Chapter 276: Uncontrolled Rage

Zu An was not provoked by his harsh accusations; instead, he turned to Zheng Dan.

"Isn't your young miss here?" Zu An asked, grinning at her. "Such an important matter should naturally be decided by her. If she wants me to take responsibility, I will; if not, I won't. Miss Zheng, what are your thoughts?"

Zheng Dan's face flushed slightly. She thought, 'This guy is deliberately saying this to tease me,' but she still replied, "Young Master Zu, everything you've done is for official business, so why would we hold you responsible?"

Zu An chuckled. "It's best if Miss Zheng doesn't hold me responsible. It seems our friendship is quite good."

Sang Qian, standing nearby, frowned and unconsciously adjusted the helmet on his head. Why did his hat suddenly feel a little ill-fitting today?

"Since the young miss has spoken, follow me," Hou Yun said, leading the way and gesturing for his subordinates to open the ship's hatch.

Sang Qian waved his hand, and his soldiers filed in to conduct the search.

Zu An also signaled for the Chu family guards to follow, as he no longer trusted Sang Hong's men.

Still feeling uneasy, he followed them in shortly after.

Sang Qian and Zheng Dan exchanged a glance and then entered as well.

Inside the ship's cabin, sacks were piled high. The soldiers' inspection was quite rough; they simply plunged their knives into the sacks and pulled them out.

Seeing cotton seeds continuously spilling from the sacks, Hou Yun's face twisted in pain. He quickly urged, "Please don't make such a mess! Tell me which sack you want to inspect, and I'll open it for you."

Unfortunately, no one paid him any attention. He could only rush over to Zu An and say, "Son-in-law of the Chu family, the inspection has been completed. Surely you're satisfied now?"

Zu An remained noncommittal, simply pushing Hou Yun aside and heading directly to the lowest level, where he saw sacks densely packed together.

He wanted to inspect the ones at the very bottom, but it was unrealistic unless all the goods were unloaded from the ship first.

However, he quickly realized he was still subconsciously thinking with his past life's experience. This was a world of cultivation, where cultivators possessed many times the strength of ordinary people.

So he began to lift the sacks pressed down in the bottom hold, one by one.

The Chu family guards also rushed over to help, and before long, they had cleared a three-foot-square pit.

"Son-in-law of the Chu family, what are you doing?!" Hou Yun panicked and rushed over to stop him, but he was blocked by Feng Daniu and a few others.

Zu An's face was expressionless as he lifted several sacks from the very bottom and jumped out.

"Steward Hou, why are you in such a hurry?" Zu An asked, throwing the sacks at his feet.

"Am I rushing? I'm not rushing at all, hahaha~" Hou Yun gave a few forced laughs, but anyone could see the fine beads of sweat on his forehead.

Zu An glanced at Zheng Dan and Sang Qian. Seeing their solemn expressions, he secretly smiled to himself.

He then drew a knife and plunged it into those sacks.

A group of people craned their necks to watch. This time, what poured out was not cotton seeds.

However, to Zu An's disappointment, it wasn't white salt at all, but yellow sand.

"Why are you putting yellow sand in the cargo?" Zu An asked. His heart skipped a beat, as his ominous premonition had finally come true, so he wasn't actually that surprised at this moment.

Hou Yun chuckled. "You, young master, have never had to lift a finger, so naturally, you wouldn't understand the hardships of people like us. This sand is used as ballast to help the ship weather strong winds and waves."

Everyone knew that before becoming the Chu family's son-in-law, Zu An had been a down-and-out on the streets, while Hou Yun, by all appearances, had lived a life of ease for years. Thus, his words were laced with sarcasm, evident to all.

Zu An's eyes narrowed slightly. 'This guy is trying to play mind games with me, is he? Fine!'

He didn't bother with further words. He quickly inspected the other sacks again, and seeing that most of them also contained yellow sand, he couldn't help but sneer, "Do you really need this much sand to ballast a ship?"

Hou Yun pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the fine sweat from his forehead. "It's not illegal for us to carry extra yellow sand on the ship, is it?"

Zu An pointed to the cargo filling the hold and said, "If I'm not mistaken, most of the cargo on this ship is probably yellow sand, isn't it? Is this how the Zheng family conducts business?"

As he spoke the last sentence, he looked towards Zheng Dan.

Zheng Dan frowned slightly. Such behavior was indeed quite suspicious.

"Uh... uh..." Hou Yun kept wiping his sweat, clearly unable to think of an immediate explanation.

"Men, take him away and interrogate him thoroughly!" Zu An ordered directly.

Sang Qian stepped forward. "This might not be appropriate. The Chu family doesn't have law enforcement authority. This person should theoretically be handed over to our Anti-Smuggling Camp."

"Today was supposed to be a sure thing," Zu An said coldly. "But after a visit to the Anti-Smuggling Camp, the salt smugglers received news in advance and swapped the goods. It might not be appropriate to hand them over to the Anti-Smuggling Camp again, would it?"

Sang Qian was furious. "Are you saying I leaked the information?"

Rage points from Sang Qian +213!

"I didn't say General Sang leaked it," Zu An replied calmly. "It's just that there are many people in the Anti-Smuggling Camp, and it's hard to guarantee that there aren't any moles from the illegal salt traders. We have to be on guard."

"Nonsense! This is slander, slandering the hardworking soldiers of our River Defense Camp!" Sang Qian glared at him fiercely.

The other River Defense Camp soldiers also looked hostile, one by one placing their hands on their saber hilts.

Rage points from River Defense Soldier A +66!Rage points from River Defense Soldier B +66!Rage points from River Defense Soldier C +66!...

