Haidu: Top of the Tower

Chapter 6 Scarlet Aunt
Behind the door was a short, straight corridor that ended with stairs leading to the second floor.

When the waitress ran into the corridor, Milady was about to follow, but unexpectedly a door opened in the corridor, and a head with thinning hair poked out—she hurriedly hid outside the door again, through the crack of the door. Li looked at the back of the head and shouted at the waitress: "Xiaoqun? What's wrong outside, so noisy?"

"A group of people have made a move." The waitress hurried up the stairs, and suddenly remembered something, and turned to the people in the room and asked, "Asenbo, Mr. Hanrui, hasn't he left?"

"Still in the account room," said the back of the head, shrunk into the door, even though the waitress had gone far away, she was still muttering: "Today they count the accounts, and they have been tossing about for a long time in our warehouse."

count?

Milady could hardly believe her luck.In the casino ledger, will there be a connection with the Patriarch of the Tower?
She suppressed her hot and strong heartbeat, and after Assember closed the door, she walked into the corridor again, and slowly closed the door without letting it make a sound.

Ever since she met a sand dredger at sea on the night of her farewell, she felt that her mother seemed to be leading her down in the dark; one brick after another was pushed to her feet by some force, paving the way step by step, To a place where Itami can be avenged.

It would be great if things went smoothly in the future... She only needs one piece of evidence, a piece of evidence that can connect the patriarch of the high tower with the underground casino.

After Milady quietly went up to the second floor, she found that she was still facing a straight corridor: no corners, no forks, no hiding places.

What if someone comes out here?
As soon as she raised her vigilance in her heart, the murmur of voices from the room at the end of the corridor suddenly became louder; a familiar heavy voice overcame the noise, and was ordering loudly: "Go get a few combat units, and then go Call everyone around, hurry up!"

It was her cousin Huai Tuo.

Once they see her appearing in the casino, all plans are over, but where can she hide in the bare corridor?

There is no time to hesitate.Milady turned her head, turned around and rushed down the stairs again, the door at the end of the corridor was slammed open with a "bang" at the same time, and mixed with angry waves, she was swept into the corridor like a tidal wave. "Damn it, the Beihai patrol team doesn't know what to eat..."

She didn't dare to delay, let alone turn around, and rushed into the corridor on the first floor before no one saw her, and came to the door of the warehouse.The sound of footsteps and shouts echoed and gradually approached the stairs; she had nowhere to go, so she simply held the doorknob and turned it lightly, pushing the warehouse door open a thin crack.

Since it was a warehouse, maybe she could sneak in and hide in the inventory without being seen?Milady thought with some luck.

However, at this moment, a voice sounded abruptly not far from the door: "Who's there?"

Milady's heart sank.

Cousin Huaituo and others were striding down the stairs at this time, and she was about to be blocked in the middle of the corridor.

Could it be that he followed in with great difficulty, but could only leave in despair?She is really not reconciled.

Mom, pave the way for me one more time.

"Asenber?"

When her mother's face flashed across her mind, Milady suddenly had a quick wit and pulled out Itami's long coat from her backpack, rolled it up to cover her head and face, pushed the door into the warehouse, and said, "I'm working outside. , Xiaoqun asked me to come here..."

The old man who had stood up guardedly relaxed a little when he saw her. "What's wrong with you? What's the matter?"

"There was trouble outside, and I was accidentally injured," Milady said, and quickly closed the door.

Almost at the next moment after the door was closed, a group of people happened to strode hurriedly past the door, and the sound of instructions, footsteps, and shouting slammed into the corridor one after another; among them, the voice of cousin Huaituo, especially Clear and loud.

"I'm here to ask, do you have any medicine?" She continued to say to Asenberg from under the tunic.

From the hallway came the echo of another door being slammed shut.

It seems that the cousins ​​have already left... Milady finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey," Asenbo waved his hands repeatedly after hearing the words, "I don't have any here, so go to the medical center."

Milady was ready to go as soon as the gate closed, without his prompting.Most of her face was covered by the coat, except for one eye, and even her voice was muffled; even if someone asked afterward, it would be impossible for Asenberg to describe her accurately.

