Chapter 368: The Inside Traitor

The moment Xu Wenjun left, the three generations of the Wangzhi family immediately fell into panic.

Wangzhi hurriedly clasped his fists toward Zhao Chonghong and said:

"Lord Zhao, you have always known that our Wangzhi Medicinal Shop abides by the law. The Fire Oil discovered here today was absolutely not our doing!"

Zhao Chonghong stared calmly at the Fire Oil barrels below the courtyard.

"This is the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop, and there are seven to eight hundred barrels of Fire Oil stored here.

If this matter truly has nothing to do with you, then who could have accomplished this without any of you noticing?"

Wangzhi was left speechless.

Zhao Chonghong ordered the military officer beside him to go down and inspect.

Before long, the officer reported back:

"My Lord, the Fire Oil barrels down there are all full, none of them are empty."

Trouble-

Wangzhi and his family's faces turned extremely grim.

If this fact was confirmed, they could hardly think of any way to distance themselves from this matter!

"Coordinate with the Ironclad Department on this. Count these Fire Oil barrels and record them all in the case files. Make two copies of the documents, one for the prefectural yamen and one for the Ironclad Department."

"Once written, both copies must bear the official seals of both parties."

Zhao Chonghong instructed.

Lu Yunchen, seeing this, also smiled at Yang Ling and said:

"Coordinate with the prefectural yamen. First, tally up the Fire Oil quantity, then seal the scene on-site."

At this moment, Qin Mo stepped forward and said:

"Honored officials, there is a secret passage down below. We just went to check it, and it leads to another courtyard about one li away."

Yang Ling: "Take some men and seal off that courtyard as well. While you're at it, fill in this secret passage with dirt."

"Yes!"

In less than two hours, the Fire Oil quantity was clearly counted and tallied.

"A total of eight hundred and thirty-eight barrels."

Yang Ling and the prefectural yamen's military officer cross-checked the numbers without discrepancy, and both sides affixed their seals on the documents.

"Director Yang, the Fire Oil that Ding Wei sold is still down there. He made marks on it."

Zhao Qing stepped forward, his tone carrying a hint of relief.

Ding Wei also let out a deep sigh of relief at this moment.

If the Fire Oil he had sold wasn't here, it would have been hard to explain whether it had been used on those vagrants.

That would have made matters even more troublesome.

At most, what he had done now counted as making a mistake, not yet causing a great disaster.

"Lord Zhao, these Fire Oil barrels truly have nothing to do with our Wangzhi Medicinal Shop. Didn't you say there's a secret passage leading to another courtyard down below?"

"Someone must have done this deliberately, waiting for the case to break so they could frame our Wangzhi Medicinal Shop."

Wangzhi suddenly spoke, his tone grave:

"Furthermore, the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop cannot be casually sealed. We store all kinds of rare exotic herbs and flowers, and medicinal pills here, all of which are registered with the Pharmacy Guild.

Every medicinal shop in Xiangfeng Prefectural Capital comes to us for supplies. If this place gets sealed, then there will be a situation where no medicine is available on the outside.

This will trigger enormous trouble. I believe Lord Zhao would not want to see such a scene either."

Zhao Chonghong's eyes narrowed slightly.

Before he could speak, Yang Ling suddenly laughed:

"You colluding with the Immortal God Sect is the same as colluding with the Rong tribe.

The Fire Oil you bought has already burned to death over a hundred citizens of Zhao State.

This is paving the way for the Rong tribe, building momentum for them.

At a time like this, you're still worried about your Wangzhi Medicinal Shop's business?

Without your Wangzhi Medicinal Shop, tomorrow there will be a Lizhi Medicinal Shop, or a Chenzhi Medicinal Shop."

Wang Xingsu couldn't help but let out a few muffled grunts, his eyes filled with fury.

Having such a hat of asset confiscation and family extermination dropped on them out of nowhere, who could stand that!?

Wangzhi's son's face sank, and he was about to speak when Wangzhi stopped him.

He looked toward Yang Ling, his gaze solemn:

"Director Yang, you need evidence for what you say. You can't just spout such things carelessly. How could we possibly be Rong tribe spies?"

