The Succession Struggle in the Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 220 All the hard work came to naught

Having made up his mind, Jia Lian wanted to listen to Xiao Er's advice and quickly lead the Jia family to retreat.

But before he could act, he suddenly saw torches being erected behind them, illuminating the dim evening.

Jia Lian glanced around and saw that there were quite a lot of torches, basically surrounding the Jia family members and those he had just fought with.

Moreover, as the torches were lit, he also heard a shouting sound from the surrounding area.

"Listen up, everyone inside. This is a case being handled by the Shuntian Prefecture. Don't move around."

"Daxing County is handling a case here; unauthorized personnel are not allowed to make any moves."

Judging from the sounds, the people who came were not only the yamen runners from Daxing County, but also people from Shuntian Prefecture.

This made Jia Lian somewhat annoyed. He wished he had noticed something was wrong earlier, or perhaps he simply hadn't come at all.

There's no need to dwell on this now.

Although, given his status as a member of the Jia family, there shouldn't be any problems as long as no guns or knives are used.

But tonight's situation seems to be deliberately orchestrated, so Jia Lian isn't very confident he can handle it.

He glanced at the approaching torches and said to Xiao Er and Jia Rong:

"The constables from both locations have arrived. It's too late for us to leave now. What do you suggest we do?"

Xiao Er was able to sense that something was wrong here because of his intuition from the battlefield.

But asking him for advice is clearly not his forte, so Xiao Er wisely kept quiet.

Jia Rong, however, thought for a moment and said, "Second Uncle Lian, since we can't leave, let's wait and see what happens, and then we can report back to the family."

Upon hearing this, Jia Lian had no other choice. He whispered to the two of them:
"You all need to gather our family members together quickly and get everyone to sober up."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Er, as the commander, ran to the side to gather his men without saying a word.

Jia Lian and Jia Rong waited quietly for the torches to approach.

The torches surrounding the area, as we learned from the earlier announcement, were also divided into two parts.

Some were yamen runners from Shuntian Prefecture, and some were constables from Daxing County.

Although Daxing County was under the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture, if Shuntian Prefecture did not issue a transfer order, Zhu Tianfu's yamen runners could be ignored during the investigation.

Therefore, the people who are coming in now are very likely from two separate cases handled by two different companies.

Jia Lian and Jia Rong didn't have to wait long before the torches outside reached the Jia family.

Once the servants of the Jia family mansion made way, Jia Lian saw the figures under the torches through the gap in the courtyard wall.

"It's Officer Yu. I thought it was someone else."

Jia Lian recognized the visitor; he was the "Rain Head" that Zhang Er and the others had mentioned. He was the head constable of the Daxing County guerrilla unit, in charge of apprehending thieves.

He was delayed at Zhang Er's place for a while, which is why he fell behind Jia Lian by a step.

Moreover, judging from the current situation, he is not only behind Jia Lian, but there is also a group of unidentified people ahead of them.

If we really had to rank them by who went first, they would have to be ranked third, tied with the people from Shuntian Prefecture.

Officer Yu clearly recognized Jia Lian. After seeing who he was, he walked towards Jia Lian and said:
"Greetings, Second Master Lian. It's so late. May I ask what brings you here?"

Jia Lian knew that most of the people who came to this run-down place at this time were there to catch those two petty thieves.

They both knew what the other did, so Jia Lian didn't bother to speak.

He said briefly, "Someone robbed our house on the street today. We just found out that the thief is here, so I brought the people from the house here to see if we can get the things back."

In just a few words, we explained the whole situation clearly, and made it clear to the other party that we were not there to cause trouble, but had a reason for it.

Following this statement, Jia Lian continued:

"Why is Officer Yu here too?"

The head constable forced an unpleasant smile onto his rugged face and said:
"I heard that someone was robbing people on the street, so I brought people here to catch the criminals."

After answering Jia Lian's question, Officer Yu didn't wait for Jia Lian's reply. Instead, he turned to one of the men following behind and asked:
"Didn't you say the person who was robbed was Prince Su? How come it's now a member of the Jia family?"

The person being questioned probably hadn't expected to make such a mistake, and quickly replied:
"The messenger who sent me the letter said it was Prince Su. I also sent someone to inquire with Zhang Er about Prince Su. I don't know why the Jia family is here."

When asked, none of them knew the answer, which greatly annoyed Constable Yu. He glanced at Zhang Er in the distance, beckoned, and asked as Zhang Er approached:
"Besides Prince Su, was anyone else robbed today?"

