Great Wei Judicial Commissioner

Late that night, Lin Ke returned to the courtyard and sat beneath the plum tree.

The case was closed.

Whether or not the matter was truly over, at least the Little Golden Crow Prince's death had been confirmed as an accident.

As for whether someone had orchestrated that accident or fanned the flames behind the scenes, that was no longer something Lin Ke needed to worry about.

Crack!

Crack!

Beneath the plum tree, Lin Ke began chopping wood.

He did not know why. Perhaps it was the "inertia" left by this body named "Lin Ke."

Beside the plum tree, Lin Ke always felt a sense of peace.

Chopping wood beneath it brought an even deeper feeling of quiet and serenity.

And the wood he chopped had gone from calf-thick logs to pieces as thin as chopsticks.

There was no helping it. He only had so much firewood, and at the rate he chopped, he could never use it all.

So he often chopped the same pieces over and over.

"Let's see what comes after the case is closed..."

"Any reward will do, as long as it isn't more trouble."

The night passed without incident.

The next day was the fourth day since the Little Golden Crow Prince's death.

That day, Lin Ke returned to his usual routine: reading, grinding tofu, and doing odd jobs.

But even by evening, neither Li Hanlin nor Constable Xing had appeared.

It was not until the fifth day after the incident.

At dusk, after finishing his work at Wang Lin's place, Lin Ke stepped into the Tongfu Grand Restaurant and saw Li Hanlin, whom he had been "longing for day and night" for two whole days.

He's here!

He hurried over and stopped before Li Hanlin, his face sporting an endearingly guileless smile. "Lord Li, you're here! Have a seat. I'll bring you some tea."

Li Hanlin glanced at Lin Ke. "How could a mere old ungrateful wolf like me, Li Hanlin, possibly have the esteemed Young Master Lin, Divine Detective serve me tea?"

"Hehe, the shopkeeper and the others were only joking with you!" Lin Ke's honest, simple smile captured a little of Butcher Zhang's essence.

"They'd better have been." Li Hanlin drained his tea irritably, then his expression changed, and he began shaking his head and sighing. "Ah, Young Master Lin, I did my best."

Lin Ke's heart tightened. He abandoned the act and asked with a slight frown, "Did the Golden Crow Clan refuse to close the case? Or was there some other reason?"

"Neither..." Li Hanlin did not mind that Lin Ke had failed to refill his tea. He poured himself another cup and said in a rather grave tone, "I fought as hard as I could, but I still couldn't secure a cash reward for you!"

Lin Ke: ?

Lin Ke's fist clenched instantly. He almost failed to resist the urge to punch him. "...Then thank you for fighting so hard, Lord Li."

Li Hanlin looked perfectly calm, as though this were only natural. "Of course, you aren't on the noble registry, so you can't receive an official post either."

"I know." Lin Ke nodded.

The noble registry was one reason. The other was that he had not even reached the Confucian Scholar Realm, so naturally he could not receive an official post.

"Don't get upset." Li Hanlin took a sip of tea. "I didn't receive any reward or promotion either."

"Not even you?" Lin Ke raised his eyebrows.

There had been twelve cases altogether, large and small, with the Little Golden Crow Prince's death being the most important.

Yet solving all those cases had brought no reward?

Looking at the melancholy Li Hanlin, Lin Ke thought, A widow keeping watch over an empty bed-no one up above!

Either someone had snatched the credit for his achievements, or someone did not want him promoted!

Whichever it was, it seemed Li Hanlin could only swallow it?

But remembering that the case was finally over, Lin Ke smiled faintly. "Lord Li, why be so downhearted? These matters might not earn you a promotion just yet, but once you rise through the ranks, they'll all be capital for building your reputation!"

"Haha." Li Hanlin actually joked back. "Is this your roundabout way of comforting me? Building a reputation? Mine certainly isn't spreading as quickly as yours, esteemed Young Master Lin."

Lin Ke looked puzzled at Li Hanlin's words.

Li Hanlin continued, "Oh, right. From now on, I can't call you Young Master Lin or Brother Lin anymore. I'll have to call you Judicial Commissioner Lin!"

"Judicial Commissioner?" Lin Ke asked in confusion. "What do you mean, Lord Li? You've lost me."

Li Hanlin leisurely lifted his teacup and took a sip.

