Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 7: The Big Brother of the Imperial City Division
Yu Jiguang was about thirty years old, tall, with a pair of ox eyes. He wore a round-necked robe, a turban on his head, and was playing with a folding fan in his hand.

When he saw Yang Yuan passing by Ji's Braised Food Shop, he walked into "Song's Snacks" as if he was familiar with the place, and then walked hesitantly to the door of Ji's Braised Food Shop.

Yu Jiguang wanted to ask the fat shopkeeper about Yang Yuan's background, but he saw that the fat shopkeeper was holding a sharp knife, staring with a pair of big eyes, and still panting.

Yu Jiguang hesitated for a moment, then gave up the idea of ​​asking him questions. He slowly walked to the door of Song's snack shop and glanced at the house name plate in front of the door.

The Song Dynasty implemented a household registration system, where a sign was hung in front of every door with information about the people living there.

The man took a quick look and found out from the information on the household plate that there were four permanent residents in this household.

The head of the household was named Song Laoshi, and he had an unmarried daughter named Song Luxi.

There are also two other long-term tenants, one named Yang Che and the other named Yang Yuan. Judging from their similar names and ages, they should be brothers.

I certainly couldn't report back with just this information, but if I rushed into the store I might as well alert the enemy.

Yu Jiguang pondered for a moment, turned around and saw a woman squatting at the stone steps by the river, beating and washing clothes, so he walked over.

Yu Jiguang walked to the riverside, walked down two steps along the stone steps, lifted the hem of his robe, squatted down on the stone steps, and smiled at the woman washing clothes, "Madam, I want to ask you something."

The woman who was washing clothes looked back and saw that the man was dressed like a scholar or from a well-off family, if not an official or a merchant. She put down her clothes beater and replied with a polite smile, "Sir, you are too polite, but I don't know what you want to ask?"

Yu Jiguang pointed with his folding fan at the shop with the Chinese character "Song" on it next to Ji's Braised Food and asked, "Madam, there is a young man serving food in Song's Snack Shop. What's his name?"

The woman asked in confusion, "Why are you asking about other people's affairs?"

"Oh! That's right."

As a spy of the National Intelligence Agency, Yu Jiguang was naturally good at handling such small situations: "To be honest, my master is a merchant in the raw silk business. He has only one daughter and has always wanted to marry a diligent and smart young man..."

Upon hearing about this, the woman immediately became interested and said to Ji Guang with a smile: "Your master has good taste. Erlang is indeed a good kid. It's a pity that you came too late."

Yu Jiguang asked: "Why, is this young man already married?"

The woman smiled and said, "It's not like they're married yet, but if you had met him a year ago, you would have had a chance to marry him. But now, it's impossible."

"how do I say this?"

"Sir, you don't know that the young man who sent the call was named Yang Yuan. He just crossed from the north to the south more than a year ago. He begged for food along the way and had no food or clothes. He was very pitiful. If you had met him at that time, he would certainly rush to marry into your family and become a live-in son-in-law."

The woman smiled and said, "What a coincidence! Yang Yuan and Yang Che, the official who has been renting the Song family snack shop, look quite similar. They both have the surname Yang and are about the same age. And this official Yang Che happens to have a brother who has been lost for many years. Don't you think this is too coincidental?"

Yu Jiguang smiled and nodded, saying: "Yes, it is a bit too coincidental."

The woman smiled and said, "The young lady from the Song family who helped him at the time became suspicious, so she kept him in the store until that great official Yang Che came back from his shift and let him meet Yang Yuan. Hey, guess what happened?"

Yu Jiguang knew what was going to happen, but he still asked with full awareness, "What's going on?"

The woman clapped her hands and said excitedly: "This Yang Yuan is exactly the brother of Master Yang Che who was left behind in the north when he was a child. Don't you think this is a coincidence!"

Yu Jiguang's eyes flickered, and he said slowly, "That's really a coincidence, but I wonder who this Mr. Yang is?" The woman said proudly, "Don't think that the people in our Qingshi Lane are all ordinary people. Mr. Yang is the marriage officer of the Imperial City Department. The Imperial City Department, you have heard of this government office, right?"

Yu Jiguang's eyes suddenly shrank, but he still had a calm smile on his face, and he replied vaguely: "Oh? The Imperial City Division... Haha, who among us in Lin'an Prefecture has not heard of the Imperial City Division?"

The woman said complacently, "That's right. I heard that the officials of the Imperial City Department can always see the officials. Think about it, even though Mr. Yang can't afford a house in the inner city for the time being, it's impossible for him to marry into another family. Do you still have any dignity? Our ancestors will be ashamed."

The woman shook off the water on her hands and asked excitedly, "Hey, you said your family wants to find a young man to marry into the family, right? I do have a distant nephew, but I don't know where your family lives, how much wealth you have, how old your daughter is, and what her appearance and character are like?"

"Haha, to be honest, the one who fell in love with Yang Yuan was actually our daughter, so I followed orders to come here. If someone else had taken him back, I'm afraid my daughter would be unhappy. I'm just a servant and I don't want to get involved, so...thank you for knowing me."

Yu Jiguang thanked the woman perfunctorily and stood up and walked out of the alley.

As soon as he turned his head away, his eyes were already gloomy.

Imperial City Division!
The idle man who delivered the "suohuan" actually had a brother who was an official in charge of marriage in the Imperial City Bureau!

So, did this idle man go to Banjing Pavilion to send off Suo Huan?

Or was it his brother's instructions?

In fact, Qin Hui's secret meeting with the Jin people was a huge secret. In the entire National Intelligence Service, only Eunuch Li and a few of his confidants knew the truth.

Yu Jiguang, who was sent to investigate Yang Yuan's background, did not know why he was investigating Yang Yuan.

Li Yaban told him that he suspected this man was not just an idler and asked him to investigate thoroughly.

However, when Yu Jiguang heard that Yang Yuan's brother was an investigator of the Imperial City Bureau, he began to imagine something and began to feel hostile.

This is because the National Intelligence Service and the Imperial City Bureau are both intelligence agencies of the Song Dynasty, and there is an inherent competitive relationship between them.

Moreover, ever since the Guoxin Institute was completely controlled by Qin Hui, it was also branded with the mark of Qin Xiang's faction.

But what about the Imperial City Division? It belongs to the Imperial Guards system.

The imperial guards system is an existence that Qin Hui has not been able to interfere with so far, not only because the imperial guards are directly under the emperor, but also because... the team forming the imperial guards of the Southern Song Dynasty came from the former subordinates of Yue Fei and Han Shizhong.

Among the former subordinates of these two generals..., who could look down upon the old thief Qin?

Therefore, the relationship between the Imperial City Bureau and the National Information Office became even worse.

In this situation, Guoxin has a strong sense of territory for its own piece of land.

What Yu Jiguang guessed at this moment was that the Imperial City Bureau had overstepped its boundaries, stretched its hand too far, bypassed the other country's envoy office, and interfered in the affairs of the Jin Kingdom delegation, which should have been their responsibility. Naturally, he was extremely dissatisfied.

Yu Jiguang walked out of Qingshi Lane, his pace getting faster and faster. He had to report the matter to the guard immediately and retaliate against the Imperial City Bureau!

(End of this chapter)