A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

Having cured Master Wan's ear, Yang Hu began to thrive in the respectable households of the western part of the city.

From then on, the Wan family turned to him. Master Wan, remembering his kindness in saving his life, would call him to come and see him every few days, ostensibly for a follow-up visit to recuperate, but in reality, he treated Yang Hu as an honored guest.

Yang Hu was delighted and used this excuse to wander around. He observed the people coming and going at the Wan residence more carefully than before.

Treating the illness is the obvious thing, but following this clue to the prefectural governor's office is the covert thing.

After this back and forth, Yang Hu noticed something.

Master Wan owned several silk shops, which were among the most prestigious in the city. However, a batch of goods from these silk shops were not sold through normal channels. Instead, they were transported to a small courtyard outside the city, loaded onto packhorses, and headed towards the border.

Head north!

Yang Hu's heart skipped a beat, recalling what Liu Ye had found out a few days ago from the Prefectural Magistrate's residence: the silk from the Prefectural Magistrate's residence went north out of the city, where it was exchanged for packhorses in a small courtyard outside the city, and then headed towards the border. The way the goods were bound was exactly the same as that of the barbarian bandits who had harmed Liu Ye's father back then.

Are the silks heading north from the Prefectural Governor's Office and the goods heading north from Wanjia Silk Shop the same batch?

On the surface, nothing seemed amiss. He continued to examine and administer acupuncture to Master Wan as usual, but in his heart, Yang Hu was gradually unraveling this mystery.

Back home, Yang Hu told Liu Ye and Qin Ying about it.

Liu Ye transformed back into a country girl, spending several days squatting outside the Wan Family Silk Shop.

Having lived in the mountains for so long, running errands and using public toilets were her old jobs, making her perfectly suited to playing the role of a country girl.

She sat in a tea stall diagonally opposite the silk shop, carrying a basket, and watched for three days straight, as if waiting for someone.

For the first two days, nothing seemed amiss; the silk shop was bustling with buying and selling. But on the third night, an inconspicuous blue cloth mule cart emerged from the back of the courtyard to load goods. Instead of heading out, it circled around to a warehouse in the north of the city.

She returned and told us, "The silks from the Wan family heading north out of the city don't go directly north. Instead, they are first delivered to the warehouse in the north of the city, where they are unloaded and then reloaded before being covered with tarpaulins and taken out of the city."

"Did you reinstall it?" Yang Hu asked, frowning.

"Hmm!" Liu Ye nodded: "The silk was brought into the warehouse, but when it left, it was wrapped tightly in oilcloth and was so heavy that two people couldn't even lift one. There's no such thing as silk that heavy."

Upon hearing this, Qin Ying's eyes turned sinister.

"The silk goes in, and the heavy stuff comes out," she said. "That warehouse is a disguised warehouse. The Wan family's silk is real silk. After it went into the warehouse, some of it was left inside to make it look like something else. Under the oilcloth, there's a really heavy thing, something that can't be seen by anyone."

"Oh?" She paused. "Sword blanks, arrowheads, armor plates. Armor!"

Yang Hu's heart sank.

The military equipment leaked, yet it still managed to reach the barbarians, and even dragged the Wan family, a respectable family, into a huge net. That rotten hand has hollowed out not just a military camp or a border post, but the lifeline of the entire northern border of Da Cheng! No wonder the barbarians have become bolder and bolder in recent years. Half of the blood shed by the people of the Western Camp and on the city walls was released through this line.

A batch of military equipment disguised as silk came out of the city's warehouse, was covered with a layer of oilcloth, headed north, passed through a small courtyard outside the city to exchange for horses, crossed the border, and was delivered to the barbarians.

This line connects the prefectural governor's office on one end and the Wan family's silk shop on the other.

