Chapter 75 Chapter 75 May 24th...
On the afternoon of May 24th, at Fulai Inn.
Jiang Wan wrapped the broken knife with a cloth strip and was about to go out when he heard a knock on the door.
Then Jiang An's voice sounded: "Little sister, are you in the room?"
"I'm here," Jiang Wan replied. "Come in."
Jiang An pushed the door open and walked in. He was wearing a dark blue robe with Suzhou embroidery patterns on the lapels. He was tall and graceful, with a gentle and elegant demeanor.
Jiang Wan commented: "He looks just like a dog."
Jiang An tapped his sister's shoulder in annoyance: "How dare you say that to me? Aren't you dressed up properly? After all, you are going to meet the uncle of the emperor, so you can't be too casual."
"You're going too?" Jiang Wan feigned surprise and jokingly said, "That's right, you've always been very concerned about things related to Wanrong."
"I did this for you!" Jiang An blushed and said angrily, "Wen Shen, that guy, when he sent you back from Xiaofang Pan City last time, I felt he had bad intentions. You can't let him fool you."
"You remember all this?" Jiang Wan was surprised at his brother's excellent memory (and his tendency to hold grudges). He patted the broken sword wrapped in cloth and stood up. "Alright, let's go together."
After the siblings had a little fight, the tension in their hearts had mostly subsided. Jiang Wan temporarily suppressed all the strange thoughts and walked towards the Wen Mansion.
The palace is located on the east side of the palace, not far away. It takes less than a quarter of an hour to walk to the palace gate.
The plaque at the main entrance read "Wen Mansion." The handwriting was identical to the one Wen Shen had written for Jiang's shop, vigorous and elegant. Jiang Wan had felt it was very familiar, but unfortunately, she hadn't been able to recall where she had seen it before.
The door opened, and Wen Shen saw her staring at the plaque intently, and raised an eyebrow: "What are you standing there for? Come in."
The uncle actually went to the door to greet them personally instead of having the butler take them to the inner room. Jiang Wan was slightly surprised, then pulled her brother along to follow Wen Shen.
As soon as she entered the house, she couldn't wait to ask, "When are we going to look for Wanrong?"
"Wait until dark." Wen Shen said briefly.
Jiang Wan looked at the sky and estimated that it would be completely dark in half an hour.
That's right, at this hour, no one in the Shangshu Mansion is resting. It would be embarrassing if I bumped into someone.
Looking back into the house, his brother was looking at Wen Shen with a scrutinizing and slightly dissatisfied look. Well... to make an inappropriate analogy, it was like looking at a pig that was eating its cabbage.
Wen Shen seemed oblivious to his brother's gaze, half leaning back in a soft chair, flipping through a book with a leisurely demeanor. The title on the cover was three characters; it probably wasn't The Analects. Given Jiang Wan's knowledge of ancient aristocrats, he was probably reading something like the Thousand Character Classic or some other strategic essay.
Looking closer, I saw the words "Letter to My Wife" written on the cover. The printing was rough and the paper was of poor quality. I didn't know which small workshop it came from.
Jiang Wan: It’s even more embarrassing.
"Letter to My Wife" is a popular storybook nowadays, also known as "One Hundred Ways to Pursue Your Sweetheart". It tells the story of the only son of a wealthy family who falls in love with an orphan girl, pursues her passionately, and finally wins her heart.
Because the male protagonist uses various methods to pursue his wife, from being a hero saving the beauty to sending flowers and rouge, chasing from Mobei to Lingnan, it not only satisfies the girls' fantasy about their lovers, but also teaches men how to pursue their sweethearts, so it became popular and sold well.
But who would have thought that you, the great uncle of the emperor, would warm up before climbing walls and climbing rooftops on such a dark and windy night by reading this kind of storybook! It would be worse than reading the Analects of Confucius!
To break this unbearable scene, Jiang Wan picked up the broken sword and gently poked the book in Wen Shen's hand: "Master Wen, can you help me look at this saber? Can you tell what year it is from?"
Wen Shen put the notebook aside, unwrapped the cloth wrapped around the broken knife, looked at it for a moment, and shook his head.
"Can't you see? No wonder the knife is so broken..."
"This isn't a regular saber," Wen Shen said. "Regularly produced sabers have the manufacturer's mark on the handle. Besides the Ministry of War, there are two other imperial merchants in charge of making sabers in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and they all have different marks. This saber doesn't have one, yet its shape and structure are the same as a saber."
His face darkened. "This is a saber forged illegally. Where did you find it?"
After hearing this, Jiang Wan also became serious and recounted the story of how she found the broken knife outside the peach forest outside Beijing. Then she raised a question:
"Even if it was forged illegally, there are no battlefields or training grounds in the suburbs of Beijing. How could there be so many gaps on this sword?"
"Two possibilities," Wen Shen said, making a two. "First, this is a failed saber that was discarded and someone picked it up and used it."
"Second, some people privately forged weapons and trained private soldiers."
Jiang Wan took a deep breath and said, "Training private soldiers is the same as treason. If that's the case, I'm afraid the consequences are serious."
"Yes," Wen Shen nodded. "I'll have someone go to the outskirts of Beijing to see if there are other similar weapons. I'll have Jian Qing ask the foundry. I hope it's not the second case."
After sitting for another half an hour, it was already completely dark.
