CHAPTER 6

The station ship that they used to put the boxes were much larger.

The boxes were stored under the sergeant's cabin, and the sergeant guarded the door.

According to Wang Fangxing, the guard time was changed every two hours, with sergeants guarding inside and outside the cabin.

"Are the sergeants killed?" Jin Xia asked casually.

"No, they all fainted." The flag officer answered quickly.

"Mid of fragrance? Or medicine? Who is responsible for the food on the boat? Are they still in here?" She asked habitually.

The flag officer who answered the question glanced at her and he saw that she was only a seventeen- or eight-year-old girl. She was born with a naive and romantic look but when she asked about something, she was very mature, so he did not dare to neglect and quickly answered, "Everyone on the boat eats the same food, and they switch to work after dinner. After that, they haven't eaten anything else"

A sergeant led them in front of the cabin where the boxes was stored.

Jin Xia, she walked very slowly. She looked westward all the way, and just bent over into the hatch, she stopped and sniffed several times. She smiled and said:

"Dayang, you smell, the smell is really good, isn't it?"

Yang Yue also sniffed and said, "smells like chives and fried chicken eggs"

"Like I said, maybe that's why I am hungry when I smell it?" Jin Xia suddenly realized.

"Have you ever been not hungry?" Yang Yue quipped, leaned into the cabin, and saw three or four sergeants sitting on the ground crookedly.

Lu Yi then came in and looked lightly into the warehouse. The length of the warehouse was less than two feet long and about two feet wide, with only one door and one window, which was no different from ordinary cabins.

"How many boxes?" He asked Wang Fangxing.

"There are eight boxes, contain not only gold and silver jewelry, but also calligraphy and paintings." Wang Fangxing sighed.

"I have repeatedly told the general before the departure to be cautious, everyone was guarding properly but who knows someone could still steal it, what a cunning person... "

Lu Yi casually listened to Wang Fangxing's grievances and saw that Jin Xia was squatting on the ground, her nails were gently scraped on the floor, she sniffed it.

Bits of wax oil can be seen everywhere on the ground! Footprints on it!, Jin Xia's keep talking with herself in her mind.

"So much wax oil?" She accidentally said her doubt outloud.

"Oh ... this is ..." The flag officer explained quickly, "I was afraid that the calligraphy, silk, and other objects would be affected by the moisture on the ship deck, so I sealed the joints with wax. I told the general officer about this already"

Wang Fangxing nodded when he heard the words: "That's the case, those calligraphy and paintings are so expensive that it is not good to have mildew."

"Good idea." Jin Xia, with a smile, did not look at him, took out a small magnifier from her arms and looked at the wax oil carefully with a fire candle.

Yang Yue squatted down checking one of the unconscious sergeant, smelled his palm and frowned in disgust.

Lu Yi took hold of another sergeant's wrist, stretched his fingers over the sergeant's pulse, carefully took the pulse.

Wang Fangxing looked side by side anxiously, couldn't help asking, "...how?"

After a short while, Lu Yi put down his sergeant's wrist, said calmly to Wang Fangxing: "There is no worry about his life. Wait for one or two hours. They will wake up after the effect of the medicine is gone."

"That's good, that's good." Wang Fangxing shook his fist anxiously, "Maybe they've seen the thief, so they can tell clues when they wake up."

At this time, Jin Xia, holding a fire candle, slowly walking around the cabin, sometimes looking at the scratches on the bulkhead, sometimes lowering her head and reaching out to measure the floor, and she finally stopped in front of the window, again with her magnifier look at the window frame.

Wang Fangxing didn't know what the two small catchers were doing, he saw them swaying around unhurriedly but didn't say any clues.

He was already impatient, if it was not because of Lu Yi, he would have been kick them out.

Lu Yi, ever since that night at Xinfeng Bridge, listening to Jin Xia's explanation about the map's location and even pointed out the flaws in Mr. Fortune's dress, now Lu Yi knows that she have Yang Chengwan's tracking skill.

