Murder Case

By rights, a treasure that could make officials upright and honest, diligent, selfless, and impartial in enforcing the law would strike many people as a good treasure.

They would be eager to take down this plaque and hang it on their own mayor's face.

That way, they could give those corrupt officials and good-for-nothings a thorough reform.

If that were all there was to it, Xiao Ran might consider finding a way to hang the thing in Ruzhou City.

But in truth, Xiao Ran wasn't optimistic about it. No—more precisely, he wanted to destroy the thing.

On the surface, it seemed to spiritually reform officials, making them fair and strict, and ensuring they never abused the law for personal gain.

But what was its actual side effect? It made everyone in the town commit evil deeds to satisfy its appetite.

Perhaps at first, people only did a few insignificant, indecent things because the rules forced them to.

For example, spitting into someone's tea, stealing something from a shop, or peeking at their sister-in-law while she bathed.

But over time, their evil thoughts grew stronger.

If they watched their sister-in-law bathe today, would they climb into her bed tomorrow?

If only one person did such things, that would be one thing. The terrifying part was that everyone was doing them. The sister-in-law stopped resisting and even had an affair on the side.

A thief came to steal, and the guards pretended not to notice. They even got the idea that they might as well join in.

In the end, the town had become what it was now: everyone had to do evil, and everyone considered it perfectly natural.

That was what disgusted Xiao Ran most. If they didn't deal with this thing now, who knew what it would become once it