Li Hanlin was no fool. Watching everything unfold, he had also begun to understand...
The case was solved!
Especially when the Golden Crow eldest prince flushed after eating the meat, the answer had become perfectly clear.
The problem lay in the meat!
Or rather, the problem lay in the interaction between the meat and the Golden Crow Clan.
Many things in the world nourished or counteracted one another. Something might be perfectly harmless for everyone else to eat, yet kill you if you ate it.
In Lin Ke's previous life, fish mint, cilantro, and the like had been typical examples.
"Hmm... I already know the answer..." Li Hanlin nodded slightly, looking at Lin Ke standing before him, and said no more.
Seeing that Li Hanlin had fallen silent, Lin Ke continued to stare at him.
The people eating nearby also quieted down, their burning gazes turning toward Li Hanlin.
Li Hanlin immediately felt a mountain of pressure bearing down on him.
A moment later, everyone withdrew their gazes and resumed eating, chatting as they went.
"Oh, right, Chen Pingping, didn't your Hanging Mountain Storytelling Shop tell a story called something like The Ungrateful Wolf?"
"Not quite. This old man did read a book about a county magistrate during the Spring and Autumn period who encountered a difficult case and sought someone's help in reporting it. Once the case was resolved, he crossed the river and tore down the bridge behind him."
"Hah! If you ask me, someone like that isn't even as good as the Demon Beasts I slaughter!"
"I'd say that no matter how stingy our proprietress is, she'd never do something like that. Isn't that right, boss?"
"Of course! The matchmaker knows I've always drawn a clear line between kindness and grudges. I'm no ungrateful wolf who tears down the bridge after crossing the river..."
Everyone ate and chatted with gusto.
"Enough!"
Li Hanlin snorted coldly.
Constable Xing immediately sprinted over and dropped to his knees before Li Hanlin, frantically clasping his hands in salute. "A great man overlooks a petty man's faults, a great man overlooks a petty man's faults... Please, just let these lowborn folk be."
Anyone with eyes could see that Constable Xing was protecting Wang Lin and the others.
Li Hanlin glanced at Constable Xing, then turned his gaze back to Lin Ke. "I will report your matter truthfully to my superiors."
"Whether the Golden Crow Clan listens when the time comes is beyond my control... With matters settled, I shall take my leave!"
With that, Li Hanlin cried out, "Swift winds ride rolling clouds, ten thousand miles in a single breath!"
An unseen power descended, and a layer of cloud wrapped around Li Hanlin's body. In an instant, he vanished.
Everyone fell silent for a moment, then burst into cheers.
"Hahaha! Xiaolin, you've made a nice haul this time!"
"That's my good disciple! Come, give your master a kiss as a reward!"
"Judging by Young Master Lin's bearing, this old man believes he is destined for greatness!"
"Xiaolin, if you get a reward, the restaurant takes a four percent cut-no, fifty percent! That's the house rule. Bai Zhantang knows it too."
"Ah! Boss, why are you pinching me?!"
"Good lord, that was close! Lucky old Xing here has some pull, or Lord Li wouldn't have let you lot off."
The group laughed and clamored, all celebrating for Lin Ke.
Solve the case in five days?
No need!
In just three short days, a baffling case with a thousand tangled threads and no obvious place to begin had been solved!
It had to be said that everyone present admired Lin Ke.
"Lin Ke, how on earth did you think of all these methods?" At the dining table, Wang Lin voiced everyone's thoughts.
Although nearly everyone here held servile status, each possessed considerable "professional skills."
Those skills stemmed from their many years of experience and everything they had lived through.
They were difficult for others to understand, much less replicate.
Yet now they had discovered that a boy who had only just turned sixteen possessed similarly impressive professional skills.
They could hardly help being curious.
How had a mere relative of a lowborn Laborer, a boy who also held servile status, acquired such abilities?
Lin Ke smiled faintly and offered the explanation he had prepared long ago. "I learned to read as a child. Afterward, I often stared at the plum blossoms at home... Looking at them always gave me a sense of peace."
"It was as though nothing in the world had anything to do with me, yet at those moments, I could also think many, many things through."
"For example, I created the tree diagram by imitating the branches of the plum tree."
"The plum tree's roots draw nourishment from the earth. They are the source. With that source, strands of nourishment flow into the branches, forming a flourishing tree."
"Perhaps this is also cause and effect. Without a cause, there is no effect; where there is an effect, there must be a cause."
When Lin Ke finished, everyone fell silent.
Only after a while did Wang Lin let out a startled cry. "Such strong Buddhist affinity! Don't tell me you're cut from the same cloth as those bald donkeys?"
Lin Ke gave her a speechless look. "The Buddhist Registry is part of the noble registry. Master, aren't you afraid of being condemned by tongue and pen?"
"Tch." Wang Lin curled her lip.
