389 Bait out
Lóng Wei and Tianjie looked at each other as they dressed like commoners.
“Don’t make any mistakes while investigating,” Tianjie advised Lóng Wei.
He chuckled. “Shouldn’t I be the one to say this to you?” Lóng Wei asked and tilted his head to the front. Tianjie also looked at his front and found the soldiers, who were also dressed as commoners.
They left for the market in a horse carriage. Lóng Wei told Tianjie that they must separate and meet later at the river bridge, which lied in the centre of the market.
“Lóng Wei, don’t pick any fights with locals. You need to act like a commoner. Do not let suspicion grow on you,” Tianjie asked and gave him the fake identity token that Bai Juchen had handed him in the morning before leaving with Xiaoming.
Lóng Wei took it from him and saw the name on it. “What’s this fake name? Meng Ru?” He arched his brow.
“You cannot use the real name,” Tianjie told him. Lóng Wei nodded his head and put the identity token in the pocket of his robe. Lóng Wei walked ahead while two soldiers accompanied him. Tianjie watched him leave, and then he headed in the other direction, which connected to the forest.
Lóng Wei and the two soldiers stopped by the place where Wu Zihao’s body was hung. The large pillar with a horizontal column at the top. Lóng Wei looked around and found that there was a huge crowd around. He found that many goods were brought to the market on carts.
Lóng Wei went to a few shops to talk about Wu Zihao. People told him different opinions that they had, which Lóng Wei didn’t seem useful for. He was sure that someone in the town had helped those murderers of Wu Zihao. The person knew the routes to the town market well.
.....
Lóng Wei walked out of the silk cloth house and fiddled his fingers. “What if I put the bait out for the person and made him approach me?” Lóng Wei mumbled to himself, and his lips curled up to smile.
He asked the soldiers to come closer and asked them to spread a false news in the town.
“That can have negative consequences,” one of them said.
“Rumors are made to spread negative effects,” Lóng Wei stated. “Why should I waste so much time on this when the person can come to me?” He asked them.
“What if the Prince is wrong?” Another one said in a low voice, who was on Lóng Wei’s left.
“Then, give me an explanation how come the people from the Eastern Highlands know the routes to this market so well? How can they leave no evidence behind them? Someone in the town helped them. Spread this false rumor. Let’s see through its end,” Lóng Wei stated.
“But we may get punished if the result is nil,” the right one said.
“The source of a rumor is always unknown. So, don’t worry. Until you two want to tell them about it, nothing will happen to us. Ahh, if it gets out, you both will be punished. I can escape that punishment easily, so it is better for you both not to tell anyone if we fail to find the person,” Lóng Wei asserted. Both of them nodded their heads and obeyed the prince’s command.
“But how will the person find us?” The soldier at the left asked this time.
“Umm... Tell the people that a person named Meng Ru heard about this,” he proclaimed. “Meng Ru will go to the chief royal inspector in the morning tomorrow as he is sick today,” he stated.
Both soldiers looked at each other and then went in the opposite direction. Lóng Wei went back to the silk cloth house and started to talk with the workers there while acting to purchase a silk fabric. The people around him keenly listened to him and asked if he knew who Meng Ru was.
“I heard from the old man outside that he delivers goods in the town. That day he saw those people, who had hung General Wu Zihao,” Lóng Wei said.
The people dispersed when the tax collectors came to the shop. Lóng Wei sneaked out of the shop and did the same work at a few other shops.
After an hour, he met with the same soldiers and asked them if they had done their work.
“We have done the work,” both of them said at the same time.
Lóng Wei patted their shoulders and walked ahead with them. He made them eat in a restaurant and ordered lamp noodle soup.
When someone talked about him, he stopped eating. He tilted his head to the left and saw some young men, who appeared to be from the noble class.
“Really? The King made the Sinned Prince the Governor of Qinping?” One of those noble men asked.
“Of course. The royal princes are bound to be forgiven. Common Governance rules do not work for them,” the noble man in the maroon robe said.
The soldiers looked at Lóng Wei, whose eyes were darting at the nobleman who was speaking about him. They had a fear that he might speak up.
Lóng Wei keenly listened to them and again began eating. After a while, the noble man started speaking about Lóng Wei’s mother.
“His mother was a whore. Father’s close friend is a court minister, who told him about this,” he told his friends when they asked how he knew so much about Lóng Wei. “Also, I have lived in Qinping with my family for ten years.”
“You never told us, Mo Jinhai,” one of his friends said.
“I never felt the need to tell about it. After Father became Governor of Qijiang, we shifted here,” Mo Jinhai stated with a proud smile.
“The Sixth Prince is a lucky man. He killed his own mother and is still living his life to the fullest. He even got married among all the princes first, I heard. Is it true?” Mo Jinhai’s third friend asked him. He was dressed in dark blue robes.
“He is indeed lucky,” Mo Jinhai replied. “Who knows his wife will be like his mother? A whore!” He said this and started to laugh with his friends.
The soldiers widened their eyes and found a murderous look on Lóng Wei’s face. It seemed to them that he would kill Mo Jinhai. “We should return as soon as we have finished eating,” one of them suggested. The other one nodded his head.
Lóng Wei tightly clutched his fingers around the spoon he was holding.
“You are dead,” Lóng Wei muttered and stood up. He picked up the fresh chicken soup bowl at the table right next to him. The man asked Lóng Wei where he was taking it and then, he marched to Mo Jinhai.
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