Jiapingguan Chronicle

Chapter 2868 Master Qingsong 86.0
"Perhaps. It seems that the people behind this don't want to show their faces or interact with others. Otherwise, with their level of education, it would be absolutely impossible for them to have remained so quiet for so many years."

“Hmm!” Shen Haolin nodded. “As for whether the little prince was someone they put forward, I’m more inclined to believe it wasn’t.”

“I think the same way as you.” Song Yaojia smiled. “The Little Prince probably thinks he’s the one they put forward. He probably doesn’t even know what they are like.”

“I talked to my brother, and we think this is just wishful thinking on the part of the Little Prince. To put it nicely, he seems to have misunderstood something. Maybe he’s making money for them, but they might not take him seriously. After all, there are plenty of people who can make money. If he can’t, they can just find someone else.”

“Indeed.” Song Yaojia nodded. “The person behind this has been hiding for so many years, how could they possibly reveal themselves so easily? It’s just the Little Prince’s wishful thinking.” He sighed softly. “Actually, the fact that the Thousand-Handed Scholar is showing signs of aging is a relief to us. After all, those others haven’t changed at all. We were worried that at some point they would suddenly—” He paused, “and leave this world, leave us. We’re not afraid of their departure, we’re afraid of not having time to say goodbye.”

“No, they won’t.” Jin Miaomiao looked at Song Yaojia firmly. “This was something I was worried about, but after showing it to the elders, I’ve basically put my mind at ease. They won’t do that. If they really want to leave, they’ll sense it and make arrangements in advance. They’ll let us know.”

"If that's the case, then I feel much more at ease." Song Yaojia smiled. "Then I don't have to worry about such a thing happening at all, right?"

He looked at Shen Haolin and saw the latter nod slightly, revealing an even brighter smile.

Jin Miaomiao looked at this and then at that, raised an eyebrow slightly, and decided to continue the previous topic.

“With the Thousand-Handed Scholar, obtaining portraits of Gong Sheng and Gong Wu won’t be a problem. The city gate guards, the Imperial Guards, and the patrol battalion should all remember their faces. They won’t escape easily, right?” Seeing Song Yaojia nod, she thought for a moment, “Then doesn’t this prove something? Whenever they go out, several pairs of eyes will be watching them. Their whereabouts are not a problem at all; they can be found easily.” She looked at Song Yaojia, “Do they know all this themselves?”

“Of course we can’t let them know, we can’t even let them sense it. If they find out, wouldn’t that be alerting them? That would be terrible!” Song Yaojia sneered. “However, some of these people who are being watched are indeed trying to sneak away.”

"Didn't manage to escape either?"

“Of course.” Song Yaojia nodded. “This is also Gongsun Yue’s idea. He discussed it with the Imperial Guards and the Patrol Battalion. If any of them escape, they will be released first, but someone will follow them and catch them when they are about a distance from the capital. They will be secretly escorted back to create the illusion for their accomplices that these people have already escaped.”

"Were the people who arrested them from the Eagle King Army?"

"Yes!" Song Yaojia spread her hands helplessly. "There's nothing we can do. The Imperial Guards and the patrol battalions aren't up to par, so we can only rely on the Eagle King Army." "How many people ran away?" Shen Cha looked at Song Yaojia. "There shouldn't be many, right?"

“Not many, Yan Chen said there were only about ten, and they all ran away together.” Song Yaojia smiled helplessly. “What’s more, the ones who ran away were all ruthless bandits that the Gong and Ma families relied on. They probably sensed something was wrong, so they wanted to sneak away.”

“This…” Shen Cha nodded. She had plenty of experience in suppressing bandits and understood the thoughts of these ruthless bandits very well. “They are extremely sensitive, especially to danger—unexpectedly sensitive. If they sense something is wrong, then it definitely is. But they still made a mistake and fell into Gongsun Yue's hands.” She looked at Song Yaojia, “Was the interrogation conducted by the Dali Temple or the Ministry of Justice?”

“No.” Song Yaojia shook her head gently. “It’s still people I borrowed from my uncle. The main problem is that the people from the Court of Judicial Review and the Ministry of Justice are too slow. We don’t dare to take action against them, afraid that the people from the Censorate will find out and impeach us. As a result, they’ve been dragging their feet for several days without getting anything out of them, and the main culprit has already been caught. It was Master Qingsong who couldn’t stand it and borrowed people from my uncle. Anyway, even if the people from the Censorate find out about my uncle’s people, they won’t dare to impeach us. After all, those people from the Eagle King Army who were impeached are still trembling with fear when they go out, afraid of being targeted!”

"Those people in the Censorate are incredibly timid, a typical bully who preys on the weak." Jin Miaomiao rolled her eyes. "So, how did Gongsun Yue, Jin Yi, Yan Chen, and Ning Zhou conspire to lure the enemy into a trap?"

"Now that we've dealt with the outside world, it's time to address the issues at home," Song Yaojia sighed, putting down her chopsticks. "They still have disagreements on this."

"Disagreement? What disagreement?"

“Gongsun Yue and Master Qingsong both think that we should let them play tricks at home first, then expose them, and then arrest them. That would be a legitimate reason to start the fight, right?” Seeing that Shen Haolin, Shen Cha, Jin Miaomiao, and Mei Lin all nodded, Song Yaojia sighed again and said, “But the other three people don’t agree. They think it’s unnecessary.”

"They were thinking of arresting these people as soon as they walked in, right?" Jin Miaomiao gently shook her head. "That won't work. Those people are seasoned veterans. Arresting them without any evidence of deception will only give them plenty of reasons and excuses to clear their names." She looked at Song Yaojia. "These three are also experienced; why the sudden change?"

“They’ve never dealt with this type of con artist before. After all, these kinds of con artists don’t want to come to the capital. The capital is a dangerous place, and you could easily get caught. If it weren’t for the huge profits involved, the Gong and Ma families wouldn’t have taken the risk,” Song Yaojia sighed. “Moreover, when this case happened, they were still young and hadn’t seen much of the wickedness in people’s hearts. Yan Chen himself said that if Gongsun Yue hadn’t insisted on waiting for them to finish their so-called rituals and gather substantial evidence, they might have really gotten away.”

How did Gongsun Yue persuade them?

"He didn't persuade them, he just said that since they disagreed, he wouldn't force them, but they shouldn't cause trouble later. Gongsun Yue was their senior; when he was at the Dali Temple, they were still studying. For a senior to say such things was very serious for them, and might even affect their future development. So, they quickly admitted their mistake and left everything to Lord Gongsun's decision." Song Yaojia smiled helplessly, "The superior's authority was fully displayed in Gongsun Yue at that moment!"