Butcher Zhang spoke up beside them. "Xiaolin, I've heard of something like what happened to you. Isn't it called Dao enlightenment?"
"This old man has heard such stories too." Chen Pingping from the Hanging Mountain Storytelling Shop-the elderly father-looked thoughtful. "Opportunities for Dao enlightenment are exceedingly rare. Sometimes they come from a river, sometimes from a mountain. In any event, they are extraordinarily difficult to encounter."
"All right, all right, enough of that. Eat and drink your fill, everyone. I'll give you twenty percent off today's meal!" The proprietress waved a hand.
"Twenty percent off?! Weren't you treating us?"
"You damned fatty! Don't come to my Entertainment House for dancing and music ever again!"
"Boss, didn't you say it was free when Lord Li was here...?"
Everyone dissolved into a noisy uproar, and Lin Ke watched happily.
Although everyone here held servile status, this place was warmer than the Lin Residence, where every visitor was a Grand Confucian.
Amid the cheerful chaos, Lin Ke smiled and raised his cup of milk toward Butcher Zhang beside him. "By the way, Brother Zhang, where did you get this meat?"
"Kuiwater Spirit Ox meat? There's been loads of it over in the Eastern Sea Circuit these past couple of days. Someone's selling it cheap!" Butcher Zhang smiled. "Dirt cheap! Plenty of restaurants in the Imperial Capital bought some, and I did too."
"Loads?" Lin Ke's hand froze around his raised cup. He asked again, "By the way, the Golden Crow Clan supposedly lives in the Sun Realm in the eastern sea, right?"
"That's right." Butcher Zhang took a sip of wine. "If those great Golden Crow birds weren't as scarce as dragons and phoenixes, they could probably be one of the Six Clans!"
The Six Clans were the six most powerful races of intelligent beings apart from humanity.
Not only did they have enormous populations, but those vast populations also produced countless powerful individuals, talented people, and pioneers.
"Loads of Kuiwater Spirit Oxen... Brother Zhang, you mean a creature as powerful as a Golden Crow can actually be counteracted by the flesh of something like a Kuiwater Spirit Ox?" Lin Ke had spotted something puzzling. "When did beasts like the Kuiwater Spirit Ox first appear?"
"They've existed since the dawn of antiquity..." Butcher Zhang froze as he said it.
Lin Ke gazed deeply at the food on the table, his thoughts drifting.
Indeed, the Little Golden Crow Prince's case was solved. It was merely an accident, a coincidence in which the Little Golden Crow Prince had mistakenly eaten Kuiwater Spirit Ox meat and suffered its counteracting effects.
But...
As a mighty clan that ranged across heaven and earth, entrusted by the Sacred Emperor's Decree to shepherd the sun, how had the Golden Crow Clan failed, from the dawn of antiquity until now, to discover that Kuiwater Spirit Oxen could counteract them?
And why had Kuiwater Spirit Ox meat entered the market precisely when the Little Golden Crow Prince, Jinganglang, arrived in the Imperial Capital?
This isn't something I can meddle in right now... Lin Ke instantly realized what terrifying waves surged beneath this supposedly coincidental case.
Unfortunately, he was still an insignificant figure whose words carried little weight, and his body was weak. It was not yet time for him to consider such matters.
"I hope that once Jingang reports the information, the Golden Crow Emperor and the Golden Crow Matriarch will notice..."
Lin Ke lowered his eyes and began savoring the rich milk in his cup.
One's position and abilities determined what one could do!
For now, the most important thing was to lie low and grow stronger. Everything else could wait.
"Screee!!!"
A piercing cry rang out. The Golden Crow eldest prince Jingang's true form rapidly shrank, then descended into a blazing palace and came before his mother.
"Mother, has Father still not emerged from seclusion?" Jingang bowed, then looked worriedly at the Golden Crow Matriarch seated in the place of honor.
"A breakthrough isn't so easy." The Golden Crow Matriarch waved a hand, her eyes fixed on Jingang. "Has your youngest brother's case been resolved?"
Jingang immediately recounted everything that had happened and presented the Kuiwater Spirit Ox meat.
After listening, the Golden Crow Matriarch did not fly into the rage Jingang had imagined. Instead, she hefted the bloody raw meat in her hand, narrowing her eyes as she murmured:
"The Demon Department and the War Department have both begun laying their plans? I wonder whether this performance of mine can buy us a little more time and opportunity..."
"The Hundred Schools Department has close ties with the Works Department. His Majesty the Sage Emperor has beaten the Six Clans into submission. The two departments of spirits and monsters, gods and ghosts are of little use. It's only the Daoist and Buddhist Schools whose intentions remain unclear..."
"Such an enormous whirlpool, so many forces..."
"...Lin Xuanji, what exactly are you trying to do?"
At that thought, the Golden Crow Matriarch suddenly asked, "Jingang, you said the person who solved this case was named..."
"Lin Ke?"
Before you continue