Chapter 127: Official Ship Heading Directly to Wuhe County

This new secret passage was much lower than the one connecting the church and the hospital, so Luo Mei could only move forward in a half-stooped position.

The tunnel was pitch black, pitch dark, but tomb robbing was her forte, and navigating the dark underground caverns was commonplace. With her spatial awareness and keen hearing, she didn't slow down at all. However, as she walked further, the ground beneath her feet gradually became wet. As she continued forward, the water quickly reached her ankles, forcing her to slow down. Luo Mei knew that if she continued at the same pace, she would undoubtedly make noises while wading through the water, inevitably alerting the pursuers ahead, and thus ruining Yin Chuan's plan.

After walking slowly along the secret passage for a while, Luo Mei straightened up when he felt the space around him becoming wider.

There was a turn ahead. Luo Mei walked to the corner and stopped. She clearly heard people talking not far away on the other side of the corner, and there were more than one or two people talking.

"Huh, I finally got out!"

"No one discovered it?"

"Of course, Clark and his men were smart and didn't expose me."

"I told you long ago that if you hadn't run into Yin Chuan and his men, everything would have been easy. But if they found even the slightest clue, you'd be in big trouble."

"How could I have known that the Cao Gang would surround the church so quickly?"

"Humph, you should have sensed something was wrong the moment they captured Ou Yelinlang and Luo Mei. If the Cao Gang had really engaged them in combat, you might not have gotten out!"

"Luckily I had a contingency plan. Yin Chuan was still standing at the church door, looking on foolishly. Little did he know I had already escaped. The corpses of those children will keep them busy for a while."

"Okay, let's go, the boat is waiting for us at the river mouth."

"Will there be any troublemakers on the canal from the Cao Gang?"

"Of course, we are an official ship, what can they do?"

Luo Mei's heart skipped a beat. A government ship? Could this "him" who escaped be a government official? And was this so-called "organization" also connected to the government?

After waiting for a moment, the footsteps of those people seemed to be receding. Luo Mei casually grabbed a water rat and threw it toward the corner, testing whether anyone was still guarding the area. Finding no one, she boldly turned the corner.

Only then did she realize the passage was wide enough for three or four people to walk side by side. The water beneath her feet flowed here into a channel, and further ahead was the exit. According to them, this place should be not far from the mouth of the canal. If they were indeed on an official ship, as they said, there must be a ferry nearby. Otherwise, an official ship would not have docked on the bank of the canal in the middle of nowhere.

"Eh? Wait!" Luo Mei suddenly felt a stir in her heart. She looked back at the passage, feeling as if she had been here before. Following her vague memory, she searched the walls up and down until she finally found a very hidden mark. It was the mark she had left here a few days ago, after chasing Linlang all the way here.

By the way, before arriving at this passage, I had indeed seen a ferry crossing at the confluence of the canal and its tributary. It wasn't a large crossing, and there weren't many boats docked there, mostly small civilian vessels. Furthermore, it was nearly midnight, so their boats might not depart immediately. If I followed them now, I might still be able to catch up.

Luo Mei was no longer cautious this time, but took quick steps, exiting the passage in a few steps. Following his memory, he headed east, over the slope and trees, and then north, where he spotted the ferry crossing, lit by lights in the wind and rain. A small but well-organized sailboat was docked at the ferry crossing. It seemed that was the official ship they were staying on.

But what she didn't expect was that after just a few steps, she saw the official ship suddenly hoist its sails, slowly weigh anchor and set sail. This caught Luo Mei off guard, and she hurried to rush to the ferry. However, the road along the way was uneven, the rain was coming down hard and fast, and there were several potholes in the canal blocking the way. In the end, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't catch up, and could only watch the boat drift further and further away on the canal.

"Miss, it's raining so hard, are you trying to catch the boat?"

Luo Mei had just arrived at the ferry and was already soaked. A boatman on the ferry came up to him and asked.

"That boat..." Luo Mei pointed in the direction of the boat.

"You want to catch that ship? You're catching the wrong one. It's a government ship. You can't get on it."

"Where is that boat going?"

"Hmm... probably to the northern end of the canal."

"The northern end of the canal? Is it Wuhe County in Zhili?"

"That's probably it." The ferryman scratched his head. "It seems like several groups of people have been going to Wuhe, Zhili recently. It's strange."

"Why? Isn't this place near Zhili? It wouldn't be strange to go north along the canal to Wuhe County, right?"

"Girl, you don't know that our small ferry is actually not in the main channel of the canal, but on a small tributary of the canal. In the past, there were very few ships that could stop here, and a ship of that size might not come in ten days. But for some reason, since the war between the North and the South has stopped, our ferry has suddenly had a lot of such ships passing by and stopping. Sometimes there is one every two days, and sometimes there is one every four or five days. Each ship arrives at midnight on the first day and leaves at midnight on the second day. Hey, just like the ship that just left." He pointed to the official ship in the distance.

"So how many people are usually on these ships?"

"How many people are there... not many, maybe around five or six. Yeah, there are a few familiar faces almost every time, and every time a boat docks at the ferry, these familiar faces are on board."

"Is it always this kind of official ship?"

"That's not the case. Sometimes it's a government ship, sometimes a cargo ship, sometimes a military ship. There's a lot of variety, but like that ship, they're all small."

So that’s how it is. Luo Mei nodded secretly.

"Girl, are you from Jushuitun?" asked another boatman next to her.

"How do you know?"

"This isn't new. Jushuitun is the closest to our ferry, and people often come here to move goods. I wonder if you know Ma Laoba from there? He comes to the ferry from time to time to transport food, tools, fertilizer, and other things."

"I know him. He is the gardener in the village flower garden." Luo Mei replied.

"You know him? That's good. If you go back, please tell him that last time he said his guillotine was dull and asked me to bring him a new one. I've already brought it back from outside. Tell him to come get it when he's free."

"Oh...Okay, I'll tell him when I get back."

After Luo Mei finished speaking, he said hello to the people at the ferry and turned around to walk back.

Along the way, she pondered over it, finally coming to a conclusion. However, she still had a few things to verify, and once they were complete, the series of unsolved cases at the Jushuitun Church and Hospital would likely be solved.