Chapter 374: Chapter 294: House Servant?_3
Due to the sheer ugliness, Jiang Lin couldn’t help taking another look.
But as soon as this person met his gaze, they quickly turned away.
"Boss Jiang, I have a ready-made contract here. Would you like to take a look first? If there’s anything unsuitable, we can discuss it further."
"That sounds great, saves trouble! I’ll listen to Steward Zhou."
Jiang Lin cupped his hands in salute.
At this moment, the ugly house servant who was bent over putting down the clay pot heard him speak and turned to look at him again.
Jiang Lin’s eyes met his once more, and the other immediately turned away, poured the water from the pot into the water tank in the corner of the courtyard, and then carried the empty pot out.
"Boss Jiang, shall we go?"
The Rice Shop Manager walked up to him and urged him.
Jiang Lin nodded and followed him to the front hall.
With the signed document in hand, back at the inn, Jiang Lin was discussing with Liu Quan and the others about whether or not to fulfill this contract, without hearing a word.
Not until Liu Quan noticed him distractedly facing the river did he say, "Put aside the contract for now; first, go and inquire about this Zhou Yi. Also, the burned house servant who appeared earlier—what’s his background?"
After the brothers dispersed, Jiang Lin went downstairs and entered a tailor’s shop.
When they both returned to the inn upstairs, Liu Quan and the others brought the news they had gathered: "Zhou Yi doesn’t usually interact much with the villagers, so not many people know him well."
Jiang Lin said, "Do you remember the Young Madam saying he was from Luokou Town?"
"Definitely not Luokou Town!" Liu Quan shook his head, "Luokou Town is just next door, only ten miles away. People around here say that ever since Zhou Yi came to Yukou Village, he’s never left, nor has he had any visitors. He’s completely alone here!
"Moreover, although he speaks Tanzhou dialect, the accent differs every ten miles in this area. You can tell where people are from without them revealing it. Neighbors who know him say his accent is absolutely not from Luokou Town!
"The crucial point is that we went to inquire in Luokou Town, and among all the families with the surname Zhou, even those with similar-sounding names, not one person called Zhou Yi but often away from home exists!"
Jiang Lin frowned, "So, this Zhou Yi at least lied in front of the Young Madam back then."
After speaking, he asked again, "What about the disfigured house servant? Have you found out about him?"
At this point, Liu Quan poured himself a cup of tea and drank it: "That person is called Zhang Fu; he’s one of these twelve people, and he came here with Zhou Yi.
"Everyone says he’s an honest person, meaning he doesn’t usually talk much or interact with people, just doing odd jobs around the mansion, a typical house servant.
"There are only a few mischievous kids from around who sometimes stay with him because he sometimes folds paper dragonflies for them and can string silk into an arc to play some tunes on a bamboo frame. Of course, the cheeky kids love these!"
"Tunes?" Jiang Lin returned from the window, "How can a house servant understand music?"
Liu Quan pondered, "Speaking of tunes, it’s just a few sounds, probably just for fun."
Stringing silk onto a bamboo frame indeed couldn’t produce any pleasant music.
Jiang Lin pondered for a moment and still distributed a few sets of black outfits to them: "From the trip to the Xu family earlier, did you memorize the general layout? Tonight, we’re going to explore again."
The brothers each took one when the scent of spicy fried bean curd wafted up from the inn’s kitchen downstairs, and they called out where to eat.
It gets dark late in summer.
By the time dusk fell, the dinner was polished off completely.
To convincingly play the role of a newly arrived merchant, they gathered for two tables of mahjong. Until midnight, when the sound of the watchman’s clappers reached them, they pushed the mahjong tiles aside, extinguished the lights, changed into black clothes, and quickly infiltrated Yukou Village under the cover of night.
Under the cover of darkness, the Xu Mansion had dim lights only in two corners of the estate, likely the locations of the gatehouses.
Outside the mansion, using the man-high lotus leaves as cover, Liu Quan and the others first checked the perimeter.
Soon they returned saying, "Something’s off. There are only twelve people in the mansion, but the swill they brought out was five or six buckets. Looked at their backyard vegetable garden, it’s at least an acre. The manure pits in the garden number four or five, with each the size of two large round tables put together."
The brothers said, "Just twelve people, how could there be so much eating, drinking, and excreting?"
Jiang Lin covered his face with a veil, "Same old rules! Choose a lit place to infiltrate, then meet at the granary."
Afterward, several people, like hawks in the night, scrambled over to the lit gatehouse. In the time it took for a single hand gesture, they leaped behind the walls one after another.
(Asking for monthly tickets)