Chapitre 247: Chapter 84 A Different Thought
The clamor of people and horses in the courtyard swelled like a tidal wave and then retreated, vanishing into the night that was already turning pale, leaving only the people of the Lin Family behind.
"A city search! Have they gone mad? Are they truly going to search the city?" Clan Leader Lin said.
Registrar Lin couldn't care less about the Fang Family's search, as long as they didn't come searching his place.
The arrival was sudden, the departure crisp, if not for the front gate that had been knocked down and still lay in the courtyard, Registrar Lin would have doubted if it had all been a dream.
"Fortunately, even if it was a nightmare, the dream seems to have ended," he exhaled and said.
No sooner had his voice faded, than another commotion erupted outside.
Registrar Lin and Clan Leader Lin both felt their hearts skip a beat, and their breath catch.
Could it be the Fang Family had come back for a second attack?
A group of people poured in through the door, unlike the men and government soldiers from before, most were women.
"Lin Cheng!" the leading woman screeched, "you heartless and ungrateful brute, how dare you keep a mistress behind my back!"
Disaster!
Registrar Lin immediately broke out in a cold sweat, his face paling considerably.
The nightmare wasn't over; it was just beginning.
The small courtyard once again descended into chaos, different from the men's cursing and cries of pain earlier, this time the air was filled with the women's shrieking and wailing.
Almost instantly, all of Yangcheng plunged into chaos, with shouts, cries, and wails everywhere, the city brightly lit, as if the whole place had been set ablaze.
And in the wilderness beyond, it grew even darker, a low cry came out as a running shadow tumbled to the ground.
She didn't pause for a moment before leaping up, gathering her scattered clothes, and limping forward.
Run, run, the farther away, the better.
Meanwhile, someone in the tiny shack at the Northern City Posthouse, who had already been asleep, suddenly sat up.
"Something's not right," he said.
The speaker got out of bed and strode towards the door, stepping on someone who had been sleeping on the floor in his haste, eliciting a startled yelp.
"What's happened?" the person on the floor called out in a panic, and by then, the servant had already rushed out the door.
The posthouse, which had finally settled into slumber, became noisy and unsettled; extinguished lights began to relight one by one.
People, groggy and dressed only in their nightclothes, came out of their rooms, asking questions as they headed towards the backyard.
There, the posthouse soldier and his family, who had been awakened, squeezed together in fear, watching the man before them.
"My money's gone," the servant said angrily, pointing at the girl huddled in the old woman's arms, "only you've been over to my side."
The girl trembled violently with fear, trying to retreat into her mother's embrace but was pushed away by the old woman.
"Child, was it you?" the old woman asked, her voice trembling.
The girl was pushed forward, displayed before everyone, with the servant's piercing gaze scanning over her.
The build, wearing clothes that were clearly too big and seemed to be hand-me-downs, whereas now she was dressed in undergarments, rendering judgments about her figure inconclusive.
Her messy hair, the look of terror, an unwashed face smudged with dirt.
It almost looked the same in the dim light of the night.
"I didn't, I didn't," the girl said.
Her voice was hoarse, trembling and unclear because of fear.
The accent matched.
The servant furrowed his brow.
Was he overthinking it?
"Didn't you bring water over to our side?" the servant demanded.
Bring water?
The girl nodded anxiously, then shook her head.
"Have you or haven't you?" the servant demanded.
"Sir, my child has been delivering water all night, been everywhere, but as for stealing, truly, she did no such thing," the posthouse soldier begged, "Sir, really not, I stake my life on it."
The servant paid no heed, instead staring intently at the girl, who shivered with dread.
Was he being too suspicious?
What wasn't right?
Why did the strange feeling he had before he woke up so suddenly make him so alert?
He looked at the girl before him, comparing her with the figure he had seen in the night, merging and separating.
Delicate!
A light flickered in the servant's eyes.
It was that sense of delicacy that had aroused suspicion.
That figure carried a sense of frailty, a vulgarity in their movements that couldn't disguise their inherent delicacy.
All girls are delicate, but this kind of frailty was strange on the posthouse soldier's daughter.
That kind of delicacy, the sort that comes from growing up with silk and jade nourishment in a well-to-do household.
"How many of you were there today..." the servant stepped forward and began to ask.
But before he could finish, another disturbance arose outside.
"Quickly, quickly, Lord Prefect needs to set off right away," someone called loudly to the onlookers who had gathered around.
To set off immediately?
Everyone was stunned, and the servants also stopped their questioning.
"What's happened?" they all asked.
