It was dark now and the city gate was closed, but it was no problem for the three of them. They just flipped over and passed through.
Just now, Chief Escort Feng wanted to make some noise on the way to attract the old priest, but when he saw Wang Xiaohai who was silent behind him, he thought better of it. He thought that if he moved at all, he would be beheaded immediately.
"Sir, where are we going now?" asked Chief Escort Feng.
"Why are you asking me? Where is your silver hiding place? Just take us there." Wang Xiaohai said.
"It's not in Linjiang City, but in a house in a small city nearby." Chief Escort Feng replied.
"You're truly a cunning rabbit with three burrows!" Wang Xiaohai said, "Just tell me how far it is from here to where your treasure is hidden, and how long it will take to get there."
"If I run at full speed, I'll be there in half an hour," said Chief Escort Feng.
"Then run as fast as you can."
The three of them ran into the distance like three rays of light.
There was a slight difference from the expected time. We arrived at the neighboring city ten minutes late because Chief Escort Feng was injured.
After Wang Xiaohai took the hidden silver, he asked Chief Escort Feng to go back to his escort agency to get the account book.
"Why do you want to take the account book? Didn't I give you the money?" Chief Escort Feng lost everything overnight, and decades of hard work were wasted.
"I want to see if you have missed anything, is that not okay? Don't talk nonsense, don't ask questions, just do it!" Wang Xiaohai said sternly.
Chief Escort Feng immediately drew his head back, not daring to ask any more questions.
The three of them spent another half an hour rushing to Feng's Escort Agency.
It was still the middle of the night, and the Feng's Escort Agency was still half-closed, with only two employees on guard taking a nap in front of the door.
"Yao Yuan, have you contacted your two apprentices? Did they steal the account book?"
In the darkness, Yao Yuan imitated the cry of a night owl. The sound was clear and could be heard far away in the night sky.
The two night watchmen at Feng's Escort Agency were instantly awakened and looked at each other.
"Did you hear anything?"
"It sounds like a bird."
"Oh, then I'll continue to squint. Call me if anything happens."
"Um."
The two of them dozed off in front of the door again.
A few minutes later—
"Has your apprentice arrived?" Wang Xiaohai asked Yao Yuan.
Yao Yuan's forehead was covered with sweat. He had previously promised that his two apprentices were absolutely trustworthy, but now both of them had escaped and no one cared about him as their master.
"I guess the two men, unguarded, took the opportunity to escape and didn't steal the account book," Wang Xiaohai said. "You and Chief Escort Feng went over the wall to get it. Remember, I won't accept you coming back empty-handed."
Yao Yuan and Chief Escort Feng looked at each other, jumped over the wall into the agency yard, and then Yao Yuan followed Chief Escort Feng to the accounting office as if they were familiar with the route.
There was no light, but Chief Escort Feng still found the secret compartment in the wall in the dark and took out the account book. He thought that although the account book was important, it was not as important as his own life. Besides, what if the account book was taken by someone else? This was Min Country, the territory of the Feng family. No one could cause trouble, not even the tribute from other countries!
Chief Escort Feng certainly had no idea of the demon that appeared only once in three thousand years, nor had he thought of the legend.
"Here's the account book."
Chief Escort Feng placed the account book in Wang Xiaohai's hand and said, "Look, I really don't have any private money left."
Wang Xiaohai looked through it carefully. Although there was no light, he could still see every word clearly.
"You've done a lot of bad things over the years!" Wang Xiaohai said, "You've cheated almost half of our customers."
"This... is all an order from above. I must pay a sufficient amount of silver per year before I can continue. There's no other way. If I can't earn this much, I'll retire," Chief Escort Feng explained. "Competition within the family is fierce, and the capable will rise, while the mediocre will fall."
"Then why don't you just retire?" Wang Xiaohai had just finished speaking when he suddenly realized, "Does retirement mean death?"
"That's right. Now do you understand why I've become so cruel? Living in this kind of environment, the only way to stay dark is death." Chief Escort Feng explained, "Every day I have to choose between my own death and the death of others, and every time I choose the death of others!"
Wang Xiaohai understood that if given a choice between their own life and the life of an unrelated stranger, 99 percent of people would choose to sacrifice the other person's life.
Wang Xiaohai continued to look through the account books. Although there were only a few years of records, he could still see the Feng family's huge interest network. The downstream customers who sold contraband included cloth shops, weapon shops, salt shops, etc. The Feng family would do any business that could make money, even including human trafficking and slavery!
"The evidence is irrefutable. We will close the net tomorrow."
Wang Xiaohai closed the account book and carefully put it into the ring. After being busy for so long, he was finally going to reap the rewards!
"Sir, is there anything you need up there?" Yao Yuan came over and asked.
"Yes, but it would be very troublesome to do this alone and would waste a lot of my time, so I decided to seek help from the government. This way, we can catch the perpetrators faster," Wang Xiaohai said. "According to the account books, there are hundreds of shops involved in the case, with nearly 10,000 people. If I were to search for them alone, it would probably take months. By then, everyone would have already scattered and hidden or escaped, and the opportunity would be gone. So I have to borrow the manpower of the government or the palace."
Yao Yuan nodded to show that he understood, but he still had concerns and asked, "What are you going to do? After all, they are the Feng family. The government and the palace are all their own people. They won't help you."
"So I can just go find the old priest tomorrow. Isn't he a good man? Why not let him discuss the arrest of the Feng family with the emperor? Give him a chance to sacrifice his relatives for the sake of justice." Wang Xiaohai said, "I believe he will definitely help me for the sake of justice!"
In fact, Wang Xiaohai also had doubts about the old priest, but there was no evidence to show that the old priest was involved in the matter. There was no evidence to prove that he was guilty, so he was innocent. He could not be convicted just because of personal subjective suspicions.
Wang Xiaohai thought again: "It seems that the old priest doesn't need to intervene. He just needs to turn a blind eye to things. He just needs to stay alive, which is the greatest protection for the Feng family. He doesn't need to take action at all. The deterrent power of the priest is unparalleled!"
"Your Excellency is indeed very smart. I will never be able to reach even one ten-thousandth of your wisdom in my entire life!" Yao Yuan flattered.
"Okay, the first thing I have to do now is to help you capture those two traitors and let you deal with them as you please!" said Wang Xiaohai.
"Sir, do you have any clues about my traitor?" Yao Yuan asked.
"As long as someone I've met is within a certain distance, I can accurately sense them." Wang Xiaohai smiled slightly, "Luckily you didn't run away, otherwise you would be in trouble!"
Yao Yuan nodded repeatedly and didn't dare to ask the distance.
"You stay here and watch over this Feng Biaotou. I'll be back soon." Wang Xiaohai said, and his figure flashed and disappeared from Yao Yuan's sight.
Yao Yuan's two apprentices were currently lying in a small inn room in a nearby city. They were whispering on the double bed, feeling proud of their escape. They were laughing and talking so happily that the occupants of the adjacent room came over and knocked on the door twice.
The light flickered and Wang Xiaohai appeared in their room.
"Come back with me to see your master."
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