Lu Yi really wants to see the tracking technique mentioned by his father, thats why he is willing to wait them to help investigating.

On the other hand, the more details she saw, the more doubts in Jin Xia's eyes increased and after looking at Yang Yue for a while, she understood something that Yang Chengwan had told them before— "and don't talk wildly."

But if this is the case, then it is really boring then, she thought.

She straightened her waist and secretly pouted, thinking how she could return to the ship earlier to sleep, go back to bed.

"Do you have any clues?" Lu Yi asked immediately without missing her subtle expression.

"This ..." Jin Xia, first she glanced at Yang Yue, then slowly swallowed. "The thief has hardly left any clues. I'm afraid I can't help it."

Yang Yue nodded repeatedly, not because he agreed with her but more because praised her for saying something good.

Wang Fangxing waved his hand, mocking: "This is not an ordinary catching chicken and dog case, not surprising that you can't find it out. It's all right. I didn't expect you to find anything to help tho." He yawned tiredly.

Jin Xia did not like how he is looking down at her. She want to dragged Yang Yue out and left, but she heard that Wang Fangxing was still talking bad about them to Lu Yi behind, so she can not hold herself back anymore.

"Actually, I know that almost all the cases in the capital are being handled by Jin Yiwei. The Departement Six are just names, they have a bunch of idlers. Often, they can't finish the case and push it to you ..."

When Jin Xia heard this, she stopped for a while and turned to Wang Fangxing, saying, "Even though I said there are no clues, but I'm worried its because the officers hide them."

Wang Fangxing laughed: "Are you kidding me? I have to wait and guard all the boxes myself, how can there be any reason for me to become the thief? You have no need to say these bluffs. What clues are there? Talk about it."

"These boxes are black lacquered camphor boxes, two feet eight long, one foot six wide, two feet high, right?" She raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at him with a smile.

Wang Fangxing, together with his flag officer, froze.

"You, have you seen these boxes?"

"It's just my speculation. Actually its hard to pretend that I dont know any of it, because there are so many traces of wax oil on the ground." Jin Xia went on, "I said that officers may hide the clues because of the large number of thieves. You can see clearly the thieves more than one person and they has no fear, they are very arrogant. They even does not take Wang Fangxing's guards seriously at all."

"Why you said that?" Lu Yi asked, staring at her.

Jin Xia refers to several scratches on the bulkhead: "The walls are so divided, the movement when carrying the boxes can be imagined. Such a big movement can only show that these thieves have no fear."

"How do you know that these scratches were made by thieves, maybe they were when the sergeants brought the boxes in."

Pass the magnifier in her hand, she told Lu Yi to look at it, and then say, "The direction is different so the scratches are different, too. You look carefully at the subtle scratches."

The magnifier was in her hand, he can feel a little warmth, smooth and moist, Lu Yi looked down, the crystal was exquisite and small, the concave side was convex, looking across the crystal wafer, the object could be magnified several times. At the slightest point of the scratch, the sawdust was curled and the direction was indeed the same as what she had drawn. It was naturally drawn when the box was lifted.

Yang Yue coughed a few times, signalling that she couldn't say any more.

Jin Xia keep talking a little more, she said, "Although some clues can be seen, the case is still complicated. As you said, me and Dayang, we only beginners, our experience was shallow, but the things that I sure is the thieves between four and six people and the crimes are proficient. They are obviously recidivists. At this moment, I am afraid that they have already gone down the water, a few miles away."

Dayang squinted at her again to managed her to keep silent.

Wang Fangxing listened blankly for a long time, only then could he catch up and nodded again and again: "This river has many branches. If the thief has already come down the water, how can I track them down? I am being trust by the general to bring his gift boxes but now everything was robbed and the thief disappeared. I really can not just went back to see the general, I will loose my face, oh no."

Did not take care of Wang Fangxing's emotional awareness, Jin Xia teased: "Master Wang, dont worry, just go back, the general is rich so it doesnt matter to lost some gift boxes tho..."

