A rotten bastard

Emperor Yuanjing looked at Wei Yuan and nodded, asking, "What is it?"

Wei Yuan asked, "In the memorial sent back by the Qingzhou Provincial Administration Commission, is there any explicit statement that this poem was written by the Provincial Administration Commissioner Yang Gong?"

What did he mean by that? The seasoned officials figured it out.

Emperor Yuanjing did not answer, but instead asked, "What's the problem?"

The memorial did not explicitly state that the poem was written by Yang Gong; the wording was as follows. "Yang Gong ordered all officials in Qingzhou to erect a warning stele and inscribe an inscription to warn the world."

This was a clever way of phrasing, neither explicit nor disclaiming. In Emperor Yuanjing's view, this was tantamount to tacit agreement.

"This poem was not written by Yang Gong, but by someone else. I believe that once this poem is circulated, it will surely become famous throughout the land, and for the individual, it will be a rare and precious opportunity to gain fame. It should not be monopolized by Yang Gong," Wei Yuan said.

"Oh? When did Qingzhou produce such a talent?" Emperor Yuanjing smiled, intrigued, and stared at Wei Yuan: "However, how did you know?"

It wasn't written by Yang Gong, but by someone else. Qingzhou is indeed a place that produces many talented people and is a major province for imperial examinations. The officials thought to themselves, and as Emperor Yuanjing asked the question, they turned their gaze to Wei Yuan.

Everyone was wondering how Wei Yuan knew that the poem was not written by Yang Gong.

"He is not from Qingzhou either." Wei Yuan shook his head.

Emperor Yuanjing responded with a questioning "hmm".

"Furthermore, I know that this poem was not written in Qingzhou, but was published more than a month ago. Nor was it written by a person from Qingzhou," Wei Yuan added.

At this, the ministers also murmured in confusion, but the censor who had said, "This is the true poetry of the Great Feng," questioned:

"Duke Wei, don't keep His Majesty in suspense."

He's a seasoned troll; he always throws accusations around.

It appeared more than a month ago. It was not made by anyone from Qingzhou. A perceptive official had a sudden thought and began to suspect something.

For a moment, the expressions on the faces of the officials became strange.

Wei Yuan glanced at Emperor Yuanjing, whose face had suddenly darkened, and said calmly, "This poem was written by Xu Qi'an, the gong-bearer of the night watchman 'Nightwatchers office. The original is still on display in the office. Heh, if you gentlemen wish to appreciate it, I may borrow it."

Sure enough, his hushed conversation began again:

"This child is very talented; it's a real pity he doesn't study."

"Hmph, that Xu Pingzhi is just a vulgar brute, short-sighted."

"If only Xu Qi'an could get into the Imperial Academy!"

By this point, even those officials in the court who disliked Xu Qi'an couldn't help but sigh with regret. How wonderful it would be if such poetic talent belonged to a scholar, especially one from the Imperial Academy.

No one questioned Wei Yuan's lie, not even his political enemies. Wei Yuan couldn't and had no reason to lie about this matter, lest he lose face for no reason.

The official looked embarrassed, lowered his head, and remained silent, keeping a low profile.

Emperor Yuanjing chuckled and said, "What is the meaning of bringing this up?"

Wei Yuan chuckled and said, "Naturally, it's to help my subordinates gain fame."

Emperor Yuanjing snorted coldly, but said nothing.

Although he disliked Xu Qi'an, as the emperor, he wouldn't hold a grudge over a mere copper gong. Besides, there were plenty of people in the court whom Emperor Yuanjing disliked.

Of course, if the little gong makes a mistake or angers him, that's another matter.

Clear Cloud Mountain, Cloud Deer Academy.

A wild goose flew in from the horizon, flapping its wings and heading straight for Clear Cloud Mountain. It swept over courtyards and pavilions, and in the exquisite little pavilion on the cliff, in the second-floor observation hall, it was easily caught by a hand.

In the distorted light, the cloud goose transformed into an exquisitely crafted paper goose, lifelike in its appearance.

"Yang Ziqian has sent back a book." Li Mubai turned around with a smile and told the two great scholars and two terrible chess players who were playing chess in the room.

Zhang Shen and Chen Tai were engrossed in their fight, not even looking up, when he casually asked, "What are you writing?"

Li Mubai unfolded the letter and read it with a smile on his face. Before long, the smile on his face gradually disappeared, and then his expression gradually became ferocious.

"Shameless! Utterly shameless!" Li Mubai suddenly grabbed the letter and roared.

"That old scoundrel Yang Gong, shameless and despicable, is unworthy of being a scholar. I, Li Mubai, am ashamed of him, utterly ashamed of him."

The sudden roar startled the two great scholars, Zhang Shen and Chen Tai.

"What's wrong now? A letter from Ziqian can make you this angry?" Zhang Shen shook his head helplessly and mocked:

"Chunjing, your temperament is a bit lacking; you're quick-tempered and easily angered, which is why you lost to Wei Yuan back then. Look at Wei Yuan, he's calm and composed, as immovable as a mountain."

