Chapter 148 Confiscating Property and Destroying Evidence: The Wang Family's Century-Long Demise in One Day

The iron chains were unloaded from the City Defense Battalion's supply wagons; they were three feet long, with links thicker than a thumb.

Zhou Tie looped the chain around Wang Chongyuan's left wrist, passed it behind his back, and secured it to his right wrist. The sound of the iron clasps clicking shut echoed twice through the ruined main hall.

Blood was still seeping from the web between Wang Chongyuan's thumb and index finger. As the iron chain pressed against it, blood trickled down the links, pooling into several dark red threads on the broken bricks at his feet.

He did not struggle.

Zhou Tie fastened the final link, stepped back half a pace, and held his iron spear horizontally across his chest.

"Move."

Two City Defense Battalion soldiers grabbed Wang Chongyuan's arms from either side and dragged him out of the ruins.

His boot soles dragged two long furrows through the debris. When his toe caught on a remnant of the wooden threshold, he stumbled forward, but the soldiers on either side caught him.

The front courtyard was filled with people kneeling.

Over three hundred members of the Wang household—servants, guards, collateral family members, accountants, cooks, and stable hands—were all kneeling on either side of the bluestone path, following the orders of the City Defense Battalion.

Second Young Master Wang Pei knelt at the very front. The knees of his plain robe were stained grey from the ground. His complexion had shifted from an ashen iron-grey to a sallow yellow, his lips pressed shut, not saying a word.

As Wang Chongyuan was dragged past him, he lowered his head to look at him.

Second Young Master Wang Pei's shoulders trembled, and he pressed his forehead against the bricks, refusing to look up.

The prisoner wagon was parked outside the main gate.

It was a standard-issue iron cage with iron bars on all four sides. The floor was lined with half-inch thick rough wooden boards. There was no roof, leaving it exposed to the direct glare of the sun.

When Wang Chongyuan was shoved inside, his back slammed against the iron bars. The sound of the chain links clattering against the grating carried across the street, reaching the ears of the shopkeeper who was leaning out from the second floor of the restaurant opposite.

Lin Chen walked out of the main hall ruins. His boots trod between the kneeling people on the front courtyard path, his gaze never once sweeping to either side.

"Liu Buyu."

Liu Buyu darted out from behind a corridor pillar, clutching a document box to his chest, a brush tucked into the side of his belt, ink stains smeared from his fingertips all the way up to his wrists.

"Here."

"Take three Clerks inside. Check every room, every hidden compartment, every cellar. Search them one by one, and register every item."

Lin Chen pointed towards the depths of the main residence.

"If a single item is missed, your head will be the price you pay me."

Liu Buyu paused for half a beat, then tucked the document box under his arm and ran off.

"Zhou Tie."

Zhou Tie turned back from the main gate, carrying his iron spear, the butt of which tapped against the bricks.

"Guard the ancestral hall. He Jian is inside searching for hidden compartments. Seal each layer as he finishes searching it, using the wax Seal of the Governors Mansion."

Zhou Tie acknowledged the order, hoisted his iron spear onto his shoulder, and strode towards the back courtyard.

Lin Chen turned to look at Commander Han Yong.

Commander Han Yong was mounted on his horse, blocking the entrance to the main path, his riding crop resting on the pommel of his saddle.

"Commander Han, keep the perimeter locked down. Do not let anyone in or out before noon."

Commander Han Yong raised his riding crop and pointed in each of the four directions, saying nothing more.

He turned his warhorse, its iron hooves clattering against the bluestone as it headed towards the east wall.

By the time the sun had shifted from noon to the southwest, Liu Buyu's team of Clerks had finished searching the front and inner courtyards.

Three horse-drawn wagons were parked outside the side gate, their beds piled high with wooden crates and cloth sacks.

Liu Buyu emerged from the inner courtyard storehouse, clutching a stack of papers. The ink was not yet dry. As he stepped down from the platform to approach Lin Chen, he tripped, nearly sending the papers flying.

