Chapter 401 Setting the Trap

Chapter 401: Setting the Trap

The rain showed no sign of letting up. Five people showed up in a small town outside Suzhou, where Meng Wan had already booked a quiet little courtyard ahead of time.

Chi Yu went up and knocked on the door. Before long, Zhi Fan came out holding an umbrella. Seeing Meng Wan wearing Song Tingzhou's bamboo hat and looking damp all over, he quickly held the umbrella over him. "Husband, why didn't you grab an umbrella before heading out?"

Meng Wan walked in first, with a whole crowd trailing behind him, most of whom entered the neighboring courtyard.

Li Xiuwen followed the group into the courtyard, his heart racing. Chi Yu grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and steered him into one of the rooms. A little while later, a man came in with a bucket of water for Li Xiuwen. "Master Li, there are clean clothes on the chair. Clean yourself up."

The guy said it all casual, but Li Xiuwen couldn't shake the feeling something was off. He racked his brain, trying to make sense of everything—the close calls, and then running into Song Tingzhou, who was supposed to be in Yangzhou. His mind hadn't stopped spinning for a second. After washing up and changing, he was completely wiped out. He crashed on the couch fully dressed and passed out.

Meng Wan and the others had been staking out the main road for most of the day. Since it was raining, they hadn't packed any food and were starving. But their clothes were damp and uncomfortable, so they headed inside with Song Tingzhou to wash up and change first. After washing up, Meng Wan quickly called for Zhi Fan and Zhi Mao to set out the meal, and they ate together with Ge Quan and his wife.

After eating, Meng Wan started going through the thing he'd conned out of Li Xiuwen.

Fang Jinrong took a bite of rice and asked, "What is it?"

Meng Wan flipped through the papers in his hands and said, all serious-faced, "How Two Villains Were Made."

Fang Jinrong cracked up. "What the heck?"

Meng Wan wasn't joking. He pointed at the dense rows of text on the pages and said, "Yao Jing, the eunuch supervisor of the Suzhou Weaving and Dyeing Bureau, conspired with Guang Zishun, the military commander of the Suzhou Guard Command, to register their farmland and estates as surplus military household land by pulling strings with Commander Guang's authority."

The document didn't name names, but before coming to Suzhou, they'd already done their homework on all the big-shot officials in the city. Every time it said "His Excellency the Eunuch," it could only be talking about the eunuch supervisor of the Suzhou Weaving and Dyeing Bureau.

And since it involved military farmland in Suzhou, that had to be Guang Zishun, the military commander of the Suzhou Guard Command.

Every garrison in the Yu Kingdom had military farmland, split into official land and surplus land. Official land couldn't be bought or sold—it was made up of unclaimed wasteland, land abandoned during wars, confiscated estates from former dynasty nobles, and idle local land, handed out to garrisons at a standard of fifty mu per soldier so they could grow their own food and lighten the state's military supply load.

Surplus military land, on the other hand, was farmland that garrison households owned beyond their allotted quota. The court allowed it, though there were legal restrictions. The key thing was, it didn't need approval from the prefectural government's household office—with a word from above, the garrison's own land management clerk could just change the records.

Song Tingzhou hadn't yet read the contents of the document. His brows knit together. "Palace eunuchs aren't allowed to privately own land or compete with the people for profit. A eunuch holding land is a violation of regulations. If they got caught, the land would be confiscated and they'd be hit with serious punishment."

Meng Wan placed the document beside Song Tingzhou's hand. "Seriously punished is putting it lightly. The farmland and estates Yao Jing registered add up to nearly three thousand mu. Two heads wouldn't be enough to cover that."

Song Tingzhou skimmed through a few pages. Having dealt with countless land registries in Lingnan and the capital, he quickly figured out what this document was. "This is the draft the land management clerk used before copying it into the official register."

"Use 'em and kill 'em. So the clerk who wrote the official register has already been silenced?" Meng Wan picked up his chopsticks again and placed a piece of duck meat on Song Tingzhou's plate, signaling that he should eat first.

Ge Quan listened to the couple talk and felt his head spin. "Just tell me when you need me. Keep all this political scheming off the dinner table."

Meng Wan couldn't help laughing. "Brother Ge's right. My bad."

Everyone settled down to eat. Meanwhile, Li Xiuwen, who'd been caught red-handed, couldn't sleep easy either. After a quick doze, he woke up and ate without even tasting the food. He noticed no one was guarding the door, but he didn't try to run, not with Song Tingzhou watching.

He walked over to the room where Meng Wan and the others were eating, all on his own. Wind-blown rain soaked his fresh clothes, but he didn't seem to notice. "Lord Song, I have something urgent to report."

Song Tingzhou took a sip of warm soup, his voice giving nothing away. "Come in."

