The Passerby Hidden Guard Picked Up the Villain [Transmigration] - Chapter 8

“How is it off?”

“It is hard to say. It just feels off.”

“…”

He Yanzhi fell silent, his jade-white fingertips tapping twice on the table. “Get ready. The time has come.”

Jiang Beihai cooperatively allowed himself to be bound. Before being led out, he suddenly remembered something and asked He Yanzhi, “You still have not told me where he is. Was he captured or did he escape? How did he even find that place? Did he bring reinforcements? What was he thinking?”

Faced with this barrage of questions, He Yanzhi blinked and confessed frankly, “Oh, I lied to you.”

As he spoke, he opened the door. The bailiffs outside entered to take Jiang Beihai and were pleasantly surprised to find him still alive.

Jiang Beihai stood frozen in place for a long while before coming to his senses; then, he suddenly burst into loud laughter.

The bailiffs were so intimidated by his behavior that they dared not step forward. It was only after He Yanzhi gave the word that they hurriedly carried him away.

Back in the courtroom, the bailiffs reported the results of the interrogation, stating that Jiang Beihai had suffered a bout of hysteria and would not stop laughing. The Prefect ordered them to take him back to his cell first.

The Prefect then looked at the man standing to the side. “Yanzhi, did you manage to get anything out of him?”

He Yanzhi omitted the part about his nap and reported the events in detail.

After listening, the Prefect called Yang Kuang over. “Go search the location Yanzhi mentioned. You must find the outlaws of the Red Turban Gang. Yanzhi, you go with him.”

“Yes, sir.”

The two took their official tokens and left the yamen with nearly thirty constables, heading straight for the Baoque Mountain waterway.

He Yanzhi and Yang Kuang rode horses at the front of the group. Their passage caused quite a stir, with commoners dodging to both sides of the road to leave a wide path.

Yang Kuang tugged the reins to pull his horse’s head closer to He Yanzhi’s, riding side by side.

“Look, Brother He. In the past, these people would not even notice us unless we scared them a bit. Now that we are on horseback with men behind us, they stay out of the way on their own. It seems that if you want respect, you have to be a high-ranking official.”

Perhaps sensing the different atmosphere, the horse beneath He Yanzhi instinctively slowed its pace. He squeezed his legs against the horse’s flanks and looked at Yang Kuang. “Do you want to be a high-ranking official?”

Yang Kuang laughed. “Of course! Being a high official is great. Look at the Prefect: he goes out in a sedan chair and people clear the way. How impressive!”

He Yanzhi asked, “That is all?”

Yang Kuang shook his head. “If I were an official, I would catch every last outlaw! And those thugs who fight and steal, I would throw them in jail to transcribe books. Books are the most tedious things. I would make them transcribe until their heads spin so they would have no energy left for mischief.”

He Yanzhi listened quietly as Yang Kuang talked about his plans for office. Keeping his eyes forward, he suddenly spotted a familiar face among the gathered crowd.

Yang Kuang grew more excited as he spoke, looking as though he wanted to jump off his horse to gesture, completely failing to notice someone darting out in front of them.

He Yanzhi reached out and grabbed the reins for him. The horse immediately reared up and neighed loudly. Yang Kuang gripped the horse’s neck in a panic. “Who is it? Which blind fool is trying to kill me?”

He Yanzhi released the reins and looked at the newcomer. “Master Chen, may I ask what the matter is?”

Master Chen was elderly and had no idea he would collide with Yang Kuang; the startled horse had frightened him as well. He regained his composure and said to He Yanzhi, “It is like this. The weather has been turning colder lately, and your younger brother’s clothing is quite thin. Might I trouble Officer Yan to bring some winter clothes?”

Yang Kuang, having finally stabilized his horse, was dissatisfied that it was such a trivial matter. “You could not have said this earlier? You had to pick this moment to scare the life out of me!”

Master Chen apologized repeatedly. He Yanzhi dismounted and handed him some silver. “The case is urgent. I must trouble you, Master, to prepare some clothes and have them delivered.”

