Ning Dao Covered with Snow

Chapter 187 Forced into a desperate situation
After the detectives had gone far away, Chaolu spread out her right hand. A small wooden plaque lay quietly in her palm. A red Pixiu was engraved on the front, and the number seventy-nine was engraved on the back.

Xiao Wang recognized it at a glance. This was the pass to enter the Xiangzhou black market.

He remembered what Yan Ciwan had just said to Chaolu. Yan Ciwan specifically mentioned Ashun Bathhouse. He, Yan Ciwan and Li Chengge entered the underground black market from Ashun Bathhouse.

Du Lingzhou picked up the wooden sign and looked at it, then asked in confusion, "What is this for?"

Xiao Wang briefly recounted the events of the Xiangzhou black market, and finally expressed his own guess: "Aci should be reminding us that there is also a black market in Yizhou. There is a very likely secret passage leading to the black market in the Rouge Shop. The real murderer and the shopkeeper's accomplices all quietly escaped through the secret passage. As long as we can find the secret passage and find out where the black market is, we can break the possibility that Aci is the only suspect."

Zhaolu looked at the rouge shop not far away and frowned and said, "There is a constable watching the door of the shop. He won't let us in."

Du Lingzhou straightened his chest and said confidently: "Leave this to me!"

He brought Huaiyan to the door of the rouge shop and started talking to the constable guarding the door in a familiar manner.

Du Lingzhou claimed to be a wealthy businessman from Dongdu. He planned to do some business locally and wanted to ask the constable to help take care of his business.

While he was speaking, Huaiyan quietly stuffed a silver ingot into the constable's hand.

The constable's annual salary was less than this much money, so he was immediately overjoyed and treated Du Lingzhou and his servant very enthusiastically.

Du Lingzhou took the opportunity to pull him to the tavern across the street for a drink.

The constable was a little hesitant, as he had not forgotten his duty of guarding the store.

Huai Yan stepped forward and said, "You guys go eat, I'll stay here. If anything happens, I'll let you know immediately."

Du Lingzhou also said: "The wine shop is just across the street, only a few steps away. As long as Huai Yan shouts, we can come immediately and will definitely not delay your business."

The constable thought so too and was persuaded, so he followed Du Lingzhou into the tavern across the street.

Huai Yan stood guard at the door, waiting for the constable to enter the tavern and disappear from view. He immediately waved to Xiao Wang and Chao Lu who were not far away, signaling them to come over quickly.

Xiao Wang and Chao Lu seized the opportunity to enter the store.

They searched the store carefully, leaving no corner untouched, and finally found a little bloodstain behind the counter.

It must have been accidentally left behind by the two injured female servants when they were escaping, and they ran in such a hurry that they didn't have time to wipe it clean.

Xiao Wang looked towards the shelf in the direction of the bloodstains.

This shelf stood behind the counter, occupying an entire wall, and was filled with rouge for display. Xiao Wang carefully searched the shelf and found that there was a box of rouge that he couldn't pick up. He tried to turn the box of rouge, and then there was a slight mechanical turning sound, and the shelf in front of him slowly opened, revealing a locked secret door.

The secret door is made of iron, with a green dragon painted on it.

Xiao Wang tried pushing it twice, but the secret door didn't move at all. It seemed that the door was locked from the inside.

He said in a deep voice: "We need to find someone to come and forcibly remove this door."

The two walked out of the rouge shop. Chaolu looked at the silk flower shop next door and suddenly said, "Alu and I came here to buy rouge because the shopkeeper of the silk flower shop recommended that the hibiscus rouge here is very good."

Xiao Wang immediately stepped into the silk flower shop.

The shop was full of female customers. Suddenly, a young and handsome man walked in. He immediately became the focus of everyone's attention.

Xiao Wang ignored the strange looks from the crowd and went straight to the shopkeeper's wife.

Chaolu stood outside the store waiting. After a while, she saw Xiao Wang coming out and asked hurriedly.

"What's going on? Is she in cahoots with the guys from the Rouge Shop?"

Xiao Wang said, "She said that she and the owner of the Rouge Shop had a mutually beneficial relationship. As long as she introduced a young female customer to the Rouge Shop, she would get a commission of thirty cents regardless of whether the business was successful in the end. In order to make money, she often introduced customers to the Rouge Shop next door. She didn't know the origin of the owner of the Rouge Shop and just thought that she was an ordinary businessman." Chao Lu hesitated and said, "Can her words be trusted?"

"She doesn't look like she's lying, and we don't have any evidence to prove she's lying, so we can only believe her for now."

Chaolu looked worried, because it all came down to the fact that they had too little evidence in their hands.

At this time, Du Lingzhou and the constable came back, drunk.

The constable returned to the store door and stood guard, while Huai Yan helped Du Lingzhou leave. The two met Xiao Wang and Chao Lu at the street corner.

The group returned to Yunkelai in a carriage and learned that Xiao Ke was still in the governor's mansion and had not returned. So Xiao Wang asked Chao Lu and Du Lingzhou to stay in Yunkelai, and he took his uncle Jiu and rushed to the governor's mansion at full speed.

At the same time, Yan Ciwan was brought back to the government office, and Captain Mi transferred her to the women's prison.

The female jailer searched Yan Ciwan carefully from head to toe, took away all the valuables on her body, and put shackles on her hands and feet.

She was locked in the innermost cell, where two female prisoners were already locked up.

The difference was that the two female prisoners were not shackled, and their hands and feet were free to move. Ever since Yan Ciwan entered the cell, the two had been staring at her, and their gazes made people feel uncomfortable no matter how they looked at her.

Yan Ciwan asked: "Why don't they have to wear shackles, but I have to wear shackles?"

The female jailer replied gruffly, "That's what the higher-ups told us to do!"

After saying that, she slammed the cell door shut and locked it.

Yan Ciwan looked at the other two female prisoners in the cell. They had already stood up and were approaching Yan Ciwan from the left and right.

Looking at the two men's posture, Yan Ciwan knew that they had no good intentions, but her hands and feet were shackled and her movements were restricted, so the situation was very unfavorable for her.

She warned: "Don't mess around, or I'll call for help."

The female prisoner on the left laughed strangely: "Go ahead and scream. I want to see how loud you can scream."

The female prisoner on the right rolled up her sleeves, revealing her strong arms: "Don't waste time talking to her, just do it now."

The two men pounced on her at the same time, grabbing Yan Ciwan's shoulders and arms on the left and right, trying to push her head into the wooden barrel.

The wooden barrel was originally placed in the corner and was used by prisoners to defecate and urinate. There was a lid on it.

At this moment, the lid had long disappeared, and the wooden barrel was placed in the middle of the cell, only a few inches away from Yan Ciwan.

Yan Ciwan shouted for help, but no one paid any attention.

She thought of what the female jailer had said just now. It seemed that someone had already prepared this place for the purpose of severely humiliating her.

The people behind the scenes set up traps one after another, determined to force her into a desperate situation.

Yan Ci Wan grabbed the wrists of the two female prisoners with his backhand, activated his internal energy, and pressed down hard. There was a muffled sound, and the wrist bones of the two were broken!

The two of them screamed miserably at the same time and subconsciously let go of Yan Ciwan.

Yan Ciwan successfully got rid of the shackles. She shook her hands, and the shackles on her wrists made a rattling sound.

She looked at the two female prisoners expressionlessly and asked coldly, "Who sent you here?"

(End of this chapter)