A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

"I've thoroughly investigated that abandoned manor in the last couple of days!" In the backyard, Liu Ye tossed aside her vegetable basket and said in a low voice, "The manor has been abandoned for years, half the walls have collapsed, but they've managed to dig out several sturdy houses inside! There are four or five guards, all trained, with weapons tucked into their belts. They always arrive in the dead of night, unload their goods, and run away!"

Yang Hu nodded without saying anything, but his mind was racing.

These past two days, Liu Ye, shrouded in a chill, disguised herself as an old woman on her journey, keeping a close eye on the carriages and horses of the abandoned village from afar, figuring out the terrain, the number of people, and the time of day, figuring things out step by step.

Liu Ye grew up fighting against barbarian bandits on the mountain; being able to stay on the mountain and discern the way was her forte.

The hand that carried the stolen goods to the abandoned village outside the city was waiting for the storm to pass so it could be burned clean, leaving no trace. All she had figured out was the terrain, the manpower, and the time—things she would need later when she took action. But for now, simply knowing where these things were wasn't enough.

"I want to look for this manor in a different place." That night, under the lamplight, Yang Hu slowly said, "How could a deserted manor, abandoned for years, become the place where that hand hides something? Who owns the manor? When did it fall into their hands? If we find these things, we might be able to dig out a piece of the root of that hand hiding here!"

This hand smuggled the filth out of the city to this abandoned village, probably thinking it was a neglected place and no one would bother with it. But someone had their eye on it, and the nighttime intrusion exposed them. Why would a deserted village become a den of iniquity? If we investigate the background of this abandoned village, how did that hand acquire such a large piece of land? Could they have followed this path to get there?

"To get hold of property deeds, you need connections," Lu Yan chimed in. She'd seen many tricks up her sleeve at the Duke's mansion. "Land and property transfers and pawnings in the city are all registered at the yamen (government office), with deeds as proof. But we're doctors from out of town; going to the yamen to ask about these things would be too conspicuous and would only alert the culprit!"

"It's not easy to go to the government offices, but you can get by if you have connections," Yang Hu said. "The big grain merchant Zhou Ji in the city, and Manager Sun who introduced me to this city, have lived here for decades. They know every field and village outside the city like the back of their hand. Taking advantage of the opportunity to go for Old Master Zhou's follow-up visit and to get acquainted with Manager Sun, it's perfectly normal to casually listen to other people's stories about a deserted village. It won't frighten those people."

This road is easy to walk on.

Over the next few days, Yang Hu began to use his medical practice as a cover to gradually find out the origins of the abandoned manor from Zhou Ji's old accountant and from Manager Sun.

That estate was originally the family property of an old landlord surnamed Wan in the city.

For some reason, a few years ago, Old Wan went bankrupt and was heavily in debt, so the estate fell into disrepair.

About three or four years ago, a "middleman" spent a small sum of money to buy that abandoned, deserted manor from an old man surnamed Wan at a low price.

"The person who handled it?" Yang Hu pressed, "What's their name?"

"I don't remember either..." Manager Sun stroked his beard, thinking for a while. "I only know that he was a steward who worked for that big shot in the west of the city. When the estate was acquired, it wasn't registered under his name, but under the name of a distant relative... How could an ordinary person understand the intricacies involved!"

West of the city?

Big man?

Manager?

In name?

Yang Hu's heart sank lower and lower!

The origin of this desolate village is so perfectly connected to that hidden thread!

West of the city!

There are stone lions standing there!

That is the Prefectural Magistrate's Office.

The "manager" who bought the estate under a false name? He's just someone working for the Prefectural Magistrate's office. Three or four years ago, he bought this deserted estate at a low price and gave it an unrelated name, intending to put some shady things there in a place no one would think of.

"It's very deep!" In the backyard that night, Qin Ying, knife in hand, listened to Yang Hu finish speaking, her eyes filled with an unyielding chill. "Three or four years ago, they prepared escape routes and hiding places one after another. This kind of meticulous planning and method is something that someone who hastily searches before something happens could never do!"

She recalled that late night at Wild Fox Ridge, the checkpoints along the way, the tricks of checking military identification tags at various mountain passes. Each one had been tampered with beforehand, managing to conceal such a heinous crime as treason without a trace, and that the hideouts for the stolen goods had been prepared three or four years in advance. Such cunning and skill were far beyond the capabilities of a mere prefect or steward!

"But no matter how deep it goes, a section has always been exposed." Yang Hu suddenly changed his tone, becoming very serious. "This line of work has now reached a steward in the prefectural governor's office, but this steward is far too incapable of bearing the enormous crime of selling out the border and harming the entire Qin family. There's someone higher up who can downplay such a heinous case as 'colluding with the enemy and inviting barbarians' as 'an attack by bandits,' and cover up the case files so that even a sub-prefect can't find a single clue. That's the person who truly controls this line of work. This old line of buying the estate has been dug up to its roots, but the deepest roots haven't yet surfaced."

The hand that was hiding somewhere in the prefectural governor's mansion in the capital was still lurking in the shadows, unseen.

"It's eager to burn everything!" Yang Hu stood in the corridor, looking at the black expanse north of the city. "Liu Ye said that the carriages and horses on the estate seem to be busier than usual these past few days! There are only a few days left until the end of the year, so it seems it wants to burn everything hidden in the estate before the end of the year and have a peaceful New Year, right?"

"Then our time is running out!" Qin Ying said.

"Indeed, time is running out," Yang Hu said slowly. "But the more it tries to burn it, the more it shows that what's hidden in that estate is something it can't afford to lose. The more it tries to burn it, the more we need to try to find out what's hidden in that estate and which hand in the capital the old line that bought the estate ultimately led to before it's completely burned down."

The night deepened, and more snow fell on the ground. The desolate village in the north of the city was completely dark, with not a single light in sight.

But he knew very well that hidden in this darkness was a hand holding a fire, just waiting for an opportunity to burn all the escape routes he had painstakingly built up over the years, as well as all the stories stained with blood, to ashes.

He also knew very well that when this fire was lit, the Wan family, the person in charge, the old contract under their name, the steward in the west of the city, the clues that had been painstakingly unearthed, and all the evidence hidden in that manor would turn to ashes overnight.

At that time, the blood feud of the Qin family and the blood debts of the border soldiers will once again be swallowed up silently by a single piece of paper and buried underground...

But whether he could pull out the hidden hand in the deepest part before the fire was lit, holding the old thread that he had traced inch by inch from the desolate village, depended on whose hand was faster in the days leading up to the end of the year.