Chapter 394 - The Cause of Trouble
Chapter 394 The Cause of Trouble
Through Xiaoyu, Lin Mengya had some understanding of Lieyun Empire.
The empire was a very mysterious one. It was said that it was one of the rare empires which combined its religious and political power.
The supreme of the empire was also the empire’s religious leader.
However, the religion in Lieyun was not part of the Confucious teachings. Worst, the Confucious teachings were deemed as heresies in Lieyun.
As a result of extreme exclusivism, Lieyun had become one of the most mysterious kingdoms around.
However, business relation was a way Lieyun maintained its communication with the outside world.
The people of Lieyun before their eyes were all tall and slim.
The men wore a black and white headscarf while the women were adorned with elaborate and delicate silver accessories.
However, regardless of whether they were male or female, all of them wore a veil over their faces.
The only exception was the elder among them, who did not wear a veil.
Lin Mengya was especially curious as to why the gray-haired and white-bearded elder still had a radiant facial complexion with very little wrinkles, only his eyes were filled with cold hostility.
One glance at those piercing eyes made Lin Mengya shudder with unease.
Fortunately, she was merely sizing him up but did not have any ill intention towards him.
The elder only gave her a look before he turned his gaze to Black Tiger and White Dragon.
“Yuan Lin, you may go upstairs first.”
Seeing that the two parties were on the verge of breaking out into conflict, Master Guo conveniently chased Lin Mengya back to her room as he took out the pan for his smoking pouch.
It seemed that a conflict between these four parties was inevitable today.
An obedient Lin Mengya stood up, took a bow at Master Guo and slowly ascended the stairs to the second floor.
In those few exchanges, the situation was made very clear.
The two brothers, Black Tiger and White Dragon were certainly in the business of human trafficking, but they had abducted the companion of that group of people from Lieyun.
Lord Maliu did not seem to approve of Black Tiger and White Dragon’s actions, but he still shouldered the responsibility.
Master Guo being Lord Maliu’s good friend, would naturally not let his friend fight this war alone and be bullied.
Lin Mengya leaned back on the wooden door and shook her head.
She did not expect to face endless disasters whenever she went out nowadays. She wondered when she would be able to live a quiet life.
She could hear the battle of words downstairs.
Lin Mengya did not wish to listen to those people arguing, so she dragged Baishao to the window where they could see the night scene of people going to and fro in the street below.
However, she also perked up her ears to listen carefully to the situation outside.
“How abominable for this man to be dealing with human trafficking! My neighbor, Little Pebble had precisely been abducted by human traffickers. Mrs. Shi was almost blind from weeping. A blissful family was ruined by these people! Why won’t the local authorities arrest them?”
Agitated, Baishao lowered her voice as she told Lin Mengya that she shared her sentiments. To Lin Mengya, the contents in her high school history class concerning the plights of the black people who were sold as slaves was still fresh in her mind until now.
Although Black Dragon and White Tiger were as detestable as Crow, they alone would not be able to succeed in doing anything.
After all, they were driven by economic reasons to have eventually turn to these unlawful trades.
Eradicating them meant that only a small part of this chain of evil operation was lost.
As long as people could reap benefits from this trade, sooner or later, someone would come along to replace them to continue earning this ill-gotten money.
If she was serious about interfering, she had to make sure she made a difference. At least, she had to stop this chain of unethical trade from bringing more harm to people for now.
However, what she needed to do now was to observe the situation quietly so she could track down the evildoers by following the clues.
“Hush, I’m going to secretly watch them and see what they’re doing. You should go to bed soon, but remember to lock the door and windows. I will call out to you when I come back.”
Baishao, however, shook her head as she held on tightly to Lin Mengya’s sleeves.
They could clearly hear the sound of fighting outside.
To Baishao, her master might be witty and sharp, but those weapons might injure her. What would she do then?
“Am I such a fool? I’m just going to find a strategic spot on the second floor and peek at them. Moreover, I don’t know any martial arts. I would be making trouble for Master Guo if I were to just barge in? Rest assured I won’t do that!”
Lin Mengya finally convinced Baishao and escaped from Baishao.
She had to promise Baishao that she would not foolishly go up against these people. Finally, she slipped out quietly through the door of the second-floor room.
Thankfully, what really happened on the first floor was just a heated argument. They had not progressed to physical violence.
Through the little opening of the railings, Lin Mengya had a peek on what was happening below her.
At this moment, White Dragon, Black Tiger and the group of Lieyun people were the ones involved in the heated argument.
As for Master Guo and Lord Maliu, they were acting as mediators.
Master Guo was sitting there, smoking, while Lord Maliu was trying to mediate between the two arguing parties, but from his tone, it was obvious that he was siding with the group of people from Lieyun.
