Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 180 Take a break

Based on the man's confession and his own judgment, Jia Chuan concluded that there was no secret passage between the alley and the Herb Garden. Considering the time, they didn't have enough time. It was already very rushed to have someone repair the secret passage under the Herb Gathering Bureau. Moreover, this road was not short, and it wasn't on their own territory. It would be convenient for them to rent the entire alley and then use the Herb Garden to come and go as they pleased.

When Jia Chuan returned to the courtyard, he saw that Lu Baihu was only a little pale, but he was already able to walk upright. He said, "Immediately send someone to fetch the clerk of the prefectural government. He's the one in charge of household registration. I just had someone seal off an alley. If you can still move, take the clerk there. Remember not to go in. I just need to know who lives in that alley, how many people live there, and who the homeowner is. Report back immediately after you find out."

Upon hearing this, Lu Baihu wanted to share his discovery, but thinking that he could get away from that courtyard, he limped out of the courtyard.

Chen Mo and Gao Yuntian were still taking a nap. Shunzi said the two of them were competing to see who could snore louder. When Lu Baihu was carried in, neither of them woke up. After Lu Baihu woke up and talked to Shunzi for a while, the other two still didn't wake up.

Jia Chuan said he slept soundly, and Shunzi added that Dong Yuanyuan also slept very well.

Jia Chuan dragged his heavy legs into his room and said to Shunzi, "Bring me pen and ink. I need to write a letter to the Emperor. You can write it for me."

……

Jia Chuan thought that by the time Zhu Zhanji received this letter, the officials he had sent might already be on their way, or perhaps Zhu Zhanji was waiting for him to send back the latest news. In conclusion, the fact that he hadn't sent anyone to Kaifeng for so long meant that he trusted him too much.

If Jia Chuan had previously doubted whether salt merchants or canal transport workers had instigated the incident, he was now certain that at least these people were involved. Whether they were the real masterminds still needed further investigation. Of course, it would be even better if more useful evidence could be found, such as those who were reluctant to leave Kaifeng.

Although there are more than one or two survivors currently detained in the herb-gathering bureau, and we already know the general situation without actually using torture, these people only know the general situation. If it weren't for the bald man, Jia Chuan would need time to sort out all the clues. Even if there are clues, without evidence, it would still be difficult to handle.

Of course, in this era, if there are any suspicious people, the authorities can take action. They would rather kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free, especially in such a major matter. In this way, most of the poisons and antidotes should be found.

But Jia Chuan felt that more evidence was needed to confirm the crimes of certain individuals and clear others of unwarranted accusations. He wanted to find evidence, and he knew he could. Besides, what kind of audacity would a salt merchant, no matter how wealthy, have to do something that would affect the court? Wearing leather trousers over cotton trousers must have a reason. Jia Chuan wanted to know what gave him that confidence.
Zhu Zhanji must have wanted to know that as well.

After Jia Chuan finished recounting the events, he leaned wearily against the back of his chair. He was determined to capture that schizophrenic person no matter what. This person's mind was so twisted that he couldn't even be considered human; keeping him around would only bring trouble.

But when will the people around him recover? Once they're back to normal, will they be a match for him? Only Duoduo is out of luck; she's injured in the back. Even if she weren't injured, would he dare let these people take such a risk?
When Jia Chuan opened his eyes again, it was pitch black outside. He had absolutely no memory of how he got into bed.

There was light in the hall. Jia Chuan got up and went out. Chen Mo, Gao Yuntian, and Shunzi sat in the hall.

"You're awake? I thought you'd sleep until dawn," Shunzi said.

"The letter... has it been sent out?" Jia Chuan rubbed his eyes and sat down in a chair.

"You said you didn't wake me up when you wrote the letter, but I had to write one too, right? Don't worry, it's been sent out. What's next? Just as it got dark, Commander Lu came back and said that there were indeed several families living in that alley, and they were all rented out, but the people from the government office checked the rental contracts and found that the tenants were not the same person..."

"It's you. Will you write your own name on all of them?" Gao Yuntian asked.

Chen Mo ignored Gao Yuntian and continued:

"The lease was until May. Because you only allowed them to close the door but not to enter, they haven't moved. No one in the alley has come out to inquire. Commander Lu ordered someone to find the people from the brokerage firm who helped rent the house. They only saw one person running around when they rented the house. They used the same reason when they rented the house: the owner was going to Kaifeng to do business and wanted to rent it for a year to see how it went. If the business was good, they would continue to rent it. Logically, all the people who rented here should have registered with the government office. But this year, none of them went, and the government office didn't send anyone to inquire or verify."

