Chapter 42: A Case Closed Without Being Closed

“Yes, it would be bad if she got broken…” Li Yan replied, then suddenly realized that Zhou Dongtian didn’t mean it that way and quickly corrected himself, “So she played her way to Lingao and became a prisoner—”

Zhou Dongtian chuckled twice and patted his shoulder. He picked up the file and handed it to Li Yan, “She belongs to the Intelligence Bureau now. I think she will cooperate with your work in the future.”

“Good. I…” Li Yan nodded. He recalled that the Intelligence Bureau had originally wanted to conduct a special investigation on the Ming Dynasty’s internal security and intelligence systems. They had already commissioned the Grand Library to search for a lot of information from historical records and notes. At the same time, they had also obtained a lot of information through interrogating prisoners and interviewing Ming gentry. The staff members captured in the Battle of Chengmai provided a considerable amount of information: some was hearsay, some was personal experience. But all this information came from the outside. Now, with such a family member and temporary worker, she should be more familiar with the internal situation and operation of the Jinyiwei than others.

The Foreign Intelligence Bureau immediately issued a notice to all field departments, listing Huang Shunlong as “dangerous.” His shops and residence were all considered locations with serious threats. Lin Ming had lost his sister-in-law in Macau, so he would definitely make the Huang family a key target. It was possible that a team of Jinyiwei was already lying in ambush outside the Huang family’s home.

“Although cutting off contact with the Huang family is a major loss, we must now be wary of the other party becoming desperate. For both public and private reasons, that Hundred-household named Lin will definitely try to directly kidnap a Senator to find out our secrets, or try to exchange prisoners with us,” Jiang Shan said.

Li Yongxun once again met the three-person team led by that woman. They were still waiting for her with expressionless faces. She was once again hooded and put on a carriage. After a period of bumps, the hood was removed. Li Yongxun blinked her eyes. This was a quiet, large courtyard with high walls on all four sides. The walls were covered with climbing plants, with large and small pink flowers blooming on them, which looked quite strange.

In the courtyard stood several multi-story buildings similar to those of the Franks, but not as beautiful as the Franks’ houses. The windows were all inlaid with glass, but they were also fitted with sturdy wooden bars. Nothing could be seen from the outside.

A new kind of fear crept into her heart: what is this place? Could it be the prison of the kūnzéi rebels? The appearance was not very similar to that of the Ming Dynasty, but the stern and cold atmosphere emanating from this place was very familiar to her from her childhood.

This was the “study class” of the General Political Security Bureau. In fact, nothing was studied here; it was a place where the Political Security Bureau exclusively detained people. In the system of the transmigrator regime…

“Go in!” Ke Yun urged her. Li Yongxun had no choice but to go up the steps. The double doors, covered in iron sheets, opened, and a cripple came out—a wooden leg was exposed under one of his trouser legs. This person was also wearing a matching short jacket and the same blue shoulder straps as the female kūnzéi rebels.

“One person to be processed, name Li Yongxun, female!” Ke Yun handed the document in her hand to the other party. The two of them were busy writing and stamping at the table by the door for a while. The crippled man then took out a string of keys.

“Where should she be arranged?”

“The first district, I suppose.”

The crippled man opened an iron gate in the hall. Behind it was a long corridor with doors on the left and right, all closed. He led them around three or four corners, through a courtyard, and opened several more iron gates, finally arriving at a door.

“This is it.”

Li Yongxun found herself in a simple and tidy room. Inside, there was only a bed, a table, and two chairs. The four walls were painted snow-white, the floor was wooden, and the windows were high, luxuriously inlaid with glass. The room was bright with sunlight. On the table were the four treasures of the study and a notebook made of white paper.

“This is your room,” the crippled guard said. “The toilet and bathroom are at the end of the corridor. You can walk freely in the corridor, but you can’t go out of the iron gate.” He pointed to the iron gate at the other end of the corridor. “If you need anything, pull the rope, and someone will come.” After saying this, he limped out, leaving only Ke Yun and her.

“You will live here. Rest for a while. Someone will come to talk to you in a few days.”

“Talk about what?” Li Yongxun didn’t know what kind of medicine the kūnzéi rebels were selling in their gourds. It seemed that this was “house arrest,” which made her feel a little relieved.

Ke Yun did not answer her question. “There are paper and pens here. You can start by writing your autobiography.”

“Autobiography?”

“Yes, start writing from yourself. Where you were born, who your parents are, what your family background is, whether you are literate, what books you have read since you were a child… write it all down.”

“Why do I have to write this?!” Li Yongxun became even more curious.

“This is a template.” Ke Yun pointed to a small booklet on the table. “Read it first, and you’ll know how to write it.”

“I don’t know how to read! I won’t write!”

“You’d better be literate,” Ke Yun sneered. “Otherwise, I’ll have someone come and help you write…”

“I’ll write, I’ll write,” Li Yongxun of course knew what the other party meant and immediately softened. “I don’t need anyone’s help.”

While Li Yongxun was busy writing materials in the study class of the General Political Security Bureau, Lin Ming was hiding in an inn in Sanshui County, racking his brains on how to report the results of the investigation into Gao Shunqin’s disappearance.

