The county magistrate was named Liu Qiantai.
When Chen Yixiao saw him, he went straight to the point:
"Magistrate Liu, I heard a Midnight Fiend has appeared in the city recently. What exactly is going on?"
Hearing what he had come about, Liu Qiantai concealed nothing and began explaining:
"Oh, so it's about that.
Yes, a few months ago, a sexual predator suddenly appeared in the city. He always struck during the midnight watch, from eleven at night to one in the morning by modern reckoning, and specifically targeted handsome men.
When these incidents first occurred, the men were drugged unconscious. When they woke again, they found themselves in dilapidated houses in secluded parts of the city, places hardly anyone visited.
They were stark naked and covered in traces of sexual activity, but apart from that, they felt no physical discomfort.
They couldn't bear the humiliation, and for the sake of saving face, none of them reported it to the authorities.
As a result, the predator committed several offenses in succession without anyone knowing.
About a month ago, a disheveled man ran into the county office and said he had been drugged and raped. Only then did we learn about it."
Chen Yixiao asked curiously:
"Everyone else chose to suffer in silence, so why did this man decide to report it?
Did something happen?"
Liu Qiantai replied, "Indeed.
This man was a scholar named Wan Ziqian. When he woke up, he discovered he had been drugged and raped, and his body was covered in traces of sexual activity. He was the sort who shut his ears to everything outside his window and devoted himself solely to the books of the sages.
He had only gone out that night because his mother was ill and he needed to fetch a doctor