Chapter 53 Ice Cellar
The guard was covered in sweat, which streamed down his face. He didn't bother to wipe it away and quickly knelt down on one knee, holding the oil paper package high above his head.
"Your Highness! Lord Pei! We were ordered to search Liu's Pharmacy, but we were attacked!"
This is half an account book that the brothers risked their lives to snatch from the shop!
Upon hearing this, Xiao Yunzhan abruptly stood up from his chair.
Pei Lin also put down the dossier in his hand.
Their eyes fell simultaneously on the half-finished ledger wrapped in oil paper.
"Explain clearly, what exactly happened?" Xiao Yunzhan took the ledger.
The guard seemed to be injured as well, coughing twice, but he spoke quickly and clearly.
"Upon receiving His Highness's order, Lord Li led his men to Liu's Pharmacy in Yangdu. They had just subdued everyone in the shop and hadn't even had time to conduct a thorough search when a group of masked men rushed in."
Those people were extremely skilled and had a very detailed division of labor; they attacked with deadly force as soon as they entered.
Lord Li and his brothers wanted to rescue the people first, but they were entangled by their men.
The other group had a clear objective: to kill the shop's employees and accountant.
The shopkeeper was kidnapped by them. Lord Li tried to stop them, but there were too many of them, and he couldn't stop them at all.
"My brothers suffered heavy casualties, and Lord Li himself was wounded, but he fought desperately to salvage this account book and had his subordinates deliver it to His Highness first."
"Where is Li Rong? Where is he now?" Xiao Yunzhan pressed, feeling a surge of frustration.
Liu's Pharmacy is a key link between Suzhou and Yangzhou. Now that the manager has been robbed and all the employees are dead, the clues that were just discovered have been cut off again.
"Lord Li sent his subordinates to deliver the account books first, while he himself, despite his injuries, went to Yangdu to track down the masked man."
Xiao Yunzhan tore open the oil paper package and quickly flipped through the account books. The more he looked, the darker his expression became.
Pei Lin craned his neck to look at it. The ledger recorded Liu's "Payments and Offerings," and the handwriting was neat and the entries were clear.
"Zhang Mo, the magistrate of Suzhou Customs, is entitled to send twenty strings of cash on the fifth day of each month, marked "for daily expenses".
After each "sale," an additional twenty strings of cash were added, labeled "hard-earned money."
Three months ago, there was a payment of fifty strings of cash, which was specially circled next to it and marked "fake customs document".
Scrolling down further, you can also find the names of several minor officials at the Xumen Water Gate.
Five strings of cash per month, with an additional two to five strings depending on the position when "shipping goods," with details specified on the exact date and location.
This is the latter half of the entire ledger. The officials become lower in rank as you go further down. If it is indeed arranged according to official rank, then the first half of the ledger is the key part. No wonder they went to such lengths to seize it.
"The fact that they keep such detailed records shows that they don't distrust Zhang Mo."
This is a contingency plan; if someone wants to destroy him someday, or needs to cut their losses and survive, this ledger will serve as evidence.
Xiao Yunzhan suddenly realized that since the other party had already abducted the shopkeeper, they must already know what was recorded in the accounts.
Now that half of the account book is in his hands, Zhang Mo, as the biggest "offering object," will surely be silenced!
"Lord Pei, you stay here and keep an eye on Wang Huai'an and the remnants of the Taihu Gang. Don't let them have a chance to collude!" Xiao Yunzhan spoke as fast as beans frying in oil, grabbing the sword that was hanging in the room as decoration.
"I'm taking men to Zhang Mo's house; if we're even a step too late, it'll be too late!"
***
Zhang Mo's house was in an alley in the west of Suzhou. Two lanterns with the character "Zhang" on them hung at the door, and the tassels of the lanterns swayed in the wind.
The towering gate alone looks much more impressive than the other houses in the alley.
When Xiao Yunzhan and his men arrived nearby, it was already dusk, and the alley was quiet with few people around.
As I approached the gate, I heard a muffled groan from inside the courtyard, followed by a loud crash, as if something had fallen to the ground.
Before anyone could catch up, Xiao Yunzhan pushed open the half-closed courtyard gate and rushed inside.
The room was in complete disarray. Four masked men were crouching down, searching everywhere. Tables and chairs were overturned on the floor, and porcelain shards were scattered all over the place.
Zhang Mo, dressed in a gray casual suit, was being held up in mid-air by a masked man, his face smeared with blood.
He desperately tried to pry the other person's wrists with both hands, trying to relieve the suffocating feeling in his throat caused by the collar being stuck, and kicked wildly in the air with both feet.
The masked man didn't even lift his eyelids before thrusting the short blade upwards with a "thud," plunging it fiercely into Zhang Mo's heart.
"Stop!" Xiao Yunzhan shouted, but it was too late.
Zhang Mo's eyes widened as a large amount of blood gushed from his mouth.
The masked man tossed him to the ground as if he were just throwing an object around.
Xiao Yunzhan's sword flashed from its sheath, its blade gleaming coldly in the twilight as it aimed directly at the masked men.
The masked men remained calm. They exchanged a glance, two stayed behind to stop the others, while the other two turned and ran towards the backyard.
Xiao Yunzhan was not about to let them run away. With a light step, he moved as fast as the wind and intercepted the two who were trying to escape.
The two masked men who remained charged forward, brandishing short blades. Their moves were swift and vicious, each strike aimed at vital points without hesitation.
Xiao Yunzhan bent down and stepped back to avoid the attack from both sides. With a flick of his wrist, he slashed his sword upwards, aiming straight for the wrist of the masked man on the left.
The masked man moved quickly, raising his short knife upwards, using his left hand to deflect the other man's sword with the scabbard, while his right hand deftly slashed the knife towards the other man's throat.
The one on the right followed suit, slashing horizontally from the middle with a short blade, forcing him to retreat.
Xiao Yunzhan bent his knees and shifted his left foot slightly, turning his head to dodge the throat-slitting knife. He then turned his sword and thrust it straight at the face of the masked man on the right.
With a crisp clang, the third masked man suddenly rushed over, parried his sword, and the three of them instantly surrounded him.
Xiao Yunzhan swept his foot, and the masked man on the left swayed. Just as he was about to regain his balance, the tip of his sword was already pressed against his throat.
"Whose people are you? Why did you kill Zhang Mo?" Xiao Yunzhan asked coldly, his eyes fixed on the other person's eyes.
The other two masked men exchanged a glance, then suddenly rushed forward, their short blades aimed straight at Xiao Yunzhan's back, showing no regard for their companion's life or death.
Xiao Yunzhan was prepared. With a flick of his wrist, the blade slashed through the throat of the masked man who had been subdued. He then turned to the side to dodge the attack from behind.
Just then, the masked man who hadn't been stopped earlier suddenly turned around and rushed back, his short blade stabbing straight into Xiao Yunzhan's back with astonishing speed.
"Your Highness, be careful!" the guard shouted from behind and rushed forward, but he was a beat too late to stop him.
Xiao Yunzhan sensed the wind whistling behind him, quickly withdrew his left foot, spun around abruptly, and kicked the masked man in front of him in the chest.
The masked man was kicked away and flew into the air, crashing into the courtyard wall with a dull thud, and then fell silent.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xiao Yunzhan stood up, his sword held horizontally, blocking the attacks from the two people behind him.
As their swords clashed, he figured out their tactics. Every move they made was deadly, with no superfluous actions, no defense, just relentless offense. They were clearly well-trained assassins.
He dodged the masked man's short blade on his right, and with a flash of light, his sword slashed across the man's armpit vein at a tricky angle, the short blade clattering to the ground.
Without giving the opponent any chance to react, step forward, flip the sword, and thrust it straight at the lower left side of the back of the heart, two inches below.
The man groaned and fell to the ground. Even so, he tried to get up, but the soldiers who rushed over pressed him down and he was unable to move.
Seeing his companion captured, the remaining masked man suddenly increased the speed of his attack, making his moves even more vicious than before, as if he were willing to fight to the death.
Xiao Yunzhan spotted an opening, used his left hand to block with his sword sheath, and then placed his sword against Xiao Yunzhan's neck.
Just then, the masked man who was being held down on the ground suddenly convulsed violently, making a "hoarse" sound, his face quickly turned blue, and he stopped moving after a short while.
Xiao Yunzhan's heart tightened. Looking at the other two, they had also chewed up what was in their mouths, black blood flowing from the corners of their mouths. Their eyes rolled back, and they collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
"Your Highness, they hid poison in their teeth!" The guard reported solemnly after examining the bodies.
Xiao Yunzhan wasn't too surprised. This was the most common way for assassins to die. It was just that these people were too skilled. Even he didn't dare to be careless in the slightest during the battle.
He examined the bodies of the four masked men one by one, but found no items on their bodies that could prove their identities.
He went to Zhang Mo's body and found that the wound on his chest was so deep that the bone was visible, indicating that he had been killed with a single blow. His clothes were disheveled, suggesting that they had already been searched by these people.
Undeterred, he searched them carefully again, but still found nothing.
Xiao Yunzhan: "Search! Search the entire courtyard thoroughly, don't miss any corner!"
The group immediately dispersed, forming groups of two or three to begin the search.
Xiao Yunzhan led the way into the study and found it ransacked. The tables and chairs were overturned on the floor, books were scattered all over the bookshelves, and even the inkstone was broken in two.
He casually flipped open a ledger on the ground, which contained records of daily expenses such as firewood, rice, oil, and salt, nothing special.
"Your Highness! There's an ice cellar in the backyard, and it smells a bit off!" a guard suddenly shouted from outside the window.
Before Xiao Yunzhan even stepped into the ice cellar, his nasal cavity was filled with a strong, cold, bloody smell.
The ice cellar was small, with straw on the ground and several ice buckets piled in the corner.
The soldiers, holding torches, looked around. When the torchlight flickered over a pile of straw behind a slab of ice in the corner, Xiao Yunzhan's eyes narrowed sharply.
Three people were lying on the straw; the man was Jiang Yong.
The one lying beside him should be his wife.
The clothes on the two men were tattered and stained with blood, making it impossible to discern their original color.
The exposed arms and legs were bloody and mangled, with some areas even revealing bare bones, clearly indicating that the victims had suffered a great deal of torture.
The child next to him was curled up on the other side, his body also covered in cuts and bruises, his little face covered in dried blood.
"Your Highness, he's already dead." The guard checked Jiang Yong's pulse.
"Judging from the looks of it, he's probably been dead for two or three days."
Xiao Yunzhan stared intently at the small body, his breathing becoming increasingly labored, and his stomach churning.
Did Jiang Yong really get involved in Ding Jin's affairs, or was he implicated simply because he was Ding Jin's cousin?
Regardless of the type, these people don't even spare five-year-old children, and even torture children to coerce their parents. They are worse than animals!
"Don't touch them, go call the coroner to examine the bodies." Xiao Yunzhan's voice was a little hoarse, and his hand holding the sword trembled slightly from gripping it too tightly.
"Search the surrounding area carefully to see if there is anything suspicious, but don't disturb the scene."
"Brother Zhang Mo! Brother Zhang Mo! Are you home?" The voice came from afar.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com