The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 304 Children
After excitedly reaching his conclusion, Cao Hanyan once again enthusiastically searched the house. This time, he searched almost inch by inch, carefully scraping away the plaster on the wall as Li Miao had done, and sure enough, he discovered more traces of Xue Bangzhu's life there.

Broken tiles buried underground, bloodstains seeping into the texture of the tiles, mottled friction patterns on the wall flush with the bed surface, and a cane that has rotted in the soil, etc.

Li Miao had been deliberately guiding him, gradually instilling in him a new way of collecting and processing information. And Cao Hanyan was indeed very talented; as more and more traces were discovered, a figure gradually emerged in his mind.

Broken tiles, bloodstains... This is a ceramic spittoon, filled with blood. Xue Bangzhu frequently vomited blood into it, in large quantities and very often, so the bloodstains seeped into the texture of the ceramic jar.

The friction marks on the bed surface... Xue Bangzhu was in great pain. Even when she was sleeping, she kept rolling and struggling. Her clothes kept rubbing against the wall, leaving marks.

And a walking stick.

After moving here, Xue Bangzhu's health deteriorated significantly. Moreover, this deterioration was not due to injury, but rather resembled a disease that was gradually developing from the inside out.

Those who can cultivate to the Celestial Realm, whether intelligent or foolish, must possess a virtuous character. The torment she endured, writhing and struggling in bed, was enough to shatter the sanity of an ordinary person.

However... there were still some unclear parts, causing the figures in Cao Hanyan's mind to keep blurring.

For example, he dug out three chopsticks from the soil.

For example, the friction marks on the wall have a piece missing in the middle, about two or three feet wide.

Cao Hanyan was only a beginner and it was difficult for him to draw any useful conclusions. However, the experience of deducing the picture from the details just now really excited him.

He stood up, ready to ask Li Miao for advice, but found that while he was engrossed in watching, Li Miao had already left the wooden house.

Cao Hanyan quickly walked out the door, looked around, and saw Li Miao under a tree next to the wooden house, looking up and down at the tree trunk with his hands behind his back, seemingly looking at something.

Cao Hanyan walked over quickly and bowed.

"My lord, I have just made some discoveries, but there are also some things I don't understand. Could you please enlighten me?"

Li Miao didn't turn his head, and said calmly.

"Say it."

"Yes."

Cao Hanyan nodded, then told Li Miao about her discovery, and then raised her questions.

"Xue Bangzhu's martial arts skills are 'gradually declining,' which I think is inseparable from her illness, but I don't know which is the cause and which is the effect."

"This matter probably has to do with the secrets of Penglai's heritage, so let's leave that aside for now. What puzzles me are the three chopsticks we found and the broken marks on the wall."

He said in a deep voice.

"Xue Bangzhu came here alone, and after her family was wiped out, she probably didn't need to entertain guests. Logically speaking, someone like her who lives in seclusion only needs a pair of chopsticks, and if they break, she can just carve out a new pair."

"And these marks on the wall beside the bed are from when she was unconsciously rolling and struggling in her sleep, but a section is missing in the middle."

Cao Hanyan raised her leg and bent her elbow, making a curling-up motion.

"Logically, when people are in pain, they will unconsciously curl up, so the marks of friction should be concentrated in the middle section—but the middle section is the only part that is missing."

"It's as if... even in her sleep, Xue Bangzhu subconsciously forced herself not to curl up. It's also as if she was holding something in her arms..."

After Cao Hanyan finished speaking, she looked at Li Miao, waiting for Li Miao to give her answer.

Li Miao smiled and said.

"You've actually already guessed something, but you're just not sure, right?"

"Look here."

He pointed to the tree trunk in front of him.

Cao Hanyan followed Li Miao's finger and saw several scars on the tree trunk, as if they had been cut with a sharp tool. They were evenly distributed from top to bottom, like some kind of markings.

"This is……"

Cao Hanyan hesitated.

"height."

Li Miao said calmly.

"When you were little, your parents probably did the same thing. They would find a wall, have you stand straight against it, and use a ruler to mark the top of your head, recording your height."

He reached out and placed his hand on the tree trunk.

“There aren’t many tree species around Kaifeng Prefecture, but I happen to recognize this tree – it’s called the Chinese scholar tree.”

"This tree can grow two or three feet a year for the first ten years, one foot a year for the next ten to fifty years, and then it will basically stop growing after fifty years."

"Moreover, the annual rings of this tree are very distinct."

bass!
Cao Hanyan felt a lightness at her waist, and before she knew it, her sword was in Li Miao's hand.

Uh-huh! ——

A flash of cold light appeared, and before Cao Hanyan could even see Li Miao's movements, the long knife had already sliced ​​through the tree trunk, moving from left to right as if it were cutting through the air, without any flying wood chips or making any sound.