"Forty-seven account books: twenty-three from the front Accounting Room, and twenty-four from the inner courtyard storehouse."

He turned a page; the ink and sweat on his fingertips mixed, leaving a grey smudge on the paper.

"Over three hundred secret letters. Most were in a hidden compartment under the bed in the main inner bedroom, with another batch hidden beneath flowerpots in the back courtyard greenhouse."

Lin Chen took the papers and scanned them.

"What about the land deeds?"

"One hundred and sixty-three of them, both inside and outside the city. The furthest one is in the territory of Lin Prefecture."

Liu Buyu's voice dropped a register.

"And there are the items from the underground secret chamber."

His throat tightened, and he swallowed hard.

"A complete set of tools for Blood Nourishing: copper tubes, iron rings, leather straps, stone bed restraints, and seven white jade bottles."

He pinched the edges of the paper twice.

"The contents of the bottles have dried up, but you can still smell the stench of blood."

Lin Chen folded the papers and tucked them into his sleeve.

"Load it all onto the wagons and bring it back to the Main Courtyard."

When He Jian ran over from the direction of the ancestral hall in the back courtyard, he was holding something in his hand.

It was an iron box, two sizes larger than a palm, the black lacquer on its surface worn and mottled.

He stopped in front of Lin Chen, breathing heavily, a thin layer of sweat seeping through the white bandage on his left arm.

"Inspector, hidden wall in the study."

Lin Chen took the iron box and weighed it in his hand.

"Where exactly?"

"Behind the third shelf of the bookcase, the loose brick, the one Tao Donger mentioned."

He Jian tapped the edge of the box lid.

"There is a booklet inside."

Lin Chen flipped open the lid.

It was a hardcover booklet with frayed edges on the cover. Four characters were written in cinnabar; the color had faded significantly, but the strokes were still legible.

codename South Wind Master Ledger.

Lin Chen took the booklet out of the iron box and opened the first page.

The first line, the first name.

Director Wang Gang.

Following it were numbers, dates, amounts of silver, and the routing of funds.

His finger slid down from the first line, turning page after page; the names and numbers on every page were clearly visible in the daylight.

Officials from various levels of the Prefecture yamen, assistant magistrates, Clerks, Criminal Chamber scribes, granary commissioners, and Inspectors.

Twelve names were scattered across the middle pages, ranked from low to high, with the silver amounts increasing accordingly.

The last page.

The final name.

Official Chen Zhili.

The number following it was greater than the sum of the previous twelve combined.

Lin Chen's finger paused on that name for two breaths, then he closed the booklet and handed it to Liu Buyu behind him.

"Make three copies. Send the original immediately to the Governors Mansion Archives Room."

Liu Buyu took the booklet and flipped through two pages.

His face drained of color, starting from his forehead; by the time the pallor reached his cheekbones, he closed the booklet.

"Inspector."

His voice was dry and scratchy.

"If this booklet is delivered to the Governor, the officialdom of Nanyang Prefecture will suffer an earthquake."

Lin Chen turned to look at him, the light in his eyes deep and steady in the afternoon sun.

"Then let it quake."

Liu Buyu's lips moved, but he swallowed the rest of his words. He clutched the booklet and turned to leave, his pace twice as fast as when he had arrived.

By the time the sun had shifted to the western wall, Zhao Gang had returned.

He had brought five horse-drawn wagons lined up from the west side of the city, rolling from west to east along the main street. The wheels created a continuous creaking sound against the bricks.

Passersby stood on the street side watching the convoy pass, the sound of their pointing and whispering spilling out from the storefronts on both sides.

Zhao Gang rode on the shaft of the lead wagon. The bandage on his left shoulder had been changed again. His blade rested horizontally across his knees, and half of his canine tooth was exposed.

As he jumped off the wagon at the entrance of the Main Courtyard, he grabbed the sleeve of one of his brothers behind him.

