usatvline Chapter 154 Aftermath
Chapter 154 Aftermath
When Shao Shuyi and the others had escaped far away, it was still dark.
The covered boat was moored by a small river for a short rest.
Gao Daqiang, Wu Heizi, Bian Yuanheng and others went ashore, sat in a group, ate some food and water to replenish their strength.
No one spoke, but all eyes followed Shao Shuyi as he moved, waiting for his next command.
Prestige is built up little by little in this way.
The assassination attempt in the first half of the night was a great success, and everyone admired him greatly. Now, he can execute orders without question.
"Brother Liu, don't be in such a hurry to leave." Shao Shuyi had already come to the Liu brothers who were on the boat, smiled kindly, and said, "Sit down and have something to eat."
Liu Bao and Liu Gen's expressions changed. The older Liu Bao said with a wry smile, "Shao She, you've done such a big thing, why don't you hurry up and flee? What if you get caught? Wouldn't that be a miscarriage of justice?"
Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "Thank you for the reminder, Brother Liu. Thinking about it carefully, I did reveal some of my whereabouts last night, but when you're out doing business, it's impossible to be completely watertight. There's nothing I can do about it."
"Then what about you?" Liu Bao looked at him with a puzzled expression.
Shao Shuyi turned his head and looked around, then asked, "Where is this?"
"The border area between Laichun and Taining townships."
"How far is it from Caijing?"
Liu Bao suddenly opened his eyes wide.
Wang Huadu waved his hand and led a few people over, looking at the Liu brothers with a smile.
"You were the one who went to investigate Caijing South Gate earlier, weren't you? Come on, take me there," Shao Shuyi said without room for argument.
"Shao She, are you going to do this?" Liu Bao asked in surprise.
"Walking into a trap?" Shao Shuyi laughed and said, "Not at all, I'm just testing my luck."
"But...but Madam didn't instruct me to do this," Liu Bao said.
"I'm thinking of doing this. Would you be willing to help?" Shao Shuyi asked.
Liu Bao stood there, stunned, unsure of what to say.
"What are you dawdling about?" Wang Huadu shoved Liu Bao from behind and said angrily.
Liu Bao was startled. After regaining his senses, he found that all the fierce people on the ground were staring at him. He swallowed hard a couple of times and asked, "May I ask what Shao She went to Caijing for? I need to go back and have something to tell my wife."
"I'm not afraid to tell you," Shao Shuyi smiled and said, "I want to go to Caijing and steal some good stuff, like account books or rosters." Liu Bao didn't quite understand what account books and rosters were for, but he knew that these thugs in front of him were ruthless killers, so he nodded and said, "Okay, I'll lead the way."
"That's more like it." Wang Huadu gave him another push and laughed, "Hurry up, don't dawdle, or something might happen."
Liu Bao and Liu Gen exchanged a glance, secretly cursing their bad luck, and walked dejectedly towards the riverbank.
Wang Huadu followed closely behind and boarded the ship.
Shao Shuyi quickly ate some dry rations and drank some water. After resting for a while, he called everyone to board the boat.
The creaking of oars resumed, and the two boats headed southwest, disappearing into the thick reeds.
In the middle of the night, a cold wind suddenly swept up, howling and disturbing everyone's peaceful dreams.
In the sparsely populated village, dogs barked one after another, their snarling teeth suggesting they had encountered a mortal enemy. Xia Manguo, his face contorted with rage, scrambled out of bed, hastily threw on a light shirt, grabbed a stick, and opened the door to see what was happening. However, he only opened it a crack before quickly closing it again, then bracing the door with the stick to prevent it from being easily forced open. His wife, Li, also got out of bed and asked in a low voice, "What is it?"
Xia Manguo shushed him and whispered, "Thieves have entered the village."
Li's face turned deathly pale, and her body trembled involuntarily. She muttered, "What should we do? What should we do..." Xia Manguo gently embraced his wife and softly comforted her, "It's alright, it's alright. The thieves weren't after us. I think they're heading to the Lu family." "Zhu Ding is back?" Li's complexion gradually returned to normal, and she looked much better.
Xia Manguo nodded, then shook his head.
Li did not understand.
Xia Mantun sighed and said, "It doesn't seem like it. Zhu Ding doesn't usually act like this. I can't quite put my finger on it, but they don't seem like the people Zhu Ding usually sees. Never mind, you go to sleep first, I'll watch for a while longer."
Xia Manguo waved his hand, then peeked through the crack in the door again.
A shout rang out from inside the Lu family compound, followed by screams—one, two, three…
The dog barked even louder until it let out a whimper and then fell silent.
A jumble of footsteps rang out, mixed with screams of terror, plunging the entire Lu family compound into chaos.
Xia Manguo sighed, no longer wanting to watch. He dressed, grabbed a small stool, and sat behind the door, gripping an axe tightly. His wife on the bed looked at him; though in the darkness, they seemed to see the worry in each other's eyes.
This terrifying world, when will it ever end!
Inside the Lu family compound, three or four corpses lay scattered about, appearing to be guards and servants.
More than ten masked thugs rushed into each room, ransacking the place and searching carefully for something.
Several servants were driven to a corner, trembling with fear.
