There are two counties outside of the capital, Taikang and Changle.

Song Tingfeng opened the case file and Xu Qi'an and Zhu Guangxiu stood on either side, staring at the file together.

The contents of the file were as follows:

There is a large Huangshan mountain to the north of Taikang County, with a main peak over a thousand meters high and a mountain range spanning more than ten miles, containing rich limestone.

It supports hundreds and thousands of lime craftsmen in the surrounding areas.

Lime craftsmen are those who extract and process limestone.

At the beginning of the year, a monster appeared in the Huangshan area's rivers, often coming ashore to swallow people alive. Many lime craftsmen have already died in the monster's mouth.

"Lack of detailed information..." Xu Qi'an, an experienced criminal investigator, made a judgment after reading the file.

This should be a newly reported case, so we need to investigate and improve the case file.

Li Yuchun looked over the three of them and spoke solemnly, "Xu Ningyan, tighten your sword two inches higher and adjust the position of the copper gong to the left by an inch."

...Are you a lunatic? You have obsessive-compulsive disorder, don't you? Xu Qi'an said, "Yes!"

As they walked out of the Chunfeng Hall, Xu Qi'an suddenly felt like he had stepped on a lump on the ground. He naturally bent down to pick it up, but suddenly froze.

The silver...was heavier.

"Let's go," Song Tingfeng turned his head and urged.

"Oh, okay." Xu Qi'an put the broken silver in his pocket and followed.

...

In the hall, Li Yuchun took out the money bag from the box and hung it around his waist. As he was about to leave, he suddenly frowned.

He opened the money bag and poured out a pile of broken silver, counted it carefully, and immediately furrowed his brows. "I lost three taels of silver..."

As someone who was teased by his colleagues for "not getting along with money," three taels of silver were enough to make him feel distressed all day.

Three catchers from the capital's yamen were seen outside the Nightwatcher's yamen, all of them were dressed similarly to Xu Qi'an's catchers, with black as the base color, and red edges on the collar and cuffs.

The emblem embroidered on their chests was not the character "catch," but a majestic mythical beast, the Bi'an.

One Qi refining stage and two Jing refining stages... Xu Qi'an observed the three of them calmly.

The woman in charge clasped her fists and said, "Three lords, I am Lv Qing. I have ordered someone to bring the horses to the city gate. Let's talk on the carriage."

Riding a horse is for travel, while taking a carriage is for providing a space to discuss matters without wasting time.Nightwatchers hold a high position, and other catchers from other yamens naturally defer to them. However, this female cultivator, who has reached the Qi Practicing stage, carries herself with an air of confidence despite being addressed as "adult."

A spacious carriage parked on the street, and six people squeezed into it without complaint. The three Nightwatchers sat on one side, while the three yamen officers sat on the other, clearly divided.

Song Tingfeng introduced himself, Zhu Guangxiao, and Xu Qi'an with a smile. "You may not be familiar with him, but he was imprisoned in the yamen during the tax bribery case."

The three catchers from the Jingzhao yamen scrutinized Xu Qi'an.

The female head catcher, who called herself Lv Qing, greeted him with a salute. "I have long heard of your name."

As someone who had handled the tax bribery case, she remembered Xu Qi'an's abilities. She had even tried to persuade the magistrate to hire him at the yamen. Seeing him as a Nightwatcher now, she couldn't help but feel regretful.

Xu Qi'an humbly spoke a few words and discreetly assessed the female head catcher. It was rare to see a woman serving as a catcher.

Not all women in the Great Feng dynasty were kept in seclusion, and for those with exceptional talents, each yamen would provide some training. This female head catcher had a beautiful face, was in her thirties, and had thicker eyebrows than most women. She exuded a heroic spirit and had a lithe figure like a female leopard. Her chest was bulging, and she was probably wearing a corset.

Speaking of which, Xu Qi'an only now realized why the tax bribery case had not been handed over to the Ministry of Punishments but was instead jointly handled by the yamen and the Nightwatchers. He had been puzzled at the time.

It was because the assistant minister of the Ministry of Punishments and the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue had colluded.

It wasn't until now that he realized these details.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

"The case files are rudimentary, and many details are unclear. The case was first handled by your yamen, so let's exchange information." Song Tingfeng said.

