roccoschili Chapter 283 Evidence of Food Supplies
Chapter 283 Evidence of Food Supplies
Guo Kuan had met him; he worked odd jobs at Xianglai Restaurant.
Xianglai Pavilion only operates at night, gradually quieting down after midnight. Every time this happens, he goes to drink with the man in the portrait. Unlike ordinary handymen, he knows a great deal. For example, the military and political affairs of Yanzhou, and the previous battles. Although he has never seen him write, his conversation reveals him to be learned, and his knowledge is no less than that of this scholar.
Although Guo Kuan had many flaws, he was righteous and knew right from wrong. He knew that the masked man was definitely not a good person, and if he told them that the man was hiding in Xianglai Pavilion, not only would that man die, but he and the girls in Xianglai Pavilion would also die.
He feigned composure, saying he had never seen this person before, and that if any of you heroes needed help, he could keep an eye out for him. As he spoke, he pulled out the erotic poems he had written for the girls.
The men in black did not make things difficult for him and let him go.
The next day, he found the man and told him about the man in black. After a long silence, he handed the letter and half of the token to Guo Kuan. He asked Guo Kuan to help him take the letter and half of the token out of Yanzhou, and if he became the top scholar in the imperial examination and became an official, he should hand them over to someone in the court who was of high status and could be trusted.
If he hadn't become the top scholar and was just an ordinary person, he should have burned and buried these things so they would never be discovered.
Guo Kuan knew this thing was important, but he never imagined it was so important that it would cost that person their life. Three days after giving it to him, he was found dead in an alley where beggars gathered. The cause of death was that he had been beaten to death by other beggars while fighting over food.
The man didn't die at Xianglai Pavilion. He was dressed as a beggar before his death, so even the men in black wouldn't associate him with Xianglai Pavilion. He left all his money to Guo Kuan, who didn't hesitate. On the day the man was beaten to death, Guo Kuan left Yanzhou with the letter and token, traveling non-stop and returning to the Guo family in just over ten days.
He didn't tell anyone about it, and buried the letter and token separately until yesterday, when he had A-Mian, A-Fu's mother, retrieve them.
Lu Zhiyuan opened the letter: "Do you know who that person is?"
"I don't know." Guo Kuan shook his head: "He has injuries and calluses on his hands, so he should be a soldier. He has a Yanzhou accent, but it's not authentic; it's mixed with other accents. I guess he was a soldier in Yanzhou. He speaks concisely and knows everything that's happening in Yanzhou, so his position in the army can't be too low."
Guo Kuan continued, "He's not a lowly soldier, yet he's hiding in a place like Xianglai Pavilion, and there are men in black searching for him with a portrait. He must be hiding a secret. That secret might be hidden in this half of the token and this letter."
Lu Zhiyuan nodded and opened the letter. "Have you read this letter?"
"No!" Guo Kuan answered quickly. "He said that this thing should be given to someone of high status and position in the court. Since they are of high status and position, it is not something that a commoner like me can see. To be honest, Madam, I have thought about opening this letter, but the consequences of opening it may not be something that I or the entire Guo family can bear."
“Indeed, this is not something you can read.” Lu Zhiyuan folded the letter. “If you are a greedy person, you will definitely use the contents of this letter to do something. Whether you submit it to the Six Ministries or go to the master of those men in black, there will only be one outcome.”
Guo Kuan: "Death?"
Lu Zhiyuan curved her lips into a smile: "Not death, but the annihilation of the entire family."
Guo Kuan laughed: "Fortunately, I wasn't that greedy back then, at least I resisted the urge to look at that letter."
Lu Zhiyuan had a question: "Since you stayed at Xianglai Pavilion in Yanzhou, you should have been able to tell that your wife was not the daughter of the prefect, but a courtesan."
“I knew she wasn’t the prefect’s daughter, and I could smell the stench of prostitution on her. I brought her into the manor for two reasons. First, to make my parents understand that forcing me and A-Mian into marriage was not my wish. Second, I had worked at the Xianglai Pavilion and felt unworthy of those good girls. I had already wronged A-Mian, and I couldn’t let other good girls suffer as well. Prostitutes are different; marrying her would be a good thing for her. Third, she had a light blue pattern on her wrist, the same pattern as that person’s. I felt she was connected to that letter and that half of the token.”
"Is this the pattern you're talking about?"
Lu Zhiyuan handed over a piece of paper with a strange pattern on it. Guo Kuan nodded after just one glance.
"This pattern has nothing to do with letters or tokens. It's a mark that slave traders put on those children. The symbol in the middle of the mark represents a number, and the one in front of it represents the year. They look similar, but they are different. The person you mentioned was probably also trafficked to Yanzhou by slave traders. As for his experiences after arriving in Yanzhou, we still need to investigate."
Guo Kuan's eyes lit up as he looked at the pattern and said, "Madam said that the symbol in the middle represents a number? And the one in front represents a year? If I can draw the pattern on that person's wrist, can Madam confirm his identity, explore his past experiences, and help him complete what he was unable to finish?"
Guo Kuan also felt guilty towards that person; if it weren't for him, he wouldn't have sought his own death. He sought death not only to protect the letter and the half of the token, but also to protect him.
Before leaving, Lu Zhiyuan asked Guo Kuan what kind of feelings he had for Afu and his mother, but Guo Kuan looked conflicted and did not answer.
He didn't know what kind of feelings he had for Afu and her son.
Does that mean he doesn't like A-Mian? But he has never let go of A-Mian in his heart. Even when A-Mian took A-Fu to the post station, he still paid attention to them and tried his best to take care of them and support them without leaving a trace.
He knows better than anyone that he likes it, and that all the suffering of Afu and her son was caused by him.
Answering or not answering won't change what's already happened. All we can do now is use his status as the young master of the Guo family to arrange a good future for them, mother and son. If there's an afterlife… well, where is there an afterlife? This life's affairs, let them be settled in this life. This life's debts, let them be repaid in this life.
On the carriage, Liu Ying asked Lu Zhiyuan what was written in the letter.
Lu Zhiyuan handed the letter directly to Liu Ying.
A letter pleading for help concerns the shipment of grain in Yanzhou. The letter bears two versions of the writer's name: one hastily written, likely in a moment of desperation; the other, with neater handwriting and a hint of anger: "The ones who stole the grain were not an enemy state, nor bandits, but an internal traitor."
The message contained an address, but it was incomplete and had been deliberately hidden by the letter writer.
Taking out a map and searching carefully, they discovered that the letter writer had used a code, which was likely a local dialect. The only way to find the address in the letter was to reach Yanzhou. Through the curtain, Lu Zhiyuan told Lu Yun that there was no need to linger any longer and to ride at full speed towards Yanzhou.
An hour later, the Crown Prince and Zuo Yi led a large entourage to the post station. Upon learning that Lu Zhiyuan and her group had already left and were heading towards Yanzhou, the Crown Prince visibly panicked. He had received word that someone was planning to ambush his Crown Princess along the way.