Is the True Nature Finally Revealing Itself? (1)
Cangman Tower.
Inside a private room, the shopkeeper was leisurely drinking tea. But the moment he heard from his subordinates that the people they had sent out had been caught and even taken to the authorities, he became furious.
He smashed his teacup onto the floor.
“A bunch of useless dogs who can accomplish nothing and only cause trouble!”
“I really don’t know what’s inside those idiots’ heads. They’re all a bunch of good-for-nothings!”
“Afu, go take care of this matter.”
The middle-aged man in a black long robe standing to the shopkeeper’s left silently waited until he had finished venting his anger. Then he cupped his fists, accepted the order, and left.
Before long, the middle-aged man in the black robe had made the necessary arrangements and issued his instructions.
At the restaurant, Jiang Wan was instructing everyone to pay closer attention over the next few days and report immediately if anything unusual happened.
Once she had finished giving her instructions, Jiang Wan arranged for someone to take over Sheng Zixu’s shift. Then she took him and several guards with her and headed out.
Meanwhile, the man in the black robe was Li Deru, the second shopkeeper of Cangman Tower.
He was currently negotiating with the guards in charge of the prisoners.
“Lord Song, what do you think? Is this show of sincerity enough?”
“The people under me were ignorant and acted foolishly because they were unable to control their tempers. Could you perhaps…?”
Song Zhuang had originally been slouched in his chair. When he saw the large chest of jewelry carried by the servant behind Li Deru, his greedy gaze instantly became impossible to conceal.
He quickly suppressed it.
He was the warden of this prison. How could he possibly allow himself to be bribed by something like this?
He waved his hand dismissively.
“Second Shopkeeper Li, this is against the rules. Please return. This matter will be difficult to handle.”
Li Deru sneered inwardly.
The man clearly thought it wasn’t enough.
He immediately stepped forward and pulled five gold bars from his sleeve.
“Lord Song, please take another look and reconsider.”
“Let’s just consider this making friends. We can help each other out in the future.”
As he spoke, he pushed the gold bars forward again.
Song Zhuang coughed twice.
“Ahem, ahem. Since Second Shopkeeper Li is so sincere and genuinely remorseful, I can’t refuse you this favor. Consider us friends, then. As for the prisoners, you can take them away later.”
Seeing that the matter had been settled, Li Deru immediately put on an ingratiating smile.
“Thank you, Lord. Please do us the honor of dining at our establishment sometime. We will certainly entertain you properly.”
Song Zhuang took the gold bars from his hand.
Li Deru then gave a subtle signal to the person behind him. The man immediately understood and placed the chest of jewelry on the table before returning to his original position.
Song Zhuang weighed the gold in his hand.
It was heavy and solid.
Combined with the chest of jewelry, his heart immediately blossomed with joy.
His tone became much more cordial.
“Of course, of course. This matter can certainly be discussed. Second Shopkeeper Li really knows how to conduct himself. Hurry and go get your people.”
Li Deru bowed to him and followed the prison guard leading the way deeper into the prison.
Jiang Wan and the others had just reached the livelier part of a small street when Sheng Zixu could no longer suppress his restless curiosity.
He stretched his neck as far as he could, looking this way and that. It was difficult for anyone not to notice his movements.
Jiang Wan noticed immediately.
“Did a mosquito bite your neck? Why do you keep twisting it around? If you don’t stop, you’re going to twist it into a pretzel.”
Sheng Zixu coughed several times.
“Ahem, ahem, ahem. Are your eyes growing out of the back of your head? Stop paying so much attention to me.”
Jiang Wan retorted, “My eyes aren’t growing out of the back of my head. Besides, you’re making such a commotion that it’s hard not to notice.”
Sheng Zixu crossed his arms over his chest. The skin around his neck visibly flushed red. He lowered his face and gave a cold snort.
“I wasn’t.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Oh? Then whose neck was just swiveling around everywhere?”
Sheng Zixu remained silent.
Instead, he brought up something else.
“Last time I caught those troublemakers, you didn’t give me anything for it.”
Jiang Wan blinked several times.
“What do you want?”
When the guards noticed that the atmosphere between the two was becoming strange, they had already wisely increased the distance between themselves and their charges. They followed neither too closely nor too far away, ensuring that Jiang Wan and Sheng Zixu remained within their line of sight.
At this, a hint of arrogance appeared between Sheng Zixu’s brows, and he raised his voice slightly.
“Obviously, silver. Though if you want to give me gold, I suppose I won’t object.”
Without even thinking, Jiang Wan untied the bulging purse from her waist and handed it to him.
He accepted it without the slightest hesitation.
His fingers were slender and long. When he took the pale blue-green purse from Jiang Wan, his fingers accidentally brushed against her slightly cool fingertips.
The tips of his ears instantly flushed red.
His expression remained completely impassive as he calmly accepted the purse and tucked it into his clothes in one smooth motion.
Jiang Wan could still feel the warmth from their brief contact.
