Chapter 210: The Bait

And Wen Ren wasn't the only one being watched.

One day in mid-February, Zhong Piaoping actually took the initiative to drift over to Le Wuya and got straight to the point: "Sir, someone is following me."

Le Wuya was in the middle of a chess game with Yuan Zijin.

Hearing this, Le Wuya barely reacted, but Yuan Zijin was the first to pipe up in surprise: "Following you? What for? Money or looks? You've got neither."

Yuan Zijin was as brainless and rude as ever, but he wasn't wrong.

Of all Le Wuya's close attendants, Zhong Piaoping's situation was the most unusual.

To this day, he was the only one among Le Wuya's confidants without any actual official post.

He had almost no income—just a meager monthly military stipend from his military household status.

As for looks, he was no match for Yuan Zijin, who was a born pretty boy.

Ever since he'd slimmed down, he bore a striking resemblance to his late father, with a hint of a warlord's fierce bearing—but what warlord skulked along walls instead of walking the straight and narrow?

That Le Wuya would bring such a gloomy, tight-lipped fellow out of Nanting struck even He Qingsong and the other Nanting loyalists as strange—let alone anyone else.

Zhong Piaoping never seemed to get angry. After hearing Yuan Zijin's brilliant remarks, he turned to him and, with a faint deathly pallor on his face, said flatly, "Someone's following you, too."

Yuan Zijin: "...Huh?"

Yuan Zijin: "Wait, I didn't even know. How do you know?"

Zhong Piaoping dropped a bombshell: "I found out because I followed you."

Yuan Zijin: "...Huh???"

Le Wuya, idly holding a chess piece and studying the board, remarked casually, "What he means is, after he found out he was being followed, he didn't say anything. Instead, he tried following you and found you had a tail too."

With that, he turned to Zhong Piaoping: "I say, Xiao Zhong, you should talk to people more. Keep this up day after day, and you won't even be able to put a sentence together."

"Yes." Zhong Piaoping spoke slowly and deliberately, enunciating each word. "Hua Rong, Brother He, Brother Yang—all of them have tails. Brother Yang's wife doesn't go out, so she's fine; Brother He's wife goes out to buy groceries, and she's got a tail too."

Yuan Zijin: "..."

Despite being bombarded with one revelation after another, his focus remained as quirky as ever: "So you, one guy, followed all of us?"

"Yes."

"When did you find out?"

"Five days ago," Zhong Piaoping replied. "The guy tailing me—I spotted him before noon on the first day."

With that, he handed over a stack of papers and, in the same flat tone, hit them with a third surprise: "I also followed the people who were following me."

"I've figured out where the people tailing you and me are staying," Zhong Piaoping said. "I wanted to sketch their faces, but my drawing skills aren't good enough—I couldn't capture their likeness—so I just noted their distinguishing features."

Yuan Zijin couldn't believe it. He took the papers, looked them over one by one, and then looked at Zhong Piaoping with a changed expression: "Xiao Zhong, not bad!"

Zhong Piaoping showed no sign of pleasure. He asked Le Wuya calmly, "Sir, what should we do?"

Taking advantage of Yuan Zijin's distraction, Le Wuya put on a serious face and stole his chess pieces, swiping three before he stopped: "What do we do? Nothing!"

Yuan Zijin shot him a glare: "Who'd you go and offend this time? How'd we get dragged into this?"

"Why do people keep trying to frame me every few days?" Le Wuya was extraordinarily relaxed and carefree—so relaxed that Yuan Zijin across from him completely failed to notice he was secretly rearranging the pieces on the board. "I was actually doing that person a big favor."

Yuan Zijin wasn't buying his nonsense: "What kind of favor did you do that even Brother He's wife is being watched because of it?"

Le Wuya smiled at him: "I've been in Tongzhou this long—people have long figured out the cards I hold. Who told you all to be my trusted men?"

Hearing this, Yuan Zijin got goosebumps for no reason, flushed red, and snapped angrily, "Who... who's your trusted man? I'm here for training! Wen Ren Ming Ke, stop flattering yourself! Once I make something of myself, I'm going home—I'm not staying with you!"

Le Wuya teased him lightly: "Suit yourself. I don't want you anyway."

