Chapter 388: Something Happened

After Duan Rong learned Xiong Yi's secret, he did not linger, instead directly exerting his movement technique to return to his own room.

In the darkness, Duan Rong was like a giant fallen leaf, nimbly leaping in from the window; although his speed was swift, his feet were as soft as if they had no bones, landing gently without making a single sound.

Xiao Yu was still sleeping on the bed, breathing steadily.

Duan Rong walked over quietly and turned to lie down; as Duan Rong lay down, he seemed to startle Xiao Yu, who gave a vague, soft hum and wrapped an arm around Duan Rong's waist.

Xiao Yu pressed her forehead against Duan Rong's ear, sleeping peacefully.

Early the next morning, at Duan Rong's suggestion, they left Shen Garden without even eating breakfast.

What Duan Rong said was that he wanted to go back to Ruyang City to have beef soup.

After the three of them ate breakfast on the streets of Ruyang, they went to find Liu Shushan.

The moment Liu Shushan saw the three of them had come to visit together, he was immediately overjoyed.

However, the group did not stay at Liu Shushan's manor, but instead strolled around Ruyang City together, playing through almost every famous spot.

After this trip of sightseeing, Duan Rong and Xiao Yu soon felt it was dull and uninteresting, because there was basically no difference between playing here and playing in Yuanyang Prefecture.

So-called cities were originally just replicas.

In fact, Liu Shushan's family was in the Prefecture City and their business was quite large, counting as one of the major powers.

But after several days of sightseeing, Duan Rong only gradually realized that during this three-month holiday, Liu Shushan had not gone to see Shen Mizhi at all.

It had to be said that this was somewhat contrary to reason.

The relationship between the few of them was quite good, and Shen Mizhi's father was the Surveillance Commissioner; there were so many people who wanted to climb the social ladder and couldn't, yet Liu Shushan had actually given her the cold shoulder like this.

Moreover, he saw that Liu Shushan and Shen Mizhi were chatting and laughing these past few days; there was clearly no rift between the two.

Duan Rong soon figured out the reason for this.

I am afraid that the political situation in Ruyang Prefecture City had already formed certain factions.

And the several major powers in the Prefecture City clearly all needed to pick a side; Liu Shushan's family was clearly not in Shen Yanliu's faction.

It seems it was not that Liu Shushan did not want to go pay respects at the Shen Family, but rather that his family elders likely instructed him not to go. Because Duan Rong could still faintly sense that Liu Shushan seemed to still have some feelings for Shen Mizhi.

This day, they were sightseeing at a Sun-Gazing Pavilion by the lake.

One could see the lake surface with ripples like scales and willow shadows swaying; the scenery was very beautiful and charming.

At this time, Liu Shushan went to the street to buy some fruit, and Xiao Yu went to prepare tea, leaving only Duan Rong and Shen Mizhi on the top floor of the pavilion to catch the breeze and look at the scenery.

Duan Rong looked at the beautiful scenery before him and suddenly called out to her, saying, "Mizhi!"

"Hmm."

"Don't go prying into that garden anymore. Even if you really see something, you can't change anything; it will only increase your troubles in vain."

Shen Mizhi was slightly stunned and looked at Duan Rong with some astonishment. She did not expect that Duan Rong had already seen through her prying into the garden that night; she had originally thought she had done it very secretly and no one knew.

Duan Rong, however, only looked at the beautiful scenery in the distance and did not turn his head to look at Shen Mizhi.

Just at this moment, Xiao Yu had already brought the tea and walked up. The two did not continue to discuss this topic further.

This day was the last day Duan Rong and Xiao Yu stayed in Ruyang City; early the next morning, they left by carriage, and Shen Mizhi and Liu Shushan followed on horseback, seeing them off for five or six miles before they broke a willow branch to bid farewell.

After Duan Rong and Xiao Yu returned to Xiangu County, they only rested for a few days before the three-month home leave completely ended.

After the home leave ended, they all went to the Office of Transmission contact point to accept the missions assigned to them by the Sect.

After accepting their missions, Duan Rong, Ximen Kankan, and the other five held a temporary meeting to exchange their views on their respective missions.

The first mission was actually quite important; the completion level of this one mission determined the grade of the subsequent missions.

Perhaps it was because they had all participated in that major Tainted Blood case in Xiangu County that the missions they received were all quite good.

At the very least, they were not trivial matters, but serious cases.

Duan Rong, Ximen Kankan, and Liu Shushan all received missions to investigate criminal cases, while Xiao Yu and Shen Mizhi received missions to inspect cases.

Shen Mizhi was quite indignant. "Why are you three all on investigation missions, while ours are inspection missions?"

Ximen Kankan blinked his eyes, looked at Shen Mizhi, and said, "How about we swap?"

Liu Shushan said, "We can't swap randomly; there will be trouble."

Shen Mizhi said, "Who wants to swap with you?"

Ximen Kankan said, "Inspection is great! It's much easier than investigation. I think you're just getting a bargain and still complaining."

"You..."

"Enough." Seeing that Shen Mizhi was about to get angry, Duan Rong interrupted her and said, "For missions assigned to Outer Sect Disciples, inspection cases are either major cases or cases the Sect feels have problems; perhaps they think you are more meticulous, which is why they assigned them to you. If you can discover problems while inspecting, it is likewise a great contribution."

Seeing Duan Rong say this, Shen Mizhi finally stopped making noise.

They only held a meeting to exchange views before each went to the place where they would execute their missions.

Before leaving, Xiao Yu prepared a change of clothes for Duan Rong and gave him repeated instructions before the two parted reluctantly.

Duan Rong possessed both the ability of the Devouring Artifact Spirit and the Divine Sense Envelopment ability from the Womb Treasury Sutra; although that case was quite thorny, he had only been there for two days when the case was solved.

The local officials called him the divine detective, Lord Duan.

After the case over there was concluded, Duan Rong had nothing to do, so he went to Xiao Yu's side to take a look.

Duan Rong inspected the case Xiao Yu was inspecting and found there were no problems, so he started strolling and sightseeing around Xiao Yu's location.

This evening, Ximen Kankan suddenly rode a fast horse over to find him.

The moment Ximen Kankan saw Duan Rong, he said, "I knew it; they said over there that you had left. I guessed you must have come to Xiao Yu's place."

Duan Rong had just bought a roasted chicken and was gnawing on it in the post house with his mouth full of grease; he smiled at Ximen Kankan and said, "Why are you in such a rush?"

"My butt is on fire, how can I not be in a rush?" As Ximen Kankan spoke, he tore a large piece of meat directly off the roasted chicken, and while eating, he poured himself some tea.

Duan Rong glanced at Ximen Kankan's butt and teased, "I see your butt is just fine; it's not burning at all!"

Ximen Kankan gulped down a large cup of tea before catching his breath and saying, "I'm not joking with you. I can't handle that case; you have to come over and help me."

Duan Rong sucked his fingers and said with a faint smile, "So it's a case; I wondered what it was."

Ximen Kankan sat down on a chair with a thud, looked at Duan Rong, and said, "Big Brother, you've got a big mouth!"

Duan Rong said, "I can help you, but I have a condition."

Ximen Kankan's eyelids twitched; for some reason, the moment he heard this, he felt that Duan Rong was about to make things difficult for him.

"What condition?"

"Burn all the Spring Palace Paintings I drew for you!"

Duan Rong had always felt this matter was a stain, and he had a feeling that if that stuff wasn't burned, Xiao Yu would find out about it one day.

Ximen Kankan's expression immediately soured; he stood up and walked toward the door, saying, "Forget it if you won't help! I'll go find Xiao Yu and have her give me some ideas."

"Come back!" Duan Rong immediately called him to a halt. "When did I say I wouldn't help?"

Ximen Kankan immediately turned around with a grin and said, "I knew you wouldn't let me make this trip for nothing. Let's go then."

"Now?"

"Yeah," Ximen Kankan said. "I told you, it's an emergency."

"Wait until I finish eating my chicken."

"Eat, eat, eat. Once the case is solved, I'll treat you to chicken every day!" Ximen Kankan pulled Duan Rong up and shoved him out of the post house.

Duan Rong went to the Ya Men, told Xiao Yu, and then headed toward the location with Ximen Kankan.

Duan Rong and Ximen Kankan arrived there at noon that day, and a few hours later, before the sky had even turned to dusk, the case was solved.

The coroners and Constables who participated in the entire investigation were all clicking their tongues in wonder, filled with astonishment.

The murderer had a very clever method of forging an alibi.

Because the alibi he forged was very convincing, it almost became ironclad evidence. Therefore, when the Constables investigated the case, they excluded him first. This became a case of "darkness under the lamp."

But the moment Duan Rong used Devouring Artifact Spirit on the murder weapon, he already knew who the murderer was.

A murderer, yet possessing such a convincing alibi.

Either the Spirit Tool he devoured was "lying," or the alibi was "lying."

Clearly, the Spirit Tool would never lie, so the only possibility was that there was a problem with the alibi.

For the next few hours, Duan Rong repeatedly investigated, focusing on that alibi.

Before long, not only the Constables but even Ximen Kankan were getting impatient, yet Duan Rong acted as if he were drilling into a bull's horn, refusing to let go, because he knew very well that the problem lay right there.

