Chapter 304: The Tiger’s Ghost (Part 3)

Le Wuya's suggestion to leave later suited Zhou Wenchang just fine.

He was indeed exhausted to the extreme.

Last night, uninvited guests had arrived at Xiaolian Mountain, and he had organized a rushed, intensive manhunt that lasted half the night, finally managing to hound the last surviving miner to his death.

He had steeled himself, re-examining and cataloging the corpses, but on his way back to the county office, he had stumbled upon a squad of mine garrison soldiers who had died under mysterious circumstances. Weighed down with worry, he returned to the office, where he first conducted two consecutive interrogations, and before he could catch his breath, he had to accompany Le Wuya to investigate A Shun's death.

With his nerves wound this tight, when Zhou Wenchang finally returned to his room to change clothes, he ended up falling fast asleep in the armchair.

When Zhou Wenhuan came charging in, Zhou Wenchang's eyelids barely fluttered open. After recognizing who it was, he let them droop shut again in exhaustion.

"Still sleeping?" Zhou Wenhuan shook him awake. "The house is on fire!"

Zhou Wenchang opened his eyes halfway, good-naturedly: "I'm sleepy. I'm beat."

Zhou Wenchang had been the runner-up in the imperial examinations (Bangyan) in his youth, and even if the years had worn him down somewhat, he could still be called striking and refined.

Zhou Wenhuan, five years younger than his brother and never having been ground down by life's vicissitudes, had features similar to his brother's but carried a much sharper edge: "You've got time to whine about being tired?!"

"With three hundred lives weighing on my shoulders, how could I not be tired?"

Hearing this, Zhou Wenhuan's heart softened a little.

But he did not back down. He turned and closed the door firmly, then closed in on Zhou Wenchang.

The two brothers, one seated, one standing.

Zhou Wenhuan stood a head taller than his elder brother, and looking down from this height, his looming presence was even more intimidating.

Zhou Wenhuan went straight on the offensive: "Brother, you let that Wen Renyue out of the prison?"

Zhou Wenchang: "What else could I do?"

"You've lost your head!" Zhou Wenhuan paced in agitation. "A golden opportunity, and you just let it slip away!? If I hadn't had to keep an eye on the mine for you, if I had known he was in prison, I would never have let him take a single step out of that cell alive!"

"What do you have in mind? Let me hear it."

A sinister look flashed in Zhou Wenhuan's eyes: "Great disasters are always followed by great plagues. Why couldn't that plague start from the county prison first?"

Zhou Wenchang closed his eyes, taking a moment to compose himself, and countered: "You want to poison him?"

"What else? Here's a perfect opportunity, and you, big brother, actually—"

Zhou Wenchang snorted in derision: "You're always so quick to call for blood. Your viciousness grows by the day."

"It's your ambition that's been ground out of you, big brother!" Zhou Wenhuan said bitterly. "You've been trapped in this godforsaken land for years. Are you truly content to rot here?!"

Zhou Wenchang asked him in a level voice: "If I kill the imperial envoy sent by the court, can I leave Dansui? If the censor and his party die of plague on my turf, that's a slap in the face to the court! Do you think the court is stupid?"

Zhou Wenhuan was left speechless, no longer arguing, his fists clenched tightly.

Zhou Wenchang rubbed his brow, his tone as gentle as a trickling stream: "If you wanted to kill him, you could have done it at the Niu Inn, back when his identity was still unknown. But once he set foot in the county prison, his life and death became my responsibility. He absolutely must not die now."

Hearing this, Zhou Wenhuan also felt a headache coming on. He sat down beside Zhou Wenchang, his tone carrying a hint of defeat: "It's all those blind underlings' fault! I saw the three of them separate with my own eyes, but the watchers insisted that Wang Cheng's capture didn't seem to bother him, that they might just be casual acquaintances. I told them to keep a close watch, and who would have thought that in one moment of carelessness—"

Zhou Wenhuan was also one of the Changmen Guards loyal to Wang Su.

Compared to Zhou Wenchang, he was younger and more radical.

