Drunk to the Full

Chou Yunfei trudged through the snow to the outside of the pavilion, but Xue Pan was the first to go out and greet him.

After hissing a few times to suppress the burning taste in his mouth, he shook his big head and teased, "Old Chou, you're getting more and more solidly built—Second Brother invited us, yet you still arrived this late!"

"Get lost!"

Chou Yunfei glared and fired back, "Even if I get fatter, I'd still be better off than you, all top-heavy and light-footed!"

Though the two traded barbs, neither showed any annoyance. They were evidently used to fooling around like this.

That was one of Xue Pan's rare virtues—he could warm up to anyone and get along with everybody.

Of course, sometimes that also meant getting a cold shoulder for his trouble.

After snapping back at Xue Pan, Chou Yunfei hurried forward and bowed to Sun Shaozong. With a bitter smile, he said, "Sir, I had planned to find some leads before reporting back to you. Who would have thought that after all that effort, it would still come to nothing?"

Over the past two days, Chou Yunfei had first investigated the records of beggar children who had died, disappeared, fled, or otherwise gone missing. Then he had sent people to the brokerages, the Ministry of Welfare, and other places to verify the details, only to find very little.

That afternoon, he had ordered his men to dig up the missing-person reports filed by wealthy gentry and official families in recent years. The Criminal Division had turned itself upside down searching through them, yet they had still found nothing useful.

It was not that Shuntian Prefecture had become so peaceful lately that not even a single missing-person case occurred. Rather, children around ten years old fell into