She turned around and continued walking. Her thoughts had been disrupted by the unexpected touch, and the fingers hidden inside her sleeve unconsciously rubbed against one another.
Sheng Zixu followed behind her, maintaining a slight distance.
He slowly relaxed the hand he had clenched from nervousness and continued walking while staring at his right index finger.
It seemed to still retain the lingering warmth of Jiang Wan’s fingertips.
At the thought, he suddenly realized something was wrong.
Why was he paying attention to their hands touching?
He immediately threw all those messy thoughts out of his mind and let the breeze blow against his ears until their redness gradually faded.
Before long, the little incident was forgotten by both of them.
Sheng Zixu began thinking about how he would spend the money.
Jiang Wan activated her mind-reading ability, probing the thoughts of the pedestrians who passed by her.
Li Deru and his group reached the prison cell.
At a glance, they saw the untreated wounds on the heads and bodies of the four men.
All four were lying half-dead on filthy, tattered straw mats.
The prison guard took out his keys and unlocked the cell. They went inside and helped the four men out.
Li Deru took out three taels of silver and handed them to the guard.
“You’ve worked hard, sir. This is just a small token of appreciation. Please accept it.”
The guard glanced around before taking the three taels of silver.
“That’s enough. Hurry and leave. Someone else will be coming soon.”
Li Deru did not hesitate. He quickly led the group away.
The moment they emerged, the four injured men began complaining.
“Second Shopkeeper, you have no idea how much suffering we’ve endured.”
“It was all that Fuxin Restaurant’s fault! You must stand up for us!”
“That’s right, Second Shopkeeper! You have to teach them a lesson!”
“Don’t let them off!”
“That’s right, Second Shopkeeper, you must—”
Li Deru harshly interrupted them.
“Shut up. The shopkeeper has his own arrangements for this matter.”
“You still have the leisure to talk about this? Think about what you’re going to say to the shopkeeper after your injuries are treated. The shopkeeper is very angry about this matter.”
The four men immediately fell silent.
Their bodies began trembling.
They knew very well what the consequences of failing the mission would be.
As Sheng Zixu followed behind Jiang Wan, whenever they encountered a particularly crowded area, he would silently step forward and shield part of the crowd away from her.
Jiang Wan found his behavior rather inexplicable.
He was blocking her ability to use her mind-reading technique.
So whenever he stepped forward, she simply walked around him.
Seeing her bypass him, Sheng Zixu felt that his good intentions had been trampled on.
He decided he would stop bothering with her.
After the time it took to burn a stick of incense, Jiang Wan stopped in front of a street marked with a large sign reading Goods and Supplies Street.
Before coming here, she had already asked which shops the restaurant purchased its supplies from.
Sheng Zixu instinctively followed her inside.
The guards continued observing their surroundings from a moderate distance.
Going through the entire street really took quite a bit of time and effort.
Jiang Wan entered each shop one by one, asking questions and examining the goods, paying particular attention to their freshness.
The entire street was filled with large-scale suppliers. Livestock markets, fish markets, seasoning shops, and dried-goods warehouses stood side by side. The people coming and going were all professional buyers from various restaurants and eateries. Carriages and people carrying goods passed by continuously, and some even had to wait in line. Despite the bustle, everything was orderly.
After confirming that there were no major problems with the sources of their supplies, Jiang Wan found that one of the goods suppliers was quite good as well, so she planned to purchase some ingredients from there too.
On the way back, they chose to travel by carriage.
As Sheng Zixu watched the distance between them gradually grow shorter, he began to feel nervous. He wanted to speak to Jiang Wan, but awkwardly retreated into the corner instead, like a proud lion unwilling to lower its head.
As soon as Jiang Wan got into the carriage, she leaned back and closed her eyes to rest, digesting all the information she had learned that day.
Sheng Zixu hugged his knees with both arms, peeking out from between them. He stared straight at her, his gaze burning intensely.
Jiang Wan was stared at for one second, two seconds, three seconds…
In the end, she couldn’t take it anymore and spoke directly.
“If you can’t control your eyes, then get out of here.”
Sheng Zixu had been thinking about how to express what was on his mind, and her words happened to give him the perfect excuse.
“Fine! I’ll leave! It’s not like I want to stay here anyway!”
He called for the guard driving the carriage to stop and promptly jumped out.
The guard watched him walk away, then hesitantly asked Jiang Wan, “Shopkeeper, are we really just going to keep going?”
Jiang Wan replied, “He knows the way back. Let’s go.”
Having received his orders, the guard picked up the reins and continued driving the carriage back toward the restaurant.
Before they even reached the counter, Jiang Wan heard the cashier gossiping with Waiter Xiao Ba. She happened to be standing at a distance where she could hear them clearly without being noticed.
“That butcher Li is really pitiful. His daughter had only gone missing recently, and now his wife has hanged herself.”
Xiao Ba was puzzled.
“Hanged herself? Why? Didn’t they say there was already a lead?”