"Move that iron cabinet from the pharmacy into the Archives Room first. Be careful, don't damage the lock!"

He bounded up the steps in three strides, nearly colliding at the door of the Archives Room with Instructor Qi Boyuan, who was coming out carrying a teacup.

"Zhao Gang!"

Instructor Qi Boyuan shielded his teacup, the rim clinking against the doorframe.

Zhao Gang ignored him and pushed open the door to the Archives Room. He reined in his boisterous energy by thirty percent, standing straight as a ramrod when he reached Lin Chen's desk.

"Inspector, all five of the outer shops have been taken down."

He counted them off on his fingers.

"Thirty-seven letters in the pharmacy's secret chamber, each with the Seal of the Provincial Administration Commission. I saw it with my own eyes."

Lin Chen tapped his finger on the desk.

"What about the shopkeeper?"

"Tied up. He was still cursing, so the brothers stuffed a rag in his mouth."

Zhao Gang held out his other hand.

"Six fake account books were found in the grain storehouse cellar; the silver didn't match the actual records, a discrepancy of nearly three thousand taels."

"Contracts for human trafficking were found in the secret chamber of the carriage agency—thirty-one in total, the earliest signed twelve years ago."

"Eleven prohibited crossbows and three hundred arrows were dug up in the backyard of the blacksmith shop; they were all military-grade."

His canine tooth flashed in his brash grin.

"The cloth shop was quiet. We only found two crates of silk that hadn't been entered into the tax registers and a stack of private letters exchanged with a certain Clerk at the Prefecture yamen."

Lin Chen went over everything he had reported in his mind, item by item.

"Where are the original contracts?"

"On the third wagon. I locked the chest myself."

Zhao Gang fished a copper key from his waist and slapped it onto the desk.

"Zhou Tie isn't here, so I'm watching it for him. Anyone who touches that chest, I'll cut them down."

Lin Chen tucked the key into his sleeve.

"Bring the pharmacy shopkeeper to the main hall. I will question him myself in a moment."

Evening.

Six lamps were lit in the Main Courtyard's great hall.

Wang Chongyuan was chained to a stone pillar, his back resting against the icy surface. The iron rings on his wrists chafed the split web between his thumb and index finger, causing fresh blood to seep out.

His robes were stained with dust and blood, yet the texture of the silk still shimmered with the soft luster characteristic of satin under the lamplight.

Lin Chen sat behind the desk, with three items spread out before him.

codename South Wind Master Ledger.

Blood Nourishing records.

Booty-sharing contracts.

He did not speak, but simply opened these three items one by one, facing them towards the stone pillar.

Wang Chongyuan's gaze shifted from the cinnabar characters on the cover of the codename South Wind Master Ledger to the date annotations in the Blood Nourishing records, and finally to the two side-by-side Seals on the booty-sharing contracts.

His brow furrowed, then relaxed, furrowed again, then relaxed. After repeating this three times, his expression finally settled into a near-languid angle.

The muscles at the corners of his mouth remained still.

The light in his eyes, reflected by the lamplight, was murky and dull.

"Where is the complete list of the seventeen accusers?"

Lin Chen's voice fell into the empty space between the desk and the stone pillar.

Wang Chongyuan closed his eyes, his chest rising and falling slowly.

The great hall remained silent for a long time.

So long that the wick in the lamp popped, causing the flame to flicker twice.

Wang Chongyuan laughed.

Dry, two syllables scraped from his throat with a long, trailing tail.

"You think I would tell you?"

Lin Chen did not press him. He took a piece of paper from his sleeve and placed it on the front edge of the desk.

He straightened the paper so it faced Wang Chongyuan.

Zhang Xiaoyan's injury examination record.

"Over four hundred needle marks."

Lin Chen withdrew his finger from the paper and rested it back on the edge of the table.

"Sclerosis of the veins in both arms."

"Eight years."

Each time he spoke a word, he paused a beat, letting those words roll around in the lamplight.

