Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 707: Peaceful Night and Shocking Morning
Do you want a guy who came to you crying and begging to be your lackey? For Zhang Shou, this was a question that was not worth considering. Was he just bored? He didn't want to use a bunch of talented little guys at home, a helper with good character that Ah Liu personally picked out from inside and outside the capital, but a black market guy who did dirty work?
Even if he needs someone to do the dirty work in the future... could there be someone who can do it more efficiently than Ah Liu?
Therefore, after asking Jiang Zhuo'er who the guys who had also accepted this mission were , he hooked his finger at Ah Liu, and then left Jiang Zhuo'er in the torture room without a care in the world, and then took Ah Liu out to the study. He said directly: "Can you contact Master Hua Qi? If you can, throw this hot potato out. There are no torture instruments in this torture room, so you won't be able to scare people for long."
"Not tonight." Ah Liu shook his head directly. Seeing Zhang Shou was a little surprised, he said solemnly, "Something might happen tonight. I don't have any evidence, but I just feel something is wrong."
Zhang Shou was not superstitious, but he did not doubt his so-called sixth sense. After all, for someone like him who had lived in peace for too long and had spent most of his time in comfort after arriving in this world, his premonition of danger was almost zero, and at most he could only judge the crisis from the changes in the situation.
At this moment, after hearing what Ah Liu said, he recalled the situation when he and Zhu Ying heard about the rebellion in the Linhai camp in the village. Thinking about the events that had happened one after another in the past few days, it seemed that a storm was about to come. He couldn't help but feel heavy in his heart, and his relaxed expression disappeared.
"I see. I'll do as you say. Just keep him in prison and don't bother with him. Don't send anyone to report the incident, lest anyone who goes out gets hurt at night. Go arrange the defenses yourself. I, an amateur, won't give orders to you, an expert."
Ah Liu was naturally very happy to be called an expert by Zhang Shou. He agreed with great enthusiasm and then strode out. However, he turned back after only two steps and said hesitantly, "Although the madman has trained many people, he is still not very experienced. Why don't you and your wife go to Tiangongfang? It's safe there."
Hearing such a reasonable suggestion, Zhang Shou was about to agree, but suddenly he had an idea in his mind.
You know, underground secret rooms and secret passages are the last resort for the rich these days. In addition, they are hidden deep underground, easy to defend and difficult to attack. If you really encounter a dead end, you can even move away immediately. Many secret passages even have self-destruct devices - of course, they definitely don't use gunpowder to self-destruct...
Who could tolerate having a gunpowder depot under their house that could explode into the sky at any time?
But things like secret passages and secret rooms are afraid of two things, one is water, the other is fire. Water attack is afraid of people diverting water back, but fortunately, most people these days are not crazy enough to use this method of siege on secret passages and secret rooms.
As for fire, it is impossible for the secret passage to collapse, because it is difficult for the fire to spread underground, but the problem is that where there is fire, there is smoke. In this era when air circulation depends entirely on vents, smoke prevention is completely unrealistic. After a house is burned, the air is full of smoke, and the secret passage is unlikely to be spared.
However, leaving aside extraordinary means such as water and fire attacks, there is another major prerequisite for the secret passage to be easy to defend and difficult to attack, and that is that the location of the secret room or secret passage is very hidden and unknown to others.
However, his Zhang Garden was formerly the Prince Lu's Courtyard. After he took over, he not only did not re-excavate these things, but Ah Liu even stepped on them and drew the locations of the secret passages and secret rooms on a blueprint and reported it to the emperor. Of course, this was just a superficial work. This Zhang Garden had belonged to the royal family for a long time. How could those secret passages and secret rooms still be hidden?
After realizing this, Zhang Shou couldn't help but frown and asked, "Speaking of which, unlike the secret room behind the study, I remember there are exits on the other side of Tiangongfang. Are those exits really reliable?"
Ah Liu was rather dull in other matters, but when it came to professional questions like this, he responded quickly: "Master, are you afraid that the exit will be discovered, so you counterattacked and came back?"
Seeing Zhang Shou nod, he said thoughtfully, "I heard from the madman that it used to be a shop owned by a relative of a magistrate in Shuntian Prefecture. It was not very eye-catching, so after Prince Lu won him over, he set up the exit there. But now it is a charity hall of the Imperial Household Department. Of course, the three words "Imperial House" will not be mentioned, and the charity hall for the people is still quite famous in the capital."
