The Rebirth of Han Yuxi

Chapter 0757 Ning Hai (1)

Despite spending all his available funds, Jiang Hongjin still found no useful clues. He wished he could slaughter all those officials. Just then, Mr Gao arrived.

Mr Gao had been travelling non-stop and had not received any news about Jiang Hongjin's disfigurement. So, upon seeing the blood-red tumour on Jiang Hongjin's right cheek, Mr Gao turned pale with shock. "Second Master, Second Master, what happened to you?" He had heard that someone had given Jiang Hongjin a sterility drug, but not that he had been disfigured.

Jiang Hongjin replied expressionlessly, "Someone did this to me." Thinking that the person who had harmed him was still at large, Jiang Hongjin was consumed by hatred that he gnashed his teeth.

Mr Gao knew that the villain had dealt Jiang Hongjin another vicious blow. "Second Master, don't worry. I will definitely help you track down the culprit behind this."

Jiang Hongjin trusted Mr Gao very much. "This matter will depend entirely on you, Uncle Gao." Having served under Jiang Hongjin's father for over twenty years, Mr Gao had more experience and knowledge of the world than Jiang Hongjin.

Mr Gao asked Jiang Hongjin, "Did you offend anyone after arriving in Luoyang, Second Master?" Someone capable of committing such a vicious act must surely be a mortal enemy, so it should not be difficult to find.

Jiang Hongjin shook his head. "I have not offended anyone in Luoyang." Although he held different political views from some of the high-ranking officials in Luoyang, he had never made enemies with any of them.

Mr Gao's thinking went deeper than Jiang Hongjin's. He continued asking, "Second Master, it's not just people with wealth, status, and power who are capable of doing such a thing."

Jiang Hongjin's expression changed, and he asked, "Uncle Gao, what do you mean by that?"

Mr Gao was a perceptive man; a glance at Jiang Hongjin's expression told him all he needed to know. He asked, "Second Master, with whom have you formed a mortal feud?"

Jiang Hongjin immediately shook his head. "There is no such thing. The culprit behind this must be someone who has a great hatred against our Jiang family."

Mr Gao sighed softly. "Second Master, if you do not explain this matter clearly to me, I will have no way to help you find the culprit."

After a long silence, Jiang Hongjin finally spoke. "Not long after I arrived in Luoyang, I encountered a case." As a tongzhi, he was responsible for matters such as welfare, resettlement, relief and disaster aid.

Soon after Jiang Hongjin arrived in Luoyang, a scandal broke out involving officials embezzling disaster relief funds. At the time, three officials were implicated in the case: One was the prefect's cousin's son, one was the assistant prefect's younger brother, and the last had no real backing in Luoyang. The one without backing eventually died in prison, while the other two were unharmed.

Upon hearing this answer, Mr Gao asked, "Are there any other members of that man's family still alive?"

Jiang Hongjin shook his head. "The man surnamed He was from Jizhou, and his wife and children are all still there. After he committed the crime, even his concubine had rolled up the money and run away. In the end, it was his old servant who sent his coffin back to Jizhou." With only that fleeing concubine and two young children, it was impossible for them to avenge the man.

After pausing for a moment, Jiang Hongjin added, "Even if the He family wanted revenge, they should not come after me. I was not the one who judged this case; the prefect did." At most, he could only be considered an accomplice.

Mr Gao asked Jiang Hongjin many more questions, but in the end obtained no clues at all. "Didn't you say there was a portrait of the criminal? Bring it here and let me have a look." This could be considered the only clue.

However, when Mr Gao looked at the wanted criminal's portrait, he felt depressed. "This drawing is too ordinary. There's nothing distinctive about it at all. It will be very difficult to find him." Such an appearance might stand out in the capital, but in Luoyang it was common. If one went out onto the street, one could easily find several people who looked almost exactly like the man in the portrait.

Jiang Hongjin said nothing. He already considered this drawing as the best one.

Mr Gao asked, "Didn't you say someone had seen this person? Bring that person here." He was a skilled painter and wanted to draw the portrait himself.

The next day, Mr Gao had finished drawing Yan Xi's portrait. The person who had seen Yan Xi looked at the portrait and nodded repeatedly. "It looks like him. He looks just like the real person."

Mr Gao said, "Have people copy a few more of these and put them up all over the streets and alleys. I believe we will definitely be able to find this person."

This approach was very effective. In less than three days, someone had taken down the portrait and come to the prefectural office to claim the reward. They had seen Yan Xi and knew fairly well about his background. 'This man is called Yan Xiaoxi. He was originally a tenant farmer from Maicheng. When he could no longer make a living, he went into the mountains and became a bandit, eventually becoming the trusted subordinate of Maicheng's Smiling Tiger. After Yun Qing occupied the northwest, I lost track of him." The person who came to claim the reward had originally been a local official in Maizhou City and was very familiar with the area. He had fled to Luoyang with his family when Yun Qing had led troops there.

Mr Gao said to Jiang Hongjin, "This person should be hiding in the northwest. That makes this matter rather difficult." The northwest was different from Luoyang; arresting someone there would not be that easy.

Jiang Hongjin said hatefully, "Never mind the northwest—even if he goes to the ends of the earth, I will not let him off." Now that they had found traces of him, there was no way he was letting him go.

Mr Gao lowered his head and thought for a moment. Then he raised his head and told Jiang Hongjin, "The Eldest Master will arrive in Luoyang in another half month. When the time comes, I will accompany the Eldest Master to Haocheng and certainly find out where this person is. Second Master, hurry back to the capital!" As for the injury on Jiang Hongjin's face, it would be better to treat back in the capital.

Jiang Hongjin wanted to drag the person behind the scenes out himself.

However, Mr Gao did not agree with this course of action. "Second Master, the most important thing for you right now is to heal your facial injury. Everything else is secondary." Mr Gao had a vague feeling that not only would the mastermind behind the scenes be hard to find, but also very difficult to deal with.

Under Mr Gao's firm attitude, Jiang Hongjin finally agreed to take a carriage back to the capital the next day. As for Yurong, she stayed in Luoyang to rest and protect her pregnancy.

Three days before his wedding, Tie Kui received Yuxi's reply. Along with the letter came some inconspicuous gifts. Of course, she sent them under Tong Ge's name.

Holding the letter bearing the beautiful plum-blossom script, Tie Kui knew that it was Yuxi's own handiwork. The fact that Yuxi could write in plum-blossom script was not unusual; it was common knowledge in the capital.

Only after entering the room did Tie Kui open the letter. Seeing that the letter began with the word 'Uncle', Tie Kui's pupils contracted. He had taken the risk of acknowledging his relationship with Yuxi not only to restore his identity but also because Yuxi was his only remaining blood relative.

After carefully reading the entire letter, a faint smile appeared on Tie Kui's face. In the letter, Yuxi had merely spoken of her longing for her birth mother and her joy at the sudden appearance of her uncle. Apart from that, she told Tie Kui to take care of himself. She said that if he were willing to go to the northwest, she would welcome him with open arms. As for words like 'gathering intelligence', there wasn't even half a character of that.

After reading it once more, Tie Kui took out a fire striker and burned the letter. With Yan Wushuang's people watching him, he had no choice but to be careful not to leave anything behind that might expose his identity.

Tie Kui said to Zhong Shan, who had just walked into the room, "Tonight, we two brothers should have a good drink." Now, in his heart, he had actually already accepted Yuxi as his niece.

Zhong Shan had known Tie Kui for so many years, but he had never seen him so happy before. "Kuizi, what has made you so happy?"

Tie Kui was truly happy today, and wanted to share in this joy with Zhong Shan. "Weren't you ever curious about my background before? I can tell you today."

Hearing this, Zhong Shan responded, "Wait a moment." After saying that, he hurried outside to check. Fortunately, at that moment there was no one outside or on the roof.

Tie Kui smiled. How would he have dared to say such a thing if he had not confirmed that no one was here? Nevertheless, Zhong Shan's actions warmed his heart.

Zhong Shan closed the door and pulled Tie Kui into the inner compartment, complaining, "You still have to be more careful about such a big matter!" Since Tie Kui had kept his identity hidden all this time and refused to speak of it, it must certainly be extraordinary.

Tie Kui smiled.

Once Zhong Shan had calmed down, he asked, "Kuizi, then what is your identity?" From the matter involving Han Jianming, he had actually already guessed that Tie Kui must be from the capital and even knew Han Jianming, the heir to a ducal household. Therefore, Tie Kui could not have been born into a humble family.

Tie Kui replied, "My real name is Ning Hai: Ning as in 'peaceful', Hai as in 'the sea'. I was the youngest son in the family. My father gave me this name because he hoped I would have the breadth of heart to embrace all rivers like the sea..." When he spoke of the Ning family's misfortune, Tie Kui became somewhat choked up.

Zhong Shan said, "If you don't want to talk about it, then don't."

Tie Kui shook his head and continued, "All the adult men of the Ning family were beheaded, and the women were sold off. My Second Eldest Sister sold all her dowry to buy off connections, and only then did she manage to save the lives of me, my Fifth Older Brother, several nephews, and all my female relatives. Unfortunately, on the road to exile in Liaodong, we encountered bandits." Tie Kui's father had made many friends during his lifetime, and they also helped secretly. Otherwise, how could so many lives have been saved just by relying solely on Ning Shi's small dowry?

Zhong Shan lowered his voice to ask, "How did you escape?" Those who could survive after encountering bandits were very lucky indeed.

Tie Kui responded, "When the bandits attacked, we were resting. At that time, I happened to be relieving myself in the grass, so those bandits didn't notice me." Tie Kui was a scholar, and scholars were particularly concerned with propriety. Even after becoming a prisoner, he remained particular about it. So whenever he needed to relieve himself, he would go far from the roadside to a place with dense grass. This was also why the bandits had not discovered him.

Tie Kui had already heard that the journey to Liaodong was unsafe. So, when he heard screams and cries for help, he did not dare run out. Instead, he covered his mouth and crouched down, too scared to move. It was only after the bandits had left that he emerged from his hiding place.

And the scene he saw when he came out became a nightmare that he could never shake off. All of his remaining relatives were lying in pools of blood. Among them, his third sister-in-law's head had been severed from her body, and his fourth sister-in-law was still naked.

In truth, the dead were often the fortunate ones; it was those who survived who suffered the most. For twenty years, Tie Kui had nightmares every night and would wake up covered in cold sweat every time. Yet he could not confide in others about this kind of pain; he could only suppress it in his heart.