Gong Pan shook his head and sighed deeply: "Alas, I only regret that I am dull-witted and cannot find anything, nor can I avenge the brothers who died unjustly."
Seeing him grit his teeth, clench his fists tightly, and tremble slightly as he spoke, Zu An thought that if he was faking it, his acting skills were simply unbeatable.
He coughed lightly, reminding the other person, "What about the guards' belongings?"
Gong Pan suddenly realized what was going on and took out six bags from some drawers: "Everything is here. We're all unfortunate people, and we couldn't leave much behind."
Zuan opened the six bags one by one; these contained the belongings of the six fallen guards. His attention naturally also fell on the sunken ship's contents.
While chatting with Gong Pan, he secretly examined the contents of Chen Zhou's bag: a charred sword, a waist tag, a nail file, a slightly dented water bottle, a notebook that was mostly burned, and several intact booklets.
"What is this?" Zuan noticed that other people had this kind of notebook among their belongings, and casually picked one up to flip through it.
"This is something every guard has, used to record the daily patrol and mission details. After all, our job is risky; we might be gone any day now. This is also our last will and testament," Gong Pan explained.
Zuan was relieved. The Embroidered-Robed Envoys also had something similar called the Soul-Hooking Book, which was used to record the identity of the master, the missions recently carried out, the people he had met, and so on. In this way, even if a certain Embroidered-Robed Envoy was silenced, others could still find all sorts of clues based on this book.
His gaze fell on Shen Zhou's belongings. He figured that the booklet, which was mostly destroyed, must have been burned in the warehouse, while the others that were intact were taken away by Gong Pan from his house.
He couldn't directly examine Chen Zhou's belongings in front of the other party: "General Gong, I would like to take these things back for a thorough investigation."
“This…” Gong Pan hesitated.
Zu An laughed and said, "General Gong, do you not trust me? I represent the imperial court and have no connection with any faction in Yunzhong County."
Gong Pan hurriedly bowed: "Lord Zu, you flatter me. It is only right that we cooperate with your investigation, but we need Lord Zu to sign a handover form."
“No problem.” Zu An knew this was the rule in officialdom, so he naturally wouldn’t refuse.
After signing the papers, he took all six packages with him. When he returned to the guesthouse, Sang Hong also came over to study them together.
Zuan checked the other items, which were all very ordinary items, but soon everyone's attention fell on the booklets.
The charred book was so fragile it would crumble at the slightest touch. I gently flipped through it, but even if I could vaguely make out a few words, it was of little use.
Furthermore, everyone knows that the charred corpse was not the actual sunken ship, and the booklet is most likely fake.
So the group began to study the other books they had found in Shen Zhou's house, but unfortunately they only contained records of patrol schedules and guard duty over the years, and there was no useful information in them.
"The trail just went cold like that?" Sang Hong frowned slightly, clearly unwilling to give up.
"This is to be expected. If there were anything of real value, it would have been wiped out by Gong Pan or the mastermind behind it all," Zu An comforted him.
“Grandpa, you went to the Yu family again today. Do you think Yu Yanluo and that Gong Pan might be the masterminds behind this?” Sang Hong asked.
"It's hard to say." Zu An recalled his encounter with Yu Yanluo and Gong Pan today, and for a moment he was in a daze.
Originally, I went there to test the waters, but I ended up making a deal out of nowhere. If she really is the mastermind, wouldn't I be dragged onto a pirate ship?
Sang Hong hesitated for a moment, then couldn't help but remind her, "That woman is no ordinary person. Back then, countless figures in the capital fell at her feet, even the current emperor... Hehe, you must not treat her like the young girls you've met before. Don't let her beauty fool you into acting on your feelings."
Zuan was speechless: "Uncle, you're overthinking it. I'm not so easily swayed by beauty."
At the same time, he was curious. He knew the current Emperor Tai Shi's personality all too well. If he really took a fancy to a woman, how could she possibly refuse him?
Moreover, Yu Yanluo was so delicate and frail that she didn't look like a cultivator at all, and seemed powerless to resist.
Sang Hong was about to say something more when Gao Ying returned. He immediately changed his words, saying, "How's it going with your investigation into Chen Zhou's interpersonal relationships?"
Gao Ying replied, "Shen Zhou is a reclusive person and has no close friends."
"However, according to his colleagues, he seemed to smile more in the past few months, and he looked younger and happier than before."
"Happy?" Zu'an and Sang Hong looked at each other. In their opinion, shouldn't Shen Zhou have been filled with anxiety and fear when he discovered the truth about the murder of the Duke of Yunzhong?
“Yes, I also found it strange, and I even asked his colleagues,” Gao Ying said, looking equally puzzled. “According to those people, Shen Zhou’s only problem at the time was that he was short of money, which is why he asked them for money.”
"There shouldn't be any problem with colleagues occasionally lending each other money, right?" Sang Hong asked, puzzled.
Gao Ying replied, "The main reason is that these are the personal guards of the Duke's mansion. Their monthly salary and bonuses are not small. Others may be short of money because they live a life of extravagance, but Chen Zhou has always been frugal. Theoretically, this should not happen."
The people in the room fell into deep thought. Zu An recalled the keywords "smile," "youth," and "tight finances," feeling that he was about to uncover some truth, but he just couldn't figure it out.
Just then, the door was pushed open, and Pei You walked in, muttering to himself.
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