Chapter 278: Unbridled Fury

Faced with his harsh accusations, Zu An was not provoked. Instead, he turned to Zheng Dan, who was standing nearby.

"Isn't your young mistress here?" Zu An asked, grinning at her. "Such an important matter should, of course, be decided by her. If she wants me to take responsibility, I will; if she doesn't, I won't. Miss Zheng, what are your thoughts?"

Zheng Dan's face flushed slightly. *This guy is deliberately saying this to take advantage of me, isn't he?* she thought, but still replied, "Young Master Zu has done everything for the public good, so why would we ask you to take responsibility?"

Zu An laughed heartily. "It's best if Miss Zheng doesn't need me to take responsibility. It seems our friendship is quite good."

Sang Qian, standing nearby, frowned. He subconsciously adjusted the helmet on his head, feeling a strange discomfort with it today.

"Since the young mistress has spoken, please follow me," Hou Yun said as he walked ahead, gesturing for his subordinates to open the cabin door.

Sang Qian waved his hand, and his soldiers filed in to search.

Zu An also signaled for the Chu family members to follow inside; he no longer trusted Sang Hong's people.

Still uneasy, he followed them in shortly after.

Sang Qian and Zheng Dan exchanged glances, then followed them in.

Inside the ship's hold, sacks were piled up like mountains. The soldiers inspected them quite roughly, directly stabbing their knives into the sacks and pulling them out.

Seeing cotton seeds constantly spilling from the sacks, Hou Yun looked distressed. He hastily called out, "Everyone, please don't make such a mess! Tell me which sack you want to see, and I'll open it for you."

Unfortunately, no one paid him any attention. He could only run over to Zu An and say, "Son-in-law of the Chu family, the inspection has been done; you must be satisfied now, right?"

Zu An did not comment. He simply pushed Hou Yun aside and went directly to the lowest level, looking at the dense pile of sacks stacked together below.

He wanted to inspect the bottom ones, but it was impractical unless someone unloaded all the cargo from the ship.

However, he quickly realized he was still subconsciously thinking with experience from his previous life. This was a cultivation world, where cultivators' strength was many times greater than that of ordinary people.

So he started himself, lifting the sacks that were pressed at the bottom of the hold, one by one.

The Chu family's guards also hurried over to help, and before long, they cleared a three-foot-square deep pit.

"Son-in-law of the Chu family, what are you doing?!" Hou Yun panicked and rushed over to stop him, but he was blocked by Feng Daniu and a few others.

Zu An's face was grim. He pulled out a few sacks from the very bottom and jumped out.

"Steward Hou, why are you so anxious?" Zu An asked, throwing the sacks at his feet.

"Am I anxious? I'm not anxious at all, hahaha," Hou Yun chuckled awkwardly. But anyone could see the fine sweat beading on his forehead.

Zu An glanced at Zheng Dan and Sang Qian. Seeing their solemn expressions, he secretly chuckled to himself.

He directly drew a knife and stabbed it into those sacks.

A group of people craned their necks to see. This time, it wasn't cotton seeds that spilled out.

To Zu An's disappointment, it wasn't white salt at all, but yellow sand.

"Why are you putting yellow sand in the cargo?" Zu An asked. His ominous premonition had finally come true, so he wasn't particularly surprised at this point.

Hou Yun chuckled. "Young Master, you've never had to lift a finger, so you naturally wouldn't understand the hardships of people like us," he said. "This is used as ballast to help the ship navigate strong winds and waves."

Everyone knew that before Zu An became the Chu family's son-in-law, he was just a destitute nobody from the streets. Hou Yun, on the other hand, appeared to have lived a life of ease and luxury for years. Therefore, his words were full of sarcasm, and everyone could hear it.

Zu An's eyes narrowed slightly. *This guy is playing a double-faced game with me, alright!*

He didn't bother with further talk. He quickly checked the other sacks again. Seeing that most of them were also filled with yellow sand, he couldn't help but sneer, "Do you really need this much sand for ballast?"

Hou Yun pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the fine sweat from his forehead. "It's not illegal for us to carry extra sand on the ship, is it?"

Zu An pointed to the cargo filling the hold and said, "If I'm not mistaken, most of the cargo on this ship is yellow sand, isn't it? Is this how the Zheng family conducts business?"

As he said the last sentence, he looked towards Zheng Dan.

Zheng Dan frowned slightly. Such behavior was indeed quite suspicious.

"This... this..." Hou Yun continued to wipe his sweat, clearly unable to think of any immediate explanation.

"Men, take him away and interrogate him thoroughly!" Zu An ordered directly.

Sang Qian stepped forward. "This might not be appropriate," he said. "The Chu family does not have law enforcement authority. Theoretically, this person should be handed over to our Anti-Smuggling Battalion."

Zu An said coldly, "Today was supposed to be a sure thing. But after a visit to the Anti-Smuggling Battalion, the salt smugglers received advance notice and swapped the goods. Handing it over to the Anti-Smuggling Battalion again might not be appropriate, would it?"

Sang Qian was furious. "Are you saying I leaked the information?"

Sang Qian's anger value reached 213!

Zu An replied calmly, "I didn't say General Sang leaked it. It's just that there are many people in the Anti-Smuggling Battalion, with various backgrounds. It's impossible to guarantee there aren't informants for the salt smugglers among them. We have to be cautious."

"Nonsense! This is slander! Slandering the hardworking soldiers of our River Defense Camp!" Sang Qian glared at him fiercely.

The other soldiers of the River Defense Camp also looked hostile, and each placed their hands on their sword hilts.

The anger value from River Defense Camp Soldier A reached 66!

The anger value from River Defense Camp Soldier B reached 66!

