely stubborn, as if saying, ‘Don’t bother, I won’t explain anything.’

Judging by their att.i.tude of ‘regarding death as coming home’, these girls have been professionally trained and brainwashed. They were Yan people and it was their honor to sacrifice for Yan. Once they had this idea, Yu Hanjiang couldn’t obtain any information at all.

Yu Hanjiang had a headache as he left the interrogation room. Xiao Lou looked at his expression and knew the interrogation hadn’t gone well. “Are they unwilling to explain?”

“Yes.” Yu Hanjiang pinched his brow. “They didn’t say a word. The leader behind the a.s.sa.s.sin organization isn’t Aunt Qing. Aunt Qing is only responsible for Jiangzhou’s affairs. The ident.i.ty of Aunt Qing’ boss is the key to the investigation.”

Mo Xuemin’s face was full of anxiety. “They didn’t speak. Then do we have to wait for new clues to come out or should we try to torture them to extort a confession?”

Ye Qi wondered, “Is torturing them to extract a confession okay?”

In ancient times, the torture of prisoners was common. In dungeons, there were various tools such as bamboo boards with finger marks, iron blocks with body imprints and iron cables…

Ye Qi thought of these blood-stained torture tools and shuddered. “The girls are only 20 years old. They might not be able to bear the torture but they might not necessarily give us clues.”

The use of torture was a method but Yu Hanjiang didn’t want to take this step.

They might be in ancient times but they still had the mindset of modern people. He didn’t want to torture these young girls with all type of cruel torture instruments.

Seeing Yu Hanjiang’s frown, Xiao Lou suddenly said, “I have a way. Perhaps it might be useful.”

Yu Hanjiang immediately looked back at Xiao Lou. “Madam, please tell me.”

“Do you remember Liu Qiao’s Twin card? She can copy any person or animal she saw within half an hour. Her card is equivalent to the transfiguration skill in ancient times and it should still work. She can copy the appearance of an a.s.sa.s.sin, mix in with the a.s.sa.s.sin and discuss their ‘master’ with them.”

Yu Hanjiang, “……”

This approach was really good. They could send Xiao Lou to the a.s.sa.s.sin organization as an undercover.

Thinking of this, Yu Hanjiang immediately had Old Mo call Liu Qiao over.

Liu Qiao arrived and told everyone that her Win card really could be used. Thus, Yu Hanjiang quickly made arrangements to have Old Mo bring the youngest girl and shut up in the study. Liu Qiao went to take a look and immediately copied the girl’s appearance and voice. Then Yu Hanjiang pretended to finish the interrogation and had Old Mo tie her hands behind her back and escort her back to the woodshed.