"When did the demon appear?" The female head catcher's voice was slightly smoky and magnetic.

"June or July," she replied.

"Did anyone see what the demon looked like?" Song Tingfeng asked again.

"At first, the local paupers often disappeared, and when their families searched for them, they found the monster's claw prints and bloodstains by the river. After that, more and more paupers went missing, and the claw prints by the riverbank increased..."

"The local elders gathered the paupers and cast nets in the river to try to catch and kill the demon, but they were unsuccessful. The fishing nets were easily torn apart..."

It's an amphibian! Xu Qi'an thought.After listening, Song Tingfeng furrowed his brows and asked, "What I'm confused about is why it was only reported now, for something that happened in June or July?"

"The monster only swallowed the ashes of the mountain residents who entered the mountain, and did not attack the villages, so at first, the county magistrate of Taikang did not pay attention. It was not until more and more people died that they sent catchers to join the mountain residents to hunt and kill the monster, but they gained nothing."

While speaking, Lv Qing frequently looked at Xu Qi'an, but to her disappointment, this person who had solved the tax and silver case remained silent with a frown.

"After several attempts, the county magistrate of Taikang did not want to deal with it anymore, or rather, with the approaching inspection from the capital, he not only did not handle the case, but also intended to suppress it."

"Why was it reported again then?" Zhu Guangxiao asked in a deep voice.

Lv Qing was silent for a moment and said, "The mountain residents dare not go up the mountain to burn ashes, but taxes still have to be paid. With no other choice, they took a detour into the mountain, avoiding the river. As a result, more than twenty people who went up the mountain to burn ashes did not return. The nearby mountain residents had no other way, so they reported it to the government."

Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao looked at each other and said nothing more.

Knock, knock...

At this time, Xu Qi'an knocked on the long stool and looked at the three officials from the capital and asked, "Do you have a map of Dahuang Mountain and the nearby villages?"

"We brought it. Considering that the level of the monster is unknown, we plan to explore it ourselves without bringing the local mountain residents, in case of accidents that we cannot take care of." Lv Qing looked at her colleague sitting beside her and the colleague took out a scroll of map from the bag he carried.

Xu Qi'an took the map and slowly unfolded it. It was a Feng Shui map of Dahuang Mountain Range.

After looking at it carefully for a while, Xu Qi'an said, "I have a guess, and I think you should know it."

Everyone in the carriage looked at him. Song Tingfeng smiled and squinted his eyes.

The female official sat up straight with her eyes slightly bright and said, "Please speak."

Xu Qi'an said, "It attacks the people with regularity, or rather, it has a strong purpose. This may not be a simple monster's rampage."

Lv Qing furrowed her delicate eyebrows, "Why do you say that?"

"At first, it only ate the ashes of the mountain residents near the river, and then the scope began to expand, radiating outward on both sides of the river. It continued to enter the mountain to eat the ashes of the residents. This is not simply for hunting."

"First of all, the Dahuang Mountain Range is connected to the river for hundreds of miles, and there is no shortage of fish and shrimp in the river. The choice of food for wild animals is determined by the environment, not their own taste. If there is no shortage of food around them, it will never go far for a good meal, and hunt the people in the mountains just for a bite.""Secondly, if it's an intelligent demon, different from a wild beast, it likes to eat humans. Then it wouldn't turn a blind eye to the nearby villages. But it doesn't, it only devours the gray households near the Da Huang Mountain.

Based on behavioral psychology analysis, this is a conscious act of driving away."

"Behavioral psychology?!" Lv Qing pondered, "Marking its territory?"

Before Xu Qi'an could answer, Song Tingfeng shook his head, "No, if it's intelligent, it definitely wouldn't mark its territory in this way. Marking its territory near the outskirts of the capital is no different from courting death. And if it's just a ferocious wild beast, it wouldn't drive away the gray households."

Lv Qing thought for a moment, her pupils shrinking, "What is there in the Da Huang Mountain that it cares about?"

The carriage fell into a brief silence.

PS: I will write a "Guide to Evaluating the Courtesans of the Great Feng" on my public account in the future. Well, not me, but a passionate reader will write it.