Proofreader: Zhu Yuan
The sudden stop of torrential rain relieved most Changling people. The fine weather that they were accustomed to in ordinary time also seemed to be more adorable. Many caravans hurried up to deal with the goods that were wet by the rain. However, it was unexpected that the sky became cloudy again after noon, and then the rain quickly came back to Changling.
The rain was not as violent as last night"s, but it was pattering continuously and could not stop at the moment.
The mist blurred the streets and alleys, like countless layers of gauze covering the city.
In the south of Changling, there was a building like a Taoist temple, covering tens of acres.
Great Qin was generous with reward and honor for the people who had feats. If one could kill the chief enemy, he would be awarded a grand t.i.tle and nine mu of the mansion; if he could kill over 2,000 enemies, he could collect taxes from 300 households.
Therefore, most of the houses in Changling, including those of ordinary soldiers, were surprisingly large compared with previous dynasties, and the whole Changling also kept expanding. The building located in the south of Changling was really not extraordinarily large compared with other buildings.
However, except for a few top people in the palace, all the n.o.bles and officials of the Qin were deeply wary and scared of this place.
Because this was the place where Imperial Secret Service was located.
The investigation and handling of cases in the Qin dynasty mainly depended on Jiantian Department. There were thousands of princ.i.p.al officials in all parts of Jiantian Department, and there were countless followers under each official"s command. Moreover, all kinds of major cases handled by Jiantian Department did not need to be reported to other departments; instead, these cases could be directly handed to the emperor. Therefore, the power of Jiantian Department had always been above other departments.
However, Imperial Secret Service was also a special department.
There were not more than 100 officials of Imperial Secret Service, one-tenth of the number of Jiantian Department. Their job seemed to be supervision and investigation, but the targets were not ordinary people but officials, spiritual pract.i.tioners and potential spiritual pract.i.tioners.
In other words, Imperial Secret Service was a secret inst.i.tution that was used by the emperor and the two prime ministers to supervise officials and pract.i.tioners.
Moreover, all the princ.i.p.al officials of Imperial Secret Service were "war orphans", children of the generals and soldiers who died in the war. These people had little care and nothing to be threatened, so they were more ruthless and heartless than ordinary people.
Therefore, in the eyes of most officials and pract.i.tioners, Imperial Secret Service was even more scary than Jiantian Department.
At this moment, Mo Qinggong was in a study of Imperial Secret Service. His slightly fat body sent a faint smell of blood. His oily face did not have any smile, but a sense of killing.
This kind of breath even scared insects in the surrounding courtyards and they fled without a trace.
It was Jiantian Department and Head Officer Ye that made him so upset.
Last night, Head Officer Ye killed Zhao Zhan, the seventh disciple of the sword furnace, by only one attack, which removed a threat of Great Qin. This was something that everyone in Qin should be proud of. However, now there was solid evidence that Murong Cheng, a member of Imperial Secret Service, was not killed by Zhao Zhan, but by her.
The presence of Imperial Secret Service"s officials was to monitor the work process of other department officials. Murong Cheng was also a promising pract.i.tioner. After killing Murong Cheng, Head Officer Ye and other officials did not even deal with the wounds on his body.
This meant that they didn"t care to hide anything at all.
What Head Officer Ye did showed that she was too arrogant!
What was even more infuriating was the fact that Zhao Zhan"s ident.i.ty was found by Imperial Secret Service in the first place. Although Zhao Zhan was dead, there were still another three disciples of Sword Furnace, and there were many remnants behind them. According to the original plan of Imperial Secret Service, Zhao Zhan"s body would be exposed downtown as lure for other remnants of Sword Furnace. However, Head Officer Ye arbitrarily made the decision to bury Zhao Zhan with full honor and directly obtained emperor"s permission. This undoubtedly made all the efforts of Imperial Secret Service in vain.
Just then, with several rhythmic knocks, Qin Huaishu entered the room and came to Mo"s desk.
"Is that clear?" Mo Qinggong raised his head, suppressed his anger and asked in a low voice.
Qin Huaishu nodded respectfully and said: "Lord Fang"s people have given an answer. Although the teen from Phoenix Tree Lane has excellent natural gift, he was a rare case of Excessive Yang."
Mo Qinggong frowned, "What does it mean?"
"Excessive Yang refers to a const.i.tution in which the Qi of Yang is excessive." Qin Huaishu explained in detail: "The Qi of organs in this const.i.tution is much stronger than that of ordinary people. However, Qi of Excessive Yang would be like fire that flames too intensively, and one who has this const.i.tution would begin to weaken in the prime of life."
The face of Mo Qinggong was a little pale: "Simply speaking, the fire of body is too strong that it burns up essence and blood?"
Qin Huaishu nodded, "Right, but the ordinary condition that internal Yang is too strong can be treated by medicine. The const.i.tution of Excessive Yang cannot be cured, even by Fang Xiumu. Even if there is such precious medicine, it is not worth using on him." His eyes also had the color of sympathy, because he knew very well how difficult it was for a person from an ordinary background to be recognized by real big shots. The teen from Phoenix Tree Lane already had the potential to ascend to the top realm, but only because of his physical problems, he was doomed to continue to live in the run-down streets.
