novelAbuy Chapter 070: Disappearance
Chapter 070: Disappearance
Zhao Bozong took the roll of paper, but did not open it; he simply held it in his hand.
Looking at Xiao Bieli, he thought of many people who did not forget their original aspirations even after Yue Fei's death.
"Xiao Xianfeng, I've recruited many people in Lin'an City. Xin Qizong is a former general abandoned by Qin Hui, Li Bao is a naval captain from Yue Fei's old subordinates, and Yuwen Xu is an old naval officer who hasn't touched politics for twelve years. Do you know why these people are willing to help me?"
Xiao Bieli remained silent.
"Because they all have things they don't want to do. Xin Qizong doesn't want to sit idly by and watch loyal officials be killed, Li Bao doesn't want to hand over Jiaoshan to Qin Hui, and Yuwen Xu doesn't want the fire alarm bell to ring only to put out fires, but you are different."
Zhao Bozong's voice was low and deep, "It seems like there's nothing you don't want to do, you just want to die."
Xiao Bieli's gaze fell on the oil lamp on the table.
"...I wasn't waiting for anything." His voice was hoarse, like sand, when he spoke. "I just wanted to stand here for a while."
Zhao Bocong looked at him.
This statement seemed like an irrelevant answer, but he understood it: Xiao Bieli had never stood still in his life.
From Yancheng to Zhuxian Town, from Zhuxian Town to Jinying, from Jinying to exile, every step was a run, every step was being chased.
For someone who is always running, the greatest luxury they can hope for is to one day be able to stand still.
"Xiao Xianfeng, I won't ask about your past." Zhao Bozong stood up, rolled up the intelligence report on the Jin cavalry, and spread it out on the table. "I will hand this intelligence report over to Yuwen Xu tonight, so he can compare and verify it with the old files of the Privy Council. If it is true—I thank you on behalf of the Song army."
"Your Highness, there's no need to thank me." Xiao Bieli also stood up. "This has been on me for two years, with no chance to deliver it. Today you've given me someone to receive it; I'm the one who should be thanking you."
After he finished speaking, he turned and walked towards the door. After taking a few steps, he suddenly stopped and did not look back.
"Your Highness, if I ever implicate you—please, for the sake of my younger sister who is still young, let her live."
Then he pushed open the back door of Shunhe Tea Shop and went out.
It was already dusk outside. In winter, it gets dark early; before 5 PM, the sky was already mostly dark.
Xiao Bieli hurried towards the dessert shop at the alley entrance. The brown sugar mochi must have gotten cold; he needed to buy A'Luo a hot bowl.
But he stopped when he reached the entrance of the dessert shop.
The table is still there, the bowl is still there, and there's still more than half a bowl of brown sugar mochi left. The spoon is placed neatly on the side of the bowl.
But Xiao Jinluo disappeared.
The proprietress peeked out of the shop, and upon seeing Xiao Bieli, her face immediately turned grim. "Sir, your sister was just—"
"By whom?"
"Two men came, saying they were from your hometown and wanted to take her to you. The girl shook her head, saying she didn't know them. Those two men—"
The proprietress couldn't continue.
"What happened to those two?"
The proprietress looked down at the ground.
Xiao Bieli followed her gaze and saw a line of crooked words on the ground, written by a twig. The strokes were faint, but still legible.
"Brother, a ragdoll rabbit."
Xiao Bieli looked down at the line of words and stared at it for a long time.
An eleven-year-old girl did not cry or shout before being forcibly taken away by the Imperial City Guards. In the chaos, she even had time to leave a message for her brother on the muddy ground with a twig.
She didn't say "save me," she said "ragdoll rabbit."
Because the ragdoll rabbit fell under the table at the dessert shop.
It was sewn for her by her mother from old clothes when she was five years old. After her mother died, this rag doll rabbit became her only toy.
Xiao Bieli bent down and picked up the plush rabbit from under the table.
