What Did He Say?

A carriage rattled along the official road through Nanzhou.

Though it was an official road and fairly wide, it was still just a muddy track. The carriage rocked from side to side, making for an uncomfortable ride.

Sitting inside, Qian Bochou complained, "Brother Jiang, it only takes an hour on horseback to get from Prefecture City to Beihu County."

"At this rate, we won't get there until the hour of the Goat."

Jiang Yun sat in the carriage, thinking, If I had to ride horseback with you for an hour, I'd probably spend the whole day doing nothing but being sick.

"Who's this?" Qian Bochou's gaze fell on Xu Xiaogang. He hadn't met him before and had no idea who he was.

But since Jiang Yun had invited him along as an expert, he was probably quite capable.

With his eyes closed, Xu Xiaogang said coolly, "Xu Wuchang."

Qian Bochou looked puzzled and turned to Jiang Yun.

"He's an Imperial Guard from the capital. Xu Suwen's younger brother," Jiang Yun explained casually.

"Hiss."

At this, Qian Bochou nearly sprang out of his seat. He hurriedly buttered Xu Xiaogang up. "I knew Lord Xu carried himself with such nobility and had such a sharp gaze for a reason. Turns out he's an expert among the Imperial Guards."

Xu Xiaogang didn't open his eyes. He merely said two words: "So noisy."

"Yes, yes." Qian Bochou nodded repeatedly and gave a sheepish grin. "I do talk too much."

Then Xu Xiaogang slowly opened his eyes and looked at Qian Bochou. "Thirsty."

"I want..."

"Water."

Qian Bochou quickly took out a leather waterskin and handed it over. Then he whispered to Jiang Yun, "Brother Jiang, what's wrong with Lord Xu? Is his throat bothering him?"

Jiang Yun understood what Xu Xiaogang was up to and explained, "What do you know? Experts speak in short sentences."

Qian Bochou nodded with a grin. "That's right, that's right."

At last, in the hour of the Goat, the carriage finally rattled its way into Beihu County.

Beihu County's streets crisscrossed beneath a canopy of green. Rows of eaves lined either side, creating a scene that was quaint and tranquil.

The county had a population of around a hundred thousand, and was nowhere near as prosperous as Prefecture City.

The streets were sparsely populated. The few pedestrians they saw hurried along, busy making a living.

It was a far cry from the carefree, leisurely lives of the people in Prefecture City.

"Since you live in Prefecture City, Brother Jiang, I suppose you rarely visit the counties below it?" Qian Bochou said with a smile. "I hear Beihu County was fairly prosperous years ago, but it's fallen on hard times now."

"It only gets by because it's near the official road, where merchant caravans pass from time to time."

"But people have been mysteriously disappearing here in recent years."

"Several members of merchant caravans have gone missing, too. Nowadays, they'd rather take the longer official road south than pass through this county."

Xu Xiaogang had been sitting calmly in the carriage, but suddenly opened his eyes and asked, "It's been going on this long, and Nanzhou Prefecture still hasn't found out why?"

Qian Bochou gave an awkward laugh. "Though Beihu County falls under Nanzhou Prefecture's jurisdiction, it has its own constables and chief constable. If they don't ask us to get involved, we can't just muscle in on their work."

Just then, the carriage rounded a street corner. Up ahead, a crowd had gathered in a wide-open space.

Even though it was winter, the people wore thin clothes, and many of them were young children.

Quite a few stood barefoot in the snow, waiting in line.

"Are these disaster victims?" Jiang Yun asked, puzzled.

Qian Bochou glanced cautiously at Xu Xiaogang, mindful of his status as an Imperial Guard, then laughed. "Brother Jiang, you must be joking. Great Zhou is flourishing, the weather's favorable, and the people live in peace. Where would we get disaster victims?"

"They're just poor folk from outside the county town. They can't get enough to eat, so they've come to wait for the Tang family to hand out porridge."