At this point, he said very seriously: "However, this charity hall is under the eyes of the emperor, so there are not so many messy things. I have been there, and it is peaceful and quiet inside, with a good atmosphere. However, I think the young master does not need to have three burrows, so after I sent the secret passage and secret room map, I told the madman to block all the exits of the secret passage, and I also asked the madman to come and set up the trap."
Zhang Shou didn't care about all the household affairs - as an outsider with shallow roots, he had calmly accepted the emperor's plan to sell the house, which was actually a gift, and accepted Hua Qi's plan to help train the staff in the mansion. He had calmly exposed everything about himself to the emperor's eyes, so he only had a vague impression of what Ah Liu said.
He is so busy, how can he have time to take care of these things?
Therefore, he was too lazy to think about it and said directly: "Even the layers of rammed earth in the imperial tombs of past dynasties could not resist the tomb robbers who dug holes, let alone the blocked exit of the secret passage in our house."
Ah Liu was about to refute, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt that Zhang Shou's statement made sense. So he was silent for a moment, and finally said, "Then how about this, Master, pack up your things and stay at my wife's place tonight, and you don't have to worry about anything else."
Zhang Shou saw Ah Liu walk out after saying this. He didn't know if he would make Ah Liu run around if he said that. But he felt that his worry was not unreasonable, so he didn't remind him again. When he returned to the desk, he cleaned up casually , then put a stack of manuscripts into the wooden box, put on his cloak, and walked out of the study with the wooden box. Apart from the manuscripts, he didn't have anything important. As for the fact that there was a prisoner in the secret room behind him that was used as a torture chamber, he had completely forgotten about it.
That night, Zhang Shou slept on the large carved bed in the east wing of Wu's courtyard. Although he had suddenly changed his environment and had been in trouble recently, he was probably too busy during the day and was nagged by Wu, his foster mother, when he came back at night. He had no energy to think about anything else. He went back to his room to wash up and fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
However, perhaps because he was too tired, he continued to dream continuously, and every time he woke up, he continued to dream almost without any hesitation. One after another, when he was finally awakened by a call, he found himself sweating.
When he saw the familiar face of Mrs. Wu, Zhang Shou, who was still in a daze, was stunned.
Seeing him like this, Wu couldn't help but think of the time when he was in a nightmare when he was a child. She quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his face. When she saw him stunned and then dodged a little embarrassedly, she realized that Zhang Shou was not only getting older, but he also knew that they were not biological mother and son. Such closeness was a little inappropriate.
So she immediately stuffed the handkerchief back into her sleeve and said with a smile, "Ah Shou, in the middle of the night Ah Liu sent someone to report that he had caught a few thieves who had sneaked in. He told me not to tell you and to wait until dawn. I thought about it and waited until the morning. It's still early now, but such a big thing happened at home, I still want to wake you up and tell you."
"Why don't you just stay at home today and take a nap later? You look so sweaty, why don't you take a day off?"
Although Zhang Shou felt a little depressed about Ah Liu catching the thief, he was not too worried. But when Wu asked him to take a day off, he could not help but glance out the window. There was no light outside, as if it was still a long night.
With a dry throat, he smiled at Wu, but did not answer. Instead, he wanted to take the teacup on the small table beside him. Wu quickly snatched the teacup and poured out the cold tea inside. She then poured another cup from the cattail bag. Although it was not much warmer than the tea just now, when she handed it to Zhang Shou, she whispered, "Hang a pot of water outside before going to bed later."
Seeing that Zhang Shou didn't comment and lowered his head to drink tea, she said, "So that you don't have to drink this cold tea when you are thirsty in the middle of the night."
"Mom, it's okay. Ah Liu is here every day, and the teapot is warmed in the thick quilt. There is warm tea anytime and anywhere." At this point, Zhang Shou put on his socks, put on his clothes and got out of bed, and smiled, "As for asking for leave just because a thief broke into the house, it's a bit of an exaggeration... How about this, when it's daybreak, send someone to investigate outside."
