Only Recluses Come and Go as They Please
Ling Jialan set a string of coins onto the table. “No, just asking to put my mind at ease.”
“That’s more than what it’s worth.” The shopkeeper took the coins, then provided change before explaining, “We only conduct transactions without a desire for profit or connections. We will accept whatever the customer deems the goods to be worth.”
“How do you make money, then?”
“That’s a new question.”
Ling Jialan felt it was stupid to continue wasting money for answers, so she was going to place her request when she realised something. “Why did you only charge ten coins for the marriage certificate?”
“The certificate won’t get him back his wife.”
Ling Jialan finally understood what happened. No matter what sorcery they were capable of, they could only obtain the marriage certificate; it didn’t change the reality of the situation. The bride’s father only needed to write another marriage certificate to continue imposing his will.
“A marriage certificate is but only scrap paper. If he wants to get back his wife, he needs a marriage certificate written by his father-in-law, but such a certificate doesn’t exist, so we can’t sell it.”
“Why didn’t you tell him that?”
“We only carry out business transactions, selling what people want to them. If he wants a wife, we could sell him a method to win back his wife, but he asked for a marriage certificate, so we sold him exactly that.”
Ling Jialan felt as if she was suddenly standing in a vortex where she couldn’t let her guard down for a second.
“What are you looking to purchase?”
Noticing the shopkeeper stare into Ling Jialan’s eyes, the maid pointed out, “Shopkeeper, you’re scaring customers again,” as she took his pipe from him.
“Hey! You expect me to go a whole night without smoking?”
The maid smiled. “The rule is not to smoke in the presence of female customers, right?”
It was the first time the shopkeeper showed a human side to him as he leaned onto the counter and groaned. “Fine, fine, what is it that you want to buy?”
Their interaction reminded Ling Jialan of her interactions with her father back on Mount Lu. Following an exhale, she answered, “I’m looking for two people, Lian Hua and Fu Dalong. They might be fake names, but that’s all I know.”
“How much do you intend to pay?”
“Name a price.”
“Ten gold. Can accept paper notes as an alternative.”
Ten gold taels wasn’t large sum to Ling Jialan; however, she didn’t have that much on her at the moment. She couldn’t have shamelessly told Feng Jiutian that she got played and was now seeking underground intel, so she needed a loan from him. If she reached out for Ming Feizhen, it was more likely that she’d have ended up paying for his lodging and food instead of receiving money. On account of the man who left in a great mood, she decided to place her sword on the counter.
“Can I pawn this? I will come back for it later.”
“Yes.” The shopkeeper passed the sword to the maid, who jogged off to grab something. “The sword needs to be appraised. You will be paid the difference if it is worth more than the cost of the information.”
The maid soon returned with a sheet of paper and a black box. The shopkeeper read aloud the contents of the sheet: “Mount Lu’s Servant Yao, worth 550 gold. You will be paid 540 gold to compensate for the difference.”
“No need. I will bring ten gold back to retrieve the sword.”
“Sure.”
The shopkeeper gave the maid some instructions, and then she took it away. Most probably, the black box contained the 540 gold. Despite the weight of the box, the maid was able to hold it as if it was weightless and walk without making a sound.
The shopkeeper passed Ling Jialan a sheet. “The answer you seek is here.”
***
Strange Goods Store provided Ling Jialan with a vague address. It wasn’t specific as people in the pugilistic world technically referred to such a location as a “territory”.
Qinghe Warehouse used to be a government warehouse used to store spare rations until a few decades ago. Following its abandonment, a group used it as their base, effectively establishing the Qinghe Warehouse band. The group predominately worked as couriers and sold ingredients for medicine and so forth. As long as a business ensured their ingredients were of acceptable quality, there was never a need to worry about income due to how often expensive formulas and herbs were prescribed. Therefore, Qinghe Warehouse were able to turn a profit without engaging in any shady business. All established gangs in the capital operated a legal business that was profitable enough to cover their shady business. They needed to follow this formula for their survival.
After establishing their presence, Qinghe Warehouse changed the usage of the warehouse into a warehouse for storing herbs, and it was now their largest warehouse. As it was located at the outskirts of the capital, all products imported into the capital had to go by the warehouse, which was why it was the most heavily guarded warehouse. There were easily more than eighty armed guards at a glance outside, so it was safe to assume there were equally, if not more, guards inside.
Since Ling Jialan pawned Servant Yao, she only had an ordinary sword that she pinched from a wealthy family on the way over. If there were a few elites among the guards, then her plan was doomed to fail even if Lian Hua and Fu Dalong didn’t show up. As challenging over a hundred enemies with the ordinary sword was courting death, she knew she couldn’t just barge in. Never leaving a trace was something she learnt from a young age.
Qinghe Warehouse was known to the public as an herb warehouse, so they couldn’t let overbearing, gruff, aggressive-looking men there in case the government inspected their place. As such, they assigned thirty-odd folks who didn’t resemble criminals as workers, including a dozen-odd ladies.
It took Ling Jialan a while to find a lady with her similar physique to knock out and switch places with – on top of smearing some stuff on her face to aid her disguise. Once she had her disguise, she grew bolder. She delved even deeper in once she after infiltrating six checkpoints without being detected.
A group of men spotted the corner of Ling Jialan’s clothing and called, “Hey, what are you doing here?”
Ling Jialan stopped in her tracks, turned around and stuttered, “I-I am looking for the restroom.”
