You Want to Stay in the Room Above Mine
Jiang Wan had little choice but to bring him to the cabin where she was staying. His room was directly above hers, accessible by only a few steps up a narrow spiral staircase.
The room was decorated in an understated yet luxurious style, with an overall blue-green color scheme.
Sheng Zixu nodded in satisfaction. “Very good.”
Standing behind him, Jiang Wan listened as he critiqued the décor. After commenting on the overall style, he began “tearing apart” the decorative pieces.
For example, the various model ships displayed on the shelves were mercilessly criticized for being insufficiently “grand,” “refined,” and “ornate.”
Then he abruptly switched to praising the carved canopy bed, the small copper anchor paperweight on the desk, and the miniature wooden sailboat, whose sail was engraved with the words Smooth Sailing.
A blue-and-white porcelain vase decorated with a wave-and-cliff pattern sat on the pear-wood square table, holding specially treated dried branches and flowers. A delicate little compass and polished seashells were displayed on the shelves. A small three-legged bronze incense burner released wisps of white smoke. Beside the window was a low table with several thin books for guests to read when bored.
Sheng Zixu suddenly stopped and looked at Jiang Wan, who was still standing near the doorway.
“Why are you still here?”
Jiang Wan replied calmly, “Mm. I’m leaving now.”
Sheng Zixu immediately sat down beside the low table, lazily picked up one of the books, and began reading.
He said nothing else, but the atmosphere practically screamed for her to leave.
Yes—he wanted her to disappear from his sight as quickly as possible.
Seeing his lazy appearance, Jiang Wan said nothing. She still had more important things to do.
She returned to her own room.
Several booklets and two rolled-up maps lay quietly on the pear-wood table. She sat down on a wooden drum stool and picked up the booklets first, giving them a rough scan.
They were simplified plans Ye Yurong had written based on the girls’ accounts. Jiang Wan intended to examine them more carefully later.
She moved the things on the round table onto a nearby stool, then spread out one of the maps.
It was about a foot and a half square—not too large or too small—and fit perfectly across the round table. It clearly showed a stretch of the nearby sea, the docks established along the coast, and the villages scattered around the area.
After carefully studying the map, Jiang Wan roughly guessed that Ye Yurong wanted her to understand the connections between these villages and towns.
She quickly located Mizhao Town.
It was situated behind Honglian Town, about twelve li away.
The villages and towns were distributed in a surprisingly orderly manner. Jiang Wan didn’t know whether this was due to the terrain or deliberate planning. Some of them even formed straight lines, with relatively short distances between them.
Jiang Wan suppressed the doubts in her heart, rolled up the map, and picked up the other one.
This map was the same size as the previous one, but there was a difference.
The overall layout formed a long, narrow strip. The area was backed by gentle slopes and bordered by a river, with the settlements built along the water. Higher ground was occupied by the wealthy households, while the lower areas were closer to the river. The terrain gradually sloped downward from north to south.
There were no steep mountains or dangerous terrain, only gently rolling hills and fields, with an open view.
The residences were arranged according to the terrain. Wealthier households lived on the slopes, farming families gathered on the flat land, and fishing huts were built near the water.
The locations had all been chosen carefully.
Jiang Wan reached that conclusion, then picked up the other map and spread it out beside the first for comparison.
There were many areas that overlapped.
Jiang Wan instinctively reached for a pen to circle them, only to grasp empty air.
She glanced around and noticed that the small desk by the cabin window had been neatly arranged with brushes, ink, an inkstone, and several stacks of books.
She put down the map and walked over.
A blackwood brush rest held several bamboo-handled writing brushes. Beside it were a Duan inkstone and pine-soot ink, all arranged neatly so guests could use them whenever necessary.
Jiang Wan picked up the ink stick and slowly ground it against the inkstone in circles.
The ink gradually spread.
It was merely an ordinary deep black, without even a hint of the red she had expected.
She immediately stopped and lowered her eyes to examine the color in the inkstone. She lightly touched the ink with her fingertip.
Dark. Plain.
She called Chunxia, who was waiting outside.
After thinking about how to phrase her request, she said, “Chunxia, help me find some red ink. The cinnabar kind.”
Although Chunxia had no idea why Jiang Wan suddenly wanted red ink, she habitually obeyed.