Zhang Er was caught red-handed by Constable Yu today and was thinking about how to make amends, so naturally he dared not hide anything.

He said, "Today when I went out, besides Prince Su, there were several women who were a little younger than Prince Su. I heard them say that they seemed to be young ladies from the Jia family."

With just this one sentence, Officer Yu knew what was going on.

As a local strongman in the capital, he naturally knew that the Princess Consort of Prince Su was the niece of the Jia family.

Therefore, it wouldn't be a problem for Prince Su to bring along the women of the Jia family when he went shopping.

Therefore, today's robbery robbed both Prince Su and the Jia family.

It's perfectly reasonable for the Jia family to send people to look for their belongings.

Having thought of this, Officer Yu knew what to do.

He turned around, took a few steps closer to Jia Lian, and then said:

"Since you're here to catch a thief, have you caught the thief?"

Jia Lian thought to himself, "If I had caught him, why would I be wasting my time here?"

Although he wasn't particularly excited, he said aloud:

"We just arrived too, and we haven't found the thief yet."

With his years of experience and keen eye, Captain Yu could naturally tell that Jia Lian hadn't caught anyone.

He said that mainly to ease the tension and then move on to the next topic.

So he naturally picked up the conversation and asked, "How did Master Lian know the thief was hiding here?"

Jia Lian said, "The servants in the manor got the news by chance, but I don't know if it's true or not, so I brought people over to check it out."

Although Officer Yu knew that Jia Lian's words were exaggerated, he couldn't bring himself to argue with it.

The machine continued, "I just heard fighting sounds here, what's going on?"

With so many people fighting, it was impossible to hide it anymore. Besides, he didn't know the identities of the unidentified people on the other side, and he didn't know how they would answer, so he could only pick and choose what to say:
“We had just arrived here when we encountered a group of unidentified people. I was afraid they were accomplices of the thieves, so we got into a fight. Now it seems that it was a misunderstanding.”

Officer Yu asked again, "Oh, is that so? Where are those unidentified people you mentioned now?"

Jia Lian pointed to the group of people standing opposite the dilapidated courtyard and said to Constable Yu:
"These are the people who, for some reason, rented a place from me and sent people to catch petty thieves."

Upon seeing the figure not far away, Officer Yu was startled.

As soon as he entered this dilapidated courtyard, he noticed the group of people standing not far away.

At first, he thought these people were brought by Jia Lian, but now he realized they were people of unknown identity.

Upon learning the identities of these people, the seemingly rough-around-the-edges head constable Yu actually stepped back, as if afraid of being hurt by those unidentified individuals.

The sudden appearance of this group of unidentified people caught Constable Yu off guard, leaving him unsure how to proceed. He had overheard the events outside, and it was clear that even with so many members of the Jia family fighting this group, they were evenly matched. He figured his own constables wouldn't be of much use either.

Just as Officer Yu was about to ask Jia Lian how to deal with these people, several torches entered from under the nearly collapsed gate opposite them.

Under the torchlight, a group of yamen runners from Shuntian Prefecture escorted two people as they approached.

If Tu Chengyu were here, he would recognize that there were two people he knew among the group.

One was Judge Cui, whom he had met in Shuntian Prefecture, and the other was Geng Chunchen, whom he had met a few days ago at the Prince's residence.

It's understandable to see Judge Cui here, but why is Geng Chunchen suddenly appearing here?
Could it be that my arrest of the petty thief tonight is related to this person?

However, Tu Chengyu was not there at the moment, so naturally no one noticed Geng Chunchen's presence.

Jia Lian and Constable Yu's gazes were fixed on Judge Cui at this moment, as they naturally knew who Judge Cui was, given their status.

So when Judge Cui arrived, they took the initiative to greet him.

Officer Yu asked proactively, "Lord Cui, are you also here to arrest those two petty thieves?"

Although Officer Yu didn't specify which two petty thieves they were, everyone around knew who he was referring to.

Judge Cui nodded upon hearing this and said, "I have come to arrest the thief on the orders of the Prefect."

Officer Yu knew that once the people from Shuntian Prefecture appeared, his plan to claim all the credit would be ruined, especially since he hadn't yet found the two petty thieves.

So he said, "Now that Lord Cui has arrived, those two petty thieves will have no chance of escaping."

It's hard to believe that this rough-looking guy could be so smooth at flattery.

