Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 210 Faxiu Enters Beijing
Thousand miles on the ship.

"We already know, Princess, please accept my condolences." Ren Yuan said softly.

"I'm not looking for comfort." Xiao Yuhuan shook her head, looking puzzled, and said, "I'm here to find answers."

"What's the problem?" Chen Baxian asked.

"My nephew's death is very strange." Then Xiao Yuhuan said solemnly: "You also know my magical powers, which can even bring people back to life. So even if the child is dying, as long as you go to the palace to ask for help at night, I can save him."

"But my second brother waited until the palace gates were opened the next day before entering the palace. By then, the baby was already dead. There was nothing I could do to save him." After a pause, she said with a puzzled look on her face, "This is too abnormal."

"We were just about to end this topic." Chen Lingzhi sighed.

"Oh, what do you think?" the princess asked hurriedly.

"We can watch it while sitting, standing or lying down. What does it matter?" Chen Baxian pouted and said, "It's useless to find out the truth anyway, so we might as well save some energy."

"The words may be a little blunt, but the truth is there." Ren Yuan nodded.

"..." The princess looked at the people in the Gou Chen Division who didn't want to meddle in other people's business, and frowned, saying, "Who told you not to catch the murderer? Tell me, and I'll let the prince deal with him!"

"Your father..." Chen Lingzhi said softly.

"Ah, that's all right." The princess coughed awkwardly and said, "Then we can discuss it, right? Tell me, was my nephew killed by his father?"

"Even a tiger does not eat its own cubs. Princess, do you think your brother is worse than a beast?" Chen Baxian asked in return.

"The second son has been crazy since he was young, and he has been even more abnormal in the past two years." The princess sighed and said, "I don't want to think badly of him, but the things he did were really abnormal."

"It's abnormal, but he has no motivation to do this." Chen Lingzhi said softly: "You may not know that he had already come to the Gou Chen Division yesterday and basically passed the test. There is no need to add fuel to the fire and kill his only son."

"Yes, unless he is a pervert." Ren Yuan also nodded in agreement.

"What if he really is a pervert?" Yang Zhong asked quietly.

"He is really a pervert, there is nothing we can do about it." Chen Lingzhi sighed and said, "He is a prince, and none of our eighteen magical powers can be used on him, let alone opening the coffin for an autopsy, right?"

"An autopsy is useless. The child is too young and mentally handicapped. He doesn't remember anything at all." Yang Zhong said.

"An autopsy is useful," Ren Yuan said softly, "The cause of the child's death will be clear once the autopsy is done."

"Don't even think about it." Xiao Yuhuan shook her head and said, "My father has already personally chanted sutras for Ajia to be reborn. Who dares to touch his body?"

"So, the cause of death of the emperor's eldest grandson will always be a mystery." Chen Baxian said, "Besides, even if it is found out that it was your second brother who did it, can your father still admit that his son killed his grandson?"

"That is absolutely impossible." Xiao Yuhuan said dejectedly, "Father's reputation is more important than anything else."

"So it's useless to say anything." Chen Baxian spread his hands and changed the subject: "By the way, little monk, what did you want to say?"

"I don't want to say anything anymore." Faxiu realized that they had already noticed that he had something to say, but pretended not to notice. He couldn't help but said angrily, "You bully children all day long."

"I'm teasing you because I have a good relationship with you." Chen Baxian laughed.

"Really?" The little monk tilted his head and looked at everyone. "I don't believe it."

"Yes." Everyone nodded. "Okay, then I'll tell you." The little monk said happily, "Guess where I am now?"

"Jiankang." The three beasts on the mast said in unison: "How can we be left out of the riddle?"

"That's great! How did you guess that?" The little monk looked up in admiration.

"Do you need to guess?" The young leader laughed at him and said, "Everyone else is in Jiankang now. If you are not in Jiankang too, why are you so excited?"

"Yes, isn't it obvious?" Chen Baxian touched the little monk's head.

"How boring! I wanted to give you a surprise." The little monk said dejectedly.

"Tell me quickly, how did you come to the capital? Where are you now? We will come back to visit you." Ren Yuan still acts more like an older brother.

"Because I know Buddhist scriptures by heart and am good at Sanskrit. At the end of last year, Tongtai Temple sent people to Lingyin Temple to select three young monks to go to Beijing to study and translate Buddhist scriptures," the little monk said proudly, "I passed the selection process and was finally selected. I have now settled down in the lower courtyard of Tongtai Temple."

"Wow, that's awesome!" Everyone also gave it enough emotional value.

"Actually, I haven't made any preparations." The little monk's mouth was harder to suppress than the bow of a ship encountering waves.

"Are you sure it's not because you are the abbot's disciple?" Chen Baxian couldn't help but hit him.

"No!" Faxiu's face flushed red, and he said something like 'Appoint virtuous people regardless of their relatives' and 'Appoint sons regardless of their families', and everyone laughed, and the air was filled with a happy atmosphere.

~~
In the following days, Ren Yuan and the other two followed Yang Zhong, going to work and coming home every day, and lived the life of a government official.

It should be said that the job of the Gou Chen Si is quite simple. In theory, they only deal with evil spirits in the capital and major cases. But this is the emperor's territory, and the security is strict. How dare ordinary evil spirits cause trouble? There will not be major cases like the Lantern Festival every day.

Therefore, the Gou Chen Si usually implemented a shift system. In short, they would work one day at the government office, and then patrol outside for one day. If they repeated this five times, they would get a full day of rest.

Moreover, when on patrol, they do not need to report to the yamen. They only need to report the day's situation to their superiors when they return to the yamen to take over their shift in the evening.

So the whole day was almost free, which made Ren Yuan sigh: "The job of ghostwriter is usually quite leisurely."

"Leisure?" Chen Baxian and Yang Zhong, who were patrolling together, were shocked: "Third brother, what misunderstanding do you have about leisure?"

"Why do you say that?" Ren Yuan asked in confusion.

"We are so busy that we are dying, how can we have some free time?" Yang Zhong complained bitterly, "Look at other government offices, they only have a day off every five days, but we only have a day off every ten days."

"In addition, in May, when the farming season is busy, people can take a half-month leave to work in the fields. In September, when they need to prepare winter clothes, they can take a leave to make clothes, which is another 15 days. There are also four private leave days each year, each lasting four days, for people to go home and worship."

"I am granted nine days of marriage leave, and relatives can also take up to five days off for their weddings, and two months of leave for tomb-sweeping. Add in the miscellaneous leave, and I can rest half of my time every year." Chen Baxian continued:
"They're still complaining about being tired, but we don't even get half the time they do, and yet you still say you have nothing to do. Aren't we making people laugh?"

"That's right. The more festivals there are, the less time we have to rest. We are all working so hard, okay?" Yang Zhongshen nodded in agreement. It was a rare occasion that he stood on the same side as Chen Baxian.

"Okay..." Ren Yuan nodded, admitting his mistake.

Although he thought that it was impossible for him to run the country well with such a leisurely life, the country belonged to the emperor, so who cares?

(End of this chapter)