Wen Shen stood up and rolled up his sleeves: "Get ready to go."
Jiang Wan: Let’s go, why are you rolling up your sleeves?
Before she could say anything, Jian Wenshen grabbed a sofa leg with one hand and lifted it up. The sofa flipped over, revealing a dark hole.
It was obviously just dug, and it was still filled with the moist smell of soil.
A huge question mark appeared above Jiang Wan's head: "This... are we going to dig a tunnel?"
Wen Shen nodded, picked up a lantern, and jumped into the cave first, leaving the Jiang brothers and sisters staring at each other in the distance.
Lu Xun once said that top court struggles often adopt the simplest methods.
No wonder he insisted on doing it ten days later, it turned out he was digging a tunnel!
Jiang Wan glanced at his brother and jumped down.
Darkness instantly deprived her of her sight. The soil under her feet was moist and soft. Jiang Wan couldn't touch the wall and her body swayed.
In the darkness, a hand grasped her arm, helping her steady herself. The warmth that came from that hand reassured her.
The lights illuminated the area around the tunnel, and Wen Shen's handsome face magnified in front of her, making her feel inexplicably uncomfortable.
The place where his arm was grabbed suddenly felt hot. Jiang Wan withdrew his arm awkwardly and nodded in gratitude.
After confirming that she was fine, Wen Shen raised his voice: "Mr. Jiang, come down."
Jiang An followed his instructions and jumped down, landing next to his sister. Seeing Jiang Wan was very close to Wen Shen, their arms almost touching in the narrow passage, he curled his lips and moved between them, intentionally or unintentionally separating his sister.
Wen Shen didn't say anything and led the brother and sister deeper into the tunnel.
The darkness reduced Jiang Wan's time perception. After an unknown amount of time, the three of them reached the end of the tunnel.
The passage at the end led upwards. Jiang Wan managed to straighten up and patted the dirt off his body. "Brother, you have to wash these clothes thoroughly when you get home."
"...I just washed it." Jiang An's face darkened. "But then again, is the Minister of Personnel's residence that close? I feel like it's only about a mile away."
"It's not the Shangshu Mansion." Wen Shen answered in a low voice, knocking on the wooden board above his head and began to exchange secret signals with the people outside.
Boom—boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
The knocking stopped, and outside there was a rustling sound, as if hay was being moved. Then the wooden planks above were peeled back, letting in a dim light.
Jiang Wan emerged from the tunnel and was greeted by a cramped, windowless chamber. The only door was chained shut. The room was dark, damp, and cold, lit only by a flickering kerosene lamp.
There was no table, no chair, no bed. Just a pile of straw, a thin blanket, and a broken bowl half-filled with water.
Jiang Wan could never have imagined that she would meet He Wanrong under such circumstances.
Her hair was disheveled, tangled and stuck together at the ends. Her face and arms were dusty, and her clothes were stained. She looked much thinner. Jiang Wan reached out and felt the jagged bones in her arms.
"You...why are you here?" Jiang Wan turned around suddenly and grabbed Wen Shen. "What the hell is this place? Why is Wanrong imprisoned here?!"
"Wanwan, this is the secret room of Jing'an Marquis Mansion." He Wanrong pulled Jiang Wan away and explained the reason.
When she first arrived at the Minister of Personnel's Mansion, she found a secret compartment in the pregnant concubine's room, which contained a list of servants from the He family's bank and a roster of guards on duty.
The content is exactly the same as that of the money house in the suburbs of Beijing where Duke He was reported to have met with the Huns.
He Wanrong was so frightened that she broke out in a cold sweat. Just as she was about to search carefully, she was caught by the concubine. The concubine had tied her up and brought her here without any explanation, and it had been more than ten days since then.
At first, she had no idea where she was, and the only person she saw every day was the food delivery driver. Ten days ago, she found a note mixed in with her food, informing her of her location and situation, and promising to rescue her as soon as possible.
When delivering food every day, the old man would knock on the door panel, and the rhythm was uniform: Dong-DongDong, Dong, Dong, DongDongDong.
Therefore, when she heard the same rhythmic sound faintly from under the haystack last night, He Wanrong realized that someone was coming to save her.
It took another half an hour to dig through the tunnel. To avoid attracting attention, the Jinyiwei only dared to work at night. The narrow tunnel could only accommodate two or three people working at the same time, so it took a full ten days to dig through the short tunnel.
But it was already dawn, and the servants of Jing'an Marquis's Mansion had already started to move around. In order to avoid attracting the attention of the servants, the Jinyiwei who came to pick her up left some food for her and temporarily withdrew.
Jiang Wan hugged her distressedly: "Don't worry about it for now, just come back with us."
"I'm leaving now. The people from the Marquis' Mansion will soon discover this tunnel and find Master Wen," He Wanrong said. "How will Master Wen explain it then? Wanwan, I'm relieved to see you. Master Wen and the Imperial Guards were so kind to save me, and I can't cause them any trouble."
After hearing this, Jiang Wan calmed down. Since the Marquis of Jing'an's concubine's room contained information about the bank involved, the Marquis's mansion must have played a crucial role in this unjust case. Since they were able to imprison He Wanrong, they were clearly enemies, not friends.
Now they have not yet established a firm foothold in Lin'an. If the Marquis' Mansion finds out that they have connections with the Jinyiwei and are trying to overturn the verdict, they will probably get into even greater trouble.
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