Chapter 1 Talking with Yuwen

After chatting idly with General Yuwen for a while, everyone tried to pry out more useful information, but the general was very vigilant, so they had to give up.

Shortly after, General Yuwen summoned several guards and, after giving a few instructions to the one in the lead, had them take Jiang Cheng and his group to the city to investigate. The rest were left behind.

Watching Jiang Cheng and the others walk away, Shao Tong's gaze swept over the five figures one by one, pausing briefly on Jiang Cheng before finally settling on the one named Wang Fugui.

"This little brother, what should I call you?" Zhang Qizheng greeted the guard leading them with a smile. He was the leader of the guards General Yuwen had assigned.

This man was not very tall, but his eyes were bright and piercing, and his brows carried the unique air of a battle-hardened soldier. However, facing the honored guests invited by the Marquis, he dared not be negligent and immediately replied, "I don't deserve such respect. My name is Zhao Yidao. I'm temporarily assigned to guard duty in the mansion, but I'm really just a squad leader."

Seeing that this man had a rough face and was quite old, Zhang Qizheng intentionally tried to probe for information and said with a smile, "So you're Guard Zhao. I've long heard that the Marquis is skilled in governing his troops. Today, seeing General Yuwen and brothers like Guard Zhao, with their neat ranks and extraordinary spirit, the rumors are indeed true."

When had a rough man like Squad Leader Zhao ever been flattered like this, especially by an honored guest invited by the Marquis himself? He was flattered for a moment and quickly waved his hand, "I dare not, I dare not. We brothers are all rough men and can't compare to General Yuwen. General Yuwen is the Marquis's beloved general."

"I'm fortunate to be able to work in the Marquis's mansion, thanks to the Marquis and General Yuwen's understanding of the situation and their consideration that I'm old and not as strong as I used to be. I'm not suitable for tasks like suppressing bandits, so they called me into the mansion to do some odd jobs within my capabilities."

Zhao's words were full of gratitude for the kindness of the Zhennan Marquis and General Yuwen. Jiang Cheng and the others remained expressionless, but they gleaned new information: suppressing bandits.

Perhaps realizing he had said too much, Squad Leader Zhao belatedly shut his mouth. The group quickly left the Marquis's mansion and arrived on a street with a decent amount of people.

Arriving in front of a tavern, Jiang Cheng smiled, took out two pieces of silver from his pocket, and stuffed them into Zhao's hand, saying naturally, "A little something. It's fate that we met. Guard Zhao and his brothers have worked hard all the way. Find a place to sit down and have something to eat. You don't need to accompany us. We'll just walk around nearby and won't go far."

Unexpectedly, Zhao, who had been very polite, sternly refused and pushed the silver back. "This is not allowed. The rules of the Marquis's mansion are strict. The Marquis's orders are the law of Luo'an City. Please don't make things difficult for us messengers."

Perhaps feeling that his words were too harsh, Zhao squeezed out a smile a moment later and said, "You are all honored guests of the Marquis. Now is not like the past. Strange things happen frequently in Luo'an City, and people are panicking. If anything happens to you, we wouldn't be able to atone for our sins even if we had ten heads."

What was originally a polite remark took on a different meaning in Fatty's ears. His recent experiences had made him mentally tense, and he couldn't help but imagine Squad Leader Zhao growing ten heads, inevitably scaring himself.

Seeing that Zhao couldn't be persuaded, Li Bai stepped forward to smooth things over. "Guard Zhao is conscientious, and we admire that. Then we'll trouble you to accompany us for a walk."

"It's my duty. I don't know..." Zhao looked around. They were now standing at a crossroads. "I don't know where you want to walk."

"A pharmacy," Li Bai said.

"I want to sit in a teahouse," Zhang Qizheng said, patting his waist and wryly mocking himself. "I'm getting old and useless. I get tired after walking for a while. I'll order a pot of good tea in the teahouse and wait for you."

"I want to go to the city's bookstore to look at books. I wonder if there are any special books in Luo'an City's bookstores," Yao Shunyu pretended to be eager to learn.

Hearing that these people wanted to go to different places, Zhao was a little embarrassed. After all, including himself, there were only four guards. Even if one guarded one, if the last two had to separate, it wouldn't be enough. There wasn't enough time to go back to the mansion to find more people.

Most importantly, he didn't want to leave General Yuwen with the impression that he was incompetent.

