Zhang San, please behave yourself!
Chapter 315 - 301: Intelligence Agencies Must Be in the Brothel, Right?

Chapter 315: Chapter 301: Intelligence Agencies Must Be in the Brothel, Right?

The West Market of Daxing City, although just a marketplace, occupied the area of two entire neighborhoods as one of the two largest markets within the city.

Zhang San estimated that if he didn’t know the exact location of the shop, searching on his own would probably take a whole day without guaranteed success.

Luckily, a familiar butcher shop near the northeast corner of the West Market, close to the north gate, could be found by following the scent, and that is precisely what Zhang San had done.

He glanced at the sign above the shop—a gift of one tael!

It was said that if you bought more than a pound of meat from this shop, they would give you a tael for free.

Over time, because of its generous offer, the shop had become known for this deal and had simply changed its name to "A Gift of One Tael."

As Zhang San approached, a shop assistant greeted him with a smile, "What would you like, sir? We’ve got freshly cooked lamb chops or big chunks of meat..."

Zhang San noticed there was no one else around.

After all, who would come to buy cooked meat this early in the morning?

"I’m looking for an answer."

The assistant paused at these words before calling out to the boss in the back.

Soon, a middle-aged man with a goatee and triangular eyes came out with a smile, pulling Zhang San to the side of the cooked meat as if haggling over the price, he asked, "What answer?"

"An important answer."

"What is important?"

"People are important."

"Is it necessary to find an answer just because people are important?"

"Without an answer, heads bow down as they pass by; how can one see the morning star at the end of a long night?"

"But if there is an answer, and everyone only goes in one direction, out of the countless paths in the world, would they not be limited to just one?"

"So, there shouldn’t be an answer?"

"Maybe, there shouldn’t just be one answer."

"I’m seeking Magistrate of Metropolitan Prefecture Shen Wen’s answer."

Upon hearing the last sentence, the boss laughed and, while walking inside with Zhang San, whispered, "That answer you’re after, customer, comes with a hefty price, and it isn’t something that just anyone could afford..."

Before he could finish the sentence with "afford," Zhang San flashed the token of the Saint Heir from the Heavenly Punishment Sect.

The boss was so scared that he nearly knelt on the ground.

"No, no, no. Wrap up a piece of pork knuckle for me, and some of those lamb chops, too. I’ll pay you later."

The assistants, upon realizing it was the Sect’s Saint Heir, were dumbfounded.

Although their station in Daxing City was responsible for intelligence, they normally dealt with receiving information to record; it was rare for someone to come to collect intelligence, and those who did usually gave advance notice.

Only those who suddenly needed to collect information had to go through such a complex set of coded phrases.

And after the code phrases, their identities had to be verified.

Usually, the visitors were not very important figures.

They had never seen the Sect Hierarch; this time, seeing the Saint Heir was like meeting the highest-ranking person in the sect.

The assistant quickly packed up the meat Zhang San had requested.

Zhang San wrapped the pork knuckle and put it into the Gluttonous Bag, then began eating the small basin of lamb meat in his hand.

The leading boss took Zhang San through twists and turns in the back alleys, out of the West Market and straight towards Yanshou Fang to the west.

Upon entering Yanshou Fang, they took several more turns, and if Zhang San wasn’t serving as the Acting Military Chief of the Town Martial Office, he would have worried that he was being led into a trap.

After all, a significant reason why the Heavenly Punishment Sect had handed over a list of most personnel in Daxing City was that they had discovered many were planning to defect.

And it was not just one or two individuals, but a large group of people wanting to defect.

As a Martial Path Sect, the Heavenly Punishment Sect had always been upholding justice, but to do so, they had to embody justice themselves; however, with human nature being greedy, who doesn’t want to live a life of luxury and high status?

This was also why the Heavenly Punishment Sect was willing to give Zhang San the list of those members in the Capital who intended to defect.