"After we finished here the night before last, I rushed to headquarters to report to my superiors. Yesterday, they told me to bring over the Little Golden Crow Prince's body. Then they gave me a memorial."

As he spoke, Li Hanlin took a memorial from his sleeve and handed it to Lin Ke.

Lin Ke accepted it and examined it carefully.

The memorial was bright red, with four characters written in the center of its cover.

"Commendation and recognition!"

Lin Ke slowly opened it, and after reading its contents, he could not help smiling.

It turned out that because he had helped the authorities solve so many longstanding cases at once, the Imperial Capital headquarters had decided to grant Lin Ke a title.

In the future, cases handled by the capital's eastern prefecture office could all be brought to Lin Ke for help, while his deeds would also be publicized throughout the Imperial Capital!

Of course, there was a great heap of nonsense in between, about remembering the Sacred Dynasty's benevolence and so on.

At the end, it stated that because Lin Ke was underage, he could not serve as the Prefect of the Capital, so they had given him a designation...

Great Wei Judicial Commissioner!

Great Wei Judicial Commissioner?

Lin Ke's eyelid twitched. If his memories of his previous life served him right, wasn't a judicial commissioner a Principal Fourth Rank official?

The Capital Prefect's General Office had actually given him the title of Judicial Commissioner?

Although there was an explanation at the end, Lin Ke understood it to mean one thing: Advisor!

An Advisor to the Judicial Commissioner!

What was an Advisor?

If they did not specify a salary, that clearly meant they would not pay him!

This was fucking blatant recruitment of free labor, plus a sucker who could take the fall for free whenever they needed one.

That was an Advisor!

After reading it, Lin Ke slowly closed the memorial and set it down.

Li Hanlin smiled broadly. "Well, Judicial Commissioner Lin? What do you think?"

Lin Ke considered it, then said calmly, "Nice handwriting!"

Undeterred, Li Hanlin pressed him. "Don't you have anything else to say? Headquarters will start publicizing your deeds tomorrow, you know. Your name will spread across the entire Imperial Capital! Don't you have anything to say? I need something to report back!"

"My thanks to the Sacred Dynasty and the lords of the Capital Prefecture Office!" Lin Ke was speechless, but he still had to show the proper gratitude.

Li Hanlin waited a long while, but nothing more followed. He smiled and said, "Then I'll go back and report. See you."

By the time Lin Ke looked over, Li Hanlin was already gone.

Just then, Bai Zhantang came out with a cleaning rag draped over his shoulder.

He saw that Lin Ke had taken the seat at the table where Li Hanlin had been sitting, with something resembling a book placed before him.

Bai Zhantang sauntered over, sat casually beside Lin Ke, and picked up the booklet to read.

Thirty seconds later!

"Great Wei Judicial Commissioner!"

Bai Zhantang's shout rang through the Tongfu Grand Restaurant, loud enough to be heard even at the Song-Listening Entertainment House next door.

"Shopkeeper! Shopkeeper, come out and look!"

The first person to appear at the restaurant's entrance was Butcher Zhang!

The matchmaker and Bingbing came next, followed by Wang Lin, then Chen Pingping and his son.

They had been watching what was happening outside all along. They all remembered that today was the final day for catching the culprit, and that Li Hanlin would bring the results today.

Seeing how quickly they had all come, Lin Ke felt a surge of warmth.

"What are you yelling for?" Shopkeeper Tong emerged from the kitchen wearing an apron, wiping with a cleaning rag as he walked.

He paused when he saw so many people outside, looking around as he approached.

But when he saw Lin Ke sitting quietly at the table drinking water, with Li Hanlin no longer beside him, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Still, he was puzzled. Li Hanlin had not looked very happy when he arrived. How strange!

Shopkeeper Tong smiled. "Everyone's here! Come in and sit down."

Everyone entered the restaurant and found seats.

Shopkeeper Tong then turned to Bai Zhantang and asked, "What were you howling like a ghost about just now?"

"Shopkeeper, look at this!" As he spoke, Bai Zhantang handed the red memorial to Shopkeeper Tong.

Shopkeeper Tong accepted the memorial, opened it, and began reading.

Finally, he tossed it aside. "They're treating you as free slave labor? Then what am I supposed to do? I finally managed to recruit some free slave labor, and now they're going to..."

"Ahem." Lin Ke looked at Shopkeeper Tong with a warm smile.