A Moonless Night for Murder, a Windy Night for Arson

To take down the plaque in the courtroom, Xiao Ran had to find a way to get all the constables in the yamen moving.

Ideally, he would send every constable in the yamen out within a short time, creating an opening for himself.

One murder case alone wasn't nearly enough. Xiao Ran needed more cases to break out.

"I understand. Stay alert and act as the situation calls for."

Golden Toad Son thought this sort of thing couldn't be easier.

If they were talking about anywhere else, where would so many major murder cases come from? Unless he took matters into his own hands, a small town might be lucky to have one major case in a decade.

But this place was different. Everyone did evil, day after day, and people's hearts had long since been thoroughly corrupted.

Take the murder at Widow Zhang's home, for instance. From beginning to end, Golden Toad Son had merely pointed a deserter in the direction of home.

And yet things had turned out like this.

The same was true elsewhere in town. All it took was a spark. Golden Toad Son's eyes darted around, and he immediately knew what to do. "If you want chaos, then let's make it total chaos. Stay alert and act as the situation calls for. I guarantee that in no time, this town will be in an uproar."

Golden Toad Son didn't explain how he planned to do it. It seemed that throwing the town into complete disorder was as easy as lifting a finger for him.

After Golden Toad Son left, Xiao Ran helped the remaining constables lay out the bodies. He left one man to guard them, then went with the others to Steward Li's home to investigate the missing-person case.

"Times have really gone downhill.