“Not a trouble at all. However, there is one more thing I wanted to tell you, Officer. Your brother and the other students in the academy.” Master Chen wanted to mention the issue between Xiao Hongyin and Wang Dafu, but seeing that He Yanzhi and the others were indeed in a hurry to investigate, and considering it was not Xiao Hongyin’s fault, he swallowed his words.

To avoid causing further commotion, He Yanzhi and Yang Kuang told the constables to follow at their own pace while the two of them spurred their horses toward Baoque Mountain.

Following the river, the banks on both sides gradually closed in. By the time they reached the heart of Baoque Mountain, the waterway was barely wide enough for two transport ships to pass side by side. As it rounded the mountain walls, the path vanished into the deep mountains.

Thus, they had to bypass the mountain wall on foot.

The mountains were cold, and the mist was thick.

A dense white fog shrouded the grey-green mountains. Since it was late autumn, the scenery felt desolate and bleak.

He Yanzhi and Yang Kuang plunged into the misty forest. After only a few steps, they were forced to stop by sharp branches. The two had to leave their horses outside.

“I cannot see the path at all. How are we supposed to search?” Yang Kuang, poked several times by unexpected branches, irritably drew his blade and began hacking away.

“Listen.”

He Yanzhi silenced him, closing his eyes to listen for the sound of flowing water.

A faint trickling sound drifted through the dense forest, almost indistinguishable.

Yang Kuang listened for a long time without hearing anything. Just as he was about to speak, he saw He Yanzhi point in a direction and stride forward.

Time in the forest seemed to move as slowly as a sluggish stream. He Yanzhi led the way in silence, making Yang Kuang feel as though they had been walking for years.

He could not help but yawn. Just as he was about to let out a second one, He Yanzhi stopped.

“We are here.”

The two stepped out of the woods, and their vision suddenly opened up. The previously vanished waterway reappeared before them.

Sunlight reached into the mountain’s heart, dispersing some of the mist.

He Yanzhi walked to the riverbank and saw weapons scattered along both sides, as well as messy footprints on the shore.

“The yamen sent people to search here before. The bodies and such were already taken back.” Yang Kuang came to stand beside him.

He Yanzhi surveyed the surrounding terrain. “Did they find anything?”

The waterway was hemmed in by mountain walls and dense forest, extending like a ribbon. The mountain walls were flat and steep with no other exits.

“They only found a red turban. We looked into it, and it supposedly belongs to a group called the Red Turban Gang.”

At the mention of the Red Turban Gang, Yang Kuang frowned. “There are very few records of this damn gang. They are elusive. They rob the government one day and kill farmers the next with no pattern at all. Beyond that, we have no idea who their leader is, how many members they have, or how much power they hold. In all my years as a constable, I have never seen such a difficult group.”

He Yanzhi thought for a moment, then walked to the downstream section of the waterway. He stared into the water for a long while before beckoning Yang Kuang over.

“Brother He?”

“There is something in the water.”

He Yanzhi signaled for Yang Kuang to get in and feel around in the direction of the current.

Yang Kuang jumped in without a second thought, using his hands to grope around in the water according to He Yanzhi’s instructions.

Pushing aside the tangled water weeds, Yang Kuang suddenly touched a soft, unidentified object. He said with surprise, “Hey, there really is something.”

He pulled on the object with force, but it did not come up; the small thing seemed attached to something larger.

Yang Kuang gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. Using both hands, he heaved the entire thing from the bottom and threw it onto the bank.

When he opened his eyes to look, it was a man’s corpse.

“So I was just holding a dead man’s hand? Ptooey!”

Yang Kuang felt disgusted and scrubbed his hands frantically in the water.

A red turban was tied around the head, clearly marking him as a member of the Red Turban Gang. As soon as the waterlogged, bloated corpse hit the shore, it emitted a foul stench. Ignoring the nausea, He Yanzhi knelt down in front of the body.

