The Great Fruit Chase

"This is the place!"

Ruan Rong pointed to a grocery store not far ahead and said, "Only their family sells that bai mei!"

When she mentioned the word 'bai mei', her shoulders slumped, her eyebrows furrowed, and she looked utterly uncomfortable.

But the reaction was even greater from Feng Xin beside her. Riding on his horse, his old face was blackish-green, and he swallowed hard several times, but still couldn't suppress the acid in his stomach. He then wretched loudly.

There was no helping it. Sun Shaozong had observed for a long time and could only confirm that Ruan Rong's vomit and fruit residue were seven or eight parts similar. Finally, to be on the safe side, he had to adopt the most primitive method of analysis—tricking Feng Xin into eating it and distinguishing it by taste!

Thus, after some indescribable testing, Sun Shaozong finally determined that the assassins had eaten a fruit called 'bai mei'. This fruit was a specialty of the neighboring Zhen Country. Because transportation was very inconvenient, only two merchants in the city sold it.

One of them was a restaurant, where bai mei was only used to entertain distinguished guests and was never sold to outsiders. Considering that the assassins were unlikely to go to a restaurant in groups to spend money before taking action, the grocery store in the north of the city should be the source of the 'bai mei residue'!

In addition, Ruan Rong also provided a piece of information: as the two hegemons among the Six Southern Border Countries, Zhen Country and Qian Xiang Country had been mortal enemies for hundreds of years. In recent years, Qian Xiang Country, relying on Da Zhou's support, had shown signs of annexing Zhen Country and dominating the Southern Border, causing great panic in the Zhen Country court and among the people.

Therefore, it was a reasonable inference that the Zhen Country's 'Roving Knights' came to assassinate the Da Zhou special envoy, intending to provoke relations between the two countries, and before taking action, they bolstered their courage with local dishes and fruits!

Enough of the digression.

It is said that the group galloped all the way to the outside of the grocery store in the north of the city. Sun Shaozong ordered Feng Xin and the others to wait on the side of the street, then dismounted and walked in side by side with Ruan Rong.

Although it was called a grocery store, it was actually a three-story pavilion, covering a wide area. After entering, the shelves were dazzling, not only with specialties from the Six Southern Border Countries, but also with special zones for Da Zhou and the Western Regions. It was simply an ancient version of an international hypermarket.

Before Sun Shaozong could take a closer look, a shop assistant came forward with a smile and greeted, "Welcome, esteemed guests! I wonder if you are here to browse what our humble shop has to offer, or if you already have something in mind? We have a bit of everything here. If you have something in mind, just let me know, and I'll be happy to guide you."

This shop assistant was indeed very sweet-tongued.

Sun Shaozong pretended to ask casually, "I heard you sell bai mei here? The kind of fruit that's a specialty of Zhen Country."

"Yes, yes, yes, please follow me!"

The shop assistant led the way, and the two followed closely behind. Before long, they arrived in front of a cellar. They saw him bend down, grab a red rope, and lift a rattan basket out of the cellar. He handed it to the two of them and said, "Esteemed guests, take a look. We just restocked this morning, and this is all that's left."

Sun Shaozong looked down and saw that the bottom of the basket was sparsely filled with only twenty or so fruits the size of ping pong balls, red and shiny and emitting a bit of coolness, looking very pleasing.

Although this thing has the word 'mei' in its name, it actually looks similar to a lychee, with a hard shell on the outside and a small pit inside.

"That's right, that's the stuff!"

Ruan Rong exclaimed happily, then asked, "Shopkeeper, has anyone bought a lot of bai mei all at once between yesterday and today? Enough for at least a dozen people to eat!"

"This…"

She asked too eagerly, which aroused the shop assistant's vigilance. He looked at the two of them suspiciously and said perfunctorily, "Esteemed guest, we don't know how many things we sell in a day, I really can't remember…"

Halfway through his words, the shop assistant's eyes suddenly went straight, and he stared fixedly at the palm of Sun Shaozong's hand—to be precise, at the broken silver in his palm!

Sun Shaozong casually threw the silver forward, and the shop assistant hurriedly held it with both hands, gently weighing it. He found that there were at least four taels of silver, and his face immediately smiled like a chrysanthemum.

Sun Shaozong asked with a smile, "You should remember now, right?"

"I remember, I remember!"

The shop assistant nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, beaming with joy, and said, "This morning, a generous customer did come and buy a whole basket of bai mei without saying a word, spending a full sixteen taels and three qian of silver!"

Bought a basket?

Then it should be right!

Sun Shaozong couldn't hide his excitement as he pressed, "Then do you remember what he looked like? What he was wearing? Was he a servant or the master? Which direction did he leave in? Was he riding in a carriage or walking?!"

This barrage of questions left the shop assistant dizzy, but for the sake of the silver, he tried his best to recall, "The man's appearance wasn't anything special, judging by his clothes, he should be a servant from a wealthy family—when he left, he was driving a carriage, and it seemed like he was heading north."

"Headed north?!"

This time, Sun Shaozong was overjoyed. The general store was already in the north of the city, and if he searched further north, the scope would be much smaller!

After receiving the shop assistant's affirmative answer, he reached into the rattan basket again, grabbed two 'Bai Mei', and pulled Ruan Rong out of the door without looking back.

Out on the street.

Without a word, Sun Shaozong first peeled one open and put it in his mouth, chewed the pulp, and spat the pit into his palm.

The guards were all looking at him in confusion when they saw him hold up the peel and pit in front of him and shout, "Brothers, all of you take a good look! Later, everyone will split up and search all the dumps north of this general store carefully. As long as you find similar peels and pits, report to me immediately!"

The so-called 'dumps' are ancient garbage dumps.

From morning until now, at least seven or eight hours have passed. A normal person wouldn't keep this garbage at home, so as long as these peels and pits can be found in the dumps, the assassin's hiding place can be found by following the trail!

Of course, if those assassins were so cautious that they didn't even dispose of the garbage, then Sun Shaozong would have no choice but to inform the Qian Xiang Dynasty of this information and let them conduct a carpet search.

But in that case, it would be hard to say whether the merits everyone had made would be enough to offset their demerits.