"The Fang Family has turned Yangcheng upside down with an imperial decree," the person shouted.
An imperial decree!
There was a moment of silence among the crowd before it erupted into commotion.
"How could the Fang Family have an imperial decree?"
"How did the Fang Family turn Yangcheng upside down?"
Questions flew from every direction.
But the man didn't have time to provide a detailed answer.
"I don't know," he said. "It seems someone from the family had a feud with a clerk from Yangcheng, and it escalated."
He said this without waiting for further questioning, urging them on.
"Quickly, quickly, Lord Prefect has already left."
Everyone dared not delay and hurriedly rushed outside.
The servant stood still, his expression complex.
"Shall we continue questioning?" an official cautiously asked, glancing at the girl who had retreated to her parents' side.
What could be the problem after all?
The servant, no longer paying attention to the girl, instead focused on the brightening lights and the noisy clamor outside.
"An imperial decree, huh... The Fang Family really has..." he said, with a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth, "big guts."
After saying that, he glanced once more at the old posthouse soldier's family, his gaze sweeping over the shivering girl before turning and stepping away.
"Let's go," he said.
The darkest moment just before dawn slowly passed, and the east gradually turned white.
The commotion within the city gradually ceased and many curious heads began to appear on the streets.
The disturbance of the previous night had shaken the entire county; more terrifying than the county government's gates being smashed was the fear of strangers knocking on doors and barging into homes in the middle of the night.
Those shouting about executing the investigation were not government soldiers, nor were officials accompanying them, and as for the imperial decree, it was nowhere to be seen.
Was this truly a mutiny this time?
Thankfully, these people only searched houses and inquired if anyone had seen Registrar Lin; they neither harmed nor killed anyone, nor did they touch any property.
Though people were scared and nervous, they were not petrified with fear.
As the search party gradually withdrew and the light took over the darkness, residents bravely stepped out of their homes to gather news.
"Was Registrar Lin really part of County Magistrate Li's group?"
"So, the Fang Family was indeed investigating by imperial decree?"
"Could it be that it wasn't hereditary enemies but actually spies, traitorous officials, and rebels?"
"Is the Fang Family not really in the money business, but instead officials?"
"No wonder the Fang Family has become so wealthy."
Various speculations and rumors spread chaotically.
Jinxiu, who sat the whole time on the main street in front of the city gate, turned a blind eye to the curious residents gradually gathering behind her. She just watched outside the city.
The sound of galloping hooves approached from behind, and Jinxiu turned to see a group of riders racing towards her.
Seventh Chen, who had been sleeping soundly on her shoulder, nearly tumbled to the ground, waking up with a bewildered face.
"What hour is it?" he asked, wiping away drool. "Did we find her?"
Jinxiu didn't respond to him; instead, she had already stood up and watched Fang Chengyu and Old Lady Fang approaching, with many more people gathering in the distance.
The torches had long been extinguished, and each face showed signs of weariness and anxiety.
They had not found her.
There was no need to ask; from their expressions, Jinxiu knew.
"It's only been one night of searching," Fang Chengyu said, his demeanor unchanged and even a smile appearing on his face. "Grandmother, mother, sister, you all go back and rest. I'll continue searching. It's even better during the day; news spreads faster, and startling the snakes is sometimes not a bad thing."
Lady Fang looked at him; Fang Chengyu, already lean and frail, now appeared even more haggard.
He had only recently recovered from poisoning and had already been weak. After surviving the assassination attempt in Runan, he had raced back, faced interrogations in the prison, and attended the execution and memorial service; it could be said he hadn't had a moment of rest.
How could he endure such continued strain?
"Chengyu, you go back and rest first, we'll continue searching," she said.
"Yes, sister and I can continue, you and grandmother should go back and rest, then come replace us later," Fang Yuxiu also said.
Fang Chengyu shook his head with a smile.
"I'm not tired," he said. "Really, I'm not. You don't know, but when you're holding your breath, you don't get tired. We can't stop at a time like this. Stopping and letting out a breath is worse."
What kind of logic was this?
Lady Fang looked at Fang Chengyu, her expression full of concern.
"What if we still can't find her today?" she blurted out.
Fang Chengyu laughed.
"Then we'll continue searching tomorrow," he said, his eyes earnest and unwavering despite being red from fatigue. "If we don't find her today, we'll search tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then the day after. We'll search day by day, we will eventually find her. The point is we absolutely cannot stop searching."
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Thank you, thank you.
There's still a chance, isn't there? So we'll keep going.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone