“What…what’s going on?” After coming back to his senses, Liu Yuan looked at Lin Fei who looked calm and murmured.

What happened? Fishing law enforcement! Although she didn’t know the specific details of the case very well, she roughly heard the process from Liu Yuan’s mouth. Plus, with the disbelieving expression on Li Yuanfang’s face just now, evidently, in Lin Fei’s view, the ones who committed all these wrongdoings were the family of County Prince Huai Shan.

However, as for the evidence… If it were Lin Fei, even if there were concrete evidence, it would be a bit late. At the moment, before His Majesty retired for the night, what’s the harm in making a quick trip to the palace?

Furthermore, how could he tell Li Yuan if there was real evidence? Let Li Yuan go and question the people in the Huaishan County Prince’s Mansion. Wasn’t this just a warning?

Therefore, Lin Fei’s sudden inability to hide what happened just now was probably intentional, otherwise, he would not have said after Li Yuan left, “We are going to fight a tough battle.”

Wen Mingtang looked at Liu Yuan sympathetically.

However, all this has nothing to do with her being a cook. Wen Mingtang turned around with the food box and was about to leave when he heard Lin Fei’s voice behind him: “Master Wen, stay here.”

Wen Mingtang stopped, picked up the food box, and turned to look at Lin Fei.

Lin Fei said: “Can you help me?”

Wen Mingtang: “…” Can I say no?

Changing the food box in her hand to another arm, Wen Mingtang said with a smile: “Lin Shaoqing, please speak.”

…..

…..

After securely wedging the food box into the gap in the tree, making sure it wouldn’t fall, Wen Mingtang, hugged the tree trunk and slid down to the ground. Then, taking two steps back, she used the momentum to flip over the wall and landed steadily on the ground.

Using the bushes beside the wall to hide her figure, Wen Mingtang crouched behind the bushes and looked at the guards patrolling not far ahead.

As Hai¹ hour approached, sleepiness gradually came over people. The patrolman yawned and his march slowed down.

Wen Mingtang, who was squatting behind the trees, also yawned. At this moment, several masked figures in black jumped out from behind the wall.

Along with the figures, there were several streaks of white smoke. Under the smoke, the patrols were defeated and were quickly knocked down by the masked men in black.

Wen Mingtang tightened the sweat towel covering her mouth and nose and looked at the group of masked men in black who suddenly appeared.

After several people knocked down the patrolman, they headed to the guardhouse’s warehouse. Walking to the warehouse, they opened the door lock of the warehouse with a knife. When one of the men in black was about to go in, he was held back by another man.

“It’s too late to find it!” The man in black said, turned around and took off the lantern on the nearest pole, then took out the candle wick and threw the wick into the warehouse.

When the little candle flame met the paper, it engulfed the nearby page in an instant. The fire grew and spread away fast.

The man in black stood there, watching the fire getting bigger and bigger. At this moment, a burst of noisy voices rang out from outside.

“Boss, the guardhouse is on fire!”

The person who was called boss said “Hey”, and it was a woman’s voice. When she heard the words, she immediately said: “Then why are you still standing there? Hurry up and ask the brothers to put out the fire!”

The man in black, who was about to stay where he was and watch the fire engulf the entire warehouse, suddenly changed his expression after hearing this conversation.

In the vast city of Chang’an, only the gānzhī² patrol was led by a woman called “Boss” who was well-known among the various guards.

What luck? To meet this group of people who had nothing to do and were looking for trouble all day long?

The man in black looked at the growing fire, and finally gritted his teeth and stamped his feet: “Don’t have a head-on conflict with that group of people, let’s go!”

Tonight’s events were originally hard to explain, and if the gānzhī patrol gets involved, it might become even more troublesome.

After seeing several figures of men in black crossing the wall, Wen Mingtang climbed out from behind the bushes, then turned around and climbed over the wall without thinking.

Just as she stood outside the Jingzhao Mansion Guards Station, the voice of the talented female “boss” rang out.

“Those black shadows all flew over my head. If it weren’t for cooperating with Xiao Mingtang, I would have had to pretend not to see it, otherwise, I would have been unable to resist taking action!”

Wen Mingtang stood still and looked at the bucket in her hand. The woman who appeared with two people smiled and greeted her: “General Liang!”

The person who came was none other than Liang Hongjin, the captain of the gānzhī cadre and branch guard with mixed rumors and reputations.

She had a tall and slender figure, even taller than the average man by half a head. She was skillful, at least none within this patrol could match her in combat. Wen Mingtang had learned a few self-defense moves from Liang Hongjin.

Wen Mingtang had been having dreams like that all day long since she traveled back in time. Wen Mingtang didn’t know if others could fall asleep, but she was able to fall asleep after learning these tricks from Liang Hongjin.

“Your Lin Shaoqing has taken away most of the people in my team, leaving me and Heizi to support you.” Liang Hongjin said, rubbing her hands, and her knuckles made a “creak” sound. The voice of a domineering female boss was heard once more, “I originally thought he was going to take action, but he didn’t want to use my hands, but I was left here to put out the fire!”

Just now, after finishing the night training with her subordinates, she was about to send them back to rest when Wen Mingtang, carrying Lin Fei’s token, hurried over to request assistance.

“Poor girl! You were bitten by mosquitoes while squatting in the bushes. Remember to ask your Lin Shaoqing for Lithospermum ointment later. This is a work-related injury!” Liang Hongjin pointed to a few mosquito patches on Wen Mingtang’s hands and face. Then she turned around and carried the barrel in to put out the fire.

During the window when Liang Hongjin led the rescue effort for the fire, Wen Mingtang also didn’t remain idle. She walked up to the unconscious patrol officers, took out a bag of processed garlic from her sleeve pocket, and held it in front of their noses for a moment.

Seeing the noses of several patrol officers and soldiers twitching and reacting, Wen Mingtang immediately pinched several people with her fingers. After pinching them awake, Wen Mingtang pointed to the burning warehouse and asked people to put out the fire.

There was no danger at the guard station, they were just trying to put out a fire, but Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu were squatting behind the carriage, their legs weak from fear.

They cautiously probed their head.

“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh,” a handful of crossbow bolts rained down, turning the wooden board into a hedgehog-like spiked board in an instant.

Liu Yuan shrank, reached out touched the iron sheet that had been deformed by the force of the crossbow arrow, and asked Bai Zhu on the side: “Can this block the arrows?”

Bai Zhu hunched over, not faring much better than him. Upon hearing this, he said, “It’s been reinforced by a blacksmith. The blacksmith guaranteed that it can withstand it. If it can’t, we’ll settle the score with him.” Although he said so, looking at the deformed iron plating, Bai Zhu couldn’t help muttering, “If it really can’t hold up, and everyone is dead, how are we going to settle any scores?”

“This is the first time I have encountered such an arrogant murderer since I entered Dali Temple.” said Liu Yuan while shrinking on the side. He tried hard to curl up, touched his head, and sighed, “Assassinating Dali Temple officials on the street!”

“I’ve seen arrogant and domineering nobles before! Not to mention the distant ones, look at the temper of Li Yuan, the Prince of Pingxi. But regardless of anyone, none of them is as fierce as the Prince of Huai Shan and his family, who currently enjoy an excellent reputation!” Liu Yuan sighed.

(End of chapter)

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Footnote

1. 9 to 11 PM
2. The mixed gender palace team mentioned before.