The Confucian scholar Chen Tai shook his head. "Chunjing's personality is indeed a bit impatient. Let me see the letter."

Li Mubai was beyond furious; his heart was filled with the color of lemons. He snorted angrily and threw the letter onto the chessboard.

Zhang Shen reached out and picked it up, then read it intently. Yang Gong and Yang Ziqian wrote in the letter that he had met with the governor's entourage in Qingzhou and had seen Xu Qi'an.

Yang Gong lavishly praised Xu Qi'an, calling him the greatest poet of the Great Feng Dynasty in five hundred years. As he continued praising him, Zhang Shen sensed something was amiss, as it seemed to have a hint of boasting and a sense of being obliged by someone who had taken advantage of his kindness.

Further down, there is a poem:

You eat your food and labor, the people's blood and sweat. The common people are easily oppressed, but Heaven is hard to deceive. -- Xu Qi'an (Master Yang Gong)

The letter also stated that it was taken from the inscription on the stele.

With a deafening roar, the cliff face trembled violently, rocks tumbled down, and the air emanating from the pavilion vibrated. Zhang Shen and Chen Tai's roars echoed throughout the entire Cloud Deer Academy.

"That old scoundrel Yang Gong is unfit to be a teacher. I suggest he be expelled from the Cloud Deer Academy."

"One farewell poem is fine, but this one also belongs to him? I refuse to accept this!!"

"I'm so angry! I'm so angry! He even wrote a letter to brag about it!"

After having a lunch with Yunzhou flavors at the post station, Xu Qi'an took a cold bath and felt refreshed.

She returned to her room wearing a white undergarment, lifted the lid of the teapot, and wisps of smoke rose, transforming into a stunningly beautiful woman with puffed-out cheeks:

"You stinky man!"

Xu Qi'an said helplessly, "I was going to let you leave, but I've changed my mind now."

Su Su immediately changed her attitude, coaxing sweetly, "Master~"

Xu Qi'an squinted, scrutinizing her.

"Master, what are you looking at?" Su Su blinked her eyes, making a seductive gesture as if inviting him to take her.

"I'm wondering how Ning Caichen did it," Xu Qi'an said bluntly.

Who is Ning Caichen?

He was a scholar, and he fell in love with a bewitching woman.

"That enchantress must be after his life essence," Su Su said angrily.

"Why?"

"Because I am a seductive charm, I crave a man's vital essence."

"How did you become so greedy?" Xu Qi'an narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice, "Tell me honestly, and I'll decide whether to release you based on the severity of your sins."

"Suck it with your mouth." Su Su feigned innocence, "They only suck the most heinous bandits, they don't kill innocent people."

"Where to suck? Hmm, I'm just curious about Mei's methods."

"Suction head."

"Which head?" Xu Qi'an's eyes flashed with a sharp light.

Su Su looked somewhat confused, but still answered truthfully, her slender finger poking between her eyebrows. "Here."

The glint in Xu Qi'an's eyes vanished instantly, and he said in a deep voice, "I've thought it over. You've committed numerous evils, and I can't let you go so easily. Go back."

Bang!

Cover the wine pot.

"What a waste of time." Xu Qi'an muttered as he got up, left the room, and knocked on Song Tingfeng's door.

"What is it?" Song Tingfeng had originally planned to take a nap and recharge, and he had even taken his pants off when Xu Qi'an knocked on the door.

"The governor is not here, but we cannot let our guard down. I plan to try to decipher the code left by Zhou Min. You and Guangxiao are both experienced Nightwatchers, and I believe your opinions will be helpful to my deduction."

Upon hearing what the famous detective Xu Ningyan said, Song Tingfeng felt both honored and ashamed. After all, as a regular Nightwatchers, his main job was brute force rather than deduction.

"Ningyan, I'm actually not very good at solving cases."

"Have you ever heard the saying?" Xu Qi'an asked seriously.

Song Tingfeng shook his head.

Xu Qi'an said, "Some casual remarks cleared up my doubts, and a strange impulse made me continue to pursue it. I'm paying extra attention to your every move."

Song Tingfeng asked warily, "Why are you watching my every move? What do you want to do?"

No, it just slipped out.

Xu Qi'an changed the subject. "By the way, what are your thoughts on Miss Su's matter?"

As he spoke, he stared intently at Song Tingfeng, hoping to see him flee in shame.

Upon hearing the name of Miss Su Su, Song Tingfeng felt a pang of pain in his heart and said in a deep voice, "It will be my lifelong regret if I cannot find her in this lifetime."

She's in my room. This guy still hasn't realized it? This doesn't make sense. As soon as she's paired with Zhu Guangxiao, Su Su's scheme will be exposed. Are they all hiding it from each other? Why?

Is it because I am more trustworthy? Xu Qi'an was suddenly moved.

"By the way, Ningyan, don't tell anyone about Su Su's matter, including Guangxiao," Song Tingfeng warned.

