Chapter 88 — Astonishment

She asked Chen Lanxu, "Please, Guard Chen, do me one more favor—help me interrogate this man and find out what dirty business he and that Pang Kunbai are tangled in."

They had broken a mere sweat and effortlessly come by ten thousand taels. Now the lady asked only a small favor in return—not that such a thing was any trouble to them, and even if it had been, for the sake of those ten thousand taels they would not have refused.

Chen Lanxu agreed at once.

But Scarface cried out, "Miss Dou, I'll talk, I'll tell you everything—just let us go and I'll tell you all of it!" Then, "We were cheated by that Pang Kunbai too. Be magnanimous, my lady—seeing as how we were only taking a man's money to spare him a calamity, don't hold it against the likes of us..."

Dou Yan was unmoved.

If the ones they had abducted had not been her, but some other woman with no strength to truss a chicken—what then?

She said to Chen Lanxu, "I must ask Guard Chen to interrogate him for me."

Chen Lanxu nodded.

Uncle Duan, however, greatly admired Dou Zhiwei's crisp efficiency, and of his own accord hauled Scarface out.

Seeing Dou Yan covered in dust from lying under the arhat bed, Su Lan wanted to fetch water and attend to her washing and grooming.

Dou Yan asked, "Where is Su Xin?"

Su Lan said, "Sister was afraid of missing the hour to rescue you, so she told Brother Chen the meeting place and went back to the residence herself."

Dou Yan nodded, then said with some worry, "I wonder how Grandmother is doing?"

Su Lan comforted her. "They were after you, so they must have been lying!"

"Let us hope so," Dou Yan said with a sigh.

Su Lan and Su Juan brought water and attended her as she washed her face and redid her hair.

Chen Lanxu asked to see her.

His expression was somewhat strange. In a low voice he said, "Xing the Sixth has confessed. He says Pang Kunbai instructed them to abduct you and bring you here, after which Pang Kunbai would pretend to come upon you by chance and rescue you. When it was done, beyond the hundred taels, Pang Kunbai promised to get them posts as petty officers in the Shaanxi Regional Military Commission..."

The Shaanxi Regional Military Commission—Wang Xingyi's territory.

Dou Yan's eyes turned cold. "Why not rescue me on the spot, at the abduction? Why put me here?"

"Xing the Sixth doesn't know," Chen Lanxu said. "Pang Kunbai only told him to hold this place—that he would naturally come to the rescue, and that Xing the Sixth need only put up a show of being overmatched and retreat."

"Did Pang Kunbai not say when he would come?" Dou Yan knit her brows.

"No."

Dou Yan bowed her head in thought. After a long while she raised it and said, "Guard Chen, one matter should not trouble two masters—I fear I must ask this of you and your men as well."

This was merely the cleanup. They had taken the man's silver, so naturally they were bound to see it through.

Chen Lanxu smiled and said, "Pray give your instructions, young lady."

Dou Ji lowered her voice and spoke to Chen Lanxu at length.

Chen Lanxu was startled at first, then his expression gradually sobered, and with a grave face he nodded again and again.

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Went to see my parents today. Every dish they made was a favorite of mine, and my niece has grown so adorable o(n_n)o~

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