Xiao Yunying thought for a long time but couldn't figure out what use the white candle could have. She rubbed her temples with her fingers.
She hadn't slept for a day and a night, which left her very tired, and the constant tension in her nerves caused a throbbing pain in her temples.
Seeing that she was not feeling well, Chen Yuancheng said, "If you can't figure it out, don't think about it anymore. Let's go back first."
Xiao Yunying was truly clueless: "Okay."
As the two left the courtyard, they happened to see an official retreating when he bumped into a rather tall earthen stove, causing the earthenware pot on top to fall to the ground and shatter.
Another officer helped him up, saying, "Be careful."
The officer used his scabbard to scrape the shards of the earthenware pot: "They have a kitchen but don't use it, instead using it to store those wooden boxes. They build an earthen stove outside to boil water for drinking. What are these people thinking?"
The official who helped him casually replied, "Those boxes are obviously for carrying people. Preparing more at once would save them trouble. They'd be too conspicuous if displayed in the courtyard, so naturally they'd be kept inside the house."
Xiao Yunying stared at the fragments of the earthenware pot. She couldn't see clearly, but she felt that the colors inside and outside the pot were quite different.
He quickly walked over, squatted down, picked up a piece, examined it closely, and exclaimed in surprise:
“Yuancheng, look, this earthenware pot isn’t for boiling water, it’s for melting wax. The layer on top is white wax.”
Ling Qi picked up a shard and scratched it: "Young Master, it's really white wax."
"A box big enough to hold a person, melted white wax."
Xiao Yunying repeated it several times and thought of a possibility: "The box sealed with white wax can be waterproof. Yuancheng, those kidnappers may have transported people out of the city by waterway."
Upon hearing this, an official entered the room and soon came out, saying, "Young Master Chen, what this young lady said makes sense. There are some white wax particles in the gaps of some of the boxes inside."
Xiao Yunying frowned. If they had traveled by water, wouldn't they have already transported Luo Yang and Chen Yuanxuan out of the city last night?
Chen Yuancheng must have thought of this as well, because his tone was no longer as calm as before, but carried a hint of urgency: "Ling Qi, take more people to the dock to investigate."
Ling Qi immediately turned and left, followed by several soldiers.
Xiao Yunying was anxious: "Let's go together."
Chen Yuancheng took her to the dock and sat under a shed to wait for news.
The dock was crowded and noisy. After carefully questioning each of the managers and laborers on and off the boat, it was already close to noon.
Ling Qi and the soldiers, along with several stewards, came over with account books and said, "Young master, we have asked everyone we can. There are records of every boat that docks and leaves the shore. No one has seen this kind of box, and there is no suspicious person using the boat privately."
Moreover, the river's outlet to the city is guarded by troops, just like on land. Entry and exit are checked, making it no less difficult to slip out by water than by land.
Xiao Yunying said, "If they put the person on a boat and transport them away, they wouldn't need to seal the box with white wax. Could it be that they sank the box in the water and transported it out underwater?"
One of the officers raised a question: "With such a long waterway, wouldn't people suffocate in a sealed box? Besides, the people at the dock say they've never seen such a box before. It shouldn't have been transported by waterway, right?"
Chen Yuancheng withdrew his gaze from the water: "There is more than one waterway in Donglin City that leads to the outside of the city."
Xiao Yunying suddenly remembered: "You mean the river where we released lanterns for the children on the day of the Lantern Festival?"
The official immediately denied it, saying, "Impossible, Young Master Chen. You don't know, the sections of the river below the city walls are fitted with wooden fences. A box this big can't get across."
"Whether we can get through or not, we'll find out once we go and take a look. Ling Qi, go find a few people who can swim and dive down into the water to check it out thoroughly."
The group went to the end of the river flowing downstream in the city. In front of the city wall, they had two men they found at the dock who knew how to swim take off their shirts and dive down.
Not long after, one of them poked his head out and said, "Young Master Chen, the underwater wooden fence is broken. The cut is clean, so it must have been sawed off by someone."
Another person then came up and held up something: "Young Master Chen, this is hanging from the broken end of the wooden fence."
An official took it, examined it carefully, his expression changed, and he walked over and handed it to Chen Yuancheng.
Xiao Yunying leaned over to look at what he was holding; it was a wooden plaque tied with a cloth rope.
One side is carved with a simple one-eyed wolf head, while the other side is blank.
Xiao Yunying hesitated and said, "This wooden sign is too simple. Did some child fall into the river while playing and it was washed down from upstream?"
It's simple and crude, like a child's toy, not something a proper organization would use to symbolize identity.
The officer did not look down on Xiao Yunying just because she was a girl. He explained, "Miss, you may not know this, but if you go out of the East Gate and head towards the capital, there is a band of bandits living on a mountain."
They came from other places six or seven years ago. At first, there were only seventy or eighty people, but they gradually expanded and now there are more than two hundred. They often go down the mountain to rob passing caravans.
Many merchant caravans came to our county government office to report the bandits, but our small county government office had no ability to suppress them.
Reporting to higher authorities only yielded some perfunctory responses, saying that the war was too intense and there were no extra troops to suppress the bandits. They told us to persuade the robbed caravans to either abandon their goods or spend some money to redeem them, so that the losses would be less and it would be considered a way to avoid further trouble.
My family is caught in the middle, having a real headache dealing with those bandits. They want us to go and persuade the merchants, doing this thankless and arduous task..."
As he was talking, he started to complain, but Chen Yuancheng interrupted him: "Get to the point."
The official, realizing he had gone off-topic, coughed awkwardly.
"The current bandit leader has the character 'Lang' in his name. After becoming the top leader, he is respectfully called 'Lord Wolf' by his subordinates."
He earned the nickname "One-Eyed Wolf" because his rival had slashed his eye with a knife during a fight for the position of chieftain years ago.
Chen Yuancheng said, "Those bandits haven't read many books. They carved this simple waist tag for newcomers to use, so that the guards at the gate wouldn't mistake them for strangers and cause misunderstandings when they enter or leave the village."
Xiao Yunying asked in surprise, "How do you know about this group of bandits?"
Chen Yuancheng explained, "Two years ago, they robbed my Chen family's caravan. I sent people to negotiate with them. The people I sent came back and told me what they saw in the village, which is how I came to understand the situation."
Xiao Yunying grabbed his arm: "Then could you send someone to negotiate with them again and see if you can release the two children first? I'll pay whatever ransom you ask. If I don't have enough money, can I borrow some from you first? I will definitely pay you back later."
As for the other lost children... allow her to be selfish for once, rescue her own child first, and then discuss how to rescue others.
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