Jiang Cheng gave Fatty a look, and the latter understood. He shouted loudly, "I'm hungry. I want to eat. I've been in the Marquis's mansion for so long, and I haven't even had a drop of water, let alone food."

Hearing Fatty speak so loudly, Zhao was so frightened that he wanted to cover his mouth. "I said... I said, this master, please lower your voice. It's not that the Marquis is neglecting you, but in recent years, the Marquis's old illness has recurred, and strange events have occurred frequently in the city. The Marquis is too worried, which is why... why you feel uncomfortable."

Seeing this, Jiang Cheng stepped forward to comfort him. "Wang Fugui, I don't think we should make things difficult for Guard Zhao. I think it's better if you follow me. The two of us can be together, so Guard Zhao won't be embarrassed."

"Okay, I'll give you face," Fatty replied.

"Guard Zhao, we don't have any specific goals. We just want to walk around the streets," Jiang Cheng said, looking at Zhao with a reassuring expression.

After everyone decided on their destinations, they parted ways at the crossroads. Zhao was led away by the experienced Zhang Qizheng. A seemingly wooden young guard took Jiang Cheng and Fatty for a leisurely stroll through the streets.

Jiang Cheng casually bought some snacks from the street stalls with his silver and ate with Fatty as they walked. Noticing that the guard was secretly swallowing his saliva, Jiang Cheng pretended that he couldn't finish it and gave the rest to the guard. After several refusals, the young guard looked around to see if anyone was paying attention and reluctantly accepted it.

Having taken something, the guard was embarrassed to follow too closely. After a few conversations, they became familiar with each other. More importantly, he felt that Jiang Cheng was a really nice person, kind and considerate, and most importantly, sincere enough to be trusted.

After wandering around for a while, Jiang Cheng and the others walked to the front of an antique shop. Jiang Cheng stopped and gave Fatty a wink. Fatty immediately understood and clutched his stomach, groaning.

"This master, what... what's wrong?" The guard immediately checked. He saw that Fatty's facial features were all squeezed together, and beads of sweat were rolling down his face, clearly in great pain.

"It hurts, my stomach hurts!" Fatty's voice trembled. "I can't take it anymore. It must have been the unclean street food. I have a bad stomach. I need to go to the toilet. Where... where is there a toilet? Quick, take me there!"

The guard looked around, panicking for a moment. "A toilet, nearby..."

"There's a restaurant over there. There must be a toilet there," Jiang Cheng pointed to a restaurant sign at a nearby street corner.

Fatty didn't wait for the guard to react and immediately ran over. The guard's first reaction was to chase after him, but he suddenly stopped and looked at Jiang Cheng with some embarrassment. Unexpectedly, the latter gave him a reassuring look and pretended to look around, pointing to the antique shop behind him and saying, "Don't worry about me. I won't wander around the streets. I'll wait for you in this shop. You go find him. He doesn't know the way."

"Okay."

Watching the guard run away, Jiang Cheng casually glanced around, then slowly walked into the antique shop. Zhao's words were still echoing in his ears: suppressing bandits. He keenly felt that the strange events in the city were likely related to this matter, as well as the eerie Chun Shen Lake. If he had the opportunity, he had to go and see it for himself.

Although the antique shop was open, there were no customers inside. That's right, with such things happening in the city, everyone was too busy trying to escape to be in the mood to buy antiques.

But business had to go on. When the boss saw someone coming, he immediately greeted him. After sizing Jiang Cheng up, a look of pleasant surprise appeared in his eyes. This line of work depended on sharp eyes. The boss had been in this business for years, and with a quick glance, he could roughly gauge the background and wealth of the customer who entered the door.

In the boss's eyes, although this young man who came in was dressed strangely and didn't seem to be wearing high-quality fabric, these were superficial things. This young man's face had a scholarly air, and his gestures were confident and generous, clearly someone who had seen the world. The corners of his mouth were raised, and his eyes held seven parts indifference and three parts pride. Even if he wasn't the eldest son of a clan, he was at least an heir to a wealthy family.

The boss was secretly delighted and became even more respectful to Jiang Cheng. "This sir, what would you like to see?"

This question was asked with a certain skill. When these types of people came to buy things, you usually couldn't mention the item right away. If you did, it would be like mocking them for not having it at home. Even if they saw something they liked, you couldn't mention money right away. That would seem too vulgar, and it would be difficult to set a price later. You had to mention fate, saying that the item had a spiritual quality and was destined for the sir who entered the door.

