Leave Evidence

With a dull thud, Yuan Chengji's chest caved in, his ribs shattered, and his entire body flew backward, never to rise again.

The foul-smelling room fell into a rare silence.

Chu Ming stood where he was, his heartbeat slightly accelerated.

Having killed for the first time, he did not experience the intense reaction he had anticipated; after calming himself for a moment, he regained his composure.

He walked steadily to the side of the bailiff, confirmed that he had stopped breathing, and then approached the pried-up floorboards, looking down with lowered eyes.

Inside lay three or four broken, rotting internal organs and a bundle.

Chu Ming rolled up his sleeves, covered his nose and mouth, picked up a nearby wooden board, and pried the bundle out.

There was not much inside: seven pieces of broken silver and a book stained with filth.

He scanned the room, found a piece of clothing that was relatively clean, wiped the silver and the book, and wrapped them back up.

He then searched the room thoroughly, but aside from some brush, ink, and paper, there were no additional gains.

The paper was slightly moldy, likely due to long-term disuse, but fortunately, it could still be written upon.

As the moonlight spilled in, Chu Ming held the brush in his left hand and wrote rapidly on the paper.

He needed to write down what he had discovered tonight and send it to Steward Fang.

His left-handed handwriting had never been revealed, so Steward Fang would not recognize it.

The bailiff Yuan Chengji was the mole and the murderer, and behind him stood the tea stall owner of unknown strength, as well as the young girl, who was suspected to be the young mistress of an organization practicing some kind of bloodthirsty art.

He noted the characters and the two addresses in detail.

The bailiff's corpse and the rotting organs beneath the floorboards were the evidence he was leaving for Steward Fang.

Taking advantage of the night, Chu Ming hurried all the way back to the vicinity of Wheat Valley Alley.

He chose a deserted spot, vaulted onto a roof, and moved stealthily through the darkness until he reached the eaves of the wall near Wheat Valley Alley; Steward Fang was still there, though he had moved to a more concealed hiding spot.

Chu Ming crumpled the written evidence into a ball and flicked it with his finger toward where Fang Xiao was located.

"Hmm?" Fang Xiao was greatly alarmed and stood up abruptly. Just as he was about to give chase, an object flew toward his face. He quickly drew his saber to block it, but the paper ball merely tapped the blade lightly before falling straight down.

Fang Xiao had no time to investigate; he looked up at his surroundings, but there was no sign of anyone left.

"Agile movement, superb concealment skills—who on earth is this?!"

He looked down to search and found the projectile at the edge of the eaves.

He picked it up and opened it, his expression changing drastically.

At the end of West Street, in the small courtyard, the lights were still on. Xiao Shan was standing at the courtyard gate, waiting with a face full of anxiety and fear.

Suddenly, a figure walked out from the dim, distant path.

"Young Master!" Xiao Shan's eyes reddened, and she immediately ran to greet him.

Chu Ming paused for a moment, then looked at the little maid huddled in his arms and sighed inwardly.

"Is there any food left?" he asked softly.

"Yes, yes..."

Xiao Shan trotted into the main room and skillfully carried the food into the kitchen.

Before long, the aroma of food wafted out, and the reheated meal was brought back to the table.

Chu Ming watched quietly. Although the food had been reheated once, he could see that it had not been touched.

Xiao Shan had been waiting for him to return to eat all this time...

Chu Ming stood up, picked up the rice scoop, filled a bowl, and handed it to the little maid who had served him for over twenty days.

Xiao Shan was instantly flustered, her small face turning red. "You... Young Master, this is what Xiao Shan should do."

Without a word, she pushed the bowl of rice back to Chu Ming and added some fragrant, hot vegetables to his bowl. "Young Master, eat quickly."

In the flickering, dim yellow candlelight, Xiao Shan's cramped and thin figure was reflected. Chu Ming looked away and watched calmly.

If one were to ask who in this world was truly good to him, Steward Fang could only rank second, and as for the first...

If this little girl knew that I would be leaving for Baiyuan County in two days...

He picked up his chopsticks and placed two slices of cooked meat into her bowl. "Eat."

"You... Young Master... I don't like eating meat..." Xiao Shan was even more terrified, and at the same time, a bad premonition arose in her heart.

She didn't like meat?

Chu Ming sighed in his heart.