Knowing that his avoidance might give Wu some ideas, he took the initiative to shake Wu's hand and said, "Mom, I promise you, if people come back to find out that things are not going well outside, I will take a day off today. If there is nothing serious outside, I will go to Jiuzhang Hall later. Don't look at me sweating just now, that's just because I dream too much."
"If you are busy and have so many things to deal with, how could this happen?"
Although Wu felt distressed, she could not be stubborn anymore since Zhang Shou had already given in. She sighed and made way for Zhang Shou to change his clothes. Although the two mothers seconded from the Duke Zhao's mansion were teaching the maids, Zhang Shou's dressing was never done by anyone except Ah Liu, and she had no intention of testing the self-control of those little girls.
After all, when Zhang Shou was in the village, those young girls, wives, and even little girls, who didn't like to follow Zhang Shou around all day long?
When Zhang Shou came out dressed and even had his hair combed, she immediately said, "Let me send someone to call Ah Liu over. You can ask him in person."
Knowing that Wu would never let him and Ah Liu hide the truth from her, Zhang Shou nodded readily and ordered someone to fetch water for washing. After rinsing his mouth and brushing his teeth with warm water and washing his face with cold water, he finally felt refreshed and simply used the soft towel wrung out of the cold water to apply to his eyes for a while.
While Zhang Shou was washing up, Wu had already hurriedly sent someone to the kitchen to see if there was anything to eat. Fortunately, she saw Yang Mama, whom she had sent, coming back with a food box.
"The small kitchen is still lighting a fire. In the big kitchen, Granny Xu stayed up all night and made a lot of vegetable dumplings, so Liu had the energy to work late. When she heard that the young master had woken up, she asked me to bring ten back. They should be heated by the charcoal fire below, so they won't get cold."
Zhang Shou didn't expect that the kitchen would be busy all night. Although Mrs. Xu was not as old and frail as she looked, making steamed buns was not as easy as it looked. It took a long time to wash a lot of green leafy vegetables, knead the dough, chop the stuffing, mix the stuffing, etc. Moreover, because it was so popular, each time she made one hundred buns.
Therefore, a large amount of flour and vegetables were needed, and she didn't want to ask others to do it, so she didn't cook it often at home.
Thinking that the old man had not slept all night, he suddenly felt a little apologetic. However, when the food box was brought in front of him and he opened it, he saw the slightly yellow but plump buns, and his stomach couldn't help but feel even hungrier. He immediately grabbed one without thinking, then pushed the food box in front of Wu and finished the one in his hand in no time.
When Mrs. Wu saw him eating without any scruples, she remembered what everyone outside said about Mr. Zhang's appearance and demeanor, and she couldn't help but smile knowingly - in her opinion, Zhang Shou would only be so fearless in front of his family.
Zhang Shou finished the meal in one go and found that Wu still hadn't moved, so he had to remind her again, but then signaled Yang Mama and the others to help themselves. Although the others were polite again and again, they shook their heads when they saw Wu eat one, and Zhang Shou said that three were enough, so they divided the rest among themselves.
After all, once Granny Xu made the dumplings, there were so many people in the family that every cent would be gone. Even if they never got tired of eating them, they still couldn't force the stubborn old lady to make more. Who would be willing to waste?
After everyone had filled their stomachs, Ah Liu finally arrived with An Lu.
Although he hadn't slept all night, Ah Liu still looked energetic, while An Lu, the lame man who was in charge of the door, was still full of murderous intent. Although there was no blood on their clothes, they could still smell the blood. Even though Wu had known that a thief had sneaked in, she couldn't help but turn pale. Could it be that he had killed someone?
Ah Liu greeted Wu and Zhang Shou in a normal manner, and then simply said, "Two groups of thieves came in during the night, eight in total."
Seeing that Ah Liu was speaking briefly, Wu and Zhang Shou's mother and son all looked at him, so An Lu could only explain in detail on his behalf: "Madam, Master, after the hour of Chou last night, two groups of thieves sneaked in. One group was two people who climbed over the wall from outside. Because they were discovered by others, I quickly led people to block them, but this was a feint to the east and attack in the west. The real killer move was that the exit of the secret passage at the other end of Tiangong Workshop was dug open, and six people sneaked in. As a result, they were trapped, four died, two were seriously injured, and they were all captured!"