Jiang Cheng paced back and forth in the shop, his brows full of disdain. The boss became more and more attentive until Jiang Cheng slowly opened his mouth. "I recently came across a favorite item, but you don't have it in your shop. How about this? You get paper and a brush, and I'll draw it for you. If you can tell me its origin, this young master will reward you handsomely."

"Alright."

The boss ran to get paper and a brush and quickly ran back. Jiang Cheng dipped the brush in ink and drew pieces of armor on the paper. There were also some patterns between the armor pieces, which Jiang Cheng drew one by one. But before he could finish drawing, the boss's face suddenly changed, and he immediately took two steps back, pointing at the drawing and stuttering, "You... who exactly are you?"

Jiang Cheng held the brush, thought for a moment, and said, "A rich man."

"You... get out of here! I'm not doing business with you. Leave now, or... or I'll call the authorities!" The boss pretended to be fierce, but Jiang Cheng could tell at a glance that he was actually very afraid. "I'm telling you, the whole city is arresting people like you. Once you're caught, you're dead. You leave quickly. I don't want to provoke you. I'll pretend you weren't here today, and I don't know you."

What Jiang Cheng drew was naturally the broken armor pieces that Gao Yanqing had clutched in his hand. According to their analysis, these pieces should have been torn from a complete set of armor. Judging by the workmanship of the armor, it wasn't something that ordinary soldiers could wear. And these fragments were now in Jiang Cheng's pocket, but he couldn't take them out, fearing that he would get burned.

Jiang Cheng pretended to be fearless and even eagerly approached the boss. "Oh? Then tell me, who am I? What is this thing I'm drawing?"

The boss was frightened by Jiang Cheng's actions, especially when he saw Jiang Cheng put his hand inside his clothes, as if he was hiding a weapon. Faced with Jiang Cheng's pressure, the boss almost collapsed to the ground. Finally, he resigned himself to his fate and cried out, "You are remnants of the previous dynasty, no, that's not right, you are heroes who want to restore the previous dynasty. I also admire you from the bottom of my heart, but... I can't do it. I'm just an antique shop owner. I can't carry anything on my shoulders, and I can't lift anything in my hands. It's useless to drag me into your group. Also, you can't kill me. There are people coming and going nearby. If I die, you won't be able to escape!"

"Not bad, keep going. What is this piece of clothing I'm drawing? What is the meaning of the patterns on it?" Jiang Cheng used a trick within a trick and continued to ask.

"This... this is the armor of General Guo of the previous dynasty. His armor, and the armor of his personal guards, all have such patterns," the boss said tremblingly. "You... you shouldn't be looking for me for this kind of thing. You should settle accounts with the Zhennan Marquis. General Guo was killed by the Zhennan Marquis. It was after taking Luo'an City that the Emperor rewarded him with the title of Zhennan Marquis, which is hereditary."

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng revealed a strange smile, then took his hand out of his clothes and extended it to the boss who was collapsed on the ground. The boss didn't know what he meant, but finally tremblingly took Jiang Cheng's hand and was pulled up from the ground.

Jiang Cheng patted the boss on the shoulder and nodded in approval. "Not bad, you performed well. Today is not your death day. To tell you the truth, I'm from the Zhennan Marquis's mansion. I came here today because I received a report that your shop is suspected of colluding with bandits."

"No, no, I'm an honest man. I wouldn't dare to do such things," the boss quickly waved his hand. After the initial shock, the boss also became suspicious of Jiang Cheng's identity, after all, the other party's performance was too strange.

Noticing the subtle changes in the boss's expression, Jiang Cheng smiled and took out a piece of cloth from his pocket. He opened it, and there was a conspicuous pattern on the cloth. The boss immediately recognized it as the mark of the Zhennan Marquis's mansion.

"Lord!" The boss was stunned, and then he was about to kneel down to Jiang Cheng.

"Don't do that. I'm here on a secret investigation. Don't ruin our big plan, otherwise, if you alarm those remnants of the previous dynasty, you won't be able to atone for your sins even if you die ten thousand times," Jiang Cheng supported the boss, not letting him kneel down.

Jiang Cheng found a chair and sat down, raised his chin at the boss, and said arrogantly, "Tell me, how much do you know about the Chun Shen Lake?"