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

After the boy with odontitis was saved, Yang's restaurant in the east of the city received an extra portion.

The number of people seeking medical help continued to increase day by day. Yang Hu sat in his clinic, looking at each patient, his hands never stopping...

But there was always a thread pulling at his heart.

That was the line that ran from the northern military supply route all the way to the city. Last time, the money broker came to the door and pleaded with Liu Ye to leave the city. This line eventually led to a mansion in the west of the city, under the name of the registrar surnamed Liu in the yamen!

These days, things appear calm on the surface, but in reality, Scarface and the people on Willow Leaf Mountain have been working non-stop.

That evening, Scarface came in person.

In the backyard room, he told Yang Hu everything he had heard:

"We've got a good look at that clerk surnamed Liu," Scarface said in a low voice. "He came from humble beginnings, had no connections, and only got into the yamen and served as a clerk for over a decade by sucking up to people. He's greedy, never does any real work, and everyone in town knows that!"

Yang Hu nodded.

"But a mere clerk in charge of documents," Scarface frowned. "Even if he's greedy, he wouldn't have the ability to take away a whole warehouse of military supplies from the Western Camp, let alone bring down a major grain merchant like Zhou Ji!"

"He wasn't the mastermind," Yang Hu continued. "That was just one finger on this hand."

Scarface was stunned.

"The documents." Yang Hu pointed to a finger on the table: "Military supplies were erased, the ambushed man was written as having died fighting to the death, and documents at checkpoints were leaked... All these things need to be documented. Liu the Registrar's pen is like a finger that reaches into the yamen specifically to cover things up!"

Qin Ying was wiping her little dagger outside the window when she heard this and looked up.

"That's right!" Her voice was cold. "When I was on patrol and ambushed, the clerks at the checkpoints along the way were tipped off. The only person who could turn someone into a dead man was the one in charge of clerks in this government office."

She lowered her eyes, and her usually sharp gaze darkened.

"He turned a living person into a corpse, all with just this pen!"

Everyone inside was holding their breath.

"Knowing who it is isn't enough!" Yang Hu said slowly, "We have to trace back to who his pen listens to, who he covers for, and where his hand is."

This task should be done by Liu Ye!

She spent several days in the west of the city, and returned on the third night, covered in sweat, but her eyes were bright.

"I've figured it out." She sat down and took a sip of water. "That registrar surnamed Liu rarely leaves his house and seldom shows his face. He has an inconspicuous servant in his residence who delivers things to a certain place in the city every three to five days!"

"What should I send?"

"It's just a small bag, very small, it can't hold much," Liu Ye said. "I've followed him several times, and that servant always goes to the same place, a pawnshop called 'Hengtong' in the bustling southern part of the city. He goes in for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, and comes out empty-handed."

Yang Hu threw down the pulse pillow in his hand.

pawnshop.

In a bustling place, no one would find it strange.

Handing someone a cloth bag, considering it a small item, is too ordinary!

But it was strange that a young servant boy would occasionally hand a small cloth bag to the same pawnshop and run away without looking back...

"It's a hidden stake," he said.

"A hidden mole?" Liu Ye didn't understand.

"The handwriting of Registrar Liu, whether it's accounts or messages, can't be directly seen by that hand," Yang Hu said. "It's too conspicuous! It needs to be in an inconspicuous place, somewhere that it circles around before that hand sees it. A pawnshop, after all, is that pawnshop that's where that hand circles around!"

"It was passed around." Qin Ying took the microphone. She had commanded troops and had seen many officials. "The person delivering the goods didn't know which hand was receiving them, and the person receiving them didn't know where the goods came from. It was cut in half, so you can't tell who was who. That hand hid itself very well."

Yang Hu pondered.

Stumbling upon the pawnshop would alert the enemy.

As soon as the grass was cut, that hand pulled the stake away, and the line was cut.