Xiao Shan was only a year older than him, also at an age where she was still growing.

In his past life, a girl of sixteen or seventeen was in the prime of her youth, and good food was one of their great pursuits.

It wasn't that Xiao Shan didn't like meat; it was that she wanted to save the meat for him.

"Eat. If you don't eat meat, you won't grow."

Chu Ming's expression turned slightly stern as his gaze swept over the little maid's body.

A healthy thinness is a form of beauty, but Xiao Shan's thinness was undoubtedly caused by malnutrition.

Xiao Shan was intimidated by his gaze and dared not speak again, instead carefully taking tiny bites of the diced meat, chewing and swallowing slowly with her small mouth.

The expression on her face looked pained, as if she truly disliked eating meat, yet her acting was stiff and clumsy.

It was as if she believed that as long as she ate slowly, the meat slices would remain, allowing her to naturally say: Xiao Shan really doesn't like it, Young Master should eat it.

Chu Ming watched for a moment before lowering his head to eat his own meal.

Halfway through the meal, Xiao Shan suddenly spoke up: "Young Master, when are you going to Baiyuan Academy?"

She set down her bowl and chopsticks, hiding her small hands under the table, and kept her head lowered. "Could you... could you take..."

Xiao Shan mustered all her courage, but in the end, she could not finish the sentence.

Chu Ming paused, looking at the rice and meat in Xiao Shan's bowl that had barely been touched, and his state of mind fluctuated slightly.

But the ripple lasted only an instant before he suppressed it.

He was going to Baiyuan County; it was neither suitable nor possible to take Xiao Shan with him.

Baiyuan Academy was a boarding institution; he couldn't bring her along.

Moreover, the waters in Baiyuan County were too deep—the Chu Family, the factions practicing blood arts, and many other unknown dangers...

He could barely guarantee his own safety, so how could he bear to see Xiao Shan jump into a pit of fire?

If one day his strength was sufficient, then he would think about keeping this little girl by his side.

"Eat your food. If I don't leave tomorrow, I'll leave the day after."

Chu Ming planned to stay for another day or two to wait for progress from Fang Xiao's side.

He spoke plainly, but to Xiao Shan, it felt like an icy blade piercing her heart.

Young Master was leaving tomorrow or the day after, and he wasn't taking her!

The crystalline tears in her eyes welled up like a spring, impossible to control.

"Does Young Master want more? I'll go get some more rice."

Xiao Shan clutched the rice basin, pressed her lips together with all her might, and rushed out of the main hall.

Messy footsteps, the sound of a wooden basin clattering as it fell, and the soft, mosquito-like sound of sobbing...

Chu Ming looked outside with an indifferent expression.

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse, with a night breeze gently blowing.

From the moment he arrived in this world, some things had already been destined.

He no longer had the mood to finish his meal, so he stood up and walked out of the main hall. He lingered for a moment outside the kitchen before returning to his own room.

He lit the lamp and read into the night.

A long while later, Xiao Shan returned with the rice. There were no traces of tears left on her face. She looked at the empty main hall and quietly tidied up the bowls and chopsticks.

Afterward, she boiled water and carried it to the front of Chu Ming's room.

"Young Master, the water is ready."

"Mm."

Willow Town, East Street, the home of Yuan Chengji.

Two figures entered quietly.

"It stinks!" One of them wore a Flying Fish Robe with an embroidered blade tucked at his waist.

The other had slightly graying hair and many wrinkles on his face.

"There's the smell of blood." Fang Xiao frowned slightly. "It's inside."

The two gently pushed open the wooden door.

Creak—

Moonlight shone in through the window, spilling across the floor.

Both were martial artists who had refined their blood and qi, possessing incredible eyesight, and they saw the situation in the room at almost the same moment.

A corpse leaned against the corner of the wall, its eyes wide open, as if it had seen something unbelievable before death.

Not far from the corpse was a pit in the ground, with a wooden board beside it.

"The bailiff, Yuan Chengji!" Shao Pengshu, a captain of the Criminal Defense Division, said in a low voice. "The information on that paper is true!"

"Not necessarily yet." Fang Xiao scanned the area, and after confirming there was no danger, he walked over to the corpse and crouched down to examine it.

Shao Pengshu turned his attention to the hidden pit.