Mo Qinggong had been sitting in a prominent position for many years, so he didn"t have so much complicated feeling as Qin Huaishu, who was still struggling to climb up.
Since it was impossible for the teen to become a spiritual pract.i.tioner, he could not be useful for Imperial Secret Service. Mo Qinggong just shook his head slightly and threw the file of Ding Ning into a brazier.
Flames devoured the file in a second, and Mo Qinggong was silent for a long time. However, Qin Huaishu did not leave immediately as he expected, so he looked up at Qin Huaishu again.
"My Lord, there is a problem with the ident.i.ty of Murong Cheng," Qin Huaishu continued. His voice became lower, even couldn"t be heard clearly.
Mo Qinggong was a little puzzled: "Murong Cheng is not well acquainted with us, but we know his family background very well. What"s the problem?"
Qin Huaishu said: "There is nothing wrong with his family background, but he has just made an engagement with a lady of Lord Xu"s family. He would probably marry into Lord Xu"s family this winter."
"Marry into Lord Xu"s family?"
Mo Qinggong"s pupils intensely contracted, with a strong chill welling up in his heart.
In Qin, the only one way to obtain the t.i.tle of Lord was to establish virtue of military service.
The t.i.tle of Lord meant one could own a thousand hectares of good farmland and enjoy taxes from ten thousand households.
To have the right of collecting taxes from three hundred households would require one to kill at least twenty hundred enemies. Then it would be clear that how many enemies should be killed to obtain the t.i.tle of Lord. Even those who were not good at calculating could figure out the horrible figure in their minds.
Therefore, there were only 13 eligible Lords in Qin.
The thirteen Lords, two head officers from Jiantian Department and Imperial Secret Service and the two mysterious and powerful prime ministers were at the top of this country.
A wry smile slowly emerged on Mo Qinggong"s face.
He grabbed another file in front of him again and threw it into the brazier beside him.
Whether Head Officer Chen, top of Imperial Secret Service, knew that Murong Cheng was to marry into Lord Xu"s family or not, whether killing Murong was part of Chen"s plan or not, the whole investigation about Murong"s death would go nowhere, because Chen and Lord Xu were both involved in this case.
….
It was still raining.
After lunch time, guests in the wine shop had already left. Ding Ning moved a bamboo chair to sit under the eaves and began to eat noodles while watching the rain.
He was eating noodles with fish and pickled cabbage. Snow-white fish fillets and noodles were mixed together in a messy way. The fillets were not well sliced and didn"t look tasty at all.Fortunately, pickled cabbage looked sufficient and tasty. The noodle soup was very thick, with a layer of clear oil floating on the surface, which made people have a voracious appet.i.te.
Ding Ning finished eating the noodle soup in no hurry. After washing the noodle bowl, he nodded to the Zhangsun Lightsnow in the backyard. He changed a pair of old straw sandals, took an old umbrella and walked into the rain.
He encountered a caravan pa.s.sing Phoenix Tree Lane. Several drivers wearing coir raincoats grumbled and scolded about the bad weather.
Ding Ning smiled slightly.
It was not pleasant to travel in the rain like this, but the sudden heavy rain was a G.o.dsend to him.
The rain could cover the sight and perception of many people, wash away many traces and make the perfect opportunity that he had waited so long.
So even though his sandals were wet and uncomfortable, he was in a good mood.
He walked to the fish market on the eastern edge of Changling cheerfully.
Wei River pa.s.sed through the territory of Qin and flowed into the East Sea. This huge river not only nourished most of the farmland of Qin, but also offered routes connecting overseas island countries and even provided access for pract.i.tioners to rare treasures from overseas.
The huge Wei River reached Changling and divided into several tributaries, the source of which could be traced back to the boundary of Qin, deep in the wild land of Ba Mountain.
Changling Fish Market was located on both sides of the Dongqing River, which was the smallest tributary of Wei River in the east of the city.
The river was no more than ten meters wide, which had been cut off by the middle for farmland reclamation. Some parts of the river pa.s.sing through the city had become fish ponds, and markets were built on the sides of the river.
All these markets were originally just a collection of ships that were already unable to travel. However, over the years, numerous huts had been built on both sides of the Dongqing River. The roofs and signboards of these huts blocked out the sun, and countless pa.s.sageways were hidden in them. Many stilted buildings had been built even between the water surface and the mud pond. Some crude wood, sampans, some small boats and even big wooden basins could be used as transportation here. This made this place as complicated as a cobweb.
Especially when the sky was not very bright, if one looked from the high place on both sides to the center of the market, the dark market was like a ghost domain in the abyss, many ghosts living with ghost fires.
This market was the fish market. Apart from fish, all kinds of commodity could be found here; not only those that ordinary people could imagine, but also special things that pract.i.tioners wanted.