The Chu family guards immediately surrounded them tightly, each looking nervously at the surrounding soldiers.

Zu An, however, was not worried. Sang Hong, that guy, resorting to such a scheme against the Chu family, clearly wasn't one to use brute force.

Now, countless people knew he was at the dock with so many Chu family guards. If something truly happened here, it would be a huge matter.

Seeing the situation grow tense and on the verge of breaking out, Zheng Dan stepped forward, positioning herself between the two parties. "A'Zu," she said, "from what you're saying, it sounds like you suspect our Zheng family of involvement in smuggling."

"That's not what I mean," Zu An replied. "It's just that it's possible some subordinates were deceiving their superiors and smuggling illegal salt. You would also be victims, and I presume you'd want to get to the bottom of this, right?"

"Of course, we want to get to the bottom of this," Zheng Dan said. "However, if people found out that our Zheng family's steward was arrested, what would they think? They would definitely suspect the Zheng family first, causing irreparable damage to our family's reputation."

"The clear will naturally be clear, and the muddy will naturally be muddy," Zu An said with a slight smile, still not giving an inch. "Why does Miss Zheng need to worry about such things?"

Sang Qian's side also couldn't allow Zu An to take the person away, and a stalemate ensued.

Just then, the sound of neat footsteps approached, followed by a loud laugh. "Since that's the case," a voice boomed, "why not hand him over to us?"

Zu An looked back and found it was an old acquaintance: County Lieutenant Pang Chun, who had arrived with a squad of constables.

"This is within the jurisdiction of our Anti-Smuggling Camp, isn't it?" Sang Qian said coldly. "Is County Lieutenant being a bit presumptuous?"

Pang Chun didn't take offense at all, smiling slightly. "Commander Sang, you exaggerate," he said. "Since neither of you wishes the other to take the suspect, wouldn't it be better to have me, a neutral third party, interrogate him?"

Sang Qian thought to himself, 'What kind of neutrality is that?'

Just then, Pang Chun added, "Commander Sang has marital ties with the Zheng family, and this incident involves someone from the Zheng family. Shouldn't you avoid any appearance of impropriety?"

Sang Qian was startled. He knew that under the current circumstances, he definitely couldn't take the person away. Since that was the case, handing the person over to Pang Chun was better than handing him over to the Chu family.

Zu An also had no objection. Pang Chun was Lord Xie's subordinate, and while Lord Xie and the Chu family were not directly aligned, they were also not aligned with Sang Hong's faction. Furthermore, the Xie family and the Chu family had a somewhat closer relationship.

Soon, Pang Chun took the person away, and at the same time, he sealed off many pieces of human and material evidence from the scene.

Zu An also hurried back to inform the Chu family about what had happened.

After both parties had left, Sang Qian called Zheng Dan to a secluded corner, looking at her with dissatisfaction. "Why did you leave Hou Yun behind?" he demanded. "And why were all those sacks in the cabin filled with yellow sand? Such obvious flaws—anyone could see there was a problem."

"We received the news too late," Zheng Dan replied. "Even with repeated delays from both of us, there simply wasn't enough time. Where could we find so much cotton seed cargo in such a rush? Being able to replace it with yellow sand was already the best possible outcome."

"As for Hou Yun, to complete all this in such a short time, someone had to coordinate and arrange things here, right? He was the best choice."

Sang Qian knew she was speaking the truth, but the thought of Hou Yun being taken away inevitably caused him worry. "But Hou Yun was still taken by Pang Chun's men," he said. "If he says anything he shouldn't, we'll be in big trouble!"

Zheng Dan smiled slightly. "Don't worry, Uncle Hou is an old family member; he can be trusted. Having weathered decades of storms, minor intimidation won't scare him at all. Besides, there's no conclusive evidence for any of this today."

Sang Qian sneered, "Many times, solving a case doesn't require evidence. You probably don't know how severe the punishments in the yamen are. Those heroes in plays who can withstand severe torture are truly rare. I look at that Hou Yun, with his pampered appearance—if he fell into my hands, I guarantee he'd spill everything he knows within three days."

Zheng Dan sighed. "So we must rescue him as quickly as possible to avoid complications arising from delays."

"He's already in Pang Chun's hands, and the Chu family is also watching," Sang Qian said discontentedly. "How can he be rescued so easily?"

Zheng Dan's face remained calm. "Don't worry. From the moment I received the notification, I already had a plan, and I've briefed Uncle Hou. He was mentally prepared for being arrested."

"What plan?" Sang Qian eagerly pressed.

"You'll know tomorrow," Zheng Dan replied. "Of course, I'll need Commander Sang's cooperation then."

Seeing her feign mystery, Sang Qian didn't bother pressing for details, as it would make him seem foolish. So he asked another pressing question: "Right, what about the illegal salt from before?"

"Time was short, so of course, it was dumped into the river," Zheng Dan sighed, her brows filled with regret. "Otherwise, if it had been found, our Zheng family would have been finished."

"That damned Zu An, how much silver did he make us lose!" Hearing this answer, Sang Qian cursed furiously.

Rage points from Sang Qian +999!

Zheng Dan, standing nearby, still wore her perfect lady-like smile, but secretly sighed to herself. 'My fiancé usually looks quite imposing, but as soon as something happens, he panics like this, only capable of impotent rage. In this regard, he's far inferior to his father.'

In comparison, that Zu An, though usually devil-may-care, was terrifyingly calm and difficult to deal with at critical moments.

Thinking of what had happened between her and Zu An earlier, she suddenly felt her heart race, and a faint blush unconsciously spread across her fair cheeks.

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For today, these three chapters are all for now. I'll add more daily later!