Perfect Encounter - Chapter 15.2
PROOFREAD BY AFREANA
Chapter 15.2
“This is the usual tactic of spies. They carry poison with them, and in an emergency, in order to avoid leaking their identity and information, they commit suicide.” Big Long paused and looked at An Ruochen, “Miss An seems to be quite suspicious, what does Miss An think?”
Here we go again. An Ruochen swallowed her saliva. “Since he had a secret that must not be pried out, and his identity was so important, yet despite all that he still wanted to harm me in such a place with such highly variable and risky means, it seems excessively reckless.”
Big Long didn’t answer right away, An Ruochen didn’t know if he thought she was right or wrong.
After a while, Big Long asked, “Do you think he has a better choice?”
An Ruochen replied stiffly, ”It is better to sneak into my home and do it there than to do it here, isn’t it?”
“Last time your home was breached by burglars, since then your father has strengthened the defense, and I have also sent extra men to guard secretly. If he attempted to kill you at your home, he may not be able to succeed.”
“But it’s easier to escape, right? I may have more guards at home and more people sent by the General, but not more than the thousands of soldiers here. Isn’t he just getting himself into trouble and forcing himself into suicide?”
Big Long didn’t answer. An Ruochen was a bit nervous, not knowing how he thought. She also thought about whether he had helped her to arrange a way to escape from home, but now that this has happened, it was not good to ask.
After being silent for a while, Big Long suddenly said: ”I thought that after the military training competition ended General Zong would have stayed at your residence for a cup of tea to avoid the chaos of the crowd dispersing after the event, and at that time you would have the opportunity to see me alone. I never thought this would happen. Let’s make a long story short, on October 15, at the time of Shen, a grain convoy will leave from the South City Gate for Shao City. The convoy manager is my old subordinate, surnamed Jiang, Jiang Zhong. I would greet him well. With your resourcefulness, you should be able to reach the South City Gate by that time. Old Jiang will put you on a carriage to enter and leave the cities along the road freely without being checked. Shaocheng Bin County is the old home of old Jiang, his mother and children are living there. There are people in the local network there, with his aid you can have a household to join into as a distant relative and getting you proper identification documents to allow an entry in the book of registration will also not be a problem. With his placement, to discuss a life should not be difficult. If you are hardworking and willing to work, you will be able to live.”
An Ruochen was surprised, froze for a moment and took a deep breath. As her eyes warmed up, she kneeled down and knocked her head on the ground several times: ”I thank the General, the General’s great kindness, I will definitely return.”
“If you go away successfully, you and I should not have much chance to see each other again, so there is no need to return the favor. In the future, you should live a good life and live as you wish. That way, it will not be in vain that I have taken the trouble to arrange this for you.”
Live the way you want to live…
An Ruochen crouched on the ground, tears almost coming out of her eyes. No one had ever said anything like that to her, and it spoke to her heart. No one had ever cared about how she wanted to live, even her old nanny, who loved her the most, would only wipe her tears and tell her to bear with it. She was not unable to endure, but this patience is endless, throughout her life, eroding her mind, making her like a walking corpse, and may even let her lose her life for nothing. Just like a doll, finally broken, worthless.
She didn’t want to live like this.
From among a thousand words surging in her mind, An Ruochen could only squeeze out one sentence: “Thank you, General!”
“Don’t thank me first. After today’s incident, we will see what happens. By October 15, if there is no other incident, you can leave, otherwise, I will order to detain you.”
“Yes.” An Ruochen answered, with some anxiety left in her heart. Mr. Xie is dead, so she should not be in danger anymore. But today’s incident was rather odd, she had experienced everything herself, but she couldn’t make any sense of it. She felt that the General seemed to have a plan, but she did not dare to ask.
An Ruochen gritted her teeth, if she could get out of here, what did other matters have to do with her. She shouldn’t ask, and shouldn’t get herself into trouble.
“You shouted for help and the officials searched the forest, the governor will surely receive the news and will summon you for questioning.” Big Long spoke.
An Ruochen said: “I was not feeling well today, the ceremony stage was crowded and noisy, I could not breathe, so I wanted to go back to the carriage to get some smelling salts and some fresh air, but unexpectedly lost directions, running into some criminals. I was lucky to be saved by the soldiers.”
Big Long nodded his head, this girl is indeed a sharp one. He has not spoken to Yao Kun about the secret agent. This city is a complicated net, Mr. Xie’s details he has not yet found out, but from all the traces and clues, this person should be quite well-connected and powerful. The more people know about this matter, the greater the chance of alerting the snake. He does not want to make it public yet.
After instructing An Ruochen, Big Long had Zong Zeqing order someone to send her back to the ceremony tent, and reported the matter to Yao Kun, the governor.
After a while, Xie Gang came to report. Yao Kun had summoned the guards and An Ruochen for questioning, and Jiang Song had left. Xie Gang himself had arranged for spies to secretly investigate today’s events.
”The man who called out to Miss An before the guards found her remains unknown. The guards did not find any other suspicious people, but Miss An said that the man was not the same person as the man in the green clothes. According to the situation, more than ten guards and several officers had entered the forest, but no one saw any trace of the man. The guards outside also did not see other suspicious people going in and out.” Xie Gang just gave his thoughts: ”the voice may sound a little different from near and far. After all, shouting from a distance will raise the voice, but when talking near someone the voice will lower and quieten. It is reasonable to assume that Miss An could not distinguish them. As for the clothing being different, it may also be that since the other party knew that Miss An was hiding, he could guess that her vision was blocked, and so in order to lure her out, he pulled up the outer garment, revealing the pants to look like a short dress.”