The conflict continued and physical violence seemed inevitable sooner or later.
In her anxiety, Lin Mengya was not aware when someone started watching her.
“Why are you out of your room? Didn’t Master Guo say that you should retire into your room?”
She did not know when Qiu Yu had walked up to her.
Qiu Yu was pulled down by Lin Mengya to squat behind the railings to watch the situation downstairs.
“It would be a pity to miss the drama. Oh yes, do you know exactly who White Dragon and Black Tiger are?”
In fact, Lin Mengya was not alone. Many passersby who had nothing to do with this matter, were also watching the situation secretly.
There were rules for businessmen traveling in groups. They did not usually resort to using physical force once a conflict started.
The groups of traveling businessmen were on the go most part of the year, so they had established many rules for the smooth running of their businesses during their travel.
Whoever wished to enter this profession had to abide by these rules. Even if he was involved in black market trading like Black Tiger and White Dragon.
Qiu Yu looked helplessly at Lin Mengya, and then said to her, “The Lieyun guy is Dongfang Xu. He is a Lieyun businessman dealing with medicine. Half of the poison in the Capital City was supplied by the Nation of Lieyun through him. Do you see those men behind him? It was said that they are all very skillful in the use of poison.”
Lin Mengya nodded. As the Shen Nung system was running all the time, she knew better than anyone else about this fact.
The series of confusing names for the various poison was enough evidence that these men were not easy to deal with.
If this were the case, why would White Dragon and Black Tiger have the audacity to go against them?
“White Dragon and Black Tiger are well-known human traffickers along this route, and Crow works for them. He is in charge of selling all the abducted people from various nations to the Nation of Lieyun to be slaves. However, the people of Lieyun were naturally blessed with good looks. For this reason, many bald nobles from various countries liked to take the girls and children from Lieyun as captives. Sadly, they were being treated most cruelly because of their knowledge of poison. For one, the niece of Dongfang Xu had disappeared just a few days ago. Before she vanished, someone saw her getting into an argument with White Dragon’s man. Dongfang Xu attempted to ask for her time and again but to no avail. He had no choice but to have Master Guo and Lord Maliu to take the field.”
Lin Mengya nodded in understanding. At first, when she bumped into Xiaoyu, he was meant to be a toy and to be sold when he grew up a little.
Lin Mengya could not help but be furious when she remembered how pathetic Xiaoyu looked at the beginning.
The desire to destroy White Dragon and Black Dragon intensified at the thought.
“Is the niece of Dongfang Xu really in the hands of White Dragon?”
This was Lin Mengya’s utmost concern now.
Qiu Yu shook his head. He had also just arrived at the inn, trailing behind Lin Mengya. It was not that easy to gather this much information within such a short time.
Lin Mengya rolled her eyes and drew close to Qiu Yu’s ear to whisper her plans.
“This… may not be a good idea.”
Qiu Yu gave Lin Mengya an awkward look, but Lin Mengya returned with a pleading look.
Finally, he could not bear to turn her down and nodded helplessly.
When no one noticed, the two of them sneaked downstairs.
Fortunately, all the people’s attention was on the four tables in the middle of the hall and no one took notice of them.
They followed the staircase and came to the backyard where the groups of businessmen left their goods.
“Tell me, how do White Dragon and Black Tiger transport those people to various places if they are doing human trafficking?”
Although it was night time, there were lights being lit in the backyard. Lin Mengya and Qiu Yu were conversing softly in the shadows.
“That I don’t know. Apart from horse carriages, there is no other way of transporting people.”
Lin Mengya looked all around the backyard and discovered that it was filled with wooden carts for transporting goods and little horse carriages like the one she was traveling in.
After going around the backyard once, it seemed that there was no place for anyone to hide.
The town was only this big. If these human traffickers were to stop here every time they passed by. They would definitely find a safe and suitable place to house those who were abducted.
Where could they find a spacious and secret place? Most importantly, this place would not raise suspicion even if all of them fit into it.
In that instant, a place came to Lin Mengya’s mind.
“Is there any coffin home nearby?”
Qiu Yu gave her a puzzled look, and then pondered for a moment before answering her.
“On our way here about 2,500 meters from this town, there seemed to be a coffin home, but that place to common people is a place of bad luck. Why are you asking about it?”
Normally commoners would not visit such places which were far from where people gathered.
Lin Mengya appeared to have her focused her mind on this target and did not want to delay any further. While Master Guo and the other men were entangled with each other, she wanted to go and check out that place personally.
After she told Qiu Yu what was on her mind, a shocked and puzzled expression appeared on his face.
“My dear Miss Lin, you refused to sleep in the middle of the night. and you are going to the coffin house at night! Have you fallen ill?”