With a flick of his wrist, Li Miao's long sword was sheathed with a clang.

He then raised his hand and slammed a palm strike into the tree trunk.

boom! ! ! !

The tree trunk, as thick as a person's embrace, along with its massive canopy, was slid out like a cannonball and crashed into the dense forest!
Li Miao seemed to casually move the teacup on the table, strolled forward, glanced at the broken tree stump, and turned to smile at the dumbfounded Cao Hanyan.

"More than seventy annual rings, this tree is quite old."

Cao Hanyan finally came to her senses, her hand unconsciously tightening its grip on the hilt of her knife. After a long silence, she finally let out a long breath and walked to Li Miao's side.

"So since Xue Bangzhu left, the height of this tree has remained basically unchanged."

Cao Hanyan reached out and touched the highest mark on the tree trunk.

"This last one must have been left by Xue Bangzhu before he moved to the mortuary. It's about three and a half feet off the ground, roughly the height of a seven or eight-year-old child."

He let out a long sigh.

"And so, everything makes sense."

An extra chopstick, and the height markings on the tree trunk.

Xue Bangzhu did not live here alone.

The missing piece in the middle of the mark on the wall next to the bed was also explained—because Xue Bangzhu was holding a child. Although she could not suppress the excruciating pain, she instinctively tried not to curl up and squeeze the child into her arms while she was asleep.

The blurry image in Cao Hanyan's mind finally became clear—the child in Xue Bangzhu's arms was sleeping peacefully, while she straightened her back with a face full of cold sweat, her arms, head, and legs involuntarily leaving painful marks on the wall.

The Xue Bangzhu family massacre occurred twenty years ago, and he moved to the mortuary thirteen years ago, living there for seven years in between.

Seven years later, the highest mark on the tree trunk is roughly the height of a seven-year-old child.

Twenty years ago, when the family was massacred, Xue Bangzhu's reason for leaving the Feng Prefecture was to go to the Bodhisattva Temple outside the city to pray for a child. But this reason was given to the authorities by Xue Bangzhu—what if she wasn't telling the truth?
What if she didn't want people to know her real reason for going to the temple?
When women go to temples to pray for blessings, they usually ask for the same few things: peace, wealth, and children...

And also—pregnancy protection.

At the same time, all the clues began to connect.

Zheng Yi had talked to Cao Hanyan about Penglai. He knew that both Penglai and Yingzhou relied on bloodline inheritance, but this raised a question—how could they ensure that their families could always produce good seedlings suitable for martial arts training?

Most people want to pass on their martial arts skills to their children and grandchildren, but in today's Dashuo, the inheritance of martial arts is basically from master to disciple. The fundamental reason is that no one can guarantee that their child will be suitable for learning martial arts.

Li Miao's first opponent in the martial arts world, Yun Zelin, the Plum Blossom Thief, came from a prestigious sect but was born with incomplete meridians. He was despised and bullied by his fellow disciples and eventually betrayed his sect, wandering the martial arts world.

No matter how great one's talent, it cannot be reliably passed down to future generations—this is the fundamental reason for the rise of sects and the decline of aristocratic families.

There are only a few dozen potential cultivators in the entire Da Shuo, but Yingzhou, as a family, can produce several Celestials in one go, and even has a heaven-defying talent like Li Miao who has been out of town.

The reason for this has already begun to emerge in the truth of the Xue Bangzhu case.

Xue Bangzhu came to Kaifeng forty-five years ago, got married forty years ago, and did not have children until twenty years ago, which is obviously very abnormal for a master of the celestial realm with smooth blood and qi.

After the massacre of her family, Xue Bangzhu avoided the public eye and moved here alone to give birth to her child. At the same time, her health and martial arts skills deteriorated rapidly; she suffered from vomiting blood and excruciating pain, and signs of aging gradually appeared on her body. By the time she moved to the mortuary thirteen years ago, her appearance was completely in line with her age, and her back had gradually become hunched.

Five years ago, when the merchants and their families pushed her down, her martial arts skills and cultivation had completely disappeared.

"This is just like..."

Cao Hanyan's face was blank as she murmured.

"Like passing on one's own inherent qualities and realm of understanding to one's own child..."

He suddenly remembered Yan Fan, who had committed suicide, and his expression froze.

“Yanfan only moved out of Fengfu City five years ago. Before that, he did not show any abnormalities—so Xue Bangzhu told him about it before he died.”

"At that time, Xue Bangzhu had already lost all her martial arts skills and was on her last legs. She should have known that her death was imminent, so she probably wouldn't have asked Yanfan to save her."

"The Seven Star Begonia left by Yanfan is not to tell us about Xue Bangzhu's origins, but to let us know that Xue Bangzhu was born in Penglai, and from the news that her martial arts were completely destroyed, we can deduce the existence of this child."

