Imperial henchmen? My divine skills are all hacked versions.

Xu Xian walked into the backyard of the Inspection Department. Mo Feichang was sitting under the old locust tree writing poetry, and someone was standing next to him grinding ink—Shen Weiya.

He was originally going home, but was stopped halfway by the old gatekeeper, who said that Mo was calling him, so he changed his destination.

Shen Weiya held the ink stick in her hand, idly drawing circles on the inkstone, causing several drops of ink to splatter onto the stone table.

Seeing Xu Xian enter, she tossed aside the ink stick and ran over, tilting her head back and putting her hands on her hips as she looked at him.

"Xu Xian! Long time no see! Come and fight me! I was locked up in the palace for twenty-eight days last month. Twenty-eight days without practicing my sword, my skills have gotten rusty!"

Xu Xian looked at Mo Feichang.

Mo Feichang didn't even look up. "She can only come out once a month, and today happens to be the day she leaves the palace. As soon as she arrived, she spilled all the ink I had spent half an hour grinding."

Shen Weiya pointed confidently to the poem on the table, "That's because my teacher wrote it terribly!"

Mo took a deep breath, put down the brush, and did not refute.

Xu Xian steered the conversation back to the topic of Grandpa Gao, asking if there was any further development regarding the matter.

Mo Chang put down his poetry manuscript.

"Eunuch Gao died suddenly at home. The cause of death was palpitations. The imperial physician said that there was a problem with his heart meridian and that he died of a normal illness."

Xu Xian paused for a moment, stroking his stubble. "The timing is too coincidental. He had a heart attack right after finding out about the Jingzhou post station. How could a heart attack happen at the exact same time?"

  

Mo Feichang shrugged. "His Majesty has already made his decision. Three thousand taels of tax silver were found in Eunuch Gao's private residence. He was caught red-handed. Whether we believe it or not, this matter ends here."

"Keep investigating. Investigate where the money went, the origin of the Gu worms, and the whereabouts of the old people from the post station. Find out everything you can."

Xu Xian nodded, then saw Mo Feichang take a file out of the drawer and hand it to Xu Xian. "Take a look at this when you have time. Several families have recently reported to the authorities that their children have gone missing, and it has been four days and we still haven't found any clues."

Xu Xian took the file, nodded in agreement, and after flipping through a few pages, his brows slowly furrowed.

"I'll investigate once I'm done with my work."

He turned to leave, but Shen Weiya swiftly stepped in front of him, spreading her arms to block his path.

"Don't leave! Fight me first! I finally managed to get out here, and my master won't fight me, and neither will you. Who am I supposed to practice my swordsmanship with?"

She tilted her chin up, her ponytail swinging back and forth behind her head.

Mo glanced at the two of them and said, "You can't beat Xu Xian right now."

Shen Weiya was stunned, then turned to glare at her master. "Why? I'm at the fifth level of Body Tempering, and he's only at the third. How could I possibly lose!"

Xu Xian smiled slightly, spread his five fingers, and slapped his palm onto the open space in the courtyard—Flying Dragon in the Sky.

The golden palm strike landed on the bluestone slab in the center of the courtyard, sending pebbles flying and mud churning.

When the dust settled, a large pit, about ten feet in diameter, appeared in the center of the courtyard, with the bluestone slabs at the bottom broken into fist-sized pieces.

Shen Weiya stared blankly at the large pit, looked down at the long sword in her hand, her lips moved but she didn't speak.

She turned to look at Mo Feichang, who was drinking tea, as if nothing had happened.

Shen Weiya walked to the edge of the pit, squatted down, and gestured with her hand to indicate its depth. Then she stood up, walked up to Xu Xian, and looked up at him. "When did you become so powerful? Where did you learn this palm technique?"

"My adoptive father taught me haphazardly, and I just hit him randomly."

"Another adoptive father? He can't even lie properly..."

Shen Weiya pouted, "Fine, I can't beat you, but you have to treat me to a meal—to make up for my hurt pride."

Mo Feichang added from the side, "Damaging public property will result in half of your salary being deducted next month."

Xu Xian's lips twitched, and he pointed at Shen Weiya, "Could we detain Her Highness the Princess?"

Mo glanced at him, then at Shen Weiya, and said, "Okay."

Shen Weiya waved her hand generously from the side: "Go ahead and deduct money! I have money, but next time I come, you have to bring me some good food. No Beijing stuff though—I've eaten all the Beijing snacks since I was a child. If you're going to bring anything, bring me something new and interesting from outside Beijing."

