A Yao at Work

Xu Xinnian frowned. "What do you want that for?"

To solve the case. Xu Qi'an said gravely, "I want to know what happened, so that even if I die, I'll know why. Otherwise, I won't accept it."

If he said outright that he wanted to solve the case, Xu Xinnian would probably think his brain had gone haywire, so Xu Qi'an put it differently.

After all, the original Xu Qi'an had been obstinate and stubborn by nature.

Xu Xinnian pondered for a moment, then said, "I've read the case file. I can tell you about it."

He had spent the past few days running around on behalf of the Xu family, but the case was too big, and no one dared help. With nowhere to turn, Xu Xinnian changed tack, trying to break the deadlock by recovering the tax silver.

Through the Xu family's existing connections, his ties to the academy, and some silver to smooth the way, Xu Xinnian bribed a clerk at the Capital Prefecture to copy the case file for him.

But he had no experience assessing or investigating criminal cases, so he had no choice but to give up.

Xu Qi'an raised a hand to interrupt him. "Write it down. There's no point telling me aloud."

Every detail of the case was in the text and needed to be weighed and chewed over. If he devoted part of his attention to listening, his brain wouldn't be able to think and analyze calmly.

In his previous life, Xu Qi'an's logical reasoning had always left others in the dust; he had been the standout of his year.

In the past, Xu Xinnian wouldn't have paid him any attention, but he remembered that when the two brothers parted this time, it might be forever.

He agreed to his elder brother's final request and said quietly, "Wait a moment."

He strode away.

The sound of his footsteps faded down the corridor. Xu Qi'an sat down with his back against the bars, his heart troubled and conflicted.

He had no confidence that he could turn things around. He wanted to solve the case, and it was also true that he couldn't accept his fate.

This was the only way he could think of to save himself. He had to try, to make one last dying struggle.

In modern criminal investigation, crime scene investigation, surveillance, and autopsies were three indispensable components.

No one had died in the missing tax silver case, and there were no surveillance cameras in ancient times. Trapped deep in prison, he had no way to access any of those three elements.

Fortunately, the case file could reconstruct the crime scene to some extent.

As he absorbed the original owner's memories, he forced himself to cast aside all negative emotions. Only a calm mind could think clearly and reason rigorously.

"Whether I live or die depends on what comes next," he murmured.

The time it took an incense stick to burn slowly passed. Xu Xinnian hurried back and handed him several sheets of xuan paper, the ink still wet.

"Time's up. I have to go." Xu Xinnian hesitated, then said, "Take care of yourself."

Xu Qi'an didn't reply. His eyes were already drawn to the writing on the paper.

Because it had been written in haste, the characters were in cursive script. If Xu Qi'an hadn't spent a few years at a private school, he wouldn't have recognized a damn one of those chicken scratches.

"Studying does come in handy. If the original owner had been illiterate, this would've been the end-cue the celebratory flowers," Xu Qi'an said self-mockingly.

This was what had happened in the missing tax silver case:

[At the second quarter of the mao hour three days ago (6:30 in the morning), Xu Pingzhi escorted a shipment of tax silver into the capital. At the first quarter of the chen hour, he reached Guangnan Street. Just after he crossed the bridge, a strange wind suddenly swept up, startling the horses, which plunged into the river beside the street.

Shortly afterward, a deafening explosion rang out. The river water blasted six zhang into the air, and turbid waves towered skyward.

The soldiers escorting the tax silver leaped into the river to search for it. They recovered only 1,215 taels of silver; the rest had vanished without wings.]

Besides the account of the incident, there were statements from passersby gathered by the Capital Prefecture, as well as statements from the soldiers who had taken part in the escort.

Among the long string of statements, Xu Qi'an noticed a phrase outlined in red cinnabar: a yao at work!

"A yao at work?!" Xu Qi'an's pupils contracted, and his heart sank to the bottom of a valley.

The rear hall of the Capital Prefecture.

After three consecutive days of rushing about, the three people chiefly responsible for the missing tax silver case had gathered together.

Chen Hanguang, the Capital Prefect, held a blue-and-white porcelain teacup, gently tapping the lid against its rim. His expression was grave.

The Principal Fourth Rank official, dressed in a scarlet robe embroidered with clouds and wild geese, sighed softly. "There are two days left. His Majesty ordered us to recover the tax silver before Xu Pingzhi is beheaded. We must make haste, my lords."

The first of the two people Prefect Chen addressed was a middle-aged man in a black uniform and a dark cloak. He had a high-bridged nose, slightly sunken eye sockets, and light brown pupils.

He was half Southern Barbarian by blood.