Zhou Wenchang slowly opened his eyes, bloodshot and full of exhaustion: "Ah Huan, don't you think there's something suspicious about this? ...Lord Wang is always cautious, never sending letters, only relaying messages through trusted confidants. Yet this time he risked using a pigeon to reply, and even specifically pointed out that Wen Renyue was skilled in criminal investigation, and that if things were to leak, it would be extremely difficult..."

"What's so strange about that?" Zhou Wenhuan rested his head on his hand, irritated. "In emergencies, you bend the rules! If we'd waited for a messenger on horseback, we'd have missed the boat entirely! Besides, we've already discussed this—at the end of the day, it's just those officials in the capital fighting their power games! Lord Wang deliberately handed us this leverage. As long as we get this done for him, we can smooth over the Niu Sanqi affair, he gets one less enemy, and we can pull you out of this quagmire—isn't that killing two birds with one stone?!"

If Wang Su hadn't sent that letter, they wouldn't have dared to do this.

Zhou Wenhuan asked: "Brother, why are you mulling over this again?"

Zhou Wenchang thought of Le Wuya's eerie purple eyes and said in a low voice: "I have a feeling... this man is not simple."

Zhou Wenhuan hadn't yet dealt with Le Wuya personally, and hearing this, another wave of nameless anger surged up: "Brother, if you really think he's not simple, I'll just kill him!"

"If you ask me, it's been so many years—we've paid all the tribute we need to pay, we're just one final push away. If you keep hesitating like this, you'll be constrained at every turn!"

The more Zhou Wenhuan thought about it, the angrier he got: "If I hadn't instructed Qingyun early on to deal with A Shun, would you have even been willing to kill him?"

"Do you know that Qingyun's methods have already been seen through by him?"

Zhou Wenhuan was stunned for a moment, then hardened his resolve: "So what? Qingyun is utterly loyal. If he insists it was out of good intentions, what can Wen Renyue do about it?"

Seeing Zhou Wenhuan so adamant, Zhou Wenchang stopped trying to persuade him and instead asked: "How are things at the mine?"

"Brother, that's exactly what I came back to tell you. The men over there seem... unsettled."

Zhou Wenchang's brows knit tightly: "What?"

"They keep gathering to whisper about something, and they're slacking off in their duties. It seems they're spreading word about those soldiers who were ambushed and killed..."

Zhou Wenchang shot to his feet, his composure shattered: "Didn't we give them a unified story? That they ran into bandits?"

"We did, but I can tell they're not buying it."

Zhou Wenchang's face darkened like iron: "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

Zhou Wenhuan: "...If brother had just kept Wen Renyue locked up, or simply disposed of him cleanly, would this even be a problem?"

This was indeed worth Zhou Wenhuan making the trip back to report in person.

"Brother, what do we do? Should we...?" Zhou Wenhuan made a horizontal chopping motion with his hand. "...kill the chicken to scare the monkeys?"

After a long deliberation, Zhou Wenchang made his judgment: "Don't touch them. The more you do, the more mistakes you make. They're only suspicious for now, but they've committed capital crimes too. Keeping their mouths shut is also self-preservation. They wouldn't be stupid enough to walk to their own deaths, would they?"

Zhou Wenhuan nodded, then asked: "Does Wen Renyue know about the attack on that squad of soldiers?"

"He was causing trouble at the Niu Inn early this morning and got arrested. He shouldn't know. On the way to the mine later, I'll mention it to him."

Finally, he added: "You stay at the office and hold the fort. Don't leave for even a moment."

"Brother, are you very afraid of him?"

Zhou Wenchang gave an unexpected answer: "I don't know."

Zhou Wenhuan: "...Huh?"

Zhou Wenchang pondered for a moment, then said: "Actually, I've never seen him fight."

That was the truth.

Le Wuya naturally knew exactly what he had done during these three days in Dansui.

But from Zhou Wenchang's perspective, Le Wuya's actions since entering the city had indeed taken "wu wei" to the extreme.