Jia Chuan nodded, took a sip of the water Shunzi handed him, and said, "In other words, Zhou Cheng was already prepared in May of last year, and they started sending people to Kaifeng. However, they knew that this business wouldn't last long. Perhaps they had some goal, and once they achieved it, they would stop. At that time, Zhou Cheng would only have one thing left: death."

"What's next? You won't let us in..."

Gao Yuntian interrupted Chen Mo nervously, asking, "I heard from Old Zheng that there's someone with incredible strength over there? Someone who can even tear people apart?"

Jia Chuan scratched his forehead and said, "Even if you were all fine, I wouldn't dare let you arrest him. So, for now, we'll just wait for people from the capital to arrive. Once we have enough manpower, those people locked up at the Herb Gathering Bureau are like cattle and horses; they won't know what the higher-ups are planning. I sealed off that street to reassure them and let them wait and see how things develop. If we don't move, they won't move. Only when the people from the capital arrive can we launch a surprise attack and arrest them."

Gao Yuntian hurriedly asked Chen Mo, "Did you understand?"

Chen Mo shook his head and looked at Shunzi. Shunzi also wanted to translate, but this time he really didn't understand.

All three of them looked at Jia Chuan.

Jia Chuan asked, "Now that we've found their hideout in Kaifeng, with several courtyards, could they really be empty? Could Fake Shunzi handle something this big by himself? Dozens of people were involved in transporting both the living and the dead; could no one have been keeping an eye on them? For something so despicable, every step had to be meticulously planned. If an unexpected incident occurred, a timely decision would be necessary. Fake Shunzi alone couldn't have handled it..."

“We all know that. Didn’t you say that the day we came to the herb-gathering bureau, not long after we left, Zhou Cheng went to the government office, and Jia Shunzi didn’t go with us; he went to discuss countermeasures with his accomplices? Now we know your deduction was correct. They do have a hideout in Kaifeng, but you’ve had it sealed off. What can they do? They’re afraid of getting their own people hurt if they don’t go in, so let’s starve them to death. I think your method is good!” Jia Chuan frowned and looked at Gao Yuntian, pondered for a while, then turned to Chen Mo and asked, “You think so too?”

Chen Mo paused for a moment, then nodded.

Jia Chuan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "If that's what you all think, then they should think the same way. That's good!"

Shunzi leaned forward and asked, "You mean... they're not in that alley?"

Jia Chuan rubbed his throbbing temples and said:

"It's all uncertain right now. Maybe they're here, maybe they aren't, maybe they've already left Kaifeng. But I always feel like they're watching us from somewhere else. It's simple: I don't have any of their people with me. They know who I arrested, but they don't know what I know. I dare say, those who were arrested didn't know they were using live people for drug testing. The old man and the bald man who came later knew even less. They might know about me and Old Zheng's autopsies, but they don't know who Mu Lian is. In short, they don't know what I know, so we need to wait and see. But why would they stay in that alley? Especially knowing that none of the people they sent out have returned, wouldn't they be courting death if they didn't leave overnight?"

"Then why are you still sealing it off?" Gao Yuntian asked, puzzled.

"Sealing it off is a statement, to reassure them and let them wait. They can imagine that the alley will be investigated, and they also know that those arrested can't keep quiet. They need to judge how much we actually know based on our next actions."

"At this point, they're still thinking about getting away unscathed? Those arrested might be low-ranking and we don't know much about them, but we're not stupid enough to know what they do, and that bald guy..."

"They don't know Baldy survived." Shunzi interrupted Gao Yuntian: "Right now, Baldy is being guarded by the Imperial Guards. It's a secluded courtyard, and the guards are from the Prince's mansion. The yamen runners can't get close. Of course, they want to get away unscathed. Wouldn't you want to? In their eyes, as long as we don't know they're using living people to test poison..."

"So many skeletons were unearthed, and Zhou Cheng died of poisoning. If they don't want to expose their poison testing, don't use poison to kill him. What were they thinking when they killed Zhou Cheng? Were they only thinking about getting us to investigate the herb-gathering bureau? Did they think that as long as their own people left, everything would be fine? Then don't kill Jia Chuan. Did they kill him to get him to investigate or not? How do they know what we've found out so far..."