The rabbit's ears were covered in dust, and one of its button-made eyes had come loose and was drooping crookedly.
He brushed off the dust, pressed the loose eyes back on, and then tucked the plush rabbit into his arms.
The proprietress watched from the side, wanting to say a few words of comfort, but couldn't say anything.
"Which direction did they go?"
"East, towards Dali Temple."
Xiao Bieli turned around and walked towards the alley entrance.
He didn't run away; running wouldn't have helped. The Dali Temple was located in the very center of Lin'an City. To get there from Wazi Lane, one had to pass through three gates, and there were at least four patrol teams and countless secret sentries from the Imperial City Guard along the way.
He was alone, without a knife; running over there would only be suicide.
But he will get there.
He spent two years carrying Xiao Jinluo from the Jin camp to Lin'an, and now he can spend another night walking to Dali Temple to bring his sister back.
That was the only reason he lived.
......
The prison cells of Dali Temple were divided into three classes.
The highest-ranking prisons held officials of high rank, with dry straw on the floor and airtight walls; the middle-ranking prisons held ordinary criminals, with wooden planks covered with straw mats and two meals of thin porridge per day.
The lowest level of the prison was for death row inmates and serious criminals. The iron bars, stone walls, and ground were made of rammed earth. It was damp all year round, and in winter it was so cold that you could see your own breath freeze into ice crystals.
The deputy commander of the military was imprisoned in a medium-sized cell.
He had been here for a full day. The interrogation had been conducted in two rounds. The first round was during the day, presided over by a judge from the Court of Judicial Review. He asked routine questions: name, place of origin, official position, relationship with the Prince of Puan's residence, and correspondence with the Shunhe Tea Shop. He didn't say a word.
The second round took place at night, and the presiding judge was changed to Wan Qixie, the supervisor of the Imperial City Guard.
The deputy commander of the Imperial Guard had long heard of Wan Qixie's methods.
In the eleventh year of the Shaoxing era, when Yue Fei was imprisoned, Wan Qixie was the sharpest knife in Qin Hui's hand.
Every criminal he interrogated spoke up. Zhang Xian, a staunch and unyielding former general of Yue Fei, held out for three days and three nights in his hands, finally signing his confession in blood.
But Zhang Xian was not the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard. He held no official position, had no family to threaten him, and no one was waiting for his fate at Fengbo Pavilion.
He was just an orphan picked up from a group of refugees by the gray-clad men. He had received a few years of intelligence training, worked as a waiter for Manager Wang in Xiuzhou, and delivered letters for Qin Keqing in Lin'an.
He was unaware of any major event; when the Imperial City Guards asked him about the Prince of Puan's core secrets, he genuinely had no idea.
He didn't know the origin of the missing copper coin, the secret transfer of documents, or the modification plan for the fire alarm bell. He only knew the locations of the seven dead letter drop points and a set of codes.
This was precisely the greatest protection Qin Keqing gave him; if he didn't know, he wouldn't betray her.
Wan Qixie interrogated the victims late into the night, finally losing patience. He flipped back more than ten pages of the interrogation record, only to find them all blank.
"What's your name?" he asked again.
The deputy commander of the Imperial Guard raised his head. His left eye socket was so swollen that it was barely a slit, and there was a crack at the corner of his mouth, with scabs and stubble stuck together.
But he looked at Wan Qixie with the eye that could still move, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
"My name is Deputy Commander of the Forbidden Army."
"This is not a name."
"That's the name."
Wan Qixie closed the interrogation record, stood up, and without getting angry, calmly said a sentence to the jailer beside him.
"Move him to the lowest-class cell, the one across from him."
The jailer hesitated for a moment. "Sir, the cell opposite the lowest-class cell is—"
"I know."
It was already past midnight when the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard was dragged into the lowest-class cell.
The iron fence slammed shut behind him, and cold, damp air seeped up from the rammed earth ground, the stone walls covered in moldy moss.
His new cell faces an iron gate, through which a person is imprisoned.
a little girl.