readytorunbook Chapter 105 Finding the Key Person
Chapter 105 Finding the Key Person
The direction of the iron-forging action also changed, and the strike went astray.
Zhai Yun continued to speculate: "You know the story behind these arrows, but you are deliberately concealing it. This shows that you are protecting someone."
The old man looked at Zhai Yun with some panic in his eyes. He angrily threw down his blacksmithing tools and started to chase people away: "If you don't want to forge swords, please leave. The black market is not a place where outsiders like you can act recklessly."
When Zhai Yun heard the word "outsider", she slowly walked over to Lou Yexue and said, "Outsider? Open your eyes and look, are we outsiders?"
Everyone in the black market knew that the city owner was dressed in white clothes that looked like snow and looked incredibly handsome, so anyone with a discerning eye would know who Lou Yexue was as soon as they saw him.
The old man glanced at Lou Yexue and said nonchalantly, "The owner of the building never shows up in person, so who knows what he looks like? If all those wearing white were the owner, the black market would have been in chaos long ago~"
As the old man was talking, he stopped talking. His mouth was moving, but no sound came out, as if he was muted.
The old man was obviously unaware of the situation and was still cursing. Zhai Yun and Feng Chenyi looked at Lou Yexue in surprise. They had never heard of such a skill of restricting people's voices from a distance.
But Zhai Yun and Feng Chenyi both clearly felt that it was Lou Yexue who used some magic to silence the old man.
The old man began to sweat, and after not being able to hear his own voice for a long time, he finally realized the seriousness of the matter. If the person was dressed in white, he might not be the mayor, but someone with such extraordinary abilities could only be him.
There is no one else in this world who has this ability.
The old man knelt heavily on his knees and kowtowed to Lou Yexue repeatedly, muttering something, but no one could hear what he said.
It wasn't until Lou Yexue moved her fingers slightly that he spoke: "Damn it, little one! It was me who helped the outside world to forge these arrows out of greed. It was me! It was me! Please punish me, Mayor."
Before Zhai Yun and Feng Chenyi could ask, Lou Yexue asked softly, "Who did you help forge this?"
The old man spoke without hesitation, "It was the third prince of the Fengli Kingdom. He found me and asked me to help him forge a batch of low-quality arrows."
Zhai Yun couldn't stand it any longer and stood up: "You are lying!"
How could he directly conclude that it was the Third Prince? Such an assertion seemed more like an attempt to divert the attention of Zhai Yun and Feng Chenyi, so that Zhai Yun and Feng Chenyi would focus on the Third Prince as soon as possible and not bother him.
Not to mention that the Third Prince is a cautious person and will not reveal his identity to outsiders. Even if someone accidentally finds out, the person who knows his secret would have died long ago.
And he admitted it too readily. All signs showed that he was lying.
Lou Yexue's eyes moved, and the old man was picked up by the neck in mid-air. He struggled in pain, but still did not change his words: "I made a mistake. Even if the mayor kills me, I will not blame you."
Seeing his willingness to face death, Zhai Yun once again scanned the courtyard. Hanging in the corner was a set of clothes, young men's clothing. Beneath a stone table where they rested was a dice.
Zhai Yun's provocation: "You have a son who is addicted to gambling. He owes gambling debts and someone else pays them off for him. He helped that person to forge these arrows."
After Zhai Yun finished speaking, the old man's expression changed instantly, and he looked embarrassed: "You are talking nonsense, my son is very obedient, he has never been out of the black market."
"That's right," Zhai Yun said calmly. "There's a dice under your stone table. Dice are only found in casinos. There are no casinos on the black market. This dice must have been brought back by your son or you. Seeing how you've been living frugally and your clothes are full of holes, I'm afraid you can't bear to go to the casino."
Zhai Yun looked at his torn clothes and said, becoming more convinced. She faced Lou Yexue and said, "Mayor, bring his son back!"
Once his son is caught, everything will be clear.
Lou Yexue's eyes flashed, and the old man fell from mid-air. He didn't even have time to cry out in pain, so he crawled to his knees at Lou Yexue's feet, "Mayor, please be magnanimous. I only have this one son, and he can't be in trouble. If anything happens, I will take the responsibility. I can go back with these two and confront the Third Prince of Fengli Kingdom face to face. It doesn't matter if I die of old bones, my son is still young!"
Lou Yexue walked to the stone table, slowly bent down, picked up the dice that Zhai Yun mentioned, sat down on the stone bench, and said coldly, "Tell me everything you know."
Zhai Yun and Feng Chenyi also walked to the stone bench and sat down, listening to the old man speak carefully.
His son was indeed a gambler and had lost a lot of money. He had sold all the valuable things in the house, and the money the old man earned every day was taken away by him before he could even enjoy it.
He often sneaked out to the black market. At first, he was just fooling around, but later he became addicted to gambling. He owed a lot of money and couldn't pay it back, so he often stole weapons made at home and sold them.
He couldn't tell the difference between good weapons and bad ones, and was often beaten for selling inferior weapons.
Later, someone came to him and said they needed a batch of low-quality arrows and were willing to pay a high price, but the quantity they wanted was too large for a small workshop to cast.
So the man found a remote place and set up a foundry. He asked his son to teach his men how to cast low-quality arrowheads. He thought that once the arrowheads were cast, everything would be fine.
But until now, his son has not been released. He heard that someone was investigating the batch of arrows outside the black market. To ensure his son's safety, he could only forge these broken arrows and deliberately sell them, hoping to shift the blame to a prince and let Feng Chenyi and Zhai Yun, who were investigating the case, track down the prince and stop bothering them.
But he didn't expect that the prince he made up might be the mastermind. If he really showed up to testify, his son would probably not survive.
"Do you know where that foundry is?" Feng Chenyi asked coldly.
His son couldn't even tell the difference between good and bad weapons. If someone really needed to know how to cast them, it couldn't be his son, but the old man himself.
The old man hesitated and stammered.
Zhai Yun struck while the iron was hot, "You haven't seen your son for so long. Are you so sure he's still alive? Don't you want to see your son?"
The old man panicked when he heard Zhai Yun's words. He had indeed not seen his son for a long time, and he was worried every day. The old man looked at Lou Yexue, but Lou Yexue ignored him.
He said tremblingly: "Can you help me rescue him?" As long as they could rescue him, and after giving the testimony, they would never leave the black market again, and they could live a stable life.
After all, this black market is different from other places. People from outside are not allowed to use knives or guns here. The city owner has omnipotent abilities and can make these outsiders with impure motives never return.
Feng Chenyi replied indifferently: "Okay." Only if they agreed to him first would he take them to find that place.