Chapter 463

Seeing Pei Ye used 【Chunshou】 to imprint this record in his heart, and then went to the Wannian County Office to flip through the case files of Pingkang Ward, but there was nothing special; it was still fighting and theft. For the convenience of city-wide arrest, the theft case had already been communicated to Changan County, while the names of the fighting case were clear. Seeing Pei Ye looked for them, but didn't see the name Zhang Piaoxu from that night on it.

So he realized that many fights were not reported, and there were only twenty or thirty people in the constable's room, which didn't look like they were investigating the whole city at all. I'm afraid only those reported counted as cases.

There were many things they couldn't see, couldn't investigate, and couldn't manage. There was the Immortal Terrace, the Jin Wuwei, the Imperial Guards, the Jingzhao Prefecture... In a place like the Divine Capital, the constables of the two counties were indeed low-status, marginal officials with little authority. No wonder many people didn't even have cultivation.

Seeing Pei Ye put down the case file, picked up his sword, and went toward Pingkang Ward.

Coming here for the second time, it was already nightfall again.

This was also the busiest time in this ward. It was still a scene of prosperity and romance, red buildings and beautiful faces, treasure carriages and brocade clothes, and wandering swordsmen of the capital could be seen from time to time. This ward was indeed like being outside the order of the Divine Capital, but to a certain extent, its existence was also a microcosm of the Great Tang's temperament.

Countless people were strolling here, the lamps and candles were like daylight, everything was bright, so what had Ding Yukang touched?

He went out at the beginning of the You hour and died on the East Street at the second quarter of the Xu hour. Seeing Pei Ye sketched the route he took in his heart and walked along the East Street as if restoring it.

This was a street that wasn't very "Pingkang Ward." Although it was also prosperous with lamp shadows, the scent of powder and the romantic air were much lighter. Many shops for daily use opened here, all kinds of clothing, food, housing, and usage—young knights also need to wear clothes, girls also need to eat, saddles are broken, horses are sick, and lutes are broken; there must always be a place to repair them.

What did Ding Yukang come here to do?

Seeing Pei Ye paced slowly. He didn't get the precise and orderly case records of the Immortal Terrace, but the brief and rough case files of the County Office. When many details had been erased by time, he could only try hard to enter the situation of empathizing with Ding Yukang.

A person who stopped drinking to stay sober, ate steamed buns and pickled vegetables when hungry, and sat back at the table to continue sketching when full.

A person nearly fifty years old, without cultivation, who had already entered the stage of enjoying life.

Now he was facing some kind of behemoth with a body long out of practice. His official uniform and waist sword couldn't give him any reliance. He had pretended to be an ordinary passerby here for several days in a row... Seeing Pei Ye walked slowly according to his pace, observing the scenery on both sides.

His steps suddenly paused.

He tilted his head to look at the building beside the street. A wall of about two zhang enclosed a backyard. The scene before his eyes suddenly overlapped with the one in his mind; that was the page of lines Ding Yukang had sketched.

Removing all decorations and curves, the long street and houses were arranged into the simplest lines. And it wasn't just this angle, nor was it just this high wall in front of him; the surrounding buildings had also been sketched out by Ding Yukang, and then connected by a line.

Seeing Pei Ye frowned as he thought about that incomparably serious draft, looking at the street scene in front of him. He could almost imagine how Ding Yukang had stepped on several different angles at the time to outline the layout of this area of houses. But what was the meaning of this? The layout was clearly placed here, nothing would change. What was there to think about in this picture?

Until Seeing Pei Ye suddenly realized... he couldn't flip over this high wall.

Ding Yukang's figure was almost instantly clear in front of him. That day, he had stood under the eaves with him like this, only he had no true Qi, nor a young and agile body... Seeing Pei Ye stared and thought, making his body heavy and sluggish. If he wanted to flip into this wall, how would he have to walk?

Climbing the eaves, detouring, from one roof to another... Gradually, a line exactly the same as the one on the draft appeared in his mind.

"Excuse me, may I ask, what courtyard is this?" Seeing Pei Ye stopped a passerby at random and raised the Yan character plaque in his hand before the person could frown.

"You... oh, it's the warehouse of the Liang Family Rice Shop," the person stopped his steps and said. "I heard a few days ago that it was even robbed, but you say, can rice be carried out in two bags? Sure enough, after the final investigation, nothing was lost. The thief even tripped and smashed a flower pot himself."

Rice shop.

Seeing Pei Ye instantly understood what this old constable was investigating.

He wasn't bragging to Xu Liu; he was indeed a master of running external affairs in his youth, and he must have been one of the best among them.

The apprentice he brought later must also have been able to serve in the Jingzhao Prefecture.

This carefulness and caution were absolutely honed in murder cases—he was flipping through the account books of all the rice and flour shops in Pingkang Ward, using this to look sideways at the food and drink usage of various brothels.

A building of a hundred people absolutely couldn't eat two thousand catties of rice in ten days.

Seeing Pei Ye instantly found a line of incomparably conspicuous data on that sheet full of lists.

Its full appearance was: "Li Guan, about one hundred people. On September 9th, a total of 2,000 catties of rice and flour were purchased; on September 20th, another 2,000 catties were purchased; on October 1st, another 2,000 catties were purchased."

Li Guan was not hard to find. It was situated in the southeast corner of Pingkang. For a scale of one hundred people, it occupied too much land, and it was planted with grass, trees, pines, and cypresses, with no excessively high pavilions, making it more like a garden landscape. Thus, regarding the overall temperament of Pingkang Ward, it was somewhat inclined toward quietness.

"Li Guan is known as the 'First Pavilion of Pingkang,' but its reputation is far greater than its flow of people, because its expenses are too extravagant, and it screens the status of guests, making it difficult for ordinary people to approach," Seeing Pei Ye asked, and not long after, Xu Chuo's voice came.

"I heard that the brothels in Pingkang are all controlled by gangs. What gang is behind this one, being so high-profile?"

Xu Chuo was quiet for a while on that side. Seeing Pei Ye knew she was waiting for information. Sure enough, a moment later, the voice sounded again. Xu Chuo seemed to be silent for a moment and said, "Taiping Cao Gang."

"Taiping Cao Gang?"

"So this is their tentacle below," Xu Chuo muttered to herself, and turned to answer, "—Taiping Cao, the largest gang in the Divine Capital. The main trunk controls water transport, and the remaining industries such as brothels, gambling dens, and fighting arenas are countless. Deeper down, drug trafficking, human trafficking, home raiding, and assassination are probably also involved... This gang has always had dense connections with the upper levels, and for a long time, no one has been able to move its foundation. But I lack the power at the lower levels, and my understanding of them is not profound."

Seeing Pei Ye nodded slowly.

Facing such a behemoth, Ding Yukang had used up all his caution and care, but at the moment when the horse's foot was slightly exposed, he was beaten to death on the street by a person coming toward him with three punches.

This didn't even count as an assassination; it was almost blatant.

Seeing Pei Ye still didn't know why Ding Yukang suddenly abandoned his original life to investigate them, but that was no longer the focus.

For him, he already knew why the Wildman killed this constable, and thus he knew where the tentacle that reached out to him in the prison came from.