“Da Liu, go now and notify the brothers. Have everyone guard the city gates. Once you spot anyone taller than five feet six inches, focus on observing their eyebrows.”
Jin Feng instructed, “Once confirmed, immediately fire the signal arrow.”
“Yes!”
Da Liu acknowledged and prepared to leave.
“Wait a moment,” A Mei called out to Da Liu. “Based on the descriptions from the kidnappers and A Lan, I believe this person practices leg techniques. His legs have immense power, so he jumps high, runs fast, and can break four ribs of a tooth row thug with one kick. You must all be very careful. This person is extremely dangerous.”
“Got it.”
Da Liu nodded and ran off to arrange for the veteran soldiers to disperse to the various city gates.
As soon as Da Liu left, Tang Dongdong entered. “Sir, Xiao Bei has been found now. What about the reward silver from the initial bounty? Should we pay it?”
In fact, they could renege on this matter. If the two informants came looking, Jin Feng could completely deny it by saying they found him through someone else’s intelligence.
As for who? Sorry, for the sake of their safety, no comment.
But Jin Feng had no intention of doing that.
“Since we promised, of course we have to give it. We must keep our word, so that the people will continue to trust us next time. There’s no need to ruin our reputation for a few hundred taels of silver.”
Jin Feng said, “Not only must we give the silver, but we also need to publicly announce that if anyone dares to retaliate or harm these two people because of this, I will pursue it to the end!”
In his previous life, there was a king who loved thousand-mile horses and offered a high reward.
At first, no one believed it. Until one person, with a try-your-luck attitude, brought a thousand-mile horse, but it unexpectedly died on the way.
Yet the king still spent a thousand gold to buy the dead horse. From then on, everyone knew the king’s reward was genuine, and more and more people offered thousand-mile horses.
For Jin Feng, this bounty was his chance to buy horse bones with a thousand gold.
If handled well, it might prove very useful in the future.
Moreover, they had indeed found Tang Xiaobei through the people’s intelligence, so Jin Feng was truly grateful to them in his heart.
“Then I’ll arrange for someone to handle this matter.”
Tang Dongdong nodded and turned to leave as well.
After cooperating for so long, Tang Dongdong was quite familiar with Jin Feng. Once he understood Jin Feng’s intent, he called Tang Xiaobei, brought gifts, and headed to the prefectural governor’s office.
Half an hour later, at the entrance of the prefectural governor’s office, Tang Dongdong took out three hundred taels of silver from the Silver Mountain and distributed it to the woman and the commoner who provided the intelligence.
The sky-high bounty had been the hottest news in the county city for the past two days. The people still did not know that Tang Xiaobei had been found, and quite a few came to report early this morning. They all witnessed the reward collection process firsthand.
As these people left, the news that Mr. Jin had paid the bounty as promised gradually spread throughout the city.
This was exactly the result Jin Feng wanted.
Tang Dongdong had accomplished it even better than Jin Feng expected.
At the same time, the city gate guards also received orders and successively opened the gates.
The family slave sent by Young Master Wen Yuan, who was waiting at the gate, immediately dashed back to report.
“The city gates are finally open!”
Young Master Wen Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.
He left the family slave to pack things and hurried with his guards to the Zhou family to bid farewell to Zhou Changlin.
“Young Master Wen Yuan, why are you leaving in such a hurry?”
Zhou Changlin asked in surprise.
“Tang Xiaobei got into trouble. We probably can’t buy soap for the time being. I have matters in the capital and can’t wait any longer.”
Young Master Wen Yuan gave the excuse he had prepared long ago. “Besides, with Uncle Changlin here, if you can buy soap, you can have someone send it to the capital. It’s the same.”
In fact, the Zhou family in the capital had been deliberately trying to distance themselves from Zhou Changlin in recent years. Young Master Wen Yuan’s personal trip to Guangyuan to buy soap was because his father did not want to owe Zhou Changlin a favor.
But now, it seemed this favor could not be avoided.
