Chapter 10: Murder at the County Office
The night sky was like a wash, dotted with stars.
The highest building in the Great Feng Capital, the Stargazing Building, the office of the Heavenly Superintendent.
The yellow-skirted girl climbed up with light steps, and as she passed the seventh floor, she heard a noisy clamor coming from the Dan Room.
A group of alchemists dressed in white were arguing with red faces.
"Why did it fail again? It's obviously such a simple step."
"I told you, it must be the wrong dose of salt."
"No, I think it's water."
"It's fire, right? Just now I saw Senior Brother Wan ignite the salt to a boil."
"It's too difficult, the alchemy spell of turning salt into silver is too difficult, I don't know it."
The corner of the mouth of the yellow-skirted girl named Caiwei twitched and muttered, "This group of people are even refining fake silver."
Two days ago, when she brought back the deed of salt turning into silver to the Si Tian Supervisor, her senior brothers began to disbelieve it.
Salt could turn into silver?
A three-year-old child wouldn't believe it.
But soon, the tax silver case was solved, and His Majesty felt that the fake silver was extremely powerful and quite miraculous, and ordered the Qin Tian Supervisor to refine the fake silver.
Thus, the alchemists of the Chintian Supervision began their work of exploding their livers, devoting themselves to the 996 blessings day and night.
From two days ago, they had been livering until now, losing repeatedly and repeatedly.
"Caiwei, it's Senior Sister Caiwei." Someone shouted excitedly.
Instantly, a haggard face turned around, and a pair of eyes suddenly released a brilliant light.
"Senior Sister Caiwei, how exactly was this fake silver refined."
"Senior Sister Caiwei, quickly come over and help me see if there's something wrong with the steps? You're the only one who successfully refined the fake silver."
Surrounding the yellow-skirted girl.
Chu Caiwei had no choice but to enter the dan room and watch her senior brothers refine the fake silver.
"Failed again!" A white-robed alchemist operating on the spot lamented.
"Senior sister Caiwei, what went wrong?" The crowd of white-robed posed as if they were vainly seeking advice.
There's no problem ah, that's how I refined it in the first place .... Chu Caiwei mused, "This is an alchemy handed down from the ancient times, profound and obscure, it is not something that can be learned just by saying it, it needs to be taught in depth in order to be deeply rooted. I'll impart a mnemonic to all senior brothers, remember to remember."
The senior brothers assumed a listening posture.
"Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, and phosphorus!" Chu Caiwei Qi moved to her dantian, and word by word, she spat out this marvelous mnemonic.
"This mnemonic and reconciliation ah?" The senior brothers were uncertain, each word was understood, and when combined together they were confused.
I also don t know what this is .... Chu Caiwei pretended to be profound and smiled without saying anything.
"Wizards, wizards, the person who wrote this mnemonic is truly a wizard of alchemy." A white-clothed senior brother lamented.
Where is the wizardry, ah, don't think nonsense, senior brother! Chu Caiwei's smile remained unchanged.
"Senior Sister Caiwei, who told you this mantra. Did senior sister meet a high person in alchemy and get his instructions?"
Chu Caiwei said in her heart, "Good question! Throwing the pot lightly.
"That person's name is Xu Qi'an, the nephew of Imperial Sword Battalion's Seventh Grade Green Robe Xu Pingzhi, you're just looking for him."
Upon hearing that it was a martial artist, the white coats were not happy.
"Joke, my hall of heavenly supervisors is full of talents, and I need to look for outsiders to refine fake silver?"
"And it's still a martial artist."
"Wouldn't it be a joke to spread the word."
Depending on the cultivation system, several very interesting contempt chains were formed.
The Taoist Sect looked down on the Buddhist Sect, and the Buddhist Sect despised them in return.
Warlocks looked down on sorcerers, sorcerers looked down on composters, and composters looked down on warlocks.
Then, the Taoist and Buddhist Warlocks, Sorcerers and Compassionists, together despise the Martial Artists.