"I heard your sister is always exploring restaurants in Beijing, so you must know where to find good food."

"Deal. I'll bring you some Jingzhou specialties next time."

Shen Weiya went back to continue grinding ink, completely satisfied.

Mo Feichang looked at the Xuan paper next to his poem, which had been splattered with a drop of ink, sighed, picked up his brush and added two strokes next to the ink spot, changing it into a flying bird.

...

Xu returned to the duty room and found the case file for the missing persons case.

The case was handled by Commander Feng. Commander Feng placed a thick stack of police reports on Xu Xian's desk. The top sheet of paper was yellowed and curled at the edges, and the writing on it was done with charcoal.

"These are children who have gone missing in and around Jingjing in the past two years. There are already dozens of cases reported to the police, and we don't know how many more haven't been reported..."

"Last year, Lord Mo was fined three years' salary and demoted one rank to acting director of the Investigation Department because of this case."

Xu Xian flipped through the files page by page. The missing children were generally between ten and thirteen years old, both boys and girls, and the vast majority were children from ordinary families.

Every police report stated the same thing in the "reason for disappearance" section: "went out to play and never came back."

The victims' testimonies were all the same—the child was playing with the neighbor's child at the alley entrance, the adults went home to cook, and the child hadn't returned by the time the food was ready.

I went out to look for him, but the alley was empty; he was nowhere to be seen.

When asked, the neighbors all said they hadn't seen it.

After the report was filed with the authorities, the inspection department sent people to search the area within a five-mile radius, but found nothing.

Two days, three days, five days, half a month, the child evaporates into the air like water.

The earliest record is dated a year and a half ago, and the latest one is from this month.

Xu closed the file, tugged at his beard, and felt a headache coming on.

It's not that he doesn't want to take care of it; losing a child is just too troublesome.

There were no witnesses, no suspects, no signs of violence; dozens of children vanished into thin air like water.

This type of case is completely different from the tax and silver case.

The tax and silver case has ledgers, transportation records, and warehouse receipts. The data is there, and as long as you look carefully, you can always find flaws.

But the only thing these missing persons cases had in common was that there were "no clues"—all of them remained unsolved cases. He stood up and locked the files in the drawer.

"Lord Feng, please continue your investigation. I will look into it after I finish dealing with the tax and silver case."

Old Feng nodded, "You go ahead with your work, this can't be rushed."

...

Mr. Xu pushed open his courtyard gate and was stunned for a moment, because there was an extra person in the yard.

Hua Xi was squatting in the middle of the yard playing with a boy who looked to be about ten years old. She was waving a turtle in front of him, but the turtle's head was tucked into its shell and it refused to come out. Its four claws were tightly gripping the edge of the shell.

The boy timidly reached out to touch the turtle, but pulled his fingers back as soon as they touched the shell, as if afraid of being bitten.

Hua Xi pushed the turtle forward a little further, and the turtle completely curled up into a ball.

Upon seeing Xu Xian enter, Hua Xi's eyes lit up. She put the tortoise down on the ground, rushed over, hugged his waist, and looked up at him, saying, "Brother, you're finally back. I missed you so much."

Suddenly freed, the turtle quickly poked its head out of its shell and scrambled its four legs toward the corner of the wall.

Xu Xian patted her head. "I missed you too. Whose child is this?"

"I found it at the door yesterday."

"Found it?"

"I found it!"

Hua Xi said earnestly, "Yesterday I went out to buy food, and when I came back I found him sleeping at the door, so I picked him up and brought him in."

Xu Xian walked over and squatted down to look the boy in the eye. The boy was dressed in dirty clothes and was thin. He was timidly tugging at his fingers and lowering his head, not daring to look at him.

Xu Xian smiled gently, "What's your name? How old are you? Why are you lying by the door?"

The boy looked up at him, then looked down again, his voice so soft it was almost inaudible.

"My name is Yan Jun, I'm eleven years old. I ran away from the dark house, but I couldn't find my way home. I got so hungry while running that I collapsed here."

A dark house?

Xu Xian narrowed his eyes slightly. "What's the black room?"

Yan Jun shook her head. "The dark house is just a dark house. It's not as big or as nice as my house. I don't want to stay here, but they won't let me leave."

Xu Xian was shocked—a kidnapping!