The next day, Chen Hansheng and Kalanda came to the stall again.
When the stall owner saw Chen Hansheng coming, he came up to him warmly and said, "My dear customer, are the cups you brought yesterday still in good condition? I knew you would come again today. I picked out some good stuff last night. Would you like to take a look?"
When Chen Hansheng took a look, he saw that there were indeed several new styles of items on the stall, such as tableware like knives and forks.
"I told my supplier yesterday that even the big shots from Montenegro like our goods. They were very happy. They quickly took out these goodies."
Chen Hansheng said, "Oh? I'm not very interested in the existing goods. I want to order some ironware in special shapes. Can you take me to meet your supplier?"
Seeing the stall owner's nervous look, Chen Hansheng took out a golden axe from his pocket and said, "Help me contact them, and this golden axe will be yours. Don't worry, I just want to order some... parts. I won't set up a stall here to steal your business."
"Well... Of course I want to earn this golden axe, but they said that we can't just bring anyone here. They don't want to be bothered by a bunch of merchants, so they chose a few of us to sell their stuff."
"What a joke, who doesn't want to make money when doing business. What they hate is the small business that can't make much money. But the introduction fee here is a golden axe, how can the business be small? Maybe they will even thank you for bringing me to their door." Chen Hansheng said.
"Okay." The shopkeeper took the gold coins and nodded in agreement.
To Chen Hansheng's surprise, the supplier's warehouse was just outside the city of Suero, in a small village on the outskirts of the city. They rode horses and it took them an hour to get there.
The warehouse is a large yard with a fence outside and a wooden bungalow inside.
When he arrived at the warehouse door, Chen Hansheng had a bad feeling. The huge yard was silent, and except for a few dogs barking outside the village, there was no other sound.
The three men dismounted and came to the entrance of the yard. The stall owner pushed open the wooden door and looked inside for a long time, but did not see anyone.
"That's not right. Everything was fine when I left last night. There was a bullock cart parked here, and there were goods piled over there. How come they are all empty all of a sudden?"
Chen Hansheng and Kalanda walked into the yard and looked around. Kalanda squatted on the ground and observed for a while and said, "The tracks are very fresh. They must have been driven overnight from last night to early this morning. There are about four or five vehicles, and the things on the vehicles are very heavy."
"I guess all the stock was shipped away overnight." Chen Hansheng walked to the wooden house, looked inside, and seeing no one was there, he pushed the door and walked in.
The place where goods should be stored in the house was empty, with nothing in it. Only simple wooden shelves were placed against the wall.
"So you have been to this warehouse before?" Chen Hansheng asked the stall owner.
"I've been here. Last night, a small part of the space here was still piled with goods. These iron items are selling quite well. Could it be that they later met a big buyer and sold out all at once?" the stall owner asked puzzledly.
"Let's look around to see if there are any clues left." Chen Hansheng said to Kalanda.
"Don't worry, customer. These sellers will always come back. I will help you contact them when the time comes," said the stall owner.
"Don't worry about your commission. Just answer a few questions I have and the golden axe will still be yours," said Chen Hansheng.
"If you want to know anything, please feel free to ask."
"What kind of people are those selling goods?" Chen Hansheng asked as he looked around the room.
The stall owner followed him and answered carefully: "Well, if you want to say what kind of people they are, they seem to be pretty ordinary... with accents from all over the place. How should I put it, the typical group of merchants who come to Suero to do business, right? Most of them are young and strong guys. Most of them don't talk much. The one I deal with is their manager. That man is also strange, always wearing a mask, his name is Hall. But I can see that others are quite afraid of him, he must be a powerful guy."
"Wearing a mask? Do you know why?"
"I heard that he had an injury on his face and it looked scary. Covering it up would not scare the guests."
Chen Hansheng pointed to his face and asked, "Is there anyone with black hair like me?"
"No. You guys are so easy to recognize. I won't make a mistake. Those dozen guys are from all over the place. There are people from the southern city-states and the empire, but there is no one from you."
Chen Hansheng keenly discovered a problem: "Are you saying that this caravan has mixed origins?"
"It's nothing. Many caravans that use slaves are like this. When buying slaves, they only look at whether they are strong and obedient, and don't care too much about where the slaves come from." The stall owner explained.
"Are you sure that the people in the caravan are all slaves?"
"I haven't paid much attention to this. But I think I have seen slave brands a few times. They seem to be printed on the chest." The stall owner pointed to the area below his collarbone. "It's winter now, with a lot of clothes, most people can't see this area, but there must be a few slaves who I saw."
"Did they say where they came from?"
"No, I asked about it, but Hall didn't answer. I thought they were worried about revealing the source of the goods, so I didn't ask any more questions. You know, Suero is full of such cautious and stingy merchants."
Chen Hansheng didn't find anything in the house, so he let the stall owner go.
Kalanda walked around inside and outside, came back with a piece of paper smaller than a palm in his hand, handed it to Chen Hansheng and said, "Look at this."
It was a small corner torn from a notebook. There was nothing written on it, but the paper itself spoke volumes.
"It was clamped on a shelf. I guess it got stuck in the wood when I was moving something."
"Tell me, how did I end up in such a mess? Actually, it has nothing to do with me, don't you think?" Chen Hansheng held the piece of paper in his hand and turned it over and over again.
"That's not you. Although you look careless, I know you have a lot on your mind. You put a lot of thought into those people." Kalanda said, gently taking his arm.
"I'm just afraid of ruining some people's good things. I'm not in the same circle as them to begin with, and there are more than one or two people who secretly dislike me. If this matter gets too involved... oh, it's troublesome." Chen Hansheng licked his lips, as if he was carefully savoring the impact of this matter.
"Do you feel this is your responsibility?"
"I don't know either. I just think that a thorough investigation of this matter will benefit the entire school. I'm a member of this team, so I should have some responsibility, right?"
"Then do it."
"Hey, yeah, I've been through a lot of gunfire, why should I be afraid of him?" Chen Hansheng finally put the paper into his pocket and said, "Let's go to the village and ask around to find out what's going on with these people."