“Yes, Miss. Please wait a moment.”
Chunxia went downstairs to the accounts office and found the accountant.
She told him that the honored guest needed cinnabar ink.
The accountant immediately understood and took out a portion from a drawer.
“Thank you, Sir.”
The accounts manager didn’t reply. He simply sat down and continued carefully working through the freshly calculated accounts, making sure not to leave a single mistake.
Within the time it took to burn a stick of incense, Jiang Wan received the jar of cinnabar ink Chunxia had found.
Chunxia poured it into the inkstone.
“Miss, you don’t need to grind it. You can use it directly.”
Jiang Wan nodded.
She picked up a bamboo-handled brush, dipped it into the cinnabar ink, and began making annotations across the two maps.
After finishing the annotations, she brought over the five booklets as well. As she read, she used the cinnabar-dipped brush to circle passages and write down her own observations.
The second booklet contained the account of one of the girls, describing some of the vile deeds committed by that devil.
Abduction through deception.
They used drugs, sweets, and honeyed words to lure away children and women traveling alone. They pretended to be fellow villagers or offered shelter to displaced people, when in reality they imprisoned and sold them.
Abduction by force.
Taking advantage of famine, war, or nighttime, they broke into households and kidnapped innocent men and women, selling them directly to traffickers.
Forcing people to sell their family members to repay debts.
When ordinary people were trapped beneath high-interest loans or heavy taxes, they were forcibly made to sell their sons, daughters, wives, and other family members to settle their debts.
The shipping gangs operating along the waterways were also deeply involved.
Those merchants secretly colluded with human traffickers, hiding kidnapped people inside secret compartments in their cargo holds and transporting them overseas to foreign lands and isolated islands to be used as slaves. Others were sold along the coast and forced into prostitution aboard ships.
After reading this passage, Jiang Wan’s emotions became complicated, and her anger reached its peak.
She continued reading the next booklet.
This time, she felt almost suffocated.
Not only was her chest tight, but her heart had begun to ache.
That group of devils deliberately maimed, crippled, and disfigured people, using them to beg and extort money.
They gouged out people’s eyes, cut out their tongues, broke their hands and feet, chopped off their palms and soles, burned and disfigured their faces, and bent their limbs into grotesque shapes to create so-called freaks.
Children were tortured into becoming cripples and forced to beg on the streets day and night.
If they failed to bring back enough money, they were beaten and starved.
If they disobeyed, they were simply beaten to death and dumped in mass graves.
They would also purchase young girls from impoverished families elsewhere, forcefully bind their feet, beat them, and impose strict rules.
Those who disobeyed were starved or whipped.
They were also specially trained in seductive mannerisms and the arts of music and chess.
When they grew older, they were sold to wealthy merchants as concubines or playthings.
Those of ordinary appearance were sold directly to brothels or pleasure boats to work as prostitutes.
Once they grew old, lost their beauty, or became disobedient, they were resold to wealthy households in remote areas as rough household servants, forced to labor for the rest of their lives.
The next booklet contained the painful account of a woman who had been abducted herself.
Those who were kidnapped were locked away in dark cellars, woodsheds, and hidden compartments beneath ship cabins.
Iron chains were fastened around them.
They were imprisoned day and night, never seeing sunlight and rarely receiving enough food.
The slightest resistance was met with whippings, slaps, or branding with hot irons.
They were also wantonly abused and violated before being sold again.
During transportation, they would be forced to take drugs that damaged their voices or had their faces disfigured to prevent them from escaping or reporting their captors.
Those who became weak, sick, or otherwise useless were simply abandoned or drowned.
Some were sold as private slaves to landlords and wealthy merchants, becoming lifelong servants whose descendants would remain enslaved for generations.
One of the younger girls also described their horrific practices.
They trafficked children, secretly castrated boys, and sold them to powerful families as eunuchs or servants.
Others were sold to mines and salt fields deep in the mountains, where they were forced into lifelong hard labor until they died from exhaustion or illness, with no one caring about them.
After reading everything, Jiang Wan’s lowered eyelashes trembled violently.
The usually calm depths of her eyes were now completely covered in frost.
Her fingertips dug hard into her palms, and her back tensed slightly.
She merely raised her eyes and spoke in an utterly calm voice, yet every word carried a bone-chilling coldness.