"Xue Bangzhu and Yan Fan aren't protecting themselves or each other; they're begging us to save this child!"

Cao Hanyan gripped the hilt of the knife tightly and looked at Li Miao.

"Sir, do you think this child... is still alive?"

Li Miao twirled his fingers and said.

"He should still be alive, and he's probably in the hands of the murderer."

"However, I have to warn you in advance—the scene after finding this child may not be what you imagine."

He suddenly turned his head to the side, said nothing, reached out and grabbed Cao Hanyan by the collar, and in a flash, he rushed towards the mountain road.

A moment later, Cao Hanyan faintly heard hurried footsteps coming from ahead.

Li Miao put him on the ground. Cao Hanyan had just stood up when she saw Yin Suqin using her lightness skill to run swiftly towards the two of them along the mountain path.

Before she even reached him, Yin Suqin called out urgently.

"My lord! We've found the murderer!"

“I recognized him from the portrait the government gave me; it’s that ‘Bu Liuxing’!”

His martial arts skills were not bad. He ran over while shouting, and by the time he finished speaking, he was already in front of the two of them. He stopped abruptly, not even bothering to catch his breath, and then rattled off a string of words.

"grown ups!"

"After we arrived at the mortuary, we didn't make a sound. We stopped far away and then slowly crept over! After a while, sure enough, someone came to clean up the traces!"

"Heroine Zheng darted forward and caught the man red-handed! When I stepped forward, I saw that this man was none other than the notorious bandit 'Bu Liuxing' who had wiped out Xue Bangzhu's entire family twenty years ago!"

"He is the murderer who killed Xue Bangzhu and Yan Fan!"

Cao Hanyan frowned and asked urgently.

"Why did Brother Yin come here by himself? Where is Lady Zheng? Where is the murderer?!"

Yin Suqin stamped her foot.

"Harmful!"

"We had already used acupuncture on this person, thinking that you must have come here, and were preparing to bring him directly to you!"

"But just as they were about to set off, a master suddenly appeared and snatched the man from Miss Zheng's hands!"

"Miss Zheng chased after them, and there was no point in me following her, so I quickly ran over to tell the magistrate what happened!"

Cao Hanyan was suddenly startled, as if she suddenly realized something, and turned to look at Li Miao.

Li Miao seemed to already know the answer, and calmly asked.

"Is that person a boy or a girl?"

"It's a woman!"

"Are you around twenty years old?"

"Yes! Although his face is covered, judging from his exposed eyebrows and eyes, he should be around this age!"

"Is her height exactly the same as Xiao Yizi's?"

"Yes!"

"Is the weapon a longsword?"

"Yes!"

"As expected, hehe."

Li Miao scoffed.

Yin Suqin was still confused, wondering how Li Miao knew so much. Cao Hanyan, standing to the side, let out a long sigh, shook her head, and said to Li Miao.

"Did you foresee this, sir?"

Li Miao nodded.

"more or less."

"The murderer didn't know much about Yingzhou and Penglai, and his own martial arts skills were poor. He probably didn't have the talent to cultivate Penglai's techniques. So he must have wanted something from killing Xue Bangzhu."

"Whether they want a henchman or hope to find the secret of how Penglai passed on its roots to others from this henchman, these are all reasonable guesses."

Cao Hanyan shook her head and sighed.

"There are still a few things I don't understand."

"Firstly, since Xue Bangzhu's child was already under his control, why didn't he just order her to silence me and Brother Yin?"

Li Miao smiled and replied.

“When Xue Bangzhu died, this child was probably fourteen or fifteen years old. He should have known who his mother was.”

"The murderer could not have let the child know that he killed Xue Bangzhu, so naturally he would not have allowed her to get close to her mother's body, lest the truth be exposed."

"So he had no choice but to do it himself first, to silence Yanfan. After we left the mortuary, he came over to move Xue Bangzhu's body away, and then had that child kill us, thus eliminating any future troubles."

Cao Hanyan nodded and continued to ask.

"But, sir, how did you know in advance that Xue Bangzhu's child would side with the murderer?"

"That's the man who killed her mother!"

Li Miao sneered and said in a deep voice.

"Is there any need to guess?"

"When Xue Bangzhu died, she was only fourteen or fifteen years old. A child of that age could be easily fooled by any seasoned veteran."

"Five years is enough time for the murderer to completely brainwash her. She might even have come to believe that the thief is her father."

"okay."

Li Miao addressed the two of them.

"You can rest here."

"I'm going to give this brat a good beating for Xue Bangzhu and Yan Fan!"

Before they could finish speaking, everything went blurry before their eyes.

Looking again, Li Miao had disappeared.

(End of this chapter)