Chapter 226: Eavesdropping

Pu Min was also left speechless—ten sacks of grain entering the city meant handing over six; no matter where you were, there was no such logic.

Pan Yun snorted, waved her hand and said, "Let's go!"

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He stepped forward, took the gifts of apology from the three men's hands, called Pan Xiaohei, and left.

Pan Xiaohei opened his round eyes, glanced at the three men, then whooshed off to catch up with Pan Yun and the others.

They entered the Peaceful Inn through the side door and, apart from the doorkeeper guarding it, met no one.

Going up to the second floor and turning, their room was not far ahead.

The moment they entered, Pan Yun waved her hand and the lamps and candles in the room flared to life at once. Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He set down what they were carrying, then looked at the Daoist robes on their bodies and said regretfully, "There's too much blood, I'm afraid it won't wash clean."

Pan Yun glanced over and said, "Take them off first. I'll go find some white vinegar and pour it into the basin to soak them in a while."

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He agreed. The three of them had quite a lot of blood on them; even after changing clothes, the bloody smell wouldn't go away, so they simply washed their hair as well.

Song Bei returned to the inn exhausted. He had only just stepped into the garden when he heard voices by the pool not far away.

His footsteps paused of their own accord. He crept forward, and the moment he drew near, the three figures crouching by the pool turned their heads at once. Song Bei flashed aside, about to duck behind the rockery, when a familiar voice said, "Boss Song."

Song Bei stiffened, stepped out from beside the rockery, and saw Pan Yun and the others.

His gaze swept over the three of them, then dropped, and he saw a basin of bloody water; the stench of blood hit him full in the face.

Song Bei:......

Seeing it was him, Pan Yun casually splashed the water into the flower bed. "Boss, still up so late?"

Song Bei: "...... Why are you here?"

Pan Yun: "We came to wash clothes."

Song Bei: "Aren't you staying on the second floor?"

"We can come downstairs," Pan Yun pointed at the open window and said, "from there."

Song Bei was at a loss for words. After a long while he looked at the clothes in their basin and asked, "And this is?"

Pan Yun: "Got dirty. Dirty from saving people."

Song Bei's face was expressionless; it was unclear how much of it he believed.

He nodded and turned to leave.

But the room he lived in was just diagonally opposite, and from the window one could see them. So he watched them finish washing the clothes, then, basin in their arms, leap lightly into the air and nimbly flip back in through the window.

"Quite the skill," Song Bei closed the window, turned and said, "A-Xin, tomorrow go look into it—see what they did today, where all that blood came from."

A-Xin agreed, but when he went to investigate the next day, he actually turned up nothing at all.

"All I know is they went to the grain shop to ask about grain prices, and today they even hauled grain to the grain shop to sell. Beyond that, I couldn't find out anything."

"Nan'an County is only this big. They're young, and they wear Daoist robes—how could you not find out anything?"

A-Xin lowered his head in shame and said, "I carefully inquired around the grain shop, but no one had any impression of them, so I couldn't find out where they went after leaving the grain shop."

Song Bei's face darkened. After a moment of silence he said, "Starting today, get a few people to keep an eye on them—see who they meet, what they do."

"Yes."

But after Pan Yun and the others sold the grain, they hardly went out at all, instead holing up in their room to refine poison.

The medicine furnace was already there; all they needed was to buy some charcoal. The only thing was, every time they refined poison they had to be careful—after all, it was toxic stuff.

After staying at the inn for two days, Seeing Miao Zhen would borrow the window every day to fly into the garden and seriously study the garden's array.

Whenever she ran into a servant asking questions, she said she had come to see Boss Song Bei.

Song Bei:......

Pu Si couldn't help but laugh out loud and said, "Clever enough, indeed. It seems you won't be able to use my hand to chase them out of the garden."

Song Bei: "Lord Pu doesn't seem worried at all. Aren't you afraid she'll figure out your garden's array?"

The corners of Pu Si's mouth lifted slightly, and he said confidently, "This array isn't easy to figure out. The Peaceful Inn is nearly a hundred years old; when it was built, a great deal of money was spent to invite the most famous Daoist Priests and Gao Seng in the land to advise on it. No matter how talented those three are, they're still mere children. I don't think they can figure it out."

"As for you," Pu Si turned to look at him, "you're so worried they'll discover something, yet you still invited them to travel with you. Using people without trusting them—that's a great taboo in employing people."

Song Bei: "I don't trust them now because they haven't passed my test yet. I need more contact over time. Once I'm certain they're trustworthy, I will absolutely trust them."

Pu Si gave a mocking smile; it was unclear how much of it he believed.

Seeing Miao Zhen flew back through the window to the room. The black cat that had been quietly perched on the roof got up and slipped away nimbly after both Pu Si and Song Bei had left the room, then whooshed in through the half-open window.

Miao He was refining medicine, Seeing Miao Zhen was seriously drawing arrays on the table, and Pan Yun was leaning against a large welcome pillow on the wooden couch, a book in one hand and pastries in the other, one leg crossed over the other, swaying gently—very much at ease.

Seeing Pan Xiao Hei return, Pan Yun let out an "Oh?" and said, "Back? How many secrets did you hear?"

Pan Xiao Hei certainly couldn't repeat every single line to her, so she only relayed the part that mentioned them.

But that wasn't what Pan Yun wanted. She asked, "They talked for so long—still no mention of what the escorted goods are?"

"Meow. No."

Pan Yun couldn't help but frown. "That's a bit tricky. We need to know what he cares about most before we can rob—oh, take it."

