22 - Break-in

Chapter 22 – Break-in

After a long wait, the rest day that Shangguan Yan was waiting for finally arrived.

She had planned to check on the shops’ businesses but unexpectedly, someone broke into the prison last night.

As soon as she received the news, Shangguan Yan rushed to the Yamen.

The prison break-in that occurred late in the night must be related to the grave robbery.

Holding a token in her hand, she rushed into the Yamen and caught hold of a guard to ask. The guard had never seen her before and upon seeing her ‘sorrowful-looking ghost’ face, he almost died of fright. Then a female guard came over and led her to the cell.

When she arrived, Di Jing seemed to be a little affected. He looked in her direction and raised his hand to wave her over. She immediately walked to him and at the same time, noticed a row of dead bodies on the ground.

“My Lord, this……”

“These are the men in black who broke into the prison last night. Fifteen people came, ten escaped and five were arrested. All five of them took poison and committed suicide.”

She stepped forward to examine the dead bodies. Everyone’s complexion had turned black which showed that the poison was extremely toxic and had spread very fast, leaving no chance of survival.

“These are death warriors.” She looked at Di Jing.

(Death warriors are specially trained people who carry out suicide attacks or take up dangerous missions. They can only succeed and not fail because once they fail, death is the only option for them.)

“You recognize them?”

She shook her head. “They all have fresh faces.” She seemed to have thought of something and asked again. “Is there any information on whether they are here to kidnap or kill to silence?”

If they were here to kidnap, it meant they came here for her and if they were here to kill, it meant they came to silence her.

Di Jing’s face sank and stared at the dead bodies on the ground. “No information available. Unfortunately, the trap that this Officer set and baited eventually caught the fishes but none survived.”

Shangguan Yan said. “Not necessarily, since dead bodies are also clues. Why doesn’t my Lord send someone to find out what kind of poison they took?”

Di Jing shook his head lightly. “How would this Officer not think of that? This Officer had found the most skilled coroner to investigate and determine but still couldn’t find out the kind of poison used.” He sighed and then said. “It will be good if someone with higher skills can determine the poison and help this Officer find the answer.”

Shangguan Yan was lost in thoughts as she looked silently at the dead bodies on the ground.

Di Jing gave the jailer a few instructions to remove the dead bodies to the mortuary then turned around and left. However, Shangguan Yan did not leave. She walked to one of the corpses, quietly took out a handkerchief, and wiped off the blood on the corpse’s mouth. Then she quickly wrapped it up and hid it in her sleeve before getting up to leave.

After she had gone out of the prison’s main door and walked some distance away, Di Jing who was hiding in the shadows finally came out and said to Qiu Dan who was beside him.

“Follow carefully.”

“Yes, my Lord.” Qiu Dan immediately used his qinggong skills to trail behind Shangguan Yan.

Di Jing turned back into the prison and whispered an order to a guard. “Bring over the ten death warriors who were caught. This Officer wants to interrogate them.”

What Di Jing did not tell Shangguan Yan was that the ten death warriors did not manage to escape successfully but were all captured. He wanted to take advantage of this case to find out something that he had always been suspicious of.

Shangguan Yan who was hoodwinked did not realize that she was being followed. She went directly to the cosmetic shop and then ordered someone to prepare paper and brush. After writing a few lines in the letter, she wrapped the blood-stained handkerchief with oilcloth and then put it together with the letter into a leather cylindrical case. She instructed Xilang to send the case to the Divine Doctor, Old Man Zhao, and following that, she continued with the routine checks on her shops.

The next day, not long after Shangguan walked into the Yamen , Di Jing send someone to summon her over.

“Is my Lord going out?”

When she saw the carriage was prepared, she could not help but look at Di Jing in puzzlement.

“Follow this Officer.” After throwing out a few words, Di Jing got into the carriage. Although she was puzzled, she knew that she would get to know it later anyway, so she walked to the front of the carriage where there was a seat next to the coachman.

Di Jing lifted the carriage curtain and ordered in a deep voice. “Don’t sit outside to scare people. Come in.”

Shangguan Yan was stunned. When the other guards and officers heard, some held back their smiles while others turned away their faces to hide their mirth.

Hmph, this person is the same as when he was in the Qin Mansion. He still likes to tease her deliberately whenever he gets an opportunity and has not changed at all!

She walked back in embarrassment and jumped into the carriage in a relaxed manner to sit opposite Di Jing.

Di Jing immediately ordered. “Depart!” The carriage drove out of the side door.

Shangguan Yan lifted the curtain to enjoy the street scene outside and feeling Di Jing’s gaze on her, she turned around to look at him.

“Your face doesn’t seem to be showing signs of recovery.” He said.

Touching her face, she lowered her eyes and sighed. “That’s right. Perhaps it won’t get better and maybe my face will be this ugly for the rest of my life.”

“Not ugly.”

She lifted her eyes and looked at him in surprise.

He looked straight into her eyes and said. “You are you, no matter if your face is pockmarked or covered with rashes……..in my eyes, nothing will change…….you are very beautiful.” After speaking, he closed his eyes to rest.