“Since the young master has business in the capital, I won’t try to keep you.”
Zhou Changlin sighed and said, “The young master came this time, but this old man did not have time to properly fulfill the duties of a host. I truly failed in hospitality. I hope the young master will forgive me.”
On the day Wen Yuan arrived, Zhou Dewu had his legs broken by Tang Xiaobei. It was only with great difficulty that they waited for his son to recover somewhat, only for the prefectural governor to bring mansion soldiers to search the house.
The mansion soldiers’ search was no different from bandits entering. After the search, the Zhou family was a mess, and it still had not been fully cleaned up.
With so many incidents, Zhou Changlin naturally had no mind to entertain Young Master Wen Yuan.
“Uncle Changlin is too polite. It was Wen Yuan who imposed on you.”
Young Master Wen Yuan said, “Next time Uncle goes to the capital, you must send word to your nephew. Give me a chance to return the hospitality.”
“Certainly, certainly!”
Upon hearing this, a smile finally appeared on Zhou Changlin’s face, which had been clouded with worry for many days.
The two exchanged a few more pleasantries, and Young Master Wen Yuan left with his guards.
Zhou Changlin saw him all the way to the main gate, inwardly sighing that this Young Master Wen Yuan was truly excellent.
However, Zhou Changlin did not know that the recent upheavals in the Zhou family were all inextricably linked to Young Master Wen Yuan.
If Young Master Wen Yuan had not come, Zhou Changlin would not have gone to Tang Xiaobei to buy soap.
If Young Master Wen Yuan had not insisted on greeting Tang Xiaobei, Zhou Dewu would not have provoked him.
If Young Master Wen Yuan had not kidnapped Tang Xiaobei, the prefectural governor would not have brought mansion soldiers to search the Zhou family.
In fact, the polite smile on Young Master Wen Yuan’s face, as he turned his back to Zhou Changlin, had already turned into a sneer.
Sneering at Zhou Changlin’s foolishness.
In truth, for Zhou Changlin to have reached his current position, he was not foolish at all. On the contrary, he was smarter than most people.
He simply never imagined that Young Master Wen Yuan would harm him.
The city gates had been closed for several days, so there were many people wanting to leave or enter the city. Moreover, the mansion soldiers had to check the travel permits one by one, making the flow even slower.
When Young Master Wen Yuan arrived at the city gate with his guards and slaves, a queue dozens of meters long had already formed at the gate.
This was still because Young Master Wen Yuan had timely information and arrived early. Behind him, even more commoners were rushing toward the gate.
Young Master Wen Yuan lifted the carriage curtain and frowned slightly at the sight outside.
“Young master, shall I go drive away the people in front?”
A family slave stepped forward and asked obsequiously.
“No need. We’re not in a hurry for this moment.”
Young Master Wen Yuan shook his head.
He felt somewhat guilty now and did not want to cause any more trouble.
They waited a full incense stick’s time before it was finally their turn.
When the family slave stepped forward to submit the travel permit, Houzi, standing beside the mansion soldier, turned to look at Zhou Wen Yuan’s group.
Upon seeing the guard, Houzi’s eyes narrowed slightly.
The guard was on horseback, so his height could not be confirmed, but at a glance, it was clear he was not short.
Houzi then looked toward the guard’s eyebrows.
Sure enough, there was a red mole the size of a sesame seed!
Houzi’s heartbeat instantly quickened, and he unconsciously gripped the hilt of his sword at his waist.
But his face remained impassive. He sauntered slowly to the guard and, tilting his head up, said, “You, get down!”
“Are you a mansion soldier? On what grounds do you want me to get down?”
The guard glanced disdainfully at Houzi’s clothes and asked.
“I’m a mansion soldier. I said get down, so get down. Where’s all this nonsense coming from?”
The mansion soldiers had been domineering in the county city for so long. Plus, he had just taken a bribe from Houzi. Although he did not know why Houzi wanted to stop the guard, he still stepped forward to back him up.