Pan Xiao Hei: "I'll go take a look for you."

Pan Yun: "Do you know where their goods are?" Pan Xiao Hei: "Definitely somewhere in this inn. I'll just rummage through the whole place."

Pan Yun shook her head and said, "What I fear is that the goods on the surface are just goods, not his real treasure. If you go stirring things up now, it'll be much harder for us to act later."

Pan Xiao Hei: "You're a Daoist Priest, you left home to travel and study—why is everything we're doing now banditry?"

Pan Yun: "Nonsense. If you can't talk properly, shut your mouth. We're suppressing bandits, understand? We're acting on Heaven's behalf, got it?"

Pan Xiao Hei said nothing more.

Pan Yun tapped her foot thoughtfully, then said, "Forget it. Once we're on the road we'll have two days anyway; we can scout things out then."

Just as they were talking, someone came to knock on the door.

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He were both absorbed in refining medicine and drawing arrays, so Pan Yun went to open the door.

"Is this Daoist Priest Pan? Brother Song says we set out tomorrow at the chen hour—gather at the main gate."

Hearing this, Pan Yun immediately said, "Good, we'll be there on time."

That very afternoon, Pan Yun went to buy provisions like buns, steamed buns, and sesame flatbreads—filling food that could also be kept for a longer while.

!. Read

She divided them into three portions, and all three of them stored them in their spatial storage.

These are provisions set aside in advance.

Early the next morning, the three of them faithfully arrived at the inn's main gate right on time.

Along the road hugging the inn's outer wall, fifteen carts had been parked. The carts were pulled by sturdy mules, and the cargo on top was covered with blue-green oilcloth, bound tightly with ropes, so no one could see what was inside.

Pan Yun took one glance and looked away.

Song Bei came out of the inn, and the people waiting outside immediately greeted him with bows.

Song Bei raised his hand and said, "Alright, we're all family here—no need for ceremony. Let's set off. There are still people waiting for us at the city gate."

The crowd assented.

Pan Yun was about to head back to her own cart when Song Bei hurriedly called out to her, smiling, "Daoist Master Sanzhu, let's ride together."

Pan Yun glanced at his lavish horse-drawn carriage, sighed, then shook her head. "Employer, I once had a horse-drawn carriage nearly as splendid as yours. Later, because my fortune-telling was too accurate, Heaven disapproved, and so I went broke."

"We cultivators contend with Heaven for fortune and seek to comprehend the workings of the cosmos, so we suffer the Five Deficiencies and Three Incompletenesses. As luck would have it, my deficiency is losing wealth, so…" She once again looked his lavish carriage up and down, shaking her head regretfully. "I'd best not bring disaster upon your carriage, Employer. If you don't feel at ease and need me by your side, then just let my carriage follow closely behind yours."

Song Bei was half-convinced, half-doubting, but after thinking it over, he still didn't refuse Pan Yun's suggestion. So when the caravan set out, Song Bei's carriage went first, followed by Pan Yun's three-person open-top carriage.

Fully open-topped—in the cool of winter, aside from being a bit chilly in the wind, there was nothing else wrong with it, because the sun was very warm.

Once the grain was sold, their open-top carriage became much more spacious; the three of them could even lie side by side on it.

Once they passed through the city gate, they saw a large group of people waiting outside the city—old and young alike, some in rich clothing, some in poor. At a glance, they were merchants and travelers who had banded together for the journey.

Pan Yun's eyes narrowed slightly.

She saw Song Bei step down from his carriage, clasp his fists in greeting to some of the people, then wave his hand to set off.

Song Bei's caravan led the way at the very front, followed by the vast, mighty stream of merchants and travelers.

Pan Yun picked up Pan Xiaohei from her bosom, stretched him out beyond the carriage, and silently loosened her grip to send him off.

Pan Xiaohei: …

Pan Yun: "Go gather information, quick."

Pan Xiaohei: "Meow, you're using me as a listening device?"

Pan Yun: "This concerns life and death, and merit. Are you going or not?"

Pan Xiaohei silently turned and left, running into the crowd at the very back.

Before long, he had overheard quite a bit of chatter and summed it up.

"The road from here to Quanzhou Prefecture is very unsafe, so merchants and travelers band together. Song Bei's caravan is the biggest, and the security personnel he brings are always the most numerous, so everyone likes to follow behind Song Bei."

Pan Yun's heart stirred; her expression grew somewhat solemn. She asked, "Song Bei has quite a reputation in these parts?"

Pan Xiaohei raised his round little head, looked at Pan Yun with a mocking gaze, and meowed once, "Very much so!"

Pan Yun tapped her knee and said, "That I didn't expect. Being a pirate and yet being so high-profile?"

Pan Xiaohei said, "Because his surname is Song, everyone calls him the Little Timely Rain."

"If Songjiang knew about this, he'd be so angry he'd come back to life from the book, wouldn't he? Though both are bandits, one is a righteous bandit, the other is a Japanese pirate… tsk, tsk, tsk."

Miao He: "Little Martial Uncle, should we start ruining his reputation from now on? I'm familiar with this—I often hear the villagers do it."

Pan Yun: "Don't mess around. The men under him aren't pushovers. We won't show that weakness. Regardless of whether his reputation is good or bad, once we strip off his skin, what reputation could he possibly have left?"

Miao He: "Eh? Catch the thief and seize the loot?"

Seeing Miao Zhen: "Does that mean we have to hand the stolen goods over to the government office?"

"Depends on what the goods are," Pan Yun said. "Some unimportant things can simply be lost or damaged."

Good night.

(End of chapter)