"If you're not Rong tribe spies, then why did you use Fire Oil to burn Zhao State citizens?"

Yang Ling chuckled.

"Bring the Third Supervisor of the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop over."

Wangzhi's face remained unchanged, but deep in his eyes, a flicker of suspicion and unease passed through.

Not far away, a somewhat plump middle-aged man froze for a moment.

He seemed not to have expected the other party to call him out directly by name.

Why!? Could it be that what he had done had already been exposed!?

A few breaths later, Yun Ruo had already brought over this Third Supervisor of the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop.

The Third Supervisor had calmed himself a bit by now. He clasped his fists and said:

"Honored officials, this lowly one is He Dongqing, Third Supervisor of the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop."

Zhao Chonghong's eyes held a trace of curiosity:

"Director Yang, do you already have a lead?"

Lu Yunchen smiled: "Lord Zhao, Director Yang has a real knack for solving cases. Perhaps even before setting foot in the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop, he had already sorted everything out."

These words made Shi Xin, Yun Ruo, and Zhao Qing all breathe a sigh of relief.

They had been afraid that even after sealing the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop, they wouldn't be able to find concrete evidence for a long time, causing the case to stall.

If they couldn't solidify the case in a short time,

and gave the other party some time, with such a massive network of connections, they might very well get away with it the moment they turned around.

"He Dongqing, yesterday you told me that Wangzhi ordered you to silence seven servants and bury them under the Locust Tree."

Yang Ling looked at the Third Supervisor and said calmly:

"Is this matter true?"

The vast courtyard suddenly became deathly silent.

Wangzhi's face showed shock and disbelief as he stared at He Dongqing.

This man was his wife's nephew! A close confidant he had kept by his side and groomed since childhood.

He was the one who had turned traitor and sold him out!?

In that instant, Wangzhi figured out many things.

He finally understood why this Yang Ling had led people to his doorstep, refusing to yield even when Xu Wenjun was present.

The other party... had already obtained solid evidence, enough to confirm this case!

At this moment, Wangzhi's back seemed to stoop even further. His aged face lost some of its vitality, gaining more of a deathly pallor.

It was all too late. If Zhao Chonghong hadn't been present, if the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop hadn't been sealed, if Xu Wenjun hadn't left...

Perhaps there might still have been room to turn things around. But now... it was already too late.

Zhao Chonghong's gaze turned incomparably sharp.

Lu Yunchen was somewhat surprised.

Zhao Qing and the others exchanged bewildered looks.

"So someone in the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop sold out Wangzhi and told all this to Yang Ling. No wonder Yang Ling was so calm and composed..."

"But this He Dongqing is someone very close to Wangzhi. Why would he sell him out?"

"Did Yang Ling feed him some kind of mind-confusing soup or something?"

Zhao Qing felt deeply puzzled.

The calmness on He Dongqing's face had vanished without a trace.

He stared at Yang Ling as if he had seen a ghost.

Before today, he had absolutely no interaction with this man whatsoever.

He had never told the other party any of those things.

Moreover, even the matter of the bodies being buried under the Locust Tree was known only to him and Wangzhi. Not even Wangzhi's son or grandson knew about it.

There couldn't possibly be a third person in the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop who knew this.

"It wasn't me who said it, it couldn't be that my uncle-in-law said it himself, right..."

He Dongqing muttered inwardly.

Yang Ling smiled, not urging him.

At the same time, he cast an Insight Technique at He Dongqing.

His original intention was to see if there was anything else on He Dongqing that could be used against him.

But the content revealed by the Insight Technique was quite extraordinary.

[He Dongqing, killed seven servants yesterday and buried them under the Locust Tree at the Wangzhi Medicinal Shop. Ten days ago, ordered people to transport oil barrels to the vagrant compound, indirectly causing the deaths of over a hundred vagrants]

At this moment, He Dongqing slowly spoke:

"Director Yang, don't spout nonsense. This lowly one had never met you before today. How could I have told you such absurdities!"

He looked at Wangzhi, "Uncle-in-law, I really never said those things!"

Wangzhi stared silently at He Dongqing, his eyes still lifeless and dead.

If it wasn't this bastard who said it, then who could it have been?

He only regretted not having silenced this bastard along with the others!