"See the person serving it up front? That's the eldest young lady of the Tang family, Tang Wanxin. She's a kindhearted girl, famous far and wide."

Jiang Yun looked toward the person handing out the porridge. A beautiful young woman stood at the head of the crowd.

She wore a white fur coat and had delicate features, her hair pinned up. Even in the bitter winter, she had rolled up her sleeves without fear of the cold and was serving porridge to the poor.

Jiang Yun couldn't help nodding in admiration. "She really is a beautiful young woman, kindhearted too."

"Huh?" Qian Bochou sounded puzzled. "Where's Lord Xu? He was just here."

While the two of them were talking, Xu Xiaogang had disappeared from the carriage.

Jiang Yun shook his head and said calmly, "It's fine. He's probably gone and hidden himself somewhere again."

Jiang Yun was already used to it.

It was bitterly cold outside. Jiang Yun pulled his padded coat tighter around himself, yet even sitting inside the carriage, he felt chilled to the bone.

Among the crowd, quite a few children stood barefoot in the snow, making Jiang Yun frown.

Qian Bochou smiled. "Brother Jiang, you've read your share of the sages' books. They're full of great principles, but say little about food and clothing."

"The gentlemen who can study are all people who never have to worry about food or clothes."

"You and your sister live in Prefecture City, and make a living mending the neighbors' clothes. You can get three meals a day, and even have money left over for you to read and write. Your life is already pretty good."

"But the people outside Prefecture City have it rough."

"Seven-tenths of the land fit for farming in Beihu County has been claimed by the wealthy households. The luckier farmers can work for them as long-term laborers and scrape by."

"Most of the rest can only rent land from the big households."

"They have to borrow grain to eat, seeds to sow, wheat seed, and even farming tools and oxen."

"After a whole year of hard work, they're lucky if they have enough grain left to keep themselves fed."

"If there's even a minor natural disaster and the harvest is poor, they have to go hungry and freeze."

"People starving to death is nothing unusual, either."

Listening to Qian Bochou, Jiang Yun furrowed his brow and sighed. "That damned feudal landlord class."

Qian Bochou asked, "What class?"

Jiang Yun shook his head. "Never mind. Let's go to the most recent disappearance site."

Qian Bochou quietly reminded him, "Why don't we go to the county yamen first? The county magistrate has probably prepared a table full of food and wine to welcome us."

"We could have a pot of hot wine, get a good night's sleep, and investigate tomorrow."

Jiang Yun said, "Let's investigate first."

"All right," Qian Bochou muttered. He then took out a casebook that Beihu County had sent over earlier.

It contained records of many disappearances.

"These cases aren't complicated. There's a lake called Clear Lake to the north of Beihu County, and the county got its name from it."

"The missing people were mostly around Clear Lake. This year, a total of one hundred and thirty-two people have disappeared."

"People say a demon has taken up residence in Clear Lake. No one dares go near it."

Qian Bochou had wanted to find a local to guide them, but when the locals heard they were heading to Beihu, they shook their heads again and again.

They simply didn't dare go. Even offering them silver was no use.

But the locals did say that once they left the county town, they only had to follow the road north and they would soon find Clear Lake.

The two of them rode out of the county town in the carriage, heading north.

After half an hour, mist began to gather in the daylight. The farther they went, the thicker it grew.

Soon, visibility had dropped to less than ten meters, and the temperature was steadily falling.

The horse grew restless, refusing to move from where it stood and unwilling to go any farther.

Qian Bochou peered outside from the carriage, uneasy. "Brother, if you ask me, there's something sinister about this place. Let's stop here for today, find Lord Xu, and come back tomorrow."

Jiang Yun knew what was going on and wasn't in a hurry. He smiled faintly. "Don't worry. He's following us."

"He's lurking in the shadows, hoping the two of us run into danger as soon as possible."

"The thing I wrote for him will finally come in handy."

Qian Bochou stared blankly at him. "What thing?"

"Guess."

Take a guess, everyone—what did Jiang Yun write?