"Don't worry, I'm very tight-lipped." Xu Qi'an smiled brightly and said, "By the way, is it because I'm more trustworthy than Guangxiao?"

"No, why would you have such a misconception?" Song Tingfeng scrutinized him strangely. "Because you have even less of a bottom line when it comes to matters of the heart, so you're not afraid of being found out. Anyway, you can't be any worse than me."

"We all went to the Imperial Academy of Music together, so why am I the one with no bottom line? Just because I slept with Fuxiang and you slept with someone of average looks?" Xu Qi'an Qi Ingestion, thinking to himself, "I neither molest nor have a mother complex, so how am I without bottom line?"

"Every time I tell my colleagues that you sleep with Fuxiang every night without paying, they all curse: 'Damn it, what a scoundrel!'"

"."

The two knocked on Zhu Guangxiao's door together. Song Tingfeng frowned and said, "What's wrong with you? You look so listless. I felt something was off earlier."

Zhu Guangxiao opened his mouth, but hesitated, and finally looked at Xu Qi'an.

Why are you looking at me like that? Do you think I'm a jerk too? Xu Qi'an rolled his eyes angrily.

The three of them went together to the room where Zhou Min's belongings were stored. After carefully examining them for a long time, Song Tingfeng gave up. "We've looked at these things countless times."

Zhu Guangxiao looked at Xu Qi'an: "Does Ningyan think there are clues related to the code in the relics?"

"Do you remember how I solved the riddle and found the code?" Xu Qi'an paced around the relics, carefully imparting his knowledge:

"Putting yourself in someone else's shoes is an indispensable part of reasoning. Zhou Min's case is different from Sang Bo's case. At least there were clues to follow in Sang Bo's case, and you could just follow the trail."

"But there are absolutely no other clues in this case; the only clue is deciphering the code left by Zhou Min."

Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao nodded slightly, seemingly lost in thought.

Having experienced the Sangbo case, they had gained some insights into solving cases, but they were still in the stage of simply imitating others. If a similar case occurred again, the two could imitate Xu Qi'an's approach and try to solve it.

But once the focus of the case changes, they lose their bearings.

In a martial arts novel, Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao would still be practicing sword manuals, while Xu Qi'an would be able to defeat opponents without using any moves, and would have a sword in his heart even without a sword in his hand.

"Don't just nod; share your thoughts."

Song Tingfeng said uncertainly, "The coded message was left so that we could decipher it. The clue is actually in a very conspicuous and easy-to-find place. It's just a matter of whether we can find it?"

"Very good, Blind Monk, you've found the key point," Xu Qi'an teased.

Then, he unfolded the paper, looked at the two sets of codes, and said, "These are two sets of numbers, in the form of codes. They must correspond to a codebook. If we find the codebook, we can solve the puzzle."

Since a single string or several strings of numbers are meaningless, the meaning lies not in the numbers themselves, but in the information they represent.

There must be a codebook involved.

"Except for the word "mo", the others are all numbers. The clues will definitely not be placed in the Kanyu map in the same way, so where are there a lot of numbers?" Zhu Guangxiao asked doubtfully.

"There are too many clues with numbers; there are numbers in the book, aren't there?" Song Tingfeng said.

"Great, an excellent conjecture." Xu Qi'an's eyes lit up. "Let's assume these two sets of codes exist in a certain book. Following our previous line of thought, which book is the easiest for us to obtain?"

Song Tingfeng felt his suggestion had been adopted, and he analyzed with high spirits. "The Three Character Classic, the Great Feng Code, the Yunzhou Gazetteer?"

These are all books that can be easily found in Yunzhou. The Three Character Classic is an introductory text, and each state and government office has a copy of the Great Feng. The Yunzhou Gazetteer is the "historical book" of Yunzhou, and it is also very common in government offices and post stations.

The three of them first had the courier bring them the books, but they didn't immediately start looking through them, because there was still a problem to solve.

Zhu Guangxiao asked, "So what does the number of characters mean, and how do we find it?"

"When men lose a lot of protein, their brains will temporarily malfunction." Xu Qi'an looked at him and said seriously, "At this time, they need rest or to replenish their protein."

"What's the meaning?"

"What I mean is, these word counts either represent page numbers or hint at specific word positions. It's the simplest reasoning," Xu Qi'an replied.

Song Tingfeng opened the Three Character Classic. "It's definitely not the page number, because the Three Character Classic is only that thick."

As he spoke, he flipped through the Three Character Classic: "The 162nd character is 'righteousness' (义), and the 347th character is 'emotion' (情)."

"The other codes have also been deciphered. The two sets of codes given by Zhou Min, when put together, mean: 'Silent human nature and emotions.'"

"Okay, that's wrong."

While Song Tingfeng's interpretation failed, Xu Qi'an and Zhu Guangxiao were also interpreting two other books.

Zhu Guangxiao said, "Mercedes-Benz Deepwater East China. Okay, that's wrong too."

The two looked at Xu Qi'an, who said dejectedly, "Mo's going to be wasted."