Chapter 34: Epilogue

Just as Yin Chuan was lost in thought, he heard Supervisor Wan cough crisply. The next second, a muffled, heavy gunshot rang out. The soldier, hypnotized by Lin Lang and threatening Supervisor Wan, had his bayonet hand instantly blown away, blood splattering. At the same time, a tall horse galloped by, bearing a young officer with handsome features, his Russian-style large-caliber rifle still puffing with smoke.

"Sir Wan, get on your horse!" the officer called out.

Yin Chuan looked at him coldly, feeling as if he had seen this person somewhere before. Although he was dressed in military uniform, there was a certain charm between his eyebrows.

General Wan did not hesitate at all. He saw that the man was fat but very agile on horseback, and he had excellent military skills.

"Yin Chuan, you are lucky today. I have no intention of attacking the three of you, otherwise my subordinates would not just kill Chen Xi and let you go. However, we will definitely meet again in the future, and then I will not be so merciful." After saying that, the officer sitting in the front stepped on the saddle, and the warhorse jumped up and galloped out of the camp.

Situ Xin wanted to order his men to stop them, but suddenly he heard gunfire from the other side of the barracks again, this time even more intense than the previous one. Someone came to report that someone was attacking the barracks, and it seemed that they were not bandits, but regular soldiers.

Yin Chuan was also quite surprised when he heard this. He had not expected the Southern Army to suddenly advance at this time. Perhaps Black Cloud Village and the Southern Army had formed an alliance. It seemed that they could no longer stay in the barracks. Taking advantage of the chaos caused by Situ Xin's orders to resist the enemy, he sent Du Yunzhang and Linlang out together.

"Why does that officer on horseback look like a man to me?" Du Yunzhang said to Yin Chuanlinlang as they walked.

"Didn't you see? She is the maid Amei we met in Luyuan Manor!" Linlang reminded.

Oh! Right! Yin Chuan then remembered. No wonder the personal guard beside General Wan looked so familiar when he first passed by him, but he just couldn't remember where he had seen him before. After hearing what Linlang said, he finally understood, but at the same time, he also had more questions in his mind: Why did this Ah Mei suddenly become an officer after escaping from the Cao Gang ship with your teacher Elliot? Or is she a subordinate of General Wan? If we look at the case in Luyuanzhuang, she is most likely related to the organization of the Jin family grandfather and grandson. This time, she rescued General Wan, which means that General Wan is also very likely a member of the organization. And this time, the organization's people directly committed the crime. Shouldn't they also have the same intention as the many previous murders that left a single word? But what is that word?

"It's 'West'!" Yin Chuan couldn't help but blurt out.

Du Yunzhang and Linlang were both stunned.

"'West'? What 'West'?"

"Those are the mysterious characters! This time they left the word 'West'!"

"Is that the 'Xi' in Chen Xi?" Du Yunzhang asked.

"No, the word 'Xi' was left behind when Chen Hui was killed."

"What's the connection between Chen Hui and the word 'West'?"

"Remember his accent the last time we met? Yes, he's from Shaanxi. That's how the word '西' came from," Yin Chuan explained. "But this time they've changed the way they left their notes. Before, they wrote them down for me to see, but now I can only guess."

"Hey, it's the same old story, the only difference is that this Wan Jianjun isn't as direct as the Jin family's grandfather and grandson."

They talked as they walked, and no one stopped them from the queued soldiers who had hurriedly gathered to fight. The three of them successfully left the barracks and entered a dense forest.

The snow was gradually easing, and a thick layer of snow had accumulated on the trees and under the trees in the dense forest. Suddenly, Yin Chuan seemed to hear something and gestured to Du Yunzhang and Linlang to stop and keep quiet. Deep in the woods, beneath a thick old tree, a dark figure was furtively digging for something. His braid was particularly conspicuous, and he muttered to himself, "Why did Han Chi bury something in this godforsaken place? I spent most of the day looking for it!" Yin Chuan immediately recognized the figure as Zhang Sixiang, the military doctor of the Independent Regiment.

