Let him wait.
The Ninth Princess, who moments ago had been laughing and chatting with Qing Muluan, instantly switched to an official expression the moment she heard the county magistrate had arrived.
She said coldly, “Let him wait.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
Big Liu glanced at Jin Feng, bowed, and withdrew.
Down the mountain, the county magistrate and his party stood silently in the rain, wearing straw raincoats.
When they saw Big Liu coming down, Magistrate Zhang hurried forward.
“Brother Big Liu, what did Her Highness say?”
“Her Highness is still dining and said His Lordship should wait a while.”
“Did Her Highness say how long? And how did her mood seem?”
The magistrate edged closer to Big Liu, slipped a silver ingot from his sleeve, and quietly pressed it into Big Liu’s hand.
“Her Highness did not say how long His Lordship should wait. Her expression looked rather displeased.”
Big Liu answered truthfully but did not accept the silver. To avoid any suspicion, he even stepped back twice.
Seeing this, Magistrate Zhang had no choice but to put the silver away.
“My lord, the rain is heavy. Please wait inside.”
Big Liu wiped the rainwater from his face and pointed to a row of thatched huts nearby.
These days, labourers constantly came to Double Camel Peak to collect salt and often had to queue. The huts were built for them to rest.
“Thank you for your kindness, brother, but we will wait outside.”
Magistrate Zhang shook his head.
“Oh, there is one more thing, my lord.”
Big Liu lowered his voice. “Her Highness’s large ship was sunk by river bandits. Mister asked me to remind Your Lordship to prepare a salvage team.”
Zhou the Tutor, Zhao the County Lieutenant, and others had all been eliminated by Jin Feng, effectively removing every obstacle in Magistrate Zhang’s way.
For the past few months, therefore, Magistrate Zhang had been extremely friendly toward Jin Feng.
That afternoon, Jin Feng had guessed the magistrate would come. While the Ninth Princess was touring the workshops, he had asked Big Liu to pass on the reminder.
Sure enough, Magistrate Zhang soon arrived.
“Thank you for the reminder, Mister. I will see to it at once.”
Magistrate Zhang said gratefully.
He was genuinely grateful to Jin Feng and to the Zhenyuan Escort Agency.
He already knew the details of the attack on the Ninth Princess. Had the Zhenyuan Escort Agency not intervened twice, she would certainly have met a tragic end.
If a princess of the blood died in his jurisdiction, Magistrate Zhang could guess his fate even with his toes.
Soon, a yamen runner braved the rain and rode off through the night to summon the salvage team.
Magistrate Zhang and the rest continued standing in the rain, awaiting the princess’s summons.
They waited until dawn.
The autumn rain was bitterly cold. Magistrate Zhang, already over forty, stood all night and shivered uncontrollably, arms wrapped around himself.
Only after breakfast did the Ninth Princess finally grant him an audience.
“This lowly official Zhang Deming pays respects to Your Highness!”
Without caring about the muddy water on the ground, Magistrate Zhang knelt and kowtowed. “This official was unaware of Your Highness’s arrival and failed to send guards in time, allowing those damnable river bandits to disturb Your Highness. I beg Your Highness to punish my crime!”
“Your culpability will naturally be examined by the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Justice, and the Court of Judicial Review. This palace has no authority to punish you.”
The Ninth Princess said coldly.
Yet the colder her tone, the more terrified Magistrate Zhang became.
Jin Feng glanced at him with sympathy but said nothing.
The two men were not close. Reminding the magistrate to prepare a salvage team was already the limit of his kindness; there was no need to plead on his behalf.
The Ninth Princess remained silent, so Magistrate Zhang dared not raise his head. He kept his forehead pressed to the ground and trembled as he spoke. “This official knows his crimes are grave and that ten thousand deaths would not atone for them. However, I have already prepared a salvage team. I beg Your Highness to allow this official to redeem himself by recovering the sunken ship!”
“If you can raise the ship, this palace will record a merit for you.”
Hearing this, the Ninth Princess’s expression finally softened a little. “Rise.”
“Thank you, Your Highness!” Magistrate Zhang hurriedly kowtowed again in gratitude.
When the Ninth Princess walked past with her entourage, Magistrate Zhang secretly cupped his hands toward Jin Feng in silent thanks for the warning.
Without Jin Feng’s reminder to prepare the salvage team, today would have been far harder to get through.
Jin Feng gave a slight nod in response.
Magistrate Zhang then led his men to the Jialing River to personally direct the salvage operation.
The Ninth Princess had wanted to go too, but after yesterday’s events, both Jin Feng and Qing Muluan strongly objected.
The Zhenyuan Escort Agency was not an official body. Even if the princess had been killed by river or mountain bandits yesterday, it would have had little to do with Jin Feng.
But now it was different. The princess had come to Double Camel Peak under his protection. If anything happened again, Jin Feng would not escape blame.
Although Double Camel Peak and the ferry together now had over a hundred escorts, plus heavy crossbows, and could easily hold their own against three or four hundred bandits, why take the risk?
Was it not better to stay safely on the easily defended Double Camel Peak and wait for news?
At noon that same day, the Prefect of Guangyuan arrived in wind and rain.
The poor old prefect, desperate to get there quickly, had ridden horseback instead of taking a carriage, nearly shattering his old bones in the process.
Before setting out, he had activated every secret informant he had cultivated over his many years in Guangyuan, ordering a full investigation into the background of the bandits who attacked the princess.
Sure enough, just as Jin Feng had originally suspected, the prefect’s control over Guangyuan was extremely strong.
That very night, his informants reported that the man controlling the bandits was indeed Master Feng.
The prefect immediately issued an all-points arrest warrant and mobilised every effort to capture Master Feng.
Yamen runners and prefectural troops across the commandery, together with Xiao Yu’s Bell-Ring Team, all swung into action.
Yet Master Feng seemed to have vanished into thin air; not a single clue could be found.
Instead, following the trail, the prefect’s agents located a Dangxiang spy who had been in contact with Master Feng.
Unfortunately, during the arrest attempt, the spy realised escape was impossible and leapt off a cliff.
This infuriated the Ninth Princess.
The heavy rain had not let up for days, and the Jialing River’s water level kept rising, making salvage work far from ideal.
Nevertheless, eager to redeem himself, Magistrate Zhang spent several days on the river with the salvage team. Following floating debris, they finally located the sunken ship.
He was lucky. The large vessel had not drifted far with the current but had been carried into a relatively calm bay.
Magistrate Zhang mobilised several hundred prefectural troops and commoners and, through sheer effort, hauled the ship up from the riverbed.
Cloth and silk inside were ruined by the water and unusable, but gold, silver, and vessels were fine. They were repacked into chests and sent back to Double Camel Peak.
Over these days, Qin Ming had remained at the ferry, waiting for surviving guards to gather.
Fortunately, the river had not been too fierce at the time, and thanks to Big Niu’s timely warning, nearly all the guards had managed to grab wooden pillars or other flotation aids before the ship sank.
Over several days, more than thirty guards, along with five or six maids and servants, reached the ferry and reunited.
Those who never arrived had, in all likelihood, drowned.
Qin Ming instructed the escorts stationed at the ferry to direct any further guards to Double Camel Peak, then led the survivors to rejoin the Ninth Princess.
With the ship recovered and the survivors gathered, there was little reason for the Ninth Princess to remain longer at Double Camel Peak. She therefore proposed going to Xihe Bay to have a look.