The disappearance of Imperial Censor Gao became a complete cold case in Guangzhou. After a fruitless search in Macau, Lin Ming had to return to Guangzhou in dejection. To avoid too much external influence in Guangzhou, he went to Sanshui County again in the name of investigating the case and then stayed there.

At this time, he had already determined in his heart that the kūnzéi rebels were the real culprits behind Gao Shunqin’s disappearance, and Li Yongxun’s disappearance was most likely related to the case of Imperial Censor Gao. But at present, the attitude of the Guangzhou officialdom towards the Australians was “peace.” If he jumped out at this time and said that the kūnzéi rebels were the black hand, he would be creating a problem for the governor—if an important official was lost in Lingao, could the Guangdong officialdom ignore it? To send troops to fight would be seeking death. Not to mention that the Guangdong side did not dare to send troops to fight at all, even if they arrested the big merchant Guo Dongzhu, the head of the kūnzéi rebels who was about to return to Guangzhou, to exchange for the hostage, Governor Li would not dare—that would mean preparing for the Five Rams Station to be burned down a second time.

If he really reported it this way, he would have completely offended Li Fengjie and the Guangdong officialdom.

Lin Ming gritted his teeth and thought for a long time, and finally decided to hold his nose and go along with the meaning of the Guangdong officialdom. Imperial Censor Gao would have to be wronged and dedicate himself to the country. Fortunately, so far, all the evidence found pointed his route after leaving Guangzhou to the north. Except for himself and Li Yongxun, who was captured by the Australians, no one could provide a definite clue that the kūnzéi rebels were responsible. His big search in Macau could only be considered as based on “rumors,” and the Australians were at most “suspected.”

As for his sister-in-law, she had to be rescued—otherwise, his wife would not agree. Besides, he couldn’t just let an outsider get away with it! But this matter could not be handled by the government; he had to do it himself, privately. Fortunately, he had the Jinyiwei token, and he had a good reputation in the Hundred-household’s office, so it was not difficult to mobilize official resources.

Lin Ming made his calculations, pretended to arrange for people to search everywhere, and sent people to Nanxiong Prefecture to investigate the case with great fanfare. In the end, the memorial from Guangzhou to the court became that Imperial Censor Gao had left his post on his own, and his whereabouts were unknown. According to reliable clues, he should have left Guangdong and entered Jiangxi. However, the Guangdong side was still “doing its best to investigate,” and so on. A large roll of case documents was also attached to the memorial. Now, unless the court appointed another special person to investigate this matter, the case would be indefinitely delayed. As for whether the court would send a special person to investigate, Li Fengjie felt that it was not certain. Even if they were sent, they might not be able to find out anything. Besides, in recent years, there were fires everywhere and smoke rising from all over the country. The court might not have the time to deal with this matter.

Li Fengjie secretly instructed his subordinates to give Lin Ming three thousand taels of silver as a reward, and another one thousand taels as a reward for his subordinates. Except for the family of Imperial Censor Gao, everyone was satisfied.

However, the family of Imperial Censor Gao was strongly dissatisfied with this outcome, because it was too incredible that Imperial Censor Gao would “abandon his post and flee.” The inner chambers of the Gao family sent people to the governor’s yamen and other places to appeal many times, but they were all dismissed with “the investigation is ongoing.” In theory, it was just a report on the situation—the Gao case was not officially closed, so Li Fengjie used this to prevaricate with the family.

“The Gao family says they are going to send people to the capital to file an imperial lawsuit,” Li Xijue said to Li Fengjie, who was working in the signing room. He was a little worried that if the matter got out of hand, it would be difficult to handle—this was true both at home and abroad, without exception. And the Gao family was not an ordinary commoner family; they had considerable influence.

Li Fengjie said unhurriedly, “File an imperial lawsuit? A woman’s view! It’s not like we captured Master Gao. Who are they going to sue? For what crime?”

“What you say is right, master, but Gao Shunqin has quite a few friends and colleagues in the capital. If the Gao family goes to lobby them…”

“At most, they will ask us to ‘investigate and report again.’ We haven’t stopped investigating this matter. Is there a single word in the memorial saying that this case is closed?”

“That’s not the case—” The memorial was not written by Li Fengjie, but the main staff members had all consulted it before it was sent.

“Since it’s not, it’s still under investigation. What else can they say?” Li Fengjie smiled and picked up his book again.

Li Xijue knew that the master was using the “delay” tactic, dragging it out until his term of office was over.

“Master! Even so, the Gao family still needs to be appeased a little,” Li Xijue had been dealing with the Gao family recently and knew that they were not so easy to dismiss—this was not a matter of money.

“Hmm.” Li Fengjie considered for a moment. “Someone has to take responsibility for this matter. I think there must be a few accomplices in the Gao mansion. Prefect Yu told me before that the Gao family had a few things they wanted him to do, but he didn’t dare to agree at the time because of Master Gao’s face. Now it seems that Master Gao will not be returning to Guangdong for a while. You tell Prefect Yu to do it for them—it just so happens to be part of the investigation.”