Ge Quan had already pulled Fang Jinrong away. The front door was wide open, and when Li Xiuwen walked in, the smell of food mixed with a faint hint of soap hit him—a world away from the cold, bare room he'd been stuck in.

His chest heaved as he looked at the cold-faced man at the table, feeling crushed by his towering presence, like a mountain bearing down on him. "Lord Song, please understand—I used a fake register to buy time to protect the evidence. I didn't mean to disturb you."

Li Xiuwen first explained how, while being chased, he'd tossed the fake register to Meng Wan and Song Tingzhou, accidentally drawing the assassins' attention to them too.

Meng Wan had somehow whipped out a charcoal pencil and was doodling in a book, saying offhandedly, "If those had really been two random passersby, their bodies would probably be cold by now, right? Master Li's got a real ruthless streak."

Cold sweat ran down Li Xiuwen's back as he scrambled to defend himself. "I... I had no choice in that desperate moment! Those assassins were vicious—I knew I couldn't take them. If I hadn't drawn them away, the evidence would've fallen into their hands."

In that situation, it was either them or him—was there even a choice? Use other people to buy as much time as possible.

Song Tingzhou set down his soup bowl and gave him his full attention. "What evidence?"

The moment he spoke, the pressure he exuded was several times greater than Meng Wan's. Li Xiuwen knew full well that the ledger bore no names, yet the words he had prepared stuck in his throat, refusing to come out. It took him a long moment to steady himself enough to speak without stammering. "To answer you, my lord, it's the land management clerk at the Suzhou garrison. He falsified the accounts."

The moment the words left his mouth, he inwardly cursed himself. Had he lost his mind? If it were merely a minor clerk, why would a prefect need to risk his life to deliver the evidence? That excuse might fool a fool, but it would never fool the renowned Song Tingzhou—he'd see through it in an instant.

Li Xiuwen's palms were slick with sweat, and his gaze unconsciously drifted to the open document on the table, terrified that Song Tingzhou would press for details.

But Song Tingzhou seemed not to have noticed the flaw in his story. He merely gave a faint "mm" of acknowledgment and picked up a cloth to wipe the corner of his mouth.

Meng Wan, seated beside him, seemed to find something amusing. His hand kept moving with the pencil, but the corners of his lips curled upward.

Under normal circumstances, a prefect would indeed submit case files to the higher-level surveillance commission. But given the urgency of the situation, and the fact that the truth wasn't what Li Xiuwen had described—just a land management clerk—

For a corruption case of this magnitude, any higher official would do.

Yangzhou was actually closer to Suzhou, and Song Tingzhou was there on imperial orders. It would have been far more convenient to go to Yangzhou than to Yingtian Prefecture. So why did Li Xiuwen insist on risking his life to carry the ledger all the way to Yingtian?

Because he himself couldn't withstand scrutiny.

Song Tingzhou didn't tip his hand. He casually asked Li Xiuwen a few questions, avoiding any mention of the ledger, and only said that they wouldn't enter the city for now and that Li Xiuwen shouldn't spread the word.

At the mention of entering the city, Li Xiuwen suddenly remembered that his family was still settled outside the southern city wall. Terrified that something might happen to them, he nervously requested Song Tingzhou's permission to go to the southern district to find them. After all, the item had already been handed over—if Guang Zishun's men came looking for him again, he would simply tell them the truth.

Song Tingzhou fixed his dark, deep eyes on him, as if seeing through every thought in his mind. "Go ahead."

Li Xiuwen felt as if he'd been granted a pardon. He practically stumbled out of the room, asked Zhi Fan in the courtyard for a horse, and disappeared into the drizzling rain.

The courtyard was a single-courtyard layout, with Ge Quan and Fang Jinrong staying in the side rooms. Fang Jinrong witnessed the scene and was utterly baffled. "Didn't Brother Wan go through all that trouble to force him out of the city? Why let him go just like that?"

Ge Quan didn't know much more than he did. He kissed Fang Jinrong's fair cheek twice. "There's probably another plan. No one outsmarts Brother Wan—few people have ever gotten the better of him. No need to worry. Let's just treat this as a trip."

Fang Jinrong wasn't worried; he was just curious. Hearing Ge Quan mention a trip, his interest perked up even more. "I heard there's a Lingyan Mountain west of Suzhou with a stone fortress on it. Let's go explore!"

Ge Quan naturally agreed to any suggestion. He ruffled Fang Jinrong's hair, his eyes full of affection. "Alright. We'll stay here with Brother Wan for a few days first. Once their business is done, I'll take you."

Meng Wan had returned to his old craft, sitting in the room and writing and drawing with an air of calm confidence. Truly writing and drawing at the same time—unlike the illustrated booklets of the past, now that he had money, he was creating comic books. The characters blended modern art styles with ancient-style backgrounds. The stories weren't exactly lifelike, but they were highly distinctive and quite compelling.