"To be able to turn silk into weapons and to ensure that this shipment passes through the city gates and out of the border smoothly," Qin Ying said in a very low voice, "it's not something that a single warehouse and a few deliverymen can do. The guards at the checkpoints and city gates along the way need to be taken care of one by one, and the official documents for crossing the border need to be stamped. The person behind this is someone with connections that are influential everywhere."

The chill in her eyes deepened.

Back then, when she was ambushed while patrolling the border, official documents were relayed along the way, which led to that ambush. Now, this batch of weapons has been able to leave the border so smoothly, which is the same method used by the same hand.

"Master Wan..." Yang Hu said, "Is he really inside, or is someone using the name of his silk shop and keeping him in the dark?"

It's unclear what's going on right now. Master Wan isn't the kind of person who would collude with the enemy or betray his country, but the group of people at the warehouse and this batch of goods heading north clearly came from his silk shop.

"You can't rush it!" he said. "Arresting people is like treating patients. The root of the problem lies deep within. If you stab it in the wrong spot right away, you might kill the person. You have to figure out the connections step by step, and only when it shows its true colors should you take action. This cargo route is the connection he showed me. When you get to where you are, you have to see clearly whose warehouse, whose loading personnel, and whose escorts. You have to follow each connection one by one, and when you reach the end, you will naturally be able to identify who the mastermind is and who has been turned into a gun."

Qin Ying looked at this young man in his early twenties, who showed no arrogance whatsoever. After so many years of investigation and elimination, she hadn't been able to pull out even a single hand that could reach upwards, but now she had actually managed to uncover it one by one.

But the further you go on this road, the more dangerous it becomes.

While Liu Ye was staking out the warehouse outside, she noticed that someone was watching her. Several strangers were coming and going in the warehouse. They had bulging pockets and walked briskly, unlike the warehouse workers.

"Those people are the same group as the ones who used to keep an eye on you in our yard."

Yang Hu advised her, "From now on, just watch from a distance, absolutely do not approach! That warehouse is where weapons are exchanged, and the one guarding it is the most powerful person. Willow Leaf, just a little further ahead, is the river ghost that drowned that night after you handed the cloth bag to it!"

Liu Ye thought of the sinister eyes outside the warehouse, and a chill ran down her spine. She had fought tooth and nail with barbarians in the mountains; she wasn't afraid of that kind of ferocity. But this kind of ruthlessness, hidden in the shadows and capable of taking lives silently, was another matter entirely.

"Don't worry," Liu Ye grinned. "I know what I'm doing. I can chase a wild animal in the mountains for three days and three nights without it noticing. Those guys don't even know my limits."

"Be careful." Yang Hu looked at her, still worried, and added, "If you see any of those people in the warehouse giving you even a second glance, immediately back out. Don't let that tiny bit of attention cause you to lose this lead."

The trail has led us to where we are now, from the arrowhead dropped by the border guards back then, to the large piece of silk from the prefectural governor's mansion, and then to the Wan family's warehouse. Each clue has been pulled down one by one, and the trail has become tighter and tighter.

However, the further they went in, the tighter the hand became, and the more ruthless it became.

The little guy who delivered the cloth bag earlier was an example.

late at night.

Yang Hu stood by the window, gazing at the dark night sky outside.

A single thread stretched from the Wan family's silk shop all the way into the city's warehouses, all the way to the prefectural governor's mansion, and finally pierced the barbarians beyond the Great Wall.

He followed the line and pulled it down little by little, while the hand on the line obviously noticed and sensed that someone was touching her from behind.

"It'll be soon," he murmured to himself.

I touched the wrist of this hand, and then the face hidden beneath the silk and oilcloth. Almost there.

However, he forgot that in the Zhao family of the western part of the city, the former prefectural magistrate who had served as an official in the capital was also quietly reaching into his courtyard.

He had to grab the wrist before the hand could react! However, this former Beijing official was also making the most of the time to get a complete picture of the courtyard, as well as the woman who was supposed to fight to the death in the courtyard.

Two nets, one visible, one hidden, are slowly converging on the same point in the deep darkness.