As for Confucianism, I'm sorry, with all due respect to everyone here, it's garbage.
But in recent times Confucianism has weakened.
"Senior Sister Caiwei, come guide us."
Caiwei let out a 'heh', "Next time for sure!"
She squeezed out hard from the group of white-clothed senior brothers and continued to pick up the steps.
In fact, she didn't understand either.
The last time she was at the government office, refining fake silver in one fell swoop, Caiwei privately tried again afterward and failed.
It completely replicated the previous process, but it just failed, and she didn't know why.
The roof of the Stargazer Building, instead of a normal gable roof, is an octagonal platform that alludes to the eight trigrams.
Hence it was called the Eight Trigrams Platform.
At the edge of the gossip platform, a white-clothed old man, crouching in front of the case, pinching a wine cup in his hand, the other hand on his head, seemingly drunk, looking at the capital below.
The yellow skirt of the girl was interested in not disturbing, the master does not do business on weekdays, like to sit on the gossip platform to drink, look at the scenery.
Also do not like someone to disturb.
Flicking a cup of wine and squinting her eyes, she said that she was concentrating on looking at the earth.
"Caiwei is here?" The white-clothed old man laughed.
"Master." The yellow-skirted girl blossomed into a smile and trotted over, standing at the edge of the gossip, her skirts flying.
"What's the emperor's old man's reward?"
"A few hundred taels of silver and a few pairs of silk." The yellow-skirted girl said, "Master, what exactly is the fake silver?"
"The master does not know ah."
"There are still things in the world that the master does not know?"
"Too much too much." The white-clothed old man smiled and said, "Master doesn't know where those thieves went nineteen years ago."
"You always say that the little thieves from nineteen years ago were hateful, but you don't tell me who they were and what they stole."
The white-clothed old man got up, stood at the edge of the octagonal platform, and sighed: "What was stolen was remarkable."
"Then do you know who refined the fake silver." Sitian Supervisor was the birthplace of the warlock system, and the alchemists under the sky, even if they didn't originate from Sitian Supervisor, they must have a connection with Sitian Supervisor.
Behind the tax and silver case, there was an alchemist who was involved and had refined such a marvelous thing, it was by no means a generalized one.
"For the master is naturally aware of this."
.......
Small courtyard, main house.
Xu Qi'an was lying on the bed, staring straight at the crisscrossing beams through the white moon coming in through the window.
He was worrying about his future, a little frightened and bewildered, and a little feverish.
By virtue of me being a quality product produced by the nine-year compulsory education, my brain is full of hanging knowledge.
I can easily stand out in the backward monarchical society and become the most beautiful flower.
However, the supremacy of the emperor's society, often means that human rights can not be guaranteed, today club tender model, tomorrow confiscated and exiled.
This was a phenomenon that would make any modern person doubly sad.
Thinking about it, Xu Qi'an fell asleep, and when he woke up to the light of day, he put on his metaphysical colored official clothes, fastened his belt, tied up his long hair, and then hung the plain sword on his waist.
His stance was straight and masculine and handsome.
I have to admit that ancient clothing adds to the face value and temperament, it is just too troublesome when going to the toilet.
Over the wall to the second uncle's house to rub a breakfast, uncle and nephew went out to work together, Xu Pingzhi returned to his official position, everything is as usual.
Changle County Yamen is the capital's attached county, the Yamen is in the city, six or seven miles away from Xu's house, Xu Qi'an didn't have a horse or a carriage, so he had to take the No. 11 bus, and arrived at the county yamen in two quarters of an hour.
The Changle County Yamen was located in a north-south direction, with two stone lions as tall as a man in front of the entrance, and large drums with peeling paint on both sides of the red-brown-painted gate.
The structure of the county government office is worth talking about. The biggest one is of course the governor, called the chief official, and he has two deputies, one is the county minister and the other is the chief bookkeeper.
