Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 40 Success

After hearing Jia Chuan's words, Han Zhen couldn't help but take a breath. He patted Jia Chuan's shoulder gently. He was still a little touched by Jia Chuan's reminder. In several meetings, Jia Chuan never said a word, but at this time there was no one else around, and Jia Chuan could be so frank. How could Han Zhen not be moved?
Moved for a moment, Han Zhen squinted his eyes and looked into the depths of the dense forest, where there was quite a bit of commotion.

He knew that this operation could not be carried out as previously planned. These people who did not return were a big trouble. He also understood why the prince did not ask the Zhili Governor and the Chief Justice to come as soon as possible.

How can we do it quietly? The only way is to be fast!

……

Jia Chuan knew that Gao Yuntian's mind was sometimes online and sometimes wandering, so Jia Chuan thought that after having a heart-to-heart talk with Han Zhen, he would go to find the secret passage himself. He believed that this secret passage should be a secret passage, so when he talked to Gao Yuntian, he also said to find the secret passage.

Since it is a secret passage, it cannot be in the open. The mountains in this dense forest are undulating. Although they are not high, they are enough to dig a secret passage. Jia Chuan had thought of the wheel tracks before, but pushing the cart up and down the mountain is really tiring. It would be better to carry it yourself. However, time was limited that day, so they must have used some method.

The only way to overcome the mountains is to dig a secret passage, and the fact that these bandits are waiting here is a good proof of this.

Han Zhen had already ordered his soldiers to patrol the forest before the meeting. It's unlikely these people were waiting here last night or early in the morning, as they still hadn't arrived by then. Could any of the attendees have colluded with the bandits? Even if there were, the news would have reached Xiaodongshan by daybreak.

These people were ordered to gather information. It would take time to walk from Xiaodongshan to here even if they took a shortcut.

These people were not seen by the patrolmen, which means that the place they were staying was very safe, or they had just arrived and came out to get some fresh air after the patrolmen left, and they could not go back.

When Jia Chuan thought of this possibility, he was still thinking about how to explain Li Shun's death, so he didn't think about it carefully, nor did he explain it to Gao Yuntian.

At this moment, Han Zhen brought people here. Jia Chuan felt that he could make another contribution. He cleared his throat, and a scream came from not far away: "There is a cave here!"

The excited expression on Han Zhen's face was like a dogtail flower that suddenly bloomed, and he strode towards the dense forest.

Jia Chuan sighed and stood up.

……

The bandit suppression work proceeded very quickly.

Li Shun's body was still wet and the magistrate of Dongguan County was about to take a nap on his way to the Huangluling Investigation Office when a fast horse came with an urgent message: It's not a performance, the action has begun.

The reason the operation was so swift was also due to Han Zhen's leadership. He had brought 200 soldiers to Huangluling, and another 500 were still on their way. Their movement was very slow, and they would take a detour outside Dongguang County. Han Zhen didn't want to bother his soldiers with the back and forth, so he told them to march slowly...

Jia Chuan returned to the house and saw Dong Shuben and Shunzi staying next to the cemetery, so he walked over. The three of them looked at the sunset in silence for a long time, and then Gao Yuntian came.

He sat down next to Jia Chuan, and Shunzi had to move aside.

Gao Yuntian said, "I wanted to guard the secret passage, but General Han wouldn't let me."

Jia Chuan said, "Just coming here is a credit."

"I thought I'd be able to catch a few myself."

"Your father has been exonerated, what merit do you want?"

When Jia Chuan asked this, Gao Yuntian immediately looked at Dong Shuben and Shunzi warily. Jia Chuan said, "Your affairs cannot be concealed, especially since Li Shun is dead."

Dong Shuben and Shunzi didn't react at first. Jia Chuan often said things that they couldn't understand, so they got used to it and didn't think about it anymore. Instead, Gao Yuntian looked at them nervously, which aroused their curiosity. Jia Chuan added this sentence, and the two of them sat up straight.

Gao Yuntian seemed a little bewildered. Jia Chuan patted him on the shoulder and said, "Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you be invincible. We know their methods, so let's not try to calculate on them. Just admit it. Since your father has been cleared, there's naturally no need for you to do anything. On the contrary, hiding it... you can't hide it anyway."

"Will it implicate... the county lord?"

"You are a kind and righteous person. The county magistrate uses you as a yamen runner. Even if you become the head constable, you are still a minor official in the county yamen. He pays you, not the imperial court. Besides, your father was framed in the first place. Don't worry, I have a way to prevent this from involving anyone else."

Gao Yuntian's eyes radiated uncontrollable admiration!
If Old Zheng were here at this time, he would definitely ask: What do you believe in what he says?

