The rain gradually stopped. By the time the carriage escorting Qing Ya returned to the Zhenhai Division, moonlight even appeared, seeping through the gaps in the broken clouds and shining on the colourful sea.
Qing Ya was escorted to the dungeon.
Wu Qiongjin went straight to the Right Ear Tower to report his mission. Just as he reached the top floor and was about to knock, the door opened first. A person wrapped in a black cloak came out.
The heavily built Shan Ashan also appeared, clearly seeing the guest off. He did not escort them far, just to the door, which was enough to prove the visitor was not ordinary.
Wu Qiongjin turned to watch the guest leave, wondering who it was.
Shan Ashan turned back into the room. Wu Qiongjin immediately followed in, closed the door first, and then walked over to the seated Shan Ashan to report, “Right Envoy, Qing Ya has been captured.”
Shan Ashan’s face was as calm as water. “I know. Let him go.”
“Let him go?” Wu Qiongjin instantly widened his eyes, thinking he had misheard.
Shan Ashan remained silent, indicating he had not misheard.
Wu Qiongjin naturally could not understand it. The one who ordered the capture was this very person, and now he wanted to let the captive go. What was this all about? He immediately asked, “Right Envoy, why let him go?”
Shan Ashan said, “If I tell you to let him go, you let him go. No need for so many whys.”
Wu Qiongjin felt deeply aggrieved and had to complain, “Right Envoy, do you know how arrogant this Qing Ya is? When we found him at the Jinghong Hall earlier, he actually threatened me in public, saying if I dared to mess around, I would not see the sun tomorrow. The brothers below all heard it clearly. If we just let him go like this, where will the face of the Zhenhai Division be?”
Shan Ashan said, “Sometimes, face is the most impractical and least important thing. True, capturing and then releasing does not look good. Make a show of it. You interrogate him casually. If he does not speak, just forget it. Remember, there is no need to use torture. Release him after one hour!”
The tone of the last sentence was unquestionable.
Wu Qiongjin wanted to say more but ultimately dared not say anything else, so he took his leave.
As he went out and closed the door, the image of the person in the black cloak he had met here earlier suddenly appeared in his mind. He instantly realised why the Right Envoy’s attitude had changed. Someone must have come to drop a hint.
Some things are better left in the mind. He quickly went downstairs to the dungeon.
Less than half an hour later, Qing Ya walked out of the Zhenhai Division. His sword was returned to him, and he strapped it back on his back. He walked away in his wooden clogs, and even the peanuts in his pocket were not missing. He took out a handful and continued to peel them.
At the window of the Left Ear Tower, Liu Piaopiao stood sideways behind the window, peering outside.
In the room behind her, next to a long desk piled with documents, was a recliner. On it lay a man with a full beard dozing off. The smell of alcohol in the room came from him. This man was Yu Fei, the Left Envoy of the Zhenhai Division.
After watching Qing Ya disappear, Liu Piaopiao quickly went to the recliner and reported, “Qing Ya has been released.”
“All this drama,” Yu Fei hummed, rolled over, and lay on his side to continue dozing.
“Subordinate takes her leave.” Liu Piaopiao cupped her hands in a salute and left.
After leaving the Zhenhai Division, she hurried all the way to the crossroads not far from Yu Qing’s residence and went straight to the surveillance post upstairs.
Seeing the two subordinates responsible for surveillance in the room, Liu Piaopiao asked, “Is everything alright?”
One of the subordinates replied, “Everything is normal. There has been no movement since he came back.”
Liu Piaopiao hummed and went straight into her inner room to rest, pushing open the window.
Mu Aotie, who was guarding the window crack, saw the meeting signal and immediately turned back to shush them.
Yu Qing and Nan Zhu were sitting with legs crossed in meditation. Upon hearing the news, they immediately stopped their practice and stood up. Yu Qing also walked to the window crack to take a look, then waved his hand to give a signal.
Nan Zhu then opened the door to the balcony and looked around outside, giving Liu Piaopiao a signal in return.
Yu Qing put on his cloak again, opened the door to the rear balcony, and quickly darted out, disappearing into the wet streets after the rain.
Mu Aotie and Nan Zhu each took a balcony at the front and back to observe, checking if anyone was following them, and also to create inconvenience for anyone trying to tail them.
Yet, someone was still quietly following through the staggered buildings. However, Yu Qing’s figure was already gone, and no one knew where he had gone.
It was also a person wearing a black cloak, with the hood half covering his face. He had a nose much larger than normal. Along the way, his nostrils fluttered, sniffing for something.
A few similarly low profile attendants were with him. Seeing him stop and go, the lead attendant asked strangely, “What is wrong?”
The big nose said, “Are you sure he really took the thing I gave him?”
The lead attendant said, “Naturally, how could it be fake?”
The big nose shook his head slightly. “Impossible. There is not a single trace of the related scent along the way. If there were, I could not possibly fail to smell it.”
The lead attendant asked, “Cannot smell it? Then what do we do?”
“There is also his personal body odour, but without the dispersiveness of the drug, the scent is not that obvious, and the tracking speed will be slower.” As the big nose spoke, he fluttered his nostrils again and continued to lead the few men forward.
In the underground culvert, due to the rain, the water level had risen and the water was rushing.
After rushing and winding around for a while, Yu Qing arrived at the meeting destination. Liu Piaopiao had already arrived first.