"Where is the owner of this place?" Shao Shuyi asked in a kind tone, pointing to the central hall with his ring-handled sword in hand.
The servants lowered their heads, trembling.
"You speak!" Wang Huadu grabbed a servant's hair and asked.
The man was so frightened he nearly jumped out of his skin, repeatedly saying, "I'll talk, I'll talk."
"Taibao, let go," Shao Shuyi ordered.
Wang Huadu loosened his grip and took a half step back.
"Speak, I won't hurt anyone," Shao Shuyi said.
The servant glanced at him and stammered, "Let's go."
"Where did you go?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"He went with the Nine Bodyguards."
"The Nine Protectors?"
"Ninth Protector is a scholar who usually manages the accounts and often comes here to copy them."
"So, Zhu Ding's account books are all kept here?"
"There's a copy at home too; this is just a copy, recorded by Ninth Taibao."
"You know quite a lot," Shao Shuyi said with a smile. "Tell me more about those Nine Bodyguards, what's the deal?"
"He..." The servant hesitated for a moment, then, after meeting Shao Shuyi's gaze, he gritted his teeth and said, "The relationship between Ninth Protector and Madam Qing is unusual. Rumors in the manor say that they have... have an affair."
Wang Huadu, Gao Daqiang, Wu Heizi, and others burst into laughter upon hearing this.
Shao Shuyi glanced at them, and everyone quickly stopped laughing.
"Brother Zhu wasn't here today, and Ninth Protector came to do the bookkeeping again. He was halfway through when Lu San came running back from the fields in a panic, saying that Zhang Xiaoshu had seen a group of armed thieves, went up to question them but was subdued, so he took a shortcut back to report the news." The servant continued, "Ninth Protector said that someone must have come for revenge, so he escorted Madam Qing away."
So there were lookouts, both visible and hidden! Shao Shuyi nodded and asked, "Where are the account books? Were they all taken?"
As they were talking, people who had been rummaging through drawers and cabinets came one after another, all saying they hadn't found any books, but there were plenty of money and valuables.
Shao Shuyi glanced at the things everyone had brought out, casually picked up a bolt of brocade, tossed it to a servant, and asked, "Were the account books taken away by the Ninth Protector?"
"...Perhaps." The servant wasn't entirely sure.
As he spoke, he stared intently at the brocade in his hand, the fear in his eyes fading considerably, replaced by greed and anticipation. Shao Shuyi chuckled, picked up another wad of banknotes, and without even checking how much, tossed it into the servant's arms, saying, "If Ninth Protector returns, tell him that I have no grudge against you. If you are willing to hand over the account books and the register of the delivery ruffians and salt shopkeepers, I am willing to help you and Madam Qing get together. I mean what I say."
After saying this, he distributed some more banknotes to the other servants and said, "The same goes for you. If Ninth Protector has come to his senses, he can try to hide for a while. I will come again before the winter solstice to arrange a meeting with him."
Seducing one's sister-in-law is a major taboo in the martial arts world.
Even if there was nothing between Ninth Protector and Madam Qing, and their relationship was completely innocent, Shao Shuyi's publicizing of it made it seem like it was all rotten. He had nowhere to go among the remaining forces after Zhu Ding's death, and might even face retaliation. He had no choice but to seek refuge with outsiders.
What Shao Shuyi wanted most today was not money or valuables, but Zhu Ding's account book for selling smuggled salt and the "contact list" of the deliverymen and sellers.
These are mostly local ruffians and scoundrels from Jiangyin city and even its villages, or people who have some influence in the area. There are probably dozens or even hundreds of them. There is a lot of information about how much goods they take each month and how much money they are paid. It is impossible to remember it all by memory, and it is easy to misremember it. It is necessary to write it down in black and white.
Shao Shuyi wanted to get this.
After all, it would take him, an outsider, many years to build such a local sales network.
If we could control a portion of this network, get those people to come and pick up the goods, and then sell them to every nook and cranny of Jiangyin Prefecture, the gang would truly grow bigger and stronger.
He can't rely solely on Madam Liu's few shops; he has to walk on two legs.
Of course, he also needed to solve the problem of sourcing goods before that, but that's another story.
At the beginning of the hour of Mao (5-7 AM), more than ten people carrying bundles quietly left the chaotic Lu family compound and came to the bank of a harbor river.
The Liu brothers were anxiously waiting, but with several masked men on board, they dared not make any rash moves. When they saw Shao Shuyi and the others arrive, they breathed a sigh of relief.
The two brothers, wielding their awning boat, clumsily turned it around and began rowing towards the Yangtze River.
As dawn approached, the boat docked briefly, and Shao Shuyi and the others changed their clothes by the river.
The old robes that were taken off were burned in a fire, and the ashes were swept into the river.
The two ships arrived at the Yangtze River when the sun was high in the sky.
Shao Shuyi gave each of the Liu brothers two ingots of paper money, then led his men a short distance before boarding two canal boats placed among the reeds and rowing towards Ma Tuosha.
They didn't linger there long. After instructing the remaining staff to speed up the salting of the fish, the boats continued downstream towards Liujiagang. The vast Jiangyin Prefecture had lost all trace of Shao Shuyi and his gang, leaving only an ever-growing legend.
The illegal salt market here is about to undergo a complete reshuffle.