Imperial Husband Chapter 93

Chapter 93

"Shouldn't that question be ours to ask you?" Tao Yichu coldly looked at the man in black who had spoken. "This is a government office. It is an official place. By sneaking in here dressed in black, you are already guilty. Now, conspiring with others to steal the disaster relief grain that has just arrived adds further to your crime."

"What disaster relief grain? This is all our master's property. It was stolen some time ago by the magistrate here, Lan Mingzhou. We are merely taking it back," the man in black retorted, reversing right and wrong while speaking viciously. "Ah, I see now. You want a share of the spoils, don't you? Let me tell you, all of this belongs to our master. If you still want to make a living in Zhuzhou, you'd better not offend our master."

It was no wonder the man in black thought this; after all, Li Jin and the others were all dressed in plain clothes, and they were now obstructing them. They looked exactly like fellow thieves who had come to steal and transport the grain.

The man in black just couldn't figure out who had sent them.

Tao Yichu laughed in anger. "Is that so? Then I really must see what consequences come from offending the master you speak of."

"You—"

Thwack.

Tao Yichu had no patience to let him speak further. In an instant, he delivered a knife-hand strike to the man's neck, knocking him unconscious. His accomplices were also knocked out in the same moment by Li Jin and the others.

At the same time, Zhou Yunting walked in, cupping his hands in salute. "Your Highness, your subordinate has dealt with all the people outside. The problematic grain they brought has also been seized."

Li Jin raised an eyebrow. "Problematic grain?"

"Yes," Zhou Yunting nodded. "Your subordinate cut open one of the sacks and found it was filled with rotten, moldy grain, completely unfit for consumption."

Hearing this, Li Jin nodded. "Good. Tie them up first. We'll interrogate them after the others wake up."

This was, after all, Zhuzhou territory. The one in charge was Magistrate Lan Mingzhou. Li Jin would not overstep and conduct the interrogation himself first.

Perhaps the old kitchen woman who had been bribed to drug them had used a heavy dose. Li Jin and the others waited until noon the next day before Lan Mingzhou and his men slowly regained consciousness.

"Hmm, what's... Wait... What time is it now?"

Lan Mingzhou's morning routine of exercises in the courtyard was unshakable, so he knew something was wrong the moment he woke up.

Knock, knock.

As the knocking sound suddenly rang out, Tao Yichu's voice came from outside the door. "Lord Lan, are you awake?"

Hearing this, Lan Mingzhou seemed to think of something. His pupils suddenly contracted, and he quickly put on his clothes before hurriedly opening the door to ask, "Lord Tao, has something happened to the grain?"

Tao Yichu was responsible for transporting the disaster relief grain. For him to appear at Lan Mingzhou's door the moment he awoke, the grain must have encountered trouble.

"Lord Lan, let's talk as we walk."

"Alright."

Tao Yichu took the opportunity to inform Lan Mingzhou of everything that had happened the previous night while leading him to the government office's main hall.

Inside, Li Jin and Ying Yuan had already arrived first and were seated below, waiting for Lan Mingzhou.

As soon as Lan Mingzhou saw Li Jin and the others, he immediately asked for punishment. "This official was negligent, falling for the enemy's scheme without even realizing it. Please punish me, Heir Li, Seventh Prince."

Having heard Tao Yichu's account, Lan Mingzhou felt a lingering fear. He didn't even dare imagine what would have happened if Li Jin and his group had also been drugged, or into whose hands the disaster relief grain would have fallen. And what angered Lan Mingzhou the most was that those people had actually tried to pass off inferior goods as the real thing. Wasn't that harming people?

"You're new here. This matter cannot be blamed on you," Li Jin shook his head. "Right now, more important than punishing you is interrogating those who infiltrated the office yesterday to find out exactly who they are."

"Yes, I understand."

Lan Mingzhou nodded gravely and immediately had the yamen runners bring up the men in black Li Jin and the others had captured the day before for interrogation.

Moments later, two men in black, gagged and blindfolded with black cloth, were brought into the main hall.

"Mmph... mmph..."

Unable to speak, the two men kept making muffled noises. Judging by their expressions, the words underneath those noises were certainly not pleasant.

Sure enough, as soon as the yamen runners removed the blindfolds and the cloth gags, one of the men in black threatened, "Pah! Let us go now! If our master finds out, he won't spare you!"

"Hey, something's not right. Look, where is this place?" The other man in black was clearly more cautious than the one who had just threatened. He immediately noticed their surroundings were unusual.

"What's so special about this place... Huh? This is the government office's main hall?" The threatening man gasped sharply in realization. Before working for these so-called masters, he had been a frequent visitor to the yamen and naturally recognized it. However, all this happened before Lan Mingzhou came to Zhuzhou, so Lan Mingzhou was not familiar with them.

"Silence, all of you!" Lan Mingzhou said with a cold face, slapping the wooden gavel sharply. The entire hall fell silent instantly. He then looked at the two men in black. "Who sent you to sneak into the government office's rear courtyard to steal and replace the disaster relief grain?"

"What stealing disaster relief grain? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Lord Lan, we are both law-abiding citizens. You cannot slander us like this, accusing us of stealing."

Once these two men in black realized it was Lan Mingzhou who had captured them, they immediately denied everything with contempt, not placing Lan Mingzhou in their eyes at all.

Lan Mingzhou slapped the wooden gavel heavily again. "You sneaked into the government office wearing black clothes last night and still dare to deny it?"

"Who says wearing black clothes makes you a thief?" The man in black once again argued unreasonably, seemingly confident Lan Mingzhou wouldn't dare do anything to them. "We were just here to take back what you stole from our master."

"I stole?" The chill in Lan Mingzhou's eyes deepened. "Then tell me, what exactly did I steal from your master? And who is your master?"

"Our master Zhang—"

"Shut up!" Seeing the first speaker about to say something he shouldn't, the other man in black hurriedly interrupted.

"Uh..." The speaker, hearing this, immediately realized his mistake.

"The surname Zhang, is it?" A glint of sharp insight flashed quickly in Lan Mingzhou's eyes. "To this official's knowledge, the most prominent Zhang family in Zhuzhou is only the one where Zhang Zhiheng resides."

Lan Mingzhou could guess Zhang Zhiheng so accurately and quickly because among the local influential families he had offended in Zhuzhou, Zhang Zhiheng was one of them.

"So what if it is Master Zhang?" The one who had slipped up, seeing things had reached an irreparable point, decided to go all out. "This is all your own fault, Lord Lan. If you hadn't stolen our master's grain, why would we have sneaked in?"

"Nonsense! That is disaster relief grain! How did it become your Zhang family's grain?" Lan Mingzhou laughed in anger. Although he had long known these people were shameless, he never expected that even after their identities were exposed, they would insist on calling black white.

One of the men in black retorted, "The quality of this grain is so good. How could the court possibly waste it on the troublesome people of Zhuzhou?"

"Heh." Tao Yichu, standing to the side, chuckled, casting a cold gaze at the two black-clothed men. "My apologies, but this grain is indeed allocated by the court for disaster relief in Zhuzhou. Furthermore, the one responsible for escorting this disaster relief grain is myself, the Deputy General."

"..."

This caused a huge stir.

Tao Yichu's words instantly stupefied the two men in black.

What Deputy General? The main official escorting the grain this time was killed halfway, leaving only some soldiers behind?

Tao Yichu pressed his advantage. "Speak! Besides that Zhang someone, you'd better confess honestly, who else was involved? This Deputy General hasn't forgotten you said 'masters' earlier."

"This..."

The two men in black were stumped.

Suddenly, just as the men in black were about to say nothing at all, Zhou Yunting walked in and reported to Li Jin, "Your Highness, the five others captured with them have already confessed. The ones who instigated them are the heads of Zhuzhou's three major influential families: the Zhang family, the Chi family, and the Lu family."

Hearing this, Lan Mingzhou was furious. "What audacity from the Zhang, Chi, and Lu families! Their courage is as big as a peck measure!"

"Lord Lan, you are clearly coercing confessions through torture!" the man in black loudly rebutted, determined to pin all the blame on Lan Mingzhou.

Lan Mingzhou ignored the man in black's repeated reversals of right and wrong. Instead, he looked at Tao Yichu. "Lord Tao, this official hopes you can lend me some men to go and arrest the heads of the Zhang, Chi, and Lu families."

"Agreed."

Tao Yichu readily agreed and immediately ordered soldiers to go with the yamen's sole remaining runner to make the arrests.

"Thank you."

Lan Mingzhou immediately expressed his gratitude to Tao Yichu.

"By the way, can you hand these people over to me to handle?" Tao Yichu looked at the men in black, the corners of his mouth lifting in a half-smile. "I think I might have a way to make them tell the truth as well."

Lan Mingzhou thought for a moment and agreed. After all, he was severely short-handed. It was for the best if Tao Yichu was willing to help, and Lan Mingzhou naturally would not refuse.

___

Zhang Residence

In order to receive news quickly, Chi Zhen and Lu Wentao had both gone to the Zhang residence to await news. However, they waited until noon the next day without any word returning.

"What's going on? I arranged for several people to accompany them. How is there not a single message back?" Zhang Zhiheng paced impatiently. "No, I need to send more people to check."

"Head of the Zhang family, you must not!" Chi Zhen hurriedly stopped him. "If they haven't returned for so long, something must have happened. If we send more people now, wouldn't that be sending a lamb into a tiger's mouth?"

[羊入虎口 (yáng rù hǔ kǒu): lit. a lamb entering a tiger's mouth; fig. walking right into a trap, certain doom]

"Not this, not that! Are we just supposed to wait?" Zhang Zhiheng roared unhappily. "Don't forget, we also have no news about our moldy grain. That's all money!"

To put it bluntly, Zhang Zhiheng's anxiety wasn't for the missing men, but for his moldy grain.

"Master! Master! It's terrible..." Suddenly, a servant rushed in panicked. "Outside... soldiers have come and surrounded our mansion!"