"Don't touch that pawnshop!" he said. "Keep an eye on its next customer. The item goes through the 'constant flow' and then out. Watch that section going out and see which door it ultimately ends up at."

This part is even more difficult.

With so many people coming and going in the pawnshop, picking out the right person to take on a pawn job requires patience and a keen eye.

Liu Ye took the job, and Scarface gave them both ears and eyes to take turns monitoring the front and back doors of "Hengtong".

They waited for five days.

On the sixth night, Liu Ye returned.

His steps were silent, but his expression was stern.

"I figured it out," she said. "Every few days, a clerk in a gray cloth jacket would carry a load of 'old goods that have been pawned' out of the pawnshop and head west of the city. I went with him. The old goods in the load were just a cover; what he really wanted to deliver was a cloth bag hidden at the bottom of the cargo."

"Where did it land?"

"In the west of the city, there's a large mansion." Liu Ye paused. "It's even more spacious than Liu the Registrar's courtyard. Stone lions guard the gate, and the people coming and going are all armed servants. I didn't approach; I just glanced at the gate from afar."

She whispered.

"There is a plaque hanging above that reads 'Prefectural Magistrate's Residence'."

The people in the room fell silent.

Jun Cheng?

Within a state, there was only one official position below the prefect who was in charge of the state's finances, documents, and criminal justice.

Yang Hu's fingers tensed.

The registrar's finger circled around the documents, the accounts, and outside the accounts before finally landing on the prefect's wrist.

"Prefectural Magistrate," Qin Ying's voice was low, his eyes filled with murderous intent. "The clerk who can command documents, who can wield absolute power in the accounts, who can create loopholes in the Western Camp's supplies... only someone in this position can be moved!"

She looked up.

"That year, my military report of 'dying for my country' traveled smoothly from the Western Camp to the capital. If anyone had been fooled, the lie would have fallen apart. It was only because the Prefectural Magistrate was so discerning that no one along the way had been fooled!"

Yang Hu slowly exhaled a long breath.

But he wasn't in a hurry to draw a conclusion.

"The Prefectural Magistrate's residence has this item," he pondered. "It doesn't necessarily mean that the Prefectural Magistrate himself is the one in charge; perhaps it's one of the stewards in his residence, working on the lower level. Maybe the Prefectural Magistrate is just the one whose hand is placed on the upper level."

He won't open the coffin lid. This thread needs to be carefully untangled, section by section; you can't just use a single piece of fabric to suffocate someone!

"However, anyway, no matter what, that hand has reached up a notch, climbing from a minor clerk to the prefectural governor's office!"

Liu Ye looked out at the thick darkness of the night.

"The higher you go, the more dangerous it becomes."

"And the closer we get to that face!"

Yang Hu said.

Qin Ying paused, the knife in her hand that was wiping the cloth stopped.

"This case, up to now," she said calmly, "has progressed from the arms trade in the northern route, up to Registrar Liu, and then up to the Prefectural Magistrate's office. You've been through so much more, even more patiently than I have as a soldier!"

"Examining a person is like treating an illness," Yang Hu said, taking a sip of water. "You can't rush it. You have to feel every inch, untangle every thread, figure out the cause of the problem before you insert the needle. You only need to insert the needle as many times as you need!"

Under the lamplight, Qin Ying's churning chill was suppressed by a single sentence.

"That's the day I've been waiting for," she said softly, "for that injection of yours."

As the night deepened, Yang Hu sat alone by an oil lamp, replaying in his mind the clues he had unearthed over the past few months:

A servant boy, a pawnshop owner, and a load of shoddy goods. The hand that held absolute power, treating military goods as a private treasury, had been hidden for many years, but it was finally revealed from the servant boy's load of goods, with a section of his wrist still sticking out inside the prefectural magistrate's mansion.

However, the deeper you go, the deeper it gets...

The stench that lingers in the west of the city will eventually meet the hand that has just extended a wrist in the city in this large courtyard in the east of the city, day and night!

The real deal is when they come together!