tallest building

Chapter 105 contains clues

Cui Baozhu only brought a young maid with her, and she seemed to be in a hurry.

"Miss Cui, it's been a long time." Wen Mingqian's attitude was very kind.

"Madam, if I may ask, has something happened at your residence?" Cui Baozhu asked, glancing around.

"What did Miss Cui hear?" Wen Mingqian was a little surprised. Why was Cui Baozhu so vigilant?
“I noticed that the people coming in and out of your mansion all look quite anxious,” Cui Baozhu said. “It seems to match what I encountered earlier.”

Upon hearing her words, Wen Mingqian hurriedly asked, "What happened to Miss Cui?"

"Today I went to the temple outside the city to burn incense. On my way back, I encountered a horse-drawn carriage. This is a very ordinary thing, so I didn't pay any attention to it."

Just as the two cars were passing each other, I heard a child shout for help from inside one of the cars! But the child's mouth was quickly covered, and then there was no more sound.

The driver of the carriage cracked his whip and sped away in a cloud of dust.

I was quite suspicious, so I told the horse to stop and turn back.

"Right where that carriage passed, a talisman fell down. I thought it looked familiar, and when I picked it up to examine it closely, it seemed to belong to your fourth young master." Cui Baozhu said, slightly out of breath. "I wanted to chase after it, but the carriage had already gone quite far, and besides, I only had a young maid with me, and the driver, Uncle Wang, was quite old..."

Cui Baozhu had once been very close to Gong Chang'an and had seen his talisman; thankfully, she had a good memory.

“Yes! This is indeed our young master’s,” Zhang Ma said, snatching it away and trembling in her hands. “Miss Cui, where did you meet? I’ll take some people to find him right away.”

“It’s in the southwest of the city. There are many forks in the road if you go any further, so I don’t know where they went,” Cui Baozhu said.

"Did you see clearly who was driving the carriage?" Wen Mingqian asked.

“He was a young coachman around twenty years old,” Cui Baozhu’s maid said. “At the time, I was peeking through the carriage curtain and could see the scenery outside very clearly.”

“That’s not right, the driver who came is already over forty,” Old Huang said hurriedly.

"Miss Cui, did you see clearly what color the horses were pulling the carriage? And what kind of carriage was it?" Wen Mingqian asked about the horses and carriage instead of the driver.

"It was a black horse with a small white patch on its forehead. The carriage canopy was green, and the curtains were light red." Cui Baozhu's memory was really good. "There were also wind and rain bells hanging at the four corners of the canopy."

“That’s right, that’s right, it’s this car!” Old Huang said. “It’s exactly the same as the Feng family’s car.”

“That’s it. They changed drivers halfway through the journey,” Wen Mingqian said. “It was to avoid suspicion.”

He then said to Cui Baozhu, "Miss Cui, thank you so much for bringing us this news. Our whole family is extremely grateful. To be honest, Chang'an was tricked and ran away today, and we are looking for him everywhere!"

"Actually, I did consider reporting it to the authorities, but after thinking it over, I decided against being rash, so I came to your residence first." Cui Baozhu was somewhat embarrassed by Wen Mingqian's praise. "I can take you out of the city to find that place."

Just then, Aunt Wu from the Duke of Feng's mansion arrived. It was hot, and she was anxious, so she was covered in sweat.

"Chang'an hasn't been found yet? My goodness! What are we going to do?" After finally calming Feng Tianzhu down at home, Madam Wu rushed to the Gong family. "Although we haven't found him yet, we have some clues." Wen Mingqian then briefly explained the clues provided by Cui Baozhu.

"My God! They've kidnapped people and taken them outside the city. Where are they going to hide them?" Wu's eyes widened in disbelief.

“Zhang Ma, you’ve taken some people with you to go out of the city with Miss Cui Er.” Wen Mingqian said, “We can’t report this to the authorities yet. I guess whatever their purpose is, they’ll make it look like a kidnapping. We can’t push them too hard, or Chang’an will only become more dangerous.”

"Madam, Master is back," Ma Ping'an said, wiping his sweat. "It was I who brought Master back."

Ma Ping'an felt that with such a big incident, Wen Mingqian shouldn't be the only one worrying.

He then went to the yamen and told Gong Xu what had happened. Gong Xu was indeed shocked and rushed back.

When Wu heard that Gong Xu had returned, she said, "I'll go outside and take a look."

"Don't be afraid, we'll figure something out together." Gong Xu's first words were to comfort Wen Mingqian.

“Master, I suspect that Song Xiang is behind this,” Wen Mingqian said bluntly. “This is all the lingering poison left by the Song family.”

Wen Mingqian was too lazy to explain to Gong Xu that he wasn't afraid; in truth, it was all thanks to Gong Xu.

"I...I'll go to his house right now and demand his return!" Gong Xu's expression changed drastically, filled with embarrassment and anger.

He knew Wen Mingqian wasn't lying. To be so audacious as to trick someone away in broad daylight right in front of the government office, he wouldn't do such a thing unless he had a deep-seated hatred for him.

"Does the master want to alert the enemy? If you go and ask him for it, do you think he'll give it to you? Besides, why would he be so stupid as to hide Chang'an in his own home?" Wen Mingqian's tone was cold.

"Then... then what do you suggest we do?" Gong Xu asked, suppressing his frustration.

“We only have two leads right now. One is Shao Si, who was dismissed from the Duke’s mansion, and the other is that the second young lady of the Cui family encountered the carriage that kidnapped Chang’an on the way and even found Chang’an’s talisman.” Wen Mingqian didn’t even look at Gong Xu. “We can only investigate from these two leads for now.”

Sang Er was so anxious that she kept wiping away tears, but given her status, she couldn't say anything recklessly.

“Ma Ping’an,” Wen Mingqian called Ma Ping’an over, “Shao Si must have been replaced halfway through. He must have been bribed to take such a risk.”

But he's the only one who's shown up now, so we have to keep our eyes on him.

"Madam, what do you think we should do?" Ma Ping'an didn't have any good ideas at the moment, but he felt that Wen Mingqian should have some clues.

“After Shao Si was replaced, there are two possibilities. One is that he immediately left the city and fled to another place, and the other is that he took advantage of the darkness and hid somewhere in the capital.” Wen Mingqian analyzed, “But I think it is unlikely that he fled to another place. In broad daylight, in just one or two hours, where could he have fled to?”
Once a warrant for his arrest is issued, even if he escapes for ten days or half a month, he can still be easily brought back.

Besides, he was being used, and how could those who used him just let him escape? If he were caught, wouldn't all their efforts be in vain? Therefore, it's more likely he's hiding.

“Madam’s analysis is indeed reasonable, but Shao Si moved out of his original residence half a month ago, and no one in the neighborhood knows where he moved to,” Ma Ping’an said. “In this vast capital city, finding Shao Si is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

(End of this chapter)