Chapter 431: Chapter 406: Caught Five Big Fish_1
The temple was bustling with visitors lighting incense, with sincere men and women earnestly kowtowing before every statue of the Bodhisattva.
Daohua, along with the others, followed behind the elderly Madame Yan, Madam Li, Madam Sun, and Madam Wu, all of whom bore solemn and devout expressions.
After the incense ritual, the mothers and daughters-in-law of the Yan Family went to light an Everlasting Lantern for their ancestors, while Daohua and the rest stepped out of the main hall to wait outside.
Outside the grand hall, a fortune teller was helping people with character divinations, a sight that noticeably intrigued Yan Yihuan and the others, including Yan Yunxi and Yan Yunyan.
Yan Yile could not resist and asked, “Elder sister, wouldn’t you like to have a character divination?”
Daohua shook her head with a smile, “If you want to have a divination, go ahead. I’m not interested.”
Hearing her response, the girls could hardly contain themselves and set off to approach the fortune teller.
Seeing this, Daohua smiled, then taking a look around, frowned and said, “Where have third brother and fourth brother disappeared to in such a short time? Let’s go find them.”
Meanwhile, deep within a Zen garden at the rear of the temple, Wu Jingyi excitedly reported to the fifth master and Yang Chenghua, “Your Highness, it’s confirmed, the herb-collecting monk in the temple indeed found Jing Cao.”
As he spoke, he produced a dried Jing Cao herb.
Upon seeing the Jing Cao, the fifth master’s gaze instantly grew profound, “Was it mentioned where this Jing Cao was found?”
The excitement on Wu Jingyi’s face faded slightly, replaced with regret, “The monk who found the Jing Cao recently left to collect herbs and accidentally fell off a cliff and died.”
The breath of the fifth master caught for a moment, and after a long silence, he spoke again, “It doesn’t matter, as long as we’ve confirmed the item is in Ningmen Prefecture, we now have an area to search. We’ll find it if we send more people.”
Wu Jingyi nodded, hesitated, but decided to speak up, “Your Highness, it seems like we’re not the only ones searching for Jing Cao.”
At that remark, the fifth master’s gaze turned sharp in an instant.
Under that piercing look, Wu Jingyi’s scalp tingled, and he quickly lowered his head, daring not to meet his gaze.
The fifth master: “…Who?”
Wu Jingyi swallowed hard, “People from the Jiang Family, they said it’s for Miss Jiang’s medication.”
A cold glint flashed in the fifth master’s eyes, but it quickly subsided. He picked up the tea from the table, toyed with it slowly, and after a while, when he felt the tea had cooled, he drank it all in one gulp.
In the Zen room, Wu Jingyi and Yang Chenghua didn’t dare make a sound.
A while later, the fifth master asked casually as if it was of no consequence, “Among the officials dealt with for their handling of the Jiguang flood, I believe there were people connected to Prince Duan, what happened to them in the end?”
Wu Jingyi lowered his head, not daring to answer.
Seeing that he did not answer, Yang Chenghua had to step forward and speak, “It seems they were exiled after their homes were confiscated. As for the specifics, the Princely Heir took care of it.”
The fifth master showed no reaction, he merely uttered two words indifferently: “Very well.”
Those two words chilled the spine of Yang Chenghua, the Left Commander of the Five Armies and the Grand Secretary of the Inner Court.
The Jiguang flood disaster had enraged the Emperor, and all officials involved were ordered executed. However, a few in charge of managing the situation were blinded by substantial bribes and resorted to replacing those sentenced with substitutes – a severe act of defiance against the imperial edict.
“Thump, thump, thump!”
The sound of knocking broke the silence, and the three men in the room instantly shifted their demeanors to appear as docile and ordinary individuals.
Eunuch An had been standing guard outside the room and, at the sound of the monastery gate being knocked, immediately put on a smile and went to open it, only to find a little monk delivering the vegetarian meal.
Outside the temple, Daohua was searching for Yan Wentao and Yan Wenkai with Wang Manman, her gaze sweeping the area, and just happened to notice the especially portly Eunuch An, causing her body to stiffen.
Eunuch An, after sending off the little monk with the meal, was about to close the gate when he saw a young girl staring straight at him. Although slightly wary, he didn’t think much of it.
That young girl clearly looked to be a miss from a wealthy family; such individuals, often reared secludedly, were not a threat.
However, to his surprise, the little miss decided to approach him the next moment.
“Uncle, may I ask where you get your vegetarian meals from?”
Not wanting to get involved, Eunuch An replied with a faint smile, “Miss, you can just ask any monk in the temple, and they will tell you.” And with that, he reached out to close the door.
Yet, at that moment, a scolding could be heard from the courtyard.
