"W-Mother Wu, then, let's say goodbye." Zhou Ling's face turned red from drinking and he was staggering when he walked. With his left hand, he held the right arm of An Dafang, who was already foaming at the mouth. Putting it on his neck, he waved to a boy with his right hand: "Go find us a carriage."
"Chief An, Master Zhou, please go away, come and play again when you have time." Wu Ma sent the two of them out of the Orchid Room with a charming smile on her face, and then returned the same way, and the charming smile on her face disappeared in an instant. .
There was only a "boom" sound, and the rockery among the orchids suddenly split into two halves and moved to the left and right. Even the water on the rockery seemed to be cut off by a barrier and then parted, revealing a passage wide enough for one person. .
"They are all gone?" Lu Wei, dressed in rich clothes, walked out of the passage, and the originally open passage automatically closed again.
"Master, is it too risky to show the account books to those two people?" Wu Ma completely lost her charm when greeting guests. Instead, she stood with her hands down and said respectfully: "That stuttering lawyer is a difficult character. .”
"Wu Ma, don't judge people by their appearance; although the guard captain looks stupid, we can't underestimate him." Lu Wei's fat body staggered when he walked. He sat down on the futon where An Dafang was originally sitting, picked up the wine bottle and smelled it: "These two are really lucky to be able to drink our treasured Yuquan wine."
"Then are we going to..." Before Wu Ma could finish her words, she was interrupted by Lu Wei: "Our band is doing business seriously and cooperates with the investigation in accordance with the law. What will happen? Risk? Don’t think about it so much.”
"Yes! Boss." Wu Ma nodded.
After Liu Ningshi and Guimian left the errand, they walked around the household department and found no useful clues.
"It's getting late, so let's say goodbye." Ghost Face and Liu Ningshi unknowingly came back to the door of the house again, and took advantage of the situation to say goodbye.
"The little one will be sent here." Li Chuan bowed and said.
The two walked out of the door of the household department. When Liu Ningshi was about to speak, the ghost face shook her head to stop her. Suddenly, the ghost face took a step forward and climbed onto the roof of the house opposite the household department. When Liu Ningshi saw this, she also tapped her feet. , and then turned up.
"Speak here, don't be afraid that the walls have ears." The ghost looked down and looked down, and he was relieved after confirming that there was no third ear.
"Brother Ren, although Mr. Sha just now seemed dissatisfied with our investigation, why do I feel that his last words were a reminder to us?" Liu Ningshi stroked the jade pendant and said thoughtfully: " Could it be that Master Sha is the person who secretly helped me as Fat Brother mentioned?"
"I have the same feeling. He seems to be telling us that we should check the shops that make tax tags and uniforms? Otherwise, as the left servant of the household department, would he need to explain this kind of thing to a police officer?" Ghost Face nodded. Head: "And this Li Chuan didn't wait for us to ask questions, but couldn't wait to talk. All he told us was some explicit information. Is he also hiding something?"
"Brother Ren, what should we do next? Go check the shops?" Suddenly a snow-white homing pigeon flew in the dark night and landed on Liu Ningshi's shoulder.
"Is this a letter from Brother Xiangyun?" Liu Ningshi stroked the pigeon's head a few times, took off the letter, released the pigeon and put it back in the air.
"These fake tax collectors have deceived and collected so much money, so they must have found a way to transport it out of the city?" Liu Ningshi looked at Tong Bo's flying pigeon passing the letter and understood in her heart.
"That's right, because they only collect broken pieces of silver, and the quantity is very large. If they were shipped directly, it would be eye-catching." Ghost Face also understood Tong Bo's meaning: "Then the remaining possibility is to go to the bank to redeem it. Into silver notes.”
"Then should we go to the bank to investigate?" Liu Ningshi destroyed the letter with an inner force in her hand and let it float in the air.
"No! It's better for Xiangyun to investigate the bank." Ghost Face pondered for a moment and asked, "Miss Liu, do you still remember what Li Chuan said?"
"What are you talking about?" Liu Ningshi didn't understand what she meant.
"Li Chuan said that shops with powerful backgrounds will carefully check official documents and tax tags." A smile flashed at the corner of Ghost Face's mouth: "And the official seal of the Ministry of Household Affairs on official documents is not something that ordinary people can tell the authenticity of, so the tax tag becomes The focus of their inspection.”
"Ning Shi understands." Liu Ningshi nodded after listening to Ghost Face's words: "Then let's go check the shop that made the tax tags and see if there are any clues."
"Not bad." Ghost Face looked into the distance: "Let's go to Pangu Blacksmith Shop first."
The lights in the Feiji Hall had long been extinguished. Xiao Shiyu was lying on his back on the dragon couch, supporting his head with one hand, as if waiting for something.
Suddenly, in the darkness, a dark figure came in from the secret door of the Feiji Palace, knelt in front of the dragon couch, and bowed to Xiao Shiyu.
"Kui Niu, how is the situation?" Xiao Shiyu could no longer suppress his anxiety and sat up with a grunt.
"According to His Majesty's instructions, all the Secret Guards have been dispatched to guard all exits in the city. No one has been found transporting money out of the city so far?" the man in the black shadow, wearing a strong suit, reported in a deep voice.
"That's good!" Xiao Shiyu was half relieved: "Kui Niu, as long as you keep the money and don't leave the city, it will be a great achievement; as for the rest, let An Dafang and the others investigate, for my sake To quell the mutiny, but promised to return the defrauded tax money to those merchants."
