thefictionvixens Chapter 134 The Role of the Dead
Chapter 134 The Role of the Dead
Zhang Wei stayed in Xinna Port for seven days. Yesterday was the seventh day after the death of his chief officer. At the request of the local adjutant, Zhang Wei allowed the chief officer's family and relatives to hold a simple funeral for him.
The reason why Zhang Wei allowed it was that whether the chief officer was guilty or should be punished was not up to Zhang Wei. He did not have the power to enforce the law, only the power to investigate. The final decision was in the hands of His Majesty the Great King.
Zhang Wei stood by the second-floor window next to the funeral, looking down at the endless stream of people who came to pay their respects. How many of them were truly sad about the death of their chief officer, and how many were out of guilt and hoped to relieve the pressure and guilt in their hearts by paying their respects? Only these people knew clearly.
When the main process of the funeral was over, the local adjutant came forward to communicate with the chief officer's wife. From time to time, he would point to the small house where Zhang Wei was sitting and do ideological work on the chief officer's wife.
Not long after, the chief officer's wife, with tears still on her face, followed the local adjutant to the hut where Zhang Wei was, but was stopped by a minor official outside the official staff.
"Yuan Shao, what are you doing?!" The local adjutant glared at Yuan Shao, as if this could scare him away.
"Sir, it may be inappropriate to bring the widow to meet the Northern Inspector at this time." Yuan Shao could see that the local adjutant had bad intentions. These days, the local adjutant saw that Zhang Wei accepted all the women sent to him, and he actually set his sights on the widow who still had beauty and looks.
"You know nothing!" After the local adjutant finished cursing, he realized that his voice was a bit loud. He stepped forward and grabbed Yuan Shao by the collar, whispering to him in a threatening voice: "I have been giving you a lot of soup every day. Don't think you can get away with it by hooking up with the inspector! You are not clean either!"
After the local adjutant finished speaking, he pushed Yuan Shao against the wall next to the gate and ordered in a deep voice: "Go and inform the inspector! If I find out that you are too talkative, you will not live to see tomorrow."
Yuan Shao didn't say anything. He straightened his clothes and went in to report.
Not long after, Yuan Shao opened the door and let the local adjutant and the chief officer's wife in.
On the second floor, the local adjutant brought the chief officer's wife, who had tidied up her appearance a little, into the room where Zhang Wei was.
The local adjutant came to Zhang Wei and whispered in his ear, and Zhang Wei nodded in agreement.
The local adjutant returned to the chief officer's wife with a smile on his face and asked her to go to the next room to clean herself and wait for Zhang Wei's favor.
After the wife of the chief officer left, Zhang Wei took out a stack of documents from the drawer and threw them directly at the local adjutant, scolding him: "You are too bold. You dare to let him take the blame when he didn't even come to the port to work in the capital? If you want to die, don't take me with you."
The local adjutant was first frightened by Zhang Wei's action of throwing the documents. He didn't understand why Zhang Wei suddenly turned against him.
However, when he heard what Zhang Wei said, he immediately knelt on the ground, picked up the documents on the ground, and apologized: "It's my fault, it's my fault. I took the wrong document."
"Don't let it happen again. Take the good things and leave. Let Yuan Shao come in." Zhang Wei issued an order to expel the guest.
"Yes, yes." The local adjutant picked up the documents and left the room. After he told Yuan Shao in the corridor that Zhang Wei wanted him, he took the documents, put his hands behind his back, and walked downstairs humming a little tune.
The local adjutant was not scared at all, but was very relaxed. These days, Zhang Wei has been accepting everyone who comes, but he is unwilling to reveal the red line of this matter, which makes him and a group of bureaucrats and businessmen tremble with fear.
Who would have thought that when someone suggested a different way of thinking about sending gifts to women, they would immediately get the answer they wanted day and night.
"Sir, you are looking for me." Yuan Shao walked into the room and saluted Zhang Wei.
"No need to be so polite. I've said that there's no need to be so polite among family members. What do you think about what happened today?" Zhang Wei asked.
"It's just a continuation of the previous one. After this time, it shouldn't be so annoying to you, sir. It's just..." Yuan Shao hesitated for a moment.
"Just say it if you have something to say." Zhang Wei told Yuan Shao to speak boldly.
"After all, the woman next door is the widow of today's funeral. If you take her into your room today, it will probably cause unnecessary criticism." Yuan Shao advised Zhang Wei not to mess around with women at this time.
"Of course I know that, but if she doesn't get it done, she will feel uneasy, and so will others. You are responsible for taking care of this matter. I have other things to do. Regarding my going out..." Zhang Wei did not finish his words, but looked at Yuan Shao.
"My lord has never left." Yuan Shao was very concerned.
"Thank you for your hard work." Zhang Wei said, and flashed out of the room.
After Zhang Wei left, Yuan Shao came to the widow's room and knocked gently on the door.
"It's not locked, come in." The widow's voice came from inside.
Yuan Shao opened the door and saw the widow drying herself.
Yuan Shao quickly apologized and wanted to leave, but was stopped by the widow.
"What are you afraid of? Am I ugly?" asked the widow.