A man frowned. “Is she someone Sun Momo brought here? That would explain her not knowing her way around.”
“Hey, did Sun Momo introduce you?”
Ling Jialan nodded since she didn’t have a better solution.
“Thought so. Look at her body; she can’t be one of the kitchen girls.”
“But why would one of Sun Momo’s girls be here?”
“Didn’t she just tell you she’s looking for the restroom? Miss, looking for the restroom, right? We’ll show you the way.”
Ling Jialan reluctantly nodded. As she followed them, she heard them gradually breathing harder and showing no signs of letting her run away. She thought they saw through her fibs when the man leading the way suddenly stopped in his tracks, turned around and licked his lips.
“There’s finally a real girl in this damn place. Since you’ve already come all the way here, don’t be in a hurry to leave. Hehehe, you weren’t looking for the restroom but for a man, isn’t that right?”
All three men who led her to the dark spot were grinning. Before they could make a sound, though, they were all laid out.
“If I wasn’t in a hurry, I’d give the three of you hell.”
Ling Jialan strongly despised men who bullied women, so she showed them no mercy. Even if they could wake from their coma, the stabs to their qi meridians meant they’d have challenges just walking.
Seeing as she had been detected once, Ling Jialan resumed her infiltration with more caution – moving slower, listening for details, and only moving once she confirmed she wouldn’t be detected. The problem was that the warehouse was so large that they could’ve built forty rooms inside and still have left over space, yet there were no clues as to where Lian Hua and Fu Dalong could’ve been.
Whilst she was hiding in the darkness, Ling Jialan heard a conversation start. She looked over to see a group of men escorting a lady in her sixties with a boulder for a belly and face caked in makeup. Her catwalk just made her even more unbearable. She tossed some silver taels to the leader of the group.
The man smiled and expressed, “Thank you, Sun Momo.”
Sun Momo snorted and then stepped into a storeroom whilst the men formed a formation around the exterior. As she searched for ways to get a closer look, Ling jialan spotted a vent. Following some internal planning, she flicked a stone in a direction where there was nobody. The group of men looked in its direction, giving her a window to zip up onto the ceiling of the storeroom before they could turn back, and land silently.
Upon placing her face eye closer to the vent, she saw around twenty young girls locked up inside the hay floor. Sun Momo mercilessly cursed at the girls, reproaching them for refusing to prostitute themselves for money and only giving in after they had been abused.
They publicly trade herbs, but they’re involved in human trafficking, too!
Assuming Lian Hua was with Qinghe Warehouse, Ling Jialan was even more incensed.
Half of the men left with Sun Momo. Ling Jialan jumped down and moved in the opposite direction to increase the distance between them. Once there was nobody around, she started to think about what to do. She went to the warehouse to find Lian Hua and Fu Dalong. She couldn’t turn a blind eye to the innocent girls. Alas, it would’ve been virtually impossible to rescue them on her own, let alone when Lian Hua and Fu Dalong were around. Thus, her only option was to seek help. Returning to the capital to seek Liu Shan Men’s assistance was the best choice. Once she left, though, there was no telling what the captives would’ve been subjected to. Additionally, Lian Hua and Fu Dalong might’ve left the warehouse during that window.
Someone’s here!
As soon as she sensed someone entered her space, Ling Jialan reactively jumped out and thrust at them, but a needle fired from a shuttle hit the tip of her fingers, prompting her to back tuck and land silently. She wanted to avoid alerting the guards if it was possible.
One of the boys who saw Ling Jialan was shocked, while the other was indifferent. Ling Jialan was able to pick up on their presence thanks to Mount Lu’s mental cultivation, which was superior to other sects’ mental cultivation in the senses department. Plus, her sword spirit was pure. Had she not made the first move, they would’ve caught her.
Ling Jialan flitted back towards them upon landing, using her hands as swords to thrust at them simultaneously. The smaller one blocked it using an extremely fast palm strike that almost caught her on the face, while the bigger boy glued to her fingers aimed at him, hampering her from attacking his companion. Thankfully, she was fast to react, using Flying Thrust’s sword qi to force them into a retreat strategy.
“Who are you? Why are you following in the footsteps of these criminals at such young ages?”
Seeing Bu’s ambiguous expression gave Ling Jialan chills.
“Bu, she’s not going to harm us,” Li Zizi assured.
“You surrender as soon as you run into pretty girls? Where’s your spine?” responded Bu.
“She deliberately suppressed her voice and the sounds of her movements to avoid alerting the people here. That means she’s not with them.” Li Zizi said, “Hi, Miss. These people are trying to harm my shifu. We are here to look into what they are plotting. We are seeing these people for the first time today. We are not aware of their crimes.”
Ling Jialan thought positively of Li Zizi due to his attitude.
“Why are you explaining that to her? Hey, who are you, lady? What are you here for?”
Ling Jialan cleared her throat. “That’s none of your business… Who is your shifu?”
“My shifu’s name is Ming Feizhen.”
“You’re Ming Feizhen’s disciple?” Ling Jialan had to eye Li Zizi to check if her eyes were playing games with her.
Li Zizi was equally surprised, but he put two and two together quite quickly. “Oh, Shiniang?”
“Go to hell! Who are you calling your shiniang?!”
Bu: “She’s your shifu’s wife?”
“No!” exclaimed Ling Jialan.
Zizi: “Concubine?”
“… I’ll kill you two, you know?”
Translator comment: Twisted Metal Calypso vibes anyone? No? I’m revealing my age?
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