Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The dispatch team set off after resting a bit in the tea house. Hejian County was just few miles ahead of them, which meant they just needed to sustain another half a day and they would be off of the strenuous mission… Most of the laborers held to the idea and there was an unlimited power coming from their bodies.

Finally, they arrived the county gate of Hejian County before sunset.

The head of the guards couldn’t gallop through the gate like he was used to with such a great quantity of people on their team. He could only be patient and wait for their turn to pass through.

At that time, a smart looking laborer came over to him. “Sergeant, does it mean that we complete the mission once we ship the grain into the town?”

The head of the guard rolled his eyes at him and said with fury, “Who told you so? Just wait for the order and keep your nose out of it!”

If the laborers couldn’t ask him about the plan, then who could they ask?

Meng Hun should have known about them coming a long time ago, especially because they had drawn quite a lot attention with the scale of the dispatch team.

He just had no idea what on earth the traitor was planning on doing––and where, when and how they wanted to take over the grain. What he could only do at the moment was patiently wait for a person that represented Meng Hun so they could do the exchange of the ransom and hostage.

While he was thinking, it was almost their turn to pass through the gate. He couldn’t help but knit his brows when he looked up the lofty county gate.

The security of the gate took shifts and the shift working at the present time was the same shift from the last time when he had gone through. The security guards of the gate didn’t recognize them as the perpetrators of the County Gate Bloodbath Crime at the first glance, but they got suspicious when they focused their eyes on the dispatch team.

One of the security guards came forward and inquired, “Where are you guys from and what is the cargo in your wagons?”

Their sly eyes never stopped skimming over the laborers and the guards and they sneakily contemplated squeezing some juice out of them.

They had done their job hundreds of times. Normally they just took advantage of people under the table and demanded that the civilians contribute some fees for showing respect to them. Civilians didn’t want to get themselves into a brawl with the government. Even the security guards could hardly be reckoned as part of the government; it was not worth starting a battle with them. The civilians would rather eliminate any nuisances even if it would cost them money.

The supervisors would turn a blind eye to their behavior as long as they didn’t cross the line. Generally speaking, working as a gate security guard was a profitable job.

A security guard swaggered forward to scrutinize the cargo in the wagons and pushed a laborer out of his way.

That laborer was too afraid to say a single word and he only looked at the head of the guards.

“Something rather tough in the bag, eh? There is no one in charge here to give me a d*mn answer about what you guy have in the wagon?”

The gate security guard pressed a bag with his fingers. He basically had an assumption of what the bags contained, but he was just picking on them for the “respect fee.” He was not going to give up if the one in charge of the dispatch team was not willing to contribute to the fee. Then, he pulled the sword equipped on his waist out and stabbed a hole on the bag. “I feel shaky about the cargo. We are going to open them all up for a deeper inspection.”

However, he was only half way through pulling his sword out of the bag when the shape of a whip snapped down on his arm. His arm was covered in his own blood.

“A piece of sh*t who doesn’t know how to assess the situation.” The head of the guards of the dispatch team wrapped up his whip and watched the guard roll on the ground in pain.

The other civilians noticed something unusual happening and they were frightened that they would be involved in the result.

“Where did some degrading piece of sh*t like you get the permission to touch the grain dispatched by the Meng’s?” He scolded him and clucked at the horse gently. The horse started off and they were poised going through the gate.

A laborer responsible for one of the wagons spotted something weird and he hauled the item out from under the grain bags.

That… was not there before.

There was a black human head painted on the coarse cloth when he unfolded it. The laborer was spooked and he couldn’t help but scream out. The scream clearly alerted the head of the guards. He tightened his brows and reproached him, “What the h*ll are you screaming about?”

The laborer disregarded the rocks on the ground and kneeled down. Trembling, he handed the coarse cloth to the head of the guards.

“Ser… sergeant, I didn’t mean to disturb you. It’s just this freaking thing…”

The cloth on the laborer’s palms attracted the head of the guards’ attention.

He spurred his horse to come forward, bent, and snatched the cloth from the laborer. His face went gloomy the moment he unfolded it.

The laborer would be able to tell what the painting was about, but not him.

The head on the cloth was doubtlessly the Second Langjun of the Meng’s—Meng Liang.

The painting wasn’t detailed at all, but there were still obvious features retained on it for others to tell who the portrait was of.

The head of the guards clenched his fists and scolded the laborer, “Quickly, spit it out. Where did you find this?”

The gate security guard who had lost his one arm was still suffering from the pain. The laborer wouldn’t dare to hide, so he could only tell the truth.

“Sergeant, I found it under the grain bags. But it wasn’t there… before.”

“The grain bags?” He muttered and jumped off the horse. He thrust the laborer away and walked straight to one of the cargo wagons. He examined the wagon carefully until he spotted another piece of same texture of coarse cloth like the last one––except there was no head painted on it. Instead, there were just some strange lines.

He felt a chill instantly and shouted at his team, “Everyone check your cargo wagon and search for anything suspicious.”

The gate security guards working their shift were irritated, while the head of guards was disturbed by his anxious feeling. All the security staff came closer to the guards and attempted to draw their swords.

“How dare you hurt people in public, you unruly people!”

The head of the guards sneered. “I won’t just hurt you––I can even take your life. One more step and I will slaughter you all!”

All the guards for the dispatch team gathered around and pointed their spikes towards the gate security guards. There was a standoff for both parties for awhile. However, it was 20 or 30 gate security guards against over 200 guards attached to the dispatch team.

In the meantime, there was one to three different shapes and sizes of coarse cloths being found in every single wagon. It was clear that some were torn from a whole piece of cloth into pieces randomly.

Most of them had some strange lines, but some of them had lame, handwritten characters.

The head of the guards’ face was cold. He put all the cloths together and it turned out to be a painting.

There were some tiny words on the side of the painting. His expression turned unpleasant and his face was blue after he distinguished what the painting was about.

“You guys have been slacking. If you want Meng Liang alive, deliver the grain to the location. I won’t wait for long. Written by the Meng’s traitor, Meng Hun.”

How rampant his behavior was!

The head of guards was almost desperate to tear the pieces of cloth apart, but he held off the impulse. The message was clear that Meng Hun needed grain and their patience was dying off. If they kept delaying, they might only find Meng Liang’s dead body.

And he wouldn’t be alive if Meng Liang was dead.