Chen Chong pointed his saber at the messenger his men had seized. "Colluding with the Myriad Nations Society, and caught red-handed. Is the Lord Left Chancellor still going to play dumb?"

Li Hanru was completely lost. "What Myriad Nations Society?"

Chen Chong gave a cold laugh. "Go ahead and play dumb for now... But I'll have to ask the Lord Left Chancellor to come back to the Inspectorate with me and help with the investigation."

"How dare you!" one of Li Hanru's guards roared. "Who gave you Inspectorate people the nerve to arrest His Excellency?"

Chen Chong grinned. "Our nerve comes from Her Majesty, and from the Prince Regent... The Inspectorate keeps watch over every official. Isn't the Left Chancellor an officer of the court?

Lord Left Chancellor, come back with us. Don't make us use force."

Li Hanru frowned. "This is Her Majesty's order?"

Chen Chong nodded.

Li Hanru thought it over. "Very well. This old man will go with you!"

Li Hanru wasn't the only one. The same thing happened in several other places.

Ji Mingchen, for one, got the same treatment. Someone brought him a letter in Li Hanru's name, and the moment it was in his hands, before he'd had time to read it, the Inspectorate had him surrounded.

Geng Jing, meanwhile, led a squad himself and went straight for the Brocade Cloth Shop.

But when they got there, the place was already empty.

Geng Jing had his men search it from top to bottom, several times over. They never saw so much as a ghost's shadow.

"Where are they?"

The two agents who'd been assigned to watch the shop hung their heads in shame and didn't dare make a sound.

They had no idea when the gang had slipped out, either.

Geng Jing tore into them. "You two, go back and report for your punishment. Thirty strokes each."

"Yes!"

Just then a silver coat hurried up to Geng Jing. "Geng the Purple Coat, Gao the Gold Coat and Chen Chong the Gold Coat just sent word. It went smoothly on their end, and they caught…