Chapter 68: Wonderful Kitchen Chapter Sixty-Eight: Cloth

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Protagonist:

Song Miao

That cry hadn't yet managed to drill out of his throat before Diao Zi's neck was clamped tightly from behind by a thick arm.

If his mouth had been covered, he could still have made a sound, but now his neck was choked, not a breath could get through, so how could he make any noise?

He was the first to be dragged out head and legs into the Main Hall outside.

Then the one with the lock-picking tool was also hauled out by hook or by crook.

This person struggled a bit, kicking his legs wildly, even kicking the door, making two "thud thud" sounds.

But the Miscellaneous Room was pitch black, no one could see anyone; hearing the commotion, someone "shushed," kindly offering a reminder.

Those coming in behind thought nothing of it; seeing a figure heading out, they didn't use their brains and just followed out.

As soon as they stepped out the small door, having just barely adjusted to the darkness inside, people were one after another either thrown to the ground with chests pressed down, or had their necks choked.

The lookout, to watch the comings and goings in the alley, had walked out ten or so steps, standing a bit away from the window.

But even so, he faintly heard some movement, finding it strange, and was about to turn back to look when he heard a light running sound from the alley entrance direction.

This person jumped, about to turn and warn, but heard the newcomer whistle from afar.

When he got closer, sure enough, it was one of their own.

The newcomer saw him and hurriedly said: "Elder Liao said, tell Brother Diao not to make a move tonight!"

The lookout was startled, pointed a finger at the gaping window of the Song Family Eatery, and said: "What's to be done now? People have already gone in!"

The messenger only knew how to deliver the message, how would he know what to do; stamping his foot in anxiety, he asked: "Did you catch anyone? If not caught and not discovered, hurry and tell them to retreat!"

While speaking, this person moved toward the window direction.

A cart was stopped at the wooden window opening, just right to borrow leverage.

He put one hand on the window sill, one foot on the cart, and drilled inside.

This person's eyesight was decent; besides, having come all the way, his eyes had adapted to the darkness, seeing more clearly than others. Before he had even drilled halfway in, he began to prowl around under the window opening inside, looking for a good place to lodge.

But his eyes had only turned half a circle, finding no good place, when he saw two human legs seemingly sprouting from the ground—those legs were kicking desperately, but before they could kick a few more times, who knows what they hit, suddenly there was no movement.

He was startled at once; looking again, above the human legs, on the belly of the person lying on the ground, there was actually another person sitting on top.

That person seemed to hear the movement here and suddenly turned his head.

He couldn't see what the person who turned his head looked like, only saw this person's mouth split open; in the darkness, he revealed upper and lower rows of teeth, ghastly, especially thrilling.

The messenger opened his mouth with an "ah," immediately screaming; he propped his hands on the window sill, his legs desperately scrabbling backward, wishing he could chop off his own head and neck along with his chest and throw them in the room, leaving just two legs and a belly to hurry and escape.

And with his "ah ah" cries, the lookout outside already sensed something was wrong; he didn't care about anything else, let alone reporting, and took off running.

Before he had run two steps, he heard a "bang" behind him, then two more "bang bangs."

Knowing looking wouldn't help, this person still couldn't help but turn back to look.

Under the night, by a bit of crescent moonlight, only saw at the Song Family Eatery window, the messenger's legs kicking in the air, desperately trying to step on the cart; who knows what he snagged, his robe was torn half off, half hanging on the cart.

But his upper body went further into the window, the lower half exposed outside grew shorter and shorter; slowly, even his legs were "sucked" in.

Just as if the window was some monster, swallowing things.

The lookout's legs went soft, his heart almost jumping out of his throat; his gaze shifted again, and he saw the Song Family's front door was wide open at some point; suddenly, several sturdy men leapt out from inside, charging at him.

This person panicked beyond measure; who knows what he tripped over, he took a tumble; before he could get up, he was arrested by the two pursuers, one on the left and one on the right.

He was about to beg for mercy when he heard someone in the Song Family Eatery shout: "That bastard ran, hurry and stop him!"

Looking up again, sure enough, a gust of wind from behind; someone burst out from the front door, holding a bench he knew not where he'd grabbed, rushing toward outside the alley; while rushing, he turned and threw the bench halfway.

The messenger pressed to the ground, squinting at the fleeing figure's build, guessed and shouted: "Brother Diao? Brother Diao, save me!"

His eyes were sharp; the escaped person was indeed Diao Zi.

But Diao Zi was busy saving himself; where did he have time to care about him?

A few who reacted wanted to chase, but were blocked by the bench; by the time they went around, it was already too late.

Diao Zi ran all the way; hearing no sound behind, he found it strange; glancing back with the corner of his eye, he suddenly sensed something wrong—those sturdy men had only chased him two steps, then turned around, rushing toward the right side direction.

What was this?

Was I not worthy?

He was stunned.

No one chasing, his feet unconsciously slowed by two points; he couldn't help but look in the direction those sturdy men rushed.

Opposite the Song Family Eatery, that house whose door was always tightly shut, now had its gate wide open.