The anger value from River Defense Camp Soldier C reached 66!

The Chu family's guards gathered tightly around, each looking nervously at the surrounding soldiers.

Zu An, however, was not worried. Sang Hong's plot against the Chu family was clear; he was not someone who would resort to brute force.

Now, countless people knew he was at the docks, and he was accompanied by so many Chu family guards. If anything truly happened, it would be a huge scandal.

Seeing the situation grow tense and on the verge of erupting, Zheng Dan stepped forward, placing herself between the two sides. "Ah Zu," she said, "from what you're saying, it sounds like you suspect our Zheng family is involved in smuggling."

"That's not what I mean," Zu An replied. "It's just that it's possible some subordinates were secretly smuggling salt without your knowledge. You are also victims, and presumably, you also want to get to the bottom of this, don't you?"

"We naturally want to clarify all this," Zheng Dan said. "But if people were to know that our Zheng family steward was arrested, what would they think? They would surely suspect the Zheng family first, causing irreparable damage to our family's reputation."

"The innocent will be proven innocent, and the guilty will be revealed. Why should Miss Zheng worry about such things?" Zu An said with a faint smile, still not yielding an inch.

Sang Qian's side also couldn't allow him to take the person away, and for a moment, a stalemate ensued.

Just then, a neat sound of footsteps was heard, followed by a hearty laugh. "In that case, why not leave him to us?"

Zu An turned to look and saw it was an old acquaintance: County Captain Pang Chun had arrived with a team of yamen runners.

Sang Qian said coldly, "This falls under the jurisdiction of our Anti-Smuggling Battalion, doesn't it? Has County Captain Pang perhaps overstepped his authority?"

Pang Chun, unperturbed, smiled faintly. "Commander Sang, you exaggerate," he said. "I merely saw that neither of you wished for the suspect to be taken by the other side. Wouldn't it be better then for me, a neutral third party, to interrogate him?"

*You're not neutral at all,* Sang Qian thought.

Just then, Pang Chun added, "Commander Sang has marital ties with the Zheng family, and the person in question this time is from the Zheng family. Shouldn't you avoid any appearance of impropriety?"

Sang Qian was startled. He knew that under the current circumstances, he definitely couldn't take the person away. If that was the case, handing the person over to Pang Chun was better than handing him over to the Chu family.

Zu An's side also had no objection. Pang Chun was Mayor Xie's man. In a sense, Mayor Xie and the Chu family were not directly aligned, but neither was he aligned with Sang Hong's faction. Moreover, the Xie family's relationship with the Chu family was closer.

Soon, Pang Chun took the person away. At the same time, he sealed off many witnesses and pieces of evidence at the scene.

Zu An also hurried back to inform the Chu family of what had happened.

After both sides had left, Sang Qian called Zheng Dan to a secluded corner, looking at her with dissatisfaction. "Why did you leave Hou Yun behind?" he demanded. "Why were all those sacks in the ship's hold filled with yellow sand? Such obvious flaws—anyone could see there was a problem."

Zheng Dan replied, "The message arrived too late. Even with our repeated delays, there wasn't enough time. Where could we hastily find so much cotton seed cargo? Substituting with yellow sand was already the best possible outcome."

"As for Hou Yun, to complete these tasks in a short amount of time, someone had to coordinate things here. He was the best choice."

Sang Qian knew she was telling the truth, but thinking about Hou Yun being taken away, he couldn't help but worry. "But Hou Yun was still taken by Pang Chun's people," he said. "If he says anything he shouldn't, we'll be in big trouble!"

Zheng Dan smiled faintly. "Don't worry," she said. "Uncle Hou is an old hand in our family; he's trustworthy. And having weathered decades of storms, minor skirmishes won't scare him at all. Besides, there's no conclusive evidence for any of this today."

Sang Qian sneered, "Many times, solving a case doesn't require evidence. You probably don't know how severe the punishments in the yamen are. Heroes in plays who can endure severe torture are truly rare. Looking at Hou Yun, with his pampered appearance, if he fell into my hands, I guarantee he'd spill everything he knows within three days."

Zheng Dan sighed. "So, we need to get him out as quickly as possible, to avoid further complications."

"He's already in Pang Chun's hands, and the Chu family is also watching him," Sang Qian said with dissatisfaction. "How can we easily rescue him?"

Zheng Dan's face remained calm. "Don't worry," she said. "From the moment I received the notification, I already had a plan. I've also briefed Uncle Hou; he's mentally prepared for being arrested."

"What plan?" Sang Qian hastily pressed.

"You'll know tomorrow," Zheng Dan replied. "Of course, Commander Sang will need to cooperate when the time comes."

Seeing her act mysterious, Sang Qian didn't bother pressing further, as that would make him seem foolish. So he asked another pressing question: "By the way, what about the smuggled salt from before?"

"Given the rush, of course, it was dumped into the river," Zheng Dan sighed, her brows etched with regret. "Otherwise, if it had been found, our Zheng family would have been finished."

"That bastard Zu An! How much silver did he make us lose!" Hearing this answer, Sang Qian cursed furiously.

Sang Qian's anger value reached 999!

Zheng Dan, standing nearby, still wore her perfect lady-like smile, but she secretly sighed inwardly. *My fiancé seems quite imposing on ordinary days,* she thought, *but when something happens, he panics like this, capable only of impotent rage. He's far inferior to his father in this regard.*

In contrast, that Zu An fellow, though usually flippant, was terrifyingly calm and troublesome when it mattered.

Thinking of the past incidents involving Zu An, she suddenly felt her heart quicken, and a faint blush unconsciously spread across her fair face.

For now, that concludes these three chapters today. More will be added daily!