"It makes no difference if you don't speak."

His gaze moved from Wang Chongyuan's face to the flame of the lamp above the stone pillar, then fell back down.

"I will find what needs to be found, but for every day you remain silent, another charge will be added to the case file at the Governors Mansion."

Wang Chongyuan's eyelids lifted.

The ink characters on the injury record were reflected in his pupils, the firelight making the numbers seem to jump.

His throat bobbed, and the tendon on the side of his neck tightened for half a breath before relaxing.

"The list is in a copper tube under the seventh floor tile of the ancestral hall."

After saying this, his head slumped, his chin hitting his chest, his whole body collapsing from the spine down.

Lin Chen waved his hand towards the door.

He Jian's boots were already thudding outside the threshold; he rushed towards the back courtyard with two brothers.

Two quarters of an hour later.

He Jian placed a thumb-thick copper tube on the desk. It was perfectly sealed, with a thin layer of green rust on the copper surface.

Lin Chen unscrewed the cap of the copper tube and pulled out a roll of parchment.

He unfolded it.

Seventeen names were arranged neatly.

Each line was divided into six columns: original name, current name, placement location, years of training, contact person, and remarks.

His finger slid down from the first line and stopped at the fourteenth line.

The placement location on the fourteenth line read: Lin Prefecture Criminal Chamber.

The fifteenth line: Northern Frontier Military Supplies Department.

The words on the sixteenth line made his thumb rub against the paper twice.

Censorate in the Capital.

He handed the list to Liu Buyu.

"File it. Keep it with the codename South Wind Master Ledger."

Liu Buyu took it, scanned it twice, and looked up at Lin Chen's face.

"Inspector, three of these people are not in Nanyang Prefecture."

"I saw."

Lin Chen's hand pressed onto the scabbard of the black abyss blade, his thumb tracing the ridge.

"Finish the business in Nanyang Prefecture first."

When night fell over the courtyard walls, the entire Main Courtyard was brightly lit.

The evidence from the three wagons was all stored away, and the iron cabinet was moved into the innermost room of the Archives Room. Liu Buyu and the Clerks spent the night making copies of the codename South Wind Master Ledger, their brush tips racing across the paper.

Lin Chen sat in the Archives Room and closed his eyes.

Deep in his mind, a notification sound chimed.

[Daily Settlement: Basic Patrol Points 200, Case Progression Points 2000, Total 2200 points.]

[Current accumulated available points: 19,200 points.]

He opened his eyes and rubbed his fingertips over the corner of the parchment list on the desk.

The courtyard gate was knocked twice.

Instructor Qi Boyuan's voice came from outside.

"Inspector, a reply from the Governors Mansion."

Lin Chen took the bamboo tube, unscrewed the cap, and pulled out the letter.

The four characters "Personal letter from Nangong Xiong" were written in heavy, dark ink, the brushstrokes forceful, pressing shallow indentations into the paper.

"Well done."

At the end of the letter was a line of small text, written in a smaller script than the main body, and written in haste.

Lin Chen's gaze lingered on that line of small text for three breaths.

"Official Chen Zhili left the city this afternoon carrying his private Seal. His whereabouts are unknown. The gates of Nanyang Prefecture are closed, but he may have used the secret passage exclusive to the Provincial Administration Commission."

He crumpled the letter in his palm, the corner of the paper poking out between his fingers.

The Wang family had fallen.

But the thread was still connected.

His hand fell back onto the handle of the black abyss blade, his fingers gripping the texture of the leather cord wrapping, tightening his hold.

"Instructor Qi Boyuan."

A voice responded from outside the courtyard gate.

"Go call Shen Yue and Sun Qi. Tell them to come now."

Boots pounded on the bricks outside, the footsteps urgent and heavy.

Lin Chen flattened the letter and spread it on the desk, pressing his finger on the characters for Official Chen Zhili.

The lamp wick popped, a spark landing on the corner of the desk and extinguishing.