Sure enough, Yuan Zijin immediately blew his top: "What do you mean you don't want me?!"

Still, he had indeed grown somewhat—after hopping around for a moment, he remembered what was important, forced down his tantrum, and grabbed Zhong Piaoping's sleeve: "Don't you dare fool me! I may not be smart, but Xiao Zhong's got a brain!"

Zhong Piaoping: "..." He never imagined that someone like him—who had once been empty-headed, spending his days on food, drink, and gambling, and had even gotten his whole family killed through his own stupidity—would one day be praised for having "a brain."

He didn't dare show off in front of Le Wuya, so he kept his mouth shut.

To his surprise, Le Wuya showed not the slightest trace of mockery. He simply looked up at him and said, "Xiao Zhong, go on. Even if you're wrong, it's fine. If he laughs at you, I'll punch him."

Zhong Piaoping thought about it carefully.

As an unnoticed "ground chicken," he had noticed things that many others had missed.

For instance, he had a vague sense that the master had a hand in the downfall of the former Assistant Prefect Wei Yixian.

If it hadn't been for a trusted subordinate turning coat and testifying against him, Wei Yixian would never have fallen so completely.

With Wei Yixian as a cautionary tale, this "other party" would naturally want to guard against the master, using his trusted men to cause trouble.

And so, he ventured a guess: "If the master truly did that person a favor, yet that person is having people watch us without letup... I think that 'favor' is most likely a hot potato. He desperately wants to take it, but he doesn't dare—afraid it's a trap the master set for him. So he has to keep a close eye on us first, then send his own trusted men out to do the job."

Le Wuya kicked Yuan Zijin under the table: "See? It's never too late for a man to wise up! I say, you blockhead, when exactly are you planning to get a clue? Want me to drill a couple of holes in that skull of yours to let some sense in?"

Yuan Zijin wanted to kick him back hard, but remembering the hole that had once been punched through Le Wuya's leg, he only dared to complain: "Stop kicking! Careful you don't aggravate that old wound! Then you'll blame me for it!"

After the horseplay, Yuan Zijin painstakingly fired up his limited brainpower: "If that person is being this cautious, just how big is the favor you gave him?"

Le Wuya propped his chin on his hand and said frankly, "It's an old ledger from an old case, involving sixty-one lives in total. All he has to do is go to Huangzhou, retrieve the ledger, and destroy it. Now tell me—is that a big favor or not?"

Yuan Zijin abruptly stood up.

This time, he didn't make a fuss or shout. Instead, he quietly gazed at Le Wuya for a long moment before asking, "Who did you sell this favor to?"

Zhong Piaoping gently tugged at Yuan Zijin's sleeve, then looked at Le Wuya, signaling with his eyes not to tell Yuan Zijin too much.

Yuan Xiao'er had no guile—he was childlike in temperament and had a temper like firecrackers. If he truly learned something, and it set him off, what then?

But Le Wuya leaned back in his armchair, studied him for a moment, and replied, "Zhang Kai. Grand Scholar Zhang Xie from the previous emperor's court was his grandfather. The current Minister of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Zhang Yue, is his uncle."

"Zhang Kai never entered officialdom... So it was Zhang Yue who did it?"

Le Wuya nodded.

Yuan Zijin stared at the chessboard, his shoulders trembling with anger.

However, to Zhong Piaoping's surprise, Yuan Zijin's next move was to pull out a chair, sit down, grab a handful of chess pieces, and ask, "You've got a way to deal with him, right?"

Le Wuya beamed and said, "Of course I do. The trap's been set for a while now—just waiting for him to walk right into it."

Zhong Piaoping pursed his lips.

Le Wuya caught on to his hesitation right away. "Xiao Zhong, if you have something to say, just ask."

Zhong Piaoping said, "Have you been in touch with someone in the capital to pull off this scheme together?"

Le Wuya admitted openly, "Nope."

Zhong Piaoping was genuinely taken aback this time, though his face had been expressionless for so long that even his surprise wasn't very pronounced. "...Neither the Sixth Prince nor the Seventh Prince knows?"

Of course they didn't.

No kidding.

The man he was going after this time was a third-rank official who had climbed the ranks by clinging to the emperor's sash and patting his dragon butt.