"What do you mean?" Wang Fangxing stared at Jin Xia fiercely, with obvious anger in his eyes.

"She means that Lord Wang is General's most trusted person, eventough you did lost some boxes but he will not do any harm to you. I am very envious." Yang Yue grabbed her hand quickly before Jin Xia finish her word, arching toward Wang Fangxing, "I... I can't help, so I ask for forgiveness to leave from here, my master." Dayang quickly said the implication to leave.

Wang Fangxing seems exhausted, his patience already up so he made a disappointing gesture of dissatisfaction. After seeing YangYue and Jin Xia out of the cabin, he smiled at Lu Yi and said, "Look, these people from Departement Six, either evading their eyes and just rolling around here, they just talk wildly and cannot do anything at all."

Lu Yi coughed twice and said goodbye to Wang Fangxing too: "Officer don't have to worry about it. After the sergeant wakes up, there may be a turnaround."

Wang Fangxing only frowned and asked the flag officer to send Lu Yi off the boat.

After returning to the station boat, the sky was already a little bit bright, its already dawn. The morning mist on the river was cold and refreshing.

"Huh! What are you doing?! He keeps badmouthing us, does he thinks we are easy to bully?!" Jin Xia, her neck narrowed in the cold, and she said, "I really want to kick him!"

Yang Yue looked back at Wang Fangxing's station boat and then said to her, "Daddy told us not to talk nonsense, but look what did you say? Fortunately, I took the words back, otherwise it would be trouble."

"I just can't get used to play dumb," dissatisfied, Jin Xia continued, "not to mention anything else, to stir up my good reason for no reason, it was disturbing, but it was to drag the boatman to testify for him."

How could Yang Yue not know Wang Fangxing's intentions, but as they were just small catchers, they couldn't say what they know outloud. In front of officials, they could only swallow their voices and pretend to be deaf and dumb.

"Ms.Xia, wait your position to rise to a Master one day, then I'll let you to do or say anything you want." Yang Yue poked her forehead.

"I know, I know, for the sake of my job, until next time I will endure it." There was nothing Jin Xia could do.

The two returned to Yang Chengwan's cabin and recounted the situation on Wang Fangxing's ship.

"The sergeant who supposed to guard the birthday boxes fell into a coma because they somehow accidentally drank a kind of medicine." Yang Yue reported to his Dad.

Jin Xia, without talking nonsense, she said directly: "All the footprints in the cabin are sergeant's footprints, no outsider has ever entered. Wang Fangxing made it clear that he wanted to swallow all the birthday boxes, its called the thief screams to catch another thief."

Yang Chengwan listened, without any surprise, he said lightly: "It may not be so. When I look at his anxious look, its not like he was pretending. How about the flag officer next to him?"

"The flag officer...?" Dayang wondering.

"Did you pay attention to him?" Yang Chengwan asked Jin Xia.

"I think he's a bit weird. I noticed that there was a lot of wax oil on the hem of his robe and wax oil on his boot's surface ... I thought its weird at that time. Later I saw the same wax oil in the cabin and I understood." Jin Xia answered.

"It seems like nothing else other than him, then." Yang Chengwan concluded.

"Dad, do you mean he stole the birthday boxes? But where did he keep it?" Yang Yue asked.

"It should still be on the boat." Yang Chengwan looked at them both with dissatisfaction. "Did you not pay attention to the waterline of this boat after you returned? This boat's waterline has not changed, the waterline from docking to now."

Jin Xia suddenly realized: "Those wax oils! Not to prevent moisture, but to used as waterproof, I understand! He surely put the boxes under water, inside this boat's deck, no wonder the thieves have peace of mind because they must think that these goods are under their eyes."

Hearing her eagerness, Yang Chengwan stared at her with a warning sign: "Their problem has nothing to do with us. Don't intervene."

"Oh..." Jin Xia answered half heartly.

Then later, Yang Yue and Jin Xia soon retreated to go back to their room.