Chapter 52: Chapter 50: Investigation (Please Continue Reading)

Let me analyze this Chinese web novel excerpt to understand its context, style, and key elements.

[Step 1: Contextual Analysis]

Literary genre: This appears to be a wuxia/xianxia web novel with elements of mystery/crime investigation.

Language style: The language is straightforward narrative prose with dialogue, typical of Chinese web novels. It has elements of martial arts world slang and formal investigation.

Tone: Serious but with occasional humor; pragmatic.

Plot keywords: Investigation, crime, martial arts, negotiation, debt collection, information gathering.

Characters:

1. Wu Liangchen (武良辰) - Male protagonist, seems to have recently recovered from illness and gained significant martial prowess

2. Xiaowu (小武) - Seems to be another name for Wu Liangchen, his childhood nickname

3. Liu Dongchuan/Brother Liu (刘东川/刘哥) - Male, appears to be a friend of Wu Liangchen who was kidnapped

4. Cui Qi (崔启) - Male, nicknamed "Dibao Tian" (地包天), appears to be a criminal

5. Zhao Hui (赵辉) - Male, seems to be an investigator looking into crimes

6. Sister Liu (刘嫂) - Female, Liu Dongchuan’s wife

7. Third Master Liu (刘三爷) - Male, likely Liu Dongchuan’s father or elder relative

8. Third Granny (三奶奶) - Female, elderly relative in Liu family

9. Yang Xiaolian (杨小莲) - Female, mentioned as a popular actress/performer for whom Wu Liangchen works

Organizations/Locations:

- Dinghai City (定海卫) - The city where the story takes place

- Five Blessings Hall (五福堂) - An organization that seems to have run a carriage business that was burned down

- Heartless Dao (无情道) - Appears to be some kind of criminal organization

- North City (北城) - A district within the story’s setting

- West Garden (西苑) - Likely a theater district

[Step 2: Integrated Translation and Polishing]

Now I’ll translate the text while following all the rules:

The Chapter describes Wu Liangchen (formerly called "Xiaowu") collecting money from a criminal gang, negotiating with their leader Cui Qi to make them his informants instead of collecting the full debt. Meanwhile, an investigator named Zhao Hui is searching for someone connected to multiple murders related to a carriage company called Five Blessings Hall that was burned down. The investigator eventually finds information about Wu Liangchen and decides to investigate him despite doubting he could be the killer.

Let me translate the text line by line:

Besides the dozen or so silver coins, the box contained only some loose copper coins.

Even adding everything up, it was nowhere near the sixty silver coins Wu Liangchen had demanded.

Seeing this, Wu Liangchen gave the buck-toothed man an ambiguous smile.

"Are you trying to fool me?"

"No!" The buck-toothed man waved his hands in absolute terror. "How would I dare trick you? This is truly all our savings."

"Then what about the rest of the money?" Wu Liangchen first pocketed his ten silver coins, then picked up the box and handed it to Liu Dongchuan.

"Well... how about I write you an IOU, and as soon as we earn enough, we’ll bring it straight to you?" the buck-toothed man suggested cautiously.

Wu Liangchen laughed.

"Write an IOU, and I’d have to wait until you earn enough... Do you think you’re stupid or I’m stupid? Would I believe such nonsense?"

The buck-toothed man shuddered and pleaded: "But we really don’t have any money right now! Please, good sir, give us a few days."

Wu Liangchen shook his head, then walked over to the buck-toothed man and squatted down beside him.

The buck-toothed man’s face turned pale with fear as he looked at Wu Liangchen with terror.

"Actually, there’s another way."

"W-what way?"

"I happen to need some well-informed eyes and ears. You’ve been lurking around Dinghai City for a long time and surely have your own network of contacts. How about this—you keep watch for me, and if there’s any news or movement, notify me immediately. That way, it’ll settle your debt to me. How does that sound?"

The buck-toothed man’s eyes lit up, and he nodded frantically, "Yes, yes, that works."

"Good. What’s your name?"

"My name is Cui Qi, good sir!" the buck-toothed man replied obsequiously.

"Is this your base of operations?"

"No, we just find it convenient to lure people here to commit our crimes."

"Don’t commit any more crimes here from now on. Make this our point of contact. Keep someone stationed here regularly. If I have anything, I’ll come find you. And if you have important information for me, send someone to him." Wu Liangchen pointed at Liu Dongchuan.

"Yes, yes, yes! I understand completely." Cui Qi nodded repeatedly.

A moment later, Wu Liangchen led Liu Dongchuan out onto the main street.