The other was an oval-faced girl in a yellow dress. Her brows and eyes were like a painting, her skin like congealed cream, and radiance shone in every glance.

She held a stalk of sugarcane. A small deerskin pouch and a bagua feng shui compass hung at her waist, and beneath her skirt were a pair of dainty boots embroidered with cloud patterns.

They swung back and forth.

These two were assisting with the case. The middle-aged man was called Li Yuchun and came from an organization greatly feared by Great Feng's officials: the Nightwatchers.

The Nightwatchers carried out investigations, arrests, interrogations, and other such activities. They also took part in gathering military intelligence and turning enemy generals.

They belonged neither to the Six Ministries nor to the military system.

They were the imperial family's intelligence organization, and also the executioner's blade hanging over the heads of all officials.

Every official in Great Feng had heard the saying: do no deeds that trouble your conscience by day, and you need not fear the Nightwatchers by night.

The girl in yellow was from the Bureau of Astronomy, and her status was no ordinary one: she was a disciple of the Bureau's Chief.

The middle-aged man, who had a silver gong embroidered on his chest, glanced at the chewed sugarcane scraps the girl in yellow had scattered across the floor by his feet and frowned. He turned his palm, and a current of air rolled out, gathering the scraps into one pile.

The middle-aged man nodded slightly, a flash of pleasure appearing on his face.

Only then did he reply to Prefect Chen with a grave expression. "This case is shrouded in clouds and fog and is exceedingly strange. Perhaps we're heading in the wrong direction."

"What makes you say that, Lord Li?" Prefect Chen frowned. Their analysis of the case had by now all but established that a yao had been at work and had made off with the tax silver.

"We don't have much time. What we should do now is capture the yao causing trouble as quickly as possible, not dwell on all this nonsense," Prefect Chen said.

In recent years, the state treasury had been empty, and disasters and famine had often struck various regions. One hundred and fifty thousand taels of tax silver was equivalent to a year's tax revenue for an ordinary county.

His Majesty's anger was understandable.

I didn't have any damn money to begin with, and now you've gone and dropped the ball on me. I'm furious!

Prefect Chen had taken on the case diligently, but the burden on his shoulders had recently left him unable to eat or sleep well.

The middle-aged man shook his head without arguing and changed the subject. "Has anything new come from Xu Pingzhi?"

Prefect Chen shook his head. "He's just a brute of a martial man. All he does is keep crying that he's innocent. He doesn't even know how the tax silver was lost."

The girl in yellow said coolly, "I observed his 'Qi.' He wasn't lying."

Li Yuchun and Prefect Chen nodded and said no more about him.

As the accused, Xu Pingzhi had been the first to be investigated and interrogated. His personal relationships, finances, and so on had all been thoroughly examined. Combined with the Bureau of Astronomy's Qi-Watching Technique, that had now cleared him of suspicion.

Of course, the tax silver had been lost, and Xu Pingzhi had been derelict in his duties. He couldn't escape a death sentence.

The middle-aged man and Prefect Chen wore solemn expressions, their hearts heavy.

Only the girl in yellow, who was under the least pressure, gnawed carefree on her sugarcane.

Just then, footsteps sounded, and a yamen runner hurried in. He held a small bamboo tube in his right hand and a butter-paper bag in his left, with steaming hot, large meat buns inside.

The runner first offered her the bamboo tube.

The girl in yellow didn't take it. Her bright eyes, as though filled with stars, glanced at the large meat buns.

Taking the hint, the runner switched the order. The girl in yellow happily began munching on a large meat bun. Only then did she take the bamboo tube, draw out a slip of paper, and unfold it to read.

"My people say they observed no Yao Qi in the river along a stretch of twenty li, and there were no traces on the banks either."

"Smack!"

The oppressive atmosphere finally exploded. Prefect Chen slammed the table in fury, his face livid. "Where could it have taken 150,000 taels of silver? It had to come ashore, it had to! It's been three days, and we haven't found a single trace of it."

"Damn it! What yao dared intercept Great Feng's tax silver? I'll see its body and spirit destroyed!"

If the tax silver couldn't be recovered, he would have to take the blame. The emperor wouldn't care whether he had been wronged; once his backside was in this seat, he had to shoulder the blame.

That was how officialdom worked. You climbed up through bitter toil, but falling was easy.

The middle-aged Li Yuchun let out a breath and returned to their earlier topic. "Could it be that we're investigating in the wrong direction? Perhaps a yao wasn't responsible."

Prefect Chen looked at him and took a deep breath, suppressing his anger. "If it wasn't a yao, where did the yao wind come from? The silver went into the river, so how did it vanish into thin air? How did the water blast several zhang high and shake both banks until they cracked?"

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