She didn't even have to deal with it, turned around and went out the door, rushing up the stairs; for the second time tonight, she walked into the corridor on the second floor.

She rushed straight to the last room in the corridor.

Han Rui, her cousin and others left in a hurry, and the lighting was still on, and the white light reflected the accounting room clearly.On several long tables in the room, there were piles of semi-finished mechanisms, several volumes of drawings and materials; the innermost ones were several thick rattan booklets—Milady’s heart skipped a beat, and she walked straight over.

Sure enough, they are all the account books of the casino, recording the flow of money, the loss of materials, and the expenditure of personnel... She looked through them one by one, carefully at first, for fear of missing clues; The faster, until she angrily threw the account book back on the table.

The rattan booklets are important to the casino, but they are meaningless to Milady, because there is no trace of the High Tower patriarch's family in any booklet.

Keep looking.

Milady searched rapidly about the counting-room, though she could not be sure what it was she was looking for.a letter?A document bearing the Tower crest?Or bank records?

While looking for it, she listened attentively to the faint movements outside.There was a lot of chaos outside, and the cousin and pedestrians should not be able to solve the problem within a few minutes. As long as she leaves within 10 minutes, it stands to reason that there will be no danger.

Although she understood the importance intellectually, when the 10-minute limit was getting closer, Milady still felt a strong and sharp resentment.

In the whole room, whether it was on the long table, the corner desk, or the cabinet, she glanced through everything in a hurry, but found nothing.

On second thought, maybe she shouldn't be surprised.

The underground industry has a lot to do with it, and if she were the head of the clan, she would never have any dealings with it that could be put on paper... All profit transfers and business arrangements can be done in the hands of an agent; besides, the accounting office is not private How could the key evidence be placed here?

With a "da", the clock hands tapped lightly again.

I don't know if it's her psychological effect, but the din that I could vaguely hear through the brick wall just now seems to have quieted down a lot, at least in the cashier behind the casino, it's hardly audible anymore.

Should they come back?
Milady's palms were sweaty, she wanted to leave at one moment, and at the other moment she wanted to continue searching, instead she froze behind the desk for a while, wasting several precious seconds.

She was only 17 after all.From the seemingly hopeless situation, she kept bumping into a road, but now she finds that she has tried her best and still crashed into a dead end. Her mind and tenacity seem to have come to the end of the blow; no evidence can be found The shadow of her is so realistic and weighs so heavily on her heart, as if mocking her innocence and underestimating the world of adults.

Milady sank into her chair, staring blankly at a document on the desk.She has read its content long ago, and it has nothing to do with the Gaota family; except for the seal at the end telling her that Han Rui's full name is "Han Rui Flower", it is useless at all—

and many more.

Milady straightened up.

Henry Flower uses a seal.

She's so stupid, how did she realize that?
His seal must be around here... They were in a hurry just now, and they won't have time to relock the seal.

After two minutes of frantic searching, Milady found Henry Flower's seal from a small drawer under the desk.

As soon as she got the seal, she didn't want to stay any longer, stuffed it into her bag, and rushed out the door.It seemed that her mother was also worried about her, and wanted to push her out of the door as soon as possible. Milady finally escaped smoothly without any accidents——when she slipped out of the door from the corner of the casino hall and plunged into the It was only in the cool night that she realized that her calves were going weak, and layers of cold sweat were seeping out of her body.

She was one step closer to the day when she saw the patriarch fall from power.

When she finally got home, Milady felt that all her strength had been exhausted, and she was also surprised that she was able to walk through the whole night step by step.She fell down on the bed and took a good breath for a while.

She was almost foolish: since she couldn't find evidence, all she had to do was create it.

What she needs is not some ironclad evidence, even a little bit of unreliable evidence is enough.After all, her goal is to arouse the suspicion of the Judgment Family and let them investigate the patriarch of the High Tower Clan... At that time, the Judgment Family will naturally find the connections and evidence that she can't find.

Tea Rose is going to be over.

She finally laughed.

After much thought, Milady prepared a letter on the third day.