“They have truly abandoned every shred of humanity.”
She took several deep breaths and composed herself.
Then she began refining Ye Yurong’s proposed plan.
And she firmly believed that these criminals had to receive severe punishment.
When Jiang Wan finally finished writing, Chunxia stepped forward with her head lowered. She carefully washed the brush and inkstone, put the remaining cinnabar ink back into the cinnabar wooden box, wiped away the red stains on the desk, and neatly stored everything inside the concealed drawer.
“Chunxia, is Boss Ye in the rear cabin handling affairs?”
“Are you going to see the Captain? She should be there at this hour.”
Jiang Wan quickly gathered the things she wanted to take with her.
“Chunxia, you don’t need to come with me. I can find my way there. Just keep an eye on the person staying in the room above mine.”
Chunxia didn’t ask any questions.
“Yes, Miss.”
Jiang Wan pushed open the door.
After going down several staircases and making several turns, she finally arrived at the rear cabin.
The cabin entrance was set into the side of the ship. Two thick cypress-wood doors opened outward from the center. The panels had been coated with dark-brown tung oil to protect them from moisture and were decorated only with extremely simple, shallow carvings of waves and anchors.
A bronze door ring was mounted outside, while a thick wooden bolt on the inside could be secured to lock the door, keeping the sailors outside and protecting the privacy of conversations within.
The seams of the doors were tightly fitted, keeping out both wind and waves while ensuring that confidential discussions inside remained private.
When she entered, Ye Yurong was frowning at a booklet, deep in thought and looking rather troubled.
“Boss Ye.”
Jiang Wan clasped her hands and greeted her.
Ye Yurong looked up at the sound of her voice. When she saw that it was Jiang Wan, a faint light suddenly returned to her previously dim eyes, as though she had just seen a savior.
“Jiang Wan, you’re here! Perfect timing. I was just about to look for you, and then you showed up.”
“Mm. I looked through the things you gave me. I made a few suggestions, along with some annotations and observations on the maps.”
Hearing this, Ye Yurong handed her the booklet that had been troubling her.
“Look through this booklet first. Give me the booklets and maps you have so I can see them and figure out how we should adjust the plan afterward.”
Jiang Wan walked over and handed her the things in her hands, then took the booklet from Ye Yurong.
Her fingertips first gently brushed over the rough cowhide cover. She hooked her thumb around the edge of the pages and applied a little pressure, slowly opening it outward.
The cotton-thread-bound pages rustled softly as they spread open one by one. The paper still carried a faint dampness from the sea breeze, along with the subtle fragrance of ink.
Jiang Wan scanned through the contents line by line.
In essence, the booklet recorded the investigation into which people had connections with that devil.
One particular connection caught her attention.
It was a shipping merchants’ association called the Binhai Shipping Association.
The devil had a good relationship with the association’s owner and had business dealings with him.
Furthermore, that devil also had connections with Mizhao Town and conducted business there. He even seemed to have a close relationship with the town’s magistrate.
There were also several people holding official positions, such as the Maritime Trade Commissioner, Maritime Trade Adjudicator, Commissioner of the Waterways, and Port Administrator.
The devil’s interactions with these officials were limited to paying visits and presenting gifts.
Jiang Wan connected all the pieces together.
She felt that the answer was practically within reach, yet her thoughts were too chaotic, and she couldn’t quite sort everything out.
At that moment, the Mirror System appeared.
“Host, there are interests and dealings between them, and none of them are insignificant.”
The system’s sudden appearance startled her.
She replied inwardly, “Could you make some kind of sound before speaking? Suddenly appearing and talking like that is frightening.”
The Mirror System replied, “For the sake of the Host’s safety, I agree.”
Jiang Wan followed up on what it had just said.
“You said there are interests and dealings between them. Doesn’t that mean their relationships are deeply intertwined?”
The Mirror System’s cold, mechanical voice sounded again.
“Yes.”
“Then if I ask for more details, it won’t cost me more lifespan points again, will it?”
“Yes,” the Mirror System answered firmly.
Jiang Wan: “Then you’d better stop hovering around me. I’ll investigate it myself.”
The system wasn’t offended.
“If you require assistance, you may request the system’s help at any time. The system will assist without hesitation.”
After saying that, it fell completely silent.
Jiang Wan continued turning through the remaining pages.