16 The Illegal Human Trafficking

"That's great! Then, I will teach you how to read!"

Shao Chen thought for a while. In his past life, his parents usually told him to read more so that he could become cleverer. However, he did not bother to try.

Now, after transmigrated to this world, he finally realized the importance of being smart. He got a lot of hard times because of his foolishness. Maybe, it was a good idea for him to study a bit more.

"Okay," he muttered, accepting the idea.

This is the first time for Shao Chen to be determined to learn something other than about money.

Feng Meifeng began to flip the book she took while sitting down beside Shao Chen. "Then I will start!"

****

Chen Liqin knitted his eyebrows, deep in thought. He had just finished reading all of the investigation documents about the illegal auction.

"I see," he muttered while screening the open scrolls which were scattered around his workspace, covering not only his table but also the surrounding floor area.

This illegal human trafficking auction, according to the scrolls, started to exist one year after his father's coronation. Chen Guang had been suspicious since there were a lot of reports about the disappearance of young girls and boys.

With the assistance from Zhang Ziqiang who had already become the chief of the royal secret force at that time, Chen Guang managed to detect the existence of this illegal auction after three years of investigation.

Although that, it did not mean that the case had been solved. They had barely managed to get new information after that because it was so hard to trace it. Every year, the auction would be held in a different place randomly – the secret force and even the emperor could not get any pattern from it. What Chen Guang could assure was just the place where it was held would always be located within the Xin Kingdom's area.

This illegal auction was surprisingly famous around the nobles, not only around the Xin Kingdom's nobles but also around the nobles from another kingdom. This had been proven by the fact that the Xin Kingdom would always get lots of visitors from outside the kingdom only when the day of the auction drew near. However, the way they got the information about the auction's time and place was still a mystery.

Chen Guang wrote down a note which was guessing about a particular invitation card being sent to the nobles by the auction organizer and if this invitation could convince them to attend the event, the organizer could be someone who was trusted and had a high rank in the kingdom.

That was why the former emperor narrowed down the suspect to one of his brothers. Chen Guang had four brothers without any sisters. His fourth brother had died and his first brother was exiled in one of the palace's Condemnation Blocks which were very remote. So, only his third brother and fifth brother could be suspected.

After observing the two brothers' movement for a long period, Chen Guang finally determined the third brother as the culprit.

The third brother was the same age as Chen Guang. However, Chen Guang was the empress' son while the third brother was one of the concubine's son. His third brother was very ambitious to get the throne and had been found to move sneakily whenever the auction day drew near.

Despite that, Zhang Zhiqiang and Chen Guang did not manage to get the concrete evidence since even they found the place of the auction, they could not get past the heavy guard. Besides, the guests were covered in a long and thick robe so that other people could not identify the identity. They could not confirm whether the third brother was truly the culprit or not.

Besides the auction, Xin Kingdom got a lot of rebellion from the mass. Most of the rebels confessed the reason they had done this was because they heard the rumors which were claiming that the auction was started by the emperor and the emperor had sold his people to the nobles for purpose of connection.

Of course, Chen Guang would never do this kind of practice. He tried to look for more evidence to clear the rumors but after the long investigation, the only evidence that could lift his hope was the documents that were brought by Chen Liqin from the Yaos. 

However, when Chen Guang ordered Dai Junjie to caught the Yaos so that he could interrogate them and made sure of their connection with the third brother, the residence was already empty.

Even though he almost lost his hope, he still searched for the Yaos more deeply since he had some familiarity with this family name. 

Chen Guang noted on one of the scrolls that a long time ago, when Chen Guang's father's reign, Yao Family was the prisoner from the Ku Kingdom, Xin Kingdom's ultimate enemy. If analyzed from this fact, most likely the culprit will be the Ku Kingdom but this would contradict with Chen Guang's guess and he still believed that the possibility of his third brother as the culprit was still higher than the Ku Kingdom. However, he did not have any concrete evidence and all of this just gave him a headache.

Chen Liqin also felt that there was something strange. He agreed with his father's belief. "If the culprit was the third uncle, then it makes more sense."

The Ku Kingdom was known for its prudence. No one could find the kingdom's movement if they did not want to be found. So, if they let Chen Guang found out about their involvement in the auction deliberately, it was very strange because there was not any particular reason or benefit for them in using this strategy.

It will be different if the culprit was the third brother who had a lot of influence on politics and war. Chen Liqin could guess that his third uncle was dying for throwing his father away from the throne by abducting and selling the citizens on behalf of the emperor so that he could tarnish Chen Guang's name and provoked rebellion.

"Right. This makes more sense," Chen Liqin muttered in confidence.

"But … it's weird. Father had done the investigation with Uncle Zhang's help during his reign but could only get little information while I could find the Yao Family and the evidence in just one week. Is not it too fast?"

The one who helped him found the Yaos was Dai Junjie, who was also Zhang Zhiqiang's disciple. Dai Junjie had only become the chief of the secret force for two years.

If Zhang Zhiqiang had sniffed about the Yao Family involvement, it was not strange for Dai Junjie to quickly know about it and told Chen Liqin about this. However, from all of the scrolls' content, his father had never mentioned the Yaos before knowing about them from Chen Liqin.

"If Dai Junjie got this information by himself then it will be more strange."

Why Dai Junjie could find this very fast? Or Uncle Zhang was the one that did not report this information to Father despite knowing it?

Chen Liqin was still thinking hard when his room's door was knocked. Liang Hu, who was still standing at the corner of the room, immediately checked on the uninvited guest then came back inside to report the guest's identity.

"Prince Shoushan had arrived and wished to greet Your Majesty," Liang Hu said.

Chen Shoushan was Chen Guang's fifth brother. Personally, Chen Liqin quite liked this uncle since Chen Shoushan had a fun personality and did not have a very rigid principal like other nobles in the palace.

Chen Liqin ordered Liang Hu to clean the mess up then went out of the room. The sky had turned completely dark.

A figure who was shorter than Chen Liqin and kinda fat stood with his back to the emperor. When noticing the sound of Chen Liqin's footsteps, the figure turned around. A big, full of affection, smile immediately appeared on his face.

"My nephew! Oh no … I mean, Your Majesty," he said in delight.

"Uncle Shoushan, you did not have to be so formal when there were only the two of us here." Chen Liqin chuckled. He really liked how friendly his fifth uncle was.

"Ah … Liqin, I'm so sorry that I could not attend the coronation. Yongrui made a scene again so that I did not manage to arrive at the palace on time," Shoushan sigh, full of regret.

"Ah Rui had already back?" Chen Liqin could not stop himself to smile happily.

Chen Yongrui was the thirteenth prince who was only sixteen. He was Chen Shoushan's son and was one of the few princes who did not hostile to Chen Liqin. Same as his father, Chen Yongrui was a very fun person but because of his young age, he was also very sloppy.

Chen Shoushan nodded. Sigh…. His headache still came back every time he recalled the commotion his son had made earlier. "Fortunately, I did not miss Second Brother's birthday party either."

Chen Liqin blinked several times. "Birthday party?"

Chen Shoushan looked at him in confusion. "Did you forget? Your father will have his birthday next week."

"Ah…." Chen Liqin had forgotten about it.