The three of them hid behind the slope, closely watching Zhang Sixian's every move. He dug for a long time and seemed to have finally found something. Just as he was pulling it out with a beaming smile, he suddenly revealed a pained expression and soon collapsed headfirst into the snow.

Yin Chuan saw that the situation was not good and rushed forward to check. He found that Zhang Sixiang's lips were blue, he was foaming at the mouth, and his pupils were dilated, which were symptoms of poisoning.

"Hey! What did you find?" Seeing that his life was in danger, Yin Chuan asked anxiously. At this time, Du Yunzhang and Linlang also rushed over.

Zhang Sixiang pointed tremblingly at the tree below. Du Yunzhang turned and saw a wooden box, the size of a palm, lying in a pit. He was about to pick it up when Yin Chuan shouted, "Don't move! It's poisonous!" Du Yunzhang was so frightened that he didn't dare to move.

At the same time, Zhang Sixian groaned twice, his eyelids fluttered, and then he became motionless.

The three of them were at a loss, frozen in place for a moment. After a while, Du Yunzhang finally spoke, "Zhang Sixiang had agreed to testify for us, but he suddenly disappeared just as he was about to arrive at the military camp. I didn't expect him to end up here, and he was inexplicably poisoned to death. Old Yin, what on earth is going on?"

Yin Chuan pondered for a moment, "He just said that Han Chi buried something here. So, maybe he and Han Chi had some agreement to leave something here for handover, but he didn't expect Han Chi to poison the thing, and he died here in a confused state."

Linlang seemed to recall something. "Oh, right, I noticed in the barracks that Staff Officer Han always had his hands covering his chest, as if afraid something would fall out. It was as if he was hiding something."

Yin Chuan removed his cotton hat and carefully lifted the wooden box through the thick cotton layer. The box was plain, with a rough wooden pattern. The lock on the box's opening lacked a lock. Sure enough, the lock had a sharp barb on the inside, making it incredibly difficult to detect. It seemed Zhang Sixian had died from this.

"What's inside?" Linlang asked.

Yin Chuan checked the wooden box from top to bottom, front to back, and only after confirming that there were no other traps did he bravely open the box. However, inside the box was nothing but a layer of angular cardboard.

"Is there anything hidden in these cardboards? Or is there anything written on them?" Du Yunzhang asked.

Yin Chuan turned the cardboard over again. There was nothing hidden inside and no writing on it.

"There's nothing inside." Yin Chuan was a little puzzled.

Linlang felt that the cardboard was a bit strange, and she held it in her hands and examined it for a while. Then she said, "This piece of cardboard seems to have been folded into a strange shape!"

Upon hearing this, Yin Chuan and Du Yunzhang looked closely. Du Yunzhang narrowed his eyes and asked, "You said it folded into a strange shape? Why didn't I see that?"

Linlang pointed at the cardboard and explained, "To be more precise, the cardboard isn't folded into a certain shape, but rather, it's made into a mold of something in the box to hold it in place."

What is it? Yin Chuan looked carefully and saw that the concave shape of the cardboard was a long strip, with a short, thin protrusion at the front and a long, thin groove at the back.

"It seems to be in the shape of a syringe!" Linlang finally figured it out.

"syringe?"

"Yes, it is a therapeutic device in Western medicine. Different from acupuncture in traditional Chinese medicine, Western medicine uses a syringe to inject medicine into the patient's veins, which can directly bring out the effect of the medicine." Linlang explained to them.

"I've seen it in a hospital run by foreigners," Yin Chuan nodded in agreement. "Indeed, the shape is very similar to a syringe. But why do Han Chi and Zhang Sixian care so much about this syringe? Or... maybe they care more about the liquid medicine inside the syringe?"

Speaking of "medicine," Yin Chuan and the other two instantly recalled the slow-acting poison the organization had administered to Linlang. Could it be that Han Chi, Zhang Sixiang, and the others had also experienced the same thing? This was the reason for this vicious plot?

Yin Chuan put down the wooden box and said quietly, "Even if the Jin family grandfather and grandson didn't show up, Wan Jianjun and Amei are here again. It seems that the ghost of the organization is still lingering around us!"