"Of course not, it's just inappropriate." Yuan Shao looked at the floor without looking up.
The widow smiled and said, "Why bother pretending to be a gentleman? If Zhang Wei doesn't come, then you will be asked to pretend to be him. If we don't do this today, they will feel uneasy, and so will I. Since you are here, you have agreed to pretend to be him, so why bother being so shy?"
"Madam is right." Yuan Shao accepted the widow's teachings.
Soon, the widow's figure appeared beside the window. When the people who had been paying attention saw the widow's floating body, they suddenly relaxed and stopped paying attention to the scandal near the window. Instead, they discussed the division of the spoils and the exchange of interests.
The widow looked through the window at those heartless people in human skins, her eyes filled with indifference.
Zhang Wei once again came to the old warehouse in the port to search for information. He was not there to investigate the death of the chief officer or the corruption in Xina Port, but to find the sea chart mentioned by Yuan Shao.
According to Yuan Shao, although the kingdom has never implemented a maritime ban policy, it has actually been implemented secretly in recent years, and everyone who relies on the sea for their livelihood is well aware of it.
But before that, the kingdom's maritime trade was very developed. At its most developed time, it even did business with people from the westernmost continent of the world. As the largest west coast port in the kingdom at that time and the only west coast port in the kingdom now, theoretically there should still be remnants of nautical charts from its former prosperity.
The main reason Zhang Wei wanted the nautical chart was to find out where the town of Borhos was and whether he could connect the kingdom with the town of Borhos so that he could bring the army back.
Zhang Wei had been secretly searching for several days. This was his final goal. According to Yuan Shao, if he couldn't find it here, he would have to try his luck in finding a needle in a haystack. After all, things like sea charts were something that even the black market didn't dare to buy or sell.
Just when Zhang Wei was looking for something in a panic, a soft voice came from not far away, followed by the sound of a mouse.
Zhang Wei alertly hid and went to check, only to find that it was just a palm-sized paper box that had fallen from the shelf, and the mouse had stopped making any sound.
After making sure the warehouse was safe, Zhang Wei started looking again.
When Zhang Wei, who got nothing, was leaving, he passed by the small paper box again. He saw a mouse sniffing the paper box. After the mouse discovered Zhang Wei, it fled in panic.
He thought about how a sea chart could possibly fit in such a small space. He laughed at himself for thinking too much, and then he walked to the door and prepared to leave.
Zhang Wei's hand was on the door handle. He heard the sound of birds chirping outside the warehouse. Zhang Wei thought about it and realized that there was only one person he hadn't seen. Even if he went to take a look, there would be no loss.
Zhang Wei then turned back and picked up the cardboard box. He opened the box and found a folded piece of cloth inside. He took it out and spread it out and found that the cloth was actually a folded nautical chart and it was made of magic cloth!
Zhang Wei was glad that he did not give up, otherwise he would have missed it right under his nose.
Zhang Wei didn't dare to stay any longer. He put away the nautical chart, put the box on the shelf, and left quickly.
When he returned to the house, Yuan Shao had been waiting for a long time.
Zhang Wei did not ask about the widow. He believed that Yuan Shao could handle it. He excitedly called Yuan Shao into the reception room, deployed multiple magic spells, and took out the nautical chart for Yuan Shao to identify.
After carefully examining it, Yuan Shao put the chart back on the table and said to Zhang Wei, "Sir, this chart should be real, but in my opinion, it is just a learning chart for apprentices."
"Study diagram?" Zhang Wei was puzzled.
"You see, it only marks the location here. Although it may be scaled according to the proportion, the map does not mark the specific distance, wind direction, tide, shoal, etc. It is very risky to go out to sea with this nautical chart." Yuan Shao pointed to the nautical chart and showed it to Zhang Wei.
"So it's all in vain?" Zhang Wei sat back in his chair somewhat discouraged.
"That's not the case. It's better to have something than nothing. If you really want to rebuild the route, this sea chart is much easier than a blind man crossing the river." Yuan Shao comforted Zhang Wei not to be discouraged.
Zhang Wei was encouraged. He picked up the nautical chart again and looked at it carefully. He found that the town of Borhos was just southwest of the Port of Sina and west of the Port of Zovia in the southern part of the kingdom. There was an island composed of some small islands between the island where the town of Borhos was located and the Port of Zovia.
"I see there seem to be people living here. I wonder if it would be easier to set up a route here first." Zhang Wei concealed his true intentions, and instead, under the pretext of doing smuggling business, asked Yuan Shao about the difficulty of reaching the town of Bolhos from Xinna Port.
Yuan Shao took the nautical chart handed to him by Zhang Wei. He looked at it very carefully and measured the distances between various places with a ruler.
"It shouldn't be a big problem. Although it's easier to head west from Zovia Port, if we start from here, as long as we keep our course and don't get lost, we should be able to reach the coastline of this island. Then, if we sail around the island, we should be able to reach this town."
Yuan Shao's words greatly encouraged Zhang Wei. The next step was how to get a reason to go out to sea. Although the name of smuggling was good, it would be easy to arouse suspicion if he did not go to the Desert Scimitar in the northwest but went to an isolated island in the southwest.