Diao Zi couldn't help but blink.

This was a gambling house in the neighborhood; usually, unless one was a regular customer, or brought by a regular customer, no matter who came, they wouldn't easily open the door.

Even for a regular customer, they would at most open a small gap for someone to slip in.

Today, why at this time, open the door so wide?

Before he could think it over, he saw several people scrambling out from inside the wide-open house gate, clutching their heads and acting like rats.

Those rushing out saw the several sturdy men surrounding outside; they all stopped, turned around, and ran back inside; while running, they shouted: "Someone's here, someone's here!"

Who knows what they were panicking about.

But after running back a few steps, shouts came from inside the house again: "Someone behind, several knife-wielding official soldiers blocking the door behind, run fast! Run fast!"

Knife-wielding official soldiers behind, only a few men in front; even a fool knew how to choose.

So in just a few breaths, those running back into the house actually turned around again and rushed out the door.

Diao Zi saw this; where did he still not know something big had happened? He no longer dared hesitate; his two legs pumped like something, fleeing for his life.

He ran and ran, hearing no movement behind him; when he looked back, sure enough no one was chasing, so he let out a breath and was about to speed up toward the alley mouth—just as he stepped out with one leg, he felt something was wrong.

So bright!

Looking up again, not far away, dozens of steps off, a murderous air hung thick—it turned out to be a line of soldiers carrying sticks and shields, marching into the alley and blocking the mouth completely.

Behind the soldiers, others carried lanterns and torches to light the way, and several men on horseback rode behind to press the pursuit.

The soldiers never expected that before they even entered the alley, they would run right into a fugitive at the door.

Such an easy credit—who knew how many sticks of incense one would have to burn to earn it? The few men in front had already caught up with him head-on.

Diao Zi had barely caught his breath when he suddenly ran into the officers ahead; in a panic he turned and fled again.

He was long-bodied and short-legged, with a high step frequency, and having just run himself into a state, he truly flew like the wind.

But the soldiers chasing behind, some holding sticks, some shields, and having just set out, actually could not catch up quickly.

After fleeing for a moment, the Song Family Eatery was already ahead; Diao Zi ran while a glimmer of hope arose in his heart.

Behind that lay Nan Lu Academy.

As long as he climbed over the wall into Nan Lu Academy, with many rooms, a large compound, and a mixed crowd, he would surely find a way to escape.

But just then, a man guarding the door of the Song Family Eatery heard the noise, looked up and saw people coming, and seeing the pursuers behind, he no longer held his post but came forward to meet them.

This man suddenly popping out to help surround him seemed truly hateful in Diao Zi's eyes, but the soldiers chasing behind, upon seeing it, were no better off—almost furious enough to bulge their eyes red.

Not wearing soldier's garb, he was probably either a patrol soldier or from the Capital Prefecture Office!

These two places were always full of thieves stealing credit in the past, and today they dared to do it again!

If the credit right in hand were so brazenly snatched away before their eyes, then by the time the Qingming Festival Festival Festival came around a month later, at ancestral sacrifice they might not even be able to light the paper money!

Several chasing soldiers, seeing the situation, had one smart fellow throw down his stick and shield, while another, most reckless of all, after throwing them, ran a few steps and suddenly lunged forward.

Diao Zi was guarding the front, never expecting the front to be clear—suddenly a gust came from behind; before he could react, he was tackled to the ground, his mouth hitting the earth, and he took a proper dog-eat-mud fall.

His head and face ached terribly, and in a moment of panic he tried to get up, but the person on his back twisted his arm and yanked his head up, leaving him unable to move; he could only cry out, "Sir, loosen your hand, loosen your hand! I'm a law-abiding citizen! You've got the wrong person!"

As he shouted, he felt his words came out strangely, with a strange air leak; he hurriedly licked with his tongue and found his mouth full of the taste of blood, not knowing what hard thing he had hit; he spat it out—it was a mouthful of blood with two large front teeth, truly like being struck by lightning.

The soldier who had caught him was feeling proud; hearing him cry injustice, he sneered, "If you're a law-abiding citizen, what were you running from just now?"

Diao Zi's head and mouth both hurt; tears and snot flowed out along with the blood in his mouth. He wanted to say a few words in his defense, but before he could speak, he saw both side doors—the Song Family Eatery on the left, and the gambling den on the right—constantly pushing people out.

By now the whole place was full of soldiers holding torches and lanterns, illuminating everywhere brightly.

Diao Zi had taken shifts at various dens and knew quite a few people; in no time he saw several familiar faces among the lookout brothers.

Everyone saw him too, and one foolish fellow already called out, "Brother Diao?"

The soldier holding him laughed: "Such a law-abiding citizen, and even the thieves want to call you brother!"

Diao Zi still wanted to explain, but his vision went black as someone directly shoved a black cloth hood over his head; when he tried to speak, it was airy and muffled through the cloth, a humming sound, and no one listened anyway.

In the back courtyard, Song Miao stayed quietly in her room.