The cashier continued, “Apparently, they’ve lost so many children that she couldn’t take it anymore. She was afraid that this time it would end in disappointment again, so she…”
“And apparently, the butcher Li was devastated at the time, almost completely overwhelmed with grief.”
The two of them went back and forth, chattering like sparrows. They couldn’t seem to stop, jumping from one topic to another as they discussed everything under the sun.
Jiang Wan was just about to step forward and interrupt them when the waiter stationed at the entrance hurried over to her, panting heavily.
“Shopkeeper! Shopkeeper! People from Cangman Tower have delivered a large amount of fish and shrimp. They said it’s compensation for you. Please, go take a look!”
The two gossiping men immediately straightened up, pretending as though nothing had happened.
Jiang Wan noticed their reaction.
“Where are they?”
“At the entrance.”
Jiang Wan quickly walked to the entrance of the restaurant. There were quite a few people from Cangman Tower, and the man leading them was dressed in a black long robe. It was Li Deru.
When he saw Jiang Wan come out, he immediately cupped his hands and bowed.
“We were in the wrong first. I hope Shopkeeper Jiang can forgive us. Our shopkeeper was furious after hearing about what happened, so he sent us here to offer you compensation. We also severely punished those people and kicked them out.”
Jiang Wan felt that they clearly had ulterior motives. It was like a weasel paying a courtesy call on a chicken.
“No need. The authorities have already made their ruling, and the compensation has already been paid. There really is no need for this.” She rejected him outright.
Li Deru was not discouraged.
“Although the authorities have already made their ruling, our shopkeeper feels that it isn’t enough. That’s why we’ve specially brought these fish and shrimp. They’re all freshly caught today, and they’re quite large as well. We hope you’ll accept them.”
Seeing their determination to leave the goods there if she refused, Jiang Wan closed her eyes briefly.
“Then I’ll accept your goodwill. Xiao Er, find some people and move all of these to the live-fish ponds in the back courtyard.”
The waiter immediately went to find the guards. Together, they carried the wooden containers filled with fish and shrimp into the back courtyard.
Seeing that Jiang Wan had accepted them, Li Deru put on a gentle smile.
“In that case, we won’t disturb you any further, Shopkeeper Jiang.”
Jiang Wan didn’t respond.
She watched them leave before following the waiters into the back courtyard.
After getting off the carriage, Sheng Zixu took the money and wandered happily among the various street-food stalls. He had an absolutely wonderful time. After looking around for quite a while, he bought a few things and leisurely made his way back to the restaurant.
Jiang Wan instructed the workers to separate all the fish and shrimp that had been brought to the back courtyard and not mix them with the restaurant’s regular supplies.
She thought that they couldn’t keep so many fish and shrimp in the pond indefinitely, so she had some sent to the kitchen to be cooked. She wanted to test them and see whether there was anything wrong with them.
Sheng Zixu returned and looked around, but couldn’t find Jiang Wan. He asked around and, after learning where she was, went to the kitchen to find her.
A plate of beautifully prepared braised fish and shrimp balls sat on the table, steaming hot and looking delicious.
Jiang Wan was preparing to test them herself, but Sheng Zixu was obviously faster.
“You actually made yourself a private meal and didn’t call me. That’s too much!”
As he spoke, he stuffed the food into his mouth.
Jiang Wan rubbed her forehead.
“Eat, eat. Go ahead…”
Sheng Zixu didn’t hold back after hearing that.
Everything tasted quite good. However, he had already eaten quite a bit of food outside, and after adding all this on top of it, he ended up eating until he was completely stuffed.
He finally stopped and let out a burp.
“I’m so full.”
He rubbed his stomach.
“I’m leaving, I’m leaving. Call me next time you make something special.”
Jiang Wan didn’t answer him.
Instead, she looked at the small amount of food remaining on the table. She could only have someone call for a physician first to make sure there was nothing wrong, while she herself kept a close eye on the situation.
That afternoon, while making her rounds around the restaurant, she also overheard people talking about how more and more people had been going missing recently.
Some people had even begun behaving strangely.
Jiang Wan quietly listened to it all.
It wasn’t until the restaurant closed for the night that Jiang Wan finally let her worried heart relax. She instructed someone to tell the kitchen tomorrow that this batch of fish and shrimp was safe to use.
On her way back to her room, she immediately spotted Sheng Zixu, who was absolutely furious.
“Jiang Wan, you’ve hurt me so deeply! How could you use me as a human poison tester? Doesn’t your conscience hurt? Don’t you feel guilty?”
“I trusted you so much, and you completely betrayed that trust!”
Jiang Wan didn’t want to argue with him.
“My conscience does hurt. So how do you want me to compensate you?”
Sheng Zixu answered without the slightest hesitation.
“Fifty taels of silver.”
Jiang Wan took a deep breath and reluctantly agreed.
“Go to the accountant tomorrow and collect it.”
Seeing that he had achieved his goal, Sheng Zixu didn’t linger. He happily went back to get a good night’s sleep.
After sending him away, Jiang Wan had nothing else to worry about. She washed up and went to rest as well.