The Disappeared Chief Wen

“So dizzy…” Xiao Zishan woke up from his dreams, and felt very uncomfortable in his semi-delirious state. He had slept very soundly in the past few days, as Guangzhou in the Ming Dynasty not only had fresh air but also no cars roaring early in the morning.

In the first few trips into the past none of them dared to spend the night in the Ming Dynasty. They would always leave before nightfall and come back the next day. Now however, as their business and network became more and more solid, there were more and more things that needed to be done in the Ming Dynasty. This meant that they would now often stay for a few days during each trip. This also helped extend the wormhole’s lifespan, and they could also indulge in the decadent life of having all their food and clothes provided.

However, Xiao Zishan’s head felt very heavy. He could barely open his eyes. It had rained last night, and the sun was now shining bright and high in the sky. It looked like it was almost ten o'clock. He couldn't help but feel that something was off. There was no TV or internet in this time and space. Usually, even though everyone was discussing and chatting together in the evenings, they would all go to bed early and end up waking up at seven o'clock every morning. Why did he get up so late today?

After he turned over and looked around his room, he was shocked. Everything was in a mess, the drawers and cabinets had been opened, and contents were spilled haphazardly all over the floor.

We’ve been robbed!

This thought immediately occurred to his mind, and he suddenly became restless as if a fire had been lit in his heart. The money and goods they’d gotten from the last trade were still piled up in the storeroom! What if...

He didn’t even want to imagine it. He quickly got to his feet and went to put on his clothes and shoes, but suddenly found that his socks and hiking boots were nowhere to be seen! He had actually been robbed! Thankfully, there were a few pairs of straw shoes in the room, so he hurriedly slipped into them and went out after throwing on his clothes.

As soon as he went out, he saw Bei Wei also rushing out of the opposite room. Xiao Zishan looked down at his feet, and noticed that Bei Wei was also wearing a pair of straw shoes, and not his usual combat boots!

"Something happened!" Bei Wei's words were concise and to the point.

"What?"

"Chief Wen is missing!"

"What!" This frightened Xiao Zishan so much that his hands and feet turned cold. Chief Wen was missing! This was not Guangzhou in the 21st century: there Wen Desi had acquaintances all over the city, and there were also police officers everywhere that made it one of the safest cities in the country. But now, if any of them were to leave the residence, they wouldn’t know anyone in Guangzhou in the 17th century. Even more so, they didn’t even know how to get around!

The two of them rushed through the residence, checking one room after another. Wang Luobin was sound asleep in his bedroom. Then they sprinted over to the lower room in the third courtyard, where they also found Gao Qing's family and Sun Chang sound asleep. They quickly tried to wake everyone up, but they were all also dizzy and nauseous. Gao Lujie and Gao Di couldn’t be woken up no matter how much they called and moved them, and just when they were at a loss, Sun Chang suggested that they douse them with cold water.

"Master Xiao, things are not looking good." Sun Chang watched Gao Qing's family frantically go and fetch water for everyone. Only after washing their faces did each of them feel a little more sober.

"What?!"

"It's obvious that we were all poisoned by incense."^[1]

"Incense?" Somehow, the first word that came to Xiao Zishan's mind was Sun Erniang.^[2]

"It's incense." Sun Chang fled from his hometown and wandered all the way to Guangzhou. He had seen a lot of things from the underworld in his journey. "Have the masters lost anything?"

This question suddenly reminded them about the most important thing of all, and the two travellers ran to the west wing of the central courtyard. Because this house was their main storage warehouse and crossing point, the Executive Committee had made some anachronistic modifications to the building. Not only did they use bricks to cover up the windows and doors, save one, but they also used steel barricades and a security door wrapped with barbed wire to make a smaller house inside that was fortified on all sides. Xiao Zishan immediately saw that the padlock on the wooden door outside had disappeared, and knew that something was wrong. He shoved the door aside. Inside, the wire fence and security door was still safe and sound, and the full truck of goods was also untouched. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief.

It seemed that the thieves failed in the end. The 21st century anti-theft measures were still effective after all. But the bigger problem was that they had stolen Wen Desi! This was more terrifying than losing just their goods and their gold and silver. They could always earn back the money, but it was hard to say if they would be able to find a living person lost in the Ming Dynasty.

