Chapter 343

Xu Mo was late coming home from selling lychees at the front gate of the Imperial City. Jiang Sheng's first reaction was that it was the Liao family: "Could it be they want to change who the specially supplied lychees go to next year, so they made a desperate move?"

But before she could feel happy about that prospect, she remembered that her eldest brother still hadn't returned, and her face fell again.

The three siblings hurried along. Fortunately, when they had first rented the small courtyard it was so that Xu Mo could attend the Imperial College, so even on foot it only took about the time needed to drink a cup of tea before they arrived at the gates.

It was already past class dismissal time. Large groups of students were leaving, with only a few lingering to chat with friends.

Chang Yan grabbed a student he recognized and asked, "Are there still any students inside who haven't left class?"

"None," the baffled student replied, but still answered: "Almost everyone has gone."

This meant Xu Mo was not inside the Imperial College.

So where could he have gone? And who was he with?

Chang Yan thanked the student, then turned with Jiang Sheng and Wen Zhiyun to leave.

At a time when both his older brothers were not present, it was up to this youngest brother to hold everything up.

"Fifth brother, where are we going?" Jiang Sheng panted as she asked. "Fengjing City is so big. Do we need to split up and search separately?"

Chang Yan halted abruptly in his tracks.

She was right. Fengjing was so vast, with wine shops, brothels, teahouses and inns everywhere. With just the few of them, it would be like searching for a needle in the ocean.

"Or perhaps we can ask Grandmother for help," Jiang Sheng suggested softly.

Wen Zhiyun nodded lightly. "I could also ask the Princess Gong's Eldest Son's Consort."

It wasn't just them. If they asked the Jiang, Qi, Zhao, even the Zhu families, they would surely turn all of Fengjing City upside down to search.

Finding Xu Mo didn't seem to be a difficult matter after all.

So just what was the person behind this after?

Chang Yan didn't believe anyone in the world was bored enough to abduct Xu Mo purely for amusement.

Aside from fools, normal people made choices and took actions for a reason. "If it's the Liaos, it means they want the lychee business. Eldest brother would only be leverage, they wouldn't harm him." Chang Yan analyzed slowly. "If it's someone else..."

They didn't have many enemies in Fengjing. Aside from the Liaos, there was also the covert Fang family, biding their time.

After fighting business battles for so long, everyone had overlooked that the Fang family still eyed the civil service examinations like a tiger watching its prey.

"Could it be the Fangs?" Jiang Sheng also recalled. "But eldest brother said they wouldn't dare touch him."

With so many people in Fengjing watching the coming exams, if anything really happened to Xu Mo, the Fang family would surely drown in spit.

And Fang Yuan would be forever nailed to the pillar of shame for "cheating on the exams".

Chang Yan nodded, but soon shook his head again. "It's not that they dare injure him, but they do still dare make a move on him."

There was a difference between the two.

They recalled that over the last few days, whenever they had asked Xu Mo whether anything was going on, he would always pause briefly before saying there were no malicious irregularities.

No irregularities was still vastly different from no malicious irregularities.

"That's right!" Jiang Sheng exclaimed. "I just remembered, when big brother came home yesterday his complexion looked a little red."

What could have happened to make that perfectly composed gentleman's face flush red?

Chang Yan clenched his fist, his eyes darting left and right as he filtered through every possibility and impossibility in his mind.

Finally, he said hoarsely: "I really should die. To actually have failed to notice anything wrong with big brother."

Second brother and little sister were busy with the lychee business, while fourth brother was occupied with the clinic. He was the only layabout who should have been sharp enough to notice anything amiss. Yet he had overlooked it too, leading to everything that was happening now.

"Fifth brother—"

"Little Fifth—"

Wen Zhiyun and Jiang Sheng called out at the same time, "It's got nothing to do with you. No matter how clever the plot, there will always be oversights."

"The most urgent thing right now is to find big brother back."

Chang Yan took a deep breath, gradually grasping the thread of logic.

As speculated earlier, the Fang family didn't dare harm Xu Mo. But they would definitely try every means possible to drag him down—from a perfectly composed young master to a rogue rascal, from widely admired to universally condemned. Best case would be for him to lose all interest in studying and simply fail the examinations next year.

If the siblings hadn't investigated deeper and instead directly sought the help of families like the Jiangs and Qis, where would they have found Xu Mo? Where would he be utterly disgraced and ashamed?

It could only be...in the company of women.

Perhaps it was a brothel, or perhaps one of those ruined temples where the Prince Gong kept his beauties. Although not exact, at least it gave them a direction.

"Jiang Three, Jiang Four, come over here." Chang Yan instructed them in a low voice.

The two teenage boys flushed red in awkwardness, nodding before leaving.

If their speculations regarding these contemptible methods were true, then to let everyone find Xu Mo faster, the Fang family definitely wouldn't have picked a spot too far away from the Imperial College. It probably wouldn't be too hard to locate either—they might even intentionally leave clues behind.

Following that logic, Chang Yan sent Jiang Three and Jiang Four to check the nearest brothels for any young men who seemed to have been brought in by force.

"Let's go help search too!" Jiang Sheng said eagerly.

Wen Zhi Yun chimed in as well: "Right, there is strength in numbers. We can help look too."

Chang Yan's vision dimmed. He seemed to see the two wandering helplessly amidst the sea of flowers.

"No need," he refused in a lowered voice. "Just wait here for us."

Jiang Sheng looked puzzled. "Fifth brother, are you afraid we'd drag you down?"

"That's right, little Fifth," Wen Zhi Yun said aggrievedly. "We want to help find eldest brother quickly too."

But there were some places truly not fit for either of you.

Chang Yan pretended not to hear.

About the time needed to drink a cup of tea later, Jiang San came rushing back in a fluster. "Young Master Five, you guessed right. It's in that...brothel, the third room on the second floor."

A brothel?

Jiang Sheng and Wen Zhi Yun shut their mouths in unison, nearly wilting in embarrassment on the spot.

It was also difficult for Chang Yan. Lowering his voice, he asked: "Any sounds from inside?"

"No sounds. But I had Jiang Four squat beneath the window as lookout. If anything seems off, he'll directly break down the window and take Young Master out."

But with the mixed crowds frequenting brothels, perhaps even esteemed officials, too loud a commotion from breaking windows would surely attract attention. That wouldn't bode well for Xu Mo.

"Let's head over first." Chang Yan's brows furrowed. "If nothing else works, we can only set a fire to cause a scene and escape amidst the chaos."

Just as they hurried over by carriage, a tail suddenly latched itself behind them, furtively following, not too near yet not too far either.

"Miss, Young Master, there's someone behind us," Jiang San quickly noticed. "Should we shake them off? Or catch them?"

Chang Yan was in no mood to play cat and mouse. "Catch them and beat them up."

The carriage slowed. Jiang San loosened the reins and used the carriage footboard to leap over in ambush. He had assumed it would be easy to catch a petty thief, but the person reacted swiftly as well. The two grappled for three to five moves before tumbling together to the ground.

"Stop stop stop! Don't hit me! Little Jiang Sheng, don't hit your brother, don't hit me!" The person yanked at their throat as they yelled.