She heard calling and clamor, shouts, orders from the front, and also horse hoof sounds and footsteps.

With such a commotion, no one could sleep naturally; besides, something had happened at Sun Lizheng's house, and she didn't know what the situation was.

Since this matter happened too coincidentally, she couldn't help but suspect whether it had anything to do with Zhu Shi coming to stay with her, and she was worried.

Since she couldn't sleep, even though the hour was early, she simply got up; fearing she might add trouble unintentionally, she didn't dare go to the main hall, but lit a lamp and ground ink and washed her brush in the room, slowly calculating the money she had earned recently, and also the debts at the top of the list that were due to be repaid.

Just as she was halfway through calculating, she heard someone knocking at the door outside calling, "Song Stall Owner, I see you've lit a lamp—are you awake?"

Song Miao recognized the voice as Qin Zong, answered, put down her brush, moved the chair blocking the door, took up the knife on the table in one hand, and opened the door with the other.

Seeing that it was indeed Qin Zong outside, she relaxed, called out "Young Master Qin," and asked what the matter was.

Qin Zong was delighted like a monkey, hehe-laughing, "Today we struck it big! I won't say much about the rest, you just know the place opposite is indeed a gambling den; today with one sweep, who knows how many fish were netted! Thanks to you lending this place and giving all those clues, we have today's achievement!"

He was very happy, shared with Song Miao first, then got to the serious matter: "Zheng Yan is busy outside and can't leave, so he told me to come pass a message. First, although they've caught most of the people in the house across the way, the office will still send people here to search and inspect for several days, also as a guard, so that if anything goes wrong later... if Zhu Shenzi can't come, they'll arrange someone else to keep you company; please rest assured."

"Second, he said he might not be able to free himself these two days to give any news, but today's matter will be closely followed; don't worry, he'll definitely give an explanation."

After counting off the two points, Qin Zong curiously asked, "What exactly is today's matter?"

Though there wasn't much to hide, Song Miao still skipped the details and only said she had asked Han Li to help check whether there was anything wrong with the deed of contract and property deed of her house.

Qin Zong made an "oh," lost interest at once, thought for a moment, and asked, "Song Stall Owner, how many people can your daily breakfast feed? How much money in total?"

Song Miao calculated and gave him a number.

Qin Zong immediately said, "Then today I'll buy all the breakfast you make; also, for drinks, whatever kind, can you make a total of two hundred portions? I'll send people over shortly; whenever you're done, I'll take them all away together!"

"Who is it for? Any preference in taste?" Song Miao asked first.

"For the brothers in the office, and also the city-defense soldiers and patrol officers borrowed to help; don't worry about taste preferences, just make it as before—your original taste is very good!"

As he spoke, he took out a piece of silver from the purse at his waist and handed it to Song Miao, and said, "If there's extra, keep it in safekeeping first; there will certainly be more things for you to help with in the future, and then we'll deduct from it together!"

Song Miao didn't dilly-dally, agreed at once, weighed the silver, put it away carefully, and wrote down Qin Zong's account on paper.

Qin Zong said nothing more and then took his leave.

But he had only walked a few steps when he slowly stopped, turned back and said, "Song Stall Owner, you... you could set aside one portion of pork rib clear soup for me, couldn't you? I want lots of radish, no ribs."

Song Miao smiled and agreed; after putting things away, she prepared everything as Qin Zong had said, and sure enough, around the appointed time, a servant from the Qin Family came to knock on the door.

She packed everything up and had those people take it away.

After sending off the servants, Song Miao couldn't help but glance once more at the house opposite.

At this time, soldiers searching and inspecting were coming and going in the house, quite a few people; outside the door, ropes were cordoned off and warning strips posted, but since people were still constantly entering and leaving, seals had not yet been attached.

She only looked for a few moments, then paid no more attention; turning to go back inside, she suddenly saw the cart still stopped outside below the window.

This cart had been placed outside yesterday so that Zhu Jie'er's carriage wouldn't block the view of the window; now that there was no need to keep watch, today's breakfast didn't even need to set up a stall, and Qin Zong had bought it all, so naturally it could be put away.

She went forward, about to move it, but saw that at the left wheel of the cart, somehow, two large pieces of cloth were caught.

Song Miao reached out and took them down, examining them carefully.

They seemed to be from someone's clothing; the color and workmanship were quite ordinary, but they were already torn, probably caught unintentionally.

The only difference was that there were several places on them with holes burned out, or black burn marks scorched by something.

The burn mark was fresh.

Who would get their clothes snagged here?

Song Miao felt slightly strange; she fanned the spot with her hand, and indeed smelled a faint incense smell.

She thought for a moment, did not throw it away, but wrapped the two pieces of cloth in clean cloth, then went to push the cart.

But she had not yet had time to push when she saw someone walk in from outside the alley.

That person was already of some age, with white mustache and hair, wearing an upper garment and lower garment, headwear and robe, spirited, with a beard neatly trimmed, smooth, long, full of luster, walking along while looking at a piece of paper in hand.