Chapter 168 The Sheng Family's Account Books Exposed, Lin Chen Takes Over Another Contact with the Censorate's Undercover Agent

Just as dawn broke, Liu Buyu shut himself inside the Archives Room.

The account book seized from the Tongbao Firm was spread out on the table, and the key figures Shen Yue had extracted overnight were written on a sheet of white paper beside it, the ink still wet.

When Liu Buyu turned to the third page, his hand stopped.

He looked up at the window, then looked down at the paper again.

Then he set down his brush, walked to the door, and re-latched it.

He returned to his seat, took a breath, and continued turning the pages.

The account book used a double-layer recording method.

The surface layer was the normal record of the firm's cash flow, with deposits and withdrawals, dates, and amounts neatly aligned.

Inside was a layer of thin silk, with characters finer than mosquito legs written in a special reagent that only showed color when moistened.

Shen Yue had already soaked it in the reagent last night, and the handwriting had completely emerged.

Liu Buyu extracted the numbers one by one and wrote them on the paper, his wrist not stopping, his expression growing uglier by the second.

Two months.

The total amount of silver remitted from the three Jiangnan prefectures into Nanyang Prefecture exceeded sixty thousand taels.

The recipients did not use their real names; they were all code names.

Green Pine.

Stone Bridge.

South Crossing.

Old Pavilion.

Liu Buyu compared these code names against the list of middlemen from the old Wang Family accounts.

Four overlapped.

His finger trembled on the paper, and the tip of his brush drew a circle next to the characters "South Crossing."

In the old Wang Family accounts, this code name corresponded to the manager of a grain shop in the south of Nanyang Prefecture.

The Wang Family had fallen, yet this line was surprisingly still alive.

The person who took over had changed their alias, but the money still flowed, and the path was still traveled.

Liu Buyu set the account book aside and picked up the map that had been peeled off the secret room wall.

The map had been torn apart by Qi, and Shen Yue and Sun Qi had spent half an hour piecing it back together and pasting it onto a large sheet of paper.

Red lines started from the location of the abandoned residential area in the south of the city and stretched toward twelve villages and towns.

Beside each village and town was a number written down.

The smallest was three.

The largest was fifteen.

Liu Buyu added up all the numbers.

One hundred and twenty-three.

He rested his brush beside the inkstone, leaned back against the chair, and stared at the ceiling for a long while.

One hundred and twenty-three children.

Beside it were two characters, circled in red.

Optional.

The door was knocked on twice.

"Come in."

When Lin Chen pushed the door open and entered, he still carried the scent of brick dust remaining from the iron gate in the backyard.

His right hand hung at his side, his fingers naturally relaxed, showing no signs of anything unusual.

The dull pain in his Meridians had mostly subsided.

The fine crack on the Golden Core had slowly healed overnight, and while the stiffness when it rotated remained, it was much better than it had been at the hour of the rat.

Liu Buyu stood up from his chair.

"Report the numbers."

Lin Chen walked to the table, his gaze sweeping over the paper.

Liu Buyu pushed the summary he had written over.

"Sixty-one thousand four hundred taels, remitted in seventeen transactions over two months, all through secret accounts. They cannot be found on the counter's public records."

Lin Chen picked up the paper and read it through once.

"How many of the recipient code names overlap with the old Wang Family accounts?"

"Four."

Liu Buyu pointed to the circles on the paper.

"South Crossing, Stone Bridge, Old Pavilion, Green Pine."

"The first two appeared more than six times in the old Wang Family accounts, and the latter two appeared three times each."

Lin Chen put the paper down and moved his gaze to the pieced-together map.

He did not speak.

His finger traced along the red line, stopping at the village marked with fifteen.

Liu Buyu stood nearby, his voice lowered.

"Inspector, those numbers..."

"I saw them."

Lin Chen's thumb moved away from the map and rested on the edge of the table.

"One hundred and twenty-three."

Liu Buyu's voice squeezed out from his throat.

"They pick people like livestock and even label them with numbers."

Lin Chen did not respond to this.

He folded the map and tucked it, along with the account summary, into his sleeve.

"Seal the originals; do not let anyone handle them."

Liu Buyu nodded.

"I copied two duplicates; you take one, and I will lock the other away."

Lin Chen walked two steps toward the door, then stopped.

"Your complexion is poor."

Liu Buyu was taken aback.

"It's nothing, I haven't slept all night."

Lin Chen looked at him.

"Have you eaten?"

"...Not yet."

"Eat first."

Lin Chen pulled the door open.

"The account books won't run away, but if you run away, I'll be down one person."

Liu Buyu opened his mouth and gave a wry smile.

"Inspector, are you worried about me?"

Lin Chen had already stepped over the threshold.

"I'm worried about the account books."

