The Southern Gate

The Southern Gate of West Market, Capital City, Lantian.

There were two gates in the West Market that were specially assigned for the merchant to walk in and out of the city—The Northern Gate and the Southern Gate.

The Southern Gate of the West Market was said to be the busiest part of the city, and also one of the heavily guarded.

At the side, a few guards lined up to scrutinize everyone who wanted to enter the city. Two teams stood at the side. One of them was tasked to write down the names of people who enter the city, and the other one was assigned to write down anything that they had brought into the city.

A few steps ahead was a hut which was heavily guarded. This is the point where the merchant would have to make their payment to pay money for the item they were going to sell in the city.

Officer Zhou Ming joined his men once he had to get rid of the message from Pei Yan. The guards continued to patrol around the city and finally stopped as they reached the Northern Gate to continue their inspection.

"Officer Zhou," Lin Da Wei called when he noticed that the officer turned to another corner. "Where are you going?"

The officer scratched his neck before he pointed his finger up, towards the office tower.

This office tower was not as tall as the observation tower around the city. However, there was a small office at the side where records were kept and a few guards were walking back and forth, to observe the situation down there.

Once they saw that something was not right, the guard will pull their bow and arrow and shoot anyone who tried to cause a disturbance.

"I'm going up there to sign," Officer Zhou said.

As they were part of the patrolling team, Officer Zhou was supposed to head upstairs to leave his signature, as proof that his team had patrolled past the area.

Lin Da Wei smiled as he urged Officer Zhou Ming to continue his task. "Then you go ahead. We will wait for you down here. Officer Zhou, don't take too long."

"I know." Officer Zhou snorted. "You just wanted to eat noodles and look at that lady, right?"

"Officer Zhou, don't tease me."

Officer Zhou laughed, waved his hand, and headed upstairs. His face changed and the playful expression he had earlier disappeared. He walked over to the small office and rapped his knuckle on the door.

Seconds later, a guard walked out and gave him a look over. Officer Zhou Ming raised his token and the guard nodded before he let him in. An official sat behind the table saw Officer Zhou Ming enter the room and quickly stood up.

"What are you doing here?" Liang Yu, the official who was looking over the documents, spoke in a low voice. He walked over to Officer Zhou Ming anxiously and glanced around the room.

"I was sent over here to look at the records," Officer Zhou Ming said. He flashed his token and quickly put them back into his cloth. "This is a routine check-up. You don't need to be anxious."

Liang Yu cleared his throat and waved his hand to one of the guards, signaling him to look after the officer.

Officer Zhou Ming walked around the room and pulled some of the documents at random to inspect them. He walked to the corner, pulled out a record from last night, and scanned them. His expression changed, but he quickly recovered before anyone was able to notice it.

As if he was done with his task, Officer Zhou Ming asked for the logbook, jotted down his signature, and walked downstairs.

"Officer Zhou, what took you so long?" Lin Da Wei asked.

"I had a chat with one of the guards and forgot the time," Officer Zhou Ming answered casually. Then, he raised a brow. "What is it? Are you hungry?"

Lin Da Wei laughed. "Officer Zhou, if we don't hurry, we might not get a place to sit."

"You brat." Officer Zhou Ming slapped his man hard on his shoulder. "I know. I know. Let's go before they ran out of noodles. If you didn't see the lady, you might whine about it for days."

Hearing the words, a few men who were with Lin Da Wei laughed out loud. The group of guards laughed merrily and left the Northern Gate to head over to the noodle stall not far away.

A deep crease appeared on Officer Zhou Ming's face as he followed after the men. He needed to figure out a way to send his report back to Prince Yi before it was too late.

As he walked down the street, Officer Zhou Ming put both hands behind him. His hands moved to form a secret signal for his man.

Officer Zhou and his men reached the noodle stall and quickly find a place to sit down. They ordered a few bowls of noodles and chatted around merrily, not forgetting to tease Lin Da Wei with the lady he took a fancy on.

After a few minutes, Officer Zhou Ming suddenly stood up, causing his men to look at him, puzzled.

"What's wrong?" Lin Da Wei asked.

"What are you looking at?" Officer Zhou Ming raised a brow. "I am just going to take a leak."

The group of men laughed. They motioned Officer Zhou to leave and continued joking around among themselves.

Officer Zhou glanced to check his surrounding before he stopped just before he reached the latrine. Soon, a figure dressed in all black appeared beside him.

"Is it safe?"

Wen Ping nodded. "Master, don't worry. No one followed you here."

Officer Zhou breathed in relief. Then, he pulled out a scroll and handed it over to Wen Ping. "Send this letter to Lord Yi."

"Master, we cannot send a letter to His Lord at this moment," Wen Ping spoke. "He has gone out to inspect something in the city. If we approached him right now, your cover might be blown."

"What is he doing?"

"His Majesty sent him to inspect the lantern."

A deep frown appeared on Officer Zhou Ming's face. He bit at his lips as he thought of the best way to send the letter to the Prince before it was too late. A face crossed in his mind and Officer Zhou instructed Wen Ping to find the person who could help them.