"But who kidnapped Chief Wen?" Xiao Zishan’s thoughts were turning like a windmill. Was this an improvised or premeditated operation? It was hard to say. Only the Gao family knew where they stayed. Apart from them, they had no other contact with anyone in Guangzhou. So if it was premeditated then it must have stemmed from Gao Ju. But what was the point of him kidnapping Chief Wen? But yet, if it was done on the spur of the moment…how could it be that some random thief broke into their house, failed to steal any money, and so simply kidnapped someone instead? That didn’t sound reasonable either.

The three remaining time travellers walked around Chief Wen’s room, but they couldn’t glean any clues. Wen Desi’s clothes, shoes and hat were all gone, and even the stab-proof vest, wolf spray and stun gun that he always carried on his person were gone.

After looking around for a long time, Xiao Zishan couldn't help but talk:

"Old Bei, did you see anything? Aren't you a scout?"

Bei Wei spread his hands helplessly and said, "I'm an army scout, not a detective. We need a crime scene investigator to come."

"Then let's bring one over. Ran Yao used to be a policeman." Xiao Zishan recalled from the personnel list.

"Then find him quickly. And also bring more of those mystery hobbyists who like this detective stuff." Wang Luobin saw that Gao Xian had come into the bedroom to clean up the mess, and immediately shouted, "Don't move! We need to preserve the scene!" Gao Xian scampered away in fright.

The three formulated a plan. Wang Luobin would first take the goods and money back, report the matter to the Executive Committee, and gather a few professionals to come back and investigate the scene. Xiao Zishan and Bei Wei would remain in the residence to continue looking around.

Right after sending all their goods and Wang Luobin back through the wormhole, Xiao Zishan gathered Gao Qing's family and Sun Chang. He asked them if any out-of-the-ordinary things had happened in the past few days, including in Master Gao's residence. After grilling them for a long time he only learned from Sun Chang that a certain "Eunuch Yang Jr" from Beijing was going to visit Master Gao, and Master Gao seemed to be very anxious about this visit.

When Gao Qing heard this news, he looked all the more sullen, and scurried away by himself to the front yard to sweep the floor. Sun Chang was much calmer, and reported further: "There is no need to panic. Seeing that the thieves have kidnapped Master Wen, they will naturally send someone to deliver a ransom letter. When the time comes we can report this incident to the authorities or just pay the ransom. Then you can make further plans."

"Report to the authorities?" Xiao Zishan smiled bitterly. They were all ‘illegal immigrants’ to the Great Ming. How could they afford to draw the attention of the Ming government? Not to mention that Xiao Zishan was well aware of the historical approach to public security management: unless it was a serial murderer or daylight robbery, the government would not care. Unless, of course, they spent a lot of money to move them, in which case it would be better to just redeem the ransom directly.

"Yes," Sun Chang whispered, "The masters are not from the Ming Dynasty, so it is inconvenient for them to approach the government. But you can ask Master Gao to go and ask the government to send someone to deal with it privately." He glanced at Xiao Zishan, "Master Gao has quite some influence in this prefecture, and especially in these two counties."

"En." Xiao Zishan did not comment further, but he was actually suspicious about one thing. Everything was normal when Sun Chang was not here, but after a few days of acquiring Sun chang, Wen Desi suddenly disappeared..

Just as Xiao Zishan was pondering their options, Bei Wei walked in. Sun Chang quickly retreated.

"I found some traces!"

"Oh? Where?" Xiao Zishan’s spirits were lifted.

"This gang of people climbed over the wall from the small road behind the third courtyard. Many tiles were pulled off the eaves of the wall and are scattered on the ground now. There are also scrub marks on the wall."

"Did they leave that same way?"

"Yes, they returned the same way they entered. I looked around the entire perimeter and nowhere else were there traces on the wall."

"But I remember Master Gao said that there are wooden gates at each entrypoint of the back road, and ordinary people can't enter."

"I don't think they came in through the gates," Bei Wei said, "The entrance and exit of the backstreet lie on the main road, and are too conspicuous.” Bei Wei paused, ruminating. “If it were me, I would come from the city wall."

"The city wall?"

"Yes. The backyards of this line of houses are right next to the city wall." Bei Wei nodded, motioning out of the room. “Although there are no easy access ramps that lead up and down, there are usually no people on top of the walls. So, as long as you can get up there, they are pretty much a highway that wraps around the entire city."

"Yes, this sounds very likely!”

