158 The Rice Shop (2/2)

”Maybe they were playing some tricks on the bed. When Marquis Gao was with me, he was very...” Xu Yanwei stopped again. She had the same thoughts as the commandant.

Shangguan Ru was waiting for her words when Gu Shenwei hurried to change the topic.

After a while, Xu Xiaoyi stopped his meditation to raise his head and said, ”Maybe we should check on the rice and flour trade. Maybe...ouch!”

Gu Shenwei kicked him under the table, but it was too late.

”What are you going to check on the rice and flour trade? There's rice in every house, what do they know?”

Xu Xiaoyi looked at Brother Huan timidly, after seeing him nodding his head, Xu Xiaoyi continued in high spirits. ”There's a Protector in every business, while every Protector keeps serval hitmen. Sometimes the hitmen leave a mark at the scene to show the trait of their business. For example, hitmen in the cloth business leave a piece of red silk fabric at the scene...”

”So the rice and flour business leaves a grain of rice?” Shangguan Ru interrupted.

”Not that I've heard of, but it's worth a try.”

Shangguan Ru nodded and said, ”Yes indeed. Why haven't Commandant Zhong and you thought of this?”

She asked Slave Huan.

”We are not familiar with South City. Not like Xu Xiaoyi, he grew up here.”

The truth was Gu Shenwei had thought of this, and he was sure that Zhong Heng had too. That sly officeholder deliberately saved the key information and had said it very casually, trying to shirk his responsibility. The reason why Gu Shenwei did not mention this idea to Shangguan Ru was that he planned to mingle with her for the day and send her back to North City. However, Xu Xiaoyi ruined his plan.

Gu Shenwei had no choice now. He took the Tenth Young Master to meet the Proctor of the rice and flour trade in the afternoon.

The last Protector of the rice and flour trade, Sack Zhou, was ”reaped” by Tie Hanfeng and his apprentice. The current Protector had surnamed Mi and did not like people calling him ”Sack Mi”. Therefore, he was called ”Shopkeeper Mi”.

Shopkeeper Mi had been a hitman of Sack Zhou for years, yet he had to spend money to save his position. That's why he had no feelings for his predecessor, even some glee at Sack Zhou's death. In the war between Horned Dragon Society and Kun Society, he along with his rice and flour trade was the first to seek protection from Kun Society. There was no resentment between him and killer Yang Huan.

Shopkeeper Mi was short, had a patchy beard, and looked nothing like a Proctor but a languish bookkeeper. Many bags of rice and flour stacked in his house which was messy and almost had no room for guests to walk.

Shopkeeper Mi greeted the Tenth Young Master, cleared a space for the two and sent maids to serve some tea, murmuring ”luster lent to my humble house.”

Gu Shenwei planned to come himself, and now he found a company with the Tenth Young Master was also convenient—as a ”son” of the Supreme King, it was easier to make Shopkeeper Mi talk truthfully.

As expected, Shopkeeper Mi dared not to refuse Shangguan Ru. He thought all his hitmen through and in sincerity he said, ”No way, they're just ordinary machetemen and they are not good at swords, let alone experts.”

”'not good at swords,' are you to say that they have swords?” asked Gu Shenwei.

”No no no, I was just talking without thinking. Look, except for your master, who uses swords nowadays? Swordsman like Ye Silang, there's so few of them, how could they be the hitmen of a rice and flour trade?”

Shopkeeper Mi looked sincere, and he also had no need to lie. Hence the two youngsters left, along with this clue.

”Seems like the major suspect is still Ye Silang. The other swordsmen had little relationship with Marquis Gao I guess,” said Shangguan Ru.

Gu Shenwei thought the same and recalled Commandant Zhong's theory about ”taking care of it”, which could not apply in this case. Getting rid of suspects was not what he wanted because he would have a duel with Ye Silang anyway. What he only wanted was to find out the murderer. Even if he could not reveal the murderer's identity, he had to know the enemy lurking around.

If the enemy was Ye Silang, he had to know the reason.

The sky darkened, and there were more people on the street. The shops which did business at night had lighted up and opened. Shangguan Ru's attention was drawn by the shops again.

”She could stroll along this street for the whole night. I need some machetemen here to protect her.” Gu Shenwei thought.

Suddenly, a 10-year-old boy thrust into Shangguan Ru, clumsily stuffed a note into her hand, turned around and ran away. Gu Shenwei almost took out his saber and killed the boy.

However, he grabbed the boy's arm and said, ”Who sent you?”

”I don't know him, it's the man in the coat over there.”

”Look!” Shangguan Ru handed over the note to Slave Huan, sounding surprised and excited.

Gu Shenwei loosed his hand, and the boy ran away desperately.

There was only one line on the note. ”The swordsman is in the Blacksmith Village. Now.”

#