After Wang Chen followed the bailiff away from the city wall, the newly clear-headed Ye Xiangming immediately sensed that something was very wrong.
It was not that this Assistant Magistrate possessed the ability to foresee the future, but rather that his wealth of life experience warned him that Yu Heqian's sudden summons of Wang Chen to the county office reeked of something strange.
Combined with the bandits' condition for withdrawing their troops, the more Ye Xiangming pondered it, the more terrified he became. He immediately rushed to the county office as fast as he could.
No matter what schemes Yu Heqian had concocted, he and Wang Chen would have nothing to fear if they joined forces.
What he feared most was Wang Chen being ambushed while fighting alone!
Yet this Assistant Magistrate had never imagined that the scene he would witness in the county office's main hall would be like this.
More than a dozen prominent figures of Qing'an County lay in pools of blood. The flowing blood gathered into winding streams across the terrazzo floor, a sight all the more shocking to behold.
Ye Xiangming recognized every corpse here. Some had been highly respected local gentry, some wealthy merchants with fortunes beyond measure, and two were formidable gang leaders.
What horrified Ye Xiangming most was Yu Heqian sitting upright upon the magistrate's bench, a bloody hole blasted through the center of his brow, red and white fluids gushing from it.
The County Magistrate who had always stood toe-to-toe with him, and often held the upper hand, had died too!
Something huge had happened!
Ye Xiangming instinctively looked at the only person still standing—Wang Chen.
He asked in a lost voice, "Worthy son-in-law, what exactly happened here?"
Wang Chen sighed. "When I arrived at the county office on orders, I