Chapter 507: Well Hidden

The hurried footsteps shattered the tranquility of the main hall of the guildhall, and Ling Feng stood still outside the doors of the main hall.

"Prince, Princess Consort!"

Gu Jiu Ling and Xiao Yin were having breakfast; the fragrant glutinous rice porridge from Jiangnan wafted up, and with a few side dishes it was quite tasty.

Xiao Yin put down his chopsticks: "Come in and speak!"

Ling Feng hurriedly bowed and entered: "Reporting to the Prince, Gu Nanxiang...... is dead!"

Gu Jiu Ling stood up: "I'll go take a look!"

Ling Feng hurriedly said: "Princess Consort, that……the corpse looks gruesome, having been chopped into pieces by Zheng Yan, blow after blow……"

Gu Jiu Ling's facial expression twitched instantly; the food she had just eaten seemed about to come back up.

Xiao Yin pressed her hand, stood up, and said: "Stay here, I'll go take a look."

Now that Zheng Yan's two demands have both been met, that ledger ought to see the light of day; if we keep toying with it, this time Xiao Yin will show her no mercy.

Gu Jiu Ling, this lass, though smart, is ultimately soft-hearted; this sort of matter is more suitable for him to handle.

Xiao Yin took Ling Feng and left; Gu Jiu Ling thought about it but decided against it, for that scene would give her nightmares.

Not long after, Xiao Yin came back in, his face indeed grim; he estimated that the scene he had just seen was truly somewhat shocking.

"Your Highness?" Gu Jiu Ling had already dressed, a cloak draped over her.

Xiao Yin lowered his voice to Gu Jiu Ling: "Go! To the Zheng residence!"

Gu Jiu Ling's expression froze; she realized Zheng Yan had revealed the whereabouts of that ledger.

Gu Jiu Ling followed Xiao Yin aboard an inconspicuous blue-canopied carriage, traveling along Yangzhou's West City Road; not long after they arrived at the Zheng residence.

After the Zheng clan was exterminated by jianghu bandits, the entire manor was nearly deserted, desolate to the extreme.

In just a few short months, weeds grew thick inside and outside the courtyard, a sight that shocked the eyes.

Gu Jiu Ling lifted her gaze to the Zheng clan's plaque above the gate; the door was sealed with a notice from Yangzhou officials,

Although it was daytime, it also looked grim and eerie, and a faint smell of blood could still be detected.

Xiao Yin gave a gesture; Ling Feng hurriedly led the men forward and kicked open the Zheng family's main gate.

A puff of dust fell down with the motion, and a pungent odor assailed the nostrils.

Even though so much time has passed since the murder, the smell of decay can still be detected.

Xiao Yin took Gu Jiu Ling's hand and walked into the courtyard; the grass there had grown very tall, and occasionally unknown small birds and mice would dart along the weedy path.

Gu Jiu Ling was startled badly; Xiao Yin's grip tightened and he whispered, "Don't be afraid, follow behind me."

The two walked along the corridor into the main hall.

Opposite the main hall stood a stage; the Zheng clan in Yangzhou also held some standing, though its scale was slightly smaller than that of the Cao clan.

In the main hall, tables lay overturned in disarray, and even the murals on the walls had been taken down.

Those precious jade wares and furnishings had been completely looted.

Gu Jiu Ling sighed inwardly; a perfectly fine family had ended up like this.

Those Cao clan members deserve to die ten or eight times over.

Xiao Yin gave Ling Feng a signal; this time Ling Feng had his followers wait at the second gate, and Ling Feng himself immediately stood guard at the hall's entrance.

Gu Jiu Ling lifted her hand, brushed some dust off the table, and whispered: "Look, this dust is thin, while the table over there has none—clearly someone often comes here to search for something."

Xiao Yin nodded: "Indeed, they didn't spare the murals on the walls either, showing they searched rather thoroughly—look over there."

At the base of the wall, someone had even dug a hole through half the wall, evidently trying to find something; every room was like that.

Gu Jiu Ling was led by Xiao Yin's hand as if touring this haunted mansion; along the corridor they went to the rear garden, where even the artificial hill had been dug up halfway.

Gu Jiu Ling drew a breath: "Good heavens, the Cao clan has cleaned out the Zheng residence inside and out."

Xiao Yin took Gu Jiu Ling's hand and went straight to a tree in the rear garden.

The tree was hung with blessing plaques.

This willow tree looks to be of some age; the wooden blessing plaques hanging from its treetops clink in the wind.

Gu Jiu Ling startled: "Could the ledger be hidden here?"

How could that be? That's far too obvious!

Anyone coming in from outside would see this tree, and the plaques of various sizes on it, at first glance.

Xiao Yin raised his hand, pulled down the several branches facing the gate, and then snatched off the plaques on them in one go.

Gu Jiu Ling stared at the few plaques Xiao Yin pinched in his hand, unable to move.

Xiao Yin examined the plaques one by one, then suddenly pulled one out, casually tossing the others to the ground.

He pried open the shell, revealing an ancient bronze-colored key inside.

Afterwards Xiao Yin went to the side of the moon gate, where there were a few pieces of Taihu stone at the entrance.

If an ordinary person passed by, they would hardly notice it.

Xiao Yin suddenly inserted the key into an inconspicuous stone; with a click, the stone split in half, revealing a box of golden-thread nanmu.

As it turned out, that stone was fake, hollow inside.

Xiao Yin opened the box, revealing the ledger and also an oil-paper bundle.

The golden-thread nanmu box was coated with a layer of medicine, precisely for moisture and rot prevention.

"Good heavens, it was hidden this deep."

Gu Jiu Ling couldn't help but exclaim softly; the thing they had been searching for was right before their eyes on this tree.

One could reach it just by raising a hand; moreover, the stone is ordinary—who would think that a random stone one passes by, or those inconspicuous blessing plaques hanging on the tree, would actually conceal an astonishing secret?

Think about it: the Cao clan members had passed this tree more than once, and also passed that stone more than once, yet never stopped to take a look.

Gu Jiu Ling even admired how cleverly the Zheng clan hid things, though at this moment she had no leisure for such thoughts.

The two of them simply flipped through that ledger, and as Xiao Yin turned the pages his face grew ever darker.

The Cao Clan in Jiangnan is really excessive; not only are they evading salt taxes, but there are also some shady matters, all recorded clearly in this ledger.

Gu Jiu Ling suddenly noticed a problem, pointing at the ledger and saying, "Prince, look."

Xiao Yin hurried over and then discovered that at the end of this old ledger were a few lines of small print recording that, a few years ago, during the Qi Sha Gu battle, the Cao Clan had once transported a batch of grain to the Qi Sha Gu side.

The two of them were stunned at once; the task of transporting military grain for Qi Sha Gu back then had been entrusted to the sole contractor, so why has it now become the Cao Clan?

If it was indeed the Cao Clan that transported it over, and they mixed in dead rats, then what did the Du Clan transport to Qi Sha Gu?

The two simultaneously looked at each other, then picked up the oil paper parcel on one side.

Xiao Yin opened the oil paper parcel layer by layer, revealing what was inside; upon seeing it clearly, the couple's faces changed in unison.