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墨書 Inktalez
"Are they short?"
Sang Qingxiao and Censor became alert as she followed Aunt Liu's words and asked, "How short are those people?"
Among the twelve big men inside, none were taller than me. Aunt Liu stood up to demonstrate, saying the tallest one barely reached my ear.
Sang Qingxiao understood and agreed, "Is that height? They don't seem like people from the north."
Everyone else echoed the sentiment. Aunt Liu continued her story, "After I noticed the issue, I informed our neighborhood elder Duan. He gathered everyone for a meeting, and then Lao Jiang shared his experiences from doing business in the south."
At that moment, Lao Jiang stood up and added, "When I was young, I did business in the south. Now that I'm old and my legs can't carry me anymore, I've come to Jingjing City."
The height of that family was unusually short; even at the southernmost tip of our Great Jing Dynasty, such shortness was rare. Their height did fit the situation in the Southern Ginger Dynasty. Moreover, there are dwarfs in the Southern Ginger Dynasty who are only as tall as children but are already adults. I suspect that child might be a dwarf.
As I mentioned this, Song Xiaoman from Fortune Pavilion also sensed something was off.
Then another person stood up. "I'm Song Xiaoman, a worker at Fortune Pavilion. That family has different eating habits than ours; they love spicy food. The first time I went to buy meals, I saw them grabbing food with their hands to taste it. I found it curious and watched them for a bit, but they glared at me."
"Since then, they haven't eaten out again."
Lao Jiang spoke again, "Eating with hands is also a habit among some people in the Southern Ginger Dynasty."
As soon as Lao Jiang finished speaking, Aunt Liu continued, "With so many suspicions, we can't just sit back and do nothing. Let's split into groups and arrange three shifts to keep an eye on that family."
While other families left early and returned late, theirs went out late and came back early. Someone here knew the chief clerk of the Ministry of Revenue and helped us check; we couldn't find any legitimate occupation for them. We followed them out but didn't dare go too far; we noticed their routes were different each time they left.
Later on, we rummaged through their trash and found quite a bit of ash from burned paper. We persisted in searching daily until finally this morning we found a corner of paper that hadn't been completely burned.
The corner still had the edge of a red seal on it; the neighborhood elder said it looked like the edge pattern of a Six Ministries seal.
Aunt Liu exclaimed excitedly upon hearing this, "Isn't this evidence? What common family would have such paper? Even if they did, they would treat it with respect; who would dare to burn it all?"
The neighborhood elder worried that their claws had indeed reached into the Six Ministries and felt that we couldn't delay any longer. A plan to administer medicine was decided upon; tonight we would report to the authorities while also hiding here for safety.
"Hiding?" Sang Qingxiao laughed. "I see you all have quite a bit of courage! Eavesdropping, following secretly, administering medicine—if you don't have some mental fortitude, you'd have collapsed by now."
"Ah, us common folks," she continued, "when faced with righteousness, we must act when it's time to act; at other times, we must be cautious. Even if there's just a slight chance of danger, we need to prepare in advance—what if something really happens?"
"Miss Sang," someone asked, "don't you agree?"
"Yes," Aunt Liu replied. "What you say is true; thank you for teaching me about survival as a small person. Your words are full of great wisdom."
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