The pile of ownerless masks left over from the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival was thrown into the storehouse of Jingzhao Prefecture.

“We haven’t touched the masks since we brought them back.” said the Jingzhao prefecture official who took Zhao You and Liu Yuan to the warehouse to get the masks.

Because he was worried about Zhao You coming alone to get the mask, Liu Yuan also came along.

Now that they were there…

“Do you want to take away all the items or just the mask?” the officer turned to ask Liu Yuan.

Liu Yuan thought about it and nodded, “What else do you have? We will take it with us!”

“There is only a pile of masks from the lantern festival,” the officer said as he led the two men into the storeroom, pointing to the letter next to the pile of masks, and said, “But the two young ladies who came to report to the police earlier did leave something behind before they went missing.”

Liu Yuan stepped forward and picked up the two letters. He tilted his head and asked the officer, “Is this the letter your master was talking about?”

The officer nodded: “It’s the farewell letter left by the two young ladies before they ran away from home!”

The handwriting has been checked, and judging from the wording and handwriting, it seemed to be written by the young lady herself.

Although the wording was different, the content was similar. They both said that they had met their destined lover, who was a son of a wealthy family. The son’s family would not allow them to marry them, so the two decided to elope for love, to create a bright future for themselves and their lover, and not to let their parents and family members worry about them.

Although the Prefect of Jingzhao had already discussed the matter with Lin Shaoqing during the Lantern Festival, and they were aware of it, Liu Yuan couldn’t help but exclaim after reading the two letters, “What ‘good husband’!”

Wasn’t it just ‘what kind of nonsense is this good husband’? A middle-aged constable nearby sighed, “My youngest daughter is already six years old now. We need to teach her from a young age to be wary of such nonsense ‘good husbands’!”

They had read too many stories about elopement for love in novels, but they had forgotten to look at the consequences of elopement that would be seen in daily life, and most of the time, the women were even more miserable.¹

These women’s families were not rich, but they were brought up with love and care, so they were naive and didn’t know that the daily necessities of life were the most damaging to one’s relationship.

Even if he was really a young master from a big family, how could he be a responsible person who could do such an irresponsible thing? Even if the two of them were lucky and never met any bad guys on the road, the money issue was enough to make them unable to live. In the end, the young master was found by the family and married to a young lady of equal status, and the eloped woman had a miserable end.

Not to mention the situation, where did so many young masters from rich families come from? They might be kidnappers who are doing shady things under the guise of being young masters from rich families!

“One is the young lady of the Chen family who owns the Zhenggou Oil Shop, and the other is Miss Chang from the Changji Rice Shop. Although they are not rich, they have enough food and clothing.” The officer said, “They both went missing a few days ago, and even the process was similar. When they went out, they found an excuse to send the maids who followed them out to buy things, and then took advantage of the maids’ absence and disappeared with the valuables and a letter that they had already packed.”

When Liu Yuan heard this, he couldn’t help but sneer: “This young master from a wealthy family who popped out from some corner is really quite charming!”

“Isn’t it?” The officer said as he helped to organize the things and handed them to Zhao You, “According to the memories of the two young ladies, the young man is not the same one. One lost her handkerchief when she was burning incense, and it was picked up by someone with a predestined relationship; the other met a gangster while shopping, and he suddenly appeared and scolded the gangster to ‘save the beauty’!”

The daughter of the Chen family lost her handkerchief when she was burning incense, but the handkerchief was not valuable. Secondly, it was not uncommon for people to lose handkerchiefs, hairpins, or even purses when burning incense. Special young monks stand at the door of the temple to look after lost items. There were a lot of handkerchiefs, hairpins, and purses in there. If you lost something, you just had to go there to look for it.

Not to mention a well-mannered young man from a wealthy family, even if it was an ordinary person, if he found something, he would just send it to the young monk. Was it necessary to hold the handkerchief and ask who lost it?

And the one that the young lady of the Chang family encountered was even more wrong! In broad daylight, the hooligans who dared to openly tease a woman must be very courageous. Would a few hooligans with courage feel guilty or afraid of a few “sage words” from a scholar who was powerless and ran away? The hooligans they saw were lucky not to beat up the young man who ran out to “meddle in other people’s business”!

These two things were full of loopholes in the eyes of the people in Jingzhao Prefecture and the elders of the Chen and Chang families. Naturally, they reported to the police as soon as they heard about the matter of these “good husbands”.

“According to the maid’s description, the two look different, so they are not the same person. However, this method is a bit subtle.” The officer sighed, “It seems that someone has specially raised some delicate and tender ‘gentlemen’ to trick these women into falling for it!”

Right now, the portraits of the two “gentlemen” had been posted, and no news had been received for several days. They must have been hidden.

In this way, those “young masters” couldn’t show up after swindling a woman, and they must be short of manpower. If they were short of manpower, those people would most likely… look around for poor scholars with decent looks to join their gang.

“The person behind this is extremely cunning. He must have known that kidnapping so many young ladies at the Lantern Festival would attract the attention of the government,” Liu Yuan handed the things he brought back from Jingzhao Prefecture to Lin Fei, and said, “This matter has spread outside. On the way back with Zhao You, we rarely saw young ladies traveling alone!”

With so many people missing all of a sudden, parents with daughters at home must be careful and not go out unless absolutely necessary. Even if they went out, they must bring someone with them.

“So now everyone’s eyes are on the young ladies. Those people may take advantage of this opportunity to do the opposite and target those poor scholars with decent looks.” Bai Zhu said, “By buying them one or two fancy robes and hanging two valuable jade pendants, those poor scholars can be transformed into wealthy young men. If they are paired with a few hooligans, the young men and the hooligans can cooperate and easily trick those naive young ladies into elopement!”

If they hadn’t thought of this, they wouldn’t have come to Xunzhou. Perhaps it would be more likely to get clues from those poor scholars who were most likely to be disguised as “rich young men”.

“But why do they need so many young women?” Liu Yuan stroked his chin and said to Bai Zhu beside him, “Usually, they lure innocent young women into elopement, and during the Lantern Festival, they even resort to forcibly abducting them. These people must be seasoned experts in this line of work, with many subordinates, including specialized enforcers.”

Bai Zhu nodded: “These people must have been doing this for many years. It is impossible that they just started doing this now. It’s just that they haven’t been noticed in the past.”

Therefore, they should also check the stories of young ladies who eloped and never returned reported in various places. It did not start with two young ladies, but had been going on for many years!

These villains had been walking in the dark for many years, but they were not discovered until now. No one knew how many young ladies had fallen into their hands!

When Liu Yuan was talking to Bai Zhu, Lin Fei did not speak. He just picked up the masks that Zhao You brought back one by one and put them to his nose to smell them.

After looking at every mask, Lin Fei stood up and walked out.

(End of this chapter)

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Footnote

1. This is sadly the truth in so many of our Asian countries till today. Even in India, especially the rural and smaller cities, if you eloped with someone, it can lead to disastrous results. Most of the time, the couples are killed or one of them is killed. Sometimes the family members are killed if the couples are not found. This happens more if the caste/religion of the couple is different. Is it the same story in your country?