Looking at the crowds of people moving back and forth, Liu Dongchuan felt like he had awakened in another world.

But what shocked him even more was how Wu Liangchen had just displayed such incredible power.

He remembered that barely two months ago, Wu Liangchen had been bedridden with illness. How had he developed such abilities in just a few days?

Just then, Wu Liangchen gently patted Liu Dongchuan’s shoulder.

"Brother Liu!"

"Hmm? What is it?"

Liu Dongchuan had wanted to call him Xiaowu, but swallowed the words before they left his mouth.

After all, the Xiaowu in his memory was no longer the shy young man he remembered—hadn’t the thugs who tied him up been calling this man "good sir" repeatedly?

Sensing Liu Dongchuan’s fear and uneasiness, Wu Liangchen smiled.

"You’d better think of an excuse quickly, or your wife will raise hell when we get back."

Hearing Wu Liangchen’s words, Liu Dongchuan’s face showed embarrassment.

"Right!"

Soon, the two returned home.

When the Liu family saw that Liu Dongchuan was safe and sound, they were overjoyed.

"Xiaowu, we really can’t thank you enough," Sister Liu said with tears of excitement in her eyes.

"You’re too kind, Sister. As it happens, I knew those people, so after meeting with them and talking for a bit, they released Brother Liu. Here’s the money you gave me earlier—I didn’t spend a single coin. I brought it all back."

Wu Liangchen placed the small package that Third Granny had given him on the table.

Even Third Granny was left speechless.

Third Master Liu was more composed and instructed Sister Liu, "Go and prepare some dishes. I want to have a drink with Xiaowu."

"Right away!"

Sister Liu hurried to the kitchen to prepare food and wine. Wu Liangchen couldn’t refuse and had to stay.

During the meal, Wu Liangchen gave a general account of what had happened, though he modified the specific cause of events.

This was what the two of them had agreed upon during their walk back.

Liu Dongchuan was naturally very grateful and didn’t say much, only draining three cups of wine to express his gratitude.

The drinking continued until dawn. When Wu Liangchen returned home, he found that Sister Liu had already sent breakfast over for his sister. He instructed his sister to wake him up at noon, then fell into bed.

After a night of rushing around plus the pre-dawn drinking session, Wu Liangchen quickly fell into a deep sleep.

At the same moment, the eagle-eyed investigator Zhao Hui was checking names on his list one by one.

It was an extremely tedious and exhausting job, as there were over a hundred carriage drivers who had worked for the Five Blessings Hall carriage company.

These drivers lived in widely scattered locations, making it incredibly difficult to investigate them all thoroughly.

Yet Zhao Hui approached the task with exceptional patience and strategy.

Whenever he visited someone’s home, he would quickly gain the trust of their neighbors with his superior conversational skills, then extract information about his target.

This allowed him to save significant time.

Typically, after a brief conversation, Zhao Hui would know enough about the person to make a fairly accurate assessment just by looking at them from a distance.

Even so, it remained an enormous undertaking, especially since during the day these men would be out working for a living.

Though the Five Blessings Hall carriage company had burned down, most of these men still worked as carriage drivers, just for different companies.

The difficulty of tracking their movements was considerable.

After an entire day, Zhao Hui had interviewed less than a third of the people on his list.

This slow progress made even Zhao Hui frown slightly.

Yet this was not a task he could delegate to others, as that might alert his quarry.

So he could only push forward as quickly as possible, refusing to rest even at night.

Finally.

By nine in the evening, when most people had finished their dinner and were preparing for bed, Zhao Hui had finished investigating those he had marked as the most suspicious.

The result: nothing.

What was going on?

Had his deduction been wrong? Was the culprit not from the carriage company but from the Heartless Dao or some other faction?

Zhao Hui couldn’t help doubting himself, but he forced himself to stay alert. He first found a small restaurant for a quick meal, then decided to try his luck again.

At this hour, his options for investigation were quite limited—only the night-shift carriage drivers remained.

After checking a few more names, Zhao Hui finally focused on one person.

Wu Liangchen, age 16, orphaned, with only a younger sister. He had been seriously ill recently, but after recovering, he began driving a carriage in North City for the currently popular actress Yang Xiaolian.

Zhao Hui didn’t actually believe this Wu Liangchen could be the culprit. After all, he had been seriously ill just two months ago, and his whereabouts before that were easily verifiable. He certainly wasn’t some outside criminal.

How could someone like that possibly be a murderer who had killed dozens?

But at this point, with nothing else to do, he might as well check it out.

With that thought, Zhao Hui hailed a carriage and headed straight for the West Garden theater.