Chapter 88: A Familiar Fragrance

"Sir, what exactly are you doing with these county chronicles and case files?"

"Investigating some things!" Frowning, Shen Yu kept flipping through the items in his hands. Before him were not only county chronicles and case files, but also unsolved cases from these past years, and so on.

"The person killed this morning was the former County Magistrate's steward. Don't you find it strange? How could a steward end up as a beggar, and how could he provoke someone enough to be killed?"

"This..." Questioned by Shen Yu, Lu Ze also suddenly felt it was a bit strange. "Ever since the former County Magistrate was ambushed and killed in the street, this steward had disappeared!"

"After all, he wasn't a very important person. Once he vanished, none of us paid any attention to the matter. Now that I think about it, it does seem rather strange."

Glancing at Shen Yu, Lu Ze said with some uncertainty, "Sir, have you discovered something?"

"Look, but don't touch!" He took out a small box from his side. This was what the former County Magistrate's steward had handed to him before he died. The flower inside was already somewhat withered, but the colorful petals still looked stunning.

"Sir, what is this?" It was his first time seeing a flower like this. Even withered, it could still look so vibrant; one could only imagine how magnificent it must have been before it dried up.

"This is a Bliss Flower. You just need to know that this thing is deadly!" Closing the box and putting it away, Shen Yu continued to ask, "Have you ever seen this thing before?"

"No, never! Sir, this is not a flower from our Sanshui County!" After thinking for a moment, Lu Ze shook his head. After all, such a flower was too vivid; it could not be compared to ordinary flowers.

Moreover, he had been a head constable before. Having served as a Constable for so many years, his eye for detail had long been honed. If he had seen it, he would definitely have an impression, but now he had none at all. He had been to the vast majority of places in Sanshui County and had never seen this thing.

"Why do you think the former County Magistrate's steward chose to give it to me? It shows that this flower must be related to Sanshui County!"

"Perhaps the former County Magistrate wasn't killed in retaliation for trying to clean up Sanshui County's law and order, but died because of this flower!"

Tapping his right hand on the desk, Shen Yu frowned and continued, "Head Constable Lu, do you think it's possible that the former County Magistrate discovered someone was cultivating this flower, so those people thought he was being too meddlesome and killed him?"

"This, Sir, I have no evidence, and I dare not speak recklessly!" When it came to the topic of the former County Magistrate's murder, Lu Ze truly dared not interrupt casually and could only stammer on the side.

Regardless of the truth, the people involved could kill even a County Magistrate without hesitation; he likely couldn't afford to get involved.

Taking a deep breath, Shen Yu frowned in thought and said slowly, "The former County Magistrate's steward had been missing for so long and only appeared now. It wasn't that he didn't want to appear, but that he didn't dare to!"

"Now that I am carrying out such drastic reforms to law and order in Sanshui County, and my daily conduct is acceptable, it was enough for him to trust me, to take the initiative to contact me, and subsequently hand the item over to me!"

"But why was he hiding perfectly well before, yet the moment he made contact with me, he was shot to death?"

Speaking of this, the killing intent on Shen Yu flashed and vanished. "This shows that these eyes and ears were not watching him, but watching me!"

"This..." Seemingly sensing the terrifying killing intent that had flashed on Shen Yu, Lu Ze trembled all over and mourned for those people for a few minutes.

You all dare to provoke this master; just wait, you'll get what's coming to you!

"Hmph!" With a light snort, Shen Yu continued to flip through the case files in his hands and said indifferently, "These people are afraid that I will also notice and then intervene. This means there must be something in the County Government Office that could expose them!"

"But why is Sir flipping through the county chronicles and case files? Could there be any useful evidence in them?"

Looking at Shen Yu's current actions, Lu Ze was full of confusion. Who would be so stupid as to leave evidence in these? If that were really the case, such people would have been wiped out long ago.

"You were a head constable at one point, can you use your brain!" Shaking his head, Shen Yu said slowly, "I just said that this flower uses human hearts as soil and human blood as fertilizer, so where do these people come from?"

"If it were only a few flowers, that would be fine, but if they are cultivating them on a large scale, it would inevitably require many people. These people couldn't have just appeared out of thin air!"

"I understand, Sir is wise!" Once explained this way, Lu Ze understood immediately and offered a burst of flattery. Anyway, at this time, the leader is the smartest, the leader is the wisest—that's all there is to it.

"Alright, no need to butter me up. The things above have indeed been altered. It seems they already realized this point, so they came up with countermeasures early on. After the former County Magistrate flipped through these, he must have alerted the enemy!"

"But it doesn't matter, this is also the reason I called you here."

Looking up at Lu Ze, Shen Yu smiled lightly. "As the head constable of Sanshui County, I heard you have been a Constable in Sanshui County for over ten years. You should know about all the cases, big and small, right?"

"Sir, rest assured, I wouldn't say I know all the cases in Sanshui County, but I can remember seven or eight out of ten! It's just..."

He looked up at Shen Yu with hesitation. He naturally understood the meaning behind the other's words, but he thought about the cases in Sanshui County over these years and didn't find any problems.

"Good, then tell me, have there been any mining disasters, accidents, or the like in Sanshui County over these years where many people died but not many bodies were found?"

"This, there actually are!" Thinking about it, Lu Ze immediately recalled, "Two years ago, the Huayu Mountain coal mine collapsed, killing over a hundred people, and not a single body could be found. In recent years, there have been successive collapse accidents at Huayu Mountain, and it seems no one was found!"

"But the wages they offered were too high, so there were still people who couldn't resist going to work!"

"Besides that, the most frequent ones are water disasters. Just two months ago, a passenger ship capsized at night, and not one of the dozens of people was found! And there's more..."

"So many?" Frowning, Shen Yu kept marking the locations of these accidents on the map of Sanshui County, gradually connecting them into a line.

"Magistrate Shen, Magistrate Shen, are you there? Help!" Suddenly, a shout came from outside the County Government Office. This familiar voice should be Su Ruoning's.

Hearing the sound, Shen Yu immediately ran out and happened to see Su Ruoning outside the office with two others carrying a person, running frantically toward the office. The one being carried was the Silver Badge Constable, Fang Ziyi!

And behind them, several men in black were in hot pursuit, about to catch up. A sound of a zither suddenly appeared; the two in the lead didn't even last a moment before being torn into pieces.

Such a turn of events made Su Ruoning breathe a sigh of relief, and a hint of joy appeared on her face. "It's Magistrate Shen, we are saved!"

"An expert!" The remaining few looked at each other and immediately wanted to get up and retreat, but another sound of a zither rang out behind them.

"Want to leave? That depends on whether I agree!" The zither sound appeared, but Shen Yu's target was their legs. He wanted live captives; these people couldn't have been hunting down a Silver Badge Constable for no reason.

"Bang!" Under the zither sound, their legs exploded, leaving them with almost no power to resist. They had suffered heavy losses, yet couldn't even touch the other's side; the gap was too large, too large to be made up for by numbers.

But just as Shen Yu wanted to step forward to capture these men in black, he walked up and discovered their eyes were tightly shut and their faces had turned purple-black. Pulling down their masks, he found these people had already lost their breath.

Knowing they might be captured and choosing to commit suicide immediately—they were dead soldiers!

"Why were you being hunted, and how did Head Constable Fang end up like this?" Walking up, Shen Yu still thought about helping out; this Head Constable Fang had fallen into a coma and seemed to be injured quite badly.

But when he got close to them, Shen Yu's nose twitched, and he suddenly frowned. "This fragrance is so familiar. Wait, this is... the fragrance of the Bliss Flower?"