Chapter 306 - The Outcast Writer of a Martial Arts Visual Novel

**Delivery Mishap – 4** “Have you found out who the culprit is?” Did he manage to find clues amidst the chaotic information? Could Zhuge Sojeo actually be a brilliant detective? Without resorting to committing locked-room murders or being a disgraceful brat using his grandfather's name whenever he's bored, he's a remarkable detective who doesn't even need to shoot sedative darts. Truly a rare specimen. I approached Zhuge Hyang, who was seated at the desk. "Ah, well, you see...” Zhuge Hyang looked up at me with a troubled expression. So, a clue, but not the culprit? “Have you found any decisive evidence?” She might be an inexperienced young lady in communication, organizing everything neatly in 15-point Human Myungjo font. Standing at the desk, I leaned forward towards the paper Zhuge Hyang was looking at. “Well, it’s not that, but you’re too close.” Zhuge Hyang shielded her face with both arms. “I'm sorry. I acted rashly in my hurry.” I was anxious because of the shipment. I leaned in too obtrusively. “Hehe. It’s okay. There’s something missing in the materials you gave me.” "Could you explain it to me, please?" I stepped back slightly and asked Zhuge Hyang to explain. Zhuge Hyang placed her hand on her noticeably outlined chest, even beneath the loose clothes, took a deep breath, and began to explain with unusual seriousness. “When moving heavy loads like books with a cart, something should remain at the scene.” What should be there if a heavy load is moved with a cart? After pondering briefly, I spoke up. “Are you talking about something like cart tracks?” “Yes.” “To my knowledge, cart tracks can be easily erased to destroy evidence.” Attaching rakes or brooms to the cart, or having someone erase them as they follow, are options. Curious, I looked at Zhuge Hyang, who turned to look out the window. What kind of clue is she referring to? Zhuge Hyang's answer was simple. “It’s raining today, so that’s impossible.” Looking out the window with her, the rain had yet to stop. “Ah! Indeed, it rained, so the cart tracks couldn’t be erased easily. But wasn't there information about the rain anywhere?” Since it rained, there shouldn’t be a way to erase cart tracks. However, the expected cart tracks were absent. Could it be that Zhuge Hyang found something that Im Ha Yeon and I couldn’t see? “That’s why I needed the map.” “Let’s unfold it.” Curious about the clue Zhuge Hyang found, I hurriedly unfolded the map I obtained at my seat. “Yes. Just a moment. Let’s exclude this, exclude that, and exclude this too.” Having obtained 15 locations on the suspect list from Haomoon, Zhuge Hyang first placed 15 pebbles on the map. With each piece of paper she handed to me, she removed a pebble one by one. "Wow..." What remained were seven places. On the paper Zhuge Hyang handed me, detailed reasons for excluding each location were written. “You reduced it to less than half?” When I looked at her in admiration, Zhuge Hyang shyly covered her face with paper and replied in a small voice. “There’s still more to do.” “Does this mean it’s not the end?” At my words, Zhuge Hyang nodded and continued to speak calmly. “To erase the cart tracks from the mud, they must have traveled on paved roads. By comparing and verifying the reliable locations among the given materials, we reduced it to seven places. Among those, the places connected by paved roads from the port to the suspicious locations are...” Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province. Though many roads are managed there due to its status as a capital, not all roads in Wuhan are paved. On a rainy day, to avoid leaving tracks, only paved roads could have been used. And among the seven locations, those connected by paved roads were. "Ilga Trading Company, Nokcheong Escort Agency, and Jangseonbang. Only three places." “Yes, that’s right.” Zhuge Hyang nodded shyly at my surprised expression. There was still time before dusk. By consolidating and analyzing the information from Haomoon and Hyangwoo Association, they reduced 15 to seven places. The skill to identify gaps in the information and narrow it down to only three places. “...” Naturally, Im Ha Yeon watched this scene with an incredulous expression. So this is the youngest daughter of the Zhuge family, after all. "Ilga Trading Company, Nokcheong Escort Agency, and Jangseonbang. Let me have someone gather more information on these three places." ——— "Ilga Trading Company has recently switched its business partner to Seocheon Escort Agency." Im Ha Yeon began sharing the information she received from Seocheon Escort Agency. “Are they the victim?” Are we excluding one right from the start? It seems like things might go smoothly. “Though they were an old trading company with deep roots in Wuhan, since the grandson inherited it recently, the management has been unstable. But something seems off about this company.” “What do you mean?” “One of the conditions