Three Puppies and a Eunuch

"In a nation's capital, every inch of land was worth its weight in gold. Yet Brother Pei's residence had a small lake... Hehe, as expected of the Grand Chancellor!"

"You jest, Brother Yin. His Majesty bestowed this residence upon me; I did not build it."

"I see... Oh, Brother Pei, you are busy with official affairs. There is no need to accompany me here. Watching the lake alone would have a finer charm."

The next day, Dao Feng came again. "Young Master, Dao Feng has returned to report."

"Oh? That was rather quick."

Zhou Ming said, "Take them out and let me see."

"Yes."

The three men stepped forward, each carrying a bamboo cage. Whimpering barks immediately rang out.

Upon opening them, they found three puppies.

One was a white-haired sighthound, snow-white from head to toe without a trace of black.

One was a black-haired wolfdog, pitch-black all over without a speck of white.

The third was merely a mongrel.

All three dogs had only been born recently.

Finding these three dogs had been one of the tasks Zhou Ming had arranged in yesterday's letter.

It might have seemed like a simple matter of finding dogs, but it was difficult in practice.

Zhou Ming had not asked them to find just any dogs. In his letter, he had explicitly specified the breeds and coat colors of all three.

And they had to be puppies!

People only remained wary of things that threatened them, such as other people, but they often paid no attention to things that posed no threat, such as a dog.

A carefully trained spy observing passersby on a street might remember the rough appearance of every person, but he might not necessarily remember a dog that passed by.

Especially since Zhou Ming had demanded puppies.

Puppies lacked the ability to walk.

Whether born to household dogs or strays, they were generally hidden away in concealed places.

Finding them, and finding them in such a short time, required no small degree of search ability.

Of course, none of that was the key point.

The key point was that Zhou Ming had wanted to raise a few dogs ever since his journey back.

So, he had assigned them this task.

"Not bad."

Zhou Ming said, "Consider yourselves to have passed the test. Next comes the real task."

"Please give your orders, Young Master."

"Go monitor the master of Number One Manor. The duration... is indefinite. Under normal circumstances, report once every three days. But if anything unusual happens, report to me immediately."

"Yes, sir!"

Dao Feng departed.

"Here, puppy, puppy... here, puppy..."

Zhou Ming called to the puppies. The three puppies raised their heads to sniff his scent, whimpering at the same time.

Chun Hua and the others could not help but smile. "They're so cute..."

"Young Master, didn't you say before that you wanted to raise cats as well?"

"There isn't enough time. Any kittens we found now would be at least three months old. They're too big."

Zhou Ming said.

Cats bred in spring and autumn, with September being the latest possible time, yet it was now the depths of winter.

In truth, these three puppies were already too old as well. Zhou Ming had wanted ones only a few days old.

However, dogs' loyalty was much easier to cultivate than cats', so he did not mind dogs this old. Cats, on the other hand, would not do.

After all, he wanted these cats and dogs to replicate Dog Brother's miracle.

If he succeeded in raising cats and dogs proficient in internal arts and possessed of internal energy, only for them to be disloyal, that would not be a good thing.

Chun Hua and the others did not know what Zhou Ming was planning. They merely found it a pity.

Zhou Ming said, "What's there to regret? We can catch some next spring. If you truly find it a pity, then get your compensation from these three dogs."

As he spoke, he pointed at the three dogs. "Let's name the black one Mimi and the white one Meowmeow. What do you think?"

Qiu Yue said speechlessly, "Young Master, since you couldn't find cats to your liking, are you going to call dogs cats instead?"

Xia Feng found it amusing instead and asked, "What about this mongrel?"

"This one..."

Zhou Ming picked it up. The puppy seemed to sense something was wrong and quickly barked twice.

"Haha, we caught three dogs in all. Two have become cats, so at least one should remain a dog, right? We won't give this one any strange, messy name. Let's give it a proper dog name."

After discussing it, they decided to name this final fortunate dog Laifu.

It carried Zhou Ming's hopes.

He hoped that one day, even if this puppy encountered someone born with divine strength, it would be able to exchange a couple of blows with him.

The second person to complete his orders was Jing Lei.

"Young Master, this person's information has been thoroughly investigated."

Zhou Ming accepted the few thin sheets of paper from Jing Lei and examined them one by one.

"The Eastern Depot... its Head of Department, Flying Eagle! So it was him!"

This man was the mastermind who had previously sent people to pose as bandits and assassinate Zhou Ming.

At the time, Zhou Ming had left marks on every bandit, then deliberately allowed Dong Xue to spare a few lives.

Those survivors had carried Zhou Ming's marks to meet the person behind it all.

Although they had been killed on the spot, Zhou Ming had still seen that man's face.

The task Jing Lei had drawn this time was to investigate this man's identity.

Unexpectedly, this man was Flying Eagle, Head of Department in the Eastern Depot. He was skilled in martial arts and wielded a pair of iron claws, so he was also known as Iron Claw Flying Eagle.

The lowest-ranking personnel in the Eastern Depot were called Fanzi, and several Fanzi were led by one Head of Department.

The relationship between them could be roughly understood as constables and a constable chief. However, in the Eastern Depot, each constable chief only commanded a few people, and there were more than a hundred of them.

As for Flying Eagle's position as the chief Head of Department, he was simply ranked first among all the Heads of Department.

But that did not mean his rank was low.

The Eastern Depot was made up of eunuchs, with a streamlined staff. Altogether, the entire Eastern Depot had only a few hundred people.

Once the Heads of Department and Fanzi were excluded, fewer than fifty people remained, including all sorts of clerks.

Having reached the position of chief Head of Department, only a handful of people remained above him within the Eastern Depot's hierarchy.

Viewed this way, the earlier attempt on Zhou Ming's life had likely been the Eastern Depot's idea.

But Iron Claw Flying Eagle had another secret identity.

He was Dragon Guard Manor's spy planted within the Eastern Depot.

However, this did not prove that Dragon Guard Manor had ordered Iron Claw Flying Eagle's recent operation from behind the scenes.

As a spy, Iron Claw Flying Eagle received orders from two major factions at once.

Unless the Eastern Depot's orders conflicted with Dragon Guard Manor's orders, he would not act recklessly as a spy. He would only obey orders.

And Zhou Ming was an outsider to both factions.

Therefore, they still needed to investigate further to determine who had given the instructions.

"Damn it!"

Zhou Ming suddenly realized that his luck lately seemed a little too bad.

Why was it that ever since returning, every person he encountered had been a sneaky bastard with dual identities?

His adoptive father Pei Ju went without saying.

Yin Zhong was the same.

And now even Iron Claw Flying Eagle had a double identity!

Still, Jing Lei's abilities were truly impressive. He had actually dug up such detailed information even on the Eastern Depot's chief Head of Department.

Zhou Ming said, "Well done. Next, go monitor another person. You know Wan Sanqian, the Richest Man in Daming, right?"

"This subordinate accepts the order."

Having accepted his new assignment, Jing Lei left as well.

Thus, two of the four tasks Zhou Ming had assigned yesterday had already been completed.

The remaining two could not be completed in merely a day or two.

Ten days later, Ji Dian returned and handed Zhou Ming the items required by his task.

Eight account books!

Zhou Ming opened them and examined them. The ink was still fresh, clearly having just been copied.

"There won't be any mistakes, will there?"

"After copying them, this subordinate checked them three times. There were no errors or omissions."

"Good. Your team's test is considered complete. Next, your task is... to keep an eye on someone!"