Chapter 355: A Stretch of Ruins

The incident happened suddenly, and Chen Yan no longer intended to stay in Chang'an, so he sent Li Lizhi home to tell Gao Yang to hurry back to Weinan County, then he and Du Gou spurred their horses to reach Weinan County first.

Li Chengqian originally wanted to follow and watch, but his leaving the palace was more troublesome, so Chen Yan declined.

When Chen Yan and Du Gou arrived at the burning workshop site, the place was already surrounded by people, mostly curious townsfolk, the rest were workers who had originally come to work there.

Of course, with such a big incident, Ma Zhou and Fang Yizhi were naturally present, along with many junior officials from the county office.

At this moment, they had already cordoned off the burning workshop, and the county office investigator was still inside searching for something.

"Step aside, don't block the way!"

Du Gou was in a bad mood, his tone not very pleasant; people still had a few objections, but once they saw the attire of him and Chen Yan, they all stepped aside.

"Brother Chen! Brother Du!"

Fang Yizhi was the first to see the two, and he stepped out first to greet them.

Du Gou replied casually, but Chen Yan had no such mood.

Looking at the charred, collapsed, pitch‑black workshop before him, his mood was obvious.

A single workshop is a minor issue; the problem is a death, and they still don't know who did it—that's the priority.

"Magistrate!"

Ma Zhou hurried over, his complexion grim, and sensing Chen Yan's foul mood, he dared not speak loudly.

"Did you find any clues?"

Chen Yan, expressionless, asked lightly.

Ma Zhou swallowed, speaking softly: "So far none; it was cleaned up thoroughly, the preliminary conclusion is that a candle ignited unfinished silk cloth in the workshop, causing the fire…"

"Do you believe that yourself?" He hadn't finished when Chen Yan cut him off.

"We have an explicit rule that all candles must be extinguished before the day's work ends, with guards inspecting daily. I ask you, where did the candle come from?"

He glanced at the two bodies covered with white cloth nearby, "Don't tell me the candle was brought in by the night‑shift inspector; if I'm not mistaken, they're lying over there."

Ma Zhou fell silent instantly.

The matter was suspicious, and everyone was well aware of that.

But the problem is that so far no useful clues have been found; without the mastermind, any talk is useless, and Ma Zhou didn't want to hear nonsense, and he believed Chen Yan felt the same.

"Brother Fang!"

Chen Yan turned his head, "You first go inform the laborers who came today: today is a day off, wages won't be reduced; tomorrow send them to other workshops, and we'll reassign later."

"Then contact the families of the two deceased, compensate according to the plan we set, soothe them, and help handle the aftermath."

"It must be handled properly; I don't want to hear idle gossip."

"Understood!" Fang Yizhi didn't hesitate and immediately carried out Chen Yan's orders.

"Do you think this was done by a prominent family?" Chen Yan looked at Du Gou again.

The latter thought for a moment, shook his head, "I don't think it's a prominent family; their pride exceeds our imagination. Though they do dirty deeds behind the scenes, they wouldn't act so blatantly."

"Moreover, the entire Court now knows you don't get along with the prominent families; they're not that foolish."

"Then who do you think did it?" Chen Yan asked again.

"This…" Du Gou said hesitantly, "The various family powers in the Tang Dynasty are intricately intertwined; considering the interests we have now, many have taken a divergent path."

"Prominent families aren't the only ones; for example… the Du Family behind me is also substantial."

Chen Yan was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected Du Gou to say such a thing.

He even used his own Du Family as a comparison.

It should be noted that the Du Family is not just Du Ruhui; Du Ruhui is merely the more famous member.

After a moment of thought, Chen Yan understood and asked casually, "Has the Du Family behind you ever taken an interest in silk cloth?"

Du Gou first nodded, then said, "But my father suppressed it; it shouldn't be them."

Chen Yan gave no comment.

Silk cloth is like a huge, gleaming slab of fat meat before everyone's eyes; who wouldn't want a bite?

Thus, before the result emerges, one must not jump to conclusions.

Chen Yan led a few people to the ruins of the workshop warehouse; the silk stored inside seemed all burned, though a few fragments remained visible.

He then had Du Gou and Ma Zhou circle the ruin and examine it carefully.

The more they looked, the more sarcasm rose in his eyes, "Tell me, with so much silk in the warehouse, could it burn this cleanly?"

"Only a few palm‑sized scraps left?"

"Generally unlikely," Ma Zhou analyzed seriously: "Silk is stacked together, and with the cold weather, it shouldn't burn so cleanly."

"But this fire is odd, burning too fast, too fierce. Our workshop uses good materials; logically it shouldn't result in such a scene."

"Moreover, two live guards who held the workshop keys were burned to death; that shouldn't happen."

"I think the two guards were knocked unconscious or drugged, which led to their death in the blaze, and most of the silk in the warehouse has probably fallen into thieves' hands."

Chen Yan said, "Then what do you think—they came for the silk, or for our silk‑making technique?"

"Obviously the technique!" Ma Zhou mused: "This workshop handles the final product stage, not the core technology. Per your orders, our silk‑making process is split among several workshops, and the core hydraulic loom was untouched by the fire."

"But there you have the militia of the Negotiation Office guarding day and night; the hidden thieves perhaps knew they couldn't strike the workshop with the hydraulic loom, so they chose this one."

Chen Yan nodded slightly, "Let's go, leave it to the investigators and return to the county office."

Speaking that, he turned and left.

Du Gou and Ma Zhou exchanged a glance, understood staying was useless, and followed.

However, as Chen Yan passed through the crowd, about to return to the county office, he suddenly saw a girl on tiptoe not far away, as if trying to see what was inside.

"Xu Lianyue?"

Chen Yan called softly.

That very call made Xu Lianyue freeze on the spot, her body stiff and upright, instinctively wanting to turn and leave.

He didn't even dare to turn his head to glance.

"What are you running for?"

Chen Yan called out again.

Xu Lianyue halted, her mind and body battling for a moment, gritted her teeth and turned around, "Chen... Sir, is there something you need?"

"Hehe!" Chen Yan gave a half‑hearted laugh, walked over, sized up the girl before him, and said, "You've been avoiding me for so long; I thought you'd hide from me forever, but I didn't expect you to have gotten involved with Gao Yang."

"What about it?"

"Aren't you afraid of running into me?"

"......"