When his subordinate was arrested, he didn't care—he slept soundly in the inn for an entire day. On the third day, because he'd suffered a minor injury himself, he egged his men into causing a brawl, and ended up getting himself thrown into the county jail along with them.

When Zhou Wenchang opened court to hear the case, Zhong Piaoping and Wang Cheng each used their own wits to break free of the situation, while this Imperial Commissioner stood by with his hands in his sleeves the entire time, without lifting a single finger.

If you looked closely, the only ability he'd displayed was seeing through the truth of A Shun's death.

But after seeing through it, he did nothing at all. When Qingyun confessed, he just went along with it, without showing the slightest interest in pressing Zhou Wenhuan further.

Clearly, he only wanted to prove that A Shun's death had nothing to do with Zhong Piaoping. As long as someone took the blame and papered over it, all was well.

...Looking at it that way, he was exactly the kind of censor officials loved most—showing up in a town pretending to do a secret inspection, parking himself on the spot, doing nothing at all, and when it was time to head back to the capital to report, dropping by the county office to ask a few key questions. Both sides would quietly get their stories straight, and he'd head home—host and guest alike, all happy.

In the end, they'd listened to Lord Wang's advice, dug pits, set up guards, and ran around like headless chickens—only to end up with mud all over their faces.

...Maybe it was better to just sit tight after all.

Zhou Wenchang sighed and patted Zhou Wenhuan on the shoulder. "Hold down the fort. It's almost time—I'll go get that gentleman, and we'll head to the mine."

Zhou Wenhuan hurried after him to the door and called out, "Brother, be careful!"

Zhou Wenchang turned back.

Zhou Wenhuan's face carried a hint of worry. "The old-timers who know the mountain say it's likely to rain today. And the mountain's showing signs of shifting again. Please be extra careful."

Zhou Wenchang smiled gently. "I know."

...

Just as Le Wuya and Zhou Wenchang were about to set out, Wang Cheng's group—which had gone ahead as the vanguard—was nearing Xiaolian Mountain.

Wang Cheng had a naturally warm, likable face, carried himself with dignity, and was good at making friends with just about anyone.

"To be honest, this is my fault," he said to Secretary Lin. "I barged in asking questions without being polite about it—maybe I didn't choose my words carefully and caused misunderstandings, and caused a lot of trouble for you and your county. I'm honestly... ashamed."

After that little speech, Secretary Lin liked him a lot more and let his guard down a bit.

Though he still didn't like how sharp Wen Ren was about this guy, both Wang Cheng and Zhong Piaoping seemed like capable, dependable men.

Secretary Lin asked quietly, "Your master didn't come to save you—aren't you holding a grudge?"

Wang Cheng laughed heartily. "If we had to bother the Imperial Censor over every little thing, what kind of men would we be?"

He added, "...Xiao Zhong probably feels the same way."

Secretary Lin had always looked out for his own people. "But he really doesn't do anything at all?"

Wang Cheng lowered his eyes and said softly, "My master... has bigger things on his mind."

Hearing that, Secretary Lin almost felt a soft spot for him.

...What bigger things?

Was sleeping face-down in an inn supposed to count as a big deal?

The two chatted pleasantly the whole way, and before they knew it, they'd reached the disaster zone.

Only then did Secretary Lin's face turn serious. He dismounted, tossed the reins to a guard who came running up, and slogged a few steps through the mud before raising his voice: "Everyone, stop what you're doing for a minute!"

The soldiers cleaning up heard the order and drifted over in small groups.

Secretary Lin set his face sternly and announced gravely, "All of you, stay sharp—the imperial censor sent by the court will be here any minute! This man—" he pointed at Wang Cheng "—is the censor's special envoy! Every one of you, stay alert—do your job well, and be ready to explain yourselves! Don't bust your ass and still get chewed out! Understood?!"

The soldiers exchanged nervous glances, and even their reply came out tense: "...Yes!"

Wang Cheng smiled in every direction.

But what echoed in his ears were Le Wuya's orders before they'd set out:

"Wang Cheng, A Shun is dead."

"Grab hold of that matter, get to the mine, and stir up some trouble for me."