Big Long frowned thoughtfully.
Xie Gang said: ”At that time, the guards have surrounded the forest. If there was really an accomplice inside, going around without revealing any traces of himself, other than towards Miss An, so that no one else could find even half a trace of him, the possibility of that happening would be really small. Unless that person took wings and flew away. Maybe there was only one person from the beginning to the end, he originally wanted to lure Miss An out, and then heard that someone had entered the forest and wanted to kill out of the encirclement, but after being injured, he felt hopeless, so he took the last step. In any case, I have instructed all the people in the woods today to carefully investigate what they have seen and heard. If there really is an accomplice, there will be traces left.”
Soon after, Jiang Song also came to report this matter to Big Long.
Jiang Song was the general of the city guard, in charge of the defenses of the guard camp, who thought and, acted cautiously. He carefully inquired about the events taking place before and after the incident, then methodically inspected the forest, and finally examined the body. Yao Kun, the governor, was on the sidelines when the case was being examined, and An Ruochen was also questioned in detail, but nothing could be found for the time being. No one knew the identity of the deceased. An Ruochen also could not point towards the purpose of that person, simply thinking it was a bandit trying to take advantage of the chaos to rob some money. She revealed these thoughts, but the people contemplated whether it could be a thief who had lustful thoughts. During the interrogation, An Zhifu was already furious as he listened in, scolding his daughter for not knowing how to leave the table in the middle of it all, disgracing the family. An Ruochen sobbed uncontrollably as he scolded her.
Big Long imagined the scene, but did not ask more about An Ruochen. He was concerned about Yao Kun’s plans. Jiang Song said that the governor had arranged to investigate the origins of the deceased, because the invitation was not found on him, so for the time being it remained unknown how he mixed himself into the venue. Yao Kun also strictly ordered the magistrates to inspect all parts of the venue, but found no abnormalities. Other members of the An family have not seen that person. It could be guessed that the other party wanted to see Miss An alone, acting on a whim to commit the crime. That person was a martial artist. When the guards went into the forest to search, he took advantage of the ground to secretly hurt people using darts. Then the guards attempted to catch up and encircle him around the bushes with the premise of cutting off his way of retreat. While doing that, they managed to stab him and the person ran with all his might. Afterwards, the guards followed the blood trail to catch up and found the person heavily wounded, bleeding all over the ground. With such a sight, they thought that since he knew he could not run far, he took poison and killed himself.
“Does Yao Kun have other arrangements?” Big Long asked.
“The governor ordered people to carry the body back to the government office to let the coroner examine it, and ordered people to check its identity. Other than that, not much has been said.” Jiang Song was quite unconvinced when he said this: “General, this person is suspicious, it should be our military taking the lead in investigating this case.”
Big Long said lightly: “There is no evidence that this person is a spy, so let Yao Kun go to investigate. Let’s see how he decides on this matter.”
An Ruochen returned home and was reprimanded again by An Zhifu. Qian Pei heard the news at the event and followed the An family back to the An Residence. He was softly consoling An Ruochen, asking about the reasons behind what had happened, and advising An Zhifu not to be angry. He said the eldest girl was frightened, let her rest well.
With Qian Pei’s attitude, the An family was both relieved and surprised. After he left, An Zhifu ordered An Ruochen to go back to her room and reflect on her mistakes. The second house, Tan Shi, was worried and anxious to ask An Zhifu about what had happened. She feared that An Ruochen’s reputation became damaged, causing Qian Pei to reject the marriage. This was also what An Zhifu was afraid of. He has not yet gotten the goods and although Qian Pei said it was no problem, with each a day without seeing the shipment he could not rest.
An Zhifu was thinking left and right, and after discussing it with Mrs. Tan for a good half a day, he decided that it will be better to quickly set the wedding rituals between An Ruofang and Qian Pei in order to finalize this matter and please Qian Pei.
An Ruochen returned to the room, unable to worry about the strange events of today, only to feel full of joy. On October 15, she will escape and live a brand new life. As long as she can last another half a month, for that she will not cause any trouble and will remain quiet.
But that same night, An Ruoxi suddenly came, furious, scolding An Ruochen angrily. She said An Ruochen didn’t know how to behave, leaving the table midway. The smelling salts? It’s ridiculous. Is it because she wanted to see the general again, or is it because General Long turned out to be too high to climb, so she wanted to climb onto General Zong? She didn’t expect to attract a villain, did she? This kind of disgraceful thing, ruining herself is not enough, she just had to drag down the whole family, causing trouble, how can she afford it!
An Ruochen did not understand, she looked at An Ruoxi while listening to the tirade. Usually, if she gets punished, An Ruoxi is happy, there is joy, but this kind of anger is strange, what does it matter to her about the trouble she has caused?
“What are you looking at?” An Ruoxi stared at An Ruochen with a red face, stamping her foot and shouting. “This time Master Qian does not mind you, but if something goes wrong …… me ……” she gritted her teeth: “I will not let you off. “