"Also, two days ago there was someone trying to eavesdrop on us. After I threw a rock at them they scampered away in the direction of the city wall. I think that it’s the same group of people.”

"So it seems to be a premeditated attack. But still, who would do this?"

"I don't know. But with all that said, our foremost priority is to find Chief Wen. So let’s wait for backup to come and decide our next course of action."

"Okay. We also have to notify Gao Ju and ask for his help. After all, he is a local snake and knows the locals well."^[3]

"Could this be related to Gao Ju?"

"It's unlikely. What good will it do him to kidnap Wen Desi?"

"We must still be on guard. I'll look around the place again. It's a shame about my dagger!" Bei Wei was annoyed. This dagger was bought at a high price online, and now it had flown away along with his 02 combat boots made by 3515.^[4]

In the study, Xiao Zishan repeatedly thought through the causes and effects of this two-in-one thievery and kidnapping. No matter how he thought about it, Master Gao was the most suspicious person. After all, only Master Gao knew that they lived here. But what could his motive be? Xiao Zishan firmly believed that every act in this world had an underlying motivation. What would Gao Ju gain by doing this? It couldn’t be to extort money, as he had already made a fortune. That wouldn’t make any sense. Or perhaps he wanted to use Chief Wen as a hostage to guarantee his exclusive monopoly of all Australian goods in the future? That was possible. But surely there would then be no need to go to such great lengths, sending people to climb the city walls in the middle of the night and even using incense to drug them.

Jumping over the wall, incense...

Speaking of which, this plot stank like the work of people of the jianghu!^[5]

Xiao Zishan seemed to have made a small breakthrough. He called Sun Chang into the study.

"Are you familiar with the street rats of Guangzhou?"^[6]

"No, I am not." Sun Chang said, "I am not a real local, and I am not even from Guangdong. Besides, I have always been working in Gao's residence. The Gao family does a very strict background check on all their members and workers. Those who have any connection with those kinds of people are not accepted."

Xiao Zishan nodded. Sun Chang’s self-confession also largely dispelled his suspicions. Sun Chang hesitated for a while, and seemed to have something to say.

Xiao Zishan said: "If you have anything to say, just say it directly. I don't take in people I doubt, and I don't doubt my people."

"Yes!" Sun Chang was encouraged and said, "Master, I have an idea."

"Speak."

"There is a Qiwei Escort Agency in Nanhai County." Sun Chang said, "It's a small escort agency,^[7] and their offered services are not many, but they do have a specialty: store watching."

"Store watching?"

"Yes, sir. You probably don't know about it. Merchants who open stores are often harassed and extorted by hooligans, and so they ask escorts to keep watch in the store to suppress such banditry."

"So they’re security guards.”^[8] Xiao Zishanunderstood.

Sun Chang didn't know what a security guard was, so he just said "yes" and continued:

"The escorts who do this store watching work are very familiar with the city's vagrants. If you ask them for help, you will definitely be able to find out some news. You might even be able to ask some street rats to come help in the rescue mission."

NB: The escort business of store watching was only available in Beijing during the Qing Dynasty. It was not heard of in other places. It is generally believed to have appeared during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.^[9] But I think it is impossible that there was no similar industry or organisation during the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties given the business and economic conditions during them. But I can’t find any information at the moment, so I used the information from the Qing Dynasty.

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1. A smoke produced by burning a powder made from crushed and dried datura plants ↩︎

2. A character from Water Margin. In the story, Sun Erniang and her husband run an inn, where they knock out customers with spiked wine, steal their valuables, and then butcher them and use their flesh as filling in meat buns. ↩︎

3. Snake is a metaphor for a tyrant that lords over a local area, especially meaning someone villainous and that bullies the ordinary people ↩︎

4. A type of combat boot made by a Chinese shoe company, Jihua 3515 Leather Shoes Co. Ltd., which is a state-owned company specialising in military footwear. ↩︎

5. Jianghu in the modern usage is often associated with the world of the martial artists, especially in wuxia novels. It can also mean the (criminal) underworld. See wiki. ↩︎

6. Street rats meaning the people of the underbelly. ↩︎

7. Like caravan guards in traditional western fantasy ↩︎

8. 保安, lit. ‘Protector of the peace’, meaning security guards. They are a common sight in China. They are usually posted in the entryway of all buildings and residential neighbourhoods. It’s a fairly modern term AFAIK. ↩︎

9. Kangxi era started 1662 ↩︎