The text of this letter is printed with ink, and the letter paper is also expensive imported Chang'an paper.The letter was addressed to "Honorable Mr. Tearose" - the Patriarch of House Hightower - and signed "Your Faithful Hanri Flower".

In the content of this letter, Han Rui carefully reported the operation of the casino in the past three months to Cha Rose, explained the reasons for the sharp increase in several expenses, and mentioned the names of the people in charge of operating the casino... ...Every word and every sentence has explained that the casino is the industry of Tea Ross.

Of course, all the information is true, and Milady only read it that night in the accounting room.

Finally, she reprinted the "Henry Flower" seal at the end of the letter.

How to send this letter to the key figures of the trial family also caused Milady to spend a lot of thinking: Gaota is now one of the high-ranking political families, if the letter she carefully crafted falls on someone In the hands of some low-level clerks, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not stop the letter for the sake of selling favors.

Even the peripheral members of the Judgment Family, she couldn't believe it completely... This letter must be handed over to someone who has a direct conflict of interest with the Gaota Family.

Milady used to know nothing about the political and business relationship network of the upper echelon of Haidu, but now she started to search randomly. In Chang'an terms, it was a standard cramming.However, finally, the emperor paid off, just when Milady was about to exhaust her thoughts, she inadvertently found out that the sister of the commander of Haidu was also the owner of the largest casino in Haidu.

Maybe this is the best place for letters?

He is also a high-ranking member of the trial family, and also runs the casino himself... Milady can't think of any reason why the other party is willing to let the patriarch of the tower go.

On the first day after finding a way to deliver the letter to the other party, she seemed to have taken out a large piece of her own body.

The tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and the suppressed tiredness flooded her; when she got home, she fell asleep on the bed for a whole day.

She didn't know how long she hadn't had a good night's sleep. This sleep was dark and continuous; when she woke up, she was dazed for a while, because she couldn't remember why it was late in the evening, but her mother hadn't come home yet. .

On the fifth day after the letter was sent, she couldn't even eat anymore.

The Yizheng family's private development of the industry is of great importance and involves a lot of involvement. Only five days may not be enough for the trial family to investigate.

It’s just that Mi Laidi clearly understands this truth, but she still fidgets with anxiety, wishing to know the result immediately; she repeatedly imagines various possibilities in her mind, tries to analyze where there may be problems, and guesses how far the trial family’s actions have progressed... ...During this period, only the clerk of the family affairs office came to her once to urge her to clean up the pollution. Milady pretended not to be at home and didn't even open the door for him.

Not to mention that there is still a lot of money left from Wei Lian's hand, even if she has no money, she will not go to clean up.

Even if she starved to death, she must see Cha Rose lose power before she closed her eyes.

On the eighth day, the doorbell of Milady's house rang again.

Milady's first thought was that the clerk was urging her to clean up again, so she only glanced up at the door before returning her attention to the chart.

In order to calm herself down, she has been looking at the nautical chart for the past two days.She always thought that after Rose was convicted, maybe she would go to sea, maybe go to the clouds, in short, like her mother hoped, to see a different world.

However, the people outside the door were surprisingly patient today, and they rang the doorbell five or six times in a row. Just as Milady was so annoyed that she was about to enter the room, she heard a vague female voice coming from the door—"Is Xiao Di there? Yes." Your fourth cousin aunt."

...Who is it?
There are too many clansmen who are closely related but don't see each other often; Milady thought about it, but she didn't know what would make a strange distant relative suddenly come to her door.

As she thought about it, she still went to open the door.

Standing at the door was a plump and round middle-aged woman, wearing a red dress, with rosy cheeks and two thin red lines on her lips; indeed, she seemed to have seen it at a clan gathering before.Seeing Milady, she smiled immediately: "I knew you must be at home."

Milady was puzzled.

"Don't stand at the door, let's go into the room and talk," the red aunt took her arm very affectionately, and said as she walked in: "You are so big, look at this big and tall, how nice, girl It has to be slim..."

When Aunt Red sat down on the small and old straight-backed couch, Milady had already turned a few guesses in her mind.

Maybe the women in the clan need to do some temporary work; maybe there is a shortage of manpower in a certain job; it may even be to introduce someone to her-the children of lower-ranking members are always the first group of people to marry.