After all, the Heavenly Punishment Sect was planning to dispose of them internally, so it might as well leave it to the Great Sui to deal with them, which could also facilitate the Saint Heir’s promotion within the Town Martial Office.

It was a win-win situation!

Eventually, the boss led Zhang San to a shop called "Yourong Residence." Although it was called a shop, Zhang San couldn’t figure out what they were selling.

Because a curtain directly blocked the entrance.

"Saint Heir, please come in."

Zhang San followed with confusion.

The moment he lifted the curtain, a strong scent of rouge and face powder hit him, accompanied by the singing and dancing of beautiful women, instantly overwhelming Zhang San’s senses.

"Is this our intelligence agency in the Capital?"

Zhang San turned to ask the butcher shop owner behind him.

The owner nodded with a smile.

Zhang San sighed softly.

He just didn’t understand why all intelligence agencies had to be set up within brothels?[Note 91]

The butcher shop owner led Zhang San deeper into Yourong Residence and soon came upon a secret door. After pushing it open, they took several twists and turns.

They finally kept heading down and reached an underground space.

Only then did Zhang San realize that beneath Yourong Residence lay a vast underground area, a circular space over ten zhang high, resembling an ancient library filled with all kinds of scrolls.

"Saint Heir, with your clearance, you naturally have access to all the documents here. The ones concerning the Magistrate of Metropolitan prefecture, Shen Wen, are over there, and if the Saint Heir needs anything else, you can look it up on your own."

Zhang San couldn’t help but be curious and asked, "In the information we’ve collected about Shen Wen, there should be records of his crimes, right? Following these records, wouldn’t it be easy to find evidence and then bring him to justice?"

"Of course. That’s precisely why the Capital’s intelligence agency was established."

Hearing this made Zhang San even more curious.

"If that’s the case, why don’t we take direct action against Shen Wen? If the Ministry of Personnel or the Ministry of Punishment discovers something about him first, wouldn’t our plan come to nothing?"

The owner chuckled and shook his head, "Saint Heir, this information is valuable because it’s here. It will be of even greater value when used at the right moment. Moreover, there aren’t any plans regarding Shen Wen of the Metropolitan prefecture at the moment."

Zhang San nodded slightly, thinking to himself: There will be plans now.

Afterward, the owner left, and Zhang San began to review Shen Wen’s files.

Being in the treasury, Zhang San felt it would be a shame not to look at the rest of the documents.

So, he had Shadow come out and use the Shadow Trick to copy the information from the scrolls.

He read important information, like that of Shen Wen and all members of Legalism, right there and then.

But with the documents of other ministry officials, he had Shadow help take impressions.

Zhang San started early on the first day and continued until the next evening before leaving Yourong Residence.

The butcher shop assistant who was keeping watch outside was puzzled when he saw Zhang San leaving on the second day and asked the butcher shop owner beside him, "Why did the Saint Heir spend so much time looking at the documents?"

The butcher shop owner snorted coldly in response, "Having entered Yourong Residence, do you think he was only looking at the files in the archive room?"

The assistant was startled by this remark and widened his eyes as he looked at Zhang San’s departing figure.

"Did he make a copy?"

"Of course, he copied it... What the hell are you talking about?"

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[Note 91]Historical Trivia

The brothels of the Tang Dynasty, at least those in Chang’an City, were not like the imposing towers called "Yihong Courtyard" or "Lichun Courtyard" that many people imagine when they think of ancient times. This is because in Chang’an City, if your building is too tall, there is a possibility of seeing inside the Imperial Palace, thus brothels close to the Imperial Palace, in fact, all buildings would not be constructed too high.

And their names would typically be styled as XX Residence, such as the An Tian Residence, Wen Xiong Residence, and so on.

The information here is primarily based on "Guide to the Tang Dynasty" by Senlin Lu; after all, as a serious author, I certainly have no research on this topic and can only make use of other diligent and scrupulous authors’ works.