Chapter 795 – Outcome
"Thanks." Li Yongxun tossed down a string of copper coins and rose quickly to follow. The pier was cluttered with goods, making concealment easy. Stopping and starting, she slowly approached the trestle.
The sedan chair was carried all the way onto the trestle, halting right beside the ship from Lingao. Li Yongxun hurriedly shrank behind a pile of cargo and peered out cautiously.
She watched as the gangplank was lowered from the Lingao vessel, guarded by several large men. Someone helped a master-like figure out of the sedan chair. He wore a "free-and-easy scarf"—a scholar's cap—and a wide robe, with a rare pair of smoky quartz spectacles perched on his face. The master's movements were clumsy; he fumbled about and required two people half-supporting him to barely ascend the gangplank. Li Yongxun wondered secretly—why was this person behaving so strangely? Perhaps he was ill?
She observed them with keen interest. Suddenly, a thought surfaced—could this be Inspecting Censor Lord Gao?! Li Yongxun's entire body tensed: Of course! Her brother-in-law had said the greatest beneficiaries of Censor Gao's disappearance were two parties: the Folangji and the bald bandits. Either party had motive to kidnap Gao Shunqin.
She stared wide-eyed at the group. The more she looked, the stranger it seemed: the escorting servants surrounded the master so tightly, apparently intentionally blocking others' view. Their behavior was exceedingly suspicious.
Li Yongxun's excitement surged—though apart from their behavior, no concrete evidence proved they were transporting Censor Gao. Yet she was immediately intoxicated by visions of gaining merit, and the more she looked, the more convinced she became that this person was indeed Lord Gao.
Lord Gao had been kidnapped by the bald bandits! Now they were about to take him to Lingao. At this thought, her heart pounded—merely obtaining this intelligence would be an enormous achievement! She had to return and report to her brother-in-law immediately!
Visions of being rewarded for her merit already danced in Li Yongxun's mind. Her brother-in-law would surely turn pale with fury yet find himself helpless. Not to mention her own family—the Li clan held hereditary posts in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but when had they ever achieved such glorious merit? This great accomplishment might even earn her a Zongqi or Xiaoqi position; she had heard that in the early Ming years, women had served in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, specializing in detection and arrest.
Before her splendid fantasy concluded, she was struck heavily on the back of her head. Without even a groan, she crumpled to the ground.
The Dengyingzhou was a 200-ton three-masted Guangdong ship—the second vessel to bear this name. The first Dengyingzhou, a converted fishing boat, had possessed too small a tonnage and limited cargo capacity. After its modern equipment, including the installed diesel engine, was removed, it had been reconverted to a fishing boat, re-registered in the Ling-Yu sequence, and reassigned to the Fishery Corps.
The new Dengyingzhou had formerly been a pirate ship under Zhu Cailao. After defecting to Lingao, it was repaired and modified specifically for cargo missions on the Lingao-Macau route. Because it was fully armed, it also served as an escort vessel.
In a secret cabin below deck, someone said, "It's a woman!"
"Do you need to point that out?" another person by the bunk retorted. "Just look at her rear—do men have rears this shapely?"
Li Yongxun lay on a fixed bunk in the cabin, hands and feet shackled to the bed frame. After receiving a blow from a rubber baton and being quietly brought aboard the Dengyingzhou, she had been given a sedative to prevent her from making noise upon waking. Several men surrounded her with interest while a young woman searched her body carefully, occasionally placing discovered items into a cardboard box beside her.
Li Yongxun didn't carry much: a handkerchief, a little loose silver, a compact mirror... Most notable were the small embroidered spring sword and a dagger she carried.
Li Yan withdrew the sword, examined it, and checked the scabbard: apart from the characters "Li" and "Qian," there were no other markings—especially no unit or serial number. This wasn't an official-issue weapon.
"This woman is probably named Li Qian," he concluded.
"Why was she tailing us while carrying a sword like this?"
"Because she's this." Jiang Shan, who had been watching Political Security Bureau officer Ke Yun conduct the body search, frowned and extracted a wooden tablet—still warm from body heat—from the box. "This is an Embroidered Uniform Guard badge."
"Embroidered Uniform Guard?!" someone muttered. "Does the Great Ming have women in the Embroidered Uniform Guard?"
"Difficult to say." Jiang Shan turned the badge over and over. "It says 'Guard' of the Foshan Battalion..."
"Just ask when she wakes up."
"The Embroidered Uniform Guard is remarkably efficient, tracking us to Macau so quickly. Our smoke screen didn't work."
"This woman appears to be one of the two Embroidered Uniform Guards who came to Huang Shunlong's house yesterday." Jiang Shan rubbed his chin noncommittally. A pity he didn't have the files at hand; he would have to return to Lingao to check for relevant data. Huang Shunlong's attitude toward the transmigrators had grown increasingly positive over the past six months. He had begun providing intelligence he was previously unwilling to share.