However, Judge Cui paid no attention to his flattery and simply asked:
"You haven't caught any petty thieves here either?"

Officer Yu said, "I just arrived too, and I'm still asking around from Master Lian of the Jia family."

Upon hearing this, Judge Cui looked at Jia Lian expressionlessly.

Given Jia Lian's status, he could have simply ignored Judge Cui's behavior.

However, Jia Lian didn't want to drag things out today; he wanted to find out the details as soon as possible.

So he took the initiative to say, "I searched several courtyards but couldn't find those two petty thieves. In my opinion, they probably ran away."

This wasn't Jia Lian talking nonsense; it was his deduction based on the situation before him.

From the moment Jia Lian brought his men here, he surrounded the place where the thief was hiding, as written on the note.

Although he clashed with the group on the other side during the process.

However, during the conflict, both sides completely surrounded the area.

If the thieves were really hiding here, they wouldn't have been able to escape.

But now that their fight is over and the encirclement has shrunk, they still haven't found any trace of the thief.

There's only one possibility: they weren't hiding here at all, and everyone standing here has probably received fake news.

Perhaps even this news was deliberately spread by these petty thieves to embarrass themselves, in order to divert everyone's attention and allow them to escape with ease.

If that's the case, these petty thieves are quite capable.

What Jia Lian could think of, others could naturally think of as well.

Therefore, for a moment, everyone on their side looked extremely grim.

Judge Cui, in particular, whose face was already long, looked even more unpleasant now.

He glanced at Jia Lian, then at Geng Chunchen beside him, and said:
“Your two families arrived the earliest, and you are the only ones who have searched this place. Is there anything we missed?”

After hearing Judge Cui's words, Jia Lian realized that the young man standing next to Judge Cui was the one who had led the fight with him earlier.

Although you can see a person clearly, you don't know which side they belong to.

However, judging from Judge Cui's attitude towards this person, his identity is probably not simple.

As Jia Lian was pondering these thoughts, Geng Chunchen spoke up.

“Lord Cui, my men have been searched inch by inch, and there is absolutely nothing you have missed. But I can’t say for sure about other places.”

This last half of the sentence is clearly pointed.

Upon hearing this, Jia Lian glared angrily and retorted:
“I searched every little bit. I didn’t miss anything, not even a few petty thieves, but even the larger stones.”

Since both sides have said this, they certainly aren't lying.

Upon seeing this, Judge Cui said in a deep voice:

"Could it be that the thief really wasn't hiding here? We've all been fooled?"

After hearing his words, everyone fell silent. Only Jia Rong, standing behind Jia Lian, nudged Jia Lian's arm and whispered:

"Uncle Lian, have you forgotten? We haven't searched this courtyard."

Upon hearing this, Jia Lian was startled. Yes, this place hadn't been searched since he entered.

This dilapidated courtyard also has several old, collapsed houses; it's enough to hide two people.

Although it seems unlikely that the thief is hiding here given the current situation, Jia Lian still decided to reveal the situation.

He coughed deliberately to draw everyone's attention to himself, and then said:

“I just remembered that the courtyard we’re standing in right now hasn’t been searched yet.”

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's eyes lit up, as if they had been pleasantly surprised to find out what was going on.

Only Geng Chunchen didn't believe it. He said:

"In my opinion, there's no need to search this courtyard. If the thieves were hiding here, with so many of us, they would have been scared out of their wits and surrendered long ago. How come there's not a sound at all? Unless they're all dead."

What he said made a lot of sense, but Judge Cui clearly didn't want to give up even the slightest chance.

He said to the Shuntian Prefecture constables following behind him, "Send a few men to search all the places where people can hide."

Upon hearing this, the yamen runners of Shuntian Prefecture immediately dispatched several pairs of men to run towards the places where people could hide.

This small courtyard originally didn't have many places worth searching, but with so many people assigned tasks, the results came out quickly.

A voice soon came from one of the dilapidated houses that was almost completely collapsed.

"Found them, both are here."

To everyone's surprise, they actually found a petty thief here.

These two petty thieves were quite bold; in front of so many people, they managed to remain completely silent and not make a single sound.

Even Judge Cui's deadpan face showed a hint of a smile. Upon hearing the news, he strode towards the dilapidated house.

But before he could even reach the dilapidated house, he heard another sentence coming from inside.

"Lord Cui, something terrible has happened! These two people have been murdered."

(End of this chapter)