As soon as the two met, Liu Piaopiao immediately handed him a folded piece of paper. “I will keep it short. Our meetings have been too frequent. With the means of the Zhenhai Division, and the trouble you caused being too conspicuous, continuing to meet in the culvert like this is no longer safe. This is the communication method for the future.”
After Yu Qing took the folded paper, she asked, “What happened? Didn’t you just want to save someone? How did you end up making Wang Wentian like that? Offending the Wang family so deeply will bring you no good.”
“I did not want to either!” Yu Qing sighed and quickly explained the whole process, then asked, “Two You Guards took Wang Wentian to the Zhenhai Division. What is the situation?”
Liu Piaopiao said, “The person has already been taken to the You Cliff by the You Guards. The You Guards gave the punishment on behalf of the You Cliff. Between two hundred billion and the life of Wang Wentian, the Zheluo Mountain can only choose one, with a time limit of one month. Wang Xuetang has already left the Sea City, probably going to seek help from the Earth Mother.”
“Two hundred billion…”
Yu Qing murmured, obviously stunned. He was afraid of the Wang family retaliation and wanted to pay attention to their situation, but he did not expect the situation to become more serious. He could not help but sigh, “Will the Wang family let me off?”
Liu Piaopiao said, “Enough, I will try my best to help you monitor the Wang family movements in the Sea City. I will notify you immediately if there is any news. If there is nothing else, let us scatter first. I am also walking on eggshells when meeting with you now.” With that, she was about to leave.
Yu Qing hurriedly stopped her. “Who is that Qing Ya?”
Qing Ya? Liu Piaopiao stopped and turned back. “The number one local bully in the Sea City, the kind who is neither strictly good nor evil. It is best not to provoke him lightly. He must have some tricks to stand in the Sea City for so long.”
“Local bully…” Yu Qing muttered to himself, recalling the situation when the incident happened. He already suspected that Xiao Hei kidnapping was closely related to that person.
Liu Piaopiao did not stay to watch him daze off and left first. The matter had really blown up, and she did not dare to stay with Yu Qing for too long either.
After Yu Qing came to his senses, he also left in a hurry.
Not long after he left, the big nose also led his men to arrive and found the place where Yu Qing and Liu Piaopiao had just met.
The big nose sniffed around in place and said, “This is the end of a dead end. There are residual scents of the target and another person. They should have met here.”
The men behind him quickly checked this dead end and confirmed there were no other exits before retreating.
The whole group retreated as well, and continued to follow the scent under the leadership of the big nose.
When they reached a fork in the road, the big nose stopped and asked, “Do we chase the previous target or the new target? Make a decision quickly. If we delay too long, the scent will dissipate and it will be hard to find.”
The lead attendant said, “The purpose of tracking the target is to find out who he is meeting. Since we have already discovered clues about the person he met, we should naturally chase the one he met. Chase the new target.”
The big nose immediately turned right, chasing in the direction Liu Piaopiao went.
Not long after, the group climbed out of the underground culvert and continued tracking on the ground. The nose of the big nose kept fluttering all the way.
They walked and wound around until they reached an alley. At the end of a hidden corner, they found a small room door. The big nose pointed at it.
The lead attendant immediately waved his hand to signal, and the followers immediately scattered to surround the small house.
When the leader gave a gesture, the surrounding men quickly broke through the doors and windows and rushed in to capture them.
However, after a lot of fuss, they caught nothing. They turned the boxes and cabinets upside down but did not find anyone. The big nose only found the changed clothes and cloak. The clothes were men’s clothes. Liu Piaopiao was dressed as a man when she met Yu Qing before, and she could not possibly continue wearing a red dress and carrying two swords, as that would be too obvious.
The big nose held the clothes and sniffed them, then looked around and said, “They should have just changed.”
He sniffed around the room again and finally confirmed the person had left from the window on the other side. He climbed out of the window and broke into another alley.
“Leave two people to lurk here. Once anyone is found, no matter who it is, take them down immediately.”
“Yes.”
After making some arrangements, the lead attendant took the remaining men and continued to follow the big nose tracking through the bustling streets of the Sea City.
As they walked, the group found the terrain getting higher and higher. When they saw the castle buildings with dim lights ahead, everyone could not help but look at each other, their faces showing surprise and uncertainty.
Knowing the matter might be extraordinary, the big nose did not dare to be careless either. He lifted the hood of his cloak with both hands, revealing the face of an honest middle aged man with dark red hair. His expression was solemn, his nostrils fluttering rhythmically as he walked step by step towards the gate of the Zhenhai Division.
When they reached the gate, they all lifted their cloak hoods and revealed their true faces. They really had no choice but to uncover them, as the guards at the gate would definitely need to confirm their identities before letting them pass.
Passing through the gate and entering the hall, the big nose stood still in the centre of the hall. His head shook left and right from time to time, and his nostrils fluttered non stop. He said, “There can be no mistake. The target came in. It should not be long since he returned!”
Upstairs, Liu Piaopiao, who had just gone to a place to get something, was walking back. Hearing the voice, she subconsciously slowed her pace. It was not that she was highly vigilant, but there were also factions within the Zhenhai Division, and everyone had the habit of secretly observing things when they happened.
She revealed a bit of her face at the corner, and through the gap in the handrail, she saw the situation below and saw the big nose with fluttering nostrils.
She saw the lead attendant below say in a deep voice, “That means the one meeting that guy is indeed our own internal person!”
The big nose said, “Ask the guards at the gate. Whoever came back just now is the one!”