Chapter 485: Discovering A Trail

A few days ago

Mo Rongzhan led Tang Zhen and the others from the capital to the Gujia village. They still stayed at the inn at the entrance of the village, but it no longer had the original innkeeper. Innkeeper Liu had been secretly replaced by one of the emperor’s men.

“Your Majesty, is this where the princess… disappeared?" Tang Zhen asked anxiously. After he had gotten piss drunk that day, for three days in a row Marquis Jing Ning did not attend the morning court. The emperor too did not let people rush him and instead left him at home in a drunken stupor.  When he sobered up, he calmed down.

In fact, he had long known that it was impossible to marry Lu Yaoyao. From that day in the hunting grounds, he knew too well in his heart but was still a little unwilling to give up; so when Lu Lingzhi had spoken, he was moved.

Perhaps… Even without the emperor, Yaoyao would not marry him.

When she was facing him, when she was facing his feelings, she had never blushed or been nervous. If she had been slightly tempted by him, how could she have behaved like this?

Tang Zhen came to this realization and woke up from his pain, but he forgot what he had said when he was drunk. In his heart he couldn’t still forget Yaoyao, but it was clear that the girl he loved would be the empress.

"That's right. It turns out the innkeeper doesn't know where they were taken to." Mo Rongzhan sized up the inn. “There are so few people in this village?"

The shadow guard dressed as the innkeeper replied in a low voice, “Your Majesty, there were a lot of people here. Since two years ago, the younger people in the village went out to work. Only the elderly, young women and children were left. It's not just the Gujia village. The other villages are also like this."

Mo Rongzhan asked in a low voice, “They haven't returned in two years?"

"None ever returned," the shadow guard replied.

"Didn't the people in the village suspect?" Tang Zhen shook his head, such a strange phenomenon. It felt suspicious now, one village might be understandable, but several villages around were like this. "Even the authorities have not investigated?"

In came a few men dressed as merchants, they saluted Mo Rongzhan and spoke in a low voice. “Your Majesty, we’ve inquired about all the surrounding villages. We only got the approximate direction they went towards but do not know what their destination is. It seems they went in the direction of the mountain."

"It's not early. Let's rest the night first. We'll look for them tomorrow morning." Mo Rongzhan suppressed his impulsive urge to find her.

Since he was already here, he could not act rashly. No matter what, he had to calm down first. If the other party could capture Huangfu Chen, then he must not be an ordinary person.

Mo Rongzhan and the others scouted around the Gujia village for several days before finally finding a path leading to the deep mountains.

"Your Majesty, look." They were sprawled on the top of the mountain when they spotted a group of people wearing coarse clothing, under another high mountain, knocking and tapping.

Mo Rongzhan frowned at them and said coldly, “They're mining a private mine."

"Back in the previous dynasty, iron ore was classified as the official mine of the court, but there are still people who dare to dig private mines," Tang Zhen said in surprise, who on earth could dig such a big private mine in this place without being discovered by the imperial court?

"There are too many people, don't be discovered. Liu Ying, go back to the capital, find General Meng and tell him to bring troops." Mo Rongzhan quietly instructed the shadow guard behind him.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Liu Ying answered in a low voice.

"Your Majesty, what do we do now?" Tang Zhen asked.

Mo Rongzhan’s hawk eyes were fixed on the crowd below and then at the private mine that was bigger than any iron mine of the imperial court. “Find a way to blend in with the crowd, I want to know who is behind this private mine."

"Your Majesty, let's disguise ourselves and sneak in," Tang Zhen whispered. He had been by Mo Rongzhan's side for many years and had learned disguise skills when they were traversing the world.

Mo Rongzhan turned his head to look at the shadow guards behind him. “Don't follow me. Just investigate around, besides this private mine, exactly what else feels suspicious."

"Your Majesty, this…" They were afraid that Mo Rongzhan would be in danger.

"Go now!" Mo Rongzhan coldly ordered. Looking at the people who were carrying and moving, he thought to himself that if he were to see the little girl doing such menial work, he didn't know if he would be able to restrain himself from killing those who were tormenting her.

The little girl he couldn’t wait to hold in his palm, even he could not bear to let her suffer, how could others make her suffer?

"Your Majesty, there are guards everywhere. I'm afraid it won't be easy to sneak in," Tang Zhen said.

"Wait a moment. We'll sneak in tonight." At the foot of the mountain, there were one or two hundred people in coarse clothing working. There were also dozens of people wearing the same dark blue guards’ livery. It was unknown how many were in places they could not see, so they could not act rashly.

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Originally, Ye Zhen didn't want to go to the iron mine with Zhao Tianji, but thinking back to the circumstances surrounding it that day, she wanted to take a closer look, after all, this mine shouldn't be as simple as making money in business.

Liang Yin pushed the wheelchair, and Ye Zhen slowly followed. Mu Xue, who had been following Zhao Tianji, deliberately slowed down a few steps and walked beside her.

"Even if you cure Second Young Master, you can't change anything." Mu Xue lowered her voice and spoke to Ye Zhen with a threatening tone.

Ye Zhen said indifferently, “What do you think I want to change?"

"If you want to help your master, I advise you not to waste your time." Mu Xue harrumphed.

"Miss Mu, I don't know what you're trying to say. My master is very powerful, would he need me to do anything for him? You don't have to be so nervous about me, I really don't know anything." Ye Zhen smiled, her voice was neither too loud nor too low.

Zhao Tianji raised his eyebrows, the corners of his mouth lifted into a faint smile.

When they reached the iron mine, Qiu Yuan had someone bring a large sedan chair. After Zhao Tianji got into it, he called Ye Zhen over and asked her to sit in with him.

Mu Xue bit her lip and glared resentfully at Ye Zhen.

On the other side, in the mine, there were hundreds of people shouting that they wanted to go home. They didn't want the money anymore, they just wanted to go home and visit their family.

Ye Zhen looked through the window at the scene outside. Those who were making a fuss were all workers dressed in coarse clothing. They seemed to be a little emotional, there were some with injured heads, the blood had dried up but it did not affect their determination to leave the mine.

Zhao Tianji asked Qiu Yuan coldly, “Who took the lead to leave? Kill that person in public."

Qiu Yuan looked troubled. “My Lord, no…  there is no leader."

Even if he wanted to make an example out of the chicken*, he did not know how to find the leader.

[杀鸡儆猴shā jī jǐng hóu: lit. killing the chicken to warn the monkey (idiom); to punish an individual as an example to others; pour encourager les autres]

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