In the end, it was only through large-scale use of Devouring Artifact Spirit that Duan Rong finally discovered where the problem lay; the group of people participating in the investigation were all left gaping, and the perpetrator of the crime looked at Duan Rong as if he had seen a ghost.

In the next two or three months, Duan Rong almost became their "firefighting captain"; whenever the group had a problem they couldn't solve, they would come to beg Duan Rong, and although Duan Rong shouted about charging fees every day, he still went with them every time.

Gradually, Duan Rong established a kind of invisible prestige among them.

And so, three months passed.

This day, the case Duan Rong and Ximen Kankan were working on went very smoothly, and after the two finished their business, they gathered at the post house where Xiao Yu was staying.

At this time, it was evening; the three of them were drinking wine and chatting, and the moon in the night sky was as large as a round plate, spilling its clear radiance everywhere.

Just then, the sound of urgent hoofbeats came thundering like a sudden rainstorm or hail.

The sound of the hoofbeats stopped abruptly at the entrance of the post house, and a figure rushed in with a whistle.

The person's movement technique was as fast as a ghost, and in a flash, they had darted to a spot not far from the three.

Under the lamplight, one could see that the person was full of anxiety and covered in dust; it was Liu Shushan.

Liu Shushan walked to the side table, picked up a bowl of crucian carp and tofu soup, and gulped down more than half the bowl.

Duan Rong glanced at the dust on Liu Shushan's body, his brows slightly furrowed.

The place where Liu Shushan handled cases wasn't far from here; even if he had ridden hard all the way, he shouldn't have ended up looking this disheveled.

Xiao Yu and Ximen Kankan didn't think much of it; they both assumed Liu Shushan had encountered a difficult case and was also looking for Duan Rong to help.

Liu Shushan set down the large porcelain bowl, let out a turbid breath, wiped the soup from his mouth, looked at the three of them, and said, "Shen Mizhi is in trouble!"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yu's body immediately tensed. "What happened to her?"

Liu Shushan sat down and said, "It's a long story. It's like this: her family home has been raided."

"Ah!..."

Ximen Kankan said, "Isn't her father an Inspector? Who could raid her home?"

Liu Shushan sighed and said, "An Inspector is not the Prefecture Master of Shenyun Prefecture."

Duan Rong said, "Shushan, continue!"

Duan Rong was not at all surprised that Shen Yanliu's home was raided; three months ago, that night at Shen Garden, Shen Yanliu had already been targeted by someone.

Now that his home was being raided, it meant the person who had set the trap behind the scenes had begun to close the net.

It seems that in the political whirlpool of Ruyang Prefecture, Shen Yanliu had ultimately lost. This truly fulfilled the old saying: "All calculations come to naught."

Liu Shushan looked at Duan Rong and said, "I received the news from my home. As soon as I got the news, I thought that Shen Mizhi must have known too. That very night, I left the city and rushed to the city where she was handling a case; I went to the Ya Men to ask and only then learned that she had suddenly left halfway through her case. I guessed that she had returned to Ruyang Prefecture. Thinking this matter was quite thorny, I came over to discuss it with you first."

Duan Rong was still deep in thought when Xiao Yu stood up with a start. "We must rush over immediately; if that girl is in a state of panic, who knows what foolish things she might do?!"

Xiao Yu almost regarded Shen Mizhi as her own younger sister, and now that she had suddenly heard her family had suffered a catastrophe, among those present, she was the most distressed.

Duan Rong glanced at Xiao Yu and saw her anxious expression and tense body, as if she couldn't wait to set off immediately. He sighed and said, "Since we've finished the cases in our hands anyway, let's all take a trip to Ruyang Prefecture and see if we can help with anything."

Although Duan Rong said this, in his heart, he didn't want to get involved in this matter.

When he was in Xiangu County, he had discovered that Shen Yanliu was secretly having people plunder the estates of wealthy families; a dignified County Magistrate acting just like a bandit.

In the three years since he was promoted to Inspector, just from that glimpse on the night at Shen Garden, one could see that in these three years, his official character had clearly become even more corrupt; before, he was only bad himself, but now he was dragging others down with him.

As soon as Duan Rong spoke, the group immediately set off.

The horses in the post station were quite old and weak, unable to endure a long journey, and Ruyang Prefecture was still a considerable distance away.

That night, they went to a carriage rental shop, smashed open the door, bought four fine horses at a high price, and rode out of the city overnight, galloping toward Ruyang Prefecture.

Xiao Yu was anxious, her horse whip lashing out from time to time at the rump of the horse behind her.

The more she thought, the more anxious she became. Shen Mizhi's personality was stubborn and impulsive, and she wouldn't listen to reason. Suddenly encountering such a major disaster at home, she hadn't consulted anyone and had just run back alone.

At this moment, Xiao Yu was truly worried that something would happen to Shen Mizhi.

(End of chapter)