"Your brain's back?" Jia Chuan asked with a smile. "At this point, you can still think about Zhou Cheng's death. I can only deduce it for now. Their goal is to lead me to investigate the relationship between the Herb Gathering Bureau and the Prince of Han's Mansion. Did that clerk say anything?"

Jia Chuan suddenly remembered that there was someone else who had led Chen Mo to discover the fake ledger in the hidden compartment. At noon, Chen Mo had said that this person was very stubborn and that he hadn't gotten anything out of him. Now that it was dark, shouldn't he have spoken up by now?
Chen Mo shook his head and said, "I'd rather die than speak."

Jia Chuan frowned and said, "That means he has family members in their hands. Don't always think about using torture; you also need to be gentle and considerate. If you help him resolve his worries, you might be able to get the information out of him. Speaking of which, if I'm investigating the relationship between the Herb Gathering Bureau and the Prince of Han's Mansion, how can I do without poisons? There must be a trap they've set up in this Herb Gathering Bureau. Because I didn't go that way, I didn't fall into it. They know I'm disobedient through this, so they're thinking of using other methods to drive me in the direction they want me to see, so that I can make the most of my life before I die. Discovering the secret passage is the first step, but the reason we discovered the secret passage is because I want to find the place where they test their medicines, and they've prepared vultures to lure me there."

"You mean they were planning to dismember the body, not to stop you?" Chen Mo asked.

Jia Chuan shook his head and said:
"With such a large project, how could they only have a fake Shunzi? There are other people in Kaifeng in charge. Originally, the bald man and the old man were meant to imitate Le'an and kill me in the street, but when they were transferred here, Zhou Cheng was still alive, and I was still staying at the inn. By the time they were almost there, I had already discovered the remains in the Herb Garden. They also realized that the path I took was not what they wanted. This matter requires me to first find irrefutable evidence of the Han King's involvement before discovering the remains in the Herb Garden. That's the right thing to do. Therefore, they had to set up a trap in the Herb Gathering Bureau and ensure that it was foolproof. If it was foolproof, why would they worry about the people coming being arrested and thus knowing their identities? As long as I die, the living people might only infer that it was the work of the Han King's people based on convention."

"Why do they insist on making us think about the Prince of Han? We could have escaped unscathed, but now we can't." Gao Yuntian spread his hands.

Jia Chuan pondered for a moment and said, "I don't know about the affairs of the court, but I know it should be related to the relocation of the capital. I heard it from Baldy. The late emperor wanted to move the capital back to Nanjing, but the merchants who made a living from the canal transport were unwilling. But they are merchants, and I don't believe that no officials were involved in this matter. But which officials are involved in the canal transport? Have all the prefectural and county governments along the route been bribed by these merchants? Merchants, right? How could they not have dealings with officials? We'll have to wait until the officials in the capital arrive. They will naturally know how to investigate and who to investigate. I can't do it. So be it. Let's all rest. Anyway, the alley is already sealed off. Given your current situation, let's not take any risks. Stop and wait! Let's wait for the people from the capital to come before we talk about it."

……

The weather has really warmed up. Although it's still a bit chilly at night, it's quite warm in the yard during the day, especially at noon.

Over the next few days, the group ate and slept, and slept and ate. At noon, they would sunbathe in the yard to get some calcium. Even Gao Yunduo would come out and stand in the yard. Jia Chuan knew that Mu Lian's medicine was indeed effective.

Five days passed peacefully like this. Dong Yuanyuan complained that she had gained weight, and Chen Mo even wanted to go out of the city and head towards the capital to welcome the emperor. Gao Yuntian seemed to have forgotten that someone had died in the main room. Sometimes, when he ate too much at noon, he would take a nap in the main room.

Jia Chuan wasn't in a hurry. He ordered Lu Baihu to lead men to find a place to bury the dead and the bones that had been dug up earlier, including Zhou Cheng and the fake Shunzi. They would decide how to handle them after the case was solved.

Zhao Dewen was given the task because they needed to find a place to bury the herbs at the herb-gathering bureau.

Jia Chuan didn't dare leave the herb-gathering station because he didn't know the rules there. Did people from the capital need to meet the deceased? Being closer was also for convenience.

Jia Chuan didn't let himself be idle either. Whenever he had free time, he would go to check on the bald man and the other survivors, especially the bald man, hoping to find out something else. Unexpectedly, he found out more about the bald man. The bald man was obviously not in any danger, which amazed the royal physician.

Five days passed so easily before the messenger from the capital finally arrived.

(End of this chapter)