In the southwest of Edo, there is a three-story mansion that is inconspicuous because it is located in a remote area.

Edo has never been short of dignitaries.

Compared with the large mansions of dignitaries, this mansion seemed so inconspicuous.

But anyone who knows a little bit about the identity of the owner of this mansion knows that the owner of this mansion is no less powerful than the dignitaries of Edo.

At this moment, Lin and Yuan Yi were staying in a certain room in this mansion.

Both of them had taken off their swords and placed them on the tatami on the right side of their bodies.

Lin knelt respectfully on the tatami in an extremely standard posture, with her back straight, her eyes closed, and she was meditating.

Compared to Lin, Yuan Yi's sitting posture is much more casual.

Gen Yi just sat cross-legged on the tatami carelessly, yawning loudly from time to time.

The two of them have been in this room for a long time.

They are waiting.

Waiting for someone to arrive.

After waiting for an unknown amount of time, the sliding paper door of this room was finally opened.

The person who opened the sliding paper door was a young man sitting on one knee beside the door.

"Miss Kinoshita," the young man said respectfully, "Master Tojo is here."

After hearing this young man's words, Lin, who had been closing her eyes just now, slowly opened her eyes.

As the young man's announcement ended, footsteps sounded from far to near in the corridor outside the door.

The footsteps moved from a distant place to the door - a middle-aged man with an extremely majestic figure appeared outside the opened paper sliding door.

Although this middle-aged man was wearing a black kimono, the top of the kimono was completely opened, revealing his upper body covered with rock-hard muscles.

While exposing the muscles of his upper body, he also revealed the ferocious tattoos that covered almost his entire upper body.

The middle-aged man first looked at Lin and Genichi in the room with calm eyes.

After seeing Yuan Yi sitting cross-legged casually, a strange and subtle light flashed in the eyes of this middle-aged man.

After retracting his gaze from Lin and Yuan Yi, the middle-aged man slowly walked into the room, and finally sat down cross-legged in front of Lin and Yuan Yi.

After the middle-aged man entered the room, the young man who had just been responsible for reporting "Master Dongcheng's arrival" to Lin gently closed the sliding door.

The paper sliding door blocks the light outside the room again, turning the room back into a secret room.

It's just that in addition to Lin and Genichi, this secret room now contains the middle-aged man who just entered the room.

"...Long time no see." Lin took the lead and said to the middle-aged man, "Mr. Dongcheng, you really made my uncle and I wait so long."

"I came to see you in the morning, but it was not until the afternoon that I finally saw you."

"It's been a long time indeed." The middle-aged man whom Lin called Dongcheng smiled, "Miss Kinoshita, when was the last time we met? I had forgotten that you actually treated Kinoshita this time.

The adults also brought it."

"Please forgive me, Miss Kinoshita, I have a meeting this morning with Kansei Shixing that cannot be canceled. I'm really sorry to have kept you two waiting for so long."

"It doesn't matter. I'm not in a hurry anyway." Lin said softly, "Mr. Dongcheng, my uncle is also here now, so for the sake of convenience, you can just call me 'Lin'."

"Should I call you by my first name?" Dongcheng shrugged, and then said in a half-joking tone, "As a courtesy, you can just call me by my first name, 'Dawu'. I prefer my surname to my last name."

My acquaintances are calling my name."

"Compared with the surname 'Dongcheng', I always think that my name 'Dawu' sounds better."

After making some witticisms in a joking tone, Dongcheng sat up slightly and then put on a more serious expression than before:

"Kinoshita...ah, no, Miss Lin, I know you are a person who likes to get straight to the point."

"And I also like to get straight to the point and don't like to say too many irrelevant greetings."

"So let's just skip the small talk and stuff for now."

"Just tell me your reason for coming."

"Lin, you actually brought Kinoshita-sama to Edo. You must not be here to sell rice, right?"

"Master Tojo. I hope you can mobilize your subordinates to help me find where Shiranui's new base is located in Edo."

Seeing that Dongcheng said readily that he wanted to get straight to the point, Lin stopped talking nonsense and went straight to her topic.

Although Dongcheng just told Lin that it was okay to call him by his first name, after all, he had been called "Dongcheng-sama" for so long, and Lin couldn't change it for a while, so she simply didn't change it and continued to call him by this name.

The middle-aged people are called "Dongcheng adults".

"Shiranui?" Dongcheng's brows frowned slightly.

"Master Tojo, you should know the news that Shiranui is cooperating with the shogunate and moving their new base to Edo, right?"

"Hey, hey, hey, how could I not know about this kind of thing?"

"It's good to know." Lin nodded gently.

"What I'm more curious about is - what are you doing looking for the base location in Shiranui?"

"...The relationship between our Calabash House and Shiranui has always been quite bad."

Lin did not directly explain what she was doing with Shiranui's base. Instead, as if she meant something, she said something that seemed to have nothing to do with the question Tojo had just asked.

However - even though he didn't directly answer Dongcheng's question just now, Lin's words just now made Dongcheng realize something in an instant and he raised his eyebrows suddenly.

"...It seems that you are planning to do some great things here in Edo."

"hehe."

Dongcheng let out a few chuckles.

"Miss Lin, you and Kinoshita-sama are indeed relatives. We both like to do very random things."

"Finding the location of Shiranui's base...it might be difficult."

"Although I don't know much about Shiranui, I also know that they are very persistent in keeping the location of their base secret."

"Few outsiders know the exact location of their base."

"Even for me, it's not easy to find out the location of their base."

"It may take a lot of time."

As soon as Dongcheng finished speaking, Lin said:

"It's okay, I can wait."

"Miss Lin, if you're not in a hurry, it's easy to talk."

"I'll have my men set out to investigate later."

Having said this, Dongcheng paused.

After a pause, a strange smile appeared on Dongcheng's face.

"Although I know that it is impossible for you, Miss Lin, to pay the debt without paying, I would like to remind you, Miss Lin."

Dongcheng raised his hand and made a "money" gesture.

"Help you find the location of Shiranui's base - this is not a small favor that can be done for you casually."

"I definitely want to collect money."

"And - the price is not cheap."

"You don't have to worry about money." Lin responded without hesitation, "This is not the first time that my 'Calabash House' and your 'Dongcheng House' have cooperated. Don't you still know the financial resources of our 'Calabash House' and my

Kinoshita Rin’s ability to make money?”

"I, Kinoshita Rin, have a lot of money."

"Hahaha." Dongcheng let out a series of generous laughs, "I just like to deal with such generous people like you, Miss Lin."

"Okay! I'll ask everyone under me to move later!"

"Ms. Lin, apart from helping you find the base location in Shiranui, is there anything else you want to entrust me to do? I'm open to lucrative business."

"There are two more things I need your help with."

As Lin spoke, she reached into her arms, took out a neatly folded piece of paper, and then handed the paper towards Dongcheng in front of her.

"The first thing: Lord Dongcheng, I hope you can help me buy what is written on this paper."

With some doubts, Dongcheng took the piece of paper handed over by Lin and unfolded it.

After moving his eyes and quickly scanning the words written on this piece of paper, Dongcheng's pupils shrank slightly:

"This is……?!"

"This is what I hope Master Dongcheng will buy for me." Lin said calmly.

"...Ms. Lin, why did you buy these things?"

"Do you still have to ask?" Lin said calmly, "Of course it will be used to cause trouble for Shiranui. I want to use it as our secret weapon against Shiranui."
To be continued...