Lord Li anxiously asked his advisor, "Didn't you say it would be foolproof? How come things went wrong and everyone's been arrested?"

The clerk suddenly came to his senses and said in disbelief, "Impossible. I've inquired about it. Those people have never failed. I specifically went to their intelligence agency to deliver the message. They have rules: once they accept the money, they must do the job well."

Magistrate Li had already had his official robes brought to his study. While having someone help him change, he said to his clerk, "The people who came to deliver the message to me just now were wearing the waist tokens of the Imperial Guards. Those people were clearly not ordinary. The Imperial Guards are the Emperor's personal guards, and they are also responsible for gathering information for the Emperor. Do you think we've gotten ourselves into trouble this time?"

The clerk was even more alarmed upon hearing the name of the Imperial Guards and asked Magistrate Li, "Sir, what are you going to do?"

Magistrate Li had already changed into his official robes. He straightened his sleeves and said, "Those guards came over and told me to go to Zhoujia Village in person. After I leave, you should quickly tidy up the head of the household."

The clerk agreed and watched the magistrate walk away. He stood in the study for a long time, stunned, until a candle on the candlestick popped. Only then did he come to his senses, shivered involuntarily, and hurriedly returned to his temporary residence.

The guards had come on horseback, so Magistrate Li had to find him a horse. He then took two attendants and followed the guards to Zhoujia Village.

Zheng Boyuan waited for Magistrate Li at the entrance of Zhoujia Village.

These assassins couldn't possibly know who bribed them to commit arson and murder, but Zheng Boyuan has now listed Magistrate Li as a suspect.

Magistrate Li cupped his hands in greeting to Zheng Boyuan and asked, "Lord Zheng, what exactly happened?"

Zheng Boyuan then recounted the matter, and at the end said, "Lord Li, this matter is of great importance. I have already sent a letter to the capital, and the court will soon issue an edict. If you don't have anything else to do at the county office recently, it would be best if you stayed here. After all, this is a village under your jurisdiction."

Magistrate Li wiped the sweat from his brow and nodded, saying, "What Lord Zheng said is absolutely right. I will send someone back to fetch some grain so that we can guard this place together with Lord Zheng."

In the back office of Yun'an County, after the clerk ran back to his temporary residence, he pulled up his still-sleeping concubine.

The concubine was sleeping soundly when she was suddenly pulled awake. Opening her eyes, she saw the clerk and said coquettishly and reproachfully, "Husband, I was sleeping so soundly."

The advisor wiped the sweat from his brow and growled in a low voice, "Didn't you say that the people you hired were highly skilled in martial arts and had never failed? How come they were all wiped out?"

The concubine was bought by the clerk from a brothel in the capital. When she was in the brothel, she once met a man who had done business with an assassin organization. The man got drunk and told the concubine about it as if it were a rare thing.

The concubine was a cunning woman; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to coax the clerk into redeeming her and bringing her to Yun'an County.

After learning about the Assassin's Guild, the concubine made inquiries from various sources and finally figured out how to get the Assassin's Guild to intervene. It was also a coincidence that the advisor found a place with an Assassin's Guild sign in Yun'an County.

After paying, the clerk left behind two thousand taels of silver notes. This clerk handled many things for Magistrate Li, including this slush fund. The clerk would regularly send some silver notes to the magistrate, but he would still keep some for emergencies. Magistrate Li was a lazy man and never bothered with the clerk's affairs unless something major happened in the territory.

When the concubine heard the advisor say that the people he sent had been wiped out, she exclaimed in surprise, "That's impossible! I know that many of the assassins in the Assassin's Guild are among the top martial artists in the world."

The clerk was even more surprised and said, "When Lord Li left just now, he told me that the person who took Lord Li was wearing the Imperial Guard's waist tag. I wonder what kind of people these people are."

Upon hearing "Imperial Guards," the concubine exclaimed in surprise, "Imperial Guards? Those are His Majesty's personal guards! I've heard that many of them are sons of noble families, but these sons of noble families all got in based on their own true talents and abilities. Everyone in there is exceptionally capable. How could they be members of the Imperial Guards?"

The clerk frowned and thought for a long time before saying, "I once heard the magistrate mention that Zheng Boyuan, the prefectural magistrate of Miaozhou, came from the capital."

Upon hearing Zheng Boyuan's self-identification, the concubine exclaimed in surprise, "Zheng Boyuan? Is he Zheng Boyuan from the Zheng family of the Marquis of Pingxi?"

When the clerk saw that the concubine knew Zheng Boyuan, he quickly said, "Tell me quickly, what are Zheng Boyuan's special qualities?"

The concubine was a shrewd person and loved to gossip. It was no secret in the capital that Zheng Boyuan, as the legitimate son of the Marquis of Pingxi, was adopted by the second branch of the Marquis of Pingxi, whose line had died out. Brothels were places where all sorts of gossip flew around, so the concubine naturally knew about it.

The concubine then recounted the Zheng family's affairs and the relationship between the Yongning Marquis's Mansion and the Pingxi Marquis's Mansion. The third master and the eldest master of the Yongning Marquis's Mansion were both famous figures in the capital. After listening, the clerk's face turned pale, and he said, "Tell me, isn't the doctor who helped treat patients in Zhoujia Village someone of extraordinary status?"

Chen Zhaoci was famous in the noble family, but his reputation did not spread. The concubine did not know this, but she knew about the Chen family. When the Chen family returned to the capital, it was a major event in the capital. She hesitated and said, "Could it be someone from the Chen family? The third master of the Yongning Marquis's mansion is the son-in-law of the Chen family, and the Chen family are former imperial physicians and a famous family in the capital."

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