Now she was impatient with her relatives, and when she was thinking about how to see off the guests as soon as possible, Aunt Hong leaned over, smiled and patted her hand.

"I haven't moved around for a long time. How about going to my place for afternoon tea next time? Who do you have a better relationship with in the clan? Call us together."

Sure enough, it's an introduction, right?
Milady said the names of several sisters in the family as politely as possible, carefully avoiding any married people.

"Oh," Aunt Hong nodded, "During this time, they must have come to comfort you a lot, right? When you are in trouble, you have to rely on relatives and friends..."

"Yes, have come to see me several times," said Milady, clasping her hands.

"I saw Doreen this morning, and that child has a good heart." Aunt Hong said with a familiar look, "She also said that you were not at home last week, and you didn't take a step this week." Don't go out, I'm worried about you."

Milady moved in her seat. "yes……"

Doreen has always taken care of her, and she is gentle and kind, and Milady usually likes this clan sister.It's just that she couldn't explain why, but she felt faintly uncomfortable after hearing this.

"What? Are you feeling unwell?" Aunt Hong had a pair of black bean-like eyes, and she was looking straight at her from under the red eyelids. "Did you run a lot outside last week?"

The feeling of discomfort is stronger.

Last week she concocted letters and tried to send letters, and this week she has been waiting for news at home, and she is indeed in a state of "not at home, not going out".The question is, how did Doreen know?Doreen is busy preparing to go to Chang'an for a study tour, so she hasn't been to the door recently.

"I don't want to clean up," Milady cautiously added this excuse, "so I've been inquiring about other jobs for the last week. I'm really tired from running, and I want to rest for a few days."

Aunt Hong nodded. "Who have you asked?" She casually picked up the teapot on the table, as if she was at home, poured a cup of tea, and pushed it to Milady.

She almost forgot.

In Haidu, even if members of the major political families go out to look for jobs, they usually only get a response like "You don't need to suffer with me"; moreover, those who refuse the family division of labor will have to move out Family residence, loss of family shelter, so few people will work outside the family.Aunt Hong must have thought she meant that she had been trying to find a way within the family last week.

How did Milady know whom to report?She couldn't help crossing her legs, hugging her arms in front of her chest, and said, "I went to the Family Affairs Office to ask..."

Those black bean eyes fell on her arm.

When this detail was about to flash through her mind, Milady seemed to have suddenly heard the lesson Itami had taught her many years ago.

"Don't cross your arms when you talk to people," mother's voice sounded from the time. "This tight posture means that you are on guard or unwilling to let go. If you are not guarded against people, why do you let yourself go?" People have a sense of distance? If you are really on guard against people, why do you want them to see it?"

Milady immediately withdrew her arm and forced herself to stretch out again.

"Who did you go to from the Family Affairs Office?" Aunt Hong turned her eyes away and asked affectionately, as if who Milady talked to last week was a matter of great interest to her.

... This fourth-cousin aunt, what on earth is she here for?

"To tell the truth," Milady sighed suddenly, and said, "I went outside to ask. I have been to any port, any medical center... Auntie, don't blame me. I was not clear at the time, but later Thinking about it, how could I really leave Gaota's house."

Aunt Hong nodded slowly.She seemed to have carefully examined this information, folded it, and put it in her heart.

"It doesn't matter, there is always a chance." She patted Milady's knee again, and said, "By the way, seeing my memory, I almost forgot to tell you that I came here to invite you to the youth organization in the clan." A ball at a party. Terry said she must let you go."

The name "Terry" made Milady's heart beat twice.

This... is a little strange, right?How can the older generation invite the young people to the ball?
"You have a good relationship with Teri, right?" Aunt Hong sat on the upper right corner of her, and when she was peeping at her, she seemed to use her eyes to pry Milady aside to see what was inside. "Didn't she take you to a casino?" she asked quietly.

Wait—could it be——

Aunt Hong turned her head and looked around.When her eyes fell on Milady again, she smiled, and her rosy and plump cheeks slowly swelled into two hillocks.

"Have you bought stationery imported from Chang'an recently?"

(End of this chapter)