Li Yongxun's identity was clarified even before they returned to Lingao, however. Huang Tianyu was also aboard this ship bound for Lingao. Hearing that a female Embroidered Uniform Guard had been captured, he immediately ran over to see the spectacle.
"Isn't this the runaway girl from the Embroidered Uniform Guard!" Huang Tianyu recognized at once the girl who had drugged him—this little minx had cost him a bottle of ketchup and a bottle of chili sauce for nothing.
"You know her?" Jiang Shan asked curiously.
"Of course. This girl is full of tricks." Huang Tianyu then recounted meeting Li Yongxun en route while traveling to Foshan with Liu San and the others.
"Liu San and I even wrote a detailed report after returning."
"I must read it when I get back," Jiang Shan said, then instructed Ke Yun, "Watch her!"
"Yes, Chief!"
Jiang Shan returned with the others to the conference room in the poop deck. He said:
"Although this girl isn't an actual Embroidered Uniform Guard, she's closely connected to them. Since her brother-in-law is a genuine Trial Centurion of the Foshan Battalion and is currently in Macau, it means the Embroidered Uniform Guard has definitely caught a scent."
"So transferring Old Gao in time was the right call," said Jiang Qiuyan, the sole psychiatrist from the Ministry of Health accompanying them. "The Great Ming still has law enforcement powers in Macau—though their reaction time is considerably slower." His task was to participate in the interrogation as a psychoanalyst.
Originally, the Executive Committee had intended to eliminate Gao Shunqin on the spot. However, the intelligence department believed that as an important official who had served in both central and local government, Gao Shunqin possessed a clear understanding of high-level regime operations and knew much about officialdom and current affairs—this was entirely unlike the caliber of Wu Mingjin and others currently under their control. He could serve as a valuable intelligence source to enrich the Foreign Intelligence Bureau's database. Furthermore, the mainland strategy had only just begun; there was no immediate need to physically eliminate officials. Therefore, with Executive Committee approval, Gao Shunqin was transferred to Lingao.
Li Yan asked, "What do we do with this girl?"
"Throw her directly into the sea—clean and neat."
"No," Jiang Shan countered. "This girl is of no use to us, but we should interrogate her to clarify matters first. Besides, what Lingao lacks now is women. Don't waste resources."
"Need to supplement nutrition," Huang Tianyu blurted out nonsensically. Several men laughed maliciously: Li Yongxun wasn't bad-looking and had unbound feet. Her figure and face were both somewhat lolita-like.
Li Yongxun's bizarre disappearance placed a confusing full stop on the entire Gao Shunqin case. After two days of fruitless searching, Lin Ming was forced to seek help from the Xiangshan Assistant Magistrate—he had to fabricate a claim that he'd found clues about Gao Shunqin in Macau. The Assistant Magistrate wouldn't negotiate with the Folangji to locate his sister-in-law.
Upon hearing that Censor Gao's whereabouts had been discovered, the Xiangshan Assistant Magistrate and Xiangshan Magistrate dared not delay, arriving in Macau successively to negotiate with the Folangji. The Macau Senate dared not disobey the Great Ming government's demands and immediately ordered a city-wide search.
Yet neither Gao Shunqin nor Li Yongxun could be found. Only from the tea stall mistress on the pier did Lin Ming learn that Li Yongxun had appeared there and inquired about Lingao people—and that she had left the stall after observing a group of Australians pass by. This greatly increased suspicion of the bald bandits. At his request, the Portuguese searched the Lingao warehouse in Fifth Lane and arrested several people—immediate interrogation revealed they were all Macau locals hired to guard the goods.
Just as he wanted to investigate Australian properties and visiting ships in Macau further, a message arrived from Guangzhou: Li Fengjie wanted him not to harass the Australians too aggressively—he feared provoking another incident like the shelling of the Bogue forts or the burning of the Wuyang Relay Station. With this message, the wind shifted: the Xiangshan Assistant Magistrate declared that without evidence Gao Shunqin had ever been in Macau, continuing the search was inappropriate. The Portuguese also gradually ceased cooperation.
Lin Ming had accepted bribes and was now isolated in Macau. He had never truly believed Gao Shunqin was in Macau and had found no clues after days of searching. Continuing to look for Li Yongxun under the pretext of searching for Censor Gao became unsustainable.
Lin Ming's face was iron-blue: his sister-in-law had most likely fallen into the hands of the bald bandits—though he couldn't fathom why they had taken her. She might have already been transported to Lingao. The matter had become exceedingly thorny. Setting aside that Lingao was now bald bandit territory, even in the past, Qiongzhou had been a miasmic land that officials avoided.
After all, she was his relative. When Qianqian's family had come to retrieve her unsuccessfully, he had patted his chest guaranteeing her safety in Guangdong. Now she had been abducted by bald bandits—and their reputation for lechery was no joke! If something happened to her, he would have a difficult time facing his wife.
"Dammit, you street-dropping bald bandits!" Lin Ming ground his teeth. "I will definitely wipe you out!"
(End of Chapter)