The room was small, and after the dishes were cleared, Meng Wan took up most of the table. Song Tingzhou sat close beside him, carefully reading through the ledger obtained from Li Xiuwen line by line.

To an ordinary person, such a document would look like nothing more than a series of accounts. But in Song Tingzhou's eyes, every entry was a flaw—evidence enough to nail Yao Jing and Guang Zishun.

But they were just small fry. Song Tingzhou's goal was to follow their trail and expose the more powerful figures behind them.

Without eradicating corruption, land equalization could never succeed.

Meng Wan drew several pages in one go, set down his pencil, and shook out his wrist. A cup of warm tea was already at his lips.

He drank the tea from Song Tingzhou's hand, then looked up at the sky outside. The rain still showed no sign of stopping.

"Jiangnan is so rainy—even more so than Lingnan."

Meng Wan handed the empty cup back to Song Tingzhou, his fingertips inadvertently brushing against his warm fingers. He simply slipped his hand into Song Tingzhou's and said lazily, "Though this rain isn't entirely a bad thing. We don't know how long we'll be here, so let's just say the rain is keeping us from leaving."

Having comforted himself, he turned to another topic. "When do you think Li Xiuwen will come back to see you?"

Song Tingzhou set the cup aside and used his free hand to massage the back of Meng Wan's neck, speaking with certainty. "Tonight. He can't wait that long."

His words proved correct. Shortly after midnight, the sound of hoofbeats echoed from outside the courtyard, unusually clear in the quiet rainy night.

The hoofbeats stopped at the courtyard gate, and a bedraggled figure knocked on the door of their temporary residence.

Chi Yu, stationed at the gatehouse, let him in. Li Xiuwen dropped the reins and rushed in with a pale face, rainwater streaming from his hair and collar, leaving dark damp stains on the bluestone.

His legs buckled, and he knelt before Song Tingzhou's door, his voice trembling with barely suppressed panic and despair.

"Forgive me, my lord. Earlier today, I spoke out of turn. The ledger in your hands is... evidence of collusion between Commander Guang Zishun of the Suzhou Guard and Yao Jing, the eunuch of the Weaving and Dyeing Bureau!"

His trembling voice sounded from outside the door.

A moment later, with a soft creak, the door was pushed open from within. Song Tingzhou stood in the doorway in his outer robe, looking down at him with a cold and appraising gaze.

The rain pattered steadily, and the dim glow of the lantern under the eaves cast Song Tingzhou's figure in a tall, stern silhouette. He did not immediately tell Li Xiuwen to rise, but simply watched him silently. His gaze was like a deep autumn pond, unfathomable, sending the already terrified Li Xiuwen into an icy pit of fear, his whole body shaking like a leaf.

"Oh?" Song Tingzhou finally spoke, his voice low but carrying an undeniable authority. "That's not what you said earlier today."

Li Xiuwen pressed his forehead against the cold, wet bluestone, rainwater mingling with cold sweat streaming down his cheeks. "Forgive me, my lord. It was only because Guang Zishun held my family's safety in his hands that I dared not act rashly. But when I returned to the city just now, I found my family was gone—I fear Guang Zishun has taken them as leverage. I have no other choice, so I have come back to beg for your help."

No one in this courtyard knew better than they did where Li Xiuwen's family really was. To Song Tingzhou, Li Xiuwen's words were another mix of half-truth and outright lie.

He did not expose the deception, but instead made a promise: "I can help you rescue your family, but from now on, you will follow my orders."

Li Xiuwen had already anticipated the consequences when he chose to return to Song Tingzhou, and he agreed without hesitation. "I will serve you with utmost loyalty, at your every command!"

Song Tingzhou nodded slightly. "You're a smart man. In Suzhou city, you, Guang Zishun, and Yao Jing each have your own roles, and you're undoubtedly tied to each other."

Li Xiuwen froze in shock and immediately tried to defend himself, but Song Tingzhou didn't wait for his answer and continued, "You were hunted down—was that Guang Zishun's own doing, or did someone else sanction it? Have you ever thought about that? For Guang Zishun and Yao Jing to act so brazenly, there must be someone behind them pulling the strings. You should know better than I do."

Li Xiuwen was struck speechless, the blood draining from his face. Suddenly, he thought of another prefect who had died en route to the capital—Fang Rushan.

His lips moved faintly, cold sweat pouring like rain, yet he couldn't utter a single word.

The rain grew heavier than during the day, beating hard against the bluestone pavement, splashing water and the rank smell of moss creeping under the eaves.

Song Tingzhou looked up at the rain, then down at Li Xiuwen's terrified face, his eyes dark and unreadable. "Li Xiuwen, coming to me is the only way you keep your life. Had you kept on the road to Yingtian Prefecture, the scene on the official road in broad daylight would have played out again."