PROOFREAD BY AFREANA

Chapter 26.1

Xie Gang asked again: “But how can this Li Xiu’er be useful?”

“Mr. Jiang is a skilled worker, and his business remains prosperous. Many official wives and ladies of large families go there to make clothes. There are special rooms to try on clothes and refreshments to eat and drink. Sometimes people gather there simply to talk about gossip. Mr. Jiang is stingy and unwilling to hire too many people. His wife makes the clothes, and Li Xiu’er helps to take care of the business in the store and receives the wives of various families. If you want to inquire about anything or make friends with anyone, it’s not impossible.”

Xie Gang smiled. In his heart, he was impressed with An Ruochen. “Among those you picked out and those you think are probable, do you have a definite candidate?”

“Yes.” An Ruochen drew out a file and pushed it to Xie Gang. “Wife of the owner of Zhaofu Restaurant, Zhao Jiahua.”

Xie Gang looked down at the scroll, his gaze flickered, he smiled, and asked, “Why?”

“It’s not out of any particular assumption. It’s just that General Long had given me hints before.”

“General Long? Hinted at you?” Xie Gang felt the need to chat with the Lord General. He instructed him to teach and test An Ruochen properly while still secretly dropping instructions. This would not work.

An Ruochen nodded: “After the oath ceremony, the Lord Governor summoned me to the courthouse in the county government office for questioning because of Xie Jin. When I came out and passed by the Zhaofu Restaurant, General Long and General Zong were inside. General Zong helped send my steward, An Ping, away so I could meet with General Long. I thought General Long picked that place randomly. But after reading the files, I found out the restaurant’s owner was also Xu Matchmaker’s client. General Long said earlier that if I left Zhonglan City, he would have sent a message to the spies to make them think I was hidden outside the city by him, to entice them to take the bait. He would need to deliver the message and let the spies feel confident about intercepting this information. So, it would need to be leaked accidentally. Before I disappeared, I secretly met with General Long. If someone were to discover such incident, the news would appear to be true.”

“……” Xie Gang felt he had nothing to say, and there was no need to talk to General Long.

“Zhaofu Restaurant is not far from the government office. It is elegantly decorated, has first-class cuisine, and many private rooms. It is a good place to talk about business. There will be many officials coming and going. Also, the back street of the Zhaofu Restaurant is the Jubao gambling house. In the files, it says that Xu Matchmaker was a regular customer of the gambling house. It would be easy for her to go in and out of the Zhaofu Restaurant to conceal herself. Furthermore, the General deliberately met me at that particular restaurant, so I deduced that this Zhaofu Restaurant is more suspicious than other places.”

An Ruochen finished explaining her line of thought and looked at Xie Gang: “I would like to ask you, Sir, from the information and place of activity alone, Zhao Jiahua is not much different from other girls, so how did the lords come to the conclusion that she should be the target? Why did the general choose the Zhaofu Restaurant?”

Xie Gang scratched his nose and cleared his throat. Zhao Jiahua’s identity was modified and disguised when Xu Matchmaker sought marriage for her. She lied to the owner of Zhaofu Restaurant and made up a new identity for Zhao Jiahua.

Big Long instructed him to pull this piece of information out. Therefore, in An Ruochen’s opinion, Zhao Jiahua was not different from other girls. However, admitting this at this time was quite embarrassing.

When Big Long returned from patrolling at the Si Xia River, he listened to Xie Gang report on An Ruochen’s progress. He smiled and asked, ”Is her injury better?”

“Dr. Wei said the recovery process is going well. She is very cooperative in taking and changing the medicine, never shouting about pain. She is a strong girl, and she will be able to heal in half a month after recuperating. The scars on her body are heavy and will not completely heal. He said Miss An herself seems unconcerned, she did not ask him about this, so he did not mention it in particular, for fear of making her sad.”

Big Long asked again, “Is there anything else she’s doing these days besides reading the files?”

“Miss An is concerned about her fourth sister. She said her fourth sister is clever though less experienced. She has an opinion. There should have been some clues left if there was any accident on the way to the south city gate. But the An House, the government, plus our military investigation, have failed to find any. No one saw any robbery along the way that day, and no one saw a little girl struggling or shouting. Seven days have passed, and no one has found the body to report to the authorities. Miss An suspects the spies have really abducted her fourth sister. After all, Mr. Xie intended to attack her after Xu Matchmaker’s death. Perhaps the other party has been watching and monitoring the An House. When he saw her fourth sister fleeing from home, he took her away and tied her up as a hostage and left as a backup.”

Big Long shook his head: “This is not like the style of Mr. Xie’s actions. You have to raise a living person this way, which leaves many uncertainties. He would not take such a risk. The important thing is when An Ruofang fled, these two sisters were about to marry into the Qian House. Mr. Xie would not have foreseen An Ruochen manage to come into the Purple Cloud House unless ……” he paused.

“Unless they wanted An Ruochen to spy for them in Fu’an County?”

“After they kidnapped An Ruofang, they would use her to threaten An Ruochen and assist her in escaping. Help her get to the government’s office in the middle of the night to beat the drum, report to the officials, mix in with the government or the Purple Cloud House to spy on more valuable information than that of Fu’An County.”

“……” Xie Gang froze, somewhat surprised, “Could it be that the General doesn’t trust Miss An?”

“How trustworthy do you think she is?” Big Long asked rhetorically.

Xie Gang choked for a moment. An Ruochen’s eyes were clear, her attitude appeared sincere, not overbearing, reasonable, and she had deep feelings for her sister. However, after being asked by Big Long, he hesitated a bit.