Shangguan Yan looked at him blankly.

What did he say? Not ugly? Very beautiful? Why do the words sound like expressions of love? But looking at him, it doesn’t seem like it.

This is the first time she heard words of praise from him. It was hard to believe that someone as serious as him who normally likes to bicker with her would praise her while speaking so seriously.

Does he not know that saying such words would cause girls to misunderstand? Someone who normally does not speak good about others suddenly praised her seriously and it made her unaccustomed to it. The inexplicable feeling of a deer jumping chaotically arose in her heart and she quickly took a deep breath and cursed herself for being unable to keep calm.

Fortunately, his eyes were closed at this moment, otherwise, wouldn’t it be embarrassing to let him see that her ears had heated up?

While still thinking about this, Di Jing who was sitting opposite her suddenly opened his eyes and she froze.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked.

“Me? Nothing is wrong!” She quickly played dumb.

Suddenly, he leaned towards her and this unexpected behavior made her raise her head in confusion. She widened her eyes as she stared at him and suddenly felt a warmth near her ears. His fingers gently lifted the hair resting on her temples near her ears.

“Rashes have appeared on your ears as well.” He knotted his eyebrows and his tone was solemn.

“Oh? Really?” She forced herself to remain calm and deliberately used a relaxed tone to cover the stirred-up unending ripples in her heart.

His elegant temperament enveloped her and his fingers near her temples emitted a faint fragrance of ink. His natural behavior seemed to show he just purely cares about her and does not have any other meaning.

Strange, why is she feeling so unsettled? Usually, while disguised as a man and when it is necessary, she would also hug men on their shoulders, so she shouldn’t be this useless.

She shot a glance at Di Jing.

He is handsome but it is not that she has never seen handsome men before. It is only just that after he had lifted her hair, her ears turned red uncontrollably. Fortunately, he had thought it was due to the rashes, otherwise, it would be so embarrassing.

Di Jing only looked at her for a while and then withdrew his hands to sit back on the seat opposite. “Don’t worry, I will send someone to inquire and find a skilled doctor to heal you. After all, I will also have to bear some responsibility for your face becoming like this.”

Shangguan Yan realized that he was feeling guilty. In the beginning, she had used the disguise to deceive him but did not expect that he would take this matter to heart and became attentive to her.

“Then I have to thank you in advance.” She held up her hands with a hand over her fist to salute him. She did not show any courtesy to him either and was thinking that it was probably the words he spoke just now that had moved her a little and thus her ears became hot for no reason.

Very quickly, she threw away the chaotic thoughts and regained her composure.

On the surface, Di Jig was calm as usual but his mind was surging. It looked like she was not complelely indifferent to him which made him happy. A light flashed in his eyes and very quickly, it was concealed.

“Where are we going?”

“To arrest someone.”

“Who?”

“You will know when that person appears.”

Eh, so secretive…….keeping the suspense? It could be seen that this person must be very important!

Thus, she did not ask anymore.

After the carriage left the city gates, it traveled westward for an hour before entering a village.

After arriving in the village, Di Jing got down from the carriage and ordered everyone to put on their disguises. At this moment, he was dressed in official robes while the guards were also wearing their official uniforms and she was dressed in her constable uniform. It seemed Di Jing detoured to this village midway for a change of clothes with the purpose to carry out his duties in normal clothing.

The people in the village distributed the clothes that were prepared for everyone. Shangguan Yan received a set of young woman’s clothing and understood that she was supposed to pretend to be a woman.

She changed into the woman’s clothing, combed her hair into a bun, and was ready. When she walked out of the house, everyone was already gathered in the courtyard and the people who had disguised themselves took the opportunity to look at each other’s outfits. The male guards had changed into the clothes of servants and the female guards were dressed as maids. She was thinking that she should be pretending to be a servant as well but when she felt the texture of the clothes on herself it seemed to be of good quality and at the same time, it did not seem like the cloth materials that a momo would wear. It was more like the clothes of a madam, uh……..she can’t be pretending to be a madam, right?

At this moment, everyone’s expressions suddenly became respectful as someone was coming out. She glanced in the direction that everyone was looking and saw Di Jing walking out of the house. At this time, he had taken off his official robe and was dressed in a sky-blue wide-sleeved brocade robe. A jade belt was tied to his waist and he wore a jade crown on his head. He walked towards her steadily and gracefully as she stared at him.

With just a look at this appearance, it is known that he is the Master. Although the intimidating strictness and prestige of an official were no longer felt, he displayed the demeanor of the head of a family.

Di Jing looked her up and down and commented. “This will do. Yinshuang, tell her the role she is playing.”

“Yes.” The female guard named Yinshuang stepped forward and handed Shangguan Yan a list of everyone’s identities.

It turned out that this time, they were pretending to be a wealthy family and Di Jing is the Master while she is the wife and the female guard, Yinshuang is her maid. On the list, everyone’s fake names and identities were listed as well as the backgrounds of their families.

“Destroy the list after memorizing it.” Yinshuang said.