There's no way something this big could be set up through letters.

Last time, when he brought down Wei Yixian, he'd used Jiang He, making him hang around Tongzhou for ages before the right moment to strike finally came.

Even though he'd managed to brush it off with a gift for Xiaoliu, he'd probably already made the old emperor about thirty percent suspicious.

As for the Little Phoenix—forget about it.

He'd been transferred back to the capital to take over Old Tiger Yuan's post because the old emperor saw this young General Dingyuan inexplicably drilling troops, reclaiming farmland, stockpiling grain, and raising his younger brother out in the borderlands, building so much prestige in the army that he was even starting to edge out the previous General Dingyuan, Pei Ying.

The emperor had no clue that Pei Mingqi was getting ready for his own "early death."

In his eyes, everything Pei Mingqi did looked suspicious as hell.

If this new prefect got all buddy-buddy with the new capital garrison commander, trading letters and asking him to help take out one of the emperor's trusted third-rank civil officials—that'd be signing his own death warrant.

Seeing that the capable ones were a no-go, Yuan Zijin suggested, "What about Ming Shouyue..."

He trailed off, shutting up because even he knew that pick was way too dumb.

Ming Shouyue's in the capital for the imperial exams—how's he supposed to run errands for us?

"The capital's Zhang Yue's turf," Le Wuya said, thinking one step deeper than Yuan Zijin. "Huangzhou's not too far from the capital—about two hundred li. Shou Yue's got a good horse. If he really pushed it, he could make the ride from the capital to Huangzhou in a day and a night. To cover their bases, they'd probably put a watch on Shou Yue too."

Yuan Zijin frowned. "Should I write to my father..."

Le Wuya cut him off. "No need."

Old Tiger Yuan's lived to this age, made his name, stayed straight his whole life, and now he's obedient in his old age—he deserves to enjoy his retirement in peace. Why drag him into this mess?

Listening to Le Wuya's breakdown, Yuan Zijin started to panic. "Then what're you gonna do? You've only got us! How about I go? I'll pretend to drill troops, lead a squad out of the city, ditch them halfway, and sneak off to Huangzhou! Sound good?"

Le Wuya shot it down with four words: "That'd spook the snake."

"This won't work, that won't work—so where the hell is this trap you dug?" Yuan Zijin was about to tear his hair out. "You got anyone else you trust? What about County Princess Qi? Can she do it?"

Zhong Piaoping shook his head. "No. Her business is booming right now—too many eyes on her."

"Can she send someone she trusts?"

"Not a good idea. To be blunt, aside from County Princess Qi herself, we can't trust anyone else," Zhong Piaoping said. "Zhang Kai must've coordinated with Zhang Yue—they've got nobodies watching us while their own trusted guys head to Huangzhou to torch the evidence. The second they catch even a whiff of us moving, they'll smell a trap and back off."

Bottom line, Zhang Yue and Zhang Kai are two fish lured in by the bait.

They want to bite, but they don't fully trust the bait.

Sending people to watch them now is also a test.

If the water gets stirred up, these two sly fish'll dive deep and never come back up.

Le Wuya was smiling as he watched the two kids hash things out. Yuan Zijin glanced over, saw him sitting there grinning like he had nothing to do, and blew his top: "This is all your fault! You had the ledger as proof—why didn't you just bring it back and hold a hearing right away?!"

"Don't blame him," Zhong Piaoping said in his defense. "That ledger probably ain't worth much."

Yuan Zijin: "?"

Zhong Piaoping reminded him, "Ledgers can be faked."

Oh, right! That trick too!

Yuan Zijin: "...So are Zhang Kai and Zhang Yue stupid? They started moving without even knowing if the evidence was real?"

Zhong Piaoping: "That's what I can't wrap my head around either."

"So, I'm wondering... did you pull something on them in between?"

Le Wuya didn't answer.

He'd long since turned a dead-even game into one completely in his favor, casually dropping a piece. "Xiao Er, you lost again!"

Yuan Zijin had stopped caring about the game ages ago, shoving the candied fruit he'd bet in front of him. "Just spill it! What shady thing did you actually do?"

"How's hurting bad guys count as doing something bad?" Le Wuya said, grinning. "Isn't it just doing the people a solid?"