These three are court officials with grades, and in Xu Qi'an's time, they were established.
Below the three court officials, there is the chief historian, also known as the chief official.
But there is no grade, not into the stream.
Then there are three classes and six rooms: the three classes are soap class, fast class, strong class, responsible for ceremonial, security, arrest and so on; and the six rooms correspond to the six departments of the court.
Xu Qi'an was a servant in the fast class, known as the constable in the Ming Dynasty.
When he entered the government office, it happened that the official was counting the dawn, standing in front of the hall, Li Dianshi saw Xu Qi'an with a plain sword on his waist, and froze.
His expression was as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
The magistrates, sensing that the leader looked wrong, turned their heads to look, and then, too, had the same type of ghost-seeing expression.
"Xu, Xu Qi'an, are you a human or a ghost?!" Someone said in a trembling voice.
Li Dianshi noticed Xu Qi'an's shadow cast on the ground, his heart slightly relieved, his tone calm: "What nonsense to say above the public hall, do ghosts have shadows?"
The crowd sniffed and sighed in relief.
Xu Qi'an thought about it and picked up, "It can't be said to be a walking corpse."
Li Dianshi was startled, and the hearts of the magistrates tightened.
Xu Qi'an hurriedly clasped his fists, "Just kidding, meet Lord Dianshi, fellow officers, I'm out of prison."
Li Dianshi asked, "What's going on?"
The Xu family had been imprisoned for the tax and silver case, they had heard about it.
"Naturally, it was a matter of redeeming one's sins and making amends for one's sins, and His Holiness was forgiving and pardoned the Xu family's sins." Xu Qi'an immediately recapitulated the matter again, but shifted the credit to his second uncle and took out the vouchers given by the government offices in Beijing Zhaowu.
At the same time, in his heart, although the tax silver has been found, the verdict has not yet come down, which means that the tax silver disappearance case has not yet been settled, after all, it has to go through the process, not so fast.
Therefore, Changle County Yamen's group of magistrates do not know this matter.
At the end of the count, a few familiar constables immediately came up to congratulate and congratulate.
"Ning Banquet, you have to treat us to a drink."
In this era, when addressing a friend, one used words without names. When introducing oneself, names were used without words.
"Yes, a great disaster must be a blessing, you have to treat me."
"I heard that the hooker on Linshui Street, has bought a new batch of purveyors, Ning Banquet, go with us tonight?"
Treating me to a drink is fine, but sleeping with a woman requires me to treat her, it's too much .... Xu Qi'an just wanted to shrug off and said he had no money, suddenly his feet stepped on a hard lump, and when he looked down, it was a grain of broken silver.
It's really a blessing in disguise, isn't it? He immediately stepped on it and didn't move, pretending to look around at the scenery.
Waiting for the crowd to take a few steps forward, Xu Qi'an quickly lowered his head to pick it up and put it into his money bag without changing his face.
After walking through the long corridor and sitting in the side hall on the west side for a few minutes, Li Dianshi came in with a grim face and looked at Sheriff Wang: "Old Wang, the county magistrate master asked us to go to the inner hall."
Constable Wang's face was bitter, and he went out in a muffled voice.
Xu Qi'an watched Wang's back disappear and asked, "What's going on, the chief's face doesn't look too good."
"You squatted in prison these days, Kangping Street had a murder, the death was a quite rich and powerful merchant, the county magistrate was furious, every day to catch Wang arresting head scolded."
"Just a dead merchant, there's no need for the county magistrate to be furious." Xu Qi'an was high on melon seeds.
Since ancient times, all human lives were big cases, but as the magistrate of the capital city's Attachment County, from the fifth rank, it wasn't as bad as this.
"Heh, that merchant is related to a certain lord in the Giver, so I think it's that side that's giving the pressure." That yamen said, "Moreover, this year is the year of Gengzi ah."
"Gengzi year?" Xu Qi'an didn't react.
"Jingcha!" The yamen pointed out.