Yang Kuang climbed onto the bank, cursing under his breath. He saw He Yanzhi searching the body and soon pulled a wooden plaque from the waist.

“What is that for?” Yang Kuang asked, puzzled.

The wooden plaque was shaped like a fish, carved with several horizontal and vertical lines to represent scales. It was crudely made and strangely shaped.

“It should be a token for communication.” He Yanzhi thought for a moment. “An organization as elusive as theirs must have informants.”

Yang Kuang agreed. “Then let us take this thing and wander around the streets for a few laps. We can let the informants find us.”

“We cannot,” He Yanzhi said. “If they could appear so casually, we would not be so ignorant about the Red Turban Gang.”

Yang Kuang gave a shy smile. “I was just trying to lighten the mood. Brother He surely has a better plan.”

He Yanzhi glanced at him. “I do not have a great plan, but we can have men investigate the shops in the city.”

“How do we investigate?” Yang Kuang asked curiously. He Yanzhi told him to put the wooden plaque away and leave the area first.

The two retreated back into the dense forest. The mist had cleared significantly compared to before, and their pace quickened.

Yang Kuang’s previous irritation had vanished. He navigated through the overgrown branches with agility, moving slightly faster than He Yanzhi, so he took the lead.

Suddenly, He Yanzhi called out to Yang Kuang.

The two stopped.

“…”

Just as Yang Kuang was about to ask what was wrong, He Yanzhi signaled him to look to the right.

In the waist-high bushes, a dark head peeked out, looking in their direction.

Yang Kuang immediately understood they were being followed. He made a hand gesture asking if they should give chase. He Yanzhi nodded. Yang Kuang was about to draw his blade, but He Yanzhi immediately utilized his lightness skill, leaping from the ground and gliding quickly toward the person by stepping off tree trunks.

The person realized they were exposed and scrambled out of the bushes to run back. He Yanzhi pursued with extreme speed, reaching the person’s back in the blink of an eye.

He Yanzhi stretched out his arm to grab them, but the person was incredibly agile. They dodged the strike and vanished into a pile of rocks.

“Brother He, wait for me! Where did the thief go?”

Yang Kuang finally caught up. He saw He Yanzhi standing still, holding a piece of blue fabric. He said regretfully, “Damn it, that bastard ran fast!”

Though He Yanzhi was also displeased, his face remained expressionless. He said coldly, “Let us go back first.”

After exiting the forest, finding their horses, and meeting up with the confused constables, He Yanzhi gave the order: “Search for shops in the city that have very little income but are still doing business. Focus on those with few customers.”

The constables took the order and immediately began the investigation. He Yanzhi and Yang Kuang returned to the yamen to report the day’s events and visited Jiang Beihai in the cell. Early the next morning, the constables reported the results to them.

He Yanzhi selected four suspicious locations from the list and split up with Yang Kuang to investigate.

Perhaps because it had rained, the sky was gloomy. An autumn breeze passed by, stirring a chill.

There were very few pedestrians on the street. He Yanzhi led a large group of men, making them stand out significantly.

“Spread out and search. Do not alert the targets.”

The constables dispersed. He Yanzhi entered a tavern, ordered a jug of wine, and wandered slowly through the streets.

He did not intend to wait for the constables’ reports because the true communication hub would not be on that list. He was only doing this to attract the other party’s attention.

He Yanzhi lifted the wine jug and swallowed half of it. With a slightly flushed face and a faint buzz, he wandered into the most prosperous part of the city.

He walked aimlessly down the street, his peripheral vision scanning the shops on both sides.

Since business was slow, the people inside were guarding the doors, each looking listless and staring blankly.

He Yanzhi saw nothing unusual. As he withdrew his gaze, two suspicious individuals suddenly emerged from a narrow alley behind him. They looked serious, glancing around as if searching for something.

He Yanzhi intentionally slowed his pace, wanting to eavesdrop on their conversation. In the next moment, someone crashed into him.

“Brother Yan!”

Xiao Hongyin was panting heavily, a look of surprise on his face as he whispered, He Yanzhi’s name.