“You two again, hadn’t you learned your lesson a few days ago? It really would have been better to lead you to a tiger’s den.”
“You thief, disguising as a farmer one day, and a devotee another, what exactly do you plan to do in Ningmen Prefecture?”
Upon reaching the gate and hearing the voice, Daohua’s expression changed, and almost instinctively, she scattered the Sleeping Powder she had clutched in her hand towards Eunuch An, who was carrying the meal tray.
“Clang!”
“Bang!”
The sound of the food box hitting the ground and a person collapsing followed one after another.
In the courtyard, Wei Qi, who was sparring with Yan Wentao and Yan Wenkai, turned his head swiftly upon hearing the noise, only to see a pretty young girl raising a slingshot at him.
Seeing this, he couldn’t help but feel a mix of laughter and tears.
As the leader of the Imperial Guards, to be aimed at with a slingshot—how contemptuous must they be of him?
Wei Qi was somewhat speechless. Ignoring the young girl, he sped up his hand movements, intending to quickly dispatch these two ignorant fools.
“Bang!”
The sound of something cutting through the air told him it was the young girl who had shot the pellet, and Wei Qi, without underestimating her, picked up a stick that came handy and swatted backward, aiming to knock the pellet away.
However, once the stick hit the pellet, the pellet burst apart.
Immediately thereafter, a faint scent of medicine spread through the air.
Yan Wentao and Yan Wenkai were aware that Daohua liked using sleeping pills as slingshot ammunition, so the moment they saw the pellet flying toward them, they instantly retreated several meters.
Noticing the reaction of the two and the scent in the air, Wei Qi exclaimed in alarm, just about to call out when he felt the world spinning around him, and then with a ‘bang,’ he collapsed onto the ground.
In the moment before darkness overtook him, he watched, wide-eyed, as the young girl’s maid dragged the unconscious eunuch into the courtyard like dragging a dead pig, and the young girl thoughtfully closed the courtyard door.
“What’s happened?”
Wu Jingyi strode out of the room, only to stop dead in his tracks.
What did he see?
At the courtyard entrance, a maid was dragging the eunuch, while another young girl was closing the door.
In the courtyard, those two fools he looked down upon were kicking the leader of the Imperial Palace Imperial Guards.
That was not even the main issue—the main issue was that both the eunuch and Wei Qi had fainted.
How did they do it?
“Bang!”
While Wu Jingyi was still stunned, he caught a blow to his left cheek. Looking up, he saw it was the young girl at the door shooting at him with a slingshot.
“You…”
No sooner had he spoken than Wu Jingyi felt his head spinning, his vision beginning to darken, he staggered a few steps, and then fell straight down.
Worried that there were still people inside the house, Daohua shot out several sleeping pills in succession with a ‘bang, bang, bang’, not caring whether they hit anyone inside. As long as the pills burst open, those in the house would be exposed.
Indeed, after just a moment, more sounds of people collapsing echoed from inside the house.
Yan Wentao and Yan Wenkai watched dumbfounded as their sister knocked out several people with just a slingshot, and both gave her a thumbs-up.
“Third Brother, Fourth Brother, what are you waiting for? Quickly check if there are any people still awake!”
Yan Wentao and the others immediately came to their senses, then rushed into the house.
Daohua didn’t go inside but circled the courtyard instead. When she reached the back yard, she quickly raised the slingshot again and ‘bang,’ a pellet struck Fifth Master who had just jumped down from the window.
Fifth Master touched the spot on his forehead where he’d been hit, and looking at the young girl a few meters away, uttered in his head just before losing consciousness, “Capsized in the gutter.”
Immediately after, the four of them swiftly tied up Fifth Master and his accomplices.
Seeing that all five were bound tight, Daohua immediately said to Wang Manman, “Manman, go call Brother Xiaoliu over quickly, we need to transport these five people out of here right away. Otherwise, when their accomplices come back, we’re done for.”
Wang Manman immediately turned to call someone.
Yan Wenkai, pulling Daohua’s hand, said, “Moving them? Aren’t we going to hand them over to Father?”
Daohua shook her head, pointing at the eunuch, “Xiao Yeyang has been looking for these people recently, and he told me not to make a fuss. Let’s just hand them over to him.”
Yan Wenkai, “Little Prince has been looking for people, how come we didn’t know?”
Daohua shrugged, “Don’t ask so much now, Fourth Brother. You and Third Brother hurry and move the people into the chests. When Brother Xiaoliu gets here, we can transport the people out of the temple.”
Realizing that their sister had everything well in hand, Yan Wentao and Yan Wenkai exchanged looks of bewilderment.
Seeing her brothers not moving, Daohua urged, “What are you waiting for, hurry up.”