The voice came back from the corridor, devoid of warmth, but it was enough.

Liu Buyu stood before the table and looked down at the map.

Red lines connected twelve villages and towns, with a number at the end of every line.

He flipped the map over and placed it face down on the table.

Governors Mansion.

The study door was open from the inside, and sunlight poured in from the window, illuminating the cover of the case file on the desk.

Governor Nangong Xiong took the duplicate handed to him by Lin Chen but did not open it immediately.

He placed the duplicate on the desk and first glanced at Lin Chen.

"I have already heard about the matter at the Tongbao Firm last night."

Lin Chen stood before the desk, his hand resting on the hilt of his black abyss blade.

Governor Nangong Xiong unfolded the duplicate and began reading from the first page.

The study fell silent.

Someone on duty walked past the courtyard, the sound of their boot soles fading into the distance.

The leaves of the old locust tree rustled twice in the wind, then stopped.

When Governor Nangong Xiong turned to the page with the account summary, his finger stopped.

His gaze landed on the figure of sixty-one thousand four hundred taels, lingering for three breaths.

Then he continued turning the pages.

He turned to the map page.

Twelve villages and towns.

Red lines.

Numbers.

The smallest was three.

The largest was fifteen.

The two characters beside them: Optional.

Governor Nangong Xiong's finger pressed against the paper, motionless.

The study remained silent for a long time.

Long enough that another leaf fell from the old locust tree in the courtyard, the stem tapping lightly against the window frame.

Governor Nangong Xiong closed the duplicate.

He stood up and walked to the window.

With his back to Lin Chen, he placed both hands on the window frame, his shoulders flattened, his back straight.

After a long while, he spoke.

"One hundred and twenty-three."

Lin Chen did not respond.

Governor Nangong Xiong's voice came from the window, not loud, but every word was heavy.

"I have been Governor for twelve years; I have seen people die, I have killed people, and I have let people go who should not have been spared."

He turned around and looked at Lin Chen.

"But one hundred and twenty-three children—I cannot stomach this."

Lin Chen's thumb rubbed a circle over the sword guard.

"Governor, these people have not been touched yet; the map marks selected points, not victims already taken. The Sheng Family's advance party was captured by me last night, and the subsequent lines have not yet had the chance to unfold."

Governor Nangong Xiong walked back behind the desk and locked the duplicate into a hidden compartment; the sound of the brass lock clicking shut was muffled.

"You did not report the matter of the Tongbao Firm to Secretary Zhang Hongji."

"No."

"Why?"

Lin Chen's hand slid down from the hilt and rested at his side.

"Secretary Zhang Hongji is in charge of the Ministry of War's lines. The Sheng Family's lines do not belong to him; handing it over to him is like handing a blade to someone who doesn't know where to strike."

Governor Nangong Xiong stared at him for two breaths.

"What do you intend to do?"

Lin Chen said: "The man in the green shirt at the Tongbao Firm is called Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai, a steward of the Sheng Family's third branch. He is not the highest-ranking person from the Sheng Family in Nanyang Prefecture, merely an advance party. The person truly in charge has yet to appear."

Governor Nangong Xiong leaned back against the chair, his fingers resting on the armrests.

"You want to use him as bait."

Lin Chen nodded.

"Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai has been detained by me; the Sheng Family will definitely send someone to relay messages, negotiate, or kill him to silence him."

"Regardless of which it is, as long as their people move, I can follow the line to trace them upward."

Governor Nangong Xiong's gaze shifted from Lin Chen's face to the black abyss blade at his waist, then pulled back.

"You know what doing this implies."

Lin Chen did not speak.

Governor Nangong Xiong's voice dropped half an octave.

"The Sheng Family is not the Wang Family; they have roots in Jiangnan and people in the capital. If you touch their advance party in Nanyang Prefecture, they will counterattack from the capital."

"It is not a possibility; it is a certainty."

Lin Chen's thumb circled halfway around the sword guard.

"The Wang Family also once had roots in Nanyang Prefecture and people in the capital."

The line at the corner of Governor Nangong Xiong's mouth relaxed slightly.

It was not a smile, but closer to an acknowledgement.

He took a brass token from the drawer.

The brass surface was not large, a circle smaller than a palm, with the seal of the Governors Mansion engraved on the front, and a line of small characters on the back, carved by Governor Nangong Xiong's own hand.

He placed the brass token on the desk and pushed it two inches toward Lin Chen.

"A special night enforcement order approved by the Governors Mansion. When your men operate within the city, you no longer need to go through the Patrol Division's document procedures."

Lin Chen took the brass token.

The brass surface was ice-cold against his palm, pressing into his skin.

"Official Chen Zhili's conviction document will be sent out today."

Governor Nangong Xiong continued.