for switching contracts was that if there were issues with the goods during this escort, they would receive ten times the compensation.” Im Ha Yeon informed me that Ilga Trading Company stood to receive an enormous compensation from this incident. “Resolving financial difficulties with compensation. There are enough reasons to create a problem.” Did the head of Seocheon Escort Agency's Wuhan branch overreach in trying to expand? This reeks of a classic insurance scam. Im Ha Yeon nodded and continued to relay the next information. “Nokcheong Escort Agency is led by an escort master from the dark sect, and they’ve had most of their clients taken by Seocheon Escort Agency’s Wuhan branch.” Seocheon Escort Agency aggressively expanded their business in Wuhan, and Nokcheong Escort Agency suffered the most as a result. “Turning to knives when outmaneuvered in business. That also makes sense.” The typical martial arts way of solving things when words fail is to draw the sword. And coming from a dark sect, they would have had fewer scruples. “Jangseonbang focuses on water operations, renting ships and sailors. They used to rent them to Seocheon Escort Agency, but Seocheon found a better deal elsewhere, ending their contract.” “They’re a sect that could potentially kill escorts over the Yangtze River, and if something happened to the ships, their client could have easily switched as well.” **This makes sense why the entire crew disappeared. They either absorbed them themselves or monopolized them through force.** "All of these places have reasons to oppose Seocheon Escort Agency." The saying that stepping into the martial world often meant stepping into a morass of grudges seems apt here. So it becomes clear why the one responsible for Seocheon considered all of Wuhan their enemy. "Should we focus on these three locations?" In just half a day, I reduced the suspect organizations from all of Wuhan to just three places. Can we catch the culprit if we wait for more information? The problem is if they quickly liquidate the stolen goods. "With the information we have, this is the limit. It's only been half a day, so as more information comes in…" Suddenly, I felt a tug on my sleeve. “Uhm…” “Zhuge Sojeo. Have you found any clues?” Zhuge Hyang looked up at me cautiously, as if she had something to say. “My father... he used to tell me to think about what the enemy wants, not what I want, in situations like this.” There’s a saying from Sun Tzu’s "The Art of War": “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” It suggests that we might not truly understand the enemy yet. “What the enemy wants... not what I want but what the enemy wants, is it?” I alternated between the information Zhuge Hyang organized and the map. What have we missed? Zhuge Hyang has brought forth new information from what we lacked. So, what should I be searching for? ‘I should really be thinking about the intent of this case.’ Where could the stolen goods have gone? I’ve pondered the problem all day. The youngest daughter of the Zhuge family managed to conjure information from what little we had. I need to focus on the intent behind the scene instead of just the problem and choices. In the end, we narrowed down the suspects to three. Ilga Trading Company, Nokcheong Escort Agency, Jangseonbang. Given the experience of a man honed by the Korean SAT with its five options, this is a choice among three. During such times, there’s a typical approach... Aha! “I found it.” “Huh?” “Really?” The two women looked at me with surprise. "I was thinking about it the wrong way." "About what?" “Our approach. We assumed what the culprit wants is the same as what we want. We were so focused on the trees that we missed the forest.” “The forest?” “We lost the books and became overly fixated on the goods, forgetting that the world was watching something else.” “Watching something else? Could it be?!” I could see a thought crossing Im Ha Yeon's face. Did she think the same as I did? "The strangest aspect of this case isn’t the disappearance of the goods or the death of the escorts. The strangest thing is…” “The ghost ship docking at the port.” That’s why she’s my trusted partner. Im Ha Yeon and I nodded simultaneously. “A mishap occurred on the ship that departed from Yuchang. So there were countless places where the ship could’ve docked. But why dock at the intended destination?” “There must have been a reason they had to dock at Wuhan.” “Exactly. By docking the ship at Wuhan, within half a day, not a single person was unaware of Seocheon Escort Agency's troubles. With that perspective, the answer becomes clear.” “A group that benefits from harming Seocheon Escort Agency.” “The worse the reputation of Seocheon Escort Agency’s Wuhan branch, the more one single group benefits. Only one of the three suspects could profit.” “Oh!” I slowly moved the stone from the port to one of the suspect locations on the map. The closest one to the port. A place holding both force and enmity.