"Yes! My humble position will ensure that those thieves cannot leave Jinling City." The man in the best suit dodged and left through the secret door.
"An Dafang, Zhi Shan, you two, don't let me down." Xiao Shiyu's tense strings gradually relaxed and he slowly closed his eyes.
Sanshun Bank in Jinling City is adjacent to Juyou Teahouse, but it is twice the size of Juyou Restaurant. The gold-plated plaque with "Sanshun Bank" written vertically on the door looks majestic. It is said that the current general manager of the bank, Yin Tianfeng, spent a lot of money to buy it. It was written and carved by Zhang Henyun.
The hall of Sanshun Bank is ten feet long and five feet wide. Six towering wooden counters are connected together. The counters are tightly surrounded by wooden fences. Each counter only has a small opening in the middle of the wooden fence. Small windows; there is a long queue in front of each window, and the people at the end of the queue are almost touching the wall.
There were three or five small round tables on the left and right sides of the hall. Some guests who could not wait in line could only sit at the tables and talk to each other to pass the time.
"Hmph! This Sanshun Bank is so impressive." An Dafang, who was wearing a bodyguard uniform, couldn't help but let out a cold snort the moment he stepped into the bank.
"I don't know what the background of these Sanshun Bank is. They are located in the city of Jinling and are actually capable of surpassing the Guangyuan Bank of the Su family. Even the Huoyin Silver of the Guan family can only It will issue and redeem exclusively." Zhou Ling, who was behind An Dafang, whispered in his ear.
"My lord, what's the point of coming to Biqianzhuang?" A young man with luxurious clothes and handsome face came forward to greet him.
"Are you in charge here?" An Dafang looked arrogant: "I am Chang'an Dafang, the guard of the Xuanwu Academy of the Jingwei Mansion, and I was ordered to come here to investigate the case of the fake tax collector."
"Oops! It turns out to be Mr. An of the Xuanwu Academy of the Jingwei Mansion. How disrespectful and disrespectful!" The young man bowed with a look of fear on his face: "Our bank does business according to rules and has nothing to do with those fake tax collectors."
"An, Chief An didn't say that your money bank has anything to do with the fake tax collector." Zhou Ling took over the conversation: "I just need your cooperation in the investigation."
"Our chief shopkeeper has also heard about the fake tax collector, and it is our duty as Sanshun Bank to cooperate with the court in investigating the case." The young man seemed to be relieved, with a smile on his face: "Two adults, please speak in the inner hall. .”
The servants' rooms in the back hall of the bank were very noisy. Those serving tea and pouring water, and those taking and delivering things were all very busy.
"There are two distinguished guests in the inner hall who need to serve tea. Wrinkle Six, please make arrangements." A fat steward shouted loudly.
"Okay, room manager." The servant named Wrinkle Lao Liu responded enthusiastically.
"Xiangzi, I'll give you a chance to open your eyes." Wrinkle Laoliu handed a tray with a brown teapot with a long spout and two brown cups to a servant wearing a cloth-clothed hat: "Go to the inner hall to serve the distinguished guests. But it’s a rare opportunity.”
"Thank you, Uncle Six, for your support." This servant was none other than Tong Bo in disguise. He only spent a little money to bribe the bank manager and sneak into the servants, and he quickly started fighting with the old and senior wrinkled Six. Became one piece.
In the inner hall of Sanshun, Zhou Ling was looking through the account books of Sanshun Bank for the past month: "Where did the one thousand taels of silver in Li Shu's account come from?"
"Sir, this person deposited the money on the counter himself." The young man in rich clothes accompanied him with a smile: "As for the source of the money, it is not convenient for us to ask."
"You won't give us a fake account book for us to see, right?" An Dafang suddenly asked: "There haven't been any large amounts of money deposited recently?"
"Sir, let's see what you said." The young man in Chinese clothes said with a smile: "The account books of Sanshun Bank have three accountants who are jointly responsible for revising the account books, two are responsible for recording, and one is responsible for reviewing. If there is a large amount of money deposited, We have reported it to the official a long time ago."
"Shopkeeper Qian, I've been ordered to come here to serve tea." Tong Bo's report came from outside the inner hall door.
"Well! Come in." As the voice of the young man in Chinese clothes fell, Tong Bo walked in carefully carrying the tray. He slowly placed the two empty cups in front of An Dafang and Zhou Ling, his eyes He kept glancing at the account books.
"Why are you waiting so long? I haven't poured tea for you two adults yet." The young man in fine clothes urged impatiently.
"Yes, Shopkeeper Qian! Pour it out, little one." Tong Bo said as he picked up the brown teapot, one hand against the lid, and the other hand slowly poured out the Biluochun in the teapot; he deliberately poured it out. He moved his hand very slowly, and only heard intermittent "swish" sounds.
"When you're done pouring, go out. We don't need you here, you clumsy guy." The impatient scolding of the young man in colorful clothes sounded again.
"Yes! Yes! Please step back, little one." Tong Bo pretended to be panicked, but silently wrote down the account book he just saw: "In the past three days, five people have deposited two thousand taels. , three of them are one thousand taels; Miss Yanran actually has one thousand taels deposited in her account, it seems it’s time to go and meet this Li Shu for a while.”