"The procedure for the joint trial of the four cases will officially start tomorrow. I will cover these two matters for you."

Lin Chen tucked the brass token into his robes.

"But there is one bottom line."

Governor Nangong Xiong's voice dropped, and the air in the entire study seemed to grow heavier.

"You are not permitted to use military force within Nanyang Prefecture."

Lin Chen looked up.

Governor Nangong Xiong's gaze fell straight onto his face.

"The City Defense Battalion and the Cavalry Battalion are mine, not your blade. You use the Patrol Division's people to do the Patrol Division's work. Once you exceed that boundary, I cannot protect you."

The words were hard.

Lin Chen's hand moved away from his robes and rested at his side.

"This subordinate understands."

Governor Nangong Xiong looked at him, then looked for another two breaths before withdrawing his gaze.

Lin Chen turned and walked toward the door.

When he reached the threshold, Governor Nangong Xiong's voice came from behind him.

"How far has the investigation into that blood order gone?"

Lin Chen stopped.

"Sun Qi's secret agents have been scouting near the Linjiang Military Post for two days; the hoof prints where Hou San stayed have been confirmed, and there are blue bruises on the corpse's wrists from being held, not from a struggle, but from being controlled from behind and killed with a single blow."

He tilted his head slightly.

"The guards at the entrance of the Military Post Station changed shifts that night, but the military order for the shift change did not follow the standard procedure; it was a verbal command. Who transmitted it has not yet been discovered."

Governor Nangong Xiong tapped his finger on the armrest.

"In other words, the person who killed Hou San has their own people inside the Military Post Station."

"At least one."

Lin Chen said.

"But one thing can be confirmed: the person who took the blood order does not want the Ministry of War to intervene in Nanyang Prefecture, nor do they want us to find them."

Governor Nangong Xiong leaned back against the chair, his voice dropping, so soft it was like talking to himself.

"That means that besides the Ministry of War, the Patrol Division, and the Sheng Family, there is at least a fourth party in Nanyang Prefecture."

Lin Chen's hand paused on the door frame.

"What exactly that fourth party wants is the true trump card of this chess game."

The study was silent for a moment.

Sunlight poured in from the window, illuminating the brass lock on the desk, reflecting a cold glint.

Governor Nangong Xiong did not speak again.

Lin Chen stepped over the threshold, his boot soles treading on the stone bricks of the corridor.

Less than five steps later, hurried footsteps came from the direction of the courtyard gate.

Qian Xiaoliu ran in from the alley entrance.

His boot soles slapped against the stone bricks with a rapid, heavy sound, his robes billowed out in the wind, and he clutched a crumpled slip of paper in his hand.

The expression on his face was pale and tight in the morning light.

"Inspector!"

Lin Chen's footsteps stopped.

Qian Xiaoliu ran to a spot three steps in front of him and stopped, bent over to catch his breath, and held up the slip of paper.

"Someone has come from the Linjiang Military Post!"

Lin Chen took the slip of paper.

Qian Xiaoliu's voice was high-pitched.

"It's not three hundred light cavalry; only one person has come."

Lin Chen unfolded the slip of paper.

There were only two lines of text on the paper, in Sun Qi's handwriting.

Qian Xiaoliu choked out the second sentence from his throat.

"He says his name is Pei Yan, and he has entered Nanyang Prefecture under a secret order from the Censorate to meet with the Governor and the Inspector."

Lin Chen's hand moved away from the slip of paper and rested on the hilt of his black abyss blade.

The Censorate.

The sound of a chair moving came from the study behind him.

Governor Nangong Xiong had already walked to the door, his hand bracing against the door frame, his gaze shifting from Lin Chen's back to Qian Xiaoliu's face.

"Pei Yan?"

There was an extra layer in Governor Nangong Xiong's voice, not shock, but closer to a confirmation that a certain prediction had come true.

Lin Chen turned to look at him.

Governor Nangong Xiong's gaze was extremely heavy.

"Someone from the Pei Family of the Censorate."

Lin Chen folded the slip of paper and tucked it into his sleeve.

"Does the Governor know him?"

Governor Nangong Xiong did not answer directly.

He withdrew his hand from the door frame, placed it at his side, and his knuckles pressed against his palm.

"You go see him."

Governor Nangong Xiong's voice came from the doorway of the study, stripped of a layer of warmth by the morning breeze.

"First, listen to what he has to say."

Lin Chen's thumb circled the hilt once, then stopped.

"Then, should the face of the fourth party be revealed today?"

Governor Nangong Xiong did not answer.

At the end of the corridor, the morning light slanted down from the eaves, casting a line of light and shadow across the stone bricks.

Lin Chen stepped over that line and walked toward the Main Courtyard.

The outline of the fourth party, in this early morning, finally revealed its first edge.