Gao Yuntian believed it. Dong Shuben and Shunzi only heard that Jia Chuan had a way, and this matter had nothing to do with them. The two of them didn't even have the interest to ask further questions. They were just worried about how the prince would arrange for them after the bandit suppression was successful?

Jia Chuan had no idea. He'd always wondered what his title meant. He'd even wondered if his name would be recorded in history books. The bandit suppression wasn't a big deal, but it wasn't a small one either. Especially if it was connected to the Prince of Han's rebellion, then his name as deputy commander would definitely be recorded in history books. At least the local county annals would have a record of it. If that was the case...

Then isn't his life already written?
Jia Chuan was a little scared.

Several people, each preoccupied with their own thoughts, sat there blankly until dark. Jia Chuan then asked Gao Yuntian in confusion, "Aren't you afraid of ghosts? Why don't you leave?"

Gao Yuntian smiled bitterly and said, "I wasn't that scared originally. When I first arrived in Dongzhao County, I once followed the head constable to Dongxi Village outside the city to do some work. The case was a strange one. The bride had hanged herself the day after her wedding. Her family was not happy about it and went to her husband's family to make a scene. The husband's family was very confident and said that the bride was not a virgin when she got married and she was too embarrassed to live after being discovered. The two families were from neighboring villages and had a lot of relatives. The local police on both sides failed to stop them, so the two families started fighting."

"You're not investigating a murder case, but... a fight?"

"Who would have suspected there was another reason for the bride's death? The captain of the police at the time said that either the bride had an affair before marriage and was discovered by her in-laws on their wedding night. She couldn't bear the humiliation and committed suicide the next day. Or, her in-laws were too harsh on her and she didn't want to get married in the first place. This made her lose hope and she committed suicide."

"You can find out these things by asking the neighbors."

"We went because they nearly killed someone, and no one bothered to ask why the bride died. Our original plan was to arrest the ringleaders and bring them back to the government office. However, the sky was clear on the way, but when we reached Dongxi Village, it suddenly started to rain heavily. We had no choice but to take shelter in the village, but the rain wouldn't stop until dark, so we stayed at the house of the bride who had died."

Shunzi felt a cold wind blowing across the back of his neck, and he couldn't help but shiver all over.

Dong Shuben frowned and said, "Should we go back to eat? At this time, in this place, we are talking about this..."

Jia Chuan looked at Gao Yuntian puzzledly and asked, "You...are not afraid now?"

Gao Yuntian lowered his head, clenched his fists, and said, "If ghosts really existed and were truly terrifying, how could my father have allowed Li Shun to live to this day?"

Dong Shuben and Shunzi looked at each other and pursed their lips at the same time.

Jia Chuan nodded and said, "Go on." "The night we stayed, the bride hadn't been buried yet... He cleared out a main room in his adobe house for the five of us to stay in, and the thin coffin was placed in a thatched hut behind our house... In the middle of the night, I fell asleep and was woken by Liuzi, who said he heard some noise in the backyard and the captain asked us to go check."

"What's going on?" Shunzi asked in a trembling voice.

"I don't know either. When I woke up, I followed Liuzi to the backyard... It was autumn, and the night was a bit chilly. I felt cold, so I wanted to get closer to Liuzi. But when I turned around, I didn't see Liuzi, but I saw..." Gao Yuntian took a deep breath: "A woman in red, with blood all over her face and her hair loose, stood next to me..."

Jia Chuan coughed lightly and turned his head to see that Shunzi and Dong Shuben were already hugging each other.

"What are you afraid of? Let's go back and eat! Pull me, my legs are a little numb." Jia Chuan raised one hand, not knowing who he was counting on to pull him.

"No, why are you in such a hurry? What happened next?" Dong Shuben leaned forward and asked Gao Yuntian.

Gao Yuntian's entire body was tense, even his breathing trembling. After a long while, he finally spoke, "There was no later. I fainted from fright."

"Is this matter just over?" Jia Chuan asked in disbelief.

Gao Yuntian said, "I woke up and asked Liuzi, and he said he didn't see anything. The next day, the weather cleared up, and we took the ringleaders back to the government office and detained them for a few days. The two families agreed to reconcile and bury the bride together, and the matter was over."

Jia Chuan was speechless and asked, "Is there no one who cares why the deceased committed suicide?"

Shunzi said: "Didn't we say before, it's either this or that..."

"None of those reasons are grounds for suicide! If she didn't want to get married and already had someone she loved, even if she was determined to die, she should have committed suicide before the wedding, hoping not to be discovered in the bridal chamber. That's how she treated the person she loved... If she was hoping for a lucky break, how could she have easily committed suicide? And the claim that her in-laws treated her harshly is completely absurd. She couldn't stand the harsh treatment and committed suicide in just one day? Aren't these in-laws more terrifying than the torture instruments in the imperial prison?"

Gao Yuntian thought for a moment and said, "The two families are fighting because of money. The husband's family feels that they spent a lot of money to marry her, and she is gone just after she got married, so they want the wife's family to pay compensation. The wife's family feels that such a good person was gone in one day after she got married..."

"Is anyone really sad?" Jia Chuan asked.

Gao Yuntian thought about it seriously and said, "I didn't see anyone sad. I just saw everyone thinking they were right and wanting an explanation."

Jia Chuan sighed and said, "No one cares about the dead anyway. Let's go. Everyone else is busy, and it won't look good if we stay idle."

So, a few people went back to sleep.

Several people were lying on the large bunk bed, more or less affected by the previous incident, and they couldn't sleep much, especially Dong Shuben and Shunzi. The commotion and laughter of the past in this place kept echoing in their ears. Then they thought of those people lying outside, and thought of what Gao Yuntian said when he turned around and saw...

Gao Yuntian couldn't sleep. If he closed his eyes, the memory that had just been awakened in his heart - the face of the woman in red was right in front of him. If he opened his eyes, it was pitch black around him, and he was afraid that something would suddenly appear in front of him. In desperation, Gao Yuntian pulled Jia Chuan's arm and asked, "Do you think that woman came out to scare me because she died unjustly? She didn't want to scare me, but wanted to remind me of something, but I fainted from fright, and I didn't get it..."

"Don't overthink it. There were several of you there, so why did she only look for you?"

"Because I'm... kind?"

Jia Chuan unconsciously leaned towards Gao Yuntian and asked, "Over the years, has that woman in red ever come looking for you again?"

"Once is not enough?" Gao Yuntian asked in a trembling voice.

Jia Chuan said seriously: "Usually, if she finds you and the matter is not over, she will keep looking for you, but she didn't show up again."

"Do you think that because she was buried, she rested in peace?"

"According to what you said, everyone should be able to see it if there is a funeral in their family."

Gao Yuntian scratched his forehead and said softly, "This has been bothering me for years. I dare not think about it. I can't sleep for several nights when I think about it. The more I think about it, the more scared I get. Don't laugh at me. This is a problem I've developed. I always heard people talk about it before, but I never thought I would see it with my own eyes... I thought I could solve it in one go today..."

"Don't worry. Once we're done suppressing the bandits, I'll go with you to Dongxi Village to investigate this old case. Once we get to the bottom of it, your worries will be resolved. Well, I don't believe in this. Otherwise, those who died unjustly can just come forward to seek revenge themselves. Why bother with the living?"

"Maybe... they also need opportunities?" Gao Yuntian asked softly.

"Don't think about it for now. Once we understand it clearly, we'll naturally understand. After all, it's a matter of the living world, and it's the people of the living world who have the final say. Don't think she's a ghost, just think of her as a clue. Most of the things that scare us are just scaring ourselves."

"Then..." Shunzi asked, "If the prince blames us for the traitor and the stolen weapons, aren't you afraid?"

"This kind of thing is even more useless to be afraid of. If there's a way, then find one. If there's no way, then wait for the emperor's order. It's just like getting a promotion. Working hard and using connections won't guarantee success, because this isn't a simple arithmetic problem where one plus one equals two. It depends on the personality and mood of the person in charge, who's around when the decision is made, and so many other factors that can influence it. What's the point of being afraid? We should focus our energy on the things we can decide, like investigating the case. Is the suspect arrested correctly? Is there any injustice? Is the case thoroughly investigated? Are there any fish that slipped through the net? Are the records of the visits, investigations, and inquiries detailed? Are there any omissions? The interrogation process..."

Jia Chuan heard snoring.

……

These people slept until dawn and no one came to disturb them.

All the people from the county government office were left in the inspection office, and soldiers were left guarding the secret passage and the forest.

That night, the people in the county government office were all a little scared, and the rest just moved to another place to sleep.

Before dawn, a soldier came to report that all the bandits on Xiaodong Mountain had been captured. Cui Youzhi breathed a sigh of relief, and the case was closed.

Cui Youzhi waited for Jia Chuan and the others to get up. They returned the same way they came, except that they found Li Shun's body.

……

　I recommended it (smiley face) on QQ. I’ll trouble you to read it again on Tuesday. Big thanks!

(End of this chapter)