"Without Father Emperor's summons, how could he have returned?" the Fourth Prince said, clearly still bothered by the fact that the Fourteenth Prince had returned to the capital without permission and that Consort De hadn't informed him. Although the Fourth Prince still went to Yonghe Palace to pay his respects every day, the knot in his heart remained.
"Haven't you seen what's behind that upright and honorable thing yet, Master?" Lanqin couldn't help but ask. "A few days ago, when Sister Zhao was playing cards with me, she mentioned it."
Fourth Master glanced at Lanqin but didn't answer. After a while, he said, "Let's put this matter aside. Tell her not to ask you about it anymore."
Seeing that Fourth Master's face was tense, Lanqin knew that he had already made up his mind about this matter, and that further questioning would be useless and would only annoy him, so she stopped asking.
"Master, shouldn't we inform the Prefect of the Capital?" Lanqin quickly changed the subject.
"Hmm, send someone over first thing tomorrow morning to talk to them. But they can still continue investigating. It would be best to wipe out this audacious bandit gang in one fell swoop," Fourth Master said, frowning.
As night fell, in a farmhouse in the forest hundreds of miles away from the Yong Prince's Mansion, Hongli and Hongzhou stood facing Scarface. Behind Scarface were his gang of brothers, each glaring at Hongli and Hongzhou with eyes like those of a rooster.
The only desk they brought back was covered with small stones. The desk was covered with many squares drawn haphazardly with a brush.
“Since you’ve lost, you should promise to eat rabbit meat tonight. Otherwise, you’re breaking your promise. How can you lead these brothers?” Hongli retorted, glaring back.
"You brat, how come you always win when you try to cheat?" Scarface shouted, his eyebrows furrowed.
“How did I cheat? Every step I took was under your watchful eye. It was clearly your clumsy mistake that led you to blame others for cheating!” Hongli said.
It turned out that Hongli was bored seeing a group of people huddled in the farmhouse, so he suggested to Scarface that he send his men into the woods to hunt wild animals to improve their meals, since the dry rations were really hard to swallow.
Scarface and his gang were already bored in the farmhouse in the woods. When he saw that Hongli's words suited him, he stubbornly insisted on playing chess with him.
Hongli knew these people were mostly illiterate and uncultured, so naturally they wouldn't play Go or chess with him. Instead, they played Gomoku (Five in a Row). This was a game that Lanqin had taught him; it was simple, fun, and had very easy rules, which immediately piqued Scarface's interest.
He became more and more interested in playing, and played more than a dozen games with Hongli, losing to him every time.
"Then why can't I beat you even once?" Scarface felt very ashamed that he, as the leader, had been repeatedly defeated by a young man.
“It’s obviously because your chess skills are inferior to my brother’s, what’s so strange about that?” Hongzhou couldn’t help but say.
Scarface's face flushed red with anger, and with a wave of his hand, he swept all the small pebbles off the table and onto the floor.
Everyone looked at Hongzhou with concern; his words just now were clearly an insult to their boss's intelligence.
“Brother Scarface is clearly an upright and honest person. How could he possibly hold a grudge against us kids? Since he’s upright and honest, he should accept the consequences of his bet,” Hongli said with a fawning smile.
Scarface, flattered by Hongli, felt embarrassed to argue with them. He had indeed agreed first, and going back on his word now would be unseemly. So he said, "Fine, you all go hunting, and we'll have a big feast tonight. But you have to tell me exactly how you beat me."
As the others dispersed, Hongli chuckled and said, "If you want to beat me, it's not impossible. Just spend more time studying the chessboard."
Scarface felt humiliated for repeatedly losing to a teenager, so he quickly said, "Okay, let's play again."
Following the instructions in Hongli's letter, the Fourth Prince prepared the ransom money and sent it to the designated location. Hongli's letter instructed the Fourth Prince not to follow, but simply to keep a close watch. The Fourth Prince, concerned that any significant action might anger the kidnappers and harm Hongli and Hongzhou, only selected two of his personal guards to infiltrate the agreed-upon location before sending the ransom money.
At the appointed time, Fourth Master sent someone to place the envelope containing five thousand silver notes at the designated location. Two bodyguards had already been waiting there all day. They disguised themselves as vendors and moved around the area, closely watching passersby.
But clearly, the other party was also cunning, perhaps having already planted spies around the area, waiting to appear only when there was no danger. Sure enough, the envelope containing five thousand taels of silver notes remained there for three days before the person who wanted the silver appeared.
Their every move was under the watchful eyes of the guards. As soon as the man tucked the envelope containing the silver notes into his robes, the two guards immediately followed. Their orders were to